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  Mason got to his knees, the amber light fading. “Easy,” Mason said. “You all right?”

  Aleck’s head thumped down to the cement floor. “Did I hurt Nancy? Please, please say I didn’t—”

  “Nancy is fine,” Jasmine said quickly. “So’s the cub she’s carrying. I think he’s okay now, Zander.” She came to Mason, resting her hand on his shoulder as she peered into the cage at Zander. “Are you all right?”

  Zander, whose back had been turned, suddenly faced them. He had shifted all the way to polar bear, and the black in his eyes was like windows to nothing. At the same time, the last of the violent streaks in Aleck’s aura drained completely away and dove into Zander’s.

  Zander rose to huge bear feet, his snarls hard, vicious, and bloodthirsty. The feral rage that had been inside Aleck was rising anew in a polar bear who could wipe out every person in this house, and probably this Shiftertown.

  Mason was up even before Jasmine shouted at him to get Broderick and the tranq gun. Mason never had the chance. Zander slammed himself into the gate full force and it bent on its hinges. Mason threw himself between the cage and Jasmine, just before the gate broke fully and a ton of polar bear landed on him. He heard Jasmine screaming for Broderick as she unlocked and wrenched open the door.

  Aleck remained huddled in the cage, dumbfounded. Zander slammed Mason to the floor with one giant paw full of razor-sharp claws, all trace of sanity gone.

  Mason didn’t dare shift, knowing he’d be nearly helpless in the moments between forms. In those moments, Zander could kill him. He staved off the bear the best he could and heard Broderick stomping in, swearing a blue streak as only Broderick could.

  Then came the thunk of the tranquilizer gun and Zander’s roar as the dart went into him.

  Zander yanked himself away from Mason, but he didn’t look in the least subdued. He roared as he rose higher and higher on his back legs, and Broderick said, “Well, fuck.”

  Mason rolled out from under Zander, shifting as he went, his clothes ripping away. Zander landed on all fours and shook himself, sending the tranq dart flying.

  Zander barreled toward Broderick and Jasmine, who were in front of the door. Mason landed on Zander’s back, but the bear easily threw him off. Broderick was able to yank Jasmine out of the way as Zander slammed past them, tearing through the door and doorframe, and headed up the stairs.

  Mason, fully wolf now, sprinted after him.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mason was right on Zander’s heels as they reached the ground floor of the house. He grabbed at Zander’s back legs, terrified the bear would dash to the second floor and tear through the rest of his family, but Zander crashed out the kitchen door and into the sunshine.

  Great. Instead of a polar bear wreaking havoc in Mason’s house, he was going to wreak it in the rest of Shiftertown.

  Zander was fast. He took off down the street, muscles rippling under his fur as he ran. Other Shifters out and about were sensible enough to get the hell out of the way, even as they gaped at seeing a polar bear charge down the street. Polar bears were very rare, and a full-grown one had never been seen in this Shiftertown. News of him would run from one side of town to the other in about five minutes.

  Mason couldn’t take the time to shift back to human, but he glared at the Lupines he passed, willing them to understand him.

  Find Tiger. Get Tiger. Would you go?

  Zander fortunately didn’t stop to attack any of the other Shifters, though he roared at them if they came too close. He was making a solid line for something—Mason had no idea what.

  Wolves were fast too. Mason ran like hell, his paws pounding on the street or in dirt where Zander detoured through yards. Mason plowed up flowerbeds and scattered cubs’ toys. He’d hear about it later, but right now, he had to stop a crazed bear.

  As the houses flowed past, Mason finally realized where Zander was headed. One house sat back from the street among tall trees, the two-story bungalow reinforced for the strength of those who lived in it. They’d enclosed the garage and now called it the Den, in the humorous way of bears.

  Zander was heading for Ronan’s house. Ronan was a Kodiak bear, as was his roommate and member of his clan, Rebecca. Both were mated now to humans and the house was full of cubs, most of them adopted, orphaned bears no one else had been able to take care of. The oldest had just passed his Transition from cub to adulthood, but the others—Cherie, Olaf, and small Katie, plus Ronan’s tiny cub—were too young to defend themselves.

