Tracking the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 1) Read online

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice came out as a choked whisper, instead of the screech I’d been expecting. The betrayal in her tone made my stomach pitch. I had hurt her. I’d hurt my mate.

  I reached out a hand, stroking her cheek once. She slapped it away hard.

  “Don’t you dare,” she said, shaking her head slowly from side to side. “Don’t you dare treat me like I’m a stupid, fragile little girl. You tell me what’s going on or I’m jumping out of this car and taking my chances in the next town.”

  “We’re going sixty-five miles an hour,” I protested.

  “Tell me what you know,” she demanded again.

  “Fine,” I growled. “From what I was able to gather, your brother underwent platelet rich plasma therapy. It’s a procedure where-”

  “I know what the procedure is,” she interrupted me. “Blood is injected into an injured area to help speed recovery from an injury. My doctor suggested I try it.”

  “Your brother’s doctor attempted to use shifter blood to speed the recovery even further.”

  Lucy froze and her one handed grip on the door handle tightened until her knuckles began to turn white.

  “What does that mean for Luke?”

  “It means he’s turned into a monster. He’s not like me, Lucy. Made shifters go insane every full moon. He didn’t know what he was doing, but he killed another boy, Keith Page. He’s a murderer, Lucy.”

  “No,” she whispered again, tears beginning to streak down her face.

  I stewed in the silence as we entered Louisville and I searched for a hotel. If she hadn’t hated me before, she did now. Damn it. I shouldn’t have turned the radio on.

  She stayed in the car when I pulled into a nice, upscale hotel. The receptionist at the front desk flirted shamelessly as she helped me select a room. She was a very attractive woman, tall and shapely, but I felt no pull to her. I hadn’t felt attraction to any woman since meeting with Lucy.

  It had begun to drizzle when I emerged. I pulled her bag from the back and opened her door, offering her the second keycard I’d requested for her use. She glared at the small plastic card and didn’t reach to take it.

  “Come on,” I said, hiking the bag further up on my shoulder. “It’s going to rain. You can’t stay out here.”

  “I can, and I will,” she hissed. “I’m not sleeping in a hotel room with the man who lied to me.”

  A growl rumbled in my chest as my bear came to the forefront. She was our mate. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.

  “I’m sleeping in 112.” I flicked the card into her lap and closed the door. She could join me inside if she wanted to. If she chose to stay in the cold, that was her choice. I wasn’t going to carry her off into the room like a barbarian.

  I turned my back to her and began trudging toward my room. If a night alone with her thoughts is what she wanted, so be it.

  Chapter Five

  Lucy

  I buried my head even further into the flannel shirt I’d balled up as a makeshift pillow. Chance had offered me an actual pillow from the trunk of the car. He’d come to check on me about an hour after going inside. I’d tried to give the room key back to him, but he’d insisted that I keep it, in case I changed my mind.

  As soon as I’d been out of sight, I threw the pillow to the floorboard. I didn’t want anything of his. He’d lied to me. He hadn’t been doing any of this out of the goodness of his heart or actual interest in me. All this time, he’d been trying to get close to me. He’d probably been planning to use me as bait to lure my brother out of hiding. Bastard.

  I rolled over, trying to ignore the loud thump of rain on the car’s roof. It was coming down in sheets, and every so often thunder would shake the ground. I tried to console myself that being in the car would be reasonably safe.

  I huddled in on myself, trying to get warm. The temperature had dropped about ten degrees from where it had been in the morning, and in my thin white tank top the interior of the car was freezing. I gritted my teeth determinedly, trying to keep them from chattering. I was never going to get to sleep this way, no matter how tired I was.

  I rolled over and glared at the plastic keycard I’d placed on top of the pillow. He’d probably booked a room with only one bed so he could put his hands all over me. I wished that notion sounded less appealing to me than it did. He was involved in a manhunt for my brother, I was almost certain of that. I shouldn’t want to date the guy who was trying to bring him in.

