Dare to Bear (Book 1 Trail Guardians Series) (21 page)

“One we’ve sorely needed,” Tyce stated.

“Most definitely,” Sandy concurred.

“For sure,” the clerk agreed.

Tyce waved her into the back office of the store. “After watching you in action,” he said, deep contemplation grooving his forehead, “I’d like to do something unheard of, and undertake something truly innovative for our company.”

“Really?” Excitement coursed through her. “If you need advice or help, I’m happy to give suggestions. There’s a lot you could do to expand your reach, actually. When I get home, I can negotiate a discount with my business for you. I mean, there’s so much I can offer—”

“I know,” he said with a patient smile, as he cut off her enthusiastic rambling. “I know exactly what you can do. I talked it over with Sandy, since she’s the head manager of all our branches. I’d like to extend you an offer.”

“With my business?” She beamed. “They’ll never suspect I got this lead by hiking the Appalachian Trail.”

“You misunderstand. I want to extend an offer to you, Stephanie. Directly.”

Taken aback, she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. “Me?”

“You bring knowledge to the table we sorely lack. We make our living through this company. We support family and friends, as well as the community. And while we’re doing well in the marketplace, seeing you in action has led me to believe we can accomplish far greater things.”

“I know you can,” she agreed. “With some changes and tweaks, we can put this company front and center of the market.”

He half-sat on the edge of the desk, facing her. “That’s why I want to hire you, specifically—not your company.”

“Oh. Okay.” She licked her lips. “I mean, I was supposed to fly home yesterday, but I think I can eek out a few extra vacation days to help out here, and teach Leo—”

“We don’t want you to teach, Steph.” He folded his hands on his upraised leg. “We want you to do.”

She cleared her throat. “Do what, exactly?”

“Come work for Bear Necessities. We’ve needed someone with your expertise for ages, to expand our brand and bring us more fully into the twenty-first century to ensure our future.”

She blinked. “You mean, work here? For your company? In the
wilderness
?”

“That’s exactly what I mean.” He grinned. “We won’t seem so ‘backwoods’ with your help. Trust me, this decision is overdue. There’s only so much visibility we achieve with our locations on the trail. They’re good, but they’re not enough. You can usher us into a more lucrative phase of our business plan. Bear Necessities, two-point-oh.”

Then he collected from the desk’s surface some of the drawings she’d done while sitting at Mason’s side. She’d sketched alternate logos for the one that the company currently had in place. She shook her head adamantly. “Hey, those were just doodles. Something to keep me awake while Mason recovered.” She swallowed. “At least, I hope he recovers.”

Tyce pointed to one of the sketches that she’d personally favored, a simple blocking pattern of a bear separated by white space, with the peaks of mountains behind. “This is genius.”

She wrinkled her nose, hesitant to take credit, since her boss always did that for her, after denouncing her efforts. “Really? Because back at my office in California, they hated my logos.”

“I assure you,” he said, dipping his chin in a gesture of respect, “no one here hates your ideas. We welcome them. We’ve fallen behind in the age of fast-paced Internet marketing. People like us, like Mason, prefer the outdoors and doing what we love in nature. We need someone with your skills and talent to help us upgrade, so to speak. To be our bridge, expanding us more fully into the online world.” He sent her an intent stare. “If I offered you a position here, with our company, would you stay?”

Dumbfounded, the possibility had never crossed her mind. “I don’t know.”

“I can offer you sixty-thousand a year, plus stock options. And we have a shrewd financial advisor who’ll match the retirement plan you currently have. It may not provide the upward mobility you’ve always dreamed of, but we’d give you full control of the department. In fact, you’d be the department. You’d become our Director of Marketing. We could supply you with two or three of our tech-savvy workers, who’d appreciate being a part of the new vision.”

Director of Marketing? Just thinking of such a lofty title thrilled her.

On the one hand, she’d take a huge pay cut. Sixty-thousand a year was about half of what she earned in California. On the other hand, the cost of living in this area was far cheaper than where she rented her condo currently. And what, other than Ashley, did she really have to return to when she went back? A great but frustrating career, where her boss took credit for all her ideas and made her feel sub par? Here, she could pioneer all sorts of fresh, innovative ideas, thoughts she’d never dared to raise for fear of looking stupid or foolish. Most important of all, she and Mason wouldn’t have to go the long-distance-relationship route. They could see if they worked together right here, where he had so much support from friends and family.

Family
. The thought made her retract. She folded her arms across her stomach. “What would Midas say? He doesn’t like me very much.”

A closed expression cinched Tyce’s face. “He has his own career as a sheriff, separate from the business. And he has his own reasons for doubting the capacity of a human-and-shifter mating. Don’t take that personally. He wouldn’t interfere with your position or your place here among us.”

“I would have a place? With you?” she asked hopefully.

Tyce smiled softly. “Of course you would. You’re Mason’s mate, so you’re one of us. Although I didn’t offer you the position for that reason, your bond with him might strengthen if you to moved here to be with him, not to mention his recovery.”

“I would like that,” she admitted. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, me working for the company?”

“Absolutely. You’re a natural fit, Stephanie. I hope you’ll consider my offer.”

“I will,” she said, though the logistics of it all would be a serious departure from everything she’d planned for, plus it required leaving her life in California.

Suddenly, Sandy burst into the room. “Midas just called. Something’s happening with Mason.”

“Oh, my God.” Stephanie flew from the office, barreling out of the lodge as she ran to the hospital next door.

She raced up the steps toward Mason’s room. Midas caught her around the waist before she could enter.

“You don’t want to see what’s in there.” His low growl of warning terrified her as much as the unknown possibilities.

She stood her ground. “I don’t care. It’s Mason. I’ll be there for him, no matter what.”

