“Oh my God, Elise, he’s perfect.”
Jane Walsh leaned carefully on the edge of the hewn wooden crib, peering in with a lump in her throat. The baby boy was tiny, a perfect replica of humanity in every way. Tiny hands with tiny fingers, tiny lips that blew bubbles as he breathed. He even had tiny dark, hairs starting to sprout from his scalp. He was two weeks old, peaceful and perfect. And, when he opened his eyes to look at Jane, they shone with a ring of glittering gold.
“Say hello to Isaak Best,” Elise told her brightly.
Elise had been working less and less in the run-up to giving birth, and Jane hadn’t seen her for more than a month by the time she came to visit Fairhaven Park. Now, Jane could see that it was all so worth it, the slowing down, the taking time to create and care for something so beautiful. It stirred her heart into a warm, deep sensation, and she found herself watching little Isaak with a wistful smile on her face.
“You want one, don’t you?” Elise asked her.
Jane turned, eyeing up her favorite client carefully. Elise was glowing with all the charms of new motherhood, despite the tired shadows lurking beneath her eyes. Jane was more than just Elise’s agent, she had grown to be a dear friend to the slightly younger woman. She weighed up her options for answering the big question, and nodded slowly.
“Sure I do,” Jane replied, “but that involves meeting a man, making commitments. It just takes so much time, Elise. It’s time I don’t have right now.”
Even as she spoke, Jane couldn’t help but glance at her cell phone, which she’d kept one hand on in her pocket the whole time since she’d left LA. It was on silent for baby Isaak’s benefit, but the emails and instant messages were already piling up. Every five minutes, someone somewhere had a crisis for her to solve. She felt the wistful feeling leave her, a wave of stress returning to turn her body tense.
“But when will you ever have time, if you don’t stop and look once in a while?” Elise challenged. “Why don’t you call Karina Vasquez? Her agency sent me up here in the first place, remember?”
Jane shook her head at once.
“Not everyone can be as lucky as you and Dietrich,” she insisted. She glanced at her phone again. “I really ought to check this. Do you mind?”
Elise gave a sigh, which seemed to signal that she did mind, but Jane started to move away from the crib all the same. Her steps were heavy as she walked away, and at the door she looked back on the scene of a happy mother, and a woman in love.
“I…” Jane began sadly, but she couldn’t let go of what she really wanted to say. “I’m just here for the week, working out-of-office, to see you and get to know Isaak. Love just isn’t on my schedule right now. It’s not like I can just expect a man to fall out of the sky and-”
The door hit Jane square in the chest, and she stumbled backwards. Baby Isaak began to bawl at once, filling the room with the shrill cry of shock. Jane shrieked too, for as the door swung open, a tall, muscular man crash-landed at her feet. He had rolled his head into his arms to prevent any damage, and beyond him the hatch to the Rangers’ Lodge attic was wide open. His collapsed ladder had sent him flying towards the bedroom, and he looked up into Jane’s eyes with a sudden awareness.
His eyes were golden, shimmering like all those of the Best shifter clan, and when he grinned shyly, his teeth were gleaming. He flicked a strand of dark blonde hair from his face, and gave a small, apologetic shrug.
“That’s what you get for daydreaming on a ladder, I guess,” he mused.
“Jane,” Elise said, a wry smile playing at her lips, “this is Hart, Dietrich’s cousin. I don’t think you’ve met.”
* * *
She could have stayed and talked to Hart, but the messages were plaguing the back of Jane’s mind. He was handsome, like all the Best boys were, but also boyish in his clumsiness despite being one of the eldest. Hartwin Best. Jane loved the German name. It was a wrench to excuse herself and head downstairs, seeking out a decent cell signal, but it had to be done. People in the city were depending on her, and she wasn’t the type to let them down.
She walked several yards from the huge, ornate frontage of the Rangers’ Lodge, down towards the edge of the woods. It was mid-morning, which meant that the world of offices and phone banks Jane had left behind was just starting to get into full swing. She flicked through the emails on her phone, browsing for the ones which needed urgent replies. Then she stood with the cell glued to her ear, listening to voicemail after voicemail about this, that and the other. Which models were going to get the new Chanel campaign, what shoes should be bought in for the latest ingénue to wear. It was dry stuff, but it really mattered. It could be the difference between whether Jane still had a job this time next year or not.
She made a few calls, wandering absently as she did so, until she realized that her voice was crackling on the line. Hanging up, she rattled her phone for a signal, only to discover that she had actually walked some way into the woods during her calls. Jane looked around, mildly alarmed by the sight of trees on all sides. There was a bright stream of daylight above her, and the greenery was thick and beautiful, but just a little too thick to see which way was the right one back to the lodge. Jane fired up her phone again, swiping to find Elise’s shining face.
“I thought you were swamped with calls,” Elise said at once, the playful annoyance still palpable in her tone.
“Yeah, well… Don’t laugh, but-” Jane began, and at once Elise chuckled. “I said don’t laugh. I wandered out into the trees, maybe only half an hour’s walk, but I’m not sure of the way back.”
“Did you hear that Isaak?” Elise teased, her voice gentle. “Auntie Jane is lost in the woods already.”
“Hey, little help here?” Jane pleaded.
“Sure, I’ll send someone,” Elise said with another laugh.
Jane thanked her ruefully, then looked around again with a little sigh. It was no use continuing to walk, in case she was walking herself even further away from the lodge, so she found a mossy rock and settled upon it. The signal was just about good enough to still get her instant messages, and soon she was deep into a chat with one of her many assistants about who they’d be sending to New York Fashion Week. It was during this heated debate that Jane thought she heard a few branches breaking somewhere nearby, as if under gentle footsteps. She looked up, hoping for the sight of Dietrich or one of his fellow rangers.
