Jules had tried to aim at Max’s shoulder. She didn’t want to kill him, just set him back. When the gunshot ripped through her ears, her stomach clenched. When she forced her eyes open and saw him sprawled out on the ground, a glint of red catching in her eye, her heart shattered into a million pieces. She had just shot the man she was in love with.
But she didn’t have time to grieve. She knew Carter would come to his aid. So she ran.
She ran and ran. Everything became a blur.
She couldn’t tell how much time had passed. Deep inside, an inkling of intuition told her that she was safe by now, that they weren’t chasing her anymore. But it would be a mistake to get comfortable. She had to keep running for as long as possible, until her legs buckled and her body failed her. Only then would she allow herself a moment of rest.
But her resolve quickly faded when a sweet sound met her ears: the trickle of running water. A stream was nearby. She suddenly realized how thirsty she was. Her body was crying out for hydration. Okay, fine. She’d stop here. Just for a moment.
She slowed her pace, her lungs savoring deeper breaths. At last she saw a glint of silver blue against the hot sunshine as the stream came into view. It was a beautiful sight, a shallow babbling brook, crisp clean water rushing over gleaming silver pebbles.
But her eyes landed on something else that made her stop dead in her tracks.
A man was crouched on the other side of the brook filling a canteen. He was wearing khaki shorts and hiking boots and a brown button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up his forearms. He looked up, immediately making eye contact. Jules’s first instinct was to run, but her body wouldn’t budge. She just stood there, heaving deeply, her lungs forcing her to fill them.
The man’s eyes glowed yellow. He rose slowly, revealing his tall stature. His hair was dirty blond and cut short, his face long and sharp. His body was lean and sinewy, his skin tan and leathery, like he’d spent too much time out in the sun.
“Jules Robinson,” the man greeted, smirking.
A shiver of cold fear ran down her spine.
“I’ve been looking for you.” The man cocked his head. “You look exhausted. Why don’t you come over here and enjoy a cool drink?”
He tipped his canteen towards her.
She stood still, saying nothing.
“I understand you’re cautious,” he said, bringing the canteen to his lips and taking a small swig. He swallowed with a smile and an ‘ahhh’.
“But,” he continued. “I’m here to help you. I got a call from Nick Ellis yesterday. He told me I needed to find you before the cops did. And lucky me—here you are!”
“You work for Nick?” The words came out in breathless pants.
The man nodded. “My name is Ansell. I have a cabin about twenty miles from here. Come with me and I’ll keep you out of sight until things blow over.”
Jules scrunched her brows. She wanted to believe him. If he was telling the truth, then she had just found her salvation. “How do I know I can trust you?”
Ansell crossed his arms and smiled. “Nick figured you’d need convincing. He told me to tell you about Cascade Falls. The night the two of you cliff jumped into the water, swam under the falls and discovered a cave. The inside was swarmed by hundreds of fireflies.”
Jules gulped, her mind flooding with memories. She was transported back to a time when she’d thought Nick was the love of her life. When she was young, innocent, and naive. When the whole world felt magical. A time before the drugs. Before the gangsters. Before constant fear and worry consumed her life.
That night was a memory she would always cherish. They had promised never to tell anyone what happened, to keep it their little secret. If Ansell knew about it, Nick must have told him personally.
Jules stepped forward cautiously, her sandaled feet sore against the gray rocks that lined the stream.
“Trust me now?” Ansell questioned.
She nodded. He tossed the canteen across the narrow stream, and she just barely caught it between her shaking hands. She brought it to her lips and drank, the cool water rushing down her throat. Immediately she felt rejuvenated.
“You look like you’re in pretty bad shape,” he noted, his eyes raking over her body, making her squirm.
She shifted uneasily. There was the sound of a crack in the woods behind her. She whipped her head and looked over her shoulder, scanning the trees.
“Don’t worry,” Ansell said. “I took care of them for you.”
She turned to him, her eyes wide. “W-what do you mean?”
“You honestly think you escaped those shifters all on your own?”
Jules shook her head, brows furrowed. She didn’t understand.
“After you shot the one, the other went after you. But I appeared just in time and gave them a run for their money.”
“Y-you did?” Her voice quivered with fear. “Are they… are they dead?”
Ansell shrugged. “One of them might be. The one you shot. I really tore him up good. The other one is injured, but he won’t bother with us right now. I’m sure he’s more concerned with getting his friend some help.”
He chuckled cruelly and Jules’s stomach churned. “I’m sure he’ll take him to his clan’s healer. But it might be too late. That’s why we need to get out of here, quick. You really don’t want to mess with a grizzly that’s out for vengeance.”
A heavy lump formed in Jules’s throat and her blood went cold. Max was dead? No, it couldn’t be.
She turned her head to the woods, feeling the sudden urge to go back and find them, to make sure they were okay. This wasn’t at all what she’d intended. She never wanted them to get seriously injured. She never meant for them to die. Her bottom lip trembled, her eyes filling up with tears. Her stomach churned and her head throbbed. She felt like she might throw up.
“You okay?” Ansell’s voice echoed through her awareness, but it sounded faint and distant.
