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This time, my shoulder impacted its chest, and it glanced off me. As it shot into the shadows, I tried to wedge myself under the car, scratching at the pavement, hoping my hands would land on the big stick. The giant furred body slammed into me again, lodging its claws into my sides and dragging me away from the edge of the car. Then it landed on top of me so it could rip open my belly with rapid kicks from its powerful rear legs. Ithadn’t made any sounds at all as its hot breath spread over skin.

The smell of blood filled my nostrils, and warmth spread over me.

I howled again.Shit! Shit!No one could save me now.

Logan!

CHAPTER EIGHT

logan

Midnight

How the hell had anyone even known I was out here? Who had told the camping woman?Whathumancould possibly know?

I waited, rooted in place beneath the moon. Pain-filled grunts and whimpering broke through my shock, but I couldn’t move.

Not yet.

Risking my pack, my family, wasn’t going to happen tonight. The woman at the fire hadn’t been a shifter, and I hadn’t recognized her. Could it be some kind of trap set by someone intent on exposing shifters to the unsuspecting world? Worse, could it signal the beginning of whatever Acheron had planned?

The woman screamed my name again, and the soundslammed through me, twisting my insides until my knees almost buckled. The scent of blood followed.

Suddenly, it didn’t matter. Trap be damned. I sprinted toward the campsite, stretching out to take long strides through the thick woods.

A roar from a big bear like a grizzly split the night air. How could there be a bear in the park? Natural grizzlies roamed in the northern states and natural black bears didn’t come here.

I huffed the air again and the scent of shifter magic hit me all at once. Bear shifter magic! It had to be. Were they making an incursion into our territory? I sailed back over the fence around the park.

Dammit.I should have a cell phone to call Olivia and the others, but it was back in the manor on my desk. None of those on patrol would, but the other patrol was a pack, and the pack’s might could easily best a bear. It was up to me to protect Six-Mile Pack from whatever this was.

When I burst into the clearing, a woman in ripped garments crunched and contorted on the ground beneath the mountain lion, and I stopped short at the tree line.No bear here. What the fuck was going on?

Suddenly, a gust burst down from the sky and shifter magic swirled around the woman who grunted and groaned. Magic permeated the air, and I stopped at the edge, shielding myself from view, biting back the howl which threatened to escape me. The magic was stronger than any I’d ever sensed, and it clawed at the wolf inside me.

The feminine body twisted and morphed until it became a she-bear. With a pain-filled groan, the bear climbed to all fours and faced her opponent.

She slammed her giant paw into the mountain lion, and it tumbled across the ground, end over end.

The bear took three steps toward her attacker, stumbling as though she had been the one to take a paw to the head. Then she turned back, her head swinging from side to side as though she was searching for something, trying to work out the solution to a problem.

This wasn’t an incursion. There were no others. Only this one she-bear. This wasn’t how other packs would attack us. How had the shifter by the fire disguised her magic?

Acheron.

This had to be some sorcery from Acheron. He must have taught the bear shifter how to cover her scent. Dark magic poisoned souls and cursed all who used it, and that made her a threat.

I’d see this through to the end, even if it meant my death.

I had no choice.

CHAPTER NINE

emma

My stomach churned, and images flashed in my brain.

Bear. Lynx. Fox. Wolf. A large, graying wolf stared into my soul.