Kacie had known Mrs. Watson most of her life. Not in a best buds type of way, but she’d seen her around town or picking her girls up from the nursery, chatted with her in the supermarket, that type of thing. She seemed… normal. The wholesome soccer mom type. Nothing out of the ordinary. Never once had she given any indication that she wasn’t even human.

“So, how are you holding up with all this?” Elisa asked as she bustled around the kitchen making coffee. It was the third cup she’d made them, the two previous having gone cold while she found something else to clean or tidy.

“This?” Arms full of giggling baby, Kacie paused for a moment with a frown, unsure what Mrs. Watson meant. She wasn’t the one who’d had a girl killed in her own home or her children kidnapped, yet Elisa was asking how she was?

“Finding out about bears, dear. It must be strange to suddenly have all that dumped on you.”

“Oh, yes. A little.” She breathed a sigh of relief. So far Elisa seemed to be holding up well under the strain, and she was more than happy to focus on her own circumstances if it took the woman’s mind off her own predicament.

“Being honest, I thought it was all a dream at first. I mean, come on. Werebears?” She smiled and shrugged. “No offense but it’s like something out of a book or a film, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is a bit. It’s just something I grew up with so I’ve never known anything else. Our males don’t tend to look as good as the werewolves on screen, but I sure wouldn’t mind some eye candy like that around. No siree.” Elisa chuckled as she moved the tea and coffee canisters, cleaning behind them for the umpteenth time. Kacie recognized the habitual motion, the need to do something, whatever it was, to keep her mind off what was going on.

The baby giggled, big dark eyes fixed on Kacie for a moment before she made a grab for a wayward curl. “Hey, hey… whatcha doin’?” she smiled, pretending to try and tug the strand of hair back. The baby just giggled and held tighter.

“She likes you,” Elisa commented, watching from the other side of the kitchen. “You’re good with kids.”

Kacie smiled, her attention caught for a moment as something moved outside, just visible over Elisa’s shoulder, but when she focused, nothing was there. Must have been a branch moving in the wind, she decided, and focused on the other woman. “Thank you. Always wanted some of my own. Maybe one day.”

Elisa chuckled as she lifted her mug to her lips and blew the steam off the surface. “Oh, Dean’ll want kids. Probably sooner rather than later too.”

Oh hell, that was a little personal. Were bears always this blunt? Hiding her surprise, Kacie tried a smile despite her discomfort. “It’s a bit early for that. We only just got together—” If one hot encounter in Dean’s bedroom could be considered “getting together.” She hoped so though. God, she was pathetic because she really hoped so. “—I don’t know if we’ll even last yet.”

Elisa froze, mug halfway to her lips and looked over the rim. It was a wary look, one that set an alarm off in the back of Kacie’s mind.

“You don’t know, do you?” Elisa asked softly.

Kacie frowned, recovering her hair from the baby’s grip. “Know what? About Dean being this Prime thing? It means he’s your boss… the boss of all the bears in the town?”

She hadn’t been told as much, but she wasn’t daft. It had been easy to work out that Dean wasn’t your average run of the mill bear. He was something special.

“Not that, no.” The other woman shook her head, putting her mug down on the side. For a second there was movement in the gathering darkness outside, but Kacie ignored it. She had far more to worry about than some branch swaying in the breeze.

“Although, yes, you got it right. The Prime is what we call the leader of a bear clan. Dean’s our Prime, as was his father was before him. It doesn’t always run in families though. Anyone can challenge a Prime for his position. If he wins… new leadership,” she explained. “But that wasn’t what I meant. Did Dean explain what happens when a human finds out about us?”

“They freak out and end up in the mental unit?” Kacie ventured. “Because I was sure that’s where I was headed.”

Elisa didn’t chuckle. Her expression was worried and her face pale. “No, it’s worse than that. The only type of human that knows about us is one who is mated to a bear. If not…”

Unease rolled up Kacie’s spine like a snake slithering through long grass. “If not?”

Elisa met her gaze. “Then they have to die.”

Kacie opened her mouth, but no sound came out. This was serious shit. Clearing her throat, she went to speak again, sure Elisa had it wrong, but she didn’t get chance.

Instead, the kitchen window exploded inward, covering them in shattered glass. A huge bear landed on the counter, its claws digging into the surface and cracking the sink.

