Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12) (21 page)

Her gun fell to the floor, skidding across the sticky surface until it hit something she couldn’t see for the tight hold this person had on her hair.

Stas’s thugs, though sluggish to react, were up and at the ready, their guns cocked, their war faces on.

Teddy reached upward to try to get away, but that was when she felt the barrel end of a gun jammed between her shoulder blades.

And then a very familiar voice spoke, a haunting nightmare from her past.

“Hi, honey! I’m home!” her ex-husband, Dennis, crooned in her ear.

H
er stomach sank to the floor as Dennis began to drag her toward the door, but Stas had apparently taken a shine to her, because he thundered, “Don’t move, or I have my boys shoot you between the eyes!”

Dennis stopped cold, his breathing huffing from his chest.

“Bet you didn’t think we’d ever see each other again, huh, Teddy Bear,” he hissed in her ear to the tune of Cormac’s low growl.

“How did you find me?”

Jesus. What kind of stupid question is that? Who gave a shit how he found you? He found you!

Dennis cackled, nipping her earlobe. “Aw, Lovebug. You know how resourceful I am. I broke into the ranch and it was just my luck, Viktor and Vadim had written down your buddy Nina’s address. It was right there on the counter! Imagine my surprise when I saw you were in New York. I couldn’t believe it. You hate the city. So I borrowed Daddy’s plane and here I am. I watched. I waited while you were in that castle. A
castle
—crazy, right? Anyway, I knew you’d come out of there at some point and when you did, I followed you. Easy-peasy. And now here we are. Reunited.” He yanked her hair, sending a violent shiver down her spine.

Teddy held her breath as Stas approached.

He sucked his cheeks inward. “This is all very nice, but I am busy man. Now, where are you taking my
malutka
?”

Teddy felt Dennis tense behind her, tightening his grip on her by wrapping his arm around her neck and squeezing. “Stay the fuck where you are and no one gets hurt,” he ordered.

Stas’s chin lifted in indignation and his eyes narrowed dangerously. “Do you know who I am?”

“I don’t give a shit!” Dennis sneered. “This bitch is mine. Now back the fuck off, tell your shitheads to back the fuck off, and shut the fuck up, and we’ll leave here all nice and peaceful. I’ve waited a goddamn long time to get my hands on my wife. This is between her and me. Now I said, back off!”

“Oh dear,” Stas muttered and clucked his tongue in that condescending way he had, then made pleading eyes at Teddy. “You did not tell Stas you were married,
malutka.
This hurts me so. I thought we were beginning a beautiful friendship, but you start our journey by deceiving me?”

Her neck ached as she struggled against Dennis’s steel grip. “Dennis isn’t my husband anymore!” she managed to squeak out around the pressure constricting her throat.

Stas stood up straight and eyed them critically. “Then it would appear we have a standoff. I will not let you take my sweet bird, and you do not wish to give her back to me. Whatever shall we do,
Dennis
?”

Her knees trembled. The last time Dennis had her in his clutches, he’d almost killed her, and now she had not one but two psychopaths fighting over her. She had to do something, but fear paralyzed her, rooted her to the spot as Dennis’s breath rasped against her ear, his heavy breathing making her cringe.

“Who is this guy? Is he your boyfriend?” Dennis spat, shoving the gun into her flesh again.

The sharp zing of pain made her arch away from him. “Dennis, let me go! You have no idea who you’re dealing with!” she shrieked, unable to contain her fear.

If nothing else, Dennis was the lesser of two evils, but with all these guns pointed at her, there was nowhere to go and she wasn’t leaving this room without Cormac and fake Toni.

“Tell me, Dennis,” Stas crowed. “Are you going to kill my pretty bird? What could someone so pretty have done to you?”

Teddy’s heart stopped. Yep. He was probably going to take her out. Finish the job he’d begun over a year ago, and she was helpless to stop him.

“It’s none of your business!” he screamed, his voice rising, his movements jerky and stuttered.

Teddy knew that tone. She knew it meant he was on the verge of cracking. He’d sounded exactly like this the moment before he’d pushed her over that ravine. When he realized she was never coming back to their marriage, he’d lost his mind, and he was going to lose it again.

She had to do something.

