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“Only you didn’t,” he finished for her. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in asking why you did it?”

  Her eyes may as well have been glued to the toes of her boots. She offered an embarrassed shrug. “You know me,” she said in a small voice.

  He apparently got the idea. “Yes. Yes, I do. I know that greedy heart of yours has been to my advantage on more than one occasion. I suppose that it has finally turned to work against me is something I deserve.” His tone became self-deprecating. “I’ve admitted to being many things over the years, but I never thought to call myself a trusting fool.”

  Teagan didn’t know what to say. Her heart ached. She could have told him she had only been observing him for a short time and that she had never passed on any particularly useful information. But it was the intent behind her actions that mattered. If she could see that, he would too. And so, she kept silent. Luckily for both of them, Dr. Green broke in at that moment.

  “Come, Rotham, I think you’re being a bit too hard on the girl. After all, she may have acted with mercenary intentions, but she was aiding in a scientific experiment. There are worse causes to join.” He turned to Teagan. “But now as you see, young lady, our subject has become uncooperative and so, although our observation period didn’t last as long as I would have liked, time has run out and the experiment approaches its end.”

  He turned suddenly on Sir. “I don’t pity either of you. You, Mr. Rotham, impeded my progress. You hindered my science, and would have shut down my experiments altogether if you could, all in the name of greed. History is full of men such as you. Already wealthy and filled with their own worth, and yet they’ll do anything to squash the last dime out of the little man. Even at the cost of scientific discovery, even at the cost of advancements to the human condition.”

  “You’re crazy,” Sir said bluntly, from across the room. Teagan followed his glance toward the syringe atop the desk. A single prick was all he needed to reverse his condition, yet this little man stood in his way. “What you’ve done to me wouldn’t advance anyone’s condition.”

  Strangely, Dr. Green merely smiled. “It all depends, my belligerent friend, on how you look at the negatives and positives. Loss of your humanity, for example. Is that such a drawback really, when your strength is multiplied, and your life expectancy is ten times longer than that of an ordinary man? When you think of it in that light, I’ve done you a tremendous favor.”

  “So it was an act of generosity when you transformed me into a brutal beast who can’t control his own actions?” Sir didn’t sound grateful.

  Both men seemed ready to dismiss Teagan’s presence altogether.

  Dr. Green shrugged. “I needed a healthy specimen and when you closed my loan, you made yourself an unwitting volunteer. It’s not my fault if you haven’t been bright enough to learn to control your transformations. With a little practice and concentration, you’ll learn to transform at will.”

  “Thanks for the opportunity,” Sir said dryly. “But I’m done being your test rat. Just give me the antidote.” He strode toward the desk, but Dr. Green barred his way.

  “Don’t be a fool,” the little man said, unruffled by Sir’s intimidating figure looming over him. “You’re in no position to demand anything. Do you imagine me quite helpless under your greater physical strength?”

  Sir was undeterred. “I’ll take my chances. Give me the syringe.”

  Dr. Green seemed not to hear him. An odd light had come into his eyes and his gaze was focused inward. His voice sounded hoarse, deeper as he asked, “Do you truly think you’re one of a kind? A lone experiment?”

  For the first time, Sir demonstrated uncertainty. “You tested yourself, didn’t you?”

  There was no need for response. Already the doctor’s form was changing, growing. Teagan watched with fascinated horror as the gentle faced little doctor began warping into something less human. His height stretched until he towered over Sir. Fur quickly formed in patches across his face and exposed skin until there was nothing left of a man about him. His clothing tore and fell away, unable to accommodate his massive growth. Stomach roiling at the unnatural sight, Teagan couldn’t help but turn her face away for a moment, and when she looked back, the transformation was complete. In place of the unassuming doctor, an immense brown coated grizzly bear towered over Sir.

  Sir hadn’t been inactive all this time. During the doctor’s shape shifting, he had been inching around the growing creature, and now he made a sudden dash for the desk and the syringe that rested atop it.

