Page 40 of Dr. Bear's Mate

Chapter 22

Ursalina would neither confirm nor deny that the medics who underwent the ritual were invincible, but Blake certainly felt that way. He had more energy than he’d had in years, like he could work an entire week straight at the hospital and still swing a weekend getaway with Hayley and Tanith. His limbs felt spry and nimble, each step more of a bounce than anything, and all the worries that had bogged him down before—uplifted. Light as air. Strong. Powerful.

Had the spell made him high?

He shook his head slightly. That wasn’t it. He just felt good for the first time in a long time—physically, anyway. Maybe it was the fantastic sex he and Tanith had had before the ritual took place. Maybe it was a combination of both. Whatever the case, Blake felt like he could take on the entire cougar population of Angel Fire all by himself. Of course, he never would. He’d suggested it after getting dressed, but Tanith had put her foot down.

However, his suggestion had sparked all four clans into action. Now that their medics were protected and the mystics had retreated deep into the sacred cave, protecting themselves magically in the absence of their shifters, it was time to act.

Hoping to catch those cougar bastards by surprise, the clans set out across the mountain range and into bighorn sheep territory, following the scent that was strongest. Even though they had checked the old cougar lair in the past, the scent drew them back there now.

“I really wish you would have stayed behind,” Blake muttered as he and Tanith crept through the forest underbrush alongside the other clan medics and their mates—all of whom were shifters. She shot him an amused look, then ducked just in time to avoid getting hit in the face by a branch the ram shifter in front let fly as he passed through. Blake contemplated yanking that branch off the tree and beating him over the head with it, but what would that accomplish?

“There’s no way I could just sit around with the old and pregnant,” she argued. “After everything that has happened today, I need to do this with you. I need to look those people in the eye so they can put a human face to the crimes they’ve committed.”

He gritted his teeth, but swallowed his response as he helped her over a few especially twisted roots poking out from the forest floor. Those unable to fight were permitted to hang back at the sacred cave, guarded by Copper and Taymond, along with a few other sprightly young shifters wanting to prove themselves to their alphas. Otherwise, all four clans were on the prowl.

They agreed to travel in human form, knowing the scent of their inner animals would be more suspicious as they flooded the hiking trails and the wild forest around them. Blake had tried to make Tanith stay behind, but for some frustrating reason Espie Ruiz backed her up when she protested that she should be by his side, and then Miguel approved it, and suddenly Blake was outranked. So there she was, by his side, and headed for a potentially life-threatening situation.

The only thing that made him feel better was knowing that there were close to a hundred other shifters behind them. If things went south, they had the numbers over the cougars—hopefully. He couldn’t imagine how a hundred cougars could swarm the Angel Fire area without anyone noticing. There had to be twenty or thirty, tops.

If fighting kicked off, Blake’s primary goal would be Tanith’s defense. If things went south faster than he would like, he planned to throw her onto his back and hightail it out of there. No one would blame him. There was no shame in protecting one’s mate.

“Unfortunately, sweetheart, I think they already know what your face looks like,” Blake told her. While her reasons for wanting to expose herself were noble, the cougars wouldn’t care. They were hell-bent on destroying all the Angel Fire clans, and one sad human wasn’t going to make them stop.

“Well, I want to look them in the eye for me, then,” she argued, wiping the sweat from her forehead. The mid-afternoon sun beat down relentlessly, making the bugs sing and the people perspire. It was warmish most of the year in New Mexico, but shifters burned hot and sometimes the heat could be unbearable. The thought of getting into a brawl out here, either in his human form or with a thick pelt of black bear fur, was another reason combat was less than ideal.

“Just promise me you won’t put yourself in harm’s way,” Blake told her, watching and waiting until she nodded.

“I promise.” She shot him a nervous smile. “I have a daughter, Blake. I want to confront these guys, but I’m not stupid.”

While her words appeased him somewhat, neither he nor his inner bear would breathe easy until she was as far from danger as possible.

The coyote medic at the front of the group raised his hand, and everyone stopped. Blake urged Tanith to duck down, trying to keep her as downwind as physically possible from the cougar lair, which they could see clearer now. But he didn’t need to see anything to know the cougars were home: Blake could smell them a mile away, and was surprised their scents hadn’t riled up the other shifters more.

Everyone must have understood the delicacy of the situation. After all, this was supposed to be a surprise attack, and they used the forest as cover, their human forms as scent-disguisers, and their willingness for all this madness to stop as a reason to keep their collective cool.

“Is that it?” Tanith whispered, peering around a narrow tree. “The lair?”

“Yes,” he murmured, studying the cave burrowing into the mountainside. While the bear clan’s cave was generally cool and dry, mostly made of stone, this was muddy and damp, like no one had cared about tracking the outdoors in. “We’ll need to decide the best way to approach it without arousing suspicion. We…”

He trailed off as a figure prowled across the lair’s threshold, moving out into the sun with the grace that only a feline could master. Tanith gasped as she ducked down at the sight of the enormous cougar. Larger than any you would find in the wild, the creature radiated power—clearly the alpha of the clan.

Blake had always assumed they were a ragtag group of individuals working alone, a bit like the coyotes, but judging by the size and sheer presence of this guy, he had been wrong. This was a clan. They were organized. They had a leader.

And they needed to leave Angel Fire.

“Remember what I said about running if you need to?” Blake muttered, earning him a few scowls from the shifter medics around him. He waved them off with a knowing look. “Tanith?”

“Yes,” she replied, voice barely a whisper. Good. She was scared. As much as it pained him to see her frightened, Blake preferred that she accept the reality of the situation; wild animals were dangerous, but shifters in their animal forms were doubly so. They had the brains of a human but the strength and body of a killing machine. Having a healthy fear of that cat in particular was good.

“Good, now—”

Tanith cried out, her eyes widening, and she pushed herself away from the tree like she had seen a ghost. Panicked, Blake looked back to the cougar, who had shifted into a man—and was alerted to their presence by the startled yelp Blake’s mate had made.

“Tanith, run!” he urged, ripping off his clothes as more cougars charged out of the lair. His inner bear reared back, eager for a fight, when Blake noticed the alpha cougar sniffing the air and staring Tanith’s way. He knew she was there. He’d want her—her shriek would have excited him. Straddling the edge of fear and rage, Blake turned back to her and waved her off. “Run!”

Seconds later, as cougars poured into the forest, Blake shifted, ready to defend his mate with his life.

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