Tempest checked that her red wand was stuck in her bun for the tenth time before Grant even started the truck. Logan was sitting beside him in the front.

She was sitting in the flatbed with Ryder, Mack, and Bryce, and feeling a fluttering of nerves in her stomach.

“It’s going to be okay,” Ryder whispered when he saw her face. “You’re a badass bounty hunter bitch, remember?”

She forced out a smile at him. She didn’t feel like a badass bounty hunter bitch. She felt like a scared little girl.

A scared little girl that has a giant lion by her side to protect her. You’ll be fine.

Tempest pushed down the unhelpful feelings and sucked it up. It was going to be fine.

She gulped as the engine started.

“I can’t wait to get another crack at this guy,” Mack said. He was slapping his shoulders hard, pumping himself up.

Bryce copied him, slapping his shoulders as well, admittedly not quite so hard.

“See?” Ryder said, pointing to the huge lion shifter as they bounced up and down on the flatbed. “Mack is going to do all of the work.”

“That’s right, I will,” Mack said with a sneer. “Now that I know his little tricks, this porcupine is going down.”

Tempest felt a little better with these guys by her side. She wasn’t nearly as nervous the last time, but now she knew what was at stake for the man she was starting to fall in love with. She was afraid to lose the bounty, for him.

Plus, now she knew what Mr. Creepy-Bear-Shifter-Guy was capable of. She got lucky the last time with the wand, but now he knew to avoid it. Would she get lucky again?

She gulped as Grant turned onto the main road. There was only one way to find out.

A minute later, they slowed to a stop in front of the neighboring ranch. Tempest turned her head and read the sign: The Grizzly Ranch.

“What are we doing here?” she asked.

“Getting some backup,” Ryder said as a pickup truck came flying off the ranch. There was a dark haired handsome man behind the wheel and another muscular one beside him with tattoos along his arms.

“Only two of you?” Grant said as he stuck his head out the window. “Come on, Maximus! This guy is dangerous. I told you. Where the hell is Kneecap?”

The driver, who must have been Maximus, shrugged. “He’s out shopping for diapers and the rest are not here,” he said with his head out the window. “That’s what you get on ten minutes notice.”

“I guess you and Lachlan are better than nothing,” he said. He disappeared back into the truck and took off, sending Tempest flying to the side.

It took about three hours for them to arrive. “Is this it?” Ryder asked under his breath. They had pulled up to a school in a suburban part of town. There were parents waiting to pick up their children and a line of buses waiting to shepherd the kids from the school back to their homes.

“I don’t like this,” Ryder muttered under his breath as the school bell rang in the distance.

Tempest was biting her lip nervously as the quiet school suddenly burst to life. Kids exploded out of every door, running, yelling, flailing arms and backpacks as they tried to get as far away from the school as possible.

Ryder reached over and slid the back window open. Logan and Grant turned to look at him.

“What’s the plan here?” Ryder said with a hint of frustration in his voice. “We capture this guy and flatten a couple of kids in the process?”

Grant huffed out a breath. “He never told me it was going to be at a school. I don’t like the feel of this either.”

Tempest scanned the crowd. A cute little boy with a Ninja Turtles t-shirt was proudly showing his mother the pirate ship craft that he had made. She saw another stressed-out mother who was holding a crying infant, yelling at her older son to get off the slide. He wasn’t listening to any of it.

“Are we going to fight him here?” Tempest whispered. Her stomach was fluttering with nerves. If becoming a bounty hunter meant traumatizing a hundred or so kids in the process, then it definitely wasn’t for her.

“No,” Ryder said, although he didn’t look so sure. “Grant would never allow it. Just keep your eyes open and try to locate him. We can follow Grease to another location and bag him there.”

They all swung their heads from side to side, looking around as the thick tension filled the air.

Then, Tempest spotted him. Grease was wearing ratty clothes and hiding on someone’s roof, tucked behind the chimney. The house was across the street from the school and the bear shifter had binoculars pressed to his eyes. He was watching something, or someone.

Tempest followed his line of sight and saw that he was staring at a couple of young girls playing on the swings.

Her heart jolted awake. This monster had killed eighty-six people at least, and now he had his cruel eyes set on a couple of eight-year-old girls.

Tempest squeezed her hands into fists as she narrowed her eyes on him. This was why she had become a bounty hunter. Not for the money or for the action. But to stop evil men like him from harming the innocent.

“Up there,” she said, clenching her jaw as she pointed out the about-to-be-dead mark.

They all turned and spotted him, including Maximus and Lachlan who were in the pickup truck behind them.

Grant immediately jumped into his alpha boss mode. “Let’s keep an eye on him while we wait for the kids to disperse.”

They all kept one eye on the murderous polar bear shifter and one eye on the school buses as they got loaded up with kids.

