Fugitive: A Werebear + BBW Paranormal Romance (Beast Warriors Book 1)

by Bliss Devlin

  Combat boots rather than hiking boots. Rafe knew that distinct pattern well, having worn those same boots during his WSS years.

  He growled deep in his chest at the confirmation of his fears. Erik Redclaw had Shannon!

  Then he got out his cellphone and called Hal again. Once more, the call went straight to voicemail, so Rafe left a short message with his findings, then called Brett and Drake in turn, leaving them the same message. For good measure, he photographed one of the boot prints with his phone and texted all three of them the photo.

  All right. He had confirmed that the enemy had captured Shannon. Now, where were they taking her?

  Rafe pushed down his feral rage at the thought and focused on putting himself in Erik Redclaw's boots.

  Rafe stepped out to the clinic's porch and examined the bare dirt between the gravel of the parking lot and the wooden floor of the porch, looking for any hints of what direction they'd gone.

  They couldn't have driven into town without one of Hal's sentries spotting them, so they had probably parked elsewhere and hiked in. Elysia's valley was surrounded by national forest on all sides, which provided plenty of room for bear shifters to roam…and plenty of places to conceal a set of off-road vehicles.

  Rafe spotted the first set of boot prints immediately outside the clinic's front door, then walked the perimeter of the gravel lot, looking for the next set of prints.

  Though he couldn't shift into his bear-shape right now, his bear-spirit still lent him enhanced strength and senses.

  And Rafe knew this area better than anyone else. If he was truly dealing with Wolf Team, then they would be at a disadvantage if they tried to evade him in his woods.

  Plus, he had something they did not—a pickup truck—so he could cover more ground more quickly than any group of warriors on foot or even horseback, especially if they were slowed by a captive. Rafe knew his mate well enough to know that she would be fighting them every step of the way, trying to delay them until help could come.

  Rafe followed the trail in the soft dirt on the shoulder of the highway. There, a mass of boot prints betrayed where they had crossed the wide asphalt roadway.

  He picked up their trail again on the other side, where something had slashed an opening in his neighbor Dave Thorvald's barbed-wire fence. Beyond the opening, a wide swathe of trampled grass crossed Dave's pasture, leading to the edge of the Salmon-Challis National Forest.

  Rafe frowned, trying think of any clearing big enough in this part of the National Forest to park four or five large vehicles out of sight of day-trippers but within hiking distance of the town and his ranch.

  And just how had the wolf shifters been able to march into Shannon's clinic without being spotted—or scented—by any of Hal's sentries?

  Only two explanations occurred to him—either the bear shifters had a traitor in their midst, which was highly unlikely, or Erik had infiltrated Elysia from the south, avoiding the highway and Forest Service roads, and driving cross-country.

  Rafe wanted to believe the second possibility.

  He knew all of his fellow bear shifters, had served with most of them for years on Bear Team, and it sickened him to think that one of them might be capable of betraying him. But could his second guess be true? Could Erik really have found a way to come this far without being detected?

  And then Rafe remembered a large meadow near a grove of Western Redcedar, which was notable for a mysterious ring of huge boulders that locals had nicknamed the "Salmon River Stonehenge." It was located on the other side of a steep ridge that ran through the stretch of national forest that bordered Dave Thorvald's property.

  It was not too far from the clinic and not too difficult to reach for anyone with good hiking boots and in reasonable physical shape.

  His instincts screamed that he had to go there, as quickly as possible.

  He turned on his heel and sprinted back across the highway to his truck.

  Because of the way that the roads had been laid out in the valley, it was a longer distance to drive to the clearing than the direct route through the woods on foot. But Rafe's truck could go many times faster than a man on foot…or even horseback.

  And his vehicle would not need to stop to rest, or graze, or drink.

  Dirt and gravel spraying from beneath his truck's tires, Rafe hit the accelerator and headed for the highway. As he drove, he pulled out his phone and left more messages for Hal and the others, telling them where he was headed.

