Chapter One

Hadley

Twenty-eight-year-old Hadley Mills was still shaking as she took the exit for the town of Silver Fells, North Carolina. As she left the Blue Mountain Highway, she didn’t take in the wild vistas and tree-covered mountains. Her hands clutched the steering wheel in a firm 2-10 grip, and her jaw was tense.

After sending her best friend on a holiday to Maxwell Mountain, Hadley had been surprised when her friend had fallen in love and moved the far-western reaches of the state. She’d been sad, too, of course. Hadley was a shy, quiet woman with few friends. To have her best friend move four hours away from their home in Winston-Salem had been a huge blow.

To cope with the loss, she submerged herself in work. As a nurse practitioner that wasn’t hard to do. Every day brought new cases and situations. But then, just yesterday she received a 9-1-1 text from Lacey. There was an emergency on the mountain, and Hadley was their only hope.

The sign stood like a lighthouse, inviting visitors into its picturesque arms. Welcome to the town of Silver Fells, North Carolina.

“Okay, I got this,” she muttered. “I’m close.” Dusk was just beginning to descend around her, but Lacey warned her that the GPS could go a little sideways between Maxwell Mountain and Silver Fells.

“Make the next legal U-turn,” Gloria, the GPS, intoned with her slightly sarcastic bored dilettante voice.

“Lacey said not to listen to you,” Hadley said. She laughed at herself, wondering how many other people argued with their navigational tools. “She said I had to look for a sign.”

Thank you for visiting Silver Fells, North Carolina. Y’all come back now, ya’ hear?

“Well. Fuck,” Hadley said. “I don’t think that was the sign she meant.”

“Take a left turn,” Gloria said.

“That takes me off the mountain, you idiot.” Hadley wanted to shut Gloria up but didn’t want to take her hands off the wheel. Or risk it if by some miracle Gloria did find the entrance to Maxwell Mountains Resorts.

Hadley pulled into a hole-in-the-wall sized diner called the “Snappy Lunchbox” that spent a lot of money advertising their world-famous porkchop sandwich.

As she entered, the bell over the door jangled brightly. The floor was a dingy-white and black check pattern reminiscent of an era long gone. The worn linoleum counter was surrounded by a sea of faded-red stools. Hadley hadn’t been in an old-timey meat and three in a while, but the Snappy Lunchbox fit the bill.

Flo, the waitress, looked straight out of central casting as 1950s era waitress #1. She wore a bottle-blonde beehive and a pink polyester uniform that was at least one size too small. “Can I help you, honey?” she asked.

“Hey, there. I’m looking for Maxwell Mountain Resort,” Hadley said, using her brightest smile and smoothest drawl. “My friend Lacey lives up there and invited me for a visit.” Hadley shrugged her shoulders. “Seems the mountain is messing with my navigation system.”

Flo’s entire demeanor changed. She went from open and friendly to looking at Hadley from the side of her eyes. “You friends with that St. Claire woman?”

Nervousness bubbled inside Hadley. How had sweet, southern belle Lacey managed to annoy the waitress at the local diner?

“Yes, Ma’am,” Hadley said. “I’m Hadley Mills. I was born and raised in Winston-Salem. I’m just here to visit my friend.”

“Make sure it’s not one of those freaks from Franklin Biologics,” came a disembodied voice from behind the counter.

“Hush up, Mel. I’m handling this,” Flo yelled. She turned back to Hadley. “Pay no attention to my boss, honey. He gets cranky before the dinner rush.”

Still looking suspicious, Flo gave Hadley detailed directions to get to the resort. “The sign is hidden by a downed branch,” Flo explained. “You best get going before it gets too late and you miss it.”

“Thank you, Flo,” Hadley said with a little wave.

Somehow, with Flo’s advice, Hadley was able to see the hidden sign for the Maxwell Mountain Resort. “It’s almost like they don’t want visitors,” she muttered

Finally, after what felt like a year behind the wheel, the winding road let out into a parking lot surrounded by three little cabins. They were charming and cute, but Hadley wondered if three little pigs were going to come squealing out of them as they fled from a wolf.

“Hadleeeeeeeee,” Lacey yelled as she leaped the three stairs off the deck and raced arms outstretched for a hug. “You came!”

