Justin’s brain couldn’t process Eli’s words.

She’d agreed to take a mate at Clan Boudreaux?

He stared at the fine features of her face as early daylight kept offering hints the sun intended to rise soon.

“What, Justin?”

He was trying to form something to say, but that lump in his throat made it tough. 

“Please, Justin,” she implored.

The sadness in her voice ripped little holes in his heart that struggled to keep pace with his pain. 

“Please.”

Time to suck it up. 

How could he be angry with her when she hadn’t even known he existed when she made that agreement? He couldn’t, but that didn’t stop him from being as hurt as he’d been every other time in his life when he wanted someone to care about him.

It felt as if his mate had turned her back on him and he knew that wasn’t the case.

Drawing in enough air to force words past his thick throat, he said, “I’m not upset with you, Eli. I’m just ... I’m confused. Why did you—”

“Have sex?”

“Yes.”

She gave him a sweet smile and watched him with dejected eyes.  “I do not want other mate.  I want you.”

His heart surged with the shot of happiness her words gave him.  “Then why did you agree to mate a Clan Boudreaux shifter?”

“You will not like.”

Call him short on conscience, but he was glad for any reason she didn’t want a mate from that clan.  “You don’t know that.  Just tell me so I’ll understand.”

“Alexandre know I would not stay. He think mate will make difference. He said no mate, no Nico.  I think I say yes to mate, no bond. I get Nico and run, but now ...” She looked away then back to Justin.  “Now I know plan is bad.  Many shifters here. Clan would find me. Maybe kill. I must keep Nico.”

That fucker Alexandre.

What kind of father leaves a daughter to fend for herself all her life, then puts her in a bind to accept a mate she hasn’t even met for any hope of seeing Nico again?

Justin was heartened that she had never intended to actually bond with a mate.

If her father thought this woman couldn’t survive on her own, he knew nothing about Eli. 

Justin skipped past the part about the clan punishing or killing her, because he’d destroy every clan member who dared to touch her.  He asked, “Has the alpha here chosen a mate or is that your choice?”

“Do not know.” She made a disgusted sound and shook her head. “Make stupid deal.”

“Not stupid,” he corrected her and rubbed his thumb over her lips.  “Never call yourself stupid. You are bright, resourceful and beautiful.  Agreeing to take a mate complicates things, but I’m not willing to admit defeat.”

Hope stirred in her gaze.  “How?”

“My boss is very powerful and it’s important to him that each of his shifters end up mated.”  He wouldn’t get into the mating curse all Gallize shifters faced.  He still had a few years to go and he’d found a mate.

Not just a mate, the only mate for him.

He wasn’t about to pass up having someone like Eli in his life. 

She asked, “Your boss is alpha?”

“Not exactly.  He’s our leader.”

“Not bear alpha?”

“No.” Now Justin understood what Cole meant when he shared about the moment he had made the decision to tell Tess he was a Gallize shifter before he had made her his mate. Cole knew Tess was his only choice, just as Justin now saw that Eli was his, but the doubt Eli’s announcement raised had Justin hesitating. 

The alternative was unacceptable though.

She waited patiently for him to explain. 

Running a hand over his hair, he stared up at the sticks holding up their half-assed tent.  Her fingers on his cheek brought his gaze back to her. 

She ran her fingertips over the scruff that grew fast when he couldn’t shave every day. He would be sporting a half-inch-thick, dark beard by now.

“I like,” she murmured, brushing her fingers back and forth.

He could not give her up no matter what anyone said, even the Guardian.  If he lost her, telling her about the Gallize would be the least of offenses he’d face with the Guardian.

Catching her fingers, he brought them to his lips and kissed each one then pulled her down to his chest.  She came willingly and snuggled up to him. 

Giving it one last thought, he launched into explaining.

“I did not meet my bear until I was twenty-one.”

She moved. “Why?”

“Shh. Let me explain.”

“Yes, okay. Talk.”

Smiling at her new yes phrase, he said, “I am not a shifter like most bear shifters.  I have blood of a very old line of shifters who were created through the magic of a druidess many, many centuries ago.  Still with me?” He didn’t want to confuse her with a lot of detail, but at some point he’d give her a better explanation.

