Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series Read online

  What passed as a town in the Big Bear Mountain region looked more like a movie set from an old Western movie to Elle. There was a post office, the HQ of the Mountain Rescue Service, a general store, an outdoor clothing store and a diner. All in one small wooden building. Above the diner was a small Bed and Breakfast catering to those not interested in camping or climbing. Elle would have cried if she’d not been so desperate for some warm clothing, a hairbrush and a decent pair of boots.

  “Come in dear, come in,” Rosie took her by the arm as she stood at the front of the multi-purpose building where Spider and Jarrad had left her before scattering like cockroaches in an effort to avoid her interrogation.

  “You’ve had quite the adventure from what I’ve heard.”

  “How did you hear —”

  “I’m the dispatcher for the rescue crew. I also handle the postal service and own the local supply stores and diner. Welcome to Big Bear Mountain, dear. Now, let’s get you some proper outdoor clothing. You’ll catch your death in that outfit.”

  Elle stopped suddenly. “I don’t have any money ...” Her eyes brimmed with tears at the thought of yet another vast hole in her survival and escape plan.

  “Oh, we don’t worry about stuff like that up here, dear. You’re not in the city now. Up here, we’re just one big family and we look out for each other. I’m sure we can work something out. You wouldn’t be the first to work off their tab with a few chores.”

  Elle was about to say she had no intention of staying any longer than she had to in this tiny one horse town, assuming it even had a horse, which she very much doubted. But something stopped her. This kind old woman had a certain maternal air about her and Elle warmed to her immediately. She saw no reason to dis the generous old lady’s hometown, no matter how small it seemed.

  “Now let’s see if we can find you some good hiking boots to go with that country-girl outfit.” Rosie rested her hands on her ample hips and nodded in approval when Elle was finally dressed, ready to take on the great outdoors.

  “I don’t really plan on doing a whole lot of hiking,” she said doubtfully.

  Looking at herself in the mirror, though, she was pleasantly surprised that the outdoor apparel suited her and even her soft curves looked good in the outfit Rosie had insisted she wear.

  “That’s pretty much how we get around up here. There’s very few trails cars are allowed on, so most of us get around on foot. You better get used to that, dear.”

  City girl Elle severely doubted that.

  Lacing the big ugly hiking boots, Rosie sat alongside Elle on a hard wooden bench which comprised the ‘footwear department’.

  “He’s a good man, you know,” she said, not taking her eyes from the task at hand.

  “Jarrad?”

  “You know very well who I mean. You think I haven’t noticed you peering out the window to catch a glimpse of him out there every chance you get?”

  “He’d be difficult to miss.” Elle couldn’t resist another glance out the window, despite her desire to prove Rosie wrong.

  “Big man. Big heart. That’s our Jarrad. Don’t let his rugged ways fool you. He’s a big cuddly bear deep down.”

  “Ah, yeah, about that —”

  “Has he told you already?” Rosie cut her off.

  “Why does everyone keep asking that?” Elle squinted slightly as she stared Rosie down.

  “It’s not my place to tell you, dear.” She placed a comforting hand on Elle’s knee.

  “I just wish I knew what was going on. One minute we’re … well, having a moment, next thing, he won’t let me even touch him. And then there’s the weird conversation he had with Spider on the flight down here. Something about bears and mates. I couldn’t work out if that was their military call sign nonsense or they were for real.” Elle shook her head slowly, and then looked into Rosie’s eyes which, despite their age, sparkled with wisdom.

  “They weren’t talking nonsense, dear. Jarrad is actually a bear. He’s a Grizzly Bear shifter, like his daddy before him and proud of it.”

  Elle waited for Rosie to slap her on the knee, laugh and say ‘Gotcha’.

  But she didn’t.

  Chapter 26

  “Don’t look so surprised, dear.” Rosie kept threading the laces through the countless metal eyelets as if she’d just announced Jarrad liked Bourbon instead of beer. As if it was no big deal.