Elisa turned, shoving Kacie and the baby in her arms toward the doorway in one movement. Her eyes were dark with determination and something else as fur began to spread over her face.

“Run.”

---

Kacie didn’t argue. Instead, she tucked the baby close, and for the first time in her life, she did exactly as she was told.

She ran.

Racing down the corridor toward the front door, she had a hand out to turn the latch and throw it open when the window to the side shattered. She screamed, half turning and throwing her arm up to protect both her head and baby Poppy. A large, furred paw tipped with razor-sharp claws shoved through the gap, fishing through the air as though looking for them.

The bear it belonged to snarled, peering through the gap between its leg and the wooden frame. All too human intelligence shone in the near-black eyes. She swallowed hard, reading her own death there. Snarls and crashes rang from the kitchen but Kacie wasn’t stupid enough to think that Elisa could hold the big bear off for long.

The sound of breaking glass in the living room made Kacie shrink back against the wall. They were everywhere. There was no way to escape. Tears of frustration welled up, panic trying to consume her.

“No.” The word was clear, firm and quite unexpected. She looked down at the baby in her arms, Poppy looking back calmly. “This is not happening. We are getting out of this, you hear me?”

Determination filling her, she turned on her heel and raced up the stairs. More windows broke near the back of the house and lent wings to her heels. She didn’t know much about bears, but stairs had to slow any animal down, surely?

Reaching the short landing, she grabbed at anything she could as she went. The bookcase at the top of the stairs, a drying rack full of laundry, the tallboy near one of the girls’ bedrooms, they all went tumbling over as adrenaline lent Kacie the kind of strength that allowed mothers to lift small cars off their children.

Reaching the master bedroom, she slammed the door behind them and dropped Poppy onto the bed. The baby bounced, giggling, but Kacie had already spun on her heel to start dragging the heavy chest of drawers across the door. Her heart pounded as she heaved but she managed it and stepped back. The piece was antique and weighed what felt like a ton, but she suspected it wouldn’t give them much time.

Crap, she needed something else.

Racing to the window, she looked out. Instantly, she shrank back. Hard-faced men thronged around the building, and they didn’t look like they were hoping to borrow a cup of sugar.

“Fuck.” She shoved a hand through her hair, racking it back from her face. “You got this, Kacie. Think.”

Something big crashed against the door to the bedroom, moving the heavy chest a fraction. Swallowing her squeak, she grabbed the baby off the bed. She needed to do something, like in the next thirty seconds, or they were both dead. Casting a frantic glance around the room, she dropped to her knees and shoved the baby under the bed. The gap was small, almost too small, and she smiled at Poppy.

“It’s going to be okay, sweetie. You’ll be fine, just keep quiet. Shhhh, okay?” Giving the baby a last stroke on the cheek, Kacie stood up and smoothed the bedding back down so it hung straight. The bed was big and heavy, even a bear would have trouble moving it. Poppy would be safe.

Her? Not so much. Her lip wavered, but she caught it between her teeth, determined to face this with the strength and fierceness Dean had seen in her.

Dean. At the thought of the big, former soldier werebear… Prime, whatever he was, tears welled up and spilled over her eyelashes. At least she’d gotten to kiss him, even if a life together, hell even a hot couple of years together, was out of the question. He was hers, and she his. Always had been, and always would be, to her last breath.

The door slammed again. She jumped, a small cry on her lips when the chest slid half an inch. A weapon, she needed a weapon. Looking around she came up with nothing until her gaze swept to the wall over the bed.

Bingo.

Two samurai swords hung there in their sheaths.

“Jeb Watson,” she whispered. “I think I love you.”

Clambering on the bed, she grabbed the handles and yanked one of the swords free. It came away easily and she slid it free of the sheath. It was dull. A fake sword. The bottom dropped out of her stomach as the bear hit the other side of the door again. She was about to face down hundreds of pounds of apex predator with what amounted to little more than a metal stick. And to think, Dean had made her stay behind because it was safer.

“Fuck my life.”

Dean had never driven so fast in all his life, not even when he was on active service with the enemy shooting at him. He rammed the pedal down as far as it would go, the big engine roaring as the SUV sped down the road at breakneck speed. It was well above the limit but he didn’t care. Anderson would just have to arrest him. Or try to anyway. A growl trickled from his throat. If the guy tried to get between him and his fated, he’d be facing Dean in the pit. And he wouldn’t be walking away.

