“One of the trees?” She frowned, looking around. “I don’t see…”
“Over that way,” he said, gesturing roughly the way Alice had gone. “Better safe than sorry. Can’t risk it toppling onto one of the children.”
“Yes, of course…” She sounded confused, probably by the fact there were neither trees nor children in the direction he’d indicated, and he gave her a brief apologetic smile and darted off before she could point that out.
Away from the hustle of the crowd, he could pick out Alice’s scent and it put him at ease—until he found the spot when her adrenaline had spiked. His bear rumbled unhappily, and he pressed on. It was dark, and she was on edge. It would be weirder if she hadn’t been a little anxious.
Are you trying to convince me, or you?his bear asked gruffly.
Dunno,he admitted, his own mental voice taut. He should have walked with her. She was a tough, independent woman, but she shouldn’t have been out here alone after what had happened to her car earlier.
He reached the rest rooms, and her scent seemed to go straight up to the door, but then…
There was another,his bear warned him. He smelled it, too. A second scent, crossing all over hers, just round the side of the small building. And another spike in her adrenaline. The scent sent his bear surging up inside him, fighting him for control. She hadn’t been merely wary here. This was the scent of sheer terror.
Enough!he yelled at his bear, wresting back control.We have to work together, and we need to stay human long enough to find her.
And then?
And then we’ll deal with whoever came after her.
The thought seemed to steady his bear, and it settled back in a state of wary readiness.
Blood,it observed, and then Grant saw it, too. A single smear of blood against the wall. He inhaled deeply. Blood, but not Alice’s blood. His relief was tempered by the fact that the whole area around the blood was saturated with Alice’s scent. If she hadn’t been the one to bleed, she had to have been the one to cause it. And that meant she was in danger from whoever the blood belonged to.
We have smelled this scent before,his bear said.Around the car this afternoon.
Grant didn’t question it. If his bear said the scents were the same, then they were. And he had a fair idea whose it was.
The dual scents moved away from the town, and Grant followed them at a sprint, racing across the packed snow.
Shift,his bear urged him.I’m faster.
And if the townspeople see us, we’ll cause a panic—right in our way.
His bear grunted in assent and focused its attention on the trail, guiding Grant so he could focus all his attention on racing through the night without turning an ankle. He didn’t make it far before he saw something that made his stomach drop.
Tire tracks.
Alice had left with the man in a vehicle, and he was willing to bet she hadn’t gone willingly.
Shift now!The sounds of his bear’s roars in his head almost deafened him.We must chase them down!
Grant hesitated only a moment. His car would be faster, but following the tire tracks in the dark would slow him down. His bear could run at forty miles per hour, and could follow the scent without slowly.
He shucked his clothing and stashed it out of sight, then embraced his inner bear, melding with it and letting their shared body change shape and shift until he stood on four legs, covered in thick brown fur and slabs of heavy muscle.
In this form, his bear’s fury was much closer to the fore, but he reined it in.
We need to be clear-headed and calm. Alice needs us to focus.
His bear settled back wordlessly, letting their strength and power join as Grant threw himself into a run alongside the trail, following it away from the town. As a shifter, he could maintain this pace for much longer than an ordinary grizzly, and the fury and terror flooding his veins pushed him to run harder and faster than ever before. His bear was a steady presence at the back of his mind, guiding him along the trail as the lights from the town receded and forced them to track by scent alone or risk having to slow—and that risk was not acceptable to him.
Somewhere out there, Alice was in danger, scared, maybe hurt…Oh, God, if she’d been hurt—
Focus.His bear snarled the single word, and Grant forced himself to listen, burying his fear so it couldn’t distract him.
Alice needed him at his best, and he would not be anything less than that.
