Bearly Breathing (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (26 page)

Atlas groaned!

“Sara?” he asked, sitting up and plucking the cattle prod from his own chest. He hurled it away, and then pulled his meant-to-be-mate to her feet. “Sara?” he asked again. “Are you...?”

His words were less halting than normal, but the drool was the same as ever. Holding Sara by the shoulders, he shook her violently, her head wobbling around like a torn up ragdoll. Back and forth, over and over he shook her as her head lolled around.

“Sara! Sara!” he repeated, “Sa...ra!”

At that, her eyes snapped open and instantly cleared, like all she needed to hear was his stutter, his stammer, to know that it was really him.

She focused, or well, one of her eyes focused, the other went slightly off-kilter, but she clung to Atlas’s arm. They held each other for a moment, stared into one another’s eyes, and then kissed as best they could, which was more like an open-mouthed baby kiss than anything else.

“Ain’t that sweet?” Jenga said. “I guess that lightning set ‘em straight. Figured it’d take somethin’ like that ta’ get their brains the right sort of scrambled.”

“Atlas!” Sara said. “Hold hand! Hold hand now! Ho-ho-ha-ha-la!”

Atlas cocked his head to the side, drooled slightly, but then apparently figured out what she wanted, and took her hand. Immediately, she sat down on the ground, pushed him over and stretched out with the back of her head in his lap. “Loving... you,” she said, with a curiously sedate smile.

“Enough!” Mitch roared. “Enough of this... whatever it is. Freddy, Grunge, break the damn, uh, dam! I’m gonna handle my idiot son and then we’re out of here, got it?”

With speed that blew my mind and also got my heart racing and got me feeling a little wiggly in places I really shouldn’t feel when I’m caked up with mud and staring down a psychotic beaver, Orion closed the distance between he and his father, and shoulder blocked his old man right into a tree trunk.

The old bear grunted heavily, and let out a long, trailing wheeze. “You dumb son of a... bitch!” Mitch spat out a broken tooth, straight into Orion’s face before slamming his forehead straight into Orion’s nose.

Without a word, Orion grabbed Mitch by the hair and dragged his head off the tree trunk, then bashed it back against the bark once, then again. “You take that back,” he finally said. “Mom was better than you. She was better than any of you, better than you deserved.”

“Yeah well I made up for all my karmic evil when you were born, you dumb bastard!”

My strength returned, the buzzing in my arm and my leg subsiding slightly, and I managed to get to my feet just in time for Celia to try to run. “You should’ve killed me when you had the chance,” she growled, squaring up. “Now I’m gonna do you, then I’m gonna do him, and then I’m gonna do the whole town.”

She twisted her thin lips into a snarl and slapped the ground with her large, flat, leathery tail.

In the distance, sirens wailed. I guess the hyenas finally got to the Greater James dam, and there were a
lot
of sirens. “It’s over, Celia!” I shouted. “The police are here! You can stop all this right now! You can do good without blowing up the whole damn town!”

“Not anymore,” she said. Her voice was grinding glass. “Not anymore. I’ve done too much, gone too far to turn back. I’m too close.”

“To close to what?” I asked.

Orion’s father slammed a knee into his son’s gut, doubling him over. The two of them shifted almost instantaneously, shoulder blocks turning into paw swipes. Both of them stood on their hind legs, clashing like wild animals, biting, and clawing at each other. They were going back and forth trading blows, but neither seemed to get an upper paw.

Celia lashed out, raking her teeth across one of my forearms when I wasn’t paying much attention. I grabbed at her neck, scratching a deep gash with my half-retracted claws, and managed to tie her up and drag her to the forest floor. “No!” I shouted. “This is over! This is all finished, Celia! You’re not going to hurt anyone.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked, clawing at me to get away. “Who said anything about hurting anyone?”

At the approximate worst time possible, my back paw caught a mud suck, and I lost my grip. Celia scampered away, collecting something off the ground, and holding it out in her trembling arm. Mitch and Orion kept trying to topple each other, apparently oblivious to what was about to occur.

“Oh, shit,” I said to myself, my stomach sinking into my feet.

“Detonator.”

Celia grinned that evil, devilish smile.

“Suck my ass, cat,” Celia said, grinning as she pressed the button.

