But tonight they’d have to fight together. One Shifter alone, even two, wouldn’t be enough to make a dent in something that could so easily take down Bowman.
Kenzie and Jamie got everyone organized, the Shifters moving into fighting positions. Jamie’s cousin Marcus, another cheetah, put himself in charge of herding the humans well back, and getting the women under and behind pool tables.
Kenzie’s battle plan, when she outlined it, brought swearing and protests, but Kenzie remained firm until the Shifters reluctantly agreed. Jamie backed her up. “She’s right. Suck it up.”
Another enormous boom sounded on the front door. The door was heavy steel, the kind that rolled back, and right now it was barred and locked. A Shifter with great strength could break through it, given time, and Kenzie already knew that whatever was out there had great strength.
She became wolf as Jamie shucked his clothes and shifted into a leggy cheetah about twice the size of a non-Shifter one. He snarled a big cat snarl, ready.
At a growled command from Kenzie, one of the bigger Shifters threw the bolt on the door and shoved it open.
Shouts and swearing sounded from Shifters and humans alike as the stench rolled in. But Kenzie had decided it would be better to rush out and attack the thing head-on than to wait to be trapped inside the roadhouse and picked off one by one. If they pushed the creature into the middle of the empty parking lot, together the Shifters could surround it and take it down.
Now that she saw it, though, Kenzie wasn’t so sure. She looked up into a horrible face—like a cross between several Shifters rolled into one. Red eyes fixed on her from above the muzzle of a gigantic wolf. The ears, if the things on top of its head were ears, were more like a cat’s, its body big like a bear’s. A ginormous bear, Ryan, her son, would say. Kenzie let herself take a moment’s relief that Ryan was far away, at home in Shiftertown with his great-grandmother.
Unless there were more than one of the things out there.
The monster stank like a feral Shifter. Plus it was as crazed as one and three times the size.
Kenzie drew a breath, took strength from the tension of Jamie beside her and the Shifters around her at the ready, and launched her attack.
CHAPTER FOUR
Bowman heard the roar of the attack even through his agony.
The vet, though she wore the stupid costume of a groupie, had efficiently shoved his bones back into position and wrapped his leg, but it fucking hurt. Bowman’s Collar had gone off, the shock trying to keep him from rolling over and gutting her, but had only succeeded in making the pain worse. Cade’s weight on his side didn’t help either. Kenzie had been so much sexier.
Bowman knew he shouldn’t attempt to shift back until he was more healed—he’d risk snapping the bones in the splint apart. But he wished he could communicate better with Cade, find out what was happening.
He snarled as the draft brought the smell of the beast down the hall, not that he hadn’t smelled it the instant the front door opened. Even the vet winced, and Cade growled.
Bowman snarled back at him. Cross-species communication was sorely lacking among Shifters, but Cade had known Bowman long enough to understand him. He gave Bowman a nod and left him for the main part of the bar.
Bowman started to push himself up, but the vet said sternly, “No, you need to stay down.”
Bowman sent her a growl. He knew Kenzie was out there, in front of the others, leading them. He didn’t need a mate bond to tell him that. Kenzie knew what to do. Cade was now with her, and Jamie and Marcus. They had it covered.
Except—every instinct in Bowman told him they didn’t. This monster was something new, something they’d never faced before. The screech and boom of the front door giving way, and the howls and cries of hurt Shifters reinforced that conviction.
Bowman dragged himself up. The splint held. Though it hurt like hell, Bowman’s natural ability to heal was kicking in. Kenzie lying on him had helped a lot. The touch of a mate, though no one could explain the process, seemed to work.
Bowman easily pushed past the vet, in spite of her protests, and staggered down the hall to the main part of the bar. What he saw made every human thought in him flee and his wolf take over.
His mate and friends were battling the thing that had broken the doorframe it had shoved itself through. Cade had turned bear, the grizzly on his back legs, ears flat, roaring his power. The beast coming at them was three times Cade’s size.
Jamie, with the lightning speed of the cheetah, was darting around the creature, trying to get under it for attack in vulnerable places. The beast caught Jamie with a swipe of a giant hand and threw him across the room. Jamie let out a cat screech, more pissed off than terrified. He hit the wall with a crunch, slid down it, and went still.