by Elle Thorne
“Bears. Wolves.”
The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on Ariadne.
Great. I’m trying to stay alive and here I come to a forest where a bear could possibly eat me.
“I’ll be back in a bit. The stream’s a good fifteen or twenty-minute hike.” With that, Mae was gone.
Bears. Wolves. Really. I’d think that they’d stay away from people and their homes.
She leaned against the black hood of the car she had paid cash for. It barely made the trip. The snap of a twig breaking made her change her mind. Quickly. She jumped in the car.
Ariadne waited as patiently as she could, but after thirty minutes had lapsed and her bladder was threatening to rebel, she had to make a tough decision.
I’m not peeing in the woods. Not while I might get attacked.
She eyed the cabin. Surely she could borrow the facilities, for just a quick second.
Please, please, please don’t be locked.
She hoped that Cross guy didn’t think she was merely being nosy. Nosy had nothing to do with it. She needed to tinkle. End of story. And she needed to do it bad.
She jumped out of the car and wasted no time hastening up the few porch steps to the front door. Knocking was clearly useless, since it did Mae no good at all.
She’d try the knob. If that didn’t work…
She grimaced at the idea she’d have to use the bushes to the side. And bare her ass while she was vulnerable to an attack.
She could just see the local headlines. “Unidentified woman mauled by bear while pants were gathered around her ankles.”
She snorted a small laugh.
Then turned the door handle. It gave instantly.
Well of course, what did I expect? Who would lock their doors out here?
It’s not like anyone could happen on this place accidentally. And suddenly she found herself a little envious of this nerdy guy called Cross who forged identities. She had this mental image of him. Short, skinny, glasses, hair that hadn’t been washed in a good week, if not more. A knit cap hiding most of that unwashed hair.
She slipped into the door, closed it behind her, and took stock of the cabin.
The owner was clearly not a slob. The place was immaculate. Almost with military precision. Nothing out of place, everything ordered and orderly. That seemed out of character for the kind of guy she figured he was.
Now where’s the restroom?
She spied a hallway with several doors. All closed. She opened the first one.
Woops.
A bedroom.
She closed the door quickly, feeling like an intruder.
On to the next one.
She opened the door slowly, apprehensive about violating the guy’s privacy again.
Whoa.
Jesus. What the fuck is this?
She surveyed the room, all thoughts of her full bladder gone. The room looked like a control room at NORAD or NASA.
Bookshelves lined two walls, but instead of literary works it appeared as though they were three-ring binders or manuals.
Three desks were tucked in between the bookshelves. Monitors covered the other two walls, with a large executive type chair on an elevated platform set strategically to watch the screens.
Lights blinked on screens, computer fans whirred quietly, a radio on one of the desks made a low static sound. It resembled a radio she saw on an old wartime movie.
This was no ordinary forger’s cabin. This was no ordinary man’s cabin at all. What kind of work did this Cross guy do that would require this kind of technology?
The practical side of her wondered where the hell he got internet from.
A creak came from behind her.
Her face chilled, the blood pulled from it.
I can only hope that’s Mae.
But would Mae have come in? She didn’t earlier.
She turned slowly, readying a smile, trying to seem like she was harmless.
First thought: He’s huge.
Second thought: He’s hot.
Now why the hell would she think that when this man was regarding her with a look that threatened bodily harm—if not death.
Because truthfully, he was unbelievably handsome. No man had a right to be this good a vision. His face was composed of angles and planes, brought together perfectly to create a modern day, rustic, Greek god of war.
Wide chest tapered to a vee. Wide shoulders, no pencil neck, a scruffy beard that did nothing to hide sensuous lips.
But heaven help her, it wasn’t just looks. He had this way about him. She couldn’t peg it, even though his eyes were hard, jaw chiseled.
“You’re trespassing.”
That voice. It flowed like honey on a warm day, with just a slight hint of a lilt to it, like maybe he’d spent some time overseas, though she couldn’t peg the accent.
“I didn’t mean to be. I needed to use the restroom.”
“A likely story. This look like McDonald’s to you?”
“No, you see—”
“Save it.”
Before she could finish her sentence. Before she could anticipate, with a speed that she’d never have expected from such a tall, big guy, she was facing the wall, her cheek pressed against it roughly, a hand over her mouth, while her wrists were held behind her back by his other large hand.
“Who sent you?
She tried to respond, but the only sound that she could make behind the fingers over her lips was a muffled whiny whimper.
“Shut up. I don’t know who’s out there, but you make a sound, you’re a dead woman.”
Really? I left the city to save my life and now this…?
She shook her head to let him know she was in agreement.
He removed his hand slowly, she heard rustling, felt something tight on her wrists, then heard a zipping sound. Her hands were bound tight. He roughly flipped her around to face him, a zip-tie clenched between straight and white teeth.
His eyes were a dark chocolate brown, with a ring of gold on the outer perimeter of his irises.
He ripped the zip-tie from his mouth, then slipped it into a pocket, pulling out a bandana. “Open wide.” His voice wasn’t much more than a whispered hiss.
She gave him a look. “Seriously?”
