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Then the girl’s bored gaze slid over to look at him, and for just a moment, they locked eyes.
He drew even with her on the steps, eyes still locked.
For the first time in years, Julius thought his bear might get the better of him.
Then there was a loud, world-shattering bang.
Julius whirled around. For a split second, he thought that something huge and metal had crashed to the ground. Everyone looked half confused and half panicked.
Then there was another one, and another, each sounding louder and sharper than the first.
Then, Julius realized they were gunshots. He leapt for the girl, tackling her full-on, the sign smacking him in the face as he covered her body with his.
There was one more gunshot, this one amid a mess of growling and yowling. The unmistakable roar of a grizzly, the growl of a wolf, and a mountain lion’s bloodcurdling shriek.
People ran everywhere, slipping on the stone steps, some falling, their protest signs flailing everywhere.
Julius’s bear was half out, his hands clenched into tight fists and his face in a snarl as he covered the girl with his body.
I’ll fucking kill anyone who tries to so much as touch her, he thought. He could smell panic, blood, and a little bit of pee.
Where’s Hudson?
Underneath him, her chest rose and fell and her face was flushed. The shots had stopped, and for a split second, he watched her chest heave, his bear savoring the delicious swell.
Where’s Hudson?
Julius tried his best not to panic. The girl, whoever she was, seemed okay, and that was important but where was Hudson?
Fifty feet away, at the bottom of the stone stairs, a human was sprawled on the ground, surrounded by a lion, a wolf and a grizzly, a gun a few feet away on the pavement. The lion had one paw on his back, wicked claws fully extended, and was quietly growling in the man’s ear.
Julius felt an involuntary chill snake down his spine. Lions gave him the creeps.
Ash Spencer, his cousin-in-law, ran up, his own gun in one hand, and pointed it at the human. He started shouting, too, but now Julius could tell that everything was under control.
“Are you okay?” he asked the girl.
Her brown eyes were the size of saucers and she was still breathing hard, but she nodded. He gave her one more long, searching look, and then stood. She rolled over, grabbed her sign, and scampered off.
I have to find Hudson and then I have to find out who that was, Julius thought. His best suit, the custom-fit one he’d spent half a month’s salary on, was filthy and probably ruined, but that didn’t matter right now.
Stay calm and you’ll find him, he thought. He stood up straight and searched the pandemonium for his mate — even though the six-foot-six blond behemoth stood out in most crowds, he blended in pretty well with a bunch of grizzly shifters. Julius let his eye skip from person to person, but there was no sign of the other man yet.
It felt like there was a hand around his heart, and it was starting to squeeze.
Julius started walking down the steps and into the crowd, doing his best to act calm, but his mate wasn’t there. He imagined Hudson bleeding on the ground while he had been protecting some girl he didn’t even know. He imagined someone else holding Hudson’s hand as the blood stain spread across the flagstones.
The hand around Julius’s heart gripped tighter, and he could feel sweat trickle down the back of his neck.
He can take care of himself, Julius thought. He was in the Lost Souls for ten years before you even met him. He knows how to handle gunfire.
Julius took a deep breath, his eyes frantically flicking from person to person, none of them his mate.
How could I possibly live without him?
“Hudson!” Julius shouted, finally losing control. “HUDSON!”
Then, the crowd parted for a moment and there he was, kneeling on the ground, his back to Julius, but Julius would have known his mate anywhere. He ran to him, pushing aside humans and shifters alike, until he finally reached his mate, collapsing to his knees beside him.
