Page 14 of Bear Facts

He kept the suggestion gentle and friendly, but Freya sent him a look of vast impatience. “I need to get going. I have an appointment.” She appeared to immediately regret this admission.

Shane didn’t like the sound of that. “Appointment with who? Where? Let me drive you.”

Freya quickly opened the door. “Like I said, what I do is none of your business. I don’t need a ride.”

“We’re miles from any town. Even a Shifter will be tired running all the way back to Las Vegas.”

“Who says I’m going to Vegas? See you, Shane. I appreciate you not killing me.”

Again, the flash of humor he’d glimpsed in her surfaced. Before Shane could respond, Freya shot out the door.

Shane was right behind her. “Seriously, you’re trusting someone who sets up an appointment in the middle of nowhere?”

For answer, Freya simply waved a hand and headed at a run into the trees.

Shane growled with a mixture of irritation and worry as Freya swiftly disappeared into the woods. She was right, of course. It was none of his business what an un-Collared Lupine not from his Shiftertown got up to.

He should let her go. If Freya ran into an ambush by Shifter hunters, that was her tough luck. Hunters were allowed to kill Shifters who wore no Collar and had escaped being herded into Shiftertowns. Fair game. Her own fault, Shifter Bureau would say.

Damn, damn, damn.

Shane skimmed back into the house, banked the fire, and turned out the lights. He strode out again and locked the door, returning the key to its hiding place before he started after Freya.

She’d quickly vanished, but Shane wasn’t called a tracker for nothing. He found her scent trail almost immediately. In seconds he was in bear form, his clothes in a bundle on his back, as he followed her to her mystery date.

Chapter Five

Freya was going to be late. She cursed herself for lingering to enjoy a shower and the meal, but on the other hand, she’d needed to bathe and eat. This Althea person might be less than receptive to Freya if she looked like a desperate fugitive.

Getting a meeting with the woman had been difficult enough—she’d had to rely on those who secretly helped rogue Shifters in the human world. This was how she’d found a man to make her fake ID a long time ago. A few encrypted messages later, and Freya had an interview set with Althea at a winter resort on Mount Charleston.

She hoped that Althea hadn’t grown tired of waiting and departed. Though Freya wasn’t certain she trusted a human who was so secretive, this was really the only lead she had about her brother’s whereabouts. If she missed Althea, Freya was back to square one.

Freya had retrieved her own clothes from the woods, but decided to retain Iona’s sweatshirt and jeans, which were clean and whole, for her outer layer. She’d also donned the padded jacket she’d hidden after brushing off as much of the leaves and dirt as she could.

Thus attired, she strode along toward the ski resort, replaying her conversation with Shane in her head.

Shane’s mention of Graham had unnerved her, but she thought she’d hidden her reaction well. Shane hadn’t said anything more about him and had gone on stuffing a very large sandwich into his mouth. With berries.

Bears were weird.

Knowing Graham and his wolves were in the valley below this mountain made Freya nervous. What happened if Shane ran straight to Graham to announce he’d met an un-Collared Lupine called Freya?

Didn’t matter. Freya would talk with Althea then put a vast distance between herself and Shiftertown before Graham became aware of her presence.

It’s a shame I have to run, came a thought out of nowhere. There’s something about Shane.

Freya halted for a stride to examine this startling idea. Shane was the first Shifter she’d met in years, and definitely her first bear. She caught herself thinking of Shane’s hard face and dark brown eyes, pleasant to look into. Behind his soft stare, he had strength and a shrewdness that was there for anyone who bothered to look. He was funny too, but Freya understood that his sense of humor hid a sharp mind.

She pressed the image of Shane firmly aside. Her encounter with him had been brief and was behind her now. A bump in the road of her life, one she was heading away from.

Why was that thought brushed with so much regret?

She forced herself to pay attention as she neared the ski lodge. The resort was crowded on this snowy Sunday, and the lines for the lifts were long. Even so, this place was remote enough that Freya could escape into the wilderness if she needed to. On the west side of this range was open country with few roads, where her wolf could easily evade a chase.

Freya had agreed to meet Althea here only after researching the location, liking both its popularity and isolation.

She strolled along the path at the end of the ski runs, hoping she looked like any of the other day-trippers who’d come up to Mount Charleston to enjoy the snow.

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