as he moved.
She’d already met some of the Gray Backs when she’d been in Saratoga the first time, but the one from the tree line she didn’t recognize at all.
“Bombshell!” Jason called, his dark eyes dancing as he held up a sack lunch.
She still hated that name. “Hey, Jason.”
“And you probably remember Clinton,” Creed said, gesturing to the blond man with an entire breakfast sandwich hanging out of his mouth as he pulled a canvas backpack over his shoulders. “Gooseyougin,” he slurred around the food.
She talked food-speak though, so she grinned and said, “Good to see you, too.”
“Matt is Matt, and this here is Easton.” Creed turned her shoulders toward the tall man with chestnut-colored hair and striking green eyes. Eyes so inhuman looking, it was hard to hold his gaze. He didn’t say anything, but dragged his unsettling gaze down her torso to her stomach. The corners of his eyes tightened, and a soft, feral rumble rattled from his chest.
“What the fuck did you do to her?” Easton looked at Creed, accusation and fury in his glare.
“Easton,” Creed warned, angling his head. “This ain’t a bad thing.”
Creed pulled Gia behind him, so she had to stand on her tiptoes to see Easton over his broad shoulder.
Easton’s dark eyebrows winged up. “Not a bad thing? You fucking killed her.”
Something electric was in the air now, just above her senses, jolting all the fine hairs on her body.
“Come on, man,” Clinton murmured to Easton, squeezing his shoulder. “This isn’t like with you. Gia’s going to be okay.”
“She’s human,” Easton growled. “She’s fragile, and you got her with a baby, anyway.”
“Shit,” Creed ground out just as Easton hunched into himself.
In the next second, an enormous silver grizzly exploded from Easton’s skin.
Gia screamed in terror as Creed shoved her backward. She stumbled, but caught herself just as a monstrous black grizzly ripped through Creed’s skin. He slammed down on all fours, shaking the ground beneath her feet.
Easton charged. Too close! She was too close, and they were going to barrel right into her.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Jason muttered from right beside her. Where had he come from? He was just over there. “Come on, Bombshell, before they kill you trying to protect you.”
“Kill me?” she gasped out as he pulled her backward.
The two titan bears clashed. Roaring and snarling, they clawed and bit with such furious violence, she locked her legs in awe. “They’re going to kill each other.”
“Willa!” Matt called out as he pulled her shirt off.
Was everyone going to Change? She’d done her research, and nothing in all the hours she’d spent reading about bear shifter crews had prepared her for this. Changing was supposed to happen every once in a while, not over something silly—like Easton’s apparent hatred of pregnancy.
The battle raged closer, and she wasn’t retreating fast enough.
“Move your legs, Bombshell,” Jason yelled. His voice had lost its laid-back humor now.
Jason pulled off his sweater and stripped out of his jeans, then Changed into a brown bear almost as big as Easton. Matt Changed and now his scarred-up red bear was in the fight. Crimson was staining the white gravel road under the battle.
Jason was backing up beside her, nudging her away from the fight. Gia couldn’t take her eyes off the raw violence before her. A moment ago everything was fine, and now the Gray Backs looked like they were trying to rip each other’s throats out.
A blond bear was in it now, too, and this was just fantastic. Even Clinton had Changed. One little angry remark, and the entirety of the Gray Back Crew was at war, bleeding each other. Wait. Gia refused to be herded by Jason another step and looked around his hind end. Another bear was charging the battle. This one was smaller than the others, but it was breathtakingly fast. Its honey-colored fur waved in the wind with every powerful step