Bobcat: Tales of the Were (Redstone Clan)

by Bianca D’Arc

  “I can handle myself if I have to,” Serena said to Bob, though she had to know that Steve would hear it too over the phone. Her voice was small, but strong. Almost resigned.

  “You might have to,” Steve said over the SUV’s speakers, his voice deadly serious. “I know Jezza. I served with him. And before you ask, no, I don’t have his sat phone number. It’s been a while since we’ve spoken, but if he’s gone native, it’s going to be hard to find him. Dude’s like a ninja and extra sharp in the woods. The fact that you know the area, Serena, will be invaluable to Bob in tracking him.”

  “Hey—” Bob began, but Steve cut him off. Bob was surprised his older brother would talk over his head, as it were, to address Serena directly. It stirred Bob’s protective instincts, even though he was probably overreacting.

  “I know you’re a damn good tracker bro. I’m not dissing your skills. But if it’s the lady’s home range, she’ll know where to look. You won’t. If she goes in with you, you’ll have an advantage. Besides, there’s not much other choice unless you want to come south first, drop her off—even if one of us meets you halfway—and then go back north. It’ll take too long. The Venifucus are on the move as we speak, and a lot better organized and manned than any of us thought. If Jezza’s been targeted, he might already be dead. Somebody’s got to either confirm that or warn him so he can take precautions. He’s an important man to have on our side, Bob. You don’t know him like I do. He’s got serious skills. Skills that rival Slade’s. Magical stuff. Things we’ll need if this battle continues to escalate—which I believe it will.”

  “Damn.” Bob thought about the situation. All airports off limits. No way to get Serena to safety and a very big need to get to Jezza. They really did have no other choice. “Serena, honey, I know I promised to take you to safety—”

  “Don’t sweat it.” She surprised Bob with her strong tone. It sounded like his fluffy little kitten had found her backbone. “I owe Jezza for getting me out of there in the first place. I’m not quite the same girl who escaped the Cascade Clan. I’ve grown and I’ve learned. I’m stronger now, and this is important. It wouldn’t be right for me to leave Jezza in danger when I can help you find him. With any luck, my adoptive family and the rest of the Clan will never even see me. We can get in, and get out again, without anyone the wiser. If we’re careful.”

  “I like her already,” Steve put in after a short moment of silence. His humor-laced tone broke the mood a bit. “I’m Steve, by the way. Is it true you’re a bobcat?”

  She cocked her head to the side and gave Bob a quizzical look at Steve’s question. “It’s true. The Cascade Clan is all bobcat. There’s a wolf Pack farther south in the range, but the bobs keep to their own territory most of the time and chase others out. There’s not a lot of inter-species interaction.”

  “Things are a lot different down here. Our Clan is multi-species. I think you’ll like it when you finally get here,” Steve offered. Bob’s inner cat liked the way his older brother spoke with such confidence, as if Serena’s place in the Redstone Clan was a foregone conclusion. “You know, it occurs to me, that I may be able to send you some help. Not shifter.” Steve was quick to add. “But there are some friends I can call that might be able to help. For one, I’ll see if we can locate Ben Steel. If he’s still in the area, he might be a good resource, since the lady already knows him. I never worked with him personally, but I’ve done some research since Matt told us about him and I’ve heard good things.”

  Bob wasn’t sure about trusting anyone who had worked for the Altor Custodis, but he could definitely use some help, and beggars couldn’t be choosers. There was also still one other avenue they could try that hadn’t really been mentioned.

  “Do you know anybody else who might have Jezza’s sat phone number?” Bob asked. “Maybe some of your old Army colleagues—or some of Slade’s Agency connections?”

  “I’ll work on it, but don’t hold your breath. If Jezza doesn’t want to be found, he’s not going to be found easily. The only real way is the old fashioned way. Put yourself in his path and if he recognizes you as friendly, he might show himself.” Steve’s reply wasn’t what Bob wanted to hear.

  “So I guess we’re heading into the Cascades whether we like it or not.” Bob finally put the distasteful thought into words. He reached across the center console to place his hand over Serena’s. “I’m sorry to have to take you back there, sweetheart.”

  “It’s okay,” she answered in a small voice. That she was trying so hard to be brave was like a kick to his gut. He had promised to keep her out of danger and here he was, driving her right back into the teeth of it. “It’ll probably be good for me to face some more of my fears.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Steve said in an encouraging tone. Bob wanted to tell his older brother to shut the hell up, but Serena seemed to gain strength from Steve’s confident words. “You know, Bob, this attack on the leadership is serious,” Steve went on. “The Venifucus are way better organized than anyone thought and they have a lot more manpower. This is probably just the first volley. Do what you need to do, then hightail it back here. It just might be time to start circling the wagons.”

  “I hear you, bro,” Bob answered, his thoughts grim.

  They had been dealing with the Venifucus threat since the murder of their matriarch, but nobody had thought the group had such reach or power. Until now, there had only been sporadic skirmishes with small groups or single perpetrators who had Venifucus ties. But this… It was large-scale and might span a good portion of the globe. The true length of their reach didn’t bear thinking about.

