Gray Back Ghost Bear (10 page)

A roar rattled the trees up ahead, and Georgia stuttered on the gas. She could see movement in the spaces between the trees, but the grove was so thick here and the snow falling harder by the minute, she couldn’t be sure what it was.

Another roar shook the earth beneath her four-wheeler as the monster bruin grizzly stepped into a clearing. He surged forward, mouth open and long, white canines bared. His ears were flat against his head. When a Kodiak bear had gotten that look, whatever he was after was about to die.

A shot rang out. It didn’t have that echoing sound of a miss. The bear stumbled forward and staggered just as another shot rang out.

“No!” she screamed as she skidded to a stop.

Brown bears didn’t live here. The only reason for a grizzly to be here was that it wasn’t a grizzly at all, but a bear shifter.

Horror filled her as everything threaded together into a bigger picture in her mind.

The poachers weren’t here to take illegal game.

They were here to hunt shifters. They were here to hunt people.

Georgia lurched off the ATV, drawing her weapon as she did. Lifting the gun, she popped off a round at the man aiming a rifle at the downed bear, then ducked down behind her quad. Who was it? One of the Boarlanders? One of the Ashe Crew? Fuck, it didn’t matter. They were hers to protect—all of them.

She fired off another round and jogged forward around her ATV and headed for a thick grove of pines, knees bent so she could keep her aim steady.

An echoing curse cracked against the mountain as she winged the man through the trees. The rifle swung around to her, and two shots ricocheted simultaneously off a tree right beside her. At least two shooters then.

“Get up!” she screamed at the bear. “You need to move!”

The bear was staining the snow crimson as it swung its block head toward her. Agony swam in his brown eyes.

“I’m bleeding out, man!” one of the poachers yelled.

Good. He deserved it.

The rifle trained on the bear again. She couldn’t just watch them kill him. He was a man who had Changed into this bear to protect his territory, his people.

“Run!” she yelled as she lifted her gun and unloaded on the poacher, one bullet after the other. The man’s body was hidden behind a tree, only his weapon visible around the trunk. Jamming another clip in her gun, she ducked another bark-splintering ricochet and pulled her weapon.

The quiet woods exploded with gunfire the second she eased around the tree.

It wasn’t two shooters as she’d thought. This was a massive hunt. People hunting people, and they weren’t poachers at all. They were serial killers, gathered with one purpose. To hunt down the bear shifters that had made their home here.

The smattering of bullets exploding against the bark right above her head said her fate was sealed. She was surrounded.

Fear slashed through her chest, but it was too late now. Too late to call for backup that wouldn’t arrive until long after she was gone. Too late to call Damon and explain what was happening here. Too late to call Jason and tell him she was sorry.

Aim.

One shot.

Man down.

Aim, and all the while, the trees were being battered by the spray of gunfire around her.

Searing pain blasted through her left arm, rocketing her backward with the force of the bullet. She cried out and lifted the gun again.

One shot.

Miss.

One shot.

Miss.

They were all around her, hunting as a pack, and no tree could shield her now.

A man stepped out from behind the trees with a cruel twist for a mouth. His weapon was trained on her, scope glinting in the muted light.

Her arm was on fire, clutched tight to her stomach in an attempt ease the pain.

“Did you not get our warning in your little treehouse, bitch?” he asked.

The gun shook in her hand. One more shot left if she’d counted correctly.

“You can’t do this.” She’d meant for her voice to come out strong and authoritative, but as more men holding rifles emerged from the trees, it came out a shaky whisper instead.

“We can. Do you know how much these men have paid to hunt a real life grizzly shifter?” His blue eyes sparked as he took a step toward her. “Thousands.”

“You’re killing people!”

The bear groaned from the ground ten yards away.

“That’s not a person,” the man spat out. “It’s a monster, and I’m just the guide to annihilate them from the face of the planet. For a fee, of course.”

So here was the leader. The one who’d organized it all. Her finger brushed the trigger.

“I wouldn’t,” he advised. “You have a lot of weapons trained on you right now, and your clip is empty. I counted your shots.”

With an empty smile, the man swung his rifle to the bear. “You can watch.”

A sob clawed up her throat. Not for her or the bear or for what she was about to do. But because Jason was going to lose a second mate. It wasn’t Tessa who was meant to destroy him. It was her.

As the man took aim, Georgia gritted out, “You counted wrong.” She pulled the trigger and the man’s eyes went wide as blood trickled down the bridge of his nose. He fell to the snow like a sack of stones.

