Prologue
The most irritating thing in the world was a ‘happily ever after’. As the director of an incredibly popular dating agency, Karina Vasquez was responsible for such miracles occurring every damn day. She was inundated with calls from those who she’d set up, wanting to thank her for making their dreams come true. And, when grateful past clients weren’t clogging up her phone line, new ones with dreams of their own were battering down her door. In simple terms, she had become far too good at her job. Demand was outweighing what she could supply, and there was only one solution to the problem, as far as Karina could see.
The sign on her office door read: “Out to lunch. Permanently.”
She had driven to the place where happy childhood memories called, memories of a time when there were no demands or pressures placed on her. It was the place where her mother, Rose, had taught her to swim, and where her father, Javier, had cooked ribs on a rickety old barbeque. As she arrived in Fairhaven Park, the sun was shining with a glorious brilliance, and all at once she was no longer a twenty-five year old business sensation in the world of romance. Karina was as free as the birds that soared above her.
Best of all, work could not follow her here. Not long ago she’d had four clients in this very park, all of them brothers with the surname Best. But now they were paired off, a domino effect of happily ever afters that had been part of the boom which sent Karina off the deep end. That meant there were no eligible men seeking love here, only a park full of quiet, silent places where she could forget that the rest of the world existed. It was going to be heaven.
And then there was a crash, and Karina rocked in the seat of her car.
“Watch where you’re damn going!” said a voice that was almost a growl.
Karina threw her head out of her car window, watching as a man in the Land Rover opposite her did the same. He had tawny brown hair cut straight and sensible, and his face was the most serious one Karina had ever seen. He had a strong jaw pulled into a grumpy sneer and shining eyes that appeared gold by the light of the brilliant sun. For a moment, Karina just looked at him, mesmerized. Before she remembered what he’d said, and done.
“You bumped my car!” she decreed, outraged.
“You were daydreaming!” the man insisted. “You came straight at me.”
“Come on!” Karina retaliated at once. “It’s a wide road. You could have gone around! You’re just one of those assholes who likes to make trouble.”
“Sure I am,” the man replied, “but I’m also responsible for other people’s safety here. Can’t let a menace like you go unchecked.”
It was then that Karina spotted the badge glinting on his lapel. He was in some kind of uniform, and further inspection of his car revealed a huge logo for Fairhaven on the side, along with the words: Park Ranger Service.
“Shit,” Karina said quietly.
“Indeed,” the man said sharply. “My name’s Reinicke, by the way. I suggest you avoid me for the duration of your stay.”
He drove off, snaking around her car before she could bite back with the insult that was bursting on her tongue. Reinicke. It was such a peculiar name. It was one that Karina knew would stick in her head and come back to haunt her. She clutched her steering wheel tightly.
“Jawohl, mein herr,” she grumbled as she too drove away.
* * *
The plan was simple. Stay one night at the Old Spring Inn, prepare herself, and then let the adventure begin. Karina stood at the mirror the next morning, taking stock of her situation and kind of wondering if she hadn’t overreacted a little to the stress of her job. After a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed and an ample room service breakfast, she was beginning to feel relaxed already. Perhaps she didn’t have to go the whole hog and trek completely off the grid.
She was dressed in shorts and a shirt, with a vest underneath and a waterproof tucked into a baggie that hung from her backpack. Her dark locks hung around her face, and Karina studied herself as she pulled them back into an austere pony tail, no single hair escaping from her grip. Her face was still pretty, when it wasn’t contorted by stress, with glimmering dark eyes and full lips. Somewhere in that reflection, there was a carefree girl whose only wish had been to make other people happy by finding their true love. If she could just find that girl again, things would be all right.
Karina had bought all the gear for camping out in the wild. She intended to trek to the northern section of the park, reserved for serious hikers and those who wanted to disappear for several days and be one with nature. She wasn’t a serious hiker by any means, and the store tags still attached to half her stuff would attest to that, but how hard could it be? She did cardio and hot yoga every day back in LA. She was in shape. There was no reason to think that she couldn’t handle a few days alone in the wilderness.
Yet, there was that worry again. Her office, though busy and unbearably loud, was her kingdom. She was comfortable there, in her ergonomic chair, drinking imported coffee. Life was hectic, but it had order to it. She knew what to do in LA. Out here, there were lots of things she’d need to learn, and learn them quickly to stay safe. She moved from the mirror to her backpack, fishing down among the layers of equipment to find her phone.
It had been switched off from the moment she put that impetuous sign up on her office door. Yet she had packed it to take on her trek, like an extra limb that she couldn’t quite part from. Tentatively, Karina held down the button to bring the phone back to life. She dropped it onto the bed at once as it roared with a cacophony of beeps, clicks and buzzes. Messages were coming in from every available outlet, lighting up the screen like a fireworks display. Karina felt her heart grow tight at the prospect of answering them all, and she settled for sending only one reply.
A single tweet from her official account:
Hiking in the woods to get some me time. #offgrid
She turned the phone off and buried it deep within her bag once more.
***
By the time Karina reached the little visitor’s hut that marked the start of the northern section of Fairhaven, she was more determined than ever to leave life behind for a few days. Inside the visitor’s hut there were only three people besides herself, and the emptiness of the charming little place made her feel calm at once. She stepped across to a display unit filled with pamphlets, observing the different maps and walking trails that were available in this part of the park. She began picking up different leaflets, looking at their covers. They seemed to be color-coded, ranging from easy treks that only lasted an afternoon, up to full circuits of the highest peaks and lowest valleys that California had to offer. She wanted to be gone for a few days at least to clear her head, so she loaded up on mid-level maps.
