"Nika, thank God you're safe!" Ash's voice rumbled through her, and his arms pressed her securely to his broad chest.

"Y-you're alive?" Stunned with disbelief, Nika clung to her mate, inhaling his beloved scent. "But I saw you—"

"I was trying to scam Papa," Dimitri said as he approached them.

Her brother looked very different from his usual self. His usual carefully trimmed stubble had grown into the beginnings of a beard, and he had dark rings of exhaustion under his eyes. He was wearing one of Ash's cowboy hats and a long Australian-style oilskin riding coat.

Dimitri added with an admiring look at his brother-in-law, "Ash can sure do some cool stuff with his computers."

"I couldn't have done much with the security system without those passwords, Mitya," Ash said, his warm breath brushing against Nika's soaked hair.

I knew it! I knew Ash had to be the one who shut off the power and all the alarms and cameras!

Without releasing her hold on him, she tilted her head back to look at him. Like Dimitri, her mate wore a long, heavy oilskin coat and a cowboy hat to keep off the rain. He looked tired but well.

He bent to kiss her. His mouth was warm and urgent against her chilled lips, and she let her eyes drift closed momentarily as she soaked in his heat and his touch and the realization that she hadn't lost him, after all.

Thank God. Oh, thank God, she thought dizzily.

Then she heard the squelch of a footfall behind her, and she stiffened.

"We have to get out of here," Nika said, urgently. "Papa's right behind me!"

"Yes, and I am very disappointed in both of you, but most especially you, Mitya," her father's deep voice rumbled.

Nika gasped and spun in Ash's arms. Her father stood in a gap between two tree trunks, a battery-powered lantern in one hand.

"You betrayed your own clan in favor of a defective?" Papa continued.

A moment later, the shadowy bulk of a huge grizzly appeared silently beside him.

"Mama!" Nika's breath choked in her throat.

* * *

"How could you have failed us like this, my son?" Ash thought that Mikael Medved sounded regretful. "Do you hate us so much?"

Dimitri crossed his arms, looking pale but resolute. "I don't hate you, Papa. But I'm not a murderer. And I don't follow orders that are morally wrong. You made me pick a side, and I picked Nika's side. She's always been there for me…and she would never tell me to kill an innocent man just for the crime of thwarting one of your crazy plans."

The light brown bear with a blonde face and head who now stood at Mikael's side moved forward with a growl, and Ash's attention focused on the real danger here.

Anastasia Medved. Nika's mother.

He could feel his mate trembling with cold and fear as she shrank back against him.

"Children should obey their parents, and all shifters should work for the good of their clan," Mikael pronounced sternly. "You had a bright future at our family bank, Dimitri, and your mother and I took great pains to find the perfect mate for your sister. And now you are both determined to ruin everything!"

Anastasia growled and charged Ash, Nika, and Dimitri.

Nika gave a muffled shriek, and Dimitri tore off his raincoat.

Not enough time for him to shift, Ash thought, and braced for the worst. At least Nika will know I came for her.

Then Mom flowed out of the darkness in her bear shape and charged into Anastasia's path.

Anastasia snarled and came to a skidding halt. Teeth bared, she lunged for Mom.

Mom rose up on her haunches and swatted the blonde bear aside with a huge paw. Anastasia staggered under the force of the blow and went down sideways in a great spray of water and liquid mud.

Ash guessed that the wind and rain had prevented Nika's mother from sensing Mom's presence until it was too late. And she had clearly been caught off-guard by Elle Swanson's aggressive response to her attack.

Anastasia rolled swiftly back onto her feet. Roaring, she leaped at Mom, her long, curved claws gleaming in the light from Mikael's battery-powered lantern.

The two bears snarled and growled and grappled in titanic combat. They were quickly coated in mud and were soon almost indistinguishable from one another.

Then Ash heard a second growl, and saw that Mikael had taken advantage of the distraction to begin his own shift.

"Oh God, be careful, Ash," Nika said urgently. "Papa and Mama were going to hold our baby hostage to force me to agree to another mating. They really want you dead!"

The news filled Ash with a volcanic rage he had never experienced before. White-hot emotion filled him like lava, and he felt ready to explode.

Ash didn't care that Mikael was a fully grown grizzly shifter or that he himself still couldn't shift. He didn't care that Mikael had already bested him once. Ash wanted to see the other shifter bleed for abducting his mate and then threatening her.

