A Mate For Raphael (Forbidden Shifters Book 2)

by Selena Scott

  “Like what? You’re the most stubborn man I’ve ever met. I can’t imagine a damn thing you’ve let me teach you.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “You taught me how to load a dishwasher. You taught me to say thank you at the end of a meal. You taught me how to make the bed. You let me teach your boys.” He looked away. “You gave me a family for a little while.”

  She shook her head. “Family is never just for a little while. That’s why it’s different from any other relationship you’ll ever have.”

  He was silent.

  “When will you go?” she asked eventually, her words quiet against the night.

  “Tonight.”

  “You’re not going to let me pack you any food or supplies, are you?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll go in my coyote form. It’s less likely I’ll be noticed that way.”

  Realizing that she had too much to say and not enough time, not enough words, not enough life left, Elizabeth nodded after a moment and turned on her heel. She was halfway to the door when Bauer’s voice stopped her.

  “I would kiss you, Elizabeth.”

  She froze, her arms crossing the sides of her jacket over one another. There was a sudden, racing chill working its way over her that had nothing to do with the weather.

  She turned her head halfway, to show that she was listening, but she didn’t turn around.

  “I would kiss you goodbye. And I’d tell you how I feel. But you deserve a man who knows how to stay. So…” He let out a long breath. “I’m just going to go ahead and keep all that to myself.”

  I’d tell you how I feel.

  Elizabeth, who’d always been a stern mother, a woman who knew how to prepare her children for the harshness of the world, had also always been easily affectionate. Hugs, I love yous, they’d been rampant in her house.

  It was foreign and strange to her to not turn around. To not go to him in that moment. Her heart, the core of her, told her to kiss him anyway, to tell him how she felt.

  But she knew that too much was at stake. He’d made up his mind and it wasn’t her job to change it.

  So, she didn’t say anything at all. She simply nodded her head and walked back into her house, not even taking a last look at him.

  The next morning when she woke up with the early morning sunlight against her eyelids, she knew he was gone without even having to go check to see that his bedroom was empty. The house simply felt different without him there.

  She told herself that it was just the house that felt hollow. And not her heart.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Bauer’s departure dampened everyone’s spirits. None of them would admit it, but it felt like bad luck. Luck or not, however, Raphael still stood by his belief in this mission.

  He knew that leaving town and hiding from the world would be a slow death that would eventually ruin their lives, little by little. They had to do this.

  Jackson had tracked down three other traps in the woods surrounding their house, each about a quarter of a mile out into the forest. The day before the full moon, they decided, was the time to act. If the person who set the traps really knew who and what they were, then he would be on edge this weekend, waiting for the full moon to hit, thinking he was about to trap himself a shifter.

  In order to make the whole thing look real, the entire group hiked partway up the mountain, daypacks on, and hiked back down toward the trap they’d chosen to target.

  Then, they were upon it, all of them staring at its menacing, burnished silver, glinting up at them like some sort of patiently hidden predator.

  “You ready?” Raphael asked Nat, not liking that she was going to be the one at most risk in this scenario, but she’d insisted on it. She was the only member of the group, besides Kaya, who wasn’t a Durant. She’d categorically refused to let it be Kaya. So, in a way, it did make the most sense for her to do this part.

  “I’m ready,” she agreed. “You won’t leave me?”

  “Never. I’ll be not fifty feet into the woods. I promise.”

  She looked around at the group, getting nods of support from each member of her makeshift family. And then she walked toward the trap.

  ***

  Race was watching television and eating a small supper when his computer pinged him. He upended his plate, sending pasta with red sauce careening over his carpet. He didn’t care.

  One of his traps had gone off and this time he was determined to get there before the Durants did.

  Or… he was determined to see whichever Durant he’d ended up trapping. He was almost rubbing his hands together in glee as he ran almost every single red light on the way to park his car in the same copse of trees that he had before.

  This trap was in a different place than the first one and he had to hike further into the woods to get to it. He flat out ran for most of the way, but when he got within three hundred yards, he slowed to a crawl. Race mastered his breathing and his heartbeat, keeping his eyes peeled for any indications that he wasn’t alone with whatever was in that trap.

  But there was nothing.

  When he was confident that he was alone in the forest, he crept forward, as quiet as a woodland creature, toward where he knew the trap to be. He checked the harness that kept his hunting rifle strapped to his back, an old habit.

  As he got closer, he caught a glimpse of something red between the branches. Was it bloody fur?

  No.

  It was a coat. And that coat was on a woman. A small woman. And that small woman was standing next to his untripped trap, playing with the sensor that she’d obviously plucked off the side.

  Disappointment burned within him, and in the heat of it rose rage. She was about to break the sensor, he could tell, and that thing had cost him a lot of money.

  “Don’t,” he said, stepping forward through the trees and into the clearing where she stood next to the trap.

  The woman jumped and whirled around. “You scared me!”

  He didn’t care. “Give that to me.”

  “What?”

  “That sensor in your hand. Give it to me.”