Instead, she found that she was looking at a shabbily-dressed woman with long, dirty hair. The two women stared at one another for a moment, then the stranger put a lazy smile back on her face. She had a glazed sort of look in her eyes, as though half her mind was somewhere else entirely. The woman certainly wasn’t a hiker, and Jane tried to sound bright and helpful as she returned the woman’s smile.
“If you’re looking to get out of the woods, I’m waiting for rescue right now,” Jane offered.
“Get out?” the woman asked. Her voice had the same faraway quality as her glassy eyes. “No way, lady. I’m so good where I am. Like, so good.”
The shabby woman spun on the spot like a child. She looked up into the foliage overhead, and Jane had a moment of panic as she watched the unsteady creature wobble and almost fall flat on her face. There was something wrong with her, and Jane wondered if she could guess what it was. The drug-users she met in LA were more the uppers and downers type, looking for energy all day and oblivion all night. This woman, Jane decided, had sought out a permanent chillax. The woman stumbled closer and, sure enough, a recognizable smell entered Jane’s nose.
“Well, you’re enjoying your vacation, aren’t you?” Jane said, now vaguely amused.
The stranger nodded gleefully, her matted hair flopping with a dull thud. She sat down on the floor in front of Jane, knees crossed like a schoolgirl.
“You could use some, you know,” the woman mused, “you look all weird and tense.”
Jane couldn’t pretend that the observation didn’t hurt her. She frowned, then frowned some more as the woman started rifling in the pockets of her shabby coat.
“Oh no, really,” Jane stammered politely. “I don’t… I mean, I couldn’t take your stash.”
“It’s no problem,” the merry woman said, still searching her clothes. “I got it gratis. Free sample from the Boys in the Wood.”
Jane started at that.
“In the wood?” she repeated. “Are you saying someone dealt drugs to you here, in the park?”
The woman looked up with a wide smile.
“Oh yeah,” she said proudly. “Grown here too. It’s good shit.”
“Grown here?” Jane echoed.
This was serious. If there was a drugs operation somewhere in the woods, the Best clan needed to know about it. Jane sucked up a breath, choking a little on the foul residue of pot smoke from the stranger, then she set her voice low and serious. It was the kind of tone she used with new interns back at the agency.
“Listen, honey, you need to tell me where to find the Boys in the Wood, okay?” she coerced.
“Ah,” the woman said with a giggle. “So you do want a fix.”
“That’s right,” Jane lied calmly. “So where can I-”
The question never got its end, for in that moment the shabby woman leapt up with a shriek. She held her hands either side of her head, eyes wide and crazed as she stared at a spot just behind Jane. When Jane turned, she too had a startled moment, for a huge grizzly bear had just emerged not three feet from where she sat. Unlike her addled friend, however, Jane knew what the golden gleam in the bear’s eyes meant. Even more of a giveaway was the strange satchel that the bear had thrown over is massive back.
“Whoa,” the woman warbled. “I must be freaking or something. A bear with a bag? Am I seeing this right?”
“I think you’re having a bad experience, honey,” Jane replied. “I, uh, well I don’t see anything there.”
The woman continued to stare for a moment. The bear, for his part, kept perfectly still, as if he was listening to Jane’s words.
“Perhaps you’d better go find somewhere dark to lie down?” Jane suggested.
“Mmm,” the woman said with a nod. “Yeah, ‘kay.”
The bedraggled stranger wandered off, and as she did so the bear came closer to Jane once again. He was huge and somewhat clumsy in his gait, with streaks of pale brown and dark mixed together, glittering in the sunlight. Jane watched as her savior passed her by and settled into a thick clump of bushes about three feet high. Then, to her amazement, he began to transform.
She didn’t see much beyond the shrinking of the bear’s huge form, but she heard the pants and cries of strain that followed. There was a cracking sound that shook Jane’s stomach a little, but after that, she heard fumbling and the rustling of leaves. Then, after a moment, Hart popped up in the center of the bush. His torso was bare, and Jane couldn’t help her eyes from roving down his chest, following the dark blonde trail of hair that made a line on his stomach.
“Sorry about that,” Hart said with a light chuckle. “Gimme a second to throw these clothes on.”
The bag made sense then. It had looked ridiculous across the huge back of a bear, and it looked even sillier on Hart, with its too-long strap making it drag on the floor. But the bag had contained his ranger’s uniform, which he quickly slipped into before stepping out of the bush. He even had shoes to put on. Crazy as the whole thing was, Jane sort of admired his forethought and organization. It was the kind of thing she would have done if she had to shift from one form to another.
“I didn’t realize they’d send you,” Jane said awkwardly.
Hart gave her a winning grin.
“It made sense,” he explained, “since I already had your scent from earlier.”
“My… scent?” Jane replied.
Hart stepped closer, and Jane felt the heat from his body as he leaned towards her face. At the last moment, his head deviated to the left and he took a deep breath near to her neck.
“Carnations,” he mused, “very unusual. You’ve filled the air with beauty for miles.”
It was a strange, poetic thing to say, and Jane had no idea how to respond to it. All she could do was grin, which seemed to flush Hart’s face with a pinkish glow. He let out that little chuckle again in a burst of nerves.
“Well, I’d better get you back,” he mused. “Unless, you want me to find your friend? I think I frightened her a little.”
“Friend?” Jane queried, and then she remembered the woman. “Oh, no, she wasn’t-”
She paused there, sudden remembrance hitting her. The sight of Hart, she realized with some alarm, had totally thrown her mind out of sync. Not a good problem to have at all.
“That lady told me that there are some fellas growing pot here in the park,” Jane began.
Hart’s grin fell, his face turned serious. As they walked, Jane told him what she had discovered, even though she wished she could have spoken of happier things.
* * *
“I just can’t believe this is necessary,” Jane said, almost in a gasp, “I mean, he’s fifteen days old.”
“Dietrich and I talked about it a lot before he was born,” Elise explained. “I’m ready. It’ll be good for him, for his strength, I’m sure of it.”