  Mason put on a burst of speed. He managed to get around Zander—leaping over a hedge to do so—and landed in front of the house’s back porch, whirling around and bracing himself to face Zander.

  Zander was completely feral. Any semblance of the sort-of crazy, kind-of affable bear-man in his messy trailer in Alaska was gone. In its place was a monster of a polar bear, savage and enraged. He’d not wanted to come down here and try to heal a feral, for crap’s sake, but he’d done it, and now he was paying the price.

  So was Mason. Zander attacked him.

  As Mason went down under the huge black claws, he heard the other bears come out. Ronan’s ferocious roar shook the yard, Rebecca’s not much less powerful one behind him. The door of the Den banged open, and Mason heard human footsteps—that would be Walker, Rebecca’s mate, a military guy who would have all kinds of weapons.

  Zander fought wildly. He smacked Mason aside, Mason tumbling until he slammed up against the side of the porch, pain searing his ribs. Ronan, nearly as enormous as Zander, barreled at him, but Zander, far gone in insanity, shoved him aside as though he weighed nothing.

  Ronan and Rebecca went after Zander again, both bears now, but their Collars sparked hard, slowing them down and zapping the strength they needed. Zander was going to get around them into the house where Ronan’s mate and the vulnerable cubs were.

  Walker had a tranq rifle, but he was trying to find a decent shot, not wanting to hit the others by mistake. Even a tranq might not do any good. Zander had brushed off the one Broderick had fired right into him. Broderick hadn’t missed—Zander had just not noticed the tranq.

  Zander fought hard with Rebecca and then Ronan again, before he swiped them both aside, Rebecca’s fur bloody, sprinted up to the porch, and hit the house’s back door.

  Mason was on him. Snarling, his Collar throwing sparks deep into both his and Zander’s fur, Mason got his teeth around Zander’s neck and hung on. He willed Walker to grab a real gun and shoot, but if Walker hit Mason, that wouldn’t help. Mason couldn’t risk jumping off Zander to give Walker a better shot, because in that moment, Zander would get into the house.

  Zander bucked and shook, trying to dislodge Mason. They both crashed against the porch’s railing, which splintered and broke, sending the two of them down into the yard.

  Mason kept hold of Zander, determined he wouldn’t make it up to the porch again. Where the hell was Tiger? He was the only one big enough and tough enough to take down a feral polar bear. Tiger didn’t wear a real Collar, so he had nothing to get in his way.

  But if Tiger was off doing something or other for Dylan, it might be a long time before he was tracked down and able to get back. Meanwhile, Zander could do a lot of damage.

  As Mason tried desperately to get his teeth into Zander’s throat, he heard Broderick and Jasmine running into the yard, Broderick demanding that the bears get off their asses and help Mason. They’re trying, bro. Broderick was always so impatient.

  He also heard Jasmine scream.

  The sound went right through him, galvanizing Mason with new energy. He had no idea why Jasmine screamed—Zander was busy pulverizing Mason, so she hadn’t been hurt.

  But his mate was in distress, and Mason’s instinct was to protect her, no matter who he had to kill to do it. His Collar increased its sparks, but Mason barely felt them as he sank his teeth into Zander’s neck.

  Rebecca’s roars and then Ronan’s rose, both of them panicking, and Walker yelled, “No! Sto
p him!”

  Zander gave one final shake that dislodged Mason. Mason’s mouth was ripped away from Zander’s fur, Mason crashing hard to the ground. He heard something snap, and then pain so intense burst through him that his vision went dark.

  Through the blur Mason saw what everyone had been yelling about.

  A very small white bear with soot-black eyes had appeared on the porch. It stood on the edge, where the railing had broken, and stared in amazement at Zander.

  Rebecca, human now, was trying to reach him, and waving at the young woman inside the back door—another of the cubs—to stay there.

  Zander ran right at the polar bear cub—and stopped.

  Olaf stared down at Zander with no fear. He let out a little growl, one that held both curiosity and warning. This is my territory. Who are you?

  Mason tried to leap up and put himself between them, but his leg was broken, and he fell back down with a yelp. The others, he noted, weren’t moving either, only stared at Olaf and Zander, frozen in place.

  Jasmine broke away from Broderick, darted to Mason, and fell to her knees beside him, her hands going to his fur. Under her touch, Mason’s pain eased the slightest bit.

