Derek nuzzled Zach goodbye, making the kid laugh loudly and bat him away. Tanner and Derek backed away respectfully from Zach, and when they were at a safe distance, bounded away as quickly as they could.
Derek heard Zach shouting after them, “Wait! Guys, come back!”
He hoped it was loud enough for the search party to hear him.
Derek and Tanner raced back to the truck. They bashed into one another, taking playful swipes as they ran. They hadn’t had a chance to do this together for years, just enjoying being out in the fresh air, inhabiting their animal forms and enjoying the sheer muscle power of nine-hundred pounds of bear.
When they reached the truck they shifted quickly, throwing on their clothes on and raced to get back as soon as possible. If the search party hadn’t found Zach yet, they would need their help.
Derek spun the truck around, accelerating back down the dirt path.
Chapter 15
Derek and Tanner quickly located the search party. Derek could see Audrey, further into the woods than the rest of the party, with Chloe and Heather nearby. He strode toward her quickly. He knew Zach was only a few yards or so ahead but the fact that she hadn’t heard him yet was worrying.
Audrey turned around at his approach. Derek was gratified to see relief gentle her expression briefly.
“They haven’t found him yet,” she said quietly. “Derek, I’m so scared. I’m sick with worry. I know Jerry had something to do with this, I just do. I can’t stand not knowing where he is.”
Derek nodded, taking her hand and leading her onwards.
“We’ll find him,” he muttered under his breath. He hated letting her worry about Zach now he knew the boy was okay.
“ZACH!” He yelled. “ZACH!”
He paused, pulling Audrey to him. Up ahead they heard the sound of rustling. Derek and Audrey quickened their pace.
“Oh my God, is that—He’s there!” Audrey’s words came out half garbled as she released Derek’s hand, running further up ahead. Zach was in a clearing, standing still looking around him perfectly content as if he’d just gone for a stroll.
“Shhh, Mom. I’m waiting for the bears!” He announced imperiously, holding up his hands and crouching down low.
Audrey paid no attention. She ran to Zach, scooping him up from the ground and squeezing him tightly to her. He didn’t protest much, his frail body finally collapsing into hers, and letting his mother kiss his hair, face and neck with desperate relief.
“Oh Zach! Oh, my baby,” Audrey half-sobbed. “You’re okay.”
She repeatedly checked his small frame, running her hands up his legs and arms, hardly daring to believe that it was really him, that he was safe in her arms.
Derek gave them a few moments before approaching. Behind him stood Tanner, Heather and Chloe, all looking on with relief and gratitude.
“Mom, I saw bears! They helped me. They scared away dad and then I walked with them and they let me pet them!” Zach couldn’t contain his excitement for a moment longer.
Derek laughed, satisfied that his and Tanner’s appearance hadn’t scarred the kid too much. If anything, the bears seemed like a high point of the day and helping somewhat to wipe out the fear of being kidnapped by his own father.
“Oh sweetheart, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, Mommy didn’t know where you were, and I’ve been looking for you all day!”
“I wish you got here before to see the bears,” replied Zach simply. “They were so big! Bigger than you and me!”
“I wish I’d seen the bears too, buddy,” Audrey replied, looking confused. Clearly, she thought Zach had made up the story, but the more he insisted it had been real, the more puzzled she was becoming.
“Derek!” Zach shouted, waving at him. “I saw bears!”
“I heard, that’s awesome, Zach.”
“Yeah! One had the same hair as you. I named him Derek Bear. He looked like you”
“I’m flattered,” Derek replied evenly. Internally he was taken aback, that kid missed nothing. The last thing Derek had ever expected was a five-year-old boy becoming the closest person on the planet to ever blowing his cover.
Audrey grinned at Derek, and she shrugged. As long as Zach was happy, then she was too.
The sheriff arrived, clearly pleased to see Zach in one piece.
