Chapter Ten #3
“You shot him!” Danny’s voice cracked, breaking on a sob. “You shot him, you fucking monster!”
“Whichello,” Isaac whispered. His eyes found Danny’s, scared and confused, the amethyst color shining behind tears.
“Isaac, stay with me. Please stay with me.” Tears blurred Danny’s vision, streaming down his face unchecked. “Please don’t die. Please.”
“He shouldn’t have gotten in the way.” Brad moved closer, gun still in hand. “None of this would’ve happened if you'd just come back to me. We were perfect together. Don’t you remember?”
Danny couldn’t stop crying, couldn’t stop shaking. Isaac’s blood was warm on his hands, sticky and wrong. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening.
“He’s dying because of you,” Brad continued, voice almost gentle. Almost loving. “But it’s okay, babe. I forgive you. We can start over. Just you and me, like it used to be.”
Isaac wasn’t moving anymore. His eyes had closed, his breathing too shallow to see.
Danny’s best friend was dead.
And it was all his fault.
Danny pressed his forehead to Isaac’s still form, sobs tearing through him that made his ribs ache.
Wetness soaked into the fabric beneath him—blood or tears or both.
His hands clutched at Isaac’s shoulders, fingers digging in like he could anchor his best friend to this world through sheer desperation.
Then Isaac’s body moved.
Not breathing. Not stirring back to consciousness. Something else entirely.
“What—” Danny’s voice caught.
Isaac’s form grew smaller. Limbs pulled inward, like Isaac’s body had settled deeper into the floor, except it hadn't. One moment Danny held his dying best friend, the next his hands cupped around something barely bigger than a house cat.
Its fur was deep auburn on top, darkening to near-black on its belly and legs. Rounded ears twitched. A bushy tail, ringed with alternating bands of red and cream, curled protectively around its body.
Danny's brain stuttered, trying to process what his eyes saw. Small paws, delicate and dark, each no bigger than Danny's thumb. A pointed snout. Black-rimmed eyes that remained closed, as if the panda was asleep.
“Isaac?” His voice came out broken, barely a whisper.
Behind him, Brad made a strangled sound. Danny didn’t turn around. Couldn’t stop staring at his best friend who’d just turned into a red panda.
* * * *
Ash’s phone buzzed against the kitchen counter. He grabbed it, reading Danny’s text once, then twice. His jaw locked tight.
At moms house. Somethin feels hinky
Aiden looked up from where he was sprawled on the couch, thumbing through his own phone. “What’s wrong?”
“We’re leaving.” Ash was already moving toward the door, grabbing his keys off the hook. “Now.”
His brother didn’t ask questions. Just stood and followed, pulling on his boots as they headed outside. They climbed into Ash’s truck, and he reversed out of the driveway faster than he probably should have.
“Where are we going?” Aiden buckled his seatbelt.
“Danny’s mom’s place.” Ash’s hands gripped the steering wheel hard enough to make his knuckles ache. Something was wrong. He could feel it in his bones, that animal instinct that had kept him alive through too many bad situations to count.
The drive took twelve minutes. Each one felt like an hour.
When they pulled onto the street, Ash’s bear stirred restlessly. Danny’s mom’s house sat in a quiet subdivision on the east side of town. Ash pulled up to the curb two houses down, cutting the engine.
“Something’s wrong,” Ash said, opening his door.
“Yeah.” Aiden climbed out, scanning the area with the same wariness Ash felt.
They approached the house on foot. Every sense Ash had was on high alert, his bear pacing beneath his skin. The front door stood closed, curtains drawn. Laura's beat-up Honda sat in the driveway, but something about the scene felt staged. Too still. Like a photograph instead of a living space.
Ash moved around the side of the house, Aiden following close behind. Parked in the back where it couldn’t be seen from the street, sat a black pickup truck.
His vision tunneled. His bear roared inside him, demanding blood. That was the truck. The same one that had run them off the road, that had nearly killed Danny. He knew it by the dent in the front bumper, the scratched paint along the driver’s side door.
