Bear Meets Girl (12 page)

            Cole
let out a low whistle. “He’s not going to be easy to find, especially
considering that it’s probably snowing up there, even now.”

            Her
father nodded tightly. “You’re going to need to pack for the weather,” he told
her. “I’m sure your mother has everything that you’ll need. And I’ll be sending
two of my bears with you, as well.”

            “That
isn’t necessary – ” Angela began.

            “It’s
absolutely necessary,” her father said with a growl, “especially if you want me
to give you the coordinates of their location. I won’t be sending one child off
to go to war against another, not without protection.” He sighed. “I would go
myself, but…”

            “No.”
Angela bit back her protest; she’d much rather have two of her father’s
shifters come along than have him put himself in harm’s way. “You need to be
here to take care of the clan. I’ll accept the extra manpower, providing that
they have their own transportation and that they won’t hinder the mission in
any way.”

            “Done.”

            Angela
stared at her father for a long time. He looked back at her, his expression
completely unreadable. “You agreed to all of that way too quickly.”

            He
scowled. “It isn’t exactly as if I have much choice, is there?” He shooed them
away with a waving motion from his hands. “Now go and get ready, before I
change my mind.”

            “Are
you sure this is such a good idea?” Cole muttered to Angela when they’d left
the room. “I mean, can we trust your father to stay out of this long enough for
us to rescue your partner?”

            Angela’s
lips curved downward. “I wish I could say yes… but the truth is that when it
comes to family, my father is just as irrational as anyone.” She squared her
jaw as they headed back down the stairs. “We’ll just have to do our best,
regardless.

            Her
mother dug out winter gear for them from the attic – she kept extras of
everything and even had a set that fit Cole – and also packed them a
cooler full of food for the road. “You two be safe,” she said, kissing them
both on the cheek.

            “Thanks.
We will.” Angela grinned as Cole blushed, touching the spot on his cheek where
her mother had kissed him.

            “You’re
the best, mom.” She hugged her mother, who surprised Angela by hugging her back
even more tightly.

            “Please
make Garrison see reason,” she whispered in Angela’s ears, her voice tight with
unshed tears. It startled Angela, because her mother was usually so serene… but
then, Garrison was the first foster child she’d taken in, and he’d been a true
part of their family up until the end. “If he won’t… or can’t… come home, I
just want him to be at peace.”

            “I’ll
do my best.” She gave her mother one last squeeze, then hefted the cooler off
the counter.

            “I’ve
got that.” Cole took the cooler off her hands before she could protest, then
smiled at Angela’s mother. “I’ll take good care of her, Genevieve.”

            Her
mother winked, the tears evaporating from her eyes like dew from leaves on a
summer day. “You’d better, or you’re going to ruin my hopes of having a
son-in-law.”

            Angela
blushed, but to Cole’s credit he didn’t say anything to discourage or encourage
her mother. They walked out to the porch, where they found two shifters waiting
for them – a blonde and a redhead, one tall and lean and the other
shorter and stockier, but with identical faces – strong jaws, intense
blue eyes and roman noses that added up to a handsome visage. They were already
packed, a Jeep parked just a few feet away and waiting for them to load up.

            “Ben!
Jamie!” Angela smiled broadly as she moved to embrace them. They were cousins
of hers, though she’d considered them uncles for a long time as they were
several hundred years older than she was, and had already been full-grown when
she was born. “I’m so glad dad picked you two to come along.”

            “It’s
good to see you.” Ben’s whiskers tickled her cheek as he hugged her.

            “You
don’t come to visit often enough,” Jamie complained as he embraced her, his
cheek smooth and clean-shaven as it pressed against hers. “Who am I supposed to
bully and harass when you’re not around?”

            “Sorry
to disappoint.” Angela laughed. “I’ll try to be a more accommodating punching
bag.” She turned to Cole. “These are my cousins, Ben and James Lancaster. Ben
and Jamie, this is Cole Avery. He’s my partner on this mission.”

            The
two brothers nodded, taking Cole’s measure. “You use magic?” Jamie asked.

            Cole
nodded. “Most of the time, yes.”

            Jamie
seemed to consider that, and then shrugged. “Alright, well as long as you don’t
aim it at us, I’m okay. No need to be turning me into a frog or anything like
that.” He turned toward the steps. “I guess we’d better get a move on, huh?
It’s a long drive to the Cascades.”

            “Nine
hundred and forty six miles,” Cole said, not sounding too happy about it. “We’d
better get started if we want to make it there before nightfall.”

            They
loaded up their stuff and took off, Cole careful to keep her cousins in sight
at all times, since he was following them. He didn’t speak at all until they
were on the I-580. “Son-in-law?” he said, echoing her mother. “I think your mom
might have her expectations set a little too high for me.”

            Angela
shrugged. “My mom is very gently pushy,” she said, not quite looking him in the
eye. She didn’t want to betray the hope that was fighting to blossom in her
chest that he would take those words to heart, and stay. “Especially when it
comes to matchmaking. She likes you.”

            “I
know. And it’s throwing me off.” Cole’s lips curved downward as his brows drew
together. “Even your father, who’s appropriately distrustful of me and
protective of you, is throwing me off because he’s still being far nicer than I
have any right to expect from a shifter. But your mother’s kindness and
acceptance… it’s just unfathomable to me.”

            Angela
smiled. “My mother’s a rarity,” she admitted softly. “She’s got a backbone of
steel, but a heart filled with sweetness and fluff. She’s the kind of person
that would strike you down if you tried to threaten her family, and then patch
you up afterwards and send you on your way if she thought you had a good heart.
And her instincts are always spot-on in that area.”

