Ash (Bearpaw Ridge Firefighters Book 6)

by Ophelia Sexton

  "Uh, an arranged mating," he said quickly. "It was all Mama's idea. And now that my parents think that you're dead…I don't think it will take very long to close the deal."

  As a shifter, Ash knew that arranged matings were still common among shifter clans, especially those lineages whose populations were widely scattered around the world. That was the main reason that the ShiftMatch dating service even existed.

  But nowadays, most arranged shifter matches were actually just arranged introductions between suitable candidates. The intended couple would meet, date, and decide for themselves whether a mating would work for them.

  It wasn't like the old days, when shifters left clan and home and traveled long distances to formalize an arranged mating without ever having met their prospective mates. These days, both parties had the option to say "no" to an arranged match.

  Mostly. Apparently the Medved clan still believed in doing things the really old-fashioned way.

  "They can't arrange a mating for Nika when she's already mated to me."

  Ash knew he was stating the obvious, but he just needed to blow off some steam so that he could concentrate on the mission at hand.

  He began to download all the information he'd obtained on the Medved family to a slim laptop. Thanks to Dimitri's login information, Ash had gathered a treasure trove of data, including some very interesting spreadsheets from their investment bank.

  "Ash, I hate to be a downer, but I was able to kick your ass out there just now without even trying," Dimitri said, finally addressing the elephant in the room." And I'm nowhere in my father's league. How are you going to rescue Nika without Papa tearing you into large, bleeding chunks?"

  Ash had been wondering the same thing over the past few hours, as he’d made his preparations. A tight knot of tension had been building steadily into an indigestible lump in his belly as he contemplated his failure.

  Thanks for nothing, you loser, he told his inner bear, who had retreated deep inside him.

  He couldn't fail Nika again, not when she needed him to protect her from her psycho family.

  He smiled at Dimitri with a confidence he didn't feel and hefted his laptop. "I'm going to play dirty this time."

  He rose. "C'mon, Dimitri. I've rented us a jet. It's waiting for us at the airport, which is about a 40-minute drive away from here."

  Dimitri gave him a nervous grin. "At least I don't have to worry about luggage."

  Ash slipped his laptop into his overnight bag. "If everything goes as planned, we'll be back at the ranch with Nika before either of us needs clean underwear."

  When they emerged from the house, Ash spotted his mother waiting for them next to the garage.

  He braced himself for an argument with about how stupid it was to head into the heart of Medved territory when he couldn't shift and hadn't even packed a gun.

  Instead, Mom looked at him gravely.

  "I want to come along," she said quietly. "Those people have my grandchild and my daughter-in-law, and I want to help."

  * * *

  East Hampton Village, Long Island, New York

  It was a long, sleepless night as the hours crept by with excruciating slowness.

  Heavy gray clouds moved in at dawn, and it began to rain. Long Island's February temperatures were mild, closer to those of Seattle than of Bearpaw Ridge, but it was still cold outside.

  Nika did her best to behave suitably depressed and defeated when ordered downstairs to share breakfast with her parents.

  It wasn't hard to sell them on her despair, when grief and anger and a deep sense of helplessness floated so close to the surface of her soul right now. They had killed—or at least seriously injured—Ash!

  And they were going to force her into an unwanted mating in a foreign country by holding her child hostage.

  At the breakfast table, Nika sat silently in her chair, ignoring her coffee and eggs in favor of watching raindrops slide down the breakfast nook's windows.

  Mama was feeling victorious over Nika's apparent capitulation, so she was chatty and charming and trying to behave like a loving mother.

  She peppered Nika with questions about her health and extolled the virtues of Björn Sandviken, passing Nika her phone to show her Björn's ShiftMatch profile photos.

  Björn was big and blond and probably considered handsome, but Nika saw that his smile never reached his eyes. In addition to the usual head shots, he had added photos to his profile that showed him engaged in various athletic activities.

