Kodiak Moment: An Alpha Werebear Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Arcadia Knights Book 2) (5 page)

“
I
need
to find my bike.”

The sun was starting to set on the horizon, the sky turning more orange, but Abby knew better. She’d been this far north to realize that day and night weren’t like they were down at home. This particular sunset would last hours, and she was tired of waiting.

“Oh, by all means, please go.”

Abby tilted a narrow look at Meredith but the older woman was too busy unloading the trailer full of wood they’d chopped that afternoon. They’d settled into a work relationship for a while, but it was fairly obvious that the northern woman didn’t like Abby. She wasn’t sure whether it was because Meredith preferred to be alone or just had a bone to pick over Logan, but Abby didn’t care. She started toward the small road leading away from the cabin, stopped, then groaned and turned back around. “Look, I know you don’t like me…”

“It’s not that I don’t like you.” Meredith threw the last piece of wood onto the pile and sighed. “I’m not used to having people here. My life is simple, and I liked it that way. And Logan…” She pursed her lips, looking away. “He made it clear that he was never mine, but it’s hard seeing…”

She trailed off, her eyes going wide at something behind Abby. Whirling around, Abby saw a stranger standing at the top of the drive, watching them curiously.

No, not a stranger. The smell was familiar, but this was not the man who’d left the cabin hours earlier. This man was…

Mine.

“Damn. Okay, maybe I hate you a tiny bit that you get that.”

Meredith’s words barely penetrated Abby’s brain as she stared at the man coming towards them. He walked like Logan, smelled (that sense still startled her, but she couldn’t deny it) like Logan, but this man was, was…

Damn.

He was carrying his shirt over one shoulder, which looked to be newly washed. The tattoo on his arm mesmerized her, as did the sculpted chest and shoulders she couldn’t take her eyes off. But it was his face… Gone was the lumberjack beard and the shaggy hair that made him look like a mountain man.

She didn’t even realize she’d been unconsciously moving forward until she had to crane her head up to look at him. He stared down at her placidly, his face not betraying any emotion, but a heady scent rose off his body. It did things to Abby’s insides, making them alternately clench and go all wet in…

“Oh,
please
tell me you won’t start fornicating in my front yard.”

Abby whirled around at Meredith’s words with a snarl, but that died when she heard the low chuckle from the man behind her. “We’ll be out of sight if anything happens.”

Meredith harrumphed. “Good. Now I’ve got work to do, if you could take your little,” she waved a hand feebly toward Logan, still not taking her eyes off his body, “
show
somewhere else, I’d appreciate it.”

Inexplicably, Abby wanted to tear the older woman a new one for daring to even look at what was hers. She took a step back toward the cabin, only to have a hand on her shoulder stop her movement. That touch seemed to startle some sense into her fogged brain, and only then did she realize what she’d been thinking about doing to the woman.

Abby felt sick.

“You want to see where I found you?” Logan’s voice was soft, the hand on her shoulder gentle.

She turned stricken eyes up to Logan. “I wanted to kill her,” she whispered, still appalled at the thoughts going through her head, but Logan shook his head and nudged her gently with one elbow.

“Come, I’ll explain a few things about your new life on the road.”

Still she wouldn’t budge. “What did you
do
to me?” she demanded, more anger and fear in the question than she really wanted to express.

The skin around his eyes tightened, the only sign that her words caused him pain. Part of Abby cried out, demanding she stop hurting this beautiful, wonderful man, but she blocked it out firmly. He looked away, back at the cabin, then to her. “You’re angry with me,” he said, seemingly disappointed.

“I don’t even know if I
want
this,” she hissed, staring him in the eye, “and to have it forced on me is, is…”

“Wrong.” He sighed, blowing out a breath. “It was either this or you dying. I had to make a split second decision when you broke your neck.”

“My what?” She put a hand on the back of her neck, feeling at the spine in horror. Then she swallowed. “Maybe you should start at the beginning.”

Logan’s lips twisted wryly as they started walking down the trail. “The story is simple: you fell down the ravine running from me and broke your neck. I could feel you dying, and did the only thing I knew that would make you live.”

