by Bec Adams
Gideon had no idea how long this assignment might last, but being away from Brigden was always both a relief and a curse. His need to stay close to and protect his mate was always tempered by his gratefulness to be able to draw a calming breath, one that didn’t bring his mate’s scent to his nose.
He was looking forward to the assignment, but as always, he hoped it didn’t take him away from his mate for too long.
* * * *
Brigden paced nervously back and forth on the veranda. He knew as a werewolf that such a show of weakness wasn’t a good idea, but just the thought of Donovan Taylor being sent on this six-month-long assignment with him made him want to cry.
Donovan loved Sogarn. They’d been on protection detail just outside of Shy River pack lands for the past forty-four years together, and on the few brief visits Brigden had made to upgrade their surveillance equipment, he’d been convinced the rumors were true.
It was clear to him that the two men were very much in love, but now the alpha was splitting them apart, sending Donovan on a long assignment far away from Sogarn. It made Brigden ache to realize that far from accepting his son’s union to another man, the alpha was actively trying to break them apart. Brigden glanced at his satellite phone again and worried why Donovan was late.
Had he challenged the alpha? Refused the wolf’s orders? Run off with Sogarn?
None of Donovan’s options that Brigden could see would lead to somewhere good. The alpha was a very strong wolf. Challenging the man for leadership would be suicide. Donovan was strong, but he was only about seventy years old and he’d been born a human. There was never a chance he would defeat the older, stronger, and far more experienced alpha.
Refusing the man’s orders would likely lead to banishment, which was probably the preferable outcome. At least if Donovan and Sogarn left the pack, they’d be able to love each other without having to hide it. Of course, living as lone wolves would be dangerous, and with them both having their pack’s unusual purple-hued skin color in humanoid form, blending into human society would not be an option.
Brigden chewed his thumbnail anxiously as he watched the mountain road and prayed that Donovan was just running late. Sadly, the safest option for him and the man he loved would be for Donovan and Sogarn to just do as the alpha ordered.
Brigden almost collapsed with relief when he saw the dust from a vehicle coming up the winding mountain road. He didn’t expect to recognize Donovan’s vehicle, so the familiarity of it was a little disconcerting.
As soon as Gideon Barclay stepped from the four-wheel-drive vehicle, his head swiveled to where Brigden stood watching. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity but was most likely just a glance. They’d managed to stay away from each other all these years, but how the hell were they going to hide that they were mates when they were forced to live under the same roof for half a year?
Gideon nodded an acknowledgement, no more and no less than he would to any other pack member and then headed toward the house where the alpha of the Dry Creek pack resided.
* * * *
It was getting harder and harder to get out of bed every morning. Suzanne was self-aware enough to know that she was suffering a mild form of depression, but a part of her didn’t want to snap out of it. She actually wanted to wallow in her sadness for a while.
Perhaps it was just the natural reaction to the death of a long-held dream. If had become clear in the past few months that she wasn’t likely to attain the lofty goals she’d set for herself. But right at this moment she didn’t even want to think about what she might do to change her future.
She negotiated yet another overgrown mudhole, made a note of the problem in her logbook, and continued on her slow repetitive journey patrolling the park’s driving tracks. It was almost a relief to see a camper running toward her, arms waving madly as she tried to get Suzanne’s attention.
“Oh, thank heavens,” the young woman said between huffed breaths, clinging to the window frame of the four-wheel-drive vehicle as she dragged in oxygen. “Oh, um, you’re a woman. I mean I…um…”
Suzanne waited with an eyebrow raised and could almost imagine what the young perky blonde had been about to say if Suzanne had been one of her good-looking male coworkers. Please help poor little me, there’s a huge, scary spider sitting in my tent. I need a big, strong man to save me.
What was it about a man in uniform that made women act so stupidly?
But instead of the words she’d been expecting, the woman started to rant about something she’d seen in the woods. Suzanne blinked in bewilderment when the woman finally got to the point.
“Look, I know it sounds weird, but I’m sure I saw a little kid running through the forest. He was about four, maybe five years old.”
Suzanne waited for more, because surely there was more than this lame-ass, cover-her-embarrassment story. This was a family camping area. Of course there were kids running around. The younger woman gave Suzanne an exasperated look and tried again.
“I was about a mile down that walking track,” she said, pointing at one of the easier trails in this area. “There was no one else around.” She rubbed a hand over her face tiredly. “Yes, I know hiking by myself is stupid but my friend and her new boyfriend were making me sick with their moaning and I needed to get away for a little bit.” She took a deep breath, apparently wanting to get this conversation over and done. “Anyway, this kid was naked, laughing, and rolling around in the grass. When I called to him, because, you know, I didn’t see his mom anywhere, he got scared and ran deeper into the forest. I thought maybe someone should know.”
“Thanks,” Suzanne said, reaching for her two-way radio. She quickly checked with base and learned that no children had been reported missing. It was possible that the parents hadn’t even noticed yet. It was still fairly early, and kids had been known to leave a tent without waking their parents. She parked the vehicle near the camping site and then followed the woman to the track where she’d last seen the child.
