Angus tore through the forest, sniffing out the men. He exchanged updates with the cop every few minutes through his walkie-talkie. The cop thought he was on the right trail, but Angus knew he was going to overtake the men at any moment. He could smell their scent stronger and stronger in the air.
He saw movement through the brush and ducked behind a trunk. They were up ahead. A bullet buzzed by in the air. Angus looked around the corner again. They came out into clear view, and another bullet pierced the air. The cop shot one of the men who’d taken Poppy. The man stumbled backward and the other guy shot at the cop.
Angus ripped out of his clothes, shooting into bear form without hesitation. He pummeled both of the bad guys with the sheer force of his big bear. Angus’s grizzly was massive and mean. He stood over the downed men, his sharp claws digging into the men’s bodies.
They screamed. One of them had a bullet hole in his leg. Angus looked across the forest to see the human cop bleeding from the arm and kneeling on the forest floor. The cop had his walkie-talkie in his other hand, calling in backup.
Angus shifted back to human, helping the cop squelch the bleeding with a strip of his own shredded clothes. The helicopter flew overhead, ready to extract the wounded cop and the suspects. Angus wasn’t going to wait around while his mate was out there in trouble. He put handcuffs around the bad guys’ wrists and hurtled himself into bear form again.
“Good luck,” he heard the cop say behind him.
He didn’t need luck. He had fate on his side. Fated mates belonged together. He and Poppy belonged together. He couldn’t lose her when he’d just found her. He couldn’t ever lose her. She was his heart now, and he knew it.
The bear rumbled, thinking of his mate. He didn’t smell her scent anywhere. The forest was huge and he had no way of knowing what direction she went. But there was something in his heart tugging him on.
He could feel his connection to her. They hadn’t been mated or marked, but he felt a link to her nevertheless. He’d known it from the second he’d laid eyes on her beautiful curves. She was the magic and the light inside his heart all along. It was like he’d been waiting for it to spark up all this time. From the first smell of her scent, Poppy had made that spark come alive like nothing else.
He followed that feeling.
12
Poppy was getting so cold. She could barely feel her fingers anymore. Her clothes never really dried off, and she couldn’t keep herself from shivering uncontrollably. Her mind was going in and out of rationality, but she kept forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other.
She heard the whipping wings of a helicopter right before she saw it fly overhead. Waving her arms, she screamed up at it. Her voice was hoarse and she was deep under the tall trees. There was no way they’d see her.
But she kept screaming, running in the direction of the helicopter. It had to be Angus. He was here to save her. But it just flew away. Poppy stopped, frustration starting to get the better of her.
She knew she was on the verge of hypothermia, if she hadn’t gone over the edge already. Too cold to cry, she moaned through clenched teeth. What if Angus never found her? What if she died right now and they never got to have their lives together? They’d never have their children. They’d never share a home.
Anguish filled her heart. It couldn’t end this way. She had to survive. She couldn’t leave Angus without a mate. She couldn’t leave their children, never to be born. This was the moment when she decided just how much she wanted to live.
Poppy had been operating in a kind of half-life for so long she didn’t even know when it started. She’d always been the kid who’d done well in school. Her parents were well off, and she’d gotten into a good college.
Her roommates always encouraged her to go out, but she’d been content to stay home and study. When she graduated from college, she just did the sensible thing and got a job. She’d been working as a bookkeeper ever since for one company or another. It wasn’t the sexiest job in the world, but she was good at it.
Just because she liked a job others thought was boring didn’t mean she liked her boring life. She’d been meaning to change things up since the first time she’d realized many of the girls she’d graduated college with had already gone on to get married and start families of their own. The ones who hadn’t were traveling or experiencing new and exciting things. She saw it all the time on their social media pages.
Poppy, on the other hand, had her comfortable apartment and Malcolm. Not that she didn’t adore Malcolm. He was a loyal friend and a good pet. But she longed for so much more in her life. She wanted the kind of life Angus promised.
Angus was an amazing man. He’d served in the special forces. He was a very accomplished woodworker and he had all these shifter friends who gave his whole life a warm glow. Poppy knew that he could give her everything she’d been missing all this time.
She’d always had an empty place in her heart, a yearning that never seemed to leave her alone. She’d always felt one step away from something important. But it never seemed to arrive. When she’d met Angus, that special something finally found her. It was him.
Unable to carry on a second longer, Poppy sat down in a pile of fir needles and sank into their softness. She couldn’t keep going. She was too tired. Too spent. Her body was so cold, she almost felt warm. She just wanted to rest. She wanted to sleep.
She whimpered and pulled the needles over her wet body, trying to give herself some warmth. There was nothing else she could do now. Her legs wouldn’t keep moving. Her thoughts called out to Angus. He had to come for her. He had to save her and save their life together.
She closed her eyes, focusing on the day they spent together at the gazebo. If this was the end, then it would have to be enough. She would hold onto that memory until her last breath. It was all she had now as she started to fade out of consciousness. If Angus couldn’t find her, at least she would have him in her thoughts.