  “You mean like werewolves and all that stuff?” There was a word Elle never thought she’d be saying out loud.

  Werewolf? Really?

  “No, no, dear.” Rosie rolled her eyes as if Elle had just said the most ridiculous thing ever. “Big Bear Mountain has been the home of bear shifters for hundreds of years. Maybe longer, nobody really knows for sure.”

  “You mean there are others who can … change into bears?”

  “Of course.” She finished lacing one boot, then picked up the other and started work on that one.

  “Can you?” she asked, fascinated as the dexterous fingers of the old woman worked their magic.

  “Oh, no. I’m not the cub of a shifter. My grandfather was a hunter in these parts many, many years ago. After he found out their secret, he vowed never to hunt again and he settled here with my grandmother and opened this store to encourage hikers and climbers to the area, instead of hunters.

  “Now I’ve brought a different kind of hunter into this quiet, peaceful place.” Her glanced toward the window again and this time she caught sight of Jarrad walking toward the store with a ridiculously large crate slung on his shoulder like it was nothing.

  He looked like an action movie hero, but he was right here, in real life and he looked, to Elle, like sex on a stick.

  “What’s in the crate,” Elle asked, proud of herself for pretending she couldn’t care less that the man she was falling for could, at any minute, turn into a giant grizzly bear.

  Jarrad was sporting an ear to ear grin. He’d either just got laid or the crate contained the tech he’d mentioned earlier. Elle doubted he’d just got laid, but she reserved judgement until after she saw the contents of the crate.

  Half expecting him to find a crowbar to crack open the screwed down lid of the wooden box, Elle wasn’t in the least surprised when he simply hooked his fingertips under the edge of the lid and tore it off the box like it was made of cardboard. Inside the box, nested in foam recesses were a bunch of cables, an antenna, something that looked like a cross between a laptop computer and a tablet and another item that she didn’t recognize.

  “This bunch of junk looks like something you bought at a Baggage Battles auction,” she said with disappointment in her voice. She had hoped to see a high tech rocket launcher or something equally bad-ass to fire at the cartel goons next time they showed up.

  “This,” Jarrad announced proudly, “is our BMW finder. He waved his hand over the contents of the crate like a magician performing his big reveal.

  “And just how do we do that,” she pointed to the assortment of junk in the box, “with that?”

  “This so called bunch-of-junk is a long range RFID reader. I had Spider ‘borrow’ it from an army buddy. We can use it to pinpoint the exact location of the Bimmer. Or what’s left of it, anyway.”

  There was something particularly cute about a colossal, hardened army man getting his geek on and becoming so theatrical when explaining his new toy. Elle was barely able to contain herself.

  Rosie and Elle remained silent and unmoved by the riveting explanation, forcing Jarrad to continue before the awkward silence became unbearable.

  “Every European car has a transponder built into the key as part of its EWS – Electronic Watchdog System. Without the transponder, the car won’t start. Your key was in the ignition, so the key should be in or near the remnants of the car, right?”

  Elle nodded, still unsure where this was leading.

  “OK,” he continued, “so this RFID reader can be configured to 315Mhz so it can pick up the signal from your transponder. There can’t
be too many Bimmer’s lying around at the bottom of the mountain, so it shouldn’t be too hard to zero in on the signal and retrieve the SD card.”

  Jarrad smiled when he saw her face light up at the recognition that his plan could actually work.

  Maybe he’s smarter than he looks.

  Without warning, Elle laced her fingers behind Jarrad’s head, pulled him down to her level and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “What are we waiting for? Let’s go Bimmer prospecting!”

  Jarrad looked at Rosie as she smiled knowingly at them.

  Despite being confused by Elle’s change of attitude since last night and the incident in the helicopter, Jarrad had business to attend to. Understanding the ebbs and flows of a woman’s emotional state would have to wait, for now.

  Breaking free of the awkward embrace, Jarrad said, “Rosie, I need to get in touch with that grandson of yours.”

