“Is he off playing with a friend?” Boswell asked.
Hunter shrugged. “I dunno. I don’t think so.”
Down the hall, Hallahan was questioning Lenny. “Any reason Cord would be afraid to go home?”
Len shook his head. “Boy has come a long way. He was eager to help paint the mudroom. Final coat on the trim. Him and his brother are doing better at school. Homework’s no problem no more. Never misses a meal.” Len rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t like it, but I can’t think where he could be, or who could have taken him.”
“Heard you had a B and E over on your place on Parkhurst. Think there could be any connection?” Hallahan asked.
“Not if you still got the perp in custody.” Len said. “Blow was trying to lure those boys, but if he’s in jail, he can’t be responsible. I think we should look around the neighborhood.”
“Probably.” Hallahan set off to check the whereabouts of Blow and Pacman on the computer in his cruiser.
Erin burst through the main doors looking harassed. She ignored Len and hurried up to Hallahan. “Have you found Cord?”
“No, ma’am. We were just talking of mounting a search. Principal has looked in the gym and the change rooms. She’s made an announcement on the P.A., but we need to do a room by room.” Hallahan told her.
“I’m going to go back to the house—see if the boy’s come home. If he’s not there, I’ll get my dog. Tracker may just find him.” Len said.
“Scent trained?” asked Hallahan.
“Hunting dog.” Len nodded to the officer and snagged Erin’s arm. “Let’s stay together. Hunter and I will ride back to Parkhurst in your car.”
“Where the hell is he?” hissed Erin as they set off for her hatchback.
“I purely do not know.” Len was pensive. Cord was a good boy. What would cause him to run off? He was a little unhappy at the glitch in Len’s courtship, but how would running off help?
Wrong question. What would Cord think would happen if he didn’t show up after school? He had been told that if he played hooky, or if he shirked his work at the Parkhurst house, he would have to go stay in Lenny’s cabin in the woods.
Why would he risk that consequence? How would that bring him and Erin back together? Well, just like this. Eleven-year-olds didn’t quite foresee all the hullabaloo their actions could cause. He hoped he was right. Or that the boy was sitting at home wondering where they all were.
But only Tracker was in the house.
Erin was so frightened she felt cold. She put an arm around Hunter. “This isn’t just some prank you boys are pulling, is it?”
“No.” Hunter buried his head in her chest. “I don’t know where he is, honest, Erin.”
Erin patted his back gently.
Len came back with one of Cord’s old sneakers. He snapped a long line on Tracker’s collar. “I’m taking my truck. We’ll start at the school and see how we do. You guys need to be here, in case he turns up. “Look after your sister.” He was gone.
“Tracker will find him. He’s a smart dog.” Hunter seemed to be trying to reassure them both, so Erin hugged him a little closer.
At the school, Len took Tracker to the locker room. He let Tracker have a good smell of Cord’s shoe, which was ripe enough for anyone to follow. Tracker put his head down and headed out of the change room and right on out the exit.
Boswell was right behind them.
Tracker turned left, when Parkhurst lay to the right. He sniffed happily for several blocks until he came to a small convenience store. He whined at the glass doors and lay down.
Officer Boswell left Len holding the dog’s lead. Cord was inside playing video games. He didn’t seem to expect a police officer, but he got up without a fuss and picked up his backpack. Boswell figured it smelled bad enough to be level full of old shoes as ripe as the one in Benoit’s pocket.
“Want to tell me why you decided to play video games instead of coming home?” Boswell asked him inside the store. If the kid was playing truant, fair enough, but wouldn’t be the first kid who ran away to avoid a beating or worse.
Cord flushed. “I didn’t feel like going home.” He sounded uncertain. Boswell thought he was lying.
“If the guy you’re staying with has hurt you, you don’t have to go back there. Your sister is pretty worried though.” Boswell said kindly.
“Where is she?” Cord asked hopefully.
“She’s waiting at the Parkhurst house, in case you come back.” Boswell couldn’t figure the kid out.
“Then that’s where I want to go.” Cord set off for the door. He was taken aback to see Len and Tracker. “Oh,” he said crestfallen. “I thought you would be with Erin.”
Bull’s eye. Len concealed his smile. “You’ve made a peck of trouble, son. Officer Boswell here and his partner have better things to do than look for a boy who’s forgotten to call home.” He kept his tone mild.
Boswell was calling off the search of the school.
“Principal and the school secretary and every teacher not already gone home and a flock of police officers are searching the school and the playing field—instead of going home to supper. Son, Mrs. Chu may never let you have recess again,” Len told Cord.
Cord’s shoulders slumped. He kicked an empty paper bag left lying on the sidewalk. “Nothing ever works out,” he muttered.
Tracker thrust his muzzle into the boy’s hand. Len put a hand on his shoulder. He handed Cord his cell. “Call your sister. She’s about sick with worrying.”
“Oh.”
