Page 18 of Guarded By A Savage Shifter

“When Chuck Norris sees me walking down the sidewalk, he crosses the street.”

She laughs as we start walking. “Aren’t bear shifters like insanely strong?”

I flex my arm and her hazelnut eyes pop when she sees the size of my bicep.

“Looks pretty strong,” she says, breathing a little quicker. “And you heal fast too, right?”

“Yes, butyoudon’t,” I remind her. “So, let’s be on guard, okay?”

We chat as we walk through the jungle and I’m still a little in shock that this smart, beautiful, talented woman is my mate. The universe really had my back when it paired me with her.

I’ll be forever grateful.

“Where do you live?” I ask her. I want to know everything about her. Every single detail. We’ve been apart for so long and I’ve missed out on so much. I want to catch up on everything but we only have two kilometers, which is about a twenty-minute walk.

“In a small town in upstate New York,” she says. “I’m not a fan. I was hoping to land a job in Manhattan, but it’s all I could find. Where do you live?”

“Montana,” I say. “It’s where most bear shifters live. We need the space to let our bears roam around and they love the mountains.”

“I can’t wait to meet your bear,” she says as she touches her neck.

My bear grumbles at the sight of our mate touching the spot that’s destined for our mark. I so badly want to take her in my arms and sink my teeth into her flesh. I want to place my mark on her and claim her as my own. I drop my eyes to the ground instead and fight back the intense urge. Now is not the time.

I keep my eyes out for snakes, panthers, and cartel members hiding in the thick foliage as we walk, but there’s nothing.

After a while, I hear the river.

“It’s up ahead,” I tell her. “Stay close to me.”

“I’ll be fine,” she says, but she walks a little closer. I put a protective hand on her lower back as the river comes into view. There’s a motorboat parked on the shore.

I inhale deep and grit my teeth when I smell three sweaty men.

As we arrive at the empty boat, they burst out of their hiding spots, screaming and waving automatic weapons at us. I grab Gracie’s arm and pull her behind me.

“In da boat! In da boat!” the leader screams as he thrusts the barrel of the gun in my face. I’m glaring at him as he steps a little too close. I yank the gun out of his hands and toss it into the deep river.

The other two men stare in shock. I move in a blur, yanking the guns out of their hands so fast they don’t have time to react. I toss them into the river too, far enough that they’ll never get them back.

“In da boat!” the leader screams.

“Okay, okay,” Gracie says, stepping out from behind my back with a big nervous smile on her face. “No problem. We’ll get in the boat. Right, Ryker?”

I growl.

The leader pulls an eight-inch knife out of the holster on his belt and holds it up threateningly. If an automatic weapon didn’t stop me, then a knife certainly won’t.

He pulls out two blindfolds and shoves them at us. “Put on! Put on!”

Gracie goes to take one, but I grab her wrist. “We’re not putting those on.”

The guy waves the knife around and shouts. “Put on! Put on!”

He moves toward my girl, so I grab his arm and snap the bone. The knife falls from his hand as he drops to his knees, screaming in agony. The blade sinks into the ground with the handle sticking up.

“Anyone else want to try and touch my girl?” I ask, glaring at the other two. I’m still holding their leader’s broken arm, wrenching it up into an awkward position as he screams on his knees.

Gracie hops in the boat with a forced smile on her face and the other two follow her in. I stomp on the handle of the knife so hard it disappears into the moist ground, then, still clutching the leader’s arm, I walk him to the boat.

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