“I know.” Ellison gathered his courage and reached to place his hand on Tiger’s formidable bicep. “If you’d killed any of them, hell would rain down on Shifters, and you’d be captured, and possibly killed and dissected. Connor’s trusting me to keep you out of trouble, remember?”
Tiger jerked away from Ellison’s touch. “They can’t hurt the cubs.”
Tiger was ferociously protective of all cubs—he’d lost the only one of his own, the humans wrenching it away from him before he could properly know it or say good-bye. Liam speculated that he transferred that grief into being crazily protective of the cubs in Shiftertown.
Ellison shared that obsessive protectiveness—most Shifters had it—but Tiger took it over the top.
“Trust me, big guy, there are other ways,” Ellison said. “We have their equipment, and I got a good look at them and their SUV. We’ll find them and persuade them it’s a bad idea to mess with us. Kidnapping Shifters is against human law too, and Kim knows cops who are sympathetic to Shifters. We’ll get them.”
Tiger looked unconvinced. But at least he turned away and went back into the tunnel.
Broderick was just finishing fighting his way out of the net. “Bastards, f**king bastards. Why didn’t you kill them?”
Ellison didn’t bother explaining a second time. “Where’s Maria?”
Olaf, still a bear, was dancing around, growling and beating the air, doing a little victory hop as though he’d chased off the bad guys single-handedly. The joys of being a cub.
“Maria is safe,” Tiger said.
As soon as the words left his mouth, Maria’s voice came up the tunnel. “Olaf? Is Olaf all right? What is happening?”
Maria followed her voice, her words dying as she ran into the light of the LED lanterns and found herself facing three large, naked Shifters and one cavorting polar bear cub.
Ellison watched her expression turn from concern for Olaf to shock at the three tall Shifters with animal rage in their eyes, and then dissolve to stark, remembered terror. He’d seen the same look on Deni’s face last night when she hadn’t recognized Ellison, her own brother. Maria was reliving a moment of her captivity.
She shook it off in the next second, grabbed Olaf by the scruff, and started dragging him back down the tunnel the way she’d come. The little bear dug in his feet in and wailed in protest, but Maria was relentless.
The heightened senses of Ellison’s wolf felt her grief and fear, her fight for sanity. He wanted to find the Shifters who’d hurt Maria and grind them to powder.
He motioned for the other two to stay back, and ran down the tunnel after her.
Chapter Six
Maria didn’t stop when she heard Ellison calling her name. She continued walking swiftly, pulling Olaf with her. The bear still protested, but he’d quit fighting her, seeming to understand that she’d won.
Maria didn’t halt until she reached the sunlight and the spot where she’d dropped her big shoulder bag to go running inside after Olaf. She leaned against the stone wall outside the culvert, absorbing the warmth of the concrete, and closed her eyes.
Her heart still raced in panic, her breath choking her. She knew, logically, that the Shifters inside the tunnels were her friends—except maybe Broderick—not the evil beasts who’d imprisoned her.
Even Broderick followed Shifter rules whether he liked them or not. He and the other Austin Shifters understood that they had to curb their feral tendencies in order to survive. Miguel and his pack hadn’t.
“Maria.”
Ellison was there, in front of her. He’d resumed his jeans, but he held his shirt crumpled in one hand.
In spite of her shakes, Maria couldn’t help reflecting that Ellison was breathtaking. His jeans rode low on his hips, his liquid, tanned skin smooth over a hard body. A few red abrasions decorated his chest, and he had a solid bruise on his cheek. The worst wound was around his neck, where the Collar had burned his skin.
Her visions of the feral Shifters dissolved as concern replaced fear. “Are you all right?” Maria reached up and touched his Collar. The black and silver entwined metal was cool under her fingertips, but she knew it had been hot and painful a few moments ago.
Ellison’s gray eyes went quiet under her touch, his gaze fixing sharply on her. “Yeah, I’m OK. What about you?”
Ellison always mitigated his alpha wolf stare for Maria, but even so, it was hard to take. Maria abruptly pulled her hand away. “I need to go home.”
After a few more beats of stare, Ellison picked up the bag she’d left on the ground. “Come on then.” He put his hand on her shoulder and steered her toward the path that would lead them back to the park. “Tiger’s going to sit on Broderick a while, so you don’t need to worry about him.”
“I’m not.” Maria couldn’t explain what she felt, words leaving her, so she just walked.
Having Ellison next to her, warm and tall, comforted her beyond what she could think. His hand on her shoulder held strength, but gentled for her as usual, to reassure rather than frighten.
When Maria had rushed into the culvert, worry for Olaf overriding her fears, Ellison had just finished shifting. His naked body had been beautiful, with the fire of the wolf still in his eyes. Now he was Ellison again, soothing her, helping her.
Olaf, as a bear cub, scampered ahead of them then ran back, circling their legs, enjoying himself. His clothes and things were in Maria’s bag, but Olaf showed no sign of wanting to change back to a human boy.
They walked back across the ridge and down to the park, Ellison’s hand steadying her. A few humans they passed did a double-take at the polar bear cub romping after butterflies, though most people who used this park knew that it lay close to Shiftertown and had grown used to Maria walking with cubs out here.
Ellison was silent as they wound through the park and walked down the few blocks to Shiftertown. Olaf ran ahead of them through the open gates. He spied another cub in a yard down the street and charged to him, the little wolf rising to meet him.
Maria started a few steps after Olaf, but a Shifter woman came out onto her porch, laughing at the two cubs, and calling a greeting to Olaf. Everyone knew Olaf, and everyone liked him. Olaf and the wolf started a mock wrestling match, Olaf none the worse for his ordeal.
Ellison pulled Maria to a halt in the shade of a tall live oak, the tree screening them from most of the houses. His fingers were warm on her shoulder, but firm. He wanted her to stay there.