Free The Protector by Sara Anderson Page A

ravioli together and the
mess he got himself into with flour all over himself. His beautiful hair turned
white in a puff of flour. How she laughed at his pathetic floured face one
night, until he threw a handful of flour over her. They were too busy making
love to finish making the meal after that.
    All
of the memories flooding her were reminding her how much she loved Cole and
making her regret her rash decision to run away. Cole had been hurting and had made
a bad decision. She should have stayed and made him talk to her. All these years wasted. That thought
made her sad.
    Blair
let her hands fall to her side. There was nothing here she was willing to eat.
There was no way around it. She was going to have to go home. She got up and
put her shoes on, then found his cologne and sprayed the room she had stayed
in. Blair smiled at the thought of what Cole would do to her when she was
caught. Hiding in his house, eating his food right under his
nose. It was good for a nice paddling.
    That
night spent with Cole was one of the best night’s sleep she had in a long time. She missed Cole holding her more than she realized.
Perhaps she should stop being so scared of getting her heart broken and just
take whatever it was that Cole was offering.
    She
went out the back door, removed her clothing and stuffed them in the wood box.
It was supposed to be warm tonight, so she hoped Cole would not start a fire
and find them. Goddess knows she would be in for it then, hiding right under
his nose, although as long as too many people did not know about it, she would
be ok.
    She
shifted into her fox and ran towards the town. She hoped Mandy left her some
clothes there. Mandy was good about that kind of stuff and often thought of
others, but Mandy also had a life of her own to live.
    Elaine
and Carl Reevers were Mandy’s aunt and uncle, and
they had taken custody of Mandy after her parents died in an accident. Many
shifters were unsure about an outside human girl coming to live with them, but
one look at the broken little girl grieving her parents had won them over. Now seven
years later she fit in perfectly, and few even remembered she was an outsider.
    Blair
paused by the campground when she spotted Cole’s sheriff car. She could hear a
woman crying. Something was wrong. Blair could smell despair thick in the air.
She crept closer, thankful it was dark. She saw a redheaded woman crying, while
a man she assumed was her husband, held her. A little girl sat on a log, with a
blank look of shock on her face. What is
going on?
    As
she got closer, she could just hear the man's voice carrying downwind. “He was
wearing a ski mask, but I could see he had brown eyes, and I could see the skin
around them was white. Other than that, the man had blue jeans, and a gray
hoodie, and was wearing a ski mask. He hit me over the head with some sort of
pipe, and took my daughter, Stacy.”
    Cole
was writing down the description. “Did you see the truck?”
      The man shook his head. “I only heard it start
and knew it was a diesel by the sound of the engine.”
      The red haired woman had tears in her eyes as
she looked at Cole. “Please find my little girl.”
      Cole nodded as he said, “I have my finest
trackers out looking for your daughter. I am going to do everything I can to
bring her home to you, unharmed.”
    Blair
backed up feeling sick to her stomach. Someone had kidnapped that poor family’s
daughter. The human campers wouldn’t know that Cole had shifters out looking
that could find clues no human could.
    Guilt
ate at her a little bit. She had hidden from him in his own house, and to add
insult to injury she had eaten his favorite pizza, too. He’s at work now, so I will wait until later to talk to him. Blair
knew there was no running from Cole or Michael. There was no way out of this. Even
if she went back to France, Cole would come after her. Then she would really be
in trouble. Playing hide-and-seek would get her a spanking, but running