I struck the desk with a grunt, and stumbled back to my feet to see a hulking man glaring into the room with a snarl on his face. He was tall, built like a woodsman, and had a short, thick beard that matched his auburn hair. Seeing me, his face shifted to alarm, but his eyes seemed to be taking in more than just me. Ah, the water-color. He was seeing a smear of a human shape, like a ghost. His concern slowly faded as another thought replaced it. Ghosts wouldn’t have been impacted by a wooden door hitting them. “What the hell?” he growled. “I smell wizard stink.”

Nate rushed him from the side, striking him with a sledgehammer of air once within arm’s reach, but the man merely grunted as if annoyed by an insect. Then the bear punched Nate’s distorted form. Nate flew across the room, flipping over the bed to land on the opposite side. Nate had been holding back in his attack, not wanting to alert any of the other bears. That was why he hadn’t used something stronger than air. Like his whips.

But it hadn’t even fazed the beast. And he was in human form.

I knew real bears could take a beating, due to their extensive layers of fat, but did that relay over to the human itself? That was something I had never considered. Or heard of. Then again, I hadn’t ever met a shifter bear.

Twin kamas formed in my fists, and I dropped my illusion spell as I squared off against the bear. He blinked at me in disbelief, and then a murderous, hungry scowl split his bearded face. “Back to the scene of the crime, eh, church-mouse? This is better than our original plan. I think I’m going to enjoy this. Oh, yes…” And he began to shift.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but if he had been strong in human form, I didn’t want to take risks with him in bear form. I raced at him, trying to close the distance as fast as possible, splitting my mind to stretch out my spell that swallowed sound. It struck him, and he shook his head angrily. Then he exploded fully into bear form, roaring so loud that spittle flew from his sudden massive canines, drool stretching from tooth to tooth, salivating with a hunger for blood. But at least the sound would stay in our bubble now. I stretched harder, closing the last few paces, and the orb of silence suddenly pressed from wall to wall, covering the entire room.

I heard Nate grunt — whether in surprise, or pain, I didn’t have time to see, but I did feel a crackle of power erupt from his direction, and assumed he had his familiar whips out now that I had blocked the room from sound. But I didn’t dare let him use those here. If they cracked through a wall, the rest of the bears would hear and be inbound in a heartbeat.

The bear was a giant brown one, long thick hair and deep brown eyes. He shot me another roar with his long, yellowed teeth, and lifted his inches-long black claws, ready to slice me up.

I began to slash with my miniature scythes — bladed to rip and tear, but small and light enough to move as fast as a machine gun — slicing and dicing in every direction. They sizzled as they sliced into the hairy bear’s flesh as it stood on two legs, massively clawed paws swinging at the air as it unfolded to a ten-foot-tall monster of the wild, roaring ferociously. It was the same one from the auction, although his face seemed mostly healed from Nate’s whips.

I ignored the sound — focusing on the feather in my mind — continuing to bite and tear into his legs, stomach, and his sides, but these wounds only seemed to annoy him. I danced around him, recasting my illusion so that I was a blur of color, hoping it might give me a moment’s respite. I ducked, twisted, and danced back and forth, side to side, barely dodging swipes of his claws. Just like in my training. I focused on my feather, and my body moved without restraint. He lifted one massive paw high overhead, and then brought it hammering down as if to squish me like a beer can. I dove, rolling over my shoulder between his legs, holding out both kamas to the side as I did, scouring deep hits on both of his inner thighs.

He snarled, furious, and finally sounding pained after so many little pricks. He was tough, but I hit him like a swarm of bees, slicing and hammering at any target that opened to me, not giving him a straight on fight. Just cutting any opening that presented itself to me. I swung with all my might deep into his kidneys, and he dropped to his knees with a yowl of agony. Then I dragged the crackling blades down, dropping to my knees.

He blindly swung an arm behind him, barely missing me, but I tagged his forearm with a blade, causing him to grunt. Then he whirled to face me, long haired silky coat now glistening with dozens of patches of crimson blood. The light from outside — the moon — gave it a silver shine, but the scent of copper hung heavy in the air.

