Not sorry about that at all. I’ll move us into bed later…maybe after I’ve made her scream my name a couple of times. And fixed us both a snack for round three or maybe round four.
“Hello, asshole!” Bogey shrieked, clinging to bars of his cage as Tyler carried his mate over to the sofa that she’d indicated.
“Hey Bogey,” Tyler called, waving at his bird. “I’ll let you out in a little while…”
He turned back to his mate to see that she’d already divested herself of her duty belt and was busily unbuttoning the front of her uniform shirt.
“Hey, I want to do that,” he said, capturing her hands in his. “I enjoy unwrapping you like a present.”
He raised each hand to his lips in turn and softly kissed every knuckle before turning her hands over and kissing the center of each palm. He felt her shiver with pleasure at the caress and grinned.
He hadn’t been lying to her when he’d told her that he’d used the long, lonely hours and days in his cell to plan out every single thing he wanted to do with her once he was freed.
Tyler kissed his way up insides of her wrists, then higher to the tender crook of her elbow, where her pulse fluttered against his lips. He savored her response to each caress, even when she began squirming impatiently.
“Good things come to those wait,” he whispered, pinning her hands against the soft cushions along the back of the sofa.
He dipped his head and licked the hollow of her throat, then gave her a light nip.
She gasped, and the scent of her arousal intensified. He’d missed that sensual perfume, and now he noticed a note that hadn’t been there before.
Tyler had planned to take his time undressing Mary, teasing her until she was begging for his cock, but he was quickly losing the battle against his bear’s impatience to reclaim their mate after their long separation.
As he worked his way down his mate’s long, lovely body, stripping her and kissing each inch of newly revealed soft skin, the new note in her scent grew stronger the closer he got to his goal.
He tore away her panties and parted her thighs, then bent to blow a breath against the sweet, glistening folds between her legs.
She moaned, a desperate noise that made his cock throb with painful hunger, and she tried to arch up to his mouth. He closed his hands over her thighs and pinned her in place, exposed to his eager gaze.
“So you’ve been keeping secrets from me,” he murmured, inhaling the perfume of her arousal.
It was dizzying. Intoxicating. Irresistible. It called to his bear, urging it to claim her with fierce passion.
Mary was adorably clueless.
“What?” she gasped, straining against his hold. “You know I can’t tell you anything about the investi—”
“I meant the baby.”
“The what?” Mary squeaked and sat up.
Tyler laid his hand over her still-flat belly. “You’re pregnant. I can smell it.”
She froze. “Oh.”
He waited as she processed the news, hoping desperately that she still wanted to have a child with him.
Then her eyes widened, and her expression became radiant.
“Wow. Oh, wow,” Mary breathed. She reached for him, cradling his face between her hands. “How—how do you feel about it?”
Her uncertainty felt like a spike through his chest. He cursed all the lost weeks when they should have been getting to know one another. Instead, he’d been sitting in a jail cell, and she’d been working her ass off to clear his name.
“I’m…” A phrase came to him. It was one that Grandma Betty used. And it perfectly described his feelings right now. “I’m over the moon with joy, Mary.”
And he was. The realization that she was going to have their child had driven away all his uncertainty.
I’m going to be a better dad than my father was, he vowed.
“Oh good. Because I really want to have your baby, Tyler.” Mary’s smile felt as bright and warm as sunlight as she drew him up and kissed him.
To hell with his plan. He needed her. Now.
And she was just as desperate for him, if the way she was kissing him and pressing herself against him was any sign.
Tyler positioned himself between her legs and thrust inside her, where her hot, slick flesh welcomed him home.
Thanks to his slow tease while undressing her, Mary was ready…more than ready for him. His bear rose up, and together, they showed their mate exactly how much they had missed her.
Mary came first, gasping, her internal muscles squeezing him and rippling in a caress that pushed him over the edge too.
A spine-melting torrent of exquisite pleasure mixed with joy poured out of him as he went deep.
