Page 2 of His to Protect
“Then that is what youmust do. I will go east. No, Ata.” He barreled on when it lookedlike she would interrupt him. “If Grandmother told you to go north,then that is where you must go. You know as well as I do, messageswe receive from the spiritual realm are sent to us for a reason. Ifwe don’t do what is asked of us, we risk losing the future that isdestined to us. And that future will be retrieving what was stolenfrom our family, and allowing our Nanny-ma to rest inpeace.”
He deliberately used the childhoodname they had for their grandmother, and from the way Ata seemed tostand a little taller and draw strength into herself he knew it hadbeen the right thing to say. Kaea felt a deadly calm fall over himas he thought of what was to come. He had never killed anyonebefore, but knew he had the heart to do it, and this prick deservedit. He had taken someone from Ata and him, and robbed them ofhaving her in their life for years to come. Worse than that, he didit to steal something from her, something so precious to Maori thathe was already on the pathway to an afterlife of eternaldamnation.
Kaea felt it was his right and hisgoddamn privilege to set the fucker on that path as soon as bloodypossible.
Chapter Two
Kaea forced himself not tomove when a cramp struck in his lower leg.Son of a bitch!He tensed his toesforward and back in a weak attempt to release the cramp and end thepain. He was lying beneath a rocky ledge, overlooking a river onthe east side of the Uwharrie National Park, stalking his prey. Ithad taken him almost five weeks to get this close to his ultimategoal, and he wasn’t going to let something like a leg cramp fuck itup for him.
He kept his eye level to the scope ofhis rifle, the crosshairs never wavering off the man who strodethrough the forest on the opposite side of the river like hefucking owned it. Kaea figured because the man was Clarkson Gray,and Alpha of the bear clan that called these woods home, heprobably did. Kaea took a deep breath, holding it as he moved hisfinger from the guard and slid it over the trigger itself as hereadied to take his shot.
Just then, the earth seemed to shudderbeneath him, and he stilled as the night filled with furious roarsand snarls. Heart racing, he moved his rifle to scan the oppositeside of the river. His jaw dropped, and his heart raced as Kaeawatched two large brown bears thunder out of the forest, headingstraight for Clarkson.
“Fuck!” Kaea whispered ashe pulled back from the scope. He didn’t need it to watch as twohalf ton bears ran at a surprisingly fast pace towards their Alpha.He wasn’t so sure that if he were to take Clarkson out now thathe’d be able to get away. Those two big friends of his would be onhis ass quicker than—
His thoughts were interrupted byClarkson’s roar of rage that morphed into the snarl of his own ashe seemed to explode into his own bear. He was larger than othertwo, darker in color, and then the three of them slammed into eachother. The fight that broke out among them was like nothing Kaeahad ever experienced before in his entire life. The sounds weresomething that he was sure would haunt his nightmares, but thesavagery of each swing, each swipe, each bite was terrifying. Fromthe way they were ripping and tearing at each other, using theirmassive claws to cause maximum damage, it was clear to him that hisassumption that the three were friends was premature.
The two brown bears must have foughttogether before as they seemed to time their attacks, coming atClarkson from different sides, at different times to hold theadvantage. Kaea wanted to see the Alpha suffer, to see him bleed.Even though he wasn’t the one dishing out the punishment, he wasabsolutely enjoying every moment of it.
Soon though, it was obvious thatdespite the unfair odds, Clarkson was more than holding his own. Hewas bleeding the others just as regularly as they were him, and nowtheir attacks were not as synchronized. It was no wonder he wasAlpha.
In a stunning display ofaggression and strength, Clarkson pushed up with both front legspressed against the chest of one of the brown bears. He lifted,pushing with his strong back legs, and he was able to slam theunfortunate bear against the hard trunk of a tree beside them. Kaeawinced at the loudcrackthat sounded loud in the night. Wood splinteringon impact? Or something in the bear? He wasn’t too sure. All heknew was that the brown bear didn’t get back up.
Now that it was one on one, it didn’tlast much longer. Clarkson ended the final brown bear with his jawslocked tight around his throat. Soon the brown bear stoppedstruggling, as if it had given in to the inevitable, and was simplywaiting for his life to end. A few minutes later, the black bearfinally lifted his head, throwing it back and roaring. Kaea’s heartbeat a little faster at the sound, and he frowned. It wasn’t whathe thought it would be.