“Yeah, you’re going to need crampons if you’re taking Route 9B.” A voice drifted towards her from the other people assembled. “I wouldn’t do it at this time of day personally. That trail is south-facing and the sun’ll be on your back for the whole climb up. If you want my advice, take Route 13 round the lake for the daytime and connect to 9B at about six tonight. You’ll be on the peak as the day cools off, and at the top for sunset.”
It was quite a romantic idea, but the voice delivering the instructions was arrogant and brisk. Karina knew that voice already, and she wished that she didn’t. He should have been so easy to forget, just another jerk picking on women drivers, but as she heard the couple thanking him for his advice, she had to look over.
He was looking her way. They both turned their heads back to their business at that, one spark in the connection of their eyes. He still had golden eyes, even in the poor fluorescent light inside the hut. Karina felt like they’d shone straight into her own dark gaze and lit it up for a moment. She hated that feeling, the twist of her gut when she met someone who got to her. It didn’t happen very often, and it certainly shouldn’t have been happening with him of all people. The guy with the funny name that she hadn’t managed to make herself forget.
“Can I help you with something, Ma’am?” he asked, starting to approach her. “Directions to driver’s ed, perhaps?”
Karina bit the inside of her cheek, choosing to smile away the insult as she turned to face Reinicke again. He was considerably taller than her, nearly a whole head and shoulders, and almost twice as broad. She found herself looking at his muscular chest, where a smattering of brown hair was peeking out through the gap in an undone button.
“Sloppy,” she said, pointing at it at once.
That got his goat, and Reinicke adjusted his shirt at once. His clothes seemed just slightly too small for him, his muscles bulging everywhere. Karina did her best not to give him a deliberate once-over, despite his impressive frame. She looked at his face, which was flushed with a hacked off look, and she smiled at him again. Reinicke set his jaw tightly, and his eyes washed over Karina’s body. She felt that twist in her gut again as she watched him, watching her.
“You’re camping out north?” he asked dryly. “Really?”
Perhaps it did look odd for a short half-Latina girl to be carrying a backpack that was almost her own size. But Karina hiked the bag up proudly and stood as tall as she could manage. Who was this guy to tell her what she could and couldn’t do?
“Obviously,” she answered.
“Have you ever hiked before?” he added.
The second phrase was less insulting, and he had less of the bite in his tone. It was a genuine question, and one that Karina had asked herself that very morning.
“Sure I have,” she lied at once. “Tons of times.”
“But not here?” Reinicke said, and it almost wasn’t a question. “Somehow, I think I’d remember seeing you if you had.”
She heard what he was driving at in the way his tone went flat at the end of the sentence. If he’d been talking to someone else that way, Karina might have found that wry humor amusing. Reinicke spoke his mind, at least. There was no falseness to him. Yet every time he opened his mouth, Karina felt her temper shoot up like a rocket. He was bad for her stress levels, and she needed to get away from him as soon as possible.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to get started before the hottest part of the day sinks in,” she said briskly.
It was total bullshit, derived from what she’d overheard him warn the others about, and to her surprise he seemed to buy it. Karina began to stride through the visitor’s hut, towards the open door at the other end where the wilds of nature awaited. She was nervous, quaking inside and a little off-kilter from her second run-in with Reinicke, but she knew she had to do this. It was a test of herself, to see if she could live without the lifestyle she’d been buried in for so long.
“Hey, just one second!”
She heard Reinicke’s footsteps thump up to her before she turned. Some of the sternness had fallen from his face, making him look his true, youthful age. Before she could protest, he shoved something into her hand. Karina looked down to find it was a small, blocky radio, stamped with the seal of the Fairhaven Rangers.
“It’s a courtesy,” Reinicke said simply, “for people who aren’t familiar with the territory.”
“And this calls who, exactly?” Karina challenged.
“Me,” Reinicke replied. “I’m here in the day and at the mountain outpost all night.”
“I really don’t think I’ll need it,” she began to say, but Reinicke shook his head.
“I’m afraid I have to insist. It’s the rules.”
He was so proper, so stiff and unmovable. Karina tucked the radio into her pocket with a reluctant sigh.
“Don’t hang by the phone for my call or anything,” she teased.
Reinicke gave a little scoff.
“Believe me, I have better things to do,” he shot back.
And on that note, Karina Vasquez left the visitor’s hut to begin the adventure she’d always wanted to have.
* * *
Hiking was hard. Karina had known it would be a challenge for her, but as the hours went by, she realized that she was definitely out of her depth. She had been following a yellow route marked on the map, one of the Level 2 difficulties, to have something easy to start with. But somewhere along the way, she’d taken a right instead of a left, and now she was pretty sure she was halfway up a Level 4 hillside. And it was the hottest part of the day. The sun beat down on her head, making her hair feel like it was on fire, and she decided that she had to stop and find a hat and some water.
Although her bag seemed to be getting heavier by the minute, she was grateful for all the supplies she’d packed. The spotty teen adviser in the Great Outdoors store back home had been very, very helpful. She’d suspected he was all too keen to help a pretty young woman for a change, instead of the grizzled forty-something men he usually had to advise. Karina glugged some water down from one of several bottles she had with her, then she threw on a ridiculous-looking hat with a floppy brim all the way around it. The look was hideous, but the relief from the sun was heavenly.
According to her map, she just had to get over the other side of the hill, then there’d be another crossing of the paths. There, she’d make a left, then she could get back onto her original route and find a nice grassy place to pitch up and get some much-needed rest. Karina looked up at the peak ahead, craning her neck to try and see where it ended. She heaved out a heavy sigh, put her pack back on, and trudged forward again in the heat.
As the minutes went by, she began to make out a shape on the horizon. At the very top of the hill there was a thin-looking person with similar camping gear, sitting on a mossy rock. He was about Karina’s age with very dark skin, and he sat looking out on the view with a morose sort of expression. When Karina eventually arrived at the top of the peak, the young man was still there, and he noticed her as she set her bag down beside him.