Baby Isaak was settled in a wicker basket crib that was way too big for him. The crib was circular and lined with comfy blankets, at least eight feet in diameter. Surrounding the baby were his closest family, whom Jane had gradually been introduced to as the day wore on. Dietrich stood tall and proud beside Elise, his dark features glowing with pride as he gazed upon his son. Beside him was his brother, Ben, equally dark and handsome, standing hand-in-hand with his wife Layla. She had a baby bump of her own to pat down gently, and the sight of it gave Jane that wistful feeling once more.
“Are we late?” said another voice at the doorway. “Dammit, I knew we were late. I would have bet you-”
“Kurt,” said a second voice warningly. “Shush. You’ll upset the baby.”
The voices belonged to Kurt Best, Hart’s little brother, and his girlfriend Stacey. The couple shuffled up to the circumference of the basket, cowed into silence by the occasion. They took up a place beside a wise old woman, who was beaming at the child below her with great admiration. She was Anina, grandmother to all five of the Best boys, and the matriarch of their shifter clan.
“There, there,” Anina cooed gently. “That’s all your family here, baby boy. Hart, Reinicke, you step up too.”
Jane watched as the remaining men of the Best clan did as they were told. Reinicke was a brown-haired man, a little taller and slimmer than the rest of his cousins. He wore a deadly serious look as he gazed upon the child in the basket. Hart, on the other hand was relaxed as ever. Across the circle, his golden eyes flashed up and caught Jane’s gaze. She was mortified for a moment to have been caught looking at him, but when he smiled, she managed to smile back. It was a long, languid moment before Hart broke their gaze.
When Jane’s focus returned to the matter at hand, she could see Elise grinning at her from the corner of her eye. She turned to her with a ‘don’t you dare’ kind of look, and spoke in a hushed tone.
“So, what happens now?” she asked.
“The boys awaken the spirit of the bear in Isaak,” Elise explained. “When they transform together, the collective power will inspire Isaak to do the same. Waking his shifter powers ensures he’ll grow up strong, and bonded to the clan. They’ll always be able to find each other if they’re in danger.”
It sounded like a pretty good security system, but the concept was still a little terrifying. Jane couldn’t believe that she was going to witness a baby turning into a bear, let alone that there would soon be five huge grizzlies in the ample lounge of the Rangers’ Lodge. Elise took her arm, gently guiding her back away from the men. Only Anina remained at the crib’s side, the other four women watching from a distance as the joint transformation begun.
Some of the men were in clothes, which began to rip apart no sooner than their barrel chests expanded with sudden power. Hart, perhaps more sensible than the others, had worn a robe for the occasion, and he shrugged it off just as the transformation hit him. His lower half was once again obscured by the basket, and Jane felt a pang as she watched his perfect chest and abdomen fade off into fur. Her breath caught in her throat as she gazed around the room, snouts, teeth and claws materializing out of nowhere. Collected together at their time of transformation, Jane had to admit that there was a buzz of something truly magical in the air.
Isaak began to gurgle, and Elise stepped forward to peer into the crib with concern. Jane found herself standing between the massive heaving forms of Dietrich and Ben as she too took a look at the baby. With a slow, gentle motion, Isaak’s tiny dark hairs were growing thicker on his scalp, then spreading gradually over his little body. He grew with gradual, well-measured amounts, until his face had shifted completely to that of a cub’s. His body soon followed, and the little bear sat up in the wicker basket, now at least fifteen times bigger than he was before.
Isaak looked to his father, the largest and darkest of the bears, and gave a little grumbling growl. Dietrich returned the noise with a low hum of his own, dipping his nose into the crib to let the cub rub against his face. Each of the Best bears did this in turn, and Isaak bonded with them all gleefully. Even as a bear, he looked innocent and happy. Elise stepped forward, and Anina gave her a little nod.
“Go on dear,” the old woman cooed, “it’s your turn.”
Jane watched as Elise put her hand into the crib. Isaak seemed unsure for a moment, but when he ambled over to his mother’s hand, he let her stroke his head.
“There you are,” Elise soothed gently, “there’s my big strong boy.”
The bear cub gave another satisfied little grumble, and then Anina clapped her hands together gleefully.
“All done,” she said, her frail voice brimming with satisfaction. “Let’s all get changed ready for dinner. Stacey and I have made it very special for tonight.”
Elise’s turned to look at Jane, and her face had fallen just a little.
“Sauerkraut,” she mouthed, mocking a grimace.
It was then that the larger bears began to become human again. Jane watched for a moment, fascinated by their retracting claws and shrinking heads, until she realized that she was about to be in the presence of five burly, naked men. She looked away at that, admiring a landscape of Fairhaven on the lounge wall instead as the sounds of grunting and growling turned more human behind her.
Then, a warm hand took hold of her elbow. Jane turned just a little, relieved to see that Hart had already put his robe back on. His touch sent waves of heat into her body, relaxing her usually-tense arm where he held her. She could feel the warmth of his breath as he spoke in a close, low tone.
“Jane, I was wondering if you’d help me out tomorrow?” he asked. “I want to find these drug dealers and get rid of them quietly. I haven’t told Gram anything. I don’t want to spoil the good atmosphere here.”
She admired him for that, and she nodded quickly, if a little reserved.
“Sure,” she answered, “though I’m not sure what help I’ll be.”
“You think you’d recognize that woman again, if we tracked her together?” Hart enquired.
“Yeah,” Jane replied with a nod, “I’m great with faces.”
“Good,” Hart said, “because I’m not sure approaching her as a bear again is going to do me any favors.”
Jane chuckled at that, and Hart laughed too. He hadn’t let go of her elbow, his fingertips a little rough where they grazed her skin. Over his shoulder, Jane saw Elise giving her that look again. She had Isaak back in her arms in his human form, and Dietrich was robed-up and beaming at them both. They were a perfect family, everything that Jane wanted to have someday. And she was right there with Hart, standing close and watching him smile down at her.
That was when her cellphone rang, the urgent call shattering the peace.
