Bear Anchor (BBW Shifter Romance) (FisherBears Book 2)

by Becca Fanning

  Whichever skin that was.

  Now they were out here, moving through sage and tiny creeks, watching rabbits and lizards, Cara felt out of her depth. She didn't feel like she knew what she was doing.

  Except she did. They both had ideas. Gemma's articles showed the disappearances happened on the outskirts of towns where shifters had participated in rodeos and Western shows. Last seen, people were usually no more than five miles out.

  They were guessing there was a lure. Or a threat. Just as easily it could be something like that morning's fire.

  Maybe by being there at the arena Cara had stopped something like that from happening to Jacob.

  The thought made her glance again at him as he rode, just enough ahead of her she could watch him without feeling self conscious. Midafternoon sun cast merciless heat.

  The day felt like a dream. When Cara got to the arena that morning she knew what Jacob's voice sounded like. She loved his sexy, sensual, often sarcastic mouth, the full lips. She'd seen a million photos of his smoky eyes, his expression naturally sexy. It never looked like he posed for the photos. He just looked like that. When Cara showed up that morning she knew what his hands looked like holding a lead rope, and on the saddle horn, and on someone's shoulder. She knew his voice, always a little self deprecating.

  Less than a day later she knew his mouth tasted like cinnamon and his skin smelled like pepper, that his sleepy, smoky eyes were intense with life. She knew the heat of his hands, how huge they were, how rough. She knew the feel of the muscles she'd memorized.

  Way more important: she knew how smart he was. That his kindness to Cara's 17-year-old self hadn't been a fluke. She knew how much family meant to him.

  She knew she had to help him.

  But it was a big desert for two people on horseback. Even if they had access to a chopper the desert would spread out around them. She knew how vast and empty the desert could be. Her father's ranch where she'd grown up was less than an hour out of Vegas and had seemed as remote and rural as anything ever.

  Cara snapped aware, her own thoughts echoing.

  What did I just think?

  Panic made her breathing shallow. Jacob hadn't said anything in more than 20 minutes but she was afraid he would now. Afraid any interruption would send her thoughts spinning away like a covey of quail surprised out of the sage.

  Her father's ranch. Where Jacob had dropped her off when Cara was 17, and in trouble and coming home without the horse she'd ridden out on. Rural Nevada, wretched to the teenaged Cara, and less than an hour away from a metropolitan city in reality.

  And the land spread out around that ranch. Land for sale was at a premium in Las Vegas. Land outside Vegas in the desert? Not so much.

  Neither were the abandoned farms and ranches considered prime real estate. Nevada had been hit hard by the Great Recession. Some of its industries weren't recovering as fast as others.

  There were a lot of abandoned farms and ranches.

  Where could anyone find a more normal place to see cowboys?

  But abandoned? Wouldn't people ask why there were suddenly people on the property?

  No. Because there weren't that many people around to ask anything. Because they were glad to see someone on the land again.

  Because the places were that rural and that abandoned. There might not be anyone around to see humans suddenly coming and going.

  Humans. Or shapeshifters.

  Without being aware, she'd stopped her horse. Her fingers scrabbled for the cell that should have been in her back pocket. Brief panic when she didn't find it before she remembered it had been smashed in the arena.

  She looked up. Jacob had turned and was riding back toward her, his body swaying with the movement of his horse. Cara stopped thinking about anything other than what it would be like to be held against his body, his arms coming around her waist, his hands maybe stroking her breasts, her backside pressed up against his crotch as the two of them let the horse amble its way out into the desert.

  The wonderfully empty desert.

  "What's wrong?" His voice didn't break her train of thought. The way he looked had already brought her out of her thoughts but she hadn't forgotten them.

  "Can I use your phone?"

  He didn't ask why. Just handed her a new iPhone. Cara dialed from memory, calling in favors from dispatchers and desk cops. She called four people. Three of them remembered her from her search-and-rescue posse success early on, finding a child in an abandoned mine shaft, alive and well if somewhat hysterical.

  Slowly the texts came in.

  A list of all the owners of abandoned farm and ranch properties in the rural areas of the Valley. Cross referenced, another list showed those owners who attended the rodeo. A third list was comprised of the properties themselves.

  Three of those properties were easily within the five mile radius of the arena.

  "This is where you turn around and ride back to the arena," Jacob said.

  Cara rubbed her jaw. It ached. Her scalp was getting sunburnt. She was thirsty and hungry and not going anywhere without him.

