Page 27 of Goldie's Grumpy Grizzly
“You wanted to see the places I loved,” he says softly. “This place holds so many memories for me.”
I know it. I feel it.
“I’d like to show you so you can understand.” Cole extends his other hand to me and I take it. Then he places our linked hands over his heart and I feel the heavy thump of his heart as it gallops in his chest. Leaning down, he presses his forehead to mine and his eyes drift shut.
Then, I gasp as my mind is flooded with his flickering memories. Visions of him as a cub, running wild and rampant with his brothers. Tearing through the trees. Tumbling over the rocky precipice, earning a couple gashes here and there. The three of them wrestling by the mouth of the waterfall, splashing in the pool, competing to catch the most fish.
Cole’s hand grips mine tighter as he shares these moments with me, and through the shimmering edge of my vision, I see the broad, smiling face of a bearded man that must be his father. His arm is slung around a younger version of Melanie Osborne while they toast marshmallows on an open flame. The love and adoration they share sparkles like a golden thread—the mating bond.
But then the vision twists, burns to ash as I feel something ancient and powerful take hold of my sight. I open my mouth to scream, but no sound emerges as I feel the tether to Cole slipping from my grasp.
Above me, a full moon rises. It coasts above the edge of the waterfall, bathing the earth in shimmering silver light. A pained beastly roar echoes off the walls, and my attention flies to the injured young cub lying at the edge of the pool. On his shoulder, a deep, ragged gash glistens with the blood freely pouring forth, matting his beautiful fur coat.
Cole, I want to scream. Run!
But the wound is too deep. And he’s scared.
A blade glints in the moonlight as a woman moves out of the shadows, stepping before a hunting party armed with guns, spears, and arrows dipped in a toxic mix.
“That’s right, little bear, call for Daddy. Howl for him.” The woman holds up the knife, still wet with Cole’s blood. “His blood is what I need. The blood of one who’s tasted true love, the most powerful magic there is. Then, I can complete my spell and bring this child into the world. My chosen one, blessed by the Goddess.”
She shoves a vacant-eyed young woman out of the shadows. The moon glints on her feathered blonde hair, catching on the gemstones clutched in her hand and held against the swell of her pregnant belly.
But when the white-whiskered bear finally appears, teeth bared and snarling, he’s overwhelmed. The hunting party had set a trap and he’d been caught up in it, baited by the cry of his young cub.
I’m forced to watch, helpless, as the maniac wielding the knife plunges the blade into the soft, exposed belly of the beast.
No!
Gripping the hilt with both hands and grunting with effort, the woman’s hand glows with an eerie purple flame, and her eyes shine with madness as she drags the blade up and through.
From afar, through the thick pines, a gut-wrenching roar fills the air, filled with unspeakable heartbreak.
In horror, I watch as that shining golden thread of connection narrows, dangerously thin and close to snapping.
Then I’m physically cast out, shoved back into my own body with my eyes screwed shut against the sunlight.
Freed from the nightmare at last, I drop to my knees, gasping and sobbing.
“No, no, no, no.”
My hands delve into the earth, clawing at dirt even as Cole snatches me by the arms and shakes me.
“Rae! Rae, baby, it’s me. It’s Cole. You’re safe. It’s okay. Stay with me, baby. Stay with me.” His panicked voice finally breaks through as I open my eyes and see terror reflected back at me. He crushes me to his chest, cradling my trembling body and peppering kisses along my temple. “Jesus. What the fuck, Rae? Where did you go?”
Chapter Twelve
Cole
Rae turns unseeing eyes to me, and they’re overflowing with tears and rimmed with sorrow. My panic gives way to relief as I clutch her close and stroke her back. Inside, my bear stomps, jaws snapping, ready to tear apart whatever unseen threat I’d sensed while she’d slipped from my grasp and our bond weakened.
I’d never known terror like that. Not even when I’d watched my father die.
“What happened? Your eyes rolled back in your head and you went rigid in my arms. You scared the shit out of me. I couldn’t reach you, couldn’t snap you out of it. And I could just barely feel you through our bond. I was afraid I was losing you.”
“That’s how you got that scar,” she whimpers, fingers seizing over my shoulder and digging into the place where I’d been sliced with a poisoned blade. “That woman… s-she did that to you to draw your father out. Then she slayed him. Coldheartedly. And you were there. God, Cole, you saw all that happen.”
My heart lodges in my throat.