“Come on,” Ryder said impatiently under his breath. It felt like it was taking forever for the buses to leave.

But finally they did, over a dozen yellow giants, lumbering away. Most of the parents were gone as well, and there was just a small spattering of children left, including the three girls playing on the swings.

Grease was still watching them like a hawk watching a couple of oblivious mice scurrying below. The predator never took his eyes off of his prey.

“Mack,” Grant whispered. “You take Bryce and Logan and circle around the back. Stay together and make sure he doesn’t slip away.”

Mack nodded. “Let’s go, twerp,” he said to Bryce as he jumped out of the flatbed. Tempest grabbed the edge as the truck wobbled back and forth. She watched as the three of them silently raced behind a nearby house and leapt over the fence.

Maximus and Lachlan got out of their truck and Tempest swallowed hard when she saw the size of them. Those two men were huge and Ryder had told her on the way over that they had full-grown grizzly bears hiding within them. She was breathing a little easier knowing they were on her side.

Lachlan’s brow furrowed when he spotted Tempest and saw the handcuffs attaching her to Ryder.

“Isn’t it a bad time for your sex games, Ryder?” he asked.

Ryder was about to give him an earful, but Tempest spoke first. “It’s never a bad time for sex games.”

Lachlan laughed. “I guess you’re right.”

“He’s distracted now,” Grant said as he stepped out of the truck. “Let’s just sneak up and try to grab him. Lachlan you climb up the chimney with me, and Maximus you stay down here with Ryder and Tempest in case he jumps down.”

Maximus was watching Tempest carefully. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to have a civilian here?”

“She can handle herself.” Ryder said it in a tone that meant it wasn’t up for discussion. Tempest blushed with pride. She could handle herself!

“All right,” Maximus said, not looking too sure. “Just be careful, lady.”

“Tempest,” she said. “Badass bounty hunter.”

He gave her a quick up and down look. “I hope so.”

“Mount up,” Grant said and they all moved. They were all huge guys but they moved as quiet as lions.

Tempest was trying to be quiet too, but her sexy black leather hooker boots kept clip-clopping on the cement. Damn. Should have worn my sneakers after all.

Ryder picked her up by the waist and put her on the grass where her steps were a little quieter.

“Thanks,” she said, blushing in embarrassment.

They arrived at the house and Grease hadn’t noticed their approach. He was too focused on watching the poor little girls who would be his dinner if they didn’t execute this properly.

Tempest and Ryder hid behind the rock wall at the edge of the property with Maximus as Grant and Lachlan silently scaled the chimney as planned.

Everything was going perfectly until the old man who lived in the house walked out with a coffee and his newspaper and spotted the two large men on his chimney like wannabe Spider-men.

“What in the bloody heck?” he shouted, spilling his coffee on himself as he jumped back in shock.

Grease immediately lowered his binoculars and leapt off the house. He landed in the front yard with a thud, his thick heavy feet leaving two deep imprints in the coffee splattered man’s lawn.

He took off like a mutated bullet, running down the driveway and right toward the school.

Maximus jumped in his way, but Grease lowered his massive shoulder and plowed right into him like a beefy linebacker and sent him flying backward into an oak tree. Every branch on the tree shook as Maximus slumped below it. He groaned as acorns rained down on his head.

“Oh, hell no!” Tempest shouted as she jumped up and raced after him with Ryder by her side. They sprinted as fast as they could, but Grease was faster and the distance between them was increasing.

He yanked open the side door of the school and ran in. Tempest and Ryder raced after him.

She pulled the wand out of her hair and squeezed it as they entered the door, which was the emergency exit of the gymnasium. Luckily, the gym was empty inside.

“Stop!” Ryder shouted, but the killer didn’t listen. He ran toward the open door that led into the hallways, but then stopped short when a familiar face popped in, blocking the way.

It was Mack. Staring at him with a fierce glare.

“You’re not getting away this time, porcupine,” he said as he slapped his own shoulders hard.

Grease skidded to a stop on the gym floor with a squeak and then looked back the way he came, but Ryder and Tempest were there. He glanced at the wand in Tempest’s hand and his jaw tightened.

Bryce and Logan ran in behind Mack just as Lachlan, Maximus, and Grant ran in behind Tempest and Ryder. Grant closed the door and locked it, and Logan did the same with the other door.

Grease was surrounded and he knew it. He started shaking for a second and then his mutated and enhanced polar bear exploded out of him.

“There are kids around,” Grant said in a firm voice. “This doesn’t have to get violent.”

The white bear clenched his jaw as the shifters surrounded him. His body tightened and six large spikes flew out of his back with a shling.

“Looks like it’s going to get violent,” Logan muttered.

Mack grinned. “Good.”

He yanked off his shirt and let his lion come forward. Tempest looked around with wide eyes as men popped into animals all around her.

