“Oh, absolutely. I promise. Off the record.” She made sure he understood her promise was as unbreakable as his. “I just never...a dragon.”
“Why not? If a person can shift into a lion or a bear, why not a dragon?” he asked.
“Why not indeed.” She turned and looked out of the window, gazing at the mountains in the distance. “Being here makes me think anything is possible.”
“Bear Creek and the mountains have that effect on me, too. It’s a magical place.” Hunter dried his hands and hung up the towel. “Okay, everything is done. It seems like I only just got back home and now I’m leaving again.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay? You could go into the mountains with the children.” Cynthia listened to the sound of Thomas pulling his suitcase down the stairs, with a thump, thump, thump.
“No, they are in safe hands. And my hands were made to keep you safe.” He threaded his arms around her waist and pulled her close, dropping a kiss on the nape of her neck. She shivered in his arms.
Cynthia leaned back, her head resting on his shoulder. “I’m glad you are by my side, Hunter.” She turned around and faced him. “I’m scared I might not be able to return the love you deserve.”
Hunter shrugged. “You and I are meant to be. We’ll work it out.”
“You truly believe that, don’t you?” She stroked his cheek and kissed his lips. “I’ll try to believe it, too. But my life so far has left me struggling to believe that everything that happens is because of fate.”
“You mean the children who got hurt?” Hunter asked. “I don’t have those answers, Cynthia. I only know how fate works with the mating bond that exists between a shifter and the person they are supposed to spend the rest of their lives with.”
“Well, I believe we make our own fates. Whether that means I belong with you for the rest of my life, or not, only time will.” Cynthia’s expression softened. “That might sound harsh, but I have my children to think of. I have to do what is best for us as a family.”
“I know. And that’s okay. If fate doesn’t get these things wrong, then I have nothing to worry about.” He kissed her on the cheek. “But you do like me, right?”
“I do.” She held up her finger and thumb. “Just a little bit.” Then her expression sobered. “I’ve just never had a serious relationship since Connor. When he died, it broke my heart and I didn’t want to open myself up to that kind of pain again.”
“But now, you’re willing to take a chance on me.” He could accept her wariness, she’d had her heart broken, something he’d never experienced. He always knew his mate was out there and so he’d never experienced love, real, true love between a shifter and his mate, until now. The mating bond was both a blessing and a curse. But right now, as he stood with his mate in his arms, it was definitely a blessing.
“I should go and help Thomas.” Cynthia kissed Hunter’s cheek and slipped away from him.
“I’ll do it,” Hunter offered. “You get yourself ready and I’ll make sure the children have everything and are ready to go. I also plan on leaving a spare key with Flint in case they have forgotten anything, or they need something from the house.”
“Where have you been all my life?” Cynthia joked as she went out into the hallway and watched Thomas bumping his suitcase down the stairs.
“I might have been missing for the first part of your life, but I plan on being there for the rest of it.” Hunter slid past her and ran up the stairs to grab hold of Thomas’s suitcase. “Shall I give you a hand, buddy?”
“I can manage,” Thomas said, straining to carry his suitcase down the next stair.
“What have you got in there?” Cynthia asked. “It looks twice as heavy as when we arrived.”
“I went outside and collected some rocks,” Thomas said.
“Rocks?” Hunter asked with amusement.
“Souvenirs. I never got to take any last time, and if we suddenly go back to our house again, I want to have something to remember the mountains.” Thomas allowed Hunter to help him with his suitcase.
“Thomas, honey, I don’t think we’re going to go back to our house and our lives there.” Cynthia looked up as Laurel appeared at the top of the stairs with her suitcase. “If it’s okay with you two, I’d like us to make a new life here in Bear Creek.”
“Really?” Laurel asked excitedly. “Because I really want to grow up and have a shifter as my mate.”
Thomas made a face. “I’d like to be a shifter.” He made his hands into claws and roared.
