Mate Bond(39)

Bowman's skin itched, his human form barely containing him. Having to  face Cristian and his not-so-thinly veiled hostility wasn't what he  needed.

Bowman didn't trust himself to speak, but Cristian was already talking, even as Bowman swung off his motorcycle.

"Have you come, as I have, to see if there are any more of these  creatures wandering about?" Cristian asked, his breath fogging in the  cold morning air. "The second monster, I mean. I speculated that they  came in pairs."

"Yes, I remember," Bowman snapped.

"I have been here since the dawn. I have found many things."

"Yeah?" Bowman made himself focus. "Like what?"

Instead of answering, Cristian peered at Bowman's motorcycle, then  behind him to the dirt road. "Where is my niece? She would be helpful in  this."

Bowman turned his head abruptly so Cristian wouldn't see his face, and  pretended to scan the area. "She's busy. So am I. Just tell me what you  found."

"Tracks. They tell a story."

"What tracks?" Bowman made himself pay attention. He had a job to do;  hurting would have to be pushed aside for later. "We checked all over  the place and didn't find any tracks, except the ones the sniper made,  but they were way over there." He pointed.

"That is because they weren't here then. These are new."

Bowman faced Cristian again. "Someone's come back? Why?"

"Who can say? It may be innocent, or it may not. Until we find out who  brought the monster here, whether there are any more, and why all the  shooting is going on, we should not rest."

"I know." Bowman clenched his jaw.

"We have been lucky so far that the monster did not live, but someone shot at us to keep us from discovering things."

"I know," Bowman repeated, louder this time. "But I don't want you going  behind my back, digging into things without telling me. I make the  decisions about this. Me. Don't forget that."

"So then, make decisions." Cristian's look was steady. "We cannot sit  around and wait for you to discover the answers. The danger is too  great-"

Bowman gave up on control. He slammed himself to Cristian and grabbed  him by his leather coat; screw being diplomatic. "And you undermine me  at every chance-that's just what you want, isn't it? To charge out here  to make it look as though I can't handle it. Then you can go back home  and tell the Shifters you fixed everything, not me." Bowman gave him a  fierce shake. "You keep it up, and I'll kill you. I'll do it now if I  don't like what you say to me, and dump your body in a ravine."

Rage flared in Cristian's eyes, but as Bowman's rapid speech ended, his  golden gaze narrowed. "Something has happened to you. What is it? Is  Kenzie all right?"

Bowman shook him again. Cristian brought his hands up hard against  Bowman's wrists, and with a single jerk, broke his hold. Bowman went for  him again, but at the last minute, spun and walked away, clenching his  hands at his sides.                       
       
           



       

"Kenzie is all right?" Cristian's voice took on a note of deeper concern. "Tell me."

"She's fine," Bowman said, back still turned. "This is between her and me; none of your business."

"She is Dimitru pack-it is my business."

Bowman swung around. "She was. Now she's . . ." He trailed off. If  Kenzie walked away from him, following the mate bond, he'd have to get  the mating annulled-by Cristian. And Kenzie would no longer be O'Donnell  pack.

Cristian watched him. The trouble with the asshole was that he was  smart. He was long-lived, experienced, and knew too damned much.

"She has felt the mate bond with another," Cristian concluded.

Pain flared. "I said, it's none of your business."

"But it is. She is my niece, my blood." Cristian pressed his hands to  his chest. "She is also my foster daughter. I raised her. Everything  about Kenzie is my business."

"It doesn't matter," Bowman said in a hard voice. "Yes, she found it with someone else. She'll go. End of conversation."

"It is not that simple."

"Yeah? No shit. Now, can we get on with looking for whatever it is you found?"

Cristian continued to hold his gaze. Bowman finally growled and stalked  away, across the cement floor of the arena and out the other side.

"Not that way," Cristian said at his shoulder. The man could move fast. "What I found is here."

He pointed down a hill and started in that direction. Bowman gritted his teeth and followed.

They came out into a flatter part of the woods, where the trees thinned  slightly and mud proliferated. The snow of the day before had only  dusted the ground here, and today's thaw had turned it into a mess.

Cristian pointed out two sets of footprints, both in boots with heavy  treads, good for traction in the cold. Two people had stood here talking  to each other, then they'd parted ways. The larger set of prints went  up the hill to the right, the smaller set down to the left.

"The larger set belonged to a heavier man," Cristian said. "His boot  prints, you see, are deeper, much deeper. Or he was carrying something  heavy. The second man is lighter, and walks more quickly, with a longer  stride."

"Good observation, Holmes," Bowman said dryly. He might not be up on the latest literature, but he knew that character.

Cristian did too, and slanted Bowman a look. "I am trying to help. What are your deductions?"

"Two men met and walked away from each other. Hunters. Hikers. Friends with a fetish for screwing in the woods."

"Human, by the scent," Cristian said. "Which set would you like to follow?"

"The larger man." He was likely the greater danger, and as much as  Bowman wanted Cristian out of his life, if Cristian got himself shot,  Kenzie and Afina would make Bowman's life hell-more than it already was.

"Very well," Cristian said. "We will look and meet back at the vehicles in one hour."

"Fine." Bowman didn't bother with more formality. He turned his back and walked off, following the boots up the hill.


* * *

Bowman made it back to where they'd parked the motorcycles before  Cristian did. He contemplated taking off and leaving the older man  behind, but he leaned on the seat of his Harley and waited.

The forest was quiet, the tall trees regal against the half-clouded sky.  The scent that Bowman simply called woods tried to soothe him, but  Bowman's nerves were jangled. Hurt lingered behind where he'd pushed it,  wanting to come out and batter him.

Cristian didn't keep him waiting long. "My trail, perhaps not  surprisingly, went to Turner's," he said as he approached Bowman.  "Something is very wrong in that clearing, and I would like to know  what."

So would Bowman. "Mine went to a road," he said. "Someone had parked a  pickup there. Something like an F250 by the spread of the tires and  depth of the tracks."

Cristian gave him an ironic smile. "Impressive, Holmes. Anything else?"

Bowman took what he'd found on the trail out of his pocket and wordlessly handed it to Cristian.

It was a charm, a large one, from a necklace or some such, made of solid  silver. The design looked Celtic-not the same as the Celtic knot that  adorned Shifter Collars, but similar. The silver was old, softened by  time; not tarnished, but not bright and shiny either.

Cristian sniffed it. "This is Fae."

"Yep." Bowman folded his arms against the cold. "Just lying in the woods, in the mud, about halfway up to the truck."                       
       
           



       

Cristian continued to study it. "I would swear that the two men standing in the clearing were human."

"They were. No scent of Fae anywhere. And yet, the guy in the big boots dropped it. I found it right beside his footprints."

"Or it was lying there and had nothing to do with him."

"The ley line is over there." Bowman pointed to the left, away from the  arena. "But I've never heard of any gates in it. No standing stones in  this woods." Standing stones often contained an entrance to Faerie. "I  doubt a Fae popped out, went for a hike, dropped a piece of silver, and  ran back home. We'd smell a trail like that."

Cristian scowled at him over the charm. "Then what are you suggesting?"

"That a human had this thing in his possession."

"A human, meaning Turner?"

Bowman nodded. "Why not? If he has studied Shifters as thoroughly as he says, he's come across the ley lines and the Fae."

"What is your idea, then?" Cristian asked. "Turner, in his zeal to find  out about Shifters, stumbles across a piece of Fae jewelry and passes it  to a large man who drives a pickup? Who drops it along the way as he  leaves the woods? I think you had not enough sleep last night, Bowman."