He lifted one paw high above his head, then brought it crashing down at me, but my feet tangled up as I slipped in a puddle of blood. I tripped to one knee, staring up at the claw racing towards me. I had managed to fling up my blades, and they suddenly flared brighter as I held them in an X over my face, hoping I could block at least some of the blow, even if it broke my arms. I saw a band of white light suddenly encasing his wrist, yanking it back up, then a loud crack almost at the same time, making the bear arch his back in agony as the scent of burnt hair swamped the room. Nate must have hit him with another whip in the back, the reflexive motion of the bear arching his back only helping Nate yank his arm further.

I didn’t waste a moment, springing up in a jump, climbing up the bear’s body, grabbing fistfuls of hair, the kamas now hovering near my hands, since I didn’t actually need to grip them. I climbed up the bear, aiming for the arm that Nate held high. I clawed his face with my nails on the way by, scoring an eye in hopes that it would prevent him from biting my ribs on my way by. The instant, surprising pain to his face, even though only from a human set of manicured nails, saved my life, preventing his jaws from meeting my tender side.

I latched onto his arm, swinging my body over his shoulder as I wrapped my hands around his throat, standing on his upper back. Nate had loosened the whips enough for the bear to crouch forward slightly, giving me a nice saddle.

I settled the blades of both kamas against his throat, and held onto the handles instead. They sizzled loudly, and the pungent stench of more burning hair filled the room as they rested against where his jugular would be. He froze, allowing me to straighten up a little. I knew bears were tough around the neck, but I was fairly confident that my crackling blades would slice right through those defenses if I yanked hard enough. In fact, I was holding the kamas like a pair of reins, crouched on his back, pressing them hard into his flesh, likely already causing him agony.

“Drop to the ground. Slowly,” I rasped, panting.

He did, and I slowly eased up on the kamas. Not by much, but enough to not accidentally slice through him. He remained in bear form.

Two bears suddenly burst into the hallway leading to the room, skidding to a stop on all fours, knocking over a table with a vase of flowers. I realized that I had subconsciously dropped my concealment spell during the fight, in order to increase my endurance and speed. Because as I crouched atop the bear, I realized I was utterly exhausted, and on the verge of passing out, my magic all but drained. So, the other two bears had heard some of the fight. They growled at me now, eyes dancing with murder as their glares shot from me to their fallen compatriot.

One of them let out a whine, but the other took a cautious step forward, and then, he was suddenly a hairy man on all fours, thick beard fanning down to his nipples. Well, with all that chest hair, it all kind of blended together, but it looked like the beard fell to mid-chest.

His thick, coarse hair led down to his manhood, which was very impressive in itself, and even his legs were covered with wiry hair.

Good lord. This guy was a bear without even being a shifter. One big hairball.

Long greasy hair hung to his jaw, and a long-puckered scar — two twin lines side by side — trailed from his temple to beneath his beard. His eyes glinted in the moonlight, steel grey.

“You will pay for this…” he said in a very deep bass tone.

I shrugged, unblinking, hoping he read my exhaustion as a lack of concern for his threat.

“Why have you returned?” a female voice hissed from behind him, and I was surprised to see a very tall blond woman, prominent in the chest, with wide hips. She wasn’t skinny at all, but the size of her breasts and hips made her appear so. She was a giant of a woman. Her face wasn’t beautiful, but it had an inner light that spoke of steadfastness. Her hair was pulled back in a braid, and she stood with hands to her side, facing me with squared shoulders, but her fingers looked to be imitating claws, rigid as if eager to rend flesh. In contrast to the first man, her body was utterly hairless, not unusual in itself, but after seeing the man, I guess I had expected to see hairy nipples or a forest between her legs. She had a scar running over her ribs.

“Give me the spear. And he can live,” I said calmly, ignoring her question.

They stared at us, faces incredulous.

I felt Nate step up behind me. Then he was crouching down beside the bear’s face. “Hi.” He waved his hand. “Remember me? I kicked your ass a few days ago. Now she did. Wizards 2, bears 0,” I saw that he was grinning as the bear growled in warning. Then he whispered theatrically, loud enough for everyone to hear. “She’s meaner than me. I didn’t make you play dead and then mount you like a Great White Hunter on the African savanna.” Then he patted the bear’s head, and stood, motioning for me to proceed before folding his arms.

I bit back a laugh as I felt the bear growling beneath my feet.