Her vision blurred and spotted with gray. She felt her body falling backwards, but before she could hit the ground, consciousness slipped away from her and she was consumed by darkness.
14
Carter paced back and forth, punching his fist into his palm, shaking his head. His heart was still racing, the remnants of adrenaline still coursing through his veins. Zariah looked over her shoulder from where she sat next to the bed and narrowed her eyes at Carter.
“Calm down,” she ordered. “You need to rest, too. Those wounds won’t heal if you’re all worked up.”
“Calm down?!” Carter hollered. “How can I calm down?!”
Zariah groaned and rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to Max, who lay flat and unconscious on the bed, a flannel blanket covering his naked body from the waist down. His chest was wrapped in white gauze that was already turning red from blood soaking through, and she was busy at work stitching one of the many deep gashes in his abdomen.
Carter winced, pained at the sight of his best friend so mangled. Max had been near death when Carter had arrived at his sister’s cabin. Zariah was one of the clan’s healers. She worked as a paramedic in Yellowstone and was the first one many bears came to with injuries of any kind. Her hands possessed an almost magical ability to mend and heal even in the worst of cases… and Max was definitely among the worst.
Carter brought his hand to the back of his neck, where a square of gauze had been placed over two deep puncture wounds from the cougar’s teeth.
“I don’t know where the hell that fucking cat came from,” he grumbled. “I swear to God, if those damned mountain lions want to start something, I say bring it on. I’ll tear every last one of them to shreds.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Zariah advised flatly. “The last thing this clan needs is another all-out war with the cougars. This summer has been the most peaceful one in years. Don’t screw it all up just because you want revenge.”
Carter huffed as icy shards of panic stabbed his insides. “I should go back. Jules
is out there. The cougar is still out there. What if he attacks her? She could be in danger!”
Zariah stood slowly and stepped towards him, her chocolate curls cascading over her shoulders, deep brown eyes boring into him. She placed her hand on his forearm and squeezed in an attempt to be reassuring, but her face was stern.
“Please listen to me, little brother,” she said. “Leave it alone. You’ve already gotten yourself into a big mess. Don’t make it worse.”
“But Jules—” Carter protested.
“She’ll be fine.”
“How do you know?”
Zariah let her hand fall to her side. She shrugged. “I just know. I saw her photo on the news. She has a strong spirit. Her end won’t come this soon.”
Carter felt a surge of relief. Zariah’s powers of foretelling were far from perfect, but he felt the need to cling on to any hope, however slim.
“What about me?” Carter demanded. He glanced over at Max. “Us, I mean. What happens with us?”
Zariah raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“Jules is our fated mate,” Carter said with utter certainty.
She snorted and covered her mouth. “Both of you? Come on now, Carter.”
“I’m absolutely serious.”
She studied his face, her smile fading as she realized he wasn’t joking around. “Well, I don’t know. You know I can’t foretell whom fate has bound to you.”
It was true—Zariah could predict many things with varying accuracy, but love and mating was a whole other ballgame. Only one’s inner bear could know with certainty. No clairvoyant could parse the primal urges of the bear. But Carter still wanted to squeeze something out of her. Anything that might help him feel less confused.
“But—” Carter objected. “Do the cops find her? Does she go to prison?”
“I don’t know, Carter,” Zariah answered, her voice laced with annoyance. “She’d already be there if you two actually did your jobs.”
“But don’t you understand, Z? We love her. She’s fated to be ours. How could we possibly arrest her when—”
Zariah held up a stern hand. “Don’t try to justify your poor decisions to me. You know perfectly well that if Jules really is your fated mate, she’ll end up with you. One way or another. And if she’s not—”
She tossed her hand back flippantly. “Then she’s not.”
“She is.” Carter gritted his teeth.
“Then you don’t have anything to worry about.” Zariah turned back to Max and hesitated, chewing her bottom lip. “But it doesn’t look good.”
“Why not?”
She waved her arm, showcasing Max and giving Carter a look that seemed to say, “Are you a fucking idiot?”
Carter clenched his fists, the muscles in his neck tensing, causing the puncture wounds to throb with pain.
“She shot him.” Zariah shook her head solemnly. “You know our clan doesn’t take kindly to humans who seek to harm us.”
“It was self-defense,” Carter insisted, anger rising in him like a plume of hot smoke. “She was afraid.”
“Afraid of getting arrested and going to prison,” Zariah said matter-of-factly. “As she should be. Because she’s a criminal, Carter.”
Carter gritted his teeth. It had been years since he and Zariah had last fought each other in their bear forms, pissed off about some issue he couldn’t even remember now. They’d beaten the shit out of each other and were bloody and bruised by the time it was all over. When they cooled off, they promised they’d never hurt each other again, but in this moment, he wanted nothing more than to shift and give her a piece of his mind for daring to challenge his bear’s choice of mate, the most sacred of all rites.
“She’s either going to prison,” she continued, “or she’ll have to hide and live as a fugitive for the rest of her life. I can’t see you or Max factoring into either of these scenarios.”
“Do you know which one it is?” Carter asked, trying to smother his fury just long enough to get some damned answers. “Which one happens?”
