“Someplace casual.” She was wearing a pair of pale-blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a floral blouse, but she had a hoodie too, because she figured she’d need it for the cooler ocean breeze later that night. She hadn’t planned on dinner, and her stomach was fluttery from apprehension. How long could she play her role without being caught? “How’s your foot?” She was afraid he might still have difficulty running on it.
“Much better.”
“So you can run all right as a wolf?”
“Yeah, it’s healing just fine.”
She’d expected him to drive her to his house so they could run along the beach.
When he drove away from the coast, she felt a bit panicky, her skin prickling with unease. “Where are we going?”
“Someplace where I love to get away and run.”
“Far from here?”
“A ways out.”
When he pulled up to a small airport, she stared in shock. “We’re flying somewhere? You don’t mean to run at the airfield, I take it.”
“We’re flying to Big Bear Lake.”
“Ohmigod, this is…” Jade couldn’t even finish what she was going to say. He was already leading her to the hangar, but she didn’t see a pilot waiting for them.
“Going to be fun,” Rafe finished for her. “You probably haven’t been there, have you?”
She shook her head as she climbed into the jet and saw seating for about seven, with room for skis, golf clubs, whatever a jet-setter would need. This was amazing. She’d never expected anything like this. When he moved into the cockpit, she was even more surprised. “You’re flying?”
“Been flying since they invented airplanes, practically. Air Force fighter pilot. Flew in two wars. Not that anyone would ever know. I used a couple of other identities back then.” He motioned to an icebox. “There are drinks in here, if you’d like something before dinner.”
“Where are we eating?”
“At the best little bar and grill in California.”
“That sounds good.” She pulled out bottles of water and sat in the copilot’s seat. Rafe talked about the places they were flying over while she watched the scenery pass beneath her.
She was feeling a little better about Toby because Lizzie had shared a video of them earlier this evening on her cell phone. They were playing hide-and-seek, and Toby appeared really happy. The video had been taken indoors, and Jade didn’t recognize the sparsely furnished place. She imagined her brother had assumed she’d be too distracted from her mission if she was worried about her son and so had had someone take the videos. Unfortunately, they had disabled the geotagging feature so she couldn’t get a location on it.
“Does your brother take jets around like this too?”
“Yes, but he has a pilot fly him wherever he needs to go.”
Jade bit her lip, realizing this was the perfect opportunity to broach the subject of his whereabouts and said, “So he has a long way to come to get to your place?”
“A fair way.”
“From where?” she asked, hating this.
“All over.” Rafe gave her a charming smile, but she swore something about his response said he didn’t trust her. Was she just being paranoid now?
And how could she ask again without it sounding odd?
When they landed at another small airport, she kept thinking how this was the experience of a lifetime. She hated the deception but didn’t know what else she could do to rescue her son from her brother.
After she and Rafe left the plane, he escorted her to the parking lot, where he unlocked a black Yukon Denali.
“It has your name on it,” she said. He didn’t own a car company too, did he?
“That’s why I bought it. It’s the perfect four-wheel drive SUV for trips to the lake. But it isn’t named after our family. I thought it was a nice touch.”
“How many cars do you have?” she asked.
“I have several in various locations so that when I arrive, I’m all set to go. Cars are kind of a passion of mine. I have a dozen scattered around.”
He drove her to the Bear Paw Bar and Grille, where two carved wooden bears stood out front on a wooden porch. The overhang on the porch shaded guests sitting on benches, waiting to be called when their tables were ready.
A garden surrounded the sides and back, and Jade and Rafe walked around so she could see the garden seating, fountains, and flowers. Bronze statues of bears were on display: one on its back with a cub climbing onto its belly, another fishing for koi in a pond at the edge of the gardens, another taking a sip of water out of a fountain. Stained glass hangings of bears were situated all over the gardens, catching the sunlight and looking fairylike. Wondrously whimsical. Jade loved it and would have loved showing it to Toby.
When they walked inside, she figured Rafe would give his name to the hostess and they’d have a long wait out on the porch like the others—maybe about twenty in all—but he didn’t even have to give the hostess his name. She smiled at Rafe as if he were her best friend and said, “Right this way, Mr. Denali.”
Jade had never been with anyone who had that kind of influence. She closed her gaping mouth as several people waiting for tables glanced at them, probably wondering why they got immediate seating. She touched Rafe’s arm and whispered, “We shouldn’t cut—”
Then a woman waiting with a family asked the hostess, “We can’t make reservations, but they just arrive and get seated?”
“He’s the owner,” the hostess said, smiling.
All gazes instantly switched to him.
Someone whispered, “He’s the billionaire.”
“He owns the place?” someone else asked.
Jade looked up at Rafe. He shrugged and said for her hearing only, “The owner doesn’t need to have a reservation. He just has his personal assistant call ahead, and he always gets the best seat in the house.”