  Let me be right about where the wolf shifters are going, and let me arrive there in time. Please!

    

  Surrounded by Beast Warriors, Shannon walked as slowly as she dared as they led her through the woods. Her steps were muffled by a layer of fallen leaves and pine needles, leaving no tracks for anyone to follow.

  Despair cloaked her in a suffocating shroud.

  She told herself that she had made the only bargain she could to keep Rafe and the other bear shifters in Elysia safe. But every fiber of her being rebelled against the thought that she was about to be parted from her mate forever, without even a chance to say goodbye.

  What would Rafe think when he came to the clinic and found her gone? When he found that his sword was gone too? Would he blame her? Would he think that she had gone willingly with Erik Redclaw and his men?

  Despite the gloom and sorrow that enveloped her, she did notice that her abductors carefully kept an arm's length away from her as they herded her along.

  On Redclaw's orders, one of the shifters near the head of the line carried Sergeant Halfdan's mummified corpse on his back. Before they left the clinic, Erik Redclaw had promised his men that Halfdan would be given an honorable funeral pyre upon their return to headquarters.

  The level, thickly wooded ground quickly rose into a rocky hillside covered with dry grass, bushes, and a few stands of pine scattered here and there.

  Just before they began their ascent, two more strangers clad in the same fatigues as Redclaw and his men stepped out from behind a tree to greet them. They both carried the same kind of military carbines as Shannon's other captors, and they prodded a prisoner ahead of them.

  He was tall and lean as a birch tree, with short, neatly cut silver hair. His eyes were the same shade of dark blue as Shannon's, and his stubbled face looked weary and deeply lined.

  Shannon came to a halt, staring at him in disbelief. "Granda! Are you all right?"

  "Ah, Shannon, a thaisce, I'm so very sorry," he said, addressing her as my treasure. "They made me tell them where you'd gone."

  She ran forward to embrace him, and his arms came slowly around her.

  "I'm sorry, my dearest child. So sorry," he repeated as she clung to him, tears of mingled despair and relief stinging her eyes.

  "No time for a tearful reunion. Keep moving," Redclaw ordered, leading the way forward.

  Shannon reluctantly released Granda and followed numbly in Redclaw's wake as the wolf shifters picked a winding path up the slope, skirting huge boulders and outcroppings. She kept looking over her shoulder at Granda as he followed her, trying to see if he was hurt.

  But he moved without obvious limping or stiffness. He just looked so…old. Defeated.

  At his insistence, Dr. Liam Donlon had been Shannon's first—and so far only—test subject in using her healing powers to bestow immortality. He had been disappointed when it hadn't restored his youth, but neither had he aged another day.

  None of the others, not even Granda, seemed affected by the steep climb, whereas she was gasping for breath and her leg muscles were burning when they finally reached the top of a ridge.

  Before them lay a dusty hiking trail, studded with more rocks, following the ridgeline and wide enough for three men to walk abreast.

  Wild hope sprang to life in Shannon's breast when she saw two parallel lines of tire tracks on the trail. Erik saw them, too, and halted to examine them.

  "What are these doing here?" he demanded, looking first at Granda, then at her.

/>   Shannon shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant despite the sudden jolt of mingled hope and dread.

  "I don't know. I've never been out here before." She made a show of looking at the tracks, though she couldn't tell if Rafe's truck had made them or not. "But this is a national forest. They have rangers who patrol here, looking for poachers and such."

  Erik's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  "Come on, Erik," complained one of the men standing next to him. "Even if the bastard woke up, there's no way Rafe Magnusson could guess which way we're headed. This is a big fucking forest in the middle of a bunch of mountains and other big fucking forests."

  "And we didn't see or hear anyone come by while we were guarding the old guy," one of Granda's captors added.

  Erik grunted, apparently satisfied by his men's assurances, but he still gave Shannon a hard look before he motioned his men forward onto the trail.

  They walked for at least another hour. Shannon's mouth grew parched from the heat and the dry air, and she felt her pale skin begin to burn and itch under the relentless sun.

