The Warrior’s Broken Mate novel Chapter 30

I was standing behind Elias, and when I saw the werebear charging at us, my eyes nearly bulged out of my skull.

Elias shoved me back and stepped forward toward the beast so he could shift–and once he had, it was clear he was only about half the size of the bear. But that didn’t stop him. He was ready to fight with every ounce of strength he had.

I was terrified for him. I truly believed that thing might kill him. I had no idea how Elias was going to survive. But still, he rushed straight at the bear, and the bear let out a huge roar in anticipation, like it had been waiting for this moment–like it wanted it.

The two of them collided with a bone–shaking crash, and they instantly began tearing at each other- clawing, biting, trying to land a fatal hit. The bear managed to rake Elias across his side with one of its massive claws, and Elias collapsed with a pained whimper.

Then the bear turned its gaze directly on me. Elias struggled to rise–doing everything he could to keep the monster away from me–but he was too wounded to do anything effective.

I started inhaling slow, deep breaths, trying to calm myself down. I had to lower my heart rate, to focus on what I needed to do. I was lucky the bear was stalking toward me and not outright charging, because if it had been, I’d already be dead. I was still figuring out how to do this, and the panic wasn’t helping.

But then I felt the crack and shift of my bones, fast and fierce, and in the next heartbeat, I was standing firmly on the ground in my wolf form–my pure white fur gleaming as I stood face to face with the bear.

The bear hesitated when it saw me. It stared, almost like it was surprised by what it saw.

I didn’t know what went through its head, but something about seeing me gave it pause. And in that moment, the only real difference between us was our size. I could see Elias out of the corner of my eye, still struggling to get to his feet, blood pouring from his wounds.

My eyes locked on the bear, and rage surged through me. Pure, unfiltered hate for what it had done to Elias–trying to kill him just to get to me. And then something strange started happening. I felt myself rising, like I was lifting off the ground. It was weird.

But when I looked down, I realized I wasn’t floating–my feet were still touching the earth. Only now, they were much larger than before.

I looked ahead again, and I was nearly face to face with the bear. I was almost its size now. I didn’t know what had just happened, but I was grateful for it. Maybe now, I actually stood a chance.

I wasn’t a trained fighter–I knew that. Which meant I had to use every dirty trick I could think of. While the bear was still stunned by my transformation, I struck first–slashing it across the chest just beneath the neck. Blood spurted out instantly.

The bear let out a furious roar and took a swing at me, but I managed to dodge aside. I circled to its flank, leapt up, and climbed onto its back. It started bucking wildly, thrashing and shaking to get me off, but I dug my claws deep into its shoulders, causing it more pain–and I wasn’t about to let go.

Elias finally got back to his feet. While I kept the bear distracted, he seized the opportunity and lunged for its throat. He clamped down hard and didn’t stop until he tore out a massive chunk–blood gushing everywhere.

It took a few moments, but at last, the bear collapsed. Once it was dead, its body shifted back into its human form.

I walked over and stood beside Elias, and he looked up at me–since I was now nearly twice his height- and I had no clue what to say or how to explain any of it. I didn’t know what had happened to me, or why I was suddenly the size of a damn bear.

We shifted back and quickly got dressed right where we were.

“What do we do with him?” I asked, glancing at the dead, naked man lying there in the middle of the dirt road.

“Nothing. We leave him. There’s nothing else we can do,” Elias said.

“But if humans find him, DNA tests will prove he’s not human,” I pointed out.

“That’s what the werewolf council is for. They’ll take care of that when the time comes. They’re always on top of that stuff,” Elias replied. Then he took my hand, and we ran up to the next farmhouse and used their those to wash all the blood off us. We made sure to get out before the owners noticed–we really didn’t want to have to explain the blood. They’d probably think we were killers or something.

But once I shifted back into human form, I was the same size as before. I didn’t understand how any of this worked.

As we started walking again, I noticed Elias was unusually quiet, clearly deep in thought about what he’d just witnessed. I assumed he might be upset with me over everything that happened.

I thought maybe he was angry–like he didn’t want to be around me anymore. He wasn’t acting like himself, and I hadn’t done anything wrong. I just started to get scared he might blow up at me.

