Fated Shifter Mates Read online

  “And my phone.”

  I scoffed, but Cole scrambled to where Ellie sat, and gathered her shoes and electronic equipment.

  “Put the phone in the walk-in. Whoever is tracking her already knows she was here. The walls will block the phone’s signal.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Yep. Open the door.”

  “Now wait a minute,” protested Ellie.

  “Is there something you want to tell me, Ellie? Anything to clear up why a gun-toting angler who didn’t bring any fishing gear rented a cabin here?”

  “You can’t do this.”

  “I’m the sheriff in this neck of the woods. If I take protective custody of a material witness, no one will say anything. But if you can tell me a good reason why I shouldn’t, tell me now.”

  Her eyes narrowed and her jaw set. I wasn’t getting another useful word out of her until Ellie decided to speak. Stubborn woman.

  I sprint out the door while Ellie spouted a string of invectives as we crossed the meadow that spread out to meet the lake and the woods that climbed the mountain. Ellie clung to my neck, bouncing in my arms, now curiously silent as I ran up the slope. I could make better time as a bear, but Ellie doesn’t know that about us yet, and there was no way I could carry her as a bear.

  We reached cabin number four, but this was not our destination. I had a more private, personal place in mind. Our family called it “the spot,” and it is where a family member went if they wanted quiet time in a safe place. It’s where we were that day our parents died, and we didn’t know why our parents weren’t making dinner for us when we returned.

  I darted across the logging road and into the depths of the forest that we warn guests not to enter. Not that it was unsafe, but we didn’t mark our territory here as thoroughly as on the Lodge lands proper, so some of the larger predators roamed undeterred by the territory scents of our shifter forms. This was our land but between our different jobs, none of us had the time to roam the entire area.

  Ellie clung onto me tighter as the atmosphere grew darker with thickened, wild vegetation, and the ground grew more unsteady with layers of humus and wet leaves. I kicked up their earthy scent as I ran. Birds in the trees twittered their warning that there was a predator in their midst, and the crows chattered angrily that someone disturbed their quiet day.

  The tinkling of falling water greeted my ears signaling we were close. I broke out of the forest to a clearing in the ring of green featuring a pool and waterfall. At one end of the pool, a beaver dam channeled the water creating the pool and allowed a small stream as egress for the water. Over the rock face, water tumbled in a sheet into the pool.

  “Wow,” said Ellie.

  “Hang on. We’re going to get wet for a second.”

  “Wha--”

  There just wasn’t any easy way to do this. I walked to the rock face and onto a ledge just under the waterfall. But the way isn’t entirely clear, so I dashed forward through the edge of the falls and came out behind it into a wide cave. Over the years that Clarks had occupied this land, the family has built this cave into a cozy space.

  We have a wood stove that vents through a pipe set in the rock and wicker furniture padded with handmade cushions and pillows. In the further recesses of the cave is a memory foam mattress on the platform that had been constructed for sleeping bags. Cole brought it up a couple of seasons ago. It was a dry cave despite the water flowing above. Occasionally we’d find a critter taking up residence, but there isn’t anything that wants to share with a bear, so they evacuate quickly when we show up. For teenagers, it was a wonderful place to hide out from the parents, and I believe Cole may have brought more than one woman here.

  I whipped off the tarp over the sofa and set her down.

  “How’s that,” I asked. Her scent filled my nose, and I closed my eyes as my cock twitched. I can’t afford to be unprofessional now but all I want is to get inappropriate with this woman.

  “This is something,” she said looking around.

  “Are you sure you are comfortable?”

  “The sofa is a little, um, hard.”

  “Let’s see what I can do.” I went back to the bed and pulled out the pillows under the protective tarp and tucked them behind her back.

  “How’s that?”

  She grimaced. “Still not comfortable.”

  “Here,” I said. Sinking down next to her, I pull her to my chest. “How’s that?”

  “Zain,” she breathed. “I—“

  “Ellie, you don’t have to say anything. Do you know how beautiful you are?”