* * * *
“Good timing,” the alpha of the Dry Creek pack said with a handshake and a welcoming smile. “We’ve had a call from one of the bear clans higher up the mountain. One of the cubs has gone missing and they’ve asked for our help to find him before wild animals or humans find him first.”
“I’m sorry,” Gideon said, concerned now that he’d wasted seven hours driving when he could have run over the mountain in half the time. “I didn’t realize the assignment was urgent.”
The alpha gave him a distracted look but then shook his head. “Sorry, no, your assignment is with the electronic surveillance setup. I’m told you’ll be able to train my wolves how to use it when everything’s in place.” He indicated with his head for Gideon to follow. “The bear cub only went missing an hour or so ago. It’s just helpful to have more paws on the ground.”
“Of course,” Gideon agreed with a nod as he joined the circle of men consulting a roughly drawn map of the area. No wonder this pack needed help with technology. Thanks to Brigden, under the same circumstances the Shy River pack would have been working with satellite maps and GPS locators.
Gideon tried desperately to pull back thoughts of his mate and concentrate on the search for a missing bear-shifter. He’d worry later how the hell he and Brigden were going to live together for the next six months without giving in to temptation.
* * * *
Brigden couldn’t stand the tension cramping his muscles.
First he’d been upset to learn about Donovan’s treatment, then shocked to see Gideon arrive in his place, and now frustrated that nearly every wolf from the Dry Creek pack and several visitors from other packs were preparing to search for a lost child without asking him for his help. Granted, he wasn’t expecting to be asked for his opinion, but he was still a werewolf and, therefore, more than capable of joining the search.
It was imperative for the entire shifter world that humans stay in the dark when it came to their existence. The f
aster this child was found, the better for everyone.
Gideon glanced at him but didn’t acknowledge his presence. There was a time when such behavior had hurt more than Brigden could explain. Being shoved aside by his mate had been the most awful thing that Brigden had ever experienced, but the past three decades had shown over and over Gideon’s actions had been correct.
Hell, even the alpha’s son was a virtual outcast. Gideon had been right in his fears. Brigden wouldn’t have survived five minutes outside the protection of his pack. His mate had basically saved his life that day, but even knowing that didn’t lessen the anguish of being so close to Gideon and being unable to act on his emotions.
He watched as the group of werewolves changed into their furry forms and ran in different directions. Several of the women left behind with the youngsters sneered in his direction before moving back to doing whatever they’d been doing before the call for assistance had come in.
Brigden stepped back inside the small cabin assigned to him and the three other werewolves from Shy River pack, and felt more determined than ever to get this assignment completed and go home. At least there he was pretty much invisible.
He was so deep in thought on how best to design the perimeter monitoring interface for a group of people with zero experience with technology that he almost missed the crackled words over the two-way radio signal. It was on the same frequency commonly used by the park rangers in this area. Brigden routinely monitored their communications, but today it had seemed doubly important.
Thankfully the female voice was only reporting the sighting of a child who may or may not have been lost. Without a parent’s report of a missing child, the human search would likely be superficial at best, but it was extremely important that shifters got there first.
Brigden quickly pinpointed the location on his GPS and ran toward where the men had been gathered. No one had been left behind to coordinate the search. Frustrated by such primitive reactions—they might turn into wolves, but they had no excuse for thinking like them—Brigden turned in a circle seeking help from anyone who might have been left behind.
Unable to locate anyone at all, Brigden glanced again at the GPS, quickly calculated the distance and decided the fastest solution would be the one that took him in the direction of the child’s last known location.
* * * *
Suzanne felt kind of ridiculous. Not only had the woman been unable to pinpoint exactly where she thought she’d seen the child, it was also becoming increasingly obvious that she was under the influence of some sort of drug. It was more likely she’d wandered down this walking trail to smoke in private whatever she’d been smoking and that she’d simply imagined seeing whatever she thought she’d seen.
“Is it possible that what you saw running away was an animal? Sometimes the acoustics of the mountain can make far away noises seem much closer.”
“I don’t know,” the woman said tiredly. “Maybe.” She ran a hand over her eyes, the lids looking puffy and swollen as the effects of whatever drug she’d taken grew more pronounced. “I was sure before, but now, I don’t know. Maybe it was, you know, like a raccoon or something.”
Suzanne tried not to show her annoyance. There was a big difference between a raccoon and a naked child, but at least this little adventure had broken the monotony of her day. It was rather pathetic that this was the highlight of her week.
“Come on. I’ll get you back to your tent,” Suzanne said, worried now that the woman wasn’t in any condition to be walking even the easier tracks. They were almost back to the main camping area when the sound of a child’s giggle came from behind them.
Suzanne glanced at the woman who now wore a wide smile on her face.
“I knew I wasn’t crazy.”
