Kean

MADISON!

He knew something was wrong the instant he tried to slow up to move over the ATV. When her voice reached him, he looked around frantically. Horrified, he watched as she sailed freely through the air ahead of him.

Kean threw on the brakes. Ahead of him a fallen log yielded his best hope for a quick stop. Madison had only flown twenty or so feet through the air. By the time he stopped from his flat-out run, he would be much farther than that. He’d have to double back. The log would provide a solid backstop for him to springboard back the way he’d come.

He slowed, starting his turn so that he could plant his feet against the log and push off. The solid wood trunk came closer, and he bent his knees in preparation.

I’m coming, Madison! he thought frantically to himself as more ATVs closed in on them. Her screams and the explosion of the errant course change by the first ATV to spot them would have allowed anyone to triangulate in on their position.

Kean planted his feet on the log as his body twisted back to face Madison where she lay on the ground. He had no idea the condition she was in. Was she even alive? Any broken bones? She hadn’t gotten up yet… was she unconscious? Had she suffered severe head trauma? He wouldn’t know until he got close.

The instant he made contact with the trunk, Kean knew he was in trouble. The core of it was rotten. He’d missed the signs in his haste. He went right through it, the wood crumpling under the impact of nearly two tons’ worth of weight. Completely out of position and off balance, Kean’s legs caught in the remains of the trunk, flipped him up and over, and he rolled several hundred feet through the forest. He took out smaller trees as he went, until he bounced off a much thicker trunk, spun around through the deadwood on the forest floor, and ended up in a heap some hundred and fifty feet away from Madison.

The first ATV came in close.

Kean growled, the sound thundering out through the trees as he let everyone know that he was still very much in the fight. Out of position, yes. But uninjured, and still a force to be reckoned with.

The passenger on the ATV whipped out a weapon even as Kean charged back toward Madison. The short, stocky little gun looked nothing like a modern submachine gun. Which didn’t mean Kean wasn’t instantly able to recognize it.

Shit, tranqs.

Whoever these men were, they were prepared for shifters. That was a very important fact, one he needed to remember once they were out of danger. They had been expecting either him and his brothers, or other shifters. Not humans. Which meant that charging around in his animal form had just become a Very Bad Idea.

The one downside to his bear was that it presented a very, very large target. Which was exactly the opposite of what Kean wanted just then. He needed speed, agility, and as small a body to hit as possible. Already on the run, he didn’t slow down. Instead, he shut out all outside distractions, and changed on the run.

It wasn’t something that he’d done often. In fact, they’d barely practiced it back during their short-lived training with the Green Bearets. But Kean knew the theory behind it, how to manipulate his body into staying balanced while moving and going from almost two thousand pounds of bear into a paltry hundred or so pounds of human.

Besides, Madison was in trouble, and he couldn’t afford not to do it. More ATVs were closing in, bringing more men with guns. Kean needed to be among them, and now, if he had any hope of stopping them. The first dart whizzed by him, thudding into a tree trunk off to his side where it quivered violently as its momentum was abruptly stopped.

Come on, come on! Shift faster, dammit.

His body was shrinking, reassuming his human proportions. Any time now his hips would alter back to human size and he would—NOW!

Kean stood up, moving from a four legged charge into a two legged one. The rest of the shift came quickly, and in a fraction of an instant he was back in his human form.

A savage grin spread across his face. Stooping low as an ATV came near on his left, zipping out from between two trees, he snatched a branch from the ground with his right hand, pivoted on his front foot, and spun around. Kean pirouetted, slamming the branch straight into the sternum of the driver as he continued forward.

The human’s yell was cut short as he lost control. The ATV wobbled, then flipped and rolled, flinging its occupants free. Kean winced as one of them banged off a tree. That was going to leave a bruise. But his attention quickly returned to Madison. Two men had jumped off their ATV and were approaching her, the vehicle motionless between him and them.

His lips pulled back in a silent growl as he charged forward at them.

A motorbike came out of the woods, headed right at him.

Bad move.

He planted both feet, coming to an abrupt halt, then lashed out a foot as the bike sped by, missing him by less than six inches. His kick didn’t miss, and the rear end of the bike spun around as he crumpled it under impact.

Kean didn’t even bother to see the result of his actions. He just charged forward. One of the guards brought his gun up and leveled it at Madison. Kean didn’t give him the chance to pull the trigger. One moment the two men thought they were safe, the next he was there.

His hand closed around the uniform at the back of the farthest man’s neck. The guard cried out as he was suddenly moving forward in time with Kean. Then the huge shifter thrust his arm forward and let him go. The man flew through the air, hitting his comrade and sending both of them tumbling away, leaving her safe.

“Madison,” he said, sliding to a stop on the forest floor like a baseball runner, coming up onto his knees next to her head. “Are you okay?”

To his relief her eyes were open and lucid. They focused on him instantly. She nodded, and began to rise. “Yeah, actually, I am. I hurt everywhere, but otherwise, let’s go,” she said fiercely.

He could see any number of open cuts and wounds, but nothing appeared out of place.

“Damn, you’re tough,” he remarked, helping her to her feet. “I’d praise you more, but we need to get out of here.”

He looked around for a way out as the sound of more guards on ATVs reached his ears. The second wave was getting closer.

“The ATV!” she shouted as he moved to the side, revealing the idling machine to her.

“Right, duh.” He shook his head, angry at himself for not thinking of that first. It was, after all, rather obvious.

