Her stepdad’s helicopter veered toward the landing and settled down near the one already there. The doors to the other helicopter swung open and out stepped two men in brightly colored jumpsuits and gold chains.
“Who are they?” Daisy asked.
“The Updike brothers. One of them will be your future husband.”
She blanched. It wasn’t that they were ugly, there was just something off about them both. They reminded her of her stepfather’s henchmen. And that turned her off right away. What had she expected? Some sweet Romeo to sweep her off her feet?
That wasn’t going to happen with anyone but Mountain Bear. She thought of him for a moment, contrasting him with the men making their way toward her stepfather’s helicopter. All she could hope was that somehow, Mountain Bear would save her. As irrational as that hope might be, it was all she had to hold onto at that moment. Besides Fifi’s carrier.
Her stepdad swung open the door of the helicopter and pulled her out into the cold mountain air. In that moment, she was so grateful for her warm clothes that she almost forgot what was happening.
But that didn’t last long. The same man who’d told her to dress warmly was gripping her arm and forcing her to walk toward two strange shifters, one of whom apparently wanted to marry her.
“Did you bring it?” her stepdad asked.
“It’s here. A thousand pounds of crystal. It’s in the crate behind the chopper,” one of the Updike brothers said.
“And this is her?” the second one asked as her stepfather tugged her toward the crate.
“This is her. You’ll get a lot of miles out of her,” her stepdad said as if he was talking about a used car.
“Which one of you is supposed to be my husband?” she asked, clutching Fifi’s bag.
“We haven’t decided yet,” one of them said.
“Do I get any say in it?” she asked.
All the men around her burst out laughing. Her stepdad shook his head. One of the Updike brothers pushed open the door to the aluminum crate. There were stacks and stacks of bags full of white powder.
“Finest crystal in the west,” one of the brothers said.
“I see,” her stepfather said, letting go of her arm as he walked into the crate.
“What are you doing?” one of the brothers asked.
“I’m inspecting my payment,” her stepdad said.
Daisy started to inch backward, holding Fifi’s bag in both hands. Her stepdad moved further into the crate, digging through the bags of crystal.
She looked around, spotting the tree line of a thick forest. In the other direction was a rocky cliff. She kept inching closer and closer to the forest, determined to get the heck away from all these crazy people.
“What is this?” her stepfather shouted from inside the crate.
“That’s not what it looks like,” one of the Updikes shouted.
“Like hell it isn’t,” her stepfather growled.
Daisy looked over her shoulder at the forest and made a break for it. She heard a gunshot behind her and looked back to see one of the Updikes’ henchmen take a bullet in the chest.
She clutched Fifi’s bag as her dog barked at the noise. Daisy ran, hoping no one noticed her in the confusion.
More gunshots followed. Daisy made it to the forest and kept going as fast as she could. As her boots crunched over the cold forest floor, her heart pounded inside her. Fifi barked and Daisy pleaded for her pet to be quiet.
She didn’t want anyone to catch her now that she’d escaped. More gunshots fired in the distance and a moment later a helicopter flew overhead. She kept running, not sure if it was her stepdad’s helicopter or the Updikes’.
She heard her name screamed in the distance over and over. It was her stepdad’s voice. He was still looking for her. She scrambled over a fallen log and hurried down the other side. Why was this happening? Her hands hurt from the splinters of the log. Fifi kept whining and crying at her from her bag.
“Please be quiet, Fifi, or they’ll find us.”
Her stepdad had tried to sell her to the Updikes for a crate of drugs. Then something went wrong. The Updikes had tried to rip him off, it seemed. At least one person had been shot. She wasn’t going back. She didn’t care if she was lost on the mountain. Daisy Danes was not going to be sold into marriage to man she didn’t love for the price of a crate of drugs.
She couldn’t be that far from civilization, could she? She pulled her cellphone from a side pouch in Fifi’s bag as she slowed to a walk. She checked for reception. There wasn’t any. But the picture of Mountain Bear was still on her screen.
She sighed, wishing she knew where he was. His profile had said he lived in a cabin on Fate Mountain. Before she’d left home, the idea of living in a cabin in the woods had no appeal. Now that she was lost in the woods, she’d give anything to find a cabin among the jungle of trees.
The sound of her name being yelled, faded in the distance as she walked. A while later, a helicopter, carrying a crate below it, flew through the sky overhead. Her stepdad had left. She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or angry that he’d left her.
She settled on relieved for now. The realization of how big a bastard her stepdad really was hadn’t fully settled in until that exact moment. She couldn’t keep fooling herself.
Up until today, Daisy had had an easy life. She’d never pushed herself or challenged herself because there had never been a need. She felt stupid for letting her stepdad have so much control over her life.
She should have moved out a long time ago. She hated that she’d been so spoiled and weak, and that she’d let her life end up like this. Then again, what would have stopped her stepdad from doing exactly the same thing if she’d been in college and living on her own? He could have shown up at her door at any time and kidnapped her pretty much just as easily as he had today.
