Knox moved swiftly through the valley, following the edge of the mountain south, remaining far away enough from Black Ridge and Cougar Creek that he wouldn’t draw the people he was hunting there. He wasn’t sure whether they had made it to the valley yet, wasn’t sure if they were still on their way here, but he was sure of something.
Wherever they were, he was going to intercept them and deal with them.
He sprinted through the dense pines, moving as silently as he could manage, not wanting to make his targets aware of him. Stealth was key until he knew what he was dealing with. Moving quietly wasn’t an easy feat for him though. At six-five and a good three hundred pounds of muscle, every damned stride he landed felt as if it was shaking the earth and alerting the occupants of the wintry forest to his presence.
For once, being a bear shifter was a bad thing.
He wasn’t fleet-footed like the cougar shifters at the Creek, moved with about as much grace as his animal counterparts, thundering across the uneven snowy terrain.
His senses scoured the route ahead of him, seeking signs of life that weren’t animal. If he detected anything, he would slow to a crawl, would slip through the undergrowth with stealth. Right now, he just wanted to get as far from the Ridge and his twin brother as possible, ensuring that the people who were after Cameo, Lowe’s female, didn’t find her.
Gods, he was going to have to thank Cameo for shooting the human male, stopping him from firing at either Lowe or himself. He knew how much courage it had taken her to do such a thing, had seen how shaken she was by the fact she had killed a man. Lowe would take care of her. He would convince her she had done the right thing and it had been that man or them.
He was also sure Lowe would be able to convince the female not to leave Black Ridge. As little as Knox liked the thought of settling down with one female, he could see his brother was in love with her and needed her by his side.
As his mate.
His thoughts strayed to a pretty bartender and a night two years ago.
Knox growled as his right boot snagged on a root and he stumbled forwards, arms flailing, barely keeping his balance as he fought to find his stride again. He didn’t want to settle down. It was the bachelor life for him.
He almost tripped again, huffed and slowed his pace just a notch, because apparently thinking and running was too complicated for him. He jogged past Cougar Creek, checking the occupants with his senses, detecting only shifters and the humans he knew as Ivy and Gabi. No trace of intruders.
Saint, his alpha, would send word to the cougars about their visitors once Lowe returned to the Ridge, warning them to be on their guard.
Knox paused by a tree and pressed his left hand against it, closed his eyes and scented the cold air. It burned his lungs, the chill of it swift to sap the heat from his skin now he had stopped.
He glanced in the direction of the Creek, thinking about the other night when Saint had dragged him to a damned wedding celebration just so he could see the pretty little cougar female, Holly. A female who was now Saint’s mate.
His thoughts strayed to what he had said to his alpha.
That he didn’t want to be next.
Saint had found his fated female. Lowe had found his.
It wasn’t the life for Knox. He liked things simple. No strings attached. No weight around his neck.
Lowe’s words echoed in his mind, pointing out that it had been two years since Knox had chased a female.
He shoved his brother out of his head and pushed onwards, stalking through the trees, his mood blackening with each step. So what if he’d had a period of abstinence? It didn’t mean anything. Maverick had taken over handling the supply runs into town while Knox had been busy at Black Ridge, helping out with the cabin repairs that needed to be done in the short summer months. A lot of the cabins had needed repairs at the same time, and it had given him no time to get away from the Ridge before winter set in.
He glared at the dusting of snow that covered the ground despite how dense the evergreen canopy was above him. He liked winter about as much as the next bear, should have been asleep right now, curled up under a mound of furs on his bed, not running around in the freezing cold.
An icy breeze swept around him, worsening his mood as it slipped numbing fingers into any gap it could find in his weatherproof black jacket and trousers.
“Damned things are meant to be top of the line,” he muttered as he tugged the bottom of his jacket down, trying to stop the wind from getting under it.
Knox focused back on his task as he neared the trailhead, slipped into stealth mode and silently approached the small patch of snow where several vehicles were parked. He didn’t recognise a few of them, in particular a small car and a red SUV, both of which had snow covering them. Not recent arrivals then.
He crouched and moved through the trees just above the cars, gaze scanning them, and stopped when he spotted a blue pickup truck that didn’t have a flake of snow on it. He eased down the slope, slipping from tree to tree, approaching the vehicle. There were boot prints in the snow around it and the tracks looked fresh, undisturbed by the wind.