It was on the tip of Abby’s tongue to say that was his fault for coming after her, but she swallowed back the angry retort. “Why did you come after me anyway? I thought you, or the bear - well, okay so that
is
you - was attacking me.”

“I sensed another predator nearby, and my only thought was to protect you.” He sighed and looked away. “It was my fault you fell, and for that I apologize.”

Abby just nodded, absorbing that apology for a while as they navigated the narrow road. It was barely enough to get a small ATV through in places, and while rough the trail looked well maintained. Branches and trees had been cut down or cut back to make way for travelers, but it was single-track at best, meant for someone on foot or by horseback.

As they went further, Abby recognized the path she’d been on with her motorcycle almost immediately and quickened her pace. However, she gave a distressed cry when she got to the bend where she’d left the sidecar. “Somebody stole it!”

Logan bent down on one knee and studied the tracks on the road. “There were a number of cars here, and men, all looking for you it seems.” A frown puckered the space between his eyebrows. “This happened not long after I found you.”

“A rescue, maybe? But how did they know I was here?”

“Hunters, most likely.” Logan stood up, peering around the valley stretched out nearby. “When I found you, someone tried to shoot me. Might have reported it as a bear attack.”

“Great,” Abby muttered, “just what I need, being declared dead as well as this current shape-changing nonsense.”

On a hunch, she moved down the trail toward where she’d fallen, and breathed a sigh of relief when she quickly located her Nikon amongst the sparse bushes. It was muddy, the lens smudged and one edge scraped where it had fallen against a rock, but it still turned on when she flipped the switch. Her camera case had been on the bike so she had nothing to carry it in, so she slung it around her neck and continued searching. “Where did they take my bike?

“I’m guessing back into town.”

Sighing, she stared forlornly down the narrow trail. “Almost everything I owned was on that bike,” she murmured.

“We’ll get it back, I promise.”

She looked back at him, then back down the road, frowning. The old Ural had been a piece of junk, but it had been
her
junk, and it felt strange leaving it in the hands of others. Plus her laptop had been in there, along with all her other gear she’d spent time accumulating. The thought that somebody might be going through it, even for the most altruistic reasons, felt like an invasion of privacy.

And, truth be told, she wanted to get back to civilization, to see what was actually going on with her disappearance and contact her family. Abby had no idea what she’d tell them, except that she was okay and for them not to worry.

That she needed space to think about her predicament, the new life she’d been thrust into…well, that was a given.

“Come on, let’s get back to the cabin.”

Her heart heavy, Abby surveyed the spot where she’d left her rig one more time, then reluctantly followed after Logan.

I
t was still dark
when the soft sound of feet rubbing against the wood floor woke up Logan.

He didn’t open his eyes or move in any way as his mate crept out of her room and tiptoed to the front door. He would have to teach her someday about how to sneak so that other Shifters didn’t catch her, but tonight would not be that lesson.

Logan allowed one eye to creep barely open, just enough to watch her move through the room. She carefully picked up the camera she’d left on the dining table, then made her way to the front door. One side of his mouth tipped up when he heard her muffled curse at the squeaky hinges, but she paused before leaving.

The night air snaked into the cabin, slowly dropping the interior temperature. On the couch across from him, Meredith stirred, pulling the blanket up over her face but otherwise not waking any further. His mate’s eyes moved to the woman, then back onto Logan. He watched her in the doorway, saw the conflict on her face and the confusion that conflict incited. Then she broke away her gaze, closing the door quietly before he heard her shuffle down the steps.

He stayed on his blankets for several more minutes, watching outside as the sky began to brighten ever so slightly. None of this was unexpected; his mate had, without realizing it, telegraphed her intentions earlier the previous day. Logan was neither disappointed nor annoyed by her decision, it just meant he’d be leaving the cabin sooner than he’d initially planned.

Logan gave her a head start of a few minutes, counting each second as it ticked on the wall clock. Then he stood up and, moving so silently he couldn’t even hear his own footsteps, picked up his jacket hanging beside the front door. This time, it didn’t squeak when it opened and he slipped out, moving swiftly down the steps and following after his wayward mate.

