“I’ll see who that is.” A man’s deep voice rumbled through the door. It swung open and the portly gentlemen with a head of gray hair nodded at them. “Good evening, folks. Are you after a room for the night?”
“We are.” Daniel slung an arm over her shoulders and ruffled her long hair. “My sister and I are heading up higher into the mountains in the morning. Do you have any vacancies?”
“The wife has her family staying over for a few days so we only have the one room left. It does have two single beds though, so it’s yours if you’d like it.”
“We heard.” Isla cleared her throat and used her hypnotic voice to its fullest. “That you might have seen two men we’re eager to catch up with. Both brothers, their names Owen and Ewan Mathie.”
He stared into her eyes, his own clouding over under her compulsion. “They dropped in, and have twice before. They left not long ago to take a hike in the woods. That Jeep in the lot is theirs. They asked if they could leave it there for the night and I agreed. They wanted to sleep out under the stars tonight, although they used the spare room last night.”
“Could you confirm that this is them?” She slid a photograph of Owen and Ewan from her pocket and passed it across.
“That’s them all right.”
Daniel sent her a silent look that said, Bingo. Now let’s find them.
She smiled at the proprietor. “We’d like to take a look around. I’d appreciate it if you showed my brother the room the two men stayed in while I wander around the backyard. You’ll find nothing suspicious about our request and you’ll forget you ever saw us after we leave.”
“Of course.” His glazed eyes focused a little, but her compulsion would hold without issue for Daniel. No one had broken through her ability’s hold yet.
She winked at her partner. “I’ll take the outside since compelling beats levitation. Call out if you need my help.”
“Sure will.” He wandered inside with the proprietor.
Setting out, she trekked along the cobbled pathway winding around to the rear of the property. Either side of the walkway, thick lavender bushes swayed in the breeze. She stepped onto the grass dotted with tiny yellow flowers and surveyed the area. The forest butted right up to the rear of the property. She marched in that direction and finally caught the very faintest whiff of bear. Excitement thrummed through her and she picked up her pace and entered the woods. Jogging, she followed the leaf-strewn trail into the dark recesses of the wild. Her bear pushed under her skin, demanding the Change. “Not yet,” she urged it. “You’ve got to wait until our job is done.”
Ahead, the trees stood tall and proud next to a fast-moving river and two massive bears clawed a trunk then sniffed, jerked their gazes toward her and snarled.
“Well, hello, boys. I take you two are Owen and Ewan? It’s about time we met.”
They shoved off the trunk and landed heavy on all fours. Both prowled toward her, their beady black eyes holding only the barest rim of shifter gold on the edges. They heaved up onto their hind legs and roared, drool flying from their jaws.
“Down!”
They bellowed and attempted to fight her compulsion.
“I said—”
A man bounded out of the brush, slung her over his shoulder and bolted along the trail through the trees. Branches scraped her bare arms and her hair flew into her face and obscured her vision.
She shoved her hair back and clutched his pumping arms, her belly thumping into his rock hard shoulder. The ground blurred and the trees whizzed by. She couldn’t catch her breath. “W-what are you doing?”
“Getting you far away from those bears.” One deeply sensual tone that curled her toes. Now that really shouldn’t be happening.
Everything spun and she squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t leave my partner to fight those bears on his own.” She shoved her upper body up, looped her arms around his neck and slid down his chest and into his arms. “I want you to—” Whoa. Her heartbeat tripped out of time.
Oh hell. Her mate had found her, and the moon only just glimmered on the horizon.
Iain Matheson couldn’t believe his good fortune. He’d been out in the woods close to Ivanson Castle when he’d scented her, the one woman he’d been searching five long years for. His bear had gone half-crazy with need and so had he. He only wished he’d been paying more attention to his surroundings. He’d missed catching the other two unknown shifters as they’d made the Change so close by, shifters not of his clan, of that he was sure.
“I—I—” She searched his gaze then blinked as if checking to make sure he was real. “Put me down.” Her voice rang with authority, with a sweetly hot demand that curled around his senses, a demand he couldn’t ignore.
Gently, he lowered her to her feet, set her before him. A compeller. This wouldn’t be easy.