Watching the dark highway in his rearview mirror for any suspicious change in headlights, Justin picked a straight stretch to go around another car. He put some distance between that car and his truck, then slowed to the speed limit now that he was ten miles down the road.

Watching for a tail should be easy.  Monday night out in this part of the country should mean almost no traffic.

Eli had moved to the back seat where she could access her suitcase for clothes. The thunk of her hitting the ceiling was followed by what he’d come to recognize as cursing in Russian.

“You okay, Eli, babe?”

“Okay, yes.”

He’d given her three bottles of water, a rag and a towel. She didn’t want to put clean clothes over her dirty body. 

Justin would clean up down the road.  Eli had been in worse condition than he had after Mishka took vengeance on Cazador.

Eli kicked the back of his seat. She muttered, “Sorry. Arms and legs too long.”

“Never. Every bit of you is perfect.”

One of those spectacular legs, now covered in jeans, pushed between the seats and over the console, then the rest of her twisted into the passenger seat. She wore a dark knit pullover and old sneakers. Her new hiking boots had been destroyed on the mountain.

He’d get her all the boots she wanted. 

She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes, which fell right back into place. Muttering, she grabbed her reddish-brown hair and twisted it into one of those knots only a woman could create. 

When he glanced over, she eyed him with suspicion.  “You have one opinion.”

“About what?”

She gave him a saucy look. “Leg is perfect.”

“Are you saying I’m not objective?”

“Yes, that.”

“Not when it comes to you, babe. I know perfection when I see it. You should never doubt me.”

“Crazy bear.”  She shook her head.

“Hot bear.” He winked at her.  “Remember, you like looking at my body and I like you looking at it.”

“So modest.” But she started laughing.

He’d gotten her mind off wolf shifters chasing her and Mishka’s bloodbath in that hole.

Mission accomplished. 

She waved her hand toward the windshield. “Where to?”

“Missoula Airport about two hours south so I can rent another vehicle.”

Her smile fell.  “Why?”

“Don’t worry. We got away without being seen. Cazador said he had a deadline tonight, so that means he probably intended to contact his people this evening, but that could be any time.  We have a good head start. I just want to rent a vehicle from a different company to make it really hard to find us.”

“You pay cash?”

“No, they’ll want a credit card.”

“Credit card bad now.”

“Normally, yes, but I work for a special group so I have an additional set of cards and ID just for this type of situation.”

“Oh.”

“I’m starving. We’ll be in Kalispell pretty soon. I’ll grab us some chow to take with us, then we’ll eat a much nicer meal later on.”

She waved her hand in dismissal. “Not need nice. All food good.”

There was his down-to-earth princess. 

He fell a little more in love with her every time she revealed a new piece of her personality. The way he figured it, he’d know all there was to know in a hundred or so years, but he would never tire of just being in the same space with her.

His mind chose that minute to remind him she’d refused to accept his bond, but she had a core of honor he couldn’t criticize. 

Two days left before she had to show up at Clan Boudreaux. He’d figure it all out by then. 

After zipping through a fast food place where they ordered enough for four humans, he got her talking about Nico. Her face lit up and love bled through her words.

“My Nico too skinny and sick when find. Broke foot. Much cold. Clan leave to die.”

“That’s brutal,” Justin said.

“True.” She shrugged. “Is same all animals.”

“Right, survival of the fittest, but natural animals abandon a weak or injured offspring because they have no way to save them. Shifters are part human, or are supposed to be. That’s ... unacceptable.”

She leaned over and kissed him.

“Not complaining, Eli, babe, but what’s that for?”

“Would not leave weak child.”

“Never. Tell me more about Nico.”

Sounding at ease, she leaned back and talked about how Nico had been getting stronger. That he was a very bright six-year-old and would make a great warrior one day. 

Justin had never spent this kind of time with any woman.

Herc hadn’t been keen on bear shifters before meeting Eli, so Justin had kept his one-night stands to mature women who wanted the same.  Human females mostly and they were all nice, but he could never be entirely himself around them.

His body felt at home with Eli.

And Mishka.

When Eli slowed down from talking about Nico, Justin brought up their bears.  “Were you as surprised as I was to find out Herc talked to your bear?”

“Yes. Very odd. Never before.”