“I understand words.”

“This druidess bestowed the power of shifting and a little extra magic to the sons of five women who were all pregnant with boys at that time. Those sons would be the first Gallize shifters, which would be unlike any others.  The druidess is the reason our animals have to be called up by a powerful guardian she also created.”

“What is call up?”

“You know how an alpha can force the change on any of his clan, right?”

She moved her head in what felt like a nod.

“Our Guardian has that kind of power, but more.” Justin recalled how he had been practicing special self-defense moves as part of the training his Guardian had them all go through, but he was impatient to shift. “When he had me brought to him, he explained that I needed to train until my animal was ready to appear. I trained, but I lost my temper one day for no real reason and tried to run to burn off energy. My trainer blocked my exit and called the Guardian. He ordered me to change. His power hits you like a ton of bricks. It wasn’t easy the first time, but once I shifted into my bear I knew what had been missing in my life.”

“This is boss?”

“Uh huh, the man I’ve been calling boss. He’s not an alpha. He is way, way more powerful than alphas.”

“What animal?”

“I’m not supposed to be sharing this much so I’m not going to tell you what he shifts into yet until I talk to him, okay?”

“Yes, okay.”

“He’s not a bear shifter and I have Gallize friends who are all different kinds of shifters.  None of us belong to packs, clans, herds, flocks or whatever.  We are like brothers who have trained and fought in battle together.”

She lifted her head. “Brother like Nico.”

“Yes, much the same. We would also die for each other.”

Nodding in agreement, she laid her head on his chest again.

“We can’t accept just any mate and we have too much power to bond with a human. The same druidess gifted five different pregnant women to have girl babies who would be as powerful as us, but the females are not shifters. They have unusual gifts, but to be honest we don’t know exactly what gifts or powers each one possesses.”

“Mate for you?” she asked with so much suspicion in her voice he hugged her.

“Those women are harder to find than someone special like you, but even if they lined up a hundred of those women in front of me and let me have my choice, I wouldn’t take them now. Not when I know you are my other half.”

Her fingers curled into a fist, holding a wad of his shirt. “How find mates?”

He sighed.  “That’s where things aren’t simple. The females are supposed to have their own guardian like we do, but their last guardian disappeared a long time ago. If she was around, she could help our shifters find mates. Because of how hard it is to find a suitable mate for my kind, my boss takes any potential mating as very important.”

“Oh.” Eli sounded so forlorn.

Justin put his hand on her cheek and whispered, “I don’t know what we’re going to do, Eli, babe, but I will never put you in a position of choosing Nico over me.”

“I want both.”

He squeezed his eyes shut at how sad she sounded. He wanted both, too.  He would help her raise Nico if someone would just give them the chance.

But now that she admitted she’d agreed to mate a Clan Boudreaux bear, it complicated things.  The Guardian took a hard line about not interfering with non-Gallize shifter groups.

Justin intended to take a hard line about not giving up Eli.

The first hint of light allowed his eyes to see the inside of their structure. They’d have to pack up and head out soon, but he needed a minute to make sure she didn’t lose hope.

He said, “Just promise to give me a chance to talk to my boss and see what I can figure out.”

“Yes. I like.”

He smiled and started to say more, but her entire body went rigid. Her fingers turned white from twisting his shirt. She started breathing hard.

“Eli? What’s wrong?”

He grabbed her shoulders and lifted her to face him.

Her eyes rolled back until all he saw was white. What the hell?

Sitting up, he turned her so he could hold her with one arm and pat her face with the other. “Come on, Eli. Talk to me.”

Her hand grabbed his wrist.  Her voice was sluggish when she said, “Stop.”

Air rushed out of his lungs from where he’d held his breath.  “What just happened?”

Her breathing calmed down and her eyes fluttered open.  She murmured, “Vision.”

“A vision?  That looked like a seizure.” He cupped her face, wondering what the hell kind of vision did that to someone.

“Yes.” She stared at nothing. Her eyes moved back and forth. “Same vision.”

Did she mean the same vision as in a repeat? “You’ve had this vision before?”