“You said it was an emergency.” Hadley embraced her best friend, holding it for a little too long. She’d been so lonely back in Winston. “So, here I am.” She laughed. “Love your shirt.”

Lacey preened. “Llama, llama, llama, llama, llama chameleon” was emblazoned across her chest. “Llamas are cool,” she insisted.

The sound of a bear’s angry bellow tore through the quiet clearing. But, while Hadley looked around in fear, Lacey took it in stride.

“Where is your bag?” Lacey gushed. “I just painted the cabin a bright yellow. With cute rubber ducky printed curtains, no less. Let’s get you settled and then have you see the patient.”

Hadley refused to budge. “Why don’t you tell me about the bear in your cabin. Did you start branching out from cats and dogs into lions and tigers and bears?”

“Oh, my,” Lacey said. “Well, not exactly.” She shook her head. “Okay. But don't freak out, okay? Promise?"

This didn't seem good. Hadley narrowed her eyes. "I'm a nurse, Lacey. Not much freaks me out." But when her friend continued to just look at her, Hadley nodded. "I promise."

“You know what shifters are, right?”

Hadley felt her jaw drop in shock. “One came to our high school career day. Are you telling me you have a bear soldier in your cabin?”

“Yes,” Lacey admitted. “His name is Hunter Bromstadt. He’s in a bad way.”

“But how? I mean. Why?” Hadley leaned against the side of her car and ran her fingers through her short blonde hair. “What’s going on?”

Lacey took Hadley’s hand and led her into the third, slightly shabby and deserted looking cabin. “Come meet Hunter,” she said. “He’s one of Quinn’s friends.”

Hadley stopped in her tracks. “Is Quinn a bear shifter, too?”

“What? Oh, uh. No. He’s a Mastiff.”

Hadley shook her head, feeling as if she had stepped out of 21st century America and arrived in the Twilight Zone.

She entered the dimly lit cabin and held her hand up to her nose. The dark scent of decay and the rank odor of infection slammed against her. “Holy Moses,” she said. The cabin was empty except for an angry brown bear being run herd on by a Mastiff of almost the same size.

“I take it that’s Quinn,” Hadley said.

The massive dog howled and acknowledged her presence.

“Why didn’t you just take him to the hospital? I can smell the infection from here.”

Tears trembled on Lacey’s eyelashes. “He can’t hold his shifts. The hospital might drug him. Might institutionalize him or get an order of destruction. We can’t let that happen. Not unless we had no choice.”

Hadley processed the scene with practiced eyes. She pulled her script pad from her purse. “Go into town and get these scripts filled.” She wrote down two different types of antibiotics. She ripped the page and handed it to Lacey. “And I need the following items, but you won’t need an Rx for them.” She jotted those down on another piece of paper.

Lacey nodded. “You’re the best, Had.”

“Will I be safe?” Hadley asked as she approached her patient.

Lacey and Quinn’s eyes met. He nodded. “He will do whatever it takes to keep you safe,” she promised right before she took off.

Hunter

He was operating on instincts. His roars kept in time with the throbbing of his pulse. The cries of the children an out of tune staccato medley. And the damn cat, icy green eyes daring him to move forward. Bodies were everywhere. Even worse, fragments of bodies were strewn about, waiting for family members to claim them. 

Only the dog kept him from hurting people. No. He shook his massive head. Not a dog. A friend. But that couldn’t be right. He didn’t have friends. His friends were dead. As dead as the Qubrian children he’d helped kill.

War after war, they were sent. To countries near and far. Hunter was damn good at his job. Until Qubria. After six months in the Latin American hellhole, he’d been given leave and an appointment with the Shifter Veteran’s Hospital.

Fuck that shit. All he needed was his bear, Bal.

Another scent penetrated his dimmed senses. Delicate. Floral. The sweet scent of roses on a June evening.

Mine

Hunter roared. Another scent was in his way. Guarding her. Danger? Was there danger? Bear and human warred for supremacy. Where were those roses coming from?

“Shhh, hey, Hunter. I’m Hadley. I’m here to help.”

The bear chuffed a little, calming down under the soothing tones. “I want to help you.”

Hunter rested on his left side. His right shoulder hurt too much. He growled, but it sounded softer. Less angry and more beseeching.

“That’s a good boy,” Hadley cooed. Behind her, Quinn snorted.

