Perfect Mate

by Jennifer Ashley

  “Then he wanted Shane specifically.”

  “That’s my guess.”

  “Why?”

  Cormac closed his arms more tightly around her. “We’ll find him, and we’ll ask.”

  “Do you remember what he looked like?” Nell said, worried.

  “Yes. Every detail.”

  Nell looked at him in surprise. “Every detail? I barely noticed the guy.”

  “Habit I picked up growing up. I notice everything around me at all times, every scent, sight, sound, feel—taste if necessary. I learned to live like an animal long before I understood what it was like to live as a human. I was nearly twenty before I found the rest of my clan.”

  Life had been . . . interesting. The true bears had given him a wide berth because he’d smelled wrong.

  Cormac had wandered alone, a cub calling for someone, anyone to help him, and realizing finally that there was no one to come. He’d learned survival on his own, hunting and killing his own food, eating it raw.

  “I’m sorry,” Nell said.

  “What I learned comes in handy,” Cormac said without self-pity. He released her from his arms but took her hand. “Let’s use it to find your cub.”

  Chapter Seven

  The human employees still inside the club went bug-eyed when Cormac walked in naked, but the Shifters didn’t notice. Nell noticed, but then, she’d become hyperaware of Cormac. His scent was on her and hers on him. Scent-marked—the first step in the mating game.

  Cormac became bear again to sniff around inside, and he was joined by Jace in his Feline form. Jace and Cormac hunted around the tables, while Graham looked on, his human girlfriend watching with her fingers steepled at her lips.

  They found nothing at the table. The guy had left no trace of himself but his scent.

  Nell vaguely remembered the man nursing a bottle of beer while she’d sat at the next table trying not to pour out her heart to Cormac. But the bartender confirmed that the table had been cleared a long time ago, any beer bottles left there now in the gigantic pile in the recycle bin.

  “We could get fingerprints from the chair and table,” Brody suggested. “See if he’s got a record, anyway.”

  Cormac shifted into his human form as Brody spoke. “Then we’d have to involve the police.” He looked at Nell. “You want to do that?” Cormac knew from experience that getting human police interested in Shifter problems complicated matters more than they helped.

  “We don’t have to,” Nell said. “We have a secret weapon.”

  Cormac raised his brows, unsure what she meant, but Brody relaxed. “Diego and Xavier,” he said. “I’ll call them.”

  ***

  “Take it easy,” Joe said. “You’re groggy.”

  The Shifter-man’s eyelids fluttered as he tried to open them, then Shane gave up and slumped back into the chair—the sturdiest chair Joe possessed.

  Joe had been driving out to his cabin, keeping with his plan to kill the bear there then decapitate him, when his cell phone buzzed. The man on the other end had been Miguel, the Shifter who’d hired him.

  “How’s it going?” Miguel had asked.

  “I got one,” Joe answered. “You’ll have proof in the morning. Twenty grand, right?”

  The voice took on a Shifter snarl. “I want them all.”

  “Can’t promise that. Too problematic. I think a hundred grand’s even too low for all four. I can give you this one, and you hire someone else to go after the others.”

  “I want all of them, especially the Shifter bitch and her mate. I’ll give you the hundred thousand for just those two.”

  “No thanks. If I capture and kill a cop, even an ex-cop, even one who’s shacked up with a Shifter, I’ll never live to enjoy the money.”

  There was a moment of intense, furious silence. “I hired you because you were good. Or said you were.”

  “I am good. I’m just not stupid. You’ll get one of the four. I have him right here.” Shane had been out, slumped against the truck’s door, his hands and feet chained. The second tranq, delivered when Joe had gotten him into the truck, had knocked him cold.

  “Keep him for me,” Miguel said. “I want to make the kill myself. And then I’ll go after the other three, and you will help me.”

  No way. But Joe didn’t argue with him. People who hired bounty hunters or ordered hits weren’t always stable.

  “Now you want me to keep him alive?” Joe asked. “For how long? I only have so much tranquilizer.”

