“Maggie, that’s just silly.”
But it was already too late, Maggie was digging through the cash register for the receipts from earlier that day. She shuffled through a stack of them, focusing on each one for a second so she could read it.
“I knew it,” Maggie said triumphantly.
“No way,” he said, almost choking on his coffee.
Maggie slapped the receipt down on the counter in front of Heath. He read the fine print on the receipt, seeing the words Rosa Reyes right there in plain letters.
“That means she’s close. We could even meet.”
“Why don’t you text her?”
“It’s so late.”
“It’s never too late for love.”
“Okay Maggie, you’ve talked me into it.”
Maggie giggled and filled is coffee cup a third time before she walked around the corner of the bar and went to go check on some college students who were just coming into the restaurant. She pulled the menus from the front counter and escorted the guests down to a booth at the far end of the dining room.
Heath tapped the “message now” button on Rosa’s profile, bringing up the text pad. He let out a long sigh, not knowing what to say. His heart was pounding in his ears, and he was more nervous than he could ever remember being.
“Hi Rosa. It’s me, Heath. I was hoping we could meet sometime soon.”
He sat there and stared at the text for several moments. Finally, he sent the message, not knowing what to expect. Maggie had proved to him that Rosa was here on Fate Mountain, but he still had no idea how to proceed. He sat there staring at his phone, willing her to reply. He was still waiting when Maggie finally came back over to skirt around the bar and pick up the coffee pot.
“Did you text her?” Maggie asked as she passed him on her way to serve the college students their coffee.
“I texted her. But she hasn’t replied.”
“Well, you said it yourself. It is pretty late. Just be patient, hon. Everything will work out all right.”
“Thanks Maggie.” Heath said. “Keep the change.”
He slid a ten-dollar bill under the pie plate as he stood from his stool.
“Have I ever told you you’re my favorite customer?” Maggie teased as Heath made his way to the door.
“I’m sure you say that to everyone on the Bear Patrol,” Heath teased.
“Maybe I do. But you’re still my favorite. Go get your girl.”
“Thanks, Maggie,” Heath said on his way out of the diner.
He climbed into his patrol car and turned over the motor. Right when he was about to pull out of the parking lot, his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and flicked his finger across the screen, bringing up a text message from Mate.com.
“Hi Heath. I’m sorry that I got your hopes up. I’m in a really bad situation right now. I don’t think this is very good timing.”
He read her message over and over again, trying to comprehend what she had just said. This couldn’t be happening. She was his fated mate. She was his one and only. She couldn’t tell him that it wasn’t a good time. It was always a good time to find your fated mate. They belong together.
“Whatever the problem is, I’m ready to do whatever it takes. Maybe I can help you.”
“It’s a private family matter. I’m going to delete my account now. I’m sorry that I did this to you.”
“Don’t delete your account. If you aren’t ready to meet yet, that’s fine. We can do it another time.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible. Goodbye Heath.”
He felt his inner grizzly jump inside his head and roar at the top of its lungs. He could barely think from the cacophony of sound inside his head. He tried to text her back again but there was an error, saying that the user was no longer available.
He slammed his fist into the steering wheel, cursing everything in existence. How could he possibly have such bad luck? Rosa was the girl for him. The girl he was supposed to be with forever and ever. Without her, he had no idea what he would do with the rest of his life.
His grizzly moaned inside his head. He and his inner bear were on exactly the same page. He felt a tear squeeze out of the corner of his eye, and he wiped it away. He had never felt so defeated or so helpless in all his life. He took a deep breath and let it out, trying to calm the anger and frustration raging inside him. She was either still in town or had just been in town only a few hours ago. There was a good chance she was close. He pulled out of the parking lot and got onto the highway, determined to spend the rest of his shift searching for her.
3
Rosa woke up the next day still feeling terrible about what she’d done to the poor shifter. She had only signed up for Mate.com because she was bored and feeling lonely. It was selfish of her to want some momentary attention from a seemingly sweet man like Heath. But she knew she didn’t have the time or the energy to give to him. She needed all her strength and all of her mental faculties focused on finding her sister.
Rosa hastily got ready for the day and left the hotel room. She drove over to the diner for breakfast, wanting to get a bite to eat before she hit the road. When she parked in front of the diner, she noticed a Fate Mountain Police Department squad car parked out front. A new wave of guilt washed over her but she shoved it aside. She couldn’t keep letting this get to her. What’s done was done. Hopefully, Heath would get over it and move on with his life. It’s not like they’d even met.
But Rosa knew that fated mates were too important to shifters to just forget about it. He would never find another fated mate for the rest of his life. The only one that existed was her.
Being a human, it seemed a little funny, but she couldn’t give him what he needed right now. She couldn’t have him getting in the way of her search for Maria. He would just tell her she was on a wild goose chase and distract her with flowers and dinner. Rosa wasn’t about to leave her sister in the hands of whatever sick bastards had taken her. Maybe it was just her intuition driving her, but that was good enough for Rosa. She had to do something to protect her family.
