by Olivia Arran
Okay, that was a little uncalled for. Heartsridge wasn’t a hole. It was perfectly fine, from what I’d seen so far. But it wasn’t my idea of a vacation resort.
“Everyone needs to wear one of these while they’re staying in town.”
I glanced up. Tour operator slut was waving wrist bands in the air as she pranced down the aisle, handing them out one by one.
“Remember, the rules of Heartsridge are simple. Don’t leave the main town without a guide. Don’t incite violence. No means no and have a good time!” She reached the front of the coach and patted the driver on the shoulder. We lurched forward, inching through a set of gates that stood open to receive us. “The coach will be back in one week to take you home. Your reservations are…”
Tuning her out, I tried not to look for the man—and failed miserably—but he was nowhere to be seen. It was probably a good thing. Probably. Had to be. I had seven days to find my sister and get us both out of here.
A flash of black caught my eye, flitting between the trees in a blur of fur. Then another, and another, until there had to be three or four of them, running flat out parallel to the coach.
Bears.
Shifters.
Oh, yes. This was a whole other world.
“No time like the present,” I muttered under my breath, as though by giving myself a pep talk I could find a sliver of courage. I’d arrived, checked into the hotel, and unpacked over an hour ago. Then I’d proceeded to sit on the bed and stare at the wall. It was a perfectly good wall, as far as walls went, but it wasn’t exactly going to tell me anything.
For the first time in my life I was nervous. Always the sensible, driven sister, I’d never been one to jump at shadows or squeal at a rock star. Armed with plans up to my ears and enough research to sink a tug boat; that was me. Or, it used to be.
I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Or where to start. Sure, I’d whipped myself into an internet frenzy on the journey out here, and I was pretty sure there wasn’t another person in the world who knew as much as I did about Heartsridge, without actually living here.
But … where to start looking?
Not inside your room, dimwit!
Harper had arrived in town eight days ago. Yesterday, I’d been waiting for her at the bus depot, ready to threaten all kinds of sisterly violence for making me worry, but she hadn’t got off the coach. No Harper. We never went a day without talking, even when she went off on her crazy trips to explore the world and capture it on camera. This time she’d been gone four and then communication had stopped.
So, I’d bought a ticket and climbed on that coach. Screw having a plan; Harper needed me. Or she’d better need me. If I found her curled up around a warm man, there’d be violence, that’s for sure.
She wouldn’t do that to you. She knows what you get like.
So … leave the room. That’d be a fine start. Pushing off the bed, I strode to the door and yanked it open.
Twenty-four hours later my feet were killing me and my stomach was doing a pretty good job of convincing me I was going to die if I didn’t feed it. I’d checked the main touristy areas; bar, gift shop, information center, and restaurant. Crept through lush gardens and almost gotten lost in the maze of hedges and trees. A short sleep and I’d been back on my mission, marching up to the municipal building with a craftily made up a story about meeting a friend. The woman at the desk had regretfully informed me Harper had left Heartsridge yesterday, that her wristband showed as having swiped out. I’d brushed off her concern, muttering something about getting my dates mixed up.
Assholes. Maybe they were in on it. Maybe they all were? Kidnapping humans; the dark side of Heartsridge.
I’d snooped around the swimming pool and bowling alley. Backtracked and rechecked everywhere I’d visited yesterday, hoping that I’d missed something. But, so far, nothing. The light was fading, taking with it my fragile hope.
Brushing aside branches, I marched off the main street and into the jungle. Okay, forest. Whatever. It was dark and creepy looking with a lot more nature than I was used to. Harper was here, I knew she was, and it was up to me to find her. Twigs caught in my hair, tugging at the topknot I’d hurriedly piled it into earlier, the cool summer breeze sending shivers dancing up my bare arms. Wishing for the first time in my life that I’d worn jeans to protect my legs rather than one of my flimsy cotton dresses, I was at least grateful that I was the kind of woman who thought sensible shoes were the only sane option. Ignoring the scratchy branches, I soldiered on, feeling my way in the rapidly falling dusk.
