As a law professor, I would be expected to publish essays and legal papers periodically as a requirement of the job. I was not sure what the hell I was supposed to write about, but I supposed I was going to have to go into research mode at some point and make it happen.
Despite the fact that a meeting I expected to last two hours, ended up lasting four because I had to meet with the Dean of the department and the Dean of the university, I was in a surprisingly good mood. In just three weeks I would start my first semester as a teacher.
I had to admit it was going to be weird sitting on the other side of the classroom for once, but in a sense, it was no different than teaching the jury what they were looking for, what the evidence really meant, and how they should think about things to reach their final conclusion in court.
I was excited and nervous all at the same time. It felt very much like there was some crazy tug of war happening inside of my body right then. But I was optimistic, for the first time in a while, optimistic about the future.
I had called Julia and let her know I was going to be late and she said that was fine. She had sat with baby Devon for a long time and there was not a person on the earth I trusted him more than her.
I imagined that he had taken a nap and she had too. The past few weeks had been brutal on her studying nonstop for exams. Soon I was going to be the mean professor who made lives miserable for so many young students. It was going to be great.
I sat my purse down on the chair and went to the fridge to grab a soda. I was dying of thirst, and even though I had been slacking on my water intake, sometimes a girl was just in the mood for sugar. This was one of those times.
I sat my coat down on the kitchen chair and quietly walked into the living room and turned on the lamp. I figured that Julia had fallen asleep on the couch (it wouldn’t have been the first time). But she was not there.
That was odd. The apartment wasn't that big. I hadn't begun receiving any of my checks from teaching yet and even though Tony had offered to let me and Devon move into his place, I was content to make it on my own two feet. As great as things were and the fact that I was falling more and more madly in love with him every single day, living together was a big step. Not just for me, but for Devon. I don't think a bachelor has any idea what he is getting himself in for when he signs up to live with a one-year-old.
As I walked through the apartment with no sign of Julia and no sounds coming from Devon’s room, I started to get scared. There was an eerie feeling that came over me right then. I don’t know how I knew, but I did. There was something horribly wrong.
I found myself jogging those last few feet to Devon’s bedroom door. I flung the door open and flipped on the light. Devon’s crib was empty. He was not there.
Julia. She was lying on the floor, face down, a bit of blood trickling out from her head.
I couldn’t breathe. Every mother’s worse nightmare, the one that every single mother on the planet pictures happening at least once a day to her kids, the thing that wakes you up screaming in the middle of the night more often than you would ever admit to anybody- was happening to me right now.
My baby was gone.
“Devon!” I screamed.
I clutched the sides of my head as I made my way to his crib. Out of some last minute desperate strand of hope, I thought he might be there, hiding under the blanket somehow.
A groan came from the floor. Julia!
I knelt down beside Julia and helped her turn over. She was conscious but obviously very dazed.
“Julia! Where is Devon! What happened? Are you ok?”
I knew that she could not focus on hardly anything right then but I could not stop myself from asking her every single question in the world right away.
“A lady…” she moaned. Her eyes closed as she tried to doze off again. I knew she at least had a concussion. There was a huge gash on her forehead.
I lightly smacked her face to keep her with me.
“Julia, you have to think. What happened?”
“A lady hit me… she came out of nowhere… I heard her taking him.”
Julia began to doze off again.
I reached for my phone and dialed 911.
I received an answer on the second ring. “Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?” The voice was calm, almost serene. Very eerie.
"My baby has been kidnapped! Please come quick! Oh, my God! Please! My babysitter has been attacked! Someone took my baby! We need an ambulance to 175 Mercer Lane. Apart 5 B. Please come quickly!"
I was speaking so fast I had no idea if the operator could hear me or not. I was losing it. I had to regain my composure. Freaking out was not going to help anything. I took several deep breaths as the operator repeated the information back to me.
“Ok, ma’am an ambulance and police officer are on their way.”
“Ok,” I said hanging up.
I didn’t know what to do. I needed to find Devon. Who would have taken my son?
I stopped suddenly. My mind was racing a mile a minute. I had to get myself under control or I would never find him. A cop was on the way, but they were too slow. Even if they got here they would probably give me some stupid story about how they would let me know if they found out any information, meanwhile, I would do nothing but wait. I couldn't let that happen. If Devon was found, it was going to be up to me. I would tear the city apart—
Beth.
The word popped into my brain. I had no idea why at first, but as I dwelled on it I became aware of a scent. Devon’s room did not smell normal. It did not smell just like him, or like Julia, or even like me. It was different. There was a difference to it.
It was Beth. I had been around her enough to know her sent. In my heightened bear state, I knew that she had been here. My senses were on full alert with the adrenaline coursing through my body and I was surprised that I was not shifting right then.
It had been three days since Beth went on the run from the cops. There had been rumors and reports of sightings, but no one had heard from her and no one had a clue what she was doing or when she was going to be found. It had to be difficult to catch a bear shifter who didn’t want to be found.
