Mate Bond(31)

"Nothing," Bowman said dryly. "I don't want to lose." He looked around,  but not for the same reason as Jamie. "I haven't seen Marcus for a  while," he said, naming his third tracker, from Jamie's pride. "What's  with him?"

Jamie made a derisive noise, his tatts rippling as he stretched his  hands. "Sex. Frenzy. Scent of a female. He's relieving his stress with  Kenzie's cousin."

Bowman envied the man. He wanted nothing more right now than to be holed  up with Kenzie, the two of them naked, not leaving the house for days.  "Well, maybe he's better off than the rest of us." He let out a breath,  suddenly tired, wanting to be done with this. He was coming to  understand why Shifter leaders often welcomed the challenge by a younger  member of their pack, knowing it was time to lay down the burden.

"If you can pry the two of them apart, tell Marcus I need him," Bowman  said. "I'm going out to talk to that Turner guy again. I want you and  Cade with me for that, and Marcus needs to guard the fort. And my mate  and cub." Who were not coming with him.

The only way to make sure of that was to sneak off with Cade and Jamie, and so he did.





CHAPTER TWENTY




Before Bowman made for Turner's cabin, he led Cade and Jamie up into the  woods toward where he was sure the sniper had been sitting.

They found indentations in the earth where someone had set up a camp  stool or chair to wait. Near a rock, which would have made a good blind,  they picked up shell casings. Bowman plucked them from the mud with the  end of a twig and put them into a bag Cade had brought with him. With  any luck, the casings might carry fingerprints-then again, would the  shooter have left them around if they did?

"Why was he shooting at you?" Cade asked as they wandered the area,  looking for more evidence. "Or was he just shooting anything that moved,  for fun?"

There was nothing to tell them which.

They did at last find prints of thick-soled men's boots leading up a  trail toward a road. Not much of a road-rough dirt and only wide enough  for one vehicle. Tread marks showed that a pickup had sat here for a  time last night. Snow had piled into its tracks, but the truck had left  deep enough ruts in the mud that they were easy to read.

"Looks like it was a pickup about the size of mine," Cade said, a regretful note entering his big voice.

There was nothing sadder than a bear mourning the loss of his truck.  "You sacrificed it for a good cause," Bowman said. "You know I'll make  it up to you."

"You sacrificed it," Cade answered darkly. "But I'll hold you to the making-it-up part."

Jamie let out a laugh. "Are you going to build a funeral pyre to send it to the Goddess?"

"Maybe." Cade didn't smile. "I love that truck."

"You'll have as much fun fixing it up the second time." Bowman followed  the tire tracks down the road a few yards before he stopped. This road,  if he remembered from studying a map of the area this morning, led to a  paved one that fed into an east-west highway. But so what? The shooter  could have driven here from anywhere.                       
       
           



       

"Let's visit the strange professor in the trailer," Bowman said, coming back to them.

"Goody," Cade answered. "Just what I wanted to do today."

"I'll be the only one meeting with him," Bowman said. "I want you two to  investigate the perimeter, find out all you can. I can't believe he  wants so much isolation. No one could love that; I don't care if his dad  left him the land and he's sentimental about it. He has to be up to  something."

"Felines and Lupines couldn't love that, you mean," Cade said. "Bears  like solitude." He grinned, his grief over his truck momentarily  forgotten. "Although we'd prefer solitude with a hot female."

"Then it wouldn't be solitude," Jamie pointed out.

"Yeah it would. The best kind of solitude." Cade chuckled, then grew  serious. "What I mean is, it's hell for Felines and Lupines to be on  their own. You love being part of the group, even when you pretend you  don't. But humans are different. Some of them, like bears, prefer being  alone."

"Then why do humans use solitary confinement as a punishment?" Bowman countered.

Cade shrugged. "I don't know everything there is to know about humans.  I'm speculating. But maybe Professor Turner is the kind of human who  prefers to be on his own. You said that others laughed at him and made  things hard for him before. Maybe that made him prefer his own company."

