“Okay, Genie the Meanie, I’m not above bribing you, as is evident by my heaping fruit, nut, and veggie bowl,” Karis muttered, putting the finishing touches on the squirrel snacks she’d bought at the store.

The squirrel glared at her suspiciously from her place on the window sill across the cabin. A Karis fan, she still was not.

“Look, we both have a lot in common,” Karis said, making her way carefully toward the window. “I like nuts…you like nuts. I don’t let people push me around, and you definitely don’t do that either. Respect. So, I think we should come to a truce for the good of the man we both love.” Three more steps toward Genie, and the critter looked ready to run. “I’m not even mad that you crap on my pillow, or there is fur in my toothbrush. And I’m totally fine with you making my favorite scarf into nesting material. But you and I both have to live here, and also, I need to make a wish on you, so if you could let me pet you, that would be great.”

She held out the bowl that was overflowing with squirrelly goodness. “Lookey look look, Genie. It has peas. I searched on the internet for stuff you would like.”

Genie backed to the farthest corner of the window as Karis set the bowl of snacks down on the ledge. Well…okay. She rested her hands on her waist and looked around, nodding. At least Genie let her get this close, so maybe she could still make a wish. Any closer and she would definitely bleed. She looked extra rabid right now.

Karis touched the window sill, which was as close as she was getting to Bitey McBiterson, closed her eyes, and wished on a squirrel. “I wish Colt and Trig will come home soon. And not be hurt. And also bring lime sherbet with them. That is all.”

When she opened her eyes, Genie was sitting right by her hand, munching on a green grape. She shouldn’t be this excited about the acceptance of a woodland creature, but in her head, Karis was already planning a family portrait with her, Colt, and Genie for next Christmas.

“Gah, I’m nervous,” she murmured.

Genie stared at her with big brown eyes and continued chewing.

“I know Colt is tough and has been in a billion fights, but it’s still scary watching him walk away while I just sit here waiting on him to return. What if he gets hurt?”

Genie blinked.

“Right. You are a squirrel, and you can’t talk back. I’m gonna go see Ava. You just stay here and stay warm,” she said, wrapping her favorite, squirrel-shredded blue scarf around her neck.

In true Genie fashion, she ignored Karis’s advice and ran out the door as soon as she opened it. Okie dokie then, maybe they were second best friends now. But when Karis looked back behind her to see if Genie was following, she was shimmying up a tree instead with an apple slice from the snack bowl hanging out of her mouth.

She was going to make a little squirrel door for her to get in and out of the house, and maybe she would rig up some tubes along the top of the cabin too, so she could climb for fun in there. And someday she was going to be snuggled up on the couch with Genie and Colt, and they would be one big, happy family. It might take a while but, by golly, she was going to be a patient hunter until she got them there. Genie couldn’t run from her love forever. Colt deserved for there not to be tension between his girls.

Please let Colt be okay. It had only been half an hour since they’d left in Trigger’s truck, but it felt like days. Each minute was dragging by like an hour, but Ava would make time pass quicker. They could wait together for the boys to return from their dark deeds.

The hairs rose on the back of her neck, and she turned fast to make sure Genie wasn’t attacking her. But the squirrel was still in the branches, eyes on the woods, gnawed-up apple slice in her little hands.

Huh. With a frown, Karis rubbed the back of her neck and scanned the woods, but there was nothing there, and the polar bear in her remained silent. She made her way onto the trail through the snow that she and Colt had made from their trips to the big cabin. Eyes on Colt’s boot prints, she froze when she saw an animal print just to the right of the trail.

Now, if it was a bear print, she wouldn’t have given it another thought. Trig and Colt liked to shred the outside of the cabins sometimes when they were feeling like monsters. But this was a smaller print, and of the feline variety.

The blood drained from her face, and she yanked her attention to the big cabin, just thirty yards off. The lights were on, and it looked calm enough, but on closer inspection, the front door was open just a crack.

Shit.

Now the bear was awake. Karis took off at a dead sprint for the house. Ava, Ava, Ava!

