Page 5 of Corbin
Before Corbin could argue another word, a bull of a man stepped from the shack with a rope in his hand. The other end was tied around the waist of a skinny young woman. She looked more like sixteen than nineteen as stated on the report.
She limped on a bad ankle or a broken foot. Her ripped pale-yellow shirt and dirty white shorts showed the least of her mistreatment. She’d lost her shoes. Blond hair tangled with sticks and leaves fell to her shoulders. Scratches ran down her arms, some with dried blood.
The bear shifter dragged her to a tree and tied the rope around it, leaving little slack.
She yanked back and cried, “Let me go. He’s wrong. My father paid. I know he did.”
Ah hell. No, her father had not paid because he had expected Adrian’s team to save his daughter before the payment was due. Even if he had paid, the kidnappers would have killed her.
“No, he didn’t, bitch. You humans think you’re smarter than a shifter. He’s going to find out what happens for lying to Dagger.” He yanked off his gray T-shirt and started unbuckling his belt—a true wacko who spoke of himself in third person.
She fell to her knees, hands clawing at the rope. “Please don’t do this.”
Come on, Ares. We can’t let him rape her.
You let me kill him?
Son of a bitch. Ares would pull that card now. Corbin said,Let me have the body so I can shoot him with the dart gun.He might have to give in to Ares if this went on too long.
Ares grumbled,Asshole.
The shift came hard and fast again. Corbin ground his teeth through the pain and got ready to act. The moment he had human arms and legs, he dug the gun from the pack. It already had a dart chambered, and he grabbed a second one.
Cursing the whole time, the bear shifter shucked his jeans, leaving him naked.
The woman’s wild eyes dropped to Dagger’s groin area. She screamed a gut-wrenching sound.
Just as naked, Corbin ran out and ordered, “Stop!”
That froze the bear shifter long enough for Corbin to get a shot into his rump, the only part of that body that didn’t look carved from a tree trunk.
Corbin ejected the dart and jammed a second one in as the bear shifter turned on him and started changing. Shit. He pointed at the man’s neck and discharged the gun again. Luck was with him. The shot struck true.
A black bear, Dagger lifted his hand with claws ready to slash, stood a moment, then slid down to his knees. His eyes rolled up, and he fell forward.
Corbin wanted to help the woman, but she’d been terrified already, and he’d make it worse heading over with all his male glory hanging out.
He called over, “Give me a minute and I’ll free you.”
Every pack also held a few medical supplies and an extra-large black T-shirt for the female. Jaz had prepared Adrian’s team for the possibility that the victim might be in any condition. Rushing, Corbin snatched a pair of loose warm-up pants, stepped into them, and then ran to the woman.
She stared at him open-mouthed. Okay, she was in shock. He had to go slowly. “I won’t hurt you. I’m here to save you.”
Then she started shaking her head and talking between sobs. “There’s ... there’s ... another—”
A much deeper roar shook the air, then a massive brute with thick brown hair hanging to his shoulders and a bushy beard to his chest stomped out of the cabin.
This guy looked at the shifter on the ground, who might not be Dagger after all, then pointed at Corbin. “You’re dead.”
With his next blink, the kidnapper began shifting into a ... grizzly. Of course.
No time to get another dart. Corbin shed his warm-up pants, telling his wolf,Showtime, Ares. You’re off the leash.Do what you want to him.Adrian’s people would have the other shifter to interrogate.
Ares and Corbin could shift as quickly as that bear when they worked together, but multiple shifts were beginning to strain them.
The grizzly stood on his hind legs and let out a furious roar. That might be the last sound Corbin and Ares heard before this monster cut them to pieces with sharp claws longer than Corbin’s human fingers.
Ares stood six feet at the point where his thick neck met a wide pair of muscular shoulders. He snarled a vicious sound. Corbin had been going deep into the woods on the pack compound to let Ares run so the others wouldn’t see the abomination he kept hidden. His wolf stood a head taller than any wolf shifter he’d ever seen in animal form.