He sniffed and growled low when he scented humans. He couldn’t tell how many had been in the truck, but it had definitely been more than one.
The only other recent arrival was a black Ford F150.
Maverick’s truck.
The tension cranking his muscles tight eased a little at the sight of it and the thought that Maverick and Rune had made it back to Black Ridge. The humans would be no match for the two big bears if they strayed near the Ridge. He breathed a little easier knowing they were on hand should something go down, fear for his brother and Cameo fading, allowing him to focus on his mission.
Knox peered off to his left, back into the trees that covered the rolling terrain of the valley between the trailhead and Cougar Creek. He moved back that way, keeping low, and investigated the treeline. All of the snow was undisturbed. Whoever had come this way hadn’t headed towards the Creek.
He spotted Maverick and Rune’s trail to his left up the slope and wasn’t surprised to see they had chosen the high path. It allowed them to reach Black Ridge without going near the cougars. They must have reached the Ridge before he had left, or somehow he had passed them without noticing. It was possible. As much as he hated to admit it, he had lost himself in thought from time to time during his trek to the trailhead. The two bears could have easily gone unnoticed by him if they had been at a good distance. Their faint scents wouldn’t have triggered a sense that he was in danger, pulling him out of his thoughts.
If he had smelled humans though, he would have been laser-focused on his surroundings in a heartbeat.
He swung his gaze back towards the pickup.
Which way had the humans gone?
He focused again, reaching out with his senses and straining to hear something at the same time. All he could feel and hear were animals. The scent of the humans was fresh though, meaning that they had been here recently. Maybe within the last fifteen minutes. Thirty tops.
He broke cover and moved to the truck, placed his bare hand on the hood and glared at it. The engine was still warm.
Knox checked all around the vehicle, trying to figure out how many he was dealing with by investigating the boot prints. The snow was a mess, which made it impossible to tell. He huffed, his breath fogging in the air, and turned in a circle, scanning the snow further afield, trying to spot which way they had gone.
He stilled as he found their trail.
It wasn’t heading towards Cougar Creek.
He frowned as he followed it, picking out possibly two or three man-sized footprints and one set that was smaller. A female? He paused at the edge of the clearing and stared into the trees that covered the gradual slope below him, tracking the path they had taken.
Why were they heading for the river?
Knox lifted his head and looked at the other side of the valley, at the white caps of the mountains that towered there, dazzling against the blue sky. The dark pines and spruces that hugged the base of the mountains were heavy with snow too, thanks to the recent storm.
He looked back over his left shoulder to the two old lodgepole pines that marked the start of the trail to Cougar Creek and Black Ridge.
A trail he couldn’t see through the fresh snow.
Was that the reason they were heading for the frozen river instead?
Knox pivoted on his heel and stared at the blue truck, part of him wondering whether it belonged to local hunters rather than the people he was looking for. Dangerous people. Members of a drug cartel. It didn’t strike him as the sort of vehicle that someone in that profession would own, but then there was a high chance it was a rental like the red SUV and the smaller car he figured belonged to Cameo.
It made sense that they would rent a vehicle more suited to the hostile terrain and climate.
He turned in the direction the people had gone and wound his way down the slope, following their trail. He wasn’t going to complain that they had taken a detour and were heading away from Cougar Creek. It gave him time to find them, assess them and come up with a plan before they got that far up the valley.
If they followed the river, it would lead them to the cougar pride. Knox had to intervene before they reached it. He had no love for the cat shifters, but Saint was clearly deeply in love with his new mate and Knox would do whatever was necessary to keep his alpha happy.
It wasn’t long before he heard the group. He broke off from their trail, heading to his right, using the shrubs as cover as he approached them. They were moving quickly for humans, covering a lot of ground. He peered into the trees, trying to spot them, and froze when he caught his first glimpse of them.
Knox could tell it was a male even though he wore his hood up. He was tall. Wiry. Carrying a red pack on his back that made him stand out almost as much as his bright blue jacket did. Stealth clearly wasn’t a concern for them. Knox hunkered down when another male appeared in his line of sight, heading back towards his companion, and he catalogued everything about him.
