Bowman reached him first. He shifted to human, got behind Turner, seized his head in his strong arms, and broke his neck.

Turner fell dead at his feet. Bowman’s throat was lit up with his Collar, and the beast, deprived of its victim, attacked Bowman instead.

* * *

Bowman heard Kenzie shouting, but he was too busy to call out to reassure her. Giant arms came down to crush him, claws bigger than any Shifter grizzly’s raked across his stomach.

Speaking of grizzlies, one filled the hall, Cade’s roar a match for the beast’s. Cade jumped onto the creature’s back, teeth and claws deadly, but he barely slowed the thing down.

But there was Jamie, leaping with his cheetah’s speed. Cristian was darting in and out as wolf, Pierce came in with his sword, and Reid was fighting with twin iron-bladed knives. Brigid had retrieved Turner’s dirk and fought alongside Cristian, stabbing and dodging with incredible speed.

Kenzie was hurt. Her body was covered with blood and mud, her face streaked with cuts. Her stomach was a mess of black blood, and the way she staggered told Bowman she wasn’t doing well.

He wasn’t either. The beast came at him again, and Bowman fought with madness that kept him on his feet. The charm on the necklace Gil had given him flopped uselessly against his chest, below his crackling Collar.

Where was Gil? Bowman distractedly saw that the man wasn’t fighting with them, but he was battling too hard to see what he was doing.

No, there he was, supporting Kenzie, taking her out of the way of the fight. Kenzie leaned against the wall, her face paper white, too much blood on her skin.

Bowman saw Gil stop a little way from the beast, hold up both hands, and start shouting in a strange, phlegm-clogged language.

The beast stopped. Turned. Cade and Jamie fell from its back, as did the huge wolf that was Graham. The beast swung all the way around, its bizarre face moving as it sought Gil.

Gil didn’t look happy to be skewered by that gaze, but he kept chanting, hands held high. The beast began swaying back and forth, following Gil’s voice as though mesmerized by it.

Pierce took the opportunity to shove the Sword of the Guardian into the creature. Deep into it. Pierce’s hands remained around the hilt as he struggled to pull the blade out again.

The beast blinked. It shook itself away from Gil, turned and caught Pierce with one giant fist, sending him flying, then fixed on Bowman again.

Rage lit its eyes. It pulled the sword out of its side, raised it in clumsy paws, and plunged it toward Bowman. Bowman rolled to keep the sword from hitting his heart, but he felt the blade go into his abdomen and all the way through him, down into the floor.

He lay there like an insect pinned to a board, blood running from his torn body. The beast roared and raised its fists to strike him again.

Kenzie leapt up the monster’s arms as they came down, climbing it as though it were a giant, animated tree. She slammed onto its back, her strong legs clamping its sides.

“Mom!” Ryan shouted to her from below, and tossed her the rebar she’d dropped.

Kenzie raised the iron bar, her other hand locked around the creature’s head.

“Stay the fuck away from my mate!” she yelled, and drove the bar straight through its throat.

The beast roared. It thrashed, gurgled, sprayed blood, caught the others with its tail as they tried to get out of the way. Ryan sprinted back inside the lab, disappearing from the hall.

Walls cracked. The steel door the beast had come out of bent from its hinges and fell to the floor with a loud clang.

Kenzie was thrown off of the monster, landing on her back on the hard floor. Cristian grabbed her and hauled her out of the way. Bowman, stuck to the floor by the sword, could only thrust his arms over his face as the beast fell.

It struck the ground with a wet slap, like a giant water balloon. Blood sprayed everywhere with a stink that made Bowman start to fade into unconsciousness.

The great tail hit him, dislodging the sword and a good chunk of Bowman’s flesh with it. Bowman rolled, every movement torture, and rescued the sword before several thousand pounds of dead animal could smash into it.

Bowman staggered to his feet, covered in his own blood and the beast’s, struggling to stay upright.

“Here,” he said to Pierce, shoving the sword at him. “Go for the heart.”

Pierce, his face so pale freckles Bowman never knew he had stood out on his skin, closed his hand around the hilt and moved to do his job.

Bowman limped to Kenzie. Cristian held her in his lap, and Kenzie fought to breathe, blood trickling from her mouth. Ryan was with her, his small hands squeezing hers. “Mom,” he whispered.

Bowman took her gently from Cristian, cradling the mate he’d loved from the first moment he’d looked at her. Kenzie’s eyes, the ones that had arrested him from across the crowded, cold gym, opened, warming when she saw him.

“Did we get it?”

“You nailed it, baby,” Bowman said. “We kicked its sorry ass.”

“Good.” Kenzie smiled, the sexy, sly smile he adored. She touched her chest, over her heart, then put her hand on the center of his chest. “I feel it,” she whispered. “Do you?”

A burning sensation seared him where she touched. Bowman went utterly still as wild hope flooded him. “Yeah.” He pressed his hand, covered with blood, over hers. “I feel it, right here.”

“Good.” Kenzie smiled again, looking so happy that Bowman’s whole body hurt. She reached out her other hand and pulled Ryan to them. “Good,” she repeated, then her grasp went slack, and she fell, limp, against Bowman’s chest.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Kenzie peeled open her eyes. She took a breath . . . and spent a long moment calming herself down from pain. Her body pounded, her side burned, and her legs felt as though someone had broken them and glued them back together.

A quick downward check showed her lying in bed in a hospital gown, her bare legs free of any kind of splints, though bandages tightly wrapped her middle.

She opened her mouth to call out. Ryan—was he all right? And Bowman? What had happened to everyone? Her last memory was falling against Bowman, safe and content in his arms, but he’d looked as bad as she felt.

The only thing that came out of her throat was a groan. This was bad.

Something rattled. “Kenz?”

Her heart raced, which hurt, then settled into warmth. Bowman. She turned her head.

Bowman was in the hospital bed next to hers, the two of them separated by a few feet of space. Above each of them were machines that beeped, and tubes snaked from bags on stands into their arms.