Someone had tried to kill his mate. Had terrorized Danny, sent them flying off the road, left Ash unconscious and bleeding. And now that same was someone here, in Danny’s mom’s house.
His hands curled into fists. Every muscle in his body tensed, rage building so hot and fast it took everything he had to keep control. He wanted to tear the truck apart with his bare hands. Wanted to find whoever owned it and make them pay for what they’d done.
Aiden touched his shoulder, pulling him back to the moment. Ash took a breath, then another, forcing the fury down into something cold and controlled. Danny was inside. He couldn’t go charging in blind and risk his mate getting hurt or worse.
He pointed to the side door. Aiden nodded.
They moved silently across the yard.
Ash tested the doorknob. Unlocked. He eased it open, wincing when the hinges creaked softly. He paused, listening.
Nothing.
He stepped inside, Aiden right behind him.
The entryway was dim, curtains drawn against the afternoon sun.
The kitchen was empty. Clean counters, no food cooking, no signs of life.
Scents layered over each other in a way that made Ash’s bear growl.
Fear. Sweat. Something chemical and artificial, like plastic or rubber.
Ash’s nose twitched, sorting through the scents flooding his senses.
And underneath it all, a metallic tang that made his stomach clench.
Blood.
Not a lot. Not enough to suggest a massacre.
But enough to know someone had been hurt.
His bear snarled. Please, not Danny’s. His mate had already been through too much, and was finally coming out of his shell.
He was talking more, laughing a lot, and lit up Ash’s life. Trusted Ash to keep him safe.
And I might fail him.
Ash caught Aiden’s eye and held up two fingers, then pointed to his nose. Aiden’s expression went grim. He’d caught it too.
“Don’t,” his brother mouthed.
There was so much packed into that single word.
Don’t blame yourself.
Don’t spiral.
Don’t lose focus.
Don’t assume Danny is dead.
They moved like ghosts through the kitchen into a narrow hallway, heading deeper into the house, checking the rooms as they passed them.
Family photos lined the walls in mismatched frames. Danny as a kid, gap-toothed and smiling. An older girl who must’ve been Laura. Their mom, younger, happier. Normal family memories that felt obscene given what Ash was smelling.
He paused at the base of the stairs, listening. No sound from above. No footsteps, no voices, nothing. Just that same oppressive silence pressing down from every corner.
Ash signaled toward the living room. With every step the blood smell grew stronger.
They rounded the corner together, and Ash stopped dead.
A small creature lay on the floor, ringed tail curled protectively around itself. A red panda, curled on its side, auburn fur matted with blood. Isaac, the mouthy red panda who annoyed the shit out of Ash. Rage burned hot through him.
Dropping to his knees beside it, he checked for breathing. The panda’s ribs rose and fell in shallow breaths. Its heartbeat fluttered under his palm, faint but steady.
Isaac was alive, healing in his animal form. Relief engulfed Ash. Shifters healed in their animal forms, but more serious wounds took time.
Movement caught his eye. Aiden was pointing across the room, toward a door Ash hadn’t noticed before.
Ash stood slowly, inhaling deeply. He picked up Danny’s scent again, stronger now. He moved to the door and pulled it open carefully. A basement. His mate was down there.
Wooden steps descended into darkness. A single bulb hung from the ceiling below, casting weak yellow light over concrete and exposed beams.
I’m coming for you, baby. Ash would always show up for his mate. The Pull wasn’t attraction. Wasn’t chemistry. Wasn’t a flutter or spark. It was a lethal strike of lightning that electrocuted reason and burned away choice.
Nature's failsafe against extinction, designed to prevent their species from devolving into feral predators with blood-slick canines, leaving only carnage in their wake.
Mates weren’t just sacred, they were survival itself, carved into cellular memory. When Ash recognized Danny as his, his body transformed from a loaded weapon into something with purpose. The safety clicked off, aim perfected.
Threatening Danny wasn’t just crossing a line.
It was stepping willingly into a grave Ash would dig with his bare hands.
