She was still hoping beyond hope to keep Kelly from being removed from society. When a human got wind of the existence of shifters, it was always sticky to clean up, but when things went too far, it was sometimes impossible. Eliminating someone from society was a pain in the ass.
Paige would not shift unless the situation became dire. She also would not verbally confirm anything Kelly suspected about her species. Perhaps she was being optimistic. The lengths at which Kelly had gone to track and capture Paige were extensive enough to suggest there was a chance she had far too much information and had already crossed lines the Arcadian Council would not be able to ignore.
Paige did not, however, want to exacerbate the problem.
She tried to ignore the extreme thirst parching her throat and leaving her lips dry while she watched Kelly eat a bowl of ice cream and sip a glass of water. The crazy woman was trying to goad Paige into shifting, but she had severely underestimated the willpower of a grizzly bear.
The biggest concern Paige had was worrying about Wyatt. He would be pulling his hair out by now. He would have started looking for her the moment she was taken because she’d sent him a text and then never responded to whatever he might have returned. She also hadn’t shown up at his parents’ house.
At least she had the knowledge to calm her nerves that people had been searching for her from the moment she’d been abducted. Unfortunately, she had no idea how far away from Silvertip she was. She’d been drugged during the transportation. She was amazed the mousy woman holding her had been able to carry her to the cage.
She concentrated on Wyatt and what he’d come to mean to her in order to ignore her plight. Her butt hurt from sitting on the hard surface of the cage.
Resting her eyes from the annoying view of Kelly, she allowed herself to bring Wyatt to the front of her mind. She would give anything to have the power to reach out to him and reassure him she was okay. He would be scared out of his mind by now.
He loved her. He hadn’t said the words specifically yet, but she knew he did. And the feeling was mutual. She’d been in love with him from the moment she first laid eyes on him at her parents’ home months ago.
He was kind and gentle. His patience knew no limits. His ability to understand her issues and read her body language was unbelievable. Never once had he scared her with a sudden movement or a touch. After ten years of avoiding other people in general and men and grizzlies in particular, it was startling to realize none of her fears existed in the arms of Wyatt Arthur.
Her mate.
The man she would spend her life with.
The man she should have already bound herself to. If she hadn’t been so skittish and hesitant even when faced with the undeniable truth, she wouldn’t be in this position. If she were bound to Wyatt, she would be able to simply reach out to him and communicate with him.
Clearly, Kelly had no knowledge of the bond between mates, or she would have doubted this plan of hers to kidnap a grizzly and attempt to force them to shift for her cameras. Although, the woman also couldn’t be playing with a full deck seeing as it hadn’t occurred to her the strength Paige would possess if she wanted to put a quick, painful end to Kelly’s life.
Paige glanced around at the cage again. How sturdy was it? It appeared that although the bars of the cage were strong, the base was sitting flat on the floor, not anchored. There was a chance once shifted, Paige could lift it with her body. After all, Kelly had undoubtedly constructed this cage herself. If she managed to lift the sides to put it together, surely Paige could destroy it in a few seconds in grizzly form.
Maybe she was wrong, and it weighed more than she suspected, but there was a chance. If worse came to worse. She would need to be at her best though. Not drugged. She flexed her fingers and moved her limbs around as subtly as possible. In a few hours she figured she would be at full strength again. Thirsty, but not so much so that she couldn’t do what was needed to escape.
The sun was sinking lower in the sky, but Paige vowed this would be the last day on earth she would spend not bound to Wyatt. The moment she got out of this situation, she would rectify that oversight.
She smiled inside as she closed her eyes again, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that not only would Wyatt never care if she overcame her sexual insecurities, but once they completed the binding, all her concerns would fly out the window. Wyatt would ensure she felt safe and loved. He would take the time and care to make everything perfect so that her past was buried and her future held only memories of what it was like to be loved by a real man.