She could have put up a fight, called the cops. Brought down her stepdad’s whole business. But she knew that her stepdad had cops in his pocket. There was nowhere she could go for help. She thought of Mountain Bear, wanting to believe there was someone out there who could protect her.
Daisy kept walking as the temperature dropped and the sunlight dimmed into evening. It would be dark soon and she would be stuck out in the woods with no food, water, or shelter. She stopped for a few minutes to give Fifi some dog food and let her drink from a puddle. She wanted to drink the water so badly, but she couldn’t bring herself to drink water from the ground, no matter how thirsty she was.
Daisy put Fifi back in her bag and she continued to walk, her feet growing more tired with each step. As the sun started making its way to the western horizon, she shivered under her parka. She’d worn the warmest clothes she owned aside from her ski suit, yet she was still freezing.
She could feel Fifi shivering through her bag and pulled the little dog out to rest her inside the front of her parka. They could help keep each other warm. The tiny dog’s little body pressed against her chest. Fifi licked her face affectionately.
“We’ll get through this Fifi,” she said wearily, no longer sure if she believed it.
She continued through the forest and picked up the slight smell of smoke on the breeze. She sniffed, looking above the trees for a hint of where the smoke was coming from. She saw wisps of smoke rising about the treetops. She held Fifi in her jacket and ran as fast as her tired feet could take her in the direction of the smoke. When she came to the edge of the forest, she could barely believe what she saw before her. Across the clearing sat a little log cabin, with gray smoke billowing from the chimney. She was saved!
Chapter 4
A knock sounded at Cyrus’s door and he grabbed his gun, the scent coming from the other side of the door sending his grizzly into a panic. He pushed open the door, his shotgun under the crook of his arm. What he found on the other side of the door made his inner grizzly rear on his hind legs. The smell of the little human standing in front of him with a tiny dog poking out of the neck of her coat
almost made his knees buckle.
Mate.
He knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt. His mate had found him and come to his door.
“Mountain Bear?” she asked, looking up at him through thick lashes.
The little dog barked at him and jumped out of the neck of her jacket. The girl caught the dog before it dropped to the ground, but the little creature wiggled away and lunged at Cyrus, yapping and barking.
“She doesn’t like you,” his mate said, looking up at him from her knees. She grabbed at the dog and finally got it back under control, shoving it into a handbag.
“I don’t like her either,” Cyrus said.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, looking into his cabin.
“I should ask you the same question,” he said, crossing his arms.
She was clearly his mate. That much was certain. But he still didn’t understand how the little human and her silly little dog had gotten to his cabin.
“I can tell you the whole story if you let me inside,” she said, and he noticed her weary expression for the first time.
“Of course, come in,” he said, stepping aside to let her by.
She continued into the cabin and quickly found a place to sit by the fire.
“I can’t believe I found you,” she said. “I was worried I’d have to spend the night in the forest.”
“You were lost?” he asked, handing her a cup of water.
She took it, chugged it down, and asked for another. Cyrus poured it for her, and she drank that one more slowly.
“I was lost after running away from my stepdad and his drug deal gone bad,” she said flatly. “Just after I found out you were my fated mate on Mate.com, Mountain Bear.”
“My name is Cyrus Kincaid,” he said.
“Daisy Danes,” she said standing to offer him her hand.
He shook it, looking her up and down. She was wearing form fitting blue jeans and a puffer parka. He could see her curves through her warm clothes and it made his grizzly growl with need.
“Your stepdad is a drug dealer?” he asked.
“He’s a criminal. I don’t think he narrows his business to drugs.”
“I see. You got lost after fleeing a drug deal. Why were you even there?”
“My stepdad wanted to sell me for a crate full of crystal. The hyenas tried to rip him off. There was a shootout and I ran.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Well, none of that matters now. We’ve found each other and you can save me from my stepfather and his goons.”
“Are they still after you?” Cyrus asked.
He wanted to protect his mate more than anything in the world, but the thought of her stepfather and his criminal flunkies coming to his cabin made his skin crawl. Cyrus had left society to avoid exactly this kind of thing. Now he was embroiled right back in the middle of this insane drama.
“No. I saw his helicopter leave right after the Updikes left.”
“The Updikes were the hyenas your stepdad wanted to sell you to?” Cyrus said, growing angry. “I should have known.”
“Does that name mean anything to you?”
“It sure does. Those guys have been making trouble on Fate Mountain for decades. They’re almost as bad as…”
“Almost as bad as what?”
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”
Cyrus squeezed his eyes closed, trying to push aside the memories that jumped into the forefront of his mind. The betrayal he’d experienced during the war could never be healed.
This was a different matter entirely and he had to keep it separate. He’d never been friends with an Updike. But he knew how they operated. They reminded him of a very bad man he’d once known who had been his friend, or at least had pretended to be.
Cyrus had lost his faith in brotherhood after that. Coming home to find the ranch in bad shape, his brother as scattered and as broken as he was, he couldn’t face another day in civilization. He’d decided the only way to be happy was to live alone in the forest, away from the pressures that made men hate each other.