With his rage came the awareness of his bear surging upwards inside him. A familiar burning prickle ran across his skin.

Instead of fading, the prickling rapidly transformed into an unbearable burning sensation, as if Ash's rage had transformed into acid that now bubbled up and splashed across his skin.

Then, as the first stabs of pain speared through his knees, hips, and shoulders, Ash realized what was happening.

At last!

Mikael noticed, too. The big bear stopped in his tracks and stared at Ash in obvious bewilderment.

Dimitri's jaw fell open as he stared at Ash.

Meanwhile, Mom and Anastasia continued to grapple and roar, completely consumed in their battle.

"Mitya—take care of Nika," Ash gasped with the last of his human vocal cords.

Ash released his hold on his mate and thrust her, stumbling, into her brother's arms.

He managed to tear off his coat, shirt, and belt before he dropped to his knees, felled by a tidal wave of pain. He felt as if he were wrapped in an invisible sheet of flame that burned every inch of his skin. He saw dark hair sprouting all along his arms. At the same time, he was wracked with agonizing pain in every joint and muscle.

The sturdy denim of his jeans ripped and exploded in shreds as bone and muscle shifted and thickened.

The agony rolled through him quickly and then began to fade, leaving only a lingering ache behind.

Ash heaved himself up from the mat of wet leaves and mud and found himself on four paws for the first time in his life. All of his senses expanded, flooding him with new information. He snorted and shook off the tattered remnants of his jeans and T-shirt, feeling as if the world had suddenly gotten a whole lot larger.

He caught sight of the big male grizzly only a few yards away, and his blood lust surged through him, stronger than ever.

Must kill him! He took our mate!

Ash opened his jaws, and a roar of pure rage rolled out of him.

Strength and anger flowing through him like liquid fire, Ash stepped forward to face Mikael Medved for the second time in two days.

This time he wouldn't lose.

* * *

With mingled amazement and horror, Nika saw Ash shift into a bear with a pelt so dark that it looked black in the dim lantern light.

He was magnificent…and he was advancing on Papa, his lips drawn back in a feral snarl, exposing long white fangs. Rage poured off him like the shockwaves of a detonating bomb, and his eyes shone pure gold.

"Let me go!" Nika said, struggling against Dimitri's hold.

She had to stop Ash. She had to stop them both before they actually began fighting, because she knew in her gut that once they closed in on each other, neither of them would stop until one or both of them were dead.

"But—oof!" Whatever Dimitri was going to say was cut off by her elbow to his gut.

He released her and doubled over, gasping and wheezing.

Heedless of her own safety, she ran forward.

"Stop!" she screamed from the bottom of her gut.

She came to a halt between the two male grizzlies and flung out her arms in a blocking gesture. There she stood her ground, staring down Papa. 

"Stop," she pleaded. "Please, Papa. Don't do this."

She sensed Ash behind her and heard him panting harshly. But he took up bodyguard position behind her right shoulder and stopped, so close that she could feel the heat of his breath through her sopping-wet clothes.

The two female bears broke apart and subsided, both of them watching the frozen tableau with golden shifter eyes.

Nika drew a shaking breath and pointed out the obvious to her parents.

"My mate is not defective. He's a bear, just like we are! And even if he wasn't, I still wouldn't leave him." She added, "He's mine, and I'm keeping him."

Ash huffed softly behind her, almost as if he were chuckling.

She saw Mama's blond muzzle, now darkened with rain and blood, swing back and forth between the two male bears. She sniffed deeply, radiating suspicion that this was some trick.

"Oh for God's sake, Mama!" Nika exploded. "Can't you just accept that Ash is my mate? Don't you and Papa want to play some part in your grandchild's life?"

Papa dropped down on all fours, looking bewildered. He glanced over at Mama, as if asking her a silent question.

Nika glared at each of her parents in turn. "Because if you don't straighten up, I won't have anything to do with either of you ever again! Dimitri is right—neither of you behaves like a civilized person! I won't have my children exposed to toxic behavior like that."

Her heart was pounding now, as years of anger and resentment came flowing out of her. Ash stood quietly at her back, warming her with his presence as he protected her.

To her surprise and relief, Dimitri came to her defense, too.

"She's right," he said, walking up to her and taking her hand in his. "I know you think I'm a lousy Medved. But maybe I can be a good Swanson, if they'll have me."