“If you came for the view, I’d say it’s worth it,” he remarked.
Karina turned as he pointed beyond him, and what she saw took her breath away. The peak overlooked a low valley to its north, shaded from the midday sun and glowing with a million different hues of green. There was a glorious lake that snaked off into a river where it met the trees, and patches of those same trees popped up all around the valley to pepper it with darkness. Between these patches, lush fields of low grass and bushes sprang out. It all looked so cool and peaceful, and Karina couldn’t wait to get down there and enjoy its shade and calm.
“Wow,” she breathed. “I actually did it. I climbed a freaking mountain.”
Her fellow hiker gave her a grin.
“Your first time here too?” he asked. “I’ve never done Fairhaven before. It’s a heck of a challenge. I’ve been sitting here nearly an hour trying to get my breath back. I seriously thought I was dying on the way up.”
Karina chuckled. She approached the man and held out her hand to him.
“Karina,” she said.
“Bud,” he answered.
“You know,” she continued, “if you were seriously struggling, you could have just called the ranger on that radio thingy.”
Bud’s brows crossed in confusion.
“Radio thingy?” he repeated.
Karina got the little black block out of her pocket and showed it to him.
“Sure,” she began, “it’s for first time hikers. You didn’t get one?”
Bud shook his head, staring at the box.
“Oh, well maybe you didn’t meet the ranger down at the hut,” Karina reasoned.
“No, I did,” Bud added quickly, then he gave a little scowl. “You don’t forget a guy like that in a hurry. He basically inferred that I ought to go home if I didn’t know what I was doing. What an ass.”
Well, that definitely meant he’d met Reinicke. Karina looked at the radio again puzzlingly. Why hadn’t he given one to Bud, if he was so strict on the rules? Then, as he turned it over in her hands, Karina saw a tiny printed label on the radio’s back panel. It read: Property of Fairhaven Park Rangers. Not for public use.
“What the heck…” she murmured, reading it again.
“I’m glad you have that thing,” Bud said, not hearing her mumblings. “Makes me feel safer. You mind if I do the descent with you, so you can radio for help when I inevitably break my leg?”
Karina chuckled.
“Sure thing,” she replied. “Ready when you are.”
“Really?” Bud asked. “Wow. You must be really fit to carry on without a big break.”
Perhaps it was adrenalin, or the pride she felt from reaching the top, but Karina really did feel strong again. She was looking forward to picking her way down the slope with gravity on her side for a change, leading her into the shady side of the peak where cool water and dense trees awaited.
“I guess it’s beginner’s luck or something,” she said, her cheeks flushing a little.
Bud held his hands up at once.
“I’m not hitting on you, by the way,” he said, sounding suddenly worried. “I have a wife back at the campsite. You seem like you could get me back to her in one piece.”
“What’s her name?” Karina asked.
“Susie,” Bud replied.
“I’ll do my best to return Susie’s property in good condition,” she jibed.
They set off then down the slope, Karina padding ahead whilst Bud carefully followed her footsteps. It was a strange position to be in, guiding someone else when she just about knew what to do herself, but it filled her with pride. She was used to leading and being in charge, never challenged or argued with. Bud was a patient and pleasant follower, and he made her journey pass a little quicker. Though, in all honesty, his brand of placid agreement was kind of boring. Now and then, as the forest grew thicker and the day grew darker, Karina found herself wishing for a certain acid-tongued person to appear and spice up her day.
***
Bud was hoping to return to Susie tomorrow, but now that he’d met Karina, he didn’t seem to want to go back alone. Somewhat reluctantly, she’d agreed to walk part of the Level 1 path with him the next day to get him back out of the section before she continued on her own journey. She found that her kindness was rewarded when Bud set up her tent for her and produced a tiny campfire to cook them some dinner. After that, her little follower took himself off to his tent to read, and Karina was left alone with the mild climate of the night. She could see the dim white glow of Bud’s electric lantern inside his tent, illuminating his shape as he craned over a book.
Outside, however, the light show was far more spectacular. The sky was lit with a magnificent array of stars, in constellations that she’d always meant to learn but never gotten around to. When she was a child, her father used to point them out to her, and now she wished she’d paid him more attention. Karina craned back to look up at the sky, and eventually she gave in and lay on the grassy ground outside her tent, just drinking in the solitude of the night. This was the kind of peace she’d been looking for.
A rustle in the bushes destroyed the moment entirely.
It brought Karina back to the reality of being alone in the forest, with nobody but Bud to turn to for help. The thought did not comfort her in the least. Slowly, she rose from her position on the ground, allowing her eyes to adjust to the dark shapes around her. The trees suddenly seemed longer and taller than before, their branches leaning in to surround her from her right. Further left, the babble of water caught her ear and she listened for the sound of animals who might be approaching it for a late night drink.
At some point during Karina’s stargazing, Bud had put his light out, and a moment of concentration allowed her to tune in to the low hum of his snoring. Perhaps it was only Bud that had turned over in his sleeping bag, making noise. But then the snap happened, the clear snap of a twig coming from the trees, and Karina’s head shot back to the dense forest. She scanned the shadows, seeing movement there, and she backed up to the flap of her tent hurriedly.
“No freaking way,” she murmured as the shadows took shape.
There was a bear in the woods. The huge lumbering grizzly had stopped at the very edge of the trees, some ten feet away from where Karina’s tent was pitched. The creature’s eyes glowed amber in the darkness of the night, and somewhere in the back of Karina’s terrified mind, she was reminded of a pair of eyes with a very similar hue. But the thought was blocked off by fear as she regarded the huge creature.
