Outfoxed by Love (Kodiak Point Book 2) (17 page)

As Boris took careful steps, closer and closer, he marked off the
enemies’ position. Six snowmobiles, facing outward in a circle, kind of like the wagons of the old Wild West circling and providing a false haven.

In the center, a fire
glowed, gel fed by the smell, which meant no smoke carried on a breeze to give them away. Hitched to the back of one of the snowmobiles was a trailer upon which was strapped a cage, a fucking cage of all things, and captive within it, the still form of his vixen, the bright tuft of the tranquilizer dart still sticking out of her snowy white side.

Her confinement and their cowardly methods angered him, but the fact
he could see the subtle rise and fall of her chest, signaling her living state, kept him from going berserk. But not by much.

These assholes would pay for touching her. Pay with their lives.

The lack of breeze made it hard to discern what type of shifters he and Gene faced. In total there were ten men. By the disparaging remarks—“
Stupid skin walker”
—Boris assumed at least two were human. One was definitely lupine, and in need of a bath, but as for the others, who knew? Who cared? Their lives were now measured in minutes.

Of more concern than their animals
’ shapes, was their armament. All sported some kind of weapon—rifle, shotgun, several handguns. One even carried around a crossbow, which Boris personally found kind of cool. Anyone could shoot a gun, but it took skill to take an animal down with just an arrow.

Given the firepower and numbers against them,
Boris now wondered if he should have taken the time to outfit himself with some artillery instead of his rack. Yet if he had, as Gene surmised, they would have missed them. As it was, the enemy group was already almost done packing up, and the engines were revving, warming up in preparation for departure.

Swapping skins
so he could communicate with words instead of snuffles and grunts, Boris used the noise of the motors to cover his whisper to Gene. “I don’t suppose you’ve got any moose armor in that backpack of yours.”

Before anyone laughed, the military had equipped Boris in some during their training, black Kevlar type prototypes. While he proved more effective in human shape wearing battle armor with a gun in each hand, some of his other friends found the
animal armor useful.

Brody
, a wolf, enjoyed the lightweight suit as it deflected knives and bullets while he tore his way through enemy ranks. And there was something freaky about a Kodiak bear, standing on its hind legs, wearing a superhero-type suit.

“If I’d have known
he
bolstered their numbers since the last sweep, I would have let you put some pants on. But it’s too late now. I’ve got an extra gun, but no clothes, unless you want a blanket.”

“What the fuck would I do with a sheet? F
ight toga style?” For some reason this pulled Boris’ lips into a wry grin. “No thanks. I’ll take my chances as a moose. Got anything in there though that we can use to blind them or at least distract them enough for me to get close enough to do some damage?”

“That I can do.”
Gene actually grinned as he pulled a handful of stun grenades from one of his many pockets. Loud noise, smoke, and a bright flash. Perfect when a man needed a bit of chaos. “But before I toss those into the ring, what do you say we even the odds a little.”

Unslinging his rifle, Gene took a position on one knee and aimed. Shivering and not needing to watch,
Boris already knew Gene would hit what he targeted. The man was an excellent marksman, something Boris was counting on. He also counted on the fact these ill trained louts would suck when it came to target practice, or at least not hitting anything vital.

As the first shot
Gene fired hit its target, head shot so no getting back up for that one, Boris swapped back into his moose in time to hear the shouts.

“Holy shit, someone’s taking potshots at us.”

“Jacob’s down.”

“Use the sleds as shields.”

“Open f—”

The command got lost as Gene tossed the first mini bomb into their midst.
Boris had just enough time to shut his eyes against the bright flash, but he couldn’t stop his ears from ringing at the sharp pop that probably echoed for miles around.

Good thing
he didn’t need to hear to fight. While the kidnappers milled about in confusion, he charged in, taking advantage of their disorganized state. Not military trained that was for sure. His old sarge had taught Boris and the others too well to fall for such an obvious baiting tactic.

