Her body finally let her drift off to sleep. Juliet had only napped for a few hours when her cell phone began to ring. It took her a moment to wake up and find it. But it stopped ringing and quickly started ringing again. She found the cell phone in her bag under a chair and flicked the screen to answer the call from Charlotte.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Harry’s gone,” Charlotte said frantically on the other end of the line.
“What do you mean he’s gone?”
Harry wasn’t the kind of groom who would just disappear the day before his wedding. He and Charlotte had been together for a long time. They lived together. They were best friends. He wasn’t about to get cold feet and disappear.
“The groomsmen said that they’d been drinking and a few of them drove up into the mountains and hiked out into the woods. Harry was the only one who didn’t make it back to the car.”
“Where did he go?” Juliet asked, rifling through her suitcase to find something to wear.
“I don’t know exactly. But his friends said they took a rental car and drove up into the mountains.”
“Have you informed anyone?”
“We’ve already informed the lodge, and I know that a search party is being formed. It looks like your boyfriend, Levi, is the head of a search and rescue crew,” Charlotte said, her humorous tone belying the panic underneath it.
“Don’t worry, Charlotte, I know that Levi and his crew will find Harry. He probably just got drunk and got lost somewhere.”
“I know, you’re right,” Charlotte said.
Juliet told Charlotte she would meet her down in the dining room where the rest of the bridesmaids were having brunch. Juliet put on a warm, comfortable outfit and scurried down to the dining room. Everyone looked slightly hung over and Charlotte looked like she was about to lose it.
“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Charlotte moaned.
Juliet slid into the chair beside her friend and patted her back.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Charlotte,” Juliet said.
Levi approached the table with a notepad and a pen, dressed as if he was ready to go out into the snow.
“I’ve taken the statements from your fiancé’s friends. It sounds like they drove up to the summit trail and were messing around up there.”
“They were pretending to be bad asses like they could hike the summit in the middle of the night,” Charlotte muttered.
“Night hiking the summit when there’s still heavy snow pack is not advisable for inebriated and experienced hikers,” Levi said.
“Will you be able to find him?” Charlotte begged.
“Don’t worry, ma’am, my crew is already on it. I wanted you to know that we are heading up to make our base camp at the trailhead.”
“How long do you think it will take to find him?” Charlotte asked.
“That all depends, ma’am,” Levi said.
“Why don’t you go with them, Juliet? You go up with your new boyfriend and give us updates.”
Juliet felt trapped, but she wanted to help her friend.
“You can come along if you’d like. I think it might be a little boring for you, though,” he said.
“Won’t you be hiking out into the woods?” she asked, trying to get out of it.
“I am the rescue coordinator. Usually, I stay down at Alpha Station to supervise the rescue and decide how to utilize Corey’s analysis.”
Realizing she couldn’t get out of it, she said, “I’ll get my coat.”
She wanted to get to know Levi better, but that didn’t mean this all wasn’t totally terrifying. Out on the rescue, she could see him in his element, doing his thing. Levi was a leader. He ran the entire lodge, and he had been the crew’s superior officer back when they were all Navy SEALs. There was something so sexy about a man in charge that made shy little Juliet prick with excitement. However, it didn’t make her any less confused about dating a shifter or the kind of commitment these men wanted from a date.
In many ways, she and Levi were complete opposites. She was a sensitive, shy artist while he was a business owner and a leader of strong men. She had never led anything. In fact, in her office, she was a low level creative, who took orders from middle management. But somehow, no matter how opposite they might be, they really did fit together. Juliet could see that, though she didn’t quite understand why.
She grabbed her coat from her room and met Levi back in the lobby before he showed her out to his crew cab pickup truck. It was a brand-new, silver Ford Ranger with heated leather seats that contoured under her when she sat down.
“I hope you won’t be too bored up at Alpha Station,” he said as he turned the key in the ignition.
“Are you sure you want me to come?” she said hesitantly.
“Of course. I love having you by my side,” he said with a grin, looking directly in her eyes.
She giggled softly and looked away, feeling her heart speed up at his words. He did want her there. He had told her the day before that she was his fated mate. The woman who was perfect for him. She was still having a hard time understanding exactly what that meant. Then he’d said he’d never let her go after they had sex. What was she supposed to do with all this?
“I’m sure it will be entertaining enough to watch you do your thing,” she said.
“I just don’t want to ignore you,” he said, driving out the lodge’s driveway and onto the main highway.
“Don’t worry about me.”
“It’s my job to worry about you.”
He drove down the highway into a national park and high into the mountains. As they ascended, the snow pack increased. By the time they made it to the turn off to the trailhead, the snow was several feet deep.
They parked in front of a canopy under which tables with computers had been set up and connected to a generator. Levi and Juliet got out of the truck and joined the technician under the canopy. Three other men were busy gearing up to go out into the woods. Juliet recognized one of the men as Duke, the man Quinn had gone off with the night before. She recognized the blonde man as Zach, the stripper called Rock Hard.