  There was a bare-chested shot of him wearing scuba gear and standing knee-deep in the clear turquoise waters off a tropical beach. Another shot showed him in expensive winter gear, holding a pair of skis against a backdrop of snowy, rugged mountains.

  A third photo had been taken at a trophy hunt. Björn stood in a forest, a rifle in one hand, holding the limp corpse of a beautiful lynx by its scruff in his other hand.

  He looked every bit as ruthless as her mother, which was probably why Mama thought him the perfect candidate for her son-in-law. Nika tried to hide her shudder and thrust the phone back at her mother.

  "He, um, looks very athletic," she managed, as her stomach clenched and she fought the urge to throw up.

  Nika remembered Ash's warm smile, his sense of humor, and his kindness to everyone he met, and she wanted to scream. His house on the ranch had seemed like the perfect refuge, but it had quickly turned into the scene of the very tragedy she'd tried to prevent by leaving Seattle.

  Did I lead Papa to Bearpaw Ridge? Is Ash's death my fault?

  Those questions had been spiraling endlessly through her thoughts during the long, sleepless hours of the night.

  "Radost' moya," Papa said to her in Russian, his deep voice rumbling the endearment. "You haven't eaten a thing. Think of your baby!"

  I am thinking of my baby, she thought resentfully. That's why I'm sitting here right now, looking at photos of a shifter I already hate.

  Reminding herself that she had to convince her parent that they'd won, she murmured, "I'm not feeling well."

  She didn't raise her eyes from her plate of rapidly cooling bacon and eggs.

  Papa was clearly feeling badly about Nika being upset with him. He reached across the small round table and put his big, warm hand over hers.

  "You must understand, this is for the best," he said. "Your mother and I have chosen a fine young bear for you. You are sad now, and I understand that. But I promise you, my dearest daughter, in time you will be happy again." He looked at his Rolex. "Your brother should be coming home soon. I have faith in him, you see."

  Nika conquered the urge to snatch her hand away.

  "Yes, Papa," she said, as meekly as she could.

  "That's my girl," he boomed, and withdrew his hand.

  She forked up a portion of cold scrambled eggs and forced herself to swallow them. They stuck in her throat, and she had to wash them down with a swig of lukewarm coffee.

  I need to eat, she told herself, willing herself to scoop up another forkful. I'll need all the strength I can muster when I make a run for it.

  In the meantime, she had to keep convincing her parents that she no longer had the heart to run anywhere.

  Maybe that would have been true…except that she could still feel Ash's presence in her mind, like a ray of sunshine warming her skin.

  He's still alive. He has to be!

  She tried to push down her memory of her last glimpse of him yesterday, sprawled on his porch, bleeding and unconscious. With a supreme effort of will, she managed to eat about half of her plate of breakfast before excusing herself.

  Back in her room upstairs, Nika stared out of her windows through the rain and watched the rolling surf pound the beach several hundred yards away.

  Movement caught her eye, and she saw two of the estate's security guards patrolling the line where the brown expanse of winter-killed lawn rolled down to the edge of the low sand dunes.

  The rest of the estate was wooded, with the exception of the te
nnis court and the swimming pool, now drained and covered for the winter.

  But she knew that despite the estate's wild appearance, every inch of it was carefully cultivated, and there were high-tech cameras and motion detectors set up everywhere.

  She chewed on her lower lip, trying to figure out how to evade the guards and cameras once she managed to get out of the house itself. Which wasn't going to be easy, not with Papa and Mama shadowing her every move outside of this bedroom.

  I'll think of something, she assured herself.

  The day crept by with excruciating slowness. Her phone had been missing from her pocket when she woke up from her drugged sleep, and her bedroom had been stripped of all electronics. Her shoes and jacket were missing, and the closet held only a bathrobe and a selection of shirts and blouses.

  A low bookshelf painted gray displayed a selection of best-sellers, and there were several glossy magazines on a small glass-topped table placed between two cushioned wicker chairs.

