The Bare Truth part 2

Chapter 15

Someone was screaming.

Sierra stirred in her sleep, unsure if the noise came from real life or her dreams.

But it was definitely screaming. Somewhere in the distance, a woman was screaming.

Sierra opened her eyes. There were five, large, armed men in the cabin. One of them clamped a hand over her mouth. Sierra bit down on his hand, causing him to swear loudly and release her. She screamed.

Joe startled awake from the noise. He lunged at the man closest to Sierra, tackling him to the ground. One of the men rushed to assist his friend while the others made a grab for Sierra.

"RUN!" Joe screamed at her, before shifting and ripping the pinned man's throat out in a shower of blood.

Sierra fled the cabin, barefoot.

Sleuth was in chaos. There were people screaming everywhere. One of the cabins was on fire. The light from the fire destroyed her night vision and she stumbled over a rock. One of her pursuers followed her out of the cabin. But it wasn't a man chasing her now. It was a leopard. There were leopards running all over Sleuth.

Sierra ran towards the trees as fast as she could, the leopard hot on her heels. She needed to shift. It was the only way she stood a chance. Sierra gazed up in vain at the absent moon. She silently begged her body to shift, but nothing happened. The leopard closed on her and knocked her to the ground. He pinned her and bared his long, glistening white teeth at her throat.

Sierra heard a familiar cry. It was Brenda. Brenda was crouched next to a cabin, crying and screaming in terror as a leopard approached her. Sierra screamed and tried to break free. She couldn't let anything happen to that little girl.

And as if it had simply been waiting for her command, her body responded. She shifted. It caught the leopard pinning her by surprise and threw him off. Now able to hear the thoughts of the shifters around her, she heard the leopard cursing her, and marveling that she managed to shift at the new moon. Sierra paid him no mind. She barreled towards Brenda, knocking the leopard aside with a swipe of her paw.

With Brenda safely tucked into a corner, Sierra stood in front of her, teeth bared, daring anyone to come near that little girl.

"Joe!" she reached out with her mind. "Joe, can you hear me? What's happening?"

"The kids!" Joe responded. "They're after the kids!"

Three leopards were approaching her, slowly. They growled softly and they slunk towards her. Another hooped gracefully down from a nearby rooftop and joined them. They started to encircle her. Sierra tried to keep her eyes fixed on all of them, waiting for the strike and not sure what she was going to do once they did. She steeled herself for the attack. Brenda was crying.

The leopards crouched and then leapt at her, closing the gap between them. They landed on top of her, claws and teeth flying. One of them landed on her back and sunk it's teeth in. With a howl of pain, Sierra moved violently and shook it off. The leopard flew into the cabin wall and slunk down, unconscious. But the other three were not so easily dislodged. Within moments they had her pinned, glistening teeth bared at her throat.

Suddenly, the leopards were ripped off of her. Sierra blinked the blood out of her eyes to see what had happened.

It was Joe. He had appeared out of nowhere, his shiny black fur reflecting the light of the fire. With a roar he bit into one of the leopards' head. Almost half the head disappeared in his powerful jaws. He spit out the bloody chunk of skull and moved on to the next one. The discarded leopard corpse phased back into human form. Joe's claws ripped into another one's white underbelly, leaving a trail of carnage in their wake.

"Sierra," a familiar voice sounded in her head. "Sierra, darling, look at me. You may consider telling him to stop."

Dorrian was in leopard form, curled up and almost lazily watching the chaos he'd created. Somehow, Sierra knew that pale yellow colored leopard was him. He was laying on the top of a cage mounted on a truck.

The cage was full of children. Their children. All the kids that lived in Sleuth. They'd even taken the babies, who were now clutched in the trembling arms of some of the older kids. Dorrain's men were standing around the cage pointing guns at them.

"I don't need them all." Dorrian said to her. "You can shift and surrender now, or you can do it after I tell them to start shooting. It's your decision."

He yawned lazily.

"You too, Joe," he added. "You will shift and you will come here and kneel to me now, or I'll kill her."

Horrorstruck, Sierra shifted back to human form. Joe stopped, staring at Dorrian warily. The remaining leopard shifted, grabbed a kicking and screaming Brenda, and headed for the truck. Joe made no move to stop him.

Shaking, Sierra walked towards Dorrian. Dorrian leapt off the roof of the truck, landing noiselessly on the ground and shifting back to human form. His eyes bored into her as she walked towards him, never wavering. He was smiling in a self-satisfied way, as if he had already won. Maybe he had won. He waited patiently for her to come to him. She stopped just inches in front of him.

"Don't hurt them," she begged.

"Never, darling," he said.

He reached a hand out and gently stroked her cheek, his eyes still locked on hers.

"Throw her in the truck," he told his men without breaking her gaze.

Two men grabbed her from behind and steered her towards the cage. They shoved her rudely inside and tossed an old dress in after her. Sierra pulled it over her head gratefully, suddenly aware of the chill in the night air.

"I'm waiting, Joe," Dorrian called out. "I do not like to be kept waiting."

By now most of Sleuth had assembled around the cage, some in human and some in bear form, but no one daring to make a move as long as those guns remained pointed at the cage. Sierra picked Brenda's sobbing mother out in the crowd.

"Please give me back my baby," she begged quietly as she leaned against her husband.

Joe shifted. Pain, fury, and wounded pride were written all over his face. He stared desperately at Sierra as he walked towards them.

He stood in front of Dorrian.

"I told you to kneel," Dorrian said.

Joe gave a pained sigh. Grudgingly, he knelt down.

"I agreed to your terms," Joe said. "I accepted your leadership."

"I know," Dorrian said.

"Then what is this?"

"What I have here behind me is a little insurance policy."

He spoke loudly, addressing not just Joe, but all of Sleuth.

"Your children will not be harmed," he said. "They will be well taken care of. They will be fed, clothed, and receive the finest education. I'll even allow you to Skype with them once a month, so you know that I've kept my word. Just so long as you continue to accept my leadership and pay your taxes. The moment you don't, your children will die."

"You don't need to do this," Joe pleaded.

Dorrian smiled.

"Yes, I do. How do you think it is that I have 58 packs at my beck and call? A few hostages go a long way towards ensuring continued loyalty. Now, I don't normally take adults, but since you don't have any children, I'll make do with Sierra here. And you have my word I won't hurt her."

Joe's eyes met hers. He looked lost, powerless.

Dorrain held out his hand to shake Joe's.

"Thank you for your cooperation."