“No,” Gaia said, shaking her head. “The clanwill not see any damage.”
“Only the humans?” Tessa balked. “It’s notfair to the innocents.”
“The innocents will not be harmed, Ipromise,” Gaia replied, and Anna Claire believed her.
Anna Claire placed her hand on her belly,silently praying she wasn’t bringing a cub into a world where itwould be hunted simply for existing. The two other cubs were tooprecious and loved, and knowing what the humans had planned forthem sent chills up her spine.
How could they hurt a child? A female?
She shook her head and remembered watchingthe human’s newscasts. They had no love toward each other and actedmore like animals than the actual shifters did. At least when herkind killed, it was for a reason.
The list was lengthy, and she didn’t knowhow Gaia was going to manipulate the weather to stop the humansfrom killing the grizzlies.
The clap of thunder rattled the door to herquarters even though they were underground. Ada shivered and heldThane closer to her chest. Tessa glanced up from where she wasfeeding Aria and a look of fear passed between the three of them.Their world was changing, and they didn’t know what they were goingto do if more of the hunters came to their land.
Gaia picked up the list and nodded toherself, like she was proud of what she was about to do. AnnaClaire trusted her, but it still worried her about the aftereffectsof her destruction.
“There are seventeen states on this list,”Anna Claire noted.
“And there are over a hundred hunters,” Adareminded her.
“We have to stay safe,” Tessa said, glancingat Anna Claire’s belly. She automatically covered her unborn childand nodded.
The females weren’t as incapable as onewould think. A mother bear was fiercely protective of their cubs,and even Anna Claire was feeling the rage at the thoughts ofsomeone hurting her unborn child. She would do anything for thebaby in her womb even though she hadn’t met it yet.
The males were protectors, and they wantedthe females to rely on them for their protection, and while AnnaClaire understood their nature, she wanted to help them find andkill the hunters. Being with young stopped her from doing justthat. She wasn’t stupid, and she would never put her cub in harm’sway.
The phone rang, interrupting theirconversation. Anna Claire pressed the button to answer when she sawthe healer was calling. “Harold?”
“Anna Claire,” he sighed into the phone.“Are you with your mate?”
“No,” she gasped. “He’s out searching forthe hunters. Why? Is something wrong with Ransom? Oh, gods!”
“Is anyone with you?” he pressed, and shefelt her heart plummet to her feet.
“Gaia and the females are,” she said,feeling tears prick at her eyes. “We are in my quarters. What’swrong? Tell me!”
Her heart was beating so fast, she feltsick. There was a sadness to his voice, and she knew whatever he’dcalled to tell her was going to destroy her.
“I’m so sorry, Anna Claire,” he began. Shereached out for someone…anyone. Gaia grabbed her hand and jerkedthe phone from her hand, putting it on speakerphone. “I triedeverything I could, but Ransom’s injuries were just too much.”
“What!” she screamed, dropping to her knees.“No!”
“Ransom passed away during surgery,” Haroldcontinued. “The sack around his heart tore when the bullet enteredhis body, nicking his heart. The injury was just too much for hisbear to heal. Again, I am so sorry.”
“No!” she screamed as the tears and criesripped from her body.
She heard Gaia talking to the male, but AnnaClaire was in too much distress to understand what they weretalking about. Her cousin…one of the three males in her life wholoved her…the male who’d done everything in his power to protectthe young women of his clan was gone.
“Oh, gods…it hurts so bad,” she screamed asthe weight of the news crushed her.
Chapter 15
Lighting flashed across the sky as the clockwore down to the last hours for the month of May. Gunnar’s eyesadjusted to the lack of light as he watched the human males make acamp to hide out for the night. They were scrambling to make ashelter from the incoming storm he knew had probably been made byGaia. She knew something, and he needed to end these assholes’lives to get back to his land.
He’d shifted to his animal form once thehumans started panicking because the day was ending and they werelost. Drake had backed off on his stalking two hours ago, givingthe males the illusion that the shifters had given up. He and hisbrother didn’t need to talk to each other to know exactly what theywere going to do.
Hide.
Stalk.
Attack.
His beast focused on the humans, noting hisbrother’s position south of the males. Drake’s bear jutted his chinout to let Gunnar know he was watching them as well.
Gunnar’s beast jerked his head to the sidewhen he heard a faint sound far off in the distance. He had tosuppress a deep warning growl as he lifted his nose to the sky,scenting the air. A faint, recognizable scent crossed his nose andhe lowered his head as his enhanced vision saw a sleek, blackpanther crouched low to the ground as it stalked toward him.
As he scanned the area, he noticed two morepanthers behind the first. As the first one stopped about fiftyfeet away, he dropped to his belly as he waited for the other twoto join him. They shifted in unison and knelt as low as they couldto stay hidden.
“What are you doing here?” Gunnar askedafter he forced the shift. His voice was barely a whisper.
“We are here to help,” Savage, one of thepanthers, said.
“Help?” Gunnar frowned.
“We saw you on the cameras,” Lucky, anotherpanther, shrugged.
“Talon sent us,” Booth, the third one,announced.
Gunnar wasn’t shocked the local pantheralpha had sent his men to help. They’d offered their assistance somany times over the past few years, and while the clan wasn’t onefor accepting any outside help, he was beginning to understand theneed to have allies.
With Ransom being stitched up at theirhealer’s office, he knew they would know everything that hadhappened over the past