He was shorter than the first male, but he was big, his dark grey jacket covering a body that was more fat than muscle, and his face was ruddy, his breaths rapid as he swiped a gloved hand across his rugged brow. He looked like a bouncer. Knox eyed the rifle he had slung over his shoulder. Or perhaps a bodyguard. Knox bet that wasn’t the only gun this one was carrying.
He eyed the guy in the blue jacket again and noticed that he had a weapon too, a rifle similar to the one the bodyguard had, only he had stashed his in the side of his pack.
Knox slipped silently through the undergrowth, catching up with them but keeping his distance, seeking the others.
He wanted to growl when he spotted them further ahead of the duo. It wasn’t just one male and a female. It was two, both with their hoods up as they escorted the female. She wore a pack on her back and had the hood of her black jacket pulled up too, concealing her face. Unlike the pack the man wore, her dark green one was larger and heavier, had a small pan and a bedroll, together with a water bottle. She had come prepared for the hike.
Four men in total and one woman. Knox didn’t like those odds. He liked them even less when the one in the blue camo jacket turned towards the other male and he spotted the assault rifle he gripped.
“I’m freezing my balls off.” His accent wasn’t local by a long shot. It wasn’t even Canadian. Knox pegged him for east coast USA, possibly New York.
The other man, one dressed in a black jacket and black salopettes, looked across at him but Knox didn’t catch sight of his face before he was looking ahead of them again.
The leader?
Knox moved further away from them so he could draw level with the two men and the woman without them noticing him. She gripped the straps of her pack and shrugged, shifting the weight of it on her slight shoulders. He dragged his focus away from her and assessed the two males at the back. The tall, wiry one had a blond goatee and was young, no older than thirty. Bodyguard had a good ten to fifteen years on the kid, as well as a good hundred pounds, and was guzzling water like it was going out of fashion.
Knox labelled him as an easy target if he could get him alone.
Hell, they would all be easy targets if he could separate them. Divide and conquer. It was the best plan he could come up with. He would pick them off one by one once night fell. Might even knock them down to a man and the woman and deal with them together.
Shouldn’t be too difficult. He would have stealth to his advantage once it was dark and if things didn’t go according to plan, he would use his bear form. He was stronger in that form, could easily take them down under the cover of darkness. None of them had night vision goggles.
They reached a steep incline and had to bank right, following an animal trail down to the forest floor a good twenty feet below.
Knox caught sight of the face of the one who sounded like he was from New York and he didn’t like the look of him. There was a cold edge to his dark eyes as he stared at the back of the man in front of him, his finger resting close to the trigger of his assault rifle, as if he was waiting for a reason to fire the weapon. A thick layer of black stubble covered the lower half of his face, but didn’t quite conceal the deep scar that darted over his left cheek.
Maybe Knox had got it wrong. This was the bodyguard.
His gaze slid to the man in front of him, the only one dressed all in black.
He was good looking, tall, and had his grey eyes locked on the petite female in front of him as he gripped the trees he passed to stop himself from falling down the slope to the ground far below.
“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” His accent was Canadian, and there was a sharp bite to it that made Knox feel this man was used to barking orders and having people obey them.
If he had to guess, he would say this one was Karl.
Cameo’s ex-boyfriend-turned-drug-lord.
The one who had beaten her kid brother to a bloody pulp and had then come after her, believing she had the three hundred grand her brother had skimmed off the money that had passed through his hands on its way from the streets to his boss.
The female nodded and lifted her head as she turned it to look back over her shoulder at Karl.
Knox froze against a tree, sickness sweeping through him as he stared at her, his whole plan changing in an instant.
Skye.
He bit back the growl that rumbled up his throat and fought the urge to break cover and make a grab for her. He had to dig his emerging claws into the bark of the pine tree to anchor himself in place and stop him from obeying the powerful need to get her away from these men.
He stared at her, heat swift to bloom in his veins, roused not only by his rage and his fear but by the sight of her.
Gods, it had been two years since he had last looked at her beautiful face, but he remembered everything about her—from her stunning rich brown eyes flecked with gold to the silken waves of her chestnut hair, and that little scar that darted across her chin just below her soft lips.
He wasn’t sure what she had done to get herself dragged into this mess, but he was damned if he was going to let anything happen to her.
No matter what it took.
He was going to save her.