  She took a step back from him. She had a dumb expression on her face that was starting to really piss Race off. “No. It’s mine. I found it.”

  “It’s not yours just because you found it,” he sneered. “It’s mine because I paid for it. I made it.”

  “You made it?” She cocked her head to one side. “Did you make that, too?”

  She pointed down to the trap but Race didn’t answer her. Yes, he’d made the trap, and yes, he was very aware that it was totally illegal for him to have planted it out on the mountain without a permit of any kind. And on someone else’s property, no less.

  “I said, give that back.”

  He took another step forward.

  “I’ve never seen a trap like that before. And I’ve seen lots of traps in my life. What were you hoping to catch with it?”

  He studied her. And suddenly he wondered if she was manufacturing that dumb, innocent look. If maybe she was smarter than she looked. His eyes swept over their surroundings, but still there was no sign of anyone else.

  “That’s none of your business. Now, give that back.”

  “It’s too small to be a bear trap.” She cocked her head at him. “What are you hunting?”

  “Look, girl, there’s things on this mountain that would terrify you if I told you, but I can’t catch any of them while you’re fiddling with my traps, so hand that over to me now.”

  He was just three feet away from her now and she showed no signs of backing down from him.

  “It’s illegal to trap on the mountain without a permit. And you’re out of season and on someone else’s property.”

  That disappointed rage continued to bubble inside of him. “Are you threatening me?”

  “I’m telling you the facts.”

  He’d suddenly had more than enough. In a move he’d executed countless times, he reached behind himself and smoothly grabbed the gun fr
om the harness at his back. “I said hand that over.”

  The woman blinked at the barrel of the gun, her knuckles white around the sensor. He heard a noise outside the clearing and his attention swung there. There was something coming toward him, he was certain of it.

  “Take the sensor,” she said, calling his attention back to her in a way he’d later realize was most likely purposeful. “But I hope you can get to all your other traps before the police can. Because I already called them and flagged all the locations. And as soon as they get here, I’m telling them everything I know.”

  Race wheeled on the girl. Cold fury pumped through his veins as he reared around and backhanded her across her pretty face. She went down like a sack of potatoes.

  She was lying. She had to be. Besides, if she’d told the cops about the traps, this would have been the first one they came to, not the other locations. Which meant that even if they were on their way here, he could still grab this trap and then pick up the others and get back to his truck in time. No harm, no foul.

  Except for the girl holding her cheek and scrambling away from him on the ground. Who was apparently willing to tell the cops everything about him.

  Something snapped in Race’s mind and he simply raised the gun toward her again. This time she was on her back on the ground and there was just something so right about that picture. A wolf howled nearby, and the man grinned. He pulled the trigger.

  ***

  Raphael listened on the open line to the phone that was in Nat’s pocket. He watched from a distance as the hunter he now recognized as the CTAARUS member named Race and Natalie spoke in the clearing.

  He heard the words in his ear and every single one sent a chill through him. This was wrong. This was all wrong. This plan was too reckless. Natalie shouldn’t be there. He took a few steps forward when he heard a gun being cocked through the phone, and his blood froze as he looked up and saw the man pointing a gun at Natalie.

  From the corners of his eyes, he saw both Seth and Jackson take off toward the clearing.

  But they wouldn’t get there in time, not on two legs. Raphael had shifted before he’d even taken a full next breath. His clothing exploded off of him in rags as he sprinted, in red wolf form, straight through the woods.

  The green scent of moss filled his nose, his fur brushed against tree bark and shrubs as he careened past every obstacle. He’d hit top speed in no time, but he wasn’t sure he was going to get there in time.

  Raph’s wolf eyes watched as she scrambled backward on the ground, the deranged man lifting his gun to point it at her.

  Raph was too far away, and horror set in as he realized there wasn’t a damn thing he could do. A fierce howl escaped him. And he watched as a blur of gray-brown fur rocketed through the clearing and hit Race full in the chest.

  The gun went off but Natalie was scrambling back, away. Raph was there, standing over her in his wolf form as he watched the coyote bite the hunter’s hand even as he reached for the gun.

  Bauer.

  The man got to the gun and lifted it. Raphael growled and stepped forward, careful to stay in between the hunter and Natalie. But the hunter whipped the gun around and fired off a shot.

  He heard Natalie scramble behind him.

  The shot went wide and then Bauer was attacking again. The hunter lifted the gun and pointed it straight at Bauer’s chest.

  “The cops!” Seth shouted. “They’re almost here!”

  That seemed to spur the hunter into action because he used the butt of the gun to hit Bauer on the muzzle and then he was scrambling to his feet. He sprinted halfway across the clearing, jumping around Raphael.

  But he found himself wrapped up in Natalie, who’d done her best to tackle the man to the ground. He planted both hands on her shoulders and flung her away from him.

  Raphael might have pursued him if not for the sickening crack that rent the air. Natalie screamed, staring down at her leg.

  He’d thrown her into the trap.

  No. Nonononononono.

  Raphael sprinted toward her, not even caring that the hunter was getting away. The trap had only gotten the side of her leg, but she was still pinned there, bleeding through her jeans.

