Free Unbearable Desire (Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance) (Bear Valley Clan Book 1) by Serena Nox Page B

me."
    The first gunman lowered his gun slightly, but the second one raised his, taking a clear bead on my head. "Now girlie, why you gotta lie like that?" he drawled, impervious to the rain that battered us and the thunder that rolled overhead. "We got us a guy, checks the trailhead every day. Ain't nobody in these woods today. So whyn't you tell us where in the fuck you came from?"
    I opened my mouth, readying my next lie, when he cocked his gun and stepped forward. "Wait a tic. Hey Dwayne, I think I just figured it out." He smiled widely, revealing a gap toothed, broken smile full of rotted teeth.
    "The fuck you say my name for, Mitchell?" the first gunman hissed.
    Mitchell stepped forward. I felt the cold bite of steel as he tilted my chin upward with his rifle. "Don't think it matters too much. This little bitch won't be saying our names to anyone.  She's not gonna be around much longer anyway."
    "No...." I whispered.
    "I know, and I'm sorry about it, because you are a pretty little thing. But see we can't be having pretty girls just dropping in on us like this, nice as it is.  Our boss don't like too many people knowing his business."
    "I don't know anything!" I sobbed.  "Just let me leave."
    "Why, so you can go back to your cabin with your granny?"
    I froze.
    Mitchell let out a guffaw. "Ah, knew I had you sussed.  We've been watching you, girlie.  Sorry about your granny."
    "Fuck off."
    "Now now. You had best keep a civil tongue in your head.  I'm sure your sister would only have kind words to say to us."
    Ice water ran in my veins. It was all lost then.  They knew about the cabin and they knew about my sister. There was nothing more for me to do, they were going to kill me right here, in the mud, in the rain. 
    But instead of sorrow, instead of fear, a hot little bud of anger bloomed in my chest.  How dare these lowlife drug addicts confront me, me! If they had been watching me, then they should know who I was.  I was Noelle Palmer. My grandfather colonized this peak and this land was in my blood. 
    I closed my fist tightly, sinking it into the muddy earth, squeezing it through my fingers.  A pulse beat at my temples, slow and angry, building on itself.
    Mitchell watched me rise to my feet and his snide smile slackened.  The steady drumbeat of my pulse made my heart feel too large inside of my chest.  Everything seemed too large inside of me.  My skin could no longer contain my insides. Something bigger was trying to get out.
    The crawling, clawing sensation was driving me mad.  I buried my face in my hands, feeling heat rising off of my skin, burning so hot that steam was rising from my face.  A low vibration sounded in the air, building up and up, thrumming so loudly that Mitchell and Dwayne looked around wildly. 
    Whatever was inside of me was about to burst out.  I was confused, panicked and terribly angry. That anger rose in my throat like a bubble, until I was forced to open my mouth and give voice to my rage.
    The scream was an oncoming freight train, building higher and higher in volume even as it dropped lower and lower.  The force of my roar propelled me forward and I dropped to my hands and knees and roared at my attackers, the sound carrying over the crash of thunder that roiled overhead.
    A shadow burst forth from the trees.  Mitchell whirled a second too late, his gun firing into the empty air.
    Because the bear was upon him.
    I screamed again, this time a human noise. The bear was savaging Mitchell.  One swipe of his paw opened his steaming guts out to the hissing rain.  Mitchell's snarl became a rictus of fear and death before my eyes.  I screamed again.
    Dwayne lifted his rifle even as he staggered backwards from the bear's onslaught. I heard the crack of gunshot, but could not tell if the bullet found its mark before the bear knocked Dwayne backward.  He  struggled for a futile moment as he tried to jam his rifle butt into the bear's slavering jaws, but the beast's strength