by Elena Aitken
Gabriella swiped at her wet eyes and sat up on the bed. There was no point feeling sorry for herself. She’d been strong enough to leave her home and flee to a strange place to start over; she was definitely strong enough to handle this. Just the way her abuela knew she would be. She wouldn’t let her grandmother down.
“Gabriella?”
A familiar voice called out. She froze. Her heart both stopped and increased its rhythm at the same time.
No. There was no way.
“Hola, Gabriella.” The singsong tone made her stomach turn. “I know you’re here.”
Carlos. He was getting closer.
How did he know where she was?
It didn’t matter.
He was there. In the Den. And she was alone.
Panic flashed through her. Her heart raced as she looked around the bare little room. There weren’t any windows, no weapons—nothing. She couldn’t stay there but the thought of opening the door and confronting him made her want to throw up.
There was no choice.
She moved quickly, opening the door and slipping out to the kitchen where at least there was an escape route. Or something to use as a weapon. Not that she planned to stick around. Coming face to face with Carlos wasn’t a good idea. She needed to get out before he found her. She glanced out the window. The snow had started to come down; the wind had picked up and swirled around the yard. It made her cold just to look outside. It was going to be a big storm, but staying inside was not going to be an option for much longer.
Gabriella could hear Carlos’s footsteps upstairs. He was going through the guest rooms, looking for her. He wouldn’t find anyone. There was no one there. Chloe and Luke wouldn’t be back until late and Harper and Axel were definitely not around. Of course, Kade might be in his cabin. He was probably in his cabin, but…it didn’t matter. She needed to get out and fast.
Her parka was in the main room, along with her boots, but there was no time to get them. She’d have to slip out the back in her flats and no jacket. It wasn’t ideal. It didn’t matter. She grabbed a paring knife out of the knife block and tucked it into her pocket. It was better than nothing. She had her hand on the handle, ready to brace herself against the snow when she heard a voice that caused her blood to run colder than the frigid February air outside.
“Amante.”
Lover. It was the nickname he had for her. It made her stomach turn over every time she heard it.
She shook her head but refused to turn around. She just needed to keep moving. Open the door and run.
“You’re a tricky one to track down, amante.”
“Don’t call me that.” She swallowed hard to keep her voice from shaking. Gabriella refused to let him affect her. “I am not your lover.”
“Ah…” He smiled and took a step toward her. “Don’t play hard to get.” He stepped even closer and she sidestepped out of the way, but it took her farther from the door. From her escape. “You know I’ll get you.”
A chill ran up Gabriella’s spine, her feet frozen to the spot. He wouldn’t get her. He wouldn’t. Not this time. With a burst of energy, Gabriella lunged forward and ducked behind the counter. He wouldn’t get her. He wouldn’t.
Carlos’s laugh echoed through the space, against the stainless-steel appliances and into her heart. “No, amante. Do not run. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Yes you do.” She clamped a hand over her mouth. She knew better than to fuel him. That’s all it did; any outburst from her only fueled him. But she couldn’t help it. He did want to hurt her. That’s why he was here.
Wasn’t it? She wasn’t stupid. She’d dealt with him enough to know that.
“Ahhh, amante. I love you. I don’t want to hurt you. I love you.”
“You don’t love me.”
Dammit. She bit her lip, hard. She needed to stop talking. It would be best if she just shut up and spent her time figuring out how to get out of there.
“Oh, but I do.” She could hear his footsteps move closer. She was definitely at a disadvantage, not being able to see him. A huge one. But she could hear him. She needed to keep him talking.
“How do you love me? How can you tell me that?”
He laughed again. The sound made her stomach turn. “If I didn’t love you, would I travel all this way to find you, amante? Would a man who did not care do that?”
Gabriella knew exactly what he wanted to hear. “No, Carlos.” It made her nauseous to say it, but she had to play his game. “Of course you love me. It’s a long journey. It was good of you to come.”
“Is it?”
He was playing with her. It was a game she could play. She’d been able to talk herself out of more than one situation. Only this time, she couldn’t afford to lose.
“Of course it is. How was the trip? Did it take you long?”
“Long?” He slammed his hand on the counter. “Did it take long?”
It was the wrong question.
“Yes, it took long. I didn’t know where the fuck you were, Gabriella. Did you know it takes infinitely longer to find a person when you don’t know where the fuck they are?” He came around the corner and delivered the last part of the sentence as he stood over her.
Menacing didn’t begin to describe him. She’d been afraid of the man for way too long. But not anymore. She refused to cower under his glare again.
She pushed herself up, using the counter to brace herself until she stood in front of him. It was the closest she’d been in months. The last time had resulted in bruises that had taken weeks to fade. Her fingers twitched at her side. This time she had a knife. If he touched her again, she’d kill him.
“But I did it, amante.” The sneer returned to his face. How could she have ever thought he was handsome? Where Kade was strong and rugged, Carlos was slick and small. He was taller than her, but not a large man by any standards, definitely not compared to the Jackson brothers she’d been surrounded by for the last few months.