  With casual ease, the bear moved to stop him, swiping at him with a massive paw. What was a mere slap for a bear was a powerful blow to a man, and the force of it sent Sir reeling into the window beside the desk. Teagan gasped as the windowpane shattered and Sir tumbled out onto the ground below.

  Chapter 34

  The bear swiftly followed Sir out the window, and both disappeared from Teagan’s view. Temporarily frozen to the spot, it took her a second to react. Then, shaking away the sense of unreality that had taken hold of her, she crossed the room. Leaning out the window, she tried to see the forms of man and bear in the darkness. It was now full night and the faint glow of the moon overhead wasn’t enough to illuminate the surrounding grounds.

  Teagan located them by sound rather than sight. An animal roar ripping through the silence of the night and then the thundering of heavy footsteps moving toward the nearby stand of pines gave away their direction. Without thought for the prickly shards of glass or the short drop to the ground below, Teagan scrambled through the broken window and leapt down onto the grassy earth.

  She was grateful for the level ground as she pursued the fleeing sounds of the others because coming from the light of the indoors, the world around her now seemed as black as the bottom of a well. Dimly, she saw the rising shapes of trees ahead. They were making for the forest bordering the edge of the property. Soon they would come up against the fence and there would be nowhere left to run.

  She was forced to slow on entering the tree line. It was ever darker here and the looming shapes of pines, saplings, and fallen logs gave her pause. She would do Sir no good by stumbling in and breaking her neck. Carefully, she picked her way through the crowding vegetation. She could hear the sounds of a commotion up ahead. The noisy upheaval of undergrowth and the heavy cracking of sticks underfoot gave testament to some sort of struggle taking place among the trees. Teagan quickened her stride again. Eyesight finally growing accustomed to the dark, she made out two indistinct figures clashing in the small clearing she approached. Silvery moonlight filtered through the opening in the forest canopy above to illuminate the immense form of the grizzly bear just as it was charging toward the smaller figure of a man.

  “No!” Heart leaping to her throat, Teagan let out a useless cry and raced toward them, knowing all the while that whatever happened would be over before she arrived.

  Gaze fixed on the horrifying scene playing out before her, she gave no thought to where she placed her feet. She simply ran. Suddenly, a thick tree root protruding from the earth caught the toe of her shoe and dragged her down. For a terrible, frustrating instant, her face was buried in the mossy forest floor, and then she scrambled upright again.

  Frantically searching the clearing ahead, she quickly identified and passed over the shape of the running bear. Where was Sir? He had disappeared. But in the place he had been a moment before, another now stood. Not a man, this time, but a massive, shadowy beast, resting on all fours, with a pair of blazing golden eyes that glowed beneath the moonlight. A cat, but like none she had ever seen. This creature was impossibly large for such an animal, more monster than beast. Rippling muscles stood out in bunches beneath his hide and sharp fangs gleamed pale in the night.

  Sir, Teagan realized. So he had learned to control the transformation. He no longer needed a full moon to take on his beast form. She had no time to consider the implications of that. Everything was playing out too swiftly.

  The bear was still bar
reling onward, and the panther stood directly in his path. The cat leapt forward an instant before the bear would have crashed into him, and they met in midair. Claws and teeth were bared on both sides and they tumbled to the ground with a thud, a writhing mass of snarling fur.

  Holding her breath, Teagan watched the brown and black hides flash as they struggled across the forest floor, and waited to see who would come out on top. To her horror, it was the bear who was the first to regain his feet. With a roar, he slapped a heavy paw at the smaller animal, but the cat moved nimbly out of his path. Snarling, the puma dodged agilely in to snap at the bear’s belly. He touched nothing but fur, however.

  Bulky and lumbering as the bear was, it was surprisingly swift in its movements. In an instant, it turned the cat’s attack to its advantage, slamming its weight down atop the body of the black beast. Immobilized, the puma was helpless to defend himself as the bear’s sharp teeth descended to sink into the hide of his shoulder.

