Whatever Rae would have said to that, Zander was never to know. The man, Mike, took hold of Rae’s braid and tugged her toward him as though he planned to kiss her.

A human woman might have burned him with sarcasm or become angry and told him to leave her alone. But Rae was Shifter, she was drunk, and she responded in the instinctive Shifter way.

She let out a fierce snarl and slammed a two-handed punch to his face.

Rae hit Mike so hard he fell over backward, his yell of pain cutting off as he landed hard on the floor. His two friends got to their feet and came around him, itching for a fight.

Rae didn’t wait. She launched herself at one of the men with a double kick, but when she landed, her Collar went off.

The sizzle of it and her cry of pain made Zander’s fury explode. He was next to her, pulling her out of the way before anyone could figure out the cause of her distress.

Then the two defeated men’s seven best friends came out of the woodwork and started for Zander. Piotr, big and labor-hardened, slid off his stool with a grin.

“Fellows,” he said—and threw himself into them.

Piotr loved to fight. Any time, for any reason. He went at it now, one human against seven. Zander yanked Rae’s hood over her head and shoved her down under the bar beside the fishing rod case.

Rae’s Collar was still snapping blue sparks but she hunkered down to hide them. Whether or not the other humans noticed, Zander couldn’t tell, because they were cheerfully beating Piotr to a pulp. The rest of the bar shouted encouragement for both sides.

Zander shucked his coat and waded in to Piotr’s defense, but before he could engage, one of the men locked his arms around the dozing Ezra and pulled him off the barstool.

Zander lunged for the human, but too late. Ezra, awakened abruptly, his mind clouded, became his half-wolf and tried to rip out the man’s throat.

CHAPTER TEN

Rae held her hands over her neck, willing the Collar to stop sparking. If humans saw it she’d be captured and arrested, maybe even terminated, for leaving the state that held her Shiftertown. Eoin and her brothers could be as severely punished for not keeping her home.

Her worry about that took a backseat when Ezra flew by her, wolf paws throwing off his boots, his hands sprouting claws, his face becoming that of a snarling wolf, though he was still upright, his body in human form.

Yells and screams rose. The bartender shouted desperately, “Hey, no Shifters allowed!”

Too late, Rae thought. She tamped down her rage until her Collar finally ceased sparking and then she crawled to her feet.

Ezra was fighting against men who were defending themselves with fists, chairs, bottles. Ezra fought back in instinctive fury, no Collar to slow him down.

Zander got his bulk between Ezra and the men, and Ezra started fighting him, trying to get through Zander to the others. Zander’s growls filled the room, drowning Ezra’s, though Zander wasn’t shifting.

The only one not surprised Ezra was Shifter was Piotr. He kept on fighting with glee—kicking, punching, spinning, punching again.

Rae grabbed the case with the sword, holding it to her chest. If she joined the fight, her agitation and inebriation might make her shift to black wolf. Like Ezra, she’d be unable to stop herself.

Over the noise, she heard the distinct metallic click that she knew from living in a remote part of the mountains. Rae was pretty sure guns weren’t allowed in the bar either but she saw one man raise a shotgun and point it straight at Zander.

Rae had never before heard the noise that left her throat. A cross between a snarl and a scream belted out of her and the sword was out of the case and in her hand before she knew what had happened.

She closed both hands around the hilt, her feet finding balance as Zander had showed her. Rae wasn’t certain how she landed in the right stance, because she sure hadn’t been able to do it during this morning’s lessons. Now she rocked on the balls of her feet and swung the sword in a huge arc, bringing the flat of the blade down on the gun.

The sword’s momentum shoved the gun’s barrel toward the floor just as the man fired. The shotgun went off with a deafening boom, driving shot pellets into the boards beneath them.

The blow and shot ripped the sword from Rae’s hands. It tumbled away, landing with a clank before it spun across the floor.

Clank? Not a silvery ring, not a rippling hum, but a metallic thud.

Rae dove for the sword. The human men backed out of its way as it skittered by, until it came to rest in the middle of a cleared space on the floor.

Rae swept it up and saw why it had made the dull sound. The blade, in its middle, was cracked straight across.

“No!” Rae moaned. “Son of a bitch, no.”

Men, angry and drunk, closed in on her. Rae looked up at them in anguish, unable to feel her danger. “It’s broken.”

The guys coming at her didn’t appear to care. They were angry, afraid, and not too happy their bar had been invaded by Shifters.

Rae lifted the sword, its blade wobbling. If it snapped all the way in half . . .

The thought died as Zander barreled into her, grabbed her around the waist, and used his momentum to haul her out the front door. Piotr came right behind them, his burly arms around Ezra’s half-human, half-wolf form, dragging the man away, or at least trying to.

The night was finally dusky, a smattering of stars peeking out through the velvet blue. Lights were on in the bar’s tiny parking lot, though they weren’t much needed.

The entire bar poured out behind them, men yelling, shooter guy reloading his gun.

Zander tossed a bundle of cloth to Rae. “Hang on to my coat.”

He ripped off his sweater and threw it at Piotr, who’d finally let go of Ezra. Ezra started to run back to the twenty or so men after them but Zander got in his way.

“No,” he yelled into the wolf’s face. “Run.”

Zander threw his T-shirt at Piotr, toed off his boots, yanked down his jeans, said, “Get out of the way,” and turned bear.

Two thousand pounds of polar bear swung around to the humans in the lot, braced his great feet on the asphalt, and let out a roar.

The collective group halted. Zander roared again, the rage in his eyes glittering in the parking lot lights. His roar showed his very large, very sharp teeth.

The guy with the shotgun raised it and aimed at him.

Rae screamed, “Zander!”

Zander charged. The fighters scattered. The gunman tried to shoot but went down as Zander ran directly into him. Rae heard the gun go off but she could see nothing beyond a flurry of polar bear and men.