“Juliet, I believe you’ve met Zach and Duke, but my friend here at the computer is Corey and the big guy putting on his snowshoes is Angus,” Levi said. “Angus made the table in the gazebo.”
“Oh, that was so beautiful,” Juliet gushed.
Angus tilted up his bearded chin and smiled at Juliet. “Thanks,” Angus said.
“Guys, this is Juliet. I met her on Mate.com.”
Corey turned around and looked up at Juliet. “How is that working out for you two?” Corey asked.
“It’s working out fine,” Juliet said in a timid voice.
Corey went back to his computer and continued typing as maps and data flew across the screen. Juliet watched Levi give his crew directions and was impressed by his swift decisiveness and natural authority.
Zach, Angus, and Duke took off up the trail, giving status reports to Levi as they went.
“We really could use a fourth,” Juliet heard one of the men say through a walkie-talkie.
“I’m not bringing Shane on any rescue missions yet, Angus,” Levi said.
“I’m just saying, we could use him,” Angus said through the walkie-talkie.
“I hear you, Angus. And I trust your opinion. That’s why you’re my second in command. But I’m going to have to disagree with you on this one. Shane is a loose cannon. I’ve almost fired him twice since he started in my kitchen.”
“Have it your way, boss,” Angus said, his voice cutting out over the walkie-talkie.
Juliet felt like she was seeing the inner workings of the group’s dynamics, and wasn’t sure if she was comfortable being that intimate with their process. She hadn’t agreed to be Levi’s mate yet. It wasn’t her place to be so involved with Levi’s crew. But he didn’t seem to mind her witnessing the group’s interactions. She didn’t know whether or not to be flattered or nervous.
12
Levi loved the feeling of having his mate by his side as he directed his crew on a rescue mission. Nothing was more stimulating or gratifying than having Juliet near him. He could smell her scent even through the sharp mountain air and the layers of clothes she wore to keep out the cold.
The guys weren’t having any luck up on the mountain and had lost the trail of the hikers. Harry, the groom who was lost, had hiked up into the mountains with his friends the night before. At some point, Harry had separated from the other men. Believing that Harry had gone back down the mountain, his friends had doubled back to meet him at the trailhead. When the men arrived at the trailhead, Harry was nowhere to be found. They had waited for him for several hours before returning to the lodge and reporting his absence.
One of the men hadn’t been too drunk to drive, but the rest of them had been completely inebriated, including Harry. They had been smart enough to put on their outdoor gear before driving up into the mountains. What these men were thinking, Levi couldn’t even begin to imagine. He was a bear shifter and an ex-Navy SEAL. He had been trained in wilderness survival from the time he was young, not to mention his natural instincts. These human men, who knew nothing about the wilderness, walking off into a dangerous snow-covered trail, at night, while drunk, was something he couldn’t comprehend.
But that was Levi. He wouldn’t put it past several of his own crew to do exactly the same kind of thing. The worst part was that the groom had gone missing right before his wedding day. Levi couldn’t help thinking that it had been extremely inconsiderate to the bride.
Be that as it may, Levi was determined to find the man and save the wedding, not only for the bride, but for his own business. It wouldn’t be good if they lost the groom before the very first wedding at Fate Mountain Lodge. He had gone off on Levi’s watch, and Levi felt somewhat responsible for what had happened at the parties the night before.
“Delta Crew, it’s time for you all to split up. Geek Bear’s analysis is coming up empty-handed. Big Bear, continue north into the mountain. Ski Bear, head the east away from the trail. Brew Bear, you head west.”
“Chief Bear, we haven’t seen any footprints for half a mile,” Duke said.
“Track back to the last time you saw footprints. That’s where I want you and Ski Bear to diverge from the trail. Big Bear, continue on up the trail to the north. Maybe the target started walking alongside the trail and is stranded up there.”
Levi clicked off his walkie-talkie and turned to Corey, who was analyzing the maps, the probabilities of Harry’s movements, and various other data sets.
“If you have any suggestions, this would be the time to share them,” Levi said.
“I can’t predict where he went. There are too many variables.”
Levi turned away from Corey with a frown and faced Juliet who was sitting on a folding chair next to the heater that kept Alpha Station warm. He sat beside her and offered her a cup of cocoa from the pot they kept at their refreshment table.
She took the cup of cocoa and brought it to her pretty mouth. The chill air made her honey colored skin radiant and her hazel eyes glow. She looked anxious but happy that he had turned his attention to her.
“You don’t have any leads?” she asked, her worry evident in her tone.
“We’ll find him. We are just having some setbacks right now,” he said.
The last thing he wanted was for her to see him fail. Over the last year that he had been rescue chief, they hadn’t lost a single person. Every mission they had gone on as a team had been a success. He intended for this one to be no different.
Juliet’s phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket.
“I have to take this. It’s Quinn,” she said.
“Not a problem.”
He stood and turned to face the parking lot of the trailhead to see Shane pull up on his motorcycle. He was already dressed in snow gear and hiking boots, parking his motorcycle beside Levi’s truck.
“What the hell are you doing here, Shane?” Levi demanded as Shane approached him.
