Guardian Bears: Karl (15 page)

A
llison blinked
as she returned to the world, surprised to find herself alone in the hollow and shocked that the sun was up already. She looked around for Karl, for her mate, wanting to fling herself into his arms for comfort.

There was no sign of him, though, not apart from the notebook. Allison shook herself, wondering where he could have gone. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach as she picked up the pad and read.

A
llison stared
at the note for a minute, tears forming in her eyes.
Karl, you beautiful idiot, what have you done?

Despite his talk of meeting her later, she knew he didn’t plan on getting out of this alive. However dangerous he was, the men he was hunting outnumbered him and they were dangerous too. He was dying as she sat there, selling his life to buy her time to escape.

“But I’ve got nowhere to run.” Allison breathed the words aloud, teardrops falling onto the note in her hand. “Not without you.”

Scrunching the paper up, she looked to the West, the sun warm on her back. Her breath was short, and her heart pounded in her chest as she struggled to go, to take his last gift and honor his sacrifice.

The wolf inside her disagreed, fought against her decision. It didn’t understand the fancy words – the only thing the wolf knew was that her mate was in danger, and that she was running from that fight. Struggling against the rebellious part of her soul, Allison took a step and then another before sighing and glancing backward.

You’re right
, she admitted to the wolf.
I can’t leave him.

* * *

S
lipping amongst the black stone
, Karl crept down from the hollow, feeling empty inside as he turned his back on Allison for what he feared was the last time.

The hunters were following their tracks easily now that the sun lit their way, and that would lead them straight to her. And that he would not allow. No one was going to harm his beloved, not while he had a breath left in his body.

Dropping behind a rock, he flattened himself to the ground and waited for his prey. The bear inside him was alert, eager as he was to protect their mate, and he grinned. The situation was grim, yes, but there was a certain satisfaction in the fact that he didn’t have to pull his blows anymore.

His cover was barely enough to conceal him, but that was a good thing. Waiting in ambushes, he’d long ago learned, worked best when he was in a space that no one would think big enough to hide him. And that suited his polar bear soul, too – it approved of using camouflage to hunt, just as a polar bear would blend in with the arctic snow.

We’re not hunting seals, though,
he thought, listening to the hunters’ steps get closer. After the mauling he’d given them the night before, they were cautious. A couple advanced up front and the rest hung back, watching them. And behind them, Megan and her cameraman followed. When he struck, the hunters would be ready with their guns, and even the bear’s thick fur wouldn’t save him forever. Worse, it would all be caught on film.

I’ll do what I can,
he thought.
All I need to do is buy Allison time to escape. And they don’t know who they are up against. I’ve got more than just shifter tricks up my sleeve.

The broken ground amongst the rocks was enough to hide him as the first man passed, and then the second. Karl knew he was taking a risk letting them get ahead of him, closer to Allison, but he had to play this game tactically. If he just charged them, he’d do some damage but not enough to stop them all.

It was only when the rest of the hunters started to pass him that he made his move.

Standing and stepping out of the protection of his rock, he had a moment to appreciate the shock on the nearest hunter’s face. From the other man’s perspective, it must have looked as though Karl had appeared from nowhere, and before he could respond, Karl punched him in the throat. The force of the blow sent the man staggering back, and as he sank to the ground Karl snatched the rifle from his hands.

Around him the hunter’s comrades leaped backward, trying to bring their guns around. Shouts of fear and surprise went up from them as he swung his captured gun into a rock, hard enough to snap the stock and ruin it.

Then he was moving again, darting towards the nearest hunter. His target tried to get out of the way, jumping aside only to trip on the rough terrain underfoot and go flying. Karl didn’t stop, sprinting past and jumping a boulder as the first shot rang out. It went wide, cracking off a stone somewhere in the distance, and Karl kept moving. He stayed low to the ground, all his military training and predator’s instincts focused on getting away from the last place they’d seen him.

The swearing and shouting he left in his wake told him his instincts had been right. These men might be skilled hunters, but they weren’t used to being prey. As long as he could keep them off-balance, he could draw this out.

His enemies stopped moving, which was the main thing he wanted. As long as they didn’t threaten Allison, he was winning.

“I see you’re still up to your tricks, Karl,” Damian called out from the middle of the group. Karl could hear the vindictive anger in his voice, and smiled coldly at it. He didn’t answer, didn’t stop his slow circling of the group.

“We know what you are now, Karl. You’re as much a monster just like the woman you’re protecting, and we’re going to expose the pair of you on national TV. But you don’t have to
die
for that, you know. You can still get away from this in one piece – all you need to do is help us. Show us on film, let Megan here record you changing, and we can all go home. You don’t have to die. Your Allison doesn’t, either.”