What was she supposed to do? Did you have to play dead with bears? Keep completely still? Or was that for wolves and pack animals? Perhaps you had to stand up and make yourself seem bigger? That sounded right.
All these thoughts rushed through Karina’s mind as she sat staring at the bear. But she was hardly anything over five feet tall, and the bear had to be eight long at least. If it raised itself onto its hind legs, it could just topple down and crush her. Keeping still was both the best and only option, for Karina found that she was too frightened to move. She kept her gaze locked with the deep eyes of the bear, willing it not to come any closer.
And it didn’t. The bear stayed exactly where it was, watching her with its own wary expression. Something her mother had once said came back to her in that moment, when Karina had found a mouse in their cabin on a Fairhaven holiday years ago. Animals are more afraid of you than you are of them. Man was the biggest predator the grizzly bear had to face, and this one seemed to have learned to keep its distance from other people. Karina continued to study the creature and it looked straight back at her with the same wary curiosity. Perhaps it was just looking for food.
“I finished my dinner a while ago,” she told it in a shaking voice, “and I don’t think you’d like my protein bars. Sorry buddy, I don’t have anything to give you.”
The bear cocked its head strangely, as if it was actually listening. Karina saw the flash of gold in its eyes as its massive head shifted. Its fur seemed dark by the light of the stars, and now that she was calm enough to observe it, the creature seemed a little thinner than she’d have expected. She felt bad then, about not having any food to give it, but at the same time she didn’t really want the creature to come any closer. If it tried to forage in her tent, the whole thing would be destroyed, and then she’d have to retreat to the hut and face Reinicke with her tail between her legs.
Karina ran her fingers over the radio, still in her pocket. This was exactly the sort of thing she ought to call him about: a bear coming too close to human settlements. But at that moment, the grizzly heaved itself around and began to retreat into the trees. It was a long time later, when she was certain that it was gone, that Karina managed to settle down and get some sleep.
* * *
Between them, Karina and Bud finally made sense of their maps. There was a short path back to the south which connected with a roadway into the main park, and they could get there in about two hours. Bud was grateful for the company, and he didn’t shut up about how pleased he was to be able to tell Susie he’d spent a night out in the wild. Karina hadn’t dared to tell him about the bear. She figured it might spoil his high a little if he felt he’d missed out on seeing it, plus he’d be nervous the whole way back if he thought that a grizzly was somewhere nearby. Karina herself had got to grips with her nerves, feeling like her calm standoff with the creature was a genuine achievement. She really was at one with nature now.
“Well, this is where I leave you,” Karina said, eyeing the sight of the road ahead.
“You sure you won’t come back with me?” Bud asked her. “I’d love to invite you to meet Susie. She’d cook us a fabulous dinner on the barbeque, to say thanks you know?”
Karina shook her head. It was tempting to just walk down the roadway back into civilization, but she wanted another day’s challenge at least. She was just finding her feet and her sense of direction, after all.
“I’ll look you up when I get back down to the main park, I promise,” she told Bud.
“Please do. We’re here ‘til Saturday,” he replied.
They shook hands, and he wrung her wrist with such gratitude that Karina felt her arm aching after he’d let go. She waved Bud off, watching his thin frame as he receded towards the horizon, fading out of her journey just as he’d faded into it. It had been nice to have a friend for a while, but now she had to move on alone and really feel the solitude she’d been searching for. As she turned to leave, however, she heard the rumble of a car coming up the road.
“Turning back?” called a voice nearby. “Why am I not surprised?”
Karina felt her gut twist. She turned angrily to the sight of the approaching Land Rover, and sure enough there was a handsome face sticking his head out of the window. Reinicke looked less sullen than usual, his set jaw replaced by a smug smile. She wasn’t sure which expression was more infuriating. Both of them got her right in the chest, making her throat dry when she tried to reply.
“Actually,” she began, clearing her throat, “I was just guiding a quitter back to civilization. You’ll find him a little ways down the track. His name is Bud and he could use a ride back to his wife at the campsite.”
The car had slowed to a stop beside her. Reinicke quirked a tawny brow.
“You telling me my job now?” he crooned.
“Someone clearly needs to,” Karina shot back, “or else you’ll be wasting your day offering your help to girls who don’t need it.”
Reinicke pouted a little, then nodded.
“Message received,” he said. “Although, I’d take Route 16 from this point, if I were you. It’s gorgeous at the riverside around lunchtime.”
Karina chewed on her lip for a moment.
“I’ll consider it,” she said.
Before his window rolled up, Karina could have sworn she caught the ghost of a smile on Reinicke’s lips.
***
He was annoyingly right about Route 16. It was a nice walk, not too challenging, but by no means easy, and Karina had a real sense of achievement by the time she hit the river. At midday, the sun directly overhead meant that you could see straight down into the crystal waters, and she sat on a rock to watch the shoals of fish that were swimming by under the surface. She had situated herself in the shade, resting up and filling up with water and protein bars, but the day was still remarkably hot. Sweat had soaked right through her clothes and her head felt a little heavy with the heat.
Part of the river here broke off into a separate pool which most of the fish avoided, and it looked about twice as deep as a bathtub. Karina navigated the rocks to reach the shady little pool, dipping a hand into the still water. It was blissfully cool, and she scooped up some water to splash against her face. The relief from even a handful of the water was too tempting, and she knew what she had to do. Karina stood up, kicking off her shoes, and stripped off her sweat-soaked clothes, even her underwear.
Here, she was alone and free, and it was wonderful to sink her naked body into the pool and feel cool all over. She paddled around a little and breathed a sigh, even dipping her hair into the water to rinse out the sweat. This was the life. She hadn’t had a phone-call in days, and there were no pressures or other people’s dramas to deal with. She could just be herself here. And yet, she wished that there was someone with her, so that she could say “Isn’t this wonderful?” and hear them agree. It was a perfect moment, one that would have been so much better if it was shared.