Unless you were also a bear shifter.
The ambulance arrived and took Julia to the hospital. Shortly thereafter I was met by a police officer who came to take my statement. I told him everything I could remember and of course, he told me that they would let me know as soon as they found something. I knew that to mean that this case was unlikely to be solved. There was a reason why this city had such a high missing child problem.
The second the cop left I ran out the door and got in my car. I was going to track Beth down and get my son back.
But I was not going to do it alone.
Chapter Twelve
“I know where she is going,” Derek said.
“How?” I asked excitedly.
The second I left my house I called Tony and Derek both and told them everything I knew. Within twenty minutes we were piled inside of Tony’s Cadillac Escalade driving out of the city towards a small town called Middlefield, which was about two hours’ drive from there.
“Trust me. When we were kids we used to visit my grandparents who lived there and we’d stay there with them for like two weeks in the summer time. They had a huge farm with a big pond, horses, and chickens. It was great. That house has been in my family for six generations. It is a single-story ranch house located completely isolated. It’s at the end of a long driveway, completely hidden from view. Beth always loved it there. She would have lived there if it wasn’t for work and the fact that she has always wanted to be a city girl.”
“Why would she go there?” Tony asked.
"Because that has always been her favorite place. She ran away there a few times when she was in high school after my grandparents passed away."
“Were they both shifters?” I asked. “How did they die?”
“They were not shifters. They were on my dad’s side and it s
kipped my dad’s father. But my grandma knew about the curse and she didn’t care.”
“I will get us there as fast as possible,” Tony said. “I just hope she doesn’t hurt the baby.”
“I don’t think she wants to hurt the baby; I think she wants to hurt you both.”
“What are you talking about? Why?” Tony asked.
“Like she said when she spoke on the phone. She is deeply in love with you, Tony. She feels that you just didn’t take her seriously and that you are like all the other guys she has known who have just cast her aside.”
“But she agreed we should date other people. She didn’t even seem that upset.”
“Well, that’s Beth for you. She likes to keep things bottled up inside until she explodes. She hardly ever shows anyone her real feelings.” Derek said.
I tried to tune out the conversation. The more they talked about how unstable Beth was the more nervous I became. I just wanted to find my baby safe and sound, to hold him in my arms again. As I thought about it tears rolled down my face. I had never been that scared in my entire life.
Please be ok, baby. Please be ok.
We arrived at the farm about an hour and twenty minutes later, thanks to Tony's crazy driving skills. He must have driven almost one hundred miles an hour the whole time, using his bear senses to feel out if there were cops nearby.
“Ok, what is the plan?” Derek asked.
“You’re right,” Tony said. “We can’t just go in there. We have to catch her off guard, but make sure she is away from the baby or find a way to separate her from him.”
“How many entrances are there to this house?” I asked.
“Three. The front door, the back door, and the basement. It opens up into an old root cellar that has an outside entrance.”
“Ok, I’ll take the cellar. Tony, you take the back door. And Derek you take the front door. She will be less surprised and less alarmed when she sees that it’s you. You will have to talk to her to get her to lower her guard. Then Tony and I will pounce on her.”
“Ok, that is a plan. But we aren’t going to kill her, right? We need to make sure she goes to prison. She can get psychiatric help there,” Derek said.
I swallowed hard. I knew he was right and I didn’t think I could ever kill anyone unless it was in self-defense and I had absolutely no other way out. But she took my child. She took my child and I wanted so badly to rip her lungs out with my bare hands, but I knew that I couldn’t do it.
“Ok,” I said. “We won’t hurt her unless we have to. But I’m getting my baby back one way or another.”
Derek’s eyes met mine. He could see I was serious and I could tell that he totally agreed with me. He loved his sister, but I knew that he would do what was necessary and what was right in the heat of the moment.
Tony leaned over and kissed me just then, his hand brushing my cheek.
“Good luck,” he smiled. “We will get him back.”
In my heart, I knew he was right.
Ten minutes later I was sitting in my place behind the door that rose up from the root cellar. I tiptoed around to the back of the house, quietly opened up the heavy cellar doors and lowered them slow enough that not even the tiniest creak of a hinge was heard.
Once inside it took me just a second for my eyes to adjust to the dark and when they did I could see everything clearly as if it was all being lit up by some faint neon light that cast everything in some crazy, green glow.
I quietly walked up the stairs and stopped in front of the door. I could now hear voices.
It was Derek and Beth. They were talking. And Devon was ok. I could hear his heart beating, and his slight whimpers. He was not crying and he was not hurt; I could tell this just from inhaling his scent and listening to the nature of his cries.
“You have to turn yourself in,” Derek was saying. “There is no other way. I found you here; the cops will too.”
“Did you already call them? The cops? That would be the only way they would ever find me here,” Beth said.
“No, I didn’t call the cops. You are my sister. I wanted to speak to you first,” Derek said.