There was a nasty edge to that, and Karl didn’t think there was much chance that he’d keep his word. Not that he intended to find out: his only purpose now was to keep the hunters busy while Allison escaped. He glanced back in the direction of the hollow he’d left Allison in, wishing he could see her, wishing he could tell if she was still there or if she’d left already. He didn’t know how much time he needed to buy her.

As long as Damian is talking, I don’t have to do anything,
he reminded himself. Carefully, he raised his head just enough to peek out from cover, looking at the group he was stalking. They were gathered in a loose circle looking around. Difficult to approach, now that they were on guard.

But the two who’d passed him earlier weren’t in the circle. They’d turned back at the commotion, but now he could see them start to climb up into the rocks again. And that he couldn’t afford.

Following them up was impossible. He’d be in clear view of the hunters below, and an easy target. No, what he needed to do was draw them down onto his position. And that meant facing the group gathered down here.

Damian stopped speaking, and Kirby took his place. The deputy’s face was red with anger, and the shotgun in his hands shook as he looked out in the direction Karl had vanished in.

“You come out now,” he shouted. “Come out and it’ll go easy on you. It’s that bitch Allison we want, you can go free. She’s the monster who attacked me.”

Karl saw red for a moment, jaw tightening at the insult to his mate. Damian tried to pull the deputy back, whispering something in his ear, but the man shrugged him off.

“You get your hands off me,” he snarled. “That woman is the monster, and I’m not letting her get away.”

Karl doubted that Damian had any intention of letting her get away either, but he clearly didn’t like being contradicted in front of his men. He hissed something angrily, too quiet for Karl to make out the words, but whatever he said was enough to get Kirby to wheel on him, hand raised. Around them the hunters looked at each other and their leader, distracted by the display.

Now’s my best chance,
Karl thought, jumping to his feet and rushing them. Charging into those guns would be suicide for a man, of course. But he wasn’t just a man.

As the first of the hunters saw him and started to bring around his gun, Karl shifted, letting his bear come out to hunt. On all fours he raced forward, the first hunter missing behind him, the next shooting wide out of sheer terror as Karl bore down on the group. The third hit his flank, and he ignored it. A rifle intended for wolf hunting didn’t have the stopping power to bring down a polar bear, a massive predator armored with thick fur. It still hurt, and so did the next shot and the next as the hunters scrambled to stop his charge.

Karl ignored the pain, the damage the bullets were doing. It didn’t matter now, so long as he could do this one thing before they took him down.

The hunters scattered as Karl leaped the last distance at Kirby, the big man still turning from his confrontation with Damian. Karl’s jaws closed on his head with a crunch before his shotgun could come into play, and his scream of fear cut off. Karl bit down hard, feeling skull shatter between his teeth even as the shotgun fired, tearing a bloody hole in his thick pelt.

Snarling in satisfaction, Karl rounded on the other hunters. He threw Kirby’s limp body aside, trying to find Damian in the confusion as he felt blood loss start to sap his strength.

He’d trade his own life for his mate’s if he had to, but he would make sure to take down her enemies with him.

S
he watched from the ridge
, her heart in her mouth. She knew that she should be headed in the other direction, that she should be leaving as fast as she could walk. Or at least, that’s what Karl would tell her to do. What he
had
told her to do.

But she couldn’t bring herself to leave him, and so she watched his brave, doomed charge towards Damian and his men. Their guns boomed, the shots echoing amongst the rocks until she couldn’t tell how many there were – but she saw bloody wounds tear open in the white pelt of the polar bear.

It didn’t stop him. Despite his wounds, he crashed into the group of men, his massive, terrible paws lashing out to strike at the men, sending them flying with blood trailing from torn wounds. Kirby fell, Karl flinging his limp body aside before turning to the rest.
Maybe he can win this?
Her hands went to her mouth as she saw him twist, snapping his mighty jaws at one hunter, claws raking another. But more shots rang out, more wounds tore open his body, and she could see him slowing.

He was giving them a fight they’d never forget, but the odds against him were impossible. Even Karl wasn’t going to be able to win this. Damian had fallen back, leaping out of the way of the enraged and wounded bear, but now he came closer again, staying a careful distance away. And a little behind him came Megan, her cameraman shaking as he recorded the battle. Allison could see the mix of fear and exultation on the faces of the trio, and disgust filled her. They were killing this beautiful man just to get it on video.

As she watched she could feel something else stirring inside her. A mix of fear and anger, a wordless need to help.
I can’t do anything
, she told herself. If she showed herself now, it wouldn’t help him, would it?

The bear was slowing, wounded and overheating under the morning sun. Several of the hunters were fleeing, others were down and bleeding, but a few stood their ground and kept firing. Karl snarled, rearing up, throwing one hunter he’d caught against another, and then fell as bullets slammed into him.