The two grizzly bears were almost as big as the polar bear, but they looked normal whereas Grease’s bear looked like it spent its lifetime hooked up to an IV of steroids.

And there were snarling lions all around her. Grant and Ryder were the only ones who hadn’t phased.

Tempest gripped her wand with white knuckles as Ryder started shaking beside her.

“Oh no,” she gasped as golden hair sprouted out of his body in patches. She was about to be attached to a mother-freaking lion!

His tattooed body burst open with a bone-chilling tear and a giant lion ripped forward. Tempest got shoved to the ground as the chain tightened and the momentum of the phase yanked her down. She was handcuffed to a lion’s paw.

Holy crap! This is not good.

She swallowed hard as she looked up past the flowing golden mane to the lion’s snarling mouth as it glared at the killer in the middle of the gym.

“Ryder?” she whimpered.

The huge cat turned its flowing golden head and looked down at her. She winced as its hot breath washed over her face, but when he saw her, his glowing brown eyes softened. Ryder was in there. She hoped.

They all turned as a key slid into the lock and fumbled about. A clueless teacher walked in and stopped short when she saw what was waiting for her inside the gym.

Her eyes widened and the files that she was holding fell to the floor.

“I’m just going to…” She quickly stepped back out and shut the door, locking it behind her. Tempest heard heels fleeing down the hall. At least I’m not the only one with loud shoes.

They turned back to the fight, and Mack was the first to move. He bounded forward on huge paws and pounced on the polar bear with his deadly jaws opened wide.

Grease turned his back so that Mack would land on his spikes, but the lion had learned that lesson the hard way and was ready. He jerked his body in the air and landed on the side of the spikes, digging his long black claws into the bear’s pink flesh. He roared in pain and then they all took off, surging forward at the murderous beast.

“Wait!” Tempest said as she tried to climb to her feet in a panic.” The chain was only so long and she couldn’t stand up without bending her spine over. “Don’t…” Ryder’s lion pounced forward, sending Tempest crashing back down to the ground. “…run.”

He dragged her along the gymnasium floor and she lost her wand somewhere near the foul line.

It was a blur of fur and claws and teeth as she got jerked around by the lion she was attached to. There were furry bodies everywhere, flying backward and snarling like it was a feeding frenzy.

“I don’t like this,” she gasped as a grizzly bear lunged over her body and onto the polar bear who was thrashing wildly, fighting for his life.

A lion came flying out of nowhere and rolled over her leg. “Ow, fuck!” she screamed. Luckily, it was a little one, Bryce maybe? She didn’t know. They all looked the same and the only one she could distinguish was Ryder because she was chained to his fucking leg.

He leapt in the air, bringing her flying with him. She crashed into a lion’s ribs and then face planted into a grizzly bear’s ass. Tempest cursed as she ping-ponged against animals as Ryder sunk his claws into the polar bear’s shoulder. She heard an angry roar and didn’t know what happened next, but it wasn’t good. Ryder was suddenly flying through the air like a rocket and she was streaming behind him, going along for the ride.

The lion smashed through the blue double doors of the storage closet and they landed against a mesh cage that was holding up dozens of bouncy dodgeballs. It broke to pieces as they flew through it with an ‘oomph.’

Tempest took a deep breath as she pushed up to her feet with the colorful dodgeballs bouncing all around her and rolling into the gym. “Stop running!” she snapped at the lion, feeling the anger swell up inside of her. If she had ever found Ryder rude or inconsiderate before, he had nothing on his asshole of a lion. That thing had dragged her around like a Saint-Bernard pulling around a two-year-old who was holding onto his leash.

The big cat tilted his head as he looked at her. “Thank you,” she huffed. “Now let me find my wand and—” The cat took off. Again. Dragging her along the ground. Again.

You got to be fucking kidding me!

As she was bouncing along the hard gym floor, she spotted her wand. I’ve had enough of this shit.

She planted her sexy-yet-not-so-practical boots into the ground and grabbed the chain with both hands. With a grunt, she yanked the lion to the side and managed to steer him off course for a second. “Yes,” she said, diving to the ground. He swung her around in an arc and she reached out, grabbing her red wand as she sailed forward.

Tempest turned on her back as she fumbled around with the wand, making sure it was pointed in the right direction. She had made that mistake before and it was one you only did once (or about seven times in her case).

Ryder was heading straight for the polar bear who was holding his own against seven vicious shifters. One grizzly bear was bleeding heavily from the shoulder and a couple of the lions were moving a lot slower than when the fight first started.

Grease, however, was moving faster than ever as he threw a lion into the wall with a crunch.

Ryder lunged on him, sending Tempest swinging right at the bear. He saw her holding the wand out of the corner of his eye and snarled as he turned.

Tempest raised the wand and let the magic fly.