Page 44 of Awakened By the Guardian

“I’ve been waiting for you all day! And you’ve been out with him?”

“Jesse, what are you doing here?” she gasped. “What’s wrong with your face?”

Except, she didn’t need to ask. She’d already guessed. He was a hybrid just like Vic. Or worse than Vic because his eyes were wild and his teeth seemed to be growing. Oh God, was he shifting in front of them? And the smell! He reeked. Did this mean he was one of the crazy ones?

He could be on them in a split second, so she started pushing elevator buttons. Her entire body was screaming, Run! But there was nowhere to go except down, and only if the damned elevator doors would close.

They almost made it. Something seemed wrong with Jesse’s legs and he wasn’t walking normally, but the elevator doors were slow as he half lurched, half lunged at them. He caught the doors before they shut all the way, and Margaret got a good look at his paws with sketchy fur and sharp claws.

“Back away, buddy.” That was Gary, his voice cold and surprisingly calm. “This isn’t a fight you can win.”

Jesse snarled in response, and yes, his face was now more animal than human. She couldn’t identify the species. Dog? Cat? Bear? It seemed like a sick mishmash of all.

“Go home, Jesse,” she begged as she half gagged on his smell. She didn’t want him and Gary to fight. Jesse looked murderous, and the man she loved was in a wheelchair.

Jesse grabbed her arm and hauled her out of the elevator. “Come. With. Me,” he snarled.

She screamed and fought him, but he was ten times stronger than usual. And she was gagging. She knew self-defense, she’d taken classes years ago and kept practicing, but this required fighting when you couldn’t breathe. Every part of her wanted to throw up from the stench.

It was a losing battle. Step by lurching step, he dragged her down the hallway toward…she didn’t even know where. And then she heard it, a sound that once might have terrified her but now flooded her with relief: a roar, deep and guttural.

But how?

Jesse whipped around, banging her against the wall. Then he froze, probably in shock at the sight of a grizzly bear shedding ripped sweatpants and bursting through the elevator doors at him. Go Gary! Margaret thought. Then she wrenched free of Jesse’s grip, though her skin stung hot from the marks of his claws.

She kicked at him as she tumbled away, right at his knee. The blow connected, and he buckled. If she were alone, she would have run to the stairs and escaped. But there was Gary. She had to worry about Gary.

Or, maybe she didn’t. He landed on Jesse with both front paws. The pilot was a hybrid, larger than normal, but nowhere close to the size of her grizzly. Jesse was flattened backwards, a snarl coming out as he swiped with his own claws…that didn’t seem to affect Gary at all. Gary loomed over him and roared again, loud and terrifying, straight in Jesse’s face.

Jesse lunged, open mouth, bared teeth going for Gary’s neck. Margaret tried to scream, but she was still choking on Jesse’s stench.

Gary batted the jaws away with a single backhand swipe. Jesse’s head snapped back, and his body followed, flying boneless into the wall. Margaret thought he’d stay down—hell, she’d be unconscious or dead from a blow like that—but the hybrid stumbled back to his feet. She started to stand up as well, but Gary’s bulk blocked her. His huge grizzly body pressed her tight against the wall, protecting her as Jesse lunged.

“No!” She didn’t want Gary hurt, and it seemed this fight would be to the death. But at the last second Jesse pivoted. He lurched for the stairs, and a moment later they could hear his uneven gait on the steps before the heavy fire door closed behind him.

He was gone.

Margaret dropped to her knees, her breath heaving. Gary turned, his huge bulk awkward in the hallway and his face moved next to hers. Hot breath, narrowed eyes, and a light whimper. He pressed his nose to her face.

“Are you all right?” she gasped as she gripped his ruff. “How did you change? Did he hurt you?”

A rumbling grunt of a response, which she took to mean no, especially since Gary looked fine to her, not hurt at all. When he extended his tongue in a quick swipe across her cheek, she closed her eyes and laughed.

“I’m fine, too. I’m fine.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on, burying her face in his fur and breathing. Gary was safe. She was safe. He had protected her, and she loved him. He was licking her neck and she was just breathing in his strength.

She didn’t know how long they stayed there like that, but eventually they had to move. Easing off him, she sat back on her heels then fished in her purse for her phone. “I’ll call…” Who? The cops? “Vic. The Griz will know what to do.”

Gary grunted in response, probably an affirmative. Was she really learning how to interpret grizzly bear grunts?

Vic picked up on the third ring. “Everything okay? Did he try to shift again?”

“No. Well, yes. Sort of. He saved me. He saved my life.”

“What?!”

“A hybrid attacked us. At our apartment building. His name…his name was Jesse McCoy, and we worked together. He’s gone now, but Gary…”