Guardian Bears: Karl (9 page)

T
he night hadn’t been
kind to Karl, but he’d been through worse. He wished he could have gotten some sleep, though. Between the heat of the night and thinking about what to do next he hadn’t had a chance to.

He had to force down his impatience, too. Chasing after Allison immediately would have been satisfying but he knew it would be the wrong thing to do. Firstly, there wasn’t any way to convince her he wasn’t hunting her if he was right on her tail. Better to give her a chance to calm and think about things before he showed up again.

Secondly, he had to decide whether he
was
hunting her. That was the job he’d signed up for, after all. But now, knowing that she was his fated mate, he needed to find a different answer.

On top of that, there was the issue of the other hunters. Hopefully he’d distracted them enough to keep them from paying Allison any attention as she left – but if he headed off right away, they would notice and they might connect him to the creature they were on the lookout for.

So he’d waited, pacing impatiently, until dawn broke. Only then did he let himself leave his room and look around again.

The Mayfair Motel was quiet in the pale light of the rising sun, but there were still a couple of the hunters waiting in the parking lot. Damian and Megan, the woman who’d been interviewing people at the Blackrock Bar. They were sitting on folding chairs, watching the road and talking quietly, tracing routes on a map open in her hands.

There was no way past them to his car without being seen, so Karl walked over to say hello. Megan greeted him with a bright, perky smile which didn’t reach her eyes. “I hope you got a good night’s sleep, Mr. Werner?”

Forcing a smile of his own, Karl shook his head. “Couldn’t get much, what with all the racket out here.”

“I wondered if we’d see you,” Damian said, standing and stretching. “Wouldn’t have thought you’re the kind of man to hide in your room, when there’s sounds of trouble. Thought maybe you weren’t home last night.”

Karl shrugged. “I was in, but I figured you’d have it handled, whatever it was. And your guys don’t know me, so I didn’t want to spook someone and get shot.”

Laughing, Damian clapped him on the shoulder. “Fair point, though my people are careful enough that you’d have been completely safe. It’s not a human we were looking for, after all.”

“No?” Karl looked into the other man’s eyes, seeing his unnatural determination burning hot. “I figure a werewolf would be human most of the time, right?”

“Maybe it’d look human,” Damian countered. “Looks can be deceiving, after all. It’s a monster we’re after, though, and don’t you worry, we’ll be careful to only shoot when we know what’s in our sights.”

The look in his eyes worried Karl. Damian’s words were reassuring, but the sparking suspicion he saw in the other man left him doubting that he meant what he said. Karl frowned slightly, keeping his concern from his face as best he could.
He suspects something
, he thought.
Maybe he’s paranoid, maybe not – I could have left a trail last night, I didn’t have time to cover my tracks.

If the hunters were after him, that was a complication, but it was better than them chasing his mate down. The bigger risk was that they’d get it into their heads that someone else was the monster they were looking for. Someone innocent who could get hurt or worse before they realized their mistake. It didn’t look like Damian would mind innocent blood on his hands: he was the type to file anyone he hurt under ‘acceptable casualties’ as long as he eventually got his target.

Karl had served under men like that in the Army. Not many got into positions of authority, but when they did, it wasn’t pretty. That was one of the reasons he preferred working for himself.

“I’ll leave you to your hunt,” he told the pair of them. “Now the sun’s coming up, you might have better luck looking for tracks. If the monster was out here, anyway.”

“Oh, it was!” Megan’s voice sparkled with warm personality, insincerely spread over the coldness in her eyes. “A couple of the guys saw it. No pictures yet, though – are you sure you don’t want to stick around and see what we find at the end of the trail?”

“No thanks, I’m sure I’ll catch it on the news when you have your footage of it,” he said, turning towards his car.
I guess I’m not going to be able to come back here easily,
he thought morosely.
Well, at least I’m not abandoning anything that I need.
Long experience had taught him not to leave anything he cared about in a motel room – the clothes he could easily replace, and he had spares in the hired car just in case of a situation like this.

If the hunters hadn’t found his tracks before, there was every chance they would now that the sun was up. The only good thing about that was that it would keep their focus on him, rather than Allison.

The bad thing was that if they followed him, he’d take them to her. That was something he needed to worry about.

* * *

K
arl still had
no idea what his plan was when he arrived at Allison’s house to find a police cruiser parked outside. He frowned, driving past once before doubling back and pulling in beside it.

I have to deal with her. There’s a time pressure on me now, and whatever I decide to do, I need to make up my mind. It won’t be long before Damian and his friends figure out that I’m one of the ‘monsters’ they’re hunting.

Either I kill her like I’ve been hired to, or I find another option, quickly.