Rack lowered, he plowed into the first body he spotted. Lift and toss. It didn’t kill the fucker, but it got him out of his way.

With smoke from the grenade stinging his eyes, Boris waded into the fray while Gene picked off from the outskirts.

Did Boris worry Gene would mistakenly nick him? A little
, but of more concern was the wild shooting of the idiots within the circle of snowmobiles. Jan still lay listless in the cage, vulnerable to a stray missile. It put him in a difficult position. By placing himself as a shield in front of her did he make her more of target for those bullets?

Probably, so despite all his protective instincts that screamed he should get close to her,
he remained on the opposite side, drawing their fire and, for the most part, remaining unscathed. Well, not completely. He bore some furrows and scratches from near misses, but no actual dead-on hits. You could arm idiots with guns all you liked, but unless they spent time practicing, they were better off using their natural-born gifts.

It seemed the idiots came to that conclusion to
o, as many ditched their weapons and swapped human skin for fur and, in one case, feathers.

Seeing the giant eagle poised to take flight, Boris mentally cursed. He didn’t want the bastard to fly off and possibl
y warn, or worse, bring back more buddies to help out.

But how to stop him?

Gene appeared suddenly at his side, a ghost manifesting. Pulling out a knife, he drew it back and let it fly. The dagger flew with unerring accuracy and took the giant bird in the throat before it could take off. Gagging and flapping its wings, the eagle danced around in the throes of death.

“I don’t know about you,” Gene said
, turning to face him for a moment, “but I’m thinking about fried chicken for dinner tonight.”

If
Boris could have laughed, he would have. That macabre remark in the midst of battle was so something the old Gene would have said. Surely, once this was all done, there was something they could do, something to—

A bullet nicked one of the tines on his antlers, ruining its perfection.

Fucker.

Boris bellowed an
d went after the prick. A trample of his hooves made the shooter regret his lucky shot.

The screams and yells diminished
, as did the smoke. As the circle they battled in calmed to a certain degree, Boris realized they’d just about vanquished the group.

Sensing their sure defeat,
a chubby-cheeked seal shifter, whose gun clicked uselessly, flung the empty weapon at him and turned to run for the woods. Boris ignored him as he saw Gene effortlessly jogging after him. The ghost wouldn’t let him get away.

Which left him with
his sleeping vixen, Jan. Oh and one crossbow-wielding asshole who stood in front of the cage aiming at him.

The term hitting the side of a barn came to mind as the little shit grinned and aimed right for Boris’ chest.

Damn.
This is going to hurt.

When Jan went for her walk in the woods, she’d meant to draw Boris out. To scare him a little, and yes, perhaps have him experience an AHA moment where he realized how much he loved her. Or wanted her. Something.

She’d not actually expected to run into trouble.
Like a foolish kit, she’d trusted the fact her daddy approved of her plan to frighten Boris to mean there was no actual danger around. Boy, would she ever give him heck when she got out of this mess. And she’d also mock him for not having realized there were enemies in the woods.

But that was later. This was
now, and now consisted of her waking from a tranquilizer, stuck in a cage, a dog cage of all things, while some kind of battle raged around her.

The good news was whomever managed to get the drop on her was getting their ass handed to them
. The bad news was Boris was bleeding from several wounds, superficial ones, but still, these jerks were hurting her moose!

And me without a gun to shoot them.

Lying low in her cage, lest she get inadvertently struck by a stray shot, she took furtive peeks to see if there was anything she could do to help the situation.

Luck was on her side. Once again, they
’d underestimated the tiny little vixen. The guys who captured her relied on the simple locking mechanism for the cage, no padlock in sight. There was just one problem. She’d need human hands to manipulate the latch, which given the size of the cage, would not be fun.

