Chapter Twenty-Two
Hailey stumbled back as all hell broke loose. Everything happened at once, and her mind could only process it in slow motion.
Jonathan fell in a pool of his own blood. Lamar stepped forward with a murderous scowl, holding out fingers that ended in claws. His teeth extended to inch-long fangs, and his ears peaked into canine triangles. Behind him, something huge, brown, and furious came hurtling down the dunes.
Hailey opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
A grizzly. A wild grizzly…
Her thoughts caught, looping around and around.
A grizzly with hazel eyes that begged for forgiveness. The tracks she’d seen that morning outside the house. The familiar, knight-in-shining-armor determination in every rushed step the bear took toward the men threatening her.
She struggled to connect the dots until all those threads came together in one tight knot.
“Tim,” she whispered, buckling at the knees.
Lamar and his men whipped around, half a step too late. The grizzly flung the nearest man aside. It bulldozed straight over the second man, intent on getting to Lamar. The others scattered, shouting, and Lamar snarled.
Run, Hailey! Run! she swore Tim shouted into her mind. The words were faint but urgent, and spoken in the lowest bass she’d ever heard him hit.
Years ago, her grandfather had screamed those very words, and she’d had no choice but to run. She didn’t really have a choice now, but her grandfather’s murderer — Lamar — stood before her, and running felt wrong. A spot in the center of her chest burned, but she swatted at it, only to feel her necklace jerk. Then she jumped sideways, dragging Jonathan with her just in time to avoid the collision of the grizzly and Lamar, who was fully in wolf form. They fell to one side in a flurry of vicious snarls and bites.
The sounds Jonathan was making terrified her in a different way, and she crouched over him, not knowing what to do.
The pearl around her neck warmed, comforting her the way her grandfather would have been able to with one You can do this look.
“Hang on,” she said, stripping off her shirt to cover the gashes on Jonathan’s neck. It was too late, and she knew it, but she had to do something.
Jonathan’s panicked eyes landed on her with a surprised look, and she nearly huffed. Yes, she despised him. But, no, she wasn’t about to watch while he bled to death.
“Hang in there,” she said, dragging him another yard.
The pool of blood spreading around Jonathan was horrifying enough to behold, but when her eyes strayed to the side…
Tim had only ever been kind and gentle around her. Now, he was all warrior. Fast, furious, and ruthless. All wild animal.
Of course, wild animals weren’t supposed to act selflessly. Not in defending humans, at least. But there he was, putting his life on the line for her.
Blood splashed, and Hailey looked away, trying to think. She could scramble over the dunes, get into the car, and lock herself in. She could drive off for help. She could—
“Run,” Jonathan whispered with the wide-eyed look of a man who’d realized too late how dirty his own dealings had been. Then his eyes hardened on some point over her shoulder, and his body went stiff.
“Jonathan,” she cried, shaking him.
His lifeless eyes stayed on the sky, unblinking.
Go, Hailey. Run! Tim yelled in her mind.
She forced herself to look up and around. Jonathan was dead. Lamar’s men were slow to regroup, and if she hurried…
She forced her legs into gear, grabbing a bat-sized length of driftwood as she ran for a gap between two of Lamar’s men.
“No, you don’t,” one barked, reaching out.
She swung the wood, smacking his arm away, and darted left. By then, the second man had noticed her. Make that, a wolf had noticed her, because there was a mangy gray canine where the man had been. It clacked its jaws, driving her toward the first man. Hailey sprinted onward, no longer intent on getting through them, just on reaching the lifeguard tower. The ladder was steep and narrow, with just enough space for one. A position she had half a chance of defending if she held her shit together long enough.
She sprinted like never before and leaped for a rung halfway up. Her foot slipped, making her shin bash against a steel rung, but she caught hold and hauled herself up just in time to avoid the wolf’s outstretched jaws. The second she reached the top, she spun and swung the stick.
“You bitch!” the man exclaimed, falling back along with the wolf. Both had reached for her, and both dropped to the ground. The wolf snarled, licking the red welt across his snout. The man ripped off his jacket and arched his back.
Hailey gasped as the man turned into a beast. A bear like Tim, yet nothing like Tim, as it turned out. Tim’s pelt was the same rich brown color as his hair, and the tips shone in the sun. Every move he made was swift and calculated. The man, on the other hand, turned into a bear that looked as if the winter had stretched on far too long. His fur was scraggly and unkempt, his eyes wild. He took two steps toward Hailey, and her knees shook. If he stood on his hind legs, he could easily reach the tower, and she doubted her stick would do much against that beast.
But the last of Lamar’s men — the last in human form, at least — stepped over and yelled, “I’ll get her. You help Lamar finish that bastard off.”
Finish Tim off? Hailey nearly cried out.
Lamar had been joined by a second wolf, and the pair fought Tim, showing speed and agility a bear could never match. Worse, the dark-colored bear was lumbering over to join them, making it three to one.
Within seconds, the fourth man had turned into a wolf too, and kept Hailey cornered in the lifeguard station. It paced back and forth, showing its teeth. Staying out of reach, the bastard. All she could do was stare at the fight. Tim stood firm, taking powerful swipes at each foe, but how could he possibly beat those odds?
The dark grizzly charged Tim, and the wolves scattered, letting the two giants duke it out. Hailey cringed as roars split the air. She had no idea bears could pull their lips that far back and expose so many teeth, but Christ, they sure could. Their six-inch claws slashed at each other’s flanks.
