The back window blew out as a barrage of bullets tore through, missing their targets by inches. Lana swerved at the surprise but kept course, pushing the pedal to the metal. “Keep down!” She glanced at Trent, who was already doing so. She hunkered down as much as she could while still keeping her eyes on the road. Can’t drive anywhere if I get myself shot.
One of the pursuers gunned it, attempting to pull up beside them again, but Lana managed to cut them off. That left her side open, and the other took advantage of her brief oversight, pressing their way in. A terrible screech rang out when the cars’ bodies met. They scraped along together as the other car pulled right up until she could see the driver and passenger of the other vehicle. She locked eyes with the other driver momentarily, long enough to be able to identify them in a lineup later, but otherwise, her adrenaline blinded her to all but her and Trent’s survival.
Her car barely responded, but somehow she managed to make it find a little pickup, and they surged forward, gaining a slight lead and breaking off from the other car. “They really want you dead, don’t they?”
Trent didn’t answer.
She suspected the worst until she looked over at him, realizing he was just stunned. What a luxury, she thought, rolling her eyes. But she had no hard feelings toward him. The days they’d spent together had more than softened her to him. She felt bad that he was an unwitting victim in someone else’s crime. He didn’t have a prayer against these thugs and hired guns. She was the only thing that stood between him and an overpriced coffin.
Lana wasn’t going to let that happen.
She wouldn’t give their enemies the gratification.
Her bear form bristled beneath her skin. Not yet, she thought to herself, soothing the impulse to change in the car. She didn’t know that she could drive a vehicle going a hundred and twenty miles an hour with her heavy paws, let alone fit inside. She laughed aloud at the notion.
Trent glared at her. “What’s so funny!”
She shook her head, not bothering to answer.
He was pale, too pale. She wanted to assure him that everything would be okay, but her focus was on the road flying beneath them and the enemies at their backs. They kept coming, and she had to swerve and jerk to keep them from driving up alongside them again. But even as the road narrowed, one took an unexpected lead among the others.
And they showed their ugly faces on her left. She scowled at them, but it did nothing to deter the passenger, who struggled with something under her line of vision.
A gun.
It was small, but the barrel seemed far too large for her liking. She twisted the wheel with everything she had, unwilling to let the gunman have a direct shot at Trent.
Gunfire rang out anyway.
Blooming pain shattered her shoulder as the hot bullet hit.
Better me than Trent!
She screamed behind clenched teeth.
Despite the pain, she knew they could make it, if only—
A horrifying boom made the vehicle thrust once, then hobble, forcing her to skid at an angle. She would have crashed into the offending vehicle if the opposing driver hadn’t eased back and let her spiral out.
They took out my tires. Her thought was confirmed when she heard the sound of metal on pavement.
Another blast hurled their vehicle viciously to the right and sent her now-bare rims cutting through grass and weeds into the ditch.
Lana willed the vehicle to obey her final command, despite lacking any shred of rubber. She directed them toward the open field, and the car rolled to a miserable stop as it bumped over dirt and rocks and died.
The hiss of the engine announced its total, cataclysmic failure.
Lana gripped her bloody shoulder where the bullet had entered, the squeeze only reminding her how deep the bullet was. She held back another scream as she forced the foreign object out of her body, so her shifter ability would be able to start the process of healing it.
She had only seconds, though, before the other cars peeled over the drive, surrounding them. “Oh, fuck y’all!” she snapped out the words toward them before glancing at Trent one last time.
This is so not good…
This throbbing agony blurred her vision and made it impossible to come up with a game plan. It sucked, but she knew this work would be tough. She just didn’t expect her first job would be so… high stakes.
Involving my fated-damn-mate!
But she hadn’t chosen her career field because it was easy.
“Trent, the car has done all it can for us. It’s time to take them head-on. I need you to stay low and let me take care of this, okay?” She spoke to him even as the bear inside her neared the surface.
“You can’t take them all on yourself! There are at least six of them and one of you. Tell me what I can do to help. Do you have guns or something?”
“I’m betting you don’t know how to shoot a gun, so no. Please don’t think about that because I don’t want to take a stray bullet. Now, stay put!”
She hoped he’d listen because they were out of time. They were surrounded, and their enemies were slowly emerging from their vehicles, savoring the moment of having their target trapped.
But they’re not going to see this coming.
They hadn’t the slightest clue what they were dealing with, and she was happy to rock their world. It was the least she could do after what they did to her poor vehicle, not to mention her shoulder.
Prying the door open was agonizing, but she stumbled out and landed squarely on her feet.
She gave herself over to the painful glory of her bones twisting, of her teeth sharpening and her snout lengthening. She wanted her enemies to taste her fury.
The pain subsided when the fur bristled through her pores. She felt the delicious arc of her spine as it changed into her new, larger form. Her black bear was small compared to other bear shifters, but it was still formidable against mundane humans.
She heard Trent suck in a breath, but she ignored his surprise and focused on what needed to be done.
“What the fuck is that?” one of her adversaries shouted when she shut the car door behind her.
She dropped to her forelegs and let out a menacing roar, charging for the first in line to die.
CHAPTER SEVEN
TRENT
Trent saw everything happen as if far away from his own body; Lana jerked backward and then surged out of the door. The surrounding headlights made her seem taller than she was; no, no, she was taller. Taller, wider… and much, much furrier.
What the hell?
“Lana?”
Fur continued to sprout along her neck and newly developed muzzle, and an ominous growl rumbled deep in her chest. Trent blinked hard, dizzy and confused. His heart had moved like a freight train, and now it stopped entirely, careening off-track.
Where Lana had been… there was now a black bear.
There were rumors about shifters. A buddy of his at work was always showing him far-fetched articles and bullshit message board speculation about them, but Trent never had an interest in conspiracy theories.
I really owe Marcus an apology.
Lana—the figure that used to be Lana, anyway—charged toward the six shadowy figures that had emerged from the other vehicles. One aimed a gun at her, and she turned on him first, her claws thrusting straight into his chest and using an astonishing strength to quickly render him lifeless.