Page 106 of Bear Facts

The strange power inside began to tell her exactly how to fight him. At the same time, it needled her that she and Rolf turning against each other was wrong. They were supposed to work together to battle a common foe, like the Guards had done in the old times. Like Matt and Kyle did now.

She understood now why Matt was distressed that Freya and Rolf were at odds, why he’d said, This isn’t right.

Join me, Freya shouted at Rolf. Let me make you yourself again, and we’ll go out for pizza.

I’m done with normal, Rolf snarled. Not going back to my humdrum, pretend-to-be-human life, and I’m not going to a Shiftertown.

Then I gotta trounce you, bro.

Rolf’s acerbic laughter rang in her head. You can try.

He renewed his attack, and Freya was hard-pressed to beat him off. She started to feel real worry. Freya had won half her matches against Rolf when they were growing up, but she’d lost half of them too.

She feinted right to go left, but Rolf anticipated the move, and they went down in a scrum of fur and claws. Freya couldn’t suppress a yelp of pain as his giant paw landed in her spine.

Rolf had always let up when he’d hurt her, but not this time. He pressed his advantage, hurling her hard into the stone floor.

Another wolf, this one glowing and snarling, abruptly landed on top of Rolf. Matt, younger but far more comfortable with his power, pulled Rolf off Freya and lit into him.

Rolf snapped at Matt with his powerful jaws, but Matt was fearless, not worrying about damaging this wolf who had hurt his friends.

Freya leapt back into the fight before Rolf could hurt the cub. She got her teeth into Rolf’s throat and squeezed, not to taste blood but to cut off his breath. Rolf scrabbled to throw her off, and Matt beat on him with massive paws.

Rolf fought like the crazy feral he was, but Freya didn’t loosen her hold. After a few long moments, he started to gasp for breath.

With a sudden heave, Rolf jerked himself from Freya, spraying blood over her as her teeth scraped open his skin. Rage burned in his glowing eyes. He bowled through Matt and charged at Freya, primed to kill.

Freya met him, but Rolf’s momentum sent her down, and she found herself crushed under his weight. She fought and bit, and Matt clawed at him, but Rolf had lost all sanity. Any ties to Freya had been torn away by the feral in him.

Rolf opened his jaws and went for the killing blow.

Abruptly Rolf was torn away from Freya, lifted high into the air by a huge grizzly-man with as much fury in his eyes, but plenty of sanity too. Shane lifted Rolf high into the air and hurled him through two Felines who’d sprung to help him and into the stone wall.

Freya, released, gasped for breath.

Shane crouched down and laid a hand on her side. “You all right, sweetheart?”

Freya drew another breath, this one more solid, and the hurts Rolf had caused started to fade as the mate bond inside her sang.

I will be, she said, her words shaky. I think.

Matt was cub-sized again. No nimbus burned around him—he was just a little wolf gazing at Freya with big, scared eyes.

Shane hoisted Freya to her feet, steadying her until she could stand on her own again. Matt climbed to Shane’s shoulder and clung to him hard.

“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Shane advised.

In the corner, Rolf, human again, snatched up a rifle, one that shot bullets, not tranqs. He quickly lifted it and aimed it at Shane and Freya.

There was nothing between them and the gun, nowhere to hide. Rolf’s eyes held no mercy.

He never had the chance to fire. The steel door next to him was ripped open and flung aside, hitting Rolf and spinning the gun from his hands.

A huge Tiger-beast strode through the door and turned his great head to stare at a Feline who’d instantly plugged him with a tranq dart. The tiger-man pulled the dart from his striped side, grabbed the tranq rifle, and ripped it in half. Then he picked up the rifle Rolf crawled for and tore it into pieces as well.

One blow from the tiger sent Rolf to the floor, insensible, where he lay still.

Another man with dark hair touched with gray entered behind the tiger, his hard eyes taking in the position of every Shifter in the room. After him came Diego, a tranq rifle at the ready, and Xav with a handgun.

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