by Amelia Jade
Stone Bear:
Guardian
Stone Bears Book 3
By Amelia Jade
Stone Bear: Guardian
Copyright @ 2016 by Amelia Jade
First Electronic Publication: May 2016
Amelia Jade
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
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Stone Bear: Guardian
Chapter One
Raphael
“This is her.”
The ancient dragon held up a photo of a young woman, dressed in a square brimmed cap and covered in a black graduation gown. The fingers wrapped around the old Polaroid, which couldn’t have belonged to a man much more than forty, shook with unsteadiness. That was odd. Why would Ferrovax’s hands be unsteady? The dragon shifter was one of the most unshakeable people that he knew. Even though the person in the photo meant a lot to him, it didn’t add up. He frowned, trying to focus his attention on the tall, shaven-headed man in front of him.
Light streamed in from the partially open window on the left-hand side of the room. The bright light fell across half of the solemn-faced man standing on the other side of the large wooden desk. His left side was hidden in shadow, the dim lights no match for the rays of sun. The cloudless blue sky was in sharp contrast to the tense mood within the room. Hidden in the nervousness of the two men was a hint of optimism, that perhaps—just perhaps—the future was brighter than the past.
So amidst all that was going on and the hope that was there, why was Ferro shaking as he held up the picture? He should be happy. Happy that someone was going to save his granddaughter. That after all this time, he might be reunited with her.
Then it hit Raphael. It wasn’t Ferro’s hand that was shaking. It was him. His legs to be exact.
Raphael reached back behind him, his arm searching hastily for the stiff leather chair he knew to be present. His fingertips brushed the cool leather just as his legs gave way, and he sat down heavily, his eyes fixed upon the photo.
“Is everything okay Raphael?” Ferro asked, his voice anything but concerned. No, the dragon shifter was almost angry-sounding.
Oh shit. He’s overprotective of his granddaughter. He realized the impact the photo was having on me as I stood there like a fool, entranced by her beauty.
A small giggle escaped his lips as he realized just how unnatural that was for the dragon shifter. How…human.
He stopped laughing abruptly as he played the whole scenario through his head one more time. It was much less funny as he came to the conclusion that he was the object of the dragon’s ire.
Note to self: Do not piss off the oldest shifter on earth. Not the best idea in the world.
He cleared his throat. “Yeah, everything is fine,” he assured Ferro. He reached out to take the photo.
Ferro clutched it tightly for a moment longer, and Raphael could see the reluctance to part with the only memory he had left of his granddaughter. It must be tough, having to entrust her safety to someone else. Knowing that you can’t have anything to do with the rescue of your only living relative must play hell on your heart, even if you are eight thousand years old.
Finally, with a grimace, he handed the picture over. Raphael mutely took it, stunned into silence by the emotion visible on the other man’s face. Ferrovax, first of the dragon shifters, was known for the implacable expression always plastered on his face. To see such a reaction from him rammed home the implications of what Raphael had gotten himself into.
You had to go and volunteer to rescue his granddaughter, didn’t you? Couldn’t keep your damn mouth shut for just a few more minutes!
“I trust you understand how important she is to me,” Ferro said, distracting him from his thoughts.
Raphael nodded, his eyes looking away from the intense stare and back to the beautiful brunette in the photo he held. Her small, pert little nose and big smile portrayed a person happy with life, without worry or fear. Which was odd, he realized after a moment. The photo, despite being the better part of a decade old, was of her college graduation.
Although he had never been to college himself—having had a cloudier upbringing—Raphael still knew that most young adults fresh from school were, in fact, terrified of what came next. For the first time in their lives, they didn’t know what would happen next. There would be no “summer vacation” followed by school in the spring. It was simply time to work. To find a career and begin the journey of every person into adulthood. For many that would mean finding a job, getting married, buying a house, and having kids. That was still the typical path, though Raphael knew many chose to do things completely different from that.
Regardless, they were all scared. Even those with jobs secured before they left, or whose parents had scraped together enough so their child could graduate without crippling debt. They were all one and the same, unsure of what the future wrought.
Not so the woman in the photograph he held in his hand, which thankfully wasn’t betraying him with a tremble like his legs had. She was gorgeous, the deep hazel of her eyes seeming to come alive as he committed her face to memory. She had a pattern of freckles on her left cheek, the triplet of dots forming a triangle. That was an identifying mark that he would have a hard time missing, even if he were as distracted in person with her beauty as he was with a simple picture.
“I’ll get her back Ferro,” he assured him, doing his best to sound confident, without slipping into arrogance. “Has she changed much from this photo?” he asked, wanting to be aware of anything that might have changed. “Dyed her hair? Cut it extremely short? Taken to wearing black makeup? Anything?”