Get up, come on, please!
Allison prayed, feeling a mournful howl building inside her. The wolf-soul within her was as shattered by the sight as she was, watching Damian stalk closer and raise his rifle. The others stopped shooting as he approached the fallen bear.

Karl swept a paw at him, but he was too weak. Too slow. Damian stood out of his range and laughed.

“Make sure you get this on film,” he said, voice loud and confident now that his enemy was helpless. “I want to show the world how he changes.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Megan said in a cool tone. “Just let me set up for the shot. Soon the world will see these hell-spawned monsters exist, and that they can be killed.”

Allison’s anger spiked. It wasn’t enough that they were going to kill the man she loved, the man who had given up everything to save her. No, they were going to film it and show the world – use it to stir up hatred against him and his kind, his family.
Her
kind too, she supposed – it wasn’t just bear shifters that would suffer if Damian got his way.

Down the slope, she saw the magnificent polar bear finally give in to the heat and pain and exhaustion. Shrinking and shifting back into Karl he lay against the rock, bloody and red and almost steaming in the heat. It looked as though he had given his all, and now, facing death, he still grinned at the men standing over him.

He spoke quietly, forcing out the words. Allison shouldn’t have been able to hear him, not at this distance, but it was as clear as if he was speaking in her ear. “I win, asshole. You may have me, but Allison will be far away by now. You’ll never catch her now.”

“I don’t need to, not with you on film changing shape,” Damian said. His voice carried clearly, spoken more for the audience than for Karl’s benefit. Allison heard him clearly, and her anger spiked. Karl was sacrificing himself for her, buying her time to get away from these monsters in human skin, and now he was going to die for her.

I can’t let this happen. I
won’t
let him get away with this.
Her wolf growled in agreement, and she turned her attention inward.
If I’m going to lose myself to the wolf anyway, I may as well make the most of it. One last time, but this time we’re doing it my way.

For the first time, she surrendered to the wolf willingly and shifted. This time she was conscious of it, of the strange sensation as her body changed in less than a heartbeat from human to wolf. They were heading downhill, leaping from rock to rock as they went, and for once the wolf and the woman wanted exactly the same thing.

The hunters were all focused on the filming, on the polar bear who’d just become a man in front of them. And now that she was a wolf, it was all Allison could do to keep from focusing there, too – his scent was so strong that it filled her mind, and it made her long for him in a way that she couldn’t put into words. She didn’t
need
words: her wolf understood, and together they raced to his rescue.

It was difficult not to rush straight to him, or to attack the men menacing him. That was the call of her wolf, the feral, angry part of her that wanted to rip and tear at the people threatening her man. Allison didn’t fight it this time. Instead she tried to explain.
Trust me, that isn’t how we save him,
she thought, trying to find a balance between her human mind and her wolf soul. She remembered what the ancient wolf spirit had said, and made herself relax, tried to feel what the wolf felt and let it think what she did. Conscious thought and animal instinct struggled with each other as she ran, and then came together. Karl was too important to all of her for her to let that struggle keep her from helping him.

At the last moment, hunters saw her and started to raise the alarm. One snapped off a shot, his bullet going wide – neither part of Allison cared where the bullet went, as long as she could still do what she needed to.

The smell of blood, human and bear, filled her senses and drove her to the brink of a frenzy, but if she wanted to save her mate, she couldn’t afford to give in. She had to act rationally, focus on what was important. Even the wolf part of her saw that.

Gathering herself, Allison pounced with all her strength and weight.

Damian, reacting at last, leaped aside. His gun came around too slowly to hit her, and the arc of her pounce took her past where he’d stood. She struck the cameraman head on, her teeth biting deep into his arm, the force of her impact sending the camera tumbling to smash on the hard rocks.

* * *

T
he gray wolf
pouncing across the line of his vision made Karl’s heart leap. For a moment, he didn’t know what to think, or how to react.
What the hell are you doing here,
he wanted to scream. He’d sent Allison away, bought her time to escape, but now here she was.

He was furious, angry with her for risking her life like this, with the universe for putting them in this position, and most of all with Damian. He was the one who was responsible, who had put them in this position, whose blind hatred of shifters threatened everyone he held dear.

And he was also dodging Allison by jumping closer to Karl.

With a mighty effort, Karl launched himself off the rock. His muscles burned from over-exertion, overheating, and blood loss. He didn’t let any of that stop him.

Damian’s rifle came up to his shoulder, training on the wolf attacking his cameraman. Karl threw himself into the way, smashing the rifle’s barrel aside as the hunter pulled the trigger. A familiar blinding pain shot through Karl as a silver bullet tore into his shoulder, but he didn’t let it slow him down.

