Bailey had been lost in thought, stomping through the woods on autopilot back to Daisy and Calder’s. F-bombs flying from her mouth with each angry step she took. She was pissed. Especially after the perfect evening of making love to her mate and completing the mating ritual. The last thing she expected had been for him to flip the authoritarian switch and turn into a total dickhead.

“How dare he? Stupid man! Does he think I’m a defenseless wallflower or some tiny pathetic shifter who can’t handle her own shit? What the actual fuck?" she bitched to her bear.

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

She looked up, surprised to find herself surrounded by three shady as hell guys. One sniff confirmed they were disgusting and hadn’t bathed in what smelled like a year or more. Also, they were bears.

Not grizzlies like herself, but black bears. Smaller in size, but still ferocious.

She’d remembered all the people she’d met at the barbeque. If these guys had been there, she would have not only been surprised, but she would have remembered them.

The first guy took a step forward. “Looks like we found ourselves a pretty little bear.”

“I bet she’s scared all alone out here in the woods at night,” another teased.

“Danger!” her bear roared in her head.

“I know!” Bailey roared back, knowing damn well she was in deep shit.

“I’m not alone.” Bailey figured she’d try bluffing her way out of the situation. “My mate is right behind me. He stopped to grab something and said he’d catch up with me in a few minutes.”

Just as the words left her mouth, Gavin’s mighty roar sounded far off in the distance.

One of the men took another step toward her. “I don’t think so.”

“You’re lying, bitch,” the other man sneered.

Bailey took two steps back, discerning how badly she’d fucked up. If she hadn’t been so absorbed in her own damn thoughts, she would have easily scented the shifters surrounding her. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“You!”

“I don’t understand. Why me?” Bailey wanted to keep the men talking for as long as she could. Maybe if she distracted them, she could find a way out of this shit show.

The man sniffed the air around her. “It’s easy, really. We have a score to settle with your new mate, and what better way to get his attention?”

“This could get really bad, really fast.” Bailey did not like the sound of things one bit.

“We figured if we can make you scream real nice—well—that will upset that mate of yours pretty good. Won’t it?”

“And I know just the way to make that pretty girl scream.” The third man stepped forward, grabbing his crotch.

Bile rose in the back of Bailey’s throat. There was no way in hell she was going to let those men lay one filthy paw on her.

Bailey hurriedly took a couple of steps back as the others laughed at the guy’s antics.

“Now where do you think you’re going? The party hasn’t even started yet.”

Bailey’s bear rushed forward, taking control as the men charged her in human form. Her heart pounded at the thought of taking the three of them on at once. She’d been jumped before, but it had been years, and she’d never been in a situation where it was three men against one woman.

The odds were not in her favor.

Even if she was a grizzly bear.

There was little doubt when it came to her strength. Her beast form was one of the most powerful shifters on the planet, but she still found herself doubting her ability to walk away unscathed in this situation.

Without spending any more time worrying about the possibility of getting her ass kicked, Bailey sprang into motion. Her bear, in a frenzy, slashing at anyone who dared to encroach on her personal space. She slashed out repeatedly with her claws, slicing one opponent after another wide open with each opportunity they presented.

“You fucking whore!” one man screamed before shifting into his bear form and charging her a second time.

Bailey roared, her claws connecting with his face. Blood sprayed over her chest, exciting her bear even more.

“You are going to pay for that! Get that fucking bitch!” one of the men shouted before shifting. He lunged for her, ducking to miss her claws.

She roared again as he latched onto her arm, tearing into the flesh. Bailey fought with all she had as he tried dragging her down to the ground by the arm. Sensing her vulnerability, the other bears attacked. One tearing into her leg, and the other her side.

Bailey bucked against them, trying in vain to toss them off of her. It was no use, they had her pinned down to the ground. Panic slashed through her body as one of the men shifted back to his human form and straddled her, stabbing her in the side with a sharp object that she couldn’t identify. She managed to tear one arm free.

“Just enough!”

Bailey drew her arm back as far as she could before letting loose, nailing the guy in the side of the head with her claws.

He turned back to face her, blood poured from his ear. He lifted his hand and punched her right in the face.

“Must fight them off,” Bailey said to her bear as the darkness started to creep in around her vision.