“Harper?” I hissed, feeling like an idiot, but what if she was out here in the forest? Hurt. Alone. Waiting for someone to find her? I couldn’t just sit on my ass and do nothing and I was running out of ideas.
Space widened up around me, a well worn path forming in front of me. I was on the right track. During my frantic research, I’d studied aerial maps of the area, knowing that the A4 maps with the pretty tourist destinations marked out given out on arrival couldn’t be the whole picture. Hidden in the forest had been small clusters of dots—buildings—spread out throughout Heartsridge. I had six days and a pair of feet; I was going to search out each one and check for myself, starting with wherever this path was taking me.
Cursing under my breath, I caught myself before I went head over tit into a tree, giving an offending tree root a swift kick, then giving myself a swift kick for being an idiot. I fished my phone out of my pocket and swiped on the flashlight. The shadows sank away, driven into a thick wall of black surrounding my bubble of light, but at least I could see any darn trees that might try to attack me. Another swipe of my phone and I was peering at the saved screenshot of a map of the area, zooming in and pushing it around until I was pretty sure I knew where I was. There was a building up this way, and not too far from the looks of things.
Waving my phone in front of me, I set off again, ignoring the insects buzzing around my ears and the prickling sensation that was creeping up my spine and drying out my mouth.
What felt like fangs sunk into my forearm. “Son-of-a—” I bit off the curse, swatting the mosquito and leaving a smear of blood.
I head butted a wall.
“Who the hell are you?”
A talking wall. Putting out a hand, I patted the wall. Warm. Muscled. Clothed. I took a breath; big mistake. The air was filled with some sort of an earthy musk, with an undercurrent of citrus soap. My insides melted into a big pile of feminine gloop. I could literally feel myself succumbing to whatever pheromone this strange man was putting out there. I bit back a breathy sigh, the thought of making that sound enough to piss me off. “Excuse me.” I tried for a sidestep; the wall moved with me.
“What are you doing out here, human?”
Oh, he so didn’t just pull the human card! Didn’t he know I had better things to be thinking about… I jerked my head up, ready to chew this mountain of a man out. Blue stared pack at me, sparkling with ice and flecks of silver. Oh! It was him. The man from the gate.
Blue. I’d been right, his eyes were mesmerizing.
And right now, they were furious.
At little old me.
Chapter Three
Austin
The little slip of a woman stared up at me as though she’d seen a ghost, her mouth dropping open and dark brown eyes widening. “This area is restricted,” I said, unsuccessfully keeping the growl out of my voice. There; I’d given her the benefit of the doubt. My bear was near the surface, sniffing curiously at the woman in front of us. She smelled like vanilla cupcakes, and I was having a hard time convincing my bear that he couldn’t have a lick.
Her chin jutted out. “I know.” She didn’t look sorry.
Biting back a groan; I tried again. “You can’t leave the town without a guide.”
Her head tilted to the side, as if giving my statement consideration. Then she pouted, affecting a scared expression. “Why not? Isn’t it safe?”
The little minx! I could see the wheels tu
rning as she weighed up her options. “Back to town with you.” Herding her in front of me, I’d made it two steps before she made a break for it, darting blindly into the forest and making as much noise as a rhinoceros in an antique shop. “Fuck this shit,” I muttered under my breath, biting back a groan. Before, I’d been willing to give the woman the benefit of the doubt, something I was right now questioning my sanity on.
I found her circling back toward me, clearly lost as she ran back into my waiting open arms.
“Let me go!” she shrieked as I scooped her up and dumped her over my shoulder, securing her by her surprisingly very nice ass.
“No can do,” I replied, injecting cheer into my voice, guessing it would piss her off. “You’re going back to town and you’re going to answer a few questions for me.”
“No, I’m not.” Small fists beat at my back, as effective as the little pebbles that often swirled up from the lake bed when taking a relaxing swim.
