Mountain Men II: Primal Hunger (9 page)

She was more than he had ever hoped
to find in a mate. Her courage and strength made his look paltry in
comparison. Maura had endured so much but managed to retain so much
beauty in her soul and refused to let others jade her. There were
many in her life that had made her feel worthless and it had
damaged her self esteem, but she could still see so much beauty in
people, it awed him.

All too soon they arrived at the
door to her cabin.

When trying to enter, she stopped
them.

“
I need to be alone.”

Bain’s heart cracked just a little
further seeing the pain and confusion on her face. He wished he
could restart all of this and do so many things differently. Gavin
looked equally as pained as he felt and he knew they were all in
for a rough night.

His heart dropped to his stomach
when her door clicked shut and they both heard her stifled sob
coming from the other side of the door. Both men trudged silently
back to their office. Gavin called the police station to report the
incident. The sheriff promised to come out that evening to take
statements from everyone and took Seth’s information to be on the
lookout.

Gavin pulled out a bottle of
whiskey and gestured to Bain. He nodded miserably and downed his
dram in one swallow. Bain welcomed the whiskey burn down his throat
and lifted his cup indicating a desire for a refill which Gavin was
happy to oblige. Gavin was the first to speak up.

“
She’ll be ok. She just needs time
to adjust.”

Bain grunted and tossed back
another glass of whiskey. His chest was tight at the thought of her
leaving. Maura had become an essential element to his life in such
a short time. He simply couldn’t imagine a future without her. He
would be crushed under the weight of his sorrow. Holding his glass
out, he didn’t even pause once it was filled to toss it down his
throat. He wanted to drown the dread that this was more than she
could accept.

It was a miracle that she had felt
the mate pull to both of them and that he and Gavin were co-mating
the same woman happily. They couldn’t believe their luck. Fate had
truly chosen well for them. They made a perfect trio. His instincts
to protect and provide for his mate was appeased in that he trusted
Gavin implicitly to care for her to the utmost of his ability with
him and in the case of his absence. If anything happened to him or
if he had to be away he had no worries about her wellbeing. He knew
Gavin felt the same.

They had gone through that whiskey
bottle and were well into splitting the second bottle when the
alcohol began to take effect. His shifter metabolism required a
much higher alcohol content to get drunk, but it wasn’t impossible.
The numbness he sought didn’t find him till after another bottle
and Bain finally slept draped across the desk.

Chapter Six

“
She’s gone.”

Gavin jolted awake, ignoring the
pounding in his head. A quick glance at the clock showed it was
late afternoon. There was no need to question who Bain meant, there
was only one ‘she’ that would cause that look of panic on his face.
Cold fear washed down his spine.

“
For how long?”

“
Not sure, woke a bit ago and saw
her car wasn’t here anymore. I checked her cabin just in case.
Everything’s gone.”

Gavin glanced at the clock, running
fingers through his hair then scrubbing his face with his palm. He
was on his feet and walking out the door in a flash when a thought
came crashing through his head and he froze.

“
Bain, we still don’t know where
Seth is.”

Bain froze in his tracks and stared
at Gavin. Dread lit his eyes.

“
Shit.”

“
OK, if she took the time to pack
and load the car, she hasn’t been gone too terribly long. She
couldn’t be very far. He may be a hundred miles from here by
now.”

Both men rushed toward the car,
attempting to squelch the growing dread that was rapidly mounting.
Gavin could feel his lion, irritated and restless, pacing in his
mind. His lion wanted his mate and, quite frankly, so did the man.
His need to see Maura. smell her unique scent, and assure himself
she was safe and whole, was a physical ache in his chest. His lion
kept growling
Find! Protect!
Mate!

It threatened to overtake his
rational thought. He forced those thoughts in the back of his mind
and took a deep breath. They needed to concentrate on finding
her
now. E
verything else could be worked out later.

Gavin wanted to believe she was
fine, just upset, and left without incident. But his mating
instinct was blaring sirens of warning. As they got to the car he
opted to drive, Bain was too close to succumbing to his animal and
that would not be the best idea to have him that agitated and
behind the wheel.

“
There’s only one route she could
have taken out of the park. It’s the only outgoing road. So we
should be able to track her at least that far.”

Bain barely nodded and returned to
staring blankly. They rolled down the windows to attempt to pick up
her scent, as faint as it may be, there were slight traces of it
still wafting through the air. It had been some time before she had
been through, but not so much that her scent dissipated
entirely.

Gavin felt like jumping out of his
skin as every mile crept by. He knew his speed was closer to low
level flying than high speed driving but couldn’t force himself to
slow down. He felt urgency to find her clawing at his insides.
After twenty minutes her scent became much stronger.

Bain sat up with his nose in the
air about the same time Gavin detected the scent. They looked at
each other, threads of relief just began to become interwoven with
the cold dread they felt all morning. All of the sudden Maura’s
honey vanilla scent became tainted with traces of blood. If Gavin
thought he felt cold dread before, he was wrong. It was nothing
compared to the glacial cold that washed down his spine, when he
smelled her blood.

Bain growled low in his throat.
Gavin couldn’t help but rumble a growl of his own. Their mate was
bleeding, she was injured, and she needed them. His lion was
throwing himself at the walls that separated them in his mind. A
few minutes later, the car rounded a sharp curve and screeched to a
halt. There, in the middle of the road, sat Maura’s car partially
covered by large rocks and boulders. Gavin and Bain scrambled out
of the car and made their way to Maura’s.

The airbag had deployed and there
was some blood on it and the door handle on the inside but not a
life threatening amount. Gavin further investigated the car and
found her phone and purse in the passenger seat. As he pulled
himself back out of the car he caught a different scent altogether.
Bain shouted for him from atop the mound of rocks. The scent was
stronger there.

