Ski Bear

  This place would be big enough for a huge family, a family he hoped to start with Maisie as soon as possible.

  He peeked into the master suite. There was a balcony that looked out on the backyard, a huge bathroom with a jetted tub and a standup shower, and plenty of room for him and Maisie to explore each other every night of their lives.

  He was sold.

  He texted his realtor.

  “I want to make an offer.”

  12

  Maisie pulled off her apron and threw it in with the dirty linens. She was off early today, thanks to her new assistant Sadie. The girl was working out perfectly and Maisie couldn’t be happier with her. She’s sent Zach a text, telling him that she couldn’t wait to go skiing with him again.

  That was only partly true. She couldn’t wait to see him again, but she wasn’t too thrilled about skiing in front of him again. That’s why she’d decided to practice on her own before their next date.

  He might like her now, but as soon as he realized she was a complete dork when it came to sports, he would wonder what he ever saw in her in the first place.

  “I’m going to take off now, Sadie. Do you have everything under control?” she asked the petite, curvy girl she’d hired to help her at the bakery.

  Sadie smiled and nodded her head. She’d been running a bakery in Portland for several years and she’d told Maisie she was just looking for a fresh start.

  “I’ve got it under control,” Sadie said, ringing up an order of scones for a new regular customer.

  Maisie hurried upstairs and grabbed her snowsuit. This time she was going to wear clothes under it. Although, not wearing clothes last time had had pleasant results.

  She threw the snowsuit and boots into the back of her car and started across town to the lodge. When she arrived, she went into the lobby to visit her mom. Maisie walked up to the front desk and her mother greeted her with a big smile.

  “What brings you to the lodge today, Maisie?” Kelly asked her.

  “I’m going to practice skiing up on the mountain today.”

  “Really? You, skiing?”

  “Zach taught me.”

  “Well, if Zach taught you then I can believe it.”

  “I’m trying new things.”

  “Coming home to Fate Mountain was a big change for you,” her mom said.

  “That’s not all. I signed up for Mate.com.”

  “You did? Have you been matched yet?” her mom asked excitedly.

  “I was matched instantly.”

  “Who is he?” Kelly was obviously overjoyed. “Anyone I know?”

  “Zach.”

  “Oh my God! I knew it. You two are perfect for each other.”

  “How?”

  “It might not seem that way on the surface but you are. Believe me. I have a sixth sense about these things.”

  “Okay, Mom.”

  “Has he asked you to be his mate yet?”

  “No. He’s very concerned about taking things slowly. He doesn’t want to freak me out, and I can understand why. The pheromone thing is real. I’ve read a lot of articles on the internet about women who got super freaked out by the sexual attraction. Zach is doing his best to pace things.”

  “What a gentleman. Zach is a real sweetie.”

  “I think he’s great. I really like him. I just hope he likes me as much.”

  “Are you serious? I’m sure he’s over the moon for you. My Maisie and Zach Rayner. My grandchildren will be so beautiful!”

  “Mom. Don’t get ahead of yourself. We’re just dating right now.”

  “Sweetheart. You two are fated.”

  “That’s why I’m practicing my skiing. I want to show him I can keep up with him.”

  “Do you really think Zach cares about that kind of thing?” Kelly sounded shocked.

  “I don’t want him to get bored with me.”

  “I really did you a disservice, not teaching you more about shifters.”

  “It was a different time, Mom. Don’t even worry about it.”

  “I am, Maisie. Because my daughter’s been matched with a wonderful shifter and she thinks she has to waste her time impressing him with silly things like skiing.”

  A party of tourists approached the counter and Kelly greeted them pleasantly.

  “I’ll see you later, Mom,” she said, stepping away.

  “Remember what I told you, Maisie.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind.”

  Maisie went back out to the car. She loved her mom, but the two of them were just different people. Her mother had a lot more faith in things like fate than Maisie did.

  She went out to the parking lot and grabbed her snowsuit. On her way over to the lift, she stopped in a restroom and dressed quickly.

  Stopping at the rental center beside the lift, she picked out some downhill skis and poles for the day. Zach had been teaching her cross country, but she knew his thing was freestyle. She would at least show him she could do downhill.

  Her plan was to take the lift up to the bunny slope and practice there. When she slid into her gondola, she got a text on her phone from Zach.

  “I think I found our house,” it said.

  She was so distracted by his text that she missed the first stop. The lift kept going up and up until she was at the top of the mountain.

  She had to get off. The gondola twisted upside down at the end of the line. She came out onto a steep slope that angled straight down. Her heart leapt up into her throat. This was not the bunny slope.

  She scooted to the edge of the drop off, looking around for anyone who might be able to help her.

  There was no one there on Monday afternoon. Not right now, anyway. Should she wait for someone to come help? She was already terribly embarrassed. Taking her phone back out, she tried to text Zach, but she couldn’t get a cell signal.

  She had to admit to herself that she was stuck. The only way down was to ski out. Gulping, she slid her skis to the edge of the drop off. With a deep breath out, she pushed herself over the edge. Her skis rocketed down the mountain, taking her with them. The speed startled her so much she couldn’t even register how terribly dangerous it was for several seconds.