  Chapter 27

  “Are you sure this is going to work?”

  They’d been at it for 3 hours and Elle was beginning to lose faith in the plan. Jarrad’s confidence appeared steadfast, but she knew that was just the military leader in him shining through.

  “Of course it’ll work. We just have a lot of ground to cover, that’s all. Be patient.” He needed to give her something else to think about. “How’re the new boots working out?” he asked.

  “Not exactly the Jimmy Choo style I’m used to, but they seem to work just fine,” she conceded.

  “Jimmy who?”

  “Never mind,” she sighed.

  “Rosie told you, didn’t she?” Jarrad, curious about Elle’s change in attitude, had asked Rosie how much she had said during the time they’d spent together.

  “Some,” Elle replied. “She didn’t seem too keen to talk about the bonding and mating stuff, though. Apparently, you and I need to have that talk.”

  Jarrad continued waving the antenna back and forth as he walked across the rocky terrain, unsure how to answer the question Elle left hanging. He’d never had to have ‘the talk’ before. He didn’t want to have it now, but he had no choice. This was his mate. The mate chosen by his bear, who somehow just knew she was ‘the one’.

  “Bears mate for life. You get that, right?” he began.

  “Sure. I watch Discovery Channel, you know,” she replied seriously.

  “The bear uses its sense of smell to find the perfect mate,” he continued. “They’re almost never wrong.”

  “Almost never?” Elle quizzed.

  “OK, never, then,” he conceded. “Not among our clan, anyway.”

  Jarrad took Elle’s arm and helped her over a patch of loose rocks and tree roots before continuing.

  “Neither the bear nor the human can actually mate —”

  “You’re talking about sex, right?”

  “Yeah.” Jarrad looked uncomfortable and started to take his antenna waving duties more seriously.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. Go on …”

  “Before we even get to the sex part of the whole deal, there’s a bonding ritual. The chosen mate has to choose to bond with the bear and become its mate before the human couple can actually have sex.”

  “I think I get it. You’re saying I have to accept your bear if you and I are to be … together?”

  “Kind of.” Jarrad shrugged his shoulders, unsure how to proceed.

  “What am I missing?” Elle asked, placing her hand on his chest to halt his search for the missing car.

  Her hand found his rock solid pec, and she recalled how good his muscles felt under her hands last night. Before he rejected her.

  “You have to touch my bear and not be afraid of it.” There, he’d come out and said it. Relief crossed his face.

  “Oh.”

  “See, I knew this would happen. It’s one thing for my bear to find what he thinks is my mate for life, but that doesn’t suddenly make a human unafraid of a giant bear and want to touch it.”

  “But you pushed me away last night. That’s the thing I don’t get. All this stuff about your bear — I don’t believe I just said that, by the way — means nothing if you don’t want me.”

  “I do. That’s why I pushed you away last night.”

  “Oh right. And that makes perfect sense because …” Elle rested her hands on her hips, waiting for an explanation. And a damn good one, at that.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, bears mate for life and only mate or have sex with their lifelong mates.”

  Elle held up her hand to halt the flow of the conversation. She thought for a moment.

  “So, if I can’t accept and bond with you when you’re in your bear form, then you and I can’t have sex?”

  Finally, Jarrad thought, but kept his mouth shut and his best poker face on.

  “Can I have a peek at it?”

  Jarrad’s gaze fell to his crotch.

  “You idiot!” Elle snapped. “Your bear! I want to see you shift into a bear. You can’t blame a girl for being a bit curious, can you?”

  “Or a bit skeptical, maybe?”

  Raising her hands in surrender Elle confessed, “Maybe a little skeptical. Can you blame me?”

  “Of course not.” Jarrad raised his brows. “You really sure you want to do this? It can be pretty scary and I don’t mean just the first time, either.”

  “You … your bear … you know what I mean, you’re not going to hurt me, are you?” she asked cautiously.