It was past dark by the time they had gone back to the school so that Mrs. Chu could see that Cord was all right and Cord could apologize for making trouble. Then he had to be interviewed by the two cops who wanted to be sure that everything was okay at home.
Cord kicked at the table leg in Mrs. Chu’s office. “Len’s nice,” he told Boswell and his partner. “He don’t shout or nothing. I just wanted to play video games. We don’t have an Xbox or nothing.”
Cord was released to Len’s care. In the truck he asked, “Are you mad, Boss?”
“I don’t think so. I was some worried when you didn’t come home. Hunter and Erin too. But I have a feeling you had your reasons. And when you’re ready you’ll tell.” Len controlled his grin.
“Huh.” Cord thought some more. “Ain’t you going to send me and Hunter to the woods?” he asked hopefully.
“Hunter hasn’t done anything.” Len hid his laugh. Boys. “Your sister and I are going to have to decide what to do with you,” he said sternly. “If I was her, I’d start with no supper.”
“No supper!” Cord wailed. Nothing ever went right.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Len hung back while Erin hugged her little brother until he was breathless. Tracker caught his master’s mood and turned in circles barking. Len snapped his fingers and took the dog to the kitchen for his supper.
Erin and Hunter had made dinner from the stuff he had left in the fridge. Chicken and dumplings filled the house with a cheery smell. Table was set for four. Clearly Erin was not planning to deprive the boy of a meal. Try as he might, he couldn’t feel mad at Cord. Not even at Erin and her foolish fear of his bear.
When he figured that Cord had been hugged and shaken and wept over enough to make him sorry, he went back out.
“I told Cord that you and me would have to decide how to punish him. Boy knows the rules and he knows what follows breaking them.”
Erin looked a little shocked at his words. But she too frowned at Cord. “What did Ms. Chu say?” she asked.
“That I had to write a letter of apology to the staff. And tell you I’m sorry I worried you. And apologize to the policemen too,” Cord said dejectedly.
“Hmm. Well Mr. Len and I we are going to have a talk. But I want to know what on earth made you forget your manners and your common sense like that.” Hazel eyes locked with blue ones, until the blue ones fell.
Cord seemed lost for words. Len took pity on him. He took Erin’s elbow and
said, “Your sister and I are going into the living room for a chat about you. You go on upstairs and have that shower you should have taken after gym class.”
Cord went, his feet dragging as if he had been assigned to the guillotine.
Erin bit her lip as she watched his slow progress. Len pulled her into the living room where he pulled her into a bear hug. He squeezed her shoulders and lifted her to his kiss. Erin’s feet dangled six inches off the floor.
She was kissing him back ravenously before she remembered that she was never going to kiss him again. She pushed at his arms and he let her down. Her mound felt every inch of his steely rod. He let her step back a good half inch but no further.
“Boy ran off, so we’d look for him.” Len paused dramatically. “Together.”
Erin did an imitation of a goldfish.
Len put his forehead against hers and chuckled. “He’s awfully cast down by the failure of his matchmaking efforts.”
Her mouth opened and closed again.
“Now, don’t get your dander up. Boy had a plan. Not such a good plan. But a plan. We were supposed to hunt for him together and then all go off to the woods together.” Len spoke in her ear.
“He told you this?” Erin whispered back. She was incredulous and angry—and amused.
“Not in so many words. But I never saw a boy so crestfallen to be told he was likelier to lose his supper, than to be sent to live in the backwoods,” Len told her.
“Huh.” Erin couldn’t take it in.
“Not such a bad plan, neither, seeing as you’re here and I’m holding you. Can’t hardly find it in me to punish the boy.” Lenny kissed her lips before she could speak. Almost immediately they softened and she let him sweep his tongue languidly over hers.
“What do you want to do with him?” he asked a little later.
“Stake him to an anthill,” she muttered.
“Harsh. How about we cancel his TV privileges?” Len suggested.
“You don’t have a TV.” Erin said. “Be serious, Len. He has to be punished.” But she relaxed against his linked arms.
“How about you make him write a little essay about the reasons why his escapade was wrong? When I was his age, that would’ve been worse than death,” Lenny said.
“How many words?”
“Half a page? A page?” Len did his best for the cub.
They settled on three hundred words in addition to his letter of apology to the teachers and staff.
“You tell him,” Len said kissing her again.
When Cord bounced downstairs twenty minutes later with damp hair and reeking of Axe, he was met by a determined Erin.
“I don’t care why you thought that going to play video games was a good idea. It wasn’t. You are going to have to write three hundred words, Buster, to tell me that you understand why,” his sister told him.
“Now let’s go eat,” she continued.
“Of course, I’m going to work,” Erin told a disbelieving Cord and Hunter after supper. “I have a living to earn.”
“Will you come back here after?” asked Cord hopefully.
“No. I’ll go home, of course,” she said.
Well that was just plain nonsense. “Boys,” Len stood up and took Erin’s hand. “You clean up in here, while I take your sister to get some fresh air.”