Suzanne wasn’t so sure, but fortunately she was polite enough not to say it. They were close to the camping area so it was possible a couple of children were playing just at the edge of the clearing.
“Head back to your tent,” Suzanne said. “I’ll double back and see if I can find him.”
The woman nodded drunkenly, and Suzanne watched for a few moments to make certain that she headed into the group of tents before turning around and running back the way they’d come. She followed the childish giggles all the way to a small clearing about fifty paces off the main walking track.
What she found terrified her.
Chapter Two
Gideon didn’t bother waiting for his running companion. It was clear by the wolf’s size that he was more than capable of keeping up. A few minutes ago they’d picked up the scent of bear-shifter—a slightly more subtle smell than that of an actual bear—and now ran toward it at full speed.
The sound of a human crashing clumsily through the underbrush had them both skidding to a halt, but it was the man’s scent that made Gideon smile and head in his direction. His search companion seemed surprised by his response but followed him nonetheless.
“Gideon,” Brigden said breathlessly as they came face to muzzle. “Thank heavens. Look, I think the kid is about half a mile from here. I’m following the GPS coordinates of the human reports of seeing a lone child playing in this area. We need to find him before they do.”
Gideon nodded his agreement. If the humans had already noticed a young bear-shifter in humanoid form, chances were the area could be filled with humans in a matter of minutes. A human child missing in wild forest would trigger a massive search. Brigden proved he was thinking along the same lines when he turned his attention to the other wolf and asked, “Can you send up a signal to the other wolves to converge on this area?”
The wolf shook its head but turned back into a man to explain.
“The alpha doesn’t want any wolf howls this close to human camping sites.”
It made sense. The last thing they needed was some hunting group trying to convince the authorities that wolves were getting too abundant and should be culled. They couldn’t do anything to stop actual wolves getting too close, but it was imperative that wolf-shifters not exacerbate the problem.
Gideon morphed into human form as well, and nodded his head in agreement.
“Go warn the others—as quietly as you can—and we’ll try to locate the child.”
The man nodded, morphed back into a wolf, then turned and ran back the way they’d come.
“Thank you,” Brigden said.
“What for?” Gideon asked, because he truly didn’t understand why Brigden would feel the need to thank him.
Brigden gave him an embarrassed half smile. “For believing me. I always monitor the human transmissions. I know the child was sighted in this area less than twenty minutes ago.” He glanced at the place where the other wolf had disappeared into the brush. “Thank you for trusting me.”
Gideon’s heart hurt for his mate. Brigden had proven over and over that when it came to technology he knew exactly what he was doing. He shouldn’t ever feel the way he was feeling right now. Unable to reel back the instinct, Gideon pulled Brigden into his arms, holding him briefly but fiercely.
It was over too soon, but they had a child to find and a secret to protect, and that had to take priority.
* * * *
Speechless, frozen to the spot, Suzanne stood watching a young child play tag with a black bear cub. The cub was very young but more than capable of fatally injuring a human child. Suzanne’s mind raced with scenarios, none of them good. Undoubtedly momma bear was close by, and even though black bears weren’t known to attack, Suzanne knew a mother’s instinct to protect her offspring could lead to unexpected and out-of-character behavior.
She moved as quietly as possible, circling the small clearing in the hopes of getting close enough to run in, snatch up the child, and run away as fast as she could. As workable scenarios went, it was a disaster but it was truly the best she could do. If she took her eyes off the child and the cub he played with, there was a very real possibility that the child would never be seen again. Calling to the child would likely have him run
ning from her, perhaps into even more danger. Calling for help would have the same effect. Even if she used her two-way radio, it would take time for others to arrive—time the child probably didn’t have.
Nervous as hell but determined to do everything she could, Suzanne sprang into action, leaping into the clearing and running flat out. She grabbed the child around the waist, hoping he’d wrap his arms and legs around her as she sprinted all the way across the clearing and ran toward the walking track.
The child cried out in terror, his little body squirming against her stomach as he fought against her hold. She didn’t dare slow down, tucking him against her more tightly as she worked her way through the thicker parts of the forest that would lead her back to the camping area. When his voice grew hoarse, she glanced at him, worried that he was hurt, but it was the sharp pain on her abdomen that made the experience surreal.
Squirming against her wasn’t the young child she’d been aiming for, but the bear cub he’d been playing with. Confusion gripped her. She’d grabbed the child, she was certain of that, but the squirming black bear cub in her arms disproved that quite thoroughly. Shocked, she dropped the cub, falling to her knees as she finally understood the pain.
* * * *
“I smell human blood.”
Gideon quickly morphed back into his wolf-shaped form and charged through the forest. Brigden followed more slowly, both encumbered by his awkward human shape and the memory of that embrace.
For over three decades he’d imagined what it might feel like to be held by his mate. The reality had surpassed anything his own mind had provided. Brigden could almost still feel the weight of his mate’s arms, still smell his unique scent, and heaven help him, he still hungered for more.