Free The Bear's Arranged Mate: A Bear Shifter Romance Novel by Simply Shifters, Amy Star

ricocheted off the banister, and Sarah ducked again. Too close. She wouldn’t get many more lucky breaks. The next shot that went off would hit one of them – deep in her heart Sarah knew it was most likely her, and the thought of such an imminent death caused a fresh surge of adrenaline. She had no wish to die, but neither could she permit Caroline to get away with hurting Connor.
    “Caroline, please stop!” she shouted.
    There was no sound.
    “I know you’re hurt… I know you want vengeance, but it’s in the past. We all have to bear things, we all have to do things, we don’t want. But it’s for the good of the family, for the good of peace. You taught me that!”
    “I was wrong, Sarah,” a cold voice replied, but Sarah couldn’t tell where it was coming from. She checked the railing with her rifle. Still no movement. If I know Caroline, she’s trying to flank me so that she can sneak up behind.
    “No you weren’t. I wasn’t sure I wanted this either, but it’s different now… I love Connor,” she said, and covered her mouth. She hadn’t meant to fall in love with him, and to say it out loud suddenly made it real for her. It only cemented her need to protect him from her cousin.
    “Love!? You don’t understand love, Sarah. I loved my father, but he was executed… worse than that, he was erased! The Greybacks and the Clawgroves are poison, cancer! I’ll wipe them all out… even you, if you stand in my way.”
    “I won’t let you hurt anyone else,” Sarah said.
    “You may not a choice in that matter,” Caroline said. “If it comes down to it, can you really press the trigger? I trained you to be strong, and I’m glad to see I wasn’t misguided in that endeavor. But you and I both know, you’re not a killer.”
    “I won’t let you hurt Connor.”
    “Connor! He’s just a boy! You only met him a few days ago! You’ve known me your whole life! Can you really choose sides like that so easily?”
    She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “You taught me to protect the people I love… I’m trying to protect you, Caroline. Come out… no one has to die. We can start fresh… that’s what you told me this was supposed to be, this marriage. A fresh start. I thought you meant a fresh start for me, but it’s not just about me anymore. It can be a fresh start for all of us.”
    Sarah could sense Caroline sneering. She was too lost in her own hate – something that had been stirring and brooding for generations. She had even tried to bind that hate into Sarah, and failed. Her hands tightened on the grip of the rifle as she tried to sense the presence of footsteps.
    “There is no fresh start,” Caroline replied, and there was a definitive edge to her tone, like everything had already been decided, “there’s only this.”
    Sarah sensed rather than saw Caroline who came up behind her, using the shadows of a bookshelf to hide her approach. As she turned, she saw her cousin’s face catch in the light coming through one of the windows. It wasn’t the face she had recognized as her cousin – it had changed, been warped. Or perhaps this had always been the real Caroline, a vixen with a bone to pick. Her face snarled as she leaped  toward Sarah, and a dagger was raised in her hand.
    It all happened too suddenly for even Sarah to comprehend.
    A shot rang out through the chalet and both women fell against each other and were still. Sarah opened her eyes. The beam of sunlight through the window arched down and lit up an area of the carpet next to them. Caroline, on top of her, let out a sigh, and Sarah pushed her off.
    A deep gaping wound in her tank top near her heart was already red with blood and Sarah started crying when she realized whose blood it belonged to. Caroline opened her mouth and a trickle of dark arterial blood sputtered out of the corner of her lips, and her eyes were wide. It was the first and last time that Sarah ever saw fear in those dark lupine eyes.
    “There’s…