“No,” she croaked. She’d never seen anything so brutal in her life.
That spot on her chest warmed, and she caught the pearl without looking down. Her fingers played over the familiar, uneven surface. The pearl had warmed in the past — just enough to make her wonder before shaking the feeling away as the work of her imagination. But her pearl had never heated like this, almost burning her skin.
When she looked down, the pink was radiant with a faint inner light. She gripped the tower’s handrail tightly. The pearl had glowed at her on that first uncertain night at Pu’u Pu’eo, as it had at different points of her life — but it had never glowed this brightly before.
Out of nowhere, images rushed through her mind like a slideshow that started in the present and went way, way back. The images grew blurry, then paused, and Hailey envisioned a woman very much like herself, fingering the pearl as she gazed across the golden prairies of eastern Montana.
“Great-grandma?” she whispered.
A man came up to the woman and spun her around in a slow circle that ended with a long kiss and a whispered I love you that echoed in Hailey’s mind. A baby cried in the distance, and both the man and woman turned, hurrying to shower it with love.
There were tropical images, too, of lush coasts and waterfalls and crashing surf very much like the scene before her. Hailey blinked and looked around. Maui? Oahu? Wherever that was, the images came from a long time ago, she was sure. As in, centuries back. A woman giggled in a mountain stream, beckoning a man closer. A man in some kind of native island garb with a bare, bronzed chest and a crown of leaves. That image blurred into the next, of the same pair in a scene so sensual, Hailey blushed. Palms swayed over the intertwined lovers, and the nearby surf crashed in time to the man’s thrusts, drowning out the woman’s sounds of delight.
The ocean delivered up another crashing wave, and Hailey blinked, yanking her attention back to the present. The bears were fighting, the wolves nipping, and the lone sentinel still guarding her tower. But the sounds were muted except for that of the sea.
Hailey frowned. What? What did it all mean?
She went over the images all over again, then stared at the pearl. Love. All the images it carried had to do with love. Beauty. Contentment.
Love, a faint, woman’s voice whispered sadly in her mind. Look what it makes us do.
Hailey thought of her great-grandmother leaving her island home. She thought of her grandfather, smiling at the memories of his parents and his own dear wife long after they were gone. Then she trained her eyes on Tim and gulped.
Look at what love makes us do.
She looked long and hard. Love made a good man help a stranger when she needed it most. Love made him hide his deepest secret for fear of losing her. Love made him rush headlong into a battle he couldn’t possibly win.
“Tim,” she whispered, holding the pearl tight.
He fought on, parrying the grizzly’s swipes, then twisting to chase off the wolf sneaking up from behind. The others hadn’t gained an inch, but she could see Tim flagging. Blood matted the fur of one shoulder, and he limped on his right side. One ear was tattered, and—
The dark grizzly barreled forward, driving Tim toward the surf while the two wolves harried him from both sides.
“Tim!” she cried.
The wolf guarding the lifeguard tower made a cackling sound that said, Watch and weep, honey. It won’t be long now.
Hailey had never witnessed a bear fight before, but it was clear the other grizzly couldn’t beat Tim on its own. It could, however, drive him into the waves with the help of the wolves and wear him down. Sooner or later, Tim would miss a critical feint, and they’d smother him like so many lions taking down a gazelle.
“Dell…” Hailey fumbled through her pockets, but her phone was gone. Had Tim been able to alert the others before he came charging in?
She nearly sank to her knees in shame and desperation. All this was her fault.
So, do something, the voice in her mind said. Help him.
She looked around. How could she possibly intervene in a fight of wild beasts? Every one of them was stronger than her, and each was armed with sharp teeth and claws.
Don’t underestimate yourself. Tim had said that once, and the words echoed through her head.
But, Jesus. All she had was a stick.
You have love, a voice whispered in her mind.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as Tim stumbled back toward the water. The wet sand made his paws sink deep, slowing every step. A wolf leaped onto his back, chomping down, and he bellowed in pain. With a sharp twist, the wolf went flying and landed with a thump.
Serves you right, Hailey wanted to shout.
Even with that wolf limping, however, it was still three-to-one. And she was as useless as a princess in a tower, waiting for her knight to rescue her.
She froze at the realization. Was that really her?
Sure looks like it, a little voice taunted her — not the voice that came with the pearl, but one from inside her own soul.
Anger welled up inside her. No, she wasn’t a princess.
So, show it. Get out there.
She wanted to protest that she’d get clawed and torn to bits, but she bit the words back. Tim was the one getting clawed and torn to bits. She was still hiding in her tower.
Her lips pulled back in an unconscious snarl. Her knight had his hands full, and she sure as hell wasn’t the type to wait around.
So why don’t you get moving? the little voice taunted her. Afraid of breaking a nail?
She clenched her teeth, ready to shout back, but there was no one there. Just her own pride and the stark reality that even a determined hero might not be able to win without help.
So she tested the strength of her stick with both hands and took a deep breath. The pearl warmed against her skin, glowing pink.
Love, the faraway voice said.
Get ’em, that other voice said.
It was like having a fairy godmother and a warrior inside her, each of them egging her on. One was the pearl — a crazy notion she didn’t have time to question now — and the other a deeply buried part of herself that was fed up with being a nice girl. She took a deep breath. All that kickboxing she’d done had to be good for something, right?
“Okay, then,” she murmured. “Princess to the rescue.”