However, when the jerk with the crossbow took a stance in front of her and
aimed, she knew she had to act. Shifting while tucked into a ball was not the most pleasant thing she’d ever done, nor was the biting cold any gentler than when she’d done her arctic dash through the treetops, but the “oomph” of pain when she brought her knee up between the unsuspecting crossbow guy’s legs? Totally worth the hard nipples that could have poked holes through glass.

Of even more worth was how quick
ly her moose swapped fur for skin to sweep her into his arms, his naked, if cold, body welcome against hers.

“You came for me,” she murmured against his chest
where he’d smooshed her face.

“Of course I did
, even if you should have never gone off by yourself in the first place. You little idiot, what were you thinking?”

“
I was trying to prove a point.”

“
What point was so important it was worth risking your life?”

“Making you understand I meant something to you.”

He sighed. “And you couldn’t find a less dangerous way?”

“I’ll admit, kidnapping might have been a tad extreme, but the better question is did it work?”

“You know I care about you.”

“Enough to stop pushing me away?”

“Maybe.”

She shoved at his chest. “What do you mean maybe?”

“I still don’t think I’m good enough for you.”

“Your opinion in this doesn’t matter,” she retorted.

“Your dad agrees.”

“My dad has no say in my life.”

“And neither does your moose.” The intruding speaker interrupted their private conversation. The stranger, clad in white snow gear from head to toe came closer and it didn’t take a sniff for her to realize she was finally meeting the infamous Gene she’d heard so much about. “I upheld my side of the bargain, Boris. Time for you to keep yours.”

“What’s he talking about?” she asked, worry threading her tone along with icy fear as the man began to strip off his holsters and various layers.

“In exchange for his help in rescuing you, I agreed to a fight,” Boris explained.

“A fight?”
She stared from the man she knew could shift into a polar bear to her Boris, who while strong and dashing in his moose form, was no match. “Are you fucking insane?” She ignored the imaginary taste of bubbles in favor of a word that fit the situation.

“I owe him this,” Boris said softly, reaching out to brush his thumb across her cheek, wiping a tear she didn’t even realize had fallen.

“But he’ll kill you.”

“Thanks for your confidence,” was his wry reply.

Realizing she couldn’t reason with Boris, she turned to Gene. “Why? Why are you doing this? Why can’t you leave him alone? Don’t you know how tortured he is already by everything that happened to you guys over there?”

“
Tortured?” Gene sneered. “Ooh, he has nightmares as he sleeps in his cozy bed, in his nice house, with his perfect life and mate. Did he and the others care that they left me in the hands of those bastards for years? He doesn’t know the meaning of torture until he’s spent years, not months, in the hands of the enemy.”

The pain in Gene’s eyes tore at her, but the insanity frightened her. “But it wasn’t his fault,” she cried
, already knowing her plea would fall on deaf ears.

“
I don’t care. I’ve got nothing left to lose. I only live for vengeance.”

When Jan would have argued further, Boris drew her shivering frame into his arms. “Run now, while I distract him.
”

“Not without you.”

“Let her watch. Then she can tell the others what to expect when I come for them.” Gene’s lips twisted. “I can promise you my version of justice will be kinder than what
he
has planned.”

“Who is this he you keep referring to?” Boris asked as he picked among the dead bodies
, pulling off jackets and sweaters. He tossed the smaller items to Jan, who grimaced but pulled them on to her chilled frame. Dead man gear might not appeal, but losing limbs to frostbite would suck even more. To her surprise, Boris also pulled some of the garments on. Was he planning on retaining his man shape then for the duel? He might stand a better chance if he did.

“
The one I speak of is pure evil,” Gene said which coming from him didn’t bode well.

“You’ve said that before.”

“He’s also the one who saved me in the end, even if he was no better than my captors.”

“But who is he?”

Gene raised haunted eyes to meet Boris’ gaze. “He is a part of our past. The bane of our present and death in our future. I made a deal with the devil, and the devil reneged. But I won’t let him steal my soul, not until I’ve had my revenge.”

And with those cryptic words, Gene, dressed lightly and unarmed, charged Boris.