Mate Bond

by Jennifer Ashley

  Ryan raised his hands, looking pained. “All right, all right. Don’t have a cow, Mom.”

  “Moo,” Kenzie said, frowning at him.

  She unfolded herself from her chair, setting down the empty soup bowl, and caught Ryan in a rough hug, ruffling his hair. Nothing that would make him look weak in the eyes of Cade and Jamie, but enough that her closeness would ease his fears.

  Bowman always felt a touch of envy for other Shifters, whose cubs climbed all over them—Ryan was always conscious of his position as the alpha’s first cub and liked his dignity. He’d run the pack one day, and everyone knew it.

  The way pack leaders in the wild had been replaced by their offspring had been a father-son fight to the death. But a few years ago in the Austin Shiftertown, the leader, Dylan Morrissey, had defied convention by stepping down and retiring, letting his son, Liam, take over. No deaths necessary.

  The handoff hadn’t been as simple as that, from what Bowman had heard, but they’d all pretended it had. The Morrisseys had set a new precedent—sons didn’t need to kill their fathers.

  Even so, there would come a time when Ryan and Bowman went at it, and both Ryan and Bowman knew it.

  Not now, though. Ryan was still a cub—the little wolf he became was adorable—and it might be another hundred or so years before there was need for confrontation. And hell, whatever that thing in the woods was might kill them all in the next week.

  “Out,” Bowman said. “Ryan, stay here. Someone needs to protect me while I’m healing.”

  Ryan stood up from Kenzie’s embrace, surreptitiously wiping his eyes. “Yeah, that’s true. Don’t worry, Dad. I got your back.”

  Kenzie ruffled Ryan’s hair again as Cade and Jamie left the room—Cade with the slow, long strides of a bear, Jamie with the lightning-quick moves of the fastest wildcat on earth.

  Kenzie gave Bowman a long look, golden sparks smoldering deep in her eyes. Kenzie needed him, and he needed her, their mating frenzy always close to the surface. Healing would speed with Kenzie in his bed, and both of them knew it.

  “Go,” Bowman said, his voice softer. “I need you out there, Kenz.”

  “I know.”

  Her look spoke of promise for later. Any other day, Bowman would reach out, latch his hand around her wrist, and tug her down to him. But he was lying here, injured and out of it, and Kenzie had to go. He meant it when he said he needed her to watch the others.

  Kenzie smiled at him briefly, gave a more brilliant smile to Ryan, and left the room.

  Bowman knew when she walked out the front door, because their little house seemed suddenly emptier.

  Ryan stood a bit forlornly in the middle of the room. He still didn’t want to admit to fear, but Bowman again sensed his need for reassurance. It was tough being a cub, and tough being the only cub of the leader. Bowman remembered that well from his own childhood.

  “Come on up here,” Bowman said, patting the bed beside him. “I’m going to fall asleep, and I need you to be on guard.”

  Ryan didn’t hesitate to kick off his shoes and climb upon the bed. He immediately snuggled down into his father, and Bowman let his arms come around him.

  Bowman needed the reassurance too, he realized as he started to relax. Just having his son next to him made him feel better.

  Knowing he was responsible for the small lad who warmed his side scared the shit out of Bowman, but father and son drifted off to sleep for now, each of them comforted by the other.

  * * *

  Kenzie wanted to be anywhere but back in the woods near the roadhouse, but she sniffed around in her wolf form without fuss, pretending not to be worried.

  The world out here was transformed by daylight. What had been blackness and strange shapes last night were now soft and kissed with sunshine. The woods weren’t as dense here as they were nearer to Shiftertown—sunlight reached the forest floor, illuminating undergrowth, mud, and the trampled footprints of what looked like every Shifter in Shiftertown.

  They’d been tracking all morning, and now the woods was crisscrossed with wolf, wildcat, and bear tracks. Somewhere in the mess must lie the tracks of the monster that had attacked, but so far, no sign of them had been found.

  After a thorough search Kenzie returned to human form again and stood, clothed, her hands on her hips, surveying the scene. When she’d arrived this morning she’d thought tracking as Shifter would speed the search along, but they’d gone over this place with noses to the ground for hours, and found nothing.