  An agonized scream escaped the trapped animal, a mingled cry of hatred and helplessness. The bear tightened its grip on its victim’s shoulder, shaking its head from side to side so that the smaller animal was whipped around like a rodent in the jaws of a cat. Crimson blood stained the night.

  Teagan couldn’t drag her eyes away from the terrible scene. When the bear finally released his prey, the puma was tossed limply against a nearby tree, his body hitting the trunk with a sharp cracking noise. Teagan expected to see him move no more, but after a brief moment, he crawled slowly to his feet again. His efforts were too slow, however, weakened by his injury.

  Already his enemy was bearing down on him again, and this time Teagan sensed it was closing in for the kill. The cat must have sensed his end approaching as well, for he suddenly threw back his head, offered a wild, blood chilling scream to the moon, and turned to meet his attacker. Despite his obvious weakness, there was still a fiery defiance blazing from his glowing eyes.

  The bear rammed into the cat, swiftly slapped down his attempts at defense and pinned him to the ground with one large paw. The cat’s throat was exposed, open to the sharp teeth of the animal above. It would be an easy kill for the bear. The triumphant creature roared its victory, sank its long teeth toward the throat of its victim…

  And was suddenly barreled into by another, smaller form, from behind. The Rottweiler from the warehouse. The dog was pitifully dwarfed alongside the bear, but it growled and snapped at the larger creature with a determined ferocity. Dodging before and behind the bear, the smaller animal somehow managed to be everywhere at once, worrying the bear to the point that it had to loosen its hold on the struggling cat to deal with this new threat. Yowling and snapping, the dog leapt onto the bear’s back.

  Teagan couldn’t imagine how cruel Dr. Green must have been to make his own dog turn on him, but as she watched the cat wriggle free of the bear’s grip, she could only feel gratitude toward the brave Rottweiler for darting to the rescue.

  Now, however, it was clear the Rottweiler’s role in this struggle was to be a short one. With a motion that was more annoyance than genuine fury, the bear tossed the dog easily from his back. Flying through the air, the smaller creature landed on the ground a little distance away, to lie motionless in the grass.

  But the Rottweiler’s efforts hadn’t been wasted. During that brief moment of inattention, the bear had turned its back on the puma. The cat needed no more invitation than that. Seeming to call on hidden reserves of strength, he sprang onto the bear from behind, gleaming fangs sinking again and again into the bear’s thick hide. Instantly, the bear’s coat was stained with blood.

  Letting out a cry of fury, the bear turned this way and that, trying to land a mighty paw on its enemy. But the cat was determined. More than that, he knew he was fighting for his life. Fangs sinking deeper into the flesh of his enemy, he hung on grimly, despite the bear’s efforts to dislodge him.

  Suddenly, he released his hold. Apparently expecting victory, the bear turned, prepared to destroy him. That was exactly the opportunity the cat had been awaiting. As soon as the bear turned, head raised, the puma dived straight into the embrace of its furry paws, teeth snapping toward the bear’s throat.

  Both werebeasts collapsed forward, tumbling to the ground, and Teagan’s vision was momentarily blocked. All she could make out was a massive pool of blood-stained brown fur and beneath that, patches of wriggling, darker hide. There was a brief struggle, and then all was still. Silence descended over the clearing.

  Teagan suddenly became aware she was trembling on the ground—that she hadn’t yet arisen from her knees. With an effort, she started forward, stealthily approaching the motionless pair. As she moved nearer, there was an abrupt movement from the lifeless pile of fur. Teagan caught her breath, but it wasn’t the bear that was stirring to life. From beneath its immense form, the panther wriggled free, crawling out from under the dead weight of the larger creature.

  Teagan froze where she stood, gaze glued to the glowing-eyed beast, anxiously examining the crimson stains marking the black hide. How strange it was to think inside the flesh of that mysterious wild beast beat the heart of the man she loved.

  On noticing her presence, the cat stiffened, became absolutely still. And then his broad nose twitched, testing the scent of her on the evening air. Teagan searched for some sign of recognition in the depths of those glowing golden eyes. Some hint that Sir’s darker, human gaze lurked behind them. For a brief instant she thought she sensed it, some wordless connection passing between them. She stepped forward, extending her hand.

