Mated To My Brother’s Best Friend: Werebears Of Glacier Bay

by Ripley, Meg

  When I had gone over three grid lines, I paused to spin around, getting a full sniff in. Gabby. I circled out to find the scent’s direction, and I started that way. I kept my nose down, but took frequent higher sniffs to see what else was around. The trail didn’t go for long. Apparently, she had been on patrol. Her scent followed a familiar route, but it stopped abruptly.

  I ran all around the area, sniffing to see if the scent picked up again, but found no further trace of her. My heart fell. Dammit, I was so close. At least it was something, though. If she’d been in one of the Ranger vehicles, I would have picked up on its scent at the point she’d entered it, but no dice. This changed everything, though my “evidence” would have to be withheld from many of the Rangers. Only those who were shifters could’ve known how the latest information had presented itself.

  I headed back to the station to make my report. When I saw Kylie’s car was still in the parking lot, I thought my newfound evidence would be a good excuse to go talk to her. She’d be glad there was something, even if that something didn’t lead right to Gabby. I took a deep breath, readying myself before going inside.

  When I walked in, the first voice I heard was Cooper’s, talking to Kylie at her desk. So much for that idea; there’s no way I could go in there if he’s there. But I could listen to their conversation… The hour was late enough that visitors and most employees had gone home, including the receptionist who usually sat at the front desk.

  “What else?” I heard Kylie ask.

  “That’s all we know so far, but I will let you know the second I hear anything more.”

  There was a pause and I think a sniff. “Thanks. I just can’t believe Gabby is missing.”

  “I was hoping we’d find her before you even knew.”

  I could tell she was crying. Her voice had that thick, nasal quality it always developed when she’d gotten upset.

  “We’ll find her,” Cooper said. “In some ways, having a Ranger go missing allows us to put even more people on task than normal and put more resources on the investigation. I’m not glad Gabby’s missing, but I am glad that we’ll be able to do a lot to find her and, hopefully, the other missing women, as well.”

  “We have an awesome team”—she stopped to sniff—“and I know that if she’s out there, our people will find her.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  “I just want to be able to help with the search, you know?” Kylie sniffed.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re not. I’d be worried sick every time you were on patrol. That’s what Gabby was doing. What if it were you instead of her?”

  “I wish it were!”

  Even from outside the office, I felt her pain at his remark. Cooper could be insensitive sometimes.

  “You don’t get it,” she continued.

  “Jace would have, though.”

  My heart jumped when he said my name.

  “Why would you bring him up? I have enough going on without thinking about him.”

  I swallowed hard.

  “Sorry,” Cooper grumbled. “He just…I’m just really pissed at him for what he did to you. I never thought he’d be like that.”

  “I know,” Kylie muttered.

  There was a long pause.

  Cooper added, “I’ll let you know the second I hear anything more.”

  It sounded like he was about to leave, so that was my cue to hurry into my office. I had just started my report when he walked in.

  “Got something,” I told him.

  “Yeah?”

  I nodded and held up a finger. The moment I finished typing, I hit print, then handed him the printed page.

  He read it and raised an eyebrow. Then he went to the large map on the wall and ran his finger along the coordinates. I walked over and jammed my finger at the spot he was searching for.

  “That’s near the scent trails of the other disappearances,” he said.

  “Which is probably why Gabby was there. Investigating?”

  He nodded. “She was on patrol. Watching the area closely.”

  “Any chance she’s undercover?”

  “Not under my authority.” He turned and left the room.

  A moment later, I heard him talking to Kylie. Fuck! He must be telling her already. He hadn’t been kidding when he said the second he’d heard something, he would let her know.

  Twice now, I’d missed my chance to tell her something about Gabby; to show her how concerned I was and how dedicated I’d been to finding her best friend and the others. Twice I could have seen her and made my own assessment of how she was. But she seemed to be as against me as ever. Was me loving her really so terrible?

  When Cooper returned, we continued discussing the case and made a plan for the following day.

  11

  Kylie

  It had been an entirely agonizing day. I was sick thinking about where Gabby was and what might have been happening to her at that moment. My best friend was out there; I hoped she was alive and unharmed.

  Hunter and his team had arrived very early in the morning. I hadn’t even gotten to see him before they all headed out to start their search. I was annoyed about that, and then, to make things worse, I found out later that the whole clan had gotten to meet with Hunter and his team briefly over lunch—while I ate a dry peanut butter and jelly sandwich alone in my office. When Cooper texted me to see why I hadn’t come, I was confused, and by the time we realized his text inviting me never went through, it was too late and they’d all gone.

  I was already aggravated when Becca started texting me.

  OMG, you missed it! One of Hunter’s team members is this uber-hottie polar bear, Quinton. Swooooon!

  Hello, what about Ian? I responded, rolling my eyes as I tapped the screen. I didn’t have time for her games that day.

  I may be married, but I can still look!

  Well, she could look if she wanted to. I had enough to worry about with the Jace thing, and I wasn’t even trying to think about that at the moment. Gabby was my focus.

