A Wife For The Bear: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Bear Brides Book 3) (8 page)

“Daisy! Don't…!”
Lisha tried to pull her back, but Daisy had wriggled free from the
heap. In a blink, Daisy dropped on all fours and shifted to a hyena.

Lisha gaped at the sprightly,
spunky werehyena. She should have guessed that some of the Book
Babes were shifters. Daisy had a high-pitched, infectious laugh, and
the rest of the Book Babes were always shushing her and telling her
not to laugh like a hyena. Well, of course she would laugh like one.
She
was
one.

Lisha twisted round and saw
that Mack had his gun trained on Daisy. Lisha made a strangled sound
at the back of her throat. She doubted that Daisy would be faster
than a speeding silver bullet.

Wrath and pain boiled over in
Lisha's chest. She had watched her father die. She would not stand
and watch an innocent, sweet, elderly werehyena be pumped full of
silver bullets.

She wouldn't let anyone harm
a hair on these sweet, kind women. She had been lying low all this
time, keeping out of trouble. But now trouble had come looking for
her. And these lovely Book Babes were caught in the cross hairs of a
cold-blooded killer.

In a flash, Lisha pushed
herself up and ran straight at Mack. His cruel, pale eyes flicked to
her but his gun was still aimed at Daisy. He smiled as his finger
tightened on the trigger.
Too late.

He wanted her to watch Daisy
die. And then to die a second later with the knowledge that Daisy's
blood was on her hands.

Lisha roared.
No!

Just for a breath, her vision
blurred before sharpening acutely. There was a spasm of searing,
screaming pain as all her nerves pulsed and contracted before
exploding in a wave of molten heat. Lisha felt her body contort and
jerk in mid-air as she flew towards Mack.

Despite the shocking
sensations wracking her body, Lisha kept her eyes on Mack, zeroing in
on her target. She had to keep going. She had to reach him, before
he shot Daisy. Straining and stretching, Lisha aimed for that
murderous hand with the gun.

Everything seemed to be
happening in slow motion, but in the space of a few heartbeats, Lisha
had reached Mack.

A roar exploded and long,
razor sharp teeth clamped down on Mack's wrist. Lisha saw her own
reflection in Mack's wide, shocked eyes.

Her tiger had emerged at the
scent of its enemy. She had shifted, for the very first time.

She was a weretiger, and not
just any tiger.

She was a rare white tiger,
just like her dad.

Lisha tasted blood in her
mouth and she bit down harder. Mack shouted and a shot went off.
There was a cry and Lisha whirled round to see Daisy crumple to the
ground and shift back to human. Daisy was clutching her leg, a
silver bullet lodged in her thigh. Edith ran to her and began to
call for help.

“You bastard!”
Daisy shook her fist at Mack as Edith held her up.

There was a squeal of tires
as Mack wrenched his bleeding arm out of Lisha's mouth and threw the
car into gear.

As Lisha gave chase, she
heard Daisy holler after her, “You get him good, Lisha. You're
a tiger! Go girl! He's heading towards Lake Street!”

Even in her agony, Daisy
found the strength and gumption to yell directions to Lisha. The old
girl sure had fight. Lisha growled as she sprinted down the street.
She wouldn't let Daisy and the Book Babes down. She was one of them.
This was her town, her home, and Mack had no right to bring death
and destruction to this little town.

Lisha ignored the screams and
shouts from pedestrians and motorists, and simply concentrated on
avoiding oncoming traffic. She caught up with Mack and ran alongside
his speeding car. Mack scowled at her and tried to ram the car into
her side. Lisha twisted away and almost ran headlong into the path
of a truck. Horns blared, people cursed and a siren began to wail in
the distance.

People were screaming and
running after her. Some whipped out their mobile phones and starting
snapping pictures of her. Lisha growled. What the hell? These
people should be helping to stop a deadly shooter from getting away.
Instead, they were busy taking pictures of a rare white tiger to post
of their social media pages. Some were even trying to snap selfies
with her in the background.

Lisha pounded past the
honking cars. Some drivers were cussing loudly while others stuck
their heads out of their windows and trained their mobile phones at
her, capturing her on video.

White tigers were rare.
White tiger shifters were even rarer. Videos and photos of her were
going to be uploaded onto a gazillion social media sites with just
one click. She was going to be famous. And that was bad, very, very
bad.

Lisha narrowed her eyes and
unsheathed her claws fully as she increased her speed, closing in on
Mack's car. He was speeding past red lights, running over shopping
trolleys as panicked pedestrians scooted backwards in a hurry. He
was going to escape, so he could come back and kill her another day.

Lisha snarled. No, this had
to end now. There would be no more running and hiding for her.

If she ran, she would be the
prey. She was a predator, an apex predator. She was a big, lethal
cat, not a mouse. Her tiger had finally emerged. She would reclaim
her life. Those criminals had taken so much from her. She wouldn't
allow them to take any more.

She glanced at the mobile
phones and cameras that were trained on her, capturing her every
move. She was going to be exposed, no two ways about it. People
would talk, people would post. Everyone was curious. But she wasn't
going to let curiosity kill the cat.

Fame might not be good.

But notoriety was.

She bared her teeth and
lunged, grimacing at a few blinding flashes from a camera.

Click away, everyone!

Let the world see this.

Let them see the consequences
of messing with a tiger...and her clan of bears.

Lisha sucked in a breath and
closed her eyes for just a heartbeat.
Brad, I need you, now. And
I need the clan.

She felt a sudden spike of
adrenalin as she sensed Brad's emotions. Their mate bond was strong,
and she knew Brad could sense that she was in danger. She heard a
roar in her head and she knew her mate was coming.

