Silverback Wolf (Return to Bear Creek Book 17) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Free Book Offer

  Foreword

  Chapter One – Monica

  Chapter Two – Wyatt

  Chapter Three – Monica

  Chapter Four – Wyatt

  Chapter Five – Monica

  Chapter Six – Wyatt

  Chapter Seven – Monica

  Chapter Eight – Wyatt

  Chapter Nine – Monica

  Chapter Ten – Wyatt

  Chapter Eleven – Monica

  Chapter Twelve – Wyatt

  Chapter Thirteen – Monica

  Chapter Fourteen – Wyatt

  Chapter Fifteen – Monica

  Chapter Sixteen – Wyatt

  Chapter Seventeen – Monica

  Chapter Eighteen – Wyatt

  Chapter Nineteen – Monica

  Epilogue

  Also By Harmony Raines

  Get In Touch

  Silverback Wolf

  Return to Bear Creek

  (Book Seventeen)

  ***

  All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.

  This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.

  © 2018 Harmony Raines

  Kindle Edition

  Sign up to the

  Harmony Raines Newsletter

  And receive an

  EXCLUSIVE FREE BOOK

  A Bond to Bear

  plus news of special offers and new releases

  Harmony Raines Newsletter

  Silverback Wolf

  Return to Bear Creek

  (Book Seventeen)

  Tasked with keeping a child safe, Monica is on the run. Bear Creek is the place she’s running to, where she hopes to find the one man she’s been told will help her. The one man she can trust.

  Used to taking care of herself, trust is one thing she does not give easily. Monica, an ex-soldier, knows trust must be earned. So, when she comes face to face with the man she’s seeking, she has no intention of spilling all her secrets. Even if that man is her mate.

  Wyatt came to the mountains to escape his past. To escape the guilt of not being there for a friend when he was needed the most. But recent events in Bear Creek mean he’s willing to move on.

  However, when he scents his mate on the mountain, he must decide if he’s ready to do more than move on.

  To help his mate, and an old friend in need, he must be willing to fight and accept the price he may be forced to pay—no matter how high it may be.

  Chapter One – Monica

  Monica checked the rearview mirror. Nothing there. The same nothing she’d seen the last hundred times she’d looked. Excessive? Perhaps. Necessary? Absolutely. No one could know where she was going. Wasn’t that the whole point of leaving town and lying low?

  She sighed and rubbed her right temple before placing her hand back on the wheel. She was tired. Tired of running, tired of looking over her shoulder, and tired of being a victim in the mess that had blindsided her. Monica was a fighter. Running did not come easy.

  Monica changed the angle of her head and looked at the child asleep in the back seat.

  She had to keep Jack safe. If that meant running for the rest of her life, she’d do it. For Jack, for his dad.

  Monica groaned. She should be enjoying her retirement from the Army. Instead, she was racing across the country, trying to find a safe place to hole up.

  She had a plan; of course, she had a plan. You didn’t survive a lifetime in the Army without a good, sensible plan. Okay, so sometimes those plans also had to be creative. And this plan sure was that. It also relied on luck. Monica usually liked to work on hard, tangible facts.

  Checking the rearview mirror one last time, she turned off the highway, following the signs to Bear Creek. After five minutes, she pulled into a gateway on a straight stretch of road and turned off the headlights. Then she waited. If anyone was following her, she would see their headlights coming from half a mile away.

  Breathe, her bear told her as she watched the road in the side mirror.

  I am breathing. Monica expelled the air from her lungs. She’d been in tighter spots than this before, so why was she so tense, so nervous?

  The child in the back seat stirred. The movement of the car had lulled him to sleep, now that they’d stopped driving he was waking up. She didn’t need him awake, not yet. Monica glanced at the clock on the dashboard, she’d been waiting for three minutes. If they were being followed, she’d know it by now.

  Unless they know you’re waiting for them. Her bear always had her back.

  “Dammit.” Monica couldn’t sit there all night. She closed her eyes briefly, going over her own movements, assessing the chances of a vehicle following her without her knowledge. Confident in her own evasive actions, she switched her headlights on, pulled out onto the road, and drove on. Now came the tricky part. If Jack’s dad, Trent, had this right, they must take the fourth turn on the left after leaving the highway. The road would lead them into the mountains. There was no room for error. If she didn’t get this right they could be lost on the mountain all night.

  With a child, her bear reminded herself.

  There it was. Taking the fourth turn, she accelerated up the steep road, keeping one eye on the rearview mirror for any signs of lights following her. Nothing. However, she was not about to let her guard down. There was too much at stake. She looked at the sleeping child and frowned, what the hell was she thinking? She’d been dragged into something she didn’t understand.

  Dragged in so deep that she was on the run with another person’s child in the back seat. She wanted to allow the hysterical laughter bubbling inside of her to erupt, to let it out so she could focus on what lay before her. A damn hike in the dark.