  She thought longingly of the cool Irish summers on her island home, of the sweet damp fog rolling in from the sea, and soft rain over green hills, and pushed down her homesick train of thought. She had to use this time to come up with a plan for what she was going to do next.

  Once they arrived at WSS headquarters, she would have fulfilled the terms of her bargain with Erik Redclaw.

  But she didn't think she'd have the chance to escape again for a long time, and she hoped fervently that Rafe and the other bear shifters wouldn't expose themselves by coming after her.

  What she needed was a way to kill herself before Colonel Perry was able to force her to reveal the secret of the immortality treatment. And she knew she would tell him…because WSS now had Granda as a hostage.

  And once she told them her secret, she knew that Perry would wipe her memories, just as WSS had wiped the shifters' memories, and she wouldn't remember anything. Not her home, not Granda…not Rafe.

  Her breath caught in a dry sob at the thought that she wouldn't ever see Rafe again.

  And without her memories, Perry would be able to lie to her and get her to work willingly for WSS.

  Her heart sank further when they began to descend the ridge. Two of Erik's scouts jogged up to them and reported that they could find no signs of pursuit.

  Erik sneered. "See? No one's going to save you, girlie."

  She raised her chin. "I wasn't expecting them to. That's why I struck a bargain with you, Erik Redclaw."

  He grinned at her. "I like you," he said. "Too bad we're supposed to hand you over to Colonel Perry. I'd treat you better than he will."

  Shannon swallowed, trying to force down an icy lump of terror.

  "I don't doubt it," she said and continued picking her way cautiously downhill.

  There was only the merest suggestion of a trail winding around huge rocks and scrubby bushes, and a long way to fall if she made a misstep.

  Erik and the men within earshot chuckled at her comment.

  "Maybe you should try sucking all the water out of the colonel," one of them suggested, to the accompaniment of lewd chuckles. "Who knows, he might enjoy that."

  "I'd pay to watch her do that to him!" someone else said and spat.

  "Hey, no more talk against your commanding officer," Erik said, but Shannon noticed that his tone held no heat.

  There was no further conversation until they reached the bottom of the ridge and entered a new stretch of forest. Shannon walked, surrounded by warriors, and wondered if her journey would ever end.

  It felt as if she had been walking for hours, yet the sun was still high overhead, so it couldn't be much past noon.

  She was startled when Erik announced, "And here we are!"

  He slowed to a stop and turned to face her with an exaggerated courtly bow. She followed the sweep of his hand and saw a large meadow. In the middle of the grass and yellow flowers stood a circle of huge Western Redcedar, and inside that, a circle of giant lichen-covered boulders.

  A cluster of large SUVs stood parked along the edge of the meadow, waiting to carry Wolf Team away from here.

  Shannon came to a halt, staring at the circle of stones, so reminiscent of the old sites in Ireland.

  This was it, then. The end of her wonderful, peaceful sojourn in Elysia. She would never see Rafe again, never kiss him again, never feel the sweet pleasure of his lovemaking.

  "Come on, Shannon," Erik Redclaw said softly. "You know that delaying won't help you now. No one knows we're here."

  He tugged at her arm, urging her forward.

  Then the peace of the meadow was shattered by the sharp, very loud crack that Shannon recognized as a gunshot.

  An instant later, one of wolf shifters crumpled to the ground, blood staining his hair.

  "We're under attack!" someone shouted.

  Chaos erupted as Erik Redclaw's men ran in all directions, some seeking cover, others seeking the source of the shot.

  The gun fired again, and another of the wolf shifters fell in a spray of blood.

  Shannon didn't move from where she was standing. Neither did Granda.

  "So your friend found you after all?" Granda murmured.

  Shannon smiled, and her despair lifted, like mists dissipated by the morning sun.

  Rafe is here! He came for me!

  Chapter 12 – Rescued

  Rafe had chosen the site of his ambush very carefully. He had parked his truck a considerable distance from the Salmon River Stonehenge to avoid alerting his prey, then settled himself behind one of the huge boulders.

