Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series (5 page)

I
t took a moment for the implication of what
she was saying to sink in, but when it did, Jarrad’s posture altered
noticeably. Gone were the squared shoulders and the bearing of a trained
fighter. Inside, his bear growled with despair at the thought of the only thing
keeping his mate alive being irretrievably lost.

If he’d been alone, Jarrad would have taken
off into the woods and shifted to allow his bear an opportunity to burn off
some frustration and anger. But he wasn’t alone and besides, he couldn’t leave
Elle unprotected, even for a moment.

Seeing his resolve waver before her eyes,
Elle’s confidence began to falter, also. Grabbing the memory card and throwing
a few things in an overnight bag didn’t really make much of a getaway plan, she
was beginning to realize, to her detriment. Her eyes began to fill with the
tears she’d been holding back ever since she made the decision to leave her old
life behind and start over somewhere far away.

Seeing her eyes glisten, Jarrad couldn’t
help himself. He stood and made his way around the table and took her in his
arms, awkwardly at first, because he wasn’t sure how she’d respond. A low
vibration of contentment emanated from Jarrad’s bear as Elle leaned into him
and nestled her face into his chest, no longer stifling the tears, no longer
caring if he saw how vulnerable she felt.

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed as she looked up at
him.

Something about this girl wrenched at
Jarrad’s heart. He felt her pain and her sense of isolation. His heart pounded and
his bear’s heart ached as his shifter senses became entwined with her emotional
outpouring. His bear had been right all along.

She really is the one
.

Leaning down, his eyes fixed on the soft,
heart shaped lips that trembled as she tried to control her sobbing, and Jarrad
kissed his mate for the first time. At first, hesitantly in case he’d misread
the desire he’d sensed smoldering inside her. As her lips parted, his kiss
became one of entitlement, claiming her mouth with his tongue as she opened
wider to receive him.

Reaching up, she laced her fingers through
his hair, pulling him into her, harder and more demanding, as though his
plundering kiss might right her past wrongs and bring her a moment of peace and
security, no matter how brief.

Breaking away from her, Jarrad looked into
her expressive, teary eyes. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You mean you shouldn’t have stopped,” said
a haughty voice she no longer recognized as her own. “You’re right. You
shouldn’t have.” She gripped the front of his tee, feeling the solid, perfectly
cut pecs through the sheer fabric and raised herself on her toes to crush her
mouth against his.

The growing evidence of his arousal against
her stomach wasn’t lost on her, either, as his large hands cupped her curvy
butt and lifted her off the floor, pulling her tightly against him. She moaned
into his mouth as her heated sex brushed against the hardened cock that
threatened to burst out of his pants.

And that was pretty much where it all went
to hell.

“D
amn it!” Jarrad pushed Elle away with more
force than he’d intended.

“I thought you wanted that?” Elle screamed
as she pounded his chest with both fists.

“No, it’s not you,” Jarrad responded
vaguely, barely aware of her reaction. His focus was on the main window of the
house, overlooking the clearing. She obviously couldn’t hear it yet, but to his
highly developed bear shifter hearing, it sounded like the approaching chopper
was right outside.

“We have to go.” He grabbed her arm and
forced her toward the rear of the house.

“Go where? Dressed like this?” Elle stood
her ground defiantly. Of course, she looked ridiculous with her hands on her
hips staring up at a man nearly twice her height and at least three times her
size, wearing nothing but an oversized hoody.

“Chopper inbound. We have to
go
!
Now!” he commanded.

“It’s not Spider, is it?” The realization
of what was about to happen was beginning to crystalize in her passion muddled
brain.

Jarrad shook his head before throwing
another anxious glance out of the window. The
thrum thrum
of the
approaching rotors was getting closer. “No.”

“How?” Her voice no more than a squeak. Her
eyes wide with terror.

“Police report. I should have thought of
that myself. You popped when the State Trooper ran your car through the
system.” Jarrad smacked himself on the forehead with his palm. “I’m an idiot.
Of course they’ve got access. Damn!”

“What do we do?”

“Run. We need to get out of here. Right
now!” Their window of opportunity was closing fast.

Elle held her arms out to her sides and
looked down at herself. Then she looked at Jarrad.

“Do I look like the running type, to you?
Seriously?”

“OK, I’ll run. You just shut up and hang
on. Can you manage
that
without arguing?”

“I beg your —”

Jarrad had already scooped her up in one
arm as he raced for the back door, pausing only to pick up his cell and a
garage remote from a counter top in the kitchen before bursting through the
door and heading toward the tree line at the rear of the property.

Just as they made it to cover, the entire
house and clearing were lit up by an array of blinding searchlights mounted on
the helicopter that came over the rise with a thunderous roar, its ferocious
downdraft producing a hurricane force swirl of dirt, leaves and fallen
branches.