Jade laughed and slipped her arm through his, rethinking their preferential treatment as the hostess escorted them to a table with a view overlooking the gardens. “Okay, I agree with you there. It would be strange if you had to wait to be seated at your own restaurant. This is truly the best experience I’ve ever had. I can’t thank you enough for saving me in the ocean and making my vacation the grandest one ever.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying this. Just think of it as a Californian’s welcome to the great grizzly bear state.” He slipped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. Something had changed between them, though she wasn’t sure what. He was still friendly and interested, but she sensed a subtle change in him. He was more reserved, she thought. She worried again that he knew she was a fraud.
He pulled her chair out for her, and once they were seated, they looked over the menus and ordered their meals.
“Do you look a lot like your brother?” Jade asked, trying to figure out something to say to lead him into revealing something of his brother’s whereabouts.
“A fair amount.”
Their salads, rolls, and drinks arrived, and while they ate their salads, Jade said, “I had a friend whose twin sister looked just like her, and they pulled all kinds of pranks on boyfriends. Have you ever used your similar looks to pretend you are your brother or vice versa?”
Rafe smiled a little. “A time or two. We couldn’t do it with our kind. Our scents would give us away. But if we weren’t together, we could pass ourselves off in each other’s place.”
“When you were young? Or do you still do it today?”
“When we were young, we did it on purpose. Today, it’s a case of mistaken identity. Aidan doesn’t live where I do, but if he visits the places I frequent without me, or with one of our mutual friends, they’ve thought Aidan was me.”
“Does he tell them he isn’t?”
“No. They call him Mr. Denali, and since he is also named Denali, he just leaves it at that. Technically, his title is doctor, but rather than confuse the clerk or waiter, he doesn’t correct him or her. Now, if the person has a busine
ss relationship with me and needs to speak to me about it, he’ll explain he’s my brother and tell the person to call me.”
Their filet mignons and baked potatoes were served, and Jade took in the delightful aroma of the beef. “So your brother visits you often?” she asked, slicing into her tender steak.
“Not very. I’m sure if he did more frequently and people saw us together at the same spots, they wouldn’t be as apt to make the mistake.”
“Are you close?”
“We are.”
“But you don’t see each other that much.”
“We’re both busy with our own endeavors.”
She didn’t know what else she could say to get him to reveal where his brother was.
After the meal, Rafe drove Jade to a lodge he owned. The walls and high-vaulted ceilings were covered in cedar paneling. Everything from lamps to paintings featured grizzly bears, except for an intricately detailed yacht model in a glass case hanging on one wall.
“Beautiful yacht. You didn’t put it together, did you?” she teased. It would have taken days to do it, and she couldn’t imagine him taking the time to work on all the painstaking details when he was probably too busy making his millions.
“Yep.”
“Do you do a lot of them?” she asked, impressed. She walked over to the model and studied the fine work. “It’s beautiful.”
“No, just that one.”
“The Lo-Lee,” she read on the side of the yacht, just in front of the stern.
“That’s her name. My mother’s, Lois, and my father’s, Lee.”
“Oh, how nice.”
“I could have taken you out for a spin on the yacht.”
“You mean this is a model of a real yacht?” she asked, shocked.
“Yeah, at the marina. We could go tomorrow, maybe? If you’d like? I haven’t been out on it in ages.”
“Wow. I don’t know. I could get seasick.” Heaving her guts out over the bow would be just delightful.
“We’ll do it.”
She noticed he was a take-charge kind of wolf. She didn’t mind because if she really didn’t want to do something, she would say no. “Okay, as long as nothing else comes up by then.” Just in case. She glanced around at the rest of the room, surprised that it was decorated in a bear motif. “I would think you’d have everything decorated in wolves rather than bears here.”
“I would have, but this is Big Bear Lake, and it goes with the territory. It would seem a bit odd to have all wolves. Though I had considered it. Let’s have some wine on the porch, and we can enjoy the sunset.”
He brought out a bottle of Cabernet, sharp cheddar cheese, and salty crackers, setting everything out on the patio table, then they sat on the porch waiting for the sun to set.
“Are you enjoying yourself so far?” he asked.
“I am.”
“Enough to help inspire your work on your creations?”
She nodded, smiling when the bands of orange and purple streaked across the sky and reflected off the glassy lake. “Just beautiful.”
“I love it here, as much as seeing the sun set poolside at the house. Are you ready to run?”
“I am.”
He showed her a guest room where she could strip and shift, and then he left her alone. She was afraid he might try to come on to her while they were here, especially since she’d already kissed him earlier on the beach.
The problem was that she would have a hard time keeping her distance. She needed to keep this as a friendship with absolutely no benefits whatsoever.
She felt his interest—the lingering gazes, the focus on her mouth or curves—and yes, the wolfish awareness was still there. But he didn’t seem to be acting on instinct. Maybe he wanted to show her he could be a friend first and build a relationship more slowly. But she couldn’t really see him doing anything slowly. Not the way he kept asking her out and then even coming early tonight to get to spend more time with her.
She let out her breath, telling herself to chill and to quit trying to analyze this so much.
When she joined him as a wolf, she thought he was beautiful, his coat mostly gray and black, his face tan, and his eyes big, brown, and discerning. When he saw the way she looked as a wolf, he smiled a little, showing off his canines, showing he admired her wolf appearance.