  Maybe she should have holed up in a hotel and waited until morning. She scratched that thought from her head. Second-guessing yourself is how people ended up dead. Before she set off, Monica had formulated a plan, and that was the plan she was going to stick to. Only Jack’s dad knew she was coming here. She hadn’t been followed. And she hadn’t been betrayed.

  The road took several twists and turns, threading its way through darkened forests as she climbed higher and higher. The higher they climbed, the narrower the road became, until it petered out into a forest trail. Time to bail.

  Of course, if someone found her car on a dead-end road in the middle of the night, it might raise unwanted questions. But since this was bear shifter country, it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to park their car at night and take a few hours of R&R, shifter style.

  And if the car was found? If it was reported? Yeah, that might lead them here. Monica pulled the car over to the side of the road. Leaving her car here might be a mistake. But she had no choice. She had to reach her destination. She had to find him.

  Monica shook her head. What was she even thinking? She’d done some research on the way. Although it was slim pickings. Ex-Army, the guy she was here to meet had disappeared off the radar years ago. The chances of him being up here in a mountain cabin were slim. The chances of him helping her were even slimmer. No doubt he had melted into the wilderness like a ghost.

  Monica switched off the engine and rested her head on the steering wheel. No second-guessing, he
r bear told her.

  With her resolve firm, she got out of the car. Jack’s dad told her to come here. Told her how to locate the guy’s cabin. And told her what to say to get him to help her.

  If he was here.

  Taking a map and compass from the glove box, she collected a small child’s backpack from the front seat and slung it over her shoulder. Then she grabbed her own pack, filled with hastily packed food and water, along with a spare set of clothes and a blanket. Not exactly military standards, but it would do for a couple of nights on the run.

  “Okay, buddy, you have to wake up.” Monica unclipped the seatbelt securing her precious cargo. “Hey, Jack, we have to go.”

  Jack opened his eyes, taking a moment to focus on her face in the darkness. “Where are we? Are we home?”

  “No, bud, we’re not. We’re going on an adventure.” She smiled gently. Kids were not exactly her thing, but she liked Jack, he was a good kid. Despite the circumstances, he hadn’t whined once.

  “I was asleep.” He looked around, staring out into the darkness. “Where are the lights?”

  “There are no street lights or houses here. We’re on the side of a mountain.” Monica infused her voice with excitement, but Jack wasn’t having any of it.

  “Why?” He asked the age-old question, to which she had no reasonable answer. Jack didn’t need to hear the truth. This journey in the dark, across open country, would be scary enough, without adding the truth as to why they were on the run.

  “Because there’s an old friend of your daddy’s up here and we came to say hi.” Monica held out her arms to Jack. He eyed her with suspicion, then decided since she was the only person here, and his daddy trusted her, that he would trust her, too. Not that she had ever given him any reason not to trust her.

  “Is Mommy or Daddy gonna be there?” Jack asked as she lifted him into her arms. He wrapped his thin arms around her neck, and his legs around her waist. At five years old, he was tall for his age, but thankfully he was willow thin. If not, she might struggle to carry him over rough terrain. Monica was fit, but not Army fit. But they’d manage.

  Locking the car, she hoisted the packs higher onto her shoulder, and set Jack on the opposite hip, then she struck off up the road. Ten feet later, she took a narrow trail through the trees, allowing her shifter senses to guide her. A shiver passed through her as she walked, one foot in front of the other, unsure as to what she was going to find at the end of this journey.

  Focusing on finding this wolf shifter, she’d never allowed herself to consider what would happen if he wasn’t there. Sure, she could stay out here for a night or two. But after that, one way or another she would have to start dealing with the aftermath of...

  “Monica, can I walk part of the way?” Jack’s small voice in her ear brought her focus back to the here and now. Worrying about what might be would not help them.

  “Sure. But you must hold my hand. Don’t let go. You let it go, I’ll pick you up.” She let his small body slip down to the ground. It would make for slower going, but at least she would stay fresh. Monica looked behind them. There was no one there. Still, the less tired she was, the faster she could run with Jack in her arms if the need arose.

  “Who are we meeting?” Jack was now fully awake, and a fully awake Jack liked to talk.

  “His name is Wyatt. He served with your dad. They were good friends,” she reassured him.

  “And my daddy trusts him?”

  “That’s a strange question,” Monica replied.

  “My daddy didn’t trust a lot of people.”

  “Did he tell you why?” Monica asked. Any new information the young boy could tell her would help Monica figure out her next move.

  “He said there were a lot of bad men out there.” Jack’s hand tightened around hers. “Something happened, didn’t it? With Mommy. Someone took her.”

  “Your dad will do everything he can to get her back.” Monica hated the small whimper Jack gave out, and her hand tightened around his. “All I know is your dad needed me to keep you safe and he said that Wyatt could help. Since I trust your dad, and he trusts Wyatt, that’s good enough for me. We have our mission and your dad has his.”

