Harden
He came racing up to Erika’s front door just as someone else raised a fist to knock on it.
“Halt!” he shouted.
The figure spun around, and Harden jerked backward in surprise. “You?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
The gray-blond-haired shifter looked around sheepishly. “Working up the courage to finally ask the lady behind the door out?”
Harden’s jaw dropped. “You. You’re the one who’s been leaving the gifts at her door?”
The shifter, whose name he still didn’t know, looked away, embarrassed. “Yes.” Then he turned to look at Harden. “Why are you here, and how do you know about that?”
“That’s my mate inside,” he said. It was the first time he’d said the words out loud, but the instant he said them, he felt the ring of truth within him.
He reached inside, but there was still an empty, black spot where his wolf should be.
“Oh,” the bear shifter said, lowering his hand and half-turning away from the door. “Then I guess I’ll go.”
Harden shook his head. “No, you need to stay. There are others in there. Angelo and his ilk. I’m not sure what’s going on. No time to explain.”
The brown eyes glittered with rage. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.” He strode up to the door and knocked on it firmly.
Almost instantly Erika’s screams came from inside. He glanced at the bear shifter.
“Told you,” he said, taking a step back.
Inside the screams turned from something that sounded more like anger or rage into something of terror.
Harden’s boot lifted from the ground and smashed through the door where it secured to the frame. Wood splintered and it slammed inward with enough force to tear it off one of the hinges as well. Plaster dust exploded from the wall behind it, obscuring the entry momentarily.
Harden had glimpsed three figures within, all of them looking at the door. As the dust blocked his view, he thought to head in, to rescue Erika. Before he could, a shadow loomed up through the dust. Harden tossed himself to the side as something came through the doorway and took his companion down before either of them could react.
He spun away, another figure following the first out through the cloud with reckless abandon, helping to dissipate the particles as he passed, heading after the first pair. Harden had plenty of warning as the third figure emerged. Angelo didn’t have any more lackeys that he’d seen. It was weird that all of them would come out to fight him.
They’re not fighting. They’re running.
The thought jolted him like a lightning bolt, and he jumped after the last of the shifters to emerge, bearing the man to the ground. It wasn’t Angelo. He slammed a knee into the man’s temple and raced after Angelo, who had paused to try and help free his bear shifter pal from the grappling match going on between him and Harden’s unknown ally.
Big mistake. The flying leap took Angelo in the side practically unawares, and they went down, rolling over and over. He flung every limb and blow at Angelo that he could, letting his rage well up and over into a cold burning blue-white flame that powered his entire being. The wolf shifter had threatened Erika. His mate. The woman he loved. He’d broken into her unit, violated her personal security, and threatened to hurt her.
A howl tore from his throat as he kicked, punched, bit, slapped, kneed, elbowed, choked, gouged, and yanked at his foe. Angelo screamed and fought back, the two of them going at each other with abandon, neither coming out on top. Harden had superior position, experience and surprise. Angelo had strength and stamina, due to Harden’s earlier healing of himself and struggle with the other two lackeys.
He had to end the fight, and quickly.
“Surrender,” he rasped, ripping off a chunk of Angelo’s ear with his teeth before receiving a forearm to the jaw that slammed his teeth together with enough force to make him see stars.
“To you? A foreigner and useless black hole of support and money? I don’t fucking think so.”
Angelo took advantage of Harden’s slowing reflexes, pulled his feet to his chest, and pushed with all his might. Harden flew through the air, impacting on the vinyl siding of the multi-unit buildings, indenting the wall beneath and falling to the ground with a pained groan.
“Let’s go!” he snapped as Harden struggled to rise, falling to one knee as his balance fled him momentarily.
“No,” he said, but the others ignored him.
“Back to the Embassy,” Angelo called. “It’s time to send out a little message about our friends here.”
With that, the other two managed to peel themselves free of the bear shifter and flee into the night. He reached out after them, but slumped down, too tired. Without his shifter half, he wasn’t as strong as he could be, and his human half had already absorbed more punishment that night than it could keep up with.
“Harden?”
The tentative call came from somewhere behind him and off to his left. He tried to answer, to say the name of the owner of the lovely voice from heaven. He was pretty sure all he did was grunt, cough, and make a mewling sound like that of a hurt cat. Overall, not very macho for a big bad wolf shifter. If any of the big cats heard about this, he’d never live it down.
“Oh my goodness, are you okay?” Erika asked as she rushed to his side, her pale skin blazing with a brilliant white angelic light, the outdoor floodlight passing through her hair, giving her a sort of halo-esque glow over her head.
“Angel,” he said, somewhat delusional.
“Pardon?” she asked, trying to get herself under one shoulder to try and lift him to his feet.
“You’re my angel,” he said, his voice a little stronger. “I’m sorry I was late. I got waylaid and the rude bastards couldn’t hurry it up any faster.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” she asked.
“Am I slurring?” He was feeling a little better, his natural healing abilities taking the worst of the sting off, even as they used up more of his reserves.
“No. You mean to tell me they hit you?”
“Yeah. The jerks. Then they tied me up, and not in the fun way.”
“Unbelievable,” Erika muttered. “Are you going to be okay?”
