Flame

by Ophelia Sexton

  "Oh, Cassie, I never got the chance to tell you this, but I'm so sorry," he said brokenly. "I was just trying to keep you safe, but I botched it all up. I swear to you that I never thought Ed would try and force the mating right then." Daddy took a long, shuddering breath. "When I saw you that night…it was like my world was coming to an end. I messed up real good, and I didn't know what to say or how to fix it." Another shuddering breath, and Cassie wondered if she'd made her big, strong father cry. "I'm sorry, babydoll. I'm so, so sorry. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"

  His words were like a soothing balm on an old and still-unhealed wound. She didn't hesitate.

  "You didn't do anything wrong," Cassie said fiercely. "And Ed Baldwin was the one who broke the rules. He's the one who messed up! Not you…and not me. Back then, we didn't know what he was capable of."

  Speaking those words felt like shedding herself of an invisible but heavy burden that she'd carried since that awful night eighteen months ago.

  "I love you, Cassie," Daddy said, his voice ragged. "Just tell me where and when, and I'll be there to give you away at your wedding, I promise."

  "Save the date for August 26th, and I'll put an invitation in the mail tomorrow," she promised, her eyes stinging with relief and joy. "And I'll include a map. Thor's family owns a cattle ranch in Idaho, and we're getting married on the property. I've seen the spot—it's real pretty. It's a meadow next to the river, with lots of tall cottonwood trees all around. Thor's brothers got married there, and we're planning a big barbeque, with tents and music and lots of good food. It'll be fun."

  "Congratulations, babydoll. I'm so happy for you." Daddy's voice was under control again. "Tell me one thing, though—do you love him?"

  The question felt like a gut-punch.

  Events had moved so quickly over the past ten days that she hadn't really had time to think about anything. She liked Thor, a lot, and felt comfortable around him. He was also the most attractive man, Ordinary or shifter, that she'd ever met. The sex had been amazing—sweet, hot, and satisfying, though she never stopped craving more.

  But is that the same thing as love? She didn't know.

  "He makes me happy," Cassie answered at last. "I feel safe when I'm with him. And…we're fated mates. We need to be with each other."

  "That sounds a very good start for a mating or a marriage," he assured her. "See you next month, babydoll."

  * * *

  The remaining weeks before the wedding flew by.

  When Annabeth's barista at her Cinnamon + Sugar Bakery-Café quit unexpectedly in the midst of tourist season, Annabeth asked Cassie if she'd be willing to step in. It would be a short-term job, just until school started up again and the flood of tourists in the Bearpaw Ridge area slowed to a trickle.

  And that was how Cassie found herself as the barista, sandwich-maker, and cashier at Annabeth's bakery while planning her wedding.

  She liked working with Annabeth and her assistant baker, Thor's cousin Hannah Swanson.

  It was always busy at Cinnamon + Sugar, but both Annabeth and Hannah were endlessly good-natured, had the workflow down to a science, and always made time for a joke or a bit of conversation.

  The bakery was tremendously popular with both locals and visitors, and it wasn't unusual for Cassie to arrive at work at oh-dark-thirty and see a long line of customers already waiting to buy Annabeth's famous cinnamon rolls.

  The bakery also offered a selection of sandwiches and prepacked picnic lunch boxes loaded with everything you'd need for a delicious meal outdoors. These boxes were very popular with tourists heading out for a day of boating or fishing on the river.

  The work, while fast-paced, was familiar and comforting to Cassie. Her father owned the Wildcat Springs Tavern, which was famous for its barbeque beef brisket and pulled pork, and she had spent her high school years and university breaks working there.

  She'd done nearly every job in the tavern except bartending—she'd washed dishes, mopped floors, waited tables, and even worked in the kitchen when someone called in sick or quit unexpectedly. Working in Annabeth's bakery was easy in comparison.

  Thor's leg and arm seemed to be completely healed up after the second week, though Cassie noticed that his memory was still a little spotty, which caused his brothers to tease him unmercifully during the big Sunday dinners at Elle's house.

  Once the town's doctor, a wolf shifter named Dr. Derek Jacobsen, had cleared Thor to return to his normal activities, he promptly began to volunteer for the Bearpaw Ridge Fire Department alongside his brothers.