  She tried to settle down and read, but her attention kept straying towards the windows and the seemingly impassible barrier of the estate beyond.

  And even if she managed to reach the property line, where would she go? Would any of the cars driving along the road even stop to help her?

  I can't give up. I just have to pay attention and wait for an opportunity.

  Lunch came and went, then an endless afternoon as she pretended to read but passed the time making and abandoning dozens of escape plans.

  Dimitri never came home. Nika wondered if the Swansons had killed him in revenge for his attack on Ash, and the lump choking her grew bigger with every passing hour.

  Dinner was silent and uncomfortable. Papa checked his phone every minute or two, clearly hoping for word from Dimitri.

  Nika couldn't help wondering how Dimitri was supposed to text Papa, since he'd been left behind in bear shape, with no clothes or money…or phone.

  As before, she forced herself to eat as much she could of the baked salmon, vegetables, and boiled potatoes on her plate. But everything was dry and flavorless, and she drained her glass of milk just to force each mouthful down her throat.

  After the dinner dishes had been cleared, Mama urged her to join them in the living room for a movie.

  Nika considered the prospect of spending another two hours in the same room as her parents and shook her head.

  "I'm not really feeling up to doing more sitting," she said truthfully, and patted her rounded belly. "I'd like to go to bed early."

  Mama pouted but kissed her cheek.

  Papa gave her one of his hearty hugs, and Nika had to fight her instinctive reaction to stiffen and push him away.

  It was so hard to pretend that she was still their dutiful daughter when they were keeping her a prisoner here.

  But Nika believed her mother's threat to use the baby to ensure Nika's compliance. She knew that Mama always kept promises like that.

  I can't stand it, she thought with increasing desperation as she plodded up wide hardwood stairs to her bedroom. I have to get out of here soon. If only Dimitri were here…or Ash.

  She felt a fleeting touch of sunlight against her soul and paused on the staircase leading up to the second story.

  Please let this be a sign that Ash is still alive.

  She had just closed her bedroom door behind her when the power went out and the house was plunged into darkness.

  She froze, her heart hammering. And felt that faint touch of warmth once more. Her breath caught in a sob.

  Her shifter night vision kicked in, and she ran to the windows. Only one way to find out.

  All of the tiny LED indicators embedded in the window frames for the house's security system had gone dark. An ordinary power outage wouldn't have disabled them.

  Ash! He's come for me!

  Could he really be near? Or was it just wishful thinking?

  Peering out, Nika couldn't see any lights anywhere on the estate.

  Her heart gave a great leap. This is it…the opportunity I've been waiting for!

  Whether or not Ash was really out there, she had to get out of here before the power came back on again.

  Nika unlatched the window closest to her and heaved it up. A blast of icy wind and rain hit her face, drenching her clothes and skin.

  No shoes, no coat…she'd be soaked to the skin in seconds.

  And even if she managed to evade the estate's security guards in her state of advanced pregnancy, where could she go? The local police were Ordinaries. They couldn't possibly prevail against shifters.

  Then she heard footsteps coming up the stairs outside her room and decided to take her chances outside before it was too late.

  Her pregnant belly made her feel awkward and off-balance as she bent to pull off her socks. She had to bend almost double to squeeze out the window, which was supremely uncomfortable when you were pregnant.

  How often had she and Dimitri done this in their younger years? They had regularly sneaked out of their rooms to sit on the roof together and look up at the summer stars…or headed down to the beach to swim in the moonlight.

  Then again, she'd been a lot younger and a lot smaller back then.

  Once she had managed to wriggle onto the roof, she closed the window behind her. With any luck, her parents wouldn't guess right away where she had gone.

  It had been a long time, but Nika still knew the way down from steeply sloped roof outside her bedroom window to the relatively flat roof of the house's wraparound porch. From there, it was only a few steps to the top of the brick wall that surrounded the pool at the back of the house.

