Prologue

Gavin was late. It wasn’t like him. He was never late. He was early. Even at fourteen years old, he knew he was more mature than his peers and had high standards for himself. He shared those values and several others with his best friend, Paige, which was why he was pissed with himself for being late to meet her.

He was out of breath as he ran between the trees toward their meeting spot—a tree house of sorts they’d built when they were ten with the help of their fathers. It could only marginally be considered a tree house since it was only a few feet off the ground, and though it did include a large tree trunk, the majority of it was on stilts. It was nestled in the thick grove of trees behind the houses on their quiet street along the Bow River just west of Calgary, Alberta.

It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was theirs, and theirs alone.

Voices ahead of him caused him to stop short and lift his gaze. He was still twenty yards from the tree house, evergreens blocking his direct view, but he sucked in a breath when a man jumped to the ground and spun around to shout at the entrance. “You’re nothing but a tease, you little cunt. You hear me?”

Gavin’s knees nearly buckled, and he couldn’t get his legs to move forward. Scared out of his mind, he crouched behind a thick bush so the guy wouldn’t see him.

From behind, all he saw was thick brown hair on the largest human he’d ever seen. He had to be at least six and a half feet tall and built. He lifted an arm, pointed a finger at the entrance, and shouted again. “You tell anyone about this, and I’ll kill both your parents. You wanted to be grown up. We’ll see how well you do on your own.”

Gavin couldn’t breathe. He needed to run forward. Do something. Anything. Go for help?

No, he couldn’t leave Paige, and he knew she was inside the tree house. No way in hell would he leave her there alone.

A loud roar focused his attention again on the man as the unimaginable happened right before his eyes. The behemoth tipped his head back, shouted unintelligibly at the sky, and then fell forward onto all fours in slow motion. As his body angled toward the ground, he freaking transformed into an enormous bear.

Gavin fell backward onto his ass, his eyes wide, his skin clammy, sweat beading on his forehead even though it was cold outside. He had to be mistaken.

Where once a tall man had stood, there was now an equally gigantic bear. A bear who spun back to the tree house and approached on all fours. He lifted both front paws and roared again, leaning toward the entrance. And then, just as fast, he dropped to the ground and spun around. Gavin could swear he looked right at him before he loped off into the trees.

Gavin blinked several times. He had to have imagined the entire thing. There were no bears in this part of the province. And there certainly weren’t humans who could become bears.

Jerking himself back to reality, he scrambled to right himself and push to standing. And then he ran full-out the rest of the way to the tree house, chest pounding, his entire body on high alert.

Leaping onto the platform that served as a porch, he nearly tripped and fell into the single room that made up their hideaway.

What met his eyes made him freeze in the doorway.

Paige—his best friend in the world and the only person who would ever truly know him and understand him—was pressed into the corner of the room. She screamed when he came into view, and then her voice lowered to a whimper when she focused on him. She was in a tight ball, holding her favorite blue cardigan around her shaking body. Her face was covered with tears, and her hair was a mess of long blonde locks hanging limply along her cheeks.

She dragged her knees up closer to her chest as Gavin dropped to his knees several feet from her. His heart beat rapidly, but he couldn’t seem to speak. I was late. I was late. I was late.

He inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself so he could help her, but all that did was drag the scent of sweat and alcohol and…sex into his lungs. He might not have been able to identify the smell of sex before now, but there was no mistaking it.

When Paige lowered her face to set her forehead on her knees, she started to cry. She gulped, sobbing hysterically.

He inched forward on his hands and knees. “Paige?”

She cringed, pulling tighter into the corner, but didn’t acknowledge him otherwise. Her knees were scraped and bleeding. Her fingers, wrapped tightly around her legs, were white from the effort, the nail beds dark. From what? Blood? Dirt?

Oh God. Where were her pants? Gavin jerked his gaze to find her pants, torn and dirty, tossed in another corner. He cringed when he noticed her underwear lying ripped next to them.

Fury he’d never felt in his life filled him. He wanted to scream. He wanted to jump to his feet, run from the tree house, and find that man. Man? Someone had hurt Paige.

Instead, he found an inner strength he didn’t know he had and hadn’t ever needed to tap into in his fourteen years and pulled himself together. “Paige, we need to get help. You need a doctor.”

She jerked her face up to meet his gaze, shaking her head. “No.” One word. Sharp. Definite.

“Paige…” She was bleeding. Hurt.

Raped.

He swallowed. His head was swimming with so many confusing thoughts. There was a man. He raped Paige. There was a bear…

She shook her head again more violently. “You can’t tell anyone. Ever.”

“Paige…”

She uncurled from her ball and leaned forward, placing her hand on top of his where he remained on all fours facing her. “Never. Promise me, Gavin. Never. You can never tell anyone about this.” Her voice cracked from screaming. From crying. From lost innocence.

He blinked at her. Why wouldn’t she want to tell anyone?

Her eyes were wide and wild as she searched his gaze. “Promise me, Gavin.”

“Why?”

“Because. Because. Just because. Promise me,” she yelled. New tears fell. Her face was red. Her eyes were swollen. How long had she been here with that madman, tortured by him while…? I was late.

“Paige,” he pleaded. He hated this plan. She was his best friend. Hurting. Physically and emotionally. She needed help from an adult. She couldn’t expect him to keep this secret.

She stopped crying abruptly, stiffening. Her entire demeanor changed in an instant, and she crawled across the room to grab her panties.

Gavin glanced away when she stood on wobbly legs to put them on. Bile rose in his throat as he caught her shrugging into her pants in his peripheral vision.

Her hands were shaking, but her tears were dry now. She came back to him as he sat back on his ass and wrapped his hands around his knees, rocking back and forth. For a moment he felt every ounce of pain she should be feeling even though she’d snapped out of her horror to replace it with something unrecognizable.

Cold seeped into his skin. Not from the temperature but from her behavior. He opened his mouth, but she stopped him with an outstretched hand as she lowered to sit facing him and pulled on her shoes. Even her knuckles were bleeding.

She started to ramble. “I fell from a tree. We climbed out too far on the branch behind the tree house, and I fell.”

He stared at her.

She didn’t meet his gaze as she tied her sneakers. And then she lifted her head again. “Gavin, I fell from a tree.”

He nodded, unable to think clearly.

For a long time, they sat there in the cold. Finally, he found words. “Paige, there was a bear… That man… He…”

She turned whiter if that were possible. And then she shook her head. “Forget you saw that.”

He nodded again if only to keep her from slipping into a deeper level of despair.

She rambled on. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

“Sure.” He didn’t even know what he saw. Surely his mind was playing tricks on him. But her words confirmed the deceitful images. A bear? She wanted him to forget that he saw a bear?

She seemed on the edge of hysteria.

He needed to steer the conversation back to her. “Paige, why can’t we tell anyone?”

“I don’t want anyone to know. Ever.”

“But this is a horrible thing to keep to yourself. It will eat you up inside. You need professional help. Your parents—”

She cut him off with a sharp chortle. “Who are you to decide what secrets should be kept? Huh?”

He swallowed hard.

She leaned toward him. “I keep your secret. It’s a horrible thing to keep to yourself. It’s eating you up inside. You need professional help too. Your parents should know.” As she reiterated his own words back to him, he nearly died inside.

She was right.

She was also so very wrong.

“Promise me, Gavin.”

“Okay, I promise.”