“You can’t go wandering around in the forest. You’ve got plenty you can be doing here in the town. Lots of…” I tried—and failed—to think of anything worthwhile mentioning. The humans had a swimming pool; I preferred the lake for my swimming. They had a gym; I preferred to run wild and free. The restaurant? Fancy fine dining—overpriced and the portions were too small. The pack run BBQ Shack was much more my style. “The cafe,” I finally said. “Good pie there.”
Silence met my statement, then, “What are you trying to hide?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing. It’s not nice to go sticking your nose into other people’s business. We’re not zoo animals; we’re entitled to our privacy.” The anger was back, bubbling away under the surface until my skin felt tight, the change a whisper’s breadth away.
The fists stopped, her hands coming down to rest on my back. “I wouldn’t— I never—”
Leaving the forest behind me, I marched down the main street, keeping to the shadows and trying my damnedest to look as normal as I could while carrying a slip of a woman over my shoulder. From the funny looks coming my way, I was doing a shit job. At least my cargo had chosen to remain silent, for now. Taking the steps two at a time, I banged into the municipal building, stalking straight past the night guard.
“You okay, Austin?” Daryl, one of the wolf shifters enquired with a barely suppressed smirk. “Need me to take her off your hands?” His eyes zeroed in on where my hand was planted on her ass, then narrowed as he let out a low whistle of appreciation.
I ground to a halt. The growl was out before I knew it, echoing and bouncing around the corridor.
Daryl lifted his hands in mock surrender, backing away slow as he held my gaze. “Easy there, bear. I don’t want any trouble. Not at work, anyway.”
I waited.
He held my gaze until the last second, only breaking off as he turned his body away. Not a submission, but as close as I was going to get from another dominant without a full out brawl. Letting out a chuff of satisfaction, I continued up the corridor, following it around to the right and into the depths of the building, where they had stuck my team’s headquarters.
“What was all that about?”
I very nearly jumped; I’d almost forgotten I was carting around a real, live woman, she’d been so quiet. “Nothing.”
A tap on my shoulder, then, “It was something. You growled.”
Like I could have fucking missed that. “We do that. We’re shifters.”
“Oh. Okay.” A small sigh, then another tap. “Where are you taking me?”
“Here.” Pushing open the door, I pulled her down off my shoulder, studiously ignoring the way her breasts squished against my chest as she wriggled down, and guided her into the room. My team stared back at me, mouths dropping open and eyebrows flying up.
“Hi,” the woman whispered, lifting her hand in a wave. She’d frozen in the doorway, her body shrinking away from the burly men in front of her.
I wasn’t sure she realized that she was pressing back against me, but every nerve in my body was on fire, my head dipping without instruction so I could breathe her in.
“Uh, Alpha?” Nate said with a pointed cough, hiding what was sure to be a smirk behind his hand. Lounging in low back chairs, the guys were in the middle of their mid-shift snack, one of many, and papers littered the floor around them.
I jerked back to standing, setting my face in a firm scowl.
“I thought your name was Austin?”
Guiding the woman into the room, I pointed at a spare chair and waited until she’d sat her fine ass down. No, not fine ass. Annoying ass. That was better. “It is.”
“He called you Alpha.”
“I am.”
Her face screwed up into a frown as she tried to make sense of it. “Austin Alpha?”
Jake twisted in his chair, angling his body toward her and spreading his thighs in the hey, look at me gesture I knew he used way to often down at the bar in town. “You really don’t know a whole lot about shifters, do you, darling?”
Before I knew it, I was in front of him, blocking his view of the woman, my hands gripping the arms of his chair and my face an inch away from his. “Don’t.” The threat trickled out on a throaty growl, my eyes flashing to pure silver as my bear stretched my skin.
Jake leaped to his feet, knocking the chair back and out of the way. Blood and destruction flashed in his eyes, his mouth twisting in a snarl as he squared up to me. “Or what?”
That was Jake. Always ready for a brawl. He didn’t give a fuck what it was about.