“I… I really have to get this,” she said apologetically. “Save me some dinner?”
She felt genuinely awful as she left to answer the call.
* * *
It was the next day that Jane met up with the bear with the bag again. She had offered to carry the uniform for Hart, but he had given a shake of his massive, shaggy head to tell her no. It was tricky to really understand the emotions of a bear, but Jane felt as though he was quite merry whilst he plodded along among the trees. She watched him smelling the branches and the ground as they walked together, until her phone began buzzing in her pocket once again.
“Sorry, do you mind?” Jane asked as she recovered the phone again.
Hart gave a low grumble, which could have meant yes or no really. Unsure, Jane answered her phone anyway.
“Hi Luc,” she said, addressing her assistant. “What do you need?”
What Luc needed was firing, Jane decided eventually. The call took over an hour, diminished sometimes by the fall and rise of the signal depending on which parts of the wood they were walking though. By its end, Jane was sweating from the trek and from the stress of having to relay every single instruction as though she was talking to a child. What she wanted a family for, Jane had no idea, because clearly she was already mother to a company of infants who couldn’t do a thing for themselves. When she finally hung up the phone, sighing heavily, she found that Hart had stopped at the edge of a clearing.
Just beyond the next row of trees, there was a gathering of people who were laughing and joking to themselves. They had not noticed the bear and the woman looming upon them from the depths of the trees, and Hart took the opportunity to sink into the foliage and transform back into a human. Jane tried not to look, but these bushes were not as thick as the ones he’d hidden in before, and she caught the curves of his perfect buttocks before he slipped his ranger’s pants on. The sight of him flushed her with heat, despite the warmth of the day.
“Well?” Hart asked. “Do you see her anywhere? I tried to follow the awful scent of the smoke.”
Jane peered through the leaves, looking at the gathering carefully. Plenty of them appeared to be stoned, which made Jane wonder if Hart had actually tracked down yet another group which had got their supplies from the Boys in the Wood. There were almost a dozen people, smoking and enjoying themselves in a lazy, giggling fashion. Jane watched one of them drop a smoldering joint to the ground.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” she whispered to Hart. “I mean, you get forest fires here, right?”
“Right,” Hart answered. “Not to mention the legal issues. The whole park could be shut down if anyone found out there was a farm here.”
The park was more than just a job to Clan Best, jane knew that all too well. It was their way of a life, and a sanctuary where they could safely transform. She couldn’t bear the thought of little Isaak having to grow up anywhere else, where he could be persecuted just for being who he was.
“Look,” Jane said, pointing suddenly, “there’s more of them approaching, over there.”
Hart stepped close, following Jane’s gaze over her shoulder. She listened to his breathing, long and low, and heard her own tense, stunted breaths in return. Even now, he was so much calmer than she was, and she envied that feeling of calm.
“Hey guys!” a woman called as she approached the clearing. “Guys, it’s Linzy. We found her down by the water. I… I think she’s dead.”
Jane clasped a hand to her own mouth to stop her gasp from escaping. Sure enough, the woman and a man were carrying another woman into the clearing. She was soaked to the skin and dreadfully pale, but Jane recognized her shabby clothes and long hair at once. Linzy was the woman she’d met the day before, who’d seemed so oblivious and happy whilst riding her high. Now, she was limp and pale where her friends laid her down on the ground.
“Oh…” said one of the assembled stoners. “Um… So what do we do?”
They were detached from the moment, struggling to get their brains back into gear at the sign of a crisis. Jane was about to turn and ask Hart what they should do, but the tall, striking ranger was already moving past her. As he went, he took hold of her hand firmly and guided her through the final branches into the clearing.
“Everything all right here?” Hart asked the people. “Does this woman need help?”
Some of the gathering scattered at once, grabbing at their joints or hastily trying to blow away the smoke. They sloped off towards the path that would lead them back to the main park, leaving only the original pair who had carried Linzy to the group. Jane noticed that they seemed fairly sober, though shock had rendered them pretty useless.
“She…” the woman stammered. “I don’t know. We just found her down there.”
Hart dropped to his knees and put his ear to Linzy’s chest. Jane watched for a long, tense moment. Her phone was buzzing in her pocket again, but this time she let it go. She might need to call an ambulance at any moment. There were more important things right now than work.
“Well?” Jane pressed. “Is she…”
“No,” Hart said after a moment’s thought. “She’s breathing, but she’s struggling. Her heartbeat is very slow. I think it must be hypothermia. If she got herself soaked and passed out, it can be mighty cold up here at night. Call back to the lodge for a car. We need to get her warm.”
It was fascinating to see Hart work. Despite the terror of the situation, he was methodical and organized. Once Jane had made the call, he told her to put Linzy into the recovering position, and he covered her over with his shirt. Jane took her coat off and put it over the poor woman’s legs, watching as Hart coerced her shocked friends into donating parts of their clothing to keep her warm too. Soon, Hart and Jane were crouching either side of the suffering woman, feeling her temperature and waiting for one of the Best boys to arrive with the Land Rover.
“See, this is why I hate drugs,” Jane seethed, growing frantic. “They dull your judgement, and accidents happens. I like to be alert. On top of things.”
“I had noticed,” Hart observed gently. “You really run the show. That phone call earlier was a masterclass in dealing with people.”
Jane had forgotten that he could hear and understand what she was saying. Work had been far from her mind whilst she’d been taking care of Linzy, but now the piled-up messages were worrying her again. She’d have so much to take care of later, when this was over.
“Well, that’s my life,” Jane explained. “On call all the time.”
“And you’re happy with that?” Hart asked.
Jane gave a proud little shrug. “I’m the most successful woman under thirty in my field,” she replied.
“Yeah, but are you happy?” Hart said again.