Appreciating his attention, she smiled back, and then he led the way through a wolf door in the den that opened up to the deck. He ran through the woods surrounding Big Bear Lake. She soaked up the smells and the sights and sounds, loving the chance to run with a wolf like Rafe. But she knew it would be short-lived.
She saw a whip-poor-will, a couple of mockingbirds, a nighthawk, and a hoot owl. A bunny scampered out of her sight, and two squirrels stopped playing to see the wolves, then raced up the tree and out of danger.
Rafe led her to a sandy shore where an interesting rock formation sat in the lake. He began to swim out to it. No rip currents here. This was more like home, except that the water was cooler than in Texas. When they reached the rock formation, they climbed all over it and then sat and rested at the top near a pine tree while she looked out on the lake, the San Bernardino Mountains, and the pine forest. She wished this was her life. She could really see living at this lodge with Toby and doing all her design work here.
Running in the forests at night, being part of the natural order of things, teaching her son about their other halves. She’d love it all. And she knew her little boy would too.
After a half hour or so, Rafe licked her cheek and headed down the rock formation into the water again. They swam together to shore. On the return trip, Jade smelled raccoons, coyotes, foxes, and bobcats in the areas they traversed. Even deer and a black bear, but she didn’t see any of them. She smelled the fragrance of wild roses and the scent of pine. Though she was loving everything about this excursion, she started worrying about her son again. Did Kenneth intend to take Dr. Aidan Denali hostage until he had the cure for their aging process?
She hadn’t thought so at first, but the more she thought about it, the more likely it was that Kenneth planned something violent. She couldn’t trade her son for the doctor’s life. She couldn’t let Aidan be taken hostage either.
If she told Rafe, she was afraid he would dump her back at her bed-and-breakfast and tell her to deal with it after she’d deceived him. He might not even care about a child she’d had by a human, just like her own pack didn’t.
When Jade and Rafe returned to the cottage, she was still feeling anxious about her mission. She didn’t believe she had much of a choice but to do as her brother told her to do, up to a point. Then? She wasn’t sure what she would do, but she wasn’t going to risk Aidan’s life if Kenneth had anything like that in mind.
What if she could hire someone to search for her brother and rescue her son? But what if Kenneth learned of her deception?
She feared that would be the end of her son.
* * *
Rafe noticed the constant changes in Jade’s emotions. He assumed she was enjoying being with him but was afraid he’d learn the truth about her shenanigans before long. What was driving her to be here? She seemed so genuinely happy at times, like when she was eating with him or running through the woods with him as a wolf, yet when she took a breather atop the rocks, looking out at the vista, she seemed to no longer be in quiet awe but again troubled. He swore he saw a tear roll down her cheek, but then he figured it was just a drop of water from the swim across the lake.
Still, he could tell she wasn’t always “with” him.
He couldn’t stand not knowing the truth. He was used to getting at the root of things, not patiently waiting them out like he was trying to do with Jade. He kept thinking back to things she’d said. How she and her brother were not getting along, yet she’d stayed with the pack. Coercion? Desperation? Fear of leaving and being on her own?
If he took things further with her, would she come clean and finally tell him she was currently mated? Or something else ju
st as bad?
Maybe she needed money to be able to leave the pack since she wasn’t getting along with her brother. Rafe would give her the money if it meant she could be happy. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to do it. From what Edward had learned, she had a moderate income from her apparel business, but any specialty business could have real losses during downswings in the economy.
Rafe could give her a low-interest loan, if that would make her feel better about accepting money from him. Then she could go wherever she wanted to live and create her apparel lines to her heart’s content. Hell, he could even invest in her business and help her make it a success, like the self-made billionaires did on the Shark Tank TV show. Rafe could be considered a wolf version of the “sharks.”
He could really get into that. He always loved having a goal in mind. Especially in this situation when he couldn’t make himself see Jade in a bad light, no matter how much he told himself he’d better be prepared for the worst. In any event, he needed to talk with Sebastian and Aidan before he decided to make any kind of financial offer to Jade. Hell, several times he’d wanted to ask her what was going on. But he really wanted her to tell him the truth on her own.
* * *
Jade shifted and dressed in the guest room. The double bed was covered in a patchwork quilt featuring all kinds of different bears, and a large faux polar bear rug covered the floor in front of a fireplace. She’d loved the run, but when she had sat atop the rocks, she’d felt saddened that Rafe had treated her so wonderfully, and she was here under false pretenses.
When she returned to the living room, she found Rafe locking up the cottage.
“Ready to return to your place?” he asked, his gaze catching hers, making her feel deceitful all over again.
“Oh, yes, absolutely. I had a wonderful time.”
Then they were off, his smile in place, but he seemed distant, which made her worry. “Is anything wrong?”
“Real estate deal,” he said. He shrugged and drove her to the airport. They were soon airborne and were quiet as they flew across the state.
“It didn’t work out?” she finally asked, not knowing enough about real estate investments to ask much. And she didn’t want to sound like she was prying into his business, not when she needed to focus on his brother.