Chapter One – Monica

Monica checked the rearview mirror. Nothing there. The same nothing she’d seen the last hundred times she’d looked. Excessive? Perhaps. Necessary? Absolutely. No one could know where she was going. Wasn’t that the whole point of leaving town and lying low?

She sighed and rubbed her right temple before placing her hand back on the wheel. She was tired. Tired of running, tired of looking over her shoulder, and tired of being a victim in the mess that had blindsided her. Monica was a fighter. Running did not come easy.

Monica changed the angle of her head and looked at the child asleep in the back seat.

She had to keep Jack safe. If that meant running for the rest of her life, she’d do it. For Jack, for his dad.

Monica groaned. She should be enjoying her retirement from the Army. Instead, she was racing across the country, trying to find a safe place to hole up.

She had a plan; of course, she had a plan. You didn’t survive a lifetime in the Army without a good, sensible plan. Okay, so sometimes those plans also had to be creative. And this plan sure was that. It also relied on luck. Monica usually liked to work on hard, tangible facts.

Checking the rearview mirror one last time, she turned off the highway, following the signs to Bear Creek. After five minutes, she pulled into a gateway on a straight stretch of road and turned off the headlights. Then she waited. If anyone was following her, she would see their headlights coming from half a mile away.

Breathe, her bear told her as she watched the road in the side mirror.

I am breathing. Monica expelled the air from her lungs. She’d been in tighter spots than this before, so why was she so tense, so nervous?

The child in the back seat stirred. The movement of the car had lulled him to sleep, now that they’d stopped driving he was waking up. She didn’t need him awake, not yet. Monica glanced at the clock on the dashboard, she’d been waiting for three minutes. If they were being followed, she’d know it by now.

Unless they know you’re waiting for them. Her bear always had her back.

“Dammit.” Monica couldn’t sit there all night. She closed her eyes briefly, going over her own movements, assessing the chances of a vehicle following her without her knowledge. Confident in her own evasive actions, she switched her headlights on, pulled out onto the road, and drove on. Now came the tricky part. If Jack’s dad, Trent, had this right, they must take the fourth turn on the left after leaving the highway. The road would lead them into the mountains. There was no room for error. If she didn’t get this right they could be lost on the mountain all night.

With a child, her bear reminded herself.

There it was. Taking the fourth turn, she accelerated up the steep road, keeping one eye on the rearview mirror for any signs of lights following her. Nothing. However, she was not about to let her guard down. There was too much at stake. She looked at the sleeping child and frowned, what the hell was she thinking? She’d been dragged into something she didn’t understand.

Dragged in so deep that she was on the run with another person’s child in the back seat. She wanted to allow the hysterical laughter bubbling inside of her to erupt, to let it out so she could focus on what lay before her. A damn hike in the dark.

Maybe she should have holed up in a hotel and waited until morning. She scratched that thought from her head. Second-guessing yourself is how people ended up dead. Before she set off, Monica had formulated a plan, and that was the plan she was going to stick to. Only Jack’s dad knew she was coming here. She hadn’t been followed. And she hadn’t been betrayed.

The road took several twists and turns, threading its way through darkened forests as she climbed higher and higher. The higher they climbed, the narrower the road became, until it petered out into a forest trail. Time to bail.

Of course, if someone found her car on a dead-end road in the middle of the night, it might raise unwanted questions. But since this was bear shifter country, it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to park their car at night and take a few hours of R&R, shifter style.

And if the car was found? If it was reported? Yeah, that might lead them here. Monica pulled the car over to the side of the road. Leaving her car here might be a mistake. But she had no choice. She had to reach her destination. She had to find him.

Monica shook her head. What was she even thinking? She’d done some research on the way. Although it was slim pickings. Ex-Army, the guy she was here to meet had disappeared off the radar years ago. The chances of him being up here in a mountain cabin were slim. The chances of him helping her were even slimmer. No doubt he had melted into the wilderness like a ghost.

Monica switched off the engine and rested her head on the steering wheel. No second-guessing, her bear told her.

With her resolve firm, she got out of the car. Jack’s dad told her to come here. Told her how to locate the guy’s cabin. And told her what to say to get him to help her.

If he was here.

Taking a map and compass from the glove box, she collected a small child’s backpack from the front seat and slung it over her shoulder. Then she grabbed her own pack, filled with hastily packed food and water, along with a spare set of clothes and a blanket. Not exactly military standards, but it would do for a couple of nights on the run.

