Worshiped By The Bear Kings - Complete (18 page)

CHAPTER NINE

The limousine pulled up beside the
gates to the Destair compound. Thunder Brad looked across anxiously to his former
flame, Lynette, who seemed not to have the slightest care in the world. He
turned back to stare in front of him as the driver’s voice came over the
intercom.

“We’re here,
Lady Thistle.”

“Let’s get
going,” she said and made a move to open her door.

Brad reached
out and grabbed her arm. “Perhaps you should stay behind. This could be
dangerous.”

She shrugged
his grip off her, and smirked. “When have you ever known me to cower in the
face of danger?”

Brad
snickered and shook his head.

No amount of
over-protectiveness here was going to make up for his misstep with Jasmine.

They both
exited the car and walked up to the gates, staring up at the security camera.

Half a minute
later the gates buzzed, and a group of Destair guards piled out of the main
building, walking towards them.

Thunder and
Lynette moved through the gap to meet up with the group halfway.

“What do you
want?” the head guard demanded.

“I’m Lady
Lynette Thistle,” Lynette spoke up quickly. “Hades has requested an audience
with my father. I come in his stead.”

They briefly
looked at Brad and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Very well,”
the head guard said.

He stepped
away from the group and pulled out a cell phone.

“Hi, boss.
Yeah. … You’re right. They want to talk to you… Okay.”

He put the
phone away.

“After you my
Lady,” he said sarcastically.

CHAPTER TEN

Gabe’s head was buzzing with a
million piercing insects. He was still lying on his back in the middle of the
boxing ring, the warehouse’s lights all shut off hours ago. Here he lay,
trembling in the dark. Defeated, broken, humiliated. Even his bear hadn’t been
enough to match Thunder’s man. The thought was ridiculous. How had it happened?
How?

He managed to
sit up, resting on one arm, now that he was awake. There was something
happening outside. He could hear voices. One of them sounded like Thunder’s.
But surely it couldn’t be. Surely they must have disposed of him by now. They
wouldn’t let Gabe writher like this while that grizzly got to walk around.

The voices
traveled further still. They were moving.

Gabe ground
his teeth together and managed to slide himself out of the ring. Once there, he
picked himself off the floor, and did his best to stumble and stagger quickly
to the open doorway.

Yes.

Yes, it was
him.

Gabe could
see Thunder glancing back as they entered the main building, almost as though
he knew he was being watched.

Gabe felt the
sweat pour off his cheeks, and his butted his head against the wall to shake
the insects.

“This isn’t
happening,” he growled under his breath. “Cause I’m not done. He hasn’t
defeated me.”

Gabe was
still standing.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

Hades was to be found sitting in the
study area where he and Gaspar had given Thunder and Spike their terms. The
head guard entered behind Thunder and Lynette, but as he did, Hades waved his
hand at him. “Wait outside. I’ll be fine here.”

Thunder and
Lynette remained motionless in their place, yet to take their seats.

“Are you just
going to stand there?” Hades barked at them.

The pair
looked at each other a moment, before settling into the sofa opposite Hades.

“It is a
shame,” Hades then said, “that your father is not with you.”

“My father is
no fool,” Lynette said. “He knows of the trap you and the Arch Baron panther
plan to set for him.”

“This was
where Thunder and Spike were supposed to be persuasive,” Hades said, leaning
forward. “They were not instructed to tell you the truth.”

“We go back a
long way, the three of us,” Brad said. “There was a time these measures would
never be resorted to.”

“There was a
time,” Hades said coolly, “that you and Spike were true Destair warriors.”

“Your father
was a better leader than you were,” Brad returned. “It was an honor to serve
him.”

Hades waved
his hand away. “What do you have for me then? It’s getting late, no?”

Brad nodded
to Lynette.

She took a
deep breath. “Gaspar and his panthers are not ordinary shifters,” she began.
“They don’t mean to create some paradise where shifters are able to live
together, with your co-joint rule. They intentions are far more sinister than
that.”

Hades
blinked. “I’m listening.”

“In the other
world, you might recall the sanctuary of the damned. The resting place of
undead things. Where they sent the evil creatures who spawn from dark magics.”

“Of course,”
Hades said lightly. “Hell…”

Lynette
nodded. “Gaspar and his panthers have risen to begin their rule of not a few
islands, but the entire world. And if they’re able to get to the places my
father protects – if they can convince all the other shifter tribes and clans
and factions to work with them, then all will be lost for this place. Soon it
will just become…”

“Another
hell,” Brad finished.

Hades rose
from his chair, shaking his head. “And if all this were true, what makes you
think I’m not in on it as well?”

Brad and
Lynette looked at each other.

“The thought
did cross our minds,” Brad said.

Hades smiled.
“Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.”

His smile
then transformed into a look of fierce conviction. “GUARD!”

The curtain
pulled back and the guard appeared. “Yes, boss?”

“Get me a
telephone.”

“As you
wish,” the guard said, and exited.

“Who are you
going to call?” Lynette asked.

“There are
people who may or may not confirm your suspicions,” Hades said sitting back
down. “You’ll wait here while I speak with them.”

“And if they
do confirm it?” Lynette pressed. “What is your next move?”

“I suppose I
will summon Gaspar here. And then he’ll be taken care of accordingly.”

Brad rose
from his seat. He stooped over Hades.

