Ella and the Beast

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3

Ty groaned and dropped his head into his hands. The blurry images in the book lying open on his desk seemed to mock him. Had he just imagined her?

No! My mate out there! Hurt! his grizzly growled.

“I know,” Ty muttered with a weary sigh. “But where? We’ve searched that area and then some for the last five weeks now and found nothing!”

“What are you looking for?”

Ty leaned back in his seat and closed the book in front of him. He had to blink several times before he could bring the figure standing at the door into focus. He grimaced when he saw his twin sister, Tracy, leaning against the door frame.

“What are you doing here?” he growled, pushing his seat back and standing up to stretch.

“I love you, too, little bear,” Tracy chuckled as she straightened and stepped into the elegant room. “I see you are still keeping your nose in the books. You’ll never find a mate that way.”

Ty scowled at his sister, who was older by all of two minutes. “I don’t see a mate sniffing up your ass either, Tracy,” he retorted.

Tracy shook her head, sending a dark mane of thick brown hair dancing around her head. Ty’s gaze softened when he saw a fleeting look of sadness sweep across his sister’s face. Like her brother, she much preferred to have her nose in a book or to be studying some strange rock somewhere instead of hanging out in a bar or on the social network established for shifters who were searching for their one and only.

“I felt your unease,” she murmured, stepping closer to the desk.

Ty bit back a curse when he saw her gaze sweep over the cover of the old textbook. Her eyebrow lifted and she shifted her gaze back to him in confusion. Once again he cursed the connection between twin cubs.

“It’s nothing,” he muttered as he picked up the book and stepped around the desk. “Please tell me that you didn’t travel halfway around the world because you felt something.”

Tracy shook her head and looked down. “No, it isn’t the only reason,” she admitted in a soft tone before she looked up again and gave him a wry smile. “But, it was the primary one. So – I thought you were done with school.”

“I am,” Ty said defensively, pushing past her to replace the book on the bookshelf next to the door.

“Did someone discover some old bones?” she asked.

“No,” Ty said tiredly before he released a groan and ran his hand through his hair. He stared at the spine of the book ‘Ancient Humans and What We Know About Them’.

Obviously not nearly as much as the scientists had thought, he reflected silently before shaking his head and turning to look at his sister.

“What’s wrong?” Tracy asked in a soft, concerned voice.

“I found my mate,” Ty reluctantly admitted.

Tracy drew in a surprised breath. Her eyes widened and her lips parted in stunned disbelief. A reluctant smile curved his lips. It wasn’t often that he could shock Tracy into silence.

“You…,” she paused and shook her head. “You found your mate? Where? When can we meet her? Do Mom and Dad know?”

“Goddess, no!” Ty replied with a shudder.

“Why not?” Tracy demanded, placing her hands on her hips before her eyes narrowed. “It isn’t a fox-shifter, is it? You know how Dad is about foxes.”

Ty scowled and vehemently shook his head. He would have almost preferred dealing with their dad’s dislike of fox-shifters instead of what he was going through at the moment. His gut twisted at the thought of never finding Ella. The pain and fear welled inside him. To know he had a mate somewhere out there in the woods and to never see her again was almost more than he could physically or mentally stand.

“Ty!” Tracy whispered, reaching out to grip his arm. “What is it?”

Pain shadowed his eyes. “I have to find her, Tracy,” he muttered in a thick voice. “She’s out there. She was hurt. I have to find her, but it’s as if she just vanished.”

“Your mate?” Tracy asked.

Ty nodded and swallowed past the lump in his throat. “Ella,” he whispered. “Her name is Ella.”

Tracy’s eyes sharpened with determination. Ty recognized the look in his twin’s eyes. She was like a bear on the hunt when she got that look.

“What is her last name? What type of shifter is she? There will be a record of her in the database. I can get Peterson to do a search. He can hack into any computer system. Once we find her marker, we can trace her,” Tracy said with a contemplative expression. “I’ll also need a description of her. That will help. Van can do a sketch.”

“They won’t find her,” Ty replied with a weary sigh.

“Of course they will!” Tracy exclaimed. “Peterson and Van are wolves. They can find anything!”

“Not this time,” Ty insisted, shaking his head and walking over to the window of his office.

He could feel Tracy’s puzzled gaze on his back. He drew in a deep breath and thought about how much he should tell her. Every second of every day for the last five weeks he had thought of nothing else but Ella… and what it would mean to the world should she be discovered before he could find and protect her. There were some shifters who would capture and keep her as an exotic pet. He had dealt with those types numerous times over the years when ancient human artifacts were discovered.

He also thought of what it would mean to him and his bear if he never found her. He felt like he was going crazy after just five weeks. If he spent years, even a lifetime, knowing he had a mate but never seeing her again… Ty didn’t know what would happen to him. Would he truly go insane?

He released a long breath. If he was going to find her, he needed help. Tracy was right. Van and Peterson were two of the best men to have at your side when you needed to find something – or in this case someone.

Ty turned back around and looked at his sister. The connection between them was strong, even for twins, and he could tell from the faint lines of strain at the corner of her mouth that she was feeling his anxiety. A reluctant smile curved the corner of Ty’s lips. Tracy always did take her responsibility as big sister to the max.

“I need your help, Tracy. Call your team together. This is important,” Ty finally instructed.

Tracy’s eyebrow rose. “Of course it is! Now, tell me about this fabulous woman who has captured your heart,” she requested before a frown creased her brow. “I’m assuming it is a woman.”

“Yes, it is a woman! I told you her name is Ella,” Ty retorted with a grimace before he ran his hands down over his face in resignation. “She’s about your height, with light brown hair and blue eyes the color of the sky.”

“Blue eyes?” Tracy repeated. “Is she a wolf?”

Ty shook his head. “No,” he replied in a quiet voice. “She’s human.”

Tracy’s eyes widened with disbelief and her mouth dropped open before she snapped it shut and scowled at him. The scowl slowly changed to uncertainty before the disbelief returned when he just continued to stare at her in silence. He knew she could see that he was totally serious.

“You’re telling me that you found a human… a real, honest to Goddess, non-dead human?” Tracy whispered in a slightly trembling voice filled with awe.

“Yes, and her name is Ella,” Ty repeated with a calm, serious look. “I need your help to find her, Tracy.”

Ty watched as Tracy swallowed and nodded her head. It wouldn’t take long before she regained her composure and began bombarding him with questions.

The thought had no sooner swept through his mind when she started peppering him with questions. A grim smile curved his lips as he repeated everything he knew to date about Ella. There was nothing like having his sister on his side when it came to tracking down an unusual, precious artifact, and as far as he was concerned, there was nothing in the world more unusual or more precious than Ella.