Everyone climbed out of the car as the rest of the Bear Patrol and Rescue Bears arrived. It was an awesome sight to see; all eleven bears were gathered together for one purpose. The bears were out in full force to bring the girl home. Heath knew that these guys would complete their mission.
Just like they always did.
Chapter 7
All of the bears were checking their equipment and talking battle plans while Rosa stood back, watching and listening. She knew her sister was close, but at the same time, she didn't feel she had anything else to offer.
She inspected the guys who were all dressed in high quality outdoor gear with indestructible pants and boots. Rosa then looked down at her own clothes. She was wearing a pair of light sneakers, shorts, and a tank top under a hooded sweatshirt.
She was not prepared to go hiking in the chill of a mountain night. The sun had already gone down and the temperature was dropping with it. Heath turned to her as she shivered in the cold. He looked into her eyes and frowned.
“You’ll stay here in the patrol car,” Heath said.
“Take this walkie-talkie,” Rollo said, handing her the device. “If you have any insights, I want you to immediately contact me over this walkie-talkie. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“I'll let you back into the patrol car.” Heath said. “I don't want you to leave. You'll be safe here. I promise you.”
Rosa felt anything but safe, even surrounded by eleven bears, all with outdoor ready equipment and guns. She felt lost and afraid and had the sinking feeling that they were all running out of time.
“I will contact you if I feel anything,” Rosa said.
Heath helped her back into the patrol car and wrapped her in his big strong embrace. The heat of his body radiated through hers, warming her up with his love. She let out a deep sigh and sat back on her seat, gripping the walkie-talkie.
“Try to stay out of sight. If anything happens, I want you to contact us immediately.”
“I will. You don't have to worry.”
Rosa could tell that Heath was very worried. And the worry seemed to compound between them.
“Just find Maria,” she begged.
He cupped her chin in his hand and leaned in to kiss her gently on the lips.
“I will not fail you,” he said.
He stepped back and shut the door. Rosa locked the car and watched the Rescue Bears and the Bear Patrol march off into the dark forest.
They were following Damien and his random probability generator. Rosa didn't understand it any more than most people understood intuition. But that didn't mean that it wouldn't work. She felt a shiver go up her spine and a sense of impending dread rained down over her shoulders.
She crinkled her forehead and bit her lip. They had to make it in time. She didn't know what was going on. Maybe the kidnappers were already moving to a new location. No matter what it was, she felt as if something was terribly wrong and that her sister was in serious danger.
The Rescue Bears and Bear Patrol had disappeared into the forest and Rosa was now alone in the darkness. All that she had to hang onto was the hope that the strangers would be able to find her sister.
They had to bring Maria home. They just had to. Rosa trusted Heath more than anything else in the world. She had no rational reason why she should. Just like she had no real rational reason how she could be so in love with Heath.
She could feel it in the depths of her soul just like she felt the love for her sister. That's how she knew it was true. She knew that Heath would do anything for her and she would do anything for him. Just like Rosa would do anything for her sister Maria. That's what family did.
The Bear Patrol and the Rescue Bears were now showing her how seriously they took family. These men had all agreed to go off into the night on a wild goose chase led only by a computer and a strange girl.
She was humbled by their loyalty, strength, and resolve. She would be forever grateful for these men for their help. They were heroes in her estimation. As she waited in the SUV, clutching the walkie-talkie in her hand, she suddenly had the most intense feeling of panic she'd ever felt in her life. Her heart jumped into her throat, pounding furiously. Faster than it had ever pounded before. She could barely breathe and felt her vision going black. There was definitely something wrong.
Rosa had the distinct feeling she knew exactly where Maria was. She started to scurry out of the patrol car. Her hands were sweaty and shaking. The walkie-talkie fell to the dark ground, the communication suddenly going silent. She scrambled to pick it up, trying to turn the dial on the device until she heard the men again. She couldn’t find their voices. She clicked on the button that would allow her to speak into the walkie-talkie.
“Rollo,” she said tentatively. “This is Rosa.” She waited for a response but all she heard was static. She tried turning the dial again.
“Rollo?” she asked, feeling more panicked with every second of silence. “Please come in.” No one answered.
Something was wrong with Maria. She could feel it, the panic swirled around her like a dark shadow. She shut the door of the car and stood in the darkness, clicking on the flashlight Heath had left her. She could almost feel the tug directing her towards her sister. She tried the walkie-talkie once more.
“Come in. Anyone?” she said, her voice trembling and shaking with fear.
All she heard was static and nothing else. She moved away from the car, moving toward the forest and dropped the useless walkie-talkie on the ground. She had to go. She had to find Maria. It was the only option left.
Rosa continued into the forest, her soft tennis shoes ill-equipped for the rough terrain. Her light hooded sweatshirt was unable to keep back the chill in the air. She shivered and her legs were scratched by whacking underbrush as she moved through the forest.
But she didn't stop. She didn't relent or slow down. She followed that feeling inside her that told her where to go. It was like an arrow leading her straight to her sister. She focused on it more and more. It seemed like she had walked for miles through the thick forest, moving away from where the Rescue Bears and the Bear Patrol had been heading.