  “For as long as it takes. I’ll call you when I make it to town.”

  Joe had hung up in irritation. He’d really wanted to get some sleep tonight.

  Joe had continued to the cabin he’d already set up for the kill. Easiest to keep Shane there, and it was far enough out of town that if the Shifter gave him too much trouble, Joe could simply shoot to kill without any neighbors hearing. Miguel would have to suck it up. The money Miguel offered wasn’t good enough for Joe to take extra risks.

  Shane’s eyelids fluttered again. Joe shoved a sports bottle of water between Shane’s lips and upended it. Shane coughed, but Joe didn’t relent.

  “Don’t need you dehydrating. He wants you alive.”

  Shane swallowed the water and licked droplets from his lips. “Who the hell are you?” His voice was still scratchy with dryness. “Wait, I saw you at the club, didn’t I?”

  “The name’s Josiah. My friends call me Joe. Now I have a little dilemma. I’m starting to think I’m not going to come out of this very well, no matter if I give you to the nut-job who wants you or negotiate with you for your release. So do me a favor and don’t ask me any more questions while I sit here and think about what to do.”

  “Huh,” Shane said, letting his eyes close again. “If you think your only problems are me and the nut-job, it just means you don’t know my mother.”

  Joe didn’t laugh. “You say that because you haven’t met my mother. Your mom was the Shifter lady sitting at the table with you tonight?”

  Shane opened his eyes again. This time they were more focused. “Yeah, that was her.”

  “Nice-looking woman. Hope it works out for her and that other bear Shifter. It’s tough for widows to find someone new.”

  “Ain’t you sweet?” Shane’s hands moved under the chains that wrapped his body, and one spark leapt from the Collar around his neck. “How about we talk about this on more even terms?”

  Joe lifted his tranq rifle, loaded and ready to go. Another rifle lay next to it, that one with .30-06 bullets. “If you sit there calmly, I’ll let you stay awake,” Joe said. “If you move too much, I’ll put you out again, or shoot you with real bullets. Either way I wouldn’t be able to let you in on the decision-making process.” He smiled at Shane, who didn’t smile back. “So shut up, and let me think.”

  ***

  Diego Escobar, the mate of Eric’s sister, and Diego’s brother, Xavier, ran a security firm called DX Security. They showed up in response to Brody’s call for help, along with Reid, the guy who called himself a dark Fae. Apparently Reid worked at the security firm with the two humans. Weird.

  Cormac liked Diego, who looked over the scene without fuss, listening to Brody, Nell, and Cormac tell him what they’d found. Xavier said fingerprints were a long shot—there’d be a lot of them, if they could even get clear ones, plus the waitress would have wiped down the table when she’d cleaned up. Even so, Xavier got started checking out the chair in which the guy had been sitting.

  Diego opened a laptop at another table and had Cormac describe the man. Brody and Nell put in what they remembered, but Cormac gave Diego the most detailed description.

  “I’m impressed,” Diego said. “How long have you had perfect recall?”

  “It’s not perfect recall,” Cormac said. “I just notice things.”

  Not that he didn’t
recall every touch, every kiss, every breath of himself and Nell up at the cabin. The time with her had eased his heart, allowing a new spark of warmth to grow. Cormac hung on to that spark in hope. Mate bonds were precious and didn’t happen to everybody.

  Diego had software that quickly rendered an image, then he and Cormac made adjustments. Another laptop with more software let Xavier scan the fingerprints he’d managed to lift and look for a match. He didn’t find anything, but said he wasn’t surprised. If the man had been careful, he’d have touched as little as possible and wiped everything off before he left.

  Diego’s facial recognition program had more luck.

  “He doesn’t have a police record,” Diego announced. “Or an FBI file. But I have access to more information than that.” He tapped keys and brought up a photograph of their man. It was a casual snapshot, a man of average human height with brown hair, standing in a hunting vest in the woods. “His name is Josiah Doyle.” Diego tapped the arrow key to move to more information. “He’s a bounty hunter. Goes after bail jumpers, escaped convicts, and un-Collared Shifters.”

