One True Mate 6: Bear's Redemption Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Glossary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Notes from Lisa xoxo

  One True Mate 6: Bear’s Redemption

  by Lisa Ladew

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or organizations, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Copyright © 2017 Lisa Ladew All Rights Reserved

  Book cover by The Final Wrap. Killer dark covers, Becca. Thank you.

  Cover model: BT Urruela

  Photographer: Shauna Kruse

  Special editorial assistance by Savan Robbins. As usual. #bwbff

  Thank you to Kristine Piiparinen, #bbbff and Carin Borland #bebbff

  I must mention the babes in my two groups for help naming characters, help fleshing out cool things about them, and for general cheerleading and fun. Come visit us in Books, Babes, and Badasses (women only) and One True Mate Spoilers and Discussion (which may be changed to Lisa Ladew Books Spoilers and Discussion, if you can’t find it)

  Thank you Amanda Quiles, my shifter guru, who needs to go to her corner more often ;) Amanda is the one who came up with the idea for Bruin purring when he thought of his mate. And how perfect was it? She showed me a YouTube video of a cub purring while it nursed and I ran with it.

  Diana Davis came up with idea of Willow being a beekeeper (as a way to attract bears). Thank you Diana!

  Ah crap, did I forget to mention my husband?!?!? As I write this, we hit 21 years married exactly 12 days ago. That’s like …. 2 decades plus a year. That’s an entire childhood plus some. Our marriage is old enough to drink!! I won’t lie and say it’s been all fun and games, but we’re both still alive, and that’s saying something. Thank you for your unending, unwavering support, John.

  Glossary

  Bearen – bear shifters. Almost always work as firefighters.

  Citlali – spiritual leaders of all shiften. They are able to communicate with the deities telepathically, and sometimes bring back prophecies from these communications.

  Deae – goddess.

  Dragen – dragon shifter. Rare.

  Echo – an animal with the same markings of a shiften. Usually seen as a harbinger of bad things, but could also be a messenger from The Light.

  Felen – big cat shifters. Almost always work as mercenaries. They are also the protectors of Rhen’s physical body and a specially trained group of them can track Khain when he comes into the Ula.

  Foxen – the foxen were created when Khain forcibly mated with female wolven.

  Haven, the – final resting place of all shiften. Where The Light resides.

  Impot – a shiften that cannot shift because of a genetic defect caused by mating too close to their own bloodline. Trent and Troy are not thought to be impots because they were born during a klukwana.

  Khain – also known as the Divided Demon, the Great Destroyer, and the Matchitehew. The hunter of humans and the main nemesis of all shiften.

  Klukwana – a ceremony where a full-blooded shiften mates with another shiften with both in animal form, then the mother stays in animal form during the entire pregnancy. The young in the litter are always born as their animal. Wolven from a klukwana always come in at least four to seven young. Bearen are always two cubs, and felen are unpredictable, sometimes only one. Shiften born from a klukwana are almost always more powerful, bigger, and stronger than regular shiften, but many parents don’t try it because of the inherent risks to the mother during the (shorter) pregnancy and the risk that the shiften young may choose not to shift into human form. A lesser known possibility is that the shiften young will have a harder time learning to shift into human form, especially if no one shifts near them in the first few days after birth.

  KSRT – Kilo Special Response Team, or Khain Special Response team. A group of wolven police whose primary goal is to hunt down and kill Khain, if that can be done.

  Light, The – the creator of the Ula, humans, Rhen, Khain, and the angels.

  Moonstruck – insane. Shiften who spend too long indoors or too long in human form can become moonstruck slowly and not even realize it.

  Pravus – Khain’s home. A fiery, desolate dimension that sits alongside ours.

  Pumaii – a small group of specialized felen tasked with tracking Khain when he crosses over into our dimension.

  Renqua – a discoloration in a shiften’s fur which is also seen as a birthmark in human form. Every renqua is different. The original renquas were pieces of Rhen she put inside the wolves, bears, and big cats to create the shiften. Every pure-blooded shifter born since has also had a renqua. Half-breeds may or may not have one. Some foxen acquired weak renquas when they mated with shiften. Also called the mark of life.

  Rhen – the creator of all shiften. A female deity.

  Ruhi – the art of speaking telepathically. No humans are known to possess the power to do this. Not all shiften are able to do it. It is the preferred form of speaking for the dragen.

  Shiften – shifter-kind.

