He didn’t blame her. But anyone who had met her two times would know this was impossible.
He scanned the hillside for signs of her passing, but saw nothing that would give him a clue as to her whereabouts.
Though the woodland was sparse compared to the ancient, lush forests of Faerie, it was still thick enough to hide the footsteps of a single princess moving with stealth.
But time was on his side. Ashe would have beaten him here by only an hour or so. She could not have gotten far.
His bear side tugged at his consciousness, asking for control.
There was no reason to deny him.
Heath closed his eyes and shifted into his other form.
Instantly, scents and sounds from miles around slammed into his awareness.
He shook himself, his thick pelt making a satisfying sound that partially muted the others.
He went up on his hind legs and tasted the air, ignoring the thousand mysterious smells that revealed themselves, searching only for the clear, bright scent that Ashe would have trailed along with her from Faerie.
But instead of one trail from his world, he found two.
The first was the pale pink of a frightened runaway.
The other was a blue so bright it seemed to throb.
A bounty hunter…
So Heath wasn’t the only one chasing the princess. That complicated matters.
He lowered himself to all four paws and lumbered through the trees as swiftly as he could.
Bare branches reached out to impede him, but his thick fur protected him. He pushed through, his slender snout guiding his big body.
In spite of the circumstances, it was hard not to enjoy himself.
Heath didn’t spend as much time in his other form now that he was an adult with responsibilities.
The bear missed running free.
Hurry, he urged it from deep inside. Someone else is after her too. We have to find her, and we have to find her first.
Beyond that, there was only so much time in the hourglass. When the sand ran out, Heath would be sucked back to Faerie, whether he had accomplished his goal or not.
The hillside dropped off quickly and the girl’s scent grew stronger, as did the trail of her pursuer.
Heath thundered down the precipitous slope until the valley began to reveal itself to him.
He paused to survey the scene below.
Artificial lights illuminated the smooth surface of a lot filled with the human vehicles.
Much to his good fortune, he spotted Princess Ashe right away, and his breath caught in his throat. He slipped back into his human form to explore the unexpected surge of feelings.
The princess walked toward a carriage on the edge of the woods, heading away from a brightly-lit restaurant on the other side of the big lot.
For a moment, he could only watch as he forgot everything - his mission, the other hunter, even his own name - all he could think about was the unmatched beauty of the woman below.
His chest ached, but more with sweetness than with pain.
It was strange. Ashe had always been pretty. But she had never had this effect on him. No one had. It was like seeing the sunrise for the first time after a life spent in a dark cave.
She stopped and turned back toward the restaurant, sighing, as if she had forgotten something.
But movement in the underbrush on the edge of the woods caught her attention and she turned back to help a figure that stumbled out of the woods and landed on the hard surface of the lot.
Ice went through Heath’s veins as he thought about the bounty hunter. It was a clever trick to pretend to be in distress in order to catch one’s quarry.
But before he could take any action, he saw it was a woman in a gown.
She whispered something to Ashe and then ran for the building Ashe had just come from, skirts hitched up in her hands. Heath wished he’d stayed in his bear form so he would have been able to make out the exchange.
Ashe stood motionless below, looking up into the woods in his direction. Had she sensed him somehow?
More movement near her told him she hadn’t been looking at him at all. She’d spotted the bounty hunter.
Instinct took over, and he slipped back into his bear form and charged down the hillside, paws gripping roots and vines, anything that could launch him closer to his goal.
The desire to protect the princess was overwhelming, a deep rooted need that reached far beyond the bounds of obligation and into an abyss of something that felt strange to him.
When he reached the bottom of the hill, he spotted the bounty hunter.
He was fae, tall and broad shouldered with leather armor.
And he didn’t see Heath coming until it was too late.
The bear crashed into the big man and sent him sprawling across the paved surface. To his credit, he rolled with the impact, and absorbed most of what could have been a very damaging blow.
The hunter scrambled back to his feet and glared at the huge bear that now stood between him and his quarry. He looked for moment like he was going to challenge Heath for the princess, but then he glanced from the restaurant to Ashe and back again, and apparently thought better of it.
The man let out a quick whistle and bolted back into the woods, followed by a small wolf cub that Heath hadn’t noticed in his haste to protect the princess.
Heath looked back at the woman he’d come to retrieve.
For an instant they gazed at each other, and he had to fight the urge to shift back into the form of a man and sweep her into an embrace.
She did not cower from him, though his bear form was impressive.
Again, he was struck with the maddening feeling that something about her was very different. She was wearing human clothing. Maybe she had been here longer than he suspected.
A commotion from the restaurant drew his attention.
People inside had spotted the bear.
Damn it.
He could not change forms in front of mortal witnesses.
He gazed into the girl’s eyes, willing her to follow him, though he had no reason to believe she would.
When he moved around the corner of the building and into the trees again, he was shocked, and pleased, to hear her small footsteps behind him.
3
Willow
Against every ounce of her better judgement, Willow followed the bear around the corner and into the forest where he had gone.
She was very sure she was about to be mauled, or worse.
But something compelled her to stay close to the enormous creature, as if he represented the last tenuous hold on her sanity after the unlikely events she’d just witnessed. And he hadn’t turned his impressive fury on her. It had almost seemed like he was… protecting her.
She stepped into the shadows, but when her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the woods, she saw there was no bear.
A man stood before her instead, his eyes burning into hers with a passionate intensity. The same look she’d seen in the bear.
It was crazy, but she had no doubt they were one and the same.
The man was tall, with long dark hair, and so beautiful that it made her heart ache.
It was odd to think of such a large man as beautiful, but there was something tragic about him, something vulnerable in spite of the broad planes of muscle and the strong jaw.
“Ashe,” he said, his voice rich with meaning.
She stepped closer, not sure what he meant by ah-shah. Maybe it was another language. He certainly didn’t seem like a local.
He had just turned from a bear into a person. Could it be bear language?