Alyssa had always been a fan of Animal Planet. It comforted her to know that nature had a cycle, that animals were predictable, and that even large predators could be viewed from a distance as the magnificent creatures they were.
This was something entirely different: this was two huge bears fighting to the death in a cinderblock building. And if things went really south, there could be eight more of those things all aimed at her and Vic.
She didn’t care. She only had eyes for Simon. His grizzly form was beautiful. Golden brown fur with dark accents. Paws that could tear a tree in half. But it was his ears that she liked the most. They were round and cute on a very scary face. When he roared, she looked at his ears and remembered that he was a friend. A very sexy, uber logical friend.
She winced as the two beasts collided. Big grappling bodies. It was very Animal Planet, complete with growling and chewing. But Nanook was larger, and even she could see that Simon couldn’t win in a contest of straining of muscles. But that’s how bears fought and she wasn’t surprised when Nanook got better leverage and threw Simon aside. Unless that was Simon escaping?
She didn’t know, and it was all so loud and terrifying. She needed to think of a way to escape with Vic. She ought to be doing it now when everyone’s eyes were glued to the fight. But she couldn’t look away, either. That was Simon there, fighting for his life, and her heart pounded with every grunt and growl. And at the sight of dark blood slicking down his golden fur.
Shitshitshitshit. If she shot Nanook, they’d have every shifter in the place going for them. At least right now it was one on one. And no way would she think that one shot would take down that monstrosity.
And then something changed.
She didn’t even notice it at first, but she was watching Simon closely. Hell, she was breathing as he breathed, gritting her teeth as he growled, and clenching her toes as he paced in the concrete space. So when he slowed his movements and his breath, she noticed. And when his head feinted left and right, her own neck tightened at the same time. What was he doing?
His eyes narrowed as he looked around the room. It was like she could feel the man thinking. Except up until this moment, he’d looked and felt just like she’d seen on TV. Just like any other grizzly bear caught on camera in the wild.
But that was her mistake. He was a shifter and now she saw the intelligence in him. And for the first time since the fight began, she felt a stirring of hope. Simon was smart. If ever a smaller creature could defeat a larger one, then now was the time.
She swallowed and murmured to her brother. “You okay?”
“No. But I’m ready.”
That was all she needed to know. He was sane and with her. And looking very human, which was both reassuring and disappointing. He was probably way more powerful in monster form. So now they just had to wait for whatever Simon had planned. Except right now, he didn’t seem to be doing anything but dancing around. He moved faster than Nanook, but neither was exactly fast. They were too huge.
Simon ducked around a support column and then waited. It looked like he was trying to hide behind it, which was ridiculous. Everyone could see him. But every time that Nanook moved to get at him, he just slipped to the other side. And that’s when the strategy became obvious.
Nanook was not a patient attacker. He was getting pissed. His breath was loud and harsh, and his grumbles had turned into angry growls. Enough to terrify her, but Simon didn’t seem fazed. Neither did he care that he looked like a scared monkey ducking back and forth behind the large concrete post.
And then suddenly, Nanook lunged. The motion was quick, startling her enough that she squeaked in alarm. Simon had been leaning in, reaching forward with a paw as if to strike, but Nanook caught him and wrapped him in a grappling hold.
Except that what he really caught was the concrete column. And better yet, Simon had ducked his head to the other side just as Nanook lunged. That meant that when the big one tried to chew on Simon’s neck, all he got was concrete post.
“Yeah!” her brother cheered, and Alyssa agreed with the sentiment, but the thing was far from over.
Simon had his opening. He lunged forward with his jaws wide. He grabbed hold of Nanook’s dirty white neck and bit down. Nanook roared his fury and pulled back, but Simon kept his jaws firm. And with both sets of arms wrapped around a cement pole, Nanook couldn’t take Simon with him.
God, the result was simple logic, but her entire body reeled at the sight.
Even though Simon had his jaws locked deep in Nanook’s neck, the grolar shifted his grip and pushed away from the cement pole. Simon bit down harder and blood began to spray in every direction. Nanook bellowed, then tore himself free. But the hole in his neck was huge. Alyssa could see exposed tendons and blood spilling onto his dirty white fur, but it wasn’t gushing and he didn’t look like he was dying. Which meant that Simon better have another trick up his sleeve.
Or maybe not. He started the same ducking back and forth around the column. And he was making a sound that she’d never heard on any nature channel. It was high pitched and almost warbling. Clearly a taunting laugh and she could practically see the steam coming out of Nanook’s ears.
