Page 41 of Dr. Bear's Mate

Chapter 23

It had all happened so fast. One moment she was following Blake and the others across the mountain, the constant physical movement keeping her mind moving forward. Surrounded by magic and mystical creatures, Tanith had suddenly felt untouchable. She yearned to confront those who had hurt her, because, really, they were the only people she could confront.

Could she shout at Hayley’s illness? Could she lecture the world on her industry of choice, tell them that it was valid and worth their investment? No to both. But these people, these cougar shifters, had hurt her. In the midst of at least a hundred other people who had also been wronged by these villains, Tanith had felt strong—ready to lay into whoever she could. Ready to unleash a little stress. Maybe yell a bit.

But then the next second, everything went to hell. First, it had been that cougar, bigger than any wild cat she had ever seen—and she had only seen them at zoos, honestly. Then in a blink, that enormous cat had changed from a frightening cougar to a man; a man she knew by name.

Judd Clemmons.

Hayley’s father.

Tanith hadn’t been able to stop herself. When she saw him standing there where sun-kissed grass met dust and mud, totally naked, his dark skin glistening with sweat from the heat of their fire, her brain tried to piece together the fact that he too was a shifter. She finally just screamed. In fear. In surprise. In anger—anger that Judd hadn’t told her about any of this, that he was part of Blake’s secret world too, but had never deemed it necessary to inform her.

They’d had a passionate affair before Hayley was born. Tanith had thought she held a special place in his heart. But then he’d left her behind like he did all the other starving artist girlfriends in his arsenal, and that was that.

Now there he was, standing at the helm of a cougar army—an army who had just been alerted to the presence of the encroaching clans all thanks to her. Any lives lost from that moment onward fell heavily on Tanith’s shoulders.

As Blake shifted from man to bear, Tanith scrambled back, another shriek slipping out as cougars poured into the forest, teeth bared and claws flashing. Her heel caught on an upturned root and she fell back hard, landing on her hip. A jolt of pain shot through her body, and the slight incline sent her rolling away from the battle.

Blake’s black bear rushed after her, and she tried to swallow her fear when he covered her body with his. It would take some time getting used to having a wild animal so close to her; even if she had ridden him, that didn’t outweigh her natural instinct to flee things bigger than her with sharper nails and teeth

However, as she rolled onto her stomach, she realized he wasn’t just trying to hide her: Blake was shielding her from the charging army of shifters racing up the hill to meet the cougars head on. Bears, coyotes, rams, and armadillos thundered through the forest, the ground quivering under their might, and Tanith clamped her hands down over her ears at the sounds of their varied war cries.

If anyone saw this happening and didn’t know about shifters, they were bound to think there was a gas leak somewhere.

“This is insanity,” she whispered, to which Blake snorted noisily in reply. Almost like he agreed with her. She glanced up at that huge bear head, grinning. Somehow, she understood him. Maybe this wouldn’t be so strange after all.

But then again, she was in the middle of a battle that would make every wildlife biologist out there wet themselves. This was most definitely strange. And dangerous.

“We have to get out of here,” Tanith told him. What she had said before was true—no way was she risking her life when she had a daughter waiting for her back home. Right now, it didn’t matter that these animals had torched her gallery. All that mattered was that she and Blake got out of there in one piece.

Blake huffed softly, another sign of agreement, and appeared to be scanning the trees as chaos descended around them. Just as he started to carefully climb off of her, a high-pitched yowl made her blood run cold. Seconds later, an enormous weight slammed into her black bear defender, and Tanith watched, helpless, as Blake and an enormous wild cat went tumbling, head over heels, down the hill.

“Blake!” she cried, panic making her limbs stiff and her brain foggy.

When the two stopped rolling, Blake managed to smack the big cat upside the head with one large paw, the crack of its contact reaching her all the way up the hill. She winced, imagining the pain behind such a hit, and slowly rose to her feet, using a nearby tree for support.

What was she supposed to do? Did she help him? Did she make a run for it on her own? What was the protocol here?

Blake reared up onto his back legs, growling at the bloody cougar before pounding his front paws on the ground. The cat seemed to consider him, tail swishing back and forth, lips peeled back in a snarl, before turning and dashing into the trees.

Blake had proved too great an opponent, and for that, Tanith was grateful. Unfortunately, about thirty seconds later, the cat was back—and he wasn’t alone. Two cougars charged Blake, and Tanith screamed, hands flying up to cover her mouth, when they both landed on him. Before she could do anything, call for anyone, a trio of rams went thundering past her, and soon enough they barreled into Blake’s attacker. She grasped the tree by her side, her panic subsiding now that Blake wasn’t completely on his own.

Now, time to find a suitable exit strategy before one of those cougars realized she was alone, human, and defenseless.

Something snarled behind her two steps into her retreat, and Tanith froze, her heart pounding in her ears. Slowly, she turned back to find a cougar waiting to pounce, saliva dripping off its long canines, murder in its eyes. The creature crouched low, eyes locked with hers, and Tanith found herself unable to move, petrified like a statue. It leapt, and instinctively Tanith dropped down into a ball, hoping it might miss.

It didn’t.

But instead of landing on her, the cougar was body checked by a smallish grizzly bear—only one of two in the whole clan if she remembered correctly. Espie! The cougar yelped, rolling onto its back as Espie pummeled it into the ground with her enormous front paws, jaw snapping as the cougar tried to fend her off.

Panicked, Tanith sought out Blake in the chaos. All around her, shifters clashed—fur, teeth, and claws flying.

Tanith was going to have nightmares for weeks.

When she couldn’t find Blake where she last spotted him, she went searching, hurrying through the skirmishes, trying to stay as out of the way as possible. She eventually found him—battling with Judd. They snarled and snapped at one another, equally matched. Blake’s fur glistened with freshly spilled blood, but Judd’s cougar face had a large gash across it.

Tanith gasped, desperate to get to Blake’s side, to drag him from the fighting and run, but there was no chance of that happening. Not with how savagely the two shifters attacked one another.