He opened the back door in the kitchen, and they stood looking out over the tiny back porch into the wilderness, which was covered in ice and a sheet of new snow. She shivered for the first time, her long black braids bristling around her shoulders. She hugged herself from the cold.
“You’re crazy,” she said. “I’m not going out in that.”
“Come on. Where is your sense of adventure?”
“My sense of adventure is just fine,” she said. “As is my sense of temperature.”
“You’re becoming a shifter. Every second that passes, you will feel the cold less and less. Believe me, once you’re in bear form, you will be perfectly warm.”
He led her out onto the porch, and the cold wood froze her bare feet. She clenched her jaw, and her teeth began to chatter.
“You better be right about this,” she warned teasingly.
“I know a lot about being a bear shifter,” he said. “I’ve been this way since the day I was born.”
“Okay, then,” she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out. “I trust you, Damien.”
He stopped the teasing for a moment and looked at her earnestly. Their eyes met, and the bond between them solidified. They trusted each other. She would follow him to the ends of the Earth.
Slowly, they stepped down the few stairs from the porch, and then they were on a grassy slope covered in a thin sheet of snow. The slope led into a dense forest that spread out as far as the eye could see.
“How do I do this?” she asked. “Don’t I need a full moon or something?”
“That’s just an old myth. The full moon isn’t required to shift. Not even the first time. Although it is fun to run around in the forest under the full-moon light.”
“Then what do I do?” she asked, her teeth chattering violently.
“Just focus on that little spark of a bear that I planted inside you. Close your eyes, and let it become clearer and clearer. The more you focus on it, the more it will grow. And, when it’s ready, it will come out and transform you.”
She took another deep breath and closed her eyes tightly, letting her ragged breath out slowly through her cold lips. Damien wrapped his arms around her, fending off the chill with his warm body.
Raven focused on the growls and grunts of the little bear inside her. She could feel it and see it, hear it and sense it in every way. It was as if there was another personality, another part of herself that she had never seen before. It wasn’t quite completely new. It felt almost more as if it had been there all along, but she had never recognized it before. Damien’s bite had only brought it into manifestation, and now her attention was allowing it to grow clearer and more solid.
She saw the little bear inside her growing from a cub into a mature female grizzly, powerful and strong.
The primal urge of the animal within called out to her human soul. She wanted to break free. She wanted to no longer be restrained. She wanted to feel herself in relation to the world on a totally new level.
All those years living in foster care, not knowing who she was, not having a sense of self and feeling as if she were crazy to believe her mother had once loved her—all of that was slowly dissolving and transforming.
With a deep, full-bodied growl, Raven felt her bear emerging from within. The primal identity that had slept for so long burst forth, and all at once, her entire body shape-shifted. Her limbs grew, and fur covered her entire frame. With her eyes still shut, intense sharp pain sliced through her as her body transformed.
She opened her eyes and looked around at her new world. The Raven she had always been was still there inside her, but now she had another mind. A primal mind that was clear and focused and unconcerned with all of the trivialities of the human world and the human condition. All that mattered was life and love and freedom.
She growled and roared up at the clear blue sky. Her hot breath puffed out in front of her. She felt Damien beside her, and she felt their bond radiate between them. He stood naked and proud in his human form. She turned to him and sniffed his body.
Grunting, she asked him through their link to join her in bear form. The call of the wild urged her forth. She wanted to go to the forest, to hunt, to sense herself in the world. She wanted to run and push her muscles and her body to the brink. She watched her mate as he shifted and became a big, strong grizzly bear beside her.
The male bear was larger than her female form. He took several paces toward the forest and looked back at her. She could sense him and feel him. He was calling to her to join him in the wood. He began to trot toward the forest.
She followed him, picking up the pace. Soon, they were both barreling toward the tree line. As they burst through the trunks of the evergreen trees, their big paws crunching over the snow, she could smell the sharp scent of pine needles and hear the sound of little birds in the canopy above. The ravens called and broke from the branches, their black bodies shooting up into the sky.
A sense of utter joy, contentment, and peace filled her heart. For the first time since she was five years old, Raven felt as if she knew who she really was. Damien had given her this bear, and she felt a bond to her shifter mate. Her sense of reality had expanded, incorporating two forms and two minds. Both bound to her lover. She would never be alone again. Gone was the sense of self-doubt. She knew who she was, and she would never, ever forget it.
In that moment with Damien beside her and their mate bond radiating strongly between them, she made a vow that she would never doubt herself again.
Chapter 12
“I’m sure that the random-probability generator has come back with its results by now,” he said as they dressed in the cabin.
“We should go find out what it says,” Raven said.
Damien leaned in to kiss her cheek. He could feel her new sense of wholeness radiating out from inside her. It gave him a wonderful feeling that he never wanted to stop. Having Raven beside him was one thing, but now that she had agreed to be his wife and had taken his mark, he was happier than he had ever been. Now he just had to fulfill his promise to her and help her find out what happened to her mom.