The dragon shifter shook his head immediately. “I last saw her about a year ago. She hadn’t changed a day.”
“Right, of course. Aging isn’t really a thing I guess,” Raphael said, reminding himself yet again that she was a dragon shifter.
This woman... shit, he didn’t even know her name. “What’s her name?” he asked as calmly as he could.
“Karlie,” Ferro said, before spelling it out for him.
Karlie, he repeated to himself, is a dragon shifter. The most powerful species of shifter on earth. Lives for thousands of years if they choose to. You’re a bear shifter. You get a century, maybe a few more years on top of that. Not much in the grand scheme of life. So quit swooning over her and focus on the damn mission!
Right. The mission. The
one he had volunteered for. The rescue mission. He was going to rescue her.
Hopefully.
“Any ideas where Luthor might have kept her?” he asked, trying to switch subjects.
Not that the whole situation wasn’t fucked up, with a capital F. When a bear shifter had to be sent to rescue a dragon shifter, the world laughed at the irony. Especially when said dragon shifter had been kidnapped by her own dragon shifter father to begin with. Raphael knew his head could spin over those details all day long if he let it.
Either way, Luthor had been Ferro’s son. Had been, because he was dead. Ferro had killed him after he threatened Genesis Valley, which was where both Ferro and Raphael lived along with a number of other shifters. To prevent the mass genocide of all non-dragon shifters and most of the human race with them, Ferro had been forced to intervene in a fight he wanted no part of. In the end, his son had given him no choice. Raphael didn’t want to imagine what he must be feeling at the moment.
“Luthor was a…resourceful one,” Ferro said slowly. There was sadness in his eyes as he spoke, the soft blue fading until it was almost an icy gray. “But,” he continued, his voice hardening as it took on more of the implacable, unflappable attitude that Raphael had come to associate with him. “He was also somewhat predictable. He wouldn’t have brought her anywhere near Genesis Valley.”
“Why not? Wouldn’t he want her close at hand so that he could trot her out to keep you neutral if you started to act otherwise, things like that?” Raphael asked, doing his best to ask questions. The more he knew about Luthor, the easier tracking down Karlie might be. Might.
“He would want that, yes,” Ferro agreed, flicking a finger at Raphael as he nodded. “But he wouldn’t risk having her so close that I, or any of you, might be able to rescue her. If I had known she was safe…” his voice trailed off, leaving the distinct impression that things would not have carried on with Luthor for as long as they had if Karlie hadn’t been in danger.
She truly does mean the world to him.
Raphael swallowed hard, knowing that if he was unable to accomplish his mission successfully, Ferro would be unhappy with him. That’s putting it mildly. He’d be pissed, and likely wouldn’t have any reason to hold back from tearing you limb from limb.
Ferro wasn’t that capricious, at least as far as Raphael knew, but he was still a dragon shifter. They were an unknown quantity to begin with. In the eyes of Raphael and the residents of Genesis Valley, Ferro was considered to be a “good man” and generally harmless.
Still, if he could avoid testing those limits, he would. It was unlikely any of those people had ever had to tell Ferro that his granddaughter was dead. Raphael hoped he didn’t have to be the one to do that either.
“So, where should I start then?” Raphael was hoping Ferro could give him something. Otherwise he was starting blind, and his search could take a lot longer.
“The last I knew,” Ferro said, the leather chair creaking as he levered himself to his feet, “Luthor had a house in the country that he quite liked.”
The dragon shifter went to the large atlas painted on the wall behind his desk. “You know,” he said, his voice suddenly much more jovial, “I never thought I’d get a chance to use this.”
“Use what?” Raphael asked. A map was a map. Why wouldn’t he ever get a chance to use it?
“You see, when Gwen—you remember Gwen, right?—helped redecorate the place after it was destroyed, she insisted that I should spring for this, instead of just a plain old canvas.”
“Spring for what?” Raphael asked. He did indeed know Gwen Revere. She was mated to Russell Warne, one of the Jade Crew bear shifters.
Before Luthor had tried to take over Genesis Valley himself, he had sent in numerous lackeys to try and destabilize it first. The Jade Crew had been first and foremost among the defenders of the Valley, and Russell was the second-in-command. On more than one occasion Raphael had fought side by side with him, and through the association had come to know not only the rest of the crew, but their mates as well. Gwen was a talented woman, a former fashion industry executive. He had heard that she was beginning to set up a home-décor business to help the shifters and others rebuild in the aftermath of Luthor’s activities.
“This,” Ferro said with a small smile. He put his fingers on the map. “This is us,” he said, pointing to a place in the mountains close to the western seaboard. Raphael nodded. He knew where they were.
“This is where Luthor’s estate was.” His finger slid north, stopping at a point along the northern border, in the middle of nowhere.