  “I wish I was at home in my bed.” Jack’s voice was small and distant. “I wish Mommy was safe.”

  “Want me to carry you again?” Monica’s heart ached for Jack. His voice sounded so small and vulnerable out here on the wild mountainside, where the wind whipped at your hair, and the stars seemed like a vast array of eyes looking down on them. Watching them.

  Her neck prickled, and her bear stirred restlessly.

  “Yes, please.” Jack’s voice drew Monica’s attention back to reality. No one was out there. No one knew they were here.

  “Up you come.” Monica swung him up into her arms and he rested his head on her shoulder.

  “You won’t leave me, will you, Monica?” He settled himself into her arms, his small body warm against hers. Jack curled his fingers in her ponytail as if holding onto a piece of her just to make sure she couldn’t escape.

  She placed her hand on his back and rubbed it, trying to soothe him. “Not if I can help it.”

  “Do you promise?” Jack whispered in her ear, his voice lost in the darkness.

  Monica closed her eyes briefly. One thing the Army taught you was to not make promises you couldn’t keep. And honestly, she didn’t know if she could keep him safe. Depending on what happened next, she might not be the one to look after Jack, despite her promise to Trent. Because to reunite Jack with his parents, she might have to leave him behind. “I promise to try.”

  Jack didn’t answer, and she walked on in silence, her ears trained on what might lurk in the darkness. Because something was out there. Dammit, this was a mistake.

  Chapter Two – Wyatt

  Wyatt’s wolf paced back and forth. Unusually agitated, he scented something...someone...on the air tonight.

  He stood on the cliff and looked down into the dark valley below. There was something moving down there, someone coming toward him along the trail. He bent his head and inhaled deeply, a shudder of anticipation passing through him. Could it be, at last?

  His wolf turned away from the cliff edge and ran, surefooted and true, back along the trail to where it branched in two. One fork led toward the familiar, his cabin in the woods, the other down into the unknown. Wyatt hesitated. If his wolf senses were true, the person down there was more important to him than life itself.

  Bile rose in his throat as he recalled memories he’d buried long ago. Coming to live in the woods on the side of the mountain had been his way of dealing with events that had spiraled out of his control.

  It was never in our control, his wolf reminded him he wasn’t to blame.

  But knowing you were not to blame and believing you were not to blame were two very different things.

  Fate has brought her here, his wolf said simply, and took control, running headlong down the steep trail.

  The scent grew stronger, it was unmistakable, and his mouth watered at the thought of this woman, his woman. But then he caught another scent mingling with it, a male. She was not alone.

  Wyatt slowed, jogging along the trail, letting his senses guide him. He stopped, staring into the darkness at the outline of a person walking toward him. He slid off the path, slinking behind a large bush, listening to her footsteps as small stones crunched beneath her boots.

  As she neared his hiding place, she slowed and then stopped. He heard her whisper on the breeze, telling someone to stay down. Wyatt stared into the darkness but couldn’t see another person.

  “Show yourself,” her words were firm as she stood tall, staring into the night.

  Wyatt walked out from behind the bush and rejoined the trail. There was no use hiding from her; they were meant to be together. Whatever she was doing here, and not many people walked these paths in the dark, he was now involved.

  “A wolf.” She took the backpacks she was carrying off her shoulde
r and placed them on the wiry mountain grass lining the trail. Small hands reached out and pulled them away.

  She was with a child. Her child? Wyatt let that knowledge sink in as the woman raised her hand and rubbed the back of her neck. She could feel it, too, the connection between them. However, as he stepped closer, she shifted into a bear, and her jaws opened, revealing long sharp teeth as she roared her challenge. His mate was not about to give in easily.

  Wolf and bear stood facing each other. Less than ten feet separated them, but it felt like a million miles. This was not how he expected the first meeting with his mate to go. Not that Wyatt had ever intended to find his mate. He’d resigned himself to a life alone when he came up here, scarred by what the loss of a mate could do to a man. But here she was, and the attraction was undeniable.

  So why deny it? his wolf asked as he let go of this mortal plane and allowed the human side of Wyatt to slip back into being.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” Wyatt said quietly as he took a step closer, his hands held out in front of him as he slowly approached her.

  The bear bared her teeth and snarled, snapping at the air. This made the boy behind her whimper, distracting her for a moment, while she checked on him. The need to comfort the child was stronger than her need to confront Wyatt.

  Strong. As it would be in any female bear shifter. His wolf was impressed. She took her duty to protect her cubs seriously.

  She would make a good mother to our children. Wyatt took another step forward, and she turned back to him, snapping her jaws in the air.

  In his head, his wolf laughed. Do you want her to clamp her jaws around your throat and rip it out?

  Not on my list of things to do, Wyatt replied as he adjusted his thoughts. This female bear, his mate, was strong, he wouldn’t insult her by insinuating she was a soft creature in need of his protection. She was so much more than that. She was a warrior, unless he was mistaken.