The Lost Slipper (Fairytale Shifter Book 3) (9 page)

X
avier
and I have been in the woods for hours. It’s like the rogue shifter knew we were after it and kept slipping away. It must have a damn good reason for being in Gray Ridge, and that has me on even higher alert.

It’s like the shifter is leading us around and trying to confuse us. It must be an excellent tracker, because X and I are the best within our pack and the surrounding ones, too. As we reach Xavier and Gwen's house, we come up to the back porch and shift.

I pull on my clothes I left behind, needing to talk to X before I head back to the bakery to pick up Winnie. It’s been a couple of hours since I left her, but I’m sure everything is okay. The last scent we caught was miles from here, in the direction of the protected lands.

Once we’re dressed, I look at X and try to think through what’s happening. “I don’t get it. The scent was so strong here, and then it was gone. Then we find it just beyond the protected lands. I can’t figure out what it’s doing.”

“The pattern is wrong,” X says as he walks up on the porch. Gwen walks out at the same time, and he hugs her close. It makes me long for my mate, and I know I need to get to her soon.

“What do you mean by pattern?” Gwen asks, looking at the two of us.

“When hunting an animal, you find they usually stick to a certain path or pattern. They dodge one way and then another to where it’s somewhat predictable, and the predator can move around them until they make the kill,” Xavier explains as he looks at me.

I feel a chill go down my spine, and something clicks. “Xavier, what if we’re looking at this the wrong way? What if we aren’t the ones hunting? What if the rogue shifter is the one doing the hunting? What if
we
are the prey?”

“Why would it come to my home? No one is a threat to me.”

I look at X and shake my head. “Maybe they didn’t intend to challenge you. Maybe this was all a plan to lure us away.”

“Away from what?” Gwen and X ask in unison.

“Winnie.” No sooner does the word come out of my mouth than I’m running towards the bakery and shifting as I go.

That’s what this has been about the whole time. The scent around Winnie’s house, the reason for tracking all the way out to beyond the protected lands. The shifter was trying to pull us away from town and away from her. X is the best tracker besides me, and one way to get us together would be to threaten X’s mate.

I had always thought that something horrific had to have happened to Winnie for her to block out all her memories for years. Something traumatic must have happened in order for her to not be able to remember anything, and I’ve wondered about where she came from. What kind of pack would lose a female bear and not look for her?

My heart nearly bursts out of my chest with the need to get to her. My lungs burn, and my muscles ache, but I push harder with each stride, my wolf in complete control. We’re hunting to protect the life of our mate, and nothing is as fierce as that.

I feel a whine start to rise in my throat, but I hold it back, focusing on getting to Winnie. I can’t think about what might happen to her. Deep down inside of me, I had thought this day would come. One day, someone would come for her and threaten to take her from me. Or worse, try to harm her.

But she’s mated now, and even a rogue shifter would know not to mess with a mated female. My scent is all over her, and my bite mark is visible. This rogue shifter is smart, so they should have already smelled me on her if they were near her house a few days ago.

I’m nearly to the bakery when I catch the scent. I’m close to getting to Winnie, but so is person trying to take her from me. The question is, who will get to her first.

Nearing the trees that line the back of the bakery, I break through, leaping into the air and landing on my paws just in time to see Winnie faint in the arms of a male.

My growl echoes through the woods, and it makes the male turn around to face me as he holds my Winnie in his arms.

“It’s not what you think—” the stranger starts to say, but I cut him off with another growl, prowling slowly to the side.

I’m stalking him and looking for the best point of attack. He’s a very large shifter, close to seven feet. He’s probably as big as Xavier in height and muscle. He’s got brown wavy hair and dark-brown eyes that seem so familiar.

Finally, being this close to him, I breathe deeply and take in all of his scent. He’s a bear. The thought makes me snarl because he must be here to take my Winnie from me.

“She’s mine—” he says, but stops short when I feel X and Gwen approach behind me in wolf form. The three of us step closer to him, teeth bared and heads slightly lowered, ready for an attack.

I’m trying to concentrate and hold my wolf, knowing that he’s got my mate in his arms, and I can’t let anything happen to her.