  Even pregnant, the climb down was easier than she had feared. Her bare feet found toe-holds between the rough bricks, and she was able to wedge her fingers into the crevices left by sloppily applied mortar.

  She still heaved a sigh of relief when her feet touched solid ground at last.

  Okay, she told herself, as she bent to put her hands on her knees and panted for breath. That went better than I expected.

  Then she heard Papa shouting her name from inside the house. Nika straightened up as fear jolted through her like a hit from a Taser.

  She turned and sprinted for the shelter of the trees surrounding the house. She prayed that the security cameras scattered throughout the wooded estate had also gone down in the power outage.

  As she ran into the shadows, she saw the gleam of flashlights out of the corner of her eye as the Ordinary security guards began to converge on the house. It was only a matter of minutes before a full-scale pursuit began. In those few minutes, she had to get as far away from the house as she could.

  As she ran through the freezing rain, slipping on patches of mud and splashing through puddles so cold the bones of her bare feet ached, Nika desperately wished that she could shift right now. In her bear shape with its tough paws and long stride, she would have been able to move a lot faster than her unwieldy human shape allowed.

  Somewhere far behind her, she began to hear the sounds of walkie-talkies, snapping branches, and low-voiced curses from Ordinaries whose night vision was nothing compared to that of a shifter.

  They were after her.

  And if the security guards were blundering around in the dark, she knew that Mama and Papa had likely shifted into their bear forms and were now hunting her with silent ferocity. She knew how her parents operated. The human guards were merely there to serve as beaters, driving her in the direction that her parents wanted and preventing her from doubling back.

  Nika was suddenly grateful for the heavy rain and gusting winds of this stormy night. They would help dispel her scent, making it harder for Mama and Papa to track her.

  She tried to remember the shortest way to get to the road that would take her into town. Without money, a phone, or even shoes and jacket, Nika would have to hope that the police would believe her and help her.

  But she wouldn't be able to stay at the police station for very long, not with her parents hunting her.

&n
bsp; And who would she call anyway? Who could possibly help her with two angry bear shifters hot on her trail, both of them rich and influential enough to make any inconvenient problems disappear?

  Elle Swanson.

  If she was very lucky, Elle would overlook the fact that Ash had been killed—or at the least critically injured—because of Nika, and help her for the sake of her unborn grandchild, if nothing else. As matriarch of the Swanson clan, Elle could dispatch Ash's brothers to help her.

  All Nika would have to do was avoid being recaptured until help arrived.

  But first she had to actually make it off her parents' huge property and to a phone.

  Behind her, the sounds of the search were steadily growing louder. She knew that even trapped in human shape she could easily outpace the Ordinaries, but she also knew that Mama and Papa were somewhere out here, too.

  And the same rain and wind that masked her would also conceal them…until it was too late.

  They might be stalking her even now, letting her think that she was succeeding in her escape attempt, only to capture her just when she thought she was safe.

  Somewhere up ahead, she heard the faint sound of an approaching vehicle. She sped up, pushing her way through the artificial forest that her parents had planted for privacy so that they could safely shift and go for walks in bear form.

  When she reached the large clearing that housed the estate's tennis court, she began to skirt around the perimeter.

  Then the beam of a flashlight illuminated the tree trunks just ahead of her, and her father's voice boomed out behind her, "Nika! Stop this foolishness at once!"

  And she realized that her escape attempt had been doomed from the start. It had all been one of Mama's sneaky loyalty tests. Once Nika was recaptured, Mama would be sure to lock her up securely until the baby was born.

  I won't let them take me without a fight!

  She dodged behind a tree and ran blindly until strong arms closed tightly around her.

  Chapter 16 – Standoff

  "Nika, thank God you're safe!" Ash's voice rumbled through her, and his arms pressed her securely to his broad chest.

  "Y-you're alive?" Stunned with disbelief, Nika clung to her mate, inhaling his beloved scent. "But I saw you—"