Erin followed him into the hall where he held her coat for her and took her out onto the porch. The air was crisp and cold. Len stood in his shirtsleeves feeling warm enough just looking at his stubborn little mate. He put his arms around her and pulled her close against his body.
“Admit it, now you got over your shock, you’re not the littlest bit afraid of me. Darling, you’re standing outside in the cold, and this big old bear’s got you held tight. Shouldn’t you be screaming or something?” Len teased.
“I never did have much sense,” Erin muttered.
“That’s not true, my love. I couldn’t love a fool. My bear wouldn’t let me choose wrong. Erin, darling, I need you—not anybody else. Just you.”
“Shifters keep their bears hidden true enough,” Len went on. “But there’s a lot of us bears. If we were going bad and creating mayhem, folks would have noticed.”
“What do you mean?” Erin asked.
“I mean that if we were eating people, or any of the other nasty things you’re thinking, we’d have been hunted down before now.”
“I guess so.” Erin still sounded dubious. “But it’s just weird. I’m not sure I can live with anything this weird.”
“Of course you can. We’ll go back to French Town and live in my house and make love all night long. Sometimes I’ll go frolic in the woods in bear—just like sometimes I’ll go hunting or fishing or trapping.” Len kissed her hard and quick.
“But in bear or in human form, Erin, I will love you truly my whole life long,” he swore. “Forever and ever. Sweetheart, I have barely begun to show you how much I love you. Give me a lifetime, and I won’t let you down.”
Erin felt her body relax as Len’s physical presence comforted her as it always did. She rested her cheek against the slow and steady beat of his heart. She felt safe and loved here in his arms. She swallowed.
“Will I have to become a bear too?” she whispered.
His whole body shook. He suppressed his mirth. This was important. “It doesn’t work that way. Our babies maybe—probably. But not you. You have to be born with shifter genes. Being a bear is a good thing. I promise you. Once a bear loves, that’s it. My mom was widowed young, and she’s never taken to any other man, and it’s been three decades. If you marry me, I swear I’ll never stray.”
Erin thought. Her hormones were going wild as usual when she was near Len. But her insides were melting at his sweet words. Hadn’t she always dreamed of a man who would stick with her and want to make a family and work hard to look after it?
There was no point in pretending that she was afraid of Lenny as she stood encircled by his strong arms with his breath ruffling her hair. A frightened woman wouldn’t be interested in sex. And she could think of little else.
Besides, she was remembering how Hannah and Maddie had bragged about how well their men looked after them. Maddie clearly preferred her primitive Douglas to her urbane ex-husband. Hannah was obviously happy to be having triplets with her shifter husband. And she had to remember that Hannah was a bear for all she seemed perfectly normal.
Erin swallowed. “Len had shown her in every way that he would take care of her as well. Hannah and Maddie were right. He had been courting her French Town style from the start.
“We’ll have to make sure the boys are okay with our marriage,” she conceded.
Len dropped to one knee. He took her left hand in his. “Will you marry me, my darling, and be the mother of our babies?” he asked.
Erin drew in a breath. What was the use? She would never love another man as she loved this king-sized shifter. “Yes,” she said. “I will.” The rightness of her decision flooded her with happiness.
From inside the house, loud thumps rattled the front door. Len turned his new fiancée and opened it. He propelled Erin into the house.
Two small pale cubs wrestled in the hallway, crashing into the walls and growling playfully.
“Boys,” said Lenny sternly. “What did I tell you about fighting in the house?”
<<<<>>>>
About the Author
Isadora loves the beautiful mountains of the Northwest and hopes you enjoy their furry inhabitants as much as she does.
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Also by Isadora M
ontrose
Lords of the Dragon Islands
Dragon’s Treasure
Dragon’s Successor
Bear Fursuits Books 1-5
Bear Necessities
Bear Possibilities
Bear Affinities
Bear Infinities
Bear Cubs for Christmas (available only in Bear Fursuits Books 1-5 Bundle)
Bear Skin: A Billionaire Oil Bearons Romance
Brides for the Bachelor Bears Bundle
Bearly Begun
Bearly Enough
Bearly Ever
Bearly Forever
Bearly Beloved
About the Author
Isadora loves the beautiful mountains of the Northwest and hopes you enjoy their furry inhabitants as much as she does.
Thanks for reading!
If you want to be the first to find out when I release my next book, please sign up for my newsletter here: http://www.isadoramontrose.com/newsletter. You can also sign up via my website, http://isadoramontrose.com.
The fifth Yakima Ridge story Bearly Beloved is available exclusively to subscribers to Isadora’s newsletter as a free prize for signing up. Enjoy this free 10K short.
Bearly Beloved brings you the tender, heartwarming love story of widowed Debbie Benoit and her girlhood crush, former bad boy Gilbert Bascom.
Thirty years later, Gilbert Bascom returns to Yakima Ridge and discovers his passionate feelings for his buxom BBW haven’t changed since he was a wild cub. Can this burly, hard living, billionaire bearshifter persuade this beautiful bear that she’s his one and only?
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