Mate Bond
Page 27

Kenzie stopped so quickly that Gil almost ran into her.
“You all right?” he asked, his warm eyes holding concern. Gil wasn’t very tall, even for a human, being an inch shorter than Kenzie. But his body held strength, his shoulders wide, muscles as powerful as any Shifter’s.
“I’m going to have to go wolf.” Kenzie dug cold fingers into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, scrolling through it. “If anything goes wrong, if we have to fight, call this number. This is Jamie, Bowman’s top tracker.” Her cell phone was a few years old and refurbished—Shifters were not allowed the latest state-of-the-art smartphones. Phone technology changed so rapidly, though, that a phone from even a few years ago had more bells and whistles than Kenzie ever used.
“Are you sure?” Gil said, taking the phone. “About shifting, I mean.”
“I need to be able to help Bowman at a second’s notice. Don’t call Jamie unless we’re really in trouble, though. I don’t want all of Shiftertown out here because Bowman spotted a rabbit.”
The fact that no snarl came out of the darkness at that remark worried her. Bowman was either keeping quiet because he was sneaking up on something, or something had happened to him.
“Do you have a gun?” Kenzie asked, sliding off her boots. The ground was burning cold beneath her stocking feet.
“Yes,” Gil said without reaching for it. “But do you think a pistol will do any good against something that can fill a semitruck?”
Kenzie shot him a smile. “Can’t hurt.”
Gil returned her grin, the expression lighting his face. “Glad I met you, Shifter woman.”
“Same here, human cop.” She put her hands on her hips. “Will you turn your back, please? Bowman’s happy to strip in front of the Goddess and everyone, but I’m a little more modest.”
Gil’s smile widened, but he turned around, presenting a strong back under a leather coat. “You know I won’t peek. Your mate would tear out my throat if I did. I picked that up from him. He wouldn’t even stop to ask questions.”
“Probably,” Kenzie said in all seriousness. She slid out of her clothes, moving quickly so she had to shiver only a few seconds before her warm fur hugged her, and she shook herself out.
Her growl had Gil turning around again, flashing the light in her face. She winced and blinked, sending him a snarl.
“Oh, sorry. Hey, you look good.”
Gil gave her an admiring glance, taking in her wolf. Kenzie’s fur was dark, streaked with a tawny brown, her eyes bright gold in contrast to the gray eyes of Bowman and his clan. She was larger than but strongly resembled the wild wolves that had traversed Romania and the Transylvanian mountains where she’d lived as a cub. Kenzie always suspected that the Fae had used Transylvanian wolves as breeding stock for the first Lupines.
She’d also long suspected that Romanian Shifters had inspired the story of the shape-shifting, bloodsucking Vlad Dracul. Likely Uncle Cristian had inspired the tales specifically. He’d been around when the first vampire stories had started gaining popularity.
Kenzie gave Gil another low growl, trying to convey that he should stay close but quiet, and trotted in the direction Bowman had taken. She put enough distance between herself and Gil that his lantern wouldn’t night-blind her, but went slowly enough that he wouldn’t lose her.
The stink of the creature blanketed the land, but she found Bowman’s trail winding like a warm ribbon through it. She inhaled the scent of his passing, trying to blot out the sickening stench that overlaid it. Find Bowman, she told herself. Focus only on him.
Kenzie made her way up a steeper hill and back into deep woods, leaving the farmlands behind. It was harder going up here, and she heard Gil panting behind her.
The stench grew until it finally erased all scent of Bowman. Didn’t matter—Bowman was tracking that smell, and all Kenzie had to do was follow it.
She came across Bowman so suddenly she almost ran into him. Kenzie swerved at the last minute and halted next to him, her paws skidding on the cold, loose dirt.
That same dirt fell over a cliff into the river canyon this hill had been rising toward. Kenzie couldn’t make out the bottom in the dark, but the stink that blasted from it sent her back on her haunches. She snorted and shook her head, trying to get the smell out of her nostrils.
She couldn’t. Kenzie shifted back to human so fast her muscles protested, and she made a muffled noise of pain as she straightened to her full height. But at least now she could clap her hand over her nose.
How Bowman could simply sit there in that wave of smell, she couldn’t fathom. He stared downward, unmoving. There was no moon tonight, clouds blotting out all light, but Gil’s lantern glistened on Bowman’s fur, ruffled by the rising wind.
Gil came up next to Kenzie, carefully not looking at her nakedness. “Holy—” He broke off and coughed. “Holy shit.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Kenzie said, still holding her nose. Ryan would have laughed at the nasally sound of her words.
“Is that thing dead down there?”
Kenzie glanced at Bowman. He never looked at her as he crouched low on his limbs and started climbing down the side of the ravine.
Kenzie breathed through her mouth as she lowered her hand. “Crap, I do not want to do this.”
“Then don’t,” Gil said quickly. “Stay up here, and he’ll tell us what he finds.”
“Can’t,” she said, still sounding as though she had a bad cold. “He might need backup.”
Gil glanced over the edge, then back at Kenzie, again keeping his gaze on her face. “You’re one brave woman, Kenzie O’Donnell.”
“That’s what Bowman says. Well, when he’s not saying, What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She touched Gil’s arm, first to send him gratitude and second to see if she could sense whether he was up to something. She couldn’t tell. “Stay here. If I howl, you dial that cell phone.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Gil said.
Kenzie shifted, more slowly this time. She embraced the fur that warmed her body, but gagged on the punch of smell, which came to her with renewed strength.
Heaving a wolf sigh, she started downward, following her mate, using the footprints Bowman had left to guide her.
* * *
It was dead all right. Bowman shifted back to human and waited for Kenzie to catch up. She stayed wolf, but sat on her haunches and let out a whine.