“That’s far
enough,” the Destair Lord barked.

“Tell me
where my people are,” Brad demanded. “I must save them at once.”

“I haven’t
confirmed your story,” Hades snapped. “Do not test my patience.”

“Please,”
Brad said, bending to his knee. “You must tell me.”

Hades smacked
him across the cheek, sending him toppling to the ground.

Lynette stood
up. “Thunder…?”

“I’m okay,”
Brad said getting back to his feet. He looked back at Hades. “If … If any one
of them dies between now and then…”

“Sit back
down,” Hades muttered.

Brad sighed.

Turning back
to the sofa, he saw the curtain part.

It was one of
the Destair. It was…

“Your blood
is mine, Thunder!” Gabe screeched. “Your blood is –”

Just in time,
Brad managed to dodge the bolt fired from Gabe’s crossbow.

Lynette’s
face immediately swelled with fright as her hands went to her cheeks.

“Oh no,” Gabe
whispered.

Brad turned
round and saw the bolt fired from the crossbow had struck Hades in the centre
of his throat.

He was dead.

 
CHAPTER
TWELVE

Gabe quickly tossed the crossbow in
Brad’s direction just as the curtain pulled away and the head guard stormed in.
“What’s going on in here?”

“It was
them!” Gabe shouted. “Assassins! They killed Hades!”

Lynette
backed away with Brad as the guard’s eyes went from the fallen crossbow to
Hades’s body in the chair.

He growled
with anger and then shifted into his black bear.

Gabe ducked
past him out of the room. “I’ll get the others.”

Brad
considered for a moment trying to reason with the bear, but it was already
lumbering over to them. He dodged the bear’s first swipe at him and rolled
across the floor to the other side of the room. The bear gave chase and scooped
him up against the wall. Brad tried to fight the bear back with his arms
against his, but was he was flattened.

As the bear’s
jaw opened to take a bite of his neck, it jerked to a stop.

The lioness’s
roar came from behind him as she grabbed a hold of his back to pull him away
from Thunder.

Brad stepped
forward, watching the lioness and the black bear tackle one another. Wounds
were torn. Fur was ripped. Blood was spilt.

Brad ran to
retrieve the fallen crossbow, and then proceeded towards Hades. He grabbed hold
of the bolt lodged in his neck and ripped it out, loading the crossbow once
more. He moved carefully side to side, around the colliding animals. As soon as
Lynette found herself on top of the bear, her claws around his throat, Brad
fired a bolt into his head, ending it.

Lynette
looked up at him, purring her thanks, and then shifted back into her human
form.

She got up
and ran to Brad, wrapping her arms around him.

“Okay, okay,”
he said, backing away. “Let’s just try to find a way out of here.”

With her
grabbing hold of his arm, they pushed back the curtain, and entered the theatre
which was empty.

They quietly
moved around the side walls, towards the exit.

“Stop,”
Lynette said suddenly.

“What?” Brad
whispered back.

“Do you hear
that?”

The entrance
door then burst open and dozens and dozens of Destair guards rushed into the
empty space, each glaring with maddening rage.

Then the
shifting began.

Bear after
bear after bear.

“There’s
something I never got to tell you,” Lynette whispered to him.”

“What’s
that?” Brad replied.

“I loved you
–”

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

Ouch.

Jasmine
rolled over in bed, unable to sleep. Her mind was unsettled. On one hand she
felt her thoughts being drained from her – her memories, her ideas, her feelings,
it was falling away as though she was drifting into a deep sleep… But a part of
her wasn’t okay about it. It was wrong.

It was
all
wrong.

She pushed
the covers off her, tears weeping from her eyes.

“What is
happening?” she whispered to herself. “Where am I? How did I get here?”

She sat up
and reached for the glass with the pink liquid in it. Her master said to drink
this every time she didn’t feel okay about things. He said that very soon, if
she had drunk enough of it, she would never have to feel that way again.
Jasmine put the liquid to her lips and swallowed, the rushed of warmth and
loving filling her completely.

Yes.

That’s
better.

So, so, so
much better…

With a smile
on her lips, she descended back to the pillow.

Yes. She
really must sleep now. Just let it all go away. She didn’t need to think
anymore. She had a master to tell her what to do now. And … who was he again?

Jasmine
blinked. Looking up at the ceiling she saw a stream of green light flickering
upon it.

She sat up.
It was coming from the window.

Taking the
candle from her bedside table, out to the window, she saw the makings of
another window on the other side of the palace facing her. She saw that there
was a shadow standing in front of the green light. Someone could see her. They
were waving.

Jasmine
slowly raised her hand and waved back.

The waving
continued for a bit then ceased. Jasmine saw a hand reaching out from the
light, beckoning to her.

She opened
and closed her eyes.

Who was she
looking at now? She could tell it was a person, but their face … she couldn’t
make it out. Jasmine sighed.

The master
had forbidden her to explore the palace.

But he had
not locked her door. She was permitted to use the bathroom downstairs if she
needed to. He also said if she was caught snooping the door would be locked and
she would be forced to use a bucket instead, so there were to be consequences
for her prying.

But Jasmine
wanted to know – who was that waving to her?

What did they
want?

As quiet as
she could be, she walked to the door and opened it a fraction.

Looking side
to side, she saw that the coast was clear.

Jasmine
stepped out into the corridor and closed the door behind her.