“I looked high and low, and I found you.” He kept talking as he reached out to touch her cheek. She shuddered, but didn’t pull away the way every nerve in her body begged her to. She wasn’t stupid. She wouldn’t anger him. Not if she could help it. “Now it’s time for your little holiday to end, Gabriella. It’s time to come home.”
She ignored him. “How did you find me?”
“Instinct, Gabriella. We’re destined to be mates. You’re in my heart.” He took her hand and held it to his chest. “And I am in yours.” She skirted to the side before he could put his hand to her chest in turn.
It wasn’t instinct. They were not destined to be mates. Kade was her mate.
Kade.
Surely he’d sense her distress. He’d come for her.
But he’d rejected her and left. He was so confused, so clouded, would his instincts even be sharp enough to sense her? There was no way of knowing.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Yes, Gabriella.” He squeezed her hand to the point she couldn’t feel the tips of her fingers. “We are destined and we will be mated. Soon.”
“No.” She tried to pull her hand free. “You’re hurting my hand, Carlos.”
Instantly, he relaxed his grip, but didn’t let go. “It’s never been my intention to hurt you, Gabriella. You must know that?”
It was a line she’d heard before. It meant nothing. But it was something else he’d said that stuck with her. They would not be mated. And definitely not soon. If they mated, that would be it. She’d be locked to him. She’d have to return to Argentina. Her life would be over. She couldn’t let that happen. No matter what.
“We’ll leave at once,” Carlos said. “I’ve alerted your father that I’ve found you and he’s preparing for a small, but prompt ceremony when we arrive. Finally, amante, we will be mated.”
Her mind spun. “But you wanted a large ceremony,” she said. “The plans. The food, the guests. Everything. What about—”
“No.” He pressed a finger to her lips
. “We will be mated without festivity. You had your chance. Now it’s just a formality. Making it official so this type of thing never happens again.” His finger turned and he grabbed her cheek in a painful grip, pulling her lips forward as he spoke.
“If it’s just about the ritual, why wait?” A voice, both strangely familiar and at the same time completely new to her, spoke from somewhere behind Carlos. “From what I understand of your culture,” the voice continued, “all you need is the witness of an alpha from another clan to act as witness. I’ll be that witness.”
Gabriella strained her neck, both to get away from Carlos’s grip and also to see the mystery man, who was clearly no friend of hers.
“Good idea, Gordon.”
Gordon? Kade’s grandfather? No.
But she didn’t have time to react and she definitely didn’t have time to think. She only had time to act. And that’s exactly what she did. As soon as Carlos turned his back to her, Gabriella reached into her pocket, pulled out the knife and stabbed. The force of the impact sent a shock vibrating through her arm, but she didn’t have time to see where she hit him.
She turned and as fast as she could, ran out the door and out into the snow.
The wind was picking up and the sky grew darker by the minute. Although Kade should have been worried about heading back to the Den before it got worse, he just kept trudging along what he knew to be the path. Pushing himself farther in the knee-deep snow, he tucked his head down and kept moving. Luke had radioed him twenty minutes ago, right as he’d set out, to tell him they were all safe. With the building storm, he and Chloe had made the call to stop at the nearest shelter, which was Blackwood Ranch, about ten miles down the road from Grizzly Ridge. They were tucked in with the Blackwoods, a group of wolves who’d proved to be more ally than enemy over the months, and they’d be safe until morning.
Which meant Ella was on her own at the Den.
He should go back.
But he couldn’t.
Not until he did what he’d come out there to do.
What he needed to do. He needed to shift.
But he couldn’t.
It should be easy. It was natural. He’d been doing it all his life, shifting into his bear and running through the woods. It had never been difficult before. He’d never not been able to shift. Hell, he’d pushed his bear down for months; he should be more than ready to let his animal out.
He was blocked. But he wasn’t going back until he sorted it out. Ella had a story to tell, but he wasn’t going to be any good to her until he dealt with the wild animal inside him.
Kade.
“Ella?” He turned in the snow, searching the path around him, certain he’d heard her. Was she calling him? Was she in trouble? He squeezed his eyes shut, trying in vain to connect with her, but there was nothing. He couldn’t even sense her. He was so wildly disconnected from his bear that his instincts were off. And the connection he did have with Ella had only blurred things even more instead of fine-tuning it the way it should have done.
Kade dug the radio out of his pocket and held the button down, speaking loudly because of the wind. “Luke. Come in, Luke.”
It took a moment, but the radio crackled to life. “Kade? I’m here. Everything okay?”
“Ella.” It was the only word he could manage. Just saying her name conjured an image of distress. Something was wrong.
“Ella? What about her?”
Kade swallowed hard and pressed through. “I need you to check on her.”
“You’re not with her?”
“No.”
There was a moment of silence. “Where are you, Kade?”
He tried in vain again to pick up on Ella. “I need you to check on her,” he repeated. “Something’s wrong.”
“What’s going on, Kade?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. But something isn’t right.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m headed to the ridge.”
He pulled the collar of his jacket up higher around his face and kept walking. He needed to get to the ridge to set his bear free.
Kade.
Once again, he stopped in his tracks. The hair on the back of his neck bristled.
