Page 1 of Grizzly's Bear

Prologue

Rissa Montgomery came awake with a scream already breaching her lips. Her entire body felt ablaze with fire, from the inside out. Memories crashed in, along with the swell of pain. She’d been on Holloway land. She should have been safe there. She’d been cockily assured hunters never trespassed on Holloway land. But they had. They’d trespassed and taken her. And she hadn’t been alone. Ariel had been with her. The cat shifter Rissa had decided to claim as her friend. She did her best to look around, searching for the other woman, but her vision was limited by the table she’d been tied down on, as well as the blood flowing freely over her face.

“Glad you could join us again.”

The comment was followed by a hard punch to her ribs. One that robbed her of the air needed to launch another scream. Three more punches and she was wheezing as she struggled to breathe. They didn’t stop. Blows rained down over her. No part of her unclothed body was safe. Hard hands punched and pinched and slapped. Her screams tapered down to whimpers before the beating stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

“Who the hell is this?”

“You asked for a brunette and a blonde. Here’s your brunette. Blonde’s in the other room.”

She heard the clip of boots as the man who’d been beating her moved away from her. It was a voice she recognized. One she last recalled giving the order to load them up. A reference to throwing her and Ariel into the back of a truck after they’d been shot with drugged darts that left them both completely immobile on the ground. Now, Rissa knew Ariel was in the other room. Hopefully, her new friend was still out and not being subjected to the same type of torture Rissa was.

Hunters on Holloway land. Slade had assured her that would never happen. She’d always be safe on his family’s land. She should have known better. She wasn’t safe anywhere. Not since the attacks that had left her pride in Washington split asunder. Her alpha had been killed, along with many of their top enforcers. In the aftermath, too many of them had gone their separate ways. Rissa and her brother, Adam, had eventually left the splintering pack, as well. Adam had pulled her away and guarded her like the overprotective brother he was. Every day, she thanked God her brother hadn’t been with the alpha and other members of their den during the attack. It had been a perfectly planned ambush that had resulted in the deaths of numerous members of their den. Including Jack. The man who’d wanted to mate her. The man she’d sent to his death.

“I asked for a specific brunette! A specific blonde! This thing is of no use to me. Another worthless bear. I have more of those females than I’ll ever need for my experiments.”

The snapped words brought Rissa’s attention back to the room surrounding her. The labored breaths of the men staring at her, fingers flexing in obvious anticipation of getting their hands on her again. She knew she had broken ribs, as well as deep tissue bruising. Her bear was shut off from her. Obviously, there’d been a suppressant in one of the darts they’d hit her with.

“Then come up with some new experiments,” the man from the woods replied. “I know there are all kinds of devious things in that scheming mind of yours, Doc. But you do what you want. Keep her. Don’t keep her. Hell, we can gut her right here if you want.”

Rissa refused to focus on the last comment. Doc had to be Talbot. He was the reason Ariel and her mate and the ones with them had stopped at the Holloways. The reason the man in the helicopter had stopped in. She thought his name was Tony. None of that mattered. Talbot had others like her. Probably some of the missing females from the Holloway pride. They’d been attacked, as well. That mattered. She needed to find out exactly where the other female bear shifters were being kept, and what Dr. Talbot was putting them through.

God, she hated these bastards. Murderers, every one of them. What had she ever done to them? Hell, she’d likely never met any of them. Yet they hated her merely because she existed. Hated her and everyone of her species.

There were two bear packs, neither knowing the other existed. At least as far as she knew. Yet both had been attacked by hunters. She didn’t want to remember the strike against her pack. She’d lived through it and lost a piece of herself with Jack’s death. Better to focus on her new pack. The Holloways. Their alpha had been drawn away and killed alone. His body had been returned to them by a cat shifter.

Then while they’d been mourning, strategic attacks had happened, targeting the females of the pride. Females they’d feared dead. But they weren’t. Not all of them. And Dr. Talbot’s words made her think he had several of them hidden away in one of his torture chambers. If she could lead the Holloways to some of those missing bears, she might earn her place in their pride and prove herself worthy of a man like Slade Holloway. She wanted to be worthy.

“Let me check on the other one.” The man from the woods walked away again. She heard the clip of his boots on the tiles.

Talbot mumbled to himself, and she tried to discern what he was saying. He was quiet, though. Too quiet. Or more likely there was something wrong with her hearing. She’d probably taken one too many blows to the head, and it was fucking with her senses.

“What do you say? Should we go ahead and gut you? Or have some more fun first?” This voice was hard and cold, and Rissa glimpsed eyes black as coal. The hunter held up a short, squat club. It was metallic, and from the way he held it, appeared to have weight to it. “My vote is for more fun. I’ve been wanting to try this one out. Aren’t you the lucky one.”

He raised the club and brought it down on Rissa’s thigh, and while the scream was still building in her chest, he struck a second time. Her scream was high and shrill as she felt the bone give. Her ribs cracked under the next swing.

“This one’s awake now. Want me to start on her?”

They were going to hurt Ariel. Hurt her the way they were Rissa, and there was nothing she could do to save her. There was nothing she could do but scream.

“Shut her up!”

Rissa was just beginning to come to grips with the fact she was going to die when the weapon was raised again. She watched as if in slow motion as it arced down toward her head.

Slade.

He was her last thought before darkness took her.

Chapter One

Four weeks later…

Slade Holloway sat in the darkened room, eyes closed while he listened to Rissa breathe. Hibernation. That’s what his brother Jensen told him. Her body was recovering from the brutality she’d received at the hands of hunters. Most of whom were dead. Only one still lived. Talbot. One of the nastiest members of the hunter scourge trying to wipe shifters off the face of the earth. Slade would have gladly ripped out the sick son-of-a-bitch’s throat, also.

For the rest of his life, he’d never forget running into that cold room and finding Rissa stripped naked and pinned to a table. Blood had covered every inch of her. Her face had been grossly distorted from the hits she’d taken. Bones broken. Skin mottled and bruised beneath the flow of blood. So much fucking blood he’d feared he’d already lost her.

“Whatever you’re thinking, knock it off, or take yourself elsewhere,” Jensen commanded as he stepped inside the cabin he used as a clinic and began to assess Rissa.

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