Free Bear The Flame (Firebear Brides 2) by Anya Nowlan

of him.
    “You say that like you think this is up to you, Rosey. It isn’t. You’re mine and I won’t let anyone take you from me, do you understand? You can make this hard or you can make this easy. If your choice is to keep running around in circles, so be it—I can track you down far better than you can run away. This little exercise should have proven that much, I think.”
    He captured her chin between his long, spindly fingers and held her in place as he leaned in, kissing her on the mouth. She loved every kiss she had with Redmond, but with Kenner, it just left her feeling violated. There was no affection in that kiss, not from him and certainly not from her, because she was not responding at all. The fact that he still pressed himself on her despite her obvious unwillingness to participate made it all the more creepy for her.
    “You’re mine, Rosey. Don’t forget it. Saves us both a lot of headache,” Kenner said casually as he stood up to his full height, smirking wryly. “And don’t worry about your little boyfriend. We’ll be gone long before he thinks twice about you. I can assure you that you’ll never see him again.”
    Her objections and screams died on her lips, feeling like the wind just got ripped out of her lungs. Gasping for breath, Rose felt tears pool in her eyes and trickle down her cheeks as Kenner walked out of the living room and toward where Cole and Conrad had gone.
    She couldn’t even pray for a better outcome. The last thing she wanted was for Redmond to get mixed up with these animals. He was a werebear, sure, but there were three of these guys, and by the way Kenner’s hip bulged underneath his suit jacket, she knew they’d come armed. No sensible fox or raccoon would go against a much larger shifter without some form of self-protection.
    Sobbing quietly, Rose cursed herself for ever thinking this was a good idea. Running had never solved a damn thing in her life and now she had potentially gotten the man she loved into as big of a mess as she was in. Hoping and praying that Redmond would show up as much as she wished that he wouldn’t, Rose waited for the inevitable.
    A lifetime of misery with a damn fox seemed like a better alternative to seeing Redmond getting hurt.
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    Redmond
     
    As with all things in his life lately, Rose’s disappearance came like a kick in the gut for Redmond. He was in the middle of cutting a path through the woods with Deacon North and his cousin, trying to create a fire line before Rake’s ranch, when Tiana and Royce came running to him out of seemingly nowhere. Tiana was frantic and one look at Royce told Redmond that things were serious.
    “What’s going on?” he asked sharply, dropping the axe.
    “It’s Rose. She’s gone missing. I think I saw that car pulling out from Austin’s Texas that Royce described in our yard a few days ago,” Tiana said, her voice shaking.
    “Did you let Diesel know?” Redmond asked, already striding toward the road, quickly trying to figure out the easiest way to make it back to town and figure out where the hell Rose had been taken.
    “Yeah. I told him,” Royce said, grabbing Redmond by the shoulder and making him whip around angrily. “Hey. Keep a cool head. She’ll be fine, she’s a smart girl,” Royce said stiffly.
    Redmond relaxed a tiny bit, though his bear was up in arms, vowing to shred through anyone daring to keep him from Rose. With a sigh, Redmond nodded and put his hand on Royce’s.
    “Thanks. Can you take over here?” he asked, knowing that the fire wasn’t too far.
    They could already hear Slate approaching with the helicopter, having filled up the bucket in a nearby mountain lake, but it would be a hard fight to get the blaze under control.
    “Yeah. Go get your girl,” Royce said.
    No one needed to tell Redmond twice.
    It was all a blur from there. How he got the truck from one of the locals—he didn’t even know who, just that it was a big Ford F-150 and all he