But hadn’t she already thrown herself at Carter?
Her face heated as she remembered how she had behaved around with him and what she had done with him. For a girl who was treading carefully, she hadn’t put up much resistance. Hell, she hadn’t put up any resistance at all. She had initiated their sexual encounter in the woods by telling Carter to not bother getting dressed.
Her phone began to ring in her pocket. She pulled it out and looked at the screen. It was Jake. She tossed the phone on the bed, unanswered. She couldn’t talk to anyone right now.
When the ringing stopped, the phone dinged to tell her she had a voice message. She would listen to it later.
The phone rang again.
It was Jake again.
Didn’t he realize that if she didn’t answer, she didn’t want to talk to him? She turned off the phone.
Now the only noise in the darkened room was the sound of the news channel on TV. The volume was low enough that it didn’t bother her.
She looked over at the screen and saw something that made her blood run cold in her veins.
On the screen, a dark-haired woman was talking to the studio camera. Filling the screen behind her was the photo that Mia had taken of the rogue wolf in the alley. Along the bottom of the screen, a banner read: Werewolves in America?
Mia scrambled for the remote and pressed her thumb on the volume button, turning it all the way up. Her mind was numb. How had they got their hands on her picture? What the hell was happening?
As the volume reached a level where she could hear the presenter, the woman was saying, “…this picture which was taken by a reporter at an unknown location shows what many might call a werewolf. Most people would say that such a thing must be a hoax but sources close to this studio have verified this photo as genuine.
“The source also told this station that the picture came from Jake Simpson, a freelance cameraman from Washington. Our Rob Dowling visited Mr Simpson to get an interview, and you can see for yourself what happened.”
A video began to play. It showed Rob Dowling, blonde, tall and impeccable dressed in a suit and tie approach a building that Mia knew was Jake’s house. He knocked on the door and Jake answered.
“Mr Simpson,” Dowling began, holding his microphone toward Jake’s face, “What can you tell us about the werewolf photograph that has been verified as a genuine picture of a previously unknown creature. Our sources at the photo lab tell us that it came from you. Could you elaborate on how and where you got this photo?”
Jake looked shocked. “What? What photo?” was all he managed to say.
“This photo, Sir,” Dowling said, holding up a printed copy of the werewolf photo to show Jake.
The color drained from Jake’s face. “No,” he said. “Where did you get that? You shouldn’t have that.” He reached for the photo but Dowling stepped back and kept it out of his reach.
Turning back to the camera, Dowling grinned and said, “We understand that Mr Simpson usually works with a journalist named Mia King. We’re trying to find out if it was Miss King who took this photo and, if so, where she is now. I’m sure she’ll want to come and tell the story behind this incredible picture that has been verified as an authentic photograph of a wolf-like creature. Back to you in the studio, Jane.”
The image flicked back to the studio and Jane moved on to another story.
Mia felt ill. Despite the fact that the story was huge, she had decided to keep the story of Belladonna Falls a secret for the sake of the town and Carter but now the picture had been leaked anyway.
She wondered if Carter had seen the news story and decided he probably hadn’t yet. Cole and Dani were at his house so he was probably talking with them, not watching TV.
She got up off the bed, deciding that it was best if she told Carter herself about the photo and the leak to the media. It would be better if he heard it from her. If he saw it on TV, he might think that Mia had released the photo on purpose, and it would break Mia’s heart if Carter thought she had betrayed his trust like that.
She turned on her phone to find eight missed calls from Jake and another voicemail. Well at least now she knew why he was calling.
Instead of listening to the messages, she called the taxi company and told them she wanted a taxi to take her to Carter McClintock’s house. Yes, that was where they had picked her up from earlier and yes she was returning there. They knew the hotel she was staying at without having to be told. She guessed that was the advantage, or disadvantage, depending how you looked at it, of small town life; everyone knew your business.
When the taxi arrived, Mia got into the back seat and tried to figure out what she was going to say to Carter. A light rain began to fall, streaking across the window and blurring Mia’s view of Belladonna Falls.
Had she inadvertently destroyed this town and the lives of everyone who lived here?
No matter how she explained the situation to Carter, he would probably think she had betrayed him.
And that hurt most of all.
10
Eli, Frank, and Loomis slowed their run to a steady lope as they reached the McClintock house. The lights were on and McClintock’s Land Rover was parked in the driveway, so the chief of police was home.
Eli noticed a blue pickup truck next to the Land Rover. He hadn’t seen this vehicle, so maybe McClintock had visitors from out of town. No matter. They would die along with McClintock.
He looked at the other two, ready to command them to proceed to the house, but hesitated wen he saw Loomis.
The rogue wolf was sniffing the air, as if picking up a scent.
Through a series of glances, head movements, and ear positions, Eli asked Loomis what he had detected.
Loomis ignored him. A hateful glare burned in his eyes.
Deciding that they should attack before the unreliable rogue stopped following orders, Eli lowered his ears and snarled toward the house. It was time for action. He set off at a fast run toward the house, followed by his companions.