He knew what the ‘right’ course of action was. The Guardian Bears did what they were paid to do, that was the core rule. And it was necessary, a werewolf would only get more out of control and dangerous as time went on. But that contract had been signed before he knew it was his own mate he’d be hunting.

Before he could put any thought into what his decision might be he heard a shot from the house. He was moving before he realized it, leaping out of the SUV and running towards the front door. Another shot echoed as he tore open the door, and he smashed through to the bedroom with blinding speed.

The window shattered as he entered, a gray shape streaking through it. Standing in the middle of the room, pistol pointed at the broken window, was a sheriff’s deputy. His left arm was bleeding from a bite wound but he held the gun steady in his right. Karl only had a split second to decide what to do.

In the face of someone threatening his mate, there was no choice at all. He leaped at the man, slamming into him with all his strength and sending him flying as the pistol cracked again. A line of burning pain tore through his arm as the bullet entered, but Karl put that out of his mind. It wasn’t the first time he’d been shot, and his long experience and training let him file the wound as something to be dealt with later.

He just hoped he’d put it off track and it hadn’t hit Allison too.

The deputy sprawled on the floor beside the bed, but he had training too, and he was bringing the gun back around to point up at Karl. Reacting on carefully trained instinct, Karl kicked, catching the man’s wrist and sending the pistol flying from his grip. But the man was surprisingly fast, and managed a kick of his own. It caught the leg Karl balanced on, knocking it out from under him.

He twisted as he fell, and controlled the impact, but it still drove the breath from him. His opponent scrambled towards his dropped gun, and it was all Karl could do to grab his leg and haul him backward. His arm muscles burned, the gunshot wound sending a sharp stab of pain through him as he demanded too much of his injured arm, but he managed to haul the man back and away from the weapon.

I’m fighting a cop,
he realized. Up to that point, he hadn’t had time to think about what he was doing, and now it was too late to do anything else.

Fighting with law enforcement was rarely a good plan, but he didn’t have much choice – not when the man was shooting at his Allison. He slammed his fist down into the other man’s leg, making him howl in pain as Karl pulled himself up. But the fight wasn’t out of the deputy yet, and he turned, hammering a punch of his own into Karl’s side and sending him staggering backward a step. Both of them made it up to their feet, facing each other and watching warily.

“You’d better give it up,” the deputy said. “It’ll go easier for you if you surrender.”

Karl’s only answer was a wordless growl and a punch that rocked his opponent back. The man was tough and knew how to take a punch, letting himself roll with it. He came back in with a series of punches of his own, one two three snapping at Karl’s head. Karl batted them each aside before stepping in and grabbing the deputy by the collar, slamming him back against the wall with enough force to drive the wind out of him.

His bear roared for blood, demanding vengeance on this man who’d threatened his mate, and Karl wasn’t sure he wanted to resist the urge to pummel the man into a bloody heap. He was angry, frustrated, and confused – a target he could beat up on without guilt was just what he needed.

The other man wasn’t done yet, though, hammering punches into Karl’s side despite being pinned to the wall. Karl grunted as the blows knocked the air from him, but his powerful build absorbed most of the impact. Pinning the deputy with one hand, he raised the other and slammed it forward with all his strength and weight behind it.

His fist hit the wall next to the deputy’s head and punched through. The deputy froze at the sound of the impact, paling visibly at the realization that could have been his head, and the fight went out of him.

Karl looked him in the eyes, letting his bear come to the surface as he spoke.

“You don’t threaten Allison, understand me?” His voice was a near-animal growl, angry and hungry, and the deputy paled further at the sound of it. “I don’t care what you saw, what you thought you saw – she’s not your problem, and you’re going to leave her alone, or
we’ll
have problems. You don’t want that, do you?”

“But she turned into a -” The man’s response cut off as Karl pulled him back from the wall and lifted him off his feet. He was heavy, but Karl didn’t notice or care – it was all he could do too resist the urge to twist the man’s head off, and the strain of lifting the deputy hardly even registered.

“I said I don’t care,” he said, forcing his voice down to a threatening whisper. “Whatever you
think
you saw, forget it. It’s not your problem.”

Whatever I end up having to do, it’s on me. I’m not letting this man or anyone else hurt my mate.
The decision surprised Karl; he hadn’t realized he’d made it until that moment, but it was clear as day in his mind. The deputy nodded quickly, his face turning an alarming shade of blue as Karl held him up by the throat. After a moment he relented, lowering the man to the ground and letting him breathe.

“Smart man. Get out of here,” Karl said, stepping back and letting him step past. It was a risk, he knew, but he didn’t have much choice. He couldn’t keep the deputy prisoner, and aside from that or killing him, he didn’t have any options. As the man cautiously made his way to the door, Karl glowered at him.