  I was working my second late night in a row. The night before, I’d stayed because I was worried about Gabby then found out she was missing. That night, it was about me doing all I could to help the investigation. I couldn’t be out there on patrol or running to find scents, but I could make sure all the paperwork was processed quickly and smoothly. I filed, stamped and transmitted for hours.

  I’d been looking over the case file again, my chin resting in my hand. I was so tired, and it was so late that I caught myself jerking awake after drifting off for a second. I stretched and rubbed my face, then started reading again. If only I could find something in the reports that had been missed, something that would give us a better lead—anything that would help the investigation.

  At first, I thought I might have been hallucinating. I hadn’t slept well or eaten dinner, and it was late. There was a good chance my mind or ears were playing tricks on me. But then I heard it again: a brief crackle across the airwaves.

  I reached for my radio, looked at the channel and my heart leapt. It was Gabby’s channel. I turned up the volume all the way and held it to my ear. It made another crackling sound, but I couldn’t make out a voice.

  I pressed the button to talk back. “Gabby? Is that you?”

  No response.

  “If you’re there, press the button twice.”

  Nothing. I set the walkie back down. Once it connected to its base, the information from the call was uploaded. I waited a moment until it populated and gave me an approximate location, which was nowhere near where anyone had been looking.

  A shot of adrenaline rushed through my body. We had her. Maybe we even had them all. We just had to get there. Fast. I called Cooper first. He didn’t answer his phone, so I left the most official message I could manage and started down the chain of command, calling every Ranger on the list.

  By the time I reached the fifth one, I was getting panicky and desperate. Where was everyone? Lots of Rangers were supposed to be o
n call that night.

  The only Ranger on the list that I hadn’t called was Jace. And there was just no way.

  As soon as I set my walkie down, I picked it back up. How stupid could I be? My friend’s life might be in jeopardy, along with the lives of several others, and I’m going to do nothing because I don’t want to talk to Jace?

  But as I reached for the walkie, I had a thought. I didn’t have to call Jace if someone else could go. Even if I couldn’t get a hold of someone on the list, there was still another Ranger available.

  I walked outside and drew in a deep sniff of the night air. Nothing unusual. No hint of Gabby. But then again, the walkie call had come from a good distance away. I looked in the direction I’d pinpointed as if I might see something on the horizon that told me where Gabby was.

  There was nothing else to it. I couldn’t put it off any longer if I was going to go. I let out a long sigh and looked around one more time. No one was around at that hour. I made my way to my car and opened the door, standing just beside it.

  I pulled my shirt over my head, trying not to freak out over what I was about to do. I took off my shoes and wiggled out of my pants, struggling to ignore the stabs of pain rushing up my leg. I threw my clothes in the car and closed the door, standing naked in the frigid night air.

  Tears streamed down my face. How badly is it going to hurt? I thought of Gabby and knew I had no choice. I shifted as slowly as I could, but it was excruciating. Usually, shifting hurt no more than a muscle ache after a good workout; we were all used to that. But my first shift since the accident was far from normal.

  First, there was the pain. It radiated through every inch of my skeletal system. I let out a cry, attempting desperately to stifle the sound and to stop the pain. My scream became strangled as the change hit my chest, and the sound morphed into a growl. When the transformation was complete, I dropped to the ground, panting and whining.

  The pain had come in waves, but miraculously, it was lifting in waves, too. In bear form, I’d felt better than I had in months. I stood and stretched. My muscles moved and my bones felt strong. I jumped and hit the ground to see if there was pain. In human form, jumping like that would’ve been so awful, I would have crumbled to the ground. In bear form, I didn’t feel a thing.

  I couldn’t understand the difference, but it wasn’t the time to try. Later, I could figure it out, but for now, I had to get to Gabby. And, if I felt better in bear form, I could certainly run. I did one final, long stretch and pushed my back paws into the ground, taking off at lightning speed.

  12

  Jace

  I’d been out searching for hours; each day, longer. I was finally headed back to the Ranger station, ready to log my search hours and coordinates for the day. I needed to get some sleep, after all.

  As I neared the station, I saw a figure emerge, so I turned my lights off. If it was Kylie, I wanted to be able to watch her get to her car without seeing me. I could still protect her from a distance the best I could. She’d been working late, too. I wished I could have talked to her, that we could have worked together on something so important. The division between us was eating at my soul, the wound bleeding more each day.

  And it was her. She stepped into a pool of light, and I saw every one of her features as I watched her walk to her car. Then, I watched her pull her shirt off and tried to look away, but I couldn’t hold out. Not with Kylie. I watched her undress and imagined what it had been like to touch her skin, to kiss her, to be inside her.

  By the time I realized there was only one reason she’d be undressing like that, it was too late. Kylie got down on all fours and I sucked in a breath and held it as she cried out into the night and slowly shifted into bear form. I’d never seen someone shift so slowly. She seemed to be in agony, growling and collapsing on the forest floor. I had my hand on the door, ready to jump out, but she pushed up after just a moment. She got to her feet, did some stretching, then took off running at full speed.

  I stared after her into the dark night and my eyes flooded. The white-hot burning of my throat brought the tears. I think I’d maybe cried a handful of times in my adult life; I couldn’t even recall the last time. But I couldn’t take the pain. I ached for her.

