Shifters' Storm (21 page)

“Doing what? That’s what I need to know.”

Putting action behind her words, she shook out a sock and put it on. He longed to grab it, the other sock and her boots from her. That done, he’d hold her down and rip off her clothes. Then he’d caress her until they both forgot everything else.

Sensing eyes on him, he looked at Songan. “
You can’t,”
the elk shifter silently warned.
“She needs to do this.”

But what if it was dangerous out there?

“Wait,” he told Rane. “Let Songan and me check things first.”

“No. No way. This is
my
agenda. My obsession.” She tapped her chest.

Maybe it had once been, but sex and more had changed things.

“He’s right,” Songan said. “Even the way Ber and I are now, our hearing is keener than yours, our sight sharper.”

Somehow he and Songan were standing side by side with the window behind them. No matter that they might be rivals for Rane’s body, they’d just formed a united front.

“Wait here,” he told her. “As soon as we know things are safe, we—”

Glass shattered, spraying shards everywhere. A muffled pop immediately followed.

“Someone’s shooting!” Rane yelled, but he already knew that. So did Songan, who dropped to his knees at the same instant he did. Rane hit the floor on her belly, causing his heart to stutter. To his relief, he saw no sign of blood when she lifted her head.

A second shot followed the first. That bullet also tore a jagged hole in the door that was opposite the window. Cold air rushed into the cabin. In contrast to the sudden chill, heat raged through him. A roar exploded from his chest. His shoulders, chest and arms started to expand.

Fighting the drive to become a grizzly, he crawled over to Rane and hauled her against the wall under the window. Hopefully the shards hadn’t cut her.

Also crawling, Songan joined them. The elk shifter’s eyes were darkening, his nostrils flaring. He gripped Ber’s forearm. “I don’t dare shift. If I do, I could forget this.”

“I won’t.”

“What are you thinking?” Rane insisted. “Damn it, no, you aren’t going out there.”

“If I don’t,” Ber said, “they might kill us.”

Songan’s grip tightened. “They might anyway.”

“Stay with her,” he said.

“You? No. I’m—”

“I’m the predator,” he pointed out. “One of us has to stay with her.”

“I’m not helpless,” Rane said.

“Maybe not but you’re not a shifter. You don’t understand survival the way we do.”

That silenced her.

“I’m not going to tell you to be careful,” Songan told her, “because that’s a given. Roar if you need me.”

Standing where he couldn’t be seen from outside, Ber tore off the clothing he’d just put on. He still felt where Songan had grabbed him, and Rane’s eyes were filled with fear and something else, but he didn’t dare let those things distract him.

In the past, changing had always been a conscious effort, a move dictated by practical matters. Today was different. Unstoppable.

Barely aware of the two pairs of eyes on him, he moved as far as he dared into the middle of the room so he’d have more space in which to become a bear. As his neck thickened and thick brown hair began covering his human skin, he realized he wouldn’t be able to get through the door once the transformation was complete. Songan must have had the same thought because, springing to his feet, the elk shifter yanked open the door.

The moment Ber stepped outside, snow and wind buffeted him. Glorying in what he accepted as nature’s gift, he surrendered to the inner force he might never understand. Moment by moment he became less human and more animal. Bigger. Stronger. Solid. At home here.

As a bear, his eyesight wasn’t as sharp as he’d like, but his sense of smell and hearing made up for it. With paws and claws instead of feet, he easily dismissed the cold, snow-dusted ground. Not even a blizzard could penetrate his thick fur. A heart capable of supplying a half-ton body sped blood through his veins.

Because the door was opposite the window, he doubted the shooter had seen him come out. But if more than one person was involved—

As if in answer to his question, another
pop
rocked the air. A bullet slammed into the just-closed door, sending wood splinters onto the snow. Grateful for the shooter’s poor marksmanship, he whirled to the right and bounded into the trees. Whoever had shot out the window wouldn’t have had time to run around the cabin, which meant at least two would-be marksmen were out there. As for whether whoever had just fired had seen him turn into a bear, hell, it didn’t matter.