The two men fell together, rolling and wrestling, but Karl had the upper hand. He was stronger, and more importantly, he was fighting for his mate. Behind them, the camera hit the ground with a satisfying smash, parts going everywhere.
So much for the evidence of shifters
, Karl thought, managing to pull a hunting knife from its sheath on Damian’s belt. The blade caught the sun, gleaming silver and wickedly sharp.

Around them, the three remaining hunters gawped, visibly torn over where to point their guns. Karl brought the edge of the knife blade to Damian’s throat, glaring up at them as their leader froze in his grip.

“Put the guns down,” he roared. “Do it
now
!”

The men froze at the rage in his voice. One started to raise his gun, then froze. Another looked between Karl and the wolf, bewildered and terrified. The third threw down his rifle as though it had turned red hot in his hands, backing away.

Allison growled, a low angry sound. There were no words that a non-shifter could hear, but to Karl her meaning was clear: drop your weapons and run.

The message seemed to carry well enough without words, though. The remaining pair of hunters followed the first, dropping their weapons and backing off, and as soon as they realized that they were all unarmed, they turned and fled.

“Cowards!” Damian spat after them, squirming in Karl’s grip. He was strong, but not strong enough to fight even an exhausted Karl, and a little pressure on the knife was enough to convince him to give up the fight.

Allison stared at the film crew, growling again. The injured cameraman shrank back, but Megan met her glare. The two women looked at each other, and Karl could see the wolf wanted to tear the reporter’s throat out but Allison was keeping that urge under control.

That made his heart pound and his head felt light.
Allison
was in control! Somehow she had made her peace with her wolf, and it was her he saw now – not just an animal, but a shifter in animal form.

Despite his injuries, despite his weariness, despite the heat that felt like it was cooking him, he grinned broadly. That was a better outcome than he’d dared to hope for.

“What are you gonna do with us?” Damian interrupted his train of thought. “You’ll never get away with killing us.”

“Maybe I should,” Karl said. Allison’s growl lowered in pitch, agreeing and threatening. “You aren’t going to stop, are you? As long as you’re alive, you’re going to be a threat to the peace between shifters and humans.”

“But today isn’t a day for more killing. You’ve seen what we can do, you know what’ll happen if you pick a fight with us, and we will always be watching you. But you’ve also seen that we aren’t monsters. We don’t kill for the sake of it, and we aren’t going to kill you when you’re helpless. Learn from that, Damian. We’re not your enemies. Leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone.”

He looked up into Megan’s eyes, a warning in his. “That goes for all of you. This isn’t a fight you want, and if you leave it alone now, you won’t have die here. If you keep coming for us, though – the next time, we won’t be so generous. You’re lucky: if either of us had died, you wouldn’t be getting away so easily.”

She couldn’t hold his gaze, and looked down. Allison stopped her growl, padding over to stand beside Karl, and together they looked at the reporter. After a moment, Megan nodded her head, a jerky scared motion. Karl didn’t think he had to worry about her doing anything stupid any time soon.

“Go, then. Get out of here. And remember how lucky you are this didn’t end worse for you.”

She took her cameraman by the arm and pulled him up, and the two of them hurried away, turning their backs on the remains of the camera and the world-shaking story they had nearly captured.

Once they were on their way out of the rocks, Karl stripped Damian of weapons and pushed him after them. “You too.”

Damian took a couple of steps, then turned. “You can’t think you’ll get away with this,” he said, looking around at the carnage.

Karl just grinned.

“Looks to me like some kind of animal attack,” he said, gesturing to the wounds on the hunters. “Can’t see why anyone would think I was involved. Now run, before I change my mind!”

Damian’s face was red with fury, and for a moment Karl thought he’d be stupid enough to pick a fight. But in the end, his fear won out and he turned to run after the others.

Once he was out of sight, Karl let himself collapse. His overheated body was shaking and weak, and the knife dropped from his fingers as his grip failed.

Allison was by his side instantly, trying to support him as he fell. She shifted so naturally that he barely noticed she’d changed back to human, and it took a moment for the transformation to register. But then he smiled up at her, happily.

“It worked then?” He could hear the exhaustion in his cracked voice, and saw the concern in her eyes as she leaned over him. “The wolf spirit or whatever it was, it helped you.”

“No.” Allison shook her head. “No, he couldn’t help me any more than anyone else could. It wasn’t that, it was you.”

He struggled to sit up, reaching for her.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “I wasn’t even there.”

She laughed. “Not there, silly. Here. My wolf wasn’t going to let you die for me any more than I was, and we had to work together to help you. And that… I think that’s what we needed to get on. She’s still wild, still hungry, but we’re agreed on one thing and that’s all we need to start with. The rest we can work on over time.”