  "Sure," she said, placating. And lying. "I think we want to go that way." She pointed.

  "Seriously, Cara."

  She could fall in love with those gold eyes. She could even imagine bedroom games where she allowed the man with those eyes to direct her in everything she could and couldn't do.

  Not out here, though. Not in the desert. Not on a search.

  Not when he would then be heading into some weird situation, alone.

  "Seriously, Jacob. I'm not leaving."

  When he didn't move, she clicked to her horse, tapped her heels against its sides, and rode past him.

  * * *

  A few trucks passed them on the road. Even the semis didn't use the back ways. Mostly what they saw were farm trucks with incurious, weather beaten drivers. Most raised a hand even as they raised a cloud of dust that covered Cara and Jacob.

  When they reached the ranch, the one with the skulls of cattle still decorating the fence, she felt it like a stone in her belly.

  The horses sensed something. They were restless and prancing. Jacob was the one who saw the rattlesnake carcasses nailed to the fences along with the skulls.

  Jacob sensed it too. He reined up sharply and sat sniffing the air, his lips slightly parted. He looked like an animal gathering information from a scent. When he focused his attention on her again he said, "I smell bear." He kicked his horse in that direction.

  She wanted to call after him, This is when we call the sheriff's office. Because that's how things were supposed to work. But the memory of the deputies up in Jacob's face stopped her.

  She turned her own horse after his and followed.

  * * *

  Chapter Four

  No way to approach the house without being seen. The desert was too flat and too empty. So they rode straight at it, as definite as if they were expected for a visit.

  "This doesn't make sense," Jacob muttered as he rode.

  Cara didn't respond. Her skin was covered in goosebumps despite the heat. Something was wrong. That there were no guards. There was a strong sense of bears nearby.

  The sensation of wrongness was strong enough that she could feel it. That meant for Jacob the feeling had to be overwhelming. Cara was ready when he pushed the horse to lope, covering the last of the distance to the house.

  He dismounted without seeming to check around him for anything. She followed him, grabbing the reins from his horse with hers and throwing them around the porch railing before she ran onto the porch after him.

  He wasn't protecting her anymore. If she followed, he'd keep her safe. He wouldn't waste anymore time trying to convince her. He glanced once at her, then at the door. One hard kick by the doorknob sent it splintering and crashing inward.

  He went through the door so fast he caught the rebound on his forearm. Cara was on his heels.

  They fanned out without discussing it. She took the upstairs
, heading straight up and searching every bedroom, every closet, every bath. The house was sprawling. It took several minutes.

  She heard him when he found the cellar door. She head him start shaking it.

  Her boots left tracks in the desert dust on the wood stairs. "Let me find a crowbar, a shovel or something." The cellar door still stood shut fast.

  "No time," he said, and faintly she realized she could hear voices from the other side. Her hand slapped hard over her mouth.

  Jacob blurred in front of her. The musky smell of bear filled the air. She coughed, blinked, and watched as the grizzly reached out with gigantic paws and ripped the door from its hinges. He threw it onto the floor behind him.

  The voices were clear now, begging for help. She almost started down the stairs without waiting but he held her back, nosing past her.

  They were in the cellar. Just Gemma and Colby. Chains kept them in place, pinned to the concrete walls. There were empty water bottles around them and nothing else. No blankets for when the temperature dropped in the desert night. No food. Nothing.

  Colby lunged for them the instant they came into the basement. He turned into a bear the minute they came into sight. Gemma shouted, fighting the chains, but even Colby in bear form couldn't break free. She stood no chance. Bloody rings on her wrists proved she hadn't stopped trying.

  Colby roared. Gemma fell back, straining against her chains, as far from him as she could get. Cara ran to her, which only made her flinch. They'd never met. Gemma had no idea who she was. Her eyes went instantly to Jacob and Cara saw Gemma trusted him.

  "It's OK. I came with Jacob. We've been looking for you two."

  Gemma nodded, her eyes instantly leaving Cara and going to Colby and then to Jacob.

  "Don't let him loose!" she shouted.

  Jacob spun back to her. "What? Why?" He looked back at his cousin and sniffed the air again, letting it run over his tongue. He swore.

  "What?" Cara was lost. She was trying to find a key for the shackles. Even if Colby couldn't be freed, Gemma could. "Jacob? What is it?"

  "He's starving. When did they last feed you?"

