Morningside Cuesta kill the witch

Old woman though she was, tired as she was, Ishara Morningside was still every inch the black bear she'd embodied since her youth. She was slow at first, as if arising from hibernation, but the cry of her son (her largest of the litter, and therefore her favorite) kicked her heart into overdrive.

She burst from the den with a snarl of her own to answer the stranger's, hardly pausing to assess the situation before pressing in for an attack.

It did not matter to her, really, that he held her son's life in his jaws. She would save him or she would mourn him. That was life.

But this man would die.

Easy launched herself over Milan, powerful jaws grabbing for whatever she could crush between them.