He’d heard people maintain bears were lumbering, clumsy creatures, but they were wrong. Given reason, he could move as silently as any deer. Lifting his heavy head and inhaling, he caught the stench of gunpowder and a hint of human. Much as he wanted to charge, he forced himself to be patient. To think. Plan.

Three shots, the first two twins of each other, the last sounding different.

Two would-be killers with separate weapons.

One knew he was out here and in grizzly form. The other didn’t.

One had deliberately shot at Rane and come within inches of striking her. The second had fired at him.

Growling under his breath, Ber slipped through the trees heading for where the first shots had come from and whoever had tried to kill Rane.

Chapter Nineteen

“Why isn’t he still shooting?” Rane demanded of Songan. “My God, if Ber has been hit—”

“He hasn’t.”

“How do you know?”

“We would have heard him.”

Songan was right. There were rifles with enough firepower to bring down a grizzly, but that wasn’t what had just torn into the door. Going by the sounds, she surmised the shooter was using a deer rifle, maybe a 30-30 since that was the caliber of choice for local hunters. Ber might be wounded but thank goodness not dead. No, not wounded. Ber would have let them know if he needed help.

“There’s more than one man out there,” Songan said.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”

Instead of asking for an explanation, she accepted what Songan had told her. So much had changed since she’d fed off Songan and Ber’s bodies. Watching snowflakes enter through the shattered window, she ached to go back in time. “Two,” she said unnecessarily. “Trying to kill us.”

“Yes.”

Instead of staying on the floor as he’d ordered her to do, Songan had gotten to his feet and was pacing from one side of the cabin to the other and back again. Every time he reached the door, he cracked it open. She wanted to point out that the chance of seeing someone was slim; at least she wouldn’t be able to.

Today was no longer about trying to solve her mother’s murder and thus, somehow, win forgiveness. Neither did it have anything to do with exploring a level of sexuality she hadn’t known she was capable of. Everything had become a matter of life and death. Even worse, her damnable obsession was risking the lives of the two most important men in her world.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I should have never let you come up here.”

“I insisted.”

Had he? She couldn’t remember. No, that wasn’t the truth. Despite everything she’d been through today, she couldn’t deny a simple fact. She hadn’t wanted to come to Wolverine alone. She’d told the men she’d appreciate their help in trying to determine where her mother had been shot, but that hadn’t been the only reason she’d been grateful for their presence. She’d been afraid her emotions would swamp her if she was alone.

Now the laugh was on her. Her emotions had been swamped, all right, but not for the reasons she’d thought they’d be.

“Rane?”

Shaking off the useless thought, she realized Songan was handing her mother’s rifle and to her. Why hadn’t she already claimed it?

Instead of grabbing her pistol, Songan knelt beside her. “I didn’t tell Ber the whole truth,” he said.

“About what?”

“I can still think, at least a little, when I’m in elk form.”

Songan wasn’t darkly handsome like Ber, but there was a loyalty to him that had touched her from the moment they’d first met. Of course he was loyal. A bull elk was hardwired to put his harem’s safety ahead of his own.

“I’ve told you some about how it is,” he continued, touching her knee. “Even on four legs, there’s more to me than instinct. I have a basic ability to reason and decide.”

“What are you saying?”

He indicated the rifle. “Can you handle it if I go outside?”

Two evil men had tried to kill them. Right now Ber was outnumbered, but if a powerful bull elk joined him—

Shuddering, she covered Songan’s hand with hers. “I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”

“
He’s
out there. Is it different for him?”

Was Songan asking if he was more important to her than Ber? Didn’t he know she couldn’t answer that, might not ever be able to?

“No. It all happened so fast. Ber was gone before I could stop him.”

“Even if you’d tried, you wouldn’t have been able to. He’s doing what he believes he must.”

If she said the words Songan was waiting to hear, she’d be alone. Trapped in the cabin where her mother might have spent the last night of her life.

Her mother. For reasons she might never know, Jacki had come alone to Wolverine. Her daughter couldn’t do less.

“He needs you,” she whispered.