Afterwards, spooned together on the sofa, their bare bodies pressed against each other, Tyler asked, “Do you know who tried to frame me for setting that fire?”
He felt rather than heard Mary’s sigh. “Look, I know it’s hard for you right now. If it was me, I’d be desperate to find out. But I can’t discuss the investigation.”
“I need to find out,” Tyler insisted. “What if they try to frame me again? I want to be around to see our kid grow up. I can’t do that if I’m sitting in a cell.”
“That’s not going to happen. We’re working on some promising leads, and that is really all I can tell you.”
“I want to help,” Tyler insisted. “This guy wants to ruin my life. I’m just going to stand by and—”
“You’re going to do exactly that,” Mary said firmly. He felt her go tense in his arms. “Do you trust me, Tyler?”
“Of course I do,” he answered immediately.
He didn’t even have to think about it. She was his mate, and she had proven herself loyal to him over and over again over the past couple of weeks. It had been the only bright spot in the nightmare of his arrest and incarceration.
“Then stay out of the arson investigation. I’m a cop, and this is my job. Trust me to do it right.” She reached back and put her hand on his hip. “In the meanwhile, finish up your work on your mom’s house, so that you can start building our new home. The insurance payment has been sitting in my account, waiting for you to download those house plans. I’m hoping that we can move in before the baby is born.”
Tyler had to admit that it was a nice attempt at distracting him.
“And what if the arsonist tries to come after you again?” he pressed. That scenario had popped up frequently in his nightmares. “Now that you’re pregnant, you can’t shapeshift. Not without losing the baby.” His arms tightened around her. “As your mate, it’s my duty to protect you.”
In his head, his bear rumbled silent agreement. Ours. We protect our own.
“I’ll be careful,” Mary promised. “And I won’t be alone. Now that we know these fires are the result of arson, I’ve got back-up from Uncle Bill, Roy, Annika, my little brother Kenny, and the other wolf shifters in my pack.” She laughed. “And believe me, they’ll be every bit as protective of me as you are.”
Tyler was silent. He could see that Mary wasn’t going to relent, but he was determined not to lie to her and tell her that he wasn’t going to be guarding her as well.
He was a bear shifter, after all. Every instinct compelled him to guard his pregnant mate.
He’d just have to make sure she didn’t notice him shadowing her while she was at work.
Chapter 18 – Showdown
Three days later
“What the hell is Owen doing heading out of town?” Bill Jacobsen muttered. “Did we spook him?”
Seated next to him in the police SUV, Mary studied the screen and saw the car icon that represented Owen’s vehicle moving north on the highway that passed through Bearpaw Ridge before continuing north to Montana.
In addition to tracking the GPS on Owen’s phone, Uncle Bill had ordered that a tracker be attached to a hidden spot on Owen’s car. That had been tricky to manage without being detected, given how sensitive a bear shifter’s nose was.
“Okay, well, he’s a bear shifter, and most of the shifters around here go out to the forest pretty regularly to stretch their legs and let their beasts out to play,” Mary said, playing devil’s advocate.
She didn’t really want to give Owen the benefit of the doubt. She’d stopped believing that coincidence could explain why his visits to towns all over the state also saw fires breaking out during the same time frame.
“On a red-flag day?” Uncle Bill asked skeptically, referring to the National Weather Service’s warning system for extreme fire danger.
His words presented a more sinister possibility for Owen’s outing. The heat wave had finally broken, only to be succeeded by gusty winds. A fire now could be a disaster, consuming a large swathe of the national forest as the wind drove it towards the town of Bearpaw Ridge.
“And it’s been three weeks since the last reported fire. If Owen’s our serial arsonist, I bet he’s been having withdrawal symptoms.” Uncle Bill shook his head. “He knows he’s taking a chance, but that just adds to the thrill. He thinks he can satisfy his addiction while outsmarting a couple of dumb small-town cops.”