  Zander had gone utterly still. His eyes were red, no sanity in them, but he gazed at Olaf in silence. Olaf, curiosity overcoming caution, hurtled himself off the porch, landed on clumsy feet, and closed the short distance between himself and the bigger polar bear.

  Ronan did move then, the Kodiak heading straight for Olaf, but Zander turned on him and let out a roar. Zander positioned himself between Ronan and Olaf. Not to hurt Olaf, Mason realized after one foggy moment, but to protect him.

  Olaf batted Zander’s back leg. Zander turned around, very slowly, and lowered his head toward Olaf’s. Olaf put both paws on Zander’s face and drew himself up to look right into Zander’s eyes.

  The red in them started to fade. Zander took a long breath, and then another as Olaf peered at him, trying to figure out who was this gigantic bear that looked like him.

  Zander lifted a great paw and placed it, very gently, on Olaf’s back. Olaf growled in delight and rolled out from under Zander’s touch, dancing up, his body wriggling.

  Zander lowered himself down, groaning as though the movement hurt him, settling on his belly. Olaf licked the top of Zander’s nose, then scampered up over Zander’s huge head to his back.

  Jasmine drew a sharp breath as Olaf scrambled past the muzzle that had been so ferociously biting everything in sight, but Zander did nothing. Olaf happily bounced on Zander’s back, and Zander rolled over with another groan.

  Zander ended up on his back, his feet splaying, grunting as Olaf landed on his stomach. The bears and Mason, Broderick and Walker tensed, but Zander let out another long breath and eased himself into the grass. Olaf perched happily on Zander’s chest, letting out little huffs of breath. The feral beast in Zander dissipated and flowed away.

  Jasmine leaned down and kissed Mason between his wolf ears. “Now, isn’t that the cutest thing you ever saw?”

  Mason made a wolf noise in return. He was in pain, but Jasmine near him was a fine thing.

  He heard more footsteps approaching, hard and fast. Tiger came charging into the yard, followed by Dylan, Tiger with a tranq rifle. Tiger halted when he saw the large polar bear lying limply on his back, the smaller bear contentedly on top of him.

  “Looks like we won’t need this,” Tiger said in his rumbling voice as he upended the rifle.

  He glanced over at Mason and Jasmine and gave Mason an approving nod. Well done, he seemed to say, but Tiger, never eloquent, only turned his head to watch Zander and Olaf again, unconcerned.

  If Tiger thought all was well, Mason knew, then it was. He laid his head on Jasmine’s lap, liking how she stroked a gentle hand through his fur, and proceeded to pass out.

  * * *

  Mason’s leg was shattered. Jazz watched worriedly as the Kodiak bears and Walker loaded Mason into the back of Dylan’s pickup. Walker, a medic, had quickly splinted Mason’s leg when he was human again—Mason hadn’t been able to stop the shift. Mason had insisted on being taken home instead of a hospital or even into the bears’ house.

  “Just make sure that damned polar bear saves Aunt Cora,” Mason told Jazz between his teeth as Dylan drove them down the block.

  Zander returned to the house on foot, still bear, Olaf as cub riding on his back. Zander walked into the yard at the same time the pickup reached Broderick’s. Broderick himself lifted Mason from the bed of the truck and carried him into the living room.

  “Upstairs,” Mason snapped when Broderick wanted to lay him on the sofa. “My room.”

  “Hey, I’m not your litter bearer,” Broderick growled, but he carried his youngest brother upstairs with a gentleness Jazz suspected he’d used with Mason all his life.

  Mason’s bedroom looked as though a tornado had blown through it, and his bed had been broken. Someone had leaned the wooden head and footboards against the wall but the mattress lay alone on the floor. Broderick set Mason carefully on the mattress, Mason grunting as his leg settled.

  Jazz wanted to stay with Mason, but he waved her off. “No—make sure Aunt Cora’s all right. I trust you. Please.”

  His worry was greater than his pain, Jazz saw. She kissed him gently, gave him an amethyst to hold, and hurried into the hall.