Hunter laughed as he took the full weight of the suitcase in his hand. “You’d make an amazing shifter. But you make an even more amazing nonshifter. You have the heart of a lion and the roar of a bear.”
“Is there no way I can become a shifter?” Thomas asked.
“Sorry, not as far as I know.” Hunter carried the suitcase to the front door where Cynthia helped Thomas to open it up and remove some of the rocks. “I’ll help Laurel.”
“Is that really my room?” Laurel asked as they came downstairs.
“It sure is,” Hunter told her.
“Only I heard you and Mom talking and she said she wasn’t sure about fate.” Laurel looked up at him with uncertainty in her expression.
“Your mom wants to be careful. She wants to make up her own mind about me and our relationship. That’s a good thing, people would draw their own conclusion,” Hunter explained.
“Mommy always says we should make our own minds up and not be swayed by other people.” Laurel pressed her lips together as if she were considering this. “I’m sure she’ll see that you belong together.”
“I hope so, Laurel. But if she doesn’t, then that is her choice, I would let her go. I don’t own her. Just as Cracol and the people who worked for him didn’t own the children like Horatio. We are all free. Or should be.” Hunter carried the suitcase to the front door, but as he set it down, he realized that wasn’t true. He was no longer free, he was a slave to the mating bond.
Luckily, he was okay with it. As long as Cynthia chose to be his.
Chapter Thirteen – Cynthia
An hour later, they took Laurel and Thomas to Flint’s house, where Jenna met them at the door with a warm welcome, and a much more relaxed expression on her face. Learning that Marion and Jake were shifters seemed to have broken down the barriers between them.
“Come on in.” Jenna held the front door open and after kissing Cynthia goodbye, the children ran inside with their suitcases and backpacks.
“Thank you so much.” Cynthia hugged Jenna. “You have my cell number if you need me, although reception might be bad.”
“It’s okay, I have the number of the satellite phone, too. Guy made sure to give it to me. He knows I worry. About you as much as the children.” Jenna rubbed Cynthia’s back. “Take care of yourself, Cynthia. And don’t worry about the children, they are safe here. Sheriff Brad has his deputies on full alert.”
“They’re safer here than they would be with me.” Cynthia could never protect Thomas and Laurel in the same way the shifters of Bear Creek could. “I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
“Take your time.” Jenna nodded. “And you take care of her, Hunter.”
“Don’t worry, I will.” Hunter took hold of Cynthia’s hand and warmth flooded her body. A warmth that gave her comfort at this difficult time. She was still torn between her own children and the lost children. “We should go.”
Cynthia nodded and with one final look past Jenna’s shoulders to where her children were laughing with Marion and Jake, she turned around and walked back to the car, her final decision made.
On the way, Cynthia made a very awkward phone call to Michaela. It soon became obvious she had no idea about shifters, and Cynthia ended the call.
“I’m sure Michaela thinks I’m crazy now.” Cynthia looked out of the window, her thoughts elsewhere.
“But at least we’ve ruled out Horatio shifting and getting stuck.” He reached out and stroked her chee
k. “It’ll be okay.”
“I hope so.”
Cynthia and Hunter drove in silence the short distance to Bear Creek. They went straight to the offices of Bear Creek Bodyguards, where Guy and Liam were waiting.
“Hi, good to meet you again.” Cynthia held out her hand to Liam, who shook it warmly.
“Glad to be here. I’m hoping we’ll locate the children and bring them home,” Liam said.
“If they are out there,” Guy reminded them all. “Sorry, but I don’t want us to get our hopes up too high. This might be a wild goose chase.”
“Well, you have a wild bird at your disposal. But I’m not a goose,” Liam joked. “Seriously, as long as we do everything possible to locate them...even if we come back empty-handed, I can live with it.”
“Me, too,” Cynthia said. “We only have scraps of information that points to any children being out there...” She met each of them with a steady gaze as she added, “Alive.”