Jane looked up into his eyes, the gold rings sparkling at her. He really, genuinely wanted to know if she was happy. Having only known her two days, Hart cared how she felt. The deep concern was written all over his handsome face, the same concern he’d had for saving Linzy from hypothermia. She found that she couldn’t meet his gaze, or his question any more. Success had always been her first goal, and she’d assumed that marriage and love and all that ever-after stuff would somehow fit in later on. Now, she wasn’t so sure that things were going to follow the plan.
The rumble of the Land Rover echoed on the nearby path, and Jane looked down at Linzy with a sigh. The woman was starting to twitch, signs of life returning to her at last.
* * *
“Gee, this hot chocolate is amazing,” Linzy mused.
She was brighter than Jane had ever seen her. Once the cold embrace of the great outdoors had finally left her body, Linzy resumed the appearance of a normal human being. Her cheeks were flushed pink where she sat beside the roaring fire of the lodge and, though Jane thought it was far too hot in the room already, the shabbily-dressed woman was glugging away at her scolding chocolate all the same. Hart had little beads of sweat dripping from his hairline where he sat beside her, poking the fire with an iron rod.
“You feeling better?” he asked.
“Much,” Linzy replied. “That was a hell of a comedown. I don’t think I’ll go for that stuff again, even if it was a free sample. I saw all sorts of weird things. Two-headed rabbits. Bears with golden eyes. Crazy stuff.”
“Crazy,” Jane reiterated, and she and Hart shared a knowing look over the woman’s head.
Every time he looked at her, Jane felt a new pang in her chest. Hart’s eyes burned with something bright and hopeful, his face a picture of serenity. Even now, amid the wild heat of the lodge, he was totally unflappable. Jane had to admire that, but she also wondered exactly what it would take for a man like him to really break down.
“So Linzy, do you think you can tell us where to find the guys who sold you the drugs?” Hart asked gently. “You understand, I have to move them along. It’s park policy.”
“Oh,” Linzy said, shrinking against her mug of cocoa. “Well, I don’t want to get nobody into trouble. Those guys were pretty tough-looking types.”
“No trouble,” Jane said, her face totally neutral. “Like Hart said, we just need to move them along. No police, no statement from you. Just a location, then you can go back to enjoying your trip in Fairhaven.”
She didn’t believe a word of her own lies, but Linzy did. Jane had had to lie on command for years in her profession, convincing angry clients that their deadlines had been met, telling haughty models how popular they were, when they were actually on the verge of career death. Her face was a picture of confidence, the way she’d trained it to be over the years, and Linzy nodded with every word.
“Well, the one guy approached me down at the swimming center,” she began to reveal, “the one down by the campground.”
Hart nodded. “I know it,” he replied. “This guy, who was he?”
“Carter,” Linzy added, her voice growing in confidence. “You can’t miss him, he has a huge scar running right across his face, and a badly broken nose. He was nice, though, sweet talking type, you know? And he took me down a hillside off the back of the campground to show me the farm. It’s…”
Linzy paused, and Jane knew this was the pivotal moment, the thing she did not want to give away. She reached out, taking Linzy’s boiling hot hands in her grip.
“It’s okay,” she soothed, “you can say where the place is.”
“Well,” the woman began again quietly. “I can’t exactly. It’s covered over with lots of bushes. You don’t even see it ‘til you’re right beside it in the trees. And it goes underground a little, where it’s cooler for the plants I guess. They siphon water off the swimming lake in little pipelines.”
“How many plants would you say they’re growing?” Hart pressed.
“A couple hundred at least,” Linzy replied. “It was pretty impressive. I’ve never been able to grow one, let alone… Well, anyway.”
She sipped at her chocolate again. Hart rose from his seat and gave Jane a little tilt of his head. She got up too, dusting down her outfit.
“Thank you for helping us, Linzy,” she said.
“No, thank you for finding me,” the woman replied. “I mean, God only knows what would have happened to me otherwise, right?”
“Right,” Hart said, smiling reassuringly. “Would you excuse us just a moment?”
He began to make for the door, Jane beside him, but as they both reached the exit to the baking hot room, Linzy called after them suddenly.
“I should tell you,” she admitted, looking down at the ground, “this Carter guy had at least eight others with him when I went down to the farm. And… they had guns. All of them.”
Jane felt a lump leap into her throat.
“Thanks, that’s helpful,” Hart answered calmly.
And with that he led Jane out of the door. They raced for the cool, fresh air of early evening, gasping deep breaths off the veranda at the back of the lodge. Jane took a tissue from her pocket and dabbed at her face, trying not to spoil her makeup as she mopped up a little sweat. Hart had much more of an animal approach to the problem, peeling off his shirt and wiping his face and hair with that instead.
He was a glorious sight once again, and up close Jane watched his muscles ripple all over his torso. In the fading light, he skin seemed to gleam like freshly-smelted gold, still red from the fire. Hart caught her looking, and he grinned. The grin threw Jane off a little, and she frowned at him despite the tingles creeping into her body.
“You are going to call the cops, right?” she asked him. “Only, Linzy just told you that there are nine armed men dealing drugs in the park, and you still look cool as a cucumber.”
“Cool as a cucumber?” Hart challenged. “Who even says that anymore? Damn it Jane, you’re so cute.”
It was the first time he had really given her an outright compliment, though their glances and smiles at one another had said much before. She tried not to smile, not to be sucked into his complacency, because this was serious stuff.
“Answer me, Hart,” she demanded.
He turned, resting his hands on her biceps. It was only in the firmness of his grip that she realized how much she was shaking.
“This isn’t your problem now, Jane,” he assured her. “You’ve helped so much with getting the information, but now it’s up to me and the boys. I’ll rally them tomorrow, and we’ll sort Carter and his Boys in the Wood out ourselves. It’s how we do things in the clan.”
“But guns, Hart,” Jane pressed. “I know you shifter types are tough and all, but you’re not going to stand there and tell me that guns aren’t going to hurt you, are you?”
Hart’s smile faltered in his eyes, though his face remained a perfectly handsome façade. Jane didn’t need an answer. She could see now that his laid back attitude was, in fact, a wall. A wall that he wasn’t going to let her get past.