  Zander was coming up the stairs, his clothing resumed, minus the duster. He gave Jazz a long look, his eyes haunted. Behind him scampered the polar bear cub, as though he didn’t want to let Zander out of his sight. Zander reached down and picked up Olaf, carrying him in his arms into Aunt Cora’s room.

  Nancy and Joanne weren’t there—they were downstairs helping Aleck. Aunt Cora didn’t even open her eyes when Jazz and Zander came in, too weak to respond. Her aura was dark, sticky, fading.

  Zander set Olaf on the sofa, knelt by Aunt Cora’s bed, and took her hand in his.

  Zander healed her. While Jazz sat with her arms around the cub, Olaf watching with big black eyes, Zander went into his chanting ritual. Derek and Corey, who’d come upstairs to keep an eye on Zander, didn’t look impressed, but they only watched.

  A few minutes into Zander’s chant, Aunt Cora began to breathe easier, her chest rising and falling without labor. Another ten minutes after this, she opened her eyes, gazed at Zander’s bowed head and long white braids, and said, “What are you doing back here?”

  “Healing you, ma’am,” Zander mumbled.

  Jazz saw the thick streaks of pain and fever that had threaded Aunt Cora’s aura flow into Zander’s, staining it black. Maybe that was why Zander’s aura was so neutral, Jazz pondered. He easily absorbed whatever tainted his patients.

  As the viscid murk of Aunt Cora’s suffering left her, Zander let out a pained breath, lost hold of her hands, and collapsed to the floor.

  Olaf bounded down from the sofa and went to him, making distressed little noises. Jazz took an extra blanket that had been folded on a chair and gently draped it over him. She smoothed his hair from his hot forehead as Olaf lay down right next to him, snuggling his furry body into Zander’s shoulder. Zander only groaned again, his eyes fluttering as though unaware of what they did.

  “Well,” Aunt Cora said, voice weak. She looked at Zander on the floor and Olaf pressed against him. “What do you know about that? Help me up, Jasmine, sweetheart. We need to find someplace soft for him to sleep.”

  * * *

  “Ow!” Mason yelled.

  “Don’t be a baby,” Zander snapped, his hands on Mason’s broken leg. “Your auntie was hurt worse than you, and she didn’t say a word.”

  Pain suffused Mason’s body, obscuring the world. The only clear spot in his life was Jasmine, her hand in his.

  Mason growled. “That’s because Aunt Cora didn’t have a fucking huge polar bear pressing down on her broken leg.”

  “You want it to heal?” Zander said without heat. “Stop moving.”

  “Look at me, Mason.” Jasmine’
s voice cut through the anguish. “Just look at me.”

  She touched his face, turning his head on the pillow. Jasmine sat beside him, her hip against his, her cool fingers wrapped around his hot ones.

  Mason liked looking at her. “You’re beautiful,” he said.

  Jasmine’s blue eyes warmed, and her nose wrinkled with her smile. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

  “Yeah? I thought you didn’t like Shifters.”

  Jasmine shrugged. “I’ll make an exception.” She kissed Mason’s fist. “You’re pretty exceptional.”

  “Can I make an observation?” Zander raised his head, the ends of his braids brushing Mason’s leg.

  “No,” Mason said, at the same time Jasmine said, “Yes.”

  Zander chuckled in spite of the pain in his eyes. He’d barely recovered from curing Aunt Cora, and now he was in here trying to help Mason. The man’s courage was remarkable, and Mason warmed with gratitude to him.

  “You two kids belong together,” Zander said. “Make the mate-claim, Mason. I’ll witness it.”

  Jasmine looked startled. “Mate-claim?” Her voice turned cautious. “What does that mean, exactly?”

  Zander answered before Mason could. “Means he’s making it clear he wants to take you as mate, under the sun and moon ceremonies that Shifters recognize as official. Means no other Shifter can claim you without fighting him for it. Kind of like an engagement, but with more sex and violence.”

  Jasmine looked at Mason again, her expression holding trepidation. “Mason, I …”

  “You don’t have to accept,” Mason said quickly, a heavy lump burning in his chest. “You can go back home to your life and your crazy house. I live in Shiftertown with too many brothers and assorted relatives. I make guitars and music boxes in a hidden shop. Although if I’m mated, Derek and Corey might stop giving me so much shit. You could be my protector.”