Now Ric was completely confused. He immediately looked at Lock, and the grizzly had the same expression on his face.

“Her father? Blayne’s father? Ezra Thorpe?”

“Does she have more than one father?”

“I . . . I didn’t think you’d want him to know,” he said to Blayne who stood behind Novikov and it hurt that she’d feel safer behind the asshole who was known for smashing players’ heads into the ice than Ric who’d been watching her back for the last few months.

“She does now,” Novikov replied for Blayne. And even that seemed wrong! Had they brainwashed the woman? A woman who barely let anyone speak even when it was their turn? A woman who talked so much that she’d been known to almost pass out from lack of oxygen. That Blayne Thorpe was letting this idiot speak for her?

What in holy hell is going on?

“You want Blayne back in New York, you’ll need to get Ezra Thorpe to come here and get her. It’s that simple.”

“Yes, but—”

Novikov turned away from him, dismissing Ric that easily in the middle of his sentence and walking away. As he did, Blayne suddenly moved forward, and for a brief moment, Ric thought she’d gotten her sanity back. She walked up to him but didn’t speak. Instead, she held her fist out in front of her body. Not to hit him, he didn’t think, but to give him something. He held his hand out, palm up, under her fist and she opened her fingers, something small and nearly weightless dropping into it.

Without another word, she turned and walked away, Novikov right with her. The older polar stood in front of them.

“You city folk better get in your chopper and fly away. There’s a storm comin’. Hate for you to get caught on the wrong side of that.”

Ric closed his hand over what Blayne had given him and said, “I’m not leaving without—”

Van stepped in front of Ric. “Thank you for your hospitality. We’ll be in touch.”

“As ya like. But don’t waste your time coming back here without Blayne’s father. We won’t like that one bit.”

“Of course.” Van turned, facing both Ric and Lock. “Let’s go, gentlemen.”

“You can’t be serious,” Lock said, stating out loud what Ric had been thinking.

“I rarely am serious, but what I can tell you is these bears are serious. Would you like to hang around and wait to find out how serious they are?”

Lock glanced around and, eventually, shook his head. “No. He’s right, Ric. We have to go.”

Ric nodded, and they all headed back to the rented vehicle they’d picked up at the small airport more than seventy miles away.

Once in the bear-size vehicle and heading out of town, predatory bears of every type watching them from the surrounding forests, Lockasked, “What did Blayne give you anyway?”

Ric realized he’d forgotten all about that and slowly opened his tightly clenched fist so they could look. Lock briefly stopped the SUV, and the three males leaned in and studied what Ric held. It was Van who recognized it first, being that he was one of the rare shifters who, on occasion, enjoyed having pet dogs or cats of his own.

“Holy shit, someone microchipped her.”

And as fury washed over Ric, leaving him nearly breathless, he knew there was only one person in the entire universe who’d have the goddamn nerve, the unmitigated gall, to microchip a goddamn shifter.

“I’ll kill her!”

CHAPTER 18

Bo stopped the snowmobile in front of the one-story cabin where he’d grown up. It still had the long wraparound porch with those old but comfortable chairs he’d sit in for hours every night and dream about the day he’d get out of here.

Blayne clung to him, her arms tight around his waist, her head resting against his back. If he had to come back here, he couldn’t think of a better way than this.

True, he’d expected to be on his way back to the city by now, but he knew Blayne wasn’t ready to return. He didn’t blame her. At the moment, she didn’t know who to trust or what the hell was going on. Maybe if Van Holtz had brought Gwen with him, but bringing the Alpha of his Pack was just . . . weird. Why would Niles Van Holtz come? Why would he care? Being friends with a packmate didn’t make you Pack. At least not as far as the Van Holtzes were concerned.

The thought that Van Holtz was interested in making Blayne his own had crossed Bo’s mind more than once, and letting her stay in Ursus County until her old man showed up seemed like a better and better idea the more he thought about it. Besides, time alone with Blayne would give Bo a chance that, as far as he was concerned, Van Holtz hadn’t earned. Of course, he would have preferred taking this shot with Blayne at one of his other homes. Especially since he had them set up perfectly, including access to free-range hunting.

Not to say he didn’t like his uncle’s more modest yet sizable house. Bo actually loved this place, not realizing that fact until he’d left.

He opened the always unlocked front door and stepped inside, Blayne still right behind him, holding on to the back of his uncle’s denim jacket. The house still smelled the same, looked the same. Yet Bo was shocked at the sense of tranquility he felt stepping inside. He knew immediately that keeping Blayne here, at least for the time being, was the best idea all around.

Once inside, Bo went down the hall and into the living room. He walked over to the giant sectional. A big “L” shape, the couch took up most of the room, allowing up to two polars to sleep on either section as human or as bear.