Running Free (17 page)

His eyes darken as he recalls the next part. “She’d been unconscious but she came to. Poor Minnie screamed and screamed at having a big-ass bear covered in Joe’s blood sitting on the living room sofa. I tried to make her understand it was me — I even shifted back to myself. But she was terrified,” he clenches his eyes shut. “Of me. I scared her. The one person I had left in my little world and she thought I was the fucking devil.”

My eyelids droop from lack of oxygen. I don’t want to hear what comes next. I want to close my eyes and pass on peacefully. His grip loosens and he regards me with angry tears rolling from his eyes.

“Want to know what happened next?”

I shake my head, my own tears rolling out.

“I shifted back into a bear.” He heaves out a rush of breath. “And I snapped her tiny neck.”

No.

A loud sob pierces the air and it takes a moment to realize it’s coming from me. “Why would you do that?!”

He opens his mouth to speak when the front door crashes open.

“Drop her and nobody gets hurt.” Gun’s voice is calm and steady despite the chaos.

I’m once again twisted in Jase’s arms and facing my lover. My boyfriend. My human.

“And you,” Jase roars loud enough to rattle the ribs in my chest. “You’re the fucking cherry on the motherfucking sundae!”

Gun glances over at me in confusion but keeps his shotgun trained on Jase. “Dammit, hádanka. I told you to stay in the car.”

I wish I’d have heeded his instruction. Then, I wouldn’t be snared in this Bear shifter’s deathly grip. I would also have been spared learning of my friend Minnie’s fate.

“Shut up,
Gunnar Mason
,” Jase seethes, putting emphasis on his name. “Fucking puzzle boy.”

Gun glares at Jase and I see it. Something I’ve seen all along with him but never understood what he was doing at the time. It’s his brain. Working. Analyzing. Figuring out the big picture. Sliding piece by piece into place.

“Jase Stevens?”

Jase huffs and I wonder how these two know each other.

“Now you fucking figure it out. Asshole. You’re the whole goddamned reason I ended up here and then I stumbled upon my ol’ friend Frances. It was like a dysfunctional family reunion.”

“I don’t understand,” Gun says softly, attempting to calm the man behind me who ripples with rage. If he shifts with me in his grip, he’ll kill me by snapping my neck just like he did Minnie’s.

“You left me, Puzzle Boy. I thought you cared about me — I thought of you like a brother and then you left me. Ran off to be some fucking hero. Married that cheating bitch. Meanwhile,” Jase huffs, “I was getting beat on every fucking day by a monster who did weird shit under his bed!”

Guilt washes over Gun’s features and I feel sorry for him. He’s been nothing but a good guy. But Jase is delusional. None of this is Gunnar’s fault.

“Listen to me, buddy,” Gun says in a gentle voice that Jase doesn’t deserve. “I tried to get you. Eventually they had enough of my pestering and told me I was unfit to be a foster parent because I was poor. I didn’t give two shits about money, Jase. I just wanted to look after you. They wouldn’t let me.”

Jase’s grip wanes and he relaxes. “No, that’s not true. You sent me to go live with Joe and he turned me into a monster. You made me kill him and Minnie.”

Gun shakes his head and lowers his gun. I plead with my eyes for him to not drop his guard.

“You need to know that I always wanted to help you. That is the complete truth,” he tells Jase in a calm, reassuring voice. “My mother raised me better than that. I knew you were hurting. Hell, when I became a cop, I looked you up. You had a rap sheet a mile long but they never said anything about murder. Even though you were old enough to be out of the system, I thought maybe you’d need a place to stay or some money to get you on your feet.”

“I gave myself a nasty gash,” Jase says and waves at his own face, “and blamed it on crazy meth head gang members. The cops believed my story. Tried to protect me by putting me in yet another fucking abusive foster home.”

Gun’s face falls and his voice cracks. “Jase, I
wanted
to help you so fucking much.”

Tears roll down my cheeks. Gunnar is crushed at realizing how he’s involved in this big fiasco too. It’s clear he feels sorry for Jase.

“It was too late. Just like now, Gun. Too fucking late. Now, you all have to die. You and Frances both took your turns ruining my fucking life. I want to ruin yours too. Paybacks are a bitch.”

Gun’s eyes flit to the window behind me and I don’t have to see them to sense them crawling through the window. My brothers. I’m wondering how I’ll get out of Jase’s grip when Gun shouts out the answer as he simultaneously raises the shotgun again.

“Frankie, shift!”

Gun’s command is the last thought I have before I let the blackness envelop me. The flaring heat explodes over my skin and my body does it’s contortion into the animal I am within. It’s enough of a change to free me from Jase. A snarl behind me alerts me and I jerk my head to see that Luca has taken a bite into my old foster brother’s leg. The other brothers are climbing in as quickly as they can through the window to aide him.

He roars in pain and within seconds, he’s shifted into a bear that could level this whole cabin. When my eyes finally find Gunnar’s, he’s staring at me in awe.

Fucking awe.

Not horror.

Not hate.

Not fear.

Awe.

His eyes flicker with recognition and love. “Hádanka, come here!”

I bolt away from the chaos and into his outstretched arms. He lets me lick him all over his face. The roughness of his facial hair on my tongue is an exotic feeling. I’ll be trying this later when I’m back to my normal human self, if we ever get the hell out of here.

“I’ll get Suzie out of the cage. You lead her to the Tahoe and this time you wait for me,” he says in a firm tone. “I’m going to finish this.”