  She blushed. “I bet all the Clark men say that to all the girls.”

  “No, Ellie,” I said softly in her ear. “To tell you the truth, we don’t date all that much.”

  “But Cole--”

  “Cole has his friends, but none of them are special. He could have had any number of women, but he didn’t pick any of them.”

  “Oh.”

  “Are you comfortable?”

  “You’re comfortable. Almost like a teddy bear.”

  I chuckled. “No man wants to be compared to a child’s toy.”

  “Then you don’t understand the attention we lavish on our teddy bears.”

  “No?”

  She shook her head. “We hold them close at night and kiss them.”

  “Little girls do that?”

  “Big girls do that too,” she said with a smile. With that she turned up her lips to me and stared into my eyes, and I saw something I never had before.

  My mate.

  I feel her heart beating and it moved in time with mine and holding her felt like the most perfect thing in the world. Her back presses against my chest and my hand cups her breast. Her nipple hardens, and I rub my thumb over it gently, earning soft moans.

  “Ellie,” I whisper. I can’t help it. Her name is a song calling to my soul.

  “Zain. Why do I want you so much?”

  Her scent hangs in the air, and I am peripherally aware that mine does too, perhaps stronger than usual. My shaft presses into the crease of her jeans, and inside my bear growls. There are too many clothes between us.

  “Ellie, Ellie.” It seems to be all I can say. I kissed her neck, and nibbled her ear, and she makes little sounds of pleasure that make me bolder. Gently, I push her aside.

  “What are you doing?” she said.

  “Ssh,” I said. I slide to the floor on my knees and look up at her.

  “You are so delicious, I need to taste you.”

  Her eyes widened as I unsnap her jeans and pull them off, revealing a white lace thong that barely covered her femininity. I kissed her mound gently and worked my tongue under the thin strip covering her pink flesh and lav it with my tongue. She wriggles under me, and I slid my hands to place her legs on my shoulders and hold her lips, lapping up her cream then seeking more of it.

  Ellie groaned, and I pull her to my mouth. She tastes so good I can’t seem to get enough. My cock strains against my jeans, but I’m so intent on her noises of pleasure, and how she juts her hips against my face, I do not care. My tongue finds her center and I slip it in between her pink petals while my thumb massages the nub hidden in the folds of flesh. Her back arched as her breathing speeds up and she bucks on my tongue.

  “Zain!” she called out.

  Ellie sighed, and I lifted her legs, laid them on the couch then sat next to her and gathered her in my arms. She laid her head on my chest.

  “Don’t you want—?”

  “Ssh,” I said. “There’s time for that. We’ll be here for a while.”

  “You sure got this place all tricked out.”

  “It’s the Clark family special spot. We come up here when we want alone time.”

  “So, is that what we are doing now? Getting alone time?”

  “No. I’m keeping you in a safe place while we sort out the issues with trespassers.”

  She sucked in a breath.

  “Issues? As in more than one?”

/>   “I’m afraid so. There was the incident at the beach when you were with Cole, the guest at the cabin, and a trespasser I found at one of the hunting cabins.”

  “And this doesn’t happen?”

  “Not like this. Not this often and forgive me, but I do not believe in coincidences. It started when you arrived.”

  Ellie hung her head.

  “I can’t ever escape my past,” she said sadly.

  “What past?”

  She took a deep breath. “The name I use now was given to me by Witsec.

  “You’re a protected witness?”

  “No. Not anymore. I went in as a child. I left five days ago because I thought it would be okay. It wasn’t. My father has been tracking me. It’s why I came here. I thought his reach didn’t come this far North.”

  “And your father is?”

  But I knew the answer even before she spoke it. Now I understood why his face looked familiar when I saw his FBI photo. Sitting on my sofa is the daughter of Xavier Lane, president of the criminal motorcycle club, Satan’s Sons.