Sitting in this uncomfortable cage in this remote cabin, located who knew where, a weight lifted from Paige. Years of pent-up stress slid away, freeing her from Antoine Tarben. His threats couldn’t hurt her anymore. He would no longer hold her prisoner. She would not allow his disgusting act of rape to control her life. She belonged to another man now, and she would see to it that her life forever intertwined with his, letting go of the past hurt and grasping onto the intense pleasure life was offering her.
A long exhale slid from her lungs, followed by a deep inhale as if she’d crossed a line that separated her previous life from her future.
As she slowly drew breath into her body, she took in more than just oxygen. The scent of shifters filled her. She jerked her eyes open as half a dozen different scents grabbed her attention. Among them was Wyatt.
Kelly was licking a mouthful of ice cream from her spoon, oblivious to the storm that was about to descend.
“Wyatt?” She reached out telepathically, knowing he was close.
“Paige.” His voice. His amazing, wonderful, seductive, perfect voice. Heaven.
“You found me.”
“Can’t take the credit. Dale did it. Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m in some sort of cabin. Are you close enough to sense me precisely?”
“Yes. I see the cabin. And your car is out front. Give me details.”
“Kelly is whacked. She slept with Antoine. He shifted in front of her. She’s made it her mission to prove our existence and profit from it.”
“Fuck.” Paige could hear the tension in his thoughts. She knew everyone would be worrying about how many other people Antoine might have revealed his identity to.
“Wait, you said slept with Antoine. Voluntarily?”
“Not sure I’d call it that, precisely. She has a rape fetish.”
“Jesus.”
Paige could feel Wyatt creeping closer to the cabin.
“Baby, I’m close. Is she armed?”
“No. I haven’t seen a weapon. Not even a knife.”
“The woman is holding you with no weapon?”
“Hey, don’t get all judgy on me. She drugged me and then drove me to this cabin and stuck me in a cage.” She did her best to sound light and almost jovial to ease the fear she could feel through their connection.
“Lord, woman. I’ve been scared out of my mind, and all the while you were just lying around in a cabin having a vacation,” he teased back as the fear fled. “I’m looking through the window now. I see you. What the hell is Kelly doing?”
“Eating ice cream.”
“Shit, she’s strange.”
“Yes. Please feel free to come inside now. I doubt she even locked the door. You might be enjoying staring at me restrained in this damn cage, but I’m getting claustrophobic.”
Even without words directed at her, she could feel his sudden startle. “I don’t think you’re the sort of woman I would ever consider restraining in this lifetime, babe, but hang tight. We’re just making sure she’s unarmed.”
“You’re no fun. What if I’ve decided I like being caged?” Where the hell she was coming up with this banter, she had no idea, but she was enjoying the sharp intakes of breath she sensed from her mate.
“You have got to be the only woman alive who could possibly turn something this serious into sexual banter that is causing me to have to adjust my cock before I can rescue you.”
“My go
al is to always keep you on your toes.”
As that last thought left her mind, the front door of the cabin opened, and Wyatt rushed inside, heading directly for a startled Kelly who dropped her spoon and screamed. Right behind Wyatt were two members of the Arcadian Council, their age doing nothing to hinder them from securing Kelly by the arms before she even had enough seconds to realize her plan was over.
Gavin was the first to reach Paige, and he started fiddling with the enclosure while Wyatt pivoted away from Kelly and took two long strides toward Paige. He held up a set of keys and nudged Gavin out of the way. “I’ve got it.”
Paige shuddered as she noticed Kelly had attached the key to the cage to Paige’s own set of car keys, the same ring that held her apartment key. What a disturbed bitch.
The moment he had the door open, Gavin grabbed the keys, and Wyatt kneeled to help her crawl out. Seconds later she was in his embrace. His arms were fiercely tight around her, holding her in a way she had not permitted anyone to secure her in ten years.
Fear did not fill her. Panic did not set in. She felt nothing but safe, loved, relieved, happy. It was over. Not just her ordeal with a crazy reporter for several hours, but her old life of anxiety and dread.
