License to Shift (7 page)

J
ulie was floating on a sea of happy afterglow. She'd had sex before. She'd made love with men she thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. And once, yes, she'd gone to bed with a man she'd guessed wasn't the right one but wasn't exactly sure. Oddly enough, that had been her best sexual encounter…until now.

Now there was a whole new bar for excellent sex. Like in a whole new galaxy.

They were spooned together with his arm wrapped around her while she tucked tightly back against him. She'd probably passed out there for a bit or been catapulted to a new universe. Either way, she was barely conscious except for her state of satisfaction. And the way he kept pressing sensuous licks to the back of her shoulder made her smile from the inside of her soul.

Didn't men fall asleep after sex? Apparently not Mark, who punctuated his licks with a kiss while gently stroking her arm. Long, petting strokes. She purred in delight. Wow, a whole bunch of new noises had come out of her this morning. She might have been embarrassed, but he'd seemed to enjoy her every sound. Which had, in turn, encouraged her to let herself go without restraint or self-criticism.

How freeing was that?

She sighed happily, stretching her fingers out to entwine with his. He caught her easily, then tugged on her thumb for some unknown reason. She giggled, and he did it again while rubbing his chin stubble across the back of her neck.

Rough and exciting.

“Aren't you sleepy?” she asked. After all, he'd been up all night.

“And miss this? Hell, n—”

His word was abruptly cut off at a clanking noise from outside. It was quick and quiet, but he went rigidly still.

“What?”

“Perimeter,” he whispered.

He gently rolled her off him and padded to the window. She didn't hear anything anymore, so she relaxed into the sight of his gloriously naked body as he stood in profile. Roman nose, biceps better than a Marine's, and a stomach of rippling abs that made her mouth water. He'd cleaned up at some point, so the condom was gone, but his penis was still thick and partially erect. A good look on him.

While she stood there admiring his body, he flipped the latch, then pulled up the window. He probably wanted it to go up quietly, but nothing in this cabin had been oiled in years, so it opened with a shriek that made him wince.

She sat up. “It was probably just a raccoon or—”

Gunshots rang out. Three quick ones. If she hadn't spent a summer volunteering on the South Side of Chicago, she would have thought it was a car backfiring or something. But she knew that sound, even though it still took her brain a few seconds to believe it.

Gunshots? Here?

What the hell was a hunter doing this close to her dad's cabin?

She scrambled out of bed, heading for her clothes, but that was nothing compared to what Mark did. He shot her a single look, dark and angry.

“Stay here!” he said, and then he ran out the door. She hadn't even fully stood up when the front door banged open.

Her gaze shot to the window where she clearly saw the front yard and a flash of skin…Wait, no! She saw a freaking animal running across the front lawn. And not just a dog or a possum. A huge animal with dark fur that really, really looked like a bear. But it couldn't be that, she told herself. What would a bear be doing running across her lawn?

She stared out the window, looking for a hint of what she'd seen. Nothing.

Oh hell,
she realized with a dull kind of shock. Mark had gone out there looking for God-only knew what. He'd set perimeter alarms to catch some vague idea of a bad guy, but he sure as hell wasn't thinking
bear
.

She had to warn him. He'd run out naked, for God's sake. Not even a weapon against the hugest creature she'd ever seen outside of a zoo. She pulled on her clothes as fast as she could manage while simultaneously shoving her feet into sandals. Like pretty flip-flops were going to be useful when tromping through the woods. But she wasn't going far. Just into the backyard to call for Mark.

She was already out the back door when she realized she didn't want to yell for fear of attracting the wild animal. But that was ridiculous, she told herself, striving for logic to calm her racing pulse. First off, wild animals ran from humans, right? Second, the thing had been in the front, not the back. But Mark had said the perimeter alarms were around the back of the property. So that's where he would be. So she could be as noisy as she liked, right?

“Mark?” she called, pitching her voice to be loud, but not a scream. “Mark, come back. I think I saw a bear.”