  “You’d think something that stunk like that would be easier to locate,” Jamie said beside her. He was on his two human feet, but naked, having just shifted.

  Interesting that while Jamie had a tall body replete with muscle, tatts on his lower back and arms, and eyes of green flecked with gold, he never stirred a heartbeat in Kenzie. Not because he was Feline—she’d grown used to living with different species in the last twenty years, and had even gone out with a Feline for a while. No, she’d never looked twice at Jamie, because her mind and her heart were filled with Bowman.

  “I’m realizing we’re not going to find it by thinking like Shifters,” Kenzie said. “We have to think like humans for this one.”

  Jamie’s frown deepened. “What does that mean?”

  “The thing wasn’t . . . right, was it?” Kenzie asked. “Not really an animal.”

  “No? If you’re implying it was some kind of machine, you’re wrong.”

  “Not a machine, no. Different smell.”

  “Then what the hell are you talking about?”

  Kenzie waited, sensing Jamie’s impatience. She was Bowman’s voice while he was down, but she was aware that the Shifters acted differently with her. Bowman was injured. Kenzie wasn’t Bowman. Her awareness of their awareness made her skin prickle.

  “I’m talking about not running around like crazy, leaving scents all over the woods,” Kenzie said. “We need to think.”

  “Fine, then,” Jamie growled. “Think about what?”

  “How it could have disappeared.” Kenzie turned in place, her gaze taking in the space between the trees and the mud and undergrowth around them. “How do things disappear?”

  “Mostly Cade eats them,” Jamie said, his irritation dissolving into a big cat chuckle. He had lightning-swift changes of mood, a bit like Bowman. “People disappear because they run, they hide, they get lost, or someone takes them away.”

  “Exactly.” Kenzie remained still, letting her gaze rove the woods, looking with her human brain instead of her wolf’s. “Someone takes them away. There,” she finished, pointing.

  There was a cluster of trees next to a deer feeder, a wooden trough that provided nibbles for deer in deep winter. Kenzie started for it, her feet squelching through mud. Jamie heaved a sigh and came after her. He wouldn’t disobey, not blatantly, but he didn’t have to like her decisions.

  Cade saw them and came loping over in his bear form. His eyes narrowed as he clearly wondered what they were up to, but he fell into step with Kenzie.

  No scent came to her at the feeder except that of deer who’d ventured there a few days ago and the metallic odor of car exhaust. Kenzie moved past the feeder and around the clump of trees. On the other side of the trees, a hill led down to a ditch with an inch or so of water in it, trickling from the thaw this morning. January could be cold and then suddenly give them mild days in the high fifties and up. Today would be one of the balmy ones.

  Across the ditch were thinner trees—deciduous, rather than the old-growth pines around her. Beyond that, a road.

  The road was paved, one of the tiny forest roads that crossed back here. Tracks of a truck with deep-tread tires had sunk through the mud on the side of it. A big truck, by the looks of it.

  Jamie followed her, jumping the ditch with his long-legged stride. Cade remained a bear. No human was around to worry that a woman, a naked man, and a grizzly walked out of the woods together, so they didn’t bother to hide. Like the start of a bad joke, Kenzie though
t with grim humor.

  “So that’s the answer?” Jamie said skeptically. “The monster caught a ride?”

  Kenzie wrinkled her nose. The smell of truck dominated, but over it, she caught a tang of the creature. Cade must have caught it too, because he rose on his hind legs and growled.

  “Yes,” Kenzie said. “Truck was waiting here, monster got into truck, truck drove off.”

  “Must have been a fucking big truck,” Jamie said.

  “Eighteen-wheeler,” Kenzie observed. She looked down the curve of the narrow road. “Had to be tough to drive it back here, but whoever it was did it.”

  Cade sat down on his haunches, growling up a storm. Kenzie didn’t know exactly what he was saying, but she got the gist. He was right—this was creepy.

  “You’re saying someone put that weird Shifter thing together?” Jamie asked Kenzie.

  “Or found it and tamed it.”

  “Tamed it? Did you see what it did to Bowman? And to Cade’s truck?”

