Bears & Beauties - Complete (8 page)

She has to be somewhere
, Grayson told himself.
I have to find her.

Closing his eyes, Grayson reached inward toward his bear, letting it take command of his senses. As he did, the bear’s instinctive concern began to overwhelm him. Something had the bear lashing out, roaring, fighting for a chance to emerge and destroy everything in its path. The longer Grayson stood there, connecting with his bear, the more he became convinced of the fact that something wasn’t right. The bear seemed frightened, as though something was threatening it.

Grayson jerked up, reached out with his senses, and realized the worst. The bear wasn’t frightened. The bear’s protective nature had emerged because something was threatening its mate.

Something dreadful had happened to Amber. Wherever she was, Grayson knew that she was in danger. And he was going to do everything in his power to prevent her from further harm.

With a violent roar, Grayson shifted into his bear form. His massive size nearly doubled that of an average bear and his senses carried the same benefit. Within seconds, he had picked up his mate’s distinctive scent even in the midst of the downpour. Locked in on Amber’s scent, Grayson raced off in search of his mate, a massive bear pounding through the concrete jungle.

5

The inside of the man’s car smelled like cigarettes and old cologne as Amber squirmed in the back seat. The man had bound her wrists and feet with some twine he’d gotten out of the trunk, and had forced his belt around her head to act as a gag. Tears still streamed down her cheeks as she lay there, vulnerable and feeling broken. Her eyes were uncovered, but Amber’s vision still swam as her head continued to pound. She was convinced she had suffered a concussion but realized that was the least of her worries.

From where she was laying in the back of the car, Amber could tell that the rain was still drenching the city. She tried to get an idea of where she was by staring out the window as the man continued to weave his way through the empty streets. He drove slowly, cautiously, in order to avoid attracting attention from any nearby police. He would make sure that no one knew she was in the car. And considering that Amber had spent the past six months living in one motel room or another, nobody would be looking for her. No one would be expecting her home. No one would be out searching for her. She was alone, just as she’d been for most of her life. Usually, she’d be okay with it. But this was different.

Never in Amber’s life had she felt so utterly defeated. She prided herself on being strong, persevering through the worst, and getting by on her own. Now, she’d been stripped of everything. Her confidence had been shattered and any sense of contentment utterly destroyed. And the worst, she knew, was yet to come.

“Should’ve just gotten into the car, bitch,” the man spat at her from the driver’s seat. “It’s bad enough I had to chase you, but now you’re all banged up. I much would have preferred you all pretty and peppy.”

Amber felt vomit rise in her throat and she had to force it back down. She didn’t even dare to think about what the man was going to do to her. Somehow, she’d have to keep fighting. She had to maintain some sliver of hope that she’d get out of this, that she’d find a way to escape. She knew, more than anything, that she would have to do it alone too.

Taking a few deep breaths, Amber did her best to calm her nerves. She’d cried enough tears, now it was time to take action. Channeling every bit of muscle control she could, Amber struggled with the twine that bound her arms together. Ignoring the pain of the rope burn, Amber managed to rest the bulk of the twine against a the middle seatbelt buckle. With some careful maneuvering and her eyes always on the driver, Amber began striking the twine against the buckle, sawing it back and forth. After a few minutes, Amber felt the twine beginning to loosen against her wrists. With a quick glance toward the driver to ensure that his attention was on the road, Amber, spread her wrists apart as forcefully as she could. The twine dug into Amber’s flesh as she pushed, stretching it as far as she could. Then, when she couldn’t push any harder, Amber collapsed her wrists back together. The twine clung loosely to her wrists, stretched out to its limit, and Amber easily slipped her wrists out of it.

Amber took a moment to have a silent celebration in her head, then turned her attention toward the twine gripping her feet. Using slow, calculated motions, she began to loosen the twine with her hands, managing to free her legs after several minutes. All that remained was the gag, but Amber figured that could wait. Removing it would draw immediate attention, and that wouldn’t necessarily be the most opportune thing at the moment. All she could do now was bide her time, wait for an opportunity, then make her move.

Just then, Amber felt the car slow to a stop. She heard the distinct screeching sound of a mechanical garage door opening, then felt the car roll forward. The familiar sound of the rain pounding against the vehicle stopped and the city lights vanished. Instead, all she could hear was the low rumbling of the car’s motor amid a much darker environment.

Suddenly, Amber realized, things had gone from bad to worse. If she was going to make a move, she had to do it now.

With as fluid a motion as she could make, Amber leaped up in the back seat, the twine gripped with both of her hands, and swung toward the driver’s seat. One instant she was lying in the backseat of the vehicle, the next she had the rope jerked tightly against the driver’s throat, pulling it as forcefully as she could and using her legs to brace herself against the driver’s seat. The driver made an awful gurgling noise as he fought against the rope in the dark, doing his best to pull forward and out of the trap Amber had sprung.

“You…bitch…” the man managed breathlessly, still fighting the rope.

A light came on then, blinding Amber for a second, and the sound of footsteps raced toward the car. A second man ripped open the back door, saw Amber strangling the driver, then swatted at Amber’s wrists. Still tender from the deep rope burns, her wrists buckled for a moment, giving the driver enough slack to slip out and under the twine that had nearly strangled him. Amber, still fighting, turned her feet toward the newcomer and began kicking at him, driving her heel into his face as she backed toward the other door. As her back hit the door, she felt it give way and fell backward, out of the car, and onto a cement floor. From behind her, a third set of hands clasped themselves onto her arms, pulling her up off the floor while she was still dazed from the tumble.

