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  “Anything?” he asked Slate, one of his guards.

  Slate shook his head, a grim look on his face. “I’m sorry, Feral. Nothing yet. With the wind shifting, it makes it really difficult. We haven’t found a trace of her scent yet.”

  Fuck! He growled and slammed a fist on the metal table he’d used to make Ramsey breakfast. “I have to find her.”

  “I understand. We’ve gone really far with nothing. We’ve found hikers and families in the area close to the falls, but nothing else,” Slate said.

  Another of his guards rushed to the campsite from the trees. “Feral, we have a problem.”

  “What’s wrong, Gunner?”

  “Two of the men from the Behar Pride were spotted a few miles from here.”

  Feral’s gut clenched. “What? They don’t usually come this way. When did that change?” he asked Slate.

  Slate looked as shocked as he did. “I don’t know. My intel says they don’t come here, ever.”

  “But today, they’re here?” Feral growled. “We’re going to scour wherever they were seen and search for anything we can. Ramsey is around here somewhere.”

  Slate and Gunner glanced back and forth at each other. “What if they did take her?”

  “I need to be sure, before we start a war between us. Duke Behar has been a selfish prick, but I never took him for a kidnapper.”

  Gunner cleared his throat. “That might be, but you’re the one with the rights to the land he’s arguing belongs to him. You’re the one with the larger pride, and you’re the one he’s most afraid of.”

  Feral snarled. He hated politics. He was fine in his desolate cabin in the mountains. His views alone were worth living away from people. The waterfalls weren’t as grand as the ones in the national park, but they were still beautiful. His home was farthest from town, which gave him space and quiet.

  Feral didn’t bother refuting what Gunner said. Duke was afraid of him. Most of the people were. He lived a solitary life. He had enough scars to make any of the pretty boys in the pride wince. Pride members were afraid of his wrath. Except Ramsey. His little niece spoke her mind and didn’t care about Feral’s fury.

  His animal pushed at the skin, wanting out. He had to go search again, find his niece. The thought of something happening to his little girl pulled an angry roar out of him. The sound was loud and it made his guards step away from him.

  “We’ll find her,” Slate said. Gunner nodded and both rushed off, removing their clothes as they readied to shift. He watched his men go, about to leave himself when his radio went off.

  “Yeah?”

  “Feral?” his sister Reysha called. “Your phone must have zero service. I’ve been calling everyone and can’t get through. Is Ramsey around? I want to say hi.”

  He gulped, unsure what to tell her. He didn’t want to lie, but he didn’t want to worry her, and they’d find Ramsey soon. With Reysha pregnant, she didn’t need to stress unnecessarily. He had to be sure Ramsey wasn’t around before he told her.

  “No, she went for a run.” That was all true. From what the others said, she’d looked bored and had gone for a run, only she had yet to come back.

  “Oh, damn. I was hoping to chat with her. I miss my girl,” Reysha said. “Anyway, how are you?”

  “Good.”

  “Wow. Man of so many words,” she laughed. “Listen, Hawk is over sending smoke signals my way so I can give him the radio. Give my baby a kiss. Can’t wait to see you guys tomorrow night!”

  Fuck! He had to find his niece. Nothing could happen to Ramsey.

  “Feral,” Hawk, his brother-in-law, got on the radio. “I’ve caught two of Behar’s men on your land. You’ve got to do something.”

  Feral slipped tense fingers through his long hair and gripped it at the base of his skull. “I’ll deal with that when I get home.”

  “Is everything okay?” Hawk asked. “You sound angry.”

  “When am I not angry, Hawk?”

  “True. Okay, then. I’ll see you when you get back. Take care of my baby.”

  Feral slipped into his fur and ran the vicinity of the camp in a giant circle. Then worked his way out, still in a circle to see if he got any trace of Ramsey’s scent. The farther he got, the more concerned he became.

  Could she have gotten this far without anyone noticing? He watched humans leaving the area. He went as close to where they parked as possible. His hearing picked up a conversation that caught his attention. It was a man talking to park security.