  Cade’s growl grew louder, the look in his eyes murderous. No doubt about what he was saying now.

  “Tamed it,” Kenzie answered. “How else would they have gotten it to a designated area and into the back of a truck?”

  “Shit,” Jamie said softly.

  The three of them stood looking down the road. Eventually that road would lead to a highway, which in turn would lead to highways and freeways connecting every city in the state, and then every state in the country. A big truck with plenty of fuel could be many miles away by now.

  “Yep,” Kenzie answered.

  They gazed at the empty road and peaceful woods on either side before they turned around without speaking and made for the roadhouse again. Time to report to Bowman.

  Kenzie rounded up the other Shifters who were hunting through the woods, and they all walked or bounded back to the roadhouse, where the Shifters had left their vehicles.

  When they reached the parking lot, however, they found police cars surrounding it. The cars blocked the way to the Shifters’ bikes and trucks, and uniformed police were everywhere.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Cade ducked back into the woods. Jamie said, “Shit,” and slid out of sight as well. He’d left his clothes on Kenzie’s motorcycle, which was in the lot, and human cops loved to arrest Shifters for public nudity.

  Kenzie walked forward. Her cousin Bianca and Bianca’s boyfriend, Marcus, who were already dressed, came with her.

  One of the cops broke off from the others and strolled to them, not in a hurry. He wore a black uniform, still clean despite the mud and melting ice, had black hair buzzed short, and wore sunglasses against the glare of the winter sunshine. His badge glinted as bright as the sunlight, as did the rims of the glasses when he removed them to reveal eyes of deep brown. His name tag read “Ramirez.” He looked Native American, or as though at least one parent had been.

  He approached Marcus first—humans tended to think the males were in charge of whatever Shifter thing was going on, and in the humans’ defense, usually they weren’t wrong. Kenzie stepped in front of Marcus, who conceded to her without getting pissed off about it. He flanked Kenzie on the right, with Bianca on her left, the three of them facing the cop.

  Kenzie met the man’s gaze without flinching, and he immediately understood that Kenzie was in charge. He flicked a glance over the other two before returning to look into Kenzie’s eyes.

  “What are you doing out here?” he asked in a mild voice. “How many more of you are around?” He indicated the number of motorcycles and small pickups in the lot.

  “A few,” Kenzie said. “We came for a run. The woods are quiet this time of day.”

  “Uh-huh.” Ramirez’s skepticism was obvious. He had a roundish face, his high forehead emphasized by his short haircut. His eyes held all kinds of depths, and the strength in them rivaled that in any Shifter’s. He was well-built, obviously working out for his job, and wore a holstered black pistol, though Kenzie didn’t know what kind. Like most Shifters, she knew damn all about guns.

  “Yeah.” Kenzie folded her arms and looked right back at him, but softened her word with a little smile.

  “Wouldn’t have anything to do with the disturbance here last night, would it?” Ramirez asked. “The big fight? The damage to the bar? The crazed monster the dead-drunk patrons reported to police this morning? One of the people here told me to talk to Kenzie O’Donnell, who’d know all about it. That’s you, isn’t it?”

  Kenzie gave him a nod. “That’s me.”

  “Then come inside,” Ramirez said. “Let’s talk.”

  He didn’t mean in the still-closed bar. He meant in his patrol car, marked as from the nearby town of Marshall.

  Jamie and Cade emerged from the woods, both in their animal forms, as Ramirez opened the door to usher Kenzie into the front seat of his car. He closed the door and went around to the driver’s side to get in. He moved the small computer screen attached to his dashboard so Kenzie couldn’t see it, then settled in and looked at her.

  At the edge of the woods, Cade and Jamie stood tense. Kenzie gave them the slightest shake of her head, indicating they were to watch, but to do nothing unless she signaled.

  “You don’t have to be afraid of me,” Ramirez said, glancing at the bear and wolf, then back at Kenzie. “I really just want to talk.” His voice carried a rumble of strength and a hint of darkness. His lashes were jet black, matching his hair.