“Should we follow him?” Mary asked, unnerved by the realization that Owen might be planning something like a catastrophic firestorm as his farewell to Bearpaw Ridge.
“Hell, yeah. We need to stop whatever he’s got planned.” Uncle Bill glanced at her. “You up for this?”
Mary knew what he was asking.
“I’ll be careful,” she promised. “I know I can’t shift right now, but I can still help.”
“Great.” Uncle Bill put the SUV in gear. “Let’s find out what Mr. Barenkamp is up to, shall we?”
* * *
Tyler was working at his mother’s house when the call came in over the police scanner that Bill and Mary were following a vehicle north on highway 93 and to put the fire department on alert.
He tensed, sensing that this was going to be more than just a routine traffic stop.
The highway was visible from the kitchen windows. As he watched, Owen Barenkamp’s red pickup came speeding by.
A minute or two later, he spotted one of the police department’s unmarked SUVs driving in the same direction.
Shit! Suddenly everything fell into place. Owen was the arsonist. Owen had tried to fucking frame him!
Tyler dropped his caulking gun and headed for the front door, unbuckling his tool belt as he ran.
No matter what Mary had told him about not permitting civilians to tag along on police operations, and her assurances that she’d be safe in the company of her fellow officers and her pack, his bear was overwhelming him with the urgent sense that she was in danger.
He would tail them and make sure to stay out of sight. If nothing bad happened, they’d never know that Tyler had been in the area.
But if things went south…he needed to be there, especially since Mary wouldn’t be able to shift without miscarrying their baby.
Tyler jumped into his truck. His engine roared to life, and with a spray of gravel, he headed down the long driveway towards the highway.
* * *
Uncle Bill kept a cautious distance from Owen’s truck as they drove north, making sure that he stayed at least a mile or two behind the other vehicle.
With the GPS tracker in place, they didn’t have to maintain visual contact, which might have tipped off their quarry.
Mary’s wolf, already in hunting mode, perked up when the screen showed Owen’s pickup turning off the highway and onto one of the unpaved US Forest Service roads that led deep into the nearby Salmon-Challis National Forest.
“I think he’s heading for Barclay Meadows,” she muttered fiercely. It was a popular spot for shifters to park before shape-changing for a run in the wilderness.
It was also the location of a tumbledown old barn and ruined ranch outbuildings as well as a grove of dead pine trees, killed by drought and an infestation of bark beetles.
That’s a whole lot of fuel in one place, Mary thought with growing dread as her uncle left the highway and steered the police SUV down the narrow dirt road.
They had to go slowly as the vehicle bounced and rattled over the deep ruts and maneuvered around boulder-sized rocks that had tumbled from the steep slopes rising all around them.
Mary leaned forward, eagerly peering down the road ahead, dreading the sight or smell of smoke.
At least Owen Barenkamp wouldn’t be driving any faster than they were. No one who’d grown up in this area would risk crashing into a fallen tree or driving over a rock that might eviscerate the undercarriage of their vehicle.
They finally came up on the final bend of the road before the forest opened up into the wide grassy clearing of Barclay Meadows. Uncle Bill parked the SUV.
“Dane and the others are on their way with the brush truck and the tanker truck,” Mary told him. “They’ve promised to keep back until we figure out what’s going on with Owen.”
When they emerged onto the expanse of the meadow, thickly scattered with yellow and white wildflowers, the wind was surging and rushing all around them, rippling the tall grasses as if they were water and the meadow a lake.
Owen’s red Dodge Ram was parked on the opposite edge of the meadow, next to the remains of the old barn.
The wind also brought the faint but chilling scent of cigarette smoke. Mary remembered what her uncle had told her and her fellow officers about the devastatingly simple construction of the arsonist’s delayed incendiary devices, and she felt sick.
Were they already too late, with the wind whipping all around them and with the dead trees surrounding the meadow little more than free-range firewood?
She paused and scanned the meadow as she tried to locate the source of the cigarette smoke. Wherever it was, she knew they’d find Owen.