He nodded, then froze his head as bright lights played across his vision. Okay, easy with the head movement then. “Yes,” he said instead. “Eventually. Hurts like hell right now.”
“Well, you sort of got tossed into the wall,” she remarked. “Not normally the best way to keep one’s wits about them.”
“I’ll remember that for next time,” he retorted, closing his eyes and taking what he hoped would be a steadying breath. Some of the shaking of his limbs stopped, and he managed to stand up straight without Erika’s assistance.
“Okay. All right. I’m mostly good.” He opened his eyes to see the bear shifter standing nearby, looking at him with concern. “Thanks for sticking around.”
“Not a problem.”
Harden noticed the way the bear shifter looked back and forth between him and Erika. There was a bit of sadness there, though he did his best to hide it away between his eyes.
“Erika, meet your secret admirer. Secret Admirer, Erika.”
“Oh. Um. Hi,” she said, sounding awkward and embarrassed. “Those were really nice flowers you sent.”
The bear shifter smiled wanly. “I’m glad. And the chocolates?”
“Delicious.”
It took Harden a moment to realize it wasn’t Erika that spoke. The biggest clue was the reaction when the bear shifter’s head turned to look somewhere else. Whatever he saw seemed to strike him to his core. Muscles tensed and bulged, and his eyes stared unblinking for several seconds. Eventually Harden turned his head to the doorway, where he saw another woman standing there, looking woozy but otherwise okay.
“Kelly,” Erika said and rushed over to her friend. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just fainted, that’s all. I think. That’s all, right?” she asked, checking over her body as Harden tried to understand what was going on.
He looked back at the bear shifter, who was still staring unashamedly at her. A smile played across his face. There, at least, he understood what was going on. Walking over to him, he slapped the shifter on the shoulder. “Looks like there was a reason for you to be here tonight after all. I hate to interrupt though, but I need to get back to the Embassy. Quick.”
“What? No, you’re hurt,” Erika said, rushing back to his side, clearly torn about abandoning her friend, but knowing Harden was in much worse shape.
“I have to,” he said firmly, with more energy than he had. “They can’t send out that message. I can’t let them.”
“What message are they sending out?” she asked.
“I’m making an educated guess here,” he said, forcing his brain to start thinking more rapidly. “But I’d assume something along the lines of cutting you off from support, evicting you, and possibly even some sort of arrest warrant or whatever they can dream up for me. All in all, not good things.” He shrugged. “I have to go. I have to stop them. They can’t do this to you.”
“If you catch them, they’ll kill you!” she said, angry tears welling in her eyes.
“Maybe,” he admitted. “But if you and the baby are safe, then it’ll all be worth it.” He gave her a weak smile. “Though believe me, I’m going to do everything I can to avoid that particular future.”
Erika looked like she was going to argue with him some more, but something in the set of his jaw must have shown her it was futile, that he wasn’t backing down. “You had better, Harden Archer. Because I am not going to let the man I love get away from me through an excuse as flimsy as something like death.”
He inhaled sharply as something inside of him snapped at her words. “What did you say?” he whispered.
“What? That you can’t go and die on me?”
“Before that.”
Erika’s head tilted to the side. “I said that I love you, Harden. Is that such a surprise to you? I know it is to me.”
He staggered, unsure of what was going on inside of him. It felt like his insides were ripping apart, making room. His brain screamed in pain as it constricted in a way he’d never understood before.
“Love,” he said softly. “Not making love. But love. That’s it.”
He fought the weakening of his legs, and lifted his head to stare at her, adoring her lovely brown eyes, the high ponytail made from her thin, straight auburn hair, the curve of her cheekbones, and the small hoop earrings she always seemed to wear. Freckles stood out against pale skin even in the waning sunlight.
Perfection, in one word.
“I love you, Erika Rey,” he said, his voice low in volume but heavy in meaning. “I. Love. You.”
And inside of him, in his mind, the spot that had lain empty for so long suddenly grew dark, revealing that it hadn’t been blank, but instead camouflaged to look that way. He sent a trickle of his will into the spot, testing it out. The space grew matte, and cracks began to form. Determined, he sent another lance of will at it.
The black coating abruptly shattered into a million pieces, freeing what lay beneath. Harden’s head lifted to the sky and he howled with joy as his wolf returned to him, filling him with a power he’d lacked in the weeks, months even, since he’d begun his recovery. The aches in his body suddenly hurt less, and his limbs felt refreshed and lighter as his other half poured itself into him.
“I love you, but I have to go,” he said, returning his head to a normal level. “I need to stop this, once and for all.”
Erika nodded. “You come back to me though, or so help me God I’ll hunt you down in the afterlife and make you regret it for all eternity.”
He grinned. “Wouldn’t dream on it.” Not wanting to risk getting drawn into something else, he pulled her tight and kissed her fervently on the cheek.
As he turned to go, a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
“I think I know what you’re about to do, and I won’t be able to keep up. But I’ll bring these two along as soon as I can.” The other shifter looked at him. “Go to Andrew. Tell him what’s going on, and tell him that Gray said you were right. He’ll know what to do.”
Gray. So that was his name. How fitting.
“Thank you,” he said, and took off into the evening shadows.
Reaching deep within himself, he opened up the conduit to his other half, and together they did something long, long overdue.