Page 61 of Handcuffed to the Bear

Then who?—

The helicopter seemed to come out of nowhere. It wasn’t there, and then it was, looming huge in her vision, skimming low across the headland and then banking steeply in a big circle.

It braked somehow in midair, tilting up at the nose, and then leveled out to hover about fifteen feet above the boat. They were pinned in the brilliant glare of a searchlight.

Casey stared upward. So did Derek.

A door opened in the side of the helicopter, and a blond woman with an assault rifle leaned out. “Federal agents!” she screamed. “Freeze where you are!”

Derek stared at her, then turned his baleful gaze to Casey. Hate warred with self-preservation, and he took a step forward.

Something darted past the woman with the gun and flung itself out of the helicopter. All Casey caught was a black flash. It hit the boat’s wet deck, stumbling and nearly sliding over the edge before catching itself.

Casey pushed herself up shakily on her hands, and discovered that a medium-sized black wolf had interposed itself between her and the lion. The lion was five times its size, but the wolf’s hackles bristled, its head low.Just try to go through me, asshole,its body language seemed to say.

Avery!Casey thought. This had to be the werewolf partner Jack had told her about.

A dark bundle thumped to the deck a few feet from Avery. The wolf scuttled sideways to it, limping heavily but never taking its eyes off the lion. It put a paw on the bundle. Then, with a liquid flicker, Avery shifted and the wolf was replaced with a dark-haired, light-skinned young man crouching in front of the lion, his hand resting on top of what, Casey now saw, was someone’s jacket. Avery pulled a gun out of it—the gun and its holster had been bundled in the jacket—and aimed it at the lion’s face.

“You’re under arrest,” he said. “Shift and get down on your face.”

The lion’s lips curled back from its fangs.

“Do it now!” Avery yelled. “Think you can take me out? Did you miss the woman up there with the rifle pointed at you? If you take one more step, make one more threatening move, she’s going to shoot you. Nowshift.”

Derek seemed to think about it; then he blurred to his human form. Sullenly, he lay down on the deck.

Avery retrieved a pair of handcuffs from the jacket. Seeming unconcerned about his nudity, he cuffed Derek—taking an interested look at the lion shifter’s injuries while he did so—and then picked up the jacket and limped to Casey, unsteady on the slippery deck.

Her eyes were drawn to his legs. Jack had mentioned how badly he’d been hurt, but she was still unprepared for the extent of the scarring, or the way his right leg twisted under him, the foot toeing slightly in.

“Avery,” she managed through chattering teeth as he awkwardly crouched beside her.

“You know me.” He wrapped the jacket around her shoulders. It was wonderfully warm. “Then you’ve met Jack, right? Agent Ross. Where is he?”

“He ...” she gasped. “He went off the edge.”

Avery tilted his head back. “Jack’s in the water!” he shouted up to the helicopter. “Where’s Eva?”

A naked woman, presumably Eva, dived out of the open door of the helicopter. She deftly missed the boat and sliced gracefully into the water.

Another shifter?Casey thought. But, of course, they were all shifters. What a strange and wonderful thought.

“Are you hurt?” Avery asked, patting her down. “Is any of this blood yours?”

She tried to force her scattered mind back on task. “Leg. Shot.”

“Jeez,” Avery muttered. He clasped a hand over the bloody mess of her lower leg. She cried out.

“Sorry. We’ll get you up to the helicopter, okay? There’s people with paramedic training. They’ll take care of you.”

There was something else. Something important. To do with Jack. “R-Roger Fallon is in the water too,” she stammered, her lips clumsy with cold.

“Don’t worry,” Avery said. He put his free arm around her, supporting her. “Eva will take care of him. Now, we’re going to lower a sort of chair to lift you into the helicopter, all right?”

“Th-there are more of them. With guns. On shore.” But there had been no more shots since the helicopter showed up. It seemed Rory and Mara had decided to make a break for it.

“We’ll get them,” Avery told her. “Everything’s going to be okay.” His face was drawn with tension, despite the reassuring words.

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