When they reached the large window at the front of the house, all three wolves leapt at it, crashing through the glass and into the living room.
Eli hoped that the sound of smashing glass was the last thing Carter McClintock would ever hear.
* * *
When the window imploded, Carter, Cole, and Dani were sitting in front of the fire, chatting and drinking coffee. The three wolves landed among them, snarling and ready to kill.
Carter shifted into bear form reflexively and swung a huge paw at the nearest wolf. The blow sent the creature flying across the room and crashing into a bookcase. The bookcase splintered and paperbacks rained down on top of the dazed wolf.
What the hell was happening? Carter turned his attention to the other two wolves and recognized Frank Swain fighting with Cole, who had also shifted as soon as the window had shattered.
Dani was running for the kitchen, pursued by the rogue wolf that had attacked Mia in the alley.
Carter lumbered into its path and roared, covering Dani’s escape. The rogue kept coming so Carter swiped at it with his claws, gashing its face.
The wolf he had sent flying into the bookcase stood up and growled, shaking books from its back. Carter felt his anger increase when he recognized the wolf as Eli Provost.
He roared again and leapt toward Eli, grabbing his wolf body between his front legs in a powerful bear hug. Eli whined as Carter began squeezing the life out of him.
This had to end here; Eli was a danger to all shifters, including the wolves he claimed to protect. A community of shifters couldn’t survive if certain members that were willing to kill to promote their own agenda.
A sudden flare of hot pain raked along Carter’s back, making him loosen his grip on his enemy. He turned to see the rogue snarling at him. The damn thing had clawed him badly.
Empowered by rage, Carter swung a paw at the rogue’s head. The creature was thrown against the fireplace where it lay unmoving.
Carter turned
to face Eli and roared. He noticed that Frank Swain was leaping back outside through the broken window, followed by Cole.
The attack on Carter’s home had failed. Eli was done.
Eli seemed to realize that the battle was lost. He turned to the window and ran.
Carter followed. He wasn’t as fast as a wolf but he would pursue Eli relentlessly. Nobody attacked him and his family and got away with it.
Outside, the rain wet his fur as he followed Eli toward the woods. Cole appeared out of the shadows, wolf blood dripping from his teeth and claws. Carter assumed that Frank Swain was dead.
Cole leaned his head at an angle, asking Carter if he was okay to pursue Eli alone. Carter nodded and set off into the woods while Cole ran back to the house to check on Dani.
As Carter was about to enter the darkness of the trees, he looked back and saw the rogue leap out of the window and run along the road leading from the house. Being thrown into the fireplace hadn’t killed the damned thing.
Cole hesitated, obviously unsure whether to give chase or check that Dani was okay.
Carter gave a series of growls that told Cole to check on Dani. Family came first.
Then he turned and followed Eli’s tracks into the woods.
11
Mia was sitting in the back of the taxi watching the dark trees move past the drizzle-streaked window. As the car bumped along the dirt road, she tried to figure out how she was going to explain this mess to Carter. Every way she played the conversation in her mind ended with Carter feeling betrayed and hurt.
That was the last thing she wanted. Despite flouncing out of his house earlier, she really did have strong feelings for him. It was just that learning about The Call had been a shock.
Now that she’d had time to think about it, the idea of being connected with Carter on an instinctual, animal level sounded romantic. At least she knew he was truly attracted to her. A lot of guys lied to women to get what they wanted but Carter’s emotions came from the deepest part of his being and were real.
If it wasn’t for the situation with the media, she would be thinking of ways to get back with Carter but she knew that there was no way he would take her back after he learned about her photo being on TV.
She sighed with frustration. All her life she was had wanted to be a part of a big story and now that she was, she wished it wasn’t happening.
The taxi driver, a gray bearded man in his sixties hit the brakes suddenly and cried out, “What the hell is that? Why isn’t he stopping?”
Mia was slammed forward, her seatbelt locking and pulling her back as the car stopped. She leaned over to look through the windshield and what she saw made her heart stop.
In the beam from the headlights, running toward the car in the rain, was the monstrous wolf that had attacked her in the alley.
The driver obviously knew about shifters since he lived and worked in Belladonna Falls but he didn’t understand why the wolf was running straight at the car.
He opened his door and got out, saying, “Are you okay, buddy?”
“No!” Mia shouted. “Get back inside. He’s rogue!”
The driver looked at her with a confused expression on his face. By the time he had registered what she’d said, it was too late. The wolf was upon him, snarling and tearing clothes and flesh.
Mia told herself to stay calm. She needed a weapon. There wasn’t anything in the car that she could use, so she tried to gauge if she could reach the trunk before the creature got her.
It was still busy with the driver.
She got out of the car and opened the front passenger door, leaning over to the lever that popped the trunk and praying that the sound wouldn’t attract the rogue wolf’s attention.
Once the trunk was open, she ran around back of the vehicle and lifted the trunk lid. The trunk was empty. Of course, it was a taxi and the trunk had to be empty in case passengers had luggage to put in there.