He descended the stairs, Aiden right behind him. The basement smelled like damp concrete and mildew. Unfinished walls, exposed pipes running along the ceiling. The single bulb hung from a wire, casting harsh shadows across the space. And there, in the center of it all, stood his honey bear.
He was alive. Unhurt. But his face was streaked with tears, his hands shaking at his sides.
And standing with a gun pointed directly at Danny’s was a man Ash didn’t recognize. Tall, dark-haired, handsome in the kind of way that probably made people trust him too easily.
The human didn’t flinch at the growl rumbling through Ash’s chest. He should’ve.
“It’s Brad,” Danny murmured.
Oh, the son of a bitch was definitely going to die. Rage poured through Ash, icy and controlled. His bear demanded blood. Demanded vengeance. Demanded this man’s throat between its teeth.
“Put. The gun. Down.” Ash’s voice was cold anticipation.
“Who the hell are you?” His eyes didn't blink. Neither did Ash’s.
“Someone you really don’t want to meet,” Ash warned. “Four.”
“Or what?” Brad’s smile was all teeth. “You’ll call the cops? By the time they get here, I’ll be long gone. With Danny.”
“Three.” Still as a shadow, Ash waited for him to make the first move…or mistake.
“You think you scare me?” Brad laughed. “I’ve dealt with bigger guys than you. They all folded.”
“You’ve never met someone like me,” Ash’s voice dropped even lower, barely more than a growl. “I will sign your own autopsy report in still-wet blood. Two.”
Brad’s eyes flickered. Just for a second, fear crept in. But then it was gone, replaced by that same smug confidence. “I’m the one with the gun, asshole.”
“Ash, don’t.” Danny’s voice cracked. “He'll kill you!”
“You okay, honey bear?” Ash’s grizzly was barely contained now, pushing against his skin, demanding to get out.
“My monster has a gun aimed at my head. I’m far from okay.” A laugh escaped as tears fell.
“I don’t remember giving you permission to speak.” Brad pressed the gun harder against Danny’s head. Smug didn’t even cover it. Brad was enjoying this.
“One.” The word came out like Ash was blowing a breath.
The gun went off.
Ash ducked low, rising with a shoulder slam that rattled every container on the metal shelf a few feet away. Brad swung wild.
In one vicious breath, Ash struck, fist connecting with a cheekbone, a hollow crack beneath his knuckles. He grabbed Brad’s body mid-collapse and hurled it against the concrete without a flicker of hesitation.
“I was hoping for a challenge. This is just embarrassing.” A low rumble vibrated from Ash’s chest. He grabbed Brad by his shirtfront, yanking him close.
“You tried to carve Danny from existence. Terrorized him. Shot his best friend.” Ash bared his canines.
“You should’ve never taken what wasn’t yours to take.
Your existence is an insult I intend to correct. ”
His punch caught the ribs dead center, and the collapse of cartilage under flesh had an almost gravelly snap to it, then followed up with a lethal punch to the throat, dropping Brad like a sack of regret.
Ash stood in the center of the basement, breathing hard, more from rage than exertion.
“You good?” Aiden asked. “Need me to help you work off the rest of that aggression?”
Because the fight was over before it had really started, leaving Ash with too much adrenaline. “Just need my mate,” he said, his back to them. “If he’ll still have me.”
He’d just killed a man in front of Danny, a guy who’d lived through enough violence. Ash had lost his shit seeing those tears fall. Seeing that gun pressed against his mate’s head. Once he’d thrown that first punch, his bear had taken over and Ash hadn’t thought about stopping until Brad was dead.
A hand touched his arm, the gentle touch nearly breaking Ash. Making it hard to breathe right.
“Why wouldn’t I want you?” He gazed up at Ash, honest and sweet and his.
He didn’t answer. Just wrapped his arms around his honey bear and leaned in, Danny’s scent anchoring him. “I love you, honey bear.”
The feeling had taken root in the quiet spaces between heartbeats. Trust had built a home between them, settling deep like roots finding good soil.
“I love you too.”
Ash’s eyes drifted shut as he savored the moment. This was where he belonged, with Danny in his arms, holding on with no intention of letting go.
THE END