  “You have to look for her. I think a tiger attacked her.”

  The security guard gave him a bored look. “I told you we only have mountain cats here, sir. No big tigers.”

  The guy, in ridiculously short shorts and a cropped tank top, took a bandana off his forehead and wiped his face. “And I’m telling you that my friend probably killed the tiger. Just go look. She was carrying a big knife. She might’ve killed it before it ate her.”

  The security guard nodded. “Why didn’t you help your friend?”

  The man blanched. “I couldn’t. It was too close. I was not in the position to help.”

  “You mean you were scared of a mountain cat.”

  “Tiger! How many times do I have to tell you it was a tiger?” He growled and turned from the security man, stomping to a car parked not far away.

  Feral roared in anger. Nobody better have touched his niece. He prowled toward the man who knew where his niece was and readied to scare him into telling the exact location he’d seen Ramsey. The parking lot cleared and the man had his trunk open, wiping down the sweat of his walk. He turned, suddenly meeting his tiger’s eyes and screamed in fear.

  “Officer! Officer!” the man screamed. “I told you!”

  The security guard shook his head as he watched Feral shift to human. “Man, Feral. I told you to keep the drama to a minimum.”

  The man gasped, his eyes wide. “You knew? This man...animal was here?”

  Feral snarled and grabbed him by the collar, lifting him off the ground. “I have some questions and you’re going to answer them.”

  “Feral,” Gabe, the security guard started, “don’t hurt him. I don’t need more cops here.”

  “I won’t,” Feral looked deep at the human’s eyes. “Not if he tells the truth.”

  The man gulped. “W-w-what do you want to know?”

  “What’s your name, human?”

  “Corbin.”

  Feral showed him his elongating canines and his unstable shifting features. “You saw a tiger earlier.”

  “Yes,” he croaked. “Not as big as yours.”

  “Where?” he asked and shook Corbin hard.

  Corbin winced. “Twenty minutes south of the I-23.”

  “The woman you were with, you left her with the tiger and she had a knife?”

  Corbin gave a half nod. “Sage. If she got away from the tiger, she’d be back at her hotel by now if she kept going up the way we were.”

  She could be working for the Behar Pride and this moron not even know it. He had to get his niece before she was hurt. Knowing Ramsey, she’d have shifted and befriended the human. Only to be kidnapped or taken hostage.

  “Tell me what hotel she’s staying at.”

  Corbin spilled the hotel name, address, and even the website. Feral dropped him and marched away, shifting into his tiger to head to camp. He had to gather his men and move.

  4

  Sage sat back on the sofa and sighed. “That was really good.”

  “I know,” said Ramsey with as much satisfaction. “I think we might have overdone it.”

  Yeah. Probably. She glanced at the greasy burger wraps and empty fry cups and closed her eyes for a second. There was no probably about it. They definitely overdid it.

  “It doesn’t matter. I haven’t had a burger in months,” Sage defended herself.

  “So you normally have three?”

  “No!” Sage laughed at Ramsey’s confused look. “I mean, I don’t eat burgers often
, so today I indulged. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Why does it matter if you eat burgers all the time or not?” She picked up a piece of cheesecake and took another bite.

  Sage smiled at the child. Ramsey was full of questions and curiosity. With tons of energy and quick to get bored. She could see why the little girl had gone off exploring on her own. “I’m a big girl and I need to make sure I take care of my health. Some people are naturally slimmer, but I’m not one of them. As long as I eat healthy and exercise, it doesn’t matter that I’m curvy.”

  “I think you’re pretty,” Ramsey said, her lips sucked on the fork with every bite. “I don’t understand weight. Mama says that’s a human problem.”

  “Your mama is so right, honey. What should we do now? Want to try calling your uncle again? Service in that mountain is a pain. None of my calls got through. I left him a ton of voicemails, though.”

  Ramsey shook her head and gave Sage an evil grin. “I’m having fun.”

  Sage laughed. “I’m really happy you are, but your family needs to know where you are and that you’re safe. How about we call your mom?”