  By the time she realized what was going on, she was too terrified to scream.

  She hurdled down the mountain with little to no control of her direction or momentum. Her mother’s words rang inside her head. She didn’t need to try to impress Zach.

  Maisie smashed through a barrier and hurdled toward the forest. Maybe she should have listened to her mom. When she smashed face first into a pile of snow, she knew she definitely should have.

  With her heart pounding and her face covered in snow, she peeled herself out of the pile. Panting, she looked around. She’d lost one of her poles and had no idea where the hell she was.

  She wasn’t even on the ski course anymore. She knew that much because of the barrier she’d broken through. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and still couldn’t get a signal.

  Panic started to swirl in her belly. Why the hell had she done this? She wanted Zach to like her, but Maisie had never been the kind of woman to go out of her way to impress a man. It must have been all the feelings and hormones coursing through her veins. It confused the hell out of her and made her do something this stupid.

  She collapsed in the snow, feeling like a moron. A tear slid down her cheek. How was she going to get out of here? No one knew where she was except her mom. When would she notice Maisie was missing? It could be days.

  Sadie would miss her when Maisie didn’t open the shop tomorrow, but that would be too late. She’d freeze out here, even in her ridiculous puffy pink snowsuit.

  13

  Zach read Maisie’s text. “Our house?”

  “Our house,” he texted back.

  The realtor texted him a moment later, telling him that he had sent an offer to the owners. He was as sure about the house as he was about Maisie, and he wanted to buy it as much as he wanted to claim her as his
mate.

  He was so excited about the house that he could barely think of anything else for the rest of the day. When his realtor informed him that the owners had accepted his offer, he was overjoyed. After his last lesson of the day, he pulled out his cell phone and texted Maisie.

  “I got it.”

  She hadn’t texted him since this morning. He waited for a long time for a reply, but it never came. The late afternoon sun was tipping towards the horizon and it would be dark soon. Maisie was probably busy, and Zach didn’t want to interrupt her work. No matter how much he told himself that, he couldn’t resist. He had to see her.

  He jumped in his truck and drove all the way into Fate Mountain Village. He jumped out in front of the bakery and strode inside, expecting to see Maisie’s pretty face the moment he opened the front door. But the woman who greeted him was not Maisie.

  He walked up to the counter, looking around all of the delicious offerings on display. He hadn’t been into the bakery yet, but what he saw was incredibly impressive. His stomach rumbled, and he decided he would get something to eat even if she wasn’t here.

  “I’ll have a ham and cheese croissant. Where is Maisie today?” he asked the girl.

  “She took the day off.”

  “Is she upstairs?”

  “I don’t think so. She left in her car and hasn’t been back.”

  “But you don’t know where she is?”

  “I’m afraid not. She just told me she’d be gone for the rest of the day.”

  “She isn’t answering her texts.”

  “Maybe she’s somewhere without cell reception.”

  “I’m starting to worry about her. I’ve got a strange feeling in my chest that there’s something wrong.”

  “I’m sorry, who are you?”

  “I’m Zach Rayner. Her boyfriend.”

  “Her boyfriend,” the girl said with surprise.

  “Yeah, I’m her boyfriend.”

  “She just never mentioned a boyfriend.”

  “We just started dating.”

  “I wouldn’t have pictured Maisie with someone like you. No offense.”

  “Why?”

  Zach asked the question, but he already knew the answer.

  “Maisie has such sophisticated tastes. She lived in Paris for six years, you know?”

  “And you don’t think I’m sophisticated enough for her?”

  “Your Hurley sweatshirt and five o’clock shadow kind of gives it away,” the girl said.

  Zach looked down at his surf sweatshirt that he’d worn under his parka. He gritted his teeth. He was over worrying about their differences. And he wished everyone else would get over it too.

  “Just because I surf and ski and skateboard and rock climb doesn’t mean that I’m not the right kind of man for a girl like Maisie. In fact, I think we’re perfect for each other. More than perfect. We’re fated.”

  “I hope you guys will be happy,” the girl said.

  “Thanks for the croissant,” Zach said, stepping towards the door.

  He was more determined than ever to claim his mate and make her his own. He was tired of holding back and he was tired of pretending they weren’t meant for each other.

  So what if he was a skater dude and she was a sophisticated lady from Paris? That didn’t mean a goddamn thing as far Zach was concerned. He already knew at the bottom of his heart that he and Maisie would be happy together. They just needed to make the decision and it would all turn out all right.

  Zach shoved his croissant into his face as he drove back to the lodge. There was something going on with Maisie, and he needed to get to the bottom of it. He intended to stop and chat with Levi about the house and everything else, so he parked in front of the main entrance of the lodge and walked into the lobby.

  That’s when he remembered that Kelly Green was Maisie’s mother. Kelly was working behind the front desk, so Zach walked up to the counter and greeted her as he usually did when he came into the lobby.

  “Zach,” Kelly said excitedly. “I heard you were matched with my Maisie on Mate.com.”

