Bear's Claim (Bear Heat Book 3) (9 page)

Aubrey scowled. She was
risking her life, but she refused to let him do this without her.

Thor didn't release her even
as she tried to twist her arm free. He didn't want her to come with
him. He would never let her go back into that hellish chamber. But
he couldn't leave her here alone in the forest.

He knew that once Dr. Faizel
discovered that Aubrey was gone, he would either kill the two men, or
move them swiftly to another hidden location. Luke and Michael might
never be found.

Thor weighed his options and
reached his decision in a heartbeat.

“Aubrey. Listen.”
He gripped her hand. “You will come with me, but you have to
stay out of the chamber. Stay outside, and stay hidden. I can get
them out faster if I go in alone. Plus—the Black Bears should
be arriving any minute now. I need you to point them in the right
direction.”

She frowned at him. Then she
thumped her chest and said, “You can count on me. You need a
bear traffic controller? I'm your man!”

“You are not my man.
You are my mate.” He tilted her face up and gave her a quick
kiss.

“Y-your mate? Really?
Y-you're sure?” she whispered, her eyes shining. “You're
not lying?”

“Really. I'm sure.
And I will never lie to you, Aubrey.”

When she gave him a small,
tentative smile, he touched her cheek lovingly before turning his
eyes back to the entrance of the hidden tunnel. It was well
camouflaged by the tall grasses and rocks but he knew exactly where
it was.

“Stay hidden, Aubrey.
I won't take long. I'll be in and out in a jiffy. You won't even
miss me.”

“I'll always miss you.
Promise you'll come back to me, Thor,” she said softly.

He saw the fear and worry in
her eyes, but she bravely gave him a wink and said, “There's so
much we haven't done together. I want to do all the mate things with
you.”

“So do I, Aubrey. I
promise I'll do all the mate things with you,” he whispered.
“For eternity.”

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

Thor moved silently through
the long tunnel. He stopped and flattened himself against the side
of the tunnel when he heard a faint sound coming from the end of the
tunnel.

A door was opening.

It was the door to the
underground chamber.

Thor inched towards the door.
He saw a man with a rifle standing guard at the door. There were
angry voices coming from the chamber.

Thor palmed his gun out from
his holster. He took a quick breath and pushed away from the wall.
He fired a single, silenced shot and the man collapsed with a bullet
hole in his forehead.

Thor barreled towards the
door as it began to slide shut. He leaped in through the narrowing
crack and rolled on the floor to avoid a burst of gunfire.

He raised his gun at a
black-clad soldier. Thor gave a derisive snort. The soldier was a
mercenary, and the coward had pulled a dazed young man up from a
steel table to use as a human shield.

“Luke,” Thor said
in a low voice.

The young man tried to open
his eyes at the sound of his name and struggled feebly in the
mercenary's grasp.

Thor kept his gun pointed at
the mercenary as his eyes darted to the corner of the room. Dr.
Faizel was standing over a man and sticking a syringe into his neck.

Thor jerked towards Michael.
The man's eyes were puffy, bloodshot and utterly blank. His veins
bulged from his neck and arms as he let out an impotent, tortured
howl.

“A Black Bear. What a
pleasant surprise.” The doctor stepped behind Michael and
tossed the emptied syringe aside. “Now, let's see if you are a
match for my creation. The serum was extracted from a bear shifter,
so Michael here will become just like you in a few seconds. A bear,
a killing machine.” Dr. Faizel jerked his head at Thor and
said, “Slide your gun to me. Do it, or that nice young man
will have a bullet through his head.”

Thor's eyes flew to Luke.
The mercenary had his rifle pressed to the back of Luke's head and
his finger was tightening on the trigger.

Thor slowly put his gun down
on the floor and slid it to the doctor. With a smirk, Dr. Faizel
picked it up and pointed it at Thor. “Now, I shall observe how
well my prototype fares against a Black Bear.”