That was Ella.
Despite everything that had happened and continued to happen, he knew his mate. Ella needed him. He spun helplessly in the growing white-out. But where was she? Who was she with? What was wrong?
He once again pulled the radio to his mouth. “Luke, something’s wrong. Really wrong. I’m going to find her.”
The tension in his body grew. His heart raced. The heat of his own body was too much and he shucked his parka into the snowbank, followed by his shirt. He stood half naked in the blizzard, but his skin was on fire, his animal growing more and more agitated.
He stuck his nose into the air, but still he couldn’t get a read on her. He needed his bear. Now.
He shut his eyes, focused on the feeling of transforming, tried to channel every bit of his energy into his animal and…nothing.
“Dammit.”
It wasn’t working. But it could work. It had to. He was a grizzly, for God’s sake. He’d make it happen.
Ella.
That was it.
It was Ella. She was the key and despite everything, it didn’t matter. He wanted to be with her and his bear needed to be with her. And if anything happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself and that was why he was going to do exactly what he needed to do to protect his mate.
A roar ripped from his throat. The sound thundered through the forest despite the muffling snow. His core temperature rose to an almost intolerable level until finally, he felt the always familiar stretch and pull of his muscles as they shifted around him. He dropped the radio into the snow and lunged himself forward, throwing his body up and into the air at the exact moment his bear took over.
Chapter Thirteen
The snow bit into her feet, numbing her toes in only the first few steps, but she kept moving. She had to. As quickly as she could. Gabriella couldn’t even feel her feet by the time she found the snow-covered path that led to the cabins. But it didn’t matter. If it hadn’t been for the adrenaline flowing through her body, she might have felt the biting cold stinging her face, her bare arms, and every inch of exposed skin. But she didn’t. The only thing she could think of was….run. She needed to get as far away from Carlos and Gordon as possible. Hopefully the knife bought her enough time to get help.
But there was no help. Reflexively, she’d been running to Kade’s cabin. She’d been running to Kade. Despite whatever was going on between them, he’d help her. She knew it. She felt it.
But something was wrong. She couldn’t sense him nearby. It didn’t mean he wasn’t there, but…
Behind her, down by the Den, she heard a door slam. They were coming after her. And she had no doubt exactly what would happen when they caught her.
No. If they caught her.
And they wouldn’t. Her future, her safety…her life depended on getting away.
With one last glance toward Kade’s cabin, she veered to the right and the next instant, the familiar stretching of her muscles took over. She heard the tearing of her clothing as she shifted into her bear.
“What the—”
Gabriella couldn’t help but feel a small sense of satisfaction at Carlos’s reaction behind her. He’d never seen her shift into her bear before. As far as he was concerned, she hadn’t shifted since she was a girl, and then only in supervised situations. But she was definitely no stranger to her bear anymore, and that was absolutely working to her advantage as she headed into the woods, running as fast as she could in the deep snow.
Visibility decreased as the wind picked up. There was a bit more shelter in the trees, but with the thick cover on the ground, it was hard to see the obstacles that kept slowing her down. Gabriella stumbled on fallen logs, branches, and other debris hidden by the snow, but she had to believe the men would be slowed do
wn by the same things. She wasn’t totally sure where she was going, and had very little plan in place except to put as much distance between her and Carlos as possible. She definitely had an advantage from her almost nightly runs in the woods with the others. She was no longer a complete stranger to the trees and trails, and Carlos certainly wouldn’t know his way around.
Gordon might.
Grizzly Ridge, after all, had been part of his land once before he banished his grandsons to it. Gabriella had no idea whether that meant he’d spent any time there or not, but she couldn’t let herself think about it. Instinct told her to run to the Ridge and that’s exactly where she was headed. Once she got there, she’d be able to follow the line down into town. If she moved quickly, she’d hopefully be able to find somewhere warm to spend the night before she needed to shift back. Once she shifted back into her human form, she’d freeze even faster. She had to move quickly.
A roar behind her caused her stomach to tense. Carlos. The knife hadn’t slowed him down too much. He was in pursuit and he was pissed. She’d recognize that sound anywhere. It had once been accompanied with a punch or slap. But no more. Now, she’d only use the sound to fuel her.
Never again.
She wasn’t going back.
Gabriella channeled all her memories, fear, and anger into moving as fast as she could. She had a bit of a head start, but Gordon was a bigger, stronger bear. If he hadn’t had age working against him, there was no doubt he would have caught her right away. As it was, she was able to stay slightly ahead of him. But only slightly. When she broke through the tree line on the ridge, she didn’t feel the sense of relief she’d been counting on. Ahead of her, instead of the deep blue sky or star-filled night sky she was used to seeing on the ridge, all she saw was gray.
Up so high in a storm, the wind whipped the snow all around until finally Gabriella wasn’t even sure what direction she was facing. She turned but could no longer see the trees.
Where’s the ridge? She stopped and turned. Where are they? She couldn’t see them, but she knew they were close. They had to be.
In answer to her unasked question, there was a growl behind her. In reflex, she took a step forward, and realized at once exactly where the ridge was.
