Page 6 of Combust
“Aw, shit.” Cade couldn’t believe this guy.Who the fuck shifts in the middle of a crowded parking lot on a Friday night?
“Andrew! Stop it!” the woman pleaded. “We’re inpublic!”
“Shut up, you bossy—” Andrew growled at her in reply. His handsome features were already distorting into a dark-furred muzzle that changed his last words into bestial grunts.
As Cade gaped at Andrew’s shocking disrespect, his prisoner lunged forward. The sudden increase in the other’s body mass threw Cade off balance.
The woman let out a surprised exclamation and stumbled backwards, out of the bear’s path.
Rage flowed through Cade, followed by the intense prickling sensation of impending shift.
Protect her!For the first time in a very long time, Cade realized that he couldn’t control his shift. Not that he wanted to.
Fine. If Stuffed Shirt here wants to start a fight, I’m gonna end it.
* * *
Maggie watched in horror as Andrew and the stranger completed their shifts. Scraps of their torn jeans, shirts, and other clothing lay scattered on the rutted gravel.
Roaring, two huge adult male grizzlies rose on their hind legs. Giant paws tipped with long curving claws lashed out. White fangs gleamed in the moonlight.
One of the bears had several large hairless patches over his back and sides.
Who the hell is that guy?She flashed on the brawny arm that had broken Andrew’s grip on her, and the flash of intricate tattoos emerging from a shirtsleeve. She hadn’t gotten a good look at the stranger’s bearded face before everything went to hell.
“What on earth is—” Kymberlie Tringstad, the wolf shifter who owned Hair of the Dog, burst through the door of the club.
She caught sight of the battling bears, and skidded to a halt at the edge of the parking lot.
“Ohhellno.” Her long blonde hair slid over her shoulders as she glared at the combatants.
Behind her, some of the club’s other patrons emerged, clearly curious to see what was going on. Malia and the rest of Maggie’s friends were among them.
Phones appeared as out-of-towners eagerly began filming the fight.
Maggie’s evening had just gone from bad to worse. People would be talking about this fordays, and here she was, right in the midst of it all.
The existence of shapeshifters was an open secret in Bearpaw Ridge. But still, it was unheard-of for anyone to lose control in public like this. Starting at an early age, Maggie had been taught to keep her bear-half under tight control, and to only allow it to emerge when she was safely out of sight of any Ordinary humans.
“Everyone, get back inside!” Kymberlie ordered the assembled onlookers. “And stay there until Animal Control says it’s safe to leave. I’m extending Happy Hour until then.”
Amid scattered cheers and a few groans of disappointment at being forced to stop filming, the club’s patrons reluctantly returned to the safety of the club.
Malia threw Maggie a wide-eyed look that promised lots of questions later, and followed the others.
As Malia turned to go, Maggie overheard her cousin earnestly explaining to a couple of the out-of-towners that the bears were probably fighting over access to the club’s dumpsters. “They’re trying to fatten up as much as possible before hibernation…”
The rest of her words were cut off as the club’s door closed behind the small group.
Meanwhile, the two enraged male bears continued their battle, apparently oblivious to the attention they’d attracted.
When all of the onlookers had vanished, Kymberlie asked Maggie. “Are you okay, hon?”
“I’m fine,” Maggie assured the club’s owner.
She told herself that it was true.Mostly.
What was Andrew planning to do?She couldn’t deny that she was simultaneously shocked and relieved by the stranger’s intervention.