  Nell’s hand tightened on the back of Cormac’s chair. “Why would a bounty hunter go after Shane? He’s not an un-Collared Shifter.”

  “I think we should ask him,” Diego said. “I have the addresses of his house and a couple of cabins. I’d bet he took Shane to one of them.”

  “To kill him?” Nell asked, her lips white.

  Cormac squeezed her hand between his. “I’ll never let that happen. We’ll find him and bring him home.”

  “Don’t worry, Nell,” Diego said. “Xav and I have plenty of firepower and know how to use it. And we have Reid.”

  “And me,” Graham rumbled.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Nell said. “I don’t want my cub getting caught in the cross fire.”

  “And he won’t,” Diego said. He had a kind voice, soothing, even with his overtone of authority. That the human man wasn’t intimidated by Shifters like Graham, Nell, and Jace said a lot about him. “We know what we’re doing, Nell. We’ll go, we’ll get Shane, and we’ll bring him back.”

  “I’m going with you,” Nell said. “I’m not sitting at home waiting and wondering if you’ll find him before it’s too late.”

  “Graham sent Misty home,” Diego pointed out.

  “She’s human,” Nell returned. She fixed Diego with a steely stare. “Don’t argue with me, Diego. I know what you did when it was your mate and cub in trouble.”

  “Yeah, and I also took the help I was offered,” Diego said.

  “But you didn’t wait at home.”

  “No,” Diego admitted. “I didn’t.”

  “Well, then.”

  “Nell’s right,” Cormac broke in. “We need her. We’ll have to split up and check each location—we don’t have time to check them all in turn.” He pointed at the locator map on Diego’s computer. “I think his house is the least likely place. We should check it in case but put most of our might on the cabins. Graham and Jace can scope out one cabin with Xavier; and Nell, Brody, and I will scope out the other.”

  “While I grab backup and go to the house?” Diego asked. He grinned. “You’re good at giving orders, but I’m modifying them. Xav and I will go to the house. Less fuss if only humans drive up to see Mr. Doyle, no Shifters in sight. Two teams of Shifters will check out the cabins, but I’m sending Reid with one.”

  Cormac blinked. “The Fae? Why?”

  “It’s all right,” Nell said. “Reid is useful, and he likes Shane. I trust him.”

  Interesting. But whatever.

  “Good,” Brody said. “Let’s head out. Anything’s better than hanging around here sweating.”

  Nell put her arm around her son. Cormac rose and joined them, and the three closed into a warm, comforting huddle. Cormac had no inclination to step away, to let Nell and Brody be private. The encompassing hug meant they accepted him, that Cormac was part of them now.

  Cormac brushed his hand over Brody’s hair and kissed Nell briefly on the lips. Then they broke apart to go hunt for Shane.

  ***

  Nell knew Shane was in the cabin at the end of the track as soon as Cormac stopped the truck out of sight on the mountain road.

  The sun was rising, touching the folds of land flowing down from the woods that all but hid the cabin at the end of a clearing. The tiny cabin had a wide front porch that overlooked the clearing, its back wall shadowed by ponderosa pines.

  Josiah’s second cabin, the one Graham, Jace, and Reid were checking, was a small house in the middle of a desert valley, reachable only by a narrow dirt road. Such a setup, Nell had noted when Xavier showed them the map, would allow the bounty hunter to spot anyone approaching from miles away. On the other hand, Josiah would never be able to get himself away from that cabin without being seen.

  No, this cabin was the better candidate, with its escape route into the woods, which was why Nell insisted that her group come to check it out. Graham had understood that and hadn’t protested, and Nell had been silently grateful to him.

  “We should shift,” Brody said. “Come at him from three sides.”

  “So that way he can shoot only one of us?” Cormac asked dryly. “I would guess he has a good rifle with a scope, plus rounds big enough to take out a Shifter. One of us would be very dead.”

  “You have a better idea?” Brody asked.

  “I go myself. I’m good at woodcraft.”

