Page 70 of Alpha's Claim

“Hang on,” shouts Bern from the pilot’s seat. The chopper zooms off to the west. Bear Darius follows, leaping over boulders. I’m jostled so much, my legs go flying, only to bang back down on Darius’ back. The only thing securing me are my arms around the bear’s neck.

Ahead of us, the forest ends abruptly. I can’t see until we break from the treeline to run over the rocky face. We’re on top of a cliff. I can tell from the falling trees that Hannibal is right behind us. He has us cornered.

Bear Darius dashes forward. He’s going to run us right off the cliff. I bury my face in its fur.

At the last second, the chopper swings out and dips low.

Bear Darius leaps–

Bern tips the chopper on its side–

Bear Darius grabs the skids. The chopper rocks wildly but doesn’t plummet to the earth. We hang in the air. My arms strain, fighting to keep hold of Darius.

Hannibal skids to a stop on the cliff’s edge and throws a final tree trunk like a spear. It hurtles through the air. Bear Darius twists to avoid it. And I lose my grip on his neck.

“Darius,” I scream.

He shifts in midair and reaches out, grabbing my arm. The move jars my bones all the way up my shoulder, but I will him to hold on.

“I’ve got you,” he says. His fingers wrap around my biceps, holding me tight. We dangle in the air, breathing hard, until Canyon reaches down to help us up, and Bern throttles the helicopter up and away.

Chapter Fifteen

Paloma

The minute we touch down on Bad Bear Mountain, Darius points to the small hangar on the side of the runway. “You’ve got a welcome committee.”

There, standing next to Everest in bear form is Wren.

Darius, whose hair and beard grew Viking long again since he let out his bear, helps me out of the small plane. After the helicopter rescue, we switched to a puddle jumper. Bern did the flying and Canyon co-piloted. The two behaved rather competently.

As soon as my feet hit the blacktop, I run across the tarmac. Wren meets me half-way, and we collide into a big, messy hug.

“Gracias por Dios. Gracias por Dios. I thought youdied,Rencita.”

“Estoy bien–I’m okay.Y tú?” Wren weeps in my arms.

“No, I’m okay, too.” We’re both sobbing with joy.

“Where’s Thom? What happened?”

“Thom’s dead.” I look over my shoulder at Darius, who stands behind me like he’s still guarding my back.

“Your badass sister gave him a taste of his own medicine.” Darius smiles at me.

“You killed him?”

“I injected him with the same poison he had waiting for me, but I guess he hadn’t built up a tolerance to it, and you know, he had that heart condition.” I shrug.

The big bear on the tarmac wanders closer. “I guess you’ve met Everest.” I’m not sure how much Wren knows about the bears on Bad Bear Mountain, but there’ll be time to figure all that out.

“Oh yes. He’s been showing me around.” She arches a brow at me. “I heard your boyfriend is a bear, too?”

“This is Darius.” I disengage from her reluctantly, so she can shake Darius’ hand. “He and his brothers saved our lives.”

Wren ignores his outstretched hand and throws herself into his arms for a hug.

Darius gives a surprised chuckle before his arms lift and wrap around her. “It’s nice to meet you, Wren.”