Taking the toast and coffee with him, he stepped through the open glass doors onto his deck. It was a sunny day, with a warm breeze and clear blue sky.
Carter’s house had been built near the woods, far enough out of town that his closest neighbors were a couple of miles away. The house itself was large and built of stone, with huge picture windows facing the surrounding trees.
The furnishings had all been chosen for maximum comfort, and visitors always remarked on how comforting the place felt. Carter called the house his den, and that’s exactly what it was; a private place where he could escape the troubles of the world for a while.
He leaned against the deck’s wooden railing and took a sip of the hot, strong coffee, enjoying the warm breeze and the sound of birds singing in the trees.
He had no work for the next three days so he could take it easy. Tomorrow, his brother Cole was coming to visit so that meant he would have to go food shopping and prepare the spare bedroom but that could wait.
The only thing he wanted to do today was take Mia King out for dinner at Papa’s, the best restaurant in the area. He had given her his number but he didn’t plan to sit around waiting for her call; he would drive over to her hotel later and arrange their date.
His cell phone, which was on the kitchen table, rang. Carter went into the house and grabbed it. “Carter McClintock.”
“Carter, it’s Mia King.”
At the sound of her voice, his inner bear awoke. Carter felt it as a shiver of pleasure that ran up his spine. “Mia, I’m glad you called.”
She let out a breath and Carter wondered if she had thought he’d only given her his number out of courtesy after their sexual encounter. Maybe she had been preparing herself for rejection and the breath she’d just let out was a sigh of relief.
“Well you promised me dinner,” she said.
“I did. So how does tonight sound? I’ll pick you up at eight.”
“Sounds great,” she said. “Maybe you can tell me a good place to get lunch. I’m going to check out your little town today and I’ll need to eat.”
Carter wondered if she was really just going to check out Belladonna Falls, or if she was going to be snooping for a story. If she was planning to do the latter, it didn’t really matter; the residents of Belladonna Falls kept its shifter secret close to their hearts. Nobody that Mia spoke to would reveal the presence of shifters in town.
“There are a couple of nice restaurants on Main Street if you’re looking for a meal,” he told her. “And there’s a good burger joint if you’re in the mood for some fast food.”
“Burgers sound good,” she said. “I’ll see you at eight.”
“See you then.” He hung up, realizing he had a big smile on his face. He felt like a teenager about to go on a first date. The way Mia affected him still surprised him, despite the fact that he was experiencing The Call.
He guessed he shouldn’t be surprised by anything; Mia was his intended mate. His inner bear recognized her as the woman he should spend the rest of his life with.
Finishing his coffee, he wondered if he should take a walk along Main Street later and see if he ran into Mia. It would be good to see her again. Maybe they could have burgers together.
Or maybe he should be patient and wait until this evening.
He decided to wait.
There would be plenty of time to see her later, even if the intervening hours would feel like forever.
He felt a sudden need to go into town and protect her. His inner bear told him that it was his job to keep her safe.
Carter dismissed the feeling as an overreaction to The Call. His body and mind were going through a lot of physical and psychological changes; it was inevitable that the changes would be confusing sometimes.
Mia was going to be walking along Main Street in town. She wasn’t in danger.
How could she be?
He put the empty coffee mug into the sink and went back out onto the deck to enjoy the sunshine.
But his inner bear was still restless.
* * *
Mia stepped out of the taxi onto the sidewalk of Main Street and looked around at the quaint town of Belladonna Falls. The buildings looked like they were built a couple of centuries ago but were well maintained and housed a variety of stores and boutiques.
There were a few cars and pedestrians on the street, but the town could definitely be described as “sleepy”.
Mia wandered along the sidewalk aimlessly. She hadn’t come here for any reason other than to kill time while she waited for her date with Carter McClintock that evening.
She window-shopped until she found a burger place called Burger And Buns.
Deciding that this must be the place Carter had mentioned, and enticed by the delicious smell of cooking hamburger, she went in through the door to find a cozy room with a stone fireplace and tables covered with red and white checkered tablecloths.
There were a few people sitting at the tables, mainly couples eating burgers and fries and drinking soda. The delicious smell that had enticed Mia inside was even stronger in here and made her stomach rumble in anticipation.
She sat at a table near the window and ordered a cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke from a young blonde waitress wearing a red and white checkered apron that matched the tablecloths.
While she waited for the food to arrive, Mia watched the street beyond the window. Belladonna Falls looked like any small town in America, and it was difficult to believe that there might be some secret lurking beneath the simple outward appearance of the place.
Still, something strange was definitely going on here. Not only had Mia seen a monster in the middle of the road on the town’s outskirts, Carter and his deputy had acted as if they knew more about it than they were letting on.
And, of course, there was the fact that Carter had been roaming around in the woods naked.
In a small town like this, most people knew everyone else’s business. If there were weird happenings here, the townsfolk would all know about it.
