Free Grayslake: Creed's Claim by Mina Carter

This’ll be a walk in the park for him. You’ll see.”
    Kait wasn’t so sure, her eyes wide as she looked around the crowd gathered at the edges of the pit. Anticipation and eagerness filled each and every face as they watched the fight unfolding. “Some seem certain that Harrison will win.”
    Lilly snorted and shrugged one shoulder. “Can’t cure stupid. You can numb it with a 2x4 but you can’t cure it. There’s always been dissent, but it’s more to do with Dean than with Creed. Creed’s just an easy target because he’s different.”
    Kait nodded, wrapping her arms around herself. It seemed bears weren’t so different from humans for that, she’d just never thought racism could morph over into speciesism. But then, she hadn’t realized other species walked unseen amongst humanity.
    “Come on, skin…” Harrison kept up the jabs. Creed circled him around the pit, throwing the occasional punch that Harrison easily shrugged off. “What’s the matter with you, scared to fight me?”
    Creed didn’t answer, his guard up as he rolled his shoulders like a boxer. Harrison laughed and dropped his hands. The laugh deepened into a roar as…he changed.
    Kait was locked into place as she watched something from a horror movie unfold in front of her. It was all well and good being told that there were werebears but, apart from thinking that she’d seen the guys in the alley with claws, she’d not actually seen any of them change. So far, her mind had skittered away from the thought, the faint hope that this might indeed still be some sort of elaborate hoax lurking in the back of her mind.
    The instant fur flowed over Harrison’s skin, rapidly spreading like an oil slick, that hope shattered into dust. Sharp cracks filled the air, his body jerking as he walked forward. His bones creaking, she realized, as his limbs lengthened and changed shape. His shoulders grew and rounded before he dropped onto front paws bigger than dinner plates. A muzzle punched out of his face, eyes darkening to black as they fixed on Creed with murderous intent.
    Her lover just stood there, watching the show with what looked like boredom. As Harrison roared, Creed lifted his hand to study his fingernails. Like he was checking whether they were dirty.
    “He’ll kill him,” she gasped, hand rising to cover her mouth. “Lilly, you have to stop this…there’s no way Creed can win this.”
    Only Lilly’s hand on her arm stopped Kait from surging forward and leaping into the pit herself. Stupid move, but she couldn’t bear the thought of Creed getting hurt.
    “No, Kait. He’s good.”
    Lilly’s grip was harder than Kait remembered and she looked up to find her friend’s eyes dark with her bear. A shiver hit her. It was odd, knowing even her sensible, ditzy but gentle friend was a werebear. If she’d had to pick one of the three of them as a large, furry killing machine, it would have been Kacie. Not Lilly.
    “Watch,” Lilly ordered, and she did.
    Harrison roared and charged. As one the crowd dragged a sharp breath in. For a moment it seemed like that was it for Creed. He was going to be crushed against the side of the pit and sliced to ribbons on the big bears claws. At the last moment though, he dropped and slid to the side, ducking under the bear’s arm as he swiped. His claws made new furrows in the wood, but Creed had already moved. His fists hammered into the bear’s furry sides with impossible speed. There was a sharp crack and Harrison bellowed in pain, breaking away to lumber to the other side of the pit.
    “One rib down. Creed loves that move,” Lilly grunted in satisfaction. “You’d think they’d expect it by now…but they always walk into it. With some,” she explained quickly, “their bears aren’t that clever, so when the beast takes over…”
    Kait nodded. That made sense, two minds in one body… there was always going to be some trade off.
    “That’s why he likes to fight human?” she asked as Creed