Quinn, right? His friend. Not a rival. Quinn was mated. Bal instantly calmed.

Mate? Hunter perked up a little. Inhaled. Mate, his human mind agreed.

“Can I look at your wound, big guy?” Hadley asked, sliding forward.

Hunter opened his eyes.

With a last wail, Hunter felt his muscles bend. Bone contract. Senses altered as Bal went dormant, and Hunter emerged.

“Holy fuck,” Quinn said, shifting as Hunter did. “You got him to calm down.”

“Hey, big guy, wow, yeah, you’re still pretty big even in human form, aren’t you?” She touched his shoulder and Hunter wanted to howl with how good her cool hand felt against the burning fever of his shoulder.

“How’s that feel, Hunter? I bet my hands feel nice and cool, don’t they?” Hadley examined the wound a little closer now that he was back in human form. “It looks like something big used you for a chew toy, huh I’d hate to see how the other guy looks.”

Hadley kept up her litany of soothing phrases, calm gestures, and sing-song voice as she examined Hunter’s shoulder.

“I have to debride and irrigate the wound,” Hadley said. “What did this?”

“Cougar,” Quinn said.

“Fuckin’ Cree,” Hunter muttered, his voice like hard pack gravel. Tight. Unwilling to bend to the structure of sound.

“Another shifter, I take it?” Hadley asked

“Yeah, he’s a good kid. But Hunter and him? They’re like oil and water.”

“Or bears and cats,” Hadley said, throwing a grin over her shoulder.

Hunter growled, sensing her full attention was no longer on him.

“A growl? After all I’ve done?”. Hadley’s voice remained lilting and fresh. Teasing even as it soothed.

“Hunter? Can I get you into a tub? I need to clean this wound. It’s clear to the bone, and I want to prevent the infection from spreading any further.”

Quinn came closer to help her get him up, but Hunter lunged at him. “Mine,” he muttered through clenched teeth.

“It’s okay, Hunter. Is it okay if I call you that? We’re friends now, right? If you don’t want Quinn here, he can wait outside. You won’t hurt me, will you?”

Hunter wanted to shout, but it felt like too much effort. No one would hurt his Hadley. As soon as he was better, he’d make sure of it.

“No one but us, right?”

Hunter chuffed and nodded his head.

“Can you get into the tub by yourself? Or will Quinn have to help me?”

Hunter felt Bal lurching. Springing. Longing to sink his own teeth into his best friend. No. Bad bear, he scolded himself.

“Do it myself,” Hunter said through gritted teeth. He crawled, each time he put pressure on his right shoulder, it oozed blood and infection. But finally, he pulled himself into the tub.

Hadley released the hand-held shower head and let the spray warm before she used it on his shoulders. Pain caused his head to go back, thumping into the tiled wall behind him. “Fuck, that hurts.”

As though from a distance, he heard Lacey come in. “Got the scripts, Hadley,” she called out. “Can I come into the bathroom?”

“Yeah, but leave them just inside the door, okay?”

Lacey was quiet for a moment before opening the bathroom door and placing several bags of supplies in plastic bags on the floor. “I’ll get your case out of your car and get a fire going in the yellow cottage,” Lacey said. “It still gets cool in the mountains at night.”

“Thanks, Lace.” Hadley smiled, and Hunter felt anger rise in him again. He wanted all of Hadley’s smiles.

“Mine,” he snarled.

“Oh, hush, you,” Hadley said. She turned back to Lacey. “That will be great, Lacey. Once I get this wound debrided and the first round of antibiotics in the patient, I’ll rest. Infections near joints can be tricky. We’ll keep an eye on him.”

“Stay here,” Hunter demanded.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Hadley mumbled as she fixed a squirt bottle with a warm water and hydrogen peroxide mixture. “You have no furniture here.”

Gentle, probing fingers pried open the wounds, and she sprayed peroxide into the exposed flesh. Hunter gritted his teeth as each pulse of his heartbeat set off a throbbing he felt in his shoulder.

As if in a dream, he distantly realized he no longer heard the screams of the children. The howls of the damn cougar.

“Stay,” he said, lower this time. Less of a demand. “Please.”

Hadley sat back and put her gloved hands on her hips. “There is no bed,” she reiterated. Her head tilted to one side. “Let’s get this wound cleaned up. If you can behave, you can come stay in Little Yellow with me.”