But another characteristic of small towns was that the people tended to be insular and distrustful of outsiders, so Mia would have her work cut out for her if she was going to get any sort of story out of Belladonna Falls.
When the waitress returned and placed the food on the table, Mia asked her if she had always lived in Belladonna Falls.
“Yes,” the waitress replied. “All of my life.”
“And do you like living here?” Mia asked. “I’ve heard some strange stories about this place.”
The waitress raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What stories do you mean?”
Mia leaned forward conspiratorially and lowered her voice. “If you’ve lived her all your life, I’m sure you know the stories I’m talking about.”
The waitress frowned as if she was trying to understand what Mia was talking about, and then shook her head. “No, I have no idea.”
Mia sat back and said, “Oh, I must be mistaken. Maybe it’s some other town I heard those stories about.”
The waitress shrugged. “Maybe. Enjoy your food.” She turned and went back to the kitchen.
Mia had been a reporter long enough to know when someone was lying. The waitress’s frown of confusion when Mia mentioned stories about the town had been acted.
And if the waitress really was clueless, then when Mia said that she’d heard stories about a town around here, the waitress’s natural curiosity would have prompted her to ask what stories Mia was talking about.
But she had simply walked away because she knew what stories Mia had been referring to.
Unfortunately, Mia herself had no idea what the stories might be. She had been fishing, and although she hadn’t gotten any information, she had discovered that there was something about this town that the locals didn’t want outsiders to know.
Somewhere, there was a story hidden in this town, and she was determined to uncover it.
Feeling her natural sense of curiosity rising, Mia took a bite of the c
heeseburger. It tasted delicious. She looked through the window at the street outside while she ate, and noticed something strange; there was a man on the opposite sidewalk watching her.
He looked like he was in his forties and he was dressed in jeans and a Rolling Stones t-shirt that hung from his thin frame. He was leaning against the wall of the drug store across the street and staring right at Mia. He looked both confused and angry at the same time.
She stopped eating and put the cheeseburger down. What the hell did this guy want? Why was he looking at her like that?
Then, the man pushed himself away from the drug store and began striding across the road, his eyes still locked on Mia.
Mia felt her heart race. Was he going to come through the door? Maybe she should ask the waitress if there was a back way out of here; the man looked dangerous.
But no matter how dangerous he had looked when he was marching across the road, he looked ten times more dangerous when he suddenly turned into a huge wolf and ran toward the window where Mia was sitting.
* * *
John Loomis had no idea what had drawn him to the woman in town.
He’d woken up this morning in his apartment with a bad hangover and a wound in his leg that burned as if it were in fire and when he’d limped into the kitchen to inspect it, he’d found a silver slug embedded in his flesh. Removing it with a kitchen knife had been a painful job.
His memories of the night before were hazy and indistinct. He had no idea why someone had shot him with a silver bullet. The last thing he remembered was going to bed. He was sure he had spent the entire night asleep in his room.
But he had vague impressions in his mind of running through the woods with a bloodlust burning inside him. He remembered a van on the road. It had almost hit him but had gone into the woods and crashed there. Could he remember pounding on the side of the vehicle, desperate to get at the people inside?
After that, his memory blurred. Could it have been real? Had he really shifted and gone to the woods?
He noticed his silver amulet on the kitchen table. Damn, he had meant to put it on last night but he had been so drunk that he had forgotten. And it had been a full moon. He shook his head, disgusted with himself.
He had been hitting the bottle hard since he’d split up with his wife a month ago. Okay, maybe he had been drinking before that, and maybe that was the cause of the breakup, but there was no need for her to leave him. It had made his drinking worse.
And now he had forgotten to wear silver on the night of the full moon.
According to legend, that meant he had gone rogue. But he felt fine. Maybe the legends were untrue.
The apartment stank of booze, so Loomis decided to go out and get some fresh air. It might help cure his hangover. He pulled on his jeans and Rolling Stones t-shirt and left the apartment.
For a while, he wandered aimlessly. He felt a little better just from being outside in the sunshine. His leg still hurt where he had been shot but the pain had faded to a dull ache.
As his headache cleared, he felt optimistic that maybe this was going to be a good day, despite it beginning with a hangover and a bullet in his leg.
But then he had seen the woman across the street and his inner wolf had bared its teeth.
She was a plump blonde with a pretty face and curvy body. Her ample figure was clothed in tight-fitting jeans and pretty pink blouse that was short-sleeved and low-cut. She wasn’t like most fuller-figured women Loomis had seen in town; they usually wore loose clothes to hide their shape but this pretty blonde seemed proud of her body.
And even though Loomis wasn’t attracted to large women, he could see why a lot of men might hanker after such a woman as this pretty flower.
She was wandering just as aimlessly as he had, sometimes stopping to look in store windows for a moment before continuing her journey.
Then she stopped and went into Burger & Buns.
