“You don’t have a choice on that,” he said, leaning into her and wrapping his arm around her waist. “I’m never going to let you go.”
“Promise,” she said breathlessly.
“Promise.”
“Damien,” she breathed, leaning in to kiss his cheek.
“Now, we’re going to figure out what happened to your mother. Now that we’re working together, we can make quick work of it.”
“Maybe. But I don’t know. I’ve been trying to find out what happened to her for years, and this is as far as I’ve gotten.”
“Yes, but you are criminal, and I’m a cop, so you know I have an advantage in that department,” he said.
“Ha, ha, ha. I’m not really a criminal. Fate Mountain was the first police department I’ve ever broken into, believe it or not,” she said.
“I’ll take your word for it.”
She smiled at him as she took another sip of coffee, and they sat together and ate their breakfast. When they were done, they took showers in different bathrooms and met again in the living room. He found her with her hair tied back, standing in the kitchen, drinking another cup of coffee.
“Now let’s go up to my office and see what we can find out,” he said.
She followed him upstairs, and they sat together in front of his desk, staring at the bank of computer screens in front of them.
Damien woke up his computer and entered his password, giving Raven a sly look as he hit the enter key.
“You can trust me,” she said sarcastically.
“Uh-huh, yeah, right,” he said with a laugh.
He entered his search engine and began an inquiry in his system where he was able to access the Fate Mountain Police Department databases and other police databases from around the country.
“Kelly Green said that Marvin Updike was the last person to see your mother,” Damien said.
“Yes. I can’t believe she knew all along.”
Damien did a search for the man’s name and came back with a shocking revelation.
“It looks like Marvin Updike was involved in a criminal investigation into his business during that same time. He was going to be indicted, but the charges were all dropped soon after,” he said, stroking his chin.
“Do you think my mother was somehow involved?”
“It’s quite possible. I’ve come to the conclusion that most coincidences are not very coincidental.”
“Can you find out more?” she asked.
“There wasn’t enough evidence to bring the case to trial. Which is odd because usually that’s the kind of thing that a judge would decide,” he said.
“What else can you find out about this Marvin Updike guy?” she asked.
“I’m not going to be able to find any specifics about the case because those files are locked, even to me,” he said.
“Oh, come now,” she said. “You can’t get into them?”
“I probably could, but it would be illegal,” he said. “But I do have another idea.”
“The random-probability generator,” she said, her eyes growing wide with delight.
“Exactly. I’m going to input all of the information that we have and all of the relationships that we know about. Then we will see what the drive comes back with. It can parse data far faster than a human being, and it will be able to find connections between your mother’s disappearance, Marvin Updike, and his criminal investigation.”
“How exactly does that work?” she asked.
“I thought you were a computer genius,” he mocked her.
“Corey Bright’s drive is above my pay grade,” she said, her tone a little defensive.
“To be honest, it’s above mine too. But I do have access to it, so let’s see what we can find out.”
10
Damien left the random-probability generator running while he packed a picnic lunch for them in the kitchen. Raven watched him as he put food into the picnic basket.
“Don’t you think it’s a little cold for a picnic?” she asked.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “This is the best time of year for a picnic.”
“But it’s freezing outside,” she protested.
“I know of a place that we can go to where it will be warm and cozy inside,” he said, raising his eyebrows at her suggestively.
She giggled and covered her lips with her fingertips. The whole morning with Damien had almost been like a dream. It was too good to be true. Having made love to him the night before and now with him helping her solve her mother’s disappearance, she couldn’t ask for anything better.
He put the last of the food into the picnic basket, and they walked out to the living room, where they put on their coats and then started out to the car. He helped her into the SUV and put the basket in the backseat.
On the drive up the mountain, they sang and laughed along with the radio. Raven marveled at the view out her window, as they slowly ascended Fate Mountain. A blanket of snow had covered the land in the last few days, but the sky was clear and blue this afternoon. Sunlight glinted off the snowy slopes that descended below them.
Sitting in the car with Damien, singing songs and laughing together, it felt as if she were living someone else’s life. A life she never would have imagined could ever be her reality. But now it was. This was definitely real. Damien was definitely real, and Raven was blissfully happy to be with him today and forever.
They turned off onto a side road off the highway and continued on for about a mile, their tires crunching over the fresh snow. Damien pulled up in front of a log cabin with a brick chimney and a quaint little front porch. It was so adorable that Raven couldn’t help but gush at its cuteness. They got out of the car with the picnic basket and went inside.
“Whose cabin is this?” she asked.
“It’s mine,” he said. “I use it for camping and hunting.”
“Do you use a gun, or do you hunt in bear form?” she asked with a giggle as he unlocked the front door.
“Both.”
They walked inside, and Raven took in the small space. It was a one-bedroom log cabin with open log beam walls, a comfortable couch facing the fireplace, and a small TV in the corner. Off to the side of the main room, there was a small kitchen with a full-size refrigerator and a small stove.
