“You can’t do this.” She’d meant for her voice to come out strong and authoritative, but as more men holding rifles emerged from the trees, it came out a shaky whisper instead.
“We can. Do you know how much these men have paid to hunt a real life grizzly shifter?” His blue eyes sparked as he took a step toward her. “Thousands.”
“You’re killing people!”
The bear groaned from the ground ten yards away.
“That’s not a person,” the man spat out. “It’s a monster, and I’m just the guide to annihilate them from the face of the planet. For a fee, of course.”
So here was the leader. The one who’d organized it all. Her finger brushed the trigger.
“I wouldn’t,” he advised. “You have a lot of weapons trained on you right now, and your clip is empty. I counted your shots.”
With an empty smile, the man swung his rifle to the bear. “You can watch.”
A sob clawed up her throat. Not for her or the bear or for what she was about to do. But because Jason was going to lose a second mate. It wasn’t Tessa who was meant to destroy him. It was her.
As the man took aim, Georgia gritted out, “You counted wrong.” She pulled the trigger and the man’s eyes went wide as blood trickled down the bridge of his nose. He fell to the snow like a sack of stones.
And then pain.
So much pain.
Burning, ripping, tearing ache that dropped her to her knees.
The bear dragged its broken body toward her. The gunfire stopped. The only noise was a cold chuckle from one of the shifter hunters. “Got us a female,” he said low.
Georgia struggled for breath and fell backward. She couldn’t feel her legs, but her stomach felt like someone had started a fire inside of her. She focused on the bear. He was intent on reaching her. They would kill him soon, but at least she’d tried her best to save him. She could die knowing she was no coward. Still, it was tragic that both of their deaths meant nothing. The other crews didn’t even know they were being hunted.
Her breath came in short pants as her lungs struggled to pull oxygen past the fluid filling them. Warmth trickled down the side of her mouth as she clutched her stomach.
The bear was clawing the ground desperately trying to reach her. Trying to be there for her when she passed. Sweet bear. She wished he wasn’t going to die alone.
She stretched her fingertips out for him. Her hands were covered in sticky red, contrasting with the white snowflakes that fell onto her shaking open palm. A man stood over her, the devil’s look in his empty hazel eyes. He lifted his gun just as a giant shadow covered them all.
With a frown, the man looked up, but nothing was in the sky save storm clouds and the birds the gunfight had ousted from their roosts. “What was that?” he muttered.
Georgia smiled. “Bears aren’t the only monsters you have to fear in these woods, poacher.”
The man looked down at her as a wave of uncertainty washed through his eyes. “What does that mean?”
“It means if the bears don’t get you…the dragons will.”
And then there was fire.
Chapter Thirteen
“They’re here,” Tessa whispered again. She was barely visible anymore, but Jason could still hear her just fine.
“Piss off, Tessa.” He picked up another log and balanced it over his shoulder. He walked right through her transparent body to load the lumber into the back of the truck. Up here, he didn’t have to hide how strong he was. No humans came up this far into Damon’s wilderness, and even if they did, Jason was a registered shifter. They could get over it.
He picked up another huge log and tossed it in the back with the others.
“They’re here,” Tessa repeated for the tenth time.
“Who! Who are here, Tessa? Who?” He blasted his hands on his fists and glared at the ghost.
“The poachers.” Tessa’s soft words whipped around on the breeze. “Save her. Save yourself.”
All of the fine hairs on his body electrified as he watched Tessa disappear. “Creed?”
His alpha stopped stacking loops of cable at the edge of the landing. “What?”
Jason swung his gaze in the direction of the ranger tower. “I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right.”
“What do you mean?”
From the edge of the landing, he could see all of Damon Daye’s mountains. A flock of birds left a tree near the edge of Boarlander territory, and Jason narrowed his eyes at their cawing escape. “I think I need to go.”
“Is it Georgia?”
“Yeah.” He bolted for his truck.
A shrill whistle rang out from his alpha, and before he’d pulled out of the parking lot, the other Gray Backs were loading into Creed’s truck.