Page 5 of A Bear's Journey

“A real grizzly?” asked Jasper.

Alice just gave him a don’t be an idiot look.

“Anyway, the brother finds her in a cage on a wolf ranch and he manages to bring her back,” said Lois. “After ten years, too. That’s pretty impressive.”

“He’s pretty impressive,” said Alice. “Have you seen him on the news? If I were twenty years younger, I’d eat him with a spoon.”

“My god, Alice, those biceps.”

Jasper cleared his throat, interrupting the two women.

“That was her?” he asked. “The woman who was feral for ten years?”

Both women nodded.

Jasper’s heart sank, but it explained a lot. Like why he hadn’t been able to find her, for one.

“She was in a cage?” he asked.

“That’s what her brother and his mate claim,” Lois said. “The wolves keep changing their story. You know how wolves are.”

“Interesting,” he said.

Then he looked at his watch, his mind racing.

“Would you ladies like to get a cocktail in the lobby of the Hotel Feliz? It’s got the oldest wooden bar in Cascadia.”

The ladies tittered, and the three walked toward the sidewalk and down Main Street until they reached the old hotel. The women went on about something but Jasper’s mind raced.

* * *

The momentthey were settled in the bar, both ladies with dirty martinis and Jasper with a whiskey, he pretended to get a call and went into the hotel lobby.

Instead, he called Craig.

“I found her,” he said without preamble.

For a moment, all he could hear was chainsaws in the background. Then Craig answered.

“Her?”

Jasper exhaled hard. It felt good to have finally told his mate.

“Of course I’m sure. She’s in Granite Valley.”

Craig shouted something to someone, and Jasper couldn’t quite make it out.

“No she isn’t. We looked there. We practically turned over every rock and dragged the river.”

The chainsaw sounds were muted now.

“You make it sound so creepy,” Jasper said.

“She wasn’t there,” Craig said. “We checked, you know we did.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Jasper said, half rolling his eyes.

Craig hated being proven wrong. Really hated it.

---