The car was full, Morgan in the front seat and three bears—Lilly, Bennett and another of the younger enforcers—crammed into the back seat. They were all silent. Grim-faced. The fight at the Black place had been too easy. Dean swore, slamming his hand into the wheel.

“Should’ve known it was a distraction.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it. We were all suckered in,” Morgan murmured, clinging to the “oh shit” handle as Dean swung the SUV into the road the Watsons lived on. The house was right at the end of the street, backing onto countryside, which was no surprise. Most bears picked property for its proximity to nature. It made the need to shift easier if all you needed to do to hit the woods was head down to the bottom of the garden.

Thankfully, Beauty was a sleepy town so there was no traffic on the road. They turned the last corner and the house came into view.

“Shit…” Lilly’s shocked whisper said it all. The house was surrounded by bears; some were in human form, but some shifted as they climbed through shattered windows. One huge bear had just broken down the front door, its massive furred rump disappearing through the ruined wood.

The roar welled up directly from the center of Dean’s soul, shaking his entire body with rage as he slid the SUV to a stop in a spray of stones and dust. He barely managed to put it in park, throwing the door open and leaping out.

The roar emerged then, a bellow of fury and challenge that every bear for miles around would hear. He didn’t care. These assholes had broken the laws, showed themselves where humans could see them, and worse, they’d attacked his fated mate.

If she was dead… every fiber of his being shook with fury and fear… Then no bear would be safe. He would track down every single one of them and make them pay. Slowly. With agony and blood.

Storming toward the house, he let fur flow over his skin. A bear rounded the corner of the house and charged him. Body surging with power, Dean batted him aside with barely a thought, sending him flying to crash into the side of the house and slide down the clapboard with a soft groan.

He kicked the remains of the door aside and stepped through into the corridor. The place was trashed, glass and broken furniture everywhere. Behind him, he heard Lilly and her enforcers roar as they engaged the rogue bears.

Elisa Watson appeared in the kitchen doorway. Her hair was mussed, she was covered in blood and holding her arm close to her chest, but she was alive. From the look in her eyes, whichever bear had been unlucky enough to get caught in the kitchen with her hadn’t been as fortunate.

“Upstairs,” she said, starting toward him. “Kacie has Poppy. They’re upstairs.”

Dean didn’t argue, catching Kacie’s familiar scent in the corridor. Another, muskier scent covered his little mate’s and his lips curled back from his teeth. Male. Bear. Near his mate… Still growling, he raced up the stairs, Elisa hot on his heels. They rounded the top of the stairs together, but Dean took point.

The corridor was short and narrow. At the end there was a bear blocking the door to one of the bedrooms. The door was smashed and broken, and from the look of it, he was trying to clamber over a chest of drawers that had been used to hold it shut. Every time he tried, though, there was a female yell and he roared, slipping back. As he did, Dean caught a glimpse of Kacie, something metallic in her hand. Relief hit him hard and fast. He’d feared the worst, imaging her broken body split open like the Russell girl’s had been. All the way back he’d tortured himself, terrified he’d never see her smile again. Never hear her laugh. Never get to tell her that he loved her.

The realization blazed through him like a wildfire.

He loved her. He loved Kacie Leroy. Not just because she was his fated mate and belonged to him, but because of who she was. He loved her for her, not for what she was to him.

The door to their left opened, another of the rogues emerging. A growl behind him told him that Elisa was on the case and within a heartbeat, the woman had changed and charged down the rogue bear, lashing out viciously.

Hell hath no fury like a mamma bear, he thought, hearing the squeals of pain from Elisa’s victim. And ain’t that the frigging truth.

Dean carried on, all emotion leeching from him as he focused on the bear in front of him. It was the biggest he’d ever seen, even bigger than the one he’d taken down at the Black place, but that didn’t matter. He broke into a run, using the powerful muscles in his thighs to propel him forward and then up into the air as he let the change rip through him.

This asshole had threatened his mate, which meant it was a dead bear walking. And right now, Dean was not just a Prime… he was the mother-fucking grim reaper.

And he was about to send a soul to hell.