Zariah gave him a sympathetic look. “I honestly don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Carter hollered.
“Lower your voice, for God’s sake, Carter!” Her eyes were like daggers. “I mean I don’t know. If I did, I’d tell you.”
Carter shoved his fingers through his mess of tangled blond hair, tearing at his roots but not giving a damn. “What’s the fucking point of being clairvoyant if you don’t know shit?”
Zariah shrugged. “I’m not a prophet, Carter. My abilities are mild. You know that.”
Carter grunted, expelling a rush of air out of his flared nostrils.
Zariah stepped towards him, placing a hand on his sweaty, dirty chest. “Relax, Carter. Get yourself cleaned up. I’ll cook you up a dinner. I’ve got salmon in the freezer.”
“Don’t touch me,” Carter seethed.
Zariah looked down at the wooden floor. “I’m sorry. I know you’ve had a hard day. I just want you to think with a clear head, okay? Then—”
She winced.
“What?” Carter asked.
“Then you’ll have to call Ranger Burke. He’s been blowing up my phone since last night. It’s up to you how much or how little you want to tell him.”
15
Jules dreamt she was floating on silky, luxuriously soft clouds.
When she opened her eyes, she understood why. She was in the softest, most comfortable bed she’d ever slept in, covered by a heavy down comforter, her head resting on bursting pillows. The walls were made out of stacked logs. A large window to her right offered a glimpse of distant, jagged mountain peaks.
She sat up, her body aching from the movement. Where was she?
One by one, the memories returned to her. The cop chase. Running through the woods. Meeting Carter, then Max. Shifters. Sex. The gun. Oh, God—Max.
She panicked, pushing the heavy blanket off. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, every muscle in her body groaning as her feet touched the cool wooden floor. She hobbled out of the room and down a hallway, emerging out into a modern kitchen with high-end stainless-steel appliances and granite counter-tops. The kitchen flowed into a large combination dining and living room with high, vaulted ceilings. There she spotted Ansell sitting at a rustic wood table, sipping from a coffee cup and reading a newspaper. Behind him, a sliding glass door led out to a patio with a magnificent view of West Yellowstone.
“Good morning,” Ansell greeted with a crooked smile. “Or, afternoon, rather. You’ve been napping quite a few hours.”
Jules opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.
“There’s fresh coffee already made.” He tilted his chin towards the kitchen counter. Then he laughed. “Oh, where are my manners?”
He put his coffee and his newspaper down and stood up. “You sit. I’ll serve you.”
Jules sighed wearily, not knowing what else to do. She took a seat next to his, her back aching.
“Sugar? Cream?” he asked.
“Black is fine,” Jules answered.
He returned a moment later with a piping hot cup.
“Jamaican Blue Mountain,” Ansell said proudly as he sat down. “I think you’ll find it delicious.”
Jules put the cup to her lips, but it was too hot to drink. She set it down and sighed.
“And here I thought you’d be happy,” he said, cocking his eyebrow. “You’re safe now. Not only safe, but look around. You’re living in luxury.”
Jules forced a smile. “Oh, I am happy. I’m very grateful. Thank you. I just—”
“Just what?”
She gulped, wincing at the sting of her throat. “I just hope that grizzly shifter is okay.”
Ansell snorted. “That shifter? You’re the one who shot him.”
“I know, but I didn’t mean to seriously injure him. I didn’t mean to…” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word.
“Nick was right. Y
ou’re not hard, are you? You’re a delicate little angel, huh? You need to toughen up, sweetie. Especially now that you’re a fugitive.”
Jules felt her stomach twist. She gritted her teeth. “I am tough. But he wasn’t a bad guy. He didn’t deserve to die.”
“How do you know?”
Jules hesitated, realizing she needed to choose her words carefully. “I got to know him. Both of them. They seemed like nice enough guys. I thought they’d protect me. Of course, then I found out they were cops, lying to me the entire time.”
Ansell raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Cops, huh? You mean rangers? Ah, I should’ve known. The park service likes to hire grizzlies. It’s a shame I wasn’t able to finish them off.”
Jules shivered.
He leaned forward. “They lied to you, but you still feel bad for them?”
Jules nodded sullenly.
Ansell laughed condescendingly. “Don’t. I mean, you don’t have to hate them. They’re just doing their jobs, after all. But then again, so are we. It’s survival of the fittest out here. You can’t let anyone stand in your way.”
Jules’s breath hitched, and she tried hard to fight back the tears. Ansell placed his hand on hers and she recoiled, snatching her hand away.
“Now, now, Jules,” Ansell said softly. “Would you rather be in cuffs?”
She shook her head quickly.
“I thought not.”
Jules swallowed, forcing herself to regain composure. If she let her emotions take over her like this, Ansell might suspect that there was more to her relationship with the shifters than she let on. And if word got back to Nick, he wouldn’t be happy. He’d always had a jealous streak, even after they broke up. It was part of the reason why she never bothered to date after him. Deep down, she wanted love, but she was terrified of the possible repercussions.
She brought the coffee to her lips, the bold flavor hitting her tongue. “It’s good,” she said weakly.
Ansell nodded with a crooked smile.
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