She listened and thought she heard something, but who could tell? Thumps or wind? God, she had no idea what she was supposed to hear in the country. What was normal, what was Mark being a freaking moron.

Then she saw a flash out of her peripheral vision. Golden fur, the flick of a tail. A large cat? Were there cougars in Gladwin? She took a few steps closer, but couldn't see through the trees bordering the park.

“Mark!” she called as she headed to the back of the property and Gladwin State Park. “Mark, quit freaking me out. I just saw a huge cat. Where the hell are you?”

Bam! Bam!

Two shots in rapid succession to her right.
Damn it! Who the hell hunted in a state park?
She started running in that direction. “Hey!” she bellowed. “Whoever the hell you are! There are people around here. Quit—”

A dark figure came out of the woods ahead of her.

“Julie? Get out of here!”

She might have screamed, but she realized it was Carl in a red shirt running toward her with a gun out.

She frowned. “Carl?” She squeaked in alarm as he barreled toward her. Then she realized his shirt wasn't red. It was covered in blood.

Blood!

He ran fast, gesturing toward the house. She straightened, intending to get them both into the house, but then a dark thing blurred past her on all fours. It came from ahead and to the right, passing within a few feet of her as it ran toward the house. It was smaller than the bear she'd seen before and quick. She barely saw it when the rapport of Carl's gun deafened her.

Two shots, and the dark thing swerved.

Julie screamed and dropped into a crouch—like that would help her against a bullet—only to realize he'd been shooting past her at the blur. And what the hell was that thing?

It slowed and stumbled, landing awkwardly between a bush and the back of the house. Human-ish. Big for a man. It had dark patches of fur mottling its humanlike skin, and a muzzle for nose and mouth. And it didn't stay down for long. Between one breath and the next, the thing rose on all fours, and its hands were more like huge paws with dirty claws. Worse, it wasn't alone.

What?
Her brain stuttered in panic when she saw a second of those things emerge slowly from around the side of the house. This one was smaller, meaner, and more…dog? Bear? Hell, she didn't know.

“Don't move,” Carl said, his voice low. He'd moved closer to her, the sound coming from a couple feet away. But when she glanced at him, she saw him sighting his gun on…oh, shit. He was aiming to the right where the first thing had emerged from the tree line. This one looked the most human of them all. He—it—stood upright, but its eyes were crazed. Three of them, in a ragged kind of line from the trees to the house. They were looking at her and Carl as they edged steadily to her back door. No, wait. The injured one was heading to the house. The other two were coming at them.

Terror clawed up her throat, but she forced herself to focus. Now was not the time to curl up in a fetal ball. She had to
think
. She took a breath, trying to steady her racing heart and tasted blood on the air.

Carl.

She glanced at him. He'd closed the distance between the two of them. “How bad are you hurt?”

“Stay with me. I'll keep you safe.”

“Not what I asked,” she snapped. But, stupidly, she did feel better with his promise. Then she looked at his ripped shirt and the wound beneath. There was a jagged edge of claw marks across his chest. And though only the center slice looked deep, it was all bloody.

“I'll live,” he said, his voice tight. Then he flipped her his phone. “Call 911.”

He hadn't done that yet? Shit! She snatched up the phone, but it was protected. “What's the code?”

“Nine-one-one-one,” he bit out, then he shot. Again with the deafening sound, especially since he was nearer her ear. But she'd been looking nervously at the…things, and the one crouching by her back door flew backward in an explosion of red. Yuck. But she wasn't upset that it was dead.

Fortunately, she didn't drop the phone. She quickly hit nines and ones in what she hoped was the proper order. But there wasn't time. As soon as the first one went down, the others attacked. They came tearing at them while Carl kept shooting. The things swerved and one stumbled, but they were fast.

Julie couldn't hear anything anymore. She was sure she was screaming, but she was deaf from the gun and the roar.

Roar?