There were eyes in the woods now. So many, and the closer she got to the cabin, the more it stank of cougar fur. Fuckin’ cats.

Her legs burned from pushing them step after step, and as she reached the porch, she skidded past the stairs, turned and gripped the ground, raking her nails through the snow to the earth beneath to slow her momentum. Stairs, stairs, stairs, and then she threw open the door.

Blood. She smelled blood. Ava and cougar and blood, and against the wall was a dead cat with its neck slit. Good girl.

“Ava!” she called, panicked as she searched the living room and the bedroom. Drops of red led to the back door that was open. The window panes on the door were cracked like there had been a struggle.

Why would you take such a risk for me?

Because that’s what Clan does. They have each other’s back. No matter what.

That moment between her and Ava played so vividly in her head as she ran out the back.

“Karis!” Ava’s scream echoed from the barn. For the rest of her days, Karis would never forget the sound of pure terror in her voice.

Chest heaving, breath chugging in front of her, she bolted for the barn. Cats in the woods, cats in the woods. They were huge. She’d never seen a mountain lion shifter Changed before. They were bigger than wild lions. Two were on their bellies, stalking toward her. As she passed, they charged. She could feel them behind her, but she didn’t have time to turn around.

If they reached her, she would let the bear out.

Pain infused Ava’s next scream, and Karis used the fury it caused to push herself faster.

The horses were running circles around the corral in front of the barn, their eyes rolling in fear. A horse screamed inside. Boom! Boom! Harley was pissed or scared, she couldn’t tell which yet.

The sliding door to the barn was open, and when she ran through, someone grabbed her from behind. Her reaction was instant. She pulled him over her shoulder like her brothers had taught her to do. She threw him as hard as she could, flexing her shifter power. Amos slammed into the ground on the other side of the barn on hands and feet, digging into the dirt floor to stop himself from hitting the wall.

He wore the devil’s smile. “You’re too late, Breeder.”

Fingers clawed, chest heaving, Karis lifted her gaze to the mountain lions that watched from the loft, poised, and ready to drop down on her. She fucking dared them. Steeling herself, she lowered her gaze to the body in the middle of the barn floor. Ava was staring back at her, panting for breath, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes. “Karis, Karis, Karis,” she gasped out.

She didn’t have a jacket on, and the sleeve of her gray thermal sweater was wet with burgundy.

“She’s Clan now,” Amos said.

Shit! They’d bit her. Karis ran to her. She didn’t give a single fuck if the lions above her attacked. All she needed was an excuse to let the bear have them. She skidded on her knees and cradled Ava to her chest.

She was crying. “It hurts. Kill me. Please.” Ava’s face crumpled as she repeated, “Please.” Her back bowed, and she gritted her teeth against the pain.

“You’re gonna be fine.”

Amos came too close.

“Get back!” she roared. “Ava, Ava, listen to me. Everything’s gonna be fine. I can fix this. Do you want—”

A mountain lion slammed into her with the force of a hurricane, and she hit the side of a stall. There were claws and pain down her thigh, but Karis saw red. Dead red. Where the fuck was Kurt? Her back was against the stall, but she kicked viciously and landed one to the animal’s throat. It gasped and gagged, and she shoved it off her, scrambled to Ava just as Amos reached her.

“Do you want the bear?” Karis shrieked in the final moments she held onto her human skin.

Time slowed. She could see everything so clearly. Amos’s mountain lion ripping from him, the cougars above leaping toward her. Ava’s lips forming the word, “Yes.”

She’s ours. Kill them.

Karis’s scream turned to a roar as she finally, finally gave into the bear. She Changed just in time to take the first wave of cats that rammed into her. She ripped, shredded, and bit until two bodies skidded limply across the barn floor. Three more were on her back, but fuck it. She had work to do before that goddamn cat grew too big in Ava.

There was ripping pain across her back as she slammed down to all fours over Ava and sank her teeth into her shoulder. Deep or it wouldn’t take. Deep like her step-dad had done to her all those years ago. Deep like Trigger had done to Colt.

