Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
CHARLOTTE
Istood in the clearing with my feet rooted to the ground. My limbs were numb. A shadow hung over my mind like an inky cloud.
Around me, chaos reigned. Bears and humans clashed. Blood sprayed across the snow. Screams split the air. None of it touched me. I was wrapped in cotton, distant and untethered. The memory of the master’s voice lingered in the black, formless cloud.
Stand still and keep quiet.
Do as you’re told.
Two of his favorite phrases. The master liked it when I was quiet.
But did I…like it?
The cloud swirled, flashes of light penetrating the shadows. Then a roar shattered the fog.
My head turned without permission. A massive brown bear fell to the ground twenty feet away, blood pumping from a gash in its side. The crimson pooled beneath its body and steamed in the cold air.
Dr. Henry stood over the beast, fangs bared and dripping red. Blood splattered his white lab coat. His eyes glowed like chips of ice.
I looked at the bear, and my breath caught. Light flashed in my mind. Something fluttered in my chest. A spark ignited.
The bear’s silver eyes met mine.
Beck.
My heart slammed against my ribs. Heat spread through my body, racing along my limbs and burning away the shadows. The spark became a flame. The flame became an inferno.
Light burst in my mind.
I screamed, falling to my knees as something shattered inside my skull with a crack that shook my bones. The snake in my mind thrashed once, twice, then dissolved into ash.
Heat blazed under my skin. My love for Beck roared through my head like a tidal wave, its cool, clean water sweeping away Dr. Henry’s control.
The blood bond couldn’t endure under the force of the mate bond.
My mind cleared, the black cloud rolling away. Gasping, I dragged air into my lungs. Cold and crisp, it burned until my eyes watered and my nose started to run. My breath puffed in front of my face. Pain shot up my legs. Other aches bloomed here and there. My fingers were bright red from the cold.
But I was free. And now, I had to help Beck.
I scrambled to my feet, my leggings soaked to the knee. A short distance away, Beck and Dr. Henry circled each other. Beck shook his massive head, sending blood flying from the thick ruff around his neck.
With a roar, Dr. Henry lunged for him, but Beck lunged at the same moment, and they crashed to the snow in a tangle of fur and limbs.
Their roars shook the ground. Blood sprayed. Beck raked his claws across Dr. Henry’s chest, tearing fabric and flesh. Henry flipped them over so he straddled Beck. His wounds healed quickly, and he pummeled Beck with crushing blows, his fists swinging so quickly they raised a hum in the air.
Beck roared, spinning so Dr. Henry crashed toward the ground.
Dr. Henry twisted before he hit the snow, his movements a blur.
A second later, he was behind Beck with bared fangs.
Dr. Henry punched Beck in the back of the head.
Bone crunched. Beck jerked, his roar of pain reverberating around the clearing.
I couldn’t get between them. Not without being crushed or torn apart.
Around me, other bears grappled with humans I didn’t recognize.
The humans’ eyes glowed, and they fought with strength and speed no ordinary person possessed.
They were members of Dr. Henry’s stable, as Beck had called it.
That meant they were addicted to Dr. Henry’s blood and compelled to do his bidding.
Dr. Henry’s words echoed in my head. His compulsion hadn’t robbed me of my hearing, and I’d absorbed everything he said as he taunted Beck.
Shifter blood combined with CRISPR technology…
You’re more likely to be willing participants in my experiments…
Her cubs will undoubtedly prove useful…
My stomach lurched. I couldn’t let him run experiments on Beck or our children.
I whirled toward the work tables covered in monitors and microscopes. A centrifuge spun. Collection tubes stood in neat rows, waiting to be filled. The CRISPR machine gleamed in the utility truck’s headlights.
I ran to the nearest table, grabbed a laptop, and smashed it into the machine.
Glass shattered. Lights winked out, but a few remained steady.
Gritting my teeth, I swung again. Sparks flew.
I grabbed a second laptop and smashed it into a rack of vials.
Glass crunched. Clear liquid splattered the snow.
“Stop her!” Dr. Henry’s voice cut through the noise. He battled Beck, who backed him against a tree.
Two figures broke away from the fighting and sprinted toward me. One was a petite woman with glowing yellow eyes. The other was a hulking blond man whose muscles strained against his black jacket. Both moved with inhuman speed.
I snatched up a metal stand and brandished it like a baseball bat.
The woman reached me first. She lunged, her fingers curled into claws.
At the last second, I spun away, and air whistled past my head as the woman staggered past me.
A second later, a bear rounded the utility truck and tackled the woman to the ground.
She screamed, eyes rolling as the bear slashed her throat.
A mix of triumph and revulsion seared my chest.
A growl made me swing to the right. The blond man leapt a pile of smashed equipment, his red-rimmed eyes focused on me.
I lifted the stand.