As she pushed into the diner, she noticed a uniformed police officer turn on his stool and stand in the aisle between the booths and the counter. When she looked up at his face, her knees went weak. It was Heath. He was sexier than his picture had even been able to capture. He was at least six three, with a body like a football player. Solid muscle and broad shoulders filled out his uniform. His gun was slung across his hip and a bright gold star was placed on his chest.
When he noticed her, his nostrils flared. He stared at her across the space between them. Her breathing was heavy and her heart fluttered like a wild butterfly. Lily grabbed a menu from the menu rack. Her gaze went from Rosa to Heath and back again. Rosa was transfixed by Heath’s green eyes. She was stunned in place, unable to move.
Rosa was a live wire of nerve endings. She felt every vibration around her in the air throughout the room.
“Is something going on here?” Lily asked meaningfully.
Heath finally came out of his own trance and blinked his eyes several times.
“Lily,” he said. “Meet my mate, Rosa Reyes.”
“You two are mates?” Lily asked excitedly. “I thought I smelled something strange going on.”
“We met on Mate.com last night,” Rosa said in a strangled voice.
This was the last thing she’d expected to happen. She should have just gotten in the car and drove away. Now she had to have this confrontation with a man who believed she was the love of his life. She felt something between fear and panic. She couldn’t quite figure out what to do or how to act.
It wasn’t as if she was opposed to love. And it wasn’t like Heath didn’t seem like an amazing man that any woman would be lucky to have. Quite the opposite in fact. But the timing couldn’t be worse. Rosa had to find her sister. Rosa was the only one who cared about Maria. The police in Southern California had been clear that they were not going to do anything furt
her for her. They were sure Maria had just run away.
“Rosa,” he whispered.
The sound of his voice made a tingle go down her spine and radiate through her core. She was instantly aroused from somewhere deep inside her that she couldn’t have imagined would be affected at a time like this.
“Can I buy you breakfast?” Heath asked.
Rosa was running low on money. She would have to go back to work soon if she wanted to eat or have a roof over her head. As it was, she was already late on two credit card bills. Maybe letting Heath buy her breakfast wouldn’t be all that bad after all. She had to keep looking for Maria at all costs.
“Okay,” she said.
Lily led them to a booth and set a menu down at the table in front of Rosa. Rosa glanced at the menu and then back up into Heath’s gorgeous face. She couldn’t believe how attractive he was. He was a big, brute of a man with height and muscle that made him imposing. But at the same time, there was something so sweet and kind about him and it radiated out through his green eyes and shot her right in the heart.
“Are you on duty?” she asked him, noticing his uniform.
“I just got off my shift. So I can spend some time with you.”
Lily came back a moment later and filled Rosa’s coffee cup with a smile on her lips. Clearly, the waitress thought it was amusing that Rosa and Heath had found each other at the diner this morning. Rosa, on the other hand, didn’t find it amusing at all. She was having all kinds of feelings that she just couldn’t deal with right now. Her heart ached and her body sang with need. She loaded her coffee with cream and sugar and drank half the cup in one gulp before setting it back down on the table.
“What’s good?” she asked Heath, looking down at the menu.
If she just pretended that this was a normal situation, maybe she could get through it without going completely mad. Her nerves had been so frayed since her sister had gone missing that Rosa didn’t know which way was up and which way with down anymore. And now being confronted with a man like Heath, who believed that she and him were soul mates or something, made everything else so much harder to deal with.
“The Belgian waffles with strawberries are good,” he said in a good-natured tone.
He was just so incredibly handsome; she didn’t know what to do. She was going to have to ditch him right after breakfast, which was something she did not feel good about at all . But having a cop tag along with her on her crazy mission to find her sister with no evidence except a string of kidnappings and her own intuition, did not seem like a situation that would end well.
He would most likely tell her that she was insane and try to persuade her from her mission. Not that she wouldn’t mind a little distraction, but right now her sister was more important than anything else.
“That’s what I’ll have then,” Rosa said, closing the menu.
Lily came back a few moments later and Rosa gave her order. Lily filled Rosa’s coffee cup again and then turned away to give the order to the kitchen. Rosa and Heath stared at each other over the table. Rosa fiddled with the empty creamer cup, crinkling the plastic noisily between her fingers.
“Why are you so nervous?” Heath asked.
He was a cop. A cop that was trained to notice things like her nervous behavior. Being a shifter, he probably also smelled it.
“I’m just not very good on first dates.”
“Do you go on a lot of first dates?”
“No. I’m pretty busy with my job and my little sister. I don’t have a lot of time for romance.”
“You take care of your little sister?”
“Yes.” Rosa said bluntly.
They were moving dangerously close to the truth about why Rosa was on Fate Mountain. And it was something she definitely did not want to share with a cop.
She knew what happened to people when the state thought they were mentally ill. She wasn’t about to get locked up in some kind of asylum because she felt she knew where to find her sister.
