Page 66 of Salvation

“It’s okay,” Anna said, trying to calm her down. “They’re gone now.”

“I would never have gone along with it if they hadn’t threatened to kill the others.”

Finally, the ropes slipped free, and the woman toppled forward.

“What others?” Anna asked, helping her to her feet.

The woman gulped and stumbled down the path, back to the parking lot. “I have to check on them. I have to see if they’re all right.”

“Who?” Anna asked.

The woman broke into a stiff trot, and Anna followed. Her steps grew faster and faster as she headed for the van at the end of the lot — so fast that Anna could barely keep up. For a moment, she thought the woman had tricked her and was trying to get away. But she headed for the back of the van, not the front, racing for the open doors where she stopped in her tracks. Anna raced after her, terrified that they’d find more wolves — or worse, dead bodies of innocent victims or something equally horrifying.

When she caught up a second later, she pulled up short and stared at what she saw.

The last wolf that had run off lay in a pool of blood two steps away, and inside the van…

Todd. Human Todd, thank God, sitting quietly. His sandy brown hair was disheveled, his chest covered in dust. His eyes flickered to Anna and the woman before he dipped his chin.

“It’s okay, little guy,” he whispered, cuddling a tiny bear cub to his chest.

Anna stared as the cub made pathetic mewing sounds and buried its face against Todd’s shoulder.

“Shh. It will be okay.”

“Fay,” the woman called anxiously, climbing into the van. There was a bench built into one side, while the rest was an open storage space crowded with boxes and bags. She moved past Todd and reached into a cardboard box. “Oh, my God. Fay, are you okay?”

She pulled a tiny bundle wrapped in a tattered, rose-colored blanket from the box and held it close. Anna caught sight of a bare foot — a teensy, tiny, human foot with five toes — and gasped.

“A baby?”

The baby made a little choking sound then cried. And cried and cried as tears streamed down the young woman’s face.

Anna gaped at Todd. “How did you know they were in here?”

He shrugged. “I heard them.”

She stared at his nonchalance. She hadn’t heard anything. “Wow.”

Wow to everything. Todd could turn into a bear, and he wasn’t the only one. Which made her wonder. Was the cub a shifter, too? What about the baby girl?

“Emmett and the others killed their parents. A bear and a cougar shifter,” the young woman said in answer to her unspoken question. “They were going to kill the babies, too. I tried everything I could to stop them.” She rocked back and forth, trying to soothe herself, perhaps, as much as the child. “I said we could keep them for ransom and bait some other shifters out with them. And God, I was so scared they would try it.” She clutched the baby close as it wailed on.

“Did they?” Todd asked. His voice was hard and edgy, like the bear might jump out of him any second.

“No. Not yet. They kept the cubs alive until now, but I think they were starting to have second thoughts. I was so scared they would kill them…”

She sobbed and shook and looked up at Anna with desperate eyes. “Please.” She held the baby out. “Please, help me. I try everything I can, but she cries a lot. I’ve been trying to get her to eat, but Emmett wouldn’t let me get formula, just milk. She’s been losing weight and getting weaker. Please.”

The second Anna slid into the seat beside her, the young woman handed over the baby and doubled over her knees, crying.

Anna held the baby close with one hand and patted the young woman with the other. “It’s okay. You did your best. You saved them.”

“But she’s getting so weak…” The woman’s voice was desperate, afraid. “And Ben.” She looked toward the cub in Todd’s arms. “I’ve never seen a shifter baby change forms that young. But he was so scared, it just happened, and I haven’t been able to get him to shift back.”

“You can stay a bear for a while,” Todd whispered into the cub’s ear. “It’s okay. Everything is going to be okay.”

He was talking to the cub, but Anna’s heart rate slowed down a tick at the reassurance in his voice.

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