Gone.
Vanquished.
Replaced with the waves of love coming from this amazing man holding her in his arms.
She lifted her arms to wrap them around his middle and hold him just as fiercely.
Too many people were crammed in the tiny cabin, all of them talking at once, but Paige tuned them out. All of her attention was on her mate, and she poured that emotional overload into him.
When he finally released her enough to lean back and look into her eyes, she saw that he understood. Without words or even silent communication, he knew her heart was with him. He closed his eyes, kissed her forehead, and inhaled long and slow. “I love you,” he whispered into her mind.
“I love you too.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Wyatt stared down at his mate where she rested on his bed—no, their bed—her body curled on her side, a sheet covering her legs. When they’d gotten home, he’d left her alone to take a shower and then given her one of his T-shirts to wear. He liked the idea of her in his shirt and was glad she’d taken it from him instead of putting on another tiny tank top and those damn short shorts that made his mouth water and his dick hard.
Granted, the T-shirt was also sexy as hell, and he was pretty sure she hadn’t put panties on, so in the end, the result was the same. At least she was resting. The drugs had taken their toll and left her exhausted. As a shifter, she would rebound quickly, but she needed sleep.
He prayed she wouldn’t be angry with him when she found out about the phone call he’d just made, but it had been necessary in his eyes, so he wouldn’t apologize for it.
A soft moan escaped her lips, and she slowly rolled to her back as she blinked her eyes open. The smile that spread across her face as she looked up at him lit up his world. Everything that ever happened to them would be worth it as long as he got that smile from time to time.
“Hey,” she whispered, reaching out a hand toward him. “How long have you been standing there watching me?”
He sat on the edge of the mattress and lifted her fingers to his mouth. After he kissed her knuckles, he rubbed them against his cheek. “Not long. I just got off the phone with your parents.” He didn’t want to wait to tell her and make her think he’d been sneaking around behind her back or trying to keep anything from her.
Her eyes widened, and she groaned. “Lord, are they on the next flight out of Australia?”
He chuckled. “No. I assured them you were in good hands and talked them down from the ledge.”
She narrowed her gaze. “You’re sure they were my parents?”
He laughed. “Yes. And I hope you won’t kill me for finding their number in your phone.”
She sighed. “I don’t have secrets from you.”
“But you do have a pile of them you keep from your parents.”
She bit her lip. “Yeah.”
“You should tell them what happened to you someday.”
She glanced past him. “I know.”
“I was glad to find out you had at least emailed them and told them about me earlier this week. I was worried I was going to blindside them with an overload of information if I had to tell them not only was their daughter abducted and rescued today, but she was no longer with her gay boyfriend, oh and by the way, she has a mate. I’m him. And I intend to bind her to me as soon as possible.”
She gave him a coy grin. “I don’t think they ever believed I was really with Gavin.”
“Apparently not. They were overjoyed about me.” He smiled broadly, pumping his chest out.
She cocked her head to one side. “You called them just to tell them I was safe?”
He shrugged. “More like I called them because it seemed like the right thing to do before I bind myself to their daughter without a word.”
That smile again. “How chivalrous.” She turned her hand over to cup his face.
“Oh, and you should probably expect calls from your brother and sister soon too.”
Her eyes shot wide again. “You called Nolan and Ryann?”
“No, but your mother couldn’t wait to tell them as soon as we hung up.”
She groaned. “They’re going to kill me.”
“Are you close? You’ve hardly mentioned them this week.”
“As close as we can be. As close as I am to anyone.” Her words were serious. “Close enough that they’ll show up here in the next few days to check you out.”
He leaned forward and tapped her nose. “As long as they don’t show up tonight. I swear if anyone comes to the door or even close to this property tonight, I might personally shoot them.”
“Why?” She batted her eyes. “Do we have plans?”