“Leave this be and we’ll both be out of your hair soon enough. No reason for you to borrow trouble,” he told the deputy, who nodded eagerly, clutching at his bruised throat as he hurried away.

Out of the window he saw a flash of movement, a gray streak vanishing to the side.
So she was watching,
he thought.
What exactly did she see? And more importantly, what am I going to do now to catch up with her?

The most important question he left alone – he didn’t want to think about what he was going to do when he reached her.

T
he memories were a confused jumble
, but Allison forced herself to think them through. This time coming around naked hadn’t been as much of a shock or a surprise, but it was still frightening and she needed to understand.

The last thing she could remember was being pinned to the wall by Kirby. She’d been frightened and angry, and wanted to fight back but didn’t know how. But part of her soul knew what to do, and she wasn’t able to resist it as it overwhelmed her.

Beyond that moment, she could only remember scraps, as though it had all been a dream. But the coppery taste of blood in her mouth told her that the memory of biting down on Kirby’s arm was real enough, and then there was the memory of a shot from the house as she fled.

Looking down she saw a thin red line along her ribs and shuddered. It matched where she remembered the bullet hitting, though it looked far too well healed to be a recent gunshot wound.
Unless I really am a werewolf, and it needs to be silver to really hurt me,
she thought, feeling sick at the idea.

If it had hit a couple of inches to the side, she’d be dead. That was a terrible thing to think, but she knew deep down it was true. Her memories of the event might be vague and confused, but she knew that Kirby was, for all his faults, a good shot. If Karl hadn’t arrived just then, there was no way he’d have missed her.

What does that mean? That he wants the kill himself?
That didn’t feel true, she couldn’t believe it, but she didn’t know what else to think. She wished that she had someone else to speak to about this, but who could she open up to?

‘Hi, I’m afraid I’m a werewolf and that the man of my dreams is here to kill me?’
She snorted at the idea of telling her friends that. She’d be better off staying away from anyone she might get into trouble with all of this.
After all, my last bright idea of getting Kirby to help me didn’t go very well.

She looked around, trying to place herself. At least she was out of sight behind a building – she had to give her werewolf self that much credit, she could have changed back somewhere really inconvenient. Like on the main road, or in church or something.

But that still left the question of what she was going to do now. She was naked again, and this time she couldn’t go home to change – not with Kirby, Karl, or worst of all both of them waiting there for her. She
thought
that she could remember Kirby running from Karl, but she didn’t know how much she could trust those memories.

Peeking around the building she realized why it was so familiar – she was behind the sheriff’s office.
I guess it is one of the safest places I can think of,
she thought dubiously,
even if Kirby will be back here at some point.

But then she remembered that she had a change of clothes there and smiled with relief. It might not be much, but it was something at least – if she had to run, she’d be running with clothes on, and that was a lot better than nothing!

Ducking around to the front of the building, she hoped that no one would pass on the road as she hurried to the door. The security cameras watched her like disapproving eyes on stalks as she quickly keyed in the code to open the door. She thanked God that they’d made the change from a key lock a couple of years back.

Slipping inside, she made her way to the locker she’d claimed for herself when she started working there and opened it. The clothes inside weren’t anything special, they were just the minimum she needed in case of an emergency. Right now though, she was grateful she had anything to wear. Pulling on jeans and a t-shirt, she didn’t even mind the stinging feeling when the shirt touched the wound on her ribs.

Now to get as far from here as I can,
she thought, hurrying out of the locker room and towards the door. She didn’t have a concrete idea of how to do that, but
someone
would give her a ride to the next town, surely? Beyond that, she didn’t want to think yet – it was too scary.

Just as she reached for the door and pulled it open, a man stepped into the doorway. She froze for a moment, then leaped backward, trying to slam the door in Karl’s face.

He caught it easily and pushed it open. Allison threw her weight against it, but his strength was inexorable, and she found herself sliding backward as the door opened again.

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he said quietly. Her muscles strained at the door uselessly, and she looked up at him. He was silhouetted in the morning sun, but though she couldn’t see his face she could feel his sincerity. Or at least, part of her could. The angry, hungry, animal part of her soul, the part of her that wanted to run or to fight, quieted as he looked at her.

“You’re here to hunt the monster,” she blurted, giving up on trying to keep him out and backing away. There was a panic button under her desk, just a few feet away, but that would just call Kirby to help. Would that be any better?

Her animal soul didn’t think so, growling at her to leave it alone. It was convinced by Karl’s sincerity, and the memory of Kirby’s blood in her mouth was strong.