“Let’s get going,” he said.
They stood from the couch and grabbed their jackets and the picnic basket on the way out the door. Climbing into the SUV, Damien looked at Raven on the other side of the cab, her calm face beautiful in the afternoon sunlight. He shut the door and pulled on his seatbelt before turning the key in the ignition.
On the way down the mountain, they chatted amiably and listened to music on the radio. He wanted their life to be like this forever and always. It was all warm and content and close, and he felt that, with Raven beside him, he could do anything. She added something to his life and to his sense of himself that he hadn’t realized was missing until she’d filled it.
Sure, he had always wanted to mate, like every other bear, but having Raven beside him gave him a whole new sense of possibility. He had no idea how grand and immense the feeling of their bond could be until he’d felt it for himself. It was no wonder that shifters longed for their fated mates all of their lives.
He was so unimaginably grateful that she had come into his life that he would never stop feeling that gratitude deep inside his heart. They pulled up in front of his house as the afternoon turned into evening and went inside. Raven took the picnic basket to the kitchen, and then they both went upstairs to Damien’s office.
They sat in front of the computer, and Damien woke up the screen, entered his password, and looked at the information he found there.
“The random-probability generator results are in,” he said.
“What does it say?” Raven asked, leaning and look at the screen.
“The random-probability generator has concluded that there is a ninety-five percent chance that Marvin Updike had something to do with your mother’s disappearance.”
“Did it give you any proof or evidence?”
“It just says that there’s a high probability that there’s a connectio
n.”
“We already knew that,” Raven said, dejected.
“This is where real police work comes in,” he said. “We have a lead, so we should follow it.”
“What do you suggest we do?” she asked.
“Let’s go down to the lodge, since that was the last place your mother was seen. I’ll take my forensics equipment and see if there’s anything to find.”
“It’s been twenty years, Damien,” she said. “Wouldn’t all of that be gone by now?”
“You never know. It’s worth a shot. We don’t have any other leads, and we can’t exactly go up to Marvin Updike’s compound, demanding answers.”
“Okay, I’m game. Let’s go check out the lodge.”
Damien grabbed his forensics bag from the closet in his office, and they went back out to the SUV.
“Do you think that I should come with you to do this?”
“It isn’t official police business, so it won’t make any difference.”
He laughed, knowing that he was probably stepping over a line, using his police equipment to try to solve a twenty-year-old cold case. At the same time, he was determined to do whatever it took to put his mate’s mind to rest. He would leave no stone unturned until they had the truth of what had happened to her mother twenty years ago. Damien intended not to allow Raven to go another day without the truth of who she was and where she’d come from.
They parked in the parking lot of the lodge and went into the lobby, where they were greeted by Kelly Green, who’d told them she’d known of Harlow Lucas.
“Tech Bear,” Kelly said when she saw Damien.
“Hi, Kelly. How are Maisie and the cubs?” he asked.
“They are doing well. It was nice to see you at Thanksgiving,” she said.
“You as well. The clans should get together more often,” Damien said.
“I agree with you on that. There’s nothing more important than family. Speaking of family, we never got to finish talking about your mother on Thanksgiving, Raven. I didn’t know her except in passing. I think she worked for Mr. Updike back then. Under the table or something.”
“And you’re sure you saw her that day?”
“Yes, she came to ask for her final paycheck. I heard her fighting with Mr. Updike in his office. One of the other staff called the police. But she was gone before they got here.”
“Is Levi around today?” Damien asked. “I wanted to ask if we could look for clues.”
“Clues? Are you really trying to find Harlow now, after all these years?”
“Yes. That is exactly what we are trying to do.”
“Let me see,” Kelly said. “I think he’s in his office.”
They followed Kelly around the corner down a hallway to Levi’s door, where she knocked and waited. A moment later, Levi poked his head out, and his eyes widened when he saw Damien and Raven standing in the hallway.
“Hi, Tech Bear. What brings you to the lodge today?”
“Do you remember us asking about Mr. Updike at Thanksgiving?” Damien said.
“Yes, of course. What is this about?” Levi said, opening the door to his office.
Kelly went off back to the front desk, and Raven and Damien walked into Levi’s office, where they took a seat on the other side of his desk. Levi sat down, and Damien began to explain what was going on. Levi was an Alpha, but he was also incredibly understanding when it came to matters of the heart.
“So you see, we wanted to search for forensic evidence of Raven’s mother being here. We have reason to believe that her disappearance was connected to Marvin Updike.”
“Interesting. Have at it. I don’t have a problem with you looking around,” Levi said.
“Thank you, Levi. I’d like to start in the office, if that’s all right. Considering this was the office of the previous owner, correct?”
“That’s correct.”