  “We’ll do this as quickly as possible and then we head for home,” Bob reassured his brother. “I’ll be in touch and you can reach me anytime we’re in the vehicle. I have some equipment in the back, as you well know, and you have my numbers. It would be best if we did pre-arranged check-ins. I’ll call you on twelves and sixes, okay? Morning and night. Even if I have nothing new to report.”

  “Good man,” Steve approved the plan. “I’ll be watching for your calls and if you miss one, I’ll send out whatever cavalry I can manage. Just be careful. The good guys are spread pretty thin at the moment.” He paused for a beat then his tone changed. “I’ll look forward to meeting you in person, Serena. Keep my little brother safe, okay?”

  She laughed at that, as Steve had probably intended. For all his serious-soldier demeanor, he certainly did know how to charm females. Thankfully, he was newly mated and posed no competition for Serena’s attention. Even so, the cougar inside Bob bristled a bit.

  “I think it’ll be more the other way around,” she quipped, “but I’ll do my best.”

  They signed off without much more ado and that left Bob and Serena enclosed in the quiet cab of the SUV. The rain outside was worsening and made them feel even more isolated.

  “You don’t have to do this, you know,” Bob insisted, breaking the silence after a while.

  He was tense. He really didn’t like taking her into danger, regardless of what she said. Her brave act wasn’t fooling him. He knew she didn’t want to go back, but her sense of honor wouldn’t let her do anything less to help the man who had risked so much to help her.

  “I know,” she answered in a careful tone after a moment’s thought. “Have you ever considered that sometimes circumstances force you to face things you otherwise wouldn’t want to even think about? Like maybe we’re guided to do things that we don’t want to do? Like it’s fate or something?”

  “You think fate is making you go back to the Cascades?” Bob didn’t like that thought one bit. “I’ve seen the Goddess in action a lot lately and I have to tell you, you don’t want any part of that business. It’s too dangerous.”

  He thought about the bloody battles his brothers and their mates had fought and the way the Lady Goddess seemed to guide their paths. Those paths had not been easy ones and he didn’t want that kind of struggle for Serena. She had already been through enough as far as he
was concerned.

  “I wouldn’t presume to say that the Goddess even knows I exist,” she was quick to clarify, “but it does seem strange to me that there’s no other reasonable choice. Not if we want to warn Jezza. I mean, there is a choice. I could choose to be selfish and put my own safety first. Or I could choose the noble path—the right thing to do—and put myself out a bit to try to get word to him.”

  “Put yourself out a bit?” His voice rose as he repeated her words. “Honey, going back to a place you needed help to escape in the first place is doing more than just putting yourself out a bit.”

  She laughed, much to his consternation. This was not a laughing matter.

  “Can’t you see? I don’t have a choice.” She seemed to sober as she turned to him in the confines of the SUV’s cab. He glanced at her occasionally while he continued to drive. “Not if I want to be the person I am working to become. Not if I want to have integrity and pride. Not if I want to be strong.”

  “Serena, there are other ways to be strong.” He had to admit though, she had a point. If she was male—and not a woman he was interested in romantically—he probably would have admired her spirit. Hell, he already did admire her spirit, even if it also scared the shit out of him. “Okay. I see your point…but I really don’t have to like it.”

  She laughed again and he just shook his head. This wasn’t an argument he was going to win apparently.

  They avoided anything even resembling an airstrip on their way through the mountains of eastern Oregon. They had stopped for fuel—both gas for the SUV and food for themselves—just inside the Idaho state line, then hopped right back on the road.

  They still had a ways to go. The Cascade Range was a bit farther west, almost right up against the coast and included some famous—or rather, infamous—volcanoes such as Mount Saint Helens and Lassen Peak.

  The position of the mountains right near the coast meant lots of weather. In the winter, that meant lots and lots of snow, but thankfully the year was warming up nicely. Although a few of the peaks stayed covered in snow year-round, the area they were aiming for on the lower slopes of Mount Baker would probably be clear. Especially with all the rain that was falling, melting any last little tidbits that remained.

  Once their course had been decided and Bob accepted the fact that Serena would be coming with him, he had asked her many pointed questions about her former territory. She had been willing to talk—it was a good way to pass the time as the miles flew by and she seemed to understand how important it was that he have a grasp of the area they would be covering.

  It also helped him focus. His mind kept going back to their encounter the night before and how good it had felt to hold her in his arms and be with her. She tasted like ambrosia and her honey scent drove him wild. That scent permeated the cabin of the SUV and made his inner cat want to purr, but there were important things at stake—among them, both of their lives. In the grander scheme, the safety of Jezza, the Lords, the Redstone Clan, all shifters for that matter, and even regular humans should the Venifucus succeed in their foul plans.

  “There are three possibilities we should check first,” Serena had told him. “The ghost town, the caves, or the old mine. In that order.” She went on to describe the geography of each location and how they could get there with the least possibility of being seen.