“Cynthia is right. If we find bodies, that will give the parents closure. But that’s not what we want the outcome of this mission to be.” Guy indicated the supplies laid out by the door. “Let’s get loaded up and on our way. We’ll take the truck. Hunter, you can drive while I bring Liam up to speed.”
Cynthia helped load the truck, grateful that none of the men treated her like a girl. She was part of this team, an equal part, and they accepted her as that. However, she’d often come up against men who treated her as lesser than them. In certain cultures, men didn’t see women as equals and she’d fought hard to overcome that prejudice throughout her career.
Once the truck was loaded, Hunter climbed into the driver’s seat and Cynthia sat beside him, while Guy and Liam sat in the back. As Hunter drove out of town, Guy set up his laptop and they began discussing strategies.
“I’ve sectioned the forest into eight. We’ll search one section at a time. Liam will fly above our heads, criss-crossing the territories as much as possible. He’ll relay everything he finds back to me, and then we’ll adjust our positions based on his intel.” Guy tapped his keyboard and studied the map and the terrain, talking over his plan with Liam.
“Hopefully, my eagle will work better than the thermal imaging camera the police used. I should be able to sense anyone in the forest even if they are underground. As long as they are not deep underground.” Liam sounded confident, and Cynthia warmed to the eagle shifter even more.
“Have you ever been on a group mission?” Cynthia asked Hunter. “I don’t know your background, so I’m not sure.”
Hunter looked in the rearview mirror at the two men in the back seat. “No. I’m not Army or Special Forces, neither am I police. I’m used to working alone, although I have worked with Guy on occasion if the job required two bodyguards.”
“Two bodyguards, your employer must have been important.” Cynthia was not good at switching off her reporter’s brain. She liked details.
“It’s not always about how important someone is, believe me. We’ve met people who think more security makes them look more important.” Hunter settled back in his seat for the long drive. “People think if they have a big enough ego, their bank balance will soon follow.”
“You must have also met many genuine people. Good people. I know I have. For every dirtbag that’s out there, there are a dozen other people trying to do the right thing and help other people.” Cynthia had met plenty of good people, from all walks of life, from all social spheres, the rich, the poor, there was no stereotypical good person just as there was no stereotypical bad person. Nothing was ever that cut and dried.
“Sure, some of the nicest people I’ve met have been those who you might expect to be arrogant assholes.” Hunter shrugged. “It’s what makes life interesting, don’t you think?”
“I do.” She watched the scenery pass by for a while, letting her mind wander as the truck ate up the miles. In the back seat, Liam and Guy discussed the operation to find the children, and then their conversation switched to talk about Bear Creek and the people who lived there, people she had yet to meet.
Cynthia settled back in her seat and closed her eyes, letting the conversation wash over her. She might not know the people Guy and Liam were talking about, but she already liked them. They were good people. It made her decision to uproot the children once more and move them to Bear Creek seem like a really good idea. A really, really good idea.
So good, she fell asleep, rocked by the gentle motion of the truck speeding down the highway and the sound of the voices in the vehicle, like a lullaby. As she slept, she dreamed. Dreamed of her own children playing happily with Jake and Marion. They looked up as a car pulled up outside Hunter’s house, and Michaela got out, followed by Horatio.
She’d met Michaela during the aftermath of the raid on the farmhouse where no children had been found, but several items linking the building to the trafficking ring had been discovered. Including Horatio’s jacket, screwed up in a garbage bag.
Michaela had shown Cynthia a photograph of her son. He was all she had left after her husband had died a couple of years earlier. Cynthia’s sympathy was endless, having raised her two children after the death of their father, she knew how difficult it was and how emotionally draining it could be with no support from another parent.
Yet she had support now. She had Hunter. Hunter, who was her fated mate. If she believed in fated mates.
If she could allow herself to believe in fate.
“Cynthia.” Hunter’s touch jerked her awake.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“The forest,” he told her gently, his hand on her shoulder as she tried to sit upright. “Take it easy, you’ve slept for a while, give yourself a minute.”
“I’m fine.” However, the world swam around and around as she tried to focus.