Thor swung his gaze back to
Michael. The man was convulsing as claws stabbed out from his
fingers. He opened his mouth and Thor saw his teeth sharpen to
sharp, lethal points. He roared in agony as he became something no
longer human but not quite animal.

Dr. Faizel clicked a control
and spoke in a monotone into a transmitter on his wrist. “Kill
him. Kill the intruder. The Black Bear is the enemy. Destroy
him.”

Michael shook his head and
growled. His eyes were turning feral, and they glowed with an
unearthly, unnatural light.

Thor put up his hands and
spoke carefully, “Michael, listen to me. I am not the enemy.
You can overcome this. Don't let the drug control you. You can
break free of the commands. You are a police officer. You are
not...”

Michael's fevered, feral eyes
locked on Thor and he bared his serrated teeth at him. With a roar,
Michael flew at him, his claws and teeth aiming for his throat.

Thor ducked and Michael
slammed into the wall behind him. But the man didn't seem to feel
any pain. He simply pushed off the wall and attacked again and
again.

Thor didn't want to hurt
Michael, but he had to defend himself. Michael was going to kill him
if he didn't fight back. There was no trace of the man left in his
glowing, bloodthirsty eyes. Michael's face was contorted in a
beastly rage, and his skin was covered with patches of coarse,
discolored fur. His muscles were bulging and when he reared up, Thor
saw that he had grown in height as well. He had the size and bulk of
a bear, and his features were becoming more and more bearlike.

Thor let his claws inch out
as Michael took a brutal swipe at him.

Michael was going to kill
him. That was his command. Thor blocked his blows and pushed back
against Michael's massive, furry frame. Thor dug his claws into
Michael's shoulder but he couldn't stop those jagged teeth from
coming nearer and nearer to his throat.

Michael opened his mouth wide
and came at Thor with his sharp, deadly teeth. His jaws snapped
inches from Thor's neck. He was going to sink his teeth into Thor's
jugular. His claws were descending towards Thor's stomach, and with
a forceful swipe, he would rip Thor's body open and spill his guts.

Thor took a sharp breath. He
had no choice.

He didn't want to kill
Michael, but he didn't want to be killed either.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

Thor felt long, sharp claws
rake across his side. If he had still been in human form, that
savage blow would have opened up a gaping gash in his side.

But his thick black fur
protected his body and prevented those deadly claws from doing much
damage. In the space of a breath, Thor had shifted swiftly into bear
form.

Thor let out a ferocious roar
but Michael didn't back off. There was no fear, no recognition at
all in those red eyes. Michael attacked madly, relentlessly, going
all out with his teeth and claws. He was gunning for Thor's throat,
snapping his jaws and snarling savagely.

Thor could hear light, quick
footsteps coming from the tunnel. He knew his clan members had
arrived. Thor had relayed his exact position to his Alpha, and the
Black Bears were always ready to move out at a moment's notice.

Thor lunged towards the
button at the corner of the wall and slammed his paw against it. The
door slid open and three Black Bears hurtled through the opening in
rapid succession.

Dr. Faizel and the soldier
fired immediately. Baxter shot the doctor in the leg and ducked as
Dr. Faizel squeezed off another shot before crumpling to the ground.

Dylan aimed his gun at
Michael, but Thor shielded Michael with his massive body.

Despite the arrival of the
three Black Bears, Michael's attention was on Thor alone. No one and
nothing else mattered to him. He had been ordered to take Thor out,
and he would blindly carry out the order even if it killed him.

Paige took aim at the
soldier, but he was holding Luke up as a human shield.

“Put down your rifle
and step away from him!” Paige yelled.

Dr. Faizel pushed himself up
and wheezed, “Shoot him.”

At his order, Michael turned
around slowly. The command had been directed at the soldier, but
Michael responded to the doctor's voice. The new command seemed to
clash with the earlier command, and for a moment, Michael's brain was
his own again.

Michael stared at Dr. Faizel
and blinked rapidly.

“You...”

