Big Bear

by Scarlett Grove

  She thought about the day before at the gazebo. Keeping that image firmly in her mind helped her stay strong. She had to get back to him.

  9

  Angus texted Poppy first thing in the morning. He didn’t get a reply. Then he tried to call. It went straight to voicemail. He’d wanted to talk to her from the moment he was awake. He put his phone in his pocket and frowned. Her phone must be out of batteries. Maybe he would surprise her at the lodge with another bouquet of flowers. They could have breakfast together.

  The wedding was later that evening. He knew there would be a lot of activity going on over at the lodge, but he wanted to see Poppy and talk to her before then. He jumped in his pickup, drove right to the florist shop, and bought a dozen princess pink roses. When he got to the lodge, he went straight up to her room and knocked on the door.

  He waited for a few minutes, thinking maybe he’d caught her asleep. Then he knocked again. Still nothing. Maybe she’d already gone down to breakfast. He’d just join her there. He went back to the lobby and peered into the dining room.

  “Can I help you find someone?” asked Kelly, the human receptionist, from behind the reception desk.

  “Have you seen Poppy Robins? She’s staying here with her parrot.”

  “I saw her this morning. She took the back door out onto the grounds about half an hour ago. Haven’t seen her come back in.”

  “She’s probably walking one of the paths,” Angus said, thanking Kelly.

  He took the backdoor and walked down the main path that led to the cabins. It intersected with the path that led down to the lakeshore and the path that circled around through the woodland on the outer edge of the lodge property. He sniffed the air, trying to pick up her scent. He could smell it more thickly in the direction of the woodland path, so he hurried that way.

  As soon as he came under the cover of the forest, he could smell the sharp scent of Poppy’s adrenaline. There was gunpowder in the air and the scent of two other men. Someone had taken her. He could smell all three scents going up the path. He dropped the flowers and ran along the trail.

  At the end of the trail, he came to a dead end road. Poppy’s scent grew weak, but there was exhaust thick in the air. They’d driven off in a car. Now he had no way of finding her. This couldn’t be happening. Poppy was everything to him. Who would have taken her? Why was she in so much trouble? Humans didn’t just randomly kidnap women off of trails at gunpoint. Not usually. There had to be some kind of motive.

  Angus ran back to the lodge as fast as his human feet would go. He was at the backdoor within minutes, dialing Levi’s number. He didn’t want to interrupt his alpha at such an important moment, but Angus’s mate had been kidnapped. This couldn’t wait.

  Levi’s phone rang, but he didn’t answer. It went to voicemail. Angus left a message, asking him to call him right back. He growled, angry that he couldn’t get ahold of anyone that day. He passed Kelly without stopping when she asked if he’d found Poppy.

  Angus went straight through the dining room and pushed open the doors to the kitchen, looking for Shane. He had to be here on Levi’s wedding day, at least to oversee the other cooks. If he wasn’t, Angus would just go down to his cabin and wake him up. He needed Wild Bear’s senses right now if he couldn’t get Levi’s leadership.

  Shane was standing in the middle of the kitchen with his arms crossed over his chest, looking down at a pot of sauce with a frown on his face. The cook standing on the other side of the stainless steel prep table looked like he might piss himself. Shane sniffed and looked over at Angus.

  “What are you doing in my kitchen, Big Bear?” Shane asked.

  “I need your help,” Angus said.

  “I’m busy preparing for the wedding. What is it?”

  “Poppy is missing. I think she was kidnapped.”

  Shane pulled off his chef coat and grabbed his leather biker jacket from the break room.

  “Show me,” Shane said, before turning back to his crew. “You know what to do. Don’t screw it up.”

  He followed Angus out the back door of the kitchen, and they ran up the path to where he’d lost Poppy’s scent. Shane sniffed he air and frowned.

  “I can get a much better sense in bear form,” Shane said.

  “I know. Go ahead and shift. I won’t tell anyone.”

