Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1) (8 page)

Sawyer roared again as he paced, his giant paws angrily pounding against the hard cement with each step. The crowd around him formed a giant circle, enclosing him and Simon with no avenue for escape. Sawyer looked over the faces in the crowd, his heart aching as he took in the wide-eyed expressions of many of his clan members. He still couldn’t believe that Simon had stirred up such discord among his bears. The clan, usually such a tight-knit group, was divided into two clear factions: those supporting Sawyer, and those supporting Simon. Most of them had already changed into bear form. The only shifters who were actually required to assume bear form for the fight were the alpha and his challenger, but traditionally most of the other shifters would transform themselves as well. Only a few clan members stayed in human form—the ones who were currently sick. Because shifting took so much energy, shifters who were feeling under the weather usually avoided shifting unless they had to.

Sawyer shifted his gaze to his opponent. Simon stood in the center of the ring, watching Sawyer pace. Still in human form, Simon had his arms crossed over his chest and his chin jutted out in defiance. Sawyer wanted to roll his eyes. He couldn’t believe what an idiot Simon was being. The man haughtily refused to shift right away as Sawyer had, choosing instead to retain his human form as long as possible so that he could continue to yell out sneering insults. With every new verbal jab that he yelled at Sawyer, the crowd roared—some in anger and some in agreement.

Chance stood with the elders at the front edge of the crowd. When Chance gave the signal, the fight would begin. The challengers had the right to fight to the death, and Simon had already promised that he would kill Sawyer. Sawyer knew he would never kill Simon. As soon as it was clear that he was the victor, he would leave Simon to lick his wounds. No matter how awful Simon had been to him, Sawyer didn’t have it in him to kill one of his own clan members. Chance had already gotten into a fight with Sawyer about this, saying that it was wiser to kill off anyone who had so brazenly challenged for the position of alpha. But Sawyer didn’t care if letting Simon live was foolhardy. His job was to protect the lives of his bears at all costs. If that meant letting Simon live, then so be it.

Sawyer swung his gaze back and forth over the crowd one more time, his eyes falling on Anderson, who stood silent among the roars around him. Anderson was another one of the pilots for the tour company, and one of Sawyer’s closest friends. He was a quiet man by nature, probably due to the fact that he had seen far too much pain in his thirty-two years on earth. Anderson had lost his parents to clan wars when he was a young child, and had been raised by his aunt. He had finally found happiness again and taken a beautiful young grizzly as his lifemate, but that happiness had been abruptly cut short when she died in childbirth. Anderson had raised his daughter, Silver, almost entirely by himself, with a little help from his aging aunt. Sawyer didn’t see Silver in the crowd, and figured Anderson must have tried to keep her from watching the show, despite the fact that clan law mandated the attendance of even the youngest clan members at such challenges.

Sawyer didn’t mind. He had long thought that such brutal displays of strength were not a good place for young cubs. If Anderson wanted to be overprotective of Silver and shield his precious daughter from the gruesome reality of bear fights, Sawyer would gladly look the other way and ignore the minor infraction based on ancient tradition.

A loud bullhorn siren sounded over the crowd, bringing Sawyer’s attention back to the center of the ring. Chance stood in the middle with the bullhorn, one of the last shifters still in human form. Even the elders had shifted at this point.

“I will count down from ten into the bullhorn,” Chance said. “And then I will say ‘commence fighting.’ When I do, Sawyer and his challenger, Simon, will begin their duel. If a bear manages to keep his opponent down for a full minute, then that bear is considered the winner. Once a bear is declared winner, he may, if he so chooses, terminate his opponent. The elders have the final say on whether the one minute time challenge has been met. May the best bear win.”

Roars erupted from the crowd, and Simon jumped around whooping and hollering along with them. Sawyer shook his head at the arrogance of the man. Not only did Simon still have to shift, without the benefit of several minutes to recover from the energy of shifting that Sawyer had taken advantage of, but Simon was wasting energy on riling up the crowd. Sawyer met Chance’s eyes just before the countdown started, and Chance shook his head in almost imperceptible motion. Sawyer caught the movement, though, and its meaning. Chance was silently agreeing with Sawyer that Simon was acting the fool. Chance shrugged slightly, as if to say that they might as well get this over with. Sawyer nodded his giant grizzly head, and waited patiently as Chance began the countdown.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…” Chance began. The roar of the crowd grew deafening, and Simon, unbelievably, still did not shift. Sawyer wanted to roll his eyes. If nothing else, Simon’s pride showed a complete lack of leadership abilities. Someone so full of himself would never make a good alpha.