His chest heaved with emotion, and his fingers tightened around hers. She squeezed back in encouragement.

Mama and Papa stood in the mud and rain, looking at each other for what seemed like a very long time.

Then Mama heaved a big ursine sigh and began to shift back to human. Papa followed suit, and then, finally, Elle Swanson.

The three bears dwindled down to three naked, wet, muddy humans.

Both Mama and Elle were bleeding from long gashes where long bear claws had penetrated their thick pelts, but none of their injuries looked serious, thank goodness.

Ash stayed in his bear shape for a few seconds longer. Nika reached for him and rested her hand lightly on his big, warm head.

"Thank you." Her words seemed utterly inadequate in light of everything he'd done for her. She added, "I love you, Ash."

Then he, too, began the shift back to human.

When he was done, he put his arm around Nika.

Mama spoke first. Her fine blonde hair was a mess, darkened by rain and straggling across her forehead and neck in dripping locks.

"Fine! Keep your mate, and let's be done with this! I only wanted what was best for our clan," she said sullenly. "I can't believe my own children would conspire against me as you have!"

And just like always, Mama twisted reality to make herself the injured party. Nika sighed and suddenly felt too tired to deal with her mother.

Papa, as always, understood human feelings better than Mama.

"Children, can you find it in your hearts to forgive us someday?" he asked, walking over to his mate and draping a protective, thickly muscled arm around her delicate-looking shoulders. "Truly, we were acting in our clan's best interests."

He looked anxiously at Dimitri and Nika.

Dimitri looked away, his jaw set, and didn't answer.

Nika thought about everything Mama had done to her over the years and had been willing to do to her now.

Papa's gaze pleaded with her.

"Maybe someday," she answered grudgingly. "But after all of this, I think I'll need some time."

"Tell you what," a naked Ash said, seemingly oblivious to the cold rain and gusting winds. "Prove to us that you're sincere about changing your ways. Behave yourselves, and we'll invite you out to the ranch later this year to see your grandchild."

"Change our ways? How dare you!" Mama snarled, shaking off Papa's arm and stepping forward. "Do you know who I am?"

Despite her resolve not to let her mother intimidate her any longer, Nika shrank back into Ash's sheltering embrace.

"I know exactly who and what you are," Ash replied calmly, his arms tightening around her. "I hacked into your bank's network yesterday afternoon and poked around a bit. Let me tell you, I found some things that the IRS Criminal Investigations unit would be very interested in seeing…and possibly the FBI, too. Money laundering is a serious crime, you know."

Mama froze, her blue eyes wide with horror. "Dimitri! You helped him with this?"

Dimitri shrugged. "You were the one who taught us to always have leverage before entering a negotiation."

Now it was Papa's turn to step forward belligerently. "You wouldn't dare turn us in!"

Then Nika saw his steps slow and falter as he apparently saw something in Ash's expression

"You're family now, after all," Papa added weakly.

"Am I?" Ash asked, his tone heavy with irony. "Well, I'm giving you the chance to prove it. Any more stunts like abducting my mate or attacking anyone in my family, and IRS CI receives a detailed anonymous tip, with attached documents." He paused. "And just FYI, I wouldn't be surprised if the feds are closing in on you right now, even without my help. You might want to consider your next moves very carefully."

Mama and Papa both stared at Ash with matching appalled expressions.

Nika didn't know whether to be horrified at this show of ruthless blackmail from her mate or to giggle madly at seeing her parents outwitted for once.

"Good," Ash continued, his tone now cheerful. "Now that that's cleared up, Nika and I would like to invite you to our wedding. We're planning to have a small, family-only ceremony at the ranch, with a reception to follow at my stepfather's restaurant."

An indescribable feeling of joy shot through Nika. For the first time in days, she realized that her ordeal might actually be over.

No more running. No more hiding.

And no more living in fear of her parents' disapproval.

She looked up at her mate. His handsome features looked drawn and exhausted, but he also looked extremely satisfied with himself.

"When are we getting married?" she asked softly.

"On Valentine's Day. When else?" Ash grinned down at her. "We agreed that we wanted to be married before our baby is born."

And then, in front of her parents and the arriving Medved estate security staff, and still completely naked, he bent and kissed Nika.

It was long and sweet and thorough, and the perfect reunion with her mate.