But the big grolar wasn’t completely stupid. He wasn’t going in for the same kind of attack. Instead, he dropped his head, bunched his shoulders, and rammed forward…straight into the cement column. If he couldn’t bite around the post, he was going to take the obstruction down.
The building shuddered and everyone looked up with worry. No way was that column going to hold for another assault. And if it went down, so did part of the roof.
Simon scrambled backward, but even he looked up to the ceiling. In fact, the only one who wasn’t looking up was Nanook because he was backing up to do it again.
And then the eeriest moment of the entire day happened. Simon looked directly at her. It was like he was calculating in his grizzly mind exactly how many impacts the post could take and what were her risks standing about twenty feet away.
Then he jerked his head at the door. It was a clear indication that she should flee, but she wasn’t the only one who saw it. The others did, too. And quite a few moved to stand between her and the door. Probably because if the building started coming down, they wanted to be the first ones out.
And that was all the time Simon had as Nanook started roaring forward again. But in this, Simon startled her. He bolted around the post then ran full tilt at Nanook. The two were like rams except when they met shoulder to shoulder, Simon took the brunt of it. He shuddered backward, slipping on the concrete floor and going down on his butt then side. And even worse, he appeared to be stunned. He just lay there not moving.
“Get up!” Alyssa screamed. “Get up!”
No effect. Except on Nanook, who began lumbering forward, his mouth gaping open in anticipation. The others cheered, egging him on with bloodthirsty cries. She tried to tune them out, but the words were graphic, ugly, and all about ripping out Simon’s throat.
“Simon!” she screamed again, and this time she saw him twitch. His ear cocked toward her then fell back. Maybe. She couldn’t be sure. And his breath never changed. “Damn it, get up!” she screamed again.
Nothing. And then Nanook attacked.
He’d been rushing forward on all fours, his mouth open and aimed for Simon’s exposed throat. There might even have been a bit of a bounce there as he came down beside the prostrate grizzly. Alyssa couldn’t tell with her eyes tearing up and her throat raw from screaming.
And then something happened that she couldn’t at first understand. As Nanook went in to bite, Simon rolled slightly onto his back. She thought at first that Nanook’s jaws were that strong. That he’d rolled Simon over. But a moment later, she realized the truth.
Simon had been playing dead. He’d been waiting to roll over at just the right moment so he could swipe straight at Nanook’s neck. His claws here huge and sharp, and given the open wound, Nanook was vulnerable. Simon’s claws caught, pierced, and ripped across.
Blood gushed, pumping strong into the air and across the floor. Nanook tried to bite down. He was still moving. Or falling. Either way, Simon couldn’t get out from under him. And he didn’t stop the attack.
Simon pulled up his back feet and began raking at Nanook’s belly. Other scents joined the coppery taste of blood in the air. And with Nanook’s head and shoulder now down next to his mouth, Simon took a big bite. He was growling deep in his throat, the sound vicious as he bit down and shook his head like a dog. He was tearing pieces of fur and muscle away both above and below, and the mess was shocking.
Alyssa looked away, but what she saw around her wasn’t comforting. All those naked shifters standing between her and the door began to shimmer. Some went slowly, others fast, but in the end, she wasn’t standing with a bunch of naked guys. Now she was surrounded by grizzlies. Big, mean, unhappy ones that shifted from foot to foot and grumbled low in their throat.
She caught Vic’s gaze, but there was nothing either of them could do. She might have been able to shoot her way past the four humans between her and the door. But now they were bears and they nudged her deeper into the center of the room.
First it was hot breath on the back of her neck. Soon it was shoves against her legs or back. She honestly couldn’t tell if it was because they needed more room back there or because they wanted to eat her. Either way, she scrambled forward, as did Vic. And the only place to look then was back at Simon.
He was on his feet now, his jaws and claws systematically ripping apart Nanook. And all around them, the bears started grumbling. They shuffled and growled. Their breaths came in big bellows and their teeth showed yellow white.
Simon didn’t notice. He was covered in blood as his jaws bit down and cracked off a couple ribs. Alyssa flinched at the sound, her heart hammering in her throat. The tension was climbing in the room, and she and her brother were in the middle of it. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.
“Simon! Damn it, Simon!”
Her words echoed sharply in the room only because her voice was higher pitched than anyone else’s. The bears were loud, and she didn’t think anyone could hear her much less the grizzly with its snout deep in blood. But Simon did hear.
