Chapter Nine

 

Luckily for Leo, he knew the inside of the Arena building well enough. He’d spent far too much time here, accompanying the Seversons or their shifter competitors to training events or Shifter Games matches, so it was relatively easy for him to find the room with the cages. When he came around the corner, he saw that the door was still not guarded. He had never quite understood why these idiot guards hadn’t stationed at least one watchperson outside the door, but he wasn’t going to complain. Their stupidity was going to help him and give him the advantage of surprise.

Leo crept quietly to the doorway, took a deep breath, and then made his move. There was no time to hesitate. He needed to finish his job here quickly so that he could get back to Isa. He’d tried to keep up a confident aura for her sake, but the truth was that he was worried that someone was going to figure out she had set the bomb and then try to kill her. The sooner he got back to her, the better.

In one swift movement, Leo threw open the door to the room and ran in, letting out a roar as he shifted into bear form. The guards, who had been lazily leaning against one of the cages, looked up in frozen shock. Their hesitation worked to Leo’s advantage, as he was nearly completely shifted into bear form by the time they reacted.

“Hey! Get back!” one of the guards yelled, raising his rifle. Leo ignored his order and swiped against the rifle with a giant grizzly paw, sending it flying across the room. There were three guards total, and the other two still had their guns. They raised them with trembling hands, and one even managed to get a shot off, although he forgot to aim before pulling the trigger. The shot ricocheted off the cement wall, thankfully into a cage that was empty.

“What in the world! How did he get in!” another guard yelled. Leo roared in anger and quickly knocked the guns out of the other two guards’ hands. At that point, the guards decided that their best option was to run. With cowardly shrieks, they made for the door to the room and took off as fast as their shaking legs would carry them.

Leo quickly shifted back into human form and grabbed the keys to the cages off a large hook by the door.

“Well I’ll be damned,” Otto said. “I wasn’t sure if I would ever see you again. What the hell is going on?”

“A lot. I don’t have time to explain everything, but in a nutshell, the palace just exploded and if all goes as planned, the shifters are going to have their final showdown with Gilt Hollow today.”

“What? Really?” Otto’s eyes widened as he stepped out of the cage and into the hallway.

“Yes, really. I need to get to the palace because Isa might be in trouble, but I need your help to go back to Bear Hollow and round up everyone able and willing to fight.”

Otto narrowed his eyes at Leo. “You’re going to rescue Isa?”

Leo met Otto’s gaze with fiery, angry eyes. “Yes. I am. She’s the one who set off the explosion at the palace. She’s committed to helping us, so she deserves to be rescued. Not only that, but she’s my lifemate.”

“Your lifemate?” Otto looked more shocked than Leo had ever seen him.

Leo nodded and continued moving down the line of cages, freeing the remaining shifters. “I’m going after her,” he yelled over his shoulder. You guys go to Bear Hollow and tell them the time has come to fight. Gilt Hollow is going to be in more chaos today than it’s ever been. They’re completely vulnerable and confused, and we have to take advantage of that while we can. This could be our day.”

“Alright, man. I trust you. But don’t get yourself killed before I get back.”

Leo winked at Otto. “No promises. But I’ll do my best. Good luck to you.”

And then, Leo was running. He sped out of the Arena as fast as his legs would carry him, heading toward the palace. He could see smoke rising in the distance, and he could already hear the shouting coming from that same direction. Alarm bells were going off somewhere deep inside of him, and he instinctively knew it was the lifemate bond warning him that his lifemate was in trouble. Isa had been caught, he was sure of that. Now it was up to him to go set her free before those Gilt Hollow bastards did anything they would regret. Because one thing was certain: if anyone hurt Isa, Leo was going to make damn sure they regretted it.

Leo never slowed down as he came running up to the palace. The crowd outside was huge, and most of them were staring up at the burning building in horror. The flames looked like they were growing faster by the minute. One half of the building was almost completely ablaze, and it looked like it wouldn’t be too much longer before the other half followed suit.

Leo’s eyes scanned the crowd, desperately trying to find Isa. He should have been worried that someone would realize he was a shifter and try to attack him, but he couldn’t be bothered to think about possibilities like that right now. All he could think about was that he had to find Isa before something happened to her. Had they realized that she was the one who had planted the bomb?