  The BPRFD was an all-volunteer organization that served the town and outlying farms and ranches. Most of the calls that came through dispatch were for EMT services—car accidents, boating accidents, and injuries from outdoor activities.

  Thor seemed to enjoy his return to duty, and Cassie quickly realized that her new mate was happiest when he was helping others. It was an admirable quality and so different from most of the sabertooth shifters she'd known, where the prevailing philosophy had been "every lion for himself/herself."

  Thor also helped out on the ranch by serving as a tour guide. This consisted mostly of pointing out the best places along the river for the ranch's guests to fish, boat, and swim. He also led weekly camera safaris in the surrounding Salmon-Challis National Forest for those guests interested in wildlife photography.

  In addition to the local bear population, Thor told Cassie with a broad wink, there were lots of deer, elk, foxes, and bighorn sheep in the area, as well as golden eagles, bald eagles, osprey, cranes, herons, and egrets.

  All in all, the weeks spent on the ranch were a sweet idyll.

  Cassie and Thor ate dinner together every evening, comparing notes about their busy days. Afterwards, they would go upstairs to make love before they fell asleep in each other's arms.

  With every long, warm summer day that passed, Cassie's feeling for her mate deepened. She liked everything about him. He was tough and strong-willed, but also generous and tender, and most of all, kind.

  He made her feel beautiful, sexy, and valued, and in turn, he behaved as if winning her as his mate was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

  Neither of them had yet mentioned the word love, though Cassie was beginning to realize that she'd moved beyond her initial infatuation with her sexy firefighter and was now swimming in deeper currents.

  Thor, attentive as ever, didn't seem the type of guy who talked about his feelings. He just showed how much he cared by doing thoughtful things for his nearest and dearest.

  That seemed to be the MO for all the Swanson men, based on what Annabeth, Caitlyn, and Steffi said about their mates during the occasional girls' movie nights over at Caitlyn's house.

  I'll tell him how I feel about him on our wedding night, Cassie promised herself. Gotta save something for our special day, since we've done just about everything else at this point.

  * * *

  Three days before Cassie and Thor's wedding, a wildfire in a nearby national forest began to spread rapidly, threatening ranches and vacation homes on the northern end of the valley.

  The BPRFD volunteer firefighters were summoned as part of a mutual assistance agreement they had with neighboring fire departments.

  As she watched him quickly packing up his gear, Cassie noticed that Thor seemed excited at the opportunity to share his expertise in fighting fires on difficult terrain.

  Outside the house in the predawn darkness, Dane honked his horn.

  He, Mark, and Thor were planning to drive to the fire station in town to fetch the BPRFD's old but reliable four-wheel drive wildland fire engine and the big tanker truck. They would then head north to the fire response teams' staging area at the North Fork of the Salmon River.

  Thor, already dressed, took a pajama-clad Cassie in his arms and gave her one of his slow, sweet kisses. The soft bristles of his beard brushed Cassie's skin in a now-familiar caress that still had the power to send pleasant shivers down her spine. She real
ized she'd probably never get enough of him, no matter how often they kissed and touched.

  "Hey beautiful, I'm going to miss you while I'm gone." He quirked a smile down at her. "But I promise Dane and I will be back in time for the wedding."

  "You'd better be!" Cassie put her hands on her hips and stared up at him in mock dismay. "It's gonna be hard to make this whole thing work without the groom and his best man in attendance."

  Thor laughed and bent for another kiss.

  "Hey," he said softly, his breath hot against her ear. "Have I told you that I'm crazy in love with you? And that I can't wait to marry you?"

  His words seemed to wrap themselves around Cassie's heart, squeezing until she felt breathless with joy.

  "No, and how can you say something like that and then run off to the wilderness for days?" Cassie demanded.

  She reached up and put her hands on Thor's cheeks, pulling his head down.

  "I love you, too," she told him, her lips brushing his with every word. She had meant to save it as a wedding night surprise, but it seemed only right to tell him now. "Please stay safe."

  "I'll do my best," he promised. "And no one's asked me to jump out of an airplane."