“I’m not going to bother you or your son with questions today, ma’am,” he said. “But I will need to come down to the station tomorrow and give a statement. Both of you. One of my men has already radioed in that a man fitting the description of Jerry Ennis had been seen trying to hitchhike on Highway one-oh-one. We’re on our way to pick him up now. He’ll spend the night in the county jail until we decide what to do with him. But let me assure you, ma’am, we are fully prepared to see that he feels the full force of Wyoming law.”
“Oh, thank you,” Audrey murmured, closing her eyes briefly. “Thank you, Sheriff. Please thank everyone in the search parties. I’m so grateful for everything.”
The Sheriff tipped his hat.
“Don’t you worry about thank yous. It’s our job, ma’am.”
Derek rolled his eyes. The sheriff and the rest of the department had been singing from a different hymn sheet this morning, but it didn’t really matter. The important thing was that Zach was safe, and Jerry was locked up.
The crowd started to disperse after that, pleased with the drama of the morning and the happy ending it produced. Zach got lots of pats on the head and well-wishers gave him and his mother hunks of tin-foiled pie.
“I’ll take you back home,” Derek murmured to Audrey after yet another well-wisher offered their congratulations and prayers.
“Thank you,” Audrey smiled sleepily. Now that Zach was safe in her arms, the adrenaline spike was starting to take its toll. Derek had to physically stop himself for scooping both of them up into his arms and carrying them away.
Audrey watched Zach sleep.
She had been through her worst experience yet as a mother. Her son had also experienced a harrowing event, something which she felt entirely responsible for. Her sole job was to protect Zach and today she had failed.
Zach, she knew, was upset by what had happened, but the terror had been in part undone by the appearance of the bears. Audrey couldn’t tell if the story was true or not. She certainly believed he’d seen bears, but his claim that they had walked with him through the woods seemed highly unlikely.
Still, stranger things had happened.
Audrey prayed that would be the end of it. She would make sure Jerry was locked up for a long time, and after that, forbidden to see her or his son. She knew that preventing her ex-husband from seeing Zach was something that might seem cruel to those who didn’t know him, but Audrey knew Zach would never be safe with his biological father. Any right Jerry had to being a parent was long gone now.
Her mom had been in complete agreement. She’d retold the story over the phone as soon as they returned to the apartment. Audrey was so grateful that she had good news to share that she wept through most of it, hardly able to get the words out.
Audrey checked the locks on the windows. She’d done it three times since Zach went to bed, but couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“Hey.”
Derek appeared in the doorway, calling softly to her.
“It’s safe, Audrey. I’ve checked it all.”
“I know,” she sighed. “I just…”
“I get it.”
She and Derek left Zach’s room, only shutting the door part way.
Now that it was just the two of them alone, Audrey felt awkward. She couldn’t have managed without Derek today. He’d been amazing, doing everything within his power to make sure the officials took things seriously, getting his family involved, and then at last being the one who found him. She could picture him now, striding up through the forest as if he already knew Zach would be waiting for them.
“Thank you for today,” Audrey said. It was such a huge understatement that she felt hers
elf blushing.
“Don’t thank me,” Derek cleared his throat. “If I hadn’t dragged you to Jackson then none of this would have happened.”
“It would have happened in Chicago. And the chances of us finding him would have been much, much smaller.”
Audrey felt sick at the thought. It was entirely true. Had Jerry taken Zach in the city, where there was a million different ways to flee quickly, it would have taken much longer, and god knows what Jerry was capable of doing.
“Don’t think about that,” Derek replied sharply. “Jerry’s locked up. He’s not going anywhere, and certainly not within miles of you or Zach. Trust me on that one.”
Audrey smiled. She hadn’t met this protective, combative Derek. She hadn’t realised how deeply capable he was of caring until today. It wasn’t just the events of the morning, but afterward too when he’d taken her and Zach home, letting them nap together on the sofa, then waking them up to steaming bowls of tomato soup and delicious grilled cheese sandwiches.