He fought his way through the thick crowd, ignoring the annoyed protests from Gilt Hollow citizens whom he pushed out of the way. He had been trained to fade into the background in Gilt Hollow crowds, so that he would never annoy the oh-so-important Gilt Hollow citizens. But right now, he didn’t care about being nice. If all went as planned, this whole town was about to go down in flames anyway. The Gilt Hollow regime was ending.

Leo had almost forced his way to the front of the crowd now, but there was still no sign of Isa. He was beginning to panic, thinking that she wasn’t here or that someone had already hurt her, when his eyes finally landed on her back. Even from behind, he could not mistake her form. He knew it was her.

And he knew she was definitely in trouble.

The Emperor stood in front of her, his face flushed almost purple with anger. He was yelling at her, and although Leo couldn’t make out what he was saying from this distance, it didn’t take a genius to see that the Emperor’s anger was directed at Isa. The Emperor’s wife was there, too, looking frightened and wringing her hands in distress. At least a half-dozen guards surrounded the group, with swords drawn and at the ready—all pointed directly at Isa. Leo knew that if he wanted to have a chance at getting Isa out of here, he was going to have to make his move quickly. He would need to shift into bear form, run in there as quickly as he could and grab Isa, then run out as quickly as he could. He had to at least make it into the nearby woods before the crowd closed in on him, as it inevitably would. He could handle the six guards. It would be tough, but he could handle it. But if this whole crowd surrounded him, he might not be able to get away. There were too many of them for him to push back, even in bear form.

All Leo could do was try his best. His lifemate was less than a hundred feet away from him, and she clearly needed his help. He had to get her out of here. With a long, loud roar, he began to shift, even as he continued to run.

The crowd around him shrieked as they saw his human skin starting to thicken and morph into the thicker skin of a bear, with fur covering his body. His head became the giant head of a grizzly, complete with razor-sharp teeth, and his hands and feet became paws with long, piercing claws.

“It’s a shifter!” several voices yelled. “There’s a shifter here! He’s on the loose!”

Leo roared again, hoping that the sound would scare people enough that they would stand back from him. For a few moments it worked. Terrified men and woman backed away from the giant bear that had suddenly appeared in their midst, and little children shrieked as they caught sight of the grizzly.

But that brief reprieve only lasted a few moments. The guards around Isa and the Emperor heard the commotion and turned around, their eyes widening and then growing angry when they saw Leo’s bear racing toward them.

“Get that bear!” they yelled at the crowd. “Stop him now! That’s an order!”

Many of the Gilt Hollow citizens ignored the guards and continued to run away. But some of the people, conditioned for their entire lives to always obey the soldiers and guards, started to run back toward Leo. He made a mad rush forward, trying to get through the mass of bodies that was suddenly closing in on him. Isa turned around, trying to see what all of the commotion was about, and her eyes lit up when she saw him. She knew exactly who he was, even though she hadn’t had an opportunity yet to see him in bear form.

“Leo!” she yelled out. “Help me!”

The sound of her voice gave him the encouragement he needed to make the final push. He leapt forward, knocking over several men who stood in his way as though they were plastic bowling pins, and then he plowed through the startled guards. Luckily for Leo, the guards had been too shocked by his appearance to realize that they should probably turn their swords around to face toward the attacking bear instead of toward Isa. This allowed Leo to easily get past them and to Isa.

Isa acted remarkably calm, despite the terror in her eyes. As Leo ran toward her, she jumped onto his back in one swift movement, clearly understanding that they needed to get out of there, and fast.

The Emperor yelled at the guards, telling them to stop being idiots and to go attack Leo. The guards obediently sprang into action, slashing their swords in Leo’s and Isa’s direction. One sword managed to catch Leo across his back right leg, sending an instant shock of pain through his body, followed moments later by a warm, wet feeling of blood. Leo steeled himself against the pain and forced himself to run even faster. There would be time later to worry about pain and wounds. Right now, he needed to get out of here before Isa was wounded as well.

He hoped she hadn’t been wounded yet. He hadn’t heard her cry out, and she was still clinging to his back just as tightly as she had been at the first moment she had leapt onto him. Hopefully that meant that she had escaped the guards’ swords, and wasn’t in pain.