  “There’s human homes along this street. But I don’t care if you don’t.”

  Shane started to peel out of his clothes. “I’m not ripping my jacket,” he said, handing it to Angus.

  Angus held Shane’s clothes and watched his friend shift in front of him. Shane’s grizzly sniffed the air, tasting it with his tongue. When Shane grunted and started to trot down the road, Angus followed along, holding his clothes. They continued until the road came out onto the highway.

  Shane sniffed one way, then the other. When he came back to Angus, he shifted. Standing naked at the edge of town. Angus noticed Shane had a deep scratch mark across his chest, scarring over his tattoos.

  “What happened to your chest?” Angus asked, handing Shane his clothes.

  “Lily marked me,” Shane said, slipping back into them. “The van went east. That’s as much as I can say. The scent will be much weaker at highway speeds. Do you know why someone would want to kidnap her?” Shane asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  “Call Corey. He can probably find something with his computer wizardry.”

  Angus called Corey and explained everything. Corey was intrigued and started researching Poppy’s background before Angus even got off the phone with him. Angus wasn’t too sure how he felt about all that, but clues might help them find her more quickly.

  Just as they made it back to the lodge, Angus’s phone rang. It was Levi. Angus answered quickly, and Levi asked him what was so urgent.

  “Poppy’s been kidnapped.”

  “How do you know she was kidnapped?” Levi asked, skeptical.

  “I scented it on the trail leading through the woodland. There was the smell of gunpowder, Poppy’s adrenaline, and two other men. Shane scented her in a car going east along the highway from the road that dead ends at the trail. Corey is trying to find out why someone might kidnap a bookkeeper. We have to find her. Now.”

  “We’re going to have to call the cops in on this one,” Levi said. “We don’t do criminals.”

  Most of the cops on Fate Mountain were shifters. They wouldn’t have a problem with the rescue crew’s methods. Angus got off the phone with Levi and called the Fate Mountain police department, asking for the chief who he knew was a shifter. After Angus reported what he knew, he told the chief to contact Corey, who was doing a background search on Poppy.

  “There’s no telling where they took her,” the chief said. “We’ll get the helicopter out to search east of Fate Mountain Village.”

  When Angus was done talking with the police chief, Levi came down to join him in the kitchen. Shane was back at work. Angus was pacing back and forth with a forgotten cup of cold coffee in his hand.

  “Let’s go look in her room,” Levi said.

  Angus and Levi went up to Poppy’s room and Levi opened the door. As soon as the door opened, Poppy’s bird Malcolm came flying out over them. The yellow parrot flew down the hallway and flapped into the elevator right as the doors closed behind it.

  Angus and Levi looked at each other, wide eyed.

  “That was a Fate Mountain Lodge first,” Levi said.

  “Just wait. You haven’t owned this place long,” Angus said.

  They walked into the room and saw a laptop sitting open with QuickBooks on the screen. Angus sniffed the room, but all he got was Poppy’s scent and the smell of her bird.

  “I don’t think there’s anything here,” Angus said. “We better go find that parrot.”

  When they got back down to the lobby, everyone was standing around shocked.

  “What happened to the bird?” Levi asked Kelly.

  Tourists and wedding guests stood there with their mou
ths open wide.

  “He flew right through the lobby and down the hall to the atrium,” Kelly explained.

  Levi growled. Wedding preparations were taking place all around. “I haven’t told Juliet about Poppy being missing yet,” Levi admitted as they passed the staff carrying chairs into the atrium for the ceremony that evening.

  Malcolm swooped above them. “Poppy!” he squawked, flying back and forth between palm trees.

  “How are we supposed to get him down?” Angus asked.

  “I have no idea. I’m not a bird wrangler. We’ll have to wait until Poppy gets back, and she can call him down.”

  “Poppy!” Malcolm squawked.

  “Juliet will not be thrilled about this when she sees it,” Levi said, shaking his head.

  Angus’s phone rang. It was Corey.

