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Sher’s eyes were wide, not so much with fear, but anger towards her ex-husband. He knew that she was going to spew lies out of her mouth, so he stood still, holding his ground to keep himself from lunging for her.
“What in the FUCK is going on?”
It was Sher’s turn to scream. The indent on the wall from where Henry had punched had begun to disintegrate, all while her guards cowered in corners away from the menacing tiger shifter.
Henry wouldn’t care if he destroyed her entire estate and every single person in it. It would all be for love, and that would make it worthwhile.
“I’m not going to repeat myself, Sher,” Henry whispered. “Give me Zara and Kirsten, and no one else has to get hurt.”
Sher had made her way to the bottom of the stairs and approached Henry with a charge. He could sense the bear shifters around him, coming closer to defend him, but he held out his hand in a stop motion.
Sher halted just before his eyes, snarling toe-to-toe. Because she, too, was a tiger shifter, she was nearly his height, eyes blazing with just as much feral anger as his were. The only difference between her and Henry was that he would never hurt the ones he loved in order to fulfill some imagined dream.
The dream was at the tip of his fingers, and he was going to go for it with all of his might.
“Is that what you call a threat?” She seethed at him, spittle flaring out between her teeth. “You’re really going to have to step it up if you think that is going to scare me, Henry.”
Henry wasn’t going to hurt a woman. Not in a cheap way, at least. When it came to shifters, all genders were equal on the battlefield. As long as everyone was in their primal animal form, it was no holds barred.
“Sher,” Henry said, almost in a whisper. “Why are you doing this? We are not mates. It would have never worked out.”
He tried to dive deep into the tender place in his heart and soul, the place that Kirsten had awakened in him, and tried to apply some empathy to the situation. Perhaps Sher was in so much pain seeing that he, her former husband, had quickly found a mate and that there was nothing on the horizon for her.
And that mate was able to take better care of her own child than she could. It was a heartbreaking sight for anyone, whether they were human or not.
For a moment, Sher’s eyes averted away from him, casting down at his feet. He took a bold chance and reached for her hand in an attempt to end things in a way that was remotely amicable.
“Let’s stop this, Sher,” he murmured. “Let’s stop before anyone gets hurt.”
The second Henry’s fingers brushed over Sher’s hand, she snapped it away, that bright, sinister look of vengeful intention returning to her face. It was then that Henry knew they had no other choice than violence.
“You bastard!” she yelled in his face. “You know nothing. Nothing!”
It was then that Henry heard a warrior cry above him, followed by the sound of a cry of agony. He turned his head back up to the top of the staircase and caught a flash of long, raven black hair.
It looked like the slick sails of a glorious ship calling him home.
“Henry!”
Kirsten screeched for him, and that was the last straw. Henry took a step back, away from Sher, who had started pointing and screaming back up the stairs for someone to get a hold of their prisoner.
He nodded at the bear shifters, who nodded back. They quickly shot out of their clothing. A few of them grew taller, morphing into towering and stunning grizzly bears that could take any human’s head off with a single swipe.
They approached the estate like an army of soldiers. Henry turned back to Sher, who was staring at him, red eyes bulging like blood in a cornfield.
“You asked for this,” Henry hissed. “I am getting my mate and our child, whether you like it or not.”
Sher was barely listening anymore. A few thicker, taller men emerged from the top of the stairs and began to shift into their tiger forms. The bears came in quickly, charging through the front door, destroying the framework around it with a surge of approaching brutality.
Henry could feel his heart beating wildly for the thirst of the fight, of course, but also for something else entirely.
It was beating for Kirsten. Out of love and out of fear. He desperately needed to get Zara and her out of there.
He called out to her before the battle erupted, hearing Kirsten continuing to fight and trying to flee, being the strong, courageous woman he had fallen in love with.
“Hide, Kirsten!” he bellowed. “Hide with Zara!”
They may as well have been fighting already. Henry felt the ground below him begin to tremble as the bears went for the tigers, mouths wide and fangs exposed, while Sher and Henry shifted nearly simultaneously.
