“Mmppfh,” I grunt as my body swells up. Bones snap and then painfully realign into a larger, more powerful skeleton. My skin tears as the muscles underneath balloon to four times their size. It reconnects and sprouts long white fur as my teeth burn and ache as long incisors and canines replace my flat human teeth.
It all happens in an instant. My furious polar bear explodes out of me and lets out a deafening killer roar as the lion shrinks back in front of him.
Knox’s lion tries to put up a fight, but there’s nothing on the planet that can stop an enraged polar bear shifter fighting for his mate. Nothing.
The last lion falls as easily as the others.
My bear shakes its huge head as the taste of copper fills its mouth. When my bear is sure the large cat is dead, he lets go of his neck and Knox falls to the ground.
There’s nothing stopping me from getting to her now.
My bear doesn’t want to let me back out. He wants to handle the girl himself.
It will be better if she sees me. You’ll frighten her.
He grunts angrily.
Your mouth and neck are full of blood. You look like a monster.
Still, he doesn’t want to get pulled to the sidelines. I can’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to leave when we’re so close either.
Please. You want to keep her, right? It will be better this way.
He finally reluctantly agrees and I pull him back in.
I put my shredded Sheriff uniform back on as best I can and walk back inside with my heart pounding like a jackhammer.
It’s time.
Chapter Two
Ellie
I’m frantically trying to untie the big knot around my wrist, but it’s so tight and won’t budge. Something is happening right outside the door. There’s yelling, fighting, shaking—it sounds like the whole house is going to come crashing down.
I don’t want to think that help has finally come because I don’t want to get my hopes up. It might just be more criminals who might not want me alive when they eventually break the door down.
I shove all of that out of my head and focus on the tight knot as I try to claw it open it, but I can’t. It feels like cement. My right hand is tied to the bed and if I can just get it loose, I can climb out the window and…
And what, Ellie? I’m in the middle of nowhere. Even if I can escape, where can I go? These shifters with their incredible sense of smell will sniff me out in minutes, if not seconds.
But it sounds like there’s a war going on outside and I have to do something.
The crashing and slamming suddenly stops and I stare at the closed door with my heart pounding.
I hear the heavy sound of footsteps approaching on the old creaky hardwood floors as I stare at the peeling gray paint.
The footsteps stop right in front of my door and my stomach hardens as I drop my eyes to the door handle and wait.
There’s someone there. Someone big.
As I wait for the door to open, the pain in my chest and the hardness in my stomach just slides away and is replaced by a calmness. A comforting warmth that’s almost pleasant.
I lean forward, inexplicably wanting the door to open. I hold my breath as I wait.
But suddenly, the footsteps take off running in the other direction and the deep roar of a lion and a bear fighting thunders through the room.
The tiny hairs on my arm and the back of my neck raise as the fear and uncertainty crawl back into my skin with their long cold fingers. The warmth is gone. There’s no more comfort.
I’m back in the dark, dank room with no hope of escape.
I’ve been here for the past four days, but it’s felt like four years.
It was a Tuesday afternoon when they took me.
I was walking home from my part-time job at the mall when four bikers rode up the street. Immediately I knew something was wrong. I had a horrible uneasy feeling as I looked over my shoulder at the approaching men. They were shifters. I knew that right away. No human could be that big.
The one with the scar on his cheek stopped his bike in front of me while the other three circled on their motorcycles. I practically threw my purse at him, but they wanted more than that.
He took out my wallet and smiled when he read my driver’s license. “Ellie Kerr,” he said with a grin on his face.
I slid my house key into my fist and squeezed it. It wasn’t going to stop him, but it was all I could do.
“There’s money in my purse,” I said with my pulse racing. “Take it and go. Please.”
He laughed as he looked inside. “Is there five million?” With his head shaking, he pulled out the twenty-three dollars I had inside. “You’re worth more to us than this.”