Damien took out his black light and his other forensics equipment and began inspecting the office. He ran his hand along the wall and almost by accident found something that felt strange. He knocked on a spot near the floor, and it sounded hollow.
“What’s this?” Damien said.
“I don’t know. This is an old building. It could be a false wall or a structural abnormality,” Levi said.
“Do you mind if I try to see what’s behind it?” Damien asked.
“I guess,” Levi said. “You have me curious now.”
Damien grabbed a small crowbar from his forensics bag and began to pry at the wall. To his surprise, a small square popped away. He shined his flashlight into the space within and found a small square box built into the wall. It was empty.
“What’s in there?” Levi asked, leaning over Damien and Raven to try to see inside.
“Nothing,” Damien said.
He pulled out his black light and shined it into the void. That was when he found what was really inside the box. It appeared as if there were bloodstains all over the walls. He quickly pulled out his sampling equipment and took a sample of the blood. He would take it back to the forensics lab for analysis.
“I think we found what we were looking for,” Damien said.
Chapter 13
Damien and Raven took the sample and drove to the police station. A flush of anxiety ran through Raven’s stomach as they parked in front of the police department. Even though Damien believed her and wasn’t going to turn her in, she had still done something illegal. At the back of her mind, she still felt guilty about it.
He took her through the station and into a back office and then into the forensics laboratory.
“I just have to test this sample,” he said. “Then we can get an idea of who it belongs to.”
“Do you think that it has anything to do with my mom’s disappearance?” she asked.
“There’s always the possibility,” he said. “And right now it’s our best lead.”
“All right. Let’s see what we’ve got.”
“I’m going to have to take a sample of your blood to match it against this sample. So we can tell if it was your mother’s or not.”
“Okay,” she said.
Damien took a small pin out of his forensics bag and lifted Raven’s fingertip under a light. He pricked her finger with the needle and took a tiny sample of blood.
“This is all I will need to determine if it’s a genetic match.”
Raven watched as Damien went about his work. Her expertise was in computer network security and hacking. But Damien had skills beyond just computers. He was the police department forensics expert, and he performed a number of tasks for the Bear Patrol.
As he entered the information into his computer system to see if the sample from the lodge and Raven’s sample were a match, Raven couldn’t help but feel impressed with his technical abilities.
She watched him move through his laboratory, and with each moment, she became more enamored with her mate. By the time the computer was finished analyzing the samples, she was even more in love than she had been before. If that was even possible.
Damien went to the computer and opened up the results screen.
“It’s just as I thought,” he said. “The sample from the lodge was deteriorated, but after some repairs, I can see that it is a ninety-nine percent genetic match to yours. Just as we would expect to see between a parent and child.”
“That really belonged to my mother?” she asked, shocked.
“It looks that way.”
“Do we have enough evidence to arrest Marvin Updike?” she asked.
“I doubt it. But we can take our new information to Rollo. He will have a better idea of how to proceed.”
“You aren’t going to tell the chief about what I did, are you?” she asked.
“No way. Rollo has been in a testy mood lately because there are many humans on Fate Mountain who are pushing back against shifters coming into prominence in town.”
“That’s terrible,” Raven said. “Why are humans angry about shifters?”
&n
bsp; “A lot of people think that the shifters are dominating the town after the Great War. Rollo is doing his best to keep everyone unified. But it’s a challenge.”
“Marvin Updike is a shifter, though,” Raven said.
“That’s true. But we still have to play it safe. No way I’ll tell him about you. We can’t look as if we are giving our mates any favoritism.”
“I guess that makes sense,” she said.
“We just need more evidence that connects Marvin Updike to your mom.”
“Kelly said she worked for him under the table. And we know that Marvin Updike was in some kind of criminal investigation associated with his business at the time.”
“Maybe your mother got in the middle of something.”
“But in the middle of what?” Raven asked.
“That’s what we need to find out,” Damien said. “Let’s go back to my house, and we’ll search for more information about Marvin Updike’s previous lawsuits.”
“That is a great idea.”
When they arrived back at Damien’s house, he put together some snacks for them, and they made their way up to his office. Solving a case with Damien was almost as fun as playing Dragon Lands with him. Even if they were still who knew how far away from solving anything.
“I may be able to get access to the closed documents from the courthouse,” Damien said.
Raven watched as her man worked away on his computer. A feeling of security filled her heart as she gazed down at the diamond ring on her finger. Finally, someone was there for her, helping her and believing her. After her experience in the woods, Raven was becoming more and more comfortable with herself in her skin and her identity.
With Damien to depend on, it was as though she were a whole new person. But she still needed to know what had happened to her mother. It was a quest she would never give up on, no matter how much Damien loved her and protected her.
Damien brought up some files on the screen and started reading them.
“These are files from the county courthouse about the investigation into Mr. Updike’s business. All I can see are the names of the parties involved.”