They raced for it, and he slid into the driver’s seat, waiting for her to get on.

“Move back, buster,” she snapped.

“Maddy, now is not the—”

“Exactly!” she riposted. “Now is not the time for you to learn how to drive. I’ve been doing this since I was young and my daddy took me out into the woods,” she replied. “Now can your ego and move aside. It’s time to trust me, Kean.”

His jaw fell open at her fierce reply, but he couldn’t refute her logic. Kean slid back into the passenger seat behind the driver, and Madison flung a leg over. They were moving before she was even fully seated.

With his weight the machine responded sluggishly, but in time they were up and moving at a considerable speed.

“Here,” Madison said, reaching forward and pulling a spare tranq gun from a holster attached to the vehicle itself. “Make yourself useful.”

Kean snorted at her choice of words, but he couldn’t help but smile. This Madison woman was tough, smart, and didn’t lock up or start screaming incoherently when the going got tough. She simply buckled down and kept thinking.

Her thick, bright-blonde hair whipped back and forth across his upper chest, exposing the soft skin of her neck to him, the bulge of her shoulder muscles evident as she wrenched the machine back and forth around trees like a pro.

“I think I’m in love,” he muttered dreamily, the words lost in the wind before they could reach her.

“What was that?” she asked loudly over her shoulder.

He swallowed hard. Maybe he’d spoken louder than he thought.

“Uh, just saying that you drive like you love it,” he shouted back.

“Damn straight I do!” she whooped, just as the ATV went over the edge of a mini incline.

Kean grunted unhappily as the seat came up and slammed hard into him as they hit the ground, the shocks working overtime to absorb his extra weight.

From behind came the shouts of others. He craned his neck around and saw three more ATVs closing in on them. The lighter loads were allowing them to catch up, he figured. Even with two men on an ATV versus him and Madison, they likely still weighed less.

Flicking the safety off his tranquilizer gun, Kean turned in the seat and watched as they closed. A dart came flying in from his left, embedding itself in the rear seat. Kean realized he was dangerously exposed. He needed something to block or deflect the darts.

Looking in the saddlebags on either side of the back of the ATV, his eyes focused on the only sizeable object there.

“Well, it’ll have to do,” he said, grabbing one of the helmets and holding it up like a shield just in time to intercept another dart. He was holding onto it by the bar that ran below the mouth. Holding the helmet upright now, his fist pointed in the air, he saw the dart rising up from the top of the helmet. It had sunk in nearly halfway.

“Some protection these things offer,” he muttered, then twisted as far around as he could go. His left arm swung out wide and he drew a bead on the nearest ATV.

Just as he fired Madison swerved to the left, spoiling his aim.

“Warn me next time!” he shouted, retargeting. “I’m trying to aim!”

“I don’t really have time!” she shot back. “Turn!”

He was about to fire, but this time Kean held off. The moment the vehicle settled he took aim, and fired before anything else could happen.

The dart slammed into the man’s chest. It wasn’t the driver he’d hit unfortunately, but it meant his passenger fell to the side and off of the ATV. At least he couldn’t shoot at him anymore.

Kean flung the helmet up just in time. Another dart impacted upon it from the side, the force of the blow ripping the helmet free from his grip.

“We need to get out of here!” he hollered, the wind lashing at his voice and throwing it away from Madison as they sped through the forest, throwing up a small trail of leaves and other debris behind them.

She was hunched over the handlebars, focused on getting them out of there safely and didn’t respond. Kean hunkered low and launched two more darts at the next closest pursuit vehicle.

The first one missed high, the second one missed low, and he watched as the gunner took aim and prepared to fire. It was a perfect shot. He couldn’t miss.

Kean hunkered down, using his body to shield Madison as best he could. If he was lucky, the dart would miss. But in the likely event it struck, perhaps he could pass out and she would still make it to safety. That, after all, was all that mattered. Then his brothers could come tear the place down.

The gunner lifted the barrel just a bit, and Kean saw his finger twitch.

But just as he squeezed the trigger, the front tire of the pursuing ATV exploded. Kean had a second to glimpse a dart protruding from it before the vehicle lost control and rolled, spilling its occupants. His first dart must have not missed after all! It had embedded itself in the tire, and eventually punctured it.

Kean rose up on both legs, took aim at the final ATV pursuing them, and used three of his remaining darts. He fired in a triangle pattern. Two of the three struck the driver, and he slumped down, immediately unconscious. The gunner dropped his weapon and reached over to grab the handlebars, while trying to kill their forward momentum.

He smiled, tossing a wave back at them as the ATV under him and Madison continued to roar along, swiftly losing them among the trees.

“Okay, we’re clear for now,” he shouted in her ear. “Keep going, but no need to take any crazy risks.”

Madison only nodded. “Where do we go? Back to the SUV?” She twisted her head slightly to the side as she spoke, so that he could better hear her.

“May as well,” he replied loudly, leaning forward to speak right into her ear, ignoring the whistling as the wind whipped by them. “Make a big wide circle.”

Maddy nodded, but hesitated as she looked around.

He tapped her left shoulder and pointed off at a roughly forty-degree angle. “That way.”

She nodded and off they went. His innate sense of direction let him track where they were in relation to the vehicle, even as they had fled frantically.

Sitting back in his seat, he took a deep breath at last. They were free. They’d made it.

Now if only he could control himself when they made it back.