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“You don’t owe him gratitude for that. It was the bare minimum of what he could’ve done.”
Keane crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head. “If someone manages to track you to my territory, you won’t be the one who needs to run. They will. Or else my grizzly will rip their throats out and leave their bodies for wild animals to feast upon.”
My eyes widened at his colorful description, but my mate nodded in approval and murmured, “Damn straight, except they’d have to get past my wolf first.”
“We don’t even know if they managed to follow me here,” I reminded them.
“It’s better to assume that they have.” Keane pulled out his cell phone and fired off a few messages. “I’ve put Leyton, Booker, and Artemis on high alert. And I let Rome know it’s best if he and Thora stay in Timber Ridge for now.”
I felt terrible about throwing everyone’s lives into an uproar. “I’m so sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Keane assured me. “This isn’t your fault. It’s the bastards who think they can snatch shifter females for whatever fucked-up reasons they’ve got in their sick heads.”
I felt bad that we hadn’t told him the truth about why someone might be hunting me, but unless Aaron and I joined his pack, my secret needed to stay between us. No matter how much we trusted the grizzly who was willing to kill for me.
“If they come for you, it’ll be the last thing they do,” Aaron vowed.
10
AARON
Three days passed without any trouble after that alpha called my Cressida. I was torn between hoping nobody showed up to try to get her and wanting them to come so I could destroy the threat to my mate. Once the people who thought they could use her healing talents were gone, my hope was that we’d be able to avoid anything like this happening again for the rest of our very long lives.
We still didn’t know if they were humans or shifters. Not until Artemis spotted four hyenas in the forest near his cave. They weren’t indigenous to the area…which meant they were shifters. And there was only one reason they would be sneaking around in the wilderness near our home instead of showing up at Keane’s door for permission to be in his territory. They were hunting my mate.
After sending a message to his alpha, the dragon shifter flew to his cabin. Cressida’s eyes widened as she watched his descent. “Holy crap!”
Since my mate turned into an even rarer and mythical creature, I hadn’t expected her to be so astonished by Artemis’s dragon. My wolf wasn’t happy about it, but he settled down when I reminded him about how we reacted when we first saw his animal form.
After he shifted back to human, Keane tossed Artemis a pair of shorts. “Not sure they’ve ever hunted as a pack before. Instead of staying in teams of two, they split off and are approaching separately.”
“Amateurs,” Keane scoffed, shaking his head.
“Good, it’ll make it easier for us to rip their throats out,” I growled, my wolf raking his claws against my skin in a demand to get out and hunt down those who sought to hurt our mate.
“I’m ready for action,” Leyton called as he jogged toward us.
“Perfect timing.” Keane pointed at Artemis, his brother, and me. “There are four of us, and four of them. So we’ll each take one down.”
“What about me?” Cressida asked.
As much as I didn’t want her anywhere near someone who wanted to take her from me, I also wanted to keep her close. To make sure nothing happened to her since I knew that I’d do whatever it took to ensure that my gorgeous mate remained safe. And I figured Keane would feel more comfortable if the target of the men who had invaded his territory didn’t remain near his pregnant mate and cub. “You’re coming with me.”
Relief shone from Keane’s eyes, but he still asked, “You sure?”
“Yeah, I don’t want my wolf’s attention divided while facing off against our enemy. Knowing they’re after Cressida, I don’t want her out of my sight,” I explained.
“It’s your call.” He turned his attention to Artemis. “With the routes they were taking, where are the best spots to intercept?”
The dragon shifter laid out a plan that worked for all of us, and then he shifted back to his animal form before taking to the air again. Leyton and Keane ran toward the trees before splitting off from each other to shift into their grizzlies. Then I turned to my mate and crushed my lips against hers. I needed her taste in my mouth as we went into battle.
“Stay in your human form. I don’t want them to see your unicorn,” I explained, tugging her toward the tree line. “We don’t know how much they know about you and your mom, and they’re not going to make it out of here alive. But better safe than sorry.”
“That’s what my parents always say,” she agreed, tugging at my shirt so I could strip down and shift to my wolf.
When I was on four paws, I barked at her, earning a smile from my beautiful mate. I raced toward the spot where Artemis said I should be able to attack my target. Cressida must have borrowed speed from her inner animal because she kept pace with my wolf. As I scented the hyena in the wind, I slowed my pace and made a low chuff of noise when my mate did the same.
We were careful of where we stepped, not wanting to alert our enemy to the fact that he had turned into our prey. It took us only a few more minutes to sneak up on the hyena, having circled so I could attack him from behind.