  Kenzie had been thinking she should assure Ramirez he didn’t have to be afraid of her. She wouldn’t be stupid enough to attack and kill a human police officer in his own patrol car, but she could do it if she had to. She could grab him mid-change and claw out his throat before he had the chance to unholster his weapon.

  Ramirez rested his hands on the wheel. “Tell me what happened here last night.”

  His scent gave off confidence and the fact that he liked coffee. It wasn’t a bad scent, though Kenzie didn’t always like how humans smelled.

  She shrugged. “What’s to tell?”

  Ramirez gave her a patient look. “I know what I’ve heard, and I’ve heard plenty. But the people who reported the fight were drunk or high, or both. I want the story from someone who wasn’t hysterical.”

  Kenzie had to smile. No one had ever accused her of being hysterical. “If you want the truth, I don’t know what all happened. This thing came out of the woods and attacked the bar. I led a counterattack, but we couldn’t make much of a dent in it. It only ran off when my mate drove into it with a truck.”

  Ramirez listened, dark eyes on her. He didn’t make any notes or tap things on the computer. He simply sat, his hands on the wheel, and watched her.

  “Your mate,” he repeated. “That’s like your husband, right?” He wasn’t being sarcastic or derogatory; he simply wanted to know.

  “Something like that. He was hurt, but the rest of us got away with only superficial injuries. We were lucky.”

  “Your mate is all right? Did he go to a hospital?”

  “To an urgent care place. He broke his leg; they splinted it. Now he’s home. Shifters heal fast, and hospitals don’t always make a difference. He’s resting.”

  “What’s his name?”

  Kenzie didn’t like all the questions, but she had no reason to lie. He could look up Kenzie O’Donnell and find out her mate’s name.

  “Bowman,” she said. “He’s Shiftertown leader.”

  “I’ve heard of him.” Again, he was acknowledging information, not disparaging her. “You sure he’s all right?”

  “So far.” Kenzie’s heart skipped a beat. She’d never seen Bowman badly hurt before, with a pallor on his hard face, shadows under his eyes. He’d kept up his snarling for the benefit of Cade and Jamie, but Kenzie had known he’d been in profound pain.

  “What kind of animal was it that attacked you?” Ramirez asked. “What did you see?”

  Kenzie shivered. She’d been doing her best not to think about it. Tracking the monster was one thing�
�she could do that clinically. Remembering every detail was something else.

  “It was horrible,” she said in a soft voice. “Like a mishmash of a bunch of things.”

  Ramirez came alert without moving. Shifters could do that, suddenly grow watchful and ready to spring without betraying it. Ramirez didn’t have a drop of Shifter blood in him, though. Kenzie would have scented it if he had.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “The truth is, I have no freaking clue what it was. Big. Ugly. Like an animal, but not real. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

  “So, not a Shifter.”

  Kenzie shook her head. “No Shifter I’ve ever seen. And trust me, I’ve seen a lot of Shifters. More than I ever wanted to.”

  Ramirez’s dark brows lifted. “But you’re Shifter.”

  “Doesn’t mean I love every Shifter in the universe. Some of them can be unbelievable pains in the ass. I’m Lupine, which means Felines seriously drive me crazy. When I lived in Romania, in the wild, I stuck to my family and clan and didn’t see a lot of different species. Never met any Felines or bears until I was moved to the States and into this Shiftertown.” Kenzie closed her mouth, wondering why she was saying all this to a human. Though she wasn’t telling him anything he couldn’t look up on the Internet.

  “Mmm hmm.” Ramirez made the universal noise of someone showing they were listening. “This animal wasn’t any of those?”

  “No. Like I said, I don’t know what it was.”

  “Where is it now?”

  Kenzie held her hands palms up. “No clue. We came back here today to track it—you have to have guessed that was what we were doing. We found nothing. It disappeared.”

  “Disappeared?” he asked sharply. “How?”

  Kenzie saw no reason not to tell him her theory about a truck and the evidence they’d found of one resting on the side of the road. Ramirez gazed out over the woods as she spoke, his patrollers uneasily wandering the grounds, the Shifters watching them in return. Jamie and Cade had their eyes on the car— Kenzie knew they could be with her in two seconds flat if she needed them.