  Or maybe that was past history talking. I had enough bad blood with local cops that I distrusted most of them on principle. If I was being completely honest with myself, I knew that staying in the car had been a bit of an overreaction. He hadn’t outright lied to me. He’d misled me, sure, but he hadn’t exactly lied to me. And he hadn’t been obligated to help me out or take me along.

  Maybe, just maybe, he was trying to help me in his own way. I chewed my bottom lip thoughtfully. Maybe the attraction wasn’t all in my head? He’d seemed to hang on every word I’d said all afternoon, seeming as interested in getting to know me as I had been to know him.

  That’s over, I thought sarcastically. Even if he had hidden the truth in a misguided attempt to protect me, it was still wrong. Relationships, even the tentative friendship I thought we’d been trying to forge, were built on trust. How could I have anything with Chance if he lied to me?

  So where did that leave me? We were hours away from home and I wasn’t about to turn around and give up. I’d have to put up with him for a few more days. I groaned into my makeshift pillow. If that was the case, I’d need to make nice and apologize.

  I snatched up the key card from the pillow and the keys from the cup holder where he’d left them. I shoved both into my pockets and opened the door. I yelped when I stepped out of the car. The rain ran icy fingers down my body and almost immediately soaked through my jeans and flimsy white tank top. I pelted toward the front entrance, water sloshing into my shoes as I stepped into the giant puddle forming in the middle of the parking lot.

  I slipped and fell to the ground, the card slipping from my grasp and landing a foot behind me. Hot stinging pain flared in the palms of my hands and one side of my face. I cursed, and tried to get my feet under me once more, but my bad leg seemed to have gone numb from cold. I pulled at it desperately. I was getting soaked, and even if I did crawl back to the car, I was going to catch something at this rate.

  I crawled into a sitting position, determined to drag it along behind me if I had to. If I could at least get into the lobby, someone would help me to the room. It would be embarrassing, but at least I’d be warm. I looked back, trying to find the card, hoping it hadn’t been washed into the storm drain.

  I froze, rooted to the spot when I finally located it. There were two hands sticking from the puddle. One of them grasped my leg in cold, rippling fingers. The other held the key card. As I watched a head emerged as well, and eyes the same color as the muddy water fixed on me.

  “L-let me go,” I stammered.

  “Do not be frightened,” the woman said. Her voice echoed weirdly, as if she were speaking from the bottom of a well. “I bring blessings from Freyr.”

  “Thanks,” I said shakily. “But do you think Freyr could send his blessings in a slightly less creepy way?”

  The shoulders and torso of the woman emerged from the puddle. I whipped my head around. Cars passed on the highway, and the lamplights were still shining, so why was I the only one who was seeing her?

  “You must stop him,” she whispered, letting go of my leg. She leaned her insubstantial body over mine. My teeth chattered violently, and numbness was beginning to steal over the rest of my body.

  “Stop who?” I muttered, trying to crawl out from beneath her. I didn’t care if I got the card back, I’d request a new one. Or I’d bang on the door until Chance let me in. I didn’t care at this point. I just wanted to be out of the cold, and more importantly, out of this weird water ghost’s grasp.

 
“Your mate,” she said, pushing her face close to mine. Water dripped from the tip of her nose and the locks of green hair that brushed my cheek.

  “I don’t have a mate,” I said, confused. I hadn’t dated in years. I hadn’t seen the point after high school. The only person I’d recently considered was inside the hotel room, and he sure as hell wasn’t my anything now.

  “You do,” she crooned, stroking an icy finger over my lips. “You must stop him, before it is too late. Your brother still has a part to play. He will stop a great evil. He cannot fulfill his destiny if he is dead. Save him, Lady Elmsong.”

  “Fine, fine.” I nearly shouted over a clap of thunder. “I’ll do it, just get off of me before I freeze to death!”

  “Your oath to Freyr is sworn,” she intoned, and as I stared as she sank back into the puddle, as if she’d never been there. The only evidence that she’d ever existed was the white key card that bobbed on the surface of the enormous puddle. I snatched it from the water before it could drift away.