  “I found out that the company Poppy works for is under investigation by the district attorney’s office. I’m digging deep into their banking records. They’re connected to banks in enemy territories. One in particular is closely associated with arms dealing.”

  “You think they are dealing in illegal weapons with the enemy?” Angus asked.

  “I’m investigating it further.”

  “Why would they have Poppy doing their books? Do you think she’s in on it?”

  “There’s nothing in her background to indicate any predisposition for crime or connection to crime. Sometimes companies like this employ people who aren’t associated with the criminal activity to make them seem innocent. A bookkeeper is a perfect shill.”

  “They’ve been using her,” Angus growled. “She must have found something on them. Now they want to hurt her.”

  “I’d agree. I gave all this information to the chief of police.”

  “He’s sending out a helicopter. I want to be on it so I can take out those pieces of shit who took my mate.”

  Angus hung up the phone and turned out of the kitchen, dropping the full cup of coffee in a bus tub. He stormed out the door and jumped in his pickup. In a few minutes, he was at the front of the hangar where the police had their helicopter.

  He walked up to the guys getting ready to go out and told them he wanted to go. The cops invited Angus onto the helicopter without a second thought.

  10

  Poppy struggled up the path. Ivor and Boris pushed her along, yanking her with their brutish hands. She had a hard time breathing with the gag over her mouth, and she was beginning to get dizzy. They came up to a steep switchback. The water coming down the hill created a fast stream of deep mud. Boris looked at the mudslide and took a cigarette out of his pocket. He lit the cigarette and looked at Ivor with a shrug.

  “Maybe we do it now and throw her in the mudslide,” Boris said, taking a puff of his cigarette.

  Suddenly, a tide of black mud gushed down the hill. With a massive crack, the entire path fell away under them. Poppy screamed, falling in the wet current of dark mud and rocks. She could barely breathe. Her eyes were clenched closed as she came tumbling down the mountain. She fell face first into a pile of goo. Her nose was stuffed with mud, but one of her hands had been torn free from the rope on the fall down the hill. She pushed the gag away and took a huge gulp of air.

  She scrubbed her hand over her eyes, trying to push away the gunk. Blinking, she looked out on the foggy world, feeling around for her glasses. After several long pants of breath, patting around in front of her, she found her glasses. She scrubbed them off and pushed them on her face. One of the lenses was cracked and they were smeared with mud.

  She looked around. Boris and Ivor were nowhere to be seen. She scrambled to her feet and pulled herself out of the mud. She had no idea where she was. All she knew was that she needed to get the hell out of there.

  She’d fallen a long way from the trail. There was no way back up. Poppy was in a forest with short trees and dense underbrush. She pushed her way through the leafy bushes, and they slapped over her drenched clothes.

  Stumbling along, she tried to focus on going one direction. As long as she went in one direction, she was less likely to get lost. That was her rationale, anyway. She had to tell herself something to keep going.

  She’d just been kidnapped and had been swept up in a mudslide. The men who’d kidnapped her were still out there somewhere, intent on killing her and leaving her body to rot alone in the woods. Poppy had to get back to Angus. That was all that made sense to her. If she kept going, everything would be all right in the end. She’d waited a long time for love and she wouldn’t give up on it now.

  Poppy came to a tree line and stepped out onto the edge of a ravine. She couldn’t keep going the same direction unless she crossed the ravine. She looked in both directions, trying to figure out how to get across. The land sloped up over the ravine to the right. She just had to cross around a tangled mess of decaying old tree trunks and dense brush growing up all around it.

  As she doubled back down the path, she saw Boris and Ivor struggling through a tangle of bushes. She darted toward the ravine crossing and pushed her way through reedy trees to get over the ravine. When she got to the other side, it was clearer. The trees were taller, and she could see further ahead on the forest floor.

  She started to run, trotting under the boughs of the evergreens. Poppy didn’t stop running until she came to a rock outcropping where she was able to hide. She huddled in the shallow cave where it was slightly dry. Poppy had heated up from the run, but her clothes were still damp from the mudslide. The entire forest was wet. There was no way to get warm.