So do you
, Songan’s expression and the hand on her knee said, but she refused to go there. A short while ago, the two men had treated her as if she was something fragile and precious, but she was no longer that sexual creature. Damn it, she was a strong and competent woman. Just as her mother had been.

“I know how to use this.” She indicated the rifle.

Songan didn’t respond. After running his hand up her thigh and making a lie of her belief that she’d buried the sexual part of her nature, he again stood. As Ber had done, he took care to stay away from the shattered window while he undressed. Naked, he reached for the doorknob. She longed to say something but couldn’t.

“I’ll bugle when I return,” he said. “That way you’ll know who it is.”

So you won’t be tempted to shoot me
,
she heard.

More winter air rushed in when Songan opened the door. Then the big nude man disappeared, and she was left to imagine the transformation taking place in the storm.

“Be careful,” she muttered. “I need you, both of you.”

Despite the trees, Songan had seen Ber bound past the window opening. Obviously Ber had decided to go after the first shooter. That left the bastard responsible for the third shot. Filled with determination and little else, Songan left the stack of wood he’d jumped behind the moment he came outside.

Before he’d changed, he’d cringed under the wind’s attack, but now he held his head and antlers high as he stepped into the trees. They closed around him. If circumstances were different, he’d be tempted to stay there, because despite the storm, it was still light enough for his
intended target to see him. Speed, and what intellect he could hold on to, would keep him alive. Maybe.

Within seconds his nose alerted him to a human presence. Breaking into a run, he headed in the direction the last shot had come from. He made no attempt to be silent. In fact, he made a point of slamming his hooves against the ground.

Bam!

Snow exploded off a nearby branch. A moment later, the branch crashed to the ground. Furious and oblivious to danger, Songan plowed on. The closely spaced trees forced him to weave around them, and he tilted his head as he did. Pride in what he was capable of filled him. He inadvertently flattened a sapling under his weight, then slowed.

Facing him from maybe a hundred feet away with his back wedged against a thick, dark trunk and his rifle trembling stood a man dressed in camouflage.

Kill. End the threat.

Instead of surrendering to the animal command, however, Songan forced himself to stop. How would Rane react if he trampled the man? She needed answers, a confession, maybe words of regret. She might never forgive—

Something slammed into him, knocking him onto his haunches. His head rang, then throbbed. Struggling to his feet, he fought to keep his head up. Despite the pain and blurred vision, he realized the bullet had struck the base of his rack.

Reasoning shut down. He dug a front hoof into the ground. Challenge done with, he charged. He struck the enemy off center. As he spun the man around, the human’s shoulder collided with the tree. Instead of withdrawing from the screaming creature, Songan continued to push.

Garbled and pain-filled sounds flowed around him. His heart rate kicked up. Fighting other bulls during rut felt right, something he’d been born to do. The rest of the time, unless a herd member was being attacked, he gave no thought to battle. Today everything changed.

Elk and human were locked together. For as long as Songan wanted, the man would remain trapped between him and the tree. The man had dropped his rifle, not that it would have done him any good. He screamed repeatedly, and his flailing hands beat weakly at the air.

At length Songan grew weary of the one-sided fight and stepped back. Whimpering, the man slipped to the ground and curled himself into a ball with his back to his attacker.

Wishing the man had put up more of a struggle, Songan rose onto his hind legs and came down hard. The discarded rifle bent under his weight.

Done with what he comprehended was vital, he took another backward step. Only then did he turn his attention to the man who’d tried to kill him. The enemy’s arms and legs were still tucked against his body, and he shivered as if cold.

Songan slowly shook his head. His vision was clearing, and his temple no longer throbbed. He tried but couldn’t recall the emotion that had compelled him to attack.

Not caring what happened to his would-be killer, he turned his back on him. One thing he did know. His reason for shifting into elk form wasn’t over.

Growling frightened the man who’d covered himself in a mix of brown and green clothing because he stupidly believed he could move undetected through the forest that way. Careful to keep trees between himself and the sometimes wildly swinging rifle, Ber silently laughed at the poor excuse for a hunter.