He took his human steps as carefully as hecould. He might’ve been bigger in his beastly form, but beinghuman, he could amble through the brush more carefully. Being anapex predator gave him that ability. His human feet were notcovered, but the cuts and scrapes he was getting would heal withina minute or two while he made a huge arc around the humans.
He was aware it would take him a while tocome out ahead of them, and he knew just the location to go. If hecould make it toward the panther’s lands, he could come close totheir fence line and use that as a guide to the river. He wouldnever cross their lands, because he’d heard they had that place onlockdown with cameras that covered every inch of their property.Gunnar was certain they’d see him if he got too close. He justhoped they were as friendly to him when he was outside their gatesas they were when their healer was caring for his mate.
He ducked low and headed toward thesouthwest, keeping his body shielded behind large trees and growthon the forest floor. The sounds of the males eventually quieted ashe got further away. A rabbit scurried under a rotting tree, andbirds flew away as he moved. His human mind wandered to AnnaClaire, but he had to stop daydreaming about his mate. Not payingattention could get him killed.
He saw the fence to the panther’s land andskirted around the edges, noting the cameras placed at certainintervals. They would see him in all his glory, but he didn’t havetime to stop should one of them come to investigate. They could getthe information from the sheriff.
Moving toward the river, he climbed overdowned trees as quietly as he could. It took another ten minutes tocome out ahead of them. With his partially shifted nose, he raisedhis head to the sky, relying on the wind to bring their scent inhis direction. The bear inside him pushed for release, and Gunnardropped to his knees to allow the animal to be free.
He waited for another minute before scanningthe area close to the river. Their footsteps were making all kindsof noise as they approached. Gunnar laughed inside the bear’s mindas he heard them talking amongst themselves.
“They’re going to kill us, Pops,” a malesaid, cursing when his leg got caught up in some vines. “Thosebears just ripped the others to shreds.”
“That’s why we are getting the hell out ofhere, Don,” the other male replied.
“What if we see one?” Don, who was obviouslythe son, asked. They were getting closer, and Gunnar caught thescent of his brother who wasn’t far behind them.
“Then we kill those abominations and taketheir bodies to the media,” the father replied. “The money will begood.”
“At least we don’t have to split it with theothers now,” Don snickered as they fell quiet.
Gunnar waited up ahead, allowing the malesto get closer. As it was, they were still too far away to ambushthem. His heart froze in his chest as they came into view and theolder male lifted a phone to his ear.
“Yeah?” he answered, looking toward the sky.“They killed the others. Yep. Their home is easily accessible fromthe woods if you want to go in and start picking them off tomorrow.I don’t know. We shot one pretty close to his heart. I’m bettinghe’s dead, but there were too many of them for us to grab the body.Sure, let me know when you arrive.”
They were bringing reinforcements.
Fuck!
Gunnar didn’t know how many were coming, buthe knew they were going to need help. It was time to kill those twohuman males so he could return home and get the females to safety.The game had just changed, and despite all their precautions, thefirst of the month was going to be a deadly one.
Gaia sat in the middle of the small livingquarters, closing her eyes and using her powers to build a storm ofall storms for the upcoming day. It was nearing the first of Juneand the day the humans would go after all grizzly shifters. Sheknew of only a few clans, and she would do what she could to drivethe humans away from any remote locations.
It wasn’t just her clan she wanted toprotect. There were others. The grizzlies were special to her, andsince she’d stepped into the role of protection for the Morganclan, she’d come to love them all…even the ones she’d nevermet.
“I need a list of places these hunters aregoing to strike tomorrow,” she blurted. “Hurry! Write down thelocations on a piece of paper.”
She kept her eyes closed as the femalesscrambled to get the information she was needing. Why hadn’t shethought of that sooner? She’d been so worried about her males thatshe didn’t think to use the dark web’s chat rooms to heradvantage.
“Found the list,” Ada called out.
Gaia never opened her eyes because she wastoo focused on the elements and how she was going to use them toher advantage. She hadn’t caused this much of an earthly event inthousands of years. The last time was a little different. She’d hadto wipe out the existence of some really bad shit.
This time, she was going to take out thetrash…meaning the lowest scum of the human population. Anyone whothought it was okay to kill a species deserved what she hadplanned.
“Here,” Ada announced as she approached,dropping a slip of paper in front of Gaia.
She didn’t need to look at the paper to getthe information. With her tiny hand, she crumpled the paper,letting her magic do the work for her.
“What are you doing?” Anna Claire asked.
“Making the humans wish they’d never messedwith your species,” Gaia smirked as she felt a cool wind blowacross her skin.
All the cell phones in the room startingalarming with impending weather alerts. Gaia opened her eyes as thefemales gasped. The saucy smirk that raised the corner of her lipwas pure evil, and she was going to enjoy every second of thedestruction she’d planned.
“Oh, Gaia!” Tessa called out. “What have youdone?”
Anna Claire watched as her mate’s friendstood. Whatever Gaia had planned was going
