I’m a fierce bear cub, grr, grr, grr!
Growl so big from a body so small.
But when the day is done, you’ll see,
I’m still just cuddly, snuggly me.
Before he could continue with another verse, the small white cub launched himself out of the cage and into Indrik’s chest, cuddling against him. Grinning, he tightened his arms around the cub, kissing the fur on its head before he carefully rose. Glancing down at the cub’s captor, he stepped around the pool of blood and headed out of the house, leaving the door open behind him. Retracing his steps through the trees, it didn’t take long for Indrik to reach his cousin, who’d been waiting for him.
“Shit, what took you so long?”
“Had a very frightened cub who didn’t want to leave,” Indrik murmured, looking down at the bundle of fur in his arms.
“Is he okay?”
“He will be,” Indrik replied. Then, glancing at his Owen, he added, “Can you go get the bag? The human was the only one waiting for me, and he’s dead now.”
“Sure, I’ll be right back.”
Sitting down on a tree stump, Indrik watched his cousin hurry toward the house before turning his attention back to the cub in his arms. His eyes roamed over the now-sleeping cub, searching for signs of physical abuse but finding none. While he was thankful for that, he knew the cub had a long way to go before the emotional damage caused by the human would fade. But having rescued others, he knew being with them would help, as they’d experienced the same trauma. Hearing approaching footsteps, Indrik looked up and saw Owen emerging from the trees with the duffle bag.
“What a fucking mess you left.”
Grinning, Indrik asked, “Did you leave the door open?”
“Yup…how long will it be before he’s found?”
Lifting his head, Indrik sniffed, then said, “The scent of his blood is already in the air, so by tonight, the predators in this forest will be enjoying a tasty meal.”
Picturing the human’s body being torn apart by the bears and wolves that lived in the forest caused a full-body shiver in Owen. He’d seen feeding frenzies in the wild before and had no desire to be so close to another. “Uhm…are you ready to go?” he asked.
Rising, Indrik nodded. “The sooner we are out of here and back with the others, the better it will be for this sweetie.”
“I hope this is the last human involved with this mess,” muttered Owen, falling in behind Indrik.
“He’s the last one I know about, but there has to be a paranormal involved because humans don’t have the ability to detect which ones are shifter babies.”
“Unless they see them shift,” Owen replied.
Indrik growled, “True...but someone took all these babies before they could shift.” “And whoever took them was very powerful—strong enough to kill the parents. Humans can’t do that unless they use guns…and no one shot any of the parents.”
“So, you think there’ll be more?”
“Yeah…unfortunately,” Indrik murmured.
“When you first told me about the humans, I thought you were talking only about two, but never expected there would be so many,” Owen said.
“Me neither…it was just luck that I learned about humans selling shifter babies.”
“You never mentioned how you found out,” Owen said. “Are you keeping it a secret for a reason?”
Shaking his head, Indrik replied, “A student told me someone had killed his neighbors overnight and their baby was missing. He was upset and frightened because he’d overheard his parents talking to the Alpha about it happening elsewhere. Shortly after that, he and his parents moved away to a different pack. I spoke to the Alpha, and he suspected it was someone with ties to our world…but that was all he could tell me. So I started my own investigation and found out humans were selling shifter babies…and well, you know the rest.”
“Yeah…but what are you gonna do with them when you leave for your new teaching job?”
“Take them with me, of course.”
Owen’s eyes widened. “All of them? I thought you were gonna find their relatives.”