Shielding their eyes from the flying
debris, Jarrad and Elle watched as the helicopter hovered in front of the
house, presumably looking for signs of occupancy.

After what seemed to Elle like an hour, but
in reality was less than a minute, Jarrad clicked the button on his garage door
remote, starting a sequence of events.

The door to the garage began to slowly
open. The light inside the garage came on. What happened next left Jarrad and
Elle dumfounded and that was no small task given the horror and destruction
Jarrad had witnessed with his own eyes during his tours of duty.

B
efore either of them could even process what
was about to happen, the gigantic Viper Attack helicopter swung to face the
opening garage door before lighting up the sky as it released a lethal Hellfire
missile directly into the garage.

An ear shattering explosion was followed by
a five story high mushroom cloud of searing flame as the house, garage and
everything in them was essentially vaporized. A raging fire took hold of the
flattened structure, as if pulverizing the hand built architectural masterpiece
wasn’t enough.

Spinning on its axis, the Viper turned
toward the direction from which it had come, ploughing into the darkness,
satisfied that its mission had not only been accomplished but an unmitigated
success.

Elle stared at the roaring bonfire that,
seconds ago, had been Jarrad’s pride. His sanctuary. Jarrad’s hands balled into
fists and his bear threatened, then and there, to shift and pursue the bastards
who had destroyed their home. Pursue and tear them apart.

Trembling with the effort needed to prevent
himself from shifting into his bear form in front of Elle, Jarrad managed to
calm his bear and remain in control.

Elle misunderstood his reaction. “I’m so,
so sorry. Jarrad. This is all my fault. I need to get away. Far away. Somewhere
I can’t bring hurt to anyone else.”

Without taking his eyes from the flames,
Jarrad wrapped his arm around his mate.

“You’re not going anywhere, sweetheart.
These guys have fucked with the wrong guy. You’ve got nothing to be sorry
about. They’re the ones who are gonna be sorry. They have no idea what they’ve started.”

Something in Jarrad’s tone told her that he
had made more of a promise than a threat. But there was something else, too.

Did he just call me sweetheart?

A
s the intense flames continued to devour the
remnants of the cabin, they stood side by side, in silence. They looked an
incongruous pair with her soft city-girl curves against his lean muscular frame
that had been forged by the very mountains in which they now stood. Yet, with
his arm encircling her and holding her close, they fit together perfectly. As
one.

Elle shook her head in disbelief. “Your
beautiful house,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. I brought this on you.”

“I’ll build another one.” Jarrad nodded as
he spoke. “Maybe the new one will be more than just a cabin in the mountains.
Maybe it will be a real
home
?”

His bear nuzzled quietly at the thought of
that.

“You mean —”

Jarrad’s nodding cut her off.

“But I’ve only been here five minutes. You
don’t even know me. And in that five minutes, I nearly got you killed trying to
save me and I’ve destroyed your lovely home with a small thermonuclear bomb.”

“Technically, a Hellfire air-to-surface Anti-Tank
missile blew up my
house
and you didn’t fire it. Secondly, rescue is my
job. It’s what I do.”

“But if it wasn’t for me, you’d still have
your
house
and be sleeping peacefully in your own bed tonight, not
standing in the freezing mountain air all … well … homeless.”

“But then I wouldn’t have met you.” His
words hung in the air as Elle wrapped her arm around his trim waist. She didn’t
fully understand what was going on, but she knew something was happening and
for once she didn’t feel the need to analyze and rationalize her feelings.
Perhaps that’s where she’d gone wrong before. Somehow, this just felt ‘right’
and she felt drawn to stay, if only temporarily, with this gorgeous man.

Elle the ‘serial over analyzer’ hadn’t left
the building altogether though. The small matter of the highly motivated and
heavily armed cartel still hung over their quiet bonding moment. Running hadn’t
worked. Fighting back didn’t seem like much of an option, not against people
who could blow up small buildings at the press of a button. She needed a plan
if they were to get this monkey off their back for good. But she had no idea
what that was.

A cold mountain breeze picked up and Elle
started to shiver. “What do we do now?”

Jarrad looked down at her, rubbed her back
to warm her as best he could and smiled. “I told you, I’m a High Mountain
Rescue man. It’s what I do. Come on.”

He scooped her up in his arms and made his
way to a trail through the forest that would have been invisible to anyone
else. This was Jarrad’s home turf. His country and he knew every inch of it. At
least his bear did.

“You don’t have to carry me, you know.”

“You haven’t got shoes. This is no place to
be walking without shoes, especially at night. It’s not like you’re heavy or
anything. I could do this all day long. Now hold on because it’s a bit rough
where we’re going.”