Loomis stopped too, outside the drug store, leaning on the wall and watching the burger joint. He wasn’t sure why the woman had attracted his attention. Sure, she was pretty but there was more to it than that. His inner wolf was going crazy.
She appeared again in a seat by the window and was talking to the waitress. Loomis racked his brain trying to remember where he had seen this woman before, because he was sure he had seen her somewhere.
An image of the van came into his mind. Hadn’t she been in there when Loomis had pounded on the metal body of the vehicle, trying to get inside?
Yes, that was it. She had been in the van. And when Loomis had tried to get to her, he had somehow been shot with a silver bullet.
Anger welled up inside him. No wonder his inner wolf was straining at its leash; it had unfinished business with this pretty blonde woman.
What should he do? He could wait until she left Burger & Buns and follow her until he got her to an isolated place. Then he could finish what he had started last night.
But his wolf was howling inside him in a way that was impossible to resist. It wanted to kill this woman and it wanted to perform the deed right now, and Loomis could not refuse its bloodlust.
She was eating a burger now, and she was looking at Loomis through the window. Surely she recognized him from last night. No, he had been in wolf form so she couldn’t recognize him now, that wasn’t possible. Well then, he decided to show her something that she would recognize.
He stepped off the sidewalk and strode toward the window she was sitting behind, shifting as he went.
When her eyes went wide with surprise and she opened her pretty mouth to scream, Loomis felt satisfied that she would die in a state of terror.
* * *
Mia scrambled to her feet and ran for the kitchen door. Her mind could not comprehend what she had just seen but she knew this was no time for questions; she had to stay alive.
The window imploded loudly, shattered glass spraying everywhere. The other diners screamed and similar noises came from the street outside.
Mia pushed through the door into the kitchen, frantically searching for an exit that would take her out of the building. But even as she did so, she had the presence of mind to pull her phone from her pocket and activate the camera app. She needed to get a photo of this monster if she could because otherwise nobody would believe it existed.
There were two cooks in the kitchen, as well as the waitress. All three of them looked at Mia as she ran through the door. They had obviously heard the crash in the dining area and were probably going to investigate it when Mia had appeared.
“What’s happening” the waitress asked.
“Where’s the way out?” Mia shouted. “We all need to get out of here!”
None of them answered her, probably thinking she was trying to skip out without paying for her burger, but Mia had already seen an open fire exit leading to an alley.
She ran for it, screaming, “Everybody get out now!”
A few seconds later she was in the alley among the restaurant’s dumpsters and running for the street she could see ahead of her. But it seemed so far away. She wasn’t sure she could make it before the monster caught her.
Behind her, she heard growls, screams, and a clattering sound.
Thank God she was wearing sneakers and not high heels. But she knew she wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun the monster even if she’d been equipped with the best running shoes in the world; she’d seen how quickly that thing could move.
She risked a look over her shoulder. The huge wolf stepped out of the fire exit into the alley, licking its lips. Mia was sure it knew that she couldn’t make it out of the alley in time. The wolf glared at her and trotted forward, taking its time, enjoying the fact that its prey was trapped.
Mia looked along the alley to the street at the far end. She was never going to make it out of here alive but she had to try. But before she made her futile run, she was going to make damned sure she had evidence of the monster that would kill her. She raised her phone and took a photo of it before stuffing
the phone back into her pocket.
She broke into a sprint, her breath rasping in her throat. Her legs felt weak. She didn’t want to die like this.
Something huge stepped into the alley from the street where Mia was headed. She stopped in her tracks, her breath coming out in a low moan of despair. In front of her, a huge grizzly bear stood solidly in her way. It was huge and muscular and its teeth looked deadly as it roared.
There were two monsters. Mia had no chance. She couldn’t go forward because of the grizzly and she couldn’t go backward because of the wolf.
She stood frozen, halfway between the two deadly monsters.
The bear advanced and roared again. The sound was so loud it felt like the entire alley shook.
The wolf growled and shrank back slightly. It’s eyes, which had been full of hate a moment ago, now showed a glimmer of fear.
So the bear had claimed her as its kill. Mia felt as if everything were getting darker. The walls of the alley turned black and the blackness crept into the edges of her vision.
She knew she was about to pass out. At least she wouldn’t feel the bear’s claws and teeth rip into her flesh.
Staggering back against the wall, she felt her legs weaken.
The last thing she saw before she passed out and slid down the wall was the huge bear advancing toward the wolf.
* * *
Carter roared at the wolf again to let it know that he meant business. He was willing to kill to protect Mia, and when he was in grizzly form like now, there was no doubt in any animal’s mind that he was capable of killing.
The sight of Mia’s limp, unconscious body propped against the wall made him feel all the more protective and angry. Nothing bad was going to happen to this woman, he vowed to himself; not as long as he still had breath in his body.
McClintock Bears Box Set Page 22