“You know what?” she said bitterly. “Do what you want. It’s your park. I’ve got work to do anyway.”
Finally, she pulled her phone from her pocket, and found over two hundred alerts screaming at her. The company was clearly in meltdown, and that was a situation she knew how to control. If she couldn’t solve the crisis right in front of her, at least she could bury herself in other matters.
Hart’s hand slipped down her arm, snaking along her skin to cover the hand holding her phone. She looked up at him, and he drew her fingers to his lips. She felt the lightest graze where he brushed a kiss against her knuckles, and her whole body tensed at the sensation. Something powerful sparked between them, eyes locked for a long moment.
“I know what I’m doing,” he promised her. “Please, don’t worry for me. You have enough stress in your life without mine too.”
Jane wished, more than anything, that what he’d said wasn’t so horribly true.
* * *
She hadn’t meant to get involved again. Jane Walsh was a smart woman, who made smart decisions every day of her life. Frequently, she found herself surrounded by idiots, and she was usually the only one who knew what had to be done. But now, she was the idiot. She was taped to a chair with powerful, sticky duct tape, her chest heaving dangerously sharp breaths. Panic rose in her body like a wild animal, making her flinch and struggle against her bonds. She really hadn’t meant to get mixed up with the Boys in the Wood.
It had started on the same day that Hart was planning to make his raid and find the pot farm, but it was a little earlier in the afternoon. After lunch with Elise and Layla, Jane had gone out for a walk to make a few more calls, and once again found herself a little disoriented on the path. She could hear the sound of voices nearby, and she had managed to locate the swimming lake by following the sound of children’s laughter. Here, she was about ready to relax with an ice cream and for once, turn her phone off for a while.
But that’s when she’d seen Carter, the man with the scar. He was just as Linzy had described him, unmistakable for the huge lump on the bridge of his triangular nose, and the thick, pink line of repaired flesh that ran from beneath his left eye to just above the right-hand corner of his mouth. Jane had spotted him on the very verge of the proceedings, talking to some young teenagers. Carter had been wearing a thick black coat despite the sunny weather, and he showed the teens something inside the flaps with great enthusiasm.
Some kind of transaction was made. Jane watched with horror as the gleeful teens left with a mixture of guilt and excitement on their faces. Then, when she looked back to Carter, she found him watching her across the crowd. His eyes were dark and narrow, and they bored into her even across the distance between them. He knew what she had seen, and he didn’t like it. Jane had felt the first prickles of terror turning her skin to goosebumps then.
In hindsight, it might have been more sensible to stay in the populated lakeside area, where the crowd would protect her. But Jane’s mind had been overcome by fear, and she found herself racing down the path that she hoped would lead her back to the Rangers’ Lodge. She was quite a long way from the area, and she realized the error of her ways as soon as she was alone on the deserted path. Behind her, there were footsteps, and she’d started to run.
Only to run into two more unpleasant looking men at the top of the next ridge.
Now, she was right in the cool heart of the farm, with plants under glowing lights all around her. The smell was fresh and spicy here, but mixed with the foul musk of the men who’d been hiding out since they began their operation. Carter was about the cleanest of the bunch, but that didn’t speak for much. When he grabbed Jane by her cheeks, she could feel the grime and dirt on his hands. She winced at the pain of his grip, and Carter’s scarred face broke into a horrible grin.
“Too suspicious for your own good, miss,” Carter drawled in that typical, post stoned lazy way. “I’m sick of having to hurt nosey little pricks like you.”
“Then don’t,” Jane struggled to say. “I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”
That was a lie, and a well told one, Jane thought. But Carter didn’t seem convinced.
“You don’t think I’ve got eyes everywhere in this park?” he said slowly. “Johnny Boy tells me he’s seen you hanging around with a ranger. So I can’t have you running back to your boyfriend to inform on us, right? Seems to me that you’re going to have to stay here as insurance, to make sure the rangers don’t decide to rat us out.”
Jane cursed inwardly. It was just her luck to have been spotted with Hart, when she’d hardly even begun their relationship. There was something about Carter’s confidence that stumped her though.
“You…” she breathed amid her stunted sobs. “You don’t think those rangers are much of a threat, do you?”
Carter gave a deep, guttural laugh at that notion.
“Those pretty boy posers?” he asked, almost to himself. “You can tell they’ve never seen a real fight just by looking at them. They’re all workout regimes and protein shakes, but no genuine muscle.”
There were three other men in the small, dark space at that moment, and they all chuckled in reply to Carter’s bold assurance. He had no idea that the Best boys were shifters, and that element of surprise was all the hope that Jane had. A buzzing sound alerted her, and her eyes moved to the sight of her phone, which was ringing on a nearby shelf of plant pots. Carter moved towards it, eyeing it malevolently. Then, to Jane’s astonishment, he swiped the screen and answered the call.
“Yeah?” he said gruffly.
There was a faint voice on the other end of the line, but Jane couldn’t make it out. She was certain it would be one of her useless interns, wondering what the hell had happened to her these last couple of hours. She was supposed to be getting back to them on approved headshots for the newest people on the books. A grim irony settled on her as she eyed Carter’s gun, which he toyed with in the holster as he listened to her phone.
“Yeah, Jane ain’t coming to the phone right now,” he teased viciously. “I’m her new boyfriend, and we’re a little busy, if you know what I mean.”
His voice rose to a wicked crescendo at the end of the sentence, and he and his cronies laughed as he hung up the line. Then, without a second thought, Carter dropped Jane’s phone to the ground and stomped on it with the heel of one of his boots. She watched her business, her lifeline, her whole livelihood smashed to pieces. And all she could think of was Hart, and how she desperately wished that she’d gone to see him after lunch instead of burying herself in stupid work once more.