Raphael nodded again. “Okay, can you give me more information?”
“Of course,” Ferro said, and he placed his second hand next to his first. Then he spread them apart diagonally.
Raphael watched in amazement as the image shifted and zoomed in, blowing up the area Ferro had indicated into much larger detail.
“Holy shit,” he said, forgetting for just a second to be respectful in the presence of the other shifter. “It looks just like a painting though!”
“I know,” Ferro said. “This technology the humans have come up with is fascinating, is it not?” There was a look of happiness on his face. “I never thought I would actually be able to use it, but there you go. It’s actually a computer screen, artfully designed to display the image without appearing to be one.”
“That’s pretty slick,” he observed, moving forward to examine the area in greater detail.
“Here,” Ferro said, pointing the area out exactly.
Raphael pulled out his phone and zoomed in until he found the same area, then bookmarked it for future use. Reaching up, he zoomed in and out several times, learning the lay of the land around the house as best he could. He might not have access to such a large screen later, so he wanted to make use of it now.
“I wish I could go with you,” Ferro said softly as Raphael zoomed out until the original image took its place once more.
“I know,” Raphael said. “But as tough as it is, this makes the most sense.”
“I will hopefully not be gone long. A week, perhaps two. If you are not back by then, I will come and join you on the hunt,” he said with determination.
Raphael nodded, though he wondered why Ferro was so confident. No one else had been able to contact the Dragon Council—the ruling body of the dragon shifters—in months. Without knowing what happened to them, it was impossible to feel completely safe. Their location was of the utmost priority, which is why Ferro had been forced to choose between them and his granddaughter. Raphael only hoped he could find them as quickly as he said he would. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact the council were all his children. That might give him some sort of advantage—the ability to home in on their location, perhaps.
That seemed unlikely, or else he would have given Raphael a better idea of where to find Karlie. Either way, Ferro was the only one who could find them. That wasn’t something that Raphael could do. But he could track down his granddaughter, and hopefully free her as well. That was within the realm of possibility.
“I’ll find her before then,” he said, though they both knew that was a longshot.
Ferro looked ready to say something more, but he didn’t, letting the silence build. Raphael took the photo from where he had put it in his wallet and gazed upon her once more, wondering why he couldn’t seem to stop thinking of her. It would do no good if he became distracted by her at any point during his rescue attempt. He needed to focus.
“I should be going now,” he told Ferro, putting the image away, though her face continued to float in front of his vision.
Focus on the mission! Ferro is counting on you to do this professionally, without getting all wide-eyed over his own flesh and blood.
“Bring her back unharmed,” Ferro said firmly. “And don’t do anything stupid either.” The unspoken idea that falling for his granddaughter counted as something “stupid” was clear for him to see.
Raphael swall
owed hard.
Focus.
Chapter Two
Karlie
She yawned, stretching her arms wide as they poked free from the covers. Blinking her eyes against the brilliance of the morning sun, she kicked the comforter off until it fell at the foot of the bed. The silver-gray fabric landed in a pile, but she didn’t care. The purple sheets followed, allowing her to freely hop from the bed.
Her feet landed on a plush rug, the light beige color neutral without being sterile. Perfect for this particular room. If only it wasn’t in every other room as well. Pushing her reservations aside, knowing they were futile, she went about her morning routine as normal.
After a quick shower, still toweling her hair dry, she using her foot to slide open the door to her balcony. A blast of fresh mountain air hit her immediately, the coolness of the morning washing over her until it hit the damp of her hair.
“Ooh,” she said as a slight shiver ran down her spine. Although the cold didn’t actually affect her, she still reacted to the sudden change in temperature.
The sunlight had already crested the hill to her left. Its warming rays beat down upon her, quickly banishing any remaining chill she might have had. It was still late spring, but the warm summer weather had come early this year, much to the delight of everyone. She could already tell it was going to be a warm one. She was sure by the time the sun reached its peak many would be complaining of the heat.
Not her though. The warmer the better in her mind. Nothing could quite beat the comfort of warmth as it wrapped itself around her tightly, hugging her in its embrace. She looked forward to the midday temperature rise.
Tossing the towel back into the room behind her without looking at where it landed, she stood still, taking in the scenery around her. In the air, creatures circled and dove, the songs of the morning birds mixing with the piercing cries of the birds of prey. Even as she watched, two hawks—or perhaps they were eagles; she wasn’t positive on her species just yet—circled tightly, until one folded its wings in and dove out of the thermal it had been riding. The other followed swiftly, its cry scattering a flock of birds that had been sitting in a nearby tree. The group of finches took to the air in a graceful swoop, twirling up higher and higher. Below them the hawks cruised along, wings spread wide as they simply glided for a moment longer, before flapping hard to regain altitude.