––––––––

“E
at
drink
, you dicks!” Celia bounced from one foot to the other, jamming on the red button. An explosion had already rocked the entire camp, throwing Mitch and Orion in opposite directions, and made my sensitive lynx ears ache like my head was exploding from the inside out.

Celia was still madly jabbing the button. “You’re all fucked! Here comes the water! Celia Maynard wins again!”

“Doesn’t seem much like winning,” I said, grabbing the side of my head and massaging my temple.

From my right, in the direction of the dam, the timbers blocking the waterway creaked lazily. One of them plopped into the water and drifted down the gentle stream, running slowly toward town.

In the water below, a very satisfied looking Atlas, and a
very
in-love Sara, were somehow both holding hands, and holding up the entire dam. A trickle of water drip-drip-dripped down onto Atlas’s head, ran down his face, and then along the tendril of drool connected to the water’s surface.

With a shriek, Celia hurled her detonator at me, and came following very soon after. She was more like a raging ball of fur, tail, claws and teeth than a person, or a beaver. At first, she caught me by surprise, raking her teeth across my face, scratching my cheek. I swung around, trying to smack her, but instead just opened myself to a bite on the shoulder.

“You
bit
me!” I said, batting the beaver away and clutching the wound.

Celia clicked her teeth at me, grinned and dove at me again.

I twisted away at the last second, giving her a kick square on the ass that sent her tumbling down toward the Greater James. She dug in, dragging herself to a halt before she fell, and then slapped her tail against the ground, like she was marking territory.

Her cattle prod lay in the dirt about five feet from where she was standing, but Celia either didn’t notice or didn’t care that her favorite toy was within reach. “What are you waiting for?” she snarled, and then spat on the ground at her feet. “Come on!”

I shot a quick glance in Orion’s direction. He was getting to his feet, obviously still shaken from the explosion. He blinked a couple times, then gave me an “I’m okay” nod before turning back to his father.

The sirens were closer. I tilted my head, and Orion nodded again, then grabbed his father off the ground. “You’re finished,” I heard him growl. “You and the whole damn gang!”

“HA!” Mitch spat a tooth in Orion’s face and howled with laughter. “The stupid bastard college boy thinks he’s—”

A wet
thud
of Orion’s fist crashing square into Mitch’s mouth shut him right up. Seeing the smile on Orion’s lips gave me a little tingle of excitement, but the dimple on his left cheek put me right over the edge.

“Quit staring at that dreamboat and come at me, cat!” Celia was screeching, tensed up for an impact.

“You’re washed up, Celia!” I shouted, buying time. My half-shifted shoulder throbbed, blood soaked into my fur. The last thing I wanted was more teeth on me... unless they were Orion’s. “The hyenas are almost here. There’s no way you get out of this.”

Orion was standing over his father, tying his hands.

“Who says I want out?”

I guess I waited too long. Celia came at me instead, slashing wildly. I fell on the ground, rolling around to her left, and tripped her up. She hit the dirt and bounced back up, infuriated. “Why are you still fighting me? What’s there to gain?”

My breath burned every time I inhaled. The throbbing pain in my shoulder dulled to an ache, but the claw scratch on my face stung when a breeze went across my skin.

“No!” Celia screamed. “Celia doesn’t lose.
You
lose, cat!”

I looked to the ground, thinking of grabbing her cattle prod and giving her a shot of juice, but it was gone. Had it been a mirage? She was coming and I had to deal with her.

“You can stop this!”

Her answer was another flurry of claws, a bite on my forearm, and blood in my eyes. I slashed back and caught her pretty good on the chest, but that thick pelt just turned my claws.

Zap!

The sound hit my ears like a shockwave. I froze. She had me. My insides burned, I was done.

Except... I wasn’t.

Celia stiffened, her teeth chattered and then she fell first to her knees, then into the river.

A tiny, shaking squirrel person stood where Celia had been, dropped the cattle prod. “I had to do it,” she said, falling to her knees. “I... I had to.”

Orion and I both ran to her side. Mitch was a bloody mess, Celia was floating slowly down the Greater James. Given a half hour or so, she’d reach the town center. I laughed bitterly, thinking about her finally getting to have her showdown with Erik Danniken, but being a little late for her own party.