T
hree days later
, Abby was desperate for the solace of that tiny backwoods cabin. Since finding that bear and disappearing off that road, her life had gone viral.

“How does it feel to be a local celebrity?”

Abby groaned at the question and banged her head back against the wall. Twice.

Andrew winced. “It would be ironic for you to escape a bear attack, only to die of self-induced head trauma.”

“Eat shit, bro.”

“Ooh, somebody’s cranky today. Getting a little Vitamin D deficient there, sis?”

She glanced at the light streaming in through the window, then glared at her brother. He threw up his hands in surrender, giving her a cocky grin. “Hey, it’s totally a thing up here.”

They were back at the local sheriff’s building, checking again on the status of her sidecar. After all her traveling recently, three days stuck in the same dinky hotel room was enough to drive her bonkers. “Maybe in winter, dumbass.” She glanced down the hallway, looking for the familiar face of the deputy who had been helping her with the bike’s impound, but still nothing. Her nose told Abby that he was still inside the building, but she couldn’t locate him without getting up and looking. Maybe it was for the best because, her brother aside, she could use a few moments of silence.

The past few days had been a trial-by-fire in learning how to keep her feelings in check. Emotionally, she ran hot twenty-four-seven, and after three days of it she was worn out. Abby had always been proud of her self-control and self-reliance, but lately it seemed every little thing set her off.

Too bad her little brother didn’t seem inclined to let up on his pestering. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore him as he continued. “Anyway, mom and dad told me to stick to you like glue, so that’s what I’m going to do. If it means I have to see some Alaskan frontier, then I’ll just have to deal.”

One corner of Abby’s mouth tipped up ever so slightly. “It’s not all Discovery Channel up here, you know.”

“Ooh, maybe we can try to see Dutch Harbor, and I can get on one of those fishing boats for a season! I’d make a great greenhorn for a crabber ship. I’ve got an iron stomach, nothing can make me throw up, even the Bering Sea.” He winked. “Plus I’ve got a total dude-crush on Edgar Hansen."

Abby gave a surprised laugh at that statement and just stared at her brother’s innocent expression. “’Dude-crush'," she echoed, unsure what else to say. Her brother was a big fan of
Deadliest Catch
and all things Alaska-themed TV programming. He'd probably jumped at the chance to come up here to get her. "Seriously, Andrew? And why Edgar, not Sig?"

"I dunno," he said, shrugging, "he's really good about dealing with a tyrannical older sibling."

Abby rolled her eyes and reached out to smack her brother on the arm, which he dodged. Well,
tried
to dodge at least; he rubbed his shoulder, giving her a wide-eyed look and a wry grin. "When did you get so fast?"

The bemused observation immediately soured Abby's mood. Her mouth turned down and she stared at her hands. "I just want my bike back so I can get out of here," she muttered, staring at her nails. It was so easy to imagine them becoming claws, weapons that could hurt people, like her brother.

Not for the first time, she regretted leaving the cabin like she had. It had seemed so logical at the time: get away from the crazy, get her bike back, and deal with things as they happened.

She hadn't expected to come back to civilization to see her face on the newspaper and her family frantic to find her. She’d flagged down a snowmobile search party after walking several hours from the cabin. The weather had been cold, but Abby had been unaffected, even when faced with the chilly wind on the back of the snow vehicle.

She’d gotten into town, only to find that her
brother
was there already, looking into her disappearance. Now she was, as her brother had so eloquently put it, a local celebrity, having somehow eluded a bear attack and survived nearly a week alone out in the frozen Arctic.

“You know, we were lucky those hunters had seen you.” Andrew’s voice was subdued, and when Abby looked at him he was staring at the ground. “Otherwise, we’d never have known you were missing.”

“Well, I would have preferred that. I could have just continued on my way like nothing had happened.”

“I’m serious, sis.”

“Me too.” She sighed. “Andrew, I am
fine
.”

“Then why won’t you let a doctor look at you?”

Abby pressed her lips together and didn’t answer, looking away. She’d allowed her rescuers to give her a cursory once-over to make sure everything was alright, but had balked at anyone taking any blood or tissue to run tests. She had no idea what would show up, and she wasn’t prepared to face the consequences. It made her appreciate why Logan and the rest kept to the far wilderness, as far away from civilization as they could get.