She started to climb up a rocky hillside, her soft tennis shoes unable to get adequate footing. She stepped on a rock that slid out from under her, sending her stumbling backwards to fall on her ass in tangled blackberry bushes.
The thorns sliced into her skin, causing multiple tiny puncture wounds that bled and stung on her palms. She could barely see with only her little flashlight as her guide and the glow of the moon overhead.
Maybe it had been stupid to leave the patrol car. She wasn't even sure how to get back there now. She was lost in the forest but still determined to find her sister. It was the only way, the only thing she could do. She would find Maria and she would bring her home. She had to trust that Heath really would always be there for her and wouldn't let her come to any harm. She would find Maria and Heath would find her.
Carefully trotting up the hillside, she came to the top and saw the dim glow of a light off in the distance. She smelled a faint scent of campfire and knew that she’d found the kidnappers.
She continued down the hill, carefully making her way over the steep edge to the lower elevation. The glowing lights were no longer visible through the dense forest at this level. From above it had seemed like it was at least a mile or two away and she would have to trudge through more to get to it.
As she went on, panting in the darkness, she felt exhausted from the exertion. She was so close. Any minute now she would find her sister.
Just as a Rosa saw the light through the tree trunks, she felt a hand reach up and grab her, covering her mouth. As she tried to scream her attacker restrained her body so that she couldn't move. She tried to call out but it was useless. She tried to escape but the man was far too strong.
Tears streamed down her face as she tried to scream her sister's name. A horrible realization came to her in the haze of her panicked m
ind.
She had failed.
Chapter 8
Rosa bit down on her assailant’s hand. He pulled it back with a grunt, letting her go. Rosa started to run for it, but he caught her by the arm and restrained her again. He shoved a piece of cloth in her mouth, cursing her the entire time. He dragged her through the forest, not allowing for any means of escape.
She tried to plead with him. She tried to scream, but her voice was restricted behind the cloth. They came into the light of the campground. Rosa saw a campfire and a dilapidated mobile home.
The other men sitting around the campfire stood and looked at her and her assailant quizzically.
“Where did you find that?” one of the men asked. He was holding a pistol and had a thin black mustache.
“Found her in the woods coming this direction.”
“We should move,” one of the men said.
“We have a buyer coming right now.”
“We leave at first light,” the one with the mustache said.
Rosa was beginning to believe that the one with the mustache was the leader. She didn’t have very much time to think about it because the man holding her was dragging her towards the mobile home.
A second man, one lower on the totem pole, unlocked the mobile home door and waited for Rosa’s assailant to shove her inside. She tripped over the raised entrance and fell on her knees on a piece of exposed particleboard on the floor.
There was nothing but a dim light from an electric camping lamp in the middle of the floor. The girls were all huddled together on a handful of blankets and sleeping bags. As she pushed herself up to her knees, she saw her sister Maria huddled in the corner. Her face was down between her knees and she slowly looked up to make eye contact with the newcomer.
Maria and Rosa looked at each other and both jumped to their feet, closing the distance between them in a split second. They were in each other’s arms crying and hugging each other instantly.
“Are you all right?” Rosa asked Maria, cupping her chin in her hands.
“I’m okay. Are you okay?” Marie asked with a shaky voice. “How did you get here?”
“I’ve been following you the whole time. The police in Los Angeles wouldn’t listen to me. But I knew that you hadn’t run away. I followed the trail of the kidnappers up the coast and then I followed my gut feelings to Fate Mountain. I was working with the Fate Mountain Police. I even mated with a shifter cop. He was the first person to believe me.”
“You mated with a shifter?” Maria asked, astonished.
“Yes but that’s not what matters now.”
Maria shook her head, confusion on her face. “Of course it matters. My sister tells me that she’s been following me all the way up the coast and then gets kidnapped herself, just to tell me that she is mated to a shifter. What’s going on here? Did you mate with that guy just to get help finding me? Because it doesn’t look like it’s worked very well,” Maria said
“Maria! How can you say that? I love him. I feel it in my soul. I wasn’t supposed to come out here to find you. I was supposed to stay back in the patrol car. But my walkie-talkie stopped working and I couldn’t just sit there. I had to come find you. I followed my gut and I did find you.”
“But now you’re in trouble,” Maria said.
“All that matters is that I found you. And I know that my mate will find me soon. We’re connected and he’ll know I’m gone. He will know.”
“I’m glad that you have that kind of confidence in a man you just met,” Maria said.
“I have to believe he’s coming. Otherwise I’ve failed you. I’ve failed us both.”
The door swung open and three men walked into the mobile home. All of the girls, almost a dozen in total, scurried back to the far wall where their blankets were. Everyone huddled together as the men walked toward them. Rosa’s heart jumped into her throat.
“Which one of them looks good to you?” The leader asked a man she hadn’t seen before.
“We just found this one,” her assailant said, pointing at Rosa.