"Mmm," was all Bowman would say.

He'd had Pierce look Turner up on the university's website last night.  The man did exist. Wayne Turner, associate professor, department of  anthropology, University of North Carolina, Asheville. His photo  appeared on the site, along with his campus office and phone number, his  bio, and his educational background. BA from the University of South  Carolina, meaning Kenzie had been right about his accent. PhD from the  University of Virginia. Turner specialized in the history and culture of  Shifters and their parallels to human culture. He'd published a number  of articles in journals Bowman had never heard of, and had been  interviewed on local television and on local and national radio.

Bowman was automatically distrustful of humans with too much interest in  Shifters. He didn't need humans sniffing around Shiftertowns, finding  out more than necessary. Shifters preferred to keep themselves  mysterious. Safer that way.

Bowman also hadn't liked the remark Turner had made to Kenzie, observing  that she and Bowman had only one cub. He hadn't missed the pain that  had flared in Kenzie's eyes when he'd said it.

Ryan had come along after three years of trying, when Kenzie had been  about to give up hope for a cub. Ryan had been big and healthy, with no  problems at all, and they'd celebrated. For days. Kenzie and Bowman had  assumed they'd have several more cubs quickly after that-a big family.

But they'd never conceived again. Not for lack of trying. They had  plenty of mating frenzy, but no more cubs came. Bowman knew Kenzie  blamed herself-in the past, low fertility among females had led to  declines in Shifter population. But Bowman knew it could be his fault.  He'd read that stress could lower sperm count, and leading this  Shiftertown caused plenty of stress.

When they spied the trailer, Bowman signaled Cade and Jamie to fan out  and explore. The two trackers faded noiselessly into the trees, and  Bowman strode out into the clearing.

He arrived at the trailer, stepped up on the wooden stair to knock on  the door, and found Cristian Dimitru already inside with Turner.


* * *

Kenzie and Ryan polished off the cinnamon rolls, Ryan eating most of  them. They'd left none for Bowman, but Afina had stashed a second batch  of dough in the freezer, the rolls formed already. All Kenzie had to do  was bake and frost them.

Afina was like that-hard-edged, but then . . . cinnamon rolls. She could  be thoughtful, kind, and loving, exactly what Kenzie had needed as a  scared and lonely cub.

As Kenzie contemplated what she'd learned from her phone conversation  with Gil, someone pounded on the front door. Alarmed and wary, Kenzie  went to answer it.

Her cousin Bianca stood on the doorstep, bringing in the scent of winter plus a flurry of snow that had started to fall again.

Bianca was much younger than Kenzie, having been only a cub when they'd  moved to Shiftertown. She'd gone through her Transition here, which was  never easy on a Shifter, but she'd been able to do it surrounded by love  and support. Bianca was actually a distant cousin, the daughter of one  of Cristian's cousins. Her hair was lighter than Kenzie's, a shade of  butternut, but she had the golden eyes of the Dimitru pack.                       
       
           



       

She was smiling at the moment-radiant. Not worried about snipers or  murderers or monsters. Happier than Kenzie had ever seen her.

"Kenz, Bowman isn't here, is he?" Bianca asked, looking around the empty living room and into the kitchen.

"No, he's out with the trackers." Kenzie folded her arms and gave Bianca  a severe look. "He's been trying to call Marcus, you know. Where is  he?"

"Outside. Hiding." Bianca waved her hands, flustered. "I know. Marcus  was afraid to come in-he knows Bowman is mad at him. So he sent me in to  ask you to ask him. Bowman. I mean . . ." She broke off with a laugh.  "Goddess, listen to me. I don't know where to start."

"Take a deep breath . . ."

Bianca took a big one, her chest lifting her sweatshirt. "We came to ask  you to ask Bowman if he'll do the mating ceremony for us," she said in a  rush. "For Marcus and me. We know . . . I mean." Bianca put her hand  over her heart. "We know."