She walked to the back of the room and looked out the window at the view. What she saw made her gasp. The mountain valley swept out below the cabin, giving her a view of the entire expanse. She’d never seen anything so magnificent.
Raven stood in the window, gazing down at the beautiful rolling hills covered in evergreens touched with snow. Damien put a kettle on the stove and started to heat it up. He then went to the living room and built a fire in the fireplace that was quickly crackling and burning, radiating heat throughout the room. When the teakettle whistled, he poured them both a cup of tea, and they sat together next to the window in the kitchen with the picnic basket between them.
“I hope the soup is still hot,” he said.
He set the containers out in front of them and unwrapped the sandwiches from their coverings. Raven took a bite of her chicken noodle soup, and the warmth sank down into her belly, making her thaw out from the cold outside. The fireplace radiated heat throughout the small space, and it felt comfortable and cozy in no time.
“Is this how you romance all the girls?” she asked.
“I’ve never brought a woman here before.”
“Really? You don’t bring a lot of dates up to your hunting cabin?”
“The truth is, I haven’t had a lot of dates,” he said in a reluctant tone.
Raven’s heart went out to him. She hadn’t had a lot of dates either. In fact, she’d almost never had a date. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on one.
“If it makes you feel any better, my last date was with an avatar named Tech Bear Paladin,” she said.
“When you put it that way,” he said, reaching across the table.
He took her hand
in his, the warmth of his flesh heating her chilled fingers. It felt so good to be with him, she didn’t want anything to change. She didn’t want anything to get between them.
“The truth is that I brought you here because I wanted to ask you something,” he started. “Something very important.”
“What is it?” she asked, growing nervous.
He reached into his pocket with one hand and squeezed her hand with the other. Looking into her eyes, he revealed to her what he had pulled from his jacket. It was a little black velvet box. Raven gasped, putting her hand over her mouth.
“Raven Lucas,” he said, “will you be my wife?”
“Damien. You don’t know what you’re asking,” she said. “You don’t even know me.”
“You are my mate. You are the elf rogue I’ve known for seven years, Raven. Believe me, I know you. And I’m surer of this than anything I’ve ever been sure of. I want you to be my wife. Please say yes.”
“Yes,” she gasped as he opened the little box, revealing a big fat diamond ring inside.
Raven had never desired a big fat diamond ring, but the moment she saw it, she knew she wanted it. He lifted it out of the box and slid it on her finger. It fit perfectly, and tears began to stream down her face. She stood from her chair and went to him, falling into his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck. She kissed him hard on the mouth, and he squeezed her to him.
“I’m going to claim you now, Raven,” he growled.
All she could do was shake her head yes as he lifted her from the chair and carried her through the living room and into the tiny bedroom at the back of the cabin. There was a slight chill still in the air in the back room, but he drew back the patchwork quilt and tucked her underneath. They lay together in the warmth, kissing gently as their passions grew.
How could this be happening? This man who had been her friend for so long in the virtual world was here, and he was real, and he wanted her to be his wife. Raven had never conceived of such a thing.
Now that it was in front of her, the fear that she might lose it gripped her heart. She wanted only to stay in that moment. Damien kissed her and pulled her out of her clothes.
Soon they were naked and bare, kissing under the warm blankets. He pulled her on top of him, holding her hips in his hands as she kissed him from above. He slid her back, her body slick and ready. Damien pushed the head of his cock against her wet opening and slid inside.
She gasped and threw her head back, her long black braids cascading down her back. She groaned as he filled her. Raven sat up on Damien’s lap, running her hands over his muscled chest. She gazed down at him as his blue eyes looked up at her through his dark-framed glasses. He was so handsome and so unbelievably cute.
She leaned down and kissed him hard as he drew back his hips and thrust into her again. She groaned into his kiss as he ran his hands up her hips and over her back. Their mouths danced, their hearts beat in time, their bodies moved as one and merged with each other.
With a growl, he turned her onto her back and thrust harder. His sharp teeth grazed over the sensitive skin at the base of her neck. She could feel her heart beating hard. Damien licked the pulse point and smelled the scent of her flesh behind her ear.
“I need to make you mine,” he said.
“Yes. I want that. I want you to claim me. I want you to make me like you, Damien.”
“I can change you,” he said with a mixture of fear and desire in his voice.
“Yes. I want you to change me. Please, Damien. Make me yours. I need to know who I am,” she whimpered.
He didn’t need any more encouragement. He thrust into her, moving in the rolling waves as his teeth descended and pressed hard and sharply against her skin.
He growled, and she came, her pussy clenching over his rock-hard cock. His teeth bit through her neck as she screamed out. The clamping of his jaw cut off her voice, and all of a sudden, Raven was launched into the stratosphere. Her body throbbed and clenched as a cascade of fireworks exploded behind her eyelids.
