Page 12 of Snatching Jackie (Wintermoon Shorts #5)

“You do not surrender to men,” he growls. “Men surrender to you. Now, I’m going to kill him in your honor.”

I groan. Is this really the time to argue about gender dynamics? “Are those bullets going to hurt you?”

A grin spreads across his face. “They make my skin itch.”

“Do what you must,” I relent.

Jabari looks at me lovingly, his green eyes softening for just a moment before hardening as he turns back to Kendrick.

He immediately pulls the trigger. Once. Twice.

Three times. The sound of gunshots cracks through the air like thunder, but Jabari doesn’t flinch.

Each bullet hits him, but he keeps walking forward as if they’re nothing more than mosquito bites.

When he reaches Kendrick, Jabari grabs him by the neck. Panic flashes across Kendrick’s face as he fires again wildly.

A sharp, burning pain explodes in my arm. “Ah!” I cry out, grabbing at the spot where fire seems to have erupted beneath my skin. Warm liquid seeps between my fingers—blood. My blood.

Kade appears beside me, grabbing my injured arm and examining it with expert eyes.

“It’s just a flesh wound,” she assesses, her voice clinical.

“The bullet went right through.” She rips fabric from the bottom of her shirt and wraps it tightly around my arm.

The makeshift bandage immediately starts to darken with blood.

Jabari’s head whips around at my cry, his eyes landing on my bloody arm. His face transforms into something primal, something beyond human rage.

“You shot my mate,” he roars, his voice so loud it seems to shake the very air.

“It was a mistake,” Kendrick whimpers, but it’s too late.

Jabari lifts Kendrick like he weighs nothing and slams him downward with such force that the deck splinters beneath them.

Kendrick crashes through the floor, wood and metal giving way as his body plummets through one level, then another, and another.

Each impact produces a sickening crunch until a final, distant crash echoes up from the depths of the ship.

Kade glares at me as if this is somehow my fault, then walks around to look down through the jagged hole in the deck. “Well, he’s definitely dead now,” she says matter-of-factly.

Her eyes widen as she takes in the full extent of the damage. “You see that? Water filling the fucking ship.” She glares at him, her face contorted with rage. “YOU’VE JUST SUNK MY FUCKING SHIP!”

Jabari ignores her, his focus entirely on me as I clutch my bleeding arm, unphased by Kade’s meltdown.

Then the alarms start to blare—high-pitched, piercing wails. The ship’s engine sputters and dies, plunging us into momentary darkness before emergency lights flicker to life. Panicked voices rise around us as passengers realize what’s happening.

“The ship is sinking!” “We need to get to the lifeboats!” “Someone call for help!”

Chaos erupts on the deck as people rush in all directions, but Jabari simply walks around a panicking Kade, who’s already mentally calculating how to save the humans. He approaches me, gently taking my injured arm.

“I’m sorry,” he says, pulling me into his arms.

I let him hold me, finding comfort in his warmth despite the madness swirling around us. The ship gives an ominous groan beneath our feet, tilting slightly as water fills its lower levels.

Our moment is shattered when a group of human passengers approaches, pointing at Jabari with fear and anger in their eyes.

“Dirty shifter!” “He just hurt a human!” “This is all his fault!”

I feel his body temperature spike, heat radiating off him in waves. He pushes me behind him, shielding me from their accusations.

Kade turns around and looks at Jabari, her eyes widening. “Oh shit,” she breathes. “He’s about to shift.”

She starts freaking out again, throwing her hands up. “This is not fucking happening right now!”

I step back as Jabari’s body begins to change.

It starts with his eyes—the green intensifies, becoming almost luminous.

His skin ripples, muscles bulging and shifting beneath.

There’s a sound like fabric tearing as his clothes shred, unable to contain his expanding form.

Bones crack and reform, his spine elongating, his jaw extending into a muzzle.

Dark brown fur erupts across his body, covering him completely.

Where Jabari stood moments before, a massive bear now towers. He’s enormous—at least eight feet tall on his hind legs, with paws the size of dinner plates and claws like daggers. His roar is deafening, sending the humans scattering in terror.

The ship tilts more severely now, the deck angling downward.

But before Jabari’s bear can take a step, Kade flashes forward with vampire speed.

She pushes against his massive chest with strength that seems impossible for someone her size.

His claws drag across the deck, leaving deep gouges in the wood as he’s forced back.

Black smoke begins to form around us. It happens so fast I barely process what’s happening. All I hear is Kade’s voice: “Oh hell no, you aren’t staying on this ship, Jackie.”

She grabs my wrist roughly, and suddenly the world dissolves.

It’s like being sucked through a straw—my body stretching, compressing, disintegrating.

Colors blur and blend, sounds become muted and distorted.

There’s a sensation of immense pressure followed by complete weightlessness.

My stomach lurches as reality itself seems to bend around me, folding in impossible ways.

The air is sucked from my lungs, and for a terrifying moment, I think I’ve ceased to exist.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, it stops. I’m standing in what looks like a police station, the world still spinning around me. My head turns just in time to see Jabari’s bear collapse to the floor in front of me, unconscious.

That’s when it hits me—a feeling like my stomach has been turned inside out and twisted into knots. I clutch my belly and drop to my knees, violently expelling everything in my stomach onto the floor. Wave after wave of nausea crashes over me as my body rejects the impossible journey it just took.

Through watery eyes, I see expensive leather shoes click against the floor.

A tall figure towers over me—a white male in an impeccably tailored suit.

His short blond hair is styled perfectly, not a strand out of place.

When he flashes me a smile, I catch the flash of fangs.

His eyes are the same vibrant green as Jabari’s, but colder, more calculating.

“Oh, how nice,” he says, his voice unwavering and charming. “Another daughter of Wintermoon.”

I can only respond by throwing up again.

“He sank my fucking ship,” Kade rants beside me. “A million dollars. You think money grows on trees?”

“Calm down, Kade,” the man says with a bored sigh. “It does for us, actually. That ship is a drop in the bucket. Stop being dramatic.”

“DON’T TELL ME HOW TO FUCKING FEEL!” Kade screams, then vanishes in another cloud of black smoke, leaving me alone with the vampire.

He looks down at me, one perfect eyebrow raised. “I’m Damon, Kade’s older brother. Welcome to Wintermoon.” His eyes flick to the mess I’ve made on his floor. “I’ll go get Leah for help, and a mop.”

He walks away, his movements fluid, leaving me still heaving on the floor beside an unconscious bear shifter.

I just got snatched into Wintermoon. What a shitshow.