Billionaire Alpha Romance: The Proposal (Mature Gentlemen Book 2) (268 page)

Chapter 5

    The next night, Dylan and Amanda met Jase at the edge of the forest. They retreated inwards and reached the cave, where Robert was waiting for them.

    “If you go north a little ways and then turn off to the east, you’ll find the camp that I think they have Edgar at. There are other animals there, but he will be the only Kermode bear. You’ll have to find the antidote that will shift him back into a human before you can get out of there with him. Once you get him out, come back here,” said Robert.

    It all sounded much easier than Amanda believed it truly would be.

    She looked at Dylan for some reassurance, but Dylan was too busy listening and trying to remember exactly what is was they needed to do.

    After Robert had given them instructions, the three of them took off through the woods. It reminded Amanda of the time she’d gone hiking with Dylan and how scary she had found it. The snow covered woods were just as scary, but for other reasons. They were silent. She didn’t hear any wildlife, but every once in a while, a falling branch would startle her. She remained alert the entire time, though.

    They trekked endlessly on through the woods and Amanda grew more and more nervous that they wouldn’t be able to find their way back out. She knew intellectually that the guys could do it, but she wondered what would happen if she were separated from them, or worse.

    She tried to keep those thoughts from invading her mind. She tried to focus on the objective. They were trying to rescue another Kermode Spirit Bear that was stuck in bear form. Amanda wondered if the bear would even be able to know that they were there to help it. She wondered how much the bears understood in that form.

    “Will he be able to understand us?” she asked Dylan and Jase.

    “He will,” said Jase, “Depending on how long he’s been in that state, though, will determine to what degree he’ll be able to understand us.”

    “So he might not be much help,” Dylan concluded.

    “Exactly,” said Jase.

    The thought didn’t do much to ease Amanda’s mind. They were practically dealing with a wild animal. That was what she gathered from the conversation.

    They went onward through the woods. Amanda spotted a white fox at one point, or at least, she thought she did. It darted so quickly out of her line of vision that she wasn’t sure that it had been there to begin with.

    As far as wildlife went, that was all she saw. The day dragged on as they inched closer to their destination.

    Finally, Amanda could hear voices.

    “That’s them,” hissed Jase. “That’s the poachers.”

    The three of them stood quietly and listened to the voices on the other side of a snowy embankment.

    “This one’s worth more than ten grand,” said one of the men.

    “Easily,” said another man.

    A couple of other voices joined the conversation and it was clear that they were speaking about an animal, though what animal, Amanda couldn’t be sure. She wondered if other animals that they had trapped were also shifters. She wondered how many shifters there were out there if they were being poached and sold on the black market.

    Jase signaled for them to keep hiking up and get above the men.

    The three of them climbed up onto a ridge that overlooked where the men were camped. There looked to be four of them, and tied to a tree was a huge Kermode Spirit Bear, pacing back and forth.

    It saddened Amanda to see the bear like that. It would have saddened her to see any animal that way, but to know that there was a person stuck inside there killed her. They had to do something.

    “What are we going to do?” she asked Dylan and Jase.

    “We have to wait for nightfall,” said Jase.

    “He’s right, Amanda. We can just go down there now,” said Dylan.

    Amanda felt tears stinging her eyes.

    “I know, it’s awful,” said Dylan. “But if we go down there now, we’re just going to get ourselves found out, or worse, killed.”

    Amanda looked back at Dylan and nodded in agreement. She knew he was right. So together, the three of them waited for nightfall.

    Finally, the sun was beginning to set. The Kermode Bear had stopped pacing and was lying down in the snow. It was almost camouflaged, Amanda thought.

    The bear was beautiful and huge. Amanda could see why someone would want it for a circus act. It was rare and people would pay good money to see it. All the better that the bear understood English and would follow commands.

    She watched as the men went into their tents and settled in for the night.

    Jase signaled to the two of them that it was time to act.

    They scaled down the little ridge and came around the side of it. They could see the tents and they saw the sleeping Kermode Bear. Now came the tricky part, Amanda thought. If Edgar could understand them, he’d be easy to rescue, but if Edgar had been in bear form for too long, things could get out of hand really fast.

    She had seen Dylan fight as a bear and didn’t doubt him one bit, but the less danger that he had to be in, the better in her mind. She didn’t want there to be any bloodshed as there had been during her last encounter with other shifters.

    Jase looked back at the two of them and motioned for them to come closer.

    “Okay, so here’s the plan,” he began. “I’m going to go up to Edgar and try to talk to him and see what he can understand. If he understands me, great. I’ll untie him and you two can look through the campsite and see if you can find the antidote. If he doesn’t understand me, then Dylan, you’re going to have to shift. But be careful, because one of these guys could shoot you with the same gun they shot Edgar with, leaving you stuck in bear form. Amanda, are you ready for this?” Jase asked finally.