Beside her, Uncle Bill was doing the same, his nostrils expanding as he drew in air.
Heeding the need for silence, she touched her uncle’s arm and pointed at the barn.
“Over there,” she said in a barely audible whisper.
He nodded, and together, they spread apart and crossed the meadow. As they neared the ruined barn, Owen’s scent joined that of the cigarette smoke.
Uncle Bill came to a halt about fifteen feet from the barn. Following his lead, Mary stopped and drew her gun.
“Owen Barenkamp,” he called. “We know you’re in there. Come out with your hands where we can see them!”
Owen’s scent shifted, becoming muskier and more animal-like.
“Aw, hell, he’s—” Uncle Bill began to say.
Then a giant grizzly crashed through the rotting boards of the barn wall and charged them with blinding speed.
You wouldn’t think something that big could move so fast, Mary thought as she brought up her Glock and fired.
Her first two shots missed, but the third bullet hit. Yet the .40 caliber bullet didn’t even slow the charging bear.
She wasn’t sure whether any of her uncle’s shots found their mark, but the bear was on them before she could squeeze off a fourth shot. The bear hit her with a glancing blow from its massive shoulder as it bounded past her and sent her flying.
She landed hard on grass that wasn’t nearly as soft and springy as it looked, and the impact rattled her teeth and knocked the wind out of her. The gun went flying out of her hand.
As she struggled to breathe, she watched with horror as Uncle Bill tried to raise his gun for another shot.
But it was too late. Uncle Bill didn’t even have time to duck before the bear was on him with a bone-chilling roar.
Mary saw the vicious swipe of its giant paw that downed her uncle in a spray of blood. She choked back a scream.
Wheezing and coughing, she frantically crawled to the place where her gun had landed, just out of reach.
The safest thing to do in this situation would have been to shift into her wolf shape and run like hell, hoping that her agility could overcome the speed advantage that a grizzly had on her.
&nb
sp; But she couldn’t shift now. And she sure as hell wasn’t going to run away, leaving her uncle injured and helpless.
Her fingers closed around the grip of her gun just as the giant grizzly roared again.
She looked up and saw her doom galloping down on her like a runaway train.
Oh Tyler, I’m so sorry.
* * *
As soon as Tyler smelled the cigarette smoke, he knew it was big trouble.
He parked behind the police SUV and jumped out of his truck. Then he stripped down to his skin with frantic speed and let his bear rise to the surface.
As the shift rolled over him, he heard Sheriff Jacobsen shouting for Owen Barenkamp to come out of the barn.
No! No! No! he thought in despair, caught halfway between his two shapes. You should have ambushed him! He’s going to slaughter you…both of you!
Tyler’s prediction played out over the next few moments with the sound of gunshots and the earth-shaking roar of an enraged grizzly.
Faster! I have to shift faster!
Because Mary was out in that meadow, vulnerable and unable to shift. And the air was suddenly thick with the smell of wolf shifter blood.
After what felt like an eternity, Tyler heaved himself onto four paws. His skin still prickled, and his joints still hurt from the rapid shift, but all of his senses had sharpened a hundredfold, and the world came alive around him in scents, sights, and sounds.
Owen’s bear roared again, and Tyler charged forward, emerging from the trees to defend his mate…hoping desperately that he wasn’t too late.
* * *
Mary pushed herself up to her knees and quickly brought up her gun.
As she lined up her shot, she tried to ignore the terrifying behemoth galloping towards her. It was almost impossible to ignore the vibrations traveling up through her feet from the impact made by each step of Owen’s mighty paws. Clods of dirt and clumps of grass flew out as his huge, curving black claws bit deep into the earth, propelling his enormous shaggy brown bulk towards her.
I’m only going to get one chance to do this right, she thought. I have to get a head shot or I’m toast.
But before she could squeeze the trigger, a miracle happened.
Smoke (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 7) Page 19