The snap of a branch brought her out of her reverie, and she looked in the direction of her pack. The bear with the shining eyes was back.
“Oh man,” she said to it without even thinking. “Don’t you dare. That food’s gotta last me another day at least, and I don’t want you ripping my bag open.”
The grizzly definitely had the claws to do it, but when he reached her bag, the bear did not try to get into it. He stepped over her discarded clothes and walked right past her, dipping his head to drink from the busier part of the river. Karina swam around, watching the creature with interest. He was so placid, yet totally independent of her. He didn’t seem to fear her like he had before. Now, she was just part of the scenery.
When she was fully cooled down, Karina ventured out of the pool. The bear, who had been glancing in her direction every so often, promptly turned its back as she emerged from the water. She stifled a laugh, rummaging in her bag for new clean clothes to put on.
“I’m just gonna say it,” she began playfully, “you’re a really weird bear.”
She wasn’t expecting another snap of a branch, nor the sudden voices which followed it. Panicked, Karina threw on her panties and desperately searched for more clothes, a chill rushing through her as she heard two male voices approaching from somewhere nearby. Any second, the pair of hikers would appear and see her frantic half naked form.
“Shit, shit, shit…” she mumbled, throwing things to and fro as she fumbled for a t-shirt.
Her panic appeared to have alerted the bear. Just as she managed to scramble into her shirt, two figures appeared through the trees to her left, and the bear made a leap from her right. Karina yelped, shocked by the sudden vaulting force of the wild animal as it jumped clean over the pool she’d been in, right into the path of the oncoming strangers. A low growl began to erupt from the creature, and Karina covered her mouth before another yelp could escape her.
“Whoa!” cried the first of the strangers, a young man with hiking sticks and khaki shorts.
“D-don’t w-worry miss,” stammered his equally youthful companion. “W-we’ll, w-w-w-we’ll scare this bear off f-f-f-for you.”
As if they could. Karina watched as the bear reared up onto its hind legs and let out a massive roar that rocked the whole area. She felt her damp body shiver with the force of the sound, combined with the sudden shrieks of the men. The strangers turned and ran at once, not even sparing her a second glance. She could have been mauled to death, for all they knew. Karina sighed, then jumped a little as the bear landed back on all fours with a thud.
“Geez,” she mused, “they’d have left me for dead. I guess there aren’t any gentlemen left in the world, huh?”
The bear glanced her way, those shining golden rings locked with hers for a moment. Karina felt something spark in her heart, and she quirked a brow. No. The thought that had almost hit her was impossible, almost totally unheard of. And yet. She stepped towards the bear, still studying his glowing gaze, reaching one hand out towards his massive head. Her whole body grew tense the closer she got, and yet she felt a wave of heat between them, a radiance that made her feel strangely safe.
“You can’t be an ordinary bear,” she reasoned softly.
Before she could touch him, the bear made a dash for it. He shook the ground as he deftly spun and scrambled back the way he had come, vanishing into the thickest trees before Karina had a chance to see where he was going. Her hand was still hovering in the air, waiting to touch him. She sighed again, and went back to searching for the rest of her clothes. Somewhere above her, the sky had sheathed itself with silver clouds, making the day darker and more humid than it had been before. Karina fumbled for her waterproof, fearing rain, but all the while her mind was on the golden gaze of the creature who had just fled the scene.
* * *
“Attention. Attention. Are you picking this up? Bad driver lady, come in. This is urgent.”
It took Karina a good long while to realize where the low, dry voice was coming from. Reinicke had never even had the decency to learn her name, and Karina felt somewhat inclined to leave him hanging as his voice rattled through on the radio. It was much later in the day, approaching evening, and the crystal clear rain had been falling solidly for a good hour now. Karina clutched the radio in one damp hand, watching droplets flick off the speaker as the voice came through again.
“Please answer me,” Reinicke said, “so I know that you’re safe.”
His tone was softer the second time, so much so that, on anyone else, Karina might have called the sound tender. It gave her one of those funny gut twists that she was rapidly learning to ignore. She held down the button on the side of the radio, holding it a little unsurely to her lips.
“What do you want, Ranger Boy?” she asked.
There was a sound of static at the other end. A sigh of relief? Karina couldn’t be sure, and she couldn’t stop herself from thinking that’s what it was.
“Listen, there’s a massive thunderstorm imminent,” Reinicke said, his tone suddenly darker. “I need you to get to the outpost before it hits. I’m here waiting, but I’ll come out and get you if-”
“No, no,” Karina said at once, “I can make it there. I’m not having any problems with the maps now, thank you.”
“Now?” Reinicke repeated, catching the word. “When were you having trouble?”
He sounded amused again now, and it made Karina grumble. She clasped the radio tighter.
“The outpost is marked off Route 12, right?” she said, glossing over his teasing question.
“Right,” he replied, “where are you now?”
“Never you mind,” she told him firmly. “I’m near. Gimme an hour at most.”
The last thing she needed was him trying to come to her rescue again, no matter how unpleasant the climate was getting. Underfoot, the dry earth had gradually soaked up the water, creating a muddy layer that slipped and slid beneath her boots. The world overhead was much darker than usual too, making the trees look sinister and full of shadows. When Karina consulted her map, the large droplets of water threatened to tear a few holes in the weak paper, but she managed to make out the marker for the outpost. The swiftest way to it was to climb the next hill and walk the ridge between that peak and the one on which the outpost stood.
