Bear The Flame (Firebear Brides 2) (9 page)

“You say that like you think this is up to you, Rosey. It isn’t. You’re mine and I won’t let anyone take you from me, do you understand? You can make this hard or you can make this easy. If your choice is to keep running around in circles, so be it—I can track you down far better than you can run away. This little exercise should have proven that much, I think.”

He captured her chin between his long, spindly fingers and held her in place as he leaned in, kissing her on the mouth. She loved every kiss she had with Redmond, but with Kenner, it just left her feeling violated. There was no affection in that kiss, not from him and certainly not from her, because she was not responding at all. The fact that he still pressed himself on her despite her obvious unwillingness to participate made it all the more creepy for her.

“You’re mine, Rosey. Don’t forget it. Saves us both a lot of headache,” Kenner said casually as he stood up to his full height, smirking wryly. “And don’t worry about your little boyfriend. We’ll be gone long before he thinks twice about you. I can assure you that you’ll never see him again.”

Her objections and screams died on her lips, feeling like the wind just got ripped out of her lungs. Gasping for breath, Rose felt tears pool in her eyes and trickle down her cheeks as Kenner walked out of the living room and toward where Cole and Conrad had gone.

She couldn’t even pray for a better outcome. The last thing she wanted was for Redmond to get mixed up with these animals. He was a werebear, sure, but there were three of these guys, and by the way Kenner’s hip bulged underneath his suit jacket, she knew they’d come armed. No sensible fox or raccoon would go against a much larger shifter without some form of self-protection.

Sobbing quietly, Rose cursed herself for ever thinking this was a good idea. Running had never solved a damn thing in her life and now she had potentially gotten the man she loved into as big of a mess as she was in. Hoping and praying that Redmond would show up as much as she wished that he wouldn’t, Rose waited for the inevitable.

A lifetime of misery with a damn fox seemed like a better alternative to seeing Redmond getting hurt.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Redmond

As with all things in his life lately, Rose’s disappearance came like a kick in the gut for Redmond. He was in the middle of cutting a path through the woods with Deacon North and his cousin, trying to create a fire line before Rake’s ranch, when Tiana and Royce came running to him out of seemingly nowhere. Tiana was frantic and one look at Royce told Redmond that things were serious.

“What’s going on?” he asked sharply, dropping the axe.

“It’s Rose. She’s gone missing. I think I saw that car pulling out from Austin’s Texas that Royce described in our yard a few days ago,” Tiana said, her voice shaking.

“Did you let Diesel know?” Redmond asked, already striding toward the road, quickly trying to figure out the easiest way to make it back to town and figure out where the hell Rose had been taken.

“Yeah. I told him,” Royce said, grabbing Redmond by the shoulder and making him whip around angrily. “Hey. Keep a cool head. She’ll be fine, she’s a smart girl,” Royce said stiffly.

Redmond relaxed a tiny bit, though his bear was up in arms, vowing to shred through anyone daring to keep him from Rose. With a sigh, Redmond nodded and put his hand on Royce’s.

“Thanks. Can you take over here?” he asked, knowing that the fire wasn’t too far.

They could already hear Slate approaching with the helicopter, having filled up the bucket in a nearby mountain lake, but it would be a hard fight to get the blaze under control.

“Yeah. Go get your girl,” Royce said.

No one needed to tell Redmond twice.

It was all a blur from there. How he got the truck from one of the locals—he didn’t even know who, just that it was a big Ford F-150 and all he could think about was running over Kenner and his fucking cronies. How he made it to Shifter Grove and how he picked up the very obvious scent of raccoons outside of Austin’s Texas. They may have made conniving little henchmen, but they had such a distinctive smell that Redmond had to wonder why people bothered to hire them at all. Everyone knew raccoons were nothing but trouble.

Somewhere between losing his mind and getting on the trail, Redmond ran into Diesel, the sheriff. He’d smelled the same scent, and the firm, serenely threatening look the panther shifter wore filled Redmond with all the confidence he needed. Whatever he was going to meet when he found Kenner and Rose, he knew that the law would find a way to side with him.

Together they tracked the scent to the half-finished house outside of Shifter Grove. They left their trucks far away and continued on foot, keeping quiet and approaching in a way so the wind wouldn’t carry their scent to the house. Bears had strong noses, but foxes were better still and Redmond didn’t want to take any risks with tipping Kenner off before Rose was safely in his arms.

If he’s done anything to her, I’ll rip his spine out,
Redmond thought darkly, his hands itching for Kenner’s neck.

Diesel had grabbed a shotgun from the truck and the closer they got to the house, the better of an idea it looked like to Redmond. There was only so much a bear could do against bullets, though one as determined as he was could take a good few hits before he’d stumble. Still, backup was appreciated. Weighing his options, Redmond finally decided on the most dramatic and easiest one.

When they’d gotten close enough, he simply walked up to the door and knocked. He heard scrambling on the other side, along with voices. Rose’s scent was maddeningly clear here, all cherries and vanilla, and he had to physically restrain himself from barging through the door and immediately carrying her out.

Every muscle in his body was flexed and ready to go when the door opened, leaving him staring mutely down the barrel of a gun.

“We weren’t expecting visitors,” the man said. Redmond guessed that he was Cole based on Rose’s description.

“Sorry to mess up your dinner plans,” Redmond said with an easy grin, pushing past him and ignoring the gun completely.

“I could shoot you in the head right now, you know.”

“Yeah, but you won’t,” Redmond scoffed, blindly stalking through the house and into the living room.