  Marcus

  “5-10, 180 pounds, long gray hair which he pulls back in pony tail, wearing biker leathers, a jacket with a Devil’s Son patch…”

  Zain’s description of Xavier Lane rolls around in my head while I scanned the road for the criminal. Either he took off toward Canada which is doubtful because of the heavy border security, headed south which seems counter-productive, or he is still hanging around here which would be stupid. No one said criminals were smart; he’s probably hanging around, maybe finding a shelter on the trail or in one of the parks to hole up in. He would need a warm place for the night, because May nights could get frosty until later in the month.

  After filling my gas tank at the convenience mart across from the general store, I pulled up into a parking slot and took out my phone. I loaded up the local maps and mentally listed the places with shelters. I knew them all, and I would try to hit as many as I can. I sure wish I scented the bastard though. It would make it easier to find him.

  Two hours of fruitless searching got me nowhere, and I sat at the edge of a brook eating my sandwich wondering where to look next. My phone buzzed, and I found a message from Cole texting me from his emergency phone in his shifter’s backpack.

  Cole: Where have you been?

  Me: Working.

  Cole: Zain took Ellie to the spot.

  Me: So?

  Cole: He’s alone with Ellie at the spot.

  My mouth twisted. I did not like this, and my inner bear rumbled but what could I do? I had my shift to finish which wouldn’t be for a while yet.

  Me: I’m sure he’s just trying to protect her.

  Cole: DUDE! He’s alone with Ellie at the spot!

  Me: Chill.

  Cole didn’t answer while I chewed on my sandwich. No “bye.” No “See you later.” Why is he so upset about this?

  The rumble of motorcycles greets my ears. Any bright, sunny day will bring out the bikers, and I finish up my sandwich in one bearish gulp and brush the crumbs off my fingers. I walk toward the parking lot and check out the bikes—Harleys, of course, and catch a glimpse of their patches. No Satan Son’s patch, just a single patch of a social club.

  “Hey ya!” I said.

  The bikers, six of them, look at me and then to each other.

  “Ya?” said the oldest one, a man with a beer gut and long gray hair and a beard.

  “I’m Warden Clark. I wonder if you’ve seen any other bike clubs on the road.”

  “What clubs?” said the grizzled biker.

  “Whoever you’ve seen.”

  “Nah. We haven’t seen anyone.”

  “Okay. Thanks.” I walked toward my truck, which is huge because of all the things I need it for and pulled open the driver’s side door.

  “Is there trouble?” called the biker.

  “You told me there wasn’t,” I responded.

  “What if we did see someone?”

  “It’s not a thing,” I said. “I was just looking for someone, but I’ll catch up with him.”

  The biker set his kickstand and walked toward me. His buddies followed, and I waited behind my door. I don’t think they’ll cause a problem, but I’ll be ready to jump in if I need to.

  “We don’t want trouble,” said the guy, whose front patch read “Digger,” his club name, under the president’s patch.

  “I’m not looking for it, at least from you. You guys are social club, right?”

  “Yeah. We are. Weekend warriors most times, but this week we took a few days off to ride. It was a long winter.”

  “That is was,” I agreed.

  Digger looked over his shoulder to his fellows, a couple of whom shrugged.

  “We,” said Digger, “saw some assholes on the road. Normally we wouldn’t say anything, and we don’t want this to come back to us, but a group of Satan’s Sons passed us on the way up. We haven’t seen them since though.”

  “Assholes?”

  “Yeah. Deliberately passed on the right spitting up sand for the shoulder. Jerks.”

  “On the road up here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How many?”

  “Eight?” He glanced at his fellows who nodded.

  I fished one of my cards out of my front shirt pocket. “You see anything else, I’d appreciate a call.”

  “Sure,” grumbled Digger. He slipped the card inside his jacket and turned to returned to his clubmates. But I’m not worried about Digger, but Drew and Cole. Drew would be fine at the office, but Cole was alone at the lodge, and Xavier Lane already walked on our land once.