  Redclaw has to come here, he reassured himself as he waited with strained patience, surrounded by the sounds of birdsong and the breeze moving through branches.

  Rafe's bear-spirit, angered by his inability to shift, wanted to rush out and hunt down their mate's abductors now. But Rafe was forced to weigh the odds of finding Erik and his men out in the woods versus waiting here, where they were sure to come.

  And come they will, he thought grimly, looking at the vehicles parked nearby.

  In the meanwhile, he could only wait and try not to think about what Erik's men might be doing to Shannon right now. She was a prisoner, and he knew the reputation of Wolf Team when it came to treatment of prisoners…especially female prisoners.

  Colonel Perry would require her to be delivered to him alive and unmutilated, but beyond that, Erik's men would have free rein to punish the pretty female runaway they held responsible for the loss of Powell and Torberg.

  Ah gods, Shannon! Rafe would kill each and every one of them to avenge her.

  And yet…questions raised by the clues left behind in the clinic niggled at him.

  Who had died there? What had happened to the corpse? Why had there been so much water on the floor…and why had it smelled so strongly of wolf shifter?

  As the sun passed the noon zenith, Rafe waited and hoped and prayed that he had guessed correctly.

  Finally…finally…he heard the sound of many feet approaching. Through the gaps in the trees surrounding the stone circle, Rafe saw men wearing fatigues…and Shannon.

  Ah, gods, Shannon!

  A huge rush of relief poured through Rafe at the sight of her.

  His mate looked flushed, sweaty, and tired, but unbruised. And her clothing had not been torn, which gave him hope that she had not been vilely abused by her captors after all.

  A tall older man with silver-white hair stood next to her, and Rafe inhaled sharply. Dr. Donlon!

  So Shannon had been right. WSS had captured her grandfather as well.

  Rafe sighted between two of the boulders sheltering him and aimed his rifle at the wolf shifter standing closest to Shannon.

  He squeezed the trigger with grim satisfaction and saw the man fall with a bullet through his head.

  Confusion and alarm erupted in the ranks of Erik's men, and he saw them running in all directions. He couldn't see Erik's bright red ha
ir anywhere, so he concentrated on the warriors standing in Shannon's vicinity.

  Erik was roaring orders from somewhere to Rafe's left.

  Rafe tried his best to spot the enemy commander, but the same trees and boulders that concealed Rafe also hid his opponents.

  Frustrated, he squeezed off another shot and hit another of the wolf shifters.

  A third shot missed, and Rafe growled in frustration. They would reach him soon, and he needed to take out as many of them as he could before that happened.

  Then Rafe saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He threw himself out of the way as bullets struck the boulder. One struck his Remington, knocking it out of his hand.

  An instant later, he felt the sting of stone fragments embedded in his cheek and neck. His vision was obscured, and he saw that his tinted shooting glasses had stopped more fragments from hitting his eyes.

  Had he not been wearing them, he would have been blinded for weeks. And a sitting duck for Erik's men now.

  "He's over there!" Erik shouted.

  A string of bellowed commands followed as Rafe tossed aside the ruined glasses and grabbed for his rifle. He scrambled from his sniper's perch between two of the huge, lichen-covered boulders.

  As he reloaded, he saw that the bullet that had knocked his weapon out of his hand had struck the barrel, damaging it. Rafe cursed and dropped his now-useless rifle.

  He was glad he'd brought along his sword and long-handled axe, especially with Erik's wolf shifters scrambling in for close combat. And he had the thick oaken shield and two spears—old but sturdy—from his collection, in addition to his sword and axe.

  A pistol would have been better, of course, but Rafe knew he could give a good account of himself with the weapons he had…if he could avoid getting killed.

  As he unsheathed his blade, Rafe cursed as he saw how many shifters Redclaw had brought to capture one helpless woman. He stuck the two spears into the loose soil next him, within easy reach.

  And then there was no more time to think as the first of the wolf shifters reached him, howling with battle fury and swinging his own sword.