“Five, four, three, two, one. Commence fighting!”

Simon waited until Chance reached the number one to shift. With a loud roar, he let out a rush of energy and power that knocked over a few of the bears standing in the front lines of the crowd. As the dust settled, and Simon stood in front of Sawyer transformed into a grizzly, a hush fell over the crowd. The silence was deafening, with no sounds other than a grunt of annoyance from Sawyer as he took in his opponent.

Simon’s grizzly was giant. Much larger than the last time Sawyer had seen it. Sawyer had always been the biggest grizzly in his clan, but Simon now stood more than two feet taller than Sawyer. A bear that big could only mean one thing. Simon had been taking bear enhancing drugs. Such treatments, available on the shifter black market, were strictly forbidden and frowned upon, especially when used before a challenge. Sawyer could have halted the challenge right then and demanded a drug test for Simon. A positive result would have meant an automatic win for Sawyer, and banishment from the clan for Simon.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sawyer saw Chance starting to step forward, likely to intervene and suggest just such a move. But Sawyer swung his bear head toward Chance to shake his head no. He would fight Simon. He could still win, and he knew it. And he wanted his clan to see him win in an actual fight. He wanted them to trust him that he could take whatever was thrown at him, even if it was a grizzly on steroids. Chance looked at Sawyer with pleading eyes.

“Sawyer, if you don’t request a drug test in the first minute of the fight, you lose your right to do so. If he defeats you, you will lose your title as alpha whether or not it’s later shown that he used drugs. You have to act now.”

Sawyer shook his head again, and then turned his attention back to Simon. Simon might be stronger than Sawyer had anticipated, but he was still just as much of an idiot. Sawyer was a seasoned fighter, not only strong but also skillful. He had no doubt that he could outmaneuver bears twice his size, and even Simon wasn’t close to that big. Sawyer let out a low growl and took a step toward Simon. The crowd once again began to roar and growl, and Sawyer could see Simon’s bear lips curling up in a sneer. Sawyer growled, louder this time. He was about to wipe that sneer off of Simon’s face.

In a blur of fur, claws, and teeth, Sawyer rushed toward Simon. As expected, Simon prepared for the charge by rearing up on his hind legs, preparing to come down hard on Sawyer. But, at the last second, Sawyer veered to the left, and Simon came down hard on empty concrete. Meanwhile, Sawyer veered sharply back to the right and brought his teeth down hard on Simon’s back leg. A yelp of pain followed, but it wasn’t from Simon. It was from Sawyer.

Simon’s leg felt like it was made out of solid metal. There was no soft flesh or muscle in it, as far as Sawyer could tell. Sawyer stepped back, shocked, and watched in disbelief as Simon turned toward him with another sneer, appearing not to have even felt the bite. Whatever enhancements Simon had done to his bear went beyond just the use of drugs. He seemed to have iron for skin, and titanium for bones.

The crowd gasped and roared, and, for a moment, Sawyer felt a rush of panic trying to rise within him. It was too late to issue a drug challenge. He had to fight and defeat Simon in this superbear state. Sawyer took a deep breath, and forced himself to think. He didn’t have long to think, though, because Simon was charging full speed toward him now. The two bears collided, and Sawyer felt the sickening sound of crunching bone, which was quickly followed by the sickening realization that it was his bones that were cracking. Searing pain went through his right front leg, and he felt as though the air had all been knocked out of his chest. He realized as he caught his breath that he was on his back, staring up at the clouds in the deep blue Alaskan sky. Thankfully, his bones seemed to have only been fractured, not fully broken. Within a half hour they would have healed themselves. As Sawyer winced and tested the range of motion in his right leg, Simon’s sneering face appeared in his field of vision, and Sawyer heard Chance starting the minute countdown.