Where he expected there to be victory,perhaps with an edge of satisfaction, there was pain. Deep pain andsorrow. So much of it, Kaea actually felt his heart kick at thesound. Frowning, he watched as Clarkson stepped back from thefallen bear, his large head hung low as if the loss were too much,and he simply didn’t have the strength to hold it up. He lumberedaway from the carnage, and Kaea could hear deep chuffing soundscoming from the massive bear.
Again, an echoing pain rocked Kaeafrom deep within, but he pushed it aside. He’d spent five weeksfollowing the clues to find the man who’d killed his Nanny-ma, andhe sure as shit was not going to stop now. Determined, he pushed toone knee, lifting his rifle to his shoulder, and leveling his gazeto the scope.
Clarkson must have seen the momentbecause he stopped moving, his huge head swinging in Kaea’sdirection. He knelt like that for a long moment, his gaze locked toClarkson’s as a bear, and then in a strange shimmering wave oflight, suddenly the man himself. Clarkson’s expression was purechallenge. An Alpha, standing bathed in the blood of his own clan,daring Kaea to take the shot. Almost begging him to end him, andthat gave Kaea pause. With what Clarkson had stolen from hisgrandmother, he would not welcome death, not like this.
“Do it.”
Kaea froze. There was no mistaking thetone in Clarkson’s voice. He really did want to die.
“Pull the fucking trigger,asshole, and do us both a favor, because if you don’t then I willend you. Boy, you better aim for the head or the heart becauseanything but a kill shot is simply going to push my body tally tothree for the night. You think I give a shit about some bastard Idon’t know holding a gun on me?”
Kaea pushed to stand, but neverlowered his weapon. “You think I won’t?” Clarkson seemed to jolt onhis feet, and he stumbled back a step. “I came here for one reason,and one reason only, and that’s to end you, Clarkson.”
Clarkson frowned, his gaze turningeven more intense. “Who are you?”
Kaea felt his anger spike. WasClarkson not taking his threat as real?
He stepped forward, moving out furtherinto the moonlight, standing on the riverbank, with only theexpanse of the river between them. “I’m the grandson of the womanyou murdered in cold blood. The woman you killed to steal from herthe very essence of who she was to give you the strength you neededto take this fucking clan!”
Clarkson’s frown turned to an iratescowl, and the noises coming from deep within his chest made itclear to Kaea that his bear was close to the surface, but Kaea wasbeyond caring.
“That woman never hurtanyone in her life, and you took her from me. You wanted to beAlpha so fucking badly, Clarkson. I hope you enjoyed it for theshort fucking time you got to be one, because all of that endsnow!”
Kaea raised his rifle, just as theother man started sprinting in his direction, so fast he was almosta blur. As the rifle met his shoulder, Clarkson erupted into hisbear once more, a savage snarl that morphed into a roar ofchallenge as the massive beast slammed through the river as if itwere no barrier at all. The bear moved faster than anything thatsize had a right to, and Kaea didn’t have much time to sight histarget, but as he was so much closer than he had expected, Kaeafigured he’d be hard pressed to miss from this distance, and hepulled the trigger.
He managed to get three shots offbefore the fucker got to him, ramming into him with the force of afreight train, knocking him to the ground. Light exploded behindhis eyes as his head made contact with something hard behind him,and darkness began to bleed into his vision from theside.
Kaea heard Clarkson gruntand the sound of bones cracking and knew the man was shifting backinto his human form. He tried to move, to lift his hand, to defendhimself somehow, but he couldn’t get anything to move right. Inthat moment, Kaea knew he had failed. His grandmother’swairuawas lost to themforever, and he was about to die at the hand of her murderer. Tearsbegan to fall from the corner of his eyes as he thought aboutAtaahua. He was leaving her alone.
“Arohamai, my sister,” he whispered,“forgive me.”
Then the darkness that had threatenedbegan to close in, and he gave himself willingly over to it. Itmight have been his imagination, but as he fell into the abyss, hefelt the man drop to his knees beside him. Surely the words Kaeaheard the man utter were a lie.