  "Yet," she retorted, laughing.

  Outside, Dane gave another short, impatient tap on his horn.

  "I'll walk you out. I have to get dressed and leave for work soon, anyway."

  Cassie took Thor's callused hand, and together they went downstairs and out to where Dane was waiting, the bed of his big pickup truck piled high with unidentifiable bits of camping gear.

  * * *

  In the wake of Thor's departure, Cassie was glad that the bakery was crazy-busy again today.

  Rushing between the cash register and the big chrome-and-red commercial Italian espresso maker left her no time to miss Thor, though she felt a warm jolt every time she remembered him saying that he was crazy in love with her.

  Annabeth seemed glad of the rush too.

  "I've been married to Dane for several years now, but that only seems to make it worse whenever he leaves for more than a day," she confided during a rare quiet moment. "I have a hard time sleeping when he's not there."

  "This will be the first night that Thor and I have spent apart since we met," Cassie told her soon-to-be sister-in-law. "I'm not looking forward to it."

  Then the little bell over the bakery's front door tinkled, announcing the arrival of the next set of customers. Things stayed busy from that point until Cassie's shift ended just after the lunch rush, and young Ethan Jacobsen arrived to take over the afternoon barista and cashier duties.

  Cassie pulled off her apron, hung it on the hook next to the espresso machine, and made her way through the bakery to the back door.

  There was a small parking lot behind the old two-story brick bakery building, and Cassie had left her Subie there.

  Her head filled with a repeat loop of Thor confessing his love, Cassie didn't notice the two men standing by her car until it was too late.

  "Hello, Cassandra," Ed Baldwin said, with a predatory smile that turned her to ice. "It's been a long time. How have you been?"

  In his human form, he was a sandy-haired, middle-aged man with the weathered, deeply tanned features of a cowboy, and a thin, hard mouth.

  True to form, he wore faded jeans and a button-down shirt, accessorized with a Stetson hat and expensive boots. His look was finished off with an item that Cassie remembered all-too-well: a belt buckle of silver in the shape of a snarling lion's face, with inlaid ivory fangs and golden topaz eyes.

  Behind him, Alfonzo Tigredientes stood smirking. He was wearing a straw cowboy hat, T-shirt, and jeans today instead of his usual dress shirt and jacket, and his sword hung openly at his side.

  Cassie turned to flee, but Paul Katzenberg had slipped behind her, blocking her retreat to the bakery. He grabbed her arms with bruising strength.

  She struggled frantically against his hold, but it was no use. Katzenberg was bigger and considerably stronger than she was.

  "Oh, don't go so soon," Baldwin continued, in a jovial tone that sent tendrils of sick terror curling through her like a poisonous vine. "We have lots to talk about, like how you owe me for all the work and billable hours it took my lawyers to get my two enforcers here out of jail. And that's on top of the dowry payment you cheated me out of."

  Cassie opened her mouth to scream for help, and Baldwin raised a warning finger.

  "Rumor has it that your friend Amanda is arriving at the Missoula airport about now," he said, and Cassie's cry strangled in her throat. Baldwin continued, "I've arranged for a special welcoming committee, and they're just waiting for a call from me to spring into action. Play nice, and no one gets hurt."

  Chapter 18 – Devil's Bargain

  "H-how'd you find me?" Cassie hated the quaver in her voice.

  Right now, she was living her worst nightmare. Terror choked her like a noose tightening around her throat, and she wondered if she was about to have one of her crippling anxiety attacks.

  She knew she reeked of fear just like a prey animal.

  Please, let it not be Daddy who sold me out!

  Katzenberg released his grip on her, but stayed within arm's length.

  "Oh, please," drawled Tigredientes, who was leaning against her car, his arms crossed and his cowboy hat shading his dark eyes. "Your dumbass boyfriend told that coyote cop everything we needed to know about where to find him. And after that sweet little scene at the hotel, we figured that wherever he was, you'd be, too."

  With a sinking heart, Cassie remembered the conversation between Officer Howard and Thor on the morning that Tigredientes and Katzenberg had tried to drag her home by force.