The other two didn’t find it humorous. I felt a small thrill of exhilaration. Sure, Nate had helped, but the majority of it had been all me. I felt weariness pulling at me, using too much magic too fast, not even counting the physical exhaustion from the last few nights. I suppressed a shudder as the lack of action suddenly had me feeling like a limp dishrag. Not to mention that we were still far away from danger. What if the bears let me kill this one, and came after me in tandem?

Nate might still be fresh, but I knew I wasn’t.

“Why do you shame us, girl? We’ve done nothing to you! Or the Shepherd.”

I hid my frown. Shame? “One more time. Give me the spear.”

The hairy man threw his hands in the air, livid. “What game are you playing?” he demanded. “We have pictures of you holding our piece of the spear in front of your father’s house!” he snarled, looking ready to attack.

A sickly feeling hit my stomach, and I had to fight my hands from shaking. She had asked why I had returned… and they had pictures of me holding the spear…

“I don’t have your spear…” I said slowly, horrified at the implications.

His glare flared even angrier. “I can smell it on you, girl. What in blazes are you trying to pull on us? You steal it, then return to mock us? We only wanted to keep it away from others, stupid, stupid girl. All you had to do was ask and we would have handed it over. Bears don’t play the games of your kind,” he spat on the ground, turning to the woman. “We should have heeded her warning yesterday.” The woman nodded, eyes glittering.

Nate was very, very still, but I didn’t meet his gaze, suddenly realizing that somehow, we had been played. Again.

Someone had warned them yesterday, stolen the spear, and then planted it in my yard. It didn’t make any sense to me, but it had to be the Demon. She hadn’t given us the piece from the auction like we had thought. She had given me the bears’ stolen piece. But what was her angle? To have every single monster in Kansas City come after me?

Or… was it to get everyone to turn on the Shepherds?

Nate opened his mouth to speak into the silence, but the woman took an angry step forward. “This is war, girl. You break into our house, steal from us, injure our alpha, and the church doesn’t back you. You have no idea what you’ve done. You think we will simper back into the shadows like the vampires?” My eyes widened. “Oh, yes,” the blonde woman snarled. “We heard all about what you did there. They are no friends of ours, but unsanctioned attacks like this have consequences. You—”

“You will reconsider your tone. Immediately.” Nate’s words were like a blade sliding across velvet. “If Goldilocks can do this, what else can she do? What else does she dare do?” He turned his back on them, assessing the room. Then he laughed. “You were even warned,” he laughed, slapping his knees. “I just sat back and watched.” He glanced over his shoulder, grinning at them. “That bed was juuuussst right, by the way.” I bit back a laugh at his taunt, comparing them to the three bears in the fairy tale. He finally let out a sigh, rolling his shoulders as he turned back to them lazily. “But a man doesn’t like to be one-upped by a mere slip of a girl. Not too often, anyway. Can one of you attack? Please. I’m growing bored. And I think Callie is done warming up.” He frowned down at the bear under my submission, nudging him with a boot again. “But… if he was the best of you, well… you can always fight for honor. There is honor in fighting lost causes. Like those Greeks from Sparta.”

What was he doing? Didn’t he see I was about to pass out?

But the hairy man finally threw his hands up. “Walk away. You do the same. Someday, you will pay for your crimes, girl.”

Then they were backing away.

I glanced at Nate, and he gave me a shrug, but his eyes showed concern. It had been an act. He was on edge, not that you could tell from his arrogant, almost lazy stance.

I stared down at the bear beneath me, at the back of his head. He had a gouge taken out of one of his ears. “Shift back,” I commanded.

He did, and grunted as my weight was suddenly supported by a much smaller body. I released my sticks and took two calm steps back, ready for the fight of our lives.

The man didn’t move. Nate touched my shoulder. “They are very noble. They won’t renege on their statement. But we should still get out of here.” He leaned closer, and my shoulder tingled where he touched me. I didn’t know what magic he was holding, but it was powerful if I could feel it but not see it. “I think they were telling the truth about the spear,” he added the last in a faint whisper, eyes troubled.

I nodded, not taking my eyes from the alpha bear at my feet. I knew one thing. Even if they weren’t going to come after me right now, I had made a very dangerous enemy tonight. But wasn’t that what I had wanted? I suddenly worried if I had been wrong. So very, very wrong.

“Take us away from here, Temple,” I said in a very low voice.

He obeyed, Shadow Walking us out of bear country.