  “I’m a grizzly who grew up in the northern Rockies,” Brody countered. “I know from woodcraft. And that’s my brother in there.”

  “You lived in a house and wore clothes,” Cormac said. “I assure you, I spent most of my growing-up years sleeping on leaves and eating raw fish. He’ll never see me coming.”

  Nell briskly stepped between them. “Will you two stop playing king of the woods? I have the best chance. I can walk right up and knock on the door. The bounty hunter is human, and the majority of human males have taboos against shooting or hurting a female.”

  Cormac turned on her. “And some humans see females as beings who should be treated like crap. Even if he doesn’t shoot you, he might take you hostage.”

  “And then we’d have two of you to rescue,” Brody said.

  “No, he’d have a snarling mama bear ready to kill for her cub,” Nell said. “I hope I rip this stupid dress when I shift to beat his ass.”

  “Aw, Mom, you look pretty.”

  Nell ground her teeth. “I don’t know who I thought I was kidding, wearing this thing. It’s not me.”

  The look Cormac gave her would have seared her to her toes if she hadn’t been so scared for Shane. “I for one prefer you out of the dress, but we’ll talk about that later.”

  Brody briefly closed his eyes and shuddered. “Goddess,” he said. “They don’t stop.”

  Cormac stripped off his coat and shirt. “I can get behind the cabin and inside before the hunter knows there’s a danger.”

  “Want us to provide a distraction?” Brody asked.

  Cormac slid out of his jeans. “What, dancing up and down saying Shoot me, shoot me? I don’t want him knowing anyone is out here yet. You’ll know when to come assist.”

  “When he hangs your dead bearskin out the window?” Nell demanded.

  “Nell, honey.” Cormac came to her in nothing but his boxers, the cold not concerning him. He slid his arms around her waist, his skin so roasting hot he warmed the January morning. “You’ll know. I already know everything you feel.”

  Nell went cold, then hot again. She’d felt it, though she’d been trying to deny it, the tiny seed in her heart, the minute tether that could grow into something amazing if she let it.

  “Cormac.” She shook her head. “Too soon. Too fast.”

  Cormac smiled at her. “Nell, under the Father God and before a witness . . . I cl
aim you as mate.”

  Brody stared at them a second then broke into a wide grin. “Yes!” He pumped both fists, but his shout was a whisper.

  Nell’s throat closed up in panic. “That’s a dirty trick, Cormac.”

  “I’ve waited too many years to find a mate of my heart,” Cormac said, his hands warm on hers. “But there’s no time like the present. I’ve mate-claimed you, love. Promise you’ll at least think about it?”

  “This isn’t the time or place,” Nell said.

  “Stop arguing with him, Mom,” Brody said. “Just go with it for now.” His huge grin broke through again. “This is awesome. Now we need to get Shane, so we can celebrate.”

  ***

  Cormac moved with newfound speed. He knew the mate bond was forming between him and Nell—it had started in Cormac when he’d found the letter from Magnus and read the words across the decades. Find Nell. Care for her in the way I haven’t been able to.

  Cormac had felt the bond grow when he and Nell had been alone in the cabin—the spark had jumped like the flames that had leapt from the kindling in the fireplace.

  The mate-claim was the first real step in making her his. A mate-claim meant Cormac had declared his intentions to fully mate with her, that he wanted her to join with him in the official ceremonies under sun and moon, which would bind them together forever. It meant that all other males had to back off, that Nell was his.

  Cormac wished he could have found her all those years ago, so she wouldn’t have had to make her way in the world alone, truly alone. But at least he was here now, and he could get Shane back for her.

  Whether Nell refused his mate-claim later, or denied that she felt the mate bond, Cormac could at least make sure her cub was safe. He’d been too late to help Nell in the past, but he could help her now.

  Cormac skirted the clearing under the cover of the trees, keeping to the shadows and making his way around to the back of the cabin. This low in the mountains, the snow had melted, but clouds hung over the peaks, and the cold breeze from them said that snow was on its way.