Suddenly, Winnie stirs in his arms, and I still. I don’t want her frightened, and I need to wait for an opening to attack the male holding her. I’ll fight to the death to keep him from taking her.

Her eyes slowly blink open, and she looks up at the male holding her. “Koda,” she whispers, and it makes my heart tighten. Who is this male to her?

I growl low in my chest, and Winnie looks at me. It’s then her eyes glow golden. “Stone. Back away. Don’t attack.”

I shake my head. There’s no way I’m not going to kill this bear for daring to touch my mate.

In the blink of an eye, and before I can react, Winnie is out of his arm and shifting right in front of me. Her ability to change into her bear so fast is shocking, and no one moves.

She’s so beautiful, with her chocolate fur and glowing golden eyes. I go to take a step forward, and she lets out a roar that makes my ears ring.

Winnie moves between me and the male behind her, as if protecting him. I shake my head again, and she plants her paws firmly into the ground. She’s prepared to defend him, and it makes my heart ache. I’m her mate. I don’t know what’s happening.

I want to plead with her, but I won’t shift to human form. I can’t be vulnerable in case he shifts.

Suddenly, the male puts his hands up and walks closer to Winnie. “Please. Just listen to me. I’m her brother, Koda. I don’t mean anyone any harm. I was just trying to get Winnie alone so I could talk to her.”

I look between Koda and Winnie in her beautiful bear form, and suddenly, pain is rolling through me. Will she leave me now that her family has come for her? Maybe mating isn’t the same for bears. It was so hard for her to come to terms with being mated to me, and it hasn’t been that long. Will she leave me so easily and rip my heart in two?

S
tone runs
his hands over my body, working the soap all over me before washing it away. He hasn’t said much since we got home. I thought we’d sit down and talk with everyone, but no. We’re in the shower while everyone waits for us downstairs.

After Koda spoke, I shifted back. I was scared I wouldn’t know how to do it again, but Stone was there, so I knew I could do it, and I just did it. Once I was back in human form, Stone hurried me back into the bakery and got my clothes from the upstairs apartment. Then he told everyone to come back to our house to sit down and talk. Other than that, he hasn’t really said much. Every time I’ve tried to talk since we’ve been alone, he’s just kissed me. The hard, sad look on his face has put a giant knot in my stomach.

He doesn’t seem too happy that my brother is here. It’s starting to freak me out a little. Shouldn’t he be happy for me? That I finally found out where I came from? All the memories came back in a flash. It was so weird to feel like I knew my brother, but I didn’t. It had been years, but he still looked the same.

I can see why Stone was worried when he saw me with Koda. He’s a freaking giant, but I remember everything about him, and he’s just a big teddy bear. Unless provoked. I can’t even begin to think about how life has been for him without me. It’s always just been him and me.

Stone’s hands work over my breasts, then up to my neck where he starts to rub. Leaning down, he kisses my mating mark, then just stares at it.

I reach up and cup his face, running my fingers into his beard, which is a little longer than normal. “Are you okay?”

“I just love you so damn much. I can’t live without you. You know that, right? If you leave me, I’ll be nothing. I can’t go back to living how I was. I need your sweetness. It balances me. Makes me feel whole. I just—”

“Stone,” I say, hearing my voice break at the one word. I can’t get anything else out or the floodgates might break.

“I know it’s fucked up, but I can’t let you leave. I won’t let you leave. I thought for a second I could be a better man and let you pick. It’s selfish, but I don’t care. You’re mine.
Mine
.”

He says the last word with such force and possessiveness, I feel a delicious chill run down my spine. I would never leave him, but he keeps talking without giving me a chance to tell him. And to be honest, I don’t want to stop him.

“I can’t leave the pack. They need us,” he says, going on as he tries to make his point. Like I’d ever leave him. My heart warms that he said ‘us.’ That the pack needs
us
. “You’re already making me a better alpha.” His hands come around my neck, his thumbs stroking my jaw. “I need you. They need you.”

“I’d never leave you,” I finally say. I love hearing him talk about how much he needs me after all these years thinking he wanted nothing to do with me. But I don’t want him to think that I’d ever leave him. We’ve waited so long to be together. Nothing will ever keep us apart again.