“I heard you needed some help out here,” Shane said.
“Who told you that?” Levi said, fisting his waist with both hands.
“I did,” Corey said.
Levi turned and glared at his computer geek friend. How dare Corey go behind his back like that? Corey might be the most analytically intelligent of the entire crew, but that didn’t give him the right to go over his alpha’s head.
“I’m sorry, Levi,” Corey said. “I never would have done it except I ran a probability analysis on bringing Shane into the equation after Angus suggested it. Shane’s skills will be beneficial on this mission.”
Levi looked from Corey to Shane and back again. “I don’t appreciate you undermining my authority, Corey. We will have words.”
Levi glanced at Juliet, who was busy talking to her friends. Her back was toward them and she was obviously not paying any attention to what the men were talking about. That was a relief to him. He did not want her to see his crew defying him this way.
“Brew Bear to Chief Bear,” Duke’s voice said over the walkie-talkie.
“Come in, Brew Bear,” Levi said.
“I found more tracks to the west. They seem to have diverged from the main trail further south than where the other men turned around. But I followed them as far as they went. They just stop. I assumed he tracked back, but I can’t pick up his trail anywhere.”
“So, your variables are beneficial to this mission,” Levi said to Shane. “What can you do that the rest of us can’t?”
Levi was not above asking for suggestions. You didn’t get to where he had as a leader without taking the suggestions and advice of his crew. That had never been an issue. Which made Corey going behind his back that much more irritating. But at the same time, Levi could almost understand Corey’s hesitance to suggest Shane come on the mission. Especially after completely dismissing Angus’s suggestion a few hours ago.
“While the rest of you might be experts, I know the wilderness better than anyone,” Shane said. “I’ve lived in these woods for a year, through the snow and the storms. I understand how the wilderness works. It’s like a sixth sense for me now.”
“So you’re a psychic?” Levi said sarcastically.
“No. But I’m the best expert in wilderness survival that you’ve got. Do you want me out there finding this groom and saving your ass or not?” Shane said.
“I want you to skirt around the southern slope and meet up with Duke. Corey, give him the coordinates. The others are headed to Duke’s location now,” Levi said.
Shane sat down and started removing his clothes. Juliet hung up her phone and turned to Levi, her expression full of concern.
“Shane, what are you doing?” Levi barked.
“I’m going in bear style,” he said, pulling down his pants.
“We can’t coordinate without a walkie-talkie,” Levi said.
“Can we talk for a minute?” Juliet said, averting her eyes from Shane’s naked form.
“Of course,” he said, following her around the side of the truck to where they could speak in private. “What is it?”
“Quinn came back and she’s really upset.”
“Didn’t Quinn go off with Duke last night?” Levi asked.
“Yes. And she’s telling me she has to talk to me right now.”
“Holy fuck, these men,” Levi said. “Excuse my language.”
“It’s fine. But I don’t know what’s going on with Quinn. It’s not like she’s never been out with a man before, believe me,” she said.
“We better get you back to the lodge,” Levi said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’ll drive you,” he said, before turning to Corey. “Relay any information that you get to me immediately. I’ll be back in less than an hour. Shane, meet up with Duke. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Yes, sir,” Corey said.
“I’m going in bear form,” Shane sai
d, padding out into the snow in his bare feet.
“Fine. Your bear senses might come in handy. This isn’t the first time we’ve used our animal senses on a mission. Just please, stay in control of your bear.”
Shane roared, and his body broke apart and reformed into the shape of a grizzly bear. Juliet stood there stunned, her mouth hanging open as Shane pranced out into the snow.
“Sorry you had to see that,” he said, opening the truck door for Juliet.
She climbed inside, wordlessly. He couldn’t help being irritated at his crew, but compromise was a hallmark of leadership. He couldn’t let them believe that they could walk all over him and not listen to his directions, but he had to pick his battles with these guys. As their leader, Levi knew there was a fine balance between cooperation and authority.
He climbed into the driver’s seat of the truck and pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the road. Juliet was silent as she rode along beside him, her eyebrows knit together in worry.
“Do you think Duke did something to your friend Quinn?” Levi asked.
He couldn’t imagine Duke being sexually aggressive to a woman who didn’t want him to be. It went against everything in Duke’s nature.
“I don’t think it’s that. I think it’s something she did,” Juliet whispered.
Juliet was such a sweet, sensitive little thing. He could tell how worried she was about her friend’s well-being. It made his heart swell and burst to be with her. Everything in him told him that she was his other half. She was that part of him that was missing. The sweet inner softness, full of empathy and love for others. Levi was a good-natured man, but he could never match Juliet’s goodness. It was her nature to be kind, unassuming, and sweet.
It made him love her. It made him want her. Made him want to wrap her up and keep her and protect her from all harm, forever. She was like an angel to him, glowing and white. Pure like the snow falling on the green limbs of evergreens in winter.
“You are so kind to be so concerned about your friends,” Levi said, pulling up in front of the lodge. He parked the car, and she turned to him with a confused expression in her eyes.