“Now. And shut up. I meant it about being dead. They’d never find your body out here. Or the body of whoever is out there.”
She opened her mouth. He shoved the fabric in. She fought back a gag at the thought of what it may have been used for.
He’d regret it when Mae showed up. He’d eat crow.
She would storm out of here and fuck him and his help.
What if he’s not Cross? What if he’s an intruder and has already killed Cross? What if he was bluffing when he accused me of trespassing?
Too late to sort that out now.
Wait. Fuck. What if he killed Mae already?
He led her to the other room.
Her bladder protested the procrastination.
Now it’s back?
“Don’t make a sound,” he said with a low voice. “Sit on the couch. Not a sound. Got it?” He stared at her—waiting. “Well?”
Ariadne nodded.
Chapter Four
Cross stared at the woman sitting on his couch. In his head, Cross’s bear was making grumbling and growling sounds.
Cross didn’t want to hear the message the bear was sending. Not now.
His bear was attracted to the woman. He’d never done this before. No female had every pulled his bear’s attention.
Quit, already. I have to figure out what the hell is going on here.
His bear bellowed.
Knock it off, would ya?
As if his bear could really tell that someone was their fated mate.
Just like that. Yeah. Right.
Okay, the hottie on the couch might be all that…
And a damned bag of chips, thank you very much.
But that didn’t mean she was “The One.”
She glared at him, bandana stuffed in between luscious lips. Her glare golden and green, at the same time. A definite vee pulling her brows down, distorting that pretty face with a frown.
Bottom line, no matter how hot, she was a fucking trespasser.
And who the hell sent her? What the fuck was this about? The car outside had out-of-state plates. He saw another set of prints, leading toward the woods, small shoe, not heels—he glanced at the shoes of the delectable woman on his couch.
They picked right.
Under other circumstances, he’d have been interested in her.
If she wasn’t breaking into my house.
If she hadn’t found my control center.
If I didn’t think she’d try to kill me.
He let his eyes travel slowly over the woman in black slacks, pumps, and a white top.
No jacket. That’s stupid, considering the mountain nights get chilly.
Maybe she had one in the car.
First order of business, find the other person. Also a woman, he figured.
So whoever sent them clearly thought that sending a woman would make their mission more successful.
He put his fingers over his lips, letting her know that silence wasn’t an option.
With a final glance at the brunette with the golden-green eyes, he headed toward the front door.
He stopped, alerted by the sound of a board groaning as if someone had taken a step on to his porch. He knew exactly which board it was. It spanned the entire length of the stairs on the second step from the top. He’d personally designed it and built it to make a sound, thereby alerting him when there were intruders on his porch.
Cross took a step back.
The door opened. “Ariadne?”
He knew that voice.
“Cross?”
Yeah, he definitely knew that voice, though he hadn’t heard it in person in a hell of a long time.
“Mae.” He paused when Mae gave him a look. “Aunt Mae,” he corrected himself.
Mae stepped in the door—the woman who’d given him and his brothers a home when they were destitute, hopeless, as well as homeless.
She sprinted toward him, wrapped her arms around his waist. “Cross! Good to see you. I—”
Mae pulled away, her eyes on the woman on the couch—was this Ariadne? Mae slapped Cross on the arm.
The woman was struggling to get up but couldn’t because his couch was low to the ground and her hands were securely fastened behind her back.
“Cross del Cruz! What have you done?” She hurried toward the woman on the couch, ripped the bandana from her mouth and pulled her to her feet. “Cut this off her.”
Cross shrugged. “She was trespassing.” He reached into his pocket for his knife and flicked it open. “Turn around.”
The trespasser was glaring at him, but she complied.
He slipped the blade between her flesh and the tie and sliced it cleanly.
The woman whirled around quickly. “You never gave me a chance—”
“You were trespassing. You have no rights.”
“Just like you did now. You won’t let me finish a sentence.” Her face crunched into a grimace of pain. “Restroom, please.” She shifted from one leg to the other.
Cross laughed. He couldn’t help it. The idea she’d been holding it and now was about to start a peepee dance was amusing.
“First door to the left.”
She gave him a pointed look.
“Not the right,” he emphasized.
“Got it,” she snapped.
When she was safely out of earshot, he pulled Mae to the porch. “What is she doing here? She’s a human. You brought a human woman to my den—home?”
“She needs help. She’s Fiona’s friend.”
Fiona. Who’d been as close as a sister to him. She’d been in New York for a spell when she’d been in the area. It had been good to see his “foster sister.”
“How’s Fi doing?”
“We didn’t really have time to talk much. She’s back together with Jonah.”
Cross had met the polar bear shifter once, when he and Fiona had been together. Then Cross had heard they’d split up, and Cross hadn’t seen either of them. Rumor had it Fiona had gone out of town.
“I hope she’s happy. They seemed a good mating. Speaking of mating, Aunt Mae…”
“You stop.” Mae slapped his arm, gently this time. “I’m with Doc.” A red color kissed her pretty face, highlighting the twinkling eyes. A flash of indigo travelled the depths.