“We do.” He lowered her hand from his face and tugged on it while he stood. “But first, I need to feed you. You haven’t eaten today, and I don’t want you to pass out from malnutrition while I make love to you.”
Her face turned dark red.
He loved that he embarrassed her so easily when he talked about sex. If she maintained that innocence for years to come, he would not be sorry. It was adorable.
Not releasing her hand, he led her from the bedroom, down the hall, and into the kitchen.
“My God, it smells good in here. How long was I asleep?”
He pulled out a chair for her and pushed it back in as she sat. “Can’t take credit. My mom made stew and brought it over.”
“That was very sweet of her.”
When Wyatt lifted the lid off the pot, Paige inhaled deeply and groaned. “That smells delicious. I didn’t realize I was so hungry.”
“After watching that crazy woman eat in front of you all day, I would think you’d have been starving.” He hoped his attempt to make light of her shitty day didn’t fall flat.
She didn’t flinch. “Honestly, I was thirstier than anything else. I think I drank three gallons of water when we finally got here.”
“Plus two bottles in my car,” he teased.
She took a bite, her eyes closing for a second as she savored the flavors, and then she sobered. “Has anyone heard from Gavin?”
Wyatt filled his own bowl and then set the ladle down and took her hand. “Dale’s with him.”
She nodded, her eyes dropping to the table. “I feel awful. I should be with him. He’s my best friend. We’ve stuck together through everything for most of our lives. It’s weird not being the one to comfort him.”
“I know. But you can’t fix this one. And he’ll talk to you when he’s ready.” Wyatt hated seeing her hurt for her friend. He’d sensed the stress level increasing from Gavin from the moment they’d rescued Paige. Gavin had been nervous and fidgety. And Wyatt knew why. The man was worried to death about how the Arcadian Council might address the fact that he too was a human who knew a
bout shifters.
“I lied to him.” She swallowed. He could sense her deep feeling of guilt.
“You didn’t. You simply kept this one detail about the Arcadian Council to yourself. It was the kind thing to do. He didn’t need to know the council had the ability to erase people’s memories. That information is too stressful for a human.”
When the Arcadian Council gathered everyone around outside the cabin to discuss how they intended to alter Kelly’s memory, Gavin had an anxiety attack and raced toward Paige’s car. Wyatt had no doubt if Dale hadn’t caught up with him as fast as he had and wrestled him for the keys, Gavin would have driven off in a dangerous state of mind, leaving Dale behind.
“Someone needs to reassure him the council isn’t interested in him.”
“Dale’s doing that, babe.”
She sighed, rubbing her forehead with her free hand. “You’re sure? I thought he might faint on the spot when he found out what George and Henry were going to do to Kelly.”
“Can you blame him?”
“No.” Her shoulders relaxed. “You think his relationship with Dale is serious?” Hope caused her voice to lift.
“Not sure, but I can tell you Dale’s been dealt a lot of bad hands in his life. He deserves to be happy. I’m just not sure he has the ability to give happiness a chance.”
Paige nodded. Luckily she didn’t ask for details because Dale’s life was his own and Wyatt didn’t want to air out the man’s laundry without his permission. Besides, it would take half the night to tell Dale’s sagas, and Wyatt had other plans.
Wyatt ducked his head lower to meet her gaze. “Let’s trust the two of them to figure it out. They’re grown men.”
“Yeah. I know. What have you heard from the Arcadian Council?”
He winced. “The human police finally arrested Kelly about an hour after we left. I hate that there was no way to avoid keeping you and Gavin out of the mess when they altered her memory.”
She scrunched up her face but gave him a resigned look as she released his hand and took another bite of stew. “I didn’t expect I would escape unscathed. I just wish they hadn’t had to discuss their choices in front of Gavin or included him in the scheme. He must be freaking out trying to get the story straight.”
Grizzly Promise: A Werebear Shifter Romance (Arcadian Bears Book 4) Page 24