In less than a minute. Leo had managed to cross the rest of the yard and make it into the woods. He could hear the guards continuing to pursue him, but he knew now that he was going to make it. These fools probably wouldn’t be able to catch him now that they were in the woods. Leo was too fast, and his bear form was much more skilled at running through the forest than they were. Without the crowds to slow Leo down, the guards would have to rely on their own two feet to catch him. Their chances of doing that were low, and even if they did catch him, he could take them on.

Even wounded, Leo’s grizzly could handle a lot. These guards didn’t seem to have guns, so Leo wouldn’t have to dodge bullets, only swords. Swords he could handle. Spurred on by the realization that he was getting away, Leo picked up more speed than he would have thought possible. He ran deeper and deeper into the woods, without really knowing where he was going. All he knew was that he was getting further away from the threat to Isa’s life. That was all that mattered.

The sound of the guards’ footsteps behind him slowly grew fainter, until it disappeared altogether. For a few minutes after that, Leo continued to run as fast as he could, just in case. But eventually, he slowed to a jog and then to a walk. As the adrenaline of the moment wore off, he realized that the pain in his leg was growing worse. With a grunt, he stopped completely and lay down on the forest floor. Isa hopped off, then ran around to look at his face. She held his giant grizzly face in her hands, her eyes full of concern as they met his.

“Leo! Leo are you alright? You’re bleeding!”

He let out a small grunt, then wriggled a few steps back from her so that he could begin to shift back into human form. He couldn’t talk to Isa or properly assess the wound to his leg while he was still in grizzly form.

With a surge of power, he began the transformation back to a man. His thick bear fur disappeared, and his skin turned to human flesh again. His grizzly paws became hands and feet once again, and his head morphed back into the head and face of a man.

When he was fully human once again, he realized that the wound on his leg was much worse than he’d thought. It was bleeding profusely, and the pain throbbed incessantly.

“You’re really hurt!” Isa said, her voice shaking with emotion. She began to quickly tear off strips of fabric from the bottom of the long nightgown she was wearing, and used the fabric to fashion a makeshift tourniquet and bandages.

“It’s fine,” Leo wheezed out. “Hurts like hell, but it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine! You’ve lost a lot of blood! And the gash is pretty deep. You need stitches!”

“I don’t think I’m gonna get stitches anytime soon. The whole town is only going to get more chaotic. The shifters will be attacking within the hour, and I’m sure there will be people with wounds that need much more attention than mine. These strips of fabric will have to serve as bandages for now.”

Isa had tears running down her cheeks. “You saved my life! And now yours is in danger!”

Leo struggled to sit up. “I’m fine. Really. I’ve had days where I felt better, sure. But I’m not dying. How are you? You’re not wounded, are you?”

Leo scanned Isa, looking for any signs of blood. Her face and arms were quite scratched up, probably from riding through the forest at top speed. Leo hadn’t bothered trying to avoid the many branches and twigs in his way. He’d been far more concerned with trying to get away from the guards. Isa hadn’t complained, and he was sure she understood. Thankfully, those scratches seemed to be her only wounds. Her face was also covered with dark soot, which was likely residue from the smoke, but that could be washed off. She had made it away from the palace without any serious damage.

“I’m fine,” she assured him, although her voice still sounded shaky. “But man am I glad you came along when you did. I think those guards would have been happy if my father had ordered them to chop off my head right in the middle of the palace yard.”

Leo ran his fingers through his hair and shuddered. “I knew you were in trouble. I could sense it through the lifemate bond. But I still can’t believe the way your own father was yelling at you. Let me guess. They realized that you were the one who set the bomb?”

Isa nodded, tears filling her eyes. “One of the guards saw me going to the west wing and then running out of the exit not long before the explosion. He accused me of sabotaging the castle, and had just about convinced my father of it when you came along.”

Leo reached over and grabbed her hand, then pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her. “I can’t believe your father would consider chopping your head off. I mean, I shouldn’t be surprised, considering the way everyone in Gilt Hollow always acts. But still.”

Isa was crying now. Even though her face was pressed against his chest as they sat on the forest floor, keeping him from seeing her eyes, he could feel the wet tears against his bare skin.

“Well, I did blow up his palace,” she said.

“I suppose. It just baffles my mind how often people in Gilt Hollow seem to value their possessions over people.”