The wolf looked up from the body of the taxi driver, blood dripping from its teeth and hate burning in its eyes.
Mia heard a whimper escape her throat. She didn’t want to die here.
Then she remembered that even though the trunk was empty, there must be a spare tire in there. Her hand scrambled inside, searching for the handle to lift the trunk floor. She found a small fabric tab and pulled it, revealing the spare and a tire iron.
She grabbed the tire iron and gripped it tightly. It was all she had to protect herself with.
The wolf moved toward her, growling.
Mia’s fear became tinged with anger. She’d had enough of being stalked by this monster. “Come and get it, you son of a bitch!” she shouted.
It snarled and sprang forward.
Mia stepped back and swung the heavy tire iron at the creature’s head. It connected with a blow so hard that it sent pain shooting up Mia’s arms.
The wolf yelped and landed heavily in the grass at the side of the road. Mia stood over it, breathing heavily, ready to strike again if it lunged at her.
But it didn’t move again.
Soaked by the cold rain, she leaned on the car and tried to keep her composure. This had been a hell of a day.
A noise in the trees made her get ready to fight again. She held the tire iron tightly, ready to swing it again if she had to.
A human figure came out of the trees and when she saw that it was Carter, Mia let out the breath she had been holding.
Carter was naked, his muscles glistening with rainwater. He looked at the dead rogue wolf by the roadside and nodded at Mia. “He picked on the wrong person today.”
“Yes, he did,” she said. Then she added sadly, “The taxi driver didn’t make it.”
“We can call my deputies from the house,” he said. “They’ll sort it all out.”
She nodded and followed him along the road. “What are you doing out here?” she asked. “And why are you naked?”
“We had a problem,” he said. “It’s been dealt with.”
Taking a deep breath, she said, “There’s another problem too. You aren’t going to like it.”
12
Mia sat on the sofa in Carter’s house, cradling a mug of hot chocolate in her hands and staring into the cold fireplace. She didn’t dare look Carter in the eye. She had told him and the others about the photo and they had listened in silence.
After Mia had told her story, Cole had gone into town to fetch some wooden boards to secure the window. Dani had gone with him, leaving Carter and Mia alone.
Carter paced the floor in silence.
Mia wanted him to say something, anything, to break the silence.
Finally, he did. “So the media people know that it was your photograph?”
She nodded. “They figured out that Jake and I work together. I guess they went to my apartment too, but obviously I’m not there to answer their questions.”
“So they don’t know where you are,” Carter said.
“If someone investigates where Jake and I went to, they can probably trace us to Broken Rock. That’s where we went to get a story on a monster.” She shook her head at the irony. She and Jake had found nothing in Broken Rock except monster-themed gift shops but had stumbled on the real monsters while driving home.
That wasn’t quite true; Carter was no monster. In fact, he had saved Mia from the real monsters in town.
“So nobody knows you’re in Belladonna Falls,” Cole said. His voice was flat and cold. Mia hoped that was because he was thinking and not because he was angry with her.
She wouldn’t blame him if he were angry. He had every right to be. What she had done was unforgivable, but Mia didn’t think she could bear it if Carter never forgave her.
She had realized that her feelings for Carter were deeper than she had known. The talk of The Call and The Claim had scared her away but now that there was a chance of losing Carter, she would do anything if it meant they could be together.
More than anything, she wanted to be claimed by him.
Her initial reluctance had been a knee-jerk reaction to learning that Carter’s feelings were deeper than they could possibly be in any normal relationship. But this wasn’t a normal relationship; Carter was a bear shifter. The normal rules didn’t apply.
All she could do was go with her heart, and her heart belonged to Carter McClintock.
But she’d screwed up the timing. She wanted him more than anything but she had betrayed his trust.
Her phone began to buzz in her pocket. She fished it out and looked at the screen. She didn’t recognize the number.
She declined the call and put the phone back into her pocket.
“Carter,” she said, “I need you to know that I’m sorry and I’ll do anything to put this right. I know I freaked out when I learned about The Call and The Claim but I’ve had time to think about it now and I realize that my human way of thinking needs to be adjusted.
“I’ve been thinking about our relationship in terms of dating and time spent together but I haven’t taken into consideration the fact that you’re a shifter and things are different for you. It’s not a question of how many times we go to a restaurant or to the movies, it’s something much more primal than that.
“You say we’re destined to be mated and I see now that you’re right. What I feel for you is too powerful to ignore or dismiss because of human conventions. I want to follow my instincts just like you do and I want you to claim me as your mate.”
He stopped pacing and looked into her eyes as if searching her soul. “Is that really what you want?”
Mia nodded. “It is.” Then she added, “But I understand if you don’t trust me anymore. If you don’t want me.”
He came over to her and took her hand in his. “Are you crazy? You’re all I ever wanted.”
She felt hot tears of relief in her eyes. “I thought that all the trouble I’ve caused…”
He wiped a tear from her cheek with his strong hand. “Mia, you are more important to me than anything. We can get through this mess somehow. Just tell me that you won’t run away again.”
McClintock Bears Box Set Page 26