“That’s true,” Karl said. He didn’t sound happy about it. “I came here looking for a monster, a werewolf. I wasn’t looking for the woman of my dreams. Just my luck to find both in one person.”

Allison’s heart thumped at that, and she swallowed. The mix of feelings his words brought up threatened to overwhelm her, and she felt herself start to retreat inward, letting the beast out.
It would be so much easier not to think at all right now
, she thought, but then she focused on the man looming over her and shook her head.
Easier, but
wrong
. I need to work out what to do, not hide from it!

“So now that you’ve caught me, what do you plan on doing?”

Karl’s rumbling laugh sent a shiver down her spine. “If I knew that, I’d have a much easier time right now. But I’ll tell you this – you’re not going to have an easy time getting out of town. The hunters – the
other
hunters, I should say – are waiting and watching for someone to run.”

Allison swallowed again, her mouth dry. She’d backed away against her desk, and he’d kept his distance: no matter how quickly he moved, she’d be able to hit the panic button before he could stop her. But she hesitated, still wondering.

“I don’t want to run,” she said. “I didn’t want to run this morning, but I had no choice!”

“I know,” he told her. He took another step forward, closing the distance between them, but not threatening. Allison’s fingers flexed as she thought about the button, but still she didn’t move.

“You had no reason to trust me,” he continued. “You still don’t. But listen to your soul, you know that fate has brought us together for a reason.”

Without meaning to, she nodded. It was true, she couldn’t doubt him or his sincerity. It just wasn’t in her.
But that doesn’t mean you’re right,
she reminded herself fiercely.
I can’t trust him just because he’s so convincing!

She tensed, steeling herself, and he laughed again. It was a sad sound, directed at himself.

“Oh, I know that sounds crazy. Believe me, I know,” he said, spreading his arms. She noticed a deep red mark along his right forearm, much like the bullet wound along her ribs.

“Did Kirby do that to you?” she asked, staring at it.

“The deputy at your house? Yes, that was him. I had to stop him shooting you.”

The wound in her side twinged at that, and she found herself stepping forward to take hold of his arm, examining the wound. She wanted to make it better, to repay him for stepping between her and harm – but the wound was already healing, and if she hadn’t known better she’d have thought it was at least a few days old. Looking up at him, she tried to work out what was going on and failed.

“I don’t understand,” she said, letting go of him. His touch was overwhelming, and even his closeness was too much for her – she could feel herself respond to the heat of his body, the strength of his muscles, the manly smell of him. And that just made everything more confusing. “How is this possible, how is any of this possible?”

“I know it’s hard to take in, but you’re not alone. I can help you,” Karl said, reaching out slowly to take her by the shoulder. She laughed bitterly but didn’t pull away.

“Not alone? If I believe you, I’m a, a
werewolf!
I’m not even human! How can I be more alone than that? My only choice is to get away from here if I can, and get away from everyone I might hurt.”

Karl shook his head and squeezed her shoulder gently, then let go and stood back, dropping his backpack to the floor. “I’d tell you I understand better than you can imagine, but you wouldn’t believe me. The only way to convince you is to show you.”

Allison frowned, confused. How could he possibly understand her situation? Even if he was an experienced werewolf hunter, that didn’t make much sense.

But before she could ask him about it, he made good on his word and showed her. The huge man before her grew even larger, white fur springing from his body as he changed, tearing free of the clothing that was suddenly too tight for him. With a thump that shook the room, he landed on all fours in front of her, transformed in a heartbeat from gorgeous man to mighty polar bear.

His eyes are the same,
Allison thought, frozen in shock. The rest of her mind was torn between panic at the giant predator’s closeness and a strange feeling of calm acceptance. This was still Karl, and she was still safe in his presence. Somehow she knew that.

He didn’t move, just stood there looking at her. Hesitantly, Allison reached out and slid her fingers through the thick, soft white fur of the man who said he was her mate. The man who was her hunter.

“I can’t believe it,” she breathed. “Are you… is this real?”

The bear nodded, and she saw humor sparkling in his bright blue eyes. Biting her lip, she looked at him, awed by the possibilities that started to run through her mind.

Karl stepped back, turned away, and then shifted again. This time she heard the noise of it, a faint whoosh of air rushing into the space left as the huge animal shrank back to man-size again. He was, of course, naked, and Allison blushed as she stared at him.

Should I be more afraid of him now?
Maybe she should, but her mind and body were overwhelmed by his presence. Not just his physical presence, but the knowledge that she wasn’t alone, that whatever kind of monster she was, he was the same.

Before she could consider what she was doing, she flew to him, holding him tight. His arms went around her, lifting her, holding her to him, and she knew in an instant that she was safer with him than anywhere else in the world.

I’ll just have to hope that it’s safe enough.