The crowd went wild as Chance continued counting, but Sawyer merely closed his eyes and forced himself to think. He refused to let himself listen as Chance made it past thirty seconds in the countdown. Instead, he ran through in his mind possible ways to defeat Simon. Every suit of armor had its weak spots, and he only had to figure out where the holes in Simon’s armor were. Underneath the cowardly enhancements, Simon was a weak, vulnerable bear.

Even an idiot like Simon knew better than to leave the neck open to attack, so Sawyer didn’t bother trying to reach his teeth up to Simon’s next. But he scanned quickly over Simon’s body as the countdown reached less than twenty seconds left. The crowd’s roar was impossibly loud, and Sawyer could barely hear Chance’s worried voice above the din, counting as slowly as possible. Suddenly, Sawyer’s eyes zeroed in on Simon’s armpits. The fur on the spots underneath where his legs met his body was much thicker than anywhere else on his body. Perhaps this meant that this area hadn’t been messed with. Something was different about it, for sure.

As the countdown reached the final ten seconds, Sawyer swung one of his paws up and dug his sharp claws into the armpit area of one of Simon’s front legs. A loud yelp of pain followed, this time from Simon. Sawyer jumped up with lighting speed as Simon fell backwards from the unexpected pain Sawyer had just inflicted on him. Before Simon had time to process what had happened, Sawyer pounced on him, digging both sets of his front claws deep into Simon’s front armpits. As Simon writhed and yelped in pain, Chance began the countdown again.

Sawyer could feel searing pain in his own body from the spots where Simon’s unnaturally hard body had fractured his bones, but he ignored the sensation. He would heal quickly once this fight was over and he had a moment to rest. He couldn’t let temporary pain keep him from the victory that was so rightfully his. Every time Simon tried to wriggle free, Sawyer twisted his claw, sending a fresh wave of pain and panic across his opponent’s body. The crowd had been roaring nonstop now for what felt like an eternity, but Sawyer ignored the sound. The only sound that mattered to him right now was the sound of Chance’s voice as it slowly made its way toward the sixty second mark. The final ten seconds were the hardest. Simon, knowing that he was about to lose his challenge and face possible death at the hands of his alpha, panicked. He struggled against Sawyers grip, howling through the pain and trying to wriggle away from his alpha. But Sawyer held firm, and soon he heard the sound of one of the elder’s voices coming through Chance’s bullhorn.

“This challenge is completed. We declare Sawyer the winner, and, as such, he shall retain his title as alpha to the Frost Peak Grizzlies.”

The crowd roared, suddenly one hundred percent of them cheering for Sawyer. As Sawyer stepped back and slowly let Simon sit up, one of the shifters who was still in human form yelled out, “Kill him!”

Rushes of power and energy filled the air as bear after bear turned back to human form. They began a deafening chant of “Kill him! Kill him!”

Simon, too weak and stunned to shift back to human form, lay on the ground with a terrified look on his face. The arrogance of a few minutes before had completely disappeared, leaving in its place the vulnerable look of a bear who knew he was on death row.

Sawyer looked up at Chance, and then over at Anderson. His closest friends were quiet among the screaming crowd, waiting serenely for Sawyer to make his decision. Sawyer let out a roar, and shifted back into human form. He stood over Simon’s slumped bear form, and then held his hands up in a signal for the crowd to quiet down. As soon as a silence settled over them, Sawyer spoke.

“I don’t believe in killing my own clan members, especially once they have been so clearly defeated,” Sawyer said, staring daggers at Simon. “But I don’t ever want to see your face again. You are banished. If you ever show your face in Frost Peak again, consider yourself a dead man.”

The crowd went wild again, screaming and yelling for Sawyer to kill Simon, who was now pulling himself up slowly and walking away from the town center as quickly as his weak legs would allow. Sawyer sighed in frustration as he looked around at his cheering clan. He was happy that everyone seemed to be back on his side, but irritated by how quickly they had swung back and forth between supporting him and supporting Simon. He had just raised his hands for quiet again, planning to make a speech about the importance of loyalty to your alpha, when he saw her.