When he saw Rose sitting there, tied up on the chair, he just about exploded. Gritting his teeth together, his blue eyes flashed dark brown and for the life of him, he couldn’t make them turn back. The bear was too fucking pissed off.

“Redmond!” she said, her face lit with both relief and fear at the same time.

“So this is the beau,” Kenner said casually, leaning on the doorway that lead into the living room from the kitchen. “I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure yet. I am Kenner Dealy. And you must be the piece of shit bear who thought he could take my girl from me.”

The way he delivered those comments was like he was a bored announcer saying the same thing for the twentieth time that day. Redmond wanted to rush to her and untie her right away, but the three guns trained on him now gave him pause. He turned around to face Kenner, murder in his eyes.

“I can’t take something away that never belonged to you in the first place, buddy,” he ground out, every word an exercise in self-control. “And by the fact that you have to have her tied up, I get the feeling the lady doesn’t appreciate your brand of affection. Now, how about you wise up and let her go before something really unfortunate has to happen?”

Kenner grinned mildly, showing a row of perfectly white teeth. Redmond couldn’t wait to kick in every last one of them.

“I don’t think that will work for us today, Mr. Hamilton,” he said in a leisurely way, straightening up.

He was taller than Redmond, but not by much. Kenner cocked his gun and Cole and Conrad did the same. Redmond was standing a few feet from Rose, right in front of her with his back turned to her. He was sure they wouldn’t shoot him if it meant risking a shot at her, but playing chicken with a bunch of psychos was never something he liked doing.

“Yeah? Well, I guess we can dance, then,” Redmond hissed, throwing his self-control out with any shred of remorse he may have had about beating up three people.

The shift took him faster than it ever had. It was easy giving in to it this time, when the bear was so close to the surface and just itching to get out. His body expanded and elongated, dropping from two legs to four. Thick fur sprouted to cover him from head to toe and his chiseled chin and hard features warped into a terrifying maw and deadly jaws, itching to snap around a raccoon or a fox. When he let out his first roar as the grizzly bear, a searing bite of pain ran through him at the same moment.

Conrad, seemingly the only man in the room who could really read the situation right, had changed his position so he could shoot at Redmond without hitting Rose. The bullet bit into Redmond’s flank. With a growl, he ignored it and went straight for the main culprit, barging into Kenner like a tank into a hedgerow. Everything seemed to slow down around him as he plowed into the fox shifter, who hadn’t had time to do more than start the shift process himself.

The first blow to Kenner kicked him out of the shift, but he managed to hold onto the gun. Another flash of pain, this time to his stomach, sent Redmond seeing red. Distantly, he heard glass shattering behind him in the living room as he pushed Kenner into the kitchen, cutting him off from Cole and Conrad. Loud shots sounded in the other room and Rose screamed, terrified.

It made Redmond go harder. He swiped at Kenner, cutting his arm and making the gun fall from his hands.

“You motherfucker,” the man hissed, losing any sense of decorum he might have been holding onto.

Redmond growled and bashed Kenner’s head with his heavy paw, making it loll back as Kenner slammed into a wall and collapsed, out cold. Immediately, Redmond spun around and headed back into the living room. One of the windows was smashed in, and Diesel had hit Conrad in the shoulder and side, leaving the man slumped against the wall with a thick glob of blood running down it. Cole was hiding behind Rose, cowering so her body blocked Diesel’s shot.

“You can’t play that game for very long,” Diesel said, calm and in control.

“Yeah? Watch me!” Cole grumbled.

But what he hadn’t considered was the big bear in the room. Not taking a moment to hesitate, Redmond stalked around the chair and stared Cole down, his maw bared in a vicious snarl. Cole was holding his gun with shaking hands, backing away in a half-crawl from Redmond and into the view of Diesel. A clear shot rung through the air, blowing the gun out of Cole’s hands and spraying him with lead.

For good measure, Redmond swiped at him with his paw, sending the man flying across the room and crumpling to the floor. Diesel was in the house before Redmond was even fully shifted out of bear form.

“You all right?” he asked, kicking Conrad’s gun away and checking on the other two wounded.

“Yeah, I’ll live,” Redmond said, gritting his teeth.

He had three distinct wounds. One in his thigh, one that seemed to have grazed his stomach, and one in his shoulder. Blood was seeping through his clothes but he knew his bear would take care of it. Add in a painkiller and he’d be good to go in a few days. His first priority was Rose, though.

She was in tears as he kneeled in front of her, undoing the ties that held her hands and feet. When her hands were free, she clasped her hands around his neck gently, nuzzling into his good shoulder.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered as Redmond pulled her up on her feet.

“What for?” he asked gently, brushing her hair back from her face.

Even when she was crying and borderline hysterical, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Having her in his arms filled him with confidence for a better future, one that was firmly rooted in Shifter Grove. Hell, if he could deal with wildfire and shifters gone bad in one day here, he could already claim to be having a much more interesting life than he ever did in Los Angeles. And with the right woman by his side, he had no desire to ever leave.

“For all of this,” she said breathlessly, shaking her head. “You’re wounded, badly! And these… bastards did it all because of some twisted obsession. I should have never come here, putting you and your family in danger,” Rose said.

Redmond tipped her chin up, looking into her blue eyes.

“Don’t you ever say that, beautiful. You came here because fate brought you here. We were meant to be together and this proves it. Through thick and thin, Rose. Don’t let some sick bastards make you doubt yourself. You’ve already made me a better person by being here and I can’t be without you. I won’t.”