1Buck violently shook the water from his fur and roared. He picked up her scent on the air and rushed after her, charging into the forest. His animal mind was frantic with worry and rage. He had been so ready to claim her, to mark her as his for all the world to see. To finally bond as mates and to feel each other deep inside.

But somehow, he’d made a mistake. He’d made a wrong move and scared her. He was sure that she wanted it. She’d said she did. It must have been the feral beast inside who had reacted poorly. The lioness had ripped out from within Maria and stole a precious moment they could never get back.

Buck’s grizzly couldn’t contain his despair. He wailed into the treetops as he ran, calling out to her in his animal voice.

She kept running and he continued to follow. A mountain lion was fast and lithe compared to a full grown male grizzly bear. He could only lumber along, following several steps behind. He followed her scent to the base of a tree and looked up helplessly. His massive paws and long claws were not made for climbing. He couldn’t follow her into the treetops.

The grizzly sniffed the air, trying to keep the scent in his nostrils. He held it for a while, following along under the tree. After a while, it faded into nothing. He sat on his haunches and growled. He refused to believe he’d lost her.

Growling with determination, he continued to sniff and search the forest. He had to find her. When she finally shifted out of her lion form, she’d come back to him. He walked for hours until the daylight faded behind the mountains. The cool air rose around him as the night forest creatures hooted and crawled in the darkness. He kept going as the crescent moon ascended in the sky.

He growled wearily to the forest, pleading for her to show herself. He’d lost her trail some time ago and had no clue where to go from there.

He sat in a heap on the forest floor and grunted. His human mind worked at the back of the mind of his grizzly. He decided to go back to her cave and check if she’d returned. It was as good a bet as any other place.

Walking in grizzly form through the night, he arrived as the pale light of predawn glowed on the horizon. He walked into her cave, sniffing carefully for a fresh scent.

She wasn’t there. He moaned and sat down by the fire, shifting into his human form. He pulled a change of clothes out of his backpack and put on his shoes. Buck lit a fire and cooked a can of beans, thinking of her out there in the wilderness, lost, wild and alone. He couldn’t bare it.

Maria was trapped inside her own lioness. It killed him that he couldn’t help her. He rubbed his face with his hands, groaning again in his human voice.

The morning light filtered over the mountain and lit the forest outside the cave. He made coffee and drank it down, hoping that somehow she might still show up today.

After another hour and some breakfast, Buck stood up and put out the fire. He had to go back to the ranch. There was no way of knowing when she’d come back.

Leland would already be preparing the spring calves for branding this morning. Jessie had been waiting for weeks to start building his cabin, and Buck had a delivery of timber to make to his made buyer by the end of the week. He had too many responsibilities on his shoulders to sit in the woods any longer.

Buck grabbed his backpack, and started out of the cave, turning back to give it one last look. He shook his head, his heart sinking. Maria. It was all he could think. He turned away, starting down the trail back to his truck.

He hadn’t cut any timber in over a week. His life was unravelling and he couldn’t regain control of any of it. Buck was a quiet man, but he spent most of his energy on making sure that his world was in order.

Since Maria had come into his life, everything had been completely out of control. As much as he wanted to keep looking for her, he had other things he had to do. He growled at himself, wishing that he could put all his time and energy into taking care of Maria. But he simply couldn't.

He walked away from her cave and down the mountain, back to where his truck was parked at the edge of the forest. He threw his backpack in the truck bed and got behind the wheel. He gritted his teeth as he turned the key in the ignition, pounding his palm into the steering wheel in frustration.

The weight of his responsibilities hung on his shoulders. As he pulled the car out into the road and drove away. He wanted to help her. He wanted to be there for Maria, but all she did was run away. How was he supposed to take care of her when she couldn’t even be found?

Buck had believed that Maria was finally coming to her senses. That she would finally accept his help and come down off the mountain. But when they were right on the cusp of making things work, her inner beast freaked out. Buck was a patient man. But there was only so much he could take.

His grizzly growled at him from inside his mind, telling him he should not leave the mountain until he found Maria. But Buck's human mind could only think about his human responsibilities, the timber, Jessie's house, Leland's herd, what was he supposed to do? Just ignore everything until Maria's lioness decided to cooperate? His inner grizzly thought he should. But Buck ignored the beast and continued to drive back to the ranch.

When he finally arrived at home, though the morning sun had risen toward its peak, and he could see Leland and Jessie already herding the cattle into the paddocks outside the barn. Jessie was even wearing a cowboy hat for the occasion. It made Buck chuckle since Jessie was more of an athlete than a cowboy.

He knew his brothers had already been at work for hours and he had missed a good portion of an important job that he shared with his family.

Buck approached the barn paddock and rested his foot on the wood fence. Leland rode over on the big quarter horse Shayla and nodded at Buck.

“Where you been?” Leland asked.

“I've been up on the mountain, trying to take care of business.”

“It's not like you to show up late,” Leland said, looking down at Buck from Shayla’s back. “Something the matter?”

“Buck's mate ran off from the Bright Institute a few weeks ago,” Jessie said.

“Why didn't you tell me that?” Leland asked, dismounting Shayla.

“I needed to take care of things myself,” Buck said.

“Your mate is in trouble. You should have asked for help from your Alpha,” Leland said, tying Shayla’s rein on the fence.

“If you must know, I found Maria a while ago up on the mountain. Her lion is out of control, and she refuses to come home. No matter how many times I’ve offered to take care of her, she just attacks me and insists on staying out there alone. She got pneumonia when the temperature dropped. I stayed with her all night. In the morning, I didn't ask her to come home with me. Instead I asked for her to show me her world because insisting she leave the mountain hadn’t worked. I’d decided to just be there for her. We were finally getting somewhere. Really connecting. But then she just shifted, turned on me, scratched the heck out of my face and ran off in lion form.”

“You left?” Leland asked.

“I tailed her all day and into the night. The lioness lost me in the trees. Then I went back to the cave where she'd been living and she wasn’t there. What else was I supposed to do? I have responsibilities.”

“Okay, Buck.” Leland started. “We’ll get the spring calves branded and then we’ll go look for your mate.”

“I've got a load of timber that I need to deliver to my main supplier by the end of the week. I haven't been out on the mountain in way too long. I'm behind on everything. I don't know how I'm supposed to keep up. Jessie's been on me to help build his cabin, and I don't have enough logs for that either.”

“Nothing matters more than your mate,” Leland said.

“I've done everything I can. Everything’s falling apart.”

“If your mate is acting like that, then there's something obviously wrong.”

“Course there's something wrong. She was attacked by a feral shifter and changed against her will. Before that, she’d gone through so many difficult things that she just lost it. I don't know what to do for her. I feel like a failure.”

“Have you talked to the law about the feral shifter?” Leland asked.

“Course I did. But Rollo told me he couldn't do anything about it. So I'm left on my own to find this guy and kick his ass. All while trying to take care of a woman who doesn't want me to take care of her. Not to mention my work and my obligation to the family.”

“Go saddle up. We’ll be done by the end of the day and then we'll come up with a solution together.”

“Did you ever find out where that feral shifter was staying?” Jessie asked, leaning over the horn of the saddle.

“I suspect he is being sheltered by the Updike pack.”

“I should've known,” Leland said.

Buck sighed and went to the barn to get a horse. He saddled up Chancey, the gelding Appaloosa, and joined his brothers in the paddock outside the barn.