  “We were matched. And no matter what anybody else thinks, I believe we are perfect for each other.”

  “Of course you are.”

  “You think Maisie and I are perfect for each other?” Zach asked.

  “I could have guessed it before you were even matched on Mate.com.”

  “I knew it too. When I saw her that day at the lodge, I knew there was something about her.”

  “So, when are you going to ask my Maisie to be your mate?” Kelly asked with a gleam in her eyes.

  “As soon as I can find her,” Zach said.

  He hadn’t made the decision to ask her to be his mate until that very moment, but now he knew that it was what he needed to do. As soon as he found her, he would pledge his undying love to her and ask her to be his. Then they would make love and he would mark her with his bite, binding them together forever.

  “She isn’t back yet?” Kelly asked, her tone growing nervous.

  14

  Maisie took in the stark white landscape, completely lost and alone. She tried to push herself up on her skis. Not only had she lost a pole, one of the skis had cracked in half. There was no way that she could ski anywhere anymore. She popped herself out of the skis and began to trudge through the snow.

  Her ski boots sank deep into the white powder. It covered her legs past her knees, making each step a monumental struggle. She couldn’t even see the barrier she had smashed through. It was too far away.

  Maybe the best way to get down was to try to find the ski lift on the lower part of the mountain. But she had no idea what direction that was. Walking up the incline towards the barrier she’d broken through would require a Herculean effort. It was steep and covered in deep snow all the way.

  Not that any other direction was any more promising. She had definitely gotten herself into a predicament and had no idea how to get herself out again. Disorientated and angry at herself, Maisie decided to walk towards the cover of the forest. With each step, she grew more exhausted.

  By the time she got there, she was panting and sweating inside her snowsuit. The sweat on her face began to chill in the freezing cold air. She sat under a tree, trying to catch her breath. In the distance, she could see the sun beginning to tilt towards the horizon. It was already growing darker outside and it would be dusk soon.

  She would just have to sit here and wait for Zach to find her. They had only been on two dates, and they barely knew each other, but something told her that Zach was out there looking for her right now.

  She had been so blind and so foolish to think that he would not love her for who she was. Everything she’d learned about shifters informed her that he would desire her no matter what.

  Maisie herself knew there was something special between them. There was a connection that she felt that was beyond the physical. It was beyond anything she’d ever experienced before.

  Instead of trusting that spark of connection that had ignited between them as soon as they’d met, she’d believed her own insecurity. She shook her head and a tear squeezed out from the corner of her eye, freezing almost instantly as it hit the cold air. She brushed the frozen little crystal away from her eye and sniffled.

  If she died up here on this mountain, at least she would have experienced her time with Zach. She hadn’t even noticed how hard he’d tried and how wonderful he’d been to her because she had been too busy worrying about her own uncertainties.

  What a pair they were. She somehow knew he’d been trying too hard. And the thought of the fancy cheese and chocolate went through her mind. A turkey sandwich would have been fine. Just the thought of it made her laugh. She couldn’t stop laughing and soon grew almost hysterical. The laughing turned into sobs, and she hid her face inside her arms as she hugged her knees up to her chest.

  If she got out of this alive, she swore that she would tell Zach exactly how she felt about him. She didn’t want to wait and she didn?
??t want to hold back anymore. She wanted him to claim her, to mark her with his bite and bind her to him as his mate. If only he would come and find her.

  15

  “Isn’t back from what yet?” Zach asked, responding to Kelly’s nervous tone.

  “She went skiing by herself. God knows why. She was saying something about wanting to keep up with you so that you would like her. I told her that was ridiculous, but she wouldn’t listen.”

  “She went skiing by herself?” he gasped. “Where?”

  “I don’t know, she didn’t say.”

  Zach started to text the lift operator, asking him if he’d seen a redheaded woman in a pink snowsuit. He hit send on his text and waited a few minutes for a response. The lift operator texted him back that he had seen a woman with that description almost five hours ago. He hadn’t seen her come back down, but she might’ve come down while he was on his break.

  Zach wasn’t going to take any chances with his mate’s safety. If she hadn’t come back down, there was a good chance she was stuck somewhere out there, cold and alone. Zach immediately called Levi, alerting him that the Rescue Bears needed to assemble in order to find his mate.

  Levi agreed, and they quickly got off the phone so that Levi could call everyone else. It was starting to get dark and the lift stopped operating at sunset. Zach grabbed his walkie-talkie and slid into his snowsuit. By the time he was at the lift, the rest of the crew was already assembled.

  Levi gave everyone directions, and Zach, Shane, Angus, and Drew all took the lift up together. Angus and Drew would take the first stop and Shane and Zach would take the second.

  Zach prayed that Maisie hadn’t gotten off on the second stop. The slope up there was way too steep for a beginner like her.

  Angus and Drew slid off the gondola at the first stop, and Shane and Zach continued up to the second. They skied off and approached the steep slope, Zach carrying the rescue sled.

  Shane was supposed to go straight down until he came to the first stop for the ski lift. Zach would check all the nooks and crannies around the slope as he went down.