Seeming to shake off whatever had come over her, she looked at him with guilty eyes.  “Yes.  When first meet. You touch me.”

He thought back over their time together and recalled the first moment of meeting her at the boat docks when she’d seemed so off and out of it. “It happened when I touched your arm to stop you from running into the dock steps, didn’t it?”

In reply, she nodded and said, “I keep secret.”

He heard the apology in her voice. “You didn’t know me, babe. I can see why you wouldn’t tell me then, but tell me now.”

She started moving like she wanted up, so he lifted her and turned her to sit across from him.  Brushing a handful of that cinnamon hair off her face, she described the vision of her running from a wolf and the first time Nico was part of it.

But she said this vision hadn’t felt the same as the earlier one, only that it also had a wolf. Nico had been part of the last wolf vision, which she hadn’t deciphered yet to know its true meaning.

Justin had no idea what to make of the visions, but he could tell she believed them to be premonitions.

Shaking her head, she said, “Is like other vision, but not.”

“It’s okay, babe. We’ll figure it out.”

She looked down at where she’d folded her hands in her lap.  “Is not okay.  My visions always true.”

Hold everything.  That gave what she was saying more gravity.  “What do you think is going to happen, babe?”

Her fingers moved back and forth across his chest as she thought quietly.  “In Russia, I have vision. I go to Nico, but grizzly in way.”

Shit, did that mean she thought Justin was the grizzly? He didn’t want to ask while she was talking.

“At dock, vision of running ... and you.”

He asked, “Were you running with me?”

“Do not know.”

She couldn’t have been running from him. That would mean she feared him. He said, “That could mean what’s happening now with us being chased by wolf shifters.”

Her fingers stopped fidgeting. “Yes. I like.”  She sounded relieved and added, “Today vision blurry at end.”

“Tell me more.”

“You are in vision.  Wolf attack person important for you. You must stop.” Raising her gaze to him, she said, “If not, life for you not same anymore.”

A wolf was going to attack Eli.

His pulse raced at the thought of not reaching her in time to prevent it, but that wouldn’t happen.  She was staying next to him until he had her in a safe place.

He still had to ask, “Am I successful? Do I stop the wolf before it hurts someone important to me?”

“Do not know.  Dark fog at end. Last time dark fog, mother die.  Could not save.”

“When was that?”

“Day before leave Russia.”

His heart ached for her. “You lost your mother right before you left?  Oh, babe.” He leaned over and hugged her close for a minute, then pulled back. “What happened?”

“Wolf shifters kill her. She would not give sex.”

He cursed under his breath.  “Are they dead?”

“Yes. I hide Nico and fight four, but strong and crazy on drugs.”

He asked, “Have you ever heard of the Black River pack.”

“Yes. They kill mother.”

Eli had fought four of them. He could have lost her before she ever showed up.  “Did you kill them?”

“No. I try. Alexandre and his bears kill them. Is why I make deal.”

Justin would never hold any decision a woman made under that kind of duress against her.  She was a survivor and used everything at hand to allow her to stand another day and protect Nico.

“Have you had many other visions, Eli, babe?”

“Yes.  Have vision I find lost cub, then find Nico. Have had visions all life.  All true, even if black fog at end.”

Shit. 

Rumors had floated forever through the bear shifter community about ursid hybrid shifters, though no one Justin knew had ever encountered one in person.  The stories of their special capacities went from phenomenal abilities or strength to unusual gifts and powers. 

Every time he learned something new about Eli, he was more convinced than ever she should be his mate.

First, he had to get her off this mountain before the wolves caught up to them. 

Next, he’d ask her to alter her travel plans so he could go straight to the Guardian to plead his case.  No question she would agree since she’d have the rest of her life to visit places such as Glacier National Park.

He now realized she’d bargained for five days to research a place to take Nico to live once Clan Boudreaux kicked her out, but he doubted that would happen.  That Louisiana clan had too much sense to let her go.

They had to get their hands on her first, though, and Justin would be standing in the way.

Grabbing her hands, which had been warm earlier when they were generating their own heat in this little hideaway, he noticed they were cold now.  “We’re going to leave in the next few minutes and work our way off this mountain.”