One glance over my shoulder tells me that Jase is quickly losing the battle to my brothers — a flurry of wolves, tigers, and bears ripping and crunching at his flesh. He might be the biggest damn Bear shifter I’ve ever seen, but he’s no match for the Grey Lotharios.

They might be the Brainless Horny Idiots when I’m pissed at them, but when they’re saving my ass, they’re the best brothers a girl could ask for. Certainly better than the brother who let hate and revenge turn him into the very monster he feared.

Gunnar

As soon as my girls scamper out of the house, I raise my shotgun. My eyes are still having trouble comprehending what just happened but it makes sense. Every single piece is locked into place and I finally understand the puzzle.

I fucking hate it that Jase let himself get this way. If only he’d have come to me rather than stooping to murder to get mine and Frankie’s attention and ultimately revenge, we could have worked things out. I’d have helped him get the help he needed and supported him every step of the way. And knowing Frankie, she would have too.

But now?

Now, it’s too late. Not only are the animals going crazy on him, I can see it in his glare. He’s sick. There was no way of changing his mind once he made it up in his head that this was the way it needed to be.

It’s hard seeing a big-ass bear fall to its knees, the life quickly drying up, knowing it was a kid you fought so hard to protect once upon a time. I need to put him out of his misery and get everyone out of here before some innocent men lose their lives in the crossfire.

“Luca. Stand down,” I shout over the chaos. “I need to end this.”

The huge wolf with the bloodstained fur and authoritative grey eyes grunts in response. He barks out what sounds like nonsense to me but whatever he said has them all releasing the Bear shifter and backing away. One by one, they climb out the window and disappear into the night.

The Bear shifter, my old friend, has fallen to his side and is gurgling. Blood pours from a wound in his neck. He’ll be gone soon — there’s no way he could be saved anyway. I won’t make him wait any longer. Kneeling beside him, I stroke the fur on his head and look him straight in his dulling green eyes.

“I love you, buddy. You can rest now.”

He groans in relief and closes his eyes. One nod of his massive head is all I need. A heavy ache forms in my throat as I put the barrel of the shotgun to his temple.

“Goodbye, Jase.”

I spent the last few hours up at the station, sorting out the details of the case. When Fitz and the guys arrived on the scene, I explained what went down. How I’d come to question the occupant, only to find a bear inside. And then, how some wolves jumped through the window attacking the bear before I could pull off a shot. Eventually, I was able to shoot the bear and as a result scared off the wolves. It wasn’t the whole truth but the other officers had no reason not to believe me.

I’d expected Jase to shift back to human and wasn’t really looking forward to explaining that one to TJ or Fitz, but Frankie later explained to me that that isn’t how it works. When you die, you die in whatever form you were in last. She said many times in the pound, they’d euthanize shifter-dogs and never realize that they were killing humans. In a way, it’s better this way. Jase doesn’t deserve to turn into a serial killer media sensation. Despite his wrong decisions, he was a very sick young man. I’d hate to see him turned into a villain, when he was really a victim who had lost control of his mind.

Ronald Jeffries ended up being able to match the hairs from the bear to those of the bodies and concluded that the claw marks came from the bear, so it was a no-brainer. Of course we were still waiting on the DNA testing which had been sent off to Chicago, but once again, Frankie assured me there would be nothing to link Jase to the crimes since it happened while he was in his shifter form and therefore wouldn’t possess normal human DNA. And, since the missing child was located, there was no reason to pursue the matter of the Woodland Pond killer any further. TJ closed the case and gave me a few days off.

Now, hours later, it’s so fucking late and my eyes are drooping but I keep my eye on the fire pit. Suzie whimpers in her sleep snuggled up next to Cutie Pie on the ground and his ears perk up. His gaze flits to mine before he licks her face and then lies back down.

“When do you think she’ll shift back?” I mutter into Frankie’s hair. She’s curled up under a blanket in my lap. Once we got home and everyone bathed, we’ve been outside ever since, each one of us wrapped up in our own thoughts.

She sighs. “I’d hoped she’d have turned back by now. I think she might be in shock. At least Cutie Pie seems to know what to do.”

I smile at the two pups sleeping side by side. Cutie Pie may be only a mutt but he’s a smart mutt with a heart of gold. He loves Suzie despite the fact that sometimes she turns into a human.

“Maybe I’ll offer her ice cream for breakfast. Kids love ice cream,” I say with a chuckle.

Frankie giggles but it soon fades until she’s crying in my arms.

“What is it, hádanka?”

“How are you okay with all of this? I mean, your girlfriend and her daughter turn into dogs,” she says with a bitter laugh. “Your old foster brother is my foster brother who happens to have turned out to be a psycho. You watched a bunch of people, who you thought were humans at one time, morph into a wild variety of animals. How is this okay in your head, Gun?”

It’s hard to wrap my mind around it but not impossible. If Mom were here, she’d shrug her shoulders and say something clever like,
God works in mysterious ways
.

I kiss Frankie on top of the head. “Someone once told me there’s more out there than I could simply understand. I opened my mind and made it my mission to understand. I’m still fucking clueless as hell but I’m quite fine with spending my years figuring it out with you.”

She snuggles close and kisses my neck. “We should put the kids to bed and sleep. I want to be up at the hospital first thing in the morning. That stubborn ass told me to stay home and look after Suzie earlier when I called his room after surgery. He should know by now I don’t take kindly to being told what to do. I’ll be there worrying after him because he’s… ”

I hug her and finish where she trailed off. “Because he’s your dad. Daughters take care of their dads.”