“
Seth.”

He could no longer restrain his
beast. His lion came roaring to the forefront. Bain shifted into
his bear, as well. In this form, their sense of smell was far
stronger. Gavin and Bain followed the scent trail of Maura and Seth
into the woods for what felt like an eternity to both men. The
smell of blood had dissipated but the mingled scents of fear and
aggression was a torturous trail for the men to follow.

Knowing Maura was at the mercy of
that piece of shit was slowly driving him insane. He had to force
himself to concentrate on the fact that she was still alive and
close. He could hear Bain’s bear crashing through the brush a few
yards away. Their sense of urgency was tangible in the air between
them. Gavin felt rage and fear in equal measure clawing up his
chest and gripping his throat. He had to put his full focus on the
scent trail, his mind kept trying to slip into what ifs and that
could drive him mad and worse, make him make mistakes. There was no
room for error in this.

Gavin couldn’t stop a roar ripping
free of his throat when he caught sight of Seth and Maura. His mind
almost blanked with rage when he saw Seth’s hands on her. Maura was
struggling, hands bound behind her back, and Seth had cut free some
of her clothes with the knife he kept with him. Seth was openly
groping her and tears streaked her face. Gavin heard Bain bellow
and crash forward a titan of anger and aggression.

Seth whipped around toward the
noise and pulled a gun from his waist band. He fired off a couple
shots in the general direction that Bain’s roar came from and Gavin
pulled up short. He reached out with his mind and connected with
Bain, reassuring himself that bullet was indeed a wild shot. Seth’s
eyes were wide and wild and Gavin knew there would be no resolving
this without bloodshed.

“
See, you fucking freaks of
nature!! I came better prepared for you this time!”

Seth was waving the gun wildly
around, that meant he didn’t really know where they were or where
they were coming from, just in the general direction of the noise.
Gavin had to force his mind to focus on details so his rage
wouldn’t take over and cause him to make mistakes that could be
fatal to them all. He circled around to the left while Bain
approached more head-on. Gavin worked to calm Bain and lay a plan
to get the three of them out safely.

The pistol Seth was waving around
wouldn't do much against either of them in this form. Bain's hide
was a bit thicker and he maintained a more head on approach. Gavin
circled around to the rear of where they were while Seth's
attention was focused on Bain. Bain slowed his approach when they
came into sight. Seth grabbed Maura and used her as a human shield,
putting the gun to her head. Gavin fought the instinct to charge
forward and rip Seth’s throat out with his teeth. The lion in him
roared and fought, wanting desperately to protect their
mate.

Bain came forward into Seth's line
of vision and, in response, Seth pointed the gun at him. "Where’s
the other freak? I know you two are always together."

Bain merely stared silently in his
bear form, there was no real way to answer him without shifting
back to his human form and that would leave him more vulnerable to
gunshot. Seth put the gun back to Maura's head and Gavin could
smell the insanity coming off of him. Seth's hand was shaking and
Gavin knew the gun could discharge in his unsteady hand and almost
dove for him when Bain's voice sounded in his head.

I'm going to shift back and keep
his attention and the gun pointed on me. You do the
rest.

No. Bain, it's too dangerous. The
gun can do too much damage to you in human form.

I’d rather be shot as a human than
lose our mate.

With that, Bain changed shifted
back into his human form. Putting his hands up, palm out so Seth
would know he was unarmed.

"Seth, there’s no good way out of
this. Just let her go. We can all just walk away from this
now."

"Bullshit!"

"No, Seth, not bullshit. Just put
the gun down and we’ll all just walk away."

"You think I could let you walk
away now? You’re demons in animal form, an abomination. She’s
fucked you both, and at the same time. It's sick! She’ll let
animals between her legs but refuses me? It's
disgusting!"

Seth's eyes were wild and he was
sweating heavily. Gavin could smell the perspiration and tension
rolling off him like a beacon.

"Others refused me but I changed
their minds. Stuck up bitches, fucked like animals. Never, NEVER as
sick as this shit." Seth pulled Maura's head back towards him. "I
bet you even let them screw you while they're animals, don't you?
You dirty whore, and you will tell me no? Unacceptable."

Bain growled low in his throat. He
hated the way Seth was talking to Maura. He and his bear wanted to
take off the arm that held the gun to her head. He narrowed his
eyes and focused on Seth's shaking hand. He just had to keep the
attention on himself for a little longer. Bain kept his approach
slow and steady so as not to startle Seth.

"Where’s the other one?" Seth
shouted his eyes were wild and spittle flung from his mouth. "I
know you aren't alone! Where's the other one?"

Bain continued walking slowly
toward Seth, stalling for a few more moments and kept his eyes
trained on the gun. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gavin
closing in.

Bain heard Gavin in his
head.
Wait for it. Wait for it.

Seth suddenly repositioned the gun
towards Bain and just as he saw Seth’s finger beginning to squeeze
the trigger, Gavin leapt from the bushes catching Seth's wrist in
his powerful jaws. A shot rang out. Maura screamed and Bain felt a
blow to his chest that flung him to the ground. He shook it off and
sprung to his feet. Gavin was on top of Seth and Seth was wailing
what could only be described as death gurgles.

Bain ran to Maura and checked her
over for any injuries. When he was satisfied she had only the most
minor scrapes and bruises, he turned his attention back to Gavin.
There was little more than a mass of mangled flesh left of Seth.
Gavin was covered in blood, none of which was his own.

Gavin shifted back to human form
and hurried to Maura to assure himself she was ok.