by Bianca D’Arc
New prey? Or a new predator? Either way, it didn’t make much difference. Lions were known as kings of the jungle for a reason. There was little that could stand up to her when she was in full-on beast mode. And, if she could only hold her half-shift the way she used to, there would be nothing, outside another shifter, that could stop her.
But the half-shift battle form required strength, endurance and control. She was lacking all three since her escape. It would take time to rebuild those qualities. Time, food and rest. She had the first two, but rest wasn’t something a woman fending for herself in the wild could manage for very long. There were always tasks to complete. Hunting to be done. Chores that required her attention just to keep the basics going.
Today, though, she had eaten well, received a bounty of gifts from her new friend, and she didn’t have any pressing needs at the moment. It was time to rest. She emptied her new bag of treasures and took the thin blanket over to her make-shift bed. She lay down, enjoying the sensation of having a cover for the first time in months. It was past time for a cat nap in human form.
Georgio was stymied as the lioness in human form dropped completely out of sight. One minute, she was there, in the woods. The next, she was gone. She’d just vanished.
Intellectually, he knew that was impossible. She had to be around here somewhere. Perhaps she’d noticed him trailing her. He hadn’t thought he’d been detected, but maybe she was better at sensing someone stalking her then he’d expected. He didn’t want to come on too fast and scare her into a violent reaction. She was probably a lot faster than he was over short distances, especially with his gimpy leg. She could run, and he would have a hell of a time finding her, again. Better not to scare her off with any sudden moves.
The alternative was to approach cautiously, as he had been doing all along. It had worked to get him this far, so he figured he might as well continue. The only allowance he would make was to shift into his bear form, so he could use all of his heightened senses to try to figure out where she had gone.
His bad leg gave him hell in either form, but his senses were heightened in his fur, and that would help him locate her trail. He quickly disrobed and put his clothing into the camo pack he’d had on his back. Stuffing it in the crook of a tree where it wouldn’t easily be seen, he let the change take him. From the vulnerable naked human form to the fierce, difficult-to-hold battle form then into the full-grown grizzly.
He landed on the forest floor on all fours, letting the loam scent of the earth fill his nose. Natural, pure and good, and filled, now, with the scent of lioness. She’d been through this area recently…and more than once.
There was no immediately discernible feature of the area that told him why she had come through this part of the forest so often. That made him think she was holed up nearby, somewhere. That, and the way she’d disappeared, made it very likely that she had made or found some sort of shelter in the immediate vicinity.
He lumbered through the forest, keeping a lot of his substantial weight off his bad leg, sniffing around and trying to sort through the scent trails. He wouldn’t go too close to where the woman had disappeared. Not yet. The best approach, here, was a cautious one. Plus, he couldn’t move too fast, anyway. Not with his injuries.
His captors had done a job on him—more than his inner bear magic could heal. Then, getting blasted by a roadside bomb on the way out of that godforsaken country hadn’t helped matters. He’d been well and truly fucked up beyond repair. No matter how much time he put into therapy now, he figured he’d be this way for the rest of his days, barring some miracle.
Perhaps he deserved it. Perhaps this infirmity was what he had earned for a lifetime spent taking his physical prowess for granted. He’d always been one of the biggest, baddest of bear badasses. He’d had the ego to prove it. He’d been such a little shit for most of his life.
It had taken capture, captivity and torture to make him realize he’d been nothing. Not worth the inflated ego he’d always carried. He’d been just another cog in a pointless wheel. A shifter fighting against evil, when there was so very much evil in the world. Sometimes, he wasn’t sure they would prevail.
He wouldn’t admit that to his Grizzly Cove brothers. They all still believed in fairytales. They had hope. And some of them even had mates, now. He wouldn’t ruin the dream for them. Evil, and those who perpetuated it, would do that soon enough, without his help.
He’d lost hope in that foreign hellhole. He’d even lost his bear for a while. The furry fellow had come back, eventually, but hope was much more elusive. Frankly, Georgio didn’t believe he’d ever find it, again. All he could do, now, was persevere and try to do what good he could in the world. Finding the lost lioness was one of those small good deeds that he could do.
Everyone else had given up, but he had time. He had patience. He had a need for solitude and an understanding of what she might be going through. In the end, he was the best equipped for this kind of rescue mission, though by the looks of it, the lioness was already well on the way to rescuing herself.
From what he’d seen so far, she had a human contact that was friendly enough to share food with her and some belongings. The bag she’d taken back with her hadn’t gone unremarked. If he wasn’t mistaken, there was a pair of boots at the bottom of that plastic bag. The outline of them had been hard to miss in the malleable carrier.
She’d looked healthier than he’d expected, as well. She was healing. She moved reasonably well through the forest, though he wasn’t the best judge of comparative speed, anymore. Still, she had looked pretty good to him. She’d kept herself clean. Her hair was washed, and she didn’t give off more than the usual scent. She was taking care of herself, which was more than he had been able to do after being freed from his imprisonment.
If not for the guys, and later, the doctors and nurses who had cared for him, he would have been a goner in those early days. After the prison. After the torture. And especially, after the bomb.
