Page 52 of Bear Protector
“So that means we have to find eight of Xander’s shifters…as I have… touched him already.”
“And don’t we know it, girlfriend?” she joked.
“No. Seven. I already shook Liam’s hand.”
“I need to get this request over to your man.”
“You need to hurry. Xander’s second in command is getting ready to leave camp with Reena to strengthen the outer walls, and it sounded to me that they were going to start tonight.”
Coco began to remove her clothes. “Fastest way is to fly there, but please, be careful with Minassus. Now that I think about it, he’s probably known since you met Xander at the Great Hall the first time. He was turned by Minassus…”
“Ahhh. I see. The Chancellor may have sensed the transfer of energy, and only remembered the account in Thalia’s scroll after it happened.”
“You are in danger, Kiera. Maybe you should come with me. We can leave through the tunnel and stay at the shifter camp.”
“Perhaps you’re right, especially since the Chancellor is—”
A loud knock on Kiera’s door stopped her dead in her tracks.
“Kiera!” shouted the Chancellor from the other side of the door.
Panicked, but clear on what needed to be done, Kiera exchanged a knowing glance with Coco and frantically whispered, “You have to go now! Through the window. Get to Xander and gather the seven shifters. I will find a way to leave the fortress as soon as I can. Just in case I cannot,youneed to do it, Coco.”
“Touch them? Will that work?”
“It may be the only way.”
Coco nodded and quickly wrapped her arms around Kiera. “I hope you can draw their energy from me.”
“Hurry!” Kiera looked toward the door as Coco took on her Osprey form. “The Chancellor is not going to wait much longer. Time is—” That split second while she focused on him, three images crashed into her head all at the same time. She reared back. “Oh no! We are out of time! And the Chancellor…it can’t be.”
“What?” Coco implored to her. “Tell me!”
“Kiera!” Chancellor Minassus shouted from the door, more loudly this time.
“The Chancellor is going to try to force me to perform the transformation spell…tonight.”
“Like hell he will,” Coco barked.
“But that is not all. The first winter storm is forming.”
“This early?”
“Weather predictions have not always been accurate. It’s coming. Tomorrow night. The destroyers are already on their way! Approaching from the west. You need to get word to Reena and Liam.”
“How far away are they? How soon will they reach the outer walls?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, trying hard to focus, but now there were so many images coming to her, she could barely focus. “Less than a day. And the Chancellor…he has Xander’s mother!”
“Oh hell. Already? Where?”
“Here! At the fortress. The Chancellor’s visit to his mother’s village was a decoy…he sent guards to get Xander’s mother at the same time. He will use it as leverage to force Xander to bring this year’s men to the Great Hall so I can complete the transformation ceremony. Tonight.”
“Xander won’t do it.”
“He will…to save his mother.”
“Holy crap, Kiera. How are we supposed to prepare for the destroyers’ first attack, stop the ceremony, and rescue Xander’s mother? With you here and cut off from the rest of us?”