13
Angus found her scent and started running furiously through the woods. It was growing stronger and stronger with every step he took. He’d heard the helicopter fly away from the mountain some time ago, taking the wounded back to the hospital. He was out here on his own and he had to find Poppy soon.
She would be freezing from the mudslide. He could smell the scent of distress mixed with her usual sweetness. Angus galloped through the trees, bashing into smaller tree trunks and knocking them down as his big bear smashed through the thick forest.
Her scent was stronger with every second. He stopped short, seeing her laying on the forest floor, covered in a blanket of fir needles. She was shivering cold under the needles. He shifted quickly, not wanting to terrify her with the sight of his giant grizzly. He stepped forward, pulling her out. Her mouth was blue and her eyes were sunken. She opened them, looking at him with a mixture of disbelief and surprise.
“Angus,” she said, through chattering teeth. “You came.”
“We have to get you warm, Poppy,” he said, picking her up in his arms. He found a drier spot under a rock outcropping. He found a piece of flint and piled some branches together to build a fire. In a few minutes, the flames popped and burned deep into the wood.
“I’m going to take your clothes off. Then I’m going to shift. I want you to huddle against my bear,” he said.
“Okay,” she chattered.
He could see the trust in her eyes. It was asking a lot of her to cuddle with his bear. He had to save her life, and this was the only way. Angus helped Poppy out of her damp clothes and put them near the fire. Her chocolate skin was pale and streaked with mud. She huddled, shaking under the rock outcropping.
Angus stepped back and shifted. Poppy gasped, her whole body shuddering from the shock of seeing him in bear form. Angus and his bear were tight. They got each other and rarely ever disagreed. He very gently moved under the outcropping and laid down on his side, waiting for his mate to come absorb his warmth.
Poppy tiptoed a
cross the rocky ground and knelt down to step into Angus’s embrace. He held her gently with both arms, pulling her close to his hot, furry body. Sharing his heat was the only way to warm her up and keep her from becoming dangerously ill from hypothermia.
Angus cradled her curvy from in his giant paws, keeping her soft flesh safe from his sharp claws. He leaned down and started to lick the mud out of her hair. He was so focused on getting her warm, he hadn’t stopped to think about how relieved he was to have found her. She wasn’t out of the woods yet, though. Poppy’s body was dangerously cold, and her heart was beating abnormally slow.
“Angus,” she said in a hoarse voice.
He growled gently into the top of her head. Her breasts were pressed against his bear’s chest. He could feel the smooth flesh against his fur. He wanted to talk to her and keep her warm. But he had to choose one or the other. And keeping her warm was more important now.
“I knew you would come. I knew you’d find me if I just kept our love in my heart. I could feel you coming.”
He cradled her closer. He’d felt their bond as well. He’d followed it until he’d found her. Now he had her in his arms, and he wouldn’t let her go again. He’d been so scared he’d lose his sweet mate.
If he’d lost her, it could have broken him. Just not being able to claim her on their first date had made him grumpy. That was totally out of character for Angus. He couldn’t image the bear he would’ve become if he’d lost her. He didn’t even want to think about it.
Now they could have their future, their children, their home. He didn’t know how it was all going to work, but he knew that in the end, it would all turn out all right. He’d never let her out of his sight again for a moment. And would always keep her protected and safe. He’d provide for her and her children and make sure she never wanted for anything.
It was the greatest pleasure of his bear’s heart to provide and protect his mate. She was his. She belonged to him. Everything he did would be for her now, and he would be happy with every second of it. He’d never felt so grateful as he did then with his mate back in his arms.
Her body slowly began to warm, and he loosened his grip, letting her move around more freely. She ran her hand over his fur, whispering sweetly into his chest.
“I’m so happy we met, Angus. I wish I knew you could understand me.”
He nuzzled against her cheek, trying to let her know that he understood her. He couldn’t shift until he was sure her body temperature had risen back to normal.
“Ever since that first moment, I knew. I knew we belonged together. But you wanted to wait. You wanted me to know I could really trust it. But I didn’t need to wait.”
His heart swelled, hearing her words. Her instinct to bond with him was strong, and he was proud.
“There’s been a missing part inside me, Angus. It’s been a dark hole of sadness that was waiting to be filled by you. When I met you in the lobby, I could feel it filling up inside me. I didn’t know what it was at first. But the longer I thought about it, the more I knew. I knew you were what has been missing from my life all this time.”
Angus leaned his head back and let out a moaning roar. Poppy was pouring out her heart, and he couldn’t respond with words. It tore him up inside, but he was also soothed by the chance to hold her like this. His body was replacing her heat, filling her with the warmth of his blood. There was something deeply satisfying about holding her like this, his bear form wrapped around her naked body.
After a while, he felt her body temperature rise to normal and he loosened his arms until she was able to crawl out of them. He sniffed her, making sure she didn’t have any other injuries. Her body smelled better, much less cold. He grunted and moved out of the overhang.
