He opened his eyes, and the image vanished just as he caught a glimpse of her face.
Cole shook his head with a growl. He must be getting old and senile. Either that or his brother's words had affected him more than he'd let on. Brad's simple but heartfelt words had struck a chord with him.
It'd be real nice to have a family. A mate, cubs...
Cole wanted that too. His clan was his family, but it wasn't the same. They worked together, stood together and fought together, but at the end of the day, they went back to their families, their homes.
Cole flicked off the lights and headed upstairs to his empty bedroom. After a quick shower, he lay in bed with his hands laced behind his head.
He wanted to see that sweet, luscious female again, even if it was just in his mind. He closed his eyes, but his brain was too wired to conjure up that beautiful image that he had glimpsed earlier. Her face flickered at the edge of his consciousness. He could see her full, pink lips, tendrils of her brown hair, and her lovely, soulful eyes. Her face slipped in and out of the shadows, tormenting him and making his body so hard, hot and aching.
It was a long, long while before he finally managed to fall asleep.
*
Abby hauled herself out of bed. It was no use. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get that handsome and mysterious “Cole” out of her mind.
She went to her laptop and checked her email. Her heart sank. Cole hadn't replied to her message. Well, it wasn't much of a message, just a timid and totally inane “hi”. But still, she had been hoping that he would at least say hi back.
She logged in to check Cole's profile again, but to her dismay, she couldn't find his profile anywhere on the dating site. He must have de-activated his profile. Abby cursed softly. She should have known. He was just a hoax. His profile picture was probably copied from some fashion magazine and his particulars made up by a bunch of bored pranksters. She sighed heavily.
This was so stupid. She was so stupid.
But even though she kept telling herself that this “Cole” was just a made-up profile, her instincts protested vehemently and her heart pounded with the conviction that Cole was real.
His photograph had been real too. It had been a little blurry, but she could see his eyes clearly. They were intelligent, wary, tinged with hope and pain.
“Ah, what have I got to lose?” Abby muttered furiously. “I don't have to work tomorrow. I'll just make the trip and see for myself!”
Moonstone Creek wasn't too far away. There was a bus that ran twice daily from her city to Moonstone Creek. It was a two-hour bus ride, and she could catch the next bus out.
Abby didn't give herself time to chicken out of her bold, brash plan. She booked her bus ticket online and hurried to her room to drag her dusty backpack out from under her bed.
She just wanted to go see the place, have a feel of that small, bustling shifter town. Heck, maybe she could even look for a job while she was there. She might even consider making the move to Moonstone Creek if the town appealed to her.
There was nothing here for her anyway. There was only Terri, but two hours wasn't so bad. She could always hop on the bus and come visit Terri every weekend. They could still hang out and eat and go shopping together.
She wanted to call Terri and tell her about her trip, but Terri was still out of town with her boss. She would only get back from her work trip on Friday evening.
Abby glanced at her wall calendar. Tomorrow was Thursday. She would spend a day in Moonstone Creek and have a feel of the town. She could catch the evening bus home, or if she wanted to spend another day exploring the place, she would just get a room in one of the small hotels for the night.
As Abby stuffed some clothes into her backpack, she tried to squash that small, flickering hope that had flared up in her breast. She couldn't allow herself to hope. But hope she did. She hoped to meet Cole on this trip.
There was no turning back. She had to make the trip to Moonstone Creek, or she wouldn't rest. There was just something pulling her there. Was it a handsome werebear, her heart or fate? At this point in time, she didn't know and she didn't care.
She knew she would find her answer soon enough in Moonstone Creek.
CHAPTER FOUR
Abby stepped off the bus and blinked in the late morning sunlight. She checked her watch. Ten o'clock. The bus was a rattling, rickety tin can but it ran on time. She had a whole day to explore Moonstone Creek, and catch the last bus back to the city at six in the evening.
Hoisting her backpack on her shoulder, she looked around the town center of Moonstone Creek. The smell of freshly baked bread wafted from the row of bakeries down the street. Some shops were just opening up for the day and she heard the tinkle of door chimes as the shopkeepers threw their doors open and welcomed their first customers. There were long queues in front of the more popular eateries. As she strolled down the busy street, Abby noted that the residents of Moonstone Creek seemed to favor pizzas, burgers, donuts and ice-cream. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Moonstone Creek was her kind of town. It was a food paradise as far as she was concerned.
For a moment, she observed the queue in front of a pizza parlor. She saw only three females in the queue. Her suspicion that the men outnumbered the women in this small town was confirmed by a quick glance around the town center. There were many tall, muscular males striding and strolling around, and only a handful of women around. The women, she noted, weren't at all like the vast majority of girls in the city. They weren't stick-thin and wearing a ton of make-up on their stressed, pinched faces. Instead, they were tall, curvy, well-proportioned and their faces glowed with health and contentment.
As she passed a group of men smoking in front of a shop window, Abby noticed the men turning towards her and sniffing the air. Their action unnerved her and she quickened her pace. With a start, she realized that Moonstone Creek was a shifter town so most, if not all, of these people, were shifters. Since bear shifters dominated the population, she gathered that most of those beautiful, curvy women she saw were probably she-bears.