  I ran for the door, ignoring the pain that was seeping back into my bad leg. I needed to get inside before something else strange and impossible accosted me. It took me longer than it should have to realize that I was trying to push open a pull door. When I finally entered the lobby, the only person still there was a bored looking desk clerk. She glanced up from filing her nails and gave me a contemptuous glance.

  I flushed and tried to walk past her with as much dignity as I could. Sure, I was covered in mud, my hair was limp and stringy, my shirt was see through and my nipples were putting on a show for whomever cared to look, but I was still a customer, damn it.

  Room 112 was in the corridor to my right. I rubbed vigorously at my arms, trying to get rid of the goosebumps that had risen when I’d stepped into the even cooler hotel lobby. I needed a shower pronto. I had to try a few times to get the door open, because I kept pulling the card out too quickly in my haste.

  I resisted the urge to flick the lights on. I didn’t want to wake Chance and get the smug ‘I told-you-so’ look. I was willing to bury the hatchet, as long as he didn’t brag. I dug my phone from my purse and used the light from the screen to make my way to the bathroom.

  I opened the door and stepped inside, letting out a sigh of relief. It was warm. A moment later, I realized exactly why it was warm. Steam hung in the air, fogging the mirror. The lighting had been dimmed, but not turned down completely, so I could make out the lazy sprawl of limbs in the tub before he sat up.

  “Lucy what are you-”

  “Oh God. I’m so sorry. I…I’ll just go,” I muttered. The heat flooding my cheeks was enough to at least dispel the cold in my face.

  “Stay.” It was more of a command than anything else, and I stopped, my body turned half toward the door.

  “You’re naked,” I protested.

  “And you’re freezing,” he countered.

  “You don’t know that,” I muttered. His eyes flicked meaningfully down to my chest. I grabbed one of the mini soaps from the counter and threw it at him. It fell woefully short of hitting his broad chest, splashing into the water at groin level.

  “Get in,” he said, and his voice was a low, persuasive purr. “There’s plenty of room. I promise I won’t do anything untoward.”

  I bit my lip. The Jacuzzi was big and the jets would probably feel like heaven on my cold and battered body. But there was that little matter of having to strip. His eyes were already smoldering as he stared at me.

  “Close your eyes,” I commanded. “And don’t open them again until I’m in the water.”

  He closed his eyes obligingly and I waited a few minutes to see if he’d peek. He didn’t. Instead he relaxed further into the tub, until I finally summoned the courage to strip off my shirt. I decided to strip off the flimsy sports bra as well. It wasn’t really doing anything for me anyway. I decided to keep my underwear on, so I wouldn’t give into temptation and actually request something untoward from my extremely irritating travelling companion.

  “Ooh,” I moaned as I slipped into the steaming bathwater. He smiled at the sound, but didn’t open his eyes to see if I was fully submerged or not. Well, that was…gentlemanly of him I supposed. I’d only said that he had to wait until I was in the water. He could have gotten an eyeful when I’d stepped inside.

  “Can I open my eyes?”

  “Yes,” I said, stretching out my bad leg. The warmth of the water was doing wonders in easing the ache. If I didn’t move it for the rest of the night, I could probably get away with skipping my pill. I rested my heel on one of his legs, situating myself opposite him.

  He opened his eyes and they immediately sought out my face. I didn’t like the look in them. It wasn’t the sex-crazed, lusty sort of look I’d expected and feared. His face softened when he looked at me. It wasn’t the hardness of his cock, which brushed my foot gently in the ebb and flow of the water, that really scared me. It was the happiness, the love I could see in his eyes.

  For Pete’s sake, we’d known each other all of two days. He couldn’t be in love with me!

  “Who’s Freyr?” I blurted. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to talk about what had happened in the parking lot, but I wanted that look gone. I wasn’t going down that road. Not with him, not with anyone. Not until after I’d finished college.

  His brow creased, and his mouth pulled down in a frown. “Why?”

  “I read the name somewhere,” I lied. Great, now I couldn’t hold that against him anymore. I just had the feeling that this Freyr guy, whoever he was, didn’t want me to blab to Chance. I had to stop my mate—oh God, was that Chance? —from killing Luke.