“Oh, that is sweet. You’ve never wanted to talk to me before. Why start now? Because I killed some nobody?”
“How can you talk like that? That nobody had a name. She had a family. She had a life and you took it. Why? Because you were pissed that your boyfriend dumped you? That is insane.”
“I am not insane!” Beth yelled.
She was getting irate now. What the hell was Derek doing? He was supposed to keep her calm.
“Why did you take the baby? Why? What the hell were you thinking?” Derek asked.
Beth was getting thrown off balance by the change in direction in the conversation. Maybe that was Derek’s plan.
I had to be able to see so I would know when to make a move. I was going to grab the baby and Derek and Tony would fight off Beth when she went for me. That was the plan. It sounded like it just might work.
“I wanted someone in the world who might really love me. I wanted someone who would appreciate who I really am. And I wanted to punish that bitch, Jackie Banks. She doesn’t deserve to be a mother. She is nothing but a man stealing snake in the grass.”
Derek was shaking his head.
“Sis, this is the wrong way to go about things. You have to give this up. Let me have the baby. I will take it back. I won’t tell anyone where you are. I would never do that to my sister. You know that.”
Beth was silent for a few minutes. She was thinking things over. I could tell that she was emotionally done. She was totally spent and was at the end of her rope.
She started to walk away from where Devon was lying on the couch wrapped up in his blanket. I saw my chance. This was it!
I leaped forward bursting through the door and in a flash I had Devon wrapped in my arms.
Beth was only inches from me, snarling and trying to force the shift to happen, her eyes red as a demon’s and her teeth, long and sharp protruding down from her gums, ready to rip me to shreds.
But Derek and Tony were both pulling her back. She was strong, but no match for the two of them working together. They pulled her all the way to the other side of the room, pinning her against the wall as she writhed and tried to jerk free.
I wondered if there was any way in hell that she could get free, but as I walked into the kitchen to get farther away from her I could see the shame and the pain in her eyes. She would soon be admitting defeat.
“Do it!” I heard Derek shout.
Derek suddenly changed his position on Beth’s right arm to struggling with Beth one on one while Tony quickly pulled the serum out of his pocket and injected it into Beth’s neck. Within seconds the fight started to go out of her more and more.
The serum was the same thing that Tony injected into himself to keep the shift at bay and to put him into a sleep state on the nights of the full moon. He had given her almost twice the dose that he took. It would knock her out for hours.
That was the plan, though.
As I checked baby Devon to make sure he was ok I found myself overrun with emotions. He was fine and smiling at me, thankful to have his momma back. I knew that he realized I'd been gone and he had been in the arms of a stranger. My sweet baby missed me and needed me. And now he was bursting with joy to have me back. But even with all of this, I don't think he had cried much. He was so strong and serious. He reminded me too much of me sometimes.
I held him close to me softly, inhaling his sweetness and thanking my lucky stars that my baby was back in my arms safe and sound.
“Now that is a beautiful thing,” Tony said wrapping his arms around me.
He kissed me softly on the forehead before I laid my head on his shoulder.
That moment of total relief was perfect.
“Ok, I think I have everything I need,” the pretty, blonde deputy said. As she wrote on her pad I noticed her shirt said Deputy Lewis.
“Well, did you get my ph
one number, right?” Derek asked. “I had better double check just to make sure. I mean if you didn’t get it right then it would be a total travesty.”
I almost rolled my eyes at the absurdity, but the sexy, female cop that Derek was currently talking with, was definitely being drawn in by his charms. His flirting technique was working out for him for once.
And I couldn’t have been happier for him.
“Yes,” Deputy Lewis said throwing back her head and running a couple of fingers through her long, blonde hair. “I’m sure I got it right.”
“Great,” Derek said.
“But how about I give you my number also,” the deputy replied. “That way you can call me in a day or so and tell me where you are taking me to dinner Friday night.”
I thought Derek’s jaw was going to fall on the floor and stay there. It was great.
She typed her number into his phone quickly.
“Alright, that sounds fantastic,” Derek replied.
The officer walked away to hand the report to the sheriff who was conducting a quick story for the eleven o’clock news. It was amazing how the media had got there so fast.
Derek sauntered over to us and gave Tony a high five. I shook my head. I never thought in a million years I would see those two guys becoming friends, but it was happening. Baby Devon could cause miracles, it was true.
“So, what happens now?” Tony asked.
“Well, they are taking Beth back to the city. She will stand trial for murder and kidnapping. But pending a psyche evaluation I’m not sure she will be declared competent to stand trial.”
“I’m sure it will all work out ok,” I said. “You just got to have faith.”
Derek smiled and nodded. I knew that my words would not fix everything, but it was a start.
Epilogue
Six months later
I threw the bouquet behind me hoping to cover the entire span of the large room. I’d tried to keep my eyes closed, but part of being a shifter was that even with my eyes closed I can still see pretty well.
Beta's Destiny (Rocky Mountain Shifters Book 2) Page 65