And then pain.

So much pain.

Burning, ripping, tearing ache that dropped her to her knees.

The bear dragged its broken body toward her. The gunfire stopped. The only noise was a cold chuckle from one of the shifter hunters. “Got us a female,” he said low.

Georgia struggled for breath and fell backward. She couldn’t feel her legs, but her stomach felt like someone had started a fire inside of her. She focused on the bear. He was intent on reaching her. They would kill him soon, but at least she’d tried her best to save him. She could die knowing she was no coward. Still, it was tragic that both of their deaths meant nothing. The other crews didn’t even know they were being hunted.

Her breath came in short pants as her lungs struggled to pull oxygen past the fluid filling them. Warmth trickled down the side of her mouth as she clutched her stomach.

The bear was clawing the ground desperately trying to reach her. Trying to be there for her when she passed. Sweet bear. She wished he wasn’t going to die alone.

She stretched her fingertips out for him. Her hands were covered in sticky red, contrasting with the white snowflakes that fell onto her shaking open palm. A man stood over her, the devil’s look in his empty hazel eyes. He lifted his gun just as a giant shadow covered them all.

With a frown, the man looked up, but nothing was in the sky save storm clouds and the birds the gunfight had ousted from their roosts. “What was that?” he muttered.

Georgia smiled. “Bears aren’t the only
monsters
you have to fear in these woods, poacher.”

The man looked down at her as a wave of uncertainty washed through his eyes. “What does that mean?”

“It means if the bears don’t get you…the dragons will.”

And then there was fire.

“They’re here,” Tessa whispered again. She was barely visible anymore, but Jason could still hear her just fine.

“Piss off, Tessa.” He picked up another log and balanced it over his shoulder. He walked right through her transparent body to load the lumber into the back of the truck. Up here, he didn’t have to hide how strong he was. No humans came up this far into Damon’s wilderness, and even if they did, Jason was a registered shifter. They could get over it.

He picked up another huge log and tossed it in the back with the others.

“They’re here,” Tessa repeated for the tenth time.

“Who! Who are here, Tessa? Who?” He blasted his hands on his fists and glared at the ghost.

“The poachers.” Tessa’s soft words whipped around on the breeze. “Save her. Save yourself.”

All of the fine hairs on his body electrified as he watched Tessa disappear. “Creed?”

His alpha stopped stacking loops of cable at the edge of the landing. “What?”

Jason swung his gaze in the direction of the ranger tower. “I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?”

From the edge of the landing, he could see all of Damon Daye’s mountains. A flock of birds left a tree near the edge of Boarlander territory, and Jason narrowed his eyes at their cawing escape. “I think I need to go.”

“Is it Georgia?”

“Yeah.” He bolted for his truck.

A shrill whistle rang out from his alpha, and before he’d pulled out of the parking lot, the other Gray Backs were loading into Creed’s truck.

“Hurry,” Tessa’s whisper urged.

Jason slammed his foot on the gas and took the first switchback dangerously fast. His heart pounded hard against his sternum, faster and faster, as if it was urging him on, too.

This was silly. He blasted through the Grayland Mobile Park and onto the dirt road that led to the ranger station. He’d probably get there and she’d be making her rounds, looking at him like he’d lost his mind, and Tessa would get a good cackling laugh at her sick joke.

A shot rang out. It was faint, but the blast short, perking up his sensitive ears and making them tingle. Whoever had pulled that trigger had hit what they were aiming for.

“Oh God,” he murmured as he spotted the trashed ranger station ahead. The snow hadn’t quite covered the debris underneath it yet.

More gunfire echoed through the woods as he blasted past the tower. Something was wrong. Georgia wasn’t here, and the ATV was gone, too. God no. No, no, no.

“Hang on, baby. I’m coming,” he gritted out as he zoomed around a brush pile. Georgia’s ATV tracks were faint and half filled in with snow, but he could still read them.

A whooshing sound drowned out the gunfire and threw his truck to the side. He fishtailed, but regained control. Above him, a gigantic blue and cream-colored dragon was pushing himself through the air, his powerful wings beating down so hard, trees bent with the wind he created under him.

“Fuck!” Jason yelled. Tessa wasn’t playing a joke on him. The only thing that pulled Damon Daye from his human skin was if one of his people were in trouble.

Georgia, Georgia, Georgia, hang on.