The bear. The huge, black grizzly bear she'd seen in her front yard flew right by her, coming from behind them. It landed right in front of her with a thud she felt through the ground. But it didn't attack her. No, it went for the closest man-thing, mauling it with massive paws. God, it was so close. The thing had been within a foot of her, but now all she felt was the heat pouring off the grizzly's back. She jerked backward and tripped over her own feet.

Carl's gun ran out of bullets. He dropped down beside her and started dragging her backward, away from the house and the fight. And why the hell hadn't she been moving already? Because she'd been struck stupid by the sight of the bear ripping whatever it was into bloody scraps. And she'd thought
The Revenant
was gross. It had nothing on the real thing, especially when the beast was less than a foot away.

She crawled backward with Carl while he slammed another clip into his gun. She risked a glance at the third creature. It was down and spurting blood from a couple bullet holes. So one dead by the back door, the other riddled with bullet holes, and the third was now mincemeat thanks to the bear. That meant they just had to get away from the grizzly.

But then Carl froze, one hand on his gun, the other on her shoulder as his gaze went to the tree line in the direction they'd been moving.

Oh, hell.
There was something there. She had no idea what it was. Just a shadow of movement. But Carl pointed his gun at it, and she strained her eyes trying to figure out what he'd seen.

“Mark!” Carl abruptly barked. “Eastern tree line.
Mark!
”

She didn't see Mark. She looked all over, trying to find him even while she cursed herself for dropping the phone. Damn it, it was back there by the grizzly who had abruptly stopped chewing on the man-thing. The huge bear who suddenly stopped growling to look up and over. At the eastern tree line.

What the fuck?

Had it sensed whatever the shadow was? Or…hell…was it about to attack Mark? Mark who was naked and about to be eaten by this bear.

“Run, Mark!” she screamed. “Run into the house!”
And come back with an Uzi.

The grizzly turned to stare at her, and she almost swallowed her tongue. Oh, hell. She started to scrabble backward, but she was shaking and terrified, and she couldn't get purchase on the grass.

“Over there!” Carl said, gesturing broadly to the tree line. “Mark! There was something else over there!”

“A cougar. I think. I saw it earlier.” God, she hoped she was wrong. The last thing they needed was a cat-bear fight.

Meanwhile, the grizzly's head swung to the eastern side of the property. Carl grabbed her arm and hauled her up to her feet. But at that moment, the bear looked back at them and slowly pushed up onto his back feet, growling the whole time.

It had been big before, but on its hind legs like that, it was terrifyingly massive. And even half deaf, she could hear its growl.

“Mark!” Carl yelled again, and even she could hear a note of desperation in his voice. “Mark! Check the perimeter. Go!”

Perimeter check? How about, “Go call 911 from the house”? How about, “Kick over a trashcan and distract the damned bear?” How about anything but a perimeter check?

She and Carl backed up together, moving slowly away as the grizzly towered over them. It didn't seem like it was about to attack, but what the hell did she know? And though Carl held his gun out, it was pointed to the side and down.

“Just shoot it!” she cried. She was as much a pacifist as the next person, but right now, she really wanted him to blow the thing's head off.

“No!” Carl bellowed, and she didn't even know if it was at her or at the bear. But there was fury in his tone, and she cringed from the force of it.

Which is when the bear lunged forward. She dove to the side, and Carl shot wildly at the ground, spraying dirt into the air. She landed on her butt, still scrambling backward, while Carl rolled to the opposite side. He came up on a knee, his shirt matted with dirt and blood, but his eyes were steady as he faced off with the creature.

Damn it, why didn't he just shoot?

The bear was almost between them now, maneuvering to separate them. Obviously sensing that Carl was the bigger threat, the creature's golden eyes focused there. Which gave her the opportunity to head away from them both. She wasn't exactly sure what she was going to do, but if she went off toward the back of the property, she might be able to draw the creature away from Carl.

So she backed up. No hope in getting to the house, but she was a fair hand at climbing trees. The grizzly was too big to climb up after her—she hoped—so that was her escape route. It was a stretch, to be sure, but she clung to it like a lifeline.