  "What do you want?" she tried next, though she was pretty sure of the answer.

  "What you owe me," Baldwin said softly.

  He looked her slowly up and down, undressing her with his eyes, and she felt her skin crawl.

  "Your father arranged the match, I paid the dowry, and we consummated our mating. You belong to me, and I don't take lightly to anyone tryin' to cheat me of what's mine."

  "I am not your mate!" Cassie snarled. "I don't care what you paid Daddy, I never gave my consent. And raping me didn't seal the mating, either."

  "Rape is such an ugly term for a mating bonded according to our ancient traditions," purred Baldwin. "But I have to say that after everything I'd heard about you, Cassandra, it was a pleasant surprise to see that you had a bit of fight in you, after all."

  Cassie wanted to throw up. Instead, she glared at Baldwin.

  "The only one I'm bonded to is Thor. He's my fated mate, and you know as well as I do that neither of us can take another mate while we're both alive."

  "Fated mates? You're seriously pullin' out that old fairy tale?" Seemingly unconcerned, Baldwin examined his nails. "And even if you were…let's just say that's not an insurmountable issue."

  "You need to leave Bearpaw Ridge," Cassie ordered, with all the threat she could muster.

  Her voice was shaking so badly that her command wasn't very convincing.

  "The Swansons hate sabertooth shifters, and they'd love it if you gave them an excuse to get physical. Look what Thor did to Mr. Katzenberg and Mr. Tigredientes back at the hotel. And that was while he had two broken limbs."

  Tigredientes and Katzenberg both scowled at the reminder.

  Baldwin only sneered. "He had the element of surprise on his side. Now that we know what we're dealin' with, the bears in this town will never see us comin'. We're the best ambush predators that ever lived."

  "But when Philippe Bertrand and his pride—" Cassie began.

  Baldwin cut her off with a derisive laugh. "Bertrand was an idiot for tryin' to win a direct confrontation with a clan of angry bears. He panicked and went for brute force when he shoulda exercised a little patience and picked 'em off one by one." Baldwin smiled at Cassie. "Just like we will, startin' with the easy prey."

  He reached into the back pocket of his jean
s and pulled out a sleek new iPhone. He swiped at the screen for a few seconds, then turned the phone so that Cassie could see.

  Cassie drew in a shocked breath. It was a video of Annabeth's son Matthew and Caitlyn's daughter Ellie playing in a sandbox.

  "I've got Lionne watchin' the daycare place right now," Baldwin said. "She's just waitin' for me to give the word. No one will ever find those kids when she's done with 'em."

  "The bears will never see us coming," Tigredientes added. "We'll work our way up the family tree until you agree to cooperate with Mr. Baldwin, Ms. Long."

  "I think we'll leave your so-called mate Thor for last," Baldwin said, smiling broadly. "He'll remain alive just long enough to realize he's lost everyone he loves. Then we'll finish him off, too."

  He curved two of his fingers in imitation of sabertooth fangs and made a sharp gesture that copied the deadly thrust into a prey animal's throat.

  A wave of panic crashed over Cassie like a tsunami. This is all my fault! If anyone gets hurt, it'll all be my fault!

  "No!" she begged. "Don't! Please. I'll do anything you want. Y'all just leave the Swansons alone."

  Baldwin tucked away his iPhone and rested one hip on the hood of her Subie. "Now you're talking, darlin'," he drawled. "Let's make a deal."

  "What kind of deal?" Cassie, sick to the core of her being, already knew what he wanted.

  But she couldn't help wanting to delay the inevitable, even if it was just for a few minutes.

  With Thor and his brothers away fighting the wildfire, she knew that no one would be charging in to rescue her this time. Sheriff Jacobsen had made it clear that he despised sabertooth shifters, and even meeting the sheriff in person hadn't dispelled his aura of disapproval.

  She was on her own.

  Annabeth, sweet Ordinary Annabeth, was working in the bakery behind her. Her assistant Hannah, who was a bear shifter like all of the Swansons, had finished her shift and gone home an hour ago.

  And young Ethan, though a wolf shifter, would be no match for three fully grown sabertooth shifters. Especially when they were the toughest, meanest members of the pride.