Page 61 of Bearing Secrets
Kirell knew now that there was no explanation. Kedd, a friend since his younger years, had betrayed House Ursa.
“Why?” he shouted, diving to the side to avoid another attack as the marauding bear charged through couches, chairs and side tables to try and get at him.
He was stalling for time, trying to figure out a way to buy himself the seven seconds or so he would need to complete his own change; trying to do so without delaying Kedd would be a death sentence.
It wouldn’t be long before the noise brought half the house down on them, but Kirell was incensed by this point. Nobody else was going to deal with this. Kedd had been his friend, and now he’d tried to kill him to cover up the evidence. Kedd didn’t know Krave had seen it as well. It wouldn’t matter one way or another now; Kedd was as good as dead.
It all came down to who would do it.
“Like hell I’m going to let you murder another loyalist,” he snarled. “You could have saved him, Kedd! Korve would still be alive. They all would.”
If Klaue and his men had gotten to the Knight’s quarters in time, the entire day would have followed a different path. The House wouldn’t be nearly in shambles, the Queen would have stepped aside, and a good man would be in charge of the House. Nobody would have questioned that legitimacy.
Instead, they were nearly ruined, and one of the prime architects of that course was trapped in the room with him.
More accurately, I’m trapped with him.
He flung himself out of the way yet again, but his luck was running out. Sooner or later Kedd would connect, and that would be it for one Kirell Ursa.
The dive roll took him square into the side of the bed. He hit the footboard and stood, gripping one of the metal poles that formed the canopy. As he felt the cool steel, he had a sudden idea. Wrenching his arm, he snapped the upright pole off, yanking it from the canopy.
Hefting it in his palm, he judged the weight, aimed, and hurled it at Kedd as the shifter slowed to turn from his previous charge. The makeshift spear sunk deep into his flank, but it didn’t slow the enraged shifter.
Kirell hadn’t stopped there, though. He pulled the frame apart as fast as he could and flung piece after piece at Kedd, turning him into a porcupine. Eventually, the bear stopped to deal with the five lengths of metal protruding from his side, giving Kirell the time he needed.
With a satisfied growl, he forced the change on his own body. Normally, he didn’t look forward to the pain that came as his body awkwardly reshaped itself, breaking bones and realigning joints, but this time he relished it, craved it. Because with it came the power that only a shifter possessed.
The bears of House Ursa were unlike anything seen on the earth. They were leaner than their wild cousins, packed with more muscle, and nearly one and a half times larger as well. They were killing machines, built for the war in which they’d earned their right to exist over fifteen hundred years earlier.
Kirell bellowed with rage as he completed the transformation, charging at Kedd just as the last pole came free from his body. The two bears collided with bone-jarring force, and the entire wing of the house jumped when they slammed into the concrete-reinforced wall.
More furniture shattered as Kedd recovered and shoved him backward. Kirell crashed through a desk and flattened a wardrobe against the wall, the solid wood construction simply disintegrating into tiny pieces, many of which embedded themselves in his skin.
He ducked a swiping paw, slicing upward with his own as he recovered, the six-inch claws cutting deep into Kedd’s skin, drawing blood. He felt the warm liquid flow down his paw, matting the fur with its stickiness.
Shouts were audible in the hallway now, but he didn’t care. This was his fight, and he wasn’t about to let anyone else interfere.
Jaws clamped down on his side and with a vicious shake of his head, Kedd tore a chunk from just in front of Kirell’s left paw. Kirell roared in pain and charged straight forward, bowling his foe onto his back. He didn’t follow though, watching as the hind legs of the straw-colored bear ripped through the space that his stomach would have occupied if he’d gone to the ground as well.
It was reflex on Kedd’s part, but because Kirell had anticipated it in his attack, it left Kedd vulnerable. The claws on Kirell’s other paw whipped across the backs of the legs, digging deep and severing tendons and muscles as they emerged out the other side, hamstringing Kedd badly.
The fight was over now; it was only a matter of time. They both knew that. Kedd shifted back to human form as Kirell watched, crawling his way across the room, trying to put space between them. Trying to delay the inevitable.
Kirell switched as well, acutely aware that not all the pain he was feeling was from the shifting process. His side pulsed with pain and blood ran down his side from the wound.
“Who are you working with?” he snarled, shunting the pain to a different part of his mind, one that would acknowledge it later. “Tell me!”
He kicked Kedd hard from behind, sprawling his former friend flat on the floor. Putting his knee into Kedd’s back, Kirell grabbed the man’s hair and yanked his neck backward painfully.
“Tell me,” he growled, his mouth no more than a foot away.
Kedd still didn’t say anything.
Hating himself for it, Kirell slammed a fist into a specific spot on Kedd’s arched back. Bone snapped and the lower half of his body went limp.
“Tell me now. I know you’re not working alone. Who is it?”
Kedd just spat in his general direction, as close as he could get with Kirell controlling his head.
