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Chapter One
On a crisp fall afternoon, while the sun was beating down on Angel Fire, a woman tore through the forest like the hounds of hell were at her heels. She pumped her legs hard and fast, hands open rather than fisted, to give her the maximum aerodynamic movement. Her breathing thundered deeply, filling her lungs with inhaled puffs which were precisely timed to produce the oxygen she needed to spur her onward.
Behind her, a gaggle of men followed, working just as hard and running almost as fast. When she glanced over her shoulder, a stab of panic shot through her to see that they were still so close, and that she hadn’t lost them through the forest trails she knew so well.
She was determined to outrun them. She was determined to win. If there was one word to describe Espie Ruiz, it would have to be ‘competitive’.
After another peek over her shoulder, she gave a breathless giggle, pleased that there were yet at least ten or fifteen paces between her and the nearest runner. They’d all started the obstacle race about half an hour ago, and thus far, she had conquered them every step of the way. The competition was only open to shifters – no human would ever have been able to keep up the pace.
The race was sponsored by Espie’s parents, who had donated a cash prize for the winner. In addition, her older brother, Miguel, and his fiancée, Clarissa, had organized the event. The pair wanted to give the younger bears something fun to do, so as to distract them from all the bullshit that their clan had been dealing with lately.
From the run-in with the bighorn ram shifters that spring, to the continued presence of a mining corporation which was continuing to carve out territory for excavation within the bears’ sacred mountain range, it certainly hadn’t been the clan’s finest hour. But now that Miguel had taken his rightful place as alpha, he was doing everything in his power to improve their odds of life in the remote community.
As the competitors continued to make their way through the course, the birds quieted as they listened to the runners’ chaotic and labored movements. And even the woodland critters had taken refuge in the trees, when many of them would usually be enjoying the sunbeams that typically cascaded through the lush forest canopy.
Although Espie was the alpha’s little sister and she was privy to all the reasons for the race, this knowledge didn’t lessen her excitement at the prospect of finishing first. She knew she could outrun most of the bears in her clan, and participating in the event had sure beat spending the afternoon working at her family’s resort. Recently the staff had helped to set up the ladders, ropes, and tire obstacles all throughout the forest. Their family friend, Ivo (who was sometimes more like a ‘frenemy’), had also built a few more intricate climbing stations from scratch at her brother’s workshop, and these obstacles were a challenging addition to the competition.
Paying an entry fee of fifteen dollars wouldn’t be too bad if she managed to go home with a hundred for herself. The rest of the prize money went toward helping out the local animal shelter. With almost forty shifters participating, Miguel deemed the race a financial success before it had even began; however, Espie wouldn’t personally consider it a success until she’d blazed across the finish line.
“Espie, what gives?” asked the annoyingly smug voice of Taymond, who was far too close to her ear, and had been drawing her out of her thoughts. “Normally you’d be miles ahead of us by now.”
She snorted and tried to push herself a little harder. “I don’t want my victory to be too humiliating to the others,” she told him, not even pausing for a moment as she spoke. As a bear shifter, strenuous exercise like this had far less effect on her.
Still, she couldn’t help noticing that despite having a prankish grin plastered on his face, Taymond looked as though he’d just stepped out of the lake. His body was glistening with sweat, and Espie’s wasn’t much better. It was strange to realize that both Taymond and Copper, who she’d known her whole life, had suddenly gone from being a pair of lanky teens to a pair of well-defined twenty-something bodybuilders who could almost keep pace with her big brother.
And almost with Espie, too, apparently.
His grin widening, Taymond asked, “Oh, really? Does that mean you’re giving me a chance?”
Espie was aware of the double meaning to his words and tried not to laugh unkindly. She shot the sandy-haired black bear shifter a sidelong glance. “In your dreams, Tay.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d ever hit on her, but she just wasn’t interested in dating someone who wasn’t her fated mate. She knew Taymond wasn’t “the one”, or they both would have felt it a long time ago. If she were to acknowledge his teasing and actually give in to dating him, it would only be a reminder that she hadn’t found her soul mate and, that she was therefore still incomplete. Espie knew in her heart that her one true love was still unknown to her.
The truth was that Espie had an almost constant reminder of the fact that she was alone. Although her parents weren’t shifters, it had been clear from the very beginning that they were soul mates. Furthermore, her brother had Clarissa, and even Ivo had found his fated mate in the form of a Hawaiian beauty named Alani. The lovely American had gone back home for the summer, and Ivo had flown over to visit her for two weeks back in July. Alani was presently in the process of moving her twin girls – humans, as far as anyone knew – to live permanently in Angel Fire with Ivo and herself.
It just wasn’t right that a surly bastardo such as Ivo had found the greatest love of his life, yet Espie was still totally alone. Sure, she was only twenty-one, but she had watched other shifters in her clan fall hard, only to settle down, happily ever after, for years now. Was it too much to ask for her to find her own fated mate? Because all she wanted was to be head over heels in love with someone, too.
Pushing those thoughts aside for the moment, she challenged herself even harder, forcing Taymond to step up his game as the distance between them and the rest of the runners began to widen.
“Did you eat anything today, Espie?” he asked, as they veered off the beaten path and into the denser foliage, following the bright orange arrows painted on the tree trunks that led to their next obstacle.
“Uh, just a bit –”
“Because you’re about to eat my dust!” He tore off with a cackle as Espie rolled her eyes.
“Not today!” she fired back. He might have a few paces on her now, but there was no way she was going to lose. Bracing herself for impact, she leapt onto the ladder made of entwined ropes and scaled the huge plank of wood. Taymond was already down the other side, and he laughed again when she called out to him.
“Don’t get so cocky, my friend. I’m just giving you a bit of false confidence before I totally smoke your ass!”
“Don’t worry, Espie, I’ll split the prize money with you.”
“In your dreams!”
If she’d really tried, she could have overtaken Taymond at any point, but she continued to let him lead all the way to the finish line. However, as she approached the end of the race, she caught sight of Miguel’s disappointed face, and Espie realized that it was all she needed to see to bow out and let someone else clinch the victory. In that split second of displeasure, she remembered this race wasn’t supposed to be about her. It was about doing something uplifting for the clan, raising money for charity, and giving her people some hope.
Right then and there, as her legs threatened to stiffen and her lungs burned with each breath, Espie realized that someone else needed time in the spotlight. Her hyper competitiveness was only going to bring the mood down. And so she finished a respectable third, took all the ribbing and jabs from her friends with a good-natured smile, and allowed a shifter named Della to come in first.
Della quickly offered to treat her to dinner in town that night, but Espie declined the invitation. Once she’d finished stretching out her muscles and guzzling down a bottle of water, she was due to return to the resort. Tonight she had been scheduled to help her mom with laundry – joy of joys!