  Bob was glad to learn she had thought it all through very carefully. She was being cautious, which boded well for their chances of success. Just when he had thought she couldn’t surprise him, she did. He found not only did he admire her beauty and courage, but her intellect wasn’t anything to discount either. She was very smart, he discovered as they talked out their strategy, with good instincts.

  “We’ll have to stop somewhere for the night. I’m not sure I want to chance a motel,” Bob said as they drove down the road. Twilight was upon them already and soon it would be full dark. “But it just so happens, the back of this SUV can double as a sleeping area in a pinch. We’ll probably be safer in here than anywhere else. We just need to find a good place to hole up for the night. What do you say? Are you up for a little camping?”

  Serena looked back into the rear of the big SUV with a doubtful expression. “I’m all for safety,” she said. “But it looks like a bit of a tight fit. Are you sure it’ll work?”

  Bob smiled. “Trust me.”

  An hour later, they had found an out of the way wilderness area with dense forest on state land. With a little luck, nobody would see the dark SUV parked among the trees, well off the road. Bob had taken care to go out and erase any sign of their passage through the tall grass and parked the vehicle in such a way so that any hint of a gleam off its surfaces was dampened. He even smeared mud on some of the shiny bits, to help the vehicle blend in a bit more with its surroundings.

  He scouted around the area and found only wildlife and a few curious fish in a small stream to the northeast. Dinner, if he could catch a few fat ones. But they had stocked up at the last rest stop and had a cooler full of food and drinks that should last them a few days, and a full tank of gas. He had installed an extra large capacity tank as part of his upgrades, so they could go a lot farther than most other SUVs of this type. With any luck, they wouldn’t need more fuel until after they had accomplished their mission.

  “Everything looks okay out here if you want to stretch your legs,” he reported when he crept back to the SUV.

  He had asked Serena to wait inside while he checked out their surroundings and she had agreed, but they had both been cooped up for most of the day inside the vehicle. It was time to stretch, answer the call of nature and prepare for the dark forest night.

  “Is it safe to shift here?” she asked in a low voice. They were both speaking quietly.

  “I think so, but don’t go far. There’s a little stream about twenty yards to the northeast. I’ll meet you there after I set up the back of the truck.” The delay would give her a chance to stretch a bit while he put the back seats down and got out the supplies they would need.

  He turned to the back of the SUV and started working while she undressed by the passenger side door and left her clothes neatly on the seat. He allowed her a bit of privacy, but wasn’t surprised when she, in bobcat form, looked up at him from under the back bumper of the SUV. All the interior lights had been shut off and he was working using only his superior night vision. She blinked up at him before slinking out from under the vehicle and trotting away toward the stream he had told her about.

  She was bigger than the normal bobcat, probably because she was a shifter, but still petite compared to him in his shifted form. He thought she was adorable, even with her stubby tail. Bobcats were named such because of their bobbed tail that was about half the length—allowing for body size—as his. It had looked a little funny to him at first, but the rest of her was just so damn gorgeous, he found it more amusing than odd.

  He finished pulling supplies out of cleverly hidden storage areas and completed the setup for the night. He then locked up the SUV, shed his own clothing and shifted shape, moving toward his lady in the woods.

  Chapter Eight

  After being cooped up all day in the car, Serena really enjoyed stretching her body and getting a chance to let her wild side out. She admitted to herself that she was frightened about going back to her old territory, but she was equally frightened by the concerted Venifucus attacks. There was no other way to put it except to say the world had changed drastically in the past eighteen hours.

  She wasn’t the only one in danger. The Lords and the other shifter monarchs all over the world were in deep trouble. In fact, the whole world was in deep trouble if the Venifucus had managed to get that organized and that big without anyone knowing about it. The shit had just well and truly hit the fan. Nobody was safe.

  The humans didn’t even realize what was going on, but if the shifters fell into disarray, humanity could very well be the next target. While shifters weren’t the only thing standing between the darkness the Venifu
cus served and humans, they were a big part of it. Humans for the most part, had no idea what was really out there in the world, looking to rule over them. She didn’t think humans truly understood the concept of evil, or the ongoing battle to prevent it from overwhelming the Light. Not the way shifters did.

  She almost envied their ignorance. Shaking, she tried her best to put such troubling thoughts aside and focus on the moment. The night. The forest.

  She took care of her personal needs, then stretched and ran around a bit. She didn’t stray too far from the SUV. It represented safety to her, as did the incredible man who owned it.

  If her instincts were right, Bob was something she never expected to find and still didn’t quite believe. Her inner cat was telling her strange things about the much larger cougar. Her bobcat recognized the feline and the Alpha in him, but it went further than that. It recognized a man it liked on every level. A cat that didn’t threaten. A man that promised only protection and respect. Her inner bobcat liked that very much.

  So much, the feline heart of her wanted to keep him. Forever. The cat had found its mate.

  But the woman wasn’t so sure. They weren’t the same species, even if they were both feline. She wasn’t sure how that would work. Would he feel the same mating call for a woman of a different species? Could he? Did he want to? Or would he not feel the same deep need to be with her as she was feeling toward him?

  She was so confused. How could she ask him such things? How could she not?