  Boris and Ivor were still after her. The only way to keep herself warm was to walk. She had to keep going. Poppy picked herself up from the cave and pushed herself on into the forest. The fir trees were taller and wider here. She held herself around the waist and breathed with each step she took. Angus was a Rescue Bear. He had to find her. He’d know she was missing. Somehow. She just knew it. Poppy had to stay strong to get back to him. Angus had been waiting for a mate as long as she had. He wanted her in ways Poppy couldn’t even comprehend. She warmed at the thought of Angus’s primal power.

  He would come for her. She just kept thinking that over and over again. They said the link between mates was strong. Angus hadn’t marked her, and they weren’t mated. He hadn’t turned her, like it sometimes happened with shifter couples. They weren’t supposed to have that primal link that came with those bonds. But Poppy still felt it. She’d felt that connection with him from the moment they’d met.

  She continued through the tall trees, coming to a narrow stream spilling through the forest. She jumped the stream, but her left foot came short and dunked into the water. She scrambled up the other side, but her shoe was wet again. She sat and took a moment to wring out her shoe.

  When she stood up again, she saw Ivor and Boris struggling through the trees. She ducked behind a bush and waited for them to turn the other direction before she ran along a deer trail. She had to lose these guys once and for all.

  Poppy was running out of juice. Her side hurt and she was tired. Each step was like agony, but she had to keep going. Angus would come for her. She knew it.

  11

  Angus and the helicopter flew over the forest east of Fate Mountain Village. They spotted a van at a secluded parking lot at a high elevation. It was still pretty cold up there. There were patches of snow on the ground and a lot of loose soil and mudslides. It was dangerous territory, where the rescue crew had rescued more than one missing hiker in the past month.

  The helicopter rose up over the rise along the path. There was a giant mudslide that took out a big portion of the trail. Angus directed the helicopter pilot down the hill. That mudslide would take out anyone, and they hadn’t seen any indication of hikers along the path. Moving down over the mudslide, they continued in that direction over the mountain.

  Angus spotted movement below. Praying it was Poppy, he directed the helicopter to take a closer look. They circled in, and Angus could see that it wasn’t Poppy. It was two men. He knew in his gut
that these men were the ones who had taken her. Why the hell else were they out here? They weren’t dressed like hikers. They were wearing wool coats that looked more at home downtown.

  “I’m going down,” Angus said.

  “Two go in,” the pilot said. “We’ll keep searching for the woman.”

  Angus was paired with a human cop who looked capable enough. They repelled down from the helicopter and landed on the rocky ground. The helicopter took off over the mountain, and Angus sniffed the air. Those men had to be around here somewhere.

  He and the cop continued through the underbrush, in the location where he’d seen the men. Angus drew his weapon. A pistol he’d had in the glove compartment of his truck. He’d tucked it in the back of his jeans before he’d gotten on the helicopter.

  “Where did you get that?” the cop asked.

  “It’s registered.”

  “Don’t kill anyone. I don’t need the paperwork.”

  “I just want to find my mate. That’s all I care about.”

  “They’ll know we’re coming. I’m sure they saw the helicopter.”

  “You’re right. They’ll be ready for us.”

  “Maybe we should split up,” the cop said. “Take them by surprise.”

  “Good idea.”

  The cop went off in the other direction, climbing through the forest. Angus was fine with him leaving. He’d rather do this on his own. But since this was a legal matter, there had to be a cop here. Most police departments wouldn’t have even let him come. But the chief was a shifter, and this was about Angus’s mate.

  Still, he didn’t like the cop’s attitude. Angus had served his country for four years during the most brutal ground war in a century. Humans against shifters. Shifters against shifters. It had been a bloodbath. He’d been a special forces officer. He knew how to use a handgun. He’d be damned if he’d stand by and wait for someone else to find his mate.