Too bad she didn’t have that option.

Logan.

The rugged mountain man had been in her thoughts nonstop for the last three days, and Abby wasn’t sure what to think about it. All she could remember was his quiet plea for her to stay by his side, and the possible betrayal he’d feel when he knew she’d left. That, more than the notoriety and constant poking and prodding the last few days, contributed to her depression at being back in town.

Against her better judgment, she wanted to see him again. Desperately. Weird shifty thing aside, he’d made her feel
safe
, and that was something she could use right at that moment.

Heels against the cement floor clicked nearby, and the musky smell of the officer that had been helping them filtered to Abby’s nose from down the hall. It was disconcerting how she was learning to identify things with her nose rather than her other senses. She stood up quickly as Deputy Briggs came around the corner. “Is it all set to go?” she asked, giving him a tiny but hopeful smile.

The older officer grinned. “Yup, mechanics even got her running again. Figured you’d been through enough without having to deal with more mechanical failures. We’re bringing it around for you now.”

Relief flooded through her and she turned to her brother, eyeing him up and down. “How warm’s that jacket you have on?”

“
H
as
anyone ever told you that you’ve got a tiny-ass head?”

Abby just rolled her eyes as she stepped off the bike. “Quit complaining. We’ll get you your own helmet as soon as we find a shop.”

There hadn’t been a sign on the road saying what town this was, but it had a motel and that was all Abby cared about. It wasn’t much, more like a bunch of double-wide trailers linked together, but it wasn’t outside in the cold and wet. With the tundra had come rain and sleet, even in the midst of summer, and Abby wasn’t in the mood to set up camp on the wet ground.

Seemed Andrew agreed, judging by the fact he had one of her duffles over his head as a rain break. “Is there any reason why we haven’t gotten onto an airplane back to the lower forty-eight yet?”

“Oh hush, you want to be here as much as me. Besides, I’m not leaving until I get to Prudhoe Bay.” Prudhoe Bay was the furthest north a person could get by land, at least without chartering a boat or airplane to take one further. It had been Abby’s ultimate goal, and while she’d meandered a bit on her journey, she wasn’t about to leave when she’d come this far.

“We close to it?”

“Not too far, the land’s already changing.” They’d left most of the trees behind earlier that day; now all that was around them were rolling hills of yellow grass and mud. “Maybe a couple more days?”

His answering groan made her roll her eyes and pat his shoulder. “Come on, let’s see if they have room and if we can find something to eat.”

The motel lobby wasn’t big but it was clean, a miracle given the muddy conditions outside. While they had rooms available, the prices made Andrew hyperventilate and Abby seriously reconsider camping. But they were both miserable and needed to air out their wet belongings, so ponied up the cash.

“How do people
afford
to live up here,” Andrew muttered as they stowed their gear, cranked up the heater and laid out their wet gear on any space available. The room was tiny, barely big enough for the queen bed inside. “Did you see the price of gas on your way into town? And I don’t think the woman believed I was your brother, which was kind of creepy.”

“Well, to be fair, you don’t look anything like me.” Andrew had always been the Yin to Abby’s Yang, a blond Adonis to Abby’s…not. In all her twenty-five years, she’d yet to meet a person who wasn’t surprised that they were siblings. There was no family resemblance, they took after very different sides of their parents. She nudged him with an elbow. “And I think she was hitting on you.”

His nose wrinkled. “She was old enough to be my grandmother.”

“And yet she still tries. Gotta love a self-assured woman.”

“Maybe you do.” He sighed and looked around. “So, this is what
adventure
is.”

“Yup. Places and conditions like this aren’t even the bad parts. Come on, let’s get to that restaurant across the street before they close.”

The restaurant wasn’t much better than the hotel looks-wise, but the food was hot and that was all they cared about. It had a separate bar area where a few truckers sat, nursing their beers and talking loudly. The bartender served as their waiter too and both Abby and Andrew dug into their plates, not caring so much about taste as about warming themselves up.

