Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1) by Sloane Meyers Page A

next to the town square. Sawyer took off running after her, leaving his confused clan members behind to draw their own conclusions about why their victorious alpha was suddenly sprinting away.

Chapter Ten
     
    Amanda ran like hell. Her lungs and legs burned, but she didn’t care. She had no idea where she was going, or where she could escape to, but she had to get away from here. The pilot who dropped her off here had been right about this place being weird. But Amanda was pretty sure he hadn’t realized quite how weird.
    She heard Sawyer’s voice somewhere behind her, calling out her name and begging her to stop. She ignored him, and kept running, hoping that he hadn’t seen which direction she had taken.
    Her mind was still reeling from everything she had just seen. After she left Silver behind and headed for the roaring noise, she had come across a scene so bizarre that at first she had been sure she was hallucinating. There, in what looked like the town square, a huge group of grizzlies had gathered. Amanda had never seen so many grizzlies congregated like that, and she had been momentarily stunned into confused inaction as she stood there. But her eyes had nearly widened right out of their sockets when she realized that there were humans standing in the middle of the group of grizzlies, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to hang out in the middle of a group of bears who could easily kill you with one swipe of their paws. The humans didn’t seem afraid at all, however. They were yelling right along with the roaring of the bears, all focused on something in the middle of the large circle of bears.
    That’s when Amanda’s focus had turned to the center of the circle, and she had given up any hope of trying to make sense of the scene in front of her. A large grizzly, much larger than any of the ones in the outer circle, huffed and paced angrily. Next to him, a dark-haired human yelled at the bear and gestured to the crowd, riling them up every time he raised his arms above his head and did a fist pump. Another human, looking somber, raised a bullhorn and quieted the crowd, then recited some rules about how the fight was going to work. Amanda’s heart had dropped in her chest when she realized that she was witnessing some kind of weird boxing match between a bear and a man. The man who was fist pumping didn’t seem at all concerned, however. Despite the fact that he was apparently about to fight a giant bear, he kept hooting and hollering as the countdown to begin the fight began.
    Amanda didn’t want to see a man torn to shreds by a grizzly bear. She wanted to look away, but somehow couldn’t force herself to turn her head. Like someone watching a bad car accident taking place, she couldn’t force her gaze from the horror. Just as she was sure she was about to witness the man’s death, he let out a roar and began to grow in size.
    Amanda had rubbed her eyes, sure then that she must be hallucinating. In disbelief, she watched the man turn himself into a terrifying grizzly even larger than the first one in the ring. The two bears fought for several minutes, with the smaller grizzly somehow defeating the monster of a bear. Several times, Amanda told herself to turn around and run, but her feet remained frozen in place. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and, somehow, she thought that continuing to watch might explain what was going on.
    No answers came, however. Only more confusion as the bears in the crowd suddenly began turning themselves into humans. Amanda’s heart pounded as naked person after naked person appeared, chanting and seemingly oblivious to their lack of clothes. Her mind again screamed at her to run, but still she stood there, alternating between fascination and terror. What was she witnessing here? Magic? Witchcraft?
    But just when she thought things couldn’t get any weirder, she saw the grizzly in the center—the one who had just won the fight—turning into a very