  I opened my car door, not even bothering to wipe the tears from my cheeks. I yanked my clothing off, shifted and grabbed the strap of my pack between my ursine teeth before I ran after her. I had to protect her. She was out there with no backup, no support. Our Ranger station wasn’t staffed with an overnight crew, so she was out there alone—and no one probably knew she was out searching because no one would have let her go. If anything happened to her…

  I ran faster, catching up. I couldn’t get so close that she would hear or smell me. I realized that I’d already run pretty far. She had come all that way with her leg like that?

  My heart swelled. For all the pain she’d caused me, I still loved her, and when I saw her shift like that—to go through that pain in order to save her friend—it was a reminder of why I loved her. That determination and loyalty. That downright stubbornness. It was the reason she’d never fail in life.

  It was also the reason she’d never talk to me again if she was pissed enough. She could be stubborn for years. I’d seen it with other friends and even family members. One cousin who had wronged her at a family event years ago was still on her ‘no communication’ list. I didn’t want to be on that list, but I knew Kylie. Granted, I didn’t understand why she was so pissed, but I did know how she acted when she was.

  As I ran, I picked up on the scent of that off-grider again; no mistaking that one. The trail of his scent went a different direction from Kylie’s. Follow his trail or follow Kylie’s? There was really no decision to make. I could’ve come back later to follow the other trail. Right then, I had to be there for Kylie.

  13

  Kylie

  I didn’t know how long I ran, but it felt like a long time. Every part of my body ached. Even though it felt good to be in bear form, the whole process of changing had been tiring and hard on my body. The run itself had wiped me out, too, of course. I hadn’t been allowed to exercise in weeks, and it showed in my heavy breathing and rapid heart rate.

  I paused to catch my breath, but also because I’d picked up a strange scent. A human one—from no one I recognized—which wasn’t strange in itself, but out there, it was. I was getting close to the spot where the walkie call had come from.

  I approached the area with greater caution. If someone was around, I didn’t want them to be aware of me. I needed to be able to see, hear and smell without being seen, heard or smelled myself.

  As I walked through the tall brush and attempted to move my huge bear body without much sound, I picked up an unmistakable scent. Animals and people had their own sort of scents. Animals, of course, smelled wild and earthy; the larger the creature, the stronger the scent, in most cases. A wolf would have a stronger smell than a rat, for example. Shifters had a unique blend of human and animal, so it was easy to tell who we were if you were close enough to get a whiff. Humans could smell like flowers and spices, but also like dirt, cigarettes or paint; baby spit-up, pizza or body odor…

  What I smelled at that moment was the scent of a structure, but not just any structure: one full of rot, mildew and bugs. Bugs had their own scent, too: a sharper smell than most animals. Tangy, even. There were bugs, and there also had to be some sort of old home, garage or other building in the near vicinity. I followed the scent closer.

  Before long, a cabin came into view; just the roof and chimney at first, then the walls and front door. I stayed well hidden, watching.

  The place must have been abandoned years ago, based on how the green shrubs had grown up and around it. The trees hung too low, the path leading to the cabin was only faintly visible between the growth that had taken over. The rot I smelled was the cabin itself, its wooden beams and walls decaying. And whatever was inside must have been the source of the other nasty scents I’d picked up on.
It was a set piece right out of a horror scene.

  I had to watch the place for a while before I could make any sort of move to go in. But I knew I had found her. It was the location that matched where the walkie call had originated from. Gabby had to be inside or in the area.

  I walked the perimeter, sniffing hard. There was strangely little scent of humans around the cabin. I dared to move closer and came into the range of being able to smell more in the cabin. When I realized there were multiple people in there, my heart raced and my hands shook. Are all of the missing women right here inside this cabin? I shouldn’t have been alone. I knew that. I should have called Jace to help me. I should have, at the very least, let someone—anyone—know where I was.

  Gabby had been out doing her job. I was doing the same thing she’d been doing when she went missing, only she had backup, a walkie and a belt full of gear. I had none of that. I had my bear claws and teeth, along with my animal speed. But even with all that, I was slower than I’d been—and weaker. I was in no position to fight. What I did have was intense determination and the motivational love of a long-time friendship.

  While I watched, I planned. Was there a way I could sneak in? A way I could get closer without being seen? If only I’d brought a gun. A knife. Something. How stupid of me to run out here like this.

  But I knew why. Gabby needed me. I drew in a slow breath, tinged with her scent, and I nearly threw up. I was getting anxious, ready to dash right in and break her out, when the front door opened.

  The man was gray-haired and scraggly looking; his clothing, torn and ratty. But it was his scent that was by far the strongest and most offensive. He looked like a bum, hiding out in this rundown cabin. And, apparently, collecting women—and doing who knew what with them—to pass the time.

  When he stepped out onto the front porch to light a cigarette, the door didn’t close fully behind him. I moved to the right and got a view of the crack left by the open door. In that little sliver of the inside, I saw many things. First, the dirty wooden floor. But on that floor, a shoe and a leg. A person sat against the wall. Gagged. Her hands tucked behind her back in a way that seemed like she was bound.