Free Keeper of the Alphas - Complete by Morgan Rae

fall to all fours as his bones snapped and popped. Hair sprouted from his body, his nose extended into a snout and he roared—
    Two full-grown grizzly bears faced each other now. The challenger was smaller, but he charged at the other with full force. They clashed like rocks, both solid and unwilling to budge. Teeth snapped, claws swiped, and they ripped fur and flesh from each other, tumbling around the ground.
    The smaller bear fell hard, with the other on its back, teeth in its neck. The bear looked up at Cami, petrified on the ground, and roared loudly at her, a sound that shook her to the very bone. Like in her dreams, the roar woke her up and snapped her out of it. She caught the larger grizzly’s attention now, which lifted off its foe and began to amble back over to her. The other bear grabbed its neck in his strong jaws and forcibly yanked it back, away from Cami.
    This was Cami’s chance. She jumped to her feet and bolted back inside the house. The couch was empty—where was Marcus when she needed him? In the back of her mind, she knew something her logic refused to accept. No time for that now. The sounds of animal fighting outside made her sick with fear—the growls, roars, yelps. She saw the car keys hanging from the mantel and snatched them up. She could go out the back, take the truck, and get out of here—
    Or. She stopped halfway to the back door. Marcus’s rifle lay propped up on the couch.
    (Get out, Cami. Run.)
    The ruckus outside only got louder. Cami grabbed the rifle and carried it outside, kicking the door open.
    From the porch, she had a good shot of both of them. Rolling around together, growling masses of fur and teeth and claws. Only she couldn’t see which bear had attacked her and which was…was…
    Hell with it. Cami lifted the rifle in her arms and aimed it. She saw the bigger bear in her crosshairs. Saw a flash of orange eyes. They twisted and launched at one another. She gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger.
    The kickback jerked the gun in her arms. One of the bears fell like a mountain. The other lifted its muddied snout, turned to her, and bared its teeth.
    No. She cracked off another round but this one whizzed past the hulking animal. It sneered, but its ears flattened and it retreated, slinking back into the dark of the woods. The bushes rustled as it left, and then nothing.
    And then silence. All Cami could hear was her own heartbeat, thudding wetly in her ears. Her ragged breaths. Crickets. Fireflies blinking on and off as they returned to their posts.
    A groan. Her attention snapped back to the man—not a bear—now lying on the ground. Naked. Bleeding. Not just any man, either.
    Marcus.
    Cami dropped the rifle to the ground and dashed over to him. He was flat on his back, his jaw set in pain. Scrapes and scars aplenty ran down his body, and her bullet had sunk deep into his chest, leaving a raw, bloody hole in its wake.
    “Oh God…I’m so sorry,” she said, frantically. “I didn’t know—”
    “Help me up,” he grimaced.
    She did her best to lift him gingerly so he could sit up, but that still tugged a guttural pained noise from the back of his throat. He eased himself up and half walked, half leaned against Cami for balance as she helped him to his feet and through the door. Not an easy task, dragging a mountain of a man, and he fumbled out of her grip and onto the couch.
    “We’ve gotta get you to the hospital,” she said. Her voice was shaking. She didn’t do well in high-anxiety situations. Or bleeding people situations. Or bear situations.
    He shook his head. “No doctors.” She flinched as Marcus shifted to prop himself up against the arm of the couch and growled through his pain. “There’s a…first aid kit. In the bathroom upstairs. Under the sink.” As Cami scampered off to grab it, she heard him bellow back at her, “And towels.”
    She dashed up the stairs and pushed through the bathroom door, slamming into the sink in her haste. Cami fell