Beyond the Gate — Dave Wolverton

Book 2 of the Golden Queen Series

When Gallen O'Day is hired as a bodyguard to escort a young woman through the woods to the forbidden ruins at Geata Na Chruinn, it seems like an ordinary job--but all too soon, he finds himself fleeing for his life from creatures that seem like escapees from a nightmare--the alien dronon, led by their golden queen. With his best friend, a genetically engineered talking bear named Orick, and his girlfriend Maggie, Gallen soon finds himself tangled in an interstellar war that he never knew existed, racing across a host of worlds, confronted by a future unlike any that he had ever imagined.