Page 15 of Stolen Mate

“Did she have the geo-tracker with her?”

“She did, but I don’t know if she turned it on. She’s a really nice lady…”

“No problem. Do you know where she was headed?”

“The path that cuts down from my place onto the meadow and that stand of old-growth trees that runs along the river. She was dressed for the weather and her hiking boots were of good quality and not new.”

“Okay. I’ll go see if I can’t find her.”

“Derek, she’s a shifter.”

“So?”

“I don’t think she knows.”

Derek looked at his phone. “What do you mean she doesn’t know?”

“Sometimes things happen, and people don’t know until their shifted form takes over to save their life or something. She seemed blithely unaware. I didn’t have a chance to talk to Dash, but I’m pretty sure he felt the same vibe.”

“That’s not good. If I can’t identify the tracks where she went down the path, I’ll come back and get some more information. If it starts getting dark, I’ll call in volunteers and Jax. If that happens, we’re going to want to use your place as a base.”

“That won’t be an issue. I’ll be ready to go if and when you give the word.”

“Thanks, Trudy.”

Turning his SUV around, Derek made his way to the spot where the path from The Refuge emptied out onto the meadow that bordered Mystic River and headed into the deep woods. Derek hated to admit it, but this was the kind of stuff he loved. He understood why his older brother, Zak, and the sheriff, Jax, loved boring. It meant everyone under their protection, for the most part, was safe. When you were in law enforcement, boring was good.

Derek did appreciate the simplicity and clarity of his position. If it was wrong today, it had been wrong yesterday, and it would be wrong tomorrow. Get out of line and you’d spend a night or two in jail. Need help carrying your packages? The sheriff and his deputy were there to lend a helping hand.

The only real problem was that the job could be boring. When the town’s sheriff was a Kodiak bear-shifter, and the deputy sheriff was a polar bear-shifter, well, not too many people wanted to take them on. His brother had dubbed them, much to Jax’s distaste, the ‘dynamic duo.’ Derek kind of liked that, as well.

He loved when there was a fight to break up, or when they had to run down some petty vandalism. Jax always appreciated that Derek didn’t overreact and he didn’t seek to intimidate people; he just liked it when something was going on. Zak had told him as he got more mature and grew into his job, he’d begin to like boring, as well. His boss had told him more than once he was turning into an excellent second-in-command, and more and more he let Derek take on increased responsibility.

The time away from Otter Cove and his father’s clan—even his older brother’s—had done him a world of good. He’d never been one to give anyone but his father any trouble. Okay, there had been that one bout of mating lust when he’d thought to take a human female to mate, turning her as he bred her. He’d even been stupid enough to take on Jax in a fight.

The Kodiak bear-shifter had kicked his ass, but Derek had learned from that. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t grateful to Jax for stopping him, and even more grateful that Autumn—the woman he’d thought to turn without her consent and who turned out to be Jax’s fated mate—had seen it in her heart to forgive him. Derek had needed to get away from Otter Cove, and Zak had suggested since Jax needed a deputy that he hire Derek. Much to everyone’s surprise, Jax had agreed.

Derek wasn’t so sure Jax could kick his ass anymore. He’d honed his fighting skills with Jax’s instruction, and he’d put in the work in the gym, getting more fit and packing on the muscle. Things that used to be difficult were now easy, and he loved that he could eat more and still give the she-bears something to dream about.

The only problem as he saw it was that he no longer dreamed about other she-bears. He dreamed about, and usually had sex in those dreams, with his fated mate. A gorgeous she-bear who called to every protective instinct in him. She was his future, and he knew he’d know her the instant he laid eyes on her.

He chuckled to himself. Most days being deputy sheriff in Mystic River were about as exciting as watching paint dry, but that day was not today. Right now, there was a damsel in distress. She’d probably only gotten lost or twisted her ankle or something mundane, but for now he could let all those alpha protective instincts come to the fore. Someone was missing or lost in his jurisdiction. They wouldn’t stay that way—not on his watch.

Parking his vehicle by the path that led from Trudy’s, Derek got out and had to shake off the buzzing that had been growing increasingly loud and annoying the closer he came to this spot. Derek searched the ground leading into the meadow. Sure enough, he could see new prints heading into the meadow. He recognized the tread of the boots. Trudy was right; they were expensive, and their soles said they’d seen some rugged terrain.

Up in the distance, he could see a shape on the ground, close to the trees. Derek scented the air—it was a female bear-shifter, most likely Trudy’s guest. He broke into a run, heading straight for the unmoving creature. As he got close, the buzzing almost blinded and deafened him. The one thing he could make out of the shape was that she was a polar bear. An angry she-bear. She didn’t know who Derek was, or maybe she did, but she wanted nothing to do with him.

She gave an angry roar—part warning and part challenge. She stood up on her hind legs, batting her paws with their razor-sharp claws at him, telling him to back off. Suddenly, the buzzing and headache made all the sense in the world. There was only one thing that could cause that—the presence of his fated mate. Damn. The last thing I expected was to find her in a field in her shifted form.

“Take it easy, sweetheart,” Derek crooned, spreading his arms wide with his palms up. “Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

The she-bear dropped to all fours and charged. She wasn’t messing around. She wanted him to back the fuck up, and he was going to, but only until he could get his clothes off and answer her challenge—bear to bear. When he’d maneuvered out of the space she was protecting, he quickly stripped out of his clothes, never taking his eyes off the she-bear as she paced back and forth, growling threateningly.

Calling forth his polar bear, he was surrounded by the powerful maelstrom of a shifting mist. Normally it wasn’t this strong, or this charged with energy, light, color, and sound. Apparently, his bear meant to put on a display for their mate. He had just enough time when the chaos of the shift dissipated to jump out of the way of his she-bear’s charge.

Time to take matters in hand. Cognizant of the fact that he was facing off against his fated mate, a couple of thoughts registered. One, she was his fated mate and he didn’t want to do her permanent injury. Two, if Dash and Trudy were right, her human self had no idea what was going on, and if she was awake inside the bear, she had to be terrified. And three, he needed to quit pondering all this shit and get his mate under control and back into her human self.

As the she-bear rounded on him, Derek waited and then stepped aside—only this time he brought his paw down powerfully across her buttocks, making her roar and scamper forward. Derek gave chase. Some instinct in the she-bear must have known she’d bitten off more than she could chew. Derek caught her within several strides, grabbing her by the scruff of the neck and flinging her several feet away. When she got back up, he smacked her down again. She snarled and snapped, almost catching his foreleg in her powerful jaws. He brought the other paw up to smack her behind again.

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