CHAPTER THREE

Reacting on pure instinct, Aimee dropped the camera and manifested a long staff. She crouched low, waiting for the attack. But in true wolf fashion, he didn’t attack alone. He waited for three more to join rank. By their scents, she knew none of them were the wolves she’d seen earlier at Sanctuary.

These were feral and mean.

True Slayers…

And she was their prey.

Aimee twirled her weapon, bracing herself for them. If they wanted a fight, she would and could definitely give them one. Some times they ate the bear, but today the bear was going to take one juicy bite out of them.

Growling and snapping, they circled around her.

She shook her head at their bravado. “Trust me, guys, you don’t want a taste of bear. This one bites three times as hard as you do.”

It didn’t stop the lead one from charging.

Aimee caught him against his side with her staff and sent him flying. The other two sprang forward. She planted her staff into the ground and lifted her body to kick one back before she twirled and used the staff to smack the other against his hindquarters.

He let out a vicious whelp.

“Cry to your mama, Big Bad Wolf. Little Red Riding Hood is about to serve your hide for dinner.”

“You think you can take us?”

She turned to counter their leader. “Oh, baby, I can send you all straight to hell.” At least that was her thought until four more ran at her.

Odds now…

Not so good.

Snarling and snapping, they moved in, slowly, threateningly. As she backed up, Aimee considered shifting forms to fight, but she wouldn’t be as fast as a bear. They would have much better maneuverability and that would cause her to lose.

Losing to anyone was something she wasn’t about to do.

No, she’d handle this as a woman.

“You know, a better weapon against them would be a gun…”

She frowned as she heard Fang’s voice in her head. Yet he wasn’t near her.

The leader launched himself.

Aimee crouched and just as he reached her… just as she felt his hot, smelly breath on her skin, a large brown wolf intercepted him and sent him flying in the opposite direction.

Fang.

From the image she’d seen in her vision, she knew that this was him. He tore at the throat of the wolf that had initiated the attack against her. Aimee would have continued fighting, but the others backed away in confusion.

A large white wolf who put himself between her and the others transformed into Vane.

“Are you insane?” he snarled at the wolves. “She’s one of the Peltier bears.”

One by one the wolves turned human. Except for Fang and the one he fought.

“Stefan!” Vane snapped in anger.

Instead of standing down, Stefan went for Vane. Fang caught him in a vicious hold on his throat as the two wolves continued to fight and writhe. Aimee cringed at the savage anger that said the two of them hated each other passionately. Old memories surged as they growled and snapped, tearing at each other’s flesh. The sight of it sickened her.

“Stop it!” She blasted both of them with her powers.

Fang yelped as a blast hit him hard in his tail. Sharp and stinging, it sent him reeling. He hated being injured and for someone to get the better of him…

It spun him into a level of pissed off like nothing else could. Furious, he snapped to human form even though it was hard to hold it.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked as he limped toward her, his rear cheek still burning.

Aimee narrowed her glare on him. “I don’t like fights.”

“And I don’t like getting stung on the ass.”

She didn’t back down or back off. “Well, if you’d stopped when Vane told you to-”

“I don’t take orders from a woman I was fighting to protect.”

She held her hand up as if declaring war on him for those words. “Well, macho you. For the record, I didn’t need your protection.”

Fang scoffed at her misplaced bravado. “Yeah, right. They were about to take you down.”

“I seriously doubt it.”

Fang closed the distance between them to stare down at her as fury stung every part of him. He wanted her to fully understand the danger she’d stupidly put herself into. “This isn’t Sanctuary, little girl. You’re invading our territory and we have burdened females. What were you thinking? We kill you out here and no one blinks.”

She screwed her face up in disgust. “Oh, get over yourselves. Like I give two snots about your den.” She pulled out his sunglasses and shoved them toward him so hard that it forced him to take a step back. “I just wanted to return your property. So go stuff yourself.”

Fang was stunned as her hand struck him in the center of his chest. Instinctively, he cupped his sunglasses as she vanished, no doubt to return home.

The only problem was, he didn’t know what stung most. Where she’d shoved him on his chest, smacked him on the butt, or the blow she’d just dealt his ego.

“How did that bitch find us?” Stefan ground out between clenched teeth.

Vane gave him a droll stare that said he shared the same opinion of Stefan that Fang had-that Stefan was a first-rank moron. “She must have followed our scent.”

Fang didn’t speak. He was still too stunned at her anger toward him when all he’d been trying to do was make her understand the danger. How could she not know better? Had Stefan not called in for reinforcements and Fang not realized who it was they were grouping to attack, Aimee would have been torn into pieces.

Another few minutes…

His stomach churned over the images in his mind.

Vane snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Dude? You okay?”

Fang shoved at him. “Of course I am.”

Stefan came forward with a grimace on his face. “What did the bear want with you anyway?”

Vane caught Fang before he could approach the wolf to attack and forced him away from Stefan. “She-”

“We don’t owe him an explanation,” Fang snapped, interrupting Vane. “He can kiss my hairy ass.”

Stefan rushed at him.

Vane growled at both of them. “I swear to the gods that I am sick to death of breaking you two up.” He pushed Stefan back. “And you-one more time and I’m not stopping Fang. One more insult, one more cockeyed stare, and I’m standing back and turning him loose to break ass all over you.”

Stefan’s nostrils flared. Instead of pushing the issue, he snapped his fingers for the others to follow him. Turning into wolves, they bounded back toward the den.

Vane faced him with a penetrating stare. “What is going on between you and the bearswan?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? She came out here into the middle of nowhere to hand you back a pair of sunglasses for what purpose?”

To keep anyone else from being able to use his scent to track him. Aimee’s kindness wasn’t lost on him.

But if Vane couldn’t figure that out, he wasn’t about to clue him in. “I don’t know. Since when do women of any species make sense?”

Vane’s features softened. “Good point. All right then, I’m heading back. You coming?”

Fang nodded.

Flashing into a wolf, Vane took off. Fang was just about to join him when he saw something on the ground a few feet away from him.

It was a camera.

What the hell?

He went over to pick it up. The moment he did, he smelled Aimee all over it. He started to chuck it toward the water, but curiosity got the better of him. Turning it on, he scrolled through the digital pictures of the Peltier bears, sometimes in human form, other times as bears. He paused on one of the busboys he’d seen in the bar who was feeding a pet monkey peanuts. She’d really captured the way the neon light highlighted him and the monkey in a most unusual way.

But it was the landscape shots she’d made all over New Orleans that were truly breathtaking. The bearswan had an amazing eye for light and shadow. Even a wolf like him could appreciate it.