Blind Date With A Bear(17)

“Hey, bro, if you need to go back, we can handle it,” Ryker spoke this time. While it wasn’t difficult for shifters to tell the twins apart, they’d fooled many humans over the years. Which Quinn thought was really weird since the two had such different personalities. Ryland was outspoken and quick to make people laugh. Ryker was harder edged and closed mouth. Both were instinctive and empathic.

“No, we need to do another search. Tonight, before this damn storm breaks.” The twins had discovered both tracks and footprints going in and out of the site. He wanted to pull his hair out in frustration. Nothing made sense and he couldn’t think straight at the moment. He wanted to go back to Paige tonight. Love her. Claim her. Because he knew he’d claim her, sure as shit, if he saw her again tonight. He also knew she wasn’t ready. No, he’d call her first thing in the morning and talk her into seeing him tomorrow night. Then he’d take her back to his house and love the hell out of her.

The twins nodded their agreement to continue the investigation tonight. Jason went home to his mate, promising to come back if they needed him. The brothers quickly stripped and shifted. Soon three large grizzlies were lumbering towards the woods at the back of the construction site. Quinn huffed as he turned toward the north side and Ryland and Ryker headed east and west. It was going to be one long, frustrating night.



Ryker slowed as he neared the edge of the property line, trying to figure out what was bothering him so much about these tracks. He didn’t know if his brothers had noticed any anomalies or not. All had found jackal tracks and human footprints. Here, near the eastern edge, he’d found another set of shifter prints. There were faint markings of a cat of some sort. So faint, he really couldn’t tell if they were fresh or not. He didn’t think they were since the security guards had never reported a cat sighting. He sniffed along the trail of prints, trying to filter through all the different smells of the forest. There’d been jackals for sure. Marcum construction flunkies.

There was something else…

He shifted into human form and knelt beside the tracks. He quickly found the cat’s print and rubbed his hand along the faint impression. He lifted the soil to his nose and inhaled. There was something…something underneath that he couldn’t quite make out. All he knew, was it was driving him—and his bear—freaking crazy. The animal wanted to track the cat. No, the animal needed to track the cat.

“Fuck.” What the hell was wrong with him and his bear? He shifted again and continued the search. They needed something concrete to go on. Solid evidence that the jackals were treading on bear territory, so he, Ryland, and Quinn could kick some jackal ass.



Quinn was convinced he was in hell. The air was hot and humid and he couldn’t wait to get back home, to Paige. It was Thursday morning and he’d just exited the jammed packed air shuttle that had taken him to North Carolina. He hadn’t been away from his mate twelve hours and already his bear was going batshit crazy. He stretched trying to work out the kinks to his back and shoulders. How the hell did you call five measly seats first class?

He was on his way to see the Council. Yeah, Council with a capital letter. When shifters had decided to ‘come out’ the governments had insisted that controls be put in place. Shifters had insisted that they would take care of their own and they did so with an iron fist. If a shifter, or a group of shifters, got out of line, justice was swift and fierce.

He’d petitioned the Council to review his case against Marcum. The case was weak, but the Council members knew the true reason he was here. To remind the Council if they didn’t deal with the jackal pack in Atlanta, the Blackwood brothers would do it for them. Bears were usually not territorial and he could handle a business competitor. He wouldn’t, however, tolerate someone who deliberately sabotaged his site.

Last night, Ryland had found the concrete mix they’d had on site for another major pour had been contaminated. If they hadn’t discovered the problem, and had used the concrete, the top floors of the building would have collapsed soon after occupation and no telling how many individuals might have been injured, or worse, killed. No, he could take a lot of things. Putting innocent lives in danger to harm a business’s reputation was something he wouldn’t stand for. Plus, damn it, he needed to focus Paige and the mating heat consuming him.

“Mr. Blackwood?” A uniformed driver called out to him as he made his way through the busy airport.

“Yes,” he turned to the man with a frown. Only the shifter who represented the bear clan on the Council had known his flight schedule.