by Elle Thorne
“I have to leave. And—” His face was chiseled from granite. “I can’t have you waiting for me.”
Anger began to seep into Mac’s pores.
“What does that mean?”
He shook his head. That was the only thing that could be remotely considered a response.
They’d couplebonded a year earlier. They were mates. She accepted his bear, accepted the shifter lifestyle, accepted the shifter responsibilities and accountability. But this…
This went against shifter accountability. Against her personal beliefs. And she’d thought it went against Lance’s principles.
“So that’s it? That’s all you have to say?”
“I love you.”
And he left. Got in his old truck. And left. Just like that.
And took everything that mattered to Mac with him. Just like her father walked out, without a word or a care, so did Lance.
He’s no better than my mother, who took the first chance she had to send Mac away to school.
As if I were a troubled child. Or a delinquent.
Her father abandoned her.
Her mother shipped her off.
No wonder I don’t trust anything but animals.
At first when she’d met Lance, she’d kept him at arm’s length. She didn’t trust people; she believed they would let her down. They already had.
Then she dropped her defenses and let Lance in.
It started with a wolf.
Chapter Six
It started with a wolf…
Mac was relatively new at the clinic. And it was her Saturday to cover the shift. Every Saturday a different person had to work the desk.
Wouldn’t you know it; this was her Saturday.
She was shutting down the computer and reflecting on a quiet afternoon hiking with her Belgian sheepdog and then some reading and enjoying the cottage she’d just moved into less than a month ago.
Except the door flew open.
He blocked the sunlight, this large man standing in the doorway. Deep blue eyes probed into her very soul, seeing her for who she was. The widest shoulders and thickest chest she’d ever seen on a man. She surveyed that chest, then her eyes drew downward to the vee it created as it merged with his hips.
And right there in the midst of all that sex on a stick hotness—a limp wolf.
The brownish-gray creature lay lifeless in his arms.
Except it wasn’t dead. She led the man holding the wolf into one of the examination rooms.
Taking care of animals—that was her thing. She forgot to put her walls up while she was tending to the wolf.
She’d let her guard go and with it, her heart.
Over the wolf’s long road to recovery, she’d slowly become close to the man.
Then one day, he’d called her. He’d been trying to disable a trap and it had snapped on his arm. He couldn’t take it off. He couldn’t drive. He was stuck. All he could do was take out his phone and call her.
She’d wondered why he didn’t call his brother Cross, but later, much later, she’d found out Cross’s bear would’ve killed him if he’d found him unable to defend himself.
She found Lance’s truck, parked next to it, and headed off for the woods. He’d given her specific directions. When she arrived on the scene, she found a bear in a trap—not Lance. She’d stayed a good distance from the trapped grizzly.
She may love animals, but she was no fool. She knew exactly what a grizzly could do to her.
But where the hell was Lance? He said he was caught in a trap. Were there two traps?
Then the grizzly saw her. He locked his gaze on her. His eyes flashed, an indigo color in their depths, almost like Lance’s eye color.
She backed up. She had to find Lance. The rangers could deal with the bear. She’d call them. Mac reached for her phone. Her case, always on her hip, was empty.
What the hell?
She’d dropped her phone somewhere. Now she couldn’t call Lance. She couldn’t call the rangers.
All she could do was—maybe she could run to her Jeep, see if the phone was there. And she could call Lance.
She turned toward the clearing she’d parked in and started that way, ignoring the bear, and the crunching and creaking sounds it made behind her,
“MacKenzie.” Lance’s voice sounded hoarse with pain.
She whirled around.
The bear was gone!
In the same place the bear had been, lay Lance on the forest floor, trap around his forearm, incapacitating him, blood draining from the wound.
He was pale, his twinkling navy blue eyes dull.
I’m not hallucinating. I can’t be. So what the hell is going on here?
“Lance?” She ran toward him, trying to keep her medical bag from jostling too much. “I could have sworn I just saw—never mind.” She’d just sound crazy.
With his directions and his brawn, she managed to free him from the trap, then wrapped gauze around his arm. The forest floor was full of blood. His clothing was covered in crimson.
“Can you walk to your truck? I’ll take you to the hospital.”
“No hospital,” he groaned. “Take me to Doc’s.”
“You’ll need more than that.”
“No.”
“Listen, I can’t argue with you. You’ve lost enough blood already.”
“You—”
A growl interrupted Lance.
She whirled around. Four wolves, snarling, approached.
Not good. Not good at all. The blood brought them in, and now they stood between them and the vehicles.
Not that Lance could run to the vehicle with her, anyway.
“Heaaaaya!” she yelled at the pack.
They weren’t impressed. The wolves stood their ground.
“I can’t have you getting hurt,” Lance said. “And don’t run from them. That would play right into what they want. You have to let me take care of this, and promise me you won’t be afraid.”
She gave him a look. He was delirious from blood loss.
“Get behind me, turn around, don’t watch. Promise me you won’t look.”
