Noah
“There,” he pointed, but the shifter beneath him had already seen the light, shining high into the snow-filled sky like a lighthouse during a violent storm. They homed in on it, waiting for the signal.
“Come on,” he said, “come on. Do it.”
The light started swirling around, and then it dropped to face straight. They were on the exact opposite side of the bearer of the flashlight, but now they knew where to go. Everything had been worked out ahead of time. Chase would know if he followed on the ground. So Noah and Gray had gone and talked to Andrew. Mostly Noah had talked; it was his plan after all. Everyone thought he was crazy, but Andrew had agreed to help him out.
So now he was high in the air about Cloud Park on Andrew’s back, waiting for the flashlight to drop in the direction of Chase. Andrew banked around and they flew toward the spot. He could only guestimate where Chase would be, but although he wished him to know death was coming, Noah wouldn’t shed a tear if he happened to land on the other shifter.
Once they were there he stood up on Andrew’s back and the shifter gave the pre-arranged warning signal to Angela, a fierce cry from the mouth of his half-eagle half-lion body even as he swooped low, diving toward the ground before pulling up just short. Without any further hesitation Noah stepped off the side and plummeted to the ground. As he went he called forth his shifter.
His body exploded outward in a mass of light-brown fur, powerful jaws, and eyes that were filled with red-lined hatred. Noah landed amidst the snow, sending out a near circular wave of it that rose up and slammed into everything on its way out.
Chase was standing about twenty feet from him and slightly to his left. His eyes went wide with surprise, but even then he didn’t hesitate, his training taking over. Noah growled out a challenge and leapt forward, but the gargantuan polar bear was already ripping from beneath his skin.
You’re going to pay for what you’ve done, he thought, slamming into the snow-colored bear before it could truly set itself for battle, knocking it back and opening up a long line of cuts on its underside from his front foreleg before Chase tumbled out of reach. Noah didn’t let up, charging forward and then to the side, avoiding the donkey-kick from Chase’s rear leg and trying to sever its tendons. He missed, but his claws still opened massive rents in the pelt. Blood streamed out, and the snow began gain a reddish tint to it in places.
The polar bear snarled in pain, righted itself, and then darted forward. Noah blinked. In the span of a second he’d gone from being able to see the massive creature, to losing it amidst the snowstorm. Angry at himself for not anticipating that tactic, he backed away from the spot he’d last seen him, hoping to find something solid to put at his back so that Chase couldn’t creep around him.
He needn’t have worried. The SUV-sized polar bear came charging out of the snow to his left, striking Noah square in the ribs and bowling him over. Pain erupted in his belly as Chase ripped and tore at it, and then as swiftly as that he was gone, disappearing back into the snow again.
Grimacing in a tooth-baring bear grin, Noah levered himself back to his feet and continued to look for a secure space. His rear bumped into something solid and he spun, raising a paw to strike Chase down, but it was only a statue. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned back.
Chase took that moment to strike, coming at him straight on. The two bears collided, and the momentum of his enemy’s charge sent both of them through the statue. The concrete construct simply exploded around them as they went down, rolling over until Noah managed to get his hind legs under him and fling Chase free. Trees snapped and broke as the colossal beast simply snapped the trunks in half instead of rebounding off of them. Pine trees came crashing down around him and Noah only barely missed taking one to the head as he went after Chase, determined not to let him escape again.
The polar bear was ready for him, however, and they met in another shockwave-inducing collision. Both rose up on their hind legs and swatted at each other, sacrificing their own bodies in an attempt to land a fight-changing blow. By the time they both backed away, neither party was victorious and both were streaming blood.
Chase tried to pull away and lose himself in the snow, but the near mix of red and white on his fur made it easy for Noah to track him this time, and he charged after the wounded polar bear. They fought their way across the park, neither side gaining an upper hand. Trees, benches, fences, and more were left strewn behind them, a swath of destruction cut almost right through the middle of it all.
It couldn’t last forever though. The ending was rather anticlimactic, after the tenseness of their entire fight. Noah slammed into Chase as he had done a dozen times before, forcing the huge bear to the ground. Only this time they landed on a section of ruined fence. A three-foot-long length of steel slid into Chase’s neck and out the other side, narrowly missing Noah’s face as he jerked his huge head back in surprise.
The polar bear bellowed in pain and struggled to rise, but it couldn’t. The steel had effectively pinned it in place. Noah saw the sudden fear in Chase’s eyes as he realized he was unable to protect himself. Only a slight feeling of remorse entered him as he tore the neck from the polar bear. Noah hated the spy, but he wasn’t going to make him suffer. Even he wasn’t that sadistic.
With his foe defeated, he changed back to his human form, taking a knee as his lungs heaved from the exertion of the fight. There were a thousand gashes on his body, each one shooting knives of agony deep into him. He stayed like that for five, then ten minutes, just recovering next to the corpse of the polar bear.
Eventually he rose and headed for the southwest corner of the park, the agreed-upon meeting area. There he found Gray standing sentry while Angela and Cooper huddled beneath the wing of Andrew’s gryphon, using his body heat to stay warm.
“You should have gone back,” he admonished as she emerged after Gray said it was all clear. “It’s freezing out here.
“Andrew kept us warm,” she said. “There’s no way I was leaving until I was sure that you were okay.” Then she slapped him.
“What the hell was that for?” he asked, stunned.
“That’s for being a cocky dick and doing this on your own. Both Gray and Andrew would have helped you, ensuring that you didn’t die out there, leaving me and Cooper alone!” she said as tears began to fall. “You are not to take any stupid risks like that again, understand me? You had plenty of time to arrange backup, but you had to go and be all macho, as if you had something to prove. Well you don’t, okay? You’re a big bad bear and I know it. You don’t need to keep proving it to me. What you do need to do is come home to me and to our family, okay? Your son needs a father in his life.” She began to shake.
“I love you too,” Noah said, and kissed her harder and more passionately than he’d kissed a woman before. She came up off the ground as her arms locked around his neck and he straightened.
“That’s not what I said,” she muttered between kisses.
“Yes it is. I love you, Angela. I love you so much.” He kissed her some more, feeling her succumb and kiss him back with renewed intensity.
“I love you too, you big idiot,” she whispered into his ear. “But I swear if you do something stupid like that again I will castrate you. In your sleep, so you can’t stop me. Got it?”
He knew she wasn’t being serious about hurting him, but that she was serious about him not doing that again.
“I will,” he promised. “Now let’s get you back to the embassy and some warmth, shall we?”
“No,” Gray said, stepping forward.
“Excuse me?” Noah said, wondering if he was in danger, if he was going to have to fight another shifter this evening.
“Relax,” the huge figure said, lifting a hand palm outward. “I simply meant that we aren’t going to the embassy.”
“We’re not?” he asked, Angela snuggling up next to him as he wrapped an arm around her to keep her warm.
“No. I have a better idea.” The head of the embassy guard smiled. “Let’s go north.”