“You know I said you should name your bear, but evidently she named herself.”  He looked over when Eli said nothing.

Her mouth was open. She closed it and asked, “What name?”

“She calls herself Mishka.”

Eli frowned. “Silly name.”

“Why?”

“Mishka mean bear. She hear others say bear in Russia.”

“Well, she liked it and Herc likes her.”

Turning toward him, Eli nibbled on her fingernail.

Justin didn’t want to upset her, but he’d like to see Eli and Mishka connect better.  “Tell me more about when you first learned you had Mishka.”

Sounding as if her thoughts were far away, she said, “I thought bear fun as child. Then not fun. Coat wrong. Not polar bear. Clan mean to me and mother.”

“That was wrong of the bear shifters.”

She shifted her sad gaze to him.  “Yes. They say I am bad mistake. Hate bear, hate me.”

His grip tightened on the wheel, but he forced his voice to remain calm. She was talking about a painful subject.  “You were never a mistake, babe. People who live in the remote area of Russia where you grew up just didn’t know.”

“What?”

“That ursid hybrids are a rare gift to our kind. Something to be appreciated and loved.”

“You say good all time. I want believe.”

Reaching over, he covered the hand she’d placed on the center console.  “I’m telling you the truth. Those people weren’t bad, just uninformed.  Most people fear anything that is different.”

Justin tried to sound positive, but he was disgusted over how many things Eli had been forced to survive. “Alexandre should have taken care of both of you.”

She sounded wistful when she said, “Yes. Hate him long time. When he kill wolves we meet. He say mother would not live in safe place he offer. She want only mate. He had mate.  I lose hate for that now, but not for him keeping Nico.” She looked over to Justin.  “Alexandre keep child as ... chess part.”

“Using him like a pawn?”

“Yes, that. Nico cry when I go.  I want hurt Alexandre.”

He did, too. That might be the way the Romanov alpha operated, but he was putting Eli and Nico through hell.

Justin could not do the same to her. Lifting her fingers to his mouth to kiss them, he said, “I understand and I’m going to help you get Nico.”

She kissed him tenderly. “Thank you.” Then she sat upright and shook her head.  “No.”

That confused him. “What do you mean no?”

“Clan Boudreaux lied. They send wolf shifters.”

He jerked around so hard the car weaved. He quickly regained control and said, “You think that clan paid them?”

“Yes.” She told him about Cazador calling her a liar about Justin being her mate and claiming the mate she was supposed to end up with was paying to get rid of her.

The steering wheel cracked under Justin’s grip.

Eli’s worried glance at the steering wheel forced him to not grind it to dust.  He’d find out who the alpha had promised Eli to and that bear shifter would suffer under Herc’s claws.

Realizing she was still panicked about Clan Boudreaux, Justin said, “Don’t worry. You’re not going there without me so I can deal with the guilty party.”

“Want Nico safe.”

“You have my word he will be.”

That was enough to give her relief, but she spent the rest of the drive to the Missoula Airport in silence.

After he was sure that he dragged no tail, Justin entered long-term parking at the airport and left her locked in the truck with a loaded gun.

He had pulled on a hoodie and tinted shooting glasses, just in case the wolves were smart enough to start hunting for him through multiple rental car companies.

He seriously doubted anyone could be that on the ball yet. He’d already sent a text to a Gallize cleanup team in this region that should dump Toro’s body in the hole, strip all clothing and other materials away, then cover the naked bodies with enough rocks and dead trees to bury them where they would eventually turn into compost. 

A fitting end for two pieces of shit.

Returning to his first truck in record time with a new gray sport utility, he transferred Eli along with their belongings. 

Back on the highway, Justin set a course for the one place he could keep Eli safe for the next two days. 

Wyoming.

Once he was in the area of the Guardian’s land, he’d find a hotel so Eli could take a real shower and feel prepared to meet new people. Maybe let her sleep more than she would be able to during the drive.

He worked on what he’d tell the Guardian. He hoped his boss would make the trip to meet with him to discuss Eli and open the ward so she could pass.

Once Justin explained what a bear shifter in Clan Boudreaux had tried to do, he expected his boss to be equally furious. Justin could see the Guardian maybe using that breach of the contract to negotiate a deal for Eli to stay with Justin and have Nico, too.

Eli could spend the next two days seeing some of Wyoming. 