Abby turned the corner and continued walking, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of this quaint little town. She could see herself living and working here. For once, her impulse and instinct paid off. Hopping on the bus and coming out to Moonstone Creek might be the best decision she'd made in a long time. She was done with the city, and the city was done with her. Perhaps she could move to Moonstone Creek and turn her life around. Get a job, get a house, get a life.
The street had become narrower and less crowded. There weren't as many shops and offices in this part of the town center. Abby frowned and started to turn back.
Three tall men blocked her way, and Abby had to stifle her scream. “Hello beautiful,” one of them drawled. “What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?”
Abby glanced over her shoulder, not sure if he was talking to her. There wasn't anyone else about, and the few people along the street seemed to avert their eyes in a hurry when they met her panicked gaze.
Abby backed away slowly as the three towering men advanced towards her. Two of them circled behind her to block her escape, while their leader, the one who had spoken to her, leaned forward and took a deep whiff of her.
“Mmm, a human woman. We don't see many of these around.” He smiled, but there was nothing friendly in his smile.
“Are you going to mark her, Graig? These things are rare, so the other bears are going to want a piece of her,” one of the men behind her spoke up. Abby spun round and saw an eager, sadistic smile on the man's face.
“Mark her?” Graig peered at her, looking her up and down as if she were a piece of prime meat. “There's no need to mark her. No one would dare touch something I want. I'm the Beta of the Blood Shadow bears.” Abby shrank back at the sound of his cruel, mocking laugh.
“Blood Shadows?” she squeaked in spite of herself.
Graig looked down his long
nose at her. “The Blood Shadow clan is the largest clan of werebears in Moonstone Creek. I'm the Beta, the second most powerful bear in the clan.” His smirk told her that she was meant to be impressed or intimidated by his revelation, but all she felt was revulsion.
“What do you want?” Abby steeled her voice and looked him straight in the eye.
The men laughed in unison. “You know what I want,” Graig taunted. “And you'll want to give it to me. Don't be coy now. Doing a bear is something to brag about. Come on, just ten minutes and you'll be a star.”
Abby would have gagged if she wasn't so scared. “I'm not that kind of girl,” she said, her eyes darting frantically about. Why wasn't there anyone around? Everyone seemed to have disappeared the moment these men started harassing her. Were they afraid of these Blood Shadow bears? Just how dangerous and brutal were they?
Very. She heard the whisper in her mind. Every instinct screamed at her to run, but she knew that running would fuel the blood lust of these predators.
“Please let me go,” she said, her voice trembling. “I...won't bother you.”
“Oh, you're not a bother, sweetheart. Not a bother at all,” Graig's smile widened. “In fact, you are a treat, a very delectable, human treat.”
She saw Graig's hand move to his belt. As he advanced towards her with a malicious glint in his eye, he began unbuckling his belt with one hand. When he yanked down his zipper, Abby whirled round but the two men behind her caught her and held her fast.
She screamed, loud and long and pleading.
She hoped someone would hear her, and she hoped that someone wouldn't just turn away and run off like everyone else. She knew what fear did to people. In the dark alleys of the city, sometimes there were muffled screams and the flash of a blade, but only very few brave souls dared stop to help. Most people simply hurried on, afraid to look, afraid to be seen. Evil was all around, and bad people got away scot-free because of the fear they instilled in other ordinary folk. Those ordinary folk weren't bad people. They were just afraid, and they weren't wrong to be afraid. They had families, burdens, worries. Fear was a powerful weapon.
So was rage.
Abby screamed with all her might, twisting, spitting, kicking at her attackers. She hadn't come all this way to be waylaid, pounced on and made a victim of. Human! Damn right she was human. She was human, but she wasn't weak. These bears picked on her simply because she was human and female. She had just been minding her own business, exploring the town on her own. She had lost her job, but she hadn't lost her fight. They had no right to do this to her, to make her shitty life even shittier than it already was!
Abby heard a tearing sound and shrieked as a cold claw raked down between her breasts, snapping her bra. The two halves of her t-shirt flapped open, exposing her pale, shaking torso.
“Don't touch me! Let me go, leave me alone!” she screamed. “Get away from me. Help! Please, someone, help me!”
“No one's coming to help you,” Graig snarled, gripping her face. “So just be a good girl and shut the fuck up. I don't want to have to mess up your pretty little face.”
A sob gurgled in her throat. This was not happening. It couldn't be. There had to be some way, someone...
“Please...” She could barely hear her own whisper.
She had come to Moonstone Creek searching for someone. Someone named Cole.
Was he even here?
Was he real?
She had been convinced that he was real, and that he was...special.
She closed her eyes to block out the horror of what was to come. “Cole...” she whispered, clinging desperately to a dying, fading hope as the growling werebears closed in on her.
“Cole...I wish...”
She didn't complete her wish.
Only a strangled sob escaped as Graig's fist closed around her throat.