* * *
More than an hour had passed, and Jane was amazed to find that she’d been out cold for a while. She didn’t remember passing out on the chair, but hunger, thirst and exhaustion had gotten the better of her somehow. Her whole body ached from the tightness of her bonds, and once again her chest was heavily constricted. She feared the numbness in her lower body, wondering if the tape had cut off some of her circulation, and the atmosphere had turned much colder since she was last awake.
There was little to see by except for the buzzing lamps which were trained on the nearest plants, but Jane had enough brightness to make out that she was alone. There was no noise outside, no sign that Hart and the Best clan had arrived to aid her rescue, yet something had woken her from her reverie. She strained in the dark, listening to the sound of something shuffling nearby. Jane tensed, knowing that the sound was behind her, and that there was nothing she could do to turn and see who was approaching. For all she knew, there was someone raising a gun to her head right now behind her.
No shot came, but she did jump when she felt warm fingers against her own numb digits.
“Shhh,” soothed a low voice. “Don’t you dare scream. I spent half an hour digging underground to get here.”
“Hart?” Jane whispered in amazement. “It can’t be you.”
She felt the painful tug of the tape as Hart worked to free her from the bonds. They had to be slow and methodical about getting it off, both fearful that the ripping sound might alert any gunmen nearby to what was going on. When Hart had unwound the first length that constricted her chest, Jane found herself looking down at his dirty body.
“So… you didn’t bring the clothes bag this time?” she observed.
She was trying, really trying, not to look at the shaft, half-erect between Hart’s legs, but it was totally impossible. Even in the shadowy light of the farm, he was magnificent to view. He looked up at her sheepishly, then went back to his work with the tape.
“I lost it whilst I was digging the tunnel into this place,” he admitted quietly.
“I’m not complaining,” Jane replied.
Her breath was returning, and the numbness faded from her extremities as she began to be able to move again. When she tried to get up, however, she collapsed into Hart’s arms, and he led her to the doorway which would take them out into the open. He set her down there, rubbing her arms and legs back to life with vigorous strokes. She reached for him, touching his face.
“How did you know I was here?” she asked.
Hart paused, looking deep into her eyes. It was only now that she noticed his usually jolly presence had faded away. He was serious, the most serious a man could ever get, and he bit back a lump in his throat before he could reply.
“It was me that called you when Carter answered your phone,” he revealed. “I put two and two together pretty easily.”
“Clever,” Jane said, “but how do we get out now?”
“You stay here and rest, ‘til everything’s clear,” Hart told her. “The boys are all in position. You want to know why it is that I can always be so relaxed?”
Jane nodded, tracing Hart’s lips with her fingers as he spoke.
“Because,” the golden-eyed ranger replied, “when I transform, I’m the wildest beast of them all. I’m going up there to get this rage out of my system. Stay safe.”
He leaned in and kissed her, a deep kiss that lingered on her lips even after he had gone. That was when the noise started overhead, and Jane heard the roars of bears intermixed with the sudden, panicked cries of humans. Clan Best had definitely taken the Boys in the Wood by surprise, and when Jane managed to crawl up the entryway to see what was going on outside, many of Carter’s boys were already heaped together, surrounded by fur and claws.
It was Carter himself that was the problem. Jane clocked him at once because he was only a few feet from where she lay on the ground, crouching and pulling his gun from its holster. Before him was a bear that Jane recognized, his back turned as he dealt with another assailant. Carter was readying his weapon, lifting the shaft to line it up right at the grizzly bear’s back.
Jane amazed herself with her own strength, a rush of wild energy propelling her forward. She grabbed Carter by the feet and took him totally by surprise, his gunshot firing uselessly into the air above as he fell over. The shot alerted Hart, who spun as fast as a creature of his size could manage, and was soon pawing down on Carter to keep him pinned in place. Jane got to her feet, leaning on Hart’s strong body for support. Carter looked up at her, then the bear, then back to her with amazement.
“How’d you like my boyfriend now?” she asked with breathless mirth.
* * *
“It’s kind of like a ritual,” Hart explained. “Once you do it, there’s no turning back. If you’re with the right person, then it bonds you for life to them. You want to protect them, and love them always.”
“And am I the right person?” Jane asked.
Hart’s grin was broad and beaming. He leaned down and kissed Jane, their lips grazing hungrily for one another’s taste.
“Of course you are,” he said. “I knew it the moment I fell and hit you with that door.”
“You did not,” Jane protested.
“Did so,” Hart argued.
She tried to return the argument, but he buried her in kisses until she gave up. They were lying in the clearing where the pot farm had been, though it’d been almost a week since it’d been cleared away. Now, there was only a quiet little space, obscured by bushes, where no-one at all could see what they were up to. Jane was lying on her back, hardly worrying about the grass stains on her clothes, and Hart was on top of her, leaning on his elbows. His hips weighed comfortably heavy over her own, his erection throbbing against the thin material of his uniform. Jane wriggled against the bulge, and he gave a groan of delight.
“So you’re saying once we make love, that’s it?” she asked him. “You’ll never let me go?”
“Not ever,” Hart promised.
He leaned down, kissing her neck and nuzzling against the soft skin there.
“Not even if I go back to LA to work?” she challenged.
“I will follow you anywhere you choose to go,” he said, his breath warm against her throat. “Although if you get that phone of yours replaced, we’re going to have a problem. It’s distracting you from what’s really important in life, you know.”
Hart pulled up, and their eyes locked. Jane agreed with him completely, but she wouldn’t let it show just yet.
“I suppose,” she mused wickedly, “you’ll just have to find something even more distracting to occupy me, won’t you?”
She raised her hips, grinding them against Hart’s throbbing body again.
“Here?” he asked. “Now?”
“Here and now,” Jane replied, feeling strangely free.
The clearing was shaded, and Hart stripped first. He laid his shirt and pants out to make a kind of bed for Jane to lay down on. She could hardly keep her hands off his naked form as he proceeded to undress her, hands roaming all over his toned, muscular body. When she reached his cock, she teased him with feather-light touches, and Hart lost his manners for a moment and ripped her shirt at the shoulder. Jane gasped, but she found that she didn’t care about the tailoring any more. All there seemed to be in the world was love, passion and joy. Hart had brought her that, and she didn’t want anything to spoil it now.