            “Always?”
Cole asked softly. “What about your brother, then? What did her instincts say
about him?”

            Pain
and guilt lanced through Angela’s chest as she turned her head sharply to face
Cole. “I don’t care for the way you’re phrasing that,” she snapped.

            Cole’s
gaze was unreadable as he looked at her, and in that moment she saw him as the
cold, ruthless mercenary that he was, and not the tender, passionate lover
who’d held her last night and gasped her name in pleasure as though it were a
sacred prayer. “I’m just trying to understand whether or not he’d always had
leanings toward vengeance and darkness and if your mother knew that when she
took him in, or if it was something he developed later on in life.”

            “Garrison
was barely older than a toddler when my parents took him in,” Angela bit out.
“I doubt he had anything other than confusion and grief in his heart at that
age, and his pain would have called out to my mother like a beacon. She was
pregnant with me when she took him in, so I don’t know how he was then, or how
and when he developed his ill will toward mages, or how long it took him to get
to the breaking point. But I do know my mother wouldn’t have shunned him just
for developing darker feelings. She nurtured him as best as she could. It’s not
her fault that it wasn’t enough for him.”

            Cole
reached out and squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry if I offended you,” he said
quietly. “I know family is a touchy subject.” He paused. “But… do you think
it’s possible that someone else could have been influencing him?”

            Angela
pursed her lips. “You mean egging him on? I can’t see why anyone in our clan
would do that.”

            “I
know it’s hard for you to fathom anyone in your clan being disloyal,” Cole said
gently. “But really, is there nobody that Garrison looked up to? Spent a lot of
time with?”

            “My
father and mother, of course, but they would never put him on such a
destructive path.” But suddenly the thought of Ben and Jamie popped into her
head. They’d spent a
lot
of time with Garrison growing up. But that was
just to fill in for her father and help teach him how to hunt and fish and all
the other important things a male bear shifter needed to know to survive. They
weren’t off teaching him how to hate. “I really don’t think there’s any point
in discussing this further.”

            “Alright.”
Cole gazed doubtfully at her, but to his credit he didn’t press the matter.
Sighing, Angela settled back into her seat, struggling to let go of the
confusion and anger that had bubbled up inside of her. She couldn’t let it
distract her – she needed to be rested and ready by the time they got to
the Black Moon Clan.

            By
the time they crossed the border into Oregon, the sun was more than halfway
towards the horizon and Angela was feeling positively groggy. “Maybe we should
make a pit stop soon,” Angela groaned, struggling to sit up. Her ass felt like it
had fossilized, or turned into a boulder. “I’ve gotta stretch out, get some
life back into these limbs before we go charging into danger.”

            “Looks
like your cousins agree with you,” Cole said tightly, his eyes fixed straight
ahead.

            “Huh?”
Angela followed his gaze to see that Ben and Jamie were getting off at an exit
that was far too early. Pulling out her cell phone from her jacket pocket, she
dialed them. “Hello?”

            “Hey
Angie. What’s up?”

            “Why
are we getting off here? We’re not even close to the mountains yet.”

            “Oh,
we’re just making a quick stop for some supplies,” Ben said nonchalantly.
“Shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes off our trip.”

            “Oh.
Okay.” She frowned. “You didn’t mention this before we left.”

            She
could almost hear Ben shrug on the other side of the line. “We didn’t really
discuss the itinerary at all, to be honest. I didn’t think it was that
important. Really, it’ll be a very quick stop.”

            “Okay.”
Sighing, she hung up the phone. “I guess we’re making a quick stop for
supplies.”

            The
lines around Cole’s eyes tightened. “Just what kind of ‘supplies’ would your
cousins need to stop for? I thought we packed everything we needed already.”

            Angela
pursed her lips, feeling uneasy. “I don’t really know.”

            “And
you didn’t think to ask?”

            She
sat up and glared at him. “You want me to interrogate my own cousins? They’re
on our side, you know.”

            “Hmm.”
Cole only tightened his grip on the steering wheel and kept his eye firmly on
the Jeep.

            Fuming,
Angela threw herself back into her seat and clenched her jaw. But as they
followed her cousins off the highway, through a town, and then down a winding
dirt road, her sense of unease grew. Pine trees began cropping up around them,
until the dirt road became more of a forest trail, with the very occasional
property coming into view.

            “I
don’t see what they could possibly be picking up out here,” Cole muttered
between clenched teeth.

            “Maybe
they’re picking up something from another clan that lives out here.” That
sounded like a pathetic excuse, even to her, the doubt in her voice almost
palpable.

            “Right.”
They crested a hill to see two men waiting for them in the middle of the road.
The Jeep pulled off to the shoulder and came to a complete stop. Cole stopped
the Camaro in the middle of the road, but left it running. “Wait here.”

            He
jumped out of the car, and Angela came right after him, not even remotely
considering the idea of letting Cole go head to head with her cousins.
What
if something happened?
She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if any of them
got hurt, especially over a misunderstanding.

            “Hey
guys,” she said as Ben and Jessie came around the side of the Jeep. “What’s
going on?”

            “Hey
Angie.” Ben took a step forward, then stopped when Cole shot him a lethal
glare. He stopped, and instead gestured to the two men standing in the middle
of the road. They were both young looking and muscular, dressed tight shirts
and not-as-tight jeans. From this distance, Angela could smell that they were
shifters “This is Jack and Brian. They’re from the Freedom Group.”

            Cole’s
expression turned thunderous. “You guys are rebels.”

            Angela
scowled. “What? That can’t be right. No.” She turned to Jamie. “Explain this.
Immediately.”