That had seemed easy on paper. Karina had neglected to consult the difficulty level when she planned this sudden, rain-drenched route, and it took her the whole hour to reach the top of the considerable peak, which had looked fairly easy on the map. Still, when she reached the top, her body heavy with rainwater, she squinted through the drizzle to see the faint outline of the outpost. It was a wooden structure no bigger than an RV, built into the high hillside of the neighboring mountain. The weather up at the top was too poor to see much of it, even though it wasn’t that far away. All that stood between her and the outpost was a narrow walkway, no wider than two feet.
It was a straight enough path, and when she tested it with her foot, it didn’t seem too muddy. Alarm bells rang in Karina’s mind even as she began to step onto the ridge, but what other choice did she have? Going back around the other way would take hours, and the storm was well and truly closing in now. The world was dark and grey, shrouded in cloud and chill breezes at that height, and Karina desperately tried to keep her focus on the outline of the building in the near distance. It was imperative not to look down.
But she knew what was there. Even in her peripheral vision, Karina could see the sheer drop to her left and right. One side, the left, was a craggy cliff faces that was probably popular with climbers, littered with rocks that stuck out of the hill at jagged angles. She could hardly imagine the pain of hitting them one by one if she fell. The right was no better, for this side of the mountain was where the trees grew, albeit rather badly. Branches stuck out from hillside roots, rising like warning fingers to tell hikers to turn away. Karina found her footing again and strode on, focused as much as she could on the path ahead.
It was that focus which let her down. A sudden crack of lightning signaled the oncoming storm, and to Karina’s dismay the bolt landed only a few feet in front of her. The sudden column of light blinded her momentarily, and the shock of being thrown so far out of her concentration was too much. She jumped, a full jump where her feet came away from the ground, and when they reconnected, they hit the mud badly. Karina veered fearfully to the left as one foot slipped clean off the path, and when she tried to right herself by leaning the other way, she totally lost control of her balance.
In seconds she was tumbling down the right-hand side of the steep hill, connecting with branches that made a resounding crack against her body. Some of them were thin enough to snap on impact, but others bounced her down the hill like the flippers of a pinball machine. Her backpack took a lot of the hits, but every now and then her stomach or legs would connect with something sharp. She cried out every time as gravity delivered her a seemingly endless stream of smacks and cracks. There was no time for pain, no time to even breathe. All Karina could do in that moment was fall and scream.
The ground rose up to meet her at an alarming pace, and when she finally landed on something flat, it was a thicket of bushes that stung her skin the moment she touched them. Karina rolled down into the dark undergrowth, hoping she was fairly unhurt, but then two things happened to destroy all hope of recovery. Her foot caught sharply in the gap between some tree roots, halting her motion with a sudden jerk. And then, as her body violently came to a stop, she smashed her flailing arm against the hard, flat surface of a rock. She heard the loud, unmistakable crack in her forearm, and heaved out a sudden sob of shock.
The world was darker than ever, freezing cold and soaking wet. Karina struggled with her foot, but it was totally trapped between the roots, and when she tried to move her arm the pain was so intense that she almost threw up. It was broken for sure, and the rest of her was horrifically bruised. She was still lying on her backpack, the weight breaking a little of her fall, but Karina’s head lolled dizzily as she tried to fumble her good arm towards it. She needed… something. It was hard to remember what. Her mind was growing dangerously hazy, the corners of her vision turning black.
“Karina?”
There was a voice in her pocket. Her heart raced weakly at the sound. She tried to reach down for the radio, her hand clumsily feeling the shape of it in her pocket. It was wedged tight against her body, too tight to free it.
“Karina? Are you nearly here? It’s been over an hour, and I’m worried. Please, answer me. This isn’t about pride. I… I know you can handle yourself, okay? But just let me know where you are.”
Reinicke’s words were fading, even as Karina continued to struggle for the radio. She couldn’t do it. Weakness had overcome her from the shock of the fall, and her eyes fluttered shut of their own accord. She didn’t want to give in, but there was no more fight in her, not a flicker of energy left to struggle with. Slowly, reluctantly, unconsciousness took her, and she lay in a rain-soaked heap, totally alone in the wild.
* * *
When Karina Vasquez next opened her eyes, the sight that she awoke to convinced her that she wasn’t awake. She had to be dreaming, for what she could see was utterly ridiculous to behold. Before her, clambering through the bushes near the foot of the hill, was a bear carrying a satchel in its mouth. The little white canvas bag was marked with the big red cross of first aid, and the bear was swinging its head to and fro, sniffing at the undergrowth about six feet away.
“Well,” Karina managed to murmur, “Either I’m hallucinating, or I was right about you being a very weird bear.”
He heard her. She watched with droopy, pained vision as the bear’s head cocked to one side at her whispered words. At once he found her, sticking his massive head into the bush where she’d become buried in a slew of mud. He put a paw out, feeling the terrain around her, padding into the gloopy mess.
“Geez, don’t dig me out!” Karina pleaded weakly, eyeing his fearsome claws.
She flinched at the prospect, and suddenly a shockwave of agony rocked her whole aching body. Karina cried out, and in the same moment she felt a shift in the air beside her. Something funny was happening in her immediate vision, where the bear’s furry head should have been. It seemed to be receding, yet the creature wasn’t moving away. Was he shrinking? Karina was now certain that she had to be dreaming, for this whole moment seemed impossible. She watched on, enthralled by the sight of the fur that was slowly sinking back behind flesh, the strong bare limbs emerging where clawed paws had been just moments before.
A perfectly cropped head of brown hair followed, and when the man looked up at Karina with his glittering golden eyes, she felt that little jolt in her gut again. Reinicke’s face was a picture of deep concern, his hands reaching out to scoop the mud off of her. He felt her forehead, then pressed against her neck and felt around the joints there. He moved around, checking her arm gently, then moving to the place where her foot was caught to try and break her free of the roots. Karina’s eyes wandered over the curve of his strong, bare back.
“You’re naked,” she whispered.