Isa shrugged, her shaking shoulders rising and falling in a motion of defeat. “My dad cares about me in his own way, I guess. But his kingdom has always been the most important thing to him. Anything or anyone that threatens his ruling power, even me, has to be destroyed as far as he’s concerned.”

“Sickening.” Leo didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t imagine ever sacrificing the life of a family member for anything, not even an entire kingdom. Then again, he’d never understood how Gilt Hollow could be so obsessed with material things in the first place. He took a deep breath and tried to settle the anger that boiled within him. The battle with Gilt Hollow was far from over. He couldn’t afford to lose his temper when his fellow shifters needed him to be calm and cool. Hopefully there would be plenty of time later to process all of the emotions he felt. If everything today went as planned, Gilt Hollow’s reign of terror would be over by this time tomorrow. If everything didn’t go as planned, well…Leo didn’t even want to think about how the Gilt Hollow citizens would retaliate. There had been enough lives lost among the shifters already. If they kept losing shifters at this rate, their population was going to dip dangerously low. Bear Hollow itself might cease to exist.

“What happens now?” Isa asked, as though she could sense the uncertainty that Leo was feeling.

“Well, I freed all the shifters that were in the cages and explained to Otto what was going on. His plan was to head straight back to Bear Hollow to try to gather up any of the shifters there who are strong enough to come back to Gilt Hollow and fight. If the shifters can take advantage of all the chaos in the city right now, they might be able to end this war today. If that doesn’t happen, well…I don’t know if there will ever be hope for us. Today is the best chance we’ll ever have to bring down the regime. It’s now or never.”

Isa nodded slowly, pulling back a bit so that she could look Leo in the eyes. “What will you do? Please tell me you’re not planning to go back to Gilt Hollow and fight. You’re horribly wounded.”

Leo sighed. He should have known that Isa would protest. But he couldn’t hide in the forest while his fellow shifters fought the biggest battle of their lives. “I have to go, Isa. My leg is okay. It’s not pretty, but I’m a shifter. It’ll heal up fast. And my clan is depending on me. My first priority was getting you to safety, and now you’re safe. You’ll be fine out here in the forest, and now I need to go back to the battle.”

Isa narrowed her eyes at him. “If you’re going, I’m going. I’m not going to sit alone here in the forest like some damsel in distress while you run off and fight for Bear Hollow.”

I should have known better than to think she would patiently wait here while I go fight a war. Leo knew that it would be pointless to try to convince Isa to stay behind, but he still had to try. Whatever greeted them in Gilt Hollow wasn’t going to be a pretty sight, and he’d rather keep Isa far away from the bloodshed.

“Isa, you should stay here. Everyone knows that you’re the Emperor’s daughter, and that he wants you captured. You’ll be a prime target, which means you’re likely to be caught. And who knows what your dad will do with you if he catches you. He’s going to be even angrier with you now that you escaped. I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten in the last hour the embarrassment of his own daughter blowing up his palace and then escaping into the woods away from his guards.”

“I might be a target for Gilt Hollow, but I’ll also be a symbol that the Bear Hollow shifters can rally around. They know that I attacked the palace. They know I’m on their side, and that’s a huge boost to morale. I can give them the inspiration they need to finish this war once and for all.”

“Isa, you could be killed! I can’t bear the thought of that.”

“You could be killed, too. If you’re risking your life for Bear Hollow, I’m going to do the same. I love you too much to let you face this alone.”

Leo felt like his heart had stopped in his chest at her words. She loved him. She’d already told him that, of course, but the reminder sent a fresh wave of warmth across his whole body. And in that instant, he knew he shouldn’t be arguing with her not to go into Gilt Hollow. He needed to trust her that she could manage to keep herself at least reasonably safe. And he needed to let her have this chance to take a stand against Gilt Hollow. After the life she had lived, he knew this moment was important for her. He could not deny that to the woman he loved.

“Alright,” he said in a resigned voice. “Just promise me you’ll be careful, because I love you, too.”

“I promise,” she said, taking his face in her hands again. “Now let’s go kick some ass.”

They stood together to go face their fate. Leo only hoped that they would indeed be the ones kicking ass, and not the ones getting their asses kicked.

There was only one way to find out what the outcome would be. Time to go join the battle of the century.