When she was down to her underwear, Jane lay back on Hart’s clothes, feeling the crisp outdoor air on her body. She had a front-fastening bra on, a wise choice for the occasion, and Hart unclasped it partly with his teeth. He ran his mouth over her breasts hungrily, teasing her nipples with his tongue and brushing them with a stubbly jaw. Jane shuddered at the pleasure she felt, then gasped again when Hart’s hand delved suddenly into her panties.
Jane shrugged them off entirely, wriggling around as his fingers slipped inside her. First one, then two fingers opened her, pushing teasingly, and then his thumb found her clitoris and began a circular rubbing motion. Hart’s face was rapt with passion, eyes deep and a darker shade of gold than before. When she pulled him in to kiss her, his tongue slipped into her mouth, roving all over in a search for conquest.
It was relaxing, to let him take control of her body. Jane felt totally safe in Hart’s strong hands, and she lay back with no tension at all in limbs. Everything was pleasure, waves of passion hitting her with every thrust of his fingers, every flick of his thumb. When Hart’s kisses travelled all over her neck and breasts once again, Jane looked up into the leafy canopy overhead with a grin she couldn’t control. This was everything she had wanted, the thing that was worth leaving her stressful world behind for. Not long ago, she’d thought Elise was the lucky one, the one in a million to find real happiness, but now she was it. And it was the greatest feeling in the world.
“You’d better not be daydreaming,” Hart chided, his lips against her stomach.
“Oh, I am way beyond that,” she said with a giggle. “Who needs drugs when we’ve got this? This is the original high.”
Hart’s fingers slipped out of her, leaving her barren and aching for them to resume their thrusting motions. He climbed on top of her body, resuming their original position, but now she felt his hard-on sliding along her thigh with an eager grace. She looked up into Hart’s face, watching a wicked grin overcome him.
“I’ll bet I can take you higher still,” he promised.
“Please,” Jane begged delightedly. “I really want to go there with you.”
She let her legs open a little wider, and Hart shifted his hips to slide inside her. Jane held onto his firm back, hands roving downwards until she found those perfect buttocks she had glimpsed not long ago. She felt the muscles there squeeze tightly as Hart began to thrust into her, and the first push sent a wild wave of heat through her body. She shuddered, hardly able to contain her pleasure, and once again she was totally in Hart’s control. He knew just to what to do with her, fulfilling her with thrusts that changed in speed and depth.
They grew faster the more they went on, and Hart buried his face against her neck, kissing the skin there wildly. Jane felt her back arch, her body lifting of its own accord to be as close as possible to Hart’s. Her hips began to spasm as she grew closer and closer to her climax, something deep inside her aching as the orgasm built. A moment later, she let it go, shaking and crying out in abandon as pleasure washed over her body. Hart took the sign, his hips wild in their final thrusts as he let his own climax go. Jane felt the wet warmth between them as he rocked their hips the last few times, before they collapsed in a breathless heap together.
“Good lord,” Jane breathed in amazement. “You know, I didn’t even think about protection. What if we… you know?”
Hart looked at her, his grin unflappable again.
“Just made a baby?” he completed with a chuckle. “Hey, I don’t mind if you don’t mind.”
Laid-back as ever. Jane turned and cuddled against Hart’s body, mulling over the possibility in her mind. Baby Isaak was adorable, and she had felt that deep, strong longing for a child of her own when she’d laid eyes on him. It certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world if she fell pregnant from the perfect moment they’d just shared. In fact, it would be the start of a whole new world for them together.
* * *
Five months later.
“It’s amazing how much a bunch of idiots can fend for themselves when you leave them to it,” Jane mused.
“You’d better not be talking about me and my cousins,” Hart threatened playfully.
He stole a kiss before Jane could reply, and she smiled at him wryly.
“I mean my assistants at the agency,” she explained. “They’re doing just fine with me running the show from a distance. I’m only getting half as many crisis calls as when we first met.”
“That’s just as well,” Hart replied with a chuckle. “We’re going to have plenty of crisis calls here now, with a lodge full of kids to tend to.”
Layla had given birth to a little girl, whom she and Ben named Lily. She and Isaak were laid out on a rug with a series of toys above them for them to watch and play with, and Jane and Hart were on duty to make sure the babies got up to no mischief. With Kurt and Stacey now expecting twins too, there was all the more reason for them to practice their babysitting skills.
“Look at them,” Jane mused, watching the curious faces of the babies as they looked up at their arch of toys. “They’re going to grow up here in the wilderness, away from all the stresses of the urban world. Lucky little buggers.”
Hart gave a contented sigh. He came to sit beside Jane on the sofa, snuggling his body against hers in a perfect curve. She relaxed against him contentedly, leaning her head back on his strong chest. Hart’s hand wandered down her arm slowly, sliding over to the large, rounded bump of her belly. He put his palm flat over the solid sphere, and Jane put her own hand over his, holding it there firmly.
“Do you think ours will look like these two?” Jane asked. “The Best gene pool seems pretty strong.”
“The only thing I can guarantee you is that he or she will have golden eyes,” Hart told her. “And perhaps that cubs are even messier to clean up after than fully-human babies.”
“Endless fun,” Jane replied, closing her eyes for a long moment.
The door creaked opened somewhere nearby, and when Jane opened her eyes again, she met Elise’s grinning face at the door. The pretty blonde was peeping in on the children with a mother’s careful glance. Jane had a lot to learn from her on that front, and she was looking forward to it immensely.
“Everything okay in here?” Elise asked.
Jane felt Hart nod beside her, and she gave her friend a smile that stretched so wide it actually hurt her face a little.
“Everything is absolutely perfect,” Jane replied.
And, to her amazement, she was right.