“Really?” Reinicke replied. “That’s the first thing you say?”
“Gimme a break,” Karina answered weakly. “I just fell off a mountain. A girl needs something to distract her.”
Reinicke did not reply. He had managed to break apart one of the roots trapping her foot, and Karina felt a sudden surge of relief as her ankle came free. She felt the ranger lay her leg down gently, then his hands were on her hips, turning them ever-so-slightly in his grip.
“How’s your spine? Any damage?” he asked.
Karina moved to test it at once. Reinicke had put his hands up to stop her making the sudden shift, but he was too late. Karina hissed at the faint agony of moving after a considerable time lying unconscious, but there were no major problems in her back.
“It’s just my arm,” she said, “Broken. Definitely broken.”
The words were suddenly hard to get out, for a sob had clogged her throat. Quite unexpectedly, Karina felt a surge of panic race through her as the tears came racing down her cheeks. She heard the storm rumble overhead as if it was right in her ear, fear and agony overcoming her in one fell swoop. Reinicke took one arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, lying beside her as he reached behind him for the medical bag. Inside there was a radio, much larger than the one he’d given her.
“Hart, get your ass to the north outpost now,” he demanded in a powerful, almost snarling tone. “I need full paramedic. Broken arm and deep shock. I don’t care what you’re doing. Drop it. This is important.”
If she had not been in the throes of shock, it might have occurred to Karina that she had a gorgeous naked man lying beside her, trying to comfort her out of the uncontrollable sobs that wracked her body. Eventually, Reinicke managed to persuade her onto her feet, half-carrying her as they began a slow, loping pace back towards the outpost. How he came to be carrying her in his arms, Karina couldn’t remember. She shifted in and out of the moment as her battered body came and went from reality. Later, all she could remember were a few words of conversation from one of her more lucid moments.
“So, you’re a shifter? That’s something.”
“Good or bad?” Reinicke asked her.
“Undecided,” she mused. “Say… you know my name. On the radio, you said it. How… How…”
“Shhh now,” Reinicke soothed. “Save your breath. I’m sure you’ll want it for yelling at me later.”
***
Her arm was cast and in few days, with a lot of medication, Karina began to feel better. A lot of the trauma of her fall had been lost amid the haze of that night’s events, and her only focus once she was back at her hotel was Reinicke. He came to visit every day and, though he didn’t say a great deal, he held her hand at her bedside. And sometimes, when she was well enough to get up and look out of the window, she saw the outline of a bear sitting waiting below. Even from three stories up, his golden eyes gleamed at her as if they were smiling.
* * *
“So, your great adventure is over, I guess?” Reinicke asked.
It was an unusually somber tone for him. Karina’s forearm was still covered in plaster, but the rest of her was feeling pretty good. The fall aside, the trek in the wild had enriched her body and strengthened a lot of her muscles. She was packing her suitcase when he came to her room, and she hadn’t even noticed him standing in the doorway until he spoke those strange, sad words. They cut deep into Karina’s heart when she heard them, and she dropped the clothes she was holding into her luggage.
“I… I guess so,” she replied. “That was always the plan. Back to work. Back to life.”
“Back to the dating agency?” he questioned.
She turned, raising a brow. He was staring at her intensely, that stare that made her tummy jolt.
“How do you know that?” she said.
“My name is Reinicke Best,” he explained. “Four of my cousins used to be on your books, before they found their happily ever after. You interviewed me once, two years ago at your office in LA.”
“What?” Karina asked in shock.
She looked him over. He was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, muscles rippling. Reinicke was gorgeous, casual and placid, less argumentative than she had ever seen him before. Sure, she saw hundreds of people, thousands even in a year, whom she met and interviewed to decide if they went on her dating profile database or not. But Reinicke couldn’t have been on that list.
“No,” Karina said firmly, “I would have remembered.”
“Well, I remember,” Reinicke said. He stepped towards her, a ghosting smile playing on his lips. “You told me that I was the most miserable beast you’d ever met, and that you wouldn’t inflict me on the ladies on your books for all the tea in China.”
“Hmm,” Karina said thoughtfully. “That does sound like me… and it definitely sounds like you.”
He laughed then, a glorious sound.
“I’m a very misunderstood man,” he countered.
“That’s what all jerks say,” Karina teased.
Reinicke made another lunge forward. He rested his hands on Karina’s hips, towering over her as he broke into the first true grin she’d ever seen him wear. He could be an ass, sure, and he was very good at it, but there was indeed more to the man than Karina had realized. As a bear, he’d followed her and protected her, watching over her in the woods. He’d given her that radio without a moment’s hesitation, after only meeting her twice. Three times, if she counted the interview that she couldn’t recall.
“What are you doing?” she asked him, her breath hitching in her throat.
His hands were warm, and they slid round her hips to her back, fingers toying with the small, sensitive patch where her shirt ended and her shorts began. Karina let her arms travel up his body, fingers feeling the definition of those impressive muscles. She wished she hadn’t been so out of it during the fall. She could have had such a good view of him then. Yet, something told her, if she still wanted that view, it was waiting. She leaned on her tiptoes, tongue darting out to wet her lips.
“If I asked you to stay, would you?” Reinicke said softly.
“No,” Karina whispered with a wicked grin. “I’d consider it if you begged me, though.”
He returned her grin, and took her chin in his hand to guide her into his kiss. It was deeply passionate from the first moment, nothing false or tentative. Reinicke’s lips grazed hers with something akin to desperation, his tongue snaking out to toy with her own. She felt the smooth, strong mass of his tongue, another excellent muscle, pushing against hers as if he was fighting for supremacy. She let him win, allowing him to plunder her mouth as his hands began to wander all over her body.