“Okay, buddy, you have to wake up.” Monica unclipped the seatbelt securing her precious cargo. “Hey, Jack, we have to go.”

Jack opened his eyes, taking a moment to focus on her face in the darkness. “Where are we? Are we home?”

“No, bud, we’re not. We’re going on an adventure.” She smiled gently. Kids were not exactly her thing, but she liked Jack, he was a good kid. Despite the circumstances, he hadn’t whined once.

“I was asleep.” He looked around, staring out into the darkness. “Where are the lights?”

“There are no street lights or houses here. We’re on the side of a mountain.” Monica infused her voice with excitement, but Jack wasn’t having any of it.

“Why?” He asked the age-old question, to which she had no reasonable answer. Jack didn’t need to hear the truth. This journey in the dark, across open country, would be scary enough, without adding the truth as to why they were on the run.

“Because there’s an old friend of your daddy’s up here and we came to say hi.” Monica held out her arms to Jack. He eyed her with suspicion, then decided since she was the only person here, and his daddy trusted her, that he would trust her, too. Not that she had ever given him any reason not to trust her.

“Is Mommy or Daddy gonna be there?” Jack asked as she lifted him into her arms. He wrapped his thin arms around her neck, and his legs around her waist. At five years old, he was tall for his age, but thankfully he was willow thin. If not, she might struggle to carry him over rough terrain. Monica was fit, but not Army fit. But they’d manage.

Locking the car, she hoisted the packs higher onto her shoulder, and set Jack on the opposite hip, then she struck off up the road. Ten feet later, she took a narrow trail through the trees, allowing her shifter senses to guide her. A shiver passed through her as she walked, one foot in front of the other, unsure as to what she was going to find at the end of this journey.

Focusing on finding this wolf shifter, she’d never allowed herself to consider what would happen if he wasn’t there. Sure, she could stay out here for a night or two. But after that, one way or another she would have to start dealing with the aftermath of...

“Monica, can I walk part of the way?” Jack’s small voice in her ear brought her focus back to the here and now. Worrying about what might be would not help them.

“Sure. But you must hold my hand. Don’t let go. You let it go, I’ll pick you up.” She let his small body slip down to the ground. It would make for slower going, but at least she would stay fresh. Monica looked behind them. There was no one there. Still, the less tired she was, the faster she could run with Jack in her arms if the need arose.

“Who are we meeting?” Jack was now fully awake, and a fully awake Jack liked to talk.

“His name is Wyatt. He served with your dad. They were good friends,” she reassured him.

“And my daddy trusts him?”

“That’s a strange question,” Monica replied.

“My daddy didn’t trust a lot of people.”

“Did he tell you why?” Monica asked. Any new information the young boy could tell her would help Monica figure out her next move.

“He said there were a lot of bad men out there.” Jack’s hand tightened around hers. “Something happened, didn’t it? With Mommy. Someone took her.”

“Your dad will do everything he can to get her back.” Monica hated the small whimper Jack gave out, and her hand tightened around his. “All I know is your dad needed me to keep you safe and he said that Wyatt could help. Since I trust your dad, and he trusts Wyatt, that’s good enough for me. We have our mission and your dad has his.”

“I wish I was at home in my bed.” Jack’s voice was small and distant. “I wish Mommy was safe.”

“Want me to carry you again?” Monica’s heart ached for Jack. His voice sounded so small and vulnerable out here on the wild mountainside, where the wind whipped at your hair, and the stars seemed like a vast array of eyes looking down on them. Watching them.

Her neck prickled, and her bear stirred restlessly.

“Yes, please.” Jack’s voice drew Monica’s attention back to reality. No one was out there. No one knew they were here.

“Up you come.” Monica swung him up into her arms and he rested his head on her shoulder.

“You won’t leave me, will you, Monica?” He settled himself into her arms, his small body warm against hers. Jack curled his fingers in her ponytail as if holding onto a piece of her just to make sure she couldn’t escape.

She placed her hand on his back and rubbed it, trying to soothe him. “Not if I can help it.”

“Do you promise?” Jack whispered in her ear, his voice lost in the darkness.

Monica closed her eyes briefly. One thing the Army taught you was to not make promises you couldn’t keep. And honestly, she didn’t know if she could keep him safe. Depending on what happened next, she might not be the one to look after Jack, despite her promise to Trent. Because to reunite Jack with his parents, she might have to leave him behind. “I promise to try.”

Jack didn’t answer, and she walked on in silence, her ears trained on what might lurk in the darkness. Because something was out there. Dammit, this was a mistake.