A smaller dragon flew overhead. Damon’s daughter, Diem, was flying with the same urgency, and to his left, a giant grizzly charged through the woods. It was Tagan, alpha of the Ashe Crew, and his bears were running behind him, shaking the earth under his tires with their powerful strides.

The gunfire had died off, and Jason could see fire now. Tall flames licked the trees in rows as black smoke billowed into the sky.

He slammed on the brake and threw it in park. His feet hit the ground running. He could smell her now, his Georgia. Georgia, iron, and smoke. Animal and injured pine bark. The metallic smell of bullets and the faint scent of smoke that came from gun barrels when they fired.

Flames everywhere. “Georgia!” he yelled as he ran as fast as he could.

There.

She was lying beside Harrison in his bear form, clutching his paw as she struggled to breathe. Blood. Blood everywhere, and her chest rocked with her efforts to stay alive. Blood on snow. Red soaking white. Her face so pale, and those beautiful freckles stark against her colorless cheeks.

She was crying. Tears streamed down the corners of her eyes as he reached her.

“I thought you wouldn’t get here in time,” she whispered brokenly.

“Georgia,” Jason whispered, pulling her head onto his lap.

One look at her stomach, and he ripped his gaze away as his vision blurred with tears. This wasn’t fixable. “No. No! I just got you!”

Georgia’s face crumpled as more tears streamed down her face. “Jason. Jason, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you that. I’m so sorry.”

“Baby,” he crooned, resting his forehead against hers. “I don’t want you to go.”

“Change her,” Tessa whispered. “Claim her.”

Jason looked up, and she stood there with the saddest eyes. A wall of flames was behind her, but through them, he could see bears battling, tearing and ripping at the bastards who had done this. Georgia would be avenged, but that didn’t make him feel better. Not now.

Tessa disappeared and then reappeared right in front of him. She flickered like an old television screen. “Do it fast before it’s too late. Save her. Save yourself.”

He looked down at his mate’s crumpled body as the life left her eyes. “I love you,” he told Georgia, ripping her open jacket to the side. “Forgive me.”

He pulled her sweater away to expose her shoulder, and then he clamped his teeth down until he touched bone.

She didn’t scream. She didn’t flinch either, and when he pulled back, his mouth wet with her blood, her eyes were closed.

“No!” he roared. He laid her down and pressed his palms hard against her chest, over and over. If he could keep her heart beating with CPR until she Changed… “You can’t leave me, Georgia. Not now. I need you. Do you hear me? I need you!”

“Jason,” Creed said as soft as the breeze.

He put a hand on Jason’s shoulder, but he shook his alpha off. “Get the fuck away from me.” He breathed into her mouth.

How long had he been doing this? Minutes? Hours?

“Jason,” Creed said again, “she’s gone.”

Easton dropped to his knees in the snow beside him, and the next time Jason breathed air into her mouth, he took over pumping his fists against her chest. Willa was standing over them, weeping, but this wasn’t it. That couldn’t be all the time he got with Georgia. He wasn’t quitting.

He bit her again, and then again on her other shoulder while Easton kept her heart pumping.

“Come on, Georgia. Breathe!” Matt yelled behind him, loud enough to echo through the clearing where the other crews were gathering around Jason as he and Easton fought to save her life.

Creed knelt down beside them and felt her wrist for a pulse, but that didn’t stop Jason from breathing oxygen into her mouth again.

The snarl was so soft he had to be imagining it. It was just wishful thinking, so he slammed his fists against her chest. “Wake up, Georgia! Don’t you fucking leave me!”

The growl grew louder, and he froze. It wasn’t a familiar warning. It wasn’t Easton’s or Creed’s. It wasn’t his or Matt’s or Willa’s. This feral sound, he’d never heard before. It was the sound of a new Gray Back.

Easton heard it, too, because he stood and backed slowly away with a hopeful smile.

“Please, baby,” Jason rasped as he pulled her head into his lap again. “Let that bear have you, Georgia. Let her save you, baby.”

Georgia’s back bowed against him as she opened her mouth and roared. The sound was deafening and full of agony and fury. Her bear was going to bleed him ripping out of her, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t let her do this alone.

Snowflakes landed on her dark lashes as she relaxed against him.

And when her eyes opened and her pupils retracted, silver churned there like the storm clouds above.

Tessa knelt down next to Georgia. She looked down at his mate as Georgia dragged in a long, ragged breath. Tessa’s sad gaze lifted to Jason, and she opened her mouth to scream. Only this time she didn’t shriek and melt away to ash. This time, she whispered, “I’m sorry.”

And then she faded to nothing.