But it had all caught up with him and found its way to his doorstep in the form of his beautiful blonde, curvy mate named Daisy. Her little dog yipped at him from its bag, and he growled back at it. The dog cried and Daisy looked up at him like he was a monster.
“She started it,” Cyrus defended.
Daisy pulled the dog out of her purse and a stream of high-pitched baby talk flooded from her mouth. Cyrus stood there in shock, listening to her coo at her annoying little pet.
He couldn’t believe this was happening in his home. Usually, rodents that size were either dinner or quickly disposed of. He didn’t set them on his lap and baby them.
“I think she’s hungry,” Daisy said, offering her dog a handful of dog food from her palm. “I’m starving myself, come to think of it. What are you cooking?”
Cyrus looked over at his elk roast, cooking over the open flames in his fireplace. It was browning on the roasting spit. He walked over to his fireplace and cranked the metal bar to turn the roast to the other side.
“This elk roast is almost done,” he said.
“It smells amazing. My mouth is watering so much I have to keep swallowing it down,” she said with a giggle.
He chuckled and found his carving knife.
“Must have been hard on you out there,” he said, caving into the roast. “You don’t seem like the outdoorsy type.”
“I don’t?” she said, laughing as her dog ate out of her hand. She went back into a stream of baby talk that made Cyrus’s grizzly growl in confusion. “In fact, I spend most of my spare time shopping and clubbing. Who am I kidding? I don’t even have a job or go to school, so pretty much all my time is spare time.”
“Why don’t you do anything with your life?” Cyrus asked, too sharply.
He could see her face fall at his words. He didn’t want to hurt her. But he was beginning to think that fate was playing some kind of cruel joke on him. How was a man like him supposed to connect with a girl like Daisy?
She was clearly a princess. From her French tip manicure to the frosted highlights in her hair to the designer boots she worn on her feet. He didn’t believe he could ever make this woman happy, and that fear sank in his gut like a ton of bricks.
She cleared her throat, the gleam of unshed tears bright in her eyes. She smiled at him and put Fifi down on the ground. The dog ran over to him and began yipping. He glared at it and his grizzly growled.
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want to. My stepdad wouldn’t let me. I’ve wanted to be an interior designer since I was a little girl. I should have just left home. I guess I was lazy and scared. But what can I do? I didn’t realize my stepdad would try to sell me for drugs. He paid my credit card bills. What would you do?”
“I guess you have point. You’re just never going to have a life like that with me.”
“We just met. I don’t expect to have any kind of life with you at all,” she said defensively. “It’s just weird that you’re my mate, and I found you today, of all days. They say fate works in mysterious ways.”
“That they do, especially on Fate Mountain.”
“So you don’t have to worry about giving me anything, Cyrus. I just need to rest tonight. Tomorrow you can point me in the direction of civilization.”
“You can’t go.”
“What do you mean I can’t go?” she said, her voice growing an edge he hadn’t heard up until then. “I’m sick and tired of people telling me what I can and can’t do. That goes for you too.”
“I’d never presume to tell you what to do. You can stay in my cabin tonight and tomorrow I’ll take you back.”
“Good. I’m glad we have an understanding.”
“What are you going to do about your stepdad?” Cyrus asked, carving slices of meat from the roast and placing them on a plate for Daisy.
He handed her the food and she dug in hungrily. She didn’t look at him until s
he was done eating, and took a deep breath as she leaned back in her chair.
“I thought you would protect me, but you don’t want me,” she said bursting into tears.
She sobbed into her hands. The food had given her the strength she needed to cry. Cyrus was more confused than ever. This little creature’s behavior was totally irrational.
“I never said I didn’t want you, Daisy,” he said placing a hand on her shoulder.
“You don’t have to say it. It’s written all over you. We aren’t right for each other. Fate made a mistake. What are we going to do?”
Her crying began to take on a fevered pitch. That’s when he noticed how hot she felt.
“You’re burning up,” he grumbled.
“I’m fine,” she said, starting to shiver.
“You are not, You’re sick as a dog. You need to get into bed right now.”
“It’s okay,” she said, standing. “I’m strong.”
She started to walk toward the door, but her knees buckled under her weight. Cyrus was there just in time to scoop her up in his arms. She collapsed into his embrace and he lifted her from the ground, carrying her across the cabin to lay her on his bed.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said as he unzipped her boots and helped her into bed.
“Yes, I do.”
“Will you come back to the city with me and take me clubbing?” she asked, her words slurred as she fell further into the fever.
“Probably not,” he said.
“I knew you didn’t want me,” she sobbed, turning over on her side.
The little dog jumped on the bed and sat vigil over Daisy’s body, yapping at Cyrus in warning. He growled at the dog, but this time it didn’t back down. It only emboldened the little beast to bark louder.
“Quiet, Fifi,” Daisy demanded wearily.
Her eyes were pressed closed and her face was flushed. Sweat had formed on her brow as the fever burned her from within. The dog settled beside her, baring its teeth at Cyrus.
“Just rest,” Cyrus said, backing away from the strange scene on his bed.