“Here.” Hunter handed her a canteen of water and a candy bar. “Drink, you’ll feel better.”
“Thanks.” She took the water and the candy bar from him. “I didn’t realize how tired I was.”
“The last couple of days have been stressful, your body and mind needed time to get over it.” He took a look out of the window, and she followed his gaze, realizing they were alone in the truck.
“Where are Guy and Liam?” she asked, she couldn’t see them out of the window.
“We’re about a mile from the farmhouse. They’ve gone ahead to scout it out.” He turned his attention back to her. “Liam will shift and fly overhead. If he can’t sense anyone around the farmhouse, Guy will move in. Once they think it’s safe, they’ll come back and we’ll move in.”
“It sounds as if you’ve got it all figured out,” Cynthia said approvingly. She sipped the water and then took a bite of the candy bar. The sugar rush worked, even though it would only be temporary. “Will they call you on the satellite phone if they find anything?”
“They will. Or they’ll return to the truck. It depends which is safest. We’re trying to keep our element of surprise and not tip anyone off to us being here until we’re ready.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this all out. You have three experienced shifters at your disposal.”
“That makes me feel much better.” She smiled, feeling more like her usual self. “Seriously though, I do know that if there is any chance of finding those kids, it’s with you guys.”
“Come on, let’s get you moving. Stretch your legs here. Once they get back, if it’s all clear we’ll be going in to search the farmhouse.” Hunter got out of the truck and went around to the passenger side.
Reluctantly, Cynthia slid out of the truck and landed on wobbly legs. “Urgh, I think I’ve gone soft over the last couple of months.”
“You’ll soon get your fitness back, once we start trekking through the forest.” Hunter watched her, his eyes hungry, not for the candy bar in her hand, but for her. A flush of heat spread across her cheeks and threaded through her veins.
“I’m looking forward to it.” Cynthia stretched out her leg muscles
as she finished her candy bar and took another long slug of water. “I’m feeling better, thanks.”
“You look better, too,” Hunter told her with a smile that made her insides turn to liquid fire.
Damn it, how was she supposed to concentrate on their mission if all she could think of was Hunter’s hands on her body? She had to focus. They were here for the children.
“They’re back.” Hunter tensed and turned around to face the forest as rustling sounded in the undergrowth.
“Are you sure it’s them?” Cynthia asked.
“Yes.” Hunter relaxed as a bear ambled out of the forest and sauntered up to the truck. “All clear, Guy?”
The air around the bear shimmered and for a second the large creature seemed to disappear, and then Guy stood there in its place. Cynthia reached out and put her hand down on the hood of the truck. “Wow. I’d forgotten how crazy cool shifting is.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been described as crazy cool before,” Guy admitted with a grin before his face grew more serious. But before he had a chance to speak, a large bird swooped down and landed on the ground. A second later, Liam walked toward the truck.
“The farmhouse and the surrounding area are clear. There are no humans, no shifters...and unfortunately, no children.” He cast an apologetic look at Cynthia.
“It’s okay, I never expected to walk into the forest and find them right away. Not without a long search. If they were that easy to find, the police would have found them and they would be back with their parents already.” Cynthia turned her attention to Guy. “Did you find anything?”
“The farmhouse has been in use within the last couple of days. The stove has been lit and the toilet is backed up.” He wrinkled his nose. “The scents are of men. Not shifters. No sign of the children being back here.”
“Can you scent the children at all?” Hunter asked.
“That’s where it gets a little tricky. The new scents are overpowering compared to anything else. I only skirted the edge of the farmhouse, I figured since there was no one there we’d all go take a look. I’d like Cynthia to try to recall everything she saw when she was here before and compare it to what we see today.” Guy held his hands out as if holding something. “We need to find anything that might have a scent on it. Something from one of the kids or even the scent from the ground they lay on if it’s undisturbed. Old bedding... Anything that might give us the best chance of tracking the children.”
Protector Bear (Bear Creek Protectors Book 4) Page 10