“Okay.” She stepped back, turned around.
She hadn’t meant to lie.
But then came the growls, followed by a bellow that was much too close for comfort and created by a creature that had to be very much larger than the wolves.
She spun around. Where Lance had been, there now was a grizzly. The same grizzly, if she had to make a guess. The wolves were clearly not happy about the grizzly’s appearance, but they gave in to the larger predator, turning tail and running into the trees. She spun back, facing away, and closed her eyes. If the bear was going to turn around and kill her, she wasn’t going to be watching him when he did.
The forest was silent. The bear’s breath was heavy and hot, laying on her body, leaving a sensation of warm humidity against her flesh. A shiver coursed down her spine. She remained frozen.
Still, she kept her eyes closed. The bear’s heated snorts didn’t go away. For what felt like eternity but probably wasn’t much more than seconds, she squeezed her eyes tightly.
Then the creaking and crunching sounds she’d heard earlier.
Then silence.
Complete and total silence.
So much so that she finally opened her eyes.
Leaning against a tree, his face a diagram of pain, his features drawn, eyes watching her, the man who saved the wolf.
She said not a word, studying him.
She knew what this meant. Oh, yeah. She’d heard of shifters. But who would’ve believed it?
He was silent, waiting for her reaction. When she didn’t give him one, he spoke. “I wanted to tell you in my own good time.”
The course of their relationship was natural. The woman who didn’t trust and quit believing in humanity had met a man who was so much more than human.
The woman who could only trust animals had found a man who shared his soul with a beast.
Ma
c had no defenses against this. She knew she’d finally met the one person she could trust.
Until that day, the day he left…
Chapter Seven
Mac looked at Lance across the small span of Astra and Kane’s cabin. The distance between them could be measured in feet, yet their divide was more like the Grand Canyon.
She should hate him. She wanted to hate him.
But how can you hate something that is a part of you? Something that was the very best part of you for a measure of time that seemed to span eternity, but was only a few years?
I’m not sure I can do this.
No, she couldn’t. She couldn’t be this close to him while they weren’t together.
The couplebond mark burned with an intensity that made her flinch. She fought to hide her reaction. A scorching heat began in that spot between her shoulder and neck, where he’d bitten her in the throes of passion, then let the essence of his bear slip into her body. The heat traveled through her veins, making her body tingle.
This was more than sexual. Her soul was reacting to his, to his bear’s.
Mac turned so she couldn’t see him. Ariadne was directly behind her, nibbling on one of the puffs, alone, while Cross was next to Mae and Doc.
“I can’t be here,” she whispered the words to Ariadne.
“What is it?” Ariadne put the pastry on a plate, her face wearing a worried expression. “Do you need to go outside?”
Mac struggled to breathe, but her lungs felt as if they’d been paralyzed.
This shouldn’t be happening. The damned witch doctor said the couplebond would be broken.
“Yes. No—I have to go.”
Was the witch doctor’s remedy supposed to make her feel like this? She’d thought she was to feel nothing when she was around Lance. Not like she had World War III being waged within her.
She looked at the front door.
Blocked by Mae, Doc, Cross, and worst of all, Lance.
She looked at the door in the kitchen. “I’m going out the back door. I’ll get some fresh air. If I feel better, I’ll be back. If not, I’ll text you tomorrow.”
She knew she wasn’t coming back. She knew she wouldn’t be feeling better. It was getting worse with every passing moment.
Ariadne put a hand on her shoulder.
“Be careful. They were talking about some kind of storm. Said it was a freakish thing, unexpected and coming quickly. Maybe Cross and I should take you home. Just to be sure.”
“Don’t be silly. I’ll be fine.”
And she was fine. For most of the way. Except she had only been to Astra and Kane’s twice before.
And that was during the daytime.
Funny how different things looked as the sunlight waned.
There were a few turns, but it looked familiar to Mac. She was sure she was headed in the right direction.
Snow began to fall, wind blew the white thickness, making visibility a challenge.
She slowed, made sure she stayed in the middle of the road and that her headlights were on.
At least the symptoms had subsided and the burning on the side of her neck had gone away.
First thing Monday morning, she was going to take a day trip to Seattle. It wasn’t a matter of getting a refund anymore, it was a matter of finding out how this went so horribly wrong.
At this rate, I’d have been better off if I hadn’t messed with the couplebond.
She pushed the thought away. She needed to concentrate on driving and the conditions.
And the road.
Suddenly it didn’t seem like she remembered this part of the drive.
And she was doing fine—
Until a flash of brown ran in front of her Jeep.
Mac hit the brake, swerved. She shoved her foot onto the clutch.
Everything happened so fast, she couldn’t have said what happened first.
The next thing she knew, the Jeep was on its side, off the road, she was stuck, and had hit her head.
She could feel the trickle of blood sliding from the laceration she knew was there.
And as if that wasn’t enough, the damned snow was falling fast.
