Page 82 of Bear Facts

Keira pressed a hand to her throat. “I met a guy in Spokane who said he could get rid of it for me. I can’t remember how I met him—through other Shifters, I think. There are more outside of Shiftertowns than I realized.”

“And he removed it?”

“Yes.” The word was hesitant as Keira skimmed her fingers across her scar. “This is where my memories get fuzzy. He ran a tattoo shop, and he had a hidden room where he helped Shifters get free of their Collars. I remember I was considering getting a tatt once I healed from the Collar removal, to celebrate my freedom.” Her grin flashed, making her beautiful, before she sobered again. “He gave me some anesthetic, because the Collar coming off would be painful. I thought it would be something like lidocaine, but it totally knocked me out. When I came to, my neck hurt, the Collar was gone, and I had no idea where I was.”

“Not in the shop anymore, I take it,” Freya said.

“I only have flashes from then on. I was someplace large but partitioned off with thick walls. People gave me food and water, which I suspect was drugged, because I could never quite wake up. I tried to not eat or drink, but I’d get so thirsty, I couldn’t stop myself.”

Rae made a noise of sympathy mixed with anger. “We’ll find this tattoo shop and make them sorry they met you.”

Keira sent her a grave nod. “If I can remember, I’ll tell you. I lost track of how long I’d been in my cell when they started injecting me with things. At first, I was terrified, but they never did anything but give me the shots when I was groggy from the drugged water. Then I started getting so angry. Finally, when someone came with a syringe, I went wolf and attacked him. I was instantly tased and tranqued. I thought for sure they’d kill me, but instead they moved me to a larger area, which was outdoors. It had high walls and a cage grating on top, too strong for me to tear out of. I had room to run, and I did that, I remember. A lot. After a while, I stopped caring where I was, as long as I could run, shift, eat, and attack whatever came at me.”

“They were making you go feral,” Freya said. She realized she and Rolf had been out in the world, vulnerable, just like Keira. But for luck and Graham, she and Rolf could have been taken, drugged, injected, turned into enraged animals too.

“I didn’t realize what was happening to me,” Keira said. “Somewhere inside, I was aware that I’d gone completely mad, but the rest of me stopped caring.”

“Did you get away from them?” Freya asked. “Is that why you were running around on Mount Charleston?”

“I don’t know.” Keira shrugged, unhappy. “There were more Shifters in the compound, though I never spoke to any. They’d come and go—I know, because I’d stop hearing them and scenting them when they left. I fell asleep one night and then woke up in the woods. I didn’t know where I was, or why I was there. I just knew I was alone.”

“I sensed you,” Freya said. “I was alone myself, and I knew a feral was in the woods with me. I first feared—or hoped—it might be my brother, but I realized it wasn’t.” She eyed Keira with trepidation. “You knew I was a twin. Did you know because you’d seen him—or scented him—before? Was my brother there, in that compound?”

Keira studied Freya for a time before she shook her head. “I don’t know, but my wolf understood a lot of things I didn’t. Maybe I did see him, or meet him, or sensed him. I wish I could tell you. I’m sorry.”

Freya strove to hide her anguish, but Keira laid a hand on hers. This woman had been through so much, and she still had enough empathy to feel sorry for Freya. Freya’s heart burned, and she nodded her thanks.

“Do you know where the compound was?” Rae asked as Freya tried to master her emotions.

Keira frowned in thought. “Not exactly. It was in deep woods, but not the one I was left in—Mount Charleston, you said it was? The trees and scents were completely different. I could see trees towering above the cage I was in. When I was taken out to run—supervised—I saw more pine trees but also some redwoods. I lived in northern California as a cub, and I know about redwoods.”

“Do you remember fighting Leo?” Rae asked gently. “The wolf you tore up, though you left him alive.”

Keira swallowed. “I saw him roving the woods. I didn’t want to get too close, because I realized he was a Collared Shifter, but he must have scented me. He followed me and then attacked me.”

“Are you sure he attacked?” Rae asked. “With you being feral?”

Freya sent Rae an incredulous look. “Leo? Of course, he would. Either to prove he could take down a feral or because he wanted something else from her.”

“He was in wolf form,” Keira said. “I think he wanted both those things. They’d given me training to fight, and once my wolf started it wouldn’t stop until he was broken.”

Freya squeezed Keira’s hand as she started to shake. “You could have killed him, and you didn’t. You stopped yourself in time.”

“Barely,” Keira breathed.

“But you did,” Freya said. “Hold on to that. What I don’t understand is that you followed Shane and me to the cabin, but you didn’t attack us. Why not?”

“You weren’t a threat.” Keira’s answer was instant. “The other Lupine—Leo—was. You were wrapped up in each other, and I saw your mate bond. I wasn’t going to interfere with that.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Freya stared at Keira as she said the words. “The mate bond,” she repeated. The magical bond that went beyond mate frenzy and mate-claims, beyond even the concept of love. “Are you sure?”

Keira nodded. “Very sure.”

Freya’s wolf hummed in satisfaction. I knew it.

Mating frenzy did not always mean a bond, Freya told herself quickly, though a bond was always accompanied by frenzy.

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