  “Okay.” She gave Sage her mom’s number and name and Sage called.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, is this Reysha Blackfeather?” She watched Ramsey draw on a notepad with a pen from the hotel.

  “Yes, who’s calling?”

  “Ma’am, I don’t want to alarm you, but I have your daughter and she’s safe,” she recited quickly to stop the woman from freaking out.

  “What?!” Reysha screamed. “What do you mean you have my daughter?”

  Sage winced. “It seems she went on a run and couldn’t find her way back to her uncle. We’ve tried calling him, but the service in that park sucks. So I’m calling you so you know she’s fine and safe. Let me put her on the phone.”

  After handing Ramsey the phone, she listened to the little girl answer her mom’s inquisition. Once she’d told her mother she was safe at least three times and that she loved her, she handed the phone back to Sage.

  “I hope you understand, once I found out she was lost, I couldn’t just leave her there in the forest by herself.”

  “Thank you so much for taking care of my little girl. She’s very energetic and curious. I think her uncle must be worried sick looking for her.”

  Sage nodded. “I figured that. It’s why I wanted to speak to someone right away. Do you want to give me an address where you live so I can bring her to you?”

  She wrote down Ramsey’s home address.

  “I’m waiting for a rental to get delivered to me. Then I can get going.”

  “We can always come get her,” Reysha told her.

  She glanced at Ramsey. “Ramsey says you’re pregnant and needed the break. It’s really no trouble to bring her home. She’s a sweet little girl and believe me when I tell you my day was going pretty poorly until I met her.”

  Reysha said something to someone in the background. “If you’re sure, then I would appreciate it. My husband is very busy overseeing our pride and I’d have to drive there to get her myself.”

  “Like I said, it’s no problem. Your daughter is a sweetheart.” Ramsey beamed.

  “Yeah,” Reysha laughed. “I know. She’s also a troublemaker. Thanks a lot. I’ll be waiting for you both.”

  She ended the call and smiled at Ramsey. “Do you mind waiting for me to shower before we take you home?”

  Ramsey shook her head and continued doodling on the pad. Sage handed her the remote and smiled. “I’ll be right back. If you need me, I’ll leave the bathroom door slightly open. Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

  Ramsey glanced up and nodded. “I won’t.”

  Sage sighed. “Good. I don’t know how I’d be able to explain finding you and then losing you to your mother.”

  Ramsey grinned and went back to doodling.

  She headed for the shower. After the day she’d had, she needed one badly. She washed her hair and rinsed it. Then her body. She stayed under the warm spray of water, letting it hit her aching muscles before getting out and wrapping herself in a towel.

  That hotel was amazing. They had extra big towels that covered her, not the ones that left a two-inch gap on her side and only met up under her armpit.

  She was wiping the fog off the mirror when the bathroom door flew open.

  5

  Sage screamed. Everything moved so fast. Something covered her mouth, keeping her from calling out for help. Kicking and punching didn’t work. Her hands and legs where grabbed and held, rope binding her hands at her back.

  Fear lodged in her throat. Dear god, what about Ramsey? She started kicking and resisting harder, then the towel moved but the tuck she made held. She was naked under it. The last thing she needed was for these men to see her goodies up close and personal.

  She was dragged out of the bathroom, her hands bound and her mouth gagged. She glanced at the spot Ramsey had been but didn’t see her. Oh no. Her one job was to take that child back to her parents. This was horrible.

  A man walked in the hotel room and sucked the air out of her lungs. He was tall like her brother-in-law, Savage. But unlike Savage, he had wild, long, dirty blond hair and piercing gold eyes. His face appeared etched in stone and there were scars from his thick eyebrow down to his jaw. Another on his neck and even one on his lip. And for some reason she, couldn’t stop staring at his upper lip.

  His gaze should have scared her with that untamed fury in his eyes, but instead, it drew her in and warmed her to the core. This was so wrong.

  She froze, her body no longer fighting and focused on the stranger. The man didn’t say anything, his gaze holding her entranced. She wondered who he was. The savagery in his gaze gave her goose bumps. Even the way he pressed his lips into a thin line and drew his brows into an angry scowl reminded her of someone not to be fucked with.