He started to move faster, his bear
enhanced vision giving him a keen advantage in the dark forest. As he did so,
Elle squeezed her arms tightly around his shoulders, enjoying the way the thick
layer of muscle across his back rippled and flexed as he maneuvered her between
trees and fallen logs.

The inky blackness of the forest floor made
Elle feel like she was on some kind of scary and bizarre theme park ride. She
couldn’t see a thing. The tall trees filtered out nearly all of the moonlight.

“How can you even see?” she asked with a
blend of curiosity and raw fear.

“I’ve got good night vision. Army
training,” he replied, proud at his quick thinking. “There’s nothing to be
afraid of. Remember, if we can’t see them, they can’t see us.”

“I’m worried less about
them
than I
am about bears and mountain lions or whatever else attacks humans in these
parts. I’ve watched ‘I Shouldn’t Be Alive’, you know,” she said gravely.

“Yeah they don’t call this Big Bear
Mountain for nothing,” he teased.

Elle clutched him even more tightly, her
breathing becoming shallow and more rapid. Jarrad’s bear smelled the fear
brewing in her.

“Don’t worry, there are no bears, mountain
lions or cougars where we’re going.” With that assurance, Elle’s terrified grip
relaxed ever so slightly and her breathing began to slow.

“Now bobcats, they’re another thing
altogether. You don’t want to run into a vicious night hunter like the bobcat. Oh
man, even the big grizzlies run from them …”

“Where are we?” Elle asked as Jarrad
stopped near a small stream. She could hear the clean meltwater trickling
between the rocks.

“A rescue cabin. They’re all over the
mountain so climbers and hikers can find shelter if they get lost or caught in
bad weather. We keep them stocked with blankets, canned food, fresh water and
firewood all year round,” he said with pride.

“Did you say firewood and blankets?” Her
voice wavered as she shivered from the cold. The temperature had dropped to
near zero during their hike to the cabin.

“Sorry. Let’s get you warm.” He carried her
to the door of the cabin and used his boot to release the latch before nudging
it open with his shoulder.

“Is this what it’s like to be carried over
the threshold?” Elle’s attempt at humor was met with a puzzled expression.
“Never mind. Just light the fire, will you? I’m freezing.”

“How come you’re not cold,” she added as an
afterthought. “You’ve only wearing a tee. At least I’ve got a sweatshirt and
hoodie.”

“Army training. We’re trained to ignore
pain. And cold, apparently.”

“Like Rambo?” she asked with a cheeky grin.

“Who?”

Elle rolled her eyes. Maybe it was a
mountain man thing. Or a city girl thing. Either way, he wasn’t getting it. “Forget
it,” she said as they entered the cabin and he made his way to the lamp and
matches set out on a table near the door.

T
he welcome crackle of the wood as the flames
took hold and the delightful smell of wood smoke reminded her of camping trips
with her dad, when she was a little girl. Her mom never went, of course. Too
many bugs for one thing and she was a ‘mint on the hotel pillow’ kind of
traveler, for another. Her dad, though, always thought camping was a character
building and bonding opportunity. Elle didn’t think so. The burning kindling brought
back memories of those times and how she’d missed him since he passed.

Jarrad watched her brow furrow and she
stared into the flames. “What’s on your mind?”

“My dad used to take me camping when I was
a kid. I always told him how much I hated it. Now he’s gone. I wish I hadn’t
said that.”

Jarrad thought it best to change the
subject. “I’ll get some blankets then we can move the mattresses near the fire
so you can stay warm.”

Still staring into the swirl of embers in
the fireplace, Elle nodded vaguely.

Returning with a couple of small mattresses
under one arm and a bundle of blankets under the other, Jarrad created a
makeshift bed in front of the fire, which was starting to come to life, but not
enough to stop Elle shivering. Wrapping her in a blanket, Jarrad began to rub
her shoulders vigorously in an attempt to warm her up. She turned and looked up
at him.

In the flickering light of the open fire he
looked even more rugged and handsome, if that was at all possible. A day’s
worth of manly stubble covered his strong jawline and his stunning blue eyes …
well, they were the kind a girl could get lost in, as Elle was about to find
out  as she gazed into them, trying to read his intentions.

“We need to start thinking about a plan,”
he said breaking eye contact at the same time.

“Seriously?
That’s
what you want to
do now?”

A sheepish look spread across his face.
Jarrad was being pulled in different directions. Jarrad the bear smelled her
arousal and wanted to mate with her. Jarrad the man also wanted to take her
then and there, but they hadn’t even shared the bonding ritual. Jarrad the
soldier felt the need to protect her and that meant not getting involved or
becoming distracted. The last time he did that, it didn’t go so well. But that
was before the cartel hit squad thought they’d killed their target.

So many complex emotions wrestling for
dominance, but in the end …

… his bear won.