She saw his ears twitch and his head came up. His head swiveled back and forth as he took in the room. His nostrils flared as he stood over the carcass. And then he released a roar that took Alyssa to a knee. It echoed in the space and the sound seemed to beat her down. Her brother fared little better. He stumbled beside her, but he regained his balance and remained upright beside her. Protecting her, she guessed, but she was the one with the gun.
But who the hell did she aim it at? Simon? He was an adult grizzly growling over a kill. And his roar told everyone in the room that it was his. His food. His kill. His territory.
But it was eight to one here. They could overrun him in a second. And probably flatten her and Vic in the process.
The nearest bear lumbered forward. It was big and all black. She realized belatedly that it didn’t have a grizzly hump, but it was still huge. And it opened his mouth in a sound that Alyssa couldn’t hear in all the noise. But she heard Simon.
He turned straight on the black bear and roared back, hard and angry. The sound ripped at Alyssa’s insides. God, she couldn’t stand to see another fight. Not here. Not now when there wasn’t room to flee.
Except when Simon’s roar stopped, the black bear didn’t attack. And he certainly didn’t rear up on his hind legs. Instead, he flopped over onto his side. A full-out plop that exposed his neck.
Submission?
Holy crap, that’s exactly what it was. The black bear was submitting to Simon who stood there staring at it with nostrils flared and his mouth dripping with blood.
Alyssa wanted to speak. She wanted to bellow that the bear was submitting and Simon didn’t need to attack it. But her voice was frozen in her throat. It was terror, pure and simple. She just didn’t want to draw attention to herself and she damned herself for being a coward.
Then Simon stepped over the edge of the carcass. He was coming toward her, though his eyes were on the bears nearest her. He didn’t even give the black bear any acknowledgment that she could see. He just lumbered forward, closer and closer to her.
She shied backward, but there was nowhere to go. The grizzlies behind her were rocking back and forth on their feet while grumbling deep in their throats. What was Simon doing? And when the hell had she fallen to her knees? She was crouched now, huddled back against her brother. The gun was still in her hand, but the handle was slick with sweat and she didn’t know if she could raise it. She was trembling from head to toe.
And still Simon lumbered forward.
She swallowed, trying to force herself to speak. She managed a bare whisper. “Simon, please.” She didn’t even know what she was asking him, but it was all she could get out.
He roared again. Straight at the bears behind her. He was so close, she could feel the heat of his breath. She could see the gore on his body and the way his roar made the fur tremble on his sides.
Then she heard it.
Thud. Thudthud.
All around her, the bears were dropping with heavy thumps onto the floor. One by one they sat and rolled over, exposing their necks. And this, too, was something she’d never seen on the nature channel. They weren’t dogs. These were grizzlies and another black bear. But they all dropped, even Vic beside her though he went to his knee and not the floor.
“Tilt your head,” he hissed at her.
“W-what?”
“Expose your neck! Submit to him!”
She wasn’t a dog to roll over on command, but in this, she obeyed without hesitation. She submitted to Simon as he lumbered in a tight circle. He glared at everybody in the room, herself and Vic included. And when he had gone nearly full circle, he did it again. He roared.
At least this time she could cover her ears. His back was to her, so she could duck her head into her hands, though it clapped the hard butt of her pistol against her head. She didn’t need to hear that terrifying sound again, but apparently the others did.
Because this time after the roar ended, there was dead silence in the room. No grumbles. Certainly no growls. Not even the huff of a breath. Every single bear was on his back and silent.
And it stayed that way as Simon continued to prowl. He walked in another slow circle that came too near her for comfort. Then again. Two times around, plus another roar. Then a third. Once he lumbered close to the carcass and bit off another rib. He crunched it in the silence while everyone else stayed frozen on the floor.
And when the rib was gone, Simon went back to prowling. To Alyssa’s eyes, he seemed agitated and angry. That was understandable twenty minutes ago, but now? He needed to settle down. But the more he prowled, the more upset he seemed to get.
Another roar. God, by the end of the day she was going to be deaf.
Two more circuits, and then she realized the truth.
He wasn’t settling down. He was winding himself up. Had he lost himself in the bear? He had to remember who he was. He needed to shift back into a man. But it wasn’t happening. Another roar convinced her of it.
And go figure. She wasn’t deaf, but she was freaking tired of flinching every time he took a deep breath. So she stood up.