Thor saw Michael's eyes turn
human once more. Gasping, Michael stared down at his clawed, furry,
misshapen hands and made a strangled sound as he looked up and saw
the Black Bears for the first time.

“Shoot him!” Dr.
Faizel screeched to the soldier.

The mercenary's lips curled.
Shooting someone in the head was the best part of his job.

Dylan and Baxter raised their
guns simultaneously, but Michael was faster than either of them.

With an anguished roar, he
barreled towards the soldier. The soldier pulled the trigger but not
before Michael punched the rifle away from Luke's head. The shot
went off as Michael plunged his claws into the mercenary's neck. His
eyes widened in shock as Michael decapitated him with a single swipe.

Dr. Faizel crawled to a
console and slammed a lever down. He turned to the Black Bears and
let out a crazed, maniacal laugh.

With his face and body
covered with blood, Michael turned to them and growled, “Get
out! This whole place is going to collapse. He'll bury everything,
everyone!” He pointed at Luke. “Take him and get out
now!”

Baxter threw Luke over his
shoulder and ran for the exit as a loud explosion went off. As Thor
held the narrow door open for them, Dylan shouted into his watch,
“We are getting out now! Do not, I repeat, do not approach!
Stand down, and stand back!”

There were other Black Bears
standing by, waiting for the signal to move in. Thor growled to
Michael, but Michael only smiled sadly at him. “I'll make sure
the doctor is buried together with all his research. I don't want
him to escape, and continue his terrible, nightmarish work.”

Thor growled again.
Come
on, you have to get out!

Michael seemed to understand
him. “No. I won't be leaving. I will stay here. I promised
Aubrey I'll get Luke out. I kept my promise. I also swore to serve
and protect the city when I got my police badge. Let me do my duty.
Go!”

Chunks of the ceiling were
falling all around them. Thor tried to lurch towards Michael, to
drag him towards the exit, but a large, heavy slab of concrete
smashed down between them. Rocks and metal pieces began to rain down
on them. Thor roared for Michael, but an explosion flung him away
from the door. He was thrown into the tunnel in a cloud of smoke.

Scrambling to his feet, Thor
rushed back towards the door but the door had sealed shut. Bellowing
in rage, Thor rammed his massive shoulder against the sealed doorway
again and again. He felt the walls shudder and there was a loud,
ominous rumble that was gathering in strength and volume.

“Let's go!” Dylan
yelled. “The tunnel's going to collapse!”

Thor stared at the crumbling
rock wall and turned away. He promised Aubrey that he would return
to her.

Dylan and Paige were running
hard. Baxter had already made it out of the tunnel with Luke. Thor
turned to look over his shoulder one last time.

He was out of the tunnel in a
matter of seconds. But in just those few seconds, the chamber and
the tunnel had collapsed completely. By the time he emerged into the
last light of the day, there was nothing but debris and rocks behind
him.

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Thor opened his bedroom door
and walked softly to his bed. Aubrey was sleeping fitfully and she
kept crying out in her sleep. He had brought her home and a doctor
had come round to check on her. Her cuts and wounds were
superficial, the doctor said. No serious injuries or damage.

But Thor knew that Aubrey's
wounds weren't physical. She had seen some terrible things. She
felt responsible for Luke, and she blamed herself for not saving Luke
and Michael. She was a nurse, a caregiver and she had a natural
protective streak. She felt it was her duty to protect Luke and
Michael. Michael had been subjected to horrific procedures and
experiments, and she wanted to heal him, mend him, restore him to
health.

Thor had broken the news of
Michael's death to her as gently as possible. For a long moment, she
had just stared at him in stunned silence, unable and unwilling to
accept the news even though she knew that he had told her the truth.
She just didn't want it to be true. Finally, she had broken down and
cried. She had clung to Cora and cried long and hard. Some of the
staff at the Black Bears Group had cried along with her. Even Paige
had to fight back her tears. Paige was a hard-bitten, decisive
lieutenant and leader in the Black Bears Group, but underneath that
tough exterior, the she-bear had a very tender heart.