  "Three days ago," Gemma answered. She told Cara, "Key's over there. They left them on the back of the door." Her voice splintered and she broke off, coughing. "Water ran out yesterday."

  Cara ran to the basement door and grabbed the keys, throwing them to Jacob. "I'm going to look for food," she said.

  As if there'd be anything edible in the ranch house, but there might be outside. There were apple trees.

  "There's beef jerky and Power Bars in my saddle bags," Jacob said without looking at her. He was working the key into the cuffs on Gemma's wrists.

  Cara nodded and ran. Upstairs she found nothing edible in the pantry – there were some canned goods but the cans were rusted and there was no can opener. The door had been removed from the refrigerator, which smelled sour anyway and was totally empty.

  Outside she gathered apples and the jerky and Power Bars from Jacob's horse and went back inside. No way the food she could provide would be enough for Colby, in bear shape or out of it, but hopefully enough he could shift back to human and make it to the city. She found a tiny first aid kit in the bags, too.

  Once they'd eaten, and Gemma's wrists were cleaned and bandaged, Colby relaxed enough to shift slowly back to human. His eyes were far more golden than Jacob's, maybe because he'd been shifting a lot once the food ran out and the panic set in.

  Once he was human, Jacob unshackled Colby. They went upstairs into the sunlight. Gemma shivered at the sight of it and headed directly into the light, standing at the edge of the porch as the others sat on benches against the house.

  "Any chance they're coming back?" Jacob asked.

  Colby swallowed the last of the water from the bottles Jacob had brought. "They haven't been here in days. I think they were going to leave us." He held his hand out to Gemma, but she pulled him into the light rather than leaving the sun.

  "So everyone they've taken is dead?" Jacob's voice sounded flat, wounded.

  Cara went and put her arms around him without even planning to. He drew her closer and waited.

  "I don't think so," Gemma said. "They're locals, four men, all the kind that wear the anti shifter t-shirts and make noise at the rodeos. They're not in hiding because – " She broke off.

  "Because nobody cares what happens to shifters," Colby said angrily. He was law enforcement back in Texas. He had to deal with the prejudice every day he was working.

  "And because no one expects this," Gemma said, her voice soothing. "Anytime anyone goes missing the police have at least an inkling it might have been on purpose. And shifters are supposed to be – " she shrugged unhappily and glanced up at Colby – "Unstable." She tightened her lips in a rueful smile. "Sorry."

  "We need to get back," Jacob said. "Can you ride? We can double up. I want to see if the sheriff can stop ordering us out of town long enough we can look at some mugshots."

  "Or start with the owners of the ranches," Cara said, and filled Gemma in as they walked to the horses.

  "We can probably find most of them online," Gemma said. "That way we don't start with law enforcement."

  Something about the way she said it made Cara wonder if she knew something about one of their abductors. But there was time to find out later. For now, like Jacob, she wanted to get them back to Vegas and somewhere they could rest, eat and drink and shower.

  They'd worry about finding the anti shifter league later.

  Jacob rented two rooms at the first hotel they came to. It was still rural enough that arriving on horseback wasn't overly weird. He'd call for someone from the stables to come pick up the horses.

  In the meantime – "Two rooms?" Cara asked. She expected an answer like didn't she want to clean up before they all met again, or somewhere to relax while they waited to talk with Colby and Gemma and search images online.

  He didn't bother with any kind of subterfuge. He put an arm around her and said, "If I'm reading the signals wrong, this would be a good time to tell me, little one."

  Cara blushed to the roots of her hair. But she'd waited for years for this. She wouldn't give it up just because she was suddenly shy.

  Standing on tiptoe, she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're not misreading any signals," she said.

  After all the heat and sunlight in the desert, the cool water in the shower felt like heaven. Jacob insisted she go first. The bathroom was bigger and more elegant than she expected when they were still so far off The Strip. The shower was a walk-in of natural stone.

  Her skin felt thirsty. She stayed a long time under the spray.

  Long enough he came looking for her.

  Cara's face was in the spray, her hands working the shampoo back into her hair when his arms went around her waist.

  She tensed, but relaxed the minute his husky voice said, "It's me," directly into her ear.

  She turned within the circle of his arms, and spun them so the water beat on his back. Spray from the shower caught in his hair, making a halo of droplets.

  His eyes half closed. His lips were parted. He still held her, Cara's wet, soapy body pressed up against his. He was hard, very hard, his cock trapped between their bodies and throbbing to the beat of his heart.