    “I am,” said Amanda.

    She looked to Dylan who nodded and they both took a deep breath.

    They watched as Jase made his way up towards the large and sleeping bear. Amanda held her breath as Jase reached out to touch it.

    The bear stirred slightly and Jase leaned down to talk to it. The bear seemed to be listening to him and it got to its feet.

    Jase began untying it and then it seemed like the bear fully woke up and didn’t like what it woke up to. It swatted at Jase, knocking him into a tree, which he hit with a thump, falling unconscious at its base. The bear roared.

    “Shit,” said Dylan.

    He let go of Amanda’s hand and stepped out into the camp. In the openness, he dropped to his knees and began the transformation. Amanda watched him shift from human to Kermode Spirit Bear in a matter of moments. When he was done, he panted and looked back at Amanda with a growl, as though telling her to get out of the way.

    She listened and backed up.

    By this time, the camp had come alive with activity. All four of the guys were out of their tents now. One of them grabbed a knife and came at Dylan.

    “No!” Amanda shouted.

    The other three looked at her. One of them ran towards her. She tried to get away but tripped on a branch and the guy grabbed her by the ankle. He hauled her up to her feet and she could smell his sour breath.

    “Who are you, pretty girl?” he asked her.

    She stepped down hard on his instep and he let go of her. Before he could fight back, she grabbed a knife from a sheath at his waist and held it up to his throat.

    “Don’t move!” she shouted.

    The man stalking towards Dylan stopped and looked at her.

    The other two men had stopped as well.

    “Let them go and I won’t hurt you,” Amanda shouted.

    “Listen to her!” the guy said that she held the knife to.

    The guy who had been after Dylan laughed.

    Just as she distracted him, Dylan brought a great paw down on his head, knocking him to the ground with a sickening crunch.

    Amanda cringed briefly and then focused again on the guy who was at the end of her knife.

    “Show me where the antidote is,” she demanded.

    The guy pointed to the tents.

    “Which one?” she asked.

    “That one, the green one,” he said.

    “Take me to it,” she said.

    The guy started walking and the other guy in the camp ran off, over the embankment into the forest. Now there were only two of them. The second guy eyed Amanda suspiciously and she looked from one of them to the other and back again.

    The second guy looked like he was about to get squirrely. Amanda didn’t have time to react when the guy who was leading her spun and punched her in the jaw.

    She fell to the ground and lost her grip on the knife. It went flying across the snow covered forest.

    Dylan roared and charged towards the two men who both jumped on him. One of them had a syringed filled with something in his hand. Amanda knew what it had to be. It was the toxin that would keep him in bear form.

    She scrambled to get onto her feet and stumbled into the tent, trying to find the antidote. She heard Dylan fighting fiercely out there and Edgar had joined him. Suddenly there were two more crunching noises and then Amanda heard the tent flap flying open.

    She whipped around to see Jace, holding his head, peering in at her.

    “Did you find it?!” he asked desperately.

    “Not yet,” she said, going through bag after bag.

    “We need it fast. Edgar doesn’t know who Dylan is and he’s about to fight him.”

    “Can’t you hold it off?” Amanda asked.

    “I can, but not for long! Hurry!”

    Amanda went back to looking for the antidote as she heard Jase shift into his bear form. She heard him growl and join the fight. Finally, she came across a red box that looked like it had medicine in it. Inside there were five syringes. This had to be it.

    In the corner of the tent, there was a dart gun. She grabbed it.

    She’d never fired one of these in her entire life and had absolutely no idea how to work it.

    She fumbled loading it, trying to remember that scene in The Lost World where they sedate the Tyrannosaurus rex. It wasn’t helping very much. Finally, something clicked into place and she felt like it had been loaded. She picked it up and hefted it to her shoulder. It was heavier than she had expected.

    Outside of the tent, she watched as the fight ensued.

    Three white bears were tumbling back and forth in the snow. They became an indistinguishable mass of fur as they flew around, clawing at one another and growling back and forth. Amanda had no idea which one was Edgar.

    She didn’t know who to aim for.

    She watched them fight for a moment, hoping that maybe there would be some kind of sign that would tell her which one was Dylan, but she couldn’t tell them apart at all.

    Finally, she yelled.

    “Hey! Over here!” she called. “Guys! Change back now!”

    The three bears turned to face her. The two on the outside seemed to have understood her because they stopped and looked directly at Amanda. Slowly, they began to shift back into their human forms. Two naked men were standing there.