  Shiftsegen – a special blessing left for the One True Mates by their father, a pendant that represents their angel half and the animal of their intended mate. The shiftsegen is powerful and unpredictable and its uses and powers are not clear.

  Ula – the Earth, in the current dimension and time. The home of the shiften.

  Vahiy – end of the world.

  Wolfen – a wolf shifter. Almost always works as a police officer.

  Wolven – wolf shifters, plural.

  Zyanya – when a wolfen dies, the funeral is for the benefit of humans, but the important ceremo
ny is the zyanya. The pack mates of the fallen wolfen run in wolf form through the forest, heading north to show the spirit the way to the Haven. When they reach a body of water, they all jump in and swim to the other side, then emerge in human form.

  Chapter 1

  Bruin Berard Bloom the Fourth picked up an item without looking at it, then put it back down again, moving one step to the left, in line with Mac, his best wolf friend, who had just done the same thing. They were alongside a rack of curios in the San Antonio Airport gift shop. He and Mac were browsing, just for something to do, as they waited for their flight to Chicago to board.

  Bruin’s eyes were on Rogue, who was wandering around in the terminal, aimlessly, her face vacant. She passed Trent, who was lounging in a very doggy-like way, next to a row of empty seats, guarding everyone’s carry-on luggage, looking almost approachable in his orange rescue-dog vest.

  Rogue had become crankier each day that they’d been on the road without any sign of her sister, Amaranth. When days had turned to weeks, and weeks to over a month, she’d gone from cranky to desolate, changing from the spunky, fiery, sometimes bitchy woman he loved like a sister, into someone quieter, meeker, with less spark, less life. Bruin missed fiery Rogue. What he wouldn’t give to hear her call Mac, “Princess.” Instead, she was barely speaking to anyone and was engaging in behaviors that Bruin didn’t know what to think of.

  Their mission to find Amaranth had been a complete and utter failure, and Bruin’s mind spun with how to best move forward. He had some ideas, but he needed to sleep on them to be sure which was the best one to try first. They’d searched San Antonio for over a week, then headed to Wisconsin, to the river walk in Milwaukee, then out to Pittsburgh, then over to Chicago, even though Rogue insisted Amaranth wasn’t in Chicago, she would have known. They’d then hit the river walks in Portland and Reno, and even Savannah, before heading back to San Antonio to search one more time for that purple door.

  He had been the one to spout the nonsense that got them started on this foxen’s errand in the first place, and he felt responsible for all of it. His heart hurt knowing he’d given Rogue hope, hope that was now crushed.

  For the millionth time, his mind replayed the words that had come, unbidden, unrecognized, even unheard by him, out of his mouth.

  Caught between her future and her past, Amaranth calls for her sister, but denies it even to herself. Find her along the river walk, behind the purple door.

  Mac hip-checked him to get him to move along, then picked up the same thing Bruin had held for just a moment, saying something about it. Bruin had to focus to get his brain to interpret the words.

  “Why is honey always in bear-shaped containers?” Mac said, making Bruin’s eyes snap from Rogue to Mac. He held a plastic bear filled with the sweet, viscous liquid that was Bruin’s biggest vice. The sight made Bruin lick his lips.

  Mac’s voice was speculative. “I mean, bees do all the work, so why do you guys get all the credit?”

  Bruin read the label. Clover honey, which wasn’t rare, or even his favorite, which meant he could resist it. Plus he’d dumped most of his clothes so that he could fit fifty pounds of Texas honey into his suitcase. He could always get new clothes, but new types of exotic honey? That was a rarity and a luxury he would not even try to pass up.

  Bruin took the bottle of honey and held it up to the light. Habit. “Because bears are naturally sweet. We’re born delicious.” He squeezed the plastic. “If you really want to get technical, this bottle should look like a honeycomb.”

  Mac snatched the bottle out of Bruin’s upraised hand and returned it to the shelf. “Right. Let me guess, a Dalmatian told you that. What I want to know is, why is honey being sold here? You having tea and crumpets on the plane?”

  Bruin nodded idly, mumbling something about a honey emergency, but returning his attention and his gaze to Rogue, stiffening when his eyes landed on her. Her head was high, her eyes hidden by sunglasses, but they appeared to be looking straight ahead. Her arms hung loosely at her sides, swinging softly, and her path would take her directly past a group of women clustered in a circle next to a coffee shop. Bruin knew what Rogue’s sure gait meant. He shot a look at Mac, but Mac was still contemplating the shelf in front of him.