“That one’s a little old for me,” the new guy said. “I do like the little one that she’s holding onto though.”
Rosa’s assailant grabbed for Maria.
“No!” Rosa screamed.
“I think that one’s her girlfriend,” the leader said with a laugh.
“That will make it so much more fun when I break her.”
“You can’t take her. She’s my sister.”
“Sister, girlfriend, I don’t care. I like the little one,” the buyer said.
The man who had captured Rosa grabbed Maria’s arm and dragged her screaming out of the mobile home. Rosa tried to beat at the men as they made their way out of the mobile home, but the leader of the gang slapped her in the face, sending her down to the floor in a heap of tears.
They shut the door behind them and Rosa sat with her hair tangled around her face, weeping uncontrollably. She sucked in gasps of breath, before standing up to pound on the door with her fists. She screamed and slammed her fists into the door until her hands throbbed. A moment later, a man came in and pushed her backwards.
“Shut the hell up or you’ll be handcuffed and gagged.”
The rest of the girls pulled her back towards the sleeping bags and blankets. They cooed and comforted her, advising her to be calm and quiet.
“It’s no use,” one of the girls said.
“There’s nothing you can do,” another girl said.
“Are the cops really coming?” asked a third.
“They’ve taken Maria again!” Rosa wailed.
“You have to stay calm,” said the first girl.
“I know my mate is coming,” Rosa whimpered. “He has to.”
Rosa sat with the other girls, huddled in the corner, crying intermittently. She stayed like that for quite some time until she heard roaring and screaming and gunshots outside. The windows were boarded up so the girls couldn’t see outside, but Rosa knew exactly what was happening.
Heath was here to save her. She could hear the roaring of the grizzly bear outside and the corresponding gunshots. Her heart was in her throat, panic taking over completely. She couldn’t get out. She couldn’t save him or help him. Fear radiated through each nerve endings as she imagined losing everyone she loved. The growling and gunfire stopped and the only sound was the girls around her crying and gasping in disbelief.
“What’s happening out there,” one of the girls whimpered.
“Maybe it’s the new girl’s boyfriend,” another girl said.
“Whatever it was, I bet somebody’s dead.”
“That was a lot of gun fire.”
“No one could survive that.”
Chapter 9
Heath brought his walkie-talkie to his lips. “Heath to Rosa. How are you doing Rosa?” he asked.
All that came back was silence.
“Rosa? Come in Rosa.”
He looked over at Rollo in the darkness. Rollo shrugged as they marched through the thick underbrush.
“She isn’t answering,” he said.
“I checked her walkie-talkie before I left. It was working perfectly fine,” Rollo said.
“Something’s wrong,” he said.
“Do you want to go back and check on her?” Rollo asked.
“I'm going to have to,” he said. “I'm not going to leave her without any communication or protection.”
“Go fix her walkie-talkie and get back here.”
“Yes sir,” Heath said, turning on his heel to head back toward the road.
The crew had hiked at least four miles into the forest and still hadn't come upon any clues as to where the kidnappers were hiding. Both Damien and Corey Bright, the inventor of the software they were using, insisted that they only needed to keep going a little bit further.
Both had run the software program and agreed that this was the location where the kidnappers were most likely staked out. Their rationale was that there was easy access through another
road that would get them into the secluded area. But Heath wasn't so sure. They hadn't seen or heard anything.
He hurried back through the darkness, picking up his pace with each foot fall on the forest floor. After a while, he was running, barreling through the woods like only a shifter could. He used all of the strength in his body to propel himself over the miles of rough terrain as quickly as he could.
When he finally came to the road, he stopped in his tracks and stared through the dark windows of the patrol car. There was nothing inside, no movement, no sign of life whatsoever. He hurried forward and grasped the handle on the passenger door where Rosa had been sitting. He swung it open, staring inside. She wasn't there.
Sharp fear cut through him and he smelled her scent. If he focused hard enough on the lingering smell of her body, he could follow it until he found her.
He slammed the door closed and tripped over her walkie-talkie. He bent down and picked it up. Shining his flashlight on the device, he realized the settings were all wrong. No wonder he couldn’t get her. She must have messed up the settings and had gotten on the wrong channel.
Heath took a deep breath, trying to strengthen his shifter senses so that he could follow her trail. Her scent wafted through the air and created a kind of sensory trajectory that he could follow. Using both his connection to his mate and his ability to smell her scent on the air, he hurried in the direction she had gone. He brought his walkie-talkie to his mouth.
“Cadet Bear to Commander Bear. Rosa is no longer in the car. Following her scent.”
“Commander Bear to Cadet Bear, continue location updates. Don't try to be a hero.”
“Don't try to be a hero?” he said into the walkie-talkie.
There was no further communication from Rollo.
For a shifter to not want to be a hero went against everything inside him. Shifters stood for love, life, and family, and there was nothing that could ever change it. He wanted to tear off his human skin and run through the forest in his bear form, but he knew that he needed to carry his walkie-talkie to send messages back to the rest of the crew.
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