  This man was dangerous. But something about him had caught her attention and held it until he was out of sight, moving past her. The two guys dragged her out of the room and down to the back of the hotel where she was put inside a van. She couldn’t believe what was going on.

  Her thoughts went back to her mother and Isaline’s call just two days ago.

  “You need an adventure in your life,” her mother had said.

  “Mom,” Sage had sighed into the speaker of her cell phone. “I am fine.”

  “No,” she told her. “You are not fine. You’re too shy. You don’t get out. Life is passing you by, child. You’re thirty-seven going on eighty.”

  “Damn!” Isaline said on the conference call. “It’s not that bad, Mom.”

  “Oh, shush, Isa. You’ve been through her closet. You see the lovely clothes she makes for herself, but does she wear them out to find herself a good time? No.”

  Sage rolled her eyes. “Not everything is about sex.”

  “No, it’s not. But if you were actually having sex, you’d be a lot more relaxed and happy. I bet you haven’t gotten good oral in months.”

  “Dear god,” Isaline choked.

  Sage bit her lip to keep from laughing at Isaline’s shock. Like she didn’t know Mom. “It doesn’t matter how long it’s been.”

  “Okay, then. When was the last time you actually had a boyfriend?” Mom asked. “Isaline, who was Sage’s last blow pop?”

  “Ew, Mom,” Isaline grumbled. “I’m eating.”

  “You’re always eating, honey. Name. I want a name.”

  “I think it was Grant.”

  Sage winced. “Yes, it was Grant. What does he have to do with anything?”

  “Why didn’t it work out?”

  Sage shrugged as if they could see her. “He moved too fast. He wanted to move in together. I didn’t feel comfortable with that.”

  “Okay, I get that, sweetie. But the point is, that was like two years ago. If your sex life got any less action, we’d have to make a map on how to find your goodies and hang it outside the door for eligible bachelors.”

 
“Stop dramatizing everything,” Sage replied. “I haven’t met the right man. I don’t want to settle for some guy just because he likes me. I’m waiting…”

  “For?” Mom asked.

  “The love of a lifetime,” Isaline sighed. “Like Zuri.”

  “Ah,” her mother whispered. “I understand.”

  It was time to come clean. For so long, she didn’t know what was missing in her love life. None of the men she’d met had ever made her feel the deep connection she’d seen between her sister and brother-in-law. “I don’t just want a boyfriend or a man to like me. I want to be his whole world, like Zuri is Sav’s. She is loved and loves him just as hard. I want love like that, Mom.”

  “Okay, I get it. But you could get laid every once in a while, you know? Let go of the stress.”

  “Really, Mom,” Sage said. “I’ll keep that in mind the next time I see a hot man that probably looks good naked. ‘Gee, his face would look fantastic between my legs.’”

  Isaline burst into giggles. “At least she’s not asking you to give her grandchildren like she did with Zuri.”

  “Says who?” her mother asked. “She’s my second oldest daughter and she needs to hurry up and make use of her reproductive system. Babies don’t make themselves. If she’s lucky, they are a product of amazing sex with tons of sweating, moaning, and biting.”

  “Mom!” Sage squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “I understand. Get laid. Get pregnant. Anything else?”

  “Yes, while you’re at it, make sure he’s worthy of your goodies. If you’re gonna give it up, then you might as well find a man who makes your knees weak and your belly flip. Then you’ll know you’re gonna get something amazing.”

  “No more requests, Mother. By the way, you have a third daughter, you know?”

  “Hey!” Isaline had exclaimed. “She’s on my ass daily about finding a man, I just ignore her.”

  “Get laid, Sage. It’ll make your world brighter, or at least help your insomnia.”

  The van hit a bump, bringing her back to reality. That man, the wild looking one, would be a top contender for her goodies, if he hadn’t abducted her. Now, all she wanted was to bash in all their heads and get Ramsey home to her mom, but with her hands tied, there was little she could do to escape. She’d have to wait for the perfect chance.