He laughed, displaying blood-stained teeth. “You smell like a bear. Like a little bitch in heat.”
My insides trembled. The pole slipped in my hands, which had grown sweaty. He charged forward, and I swung hard.
The man caught the pole and wrenched it from my grasp. I stumbled backward, slipping on the snow and landing hard on my ass. Glass crunched beneath me. Pain shot up my spine.
With another mocking laugh, the man reached for me.
I dug my heels into the ground and tried to scuttle backward.
My vision filled with red-rimmed eyes and blood-stained teeth.
Crying out, I flailed in the snow, trying to get my feet under me.
My fingers closed around something hard and solid. I swung.
Light arced across the man’s face.
He shrieked, spinning away. Smoke rose from a searing wound across his face and neck. His face twisted in agony as he clawed at his burning flesh.
Scrambling to my feet, I stared at the device I’d plucked from the snow. It was a handheld ultraviolet disinfection wand. The light was powerful enough to kill bacteria and sterilize equipment.
Powerful enough to burn vampires—and humans on the edge of becoming vampires.
The man swung back to me with a snarl. Flesh melted down his face, exposing the bone of his eye socket. “You’re going to pay for that, cunt.”
“Not if I make you pay first,” I said, pointing the wand at him.
Concentrated light splashed his face. He screamed, his lips peeling back and becoming pinkish liquid.
They ran down his face as he continued screaming.
Embers spread beneath his skin, glowing orange as the top of his coat merged with his flesh.
He burst into flames, his screams abruptly silenced. He fell to his knees and stayed upright for one terrifying second. Then he crashed to his side. The snow snuffed the flames, but smoke rolled from the top of his head.
Around the clearing, the other humans stopped fighting. Horror covered their faces as they stared at the smoking corpse.
Cal—his light fur distinctive among the bears—ripped into the human he grappled with.
I swung the wand toward them, and light slanted across the man’s arm.
He shrieked, stumbling. Smoke poured from his sleeve.
Cal closed his mouth around the man’s throat.
Bone crunched, and the man sagged in Cal’s jaws.
Surging forward, I shone the light on the man’s dangling body. He convulsed once, then went still as flames consumed him.
Dr. Henry swung away from Beck, fury contorting his features. But something else lurked beneath the rage.
Fear.
He was two thousand years old. But I held the sun.
Hefting the wand, I found the dial and cranked the intensity to full power. The light gleamed white, distorting the air around it. Darting around broken glass, I ran toward Dr. Henry with the wand held high.
“No!” he shouted.
I swung the beam over him.
He hissed, throwing up a hand to shield himself. His sleeve began to smoke.
Beck roared, saliva dripping from his jaws. Dr. Henry turned and tried to run. Beck slashed a massive paw down, his claws raking over Dr. Henry’s back. Four deep gashes opened. Immediately, blood soaked his lab coat.
Dr. Henry stumbled.
I advanced, keeping the light trained on him. His skin blistered where the beam touched. His coat burst into flames. He fell to his knees as he screamed, the sound scaling higher.
It pierced my ears, but I gritted my teeth and kept walking as I let the light engulf his body.
He fell to his stomach. Beck roared and stepped on his back. A sickening crunch split the air as Dr. Henry’s spine gave way. His scream cut off. Blood bubbled from between his lips.
Beck snorted. Shifted his weight and lifted his paw, only to bring it down on Dr. Henry’s skull.
The crunch was wet and final.
But Beck didn’t stop. He kept going, crushing and grinding until there was nothing left but pulp and bone fragments scattered across the red-stained snow.
Silence fell over the clearing.
The other humans fled into the forest. Bears pursued them. A moment later, roars echoed through the trees.
The disinfection wand slipped from my fingers and plopped in the snow.
Beck shifted in a blaze of blue light. Then he was on me, his strong arms gathering me against his bare chest. Blood slicked my cheek, and I squirmed until he loosened his grip.
“You’re hurt!” I cried, touching a gash on his neck.
“It’s nothing.” His voice was raspy, his shoulder a mangled, bloody mess, but his silver eyes were steady.
He cupped my cheek with a warm hand. “You saved the clan,” he said in a voice rough with emotion. “You are so fucking brave.”
Tears burned my throat. “I’m not. I—”
“You absolutely are.” Beck’s silver eyes brightened, and I realized he fought back tears. He dragged his thumb over my bottom lip as he pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re everything. More than I deserve. But I’m keeping you.”
A watery laugh burst from me. The clan surrounded us, Cal and Everett in human form. Dmitri and Ilya had also shifted, and they smiled as they wiped blood from their beards. Others joined us, joy shining in their eyes.
The same emotion soared in my mind. We’d won.
Beck beamed down at me, love shining in his eyes. “It’s over,” he said. “You’re safe now.”
A lump formed in my throat, relief and love building in equal measure. I nodded.
“Take me home.”