Midas’s sharp glare bored into her. They stood locked together for a tense moment. Then he let her go, and she sprinted to her mate’s side.

Witnessing Mason’s ashen state, she swallowed a gasp, her chest clenched with fear. When she grabbed his chilled hands, she barely felt a pulse in his wrists. How could this happen? Sandy had told her it looked like the fever might break any minute.

God, no
. “Mason, don’t leave me,” she pleaded, her tears dripping onto his face as she clasped him. “I’ve found a way to be here. I can stay with you. Don’t leave. Please, don’t leave.” She said a prayer to the Ancients, to the Ancestors, to God—whoever would listen. “I love you, Mason.
I love you.
”

*

Mason wasn’t sure when he’d stopped fighting, when he’d let go. But the burning had ended. The raging storm inside him had ebbed.

He drifted in a strange gray space. A world between worlds. Not dead, but not alive. His spirit seemed to hover in an unknown state. But he was there. It was him. His thoughts and beliefs and ideals lingered here. He’d expected to see the glowing white light he’d heard of in the Ancestor’s lore. Instead, there was just drifting, and…nothing.

Then a violent tug grabbed him. A powerful sensation jerked him, and strange twinkling lights sped past him in a blur.

Suddenly, he could feel again.

The glare of florescent bulbs impacted his eyelids. He cringed at the searing effect. The recognition of wet droplets pelting his face made him flinch. Each new visceral response rained down on him like he stood in a hail storm, welcoming yet dreading each sensational blow.

Then the most beautiful words met his ears.
I love you
.

“
I love you, Mason. Please come back to me
.”

He heard Steph. She wasn’t a ghostly figure in his dreams. He heard her voice ring as loud and clear as church bells at dawn.

No longer lost and adrift, he felt himself slam into his body with a mighty impact. He gasped and choked and sat upright, stunned by his sudden re-entrance into physical form. He flailed uncontrollably. “I…I’m…I—”

“Don’t speak.” Tyce’s familiar voice calmed him.

The back of his head hit the plush surface of a pillow like a bowling ball. He struggled to stay still beneath hands that pressed him to a mattress.

Was he back? Was he home? Away from the Dark Ones and the flaming nightmare that had engulfed him?

“Stay still,” Tyce’s voice instructed. “Or I won’t get this IV back into your vein, my friend. And then you’ll be a real mess.”

“Tyce,” he exhaled.

“Yes, I’m here. We’re all here. You’ve made it. You’re going to be all right.”

Mason’s whole body shuddered. He wheezed, “Steph?”

“She’s here, too.”

Extending his hands, he grasped for her blindly. “Steph!”

“Here. I’m right here, Mason. I’m with you, always.”

The pent-up tension in his body relaxed. “Thank the Ancestors.”

Gradually, his senses returned to their full capacity, and the gray nothingness released its hold on him. The cool temperature of the room sheeted down his arms, and his body shook with chills. His teeth chattered. “S-so c-c-cold.”

A heavy blanket draped over him, and a pair of warm arms cradled his torso. The chill subsided. “Steph. I need you. I love you.”

“I need you, too, Mason.”

The former hailstones transformed into soft droplets streaking down his face. Tears. Her tears. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“It’s okay.” She released a soft laugh. “They’re happy tears. I’m so happy you’re alive, you’re well again.”

Blinking, he still couldn’t accept the harsh glare around him. “Shut off the lights.”

“So bossy when he’s sick,” his brother muttered in a surprisingly good-natured tone.

Mason forced a grin. “Hey. If you saw what I’ve just seen in those dark depths, you’d want the dimness, too.”

“No doubt, brother.” Midas’s tone held a touch of reverence Mason had never heard from him.

He wondered if the purity and strength in his bloodline had made the difference between life and death. “Then, you know what had me in its grips?”

“I can guess,” was all his brother said, in a low voice that spoke volumes beyond words. They would need to talk. Soon.

First, he needed time with Steph. “I want everyone to leave.”

He heard shuffling sounds. The door opened.

When the arms around him retreated, he gripped them firmly. “Not you, love.”

“Okay,” she whispered.

When he was convinced they were alone, he slowly creaked his eyes open. There was that beautiful, angelic face, staring down at him. The vision he’d fought for, strove toward, even when the agony was at its most unbearable.

Eyes slitted, his gaze drinking her in, he murmured in a raspy voice, “Hey, beautiful.”

The tears in her eyes, and the worry twisting her features, nearly crippled him as much as the torture he’d endured defeating the poison ravaging his bloodstream. “I was so afraid for you,” she murmured.

“Nah. I had it covered.”

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes, but the best part was that he’d made her smile. “I saved you, as much as you saved me.”

He huffed a quiet laugh. “Yes, love, you did. I saw you…” His voice trailed off. He traced her features with his fingertips. “I saw you. I felt you in my heart. I knew I couldn’t leave you.”

“Damn straight.” She buried her face against his shoulder. Her tears melted into his bandages, soaking into skin.

Holding her as tightly as his ravaged body allowed, he nodded and caressed her hair. “That’s what I’d hoped.”

“Thank you.” Her voice trembled slightly. “Thank you for helping me find myself again. Thank you for saving my life, on so many levels.”

Lifting her face, he cupped her damp cheeks in his hands. “The same way you saved mine. You pulled me through, baby. If not for you, I don’t think—”

“Don’t think,” she said. “Just feel.”

He sighed to the depths of his restored soul. “I feel you. I know you. I know you are mine.”

“I am.”

The pure adoration in her eyes shone like twin North Stars in his own personal blue sky. He was more honored in this moment than any other time in his life. “You mean the world to me, Steph.”

“Now, you are my world,” she replied, her smile reflecting so much light and happiness it almost hurt to look at her. “I’m staying, right here, with you.”