He growls, picking me up. Our naked, wet bodies are flush against each other as he raises me a little. I have to look down in order to look into his eyes. My hands rest on his shoulders as the warm water runs between us.

“Because you can’t,” he responds.

“However you want to cut it is fine with me, Alpha. I can’t leave because you won’t let me, or I won’t leave because I never want to be without you.”

He smiles up at me, and I lean down, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He tries to deepen it, but I pull back.

“Guest downstairs.”

He grunts a response.

“My brother is here.” My eyes fill with tears again.

“You remember,” he says.

I just nod my head, a smile pulling at my lips.

“And you love him. He was good to you?” he asks, his hold tightening on me, wanting to know if what I remember was good.

“The best,” I say instantly, because it’s true, and Stone’s hold releases a little. My brother was everything I could have asked for. He raised me after our parents passed. They had us late in life. My mother told me that it can be hard for bears to conceive sometimes. Even rarer for them to have a girl. She always told me I was special.

“Let’s get down there then.”

He places me back on the floor, and we both make quick work of drying off and dressing before heading downstairs.

When I enter the room, Gwen is sitting on X’s lap in a corner chair of the living room while he rubs her belly. My brother comes to his feet, and I pull away from Stone to go to him. Stone reluctantly releases my hand as I run to my brother and hug him. He wraps me in his arms, holding me close.

When we finally loosen our hold, I lean back to look up at him.

“I don’t think you even grew an inch,” he says, smiling back at me. I can see it doesn’t reach his eyes or light up his whole face like it used to.

“You stole them all,” I tease. We always used to joke about our height difference. He ruffles my hair, and I want to cry at the action because it was something he used to do a lot.

I feel Stone behind me and he pulls me a little from Koda. I roll my eyes. Koda just smiles, seeming to like how possessive Stone is with me.

“Did they get you, too?” The question has been sitting there since everything came flooding back. I remember coming home from school. Two men taking me and shooting me full of tranquilizer darts. When I finally came to in the back of a truck, I managed to escape. I’d shifted and run for what felt like hours and hours, or maybe even days. Until the Gray Ridge pack found me. The trauma and drugs must have made everything in my memory go black.

“Yeah, they got me.” His words are filled with pain. “But you got away. Gwen told me they found you. That you couldn’t remember.” He motions to Gwen, who is watching us. X just keeps his attention on Gwen.

Gwen can talk for hours. I’m sure she filled him in on a lot when I was in the shower with Stone.

“You didn’t, though?” I hold my breath. I have no idea why those men came for us. What their plans might have been.

“No, Winnie, I didn’t. I just got free about six months ago. I’ve been looking for you ever since. I had no idea what happened to you. Or which direction you went in.”

“What did they do to you? They had you this whole time. Oh, my God.” My questions fire out. I feel like the floor has dropped out from beneath me. Here I’ve spent years thinking I was just some forgotten cub whose family didn’t want them. In reality, I had a brother who was fighting God-knows-what.

“That story is for another time. I’m just glad I found you. It’s been killing me not knowing if you were okay. I’d learned you got away but nothing else.”

He reaches out and touches my face.

“You’ll stay, right? Here with our pack?” I plead. I don’t want him to go. Before it was just him and me, but we can have a life here. I look up at Stone, who is looking at Koda.

“You’re welcome into our pack. I know it would make my Winnie happy if you stayed. You’re family now.”

Koda’s hand drops from my face, and he starts to smile.

“I’m not shocked you mated to an alpha. You might have been shy, but you could always make anyone smile and want your attention.”

Stone growls behind me, making my body shake and Koda’s smile bigger.

“I don’t want anyone else’s attention,” I say, not looking back at Stone.

“Damn, this family just can’t stop growing. I love it,” Gwen says, breaking into the conversation. “How about we make something to eat? I’m starving.”

“You’re hungry? Why didn’t you say something?” X speaks for the first time. Irritation is clear in his voice. His mate should never go wanting.

“I’m saying something now. We’ll cook something, then we can all get to know each other a little better.”

“I like the sound of that,” I say, smiling from ear to ear.