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Three polar bears threw themselves at one another.
Mila watched through a crack in the stones as the two larger bears slashed their massive claws and beat at one another’s snouts.
A scream threatened to rip out of Mila’s chest. Her hands whipped to her mouth to cover it.
The third polar bear swiped his claws along Cyrus’s back. His roar shook dust and gravel free from the ceiling.
Fear boiled in Mila’s blood. Her panic at losing Cyrus exploded through her body. She stood to fight, but something stopped her.
There was no way she would be able to fight two polar bears. Even ones that didn’t have supernatural strength. If she stepped out, she might distract the other bears, but she might also distract Cyrus. She couldn’t get him hurt because of a mistake she had made.
Mila saw Sheldon rear his whole body up. It looked like Cyrus was done for.
The scream bubbling in her chest sliced through the air as she watched Cyrus take one blow after another. Her fingers clawed at the stonework, and her heart ruptured, thinking he would die before they got together.
When she opened her eyes, her face was wet with tears. Mila gasped in surprise.
Cyrus’s fur clung in strips of red. His jaw clamped over Sheldon’s neck as blood ran onto the rock floor.
Soon, Sheldon’s body went limp.
Cyrus shook it with one final act of aggression. Mila guessed it was for his parents, but it may have been a cocktail of emotions he had at the end of the fight.
On wobbly legs, Mila ran to Cyrus.
When she reached him, he was back in human form. Mila flung herself around Cyrus, uncaring of the blood-soaked parts of him.
With a cry of pain, Cyrus fell to his knees, unconscious.
Mila winced and gently lowered him to the floor. “Shit.” She rolled Cyrus onto his stomach. Three long gashes gouged into his back from the shoulder blade to his left hip. Mila hissed at how deep they were; even though the blood was clotting, the wounds were red, swollen, and throbbing.
“I’ll be okay.” Cyrus had awakened and tried to move but fell again. “I’ll heal quickly.”
“You can’t even take a breath without grunting. You’re lucky. I have CPR and first aid certifications. I’ll have to remember this and keep it up for the rest of my life.” Mila gave a weak laugh. “But I don’t approve of you doing polar bear fights in your spare time.”
Mila moved toward their supplies. Cyrus leaned against a wall, careful not to touch the damaged portion of his back.
Mila had to maneuver around the two dead bodies, now back in their human forms. While the sight unnerved her more than she wanted to admit to herself, Mila stuffed the discomfort down so she could focus on helping Cyrus.
He was the only thing that mattered right now.
Mila’s mind delved into survival mode, and she pulled out the first aid kit and other supplies. She rushed back to Cyrus and wrapped a blanket around the front of him. Most of the other cuts were superficial, and even though his face had already started to bruise, Mila wanted to focus on Cyrus’s back.
She handed Cyrus a bottle of water with an order: “Drink.”
He put the bottle to his lips and took long, ragged gulps. Mila could hear the pain he was in. She would have to get him some painkillers as soon as she could. The kit did have Tylenol, and she shoved it into his hand.
“Take those.”
Mila doubted they would help, but she was going to use any resource available. They had not planned for a to-the-death polar bear fight, much less two of them. Even though they had prepped for everything else. The idea that they’d be leaving here with severe injuries was never on Mila’s radar.
Her hands worked quickly and gently. Soon the wounds were cleaned and bandaged to the best of her ability. “Okay, well. There are no towns nearby, and I know we planned on camping here tonight, but there is no way I’m sleeping next to two dead bodies. We’ll have to go to a science station and get them to help.”
Mila looked at the map.
“It looks like Star Village is our closest choice. It’s actually not as far as we walked to get here.” She looked at Cyrus, who was slipping on the clothes he’d packed for tomorrow. “If we ever decide to come back here, I suggest we come during the summer when it is at least slightly warmer. I don’t want to live a life so close to freezing to death.”
Cyrus gave a crooked smile in an attempt to humor Mila, but Mila frowned at Cyrus as he tried to put his shirt on by himself, pulling on the red-stained bandages. “You need to suck up your ego, and let me help you with that.”
