Hair of Gold: Just Right (Urban Fairytales Book 6) by Erik Schubach Read Free Book Online Page A

side of his neck, eyes wide in surprise and confusion. I strode right past him, yanking my knife out of his neck as he fell, blood spraying across the ground. I sheathed my knife as I raised my sword and roared as my brothers did and dove into the fray with an animalistic rage.
    I bellowed, “How dare you threaten the villagers we protect!” I spun and parried and wove my way between them, blade flashing in the moonlight as my bears rallied, forming a barrier of claws and fangs around me. Isolating me and the two inside the ring my brothers gave me to do my work in.
    I spun low, taking out the legs of one of the pikemen. “How dare you try to take my brothers to that old hag!” I ended the man with my blade through his throat, separating his spine.
    My blade was stuck so I just released it and caught a sweeping blow of a pike the other man had used as a staff in close combat. I trapped it under my arm and grunted at the impact, I've suffered worse blows sparring with Little Bear.
    I don't think the man was expecting the backhand, nor the sheer force I can bring to bear. Many of my opponents expect a woman to be weak, that is their folly and something I take full advantage of. His head snapped back, and before he could turn to focus on me again, I buried my fist into his gut, twisting my body and putting my full force and weight behind the strike.
    He dropped his pike and doubled over. I leapt into the air and landed on top of him, driving my elbow with all of my weight and momentum behind me into the back of his neck. I heard a crunching sound over the ruckus my brothers were making as they dispatched the others.
    The man fell limply to the bloodied cobblestones, gurgling, his neck snapped, but he yet lived. I gave him a mercy and picked up his pike. I turned to view the battle as I absently drove the pike through the man's chest, silencing him.
    I ripped my blade from the other man's body with both hands then yelled out to Andrei who had the last raider pinned to the ground with one massive paw, and had his other raised to take the man's head off with a swipe, “Nyet!” Andrei paused and looked back at me in confusion.
    I grinned at my big brother and shook my head as I stepped up to him and laid my hand on his massive shoulder, grabbing a fistful of fur and shaking it lovingly. “Let him go. He can tell Narcisa and Baird the folly of sending raiders to threaten our people and of trying to capture you.”
    He smiled, the man below him winced at the massive and sharp teeth which he displayed. I just saw it as a smile from my goofy big brother, but I could see how it might look menacing to someone believing that he might eat them. He stuck his face down in the pinned man's face and roared, the man cringed as his hair flew back with the force of the roar. I placed a hand over my mouth to hide my smile at the smell that wafted up after that. The man had lost control of his bladder and bowels.
    Andrei lifted his paw from the man's chest and moved back behind me. I grabbed a handful of Little Bears fur and absently pulled myself up onto his shoulders as the raider scrambled backward on the ground, away from us as Vladimir stepped to the other side of Andrei.
    I ordered the man, “Now go! Tell your masters about tonight and warn them that we will not be so lenient next time. And if I ever see you even close to our village again...”
    My brothers all stood on their hind legs, lifting me skyward as I finished, “My bears will have you.”
    I snapped my head back and bellowed like a bear as my brothers joined in, shaking the ground as the man scrambled off into the dark. We stared into the dark as the echoes of the roar rolled down the valley.
    Little Bear turned his head back to look at me as he chuffed. I rolled my eyes and slapped his nose and defended myself, “Nyet, that wasn't over dramatic you big oaf. I was simply making my point.”
    The others chuffed, and I squinted and looked around at them, pointing my finger.