Snowfall (Arctic Station Bears Book 3) (4 page)

C
hapter
S
even
- A
lanna

I walked out into the sun. It was somehow warm on my skin even though it wasn’t high in the sky. I wasn’t cold at all. A few dozen yards away, Calder fought four bears and Parker. He must have decided that Parker was the most present threat, because he lifted Parker overhead and threw him like he weighed nothing. Parker crashed into the ice and was still. The mental image of the same thing happening to Liam made me run across the ice.

The bears attacked Calder with every opening they could find, but Calder seemed to find more opportunities to attack them in turn. I needed to move faster.

My legs were suddenly powerful cat legs. There was some bone shifting, but I hardly felt it, and I didn’t have time to marvel. I was able to move much faster though.

Calder transformed into a behemoth and smashed one bear into another. Viktor and Ben reverted back to their human forms and fell unconscious to the ice. Calder could not stop for the kill since Liam still grappled with him ferociously.

You won’t hurt another one of my friends.

I ran faster.

You won’t hurt my mate.

My hands tingled and bones shifted. I had one enormous bear paw and one cat paw. Both ended in vicious claws.

Liam jumped on Calder’s back and pushed him down. He had just gotten back to his knees when I was on him.

We stared at each other wide-eyed for a moment and then I tore out Calder’s throat. For good measure, I placed a gigantic paw on either side of his face.

His eyes were almost grateful as I tore his head from his body.

Liam and Donny roared as Calder fell forward on the ice, blood spreading out in a pool that rapidly froze in the cold.

Liam shifted back into a man. “God, it’s nice to be able to do that,” he said. He turned to me and smiled. “Allie, what did you do?”

I stared at my paws and concentrated, and before long, I had hands again, with nails in desperate need of a manicure. I ran to Liam and held him. I felt like throwing up or crying. Or both.

Ben sat up and groaned. “Can we get the hell out of here now?” Ben asked. “I doubt Calder had time to destroy all of the communications equipment on base. Maybe we could call someone who
won’t
send mercenaries to kill us?”

P
arker

The Chairwoman flipped through Parker’s report, then closed the file and took off her glasses.

“Is this everything?” she asked.

“Yes ma’am,” Parker said. “Every detail.”

“And Arctic Station?”

“Scuttled. All research destroyed. No one will be following in Calder’s footsteps.”

Without making a sound, she abruptly stood up and strode over to the large glass windows overlooking downtown Atlanta. Not many people could spook Parker, but she was definitely one of them. He was sure it didn’t register though. The severe-looking woman stared out over the city and rhythmically clapped her hands together behind her back.

“I’m not happy about the surviving players.” Every word was ice, but Parker had steeled himself.

“No doubt. The virus and its creator were destroyed, however.”

“By Dr. MacCready?”

“Well, she got the creator. I took care of the virus samples and research.”

She turned to face him. “Has the sample already been delivered?”

“Yeah, I delivered it to the CDC agent this morning. I wasn’t happy wandering around with it.”

She nearly smiled. “I don’t blame you. Going back to Alanna MacCready though — do you know her whereabouts?”

Parker smiled. “I don’t.”

“And that’s your official response?”

“It’s in the report.”

“That’s disappointing, Parker. We’re going to have to look for her. You know that, don’t you?”

“That’s up to you,” Parker said. There was zero chance that the Company would get the information they were looking for from him. “Not sure that she and Liam will appreciate it, though.”

The Chairwoman smiled. It was sort of a smile, anyway. The corners of her thin lips turned upward ever so slightly.

“And what are your impressions of her…transformation?” she asked.

“With all respect, ma’am, that’s in the report as well.” She was trying to maneuver Parker into a corner and he didn’t like it.

“Humor me,” she said. “Off the record.”

“Off the record? You have more recording devices in this room than I have fingers on both hands.” Parker closed his eyes and sighed. “Fine, though. Have it your way. I’ve never seen anything like what she is. The
world
hasn’t seen anything like what she is.”

Parker stood up and poured a glass of water from a perspiring glass pitcher on the Chairwoman’s enormous mahogany desk. He didn’t sit back down though. Instead he chose to pace around the room with a glass of water he wasn’t even drinking from even though his mouth was dry.

“I wouldn’t go up against her,” Parker said. “I’d give you the same advice.”

The Chairwoman almost smiled again. “And if we ask you to?”

“Then we’d have a problem.”

The Chairwoman had Parker by the throat before his mind was able to register how she’d managed to get close without him seeing. His feet dangled in the air.

“You
dare
make a threat?” she said.

Alex laughed, a horrible rasping sound since his airway was being partially constricted. “Not…a threat,” he said. “Objective…assessment.”

She dropped him. It took focus, but Parker was able to stay on his feet even though the edges of his vision had started turning a little dark.

“You’re afraid of her,” the Chairwoman said.

“No,” Parker said. He rubbed his throat and smiled. “That’s not it. I’m saying
you
should be.”

E
pilogue
- A
lanna

Liam’s cast hit the water and caused a ripple on the surface of the otherwise pristine water. My own line had been in the water for a full two minutes with nothing at all to show for it.

“So, how long is this supposed to take again?” I asked. “We’re getting restless here.” I smiled, rubbing my very round belly. I was due in a couple of months. “Is it even safe to bring your pregnant fiancée to the middle of a lake to teach her how to fish?”

He laughed. “I’m an excellent swimmer. A better swimmer than a teacher, anyway.”

The words were out of his mouth for mere moments when there was a tug on my line.

I fought the urge to start spinning the reel like crazy. “Liam! Holy shit, I think I caught something!”

He dropped his own line in the boat and came to sit by me. “Okay, easy,” he said. “Pull on the line, then reel it in a little. This is a contest of wills. It’s life and death right now.”

I grinned. “I didn’t realize it was quite so serious. I would’ve worn different shoes.”

Actually, I would’ve been happy to be wearing nothing at all. Just sitting on the second floor deck of the cabin, getting a little sun and having a cup of coffee sounded lovely at the moment. But Liam had been very excited about going out on the lake today, so here we were. Fighting a battle for life and death. And any minute now, I would meet my opponent.

The fish that broke the water couldn’t have been more than eight inches long. I was still pretty jazzed though.
My first catch!
I thought. I could get used to this whole alpha predator thing.

“We should throw him back,” Liam said.

I spun around to face him, cocking my head and lifting an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? He’s
mine
.”

Liam laughed. “Fair enough. I think I have a really tiny pan we can use. We can scale him with a pair of toenail clippers. Lunch is served! I hope you’re hungry. You
are
eating for two now, after all.” He put his strong hand on my stomach. Our son did a backflip and I winced.

Daddy’s girl. Or boy
, I thought. We weren’t sure what we were having, but we’d both agreed that we wanted to be surprised. A healthy child was all we hoped for. He or she could be a bear or…whatever the hell I was. Either way, Liam and I would love the hell out of them. And each other.

He must have seen the flash of pain on my face. “You okay?” he asked.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. Just now I know how a stage full of tap dancers feels.”

He smiled and kissed me. “You want to go back?”

“Are you kidding? You’re one fish behind. If I catch more fish than you do today, I get to be alpha. I read that somewhere.”

He laughed. “God, I love you, Allie.” He picked up his pole. “Alright then, may the best shifter win.”

“Don’t you worry about that.” I shot him a wicked smile. “She will.”

The Hunt isn't over, not by a long shot.

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