On the other side of the vehicle, the driver had managed to regain his breath, though a nasty groove had been embedded in his throat. He strode over toward Amber, doing his best to scream obscenities at her, but only managing a whisper. Amber kicked out with her legs in an attempt to strike both the driver and whoever had taken hold of her now. The second man, the one she had kicked in the face, managed to climb up off the floor, holding his nose with one hand while blood streamed down and onto the floor.

“She’s feisty.” The man behind Amber laughed.

The driver, Amber’s original assailant, couldn’t manage to sound off a word. Instead, he kicked at one of Amber’s shins, sending a burst of pain flaring throughout her body.

“What do you think, boys?” the man grasping Amber started. “Shall we get to work?”

“Oh, indeed,” the second man said with a wolfish grin, rubbing his hands together as he approached. He grabbed out at Amber, who was still being held off the floor by the third man, cupping her face in his hand. “This ought to be fun.”

Still gagged by the belt, Amber couldn’t even force out a scream. Just when all hope seemed lost, however, something outside the garage door let out an enormous roar and the door flew upward and crashed against its bracers. There, outside in the rain, stood the single-most massive bear Amber had ever seen.

6

At over eight feet tall and weighing in at nearly a ton, in bear form Grayson was a force to be reckoned with. His shadow filled almost the entirety of the garage as he looked in at the scene unfolding before him. The room was filled with fear. A lot of it emanated from Amber who, though still beautiful in every way, appeared to be battered and almost broken. Her eyes seemed empty, lacking the spark they’d had earlier in the night, and she was clearly wounded in several places. Most of the fear in the room, though, came from the three men who were assailing Grayson’s mate.

Those men, emanating the scent of confidence and anger during Grayson’s race toward the home, now stank of absolute dread. And they should.

Bellowing out another huge roar, Grayson dove into the garage with a grace that seemed unnatural for a beast as massive as him. The men didn’t even have the time to react as he reached his first victim, the man with a rope burn across his throat. Grayson grabbed him with his massive paws, lifted him from the floor, and threw him out into the street. The man skipped across the pavement a few times before coming to a rest against the sidewalk, unconscious and suffering from various contusions.

The stench of fear only increased as the other men realized the reality of what was happening. Oddly, though, that same fear seemed to recede from Amber. In fact, she seemed to grow more comfortable and confident the longer that Grayson was there. Good.

Realizing that he needed to make a move, the man who had been clasping onto Amber released her, dropping her to her rear on the ground, then turned to run toward the opening. He was fast, but the bear was even faster. Before the man could make the opening, Grayson was on him, tearing into him with his claws and throwing him to the ground outside.

Grayson turned his attention to the final man, the one with the broken nose, and stared directly into the man’s eyes. The man, at first seemingly frozen in fear, made a last ditch effort to defend himself. He jerked a small handgun from behind his back and leveled with Grayson’s head.

“Come get me,” the man snarled, his finger tightening on the trigger. Before he could fire off a shot, however, something slammed into the back of the man’s skull, immediately dropping him to the floor. Behind where the man had been standing, Amber, her mouth gagged with a belt, stood with a shovel in her hands, tears of relief beginning to roll down her face.

Grayson let out a sigh of relief then, acknowledging that all three men were unconscious, and shifted back into his human form. He stood there for a long moment, naked from the initial shift into a bear, and stared longingly at Amber.

Without a word, Amber strode over to Grayson, wrapped her arms around his neck, and wept.

7

Amber curled up under a blanket as she sat on the black leather couch in Grayson’s penthouse. She was dressed in nothing more than a tee-shirt three times her size, her other clothes having been ruined during the events of the night. A gas-lit fireplace burned a few feet away from her and she did her best to soak up the warmth. Outside the penthouse, the storm still raged on. Lightning flared and thunder crashed as the wind and rain howled down upon the midnight city. Gazing out the window at the city skyline, Amber did her best to clear her mind.

The night had been one to remember, for sure, and one that she knew she’d never forget. Not only had she been kidnapped, assaulted, and nearly much worse, she had also been rescued by a massive billionaire-turned-grizzly bear. Part of her wondered if she’d lost her mind somewhere along the way, but deep down, she knew it was only the beginning of her new reality.

Something had changed tonight. The world had shifted on its axis. The stars had aligned. Fate had come knocking, and she’d answered the door.

She’d known that something was going on the first moment she laid eyes on Grayson Days back at the party. She’d known that something was at work, that her fate was unwinding. She’d chosen to ignore it, to dismiss it, and to run from it. That action - or, rather, her inaction - had only served to further validate her initial feelings. Somehow, some way, for some reason, she’d been fated to meet Grayson. One way or another, Fate had been determined to make that meeting last.

Grayson had done his best to fill in the blanks during the trip to his penthouse. He’d invited her in, offered her a shower, and sent someone out to pick up some new clothes for her. He’d told her all about his family, told her about the shifter society, and even told her that he thought - no, he
knew
- that they were fated to be together. That last part she had difficulty accepting.

As much a proponent of Fate as Amber was, she was still struggling to understand how she of all people could be destined to be with someone like Grayson. The man was smart, incredibly sexy, and not to mention wildly successful. He was, for all intents and purposes, her polar opposite. Where she struggled, he prevailed. It didn’t make sense for them to be together.

And yet, here she was. Sitting on his couch. In his tee-shirt. Under his blanket. By his fire. Waiting on him to bring her a cup of hot chocolate.

Grayson returned from the kitchen with two mugs and handed one to her. The sweet aroma of the drink was enough to send Amber over the edge, and she sipped at it despite Grayson’s warnings about its heat.