  Bruin bit the inside of his lip as Rogue passed the group of women, brushing by an older woman with a large brown purse over her shoulder. Quick like controlled lightning, Rogue’s hand shot out and delved into the purse. Bruin winced when it came out with a slim, pink, expensive-looking wallet, which Rogue didn’t even look at. Instead, she made it disappear in one of her voluminous sleeves, rounded the group, and made another pass, this time slipping the pink wallet back in the woman’s purse.

  Bruin had to give her credit. She was good. No one had noticed either her or her momentary crime.

  A soft chuff in his head made him realize he was wrong and that someone else had. He took a step to the left to better see out into the open airport.

  He saw Troy first. The huge black wolf with the white bomb renqua on his shoulder had his head in the lap of a random seated woman, watching a video on her phone, something about cats in circles, so it hadn’t been him. Bruin took one more step to the left, peering around a sudden crowd until he could see Trent, Troy’s brother. Trent and Troy were both non-shifting wolven, who had accompanied him, Mac, and Rogue on the trip to San Antonio, acting as extra guard for Rogue, Mac’s One True Mate, a state which made her a sure target for the ruthless demon nemesis of all of them, Khain. Trent was also big and black, but with a figure eight renqua and a spot of white on the tip of his tail and his chest.

  Trent’s eyes were on Rogue, his canine expression inscrutable. Yep, he knew. Blast it all. Bruin wondered how many times Trent had seen Rogue do this in San Antonio. Bruin had counted six times, all in the last week. Bruin shot a look at Mac, but Mac had a Cosmopolitan magazine in his hand and was flipping through the pages, mumbling something about, “…the balls, too? Really? I’ll have to ask Rogue…”

  Tell Mac? Don’t tell Mac? To tell him would be betraying Rogue, but to not tell him was betraying Mac, wasn’t it? Rogue wasn’t actually stealing anything, just—

  Rogue abruptly changed direction, heading straight for them. Bruin dropped his eyes and blindly grabbed a magazine off the shelf. Seventeen. Perfect. Maybe Rogue would make fun of him. He opened it and held it up so she could see the cover, keeping track of her with his peripheral vision.

  She didn’t even look at him or Mac. Instead, she headed to a display of scarves, then detoured to go around it instead. Bruin gave up his pretense of looking at the magazine to stare directly at her, catching her snagging one scarf off the table. But it didn’t go into her pocket or other hand. Instead, she flipped it so the tag didn’t show and wound it over her head to hide her light brown hair, slouching slightly at the same time, pulling into herself in that way she had that disguised her height.

  She narrowed her eyes and threw him a warning look that said she knew he knew but he’d be better off keeping his mouth shut, then she sidled next to Mac on his other side, and picked up the honey jar they both had handled. Sadness welled inside of Bruin, making his chest heavy. He didn’t know what she was trying to do, and he didn’t know if finding her sister would have helped her avoid whatever pain she was feeling, but if she hurt, he hurt, and she was definitely hurting. He tried to imagine losing one of his brothers at age five in the manner she had, and couldn’t do it. To not know if that brother was alive or dead? Had been treated well or abused? The strain losing her sister had put on her must have been immense. Must be immense.

  Bruin tried to catch her eye, but she hovered next to Mac, waiting for… something.

  A faceless female voice boomed over an intercom in the high ceiling. “Flight 82 to Chicago, now boarding.”

  The announcement caused Rogue to shoot to her full height, then whip the scarf off her head and return it to the pile before striding to Mac and taking his arm. He turned to her, smiling t
hat special smile that was only for her, but his hands were clenched into fists, wrinkling the magazine he was still holding. “Time to go already?”

  She nodded and her lips curled slightly, but her eyes stayed sad and hard.

  Mac dropped his magazine, trying to stay nonchalant, but Bruin could read the fear in the set of his shoulders as they all headed out to grab the luggage. Bruin reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a tiny glass bottle, handing it to Mac. “Take a dropper-full of this under your tongue. It will help you relax on the plane.”

  Mac’s fear of flying had only gotten worse with all the trips they’d been making, so Bruin had decided to help if he could. He’d been to a Chinese herbal doctor the night before and gotten a concoction created.

  Mac eyed the label-less bottle in his hand suspiciously. “What’s in it?”

  Bruin rattled off the ingredients quickly. There were only a few, valerian root being the strongest.

  “There’s no cumin in it?”

  Bruin shook his head. Rumor confirmed. He’d heard the wolven were sensitive to cumin, but also sensitive about the fact that they were sensitive to it, so he’d never asked. “No.”