As the kiss went on, Karina threw all caution out the window. She wanted Reinicke more than she’d ever wanted anyone, and the moment was there waiting for her to grab. She fumbled with her shorts, the cast on her arm making it tricky to get them down. When Reinicke realized what she was up to, he broke their kiss and stripped off her shirt for her. Then he dropped to his knees, unbuttoning her shorts and pulling them down with a sudden sharp tug. He held her legs, his chin resting just above the line of her panties. His breath was warm on her abdomen, coming in short pants.
“This is me begging you,” he explained, his gaze intense once more. “I… I think I might have loved you that very first time I met you, when you kicked me out of your office and told me never to come back.”
“I’m glad you did,” Karina told him. “God, I’m so very glad.”
“I’ll take that as a green light, shall I?” Reinicke replied in what was almost a growl.
He didn’t wait for an answer. He lifted Karina from her legs into a fireman’s lift, carrying her over his shoulder to the bed. Once there, he laid her down and took a step back, admiring the sight of her in her underwear before he stripped off his own clothes. The polo shirt went first, revealing that massive chest with its tempting trail of soft brown hair, then he shrugged out of his jeans and let his boxers go down with them. His cock was solid, springing forward eagerly and sending a sudden damp sensation into Karina’s groin. He was long and thick, waiting patiently for her. She watched him throb for a moment.
Slowly, she rose and unhooked her bra, letting it fall away to reveal her breasts. Reinicke’s golden gaze glowed brilliantly, burning into her skin as he watched her eagerly. Karina reached down, using one hand to tease her panties off, then she lay back on the bed and let her legs fall apart just a little. There was another long pause, the heat in the air palpable.
“Ugh,” she sighed playfully, “do I have to boss you around again?”
“’Fraid so,” Reinicke admitted, gently climbing onto the bed towards her. “I figure I might as well get used to it. Once this happens, I won’t be letting you go.”
“Is that a shifter thing?” Karina asked him.
“It’s a me and you thing,” Reinicke said, his face coming level with her own. “I always knew that I would know when I met ‘the girl’. You’re it, Karina. You’re mine.”
“You’d better claim me then,” she said, reaching up to pull his face down for a kiss.
Reinicke entered her whilst their tongues were fighting, his thick shaft filling her so sharply that she felt her whole body shiver. He was quick and precise in his movements, thrusting deep then pulling back to tease her clit with his fingers. His tongue snaked down her neck and round her earlobes, his hips pushing her legs wide apart. Karina let them rise, wrapping them around his muscular back as he pressed deeper still into her waiting body. She was panting, the burn of orgasm already making her abdomen ache. She knew what he meant about just knowing. Perhaps she had known all week, trying to hide the truth from herself.
After so long making other people happy in love, Karina had almost forgotten what it felt like.
But Reinicke was there to remind her. He let his thumb flick over her swollen clitoris until she moaned with ecstasy, then he really went in to show her what he could do. He held her hips firmly and made his thrusts as deep as he could, sending shockwaves of electric pleasure into every nerve. Karina felt herself arching, her eager body pushing against him as she begged inwardly for release. She looked up at him, her eyes pleading, asking for what she knew he could give her. Reinicke grew faster still, harder and sharper as he rocked their bodies together.
“Oh!” she exclaimed as the first throes of the orgasm reached her, making her body tense up and shake.
Karina felt the rush and the pleasurable pain, knowing her climax would be a big one. When it came, she felt it shake her whole body, forcing her to make sounds she didn’t even know were in her throat. Her quivering legs fell back down when Reinicke let them go, and she was still riding out the tingles of her own breathless pleasure when she felt him shudder and push those last few thrusts into her. He kissed her neck, his voice low and growling when he whispered to her.
“Mine,” he reminded her. “Mine forever now.”
And she wouldn’t ever have it any other way.
* * *
One month later.
“Reinicke, where on earth have you been?” Anina demanded.
Karina had been forewarned about the Best clan before she met them. Reinicke was accurate in his descriptions, and she recognized his elderly grandmother at once by her milky amber gaze and admonishing tone. Her gaze snapped to Karina, then down to the place where she and Reinicke were clasping one another’s hands. Anina appeared to relax a little at that.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said politely. “I didn’t realize you, uh… Reinicke, who is this lovely girl?”
There were other people assembled in the room, and Karina had never met any of them. But she was pretty sure she could guess who they all were. There were two brothers, Reinicke’s older cousins, who were named Dietrich and Ben. Dietrich was cradling a girl called Elise in one arm, and she held their little baby boy, Isaak in hers. Ben had a baby on his lap too, a girl with beautiful cocoa-colored skin named Lily, and his wife Layla stood with one proud hand on his shoulders. That left the two blonde cousins, Kurt and Hart, with their partners Stacey and Jane. In front of Stacey there was a buggy with two tiny twins sleeping peacefully, and Jane had a fully round belly that made her look as though she was due to give birth at any moment.
Clan Best was a quite a family to join, but Karina, as in all things, was confident that she could make it work.
“Sorry, we’ve been in Vegas,” Reinicke explained.
“No,” Dietrich said at once, his voice hitching in shock. “You don’t mean…”
“May I introduce Karina Best, my wife,” Reinicke said with all the pride in the world.
There was an explosion of shouts and disbelieving cries of joy, then suddenly Karina and Reinicke were surrounded by the clan. The flurry of people showered them in congratulations amid the sounds of babies cooing and waking from their sleep. In the eye of the joyous family storm, Karina held onto Reinicke, looking up into the proud expression of her new husband.
“You know what comes next right?” she asked.
She patted her tummy as if to explain. Reinicke raised a brow, a genuine grin on his face.
“Well, you’re the boss,” he reasoned.
“I am,” Karina replied.
And in that moment, she realized that she hadn’t seen Reinicke pull that long, sour expression in weeks.