“Your profile said you live in Southern California. What are you doing this far north?”
“I’m on vacation,” she said hastily.
“Fate Mountain is beautiful this time of year. The fishing’s still good in the late summer. Maybe we can go fishing after I get a few hours of sleep.”
“I’m afraid this will be our only date, Heath.”
“Rosa. You are my fated mate. Whatever is going on with you, I want to help you.”
“You can’t help me.”
“I don’t want to scare you, but I know that you’re looking for your sister. I found out last night after we were matched on Mate.com.”
“How?”
“The night waitress, Maggie, she had a feeling that you were the same girl that Lily had mentioned was looking for her sister earlier in the evening. Maggie pulled out a credit card receipt that had your name on it. I was pretty shocked too, but that’s how it happened.”
Rosa sat back in her seat, resting against the red vinyl padding behind her. Apparently, Heath believed in intuition. He was a shifter, so he already had a connection to fate. Maybe he wouldn’t think she was crazy for following her sister out here with no real evidence.
“That’s a pretty crazy story,” she said, testing him.
“It is really weird. There’s a lot of strange things in the world that we don’t always understand. Heck, I’m man who can turn into a bear.”
“That is true.”
Lily set Rosa’s waffles in front of her on the table and gave them a sly smile. Rosa had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Everyone seemed in on the conspiracy to match her and Heath right now. Even if he did believe in intuition, she still didn’t feel right about bringing somebody else along on a wild goose chase. She also didn’t need any distractions. She needed a clear head and a clear heart to follow the signs.
Rosa cut into her waffle and took a bite.
“So you’ve been on shift all night?”
“That’s right.”
“You must be awfully tired,” she said, hoping to get rid of him soon.
“I am, but I sure am happy that I waited around a few minutes longer than usual. I can handle a little fatigue if it means I get the chance to talk to you.”
Why did he have to be so damn cute and sweet? He was melting her heart, and that was the last thing she needed. Rosa ate her waffle hastily and wiped her mouth when she was done. She started to rise from the booth and Heath followed her down the aisle to the cash register where he paid for her meal. On the way out of the diner, Rosa felt an impending sense of dread. She instantly knew that her sister was in grave danger, and she needed to hurry up and find her as fast as possible.
“I’ve got to be going now,” she said apologetically. “It was nice meeting you, Heath. I wish it could have been under different circumstances. But thank you for breakfast, it really helped me a lot.”
She went to open her car and climb inside. When she closed the door, she saw Heath staring down at her through her window. She turned on the car and rolled down the window to talk to him.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I just can’t believe that you’re leaving like this,” he said, the pain in his voice cutting her heart like a knife.
“I’m so sorry, Heath. I never should have signed up for Mate.com. I feel absolutely terrible. I just can’t do this right now. I’m sorry”
She pealed out of the parking lot, tears streaming down her face. Her heart was breaking and she knew it. How could she feel so much for a man she’d only just met?
Rosa sped down the highway. She had to find Maria.
4
Heath stood in stunned silence, watching Rosa drive away. He could tell that she was distressed. But it could be for any number of reasons. He rubbed his forehead, trying to push away the confusion in his mind. His grizzly growled and roared and scratched and moaned. Heath could barely hear himself think over the noise. As tired as he was, he couldn’t just let Rosa drive away like that.
br /> He jumped into his squad car and headed off in the same direction that she had driven. He was going to find her and get to the bottom of whatever was troubling her so much. He was her mate, and he was going to protect her whether she liked it or not.
He could smell her arousal and see her attraction in her eyes. Something was forcing her to run away from him. And he was going to find out what it was so that he could make it stop. They belonged together. End of story.
He sped along the highway, trying to stay out of Rosa’s line of sight in her rearview mirror. After about thirty miles up the highway that ascended up the mountain, he saw her car pull off the road onto a dirt drive. He slowly pulled up to where she turned off and noticed her car continuing up the dirt road.
Where was she going? This was just some deserted Forest Service access road that led deep into the woods. Why in the world would Rosa go up there?
He turned off onto the road and followed her at a reasonable distance so that she wouldn’t see him. He picked up his binoculars and glanced through them every few minutes to check what she was doing. Finally, about ten miles up the dirt road, her car stopped and parked in a turn out. He watched through his binoculars as Rosa climbed out of her car and started into the forest.
This was just getting ridiculous. When she disappeared into the forest, he pulled his car up behind hers and parked. He climbed out of the patrol car and headed off into the forest behind her.
She would probably be upset to see him, but he was going to follow her until he had some kind of clue as to what she was up to. She was exhibiting strange behavior, and as a law enforcement officer, he had every right to follow her and see what she was doing. Not that he thought that his mate was a criminal, but if she was in some kind of trouble, he was justified in what he was doing.
He followed her by scent when she disappeared behind the thick trunks of the Douglas firs and the green boughs of the dense forest. Her scent grew stronger and she came into view in the middle of a clearing, turning around in circles as if she was lost.