Adrian would not harm her with Justin, Cole and Rory there.

Plus, Justin believed that the same man still lived deep inside Adrian who had wrecked many a bar when a guy treated a woman poorly.  Also, Rory could flush the titanium out of Justin’s wounds. He swiped sweat off his brow again, feeling the fever that had begun climbing across his skin during the drive. He’d washed the new head wound with bottled water as soon as they got to the truck, but he’d pushed past the normal deadline to get the residues out of his body. All the shifting was helping, but until the titanium was purged from his body, he’d have to take it easy on his bad leg to keep from breaking the bone again. 

Rory would irrigate the wound and have to break the leg one more time to reset the bone properly.

Yep, that would be loads of fun.

He and Herc would be laid up a day or two for healing.

Eli would be there to kiss him and make it all better.

Six hours passed with Eli snoozing and Justin still mentally editing his conversation with the Guardian and making plans for his and Eli’s future. She’d have plenty of input, because he wanted his mate happy.

Scratch that.

He wanted his mate ecstatic.

When he was an hour out from the north Wyoming warded area and sitting at a traffic light in the middle of nowhere, Justin sent a text to Cole.

Heads up. Need to meet G in WY after 0600 Tuesday for report and open ward. Future mate with me. What about A? 

Justin didn’t like bringing the Guardian around Adrian until the wolf was ready, but Cole and Rory could manage Adrian while the Guardian tweaked the ward. Justin would pull his boss back to the hotel to talk, thank him for opening the ward for Eli and say goodbye. 

He hoped the Guardian wouldn’t want to see Adrian then, but no one could stop it if his boss decided to take a look.

Justin wanted the four days they had left to get Adrian in shape. Justin was not losing Adrian, even if he had to drag his friend back to sanity kicking and screaming.

Adrian would do the same for him. 

Justin relaxed for the first time since that first damn titanium round had grazed his scalp. He loved it when a plan came together.

Eli snored softly. A lady snore.

Yes, he found that hot, too. 

If Cole was in human form, he’d reply to the text right away. If not, Justin would hear back by the time he got settled in the hotel.

His phone dinged with a message from Cole.

UR mate? Damn. Need details. Glad ur coming bc G is already

on way here tonight to talk. Not sure why. A ... not much

change. Going dark now w/A+R to keep driving A’s wolf hard.

Hope he sleeps thru G visit. 

Justin sent back a 10-4 and suffered a wave of guilt over Adrian not improving.

Then he trounced that thought.

Cole and Rory were doing everything possible.  Justin had no special cure. He just needed to be there doing his part to work with Adrian. 

Why was the Guardian headed to Wyoming?

That was good news, right? 

He couldn’t muster any excitement. The Guardian had strange powers and shifted into a sea eagle.  Had the boss been flying over Wyoming at night and seen how little progress Adrian had made?

Even so, the Guardian had given the three of them time off for this trip to be with Adrian. Their boss would never break his word, but all three of them had agreed to return to duty if something big happened.

Shit, that would mean Justin, too, when he finished his assignment with Eli, but things had changed.  He had no idea what to expect when he saw his boss.

He’d been holding Eli’s hand just because it made him happy to touch her. 

Her fingers suddenly squeezed tight as a vise.

“Babe?”

One look told him she was having a vision.  He stroked his thumb over her hand, just letting her know he was with her. When she came back to herself, she opened her eyes and sat up.

When she looked over at Justin, she said, “Wolf attack.”

Recalling her last vision, he smiled at her. “That’s all done, Eli, babe. You said I had to stop a wolf from killing someone I cared about. That’s you and the wolf is dead.”

She shook her head, looking panicked. “No. I say wolf attack person important to you. You must stop attack.”

That did sound like her exact words, which he had interpreted to mean the vision had been about them and the wolf.  “I don’t understand. The person important to me is you.” He thought back and said, “You had a dark fog last time. Did you have that again?  Maybe this is just something left over from the first vision.”

“No. I see much this time. Cazador wolf black. Wolf in vision red ... and attack eagle.”

His hair stood on end.

Adrian had to be the red wolf and he was going to attack the Guardian.

Cole and Rory had gone dark and the Guardian would be airborne.

Chills covered Justin’s heated skin.

Eli just had a vision of Adrian’s death.