We flew into the wall with a crash that had my bones shuddering. Wrapping my hand around his throat, I planted my face in his and hammered the words home, unleashing the power that all dominants had, and I had in fucking spades. “Or I’ll fucking end you.”
“Easy, not here, man,” Brent muttered, doing his damnedest to insert himself between the two of us. Crazy fucker. But I let him peel my hand away. He was right, this wasn’t the time or the place. I wasn’t sure what the hell had gotten into me, but for a second all I’d seen was red.
At Jake’s nod, I stepped away. If it had been anyone else I wouldn’t have stood down until he lowered his eyes, but this was Jake. It was enough that he wasn’t shifting right here in our rec room.
I swung my attention back to the woman. Amazingly, she wasn’t a quivering, nervous wreck, about to burst into a flood of ball shriveling, gut punching tears. Grabbing a chair, I spun it around and straddled it. “Your name?” It came out too much like a command, but I was still riding the edge and half of me was still tied up in holding my bear back from strangling Jake.
“Leona.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
Leona. I rolled her name on my tongue, tasting it as I sized her up. It kinda suited her; all tiny and fiery, like a little lioness. Big brown eyes stared back at me, unblinking and fearless. Dark smudges nestled under her eyes, little stress lines tugging at the edges of her mouth. A mass of dark hair bobbed on top of her head, the ends sticking out in all directions, complete with a couple of stray leaves and an adventurous twig. “Why were you snooping around the forest?”
“I wasn’t snooping,” she snapped back, shoving her hands under her knees and hunching over. She glanced away, her eyes lingering on the guys.
It pissed me off. “Eyes here, sweetheart.” Ignoring the strangled chuckle from one of the guys, I added, “They’re not going to be able to help you.” There. A good reason for her to keep her attention on me.
Her gaze tracked around the room, as if she were deliberately trying to wind me up, then settled back on me with a glint of determination. “I saw you at the gate yesterday evening. Who are you guys?”
Her words threw me, along with the heavy dose of sarcasm, but I didn’t see the harm in answering. “We’re Team-S1.”
Her eyebrows bunched together. “And that means…?”
Cade rose from his seat and wandered over to the fridge. “We’re bear shifters, baby. Big, furry, mean fuckers. We keep Heart
sridge safe and secure from trespassers.” He waggled a can of soda in the air in silent question.
Accepting the drink, Leona nodded, as if it made sense. “The fence isn’t to keep you in, it’s to keep people out.”
Cade spluttered mid-swallow, as if the thought of humans telling us what to do offended him personally. Wiping his mouth on the back of his hand, he shrugged. “We like our privacy and this is the easiest way to get it, sure.”
Deciding it was time to steer the conversation back on track, and for some perverse reason wanting her attention focused back on me, I cleared my throat, throwing Cade a warning glance. Shifter politics weren’t something regularly discussed in front of humans, especially humans that weren’t a part of our society. “Are you a reporter?”
Her hand paused, can halfway to her mouth. “No. Why do you think that?”
I could taste the truth in her words. “Do you work for the government?”
Her hand lowered until it rested in her lap, the corner of her mouth twitching. “No.”
Again. Truth. Poacher? No. Couldn’t be. She must have as much muscle as a kitten and wasn’t hiding a gun, and I’d looked. Shit, yeah. I’d perused every inch of her delicious curves with a deliberate narcissistic pleasure that had my head threatening to explode and my cock hardening. And I didn’t have a fucking clue why. “Then what the fuck were you looking for?”
“Shit, Austin. Take it easy on the girl,” Nate muttered with a frown.
Tension rode a rod straight down my spine. “This is easy. If she was a man do you think she’d be getting the hands-off approach?”
Jake leaned back in his chair, kicking his legs up onto the small coffee table in the center and knocking a couple of empty cans off in the process. “I think the problem we got here is that you’d like to try the hands-on approach with little Leona,” he mock whispered out of the side of his mouth. Completely with crazy grin.