  She looked up at him, her eyes bright with pain but quickly dulling. “Raph, you have to run. You have to hide. The cops are coming. They’ll know what you are.”

  “She’s right.” Jackson skidded down next to them to study her injury. “Thank God it’s not the femoral. Raph, go!”

  But Raphael could not be forced to leave. He caught the scent of unknown humans on the air. He knew the cops were coming, but he couldn’t leave his mate.

  So, he did the next best thing. He shifted.

  And seconds later, a cop, gun in hand, burst into the clearing to see a woman in a trap with a very naked man crouching next to her.

  ***

  A few hours later, Nat woke up after surgery. They’d had to repair some damage to a torn muscle and she wasn’t going to be able to bear weight on her leg for a while, but all in all, not too bad of an injury.

  She woke up to see Raphael watching her with big, regretful eyes.

  “Oh, quit punishing yourself over there,” she muttered.

  His eyes brimming with tears, he leaned forward and kissed her. “I couldn’t get to you, Nat.”

  “We couldn’t have known that was going to happen. And truth be told, I’d do it again.” She bit her lip. “Well, maybe not right this minute, but the point is, we did it for the right reasons.”

  “They know who he is,” Raph whispered, tears still in his eyes. “They used the other traps to follow the signal back to his house, so they know who he is now.”

  “Did they catch him?”

  Raph nodded, but he still looked pained. “Yeah. They did. He’s getting booked right now.”

  “Then it was all worth it!”

  “Nothing is worth this, Nat.”

  She thought back to their time in the woods. “You didn’t leave me. Not even when I told you to.”

  “I’d promised I wouldn’t. No matter what.”

  “Would marrying you be like that?” she wondered aloud. Maybe she was a little loopy from the drugs.

  “Be like what?”

  “You by my side at all costs?”

  He smiled for the first time since she’d woken up. “Of course it would be.”

  “And you fighting for our love? Our future family? Our home?”

  He took a shaky breath. “I’ll need a break from freedom fighting after seeing you get a gun shoved in your face, but I still believe that, Nat. I still believe that we deserve to live in peace.”

  Her eyes were getting heavy so she leaned back against the pillows and closed them. “Okay. Just checking.” She was drifting. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “To what?”

  “Our future. All the things we’ll do. All the ways we’ll make the world a better place. Safer for shifters.”

  “And you’ll be there with me?” he asked.

  “I’ll never leave, Raph.” She opened her eyes. “Next time, I’ll be the wolf and you can be the one that gets stuck in the trap.”

  He chuckled but it was pained. “Deal.”

  Raphael stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.

  “Natalie,” he whispered.

  “Hmmm.” She was drifting into dream land.

  “When you wake up, I’m going to ask you to marry me.”

  “That… sounds perfect,” she answered, and was gone, into sleep, leaving him with a smile on his face.

  ***

  “How is she?” Jackson asked as soon as Raphael came back into the waiting room.

  The rest of the family was down in the cafeteria, getting late night coffee and snacks to bolster everyone’s mood. Raphael had passed off the chair next to Natalie’s bed to Kaya and right now he just wanted to face plant into a vat of coffee.

  “Happy, blame-free, being sweet to me.” Raphael shook his head. “I can’t belie
ve she can even look at me.”

  “Raph, what happened was not your fault. It was a good plan. It was not your fault that he was a psycho who should not have had a gun. And it was certainly not your fault that the cops got lost in the woods and were ten minutes late.”

  “I should never have put her in danger like that.”

  Jackson sighed and yanked his brother down to sit next to him. “You want to know something I’ve had a tough-ass time learning over the last few years?”

  Raphael nodded.

  “That taking care of your loved ones is not the same as keeping them out of harm’s way at all costs. It’s not possible to protect them every moment of the day. I learned that by basically pushing you and Seth out of my life with all this shifter hatred.” He lowered his voice on the ‘s’ word. “Trust me. Keeping Natalie in bubble wrap isn’t the path to loving her right. Fighting for our life, your home, that’s the path to loving her right. And that’s what you did tonight. You ran to her. You put your body between hers and harm. You didn’t leave her. Even when we both told you to. You were a good mate tonight, Raph.”

  It deeply affected Raphael to hear his brother say that to him. His brother who’d been so critical of any relationships. Whose dream was for Raph and Seth to hide themselves so effectively that no one would ever find them. Who had had a damn tough time accepting all the changes that had been happening to their family. Who, in many ways, was like a father to Raphael.

  “Thanks,” Raph whispered, pulling Jackson into a hug. “Thank you.”

  A moment later, the family came back, arms bursting with food and drinks. Seth and Sarah sat on one side of Raph, Elizabeth sat down across from them.

  Moments later, Bauer came in, looking supremely uncomfortable under the bright hospital lights. He shuffled to the seat next to Elizabeth and dropped down into it.

  Apparently Bauer had changed his mind about twenty miles from the house. He’d turned and jogged back the entire way. He’d made it back just in time to save Natalie’s life.