  And the spell was broken. Immediately, the yellow-eyed panther became just a wild creature again, retreating from her approach. Without another glance in her direction, he bounded off, disappearing through the gloom of the wood.

  Teagan hesitated, glancing down at the dead grizzly bear at her feet. Nearby, the black Rottweiler was sitting up again and cautiously testing its legs. Teagan promised herself she would get the dog to a vet as soon as possible. She owed it that. But for now, there was a human life at stake.

  Abandoning the clearing, she took off. Moving swiftly, she followed the path the puma had taken back out of the trees. She knew where he was headed.

  Chapter 35

  “Sir?” Teagan called softly, stepping into the dim interior of the building.

  In the distance she heard a faint rustle and the sound of a door creaking. There was no other response. Teagan followed the noises, climbing over and around the debris scattering the room. Stacks of crates loomed out of the darkness, stark shadows in the pale moonlight filtering in through overhead skylights.

  Unfamiliar shapes and objects littered her path, making silent passage difficult, but she continued doggedly on, even when a blind stumble or a clumsy nudge sent a piece of debris rolling noisily across the floor or a stack of boxes collapsing with a thud. He had to know she was here. Even had she not announced her approach so loudly, he must surely guess that, at some point, he would be followed.

  Suddenly, she heard a low groan. The sound was pained, weary—and very human. Had the transformation passed already? Could Sir be a man once more? She glanced toward the night sky, visible in patches through the overhead openings. Stars still twinkled above. It was still night. Too early for the transformation to pass. Then she remembered he apparently had some control over it now.

  Again the groan. Her heart melted at the sound. He was hurt. Sir was hurt. Besides that, all other thoughts dissolved. She had to get to him. Scrambling over the mountain of obstacles in her way, she half ran, half stumbled in the direction of the noise.

  There, just through the narrow doorway up ahead. The room the argument had occurred in. The sounds were coming from there. Heart hammering inside her breast, Teagan approached the cracked door. The heavy silence was interrupted only by the harshness of her rough breathing.

  Crash. The sudden noise coming from beyond the door made her jump. Without thinking, she threw the door open and rushed into the room. Pale moonligh
t bathed the floor, filtering through the broken window in the far wall. The silver beam slanted across Sir’s prone body collapsed across the floor. All traces of the puma were gone. In its place was simply a man—the man she loved—lying with deathlike stillness on the cold concrete.

  Teagan swallowed and a harsh whisper escaped her lips, “No.”

  Rushing to his side, she dropped to her knees and gently rolled him over. Relief was like a douse of water smothering the burning fear inside her. He lived. His chest rose and fell rhythmically in the moonlight.

  Teagan’s joy was short lived. Blood stained Sir’s clothing, and his face was fixed in a mask of pain. He had brought his injuries back with him, upon reentering his human form. Having witnessed the duel of the werebeasts, Teagan knew his injuries were serious. Had she come all this way only to arrive in time to see him die? Hot tears burned in her eyes, threatening to spill over.

  “Sir? Can you hear me? It’s Teagan,” she said.

  At the sound of her voice, his eyelids shot open unexpectedly. “Get away from me.” It was more of a pained gasp than a command but that made the words hit her all the more forcefully.

  “What? No, I don’t want to go. I came back to help you.”

  “Like you’ve helped me all along? Secretly plotting behind my back ever since—” His words cut off, interrupted by a spurt of coughing.

  Teagan wondered fearfully about the extent of any internal damage. There was more going on here than just the cuts visible on his flesh. “Please. You mustn’t talk right now. Least of all about this.”

  “Why not? Don’t you want to make your apologies, ease your conscience a little before I die?” His tone bore a semblance of the old sarcasm she knew so well.

  “I didn’t race to your side for petty apologies,” she said, swallowing hard. “I followed you out here to tell you that I’d made a mistake and that I…that I…”