“Run past wolves?”

“We should be able to outwit two wolves.” If there were only two and they hadn’t called in reinforcements, because the fact that they hadn’t hunted Eli down during the night meant they were not as familiar with this area as Justin. 

Plus the wolves were packing titanium loads.  With the rough terrain, those wolf shifters would likely wait for Justin and Eli to come off the mountain using the same path they’d taken hiking up. 

That was the best descent option for that side.

Justin had another plan. 

It would require covering a lot more mileage and the plan had holes, but any plan on the fly usually did.

He hadn’t survived years in strange countries fighting for his life and that of his Gallize brothers, only to be defeated by two wolves in mountain terrain he knew.

Dawn had brightened enough to safely get out of their location.

Getting down to business, he instructed Eli, “Put your boots on. The minute we open this flap, all our nice warmth will be gone.”

“Grizzly cold?” she asked in a teasing tone that took the edge off his dark mood. 

She had grit.

“Me, cold?” Justin asked. “Not this grizzly.  I’ve got a sexy grolar bear to keep me warm.”

She angled her head in a quizzical look. “What is grolar?”

“You don’t know? That’s a mix between a grizzly father and a polar bear mother.”

“No one say this before.”

“Yep. Bunch of scientists probably came up with it, but I think it’s cute. My own personal hot grolar babe.”

“Crazy man. All things hot.” Her voice had a smug happiness to it.

His woman liked being called hot and he would make sure she never doubted it again.  “All things Eli-babe are hot.”

When she was as dressed as she could be, he pushed the flaps open and stepped out first, getting slapped in the face with a brisk chill. He hadn’t slept, but his body felt rested, which he attributed to the woman who had snuggled up to him for hours.

He could still feel a current of energy that had flowed between them during the night.  It was only a guess, but he believed that energy played a role in keeping them warm, just as much as their body contact.

He assessed the area, then helped her out. 

The direction he wanted to take would be no easy hike. If either of them fell and broke a bone, they’d have to shift and wait for healing. 

If he was correct about the wolf shifters not having knowledge equal to his of this mountain, his plan could put the wolves at a serious disadvantage.

While he was up throughout the night, he’d had time to consider all the potential threats.

He considered his odds of success better than good unless they met up with one particular group of wolves—the Black River pack—but he couldn’t imagine any reason why they would be after Eli.

Conversely, he couldn’t come up with why any wolf pack would be after her except to hold hostage for ransom money.

Considering all that, this could be the Black River pack, especially if word had traveled to their headquarters in South America about the wolf shifter losses in Russia that Eli had mentioned. If that pack attributed the deaths to Eli and knew of her trip here, then this all made sense.

They would want vengeance, which could mean far worse than using Eli as a hostage for ransom.

Plus, during a recent operation in Spartanburg, Justin’s team learned that the Black River pack was aligned with one of the five Power Barons.  When shifters were exposed to the public eight years ago, the shifter community had no governing rules beyond those of local or regional alphas. Humans had panicked.

That had been a bloody year. 

After a demonstration of magic by the Power Barons that scared the crap out of the US government, human politicians grasped at any power they believed could control what they considered a dangerous shifter community.  They’d agreed to align with the Power Barons, and it just got worse from there.

The Power Barons loved their unthreatened position, because it allowed them to function without oversight.

One of them was now believed to be supplying magic to the Black River pack, which meant the wolf shifters hunting Eli didn’t just have titanium bullets.  They probably had magic at their disposal.

Going up against that would lower Justin’s odds of getting her out of here safely. 

He checked his weapon. Since his ankle holster had been left behind when they shifted after he’d been shot, he stowed the weapon inside the waistband at his back and led Eli away from their camp.

His mind continued to work through different scenarios for who had put the wolves onto him and Eli. He tried not to pin this whole thing on Clan Boudreaux.

Most of them were a bunch of assholes, but even if some individual in that clan was behind this, the clan itself would never get involved with wolf shifters who killed innocents and experimented on captured bear shifters to develop obscene drugs used against all shifters.

If it wasn’t Clan Boudreaux, Justin would find whoever was behind this, and they would pay dearly.