Ava arched her back and cried out in agony, but it couldn’t be helped. Karis would beg her forgiveness later, but right now she had to protect Ava’s Changing body. Amos would kill her if he realized what Karis had done. Oh, the bear she put in Ava would murder the cat that was struggling for survival in her right now. Karis was beast. Her animal was something these fucking cougars hadn’t dealt with before. They’d pushed her, and now for every drop of blood they’d drawn from her friend, Karis would make them wish they’d never been born.

Karis tried not to think. She blacked out to instinct as she hovered over Ava’s body. Her eyes were closed and she looked so pale. So pale.

Come on, Ava.

There were too many big cats. They were pouring into the barn, and there wasn’t enough room. And above, crows were flying through an open window. Crows? Too big to be wild, and there were dozens of them. Allies of the mountain lions. This had been planned, and Colt and Trigger were gone. Kurt was gone. It was only Karis here. It was a horrible feeling being all alone.

A flash of brown sailed past her face and landed on a cougar that was mid-air, coming for Karis’s chest. Genie? The little beastie attacked that big-ass cougar, scrambled to its back, and sank her teeth in his neck. The cougar turned and hit the ground right by Karis’s feet.

Aw fuck! Now she was going to have to protect the little hellion, too!

Boom! Boom! Harley was going to town kicking his stall and, fuck it all, Karis wasn’t alone. She pulled a cougar off her back and chucked it at Harley’s stall. It went right through the wood at the bottom, and all hell broke loose in there. The stallion shrieked, but Harley didn’t sound scared. He sounded pissed. The cougar scream, though? That was full of terror.

Ava’s body jerked every time Karis knocked her while trying to keep the cats off. The crows were dive-bombing now, their sharp beaks and razor claws cutting past her thick fur. Scritch, scratch. Ava was motionless and white as a ghost. Fuck. Fuck!

Live, Ava!

There were too many, and Karis was in a furious frenzy trying to defend her, but inch by inch, the cougars are were pushing, herding and separating them. No, no, no.

Colt, where are you?

Come on, Ava. Let that rage out. Change. Help us out.

It was getting dark. Too many animals were piling onto her, and they were blocking her view of the light above them, All Karis could do was throw her body over Ava’s and close her eyes against the pain at her back and sides. Claws were now finding purchase in her thick, armorlike skin, and warmth was trickling from her cuts.

She could hear the booming rhythm of Harley’s hooves, trying desperately to escape his splintered stall. It sounded like a war drum. Boom, boom, boom.

Everything hurt.

I’m sorry, Ava.

Ava gasped a long inhalation under her. Her body jerked, and she snarled underneath Karis, but it was too late. Karis wouldn’t be able to hold on long enough for Ava to get through a first Change. They took time.

Boom, boom, boom, went Harley’s war drum. God, let Genie have gotten away.

It wasn’t fair. Pain. It wasn’t fair she found Colt but only got such a short amount of time to be happy. Pain. She was supposed to be grateful, right? Grateful that she’d found happiness before the end? Pain. But she was angry instead.

Suddenly, an earthquake shook the ground, and Karis blinked her eyes open. The entire world was shaking. It rattled her body, rattled her chest, overpowered her and Ava’s matching growls.

The world was ending.

Karis tried her best to keep her weight off Ava, but her arms were giving under the weight of the attack. The ground was shaking so hard that the sound now reached her ears. Something terrifying was letting off a roar that could fell the entire barn. Another followed too closely to be the same demon.

There was the real war drum. There was the Warmaker and Hairpin Trigger, and Heaven help the animals who had come here to take what was theirs.

The weight lifted instantly. One moment she felt the heaviness of the whole Darby Clan on her, and then there was nothing. The cats were scattering or being annihilated. In shock, she looked up at the two monster grizzlies, even bigger than her, one dark brown, and one…hers…her Colt, was blond and with the fury of a thousand burning suns in his eyes. He was beautiful destruction.

His massive claws slapped out so fast and with such power, it was breathtaking to watch. There were no more stalls. Wood and iron lay in piles of rubble and littered with bodies as the bruins wreaked absolute havoc. The crows were escaping through the loft windows like smoke from a burning house. Cats were on the run, but the Warmaker was catching them all. There was no surrender this time. No leniency. Every cat here met their claws.