CHAPTER FIVE
Cole parked his pick-up truck in front of a hardware store and stepped onto the curb. He was here to grab some tools to build a timber deck for one of their clients.
His entire body stiffened at that sharp scent in the air. Another whiff and his bear roared to the surface.
There was the stinging smell of fear, tears and blood.
Cole turned towards the scent, charging across a busy junction and ignoring the blaring of horns and curses from angry drivers. He headed straight for a narrow, side street, towards the sound of small, stifled sobs and whimpers.
The instant he turned into the quiet street, his bear tore out of his skin and charged. His bear had scented blood. Her blood.
The small street was deserted. Everyone had hurried indoors and ducked into the side lanes to avoid the Blood Shadow bears. The Alpha of the Blood Shadow clan was a wealthy, influential werebear, but Haluddin left the running of the clan largely to his Beta. Haluddin was getting older, and some say, weaker, but Cole still held the Blood Shadow Alpha in esteem, even though he had no respect at all for Haluddin's Beta. Haluddin's family had once owned most of the land in Moonstone Creek, but as other packs and clans settled in the small town and challenged Haluddin for territory, Haluddin had allowed the other packs and clans to purchase the land, instead of shedding their blood for it. Cole respected Haluddin for his magnanimity and wisdom. Unfortunately, with the Blood Shadow clan in his Beta's stewardship, the clan had gradually degenerated into a lawless, pillaging gang of hooligans.
Cole smashed into Graig and knocked him off the struggling human woman. Graig's two soldiers threw the woman to the ground and shifted into bear at the same time as Graig.
The three black bears roared and came at him together, but Cole was prepared. If he had relied on brute strength alone, he wouldn't have survived all these years. He'd had to ensure the survival of his younger brother, cousins and his clan. Cole learned very early on how to read a situation at a glance, and how to suss out his opponents' strengths and weaknesses. He knew how to play one against the other, and change tactics before his enemies could anticipate his moves. As a result of his shrewd leadership, the Nightfire clan was a small but respected clan. Their power lay not in their numbers but in their leader and their unity.
Cole crouched and let the three Blood Shadow bears barrel headlong towards him. At the last instant, he rolled out of the way and shoved one of Graig's soldiers forcefully, using their momentum to trip them up. The three black bears collided into one another, reeling and roaring. Cole skidded behind them and plucked the frightened woman up from the ground as gently as he could with his forepaw.
He flung her onto his back, and he felt her fingers dig into his dense, brown fur as she held on for dear life. Her muttering and whimpers were incoherent but he managed to make out a few rather creative curses. She pressed her body down against his back and the feel of her soft, generous breasts rubbing against his body almost made his knees buckle.
Cole shook his head hard. He couldn't lose focus now. Those black bears weren't smart enough to kill him, but they could certainly hurt her. He had to get her out of here.
The town center was neutral territory, so the Blood Shadow bears could swagger around town and wreak all kinds of havoc and destruction. But once he got the woman back to his territory, Graig would have to halt his pursuit. If Graig set foot in Nightfire territory without invitation or permission, he would risk an all-out war between their clans. And that would seriously piss Haluddin off.
Cole swiped his claws across Graig's face as the Blood Shadow Beta lunged at him. He sidestepped Graig's blow and turned to fight Graig's two soldiers. The woman wrapped her arms around him and flattened herself against his back. She was doing her best to hold on, but it didn't help him one bit to have her hot, soft body pressing so intimately against his.
That sweet, pretty human was trouble.
She had been surrounded by trouble when he first saw her, and he just knew that she was going to be trouble for his heart.
He had never felt so protective and possessive towards any female b
efore. The exquisite scent of her had drawn him to her and the smell of her blood and pain had sent his bear into a maddened frenzy. The realization that she was hurt had ripped his beast out of his skin and made him tear down the street with fear in his heart and murder on his mind. He had feared that he would be too late.
But she was alive. Hurt and terrified, but alive.
Cole swore that she would never, ever experience pain and fear again. As yet, he didn't even know her name, but he had the sense that he had seen her before.
Cole growled a warning to her over his shoulder. She seemed to understand, and she immediately tightened her grip around him.
Batting Graig and his soldiers out of his way, Cole picked up speed and ran. Cars screeched and bins toppled as he bulldozed his way across busy roads and junctions, not stopping even when a cab rammed into his side. The driver jumped out and shook his fist at Cole, then glanced back and ducked in a hurry as three ferocious black bears thundered past him.
Cole kept running, aiming for the open field that separated his territory from Blood Shadow territory. He raced through the field, listening to the fading roars and snarls behind him. He wouldn't let those black bears lay a paw on her. He would keep her safe, keep her with him.
Cole glanced over his shoulder and caught a glimpse of her side profile.
He saw her rosy cheeks, her full, parted lips, and those soft brown eyes that were framed with shimmering, curling lashes.
He jerked suddenly, a violent tremor seizing his muscles and his heart as the realization slammed into him.
He knew just where he had seen her before.
He let out a low, possessive growl.
You.
Cole shook his head. It couldn't be.
A Bride For The Bear (Bear Brides #1) Page 3