Zoe held her breath at the rank smell in the cloth and dug in her heels as he tried to pull her forward. Her heart started to race. Simon. Simon would save her, but he thought she needed time to think. It could be an hour before he came to find her. And in an hour, Castellano could take her anywhere. Could kill her.
A strangled sound escaped and tears dripped to her cheeks, soaked up by the hood, and she tripped as they started marching. Alone again. Except for the bear. But if she let the bear out, if she could even figure out how to do it, would she be able to find herself again? Maybe Zoe would be lost forever if the bear came out too soon. She held her breath and tried to come up with a plan.
15
SIMON
Simon stared Tate down. "Don't yell."
He thought he could still hear Zoe crashing through the trees, making more noise than a bull in a china shop even on a well-travelled path. Simon wanted to go after her, wanted to chase her down and prove how much he wanted her to stay with him. Tate might think the city was safer, but Simon knew better. He was a bear in the woods, the biggest grizzly in the neighborhood and most of the entire state. He could protect her.
Cooper, Finn, and Ethan all remained outside with Simon, eyes on Tate as they assessed the threat he posed. Simon knew his guys were already riled up over Zoe being upset. She'd only been with them a couple of days, but she was already family. Already part of the group. They would defend her with their lives, particularly since she was Simon's mate.
Tate's eyes narrowed as he faced Simon. "Look, dude. I trusted you with her, to protect her, and I get a call from her a day after I drop her off that you're crazy and she needs help. What the hell is going on?"
"Look, man —" Simon took a breath to try and explainthat he wanted Zoe to stay forever when a crack echoed through the air. Gun shot. He started to yell for them to get down, but Tate stared at him with a confused look on his face. Then he looked down at where red bloomed across his chest.
Shot.
Simon choked on denial as another shot rang out, and another red patch appeared on Tate's chest. His guys ran for cover and Simon tackled Tate to get him down, to make a smaller target, and dragged him over to crouch behind one of the axles of the old truck. Bullets, particularly ones from high-powered rifles, cut right through car bodies. Even the axles were a gamble. Only the engine block was safe, but Ethan claimed that real estate.
Ethan signaled to Finn and Cooper, and turned to look at Simon. "Where did the shot come from?"
"Didn't see." Simon pressed against the wounds in Tate's chest, but part of him knew his friend breathed his last. He tried to push away the grief; there would be time for regret later. "It's just a flesh wound, mate. Just hold on. We'll get these bastards and —"
"Must be Castellano," Tate managed to say, but the breath whistled in his chest. When Simon looked at Ethan, the medic shook his head. Tate coughed and blood coated his teeth. "Tracked me. Or Zoe's phone. They've gotta be his. Be careful."
"We got it." But Simon's heart stopped. Zoe. Zoe, alone in the woods. He swallowed the panic and concentrated on the immediate task. Get the guys shooting at them, then find Zoe. Make sure she was safe. Then find Castellano and kill him.
Simon's world condensed down to series of simple tasks, and he started giving orders. Cooper and Finn pulled rifles from the truck they crouched behind, and Simon retrievedthe rifle from the floorboard of his truck. The woods remained silent, the shooters no doubt waiting for one of them to poke their head out. Simon made eye contact with Finn and Cooper and nodded at the house. "Go through the lodge and out back. Circle around and try to flank them."
The guys nodded and braced to make a run for it. They waited until Simon and Ethan rose to crack off a few rounds into the trees, hopefully distracting the shooters enough so they didn't kill the others. Cooper and Finn would get to the back of the lodge and escape outside to transform, then hunt the bastards as bears.
Ethan scanned the trees and gestured. "Two o'clock, near the oak."
Simon leaned to take a shot across the bed of the truck, and was rewarded by a grunt and rustle of movement in the trees. One down. Another shot rang out and pinged off the truck next to him. He checked on Tate, but the man's chest barely moved. Simon gritted his teeth, about to charge into the trees by himself to kill the sons of bitches when a grizzly roar broke the silence.
Simon lurched up and around the truck, not caring about whether more shooters lurked in the trees, and ran to where Cooper, a massive brown bear with blazes of white on his chest, pinned a man in camouflage netting against the trunk of a giant oak. Simon grabbed the guy by his chest rig and slammed him back against the tree, feeling grim satisfaction as the guy's head bounced off the bark. "Where's Zoe?"
The guy gritted his teeth but kept his attention on the bear snarling over Simon's shoulder. Simon's bear wanted to burst out and show the idiot who he really needed to worry about, but Simon knew Zoe needed him to be human. So he punched the guy in the face, then the kidney, and again in the face. "Where's Zoe?"
Still nothing.
A radio, clipped to his belt, lit up, and Simon seized it. Held it up to his ear and heard through a static crackle something about taking the girl to 'rally point bravo.' The shooter looked grim, despite the broken nose. As if resigned to being eaten by a grizzly. Simon bared his teeth in fury, ready to choke him out. "I hope Castellano pays you well."
The man's cold, dead eyes flashed to Simon's face before returning to the brown bear behind him. "He does."
Simon threw him head-first into another tree and stormed back to the trucks. Rally point bravo. Finn, back to human and stark naked, made his way back to the front of the lodge and held out a small waterproof pouch. "Maps, boss. The other one had these on him."
"Dead?"
"Yep. Fell out of the tree and broke his neck. Sad."
"Except he was on the ground when Simon shot him," Ethan said under his breath as he loaded another rifle into the truck and jumped in the passenger seat. "Did you toss him back up the tree?"
"Don't ask me no questions," Finn said with an arched eyebrow. "And I'll tell you no lies."
Simon didn't have time for banter. Castellano's guys had Zoe. And they killed Tate. Took a shot at him and his guys, and endangered their guests. His bear wanted vengeance. Wanted to show the world that anyone who threatened his family would pay a terrible price. He started up the truck as he spoke to Finn. "Get Cooper and Noah. Distract the guests with something. Put Tate in the infirmary, and hide those other guys somewhere. I don't want the guests finding a bunch of dead bodies laying around. Then bring the other truck and meet us in town. They're taking Zoe to a place just south of Rosie's."