Poppy went to the fire and pulled her clothes off the dry rocks they’d been laid over. She slowly put them back on, watching Angus closely as he shifted. Even in the daze of his shift, he could see the astonishment in her eyes. He knew it must be strange to see a man turn into a bear and back again. Eventually, she wouldn’t be afraid at all anymore. He stood from all fours onto his human feet and walked over to where she stood by the fire.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, putting his arm around her.
He felt a bit bashful now that he could talk again. They’d shared an intimate moment while he’d been in bear form, and now he didn’t quite know how to progress. He knew everything was different now. They’d come to a new place in their relationship, and it would never be the same. They couldn’t go back to pretending there was any reason they shouldn’t be together.
The wedding was in just a few hours and they had to get back. The helicopter had left the mountain, and he had no way of contacting anyone. Leaving without communication had been an oversight. This was part of the reason Levi rarely allowed them to go on rescue missions in bear form.
The police would undoubtedly send another helicopter any minute. But just in case they didn’t, he wanted to start down the mountain now.
“I’ve got to get back to the lodge. The wedding is in a few hours, and I’m the best man.”
“How are we going to get out of here?”
“You can ride on my back, and I’ll take you down in bear form.”
“How will I stay on?”
“Just hold onto my fur. Hold as tight as you want. I won’t mind.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I’ll be extra careful with you. Last thing I want is for you to take a fall.”
Poppy walked into his arms. His big arms enveloped her little body, and her twisted braids fell over his skin. He held her tight, all the feelings in his heart bursting to overflowing. He didn’t know how to tell her. He wasn’t a man who was good with words like Levi.
That’s when Angus remembered the speech he was supposed to write for the wedding toast today. He’d been so caught up with Poppy, he’d forgotten all about it.
He growled and put his palm to his forehead.
“What is it?” Poppy asked, looking up at him, her cheek still pressed against his chest.
“I was supposed to write a speech for Levi’s wedding. I totally forgot. I’ve got nothing.”
“What did you have so far?” Poppy asked.
“I’ve got nothing. Every draft I wrote sounded like I was jealous of Levi and Juliet’s happiness. I can’t give a speech like that. It isn’t their fault I didn’t find you until now.”
He hugged her tight against his chest. Poppy wrapped both arms around his waist and hugged him tighter.
“I used to be jealous of the girls I knew who had someone, too. You don’t have to be jealous anymore. We’re together now.”
“Maybe now it will be easier to write. I just have to come up with it before we get back to the lodge, and my bear isn’t great with words.”
Poppy giggled, and the feeling of it against him made his body sprout to life. He smiled down at her and kissed the top of her head.
“I’m going to shift now. You climb on my back and hold as tight as you can.”
He burst into bear form, coming down on his four paws. Poppy looked less freaked out this time and walked over to him without hesitation. A few moments later, they were galloping through the forest. Her little hands gripped hard into his hide. Her knees dug into his sides. Angus carefully made his way through the forest until he came to a clearing. He saw a helicopter in the distance. There was big open area just ahead. A smooth, rocky place were no plants would grow. The helicopter could land there.
He tore out into the clearing, roaring up at the helicopter. Poppy let go with one of her hands and started to scream up at the helicopter. It turned and started to fly toward them.
A moment later, the helicopter came to a landing on the rocky clearing. Poppy slid from Angus’s back, and Zach and Drew came tearing out of the helicopter with rescue gear. They wrapped Poppy up in a thermal blanket as Angus shifted. Drew handed Angus a blanket of his own, and they all climbed back into the waiting helicopter.
The
sun was starting to tilt toward the western mountains. It was almost sunset, and Levi’s wedding was very soon.
“Are we going to make it in time?” Angus asked as the helicopter sped back toward Fate Mountain Village.
“We’d better or we’ll never hear the end of it from Levi. He wants the day to be perfect for his mate,” Drew said.
“We still have to put on our tuxedos,” Zach said.
“I need a bath,” Poppy said, sitting beside Angus.
Everyone laughed as the helicopter came in for a landing at the hangar.
Angus made an arrangement with the cops to come give their statements about the kidnapping the next day. With Levi’s wedding taking place so soon, the chief of police had no problem letting them go.
14
Angus helped Poppy out of the truck and grabbed his tuxedo out of the backseat. They went through the lodge and up to her room without stopping. There were guests already gathering in the lobby and moving toward the atrium.
In the elevator, Angus cleared his throat. “There’s something I forgot to tell you,” he said.
“What is it?” Poppy asked.
The elevator door opened, and they walked down to her room.
“Something happened while you were gone. We were looking for clues to find you. Levi and I opened the door to your room.”
Poppy pushed open the door. When she entered the room, it was quiet. Malcolm was gone.
“He flew down the elevator to the first floor and then flew into the atrium. He’s been in there ever since. No one can get him down.”
“We have to get him,” she said, ready to walk down there right then.
“Let’s get you cleaned up first,” Angus said, closing the door behind him.
He slung his tuxedo across the bed and started to take off the clothes he’d put on in the car. He was naked to the waist and walked over to her, wrapping her in his arms. Now that they were back in civilization, it was all so real.