“You’re with Doc? When did that happen?”
He didn’t tell her he’d figured out long ago that she was an elemental—able to control the elements around them. He’d found out about elementals when he’d joined the Compliance Unit. He’d always wondered what the deal was with Mae’s occasional eye color changes. Now he knew.
Until she decided to mention it, he wasn’t going to open up the topic.
“Not too long ago. What’s time to a shifter, anyway? It’s not like shifters live normal life spans.”
True. His kind lived for eons, aging slowly, and weren’t easy to kill, what with their accelerated hibernation healing powers.
Cross knew Mae’s first mate was grizzly. Jake Evans, called Doc, was also a grizzly. He was happy that Mae finally had someone in her life again.
He should have noticed her couplebond status earlier. It wasn’t visible, but it marked a mate, with an aura that was often visible to other shifters and supernatural beings. He’d have noticed if he hadn’t been distracted by the trespasser.
The very hot trespasser, his bear corrected, with a growl.
Oh, now you show up? Seems you could have been on a higher state of alert. Like maybe noticing that it was Mae’s scent?
Cross and his bear had a rocky relationship. Both too alike. Both hardheaded, each wanting what he wanted, even if it was at odds with what the other one wanted. When he’d been a teen, he’d struggled with it greatly. Mae had tried to help him, but ultimately it came down to teen hormones and bear hormones clashing.
Mae was watching him, expecting something…
“Maybe we should get together sometime, to celebrate your couplebonding with Doc.”
“Yes, after you help Ariadne out.”
Cross heaved a sigh. “I don’t freelance—”
“You haven’t even heard her situation.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and tried to keep from looking too foreboding, though he knew Mae wasn’t intimidated by him, not in the least. “What’s her situation?”
Mae had the audacity to look sheepish. “I’m not sure. Not really.”
He cocked his head, lifted one brow.
Mae continued, her voice embarrassed. “You see, Fiona said she was close to her. That she needed help. She didn’t say what kind.”
“And you didn’t ask her yourself when she got to Bear Canyon?”
Very unlike Mae not to find out things. Mae usually had her finger on the pulse of everything that happened in Bear Canyon Valley. She was at the core of the return of shifters to the valley, after so many were killed off during shifter wars.
“I tried, on the drive up. She’s better than Fiona was at evading questions.” Mae lowered her voice. “I don’t think she trusts me and I’m pretty sure she’s scared to death.”
He had noticed the red-rimmed eyes. That woman had been crying, a lot, for a while now.
“Mae.”
She gave him a look.
“Aunt Mae.” It was odd calling her that, when now they almost appeared the same age. The couplebonded mates of shifters aged slowly, just as shifters did.
“Look, I can’t just take care of her. What does she need? A ride?” He pointed to the car that looked like it would fall to pieces anytime soon. “Want me to help her get a vehicle?”
“No. Just watch her.”
He glared.
“Just for a couple days. No more. While I figure out what’s wrong and how it can be f
ixed.”
“How will you do that?”
“I have my ways. Give me a chance.”
No doubt she did have her ways, but two days with this woman?
When the last thing he wanted was to be around humans? When he needed to recharge his mind, body, soul, and bear, that was a lot to ask.
He thought of the fawn from earlier. What am I? The guy who helps the lost and wounded?
Then it occurred to him, he’d once been lost and wounded. And Mae had been the only one who helped him and his brothers.
But still, this left a question in his mind. “Why? Why all this trouble for one human woman?”
Mae gave him a stern look. “Because she saved Fiona’s life when they lived in New York together. She doesn’t even know she saved her life. Fiona didn’t give me the details. Just said that she wanted her protected as if Ariadne was Fiona herself.”
Fuck.
Cross knew what this would mean.
“And I told Fiona that I knew just the man who’d be able to help. I’d heard you’d finished your time with the Compliance Unit.”
Her statement was exactly what Cross feared it would mean.
“Goddammit. How did you hear that?”
These matters were highly confidential. The general public of shifters was not supposed to know the location or actions of a CU Enforcer. Nor were they supposed to know when they left active duty. All Enforcers served for four years, then were put out on a hiatus, with the option to re-up—reenlist—their services to the CU after that year.
Mae shrugged.
“Tell me.”
“I have a friend in New York.”
“That damned polar bear shifter. Romanoff.” He should have known. Mikhail Romanoff was to the New York territory what Mae was to Bear Canyon Valley.
So now Fiona’s debt would be his own.
He nodded.
Mae understood. “Thank you, Cross.”
He grumbled under his breath. Didn’t mean he had to like it.
“What about her car?” Mae asked.
“Either you can take it down and have Grant hide it in one of the caves on his property. Or I can stash it up here until she’s ready to go and run you into town.”
“Oh, no need. Jake’s on his way up to get me.”
“You were that sure I’d do it?” Cross wanted to be angry with her.
“You’re a good man, Cross del Cruz. You’ve always been good. I knew you’d do the right thing. I’ll follow Doc down the mountain with her car. Just in case it can’t make the trip. That thing looks like it’s held together with duct tape and prayers.”