“You’re not exactly the man I thought you were, Derek. I really misjudged you.”
Audrey looked up at him, nervous about his response. She hadn’t wanted to offend him, just admit to her own fault in viewing Derek so narrowly.
He smirked, raising an eyebrow. But Audrey recognised that his eyes didn’t quite reflect his faux amusement, and instead looked sad.
“You didn’t. You judged me accurately. I just want the chance to prove to you I can be different.”
Audrey swallowed. Her throat felt dry and raspy, the butterflies in her stomach that Derek Holt typically elicited, fluttered up again making her feel light-headed.
“I know you can.”
“Do you?” He asked seriously.
Audrey nodded, unable to speak. She was lost in Derek’s deep brown eyes and her sudden need for him. She wanted his body on hers, consuming her completely, taking away the fears of the day and replacing them with shivers of pleasure.
“Really?” He questioned her again, with more urgency. “Because I want us to be more than two people who work together, more than friends. I love you. I think I have for a long time, but I can’t deny it anymore. You’re the one thing I want in my life now, well, two things, you and Zach. But if you don’t feel the same way, then please, tell me know now.”
A reckless, wild look that came over him, leaving Audrey stunned.
“Y-you don’t mean that, Derek,” she replied brokenly. “You don’t. You can’t. You’ve never even looked at me before last night, it doesn’t make sense.”
Derek cupped her chin firmly, running his thumb down her jawline.
“Audrey,” he rasped, “I know what your hair looks like during the sunrise and sunset of fifty-one states. I know what you look like, what you say, how you act, when drinking your first cup of coffee in a run-down, cheap motel in Shreveport. I know how you eat a road-side burger in Cincinnati, how you discretely pick off the onions and wrap then in a napkin and how disappointed you look if they forgot the extra pickles. I know you had to wipe a tear away when you first saw the Marfa lights, and pretended there was something in your eye. I know your left heel rubs whenever you get new Converse, and you’re in a bad mood for the entire day. I know how you look in the driver’s seat of the tour bus, in the passenger seat of my truck, and believe me, it kills me to pretend I’m not noticing everything about you. So don’t tell me I haven’t looked at you. Whenever you’re around, I’ve noticed no one else.”
Audrey felt the blood drain from her face.
“But all those women,” she whispered. She couldn’t believe what Derek was saying was true. She just couldn’t. To have spent so many years trying to overcome the way she felt about Derek, the way she responded to him physically, then have him turn around and tell her that he wanted her too…it was too much.
“First off, most of those women that I get credited with never even existed. My reputation is a whole lot of management created hogwash. Of the women I did date, they were just an escape. Just like the booze. The bad behavior. If I’d thought for a second I deserved you, Audrey, it would have been a different story.”
“What’s changed?”
“I’m tired of fighting it. I can’t.” Derek replied gruffly. “And I know I don’t deserve you. I don’t think there’s a man on the planet that does, but I can protect you. I will protect you. I can keep you and Zach safe, and I figure maybe that’ll count for something.”
Audrey surrendered.
She stood on tiptoes, brushing her lips against Derek’s. Instantly, his mouth molded to hers, the pressure firm and wanting. He picked Audrey up, lifting her as her legs wrapped around his waist, and carried her to the bedroom.
They both fell on the mattress, all Audrey could feel was the insistent need to have Derek inside her quenching the undeniable thirst she had for him. To fill her up. To finally have his body meld with hers.
Derek pulled off her t-shirt and bra, throwing them aside. Audrey ran her fingers down his back, pulling his shirt over his head. He peppered kisses along her neck, sending waves of intense pleasure rocketing through her body. When he slid his jeans off, exposing his thick, engorged manhood, Audrey pulled him toward her, digging her fingers into his back, greedily wanting more of him. Her cries of pleasure were muffled against Derek’s skin. She heard his deep, rasping panting as he moved inside her, just the sound of his breath driving her wild, taking her to higher heights of passion by the second.