“So, tell me about your new job.”

Andrew winced. “Actually,” he said, pushing his food around on his plate with one overcooked french fry, “I quit. Had to, they wouldn’t let me come up here.”

“
What?
” Abby didn’t mean to make the word a screech, really she hadn’t.

“Look sis, it’s not a big deal.”

“Oh yeah it is,” she said, feeling her temperature rise. “They made you quit to go pick up your missing-in-the-wilderness sibling?”

Her brother’s eyebrows rose, obviously surprised by her response. “Hey, seriously, I didn’t care in the slightest. You and I know I only took that job to please the parental units.”

“
…that stupid slut.”

A muscle in Abby’s cheek twitched. One of the hardest things about having preternatural hearing all of a sudden was the inability to
not
eavesdrop on outside conversations. She’d gotten better with it over the last several days, but some things slipped through anyway.

“Hey Absters, you okay?

She blew out a breath. “I’m good. So, you think you’ll make it all the way up to the top of the world?”

“With that tiny-ass spare helmet? Seriously, couldn’t you have gotten a…”

“…spread her legs to anything with a dick…”

Abby grit her teeth hard and tried to ignore the conversation at the bar as her brother continued, “World War II replica helmet with leather goggles? You’d rock it with that bike, especially since Steampunk is so in right…”

“…a little thick, but more cushion for the pushin’, right fellas?”

They were talking about her. Anger rushed through her body, and Abby was on her feet so fast her chair went tumbling behind her. Andrew stopped mid-sentence, blinking up at her. Abby flushed with embarrassment, the adrenaline surging through her body making her hands shake. “Let’s head back to the hotel and use the wifi to try and find someplace that sells motorcycle gear,” she said, trying to cover her lapse as she picked up the chair and pulled her coat around her shoulders. “There should be something, at least I’d hope…”

“Well. If it isn’t my own personal stalker.”

She
knew
she’d recognized that voice behind her, even if she hadn’t put a name to it. Abby’s hands clenched into fists even as Andrew moved, putting himself between her and the Asshat. “Who the hell are you?”

“Aw, didn’t your new girl tell you? We got
real
close and chummy a week ago.”

Anger, raw and savage, burned away any embarrassment Abby might have felt at the lie. Any kind of speech was out; she had the feeling if she opened her mouth, it would only be to chomp down on him and rip him end to end.

Bet he would taste good.

She closed her eyes, willing that feral voice inside her to be quiet. Images burned through her head of what she wanted to do, and the bloody savagery she envisioned made her alternately sick and excited. Abby gripped her chair, fingers digging into the wood of the table.

“What’s the matter, baby? Cat got your tongue?”

The wood in her hands cracked and she turned around to see him standing only a few feet from her. Asshat’s smell, body odor masked by a strong deodorant, made her want to gag. Beside them, Andrew looked worriedly between them, realizing something wasn’t right but unsure how to proceed.

For his benefit, Abby found her voice. “Go away, Jake,” she said, the words muffled, and was pleased when his expression clouded.

“It’s
Jack
, you bitch.”

Abby’s smile was more grimace; her hands tightened on the chair still in her hands. The two men Asshat had been sitting with moved to flank him, eying her in a way that made Abby want to rip the chair apart and go all stabbity with the pointy bits. An unnaturally sharp tooth dug into the tender skin inside her mouth and she winced, but her expression only seemed to amuse her tormentor.

Breathe.

“Andrew, let’s go.” The words were hard for her to say, but when she tried to step away her brother didn’t move from his protective stance.

Ah hell.

She put a hand on her brother’s arm, and felt him practically vibrating. He was one of the most easygoing people she knew, so she’d never seen him angry like this, not in twenty-five years of living with him. “He’s not worth it,” she said, and Andrew’s eyes flicked to her, then widened.

That was all the warning she had as Asshat’s hand reached out to grab her.

He moved in slow motion, and Abby felt like she was watching a movie that was a hundred frames per second and she could see every…single…one. She knew there was no danger to her. His every move was articulated by his body, and she was faster, stronger. She danced aside even as something crossed her path, fast enough to be a blur even to her eyes.