She wouldn't be fighting
alone. She had a clan.

Lisha ran alongside the car
and saw Mack gripping the steering wheel with a bloody hand as he
reached into the glove compartment.

He pulled out another gun and
fired a shot at her. Lisha ducked just in time. Shit! Even
bleeding and wounded, his reflexes were fast.

Mack stuck his arm out of the
window so he could shoot her dead between the eyes. Lisha saw her
chance. With a running leap, she pounced and latched on to Mack's
arm. She sank her teeth deep into his flesh and wrenched hard.

Her paws burned as she
stopped running abruptly and let the car streak away from her in a
spray of fresh blood.

She had Mack's arm in her
mouth. She had yanked his whole arm out of its socket and tore it
clean from his body.

Lisha dropped the bloody limb
on the ground and snarled. Mack Kross was a stone cold killer. Even
minus an arm, he could still kill.

Lisha jerked at the sound of
a loud crash. Her roar was drowned out by another deafening,
ferocious roar.

Brad
.

She saw him then, in bear
form, charging across the intersection and almost causing a chain
collision. She raced to the junction and saw Brad punching out the
lights of Mack's car.

There were gunshots as Mack
fired wildly at Brad. Lisha's blood turned to ice in her veins.

Don't let Brad get shot.
Please!

The bullets only grazed
Brad's brown fur, but the shots enraged the bear. Brad roared and
smashed his massive paw through the windscreen. With smoke billowing
from its engine, the car careened and skidded before finally flipping
on its side.

Mack struggled to get out of
the smoking wreckage. With a low growl, Lisha began to prowl towards
him. He was missing an arm, and his face was twisted in rage and
agony. In his remaining hand, he still clutched a gun. He was still
going to try to shoot her.

Lisha crouched as Mack
stumbled out of the car and pointed the gun at her. As he fired a
shot, she sprang forward and knocked him to the ground. They
wrestled on the ground, and Mack's demented rage imbued him with an
almost superhuman strength. He was a formidable opponent, and when
Lisha stared into his eyes, she saw no remorse, no emotion, no
humanity there at all. Mack Kross was a killer. That was all he
was. He was nothing else, and nothing else mattered to him.

A large crowd had gathered.
Most of the crowd still looked incredulous and awe-struck at the
sight of a majestic white tiger. There were some civic-minded
individuals who had shifted to their animals forms, preparing to come
to her aid. But the majority were still too absorbed in taking
photographs and videos of her to render any help.

Lisha looked up and shook her
head at the few wolves and leopards who were preparing to come
forward and help her subdue Mack Kross.
I've got this, thanks!

Even as he grunted and
struggled, Mack somehow managed to press the barrel of the gun at her
head.

Lisha tensed for just a
moment, letting all the cameras around her capture the image of a man
with a gun to her head.

Then she lurched forward and
bit down on his arm an instant before he squeezed the trigger.

Mack screamed as Lisha
staggered back a few paces. She had torn out his remaining arm.

But she wasn't done. Lisha
flung his arm in his contorted face and pressed her paw down on his
writhing, thrashing body. Mack was armless, bleeding, completely
helpless under her claws. She could slice him open and gut him right
there and then.

But gutting him wouldn't end
things. They would just send more killers after her.

Lisha glanced over her
shoulder at Brad. He nodded at her and growled.

We're all here for you.

There were more growls and
Lisha saw the clan. All in bear form.

Cole and Dalton were leading
the clan towards them. The whole clan was here. All the men, their
families, even their grandparents and great-grandparents had come.
The brown bears surged through the street, brusquely pushing past
cars and pedestrians to reach her. They came and stood with her,
surrounding her and her prey.

Cole and Brad prowled
forward, snarling and growling. The two brown bears were powerful,
lethal predators. They could kill a man in a matter of seconds, but
they wouldn't kill Mack Kross. This man had killed Lisha's father
and had tried to kill her. It was her choice.

If Lisha wanted the scum
alive, they would let him live.

Even though death would be
more merciful.

Lisha nodded, giving the
signal.

As Lisha held Mack down, the
two huge bears clamped their jaws around Mack's ankles and tore his
legs from his torso.

Mack stopped screaming and
there was a moment of stunned silence. Then Lisha raised her head
and roared.

The entire Nightfire clan
reared up and roared with her.

She was sending a message to
her enemies.

Lisha Kwok was a powerful,
deadly white tiger in her own right. But now she had a whole clan of
big, brown bears behind her, beside her.

Anyone who dared messed with
Lisha would have to answer to the Nightfire clan.

Lisha knew that videos and
pictures of her and her clan were already being uploaded onto
websites, blogs, social media sites.

Her location and status as a
shifter had been exposed. But Lisha turned her exposure to her
advantage. It was a warning to all those who would hunt her and her
loved ones.

She was no sitting duck. She
wasn't prey and she wasn't alone. The tables had been turned.
Anyone who had a mind to terrorize and hunt her had better be
prepared to be hunted and taken down. Ripped apart and gutted,
without mercy.

Lisha turned and saw Abby
running towards them. Abby wasn't a bear shifter, but she had the
heart and stout courage of a bear. She gasped at the sight of Lisha
in tiger form. “You are so beautiful!” Abby caught her
breath and gave the clan a quick thumbs-up sign.

“I've made the call,”
Abby informed them. She didn't even balk at the gory sight of the
limbless human at Lisha's feet. The man was unconscious but still
alive.

Abby's eyes blazed with fury
as she spat, “The authorities are on their way. They're coming
to collect...the trash.”

Lisha frowned at the computer
screen and changed the font of the website heading. With a few more
clicks of the mouse, she changed the background color and added some
lively graphics.