I didn’t have the courage to bring it up myself, so I waited for him to say something first.

When he finally did speak, I flinched–it was so sudden that it startled me. He looked concerned when he noticed me flinch as he began talking.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“You’re mad at me. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I don’t even know how it happened…” I began to explain. But he placed his hands gently on my arms and looked into my face–even though I had turned it away from him.

“Hey, I’m not mad at you. I could never be mad at you for that. I’m just confused. I was going to ask how you did it, but you already said you don’t know–and that’s okay,” he said softly.

“You’re not mad that I helped kill the bear?” I asked.

“Of course not. Why would I be mad about that?” he replied.

“Girls aren’t supposed to be fighters,” I said quietly.

“That was how things worked in your old pack. Not in mine. Every girl in my pack is a fighter. And you will be too. I’m proud of what you did. You didn’t even hesitate when you went after that thing,” he said.

“I was scared. But it was going to kill you,” I said.

“You did that–to save me?” he asked, stunned.

“Yeah. I didn’t want it to hurt you,” I said. And he pulled me into a hug.

“Your father really messed you up. And I will kill him for that. But everything else–you never need to worry about making me mad. If we’re under attack and you feel like you need to fight to survive, then you fight with everything you’ve got. Got it?” he asked. I nodded in response.

“Alright. We should get moving. Before someone finds that guy and starts asking questions,” he said.

“Okay,” I answered.

So he took my hand again, and we began cutting through the field, trying to get ourselves back on track toward where we were supposed to be heading. Elias seemed quite different now. I could tell he wasn’t angry with me anymore, and that alone made me feel relieved.

We still had to find our way back to the correct path that would lead us to the new location, and Elias was wounded from the fight with the bear. He kept insisting that we continue walking, but I wanted to stop and make sure he was okay. I wanted to be sure his injury wasn’t too serious.

Eventually, I convinced him to rest, and I lifted up his shirt to inspect his back shoulder. Some skin was hanging loose, though the bleeding had stopped, which was a good sign. I gathered some leaves that had a bit of mud on them and pressed them over the wound.

I only did that to help keep the skin in place so that it could heal better. If the skin is left flapping like that, it’ll take much longer to recover.

“Where did you learn to do that?” Elias asked.

“Well, the leaves and mud are basically all we’ve got around here. I’m just hoping you don’t get an infection from it. But otherwise, I know we need to keep the skin held together–that’s something I picked up from some medical books I’ve read,” I said.

“You’ve read medical books?” he asked.

“I’ve read a lot of different books,” I replied.

“Wow. That’s impressive,” he said.

Once we got up and started walking again, we eventually made our way back to the road. We followed it until we reached the next town, where we were able to stop and pick up a few supplies. Then we sat in the park and had something to eat.

Luke finally called Elias to ask where we were, and Elias had to explain that we were traveling on foot and had run into a few issues. But we’d get there as soon as we could. Luke had to keep an eye on the pack until we arrived, and he agreed to do that.

“Are we staying here for the night, or are we still going to keep going after this?” I asked.

“I think it’s best if we keep moving. We need to put more distance between us and that bear. I don’t know how many others might be in the area,” he said.

“You told me that bears aren’t common around here,” I said.

“Yeah, regular bears aren’t. But that was a werebear. They have their own packs. And if one of them was nearby, then the whole pack might be. They usually stay to themselves–I don’t know why that one attacked. They’re typically peaceful toward werewolves, but something about that one wasn’t right. So we need to keep going just in case more like him are around,” he said.

“Alright. But people are going to drive down that road and see a dead man lying in the middle of the dirt road,” I said.

“I know. I wish they didn’t have to witness that. But there’s nothing we can do about it now. Besides, when they see the body, they’ll think he was killed by wild animals. That’ll only confuse them and make them start searching for animals, not for us,” he said.

We sat there eating for a while, and I noticed Elias scanning the area, looking around like he was starting to feel uneasy again. Then he quickly packed up the food, saved the rest for later, and we got up and continued on our way.

He didn’t say what was bothering him. But I had a strong feeling we were being watched.