What? What could she possibly do without creating all-out havoc for everyone else?

Stas shook his head and put his hands on his hips. “You do know you will never get out the door alive, don’t you, foolish boy?”

And that’s when it hit her—Stas had nothing to lose. If Dennis dragged her out the door and his band of merry men took shots at them, Stas’s problems were solved. She’d be dead and then he’d kill Cormac and Marty. Game over.

Her guts tied all up in a knot. Her heart pulsed in her ears as the stench of Dennis’s indecision and sweat permeated her nose.

What to do, what to do? Teddy’s panic level rose by at least five hundred notches, but circumstances kept her from making a choice.

The choice was made for her when the rectangular window of the bar, facing the street, blew wide open, shattering glass everywhere, spraying the shards across the room.

Wanda came tumbling in like some freakish gymnast on steroids, nailing her landing and making it stick, before she ran after Andre, grabbing him by the neck.

Bullets began to fly in all directions from Stas’s men, whizzing around the air like deadly flies, all aimed at Wanda.

That was when Cormac burst from the booth, his mouth wide open as he roared his rage. His neck bulged, his fists still behind his back, but he broke the restraints without missing a beat.

Oh God. He was going to shift. He was upset and angry and those emotions had fueled a shift.

She had to stop him or risk his being discovered by people passing by.

“No, Cormac! No!” she screamed while bullets flew. She attempted to free herself from Dennis, but he was too damn strong.

Dennis howled before he threw her to the ground with such force, she was sure she was going to have another cracked rib.

Which made her mad as hell. Goddamn it, hadn’t she been knocked around enough? What the fuck was with the manhandling her these days? Every time she turned around, someone was kicking her ass, and she’d had enough.

But the outraged roar from Cormac set her into motion. His bones crunched, shifted, twisted until he was forced forward to his haunches, almost knocking what was left of his human chin on the ground.

“
Cormac, no!
” she screamed once more, but he was too far gone and as he fully shifted. His deep black coat shimmering under the bar lights, he headed straight for Dennis, his gaze deadlocked.

She caught the surprise in Stas’s eyes when Cormac took shape, no longer cool and unruffled, and clearly shocked that Cormac was now one of them. He’d been smart to keep that hidden for as long as he had while he was huddled in the booth.

He was impressive in bear shift, enormous, wide, solid, a deep almost ebony. His coat was healthy and shiny, his paws easily ten inches wide, his hump, the muscle between their shoulder blades they used to dig, was mammoth.

But he’d never withstand a beating from seasoned vets like Andre and Stas.

They’d kill him. If she was sure of nothing else, she was sure, in comparison to bears who’d shifted all their lives, Cormac was weak.

Dennis, who had no time to react and shift himself, began to shoot in wild arcs.

Marty, who’d shifted now, too, howled, long and eerily pitched, the sound whipping around the room and hitting Teddy’s eardrums at every angle. Marty lunged for Dennis, successfully knocking the gun out of his hand, but she crashed into the side of the bar, taking some stools and a man or two with her. The impact left her unmoving on the floor.

And that was when it turned into werewolf versus bear.

Howls roared through the bar, making it quake as the shift took over Stas’s men. The floor crunching beneath bear paws to the tune of broken glass.

Cormac changed direction and stalked two of Stas’s men, tearing after them with a loud roar.

Carmine Ragusi, weenie that he was, came around the corner, witnessed the rampage, and huddled in a ball, sliding down the wall, his eyes wide, his stout body quivering.

Andre shifted right in Wanda’s clutches, his clothes blowing off his body and his teeth, sharp and gleaming, sprouting forth in the low light of the bar.

He went for Wanda’s neck, but she managed to hold him off by grabbing his snout and flipping him to the ground, breaking one of the cocktail tables, the wood splintering and flying.

And then she shifted, too, with a piercing wail full of anger. She went for Andre like a rabid animal, rushing him as he reared upward before falling on his back and crushing a portion of the bar.

Darnell bellowed from under the table where he’d hidden earlier, “Teddy! Look out!”

Teddy scrambled on the floor, turning just in time to see Dennis racing toward her, his eyes wild with a year’s worth of hatred. As his legs pumped, he began to melt, his clothes falling away, his body distorting until he, too, was in bear shift. His enormous head loomed closer and closer. The sound of his paws pounding on the floor, over glass, over bodies scattered from one end of the big room to the other, resonated in her ears.