  “There’s nothing me or my bear wouldn’t do to protect you and keep you safe. There’s no way either of us could ever hurt you, in any way.” He gave her a look that made her feel that he meant more than just physical harm.

  Having come from a dysfunctional and interfering family, Elle was touched by the warmth behind Jarrad’s words. Nobody had ever cared for her or about her, without ulterior motives, before. She liked how that made her feel. Selflessly cared for and protected. Maybe even loved?

  Chapter 28

  Despite her best effort not to show it, Elle was afraid. Astonished and curious, but still very much afraid. Before her disbelieving eyes, Jarrad transitioned into a massive, living and breathing grizzly bear. She expected bone crunching and howling like in the movies, but the transformation was fast and seamless, almost magical. No crunching or howling. Just a smooth, almost fluid, change from his human form to a larger and very dangerous looking bear.

  The bear smelled her fear immediately and tried not to frighten her even more, but a bear is a bear and the urge to growl is an integral part of grizzly bear DNA and Jarrad’s bear hadn’t shifted or growled for over a day now. He couldn’t help himself.

  Grrrrrowl!

  Standing tall on his hind legs, the bear towered above Elle. One of his colossal paws, was nearly as wide as her body and the claws protruding from it looked positively lethal. Just as Jarrad was the largest, most muscular man he had ever seen, his bear was the most enormous and impressive living creature she had seen in her life.

  Her fear abated, though, when she summoned the courage to make eye contact with the bear and found herself staring into a pair of soulful eyes she immediately recognized as Jarrad’s. Sensing her recognition, the bear lowered his massive head and positioned himself such that Elle could easily stroke the fur behind his ears.

  With some apprehension, Elle gave the patch of fur being presented to her a tentative pat before withdrawing. Nudging her and mewling softly, or as softly as a giant grizzly can mewl, Elle was encouraged to continue stroking Jarrad’s bear, knowing she was forming an important and unique union with both of them.

  She felt no hesitation in performing what she hoped was the proper bonding ritual. It felt right, somehow and left her with a sense of ‘belonging’ and being a part of something very special.

  She only hoped they would survive long enough to find out it if it were all true.

  Chapter 29

  Two hours later, they hit pay dirt. After hearing nothing but crickets for most of the day, the strange c
ontraption being carried by Jarrad started to beep.

  “Result!” Jarrad screamed, punching the air with his huge fist.

  “So, that beeping sound is a good thing?”

  “Sweetie, that beeping sound, as you call it, is the sound of your freedom. It means I know where the car is and we should be able to recover the SD card, with a bit of luck and some good old mountaineering skill.”

  “What do we do if we find it? What’s the plan?”

  The plan?” Jarrad asked. “I’m the brawn in this outfit, lady,” he said looking down at his colossal body which, to most people, looked like a Russian war monument than a human being.

  “And what am I, then?” Elle imitated him and looked down at curvy body.

  “You? You’re the brains of the operation. That’s for you to figure out once I’ve done my part.”

  “The SD card was hidden in my overnight bag. We need to get the entire bag, not just the card?” Elle suggested.

  “You mean the bag with the hundred grand you stole?”

  “It’s not exactly stolen,” she replied coyly, averting her eyes to avoid making eye contact as she lied.

  “That’s not what Trooper Ryan told me when he called me to find out if I knew where you were at. Apparently, you’re wanted for questioning in connection with the embezzlement of corporate funds, to use his words.”

  “That’s what they want the police to think so they’ll come after me. If they catch me, they get their money back, too as a bonus. Besides, they can hardly tell the cops I stole a big bag of their laundered drug cash and they want it back, now, can they?”

  “Yeah, you’ve got a point.” Jarrad held up a finger. “OK, big bag of drug cash.” Then he extended another finger. “One SD card.”

  “That’s pretty much your shopping list. How are you going to get them?”

  “I already told you,” he responded, then winked. “A bit of mountaineering skill is all we need.”