She had never known pleasure like it. Every time he touched her, her skin it felt warm and tingly. His grip on her was firm, guiding her beneath him. Even in the throes of abandon and ecstasy, Audrey felt safe, knowing that Derek was protecting her, that he would never let her go.
“I’m in love with you, Red,” he rasped.
“I’m in love with you, Holt.”
She had been for years. It was a relief to finally say it out loud. As the climax built between them, Audrey felt like she might explode with joy, and most of all, the feeling of being cherished by a man who meant the world to her.
Chapter 16
Derek lay with his arms around Audrey.
He had never known such peace and contentment. Her warm body was molded against his, their breaths rising and falling in unison with one another. The duvet was mussed up at the end of the bed, the pillows scattered across the floor. He didn’t want to move from the spot, happy to lie for eternity next to Audrey, her crimson splash of hair contrasting starkly against white sheets.
He smiled softly to himself, the smile turning into a grimace as he felt a familiar tug in his gut.
Shit. Not now!
He didn’t understand it. There was no danger here. He had let his bear run free only earlier today. It made no sense as to why his bear was clawing at him to emerge. But despite his rationalizing, the tug became more insistent, the flame like wildfire spreading through his veins and muscles with unaccountable speed.
“Audrey,” he groaned, sitting up in bed and doubling over with the pain of trying to repress the change.
“Derek, what wrong?” She was instantly alarmed. “What’s the matter?!”
“Shit, Audrey, you’ve got to get out of here, now!”
He rolled off the bed.
The change was already upon him. He could feel his body ripping apart inside his skin. The only thought he had was, will I lose her now? He cried out in fury, internally raging that the love of his life would see the creature he really was.
Instead of fleeing, Audrey knelt down beside him, cradling him around the waist.
“Derek, what’s wrong? What can I do to help?”
“Audrey…p-please,” he winced, putting every fibre of his being in trying to resist what was about to happen, “I’m going to change,” he panted, “You need to get away from me. I’m a—”
Before the words could leave his mouth, he flung Audrey aside. Because he was trying so hard to stop it, the shift was colossally painful—as if the bear was ripping out his insides as his b
ody morphed and stretched to accommodate it.
It was over in a matter of seconds.
He crouched before Audrey on all fours, not daring to look at her. The doorway to the kitchen and out of the apartment was too small for him to flee, he could do nothing but wait for her shock to subside and her screams to come, for her to grab Zach and run for the hills.
Instead, Audrey was silent.
Finally, Derek looked up at her. Her face was a picture of shock and surprise. He could tell her mind was racing furiously trying to accept what she’d just seen as reality.
“Derek?” she questioned quietly. Her voice trembled.
Derek nodded, his fur rippling in the bedside light.
“This isn’t real,” she gulped. “It can’t be real–”
She paused. Reaching out her hand, her body fully trembling with fear, she touched his fur. Derek was reminded of Zach earlier that morning. The bravery he showed in being willing to try and accept and overcome his fear was the same bravery now being shown by his mother.
Derek thought his heart would break.
“It is you,” she whispered in wonder. “It’s the same color as your hair… and your eyes. They’re the same. But they can’t be. It doesn’t make sense.”
Slowly Audrey moved to her knees. She put two hands on his body, brushing over his flanks and muzzle with a hand that grew steadily less trepid.
“Zach,” she breathed. “Zach saw you in the forest. You were the bear. The bear that saved him.”
Derek didn’t respond. He was frightened if he moved an inch, she would grow alarmed again and stop touching him. A second later, Audrey’s strokes continued, and a strange sensation came over Derek as if his skin was humming, emitting a growly, purr-like sound that didn’t seem as if it was coming from him.
“Oh,” Audrey half-laughed, half-gasped, “I think you’re purring. I didn’t know bears could do that.”
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