She was surprised that her legs had any strength. But she could remain terrified only so long before she just got annoyed.
“What are you doing?” her brother hissed, but she waved him to silence. She didn’t want to say that she had no idea.
She straightened her shoulders and waited until Simon had lumbered back around to face her. His face was matted fur and gore, so she focused on his ears. Those cute rounded ears. One of them was covered in blood, but the other still showed golden brown. So she looked at that and pitched her voice low and soothing.
“You win, Simon. You’re the big bad here.”
He growled at her, low and threatening. She almost dropped right then and there. Not just to her knees but all the way down. Instead, she stiffened her legs and faced him down.
“You’re the powerhouse, Simon. Everyone has submitted to you. Everyone. You won.”
His growl deepened and she smiled. Holy moly, she must be insane, but that sound was just like the grumble her father made when waking up. A grumble and snort mixed together. It was kind of cute.
“What do you need, Simon? What do you need to feel safe?” She gestured behind him at the carcass. “Do you need to eat some more?” God, she prayed not, but she understood the animal need to eat his kill.
He chuffed, the sound not so angry as frustrated.
“No one is challenging you, so you’re safe from them.”
She watched to see if he would look around at the bears on the floor. He did, but only with the briefest turn of his head. A moment later, his gaze was back on her.
“He wants you,” Vic said. “Holy God, he wants you.”
“What?”
“You’re the only female here,” he said. “You know. Kill. Eat. Mate.”
The thought sent shudders of terror down her spine. She was not mating with a gore-covered grizzly. But Simon the man? Hadn’t she nearly done that last night?
She swallowed. “You have to shift back, Simon. You want me? You can have me as a man.” She didn’t think twice about what she was offering. She was talking to a grizzly bear, after all. But God, she wanted to bed Simon the man. She’d wanted it every night for more than two years.
She stood there in front, her knees quavering but locked solid as Simon moved forward. For such a big creature, he seemed to walk with precision. Every paw was placed exactly where it needed to be. And every sharp tooth was exposed as he approached.
Did he think she was challenging him? Should she show him her neck? She didn’t know and the back-and-forth in her panicked brain was making her sick. What should she do?
She held her ground and spoke again, her voice as strong and loud as she could make it.
“I want a man, Simon. A man!”
He stalked closer. No other word for it. He approached her slightly from the side, then he adjusted to face her. She felt his breath on her face, smelled the scent of blood, but also, weirdly, Irish Spring. How that smell could cling to him here, she had no idea, but she caught the sweet smell or pretended she did. And finally, ultimately, she changed her focus from his ear to his eyes.
And then he widened his mouth a little farther.
She would have run then, but there was nowhere to go. This close, he was way faster than her. And besides, she didn’t know if her legs would bend or just collapse. So she stood still while his wet pink tongue stretched out and caressed her arm.
A wet lick with a long tongue. Like a dog’s kiss, she supposed, though she thought of it more as a grizzly caress.
She reached out her other hand. She wasn’t going to pet him on the blood-soaked fur, but his ear was still clear as was a patch of fur behind it. So she scratched him there. She sunk her fingers into the soft fur and scratched.
He released a chuff that she took as a grizzly moan of delight. Then a moment later she drew back.
He quirked his head then pushed his ear forward. He didn’t like that she’d pulled away, but in this she remained firm until he was butting his nose against her belly.
“As a man, Simon.”
Then it happened. A brief shimmer in the air. A sudden sharp blast of heat. And then when she blinked again, he was changing right before her eyes. His body pulled together, the fur dropped away or disappeared. Suddenly there was a naked man on all fours in front of her and he was miraculously clean. The blood must have fallen away with the fur, though his nose showed traces as did his hands.
She dropped to her knees before him, the breath leaving her lungs in a whoosh. This was Simon before her, trembling and naked. She wrapped him in her arms as his breath came in short tight pants.
“I got you,” she said over and over. “I got you.” And she kept saying it until the shaking eased. And then a moment later, he took a deep, slow breath. “Simon—” she began but he cut her off.
“Stay down. Stay quiet,” he said, his words harsh.
Her head jerked back at his rough tone, but she didn’t argue. And she didn’t fight him when he grabbed her gun from the floor where she’d dropped it. His fingers fumbled with it for a moment, but eventually steadied. Then she waited in taut silence as he stood and faced all those grizzlies who were now rolling back to their feet.