Under her, Ava let off a yell and arched against the ground. When her eyes opened, they were pure black. And then her pupils grew smaller and smaller to reveal the light silver there.

The cat inside of her was dead, the polar bear lived, and Karis wanted to cry from relief. Ava’s life had just gone to Hell, but it would’ve been worse if she’d kept Amos’s cougar. Trigger went straight through the wall, chasing down one of the Darby Clan. His eyes were dead, focused, full of bloodlust, and holy shit, Karis had never seen anything like Colt and Trigger before. They were weapons. Ava had warned her about this side of them, but it was impossible to imagine their power, speed, or deadly agility until she witnessed it for herself.

When a smattering of pops sounded, Karis backed off Ava until she hit the red door at the back.

Three seconds. Three seconds, and Ava ceased to exist. Three seconds and the pretty, weaponless, blunt-toothed, round-nailed little human wasn’t human anymore. Fur as white as snow, black nose, black, six-inch claws made for bleeding prey. Razor-sharp teeth behind those snarled-up lips, and eyes the color of the moon. She was massive, nearly as big as Trigger and Colt. Bigger than Karis. She was a fucking monster. If Karis could’ve smiled in this body, she would’ve.

Ava didn’t charge her. She didn’t lose her mind. Instead, she trusted Karis enough to expose her back, turned, and settled her attention on the bruin grizzlies.

The barn was littered in wreckage, and Colt’s blond fur was streaked with red. She didn’t even want to know what he saw as he studied her. He made the first move, meandered to his sister with long, powerful strides, sniffed her neck as she stood there frozen, then bumped her shoulder and made his way to Karis. But where he hadn’t hesitated with his sister, he did pause in front of her. His eyes were the color of fire as he searched hers. There wasn’t rage there anymore. War didn’t live in his eyes.

He wasn’t the Warmaker in this moment. He was just…hers.

So she closed the gap because she’d been scared and needed him. Needed to touch him and feel safe again. Letting a man in hadn’t made her weak like she’d thought it would. It gave her someone to lean on when she was tired of being strong.

Her whole body hurt. Thank god for the armor-like thickness of her skin or she wouldn’t be here, but every nerve was screaming.

Her Clan looked like they’d been dragged through Hell. Her Clan. Because that’s what had happened here, right? No breeder contract could mean more than this moment, right here, as she rested her face against her mate’s and watched Trigger circle Ava with worry swimming in his eyes. She wasn’t penning her signature to join her life with these people. She had chosen them.

Tonight, they’d gone to war together, and there was something about the tragedy that had linked them. She could practically feel Trigger’s agony, his worry. She could feel Ava’s fear, pain, and relief. She could feel Colt’s love.

Love.

He could lose his voice tomorrow and never utter “I love you” again and she would still know it to be true just by the way he looked at her.

This is how it had been for her parents, and for her brothers as, one-by-one, they’d paired up. It was that instant recognition of a soul that fit exactly with hers. It didn’t matter if Colt was damaged or had a past. It didn’t matter the bad things he’d done, because she saw the man, and the monster, he was.

She and Colt were different and the same in the best ways. A perfect match, and that was that.

He smelled so good, so familiar already, her heart having memorized his scent. And desperate to escape the carnage of the barn, she closed her eyes and buried her face against his neck. She could feel his claws as he pulled her closer and just…held her. They just were. Two beasts sharing relief that the other was still breathing.

The shaking had started from the adrenaline crash, and there was a high-pitched whining in her ears, rising and falling, rising and falling. It hurt her head. More pain, and she was growing irritable.

She eased her eyes open and realized it wasn’t in her head. Trigger was human again and striding out of the barn. He picked up a splintered two-by-four and chucked it at the partially standing wall so hard it stuck out like a spear.

“Fuck!” he yelled.

And just as he disappeared through the destroyed barn door, she saw them—red and blue lights. And now, the sirens made sense.

The cops were here.