  “Freyr is one of the major gods in Norse mythology. He was the god of fertility, prosperity, and a good harvest. He had other powers too, but those were the main three. Most of his worship is done by the Were-Boars these days. He’s their patron.”

  “Were-boars?” I asked, raising a brow at him. “Do bears have a patron, by any chance?”

  He shook his head. “Not really. You’d think so, since we began with the Berserkers. But there’s surprisingly little about us in Norse Myth. I’m an atheist myself, but Mom and Dad worship Frigg, Odin’s wife.”

  “Oh.”

  So why was this Freyr guy trying to intercede on behalf of my brother? Chance had said that he’d become a bear, right?

  “Any reason you’re suddenly so curious?” he asked, stroking fingers over the delicate bones of my ankle. That in itself was innocent enough, but the barest touch of his fingers on me had set my body aching. I wanted to close the distance between us. I wanted to lay a kiss on his soft mouth, feel his body against mine in the steamy bathwater, and let whatever happened happen.

  Instead, I drew my foot carefully back to my side of the tub, dropping my gaze from his. That was insanity. I didn’t have any protection, and even if he had something in his bag for just such an occasion, I wasn’t going to jump into bed with a man I barely knew. Hell, this morning I hadn’t even known he could turn into a bear. There could be a lot more that he was hiding from me.

  “No reason,” I said, carefully scrutinizing the bubbles instead of meeting his gaze.

  The ripples that crossed the bath were the only warning that he’d leaned across. He cupped my chin in one hand, tilting my head up so I could see his face briefly, before his mouth descended on mine. I should have told him no, or reminded him of his promise. Instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck. He grasped my hips and lifted me bodily from my perch.

  His tongue delved into my mouth, tasting me, savoring me and I tried to respond in kind. He arranged me carefully so most of my weight was not on the bad leg. One of his large hands came up to tangle in my hair, tugging very gently at the roots. My body bucked at the sensation and his erection nudged my sex. My legs quivered and something inside of me clenched. I wanted the thick, hard length of him inside of me.

  He broke away before I could quite make up my mind.

  “I’m sorry.” His voice was a deep husky
purr and I might have decided to do it right there in the bathtub, if he hadn’t pushed me gently off his lap.

  “Right,” I panted. “No funny stuff.”

  “Did you want funny stuff?” he asked hopefully.

  A small measure of sanity returned to me and I shook my head. “No.”

  My body disagreed, though. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to sleep after what we’d just done.

  “Right,” he echoed me. “Time for bed, I think.”

  I nodded jerkily, trying not to let images of exactly what we could be doing in that bed flood my mind. He exited the bath first, and I had a difficult time not staring at his ass as he toweled off and dressed in a pair of boxers and plaid pajama pants.

  “I’ll get you one of my shirts,” he said brusquely. I didn’t protest, though I had some pajamas of my own in the bag.

  “And a pair of underwear,” I called after him. Lord knew it would be dangerous to be in that man’s bed without underclothes on.

  He tossed said items into the bathroom a few minutes later, and I retrieved one of the fluffy, white hotel towels from the shelf overhead. My hair would be a rat’s nest if I slept on it wet, but I was too tired to bother blow-drying it. I wasn’t on call to impress anyone, and I had the feeling I could wear clown makeup and not put Chase off.

  Once I was sufficiently dry, I put on the overly large T-shirt and the lacy black underwear he’d tossed in. Of course, he’d chosen the only sexy pair I’d packed.

  Of course he’d gotten the room with a single bed. It was king sized though, which was something. I could sleep at the opposite end from him if I so chose and that Jacuzzi bath had been worth sacrificing the other bed. He was reclining on the bed when I emerged, and was looking everywhere but at me.

  “I’m not offended, okay?” I sighed. “I came to apologize for earlier. It was an overreaction. Promise you’ll never keep anything really important from me again, and I promise not to stay mad.”

  “I promise.” He met my eyes and I could see the earnestness in every line of his face. I crawled into bed beside him, burrowing beneath the downy bedspread.