She felt things that she’d never imagined. As he held her neck hard between his jaws, she felt the essence of Damien open up to her and mingle with her own being, deep in her belly, heart, and soul. They were becoming one, and at the same time, something new was being born inside her.
She could feel it awakening, soft and new and unformed. Damien wrapped her in his arms and held her close as his hips pumped and he released himself deep inside her core.
They held each other tightly, their bodies still throbbing, his teeth still deep inside her neck. Ever so slowly, he pulled away. His teeth slid from her neck, and his cock slid from her core. He licked the wound until it was miraculously healed and then rolled over to lie beside her. They held each other in the dim light of the cabin bedroom, their hearts pounding and their breath heavy. Raven was not quite sure what had just happened, but she knew that nothing would ever be the same.
“I can feel you so close to me now,” she whispered.
“And I you, my love,” he whispered into her hair.
Raven rolled over and hugged him tightly, smelling the scent of his body and feeling his big, masculine essence beside her. She felt so very close to him now, it was as if they had been part of each other all along, but only now could they really see it for what it was.
That immature little spark inside her, that seed that Damien had planted in the depths of her psyche, it was beginning to grow and flower.
It was her bear.
She could hear its soft growling as it emerged from the depths of her subconscious. Soon, it would be ready to emerge, and Raven would not only be bonded to a bear, but she would be one as well.
11
“Come on,” Damien said, reaching down to Raven as she lay in the bed.
She took his hand, the emotions still roiling around inside her. There were new depths of her self-awareness coming to the forefront. Corners of her mind that she had never even seen before. The infant of a bear inside her continued to grow moment by moment. Little growls and grunts could be heard at the back of her mind, deep inside her.
She took Damien’s hand and slid from under the blankets. Usually, it would have been cold, but now it didn’t seem quite as chilly in the cabin. Could it be her new shifter senses alleviating the cold?
“I’m going to take you outside,” he said. “And you can see what you’re really made of.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready,” she said.
“My elf rogue is always ready,” he teased, leading her out of the bedroom and through the living room of the cabin.
He opened the back door in the kitchen, and they stood looking out over the tiny back porch into the wilderness, which was covered in ice and a sheet of new snow. She shivered for the first time, her long black braids bristling around her shoulders. She hugged herself from the cold.
“You’re crazy,” she said. “I’m not going out in that.”
“Come on. Where is your sense of adventure?”
“My sense of adventure is just fine,” she said. “As is my sense of temperature.”
“You’re becoming a shifter. Every second that passes, you will feel the cold less and less. Believe me, once you’re in bear form, you will be perfectly warm.”
He led her out onto the porch, and the cold wood froze her bare feet. She clenched her jaw, and her teeth began to chatter.
“You better be right about this,” she warned teasingly.
“I know a lot about being a bear shifter,” he said. “I’ve been this way since the day I was born.”
“Okay, then,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “I trust you, Damien.”
He stopped the teasing for a moment and looked at her earnestly. Their eyes met, and the bond between them solidified. They trusted each other. She would follow him to the ends of the Earth.
Slowly, they stepped down the few stairs from the porch, and then they were on a grassy slope covered in a thin sheet of snow. The slope led into
a dense forest that spread out as far as the eye could see.
“How do I do this?” she asked. “Don’t I need a full moon or something?”
“That’s just an old myth. The full moon isn’t required to shift. Not even the first time. Although it is fun to run around in the forest under the full-moon light.”
“Then what do I do?” she asked, her teeth chattering violently.
“Just focus on that little spark of a bear that I planted inside you. Close your eyes, and let it become clearer and clearer. The more you focus on it, the more it will grow. And, when it’s ready, it will come out and transform you.”
She took another deep breath and closed her eyes tightly, letting her ragged breath out slowly through her cold lips. Damien wrapped his arms around her, fending off the chill with his warm body.
Raven focused on the growls and grunts of the little bear inside her. She could feel it and see it, hear it and sense it in every way. It was as if there was another personality, another part of herself that she had never seen before. It wasn’t quite completely new. It felt almost more as if it had been there all along, but she had never recognized it before. Damien’s bite had only brought it into manifestation, and now her attention was allowing it to grow clearer and more solid.
She saw the little bear inside her growing from a cub into a mature female grizzly, powerful and strong.
The primal urge of the animal within called out to her human soul. She wanted to break free. She wanted to no longer be restrained. She wanted to feel herself in relation to the world on a totally new level.
All those years living in foster care, not knowing who she was, not having a sense of self and feeling as if she were crazy to believe her mother had once loved her—all of that was slowly dissolving and transforming.
With a deep, full-bodied growl, Raven felt her bear emerging from within. The primal identity that had slept for so long burst forth, and all at once, her entire body shape-shifted. Her limbs grew, and fur covered her entire frame. With her eyes still shut, intense sharp pain sliced through her as her body transformed.
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