“You saved me,” I said, putting my hand on a tiny shoulder. It was only sort of a lie.

“And saving her,” Orion said, “means you saved me, too.”

Mitch groaned, but didn’t move. Atlas and Sara both drooled, still holding hands and smiling blankly. The sirens were close enough to hear, and then the exhaust was close enough to smell.

“What in the hell happened here? Clea? Holy sh—Clea, is that you?”

Ash Morgan, the biggest member of the JPD, climbed out of his cruiser and ran over to me, throwing a blanket around my shoulders as my fur shrank away. “What... I mean, what’s going on?”

“It’s a long story,” Orion said. “But two zombies are holding up the dam.”

Ash’s eyes got so big I couldn’t help but laugh. “Uh, you two... you’re okay, right?”

I nodded. “Go help Atlas,” I said.

“Yeah I think I better. You two wait here.”

Billie hopped to her feet. “I would like to turn myself in! I killed someone. At least I think I did.”

Ash furrowed his brow. “That’s not at all what I expect to hear.”

“Join the club,” I said as he walked off, shaking his head.

One after another, squirrels came out of the woodwork, gathering around Billie. When Ash came back from his patrol car, and a whole bunch of hyenas went over to begin the slow process of disassembling the dam, he just didn’t know what to do with himself.

Orion, for his part, was trying to keep from laughing so hard that his shoulders were shaking.

“We’d like to turn ourselves in too!” one of the squirrels said. “We did horrible things because we were told!”

The vacant, amazed half-grin on Ash’s face was priceless. “I’m not sure I’ve ever arrested... thirty? Forty? How many of you are there?”

“Fifty-two, sir!” one of the squirrels in the back of the group chirped.

“Fifty... two,” Ash said, sighing heavily. “You’re not going to try to get away, are you?”

All of them shook their heads in unison. Ash crouched down in front of Billie. “All right, so you’re the leader?”

Billie shook her head. “Celia was the leader. I shocked her to death and now I’m turning myself in!”

Ash sighed again. Orion cracked a laugh, then stopped bothering with modesty. His booming voice carried over the trees. “Oh... oh my god,” Orion said, wheezing. “They’re... I mean, he’s...”

When Ash patted Billie down with his fingertips and asked if she had any contraband, or any nuts, Orion turned a very curious shade of purple, doubling over and cackling.

All around us, insanity ensued. “Come here,” Orion said, reclining against the trunk of a huge tree. I sat beside him, but he pulled me onto his lap.
Something
was already there, waiting for me. I giggled, moved my hips against him a little. I nuzzled his neck, kissed him gently and ran my fingertips down the side of his face.

“This is all really happening, huh?” I asked. Orion chuckled.

“It’s a crazy thing,” he said, “but it all makes sense. Somehow, all of this,” he turned his head toward Ash helping Atlas and Sara out of the river, and then nodded at the car full of squirrels. “It all makes sense.”

I looked straight into his pale, brown eyes, kissed him again, and shook my head.

“The only thing that
needs
to make sense is right here,” I whispered, intertwining my fingers with his. “You and me, right?”

Mitch spat and cursed as Ash dragged him to his feet and then threw him unceremoniously in the back of a cruiser. Orion didn’t bother to look, not even when Mitch screamed his name and a string of very upsetting insults.

Orion smiled. “I think I’m finally ready. I think... I’m past my past. Yeah. You and me babe,” he curled his fingers against the bare skin on my side. “Forever.”

*

I
shrugged against him, snuggling down and watching the string of squirrels disappear into five different police cars, one after the other.

After all this, the ups and the downs and the peaks and the valleys, it finally felt
real
. I slid an arm around Orion’s waist, hugging him tightly like I was making sure he wasn’t going to vanish.

I listened to his heart, I felt him breathe. It calmed me, relaxed my frazzled nerves. For a second, I let my eyes fall closed, my whole world absorbed inside Orion.

“All right,” Ash said, startling me out of my tiny doze. “Now, are you two okay?” He knelt and touched my scratch. “That from the beaver?”

I winced, “yeah,” I said. “And this too.” It hurt to move my arm very much, but the wound wasn’t all that bad, for having been bit by a giant beaver.

“Might wanna get it checked,” he said. “Never know if she had her shots.”