  Not that my cousin couldn’t take care of himself. He was a fierce bear when he shifted. But we didn’t need crazy stories about humans that turned into bears.

  I called my cousin, but damn it, the lodge answering machine picked-up instead of Cole.

  The next call was to Drew.

  “Hey,” I said. “I just ran into a biker club that said they saw a group of Satan’s Sons heading this way.”

  “Okay. I’ll alert other law enforcement. Thanks for the tip.”

  “And Zain took Ellie to the spot.”

  “What!” I’m taken aback about the amount of alarm in his voice. “He can’t do that.”

  “What’s your dysfunction?”

  “I don’t want Zain hanging around my mate.”

  My blood literally runs cold through me.

  His? His? The idea rattles in my brain, and my inner bear growls ready to reach across the air waves to throttle my cousin. What the hell? The reaction is extreme, and my bear threatens to come to the surface because I haven’t been listening to him.

  With a shock, I realize what the bear has been trying to tell me.

  “She can’t be your mate.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s mine.”

  “Oh, hell, no. You are wrong there.”

  “No, bro. I am not. I felt the mate bond.”

  “This is bullshit,” snapped Drew. “I’ve known she was mine since the first time I saw her.”

  It’s a good thing I’m sitting because the world tilts as I absorb this information. This was not right. Mates recognized each other, and the first of the bonds snap into place. But it does not happen that more than one bear shifter claims the same mate. Once the first mate bond, the recognition, forms, no other bonds are possible.

  Are they?

  Then I think about Cole’s overreaction to me telling him that Zain took Ellie to our secret spot to protect her.

  Did he think Ellie was his mate too?

  I feel sick. Suddenly my sandwich doesn’t sit in my stomach. If this is true, there is only one thing I can do, and I don’t know if I can.

  I have to fight my cousins.

  Drew

  I’m shaking when I hang up the phone after speaking to Marcus. My bear rumbles under my skin ready to shift into my ursine form and rip the throat out of my cousin for daring to suggest Ellie is his mate. />
  That’s not possible. She’s mine. My bear is sure of it. I am too.

  There is no way I can man this office right now. I shut down my computer because I’m going home—Zain be damned. I know he’s protecting her, but he doesn’t have to do it alone.

  I pull my keys out of my desk drawer as the door to office opens. The man who walked in was maybe 5’ 9” and thin and lanky with dark hair and eyes. He bore a hard look on his face like he’d seen a lot of bad stuff in his life.

  “Can I help you?”

  “I’m looking for my sister.”

  I stepped to the counter and pulled out an intake form.

  “And you are?”

  “Simon Walters.”

  “I see. And your sister’s name?”

  “Ellie Walters.”

  I must act cool. This guy, whoever he is, is not Ellie’s brother. Families share body chemistry and similar scents. This guy was nothing like Ellie. I kept writing.

  “I see. And where does Ellie live? Not around here. I would recognize the name.”

  “Pennsylvania.”

  “There’s quite a few miles between here and there. What makes you think she’s here?”

  “She’s real pretty. People remember her. The guy at the bus station said she bought a ticket for here.”

  “When did she go missing?”

  “Five days ago. Only I wouldn’t call it missing. It’s just she left without telling me.”

  “That’s concerning, but not a matter for the sheriff’s office. She’s an adult, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “And there is no sign of foul play?”

  He stood suddenly as he considered his answer.

  “No.

  “But I’m worried about her.”

  “I can see that. But unfortunately, there is nothing I can do. However, I’ll take your contact information, and should we run across her we’ll tell her you are looking for her.”

  The man grumbled, and I gave him the cop stare that said not to mess with me. He walked out the door and barely kept it from slamming. I growled. I don’t know who he is but he’s after Ellie, and he lied to me.

  I dialed Zain’s number but if he’s in the cave, the cell isn’t going to work. Cell service is spotty there. Growling with frustration, I hesitated until Mrs. Ahern pushed open the door.