Page 52 of Bear Facts

Shane watched the scenery he’d flashed past the other way yesterday as they’d fled Althea and her goons. Althea had given up going after Freya once Eric and other Shifters had intervened—or had she?

Had she chased Shane and Freya down the mountain to keep them from talking about her merc group? Or for some more sinister reason? And did she have anything to do with Leo’s disappearance?

Freya was safe in Shiftertown, Shane repeated to himself. Her biggest threat there had been Leo, who’d decided to take himself to the mountains and get into trouble. She’d be fine with Nell, Cormac, Graham, Eric, Cassidy, and Diego hovering around her.

The cranky bear inside Shane wanted to jump out of the truck and run back to his mate. He’d wrap himself around her, closing them off from the world.

He caught himself with his hand on the door, ready to thrust it open. His fingers sprouted bear claws, and he felt fur springing up on his arms.

“Easy.” Neal’s voice was quiet in his ear. “You doing tracker shit is the best way to keep her from danger.”

The fact that Neal, a mateless Guardian, understood Shane’s dilemma best of everyone in the vehicle increased Shane’s respect for him.

His fur vanished, and his claws receded. “Thanks,” Shane whispered to Neal.

Neal nodded once and sat back as though nothing had happened.

Once desert had given way to tall trees, gray clouds, and snowbanks, Brody pulled off onto an unpaved side road. They’d passed few vehicles on the way up the mountain—it was Monday, and most people in Las Vegas were back at work, their kids in school. The resort would be quiet now as well.

Graham must have given Brody the direction to where he’d find Dougal—Graham hadn’t bothered to tell Shane. Brody drove with confidence along a half-muddy, half-icy track, halting where it petered out.

A flash of padded orange jacket rippled between the trees, then Dougal stepped out to meet them.

The young Lupine’s breath steamed in the air. “Glad to see you guys.”

For Dougal, who shared his uncle Graham’s arrogance, to be happy that two bears, a Guardian, and a dokk alfar had come to his aid meant something seriously wasn’t good.

“What’s up?” Shane asked as he hauled himself from the truck. Brody joined him. “Any sign of Leo?”

“I think so.”

Dougal looked so troubled that Shane’s tension heightened. “You think so?”

Dougal had filled out since his post-Transition leanness, and now bulked with muscle. He’d become a younger version of Graham, though without his uncle’s solid air of command.

Reid unfolded his long body from the pickup, and Neal climbed out, the sword on its strap over his shoulder. The two waited wordlessly for Dougal to explain.

“I mean that I picked up his scent.” Dougal shuffled his weight from side to side with his usual restiveness. “But the closer I got, the more I smelled something else.”

“Smelled what?” Reid asked him.

“I can’t describe it. I thought it was another Shifter, but … I’ve never encountered anything like it.”

This was getting better and better. “Can you point us to where you were?” Shane asked him.

Dougal gave him a disdainful look, his bravado returning. “I’m not so chickenshit I can’t lead the way. Come on. See if you can keep up.”

He set off at a lope into the trees. Shane jogged after him, Reid, Neal, and Brody behind him.

Mist clung to the forest floor, tendrils of it stirred by their passing. The temperature had dropped since yesterday, but Shane felt it only marginally as the bear inside him began to heat his blood.

Or maybe that was from his burgeoning mating frenzy. Shane knew he needed to focus on the task at hand, but his thoughts were continually pulled to Freya’s head resting on his chest in his bed, the warmth of her body against his, the sound of her soft breathing in the night.

After all these years, and all this loneliness. Freya. The Norse goddess of love.

Also of warriors fallen in battle. Shane needed to remember that before he grew all poetic.

They skimmed through undergrowth, as silent as smoke, the ground damp where the snow hadn’t penetrated beneath the trees. Nothing moved. The animals that lived on the mountain had either gone dormant or were hiding from the predators in their midst.

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