She pushed on the seatbelt’s release.
Nothing.
Come on, come on.
She prayed for the reassuring click that would signal the seatbelt’s surrender.
Still nothing.
She’d call for help. Someone would find her.
She looked at the seat next to her, which now was above her, since the wreck had laid the Jeep on its side.
Her purse wasn’t there. She looked around.
No luck.
Then she put it together. If she couldn’t see it, that meant it was probably behind her.
Fuck. Damn. Fuck.
And the snow kept falling.
She struggled against the seatbelt, but in the infinite—insert a sarcastic tone here, for fuck’s sake—in the infinite wisdom of the vehicles’ designers, there was no give.
None whatsoever.
She was stuck until she could get that damned thing to click free.
The snow still fell.
The forest became darker.
Her car’s motor stopped running.
The blood wouldn’t stop trickling.
The icing on the cake—her eyes grew heavy.
Chapter Eight
Lance looked away from Cross, ignoring his bear’s roars. He looked back at Mac.
She wasn’t there. Cross’s mate Ariadne was standing alone, a confused and concerned look on her face.
But no MacKenzie.
And he couldn’t feel her.
He walked toward the kitchen, where she’d been standing the last time he saw her. She’d been talking to Ariadne.
“Do you know where MacKenzie went?”
“She went outside for some fresh air. I don’t think she felt great.”
That added to Lance’s guilt-meter, throwing it off the charts.
Of course it was his fault. He was the one who made her unhappy now.
Unlike four years ago, when he used to make her happy.
He blew out a breath and slipped out the kitchen door.
Yup.
Just as he’d thought—feared.
Her Jeep was gone.
Mac was gone.
“You just can’t help yourself.” It was Cross’s voice—but it wasn’t. The growly timbre came through.
Lance whirled. He’d heard that tone. He didn’t know what it was and why his and Cross’s bears had a beef, but it seemed bound and determined to be to the death.
“I don’t have time for this right now.”
“No, you only have time to fuck up someone else’s life, don’t you?”
Cross transformed into his grizzly with a speed that caught Lance off-guard. Cross’s bear reared back on his hind legs. He swung, his claws seeking purchase in Lance’s flesh.
Lance jumped back. He couldn’t keep his bear from responding. He didn’t have the mental energy to avoid Cross’s bear claws while holding his own bear back.
It only took that bit of destruction for Lance’s bear to take over. He morphed into his bear with the speed of one who practiced shifting regularly, as his Enforcer position required.
Lance’s bear roared with rage, stormed Cross’s bear, biting and shoving, rearing up, damaging his brother’s bear’s flesh.
Lance wasn’t unscathed. Cross’s bear found the purchase of flesh he’d been seeking. He slammed his claws deeply into Lance’s fur, penetrating muscle.
Lance reared and bucked, shoving at Cross, trying to take him down. They both lost balance, falling to the ground with enough force to knock the breath out of them and cause the air to vibrate.
A scream brought their battle to a pause. Thunder boomed. Lightning crashed in the background, behind the cabin.
Lance looked up.
Mae was on the porch, her hands over her mouth. She was the one that released the scream.
She str
ode toward them. Her normally dark brown eyes were a midnight turbulent blue.
“You will stop now.”
Behind her, as if accentuating her words, thunder rolled.
Lance backed away. He shifted to his human form, out of respect for Mae. He swiped at his face, pulled back a bloody hand.
Cross’s bear growled, then he morphed into his human body.
“Never again. I will find someone who has an answer. This is not allowed to happen. I didn’t agree to take the both of you into my home so you could kill one another. We will find an answer to this.”
Snow began to swirl around her dark hair. Tiny flakes catching to her clothing, then melting.
“Not now, we won’t.” Lance had to find Mac.
He fished his keys out of his pocket, ignoring the pain from the scuffle with his brother.
He’d find her.
He got in his truck and drove off without glancing back at Mae, Cross, or the assembly of humans and shifters that had gathered on the porch, looking between his departing truck and Cross.
In Lance’s mind, one scene kept playing over and over…
Four years, three weeks ago…
Lance and MacKenzie had the most amazing afternoon. Greatest sex ever—then again, every time was the greatest sex ever. Then he’d left to give his bear a run. He’d shifted in the forest and given the bear free will. Lance had a decision to make. His goal was simple. He wanted retribution to be doled out on those who had killed his parents. He was confident the information was somewhere with the Shifter Council in New York. And Cross had just gone to work for them as an Enforcer.
Lance would too. He’d get the information he needed. He’d already talked to their recruiter. The guy said Lance was made for the position of Enforcer. That his personality was a perfect match.
Except there was one problem.
A major one.
Enforcers had a high mortality rate. Quite a few didn’t survive the first four-year tour. They suggested shifters who enlisted not be involved. That worrying about someone back home would make them less effective.
That having someone back home who might lose them was not recommended.
So Lance made a hard decision.