Georgio shook off his negative thoughts with a ruffle of his fur. He wandered the woods for hours, sorting out the scents, taking his time, just enjoying the moment and the place. The lioness had certainly found a nice location to do her hiding…and healing. His bear didn’t sense anything evil nearby. Nothing overtly magical. No big predators that were of any concern to him, or would be of concern to a lioness. Even an injured one. All in all, it was a good spot to hide, and wherever she’d gone, she’d found an excellent place to do it.
Matilda woke from her nap after about two hours. A waft of breeze had brought a new scent into her cave. A ferocious scent. Bear. Bear shifter, to be exact.
She’d never had any dealings with bear shifters, but everything she’d heard about them seemed mostly benign. They were known to be among the most magical of shifters and, generally, were loners, unless they had a family. Then, small family units with cubs usually kept to a territory of their own. There were a lot of bear bachelors, it was said, and she’d heard rumors of a town along the Washington coast somewhere, where a bunch of them had gotten together and put out a call on the shifter grapevine to say that female bears were welcome in their town, to see if they could find mates. She knew her Clan was keeping an eye on their progress because her Clan was among the most powerful in the world, and they had an interest in other shifter groups that might rise to challenge them—or be potential allies.
But she wasn’t on the coast. Frank had told her she was in Washington State, but she was more inland. In the mountains. Had one of those coastal bears roamed far from his home? That was entirely possible. She knew large predators liked to range about a bit from time to time. She did, herself.
His presence angered her lioness. She could smell he was male. He had to know there was another large shifter in this area and that she’d staked it out for her own. He was trespassing. No question about that. Even if cats and bears were different, they were still large predators with territorial habits. Etiquette demanded that he vacate her territory as soon
as he’d scented the boundaries. She’d marked them clearly enough for those with the nose to smell such things.
The lioness prowled inside her skin, demanding action. It was the first time in a long time that her lion was riled, and she wasn’t very good at controlling her instincts anymore. She wasn’t sure how she’d do against a bear shifter if he really wanted to mess with her, but she was a lioness. A huntress. She could do some damage to the interloper if he didn’t leave at her initial demand. She’d send him away with a bloody nose, at the very least. See if she wouldn’t!
Without thinking too hard about her actions, Matilda let the change come and prowled out of her den in lion form. That bear was about to get a brutal surprise.
Chapter Three
Georgio kept moseying around through the underbrush for a good long while. There were so many crossing scent trails that even his super-nose was a bit confused. Very crafty of the lioness to create such a web of interconnected trails to hide the true one. His respect for her grew.
There were giant trees in this forest and lots of ferny undergrowth that loved the moist weather in this part of the world. It rained more often than not, and the forest floor was almost always damp. That meant lots of greenery to hide foot or paw prints. Georgio discovered it could also hide—much to his surprise—a full-grown, angry lioness.
She sprang at him out of the undergrowth, taking him completely by surprise. Holy shit! She was mad.
She slashed at him with wicked claws and went for his throat with her powerful teeth. He wouldn’t allow her to kill him, but he also wouldn’t fight back. She had a right to be pissed. He was trespassing on her territory, and she had no idea if he was a good guy or bad. She had been through hell, and he didn’t blame her for coming out strong without pausing to ask questions that might get her killed or recaptured.
He let her claw him but protected his throat from her teeth. That was all. He didn’t use his own claws on her and didn’t fight back. He didn’t want to hurt her. She’d been hurt enough already.
He could see the ragged places on her fur where knives had cut into her flesh. It made him—both bear and man—want to weep for what had been done to her. It also made him want to kill those evil bastards who had touched her.
For, he knew now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he was in the presence of his mate. For the first time in a long time, hope stirred in his soul.
He’d suspected there might be something special about her before, when he’d first caught her scent. A scent filled with pain, but underlying all the fear and awfulness, there was a taste of ambrosia. The scent of a woman that could be the making of him…or his utter downfall.
Right now, he wasn’t too sure which one it would be. She’d gotten in a few good swipes with those wicked claws, but she seemed to be either tiring or confused as to why he wasn’t returning the favor. Maybe her beast’s rage was retreating a bit in favor of her human side’s curiosity. Although…he had heard that cats were naturally curious, so perhaps it was the beast side questioning his lack of action, as well.
Whichever it was, he was grateful when she backed off and paced a few yards away, just looking at him. Now was his chance. He had to risk a shift that would leave him incredibly vulnerable in the face of her fury. He had no choice. He had to reason with that part of her that was capable of questioning and thinking clearly, even as her anger simmered. It was their one chance, and he was going to take it.
Georgio moved back a few steps and let the change take him.
Agony ripped through his side where she’d clawed him. At least the magic of the shift had taken the worst of the damage and begun healing it. He wasn’t dripping blood all over the forest floor anymore. And she wasn’t charging him. She merely paced and watched.