In that moment, that paralyzing, heart-pounding moment, she froze.

He was going to kill her. He’d win. He’d succeed in finishing what he’d started.

All the ugly words and cruel jaunts raced through her mind. A year’s worth of healing and fighting her way back into shape would be for nothing.

She
was nothing. He’d said she was nothing. A no one. And now, he’d win.

Helplessness swarmed her, invaded her, took hold of her, shaking her to her core.

You’re nothing, Teddy!

No! Nonono!

Anger welled, rising up, shoving its way through all the ugly words, the cruel taunts, and a surge of anguish catapulted her to shift. Rage fueled her rapid change, her bones jolted, cracked, realigned—and then she roared.

A roar of raw fury, an ear-shattering screech of a declaration.

This was motherfucking war.

Darnell began to lob fireballs just as Teddy rose on her hind legs and Dennis barreled toward her. Smoke filled the room, the plastic curtain melted, sending up a rancid stench. Darnell caught Dennis in the hide, but it was as if he was unaware his fur was burning because Dennis kept coming at her.

Matching his growl, Teddy charged, falling to all fours, rooting her paws into the ground with each stride.

She headed straight for him—everything else around her blurred. The bullets, the screams of fear, pain. The scent of blood. All of it faded and it was just she and Dennis.

They crashed into each other, the power of his bulky body pounding into hers, stealing the breath from her lungs.

They fell to the ground, hundreds of pounds slamming to the floor, and then she was on top of him, victorious, heady with her coup.

He struggled, bellowing his surprise and outrage, twisting his bulk to attempt to escape.

But Teddy lifted her front paw high in the air, ready to swipe at his throat, prepared to wipe his useless ass from the face of the planet—and then she heard Stas, far off and almost distant, leaving her surprised he hadn’t shifted, too. His voice clear, his words succinct and deadly.

“Kill them!” Stas hollered the order to the two men left standing. But Wanda went for them, with Darnell hot on her heels. Wanda’s jaws opened wide as she made a dive for Bogdan, flattening him against the wall before they both crashed to the ground.

From out of nowhere, Andre charged her Teddy, his fierce growl ringing out, reverberating in the fiery bar as he knocked her from Dennis, leaving Teddy crumpled in the corner.

The pictures on the wall fell, cracking her on the head, splintered wood frames, aglow with flames, falling in her eyes.

While Teddy fought to clear her vision and regain her bearings, a howl from Marty sang out as she leapt from one end of the bar, aimed right for Andre.

So many things happened at once then. Just as Teddy was regaining her footing, Stas appeared beside Andre, gun in hand as Marty in wolf form flew in a graceful arc, slicing the air.

Teddy glimpsed Nina at the smashed window, snow blowing around her dark beauty, her eyes assessing what was about to happen in less than a second.

Stas had the gun pointed at Marty; he was going to shoot.

Nina’s long limbs and dark hair flashed in Teddy’s line of vision, her body launching forward from the gaping hole in the window directly in front of Stas.

She bellowed in an anguished cry of battle, “Not on my watch, motherfucker!”

Just before Stas fired his gun—the blast ripping through the sounds of grunts and howls.

In that split-second, that horrible, terrifying second, Teddy saw Nina’s face. Beautiful, full of anguish, fear riddling her deep dark eyes, before she went limp from the impact of the bullet.

Marty was in danger, and Nina had protected her. Just like always. Just like all the stories she’d listen to them laugh over while they’d made dinner and played board games. Not heeding the words of her friends, throwing herself without thought into the line of fire. Because Marty was her friend.

Nina crumpled to the ground, an ugly crimson splotch spreading where her heart beat.

Marty’s head reared back, her mournful cry filled with sorrow.

And that was when Teddy recovered her mojo.

No one was supposed to die. These people weren’t supposed to sacrifice themselves in her stead. The plan had been so simple. Get in. Get Stas’s confession on record, call the cops. Go home.

But nothing had gone as planned, and even if it meant doing life, Teddy wanted someone to die. She wanted everyone who’d hurt Cormac and these people she admired to die.