“Matilda Kinkaid, right? Your Clan has been looking for you. My name is Georgio Basset. I live in Grizzly Cove,” he told her, keeping his voice low and encouraging. “It’s a settlement of bear shifters over on the coast. We’re all ex-military, and we allied with Kinkaid recently. Your brother is all right. He made his way back to California, and the koala shifter you escaped with showed up in our town. It’s a long story, but if you want to talk to Samson Kinkaid, I have his direct number on my sat phone back with my clothes.” He jerked his head toward the pack he’d left in a tree a short distance away that held his clothes and essentials. “Do you want me to get the phone? You can talk to Sam, and he can reassure you that I’m on the level, okay? Your family wants to know that you’re all right.”
She seemed to relent, stopping her pacing and sitting on her haunches, watching him, thinking through what he’d said, he had no doubt. To talk to Sam, she’d have to shift. She would be vulnerable. He could see she didn’t like that idea. He had to make this easier for her.
“I can call Sam and put him on the speaker. You don’t have to shift, right away. You can listen in on our conversation, and then, if you feel safe, you can shift and take the phone, okay?”
He saw agreement in her eyes as he headed for the tree and his pack. She surprised him, again, by bounding ahead and leaping into the tree. He’d put his pack in the fork where three big branches met, and she nimbly stood up there, sniffing his bag for a long time before she pushed it off the tree to fall into his arms.
Cautious kitty. He liked that about her.
Georgio grinned as he opened the bag. She was above him in the tree, taking the high ground and watching his every move. She could pounce on him if he did anything she didn’t like. It was a good precaution to take, just in case he wasn’t on the level, so he didn’t mind. She’d kept herself alive so far by being cautious. He applauded her efforts.
He moved carefully, opening the mouth of the bag wide, so she could see that it only held fabric and one very expensive satellite phone. He left the clothes, opting to cut to the chase and make the call first. He hit the speed dial he’d programmed weeks ago and never used. It was a direct line to the lion Alpha, Samson Kinkaid.
He picked up on the second ring. Georgio touched the speaker icon.
“Alpha, this is Georgio Basset from Grizzly Cove. I found your lioness, but she is understandably warry. She’s in her fur and watching me closely. You’re on speaker, and I believe she needs some reassurance that I’m on the level,” Georgio said quickly.
“Understood. Thank you for finding her. Matilda, sweetheart, it’s Sam. Thank the Mother of All you’re alive.” Georgio heard the real relief in the man’s voice.
“Uh, she’s coming down out of the tree,” Georgio explained aloud to the lion Alpha.
“You treed her?” Sam Kinkaid sounded outraged.
Georgio stifled a chuckle. “No, sir. She took the high ground to make sure I didn’t have anything dangerous in my bag and watched from above while I opened it, got the phone, and called you. Your lioness is a very cautious and resourceful lady.”
He noted the way her head jerked at the compliment as she hit the ground with all four paws. She met his gaze for a brief moment before disappearing into the dense undergrowth. Again.
“Alpha Kinkaid, I’m not sure where she went, but she just disappeared. She has a hidey hole around here somewhere, and I suppose she’s shifting so she can talk with you,” Georgio surmised aloud. Either that or she’d just run away again. He didn’t think so, but it was a possibility.
Georgio decided that it was time to put on his pants. He dressed while the Kinkaid Alpha asked rapid questions about the lioness’s condition. Georgio gave a concise report of his efforts to find the woman and her apparent condition. By the time he was done dressing, he’d told Sam the basics of what had led him to finding her. Matilda. A musical name for an enchanting lioness.
He knew what she looked like in her human form from photographs and from seeing her earlier at the mountain man’s cabin, but he couldn’t wait to see her close up. Were her eyes as pretty as they had looked in the photos? Sparkling golden topaz. Just like her cat’s. Were they still as clear and innocent? He suspected not, but he h
oped he would see a fighting spirit in those eyes. A will to go on and reclaim her life.
When the woman emerged, seemingly out of nowhere, coming out of the undergrowth, Georgio held his ground. He simply picked up the phone and held it out toward her.
“Alpha, Miss Matilda is back, in human form. I’m giving the phone to her and taking it off speaker.” He touched the control that would mute the speaker and took one step closer to the hesitant woman, holding the phone out as far as his arm would reach.
She inched forward and almost grabbed the phone out of his hand. Once she had it, she backed off, keeping her gaze on him as she began speaking in a low tone into the phone.
Georgio retreated a few steps to give her a modicum of privacy. He didn’t go too far because he didn’t want to lose her again, but he also didn’t want to crowd her and frighten her off. So far, things were going well. He might possibly gain a little bit of trust through her discussion with her Alpha, which Georgio figured was all to the good.
She turned away, giving him her profile when tears filled her golden eyes. He read relief and a shaky elation in the set of her shoulders as she talked to her Clan leader and got his reassurances. She kept her side of the conversation to a low whisper that Georgio couldn’t hear, but he didn’t mind. She kept flicking furtive glances at him as she talked to her Alpha, very obviously discussing her rescuer.
That was good, too. Georgio needed to gain her trust quickly if he was going to work with her and help her get someplace where she could hook up with her Clan. If that’s what she wanted. He wouldn’t push her. She was talking to her Alpha, now. That was the first step. If she wanted to go back to her Clan, right away, Georgio would help her, but if she needed more time, he’d help her with that, too. He, more than any other bear in Grizzly Cove, understood about needing time to heal and come to terms with life.
