Woodsman Werebear

by T. S. Joyce

  Drew looked utterly exhausted, but he mustered a small smile. “My brave mate. So did you.”

  Chapter Twelve

  A knock sounded on the door, and Riley stopped tucking her extra pair of maternity jeans into a backpack Drew had given her. This wasn’t like when she’d packed to leave Minneapolis. The knock was much more polite than Seamus’s had been, and now she was packing for something fun—the camping trip.

  “Come in!” she called out.

  The screeching of the door sounded, then heavy footsteps headed her way. Tagan poked his head in with an easy smile. “Hey, Brooke wanted me to bring these by.” He held up a stack of clothes. “It’ll be chilly, so she wanted you to have lots of options on what to bring.”

  Riley beamed. “Your wife is awesome, you know that?”

  “Yeah,” he said with a chuckle. “I got lucky. Hey, listen. I actually wanted to say something to you, so I kind of jacked my mate’s care package for the excuse.”

  “Tagan, you’re alpha here. I know I don’t understand all of the dynamics, but Drew has explained a lot of them to me, and I’m trying to learn. I know you run this place. You don’t need an excuse to talk to me.”

  He strode into the bedroom and set the clothes beside her backpack on the bed. “I think what you’re doing for Bruiser and Diem is really noble.”

  “I’m doing it to make up for something awful—”

  “Doesn’t matter, Riley. Nothing matters to me before the day you arrived here. What matters is what you do with your life from here on. If you got mixed up in something, at least you’re trying to make up for it. How many people would do that? Not many. Most would chock it up to life experience and move on. You’re a complicated woman. Sensitive to things other people don’t feel. You demanding to be a part of getting Seamus back behind bars last night is a testament to how strong you are. You could’ve let us handle it—”

  “But then human attention would have been on your crew if you just beat the shit out of him, Tagan.”

  “Exactly,” he said in a soft voice. “I have to think of those things because the survival of my crew depends on my ability to put my animal instincts away and make rational decisions for us. You did that last night without me explaining anything to you. If you were a bear, I’d say you would make a great alpha someday.”

  “Really?” Tears stung her eyes, and she blinked to clear her blurry vision.

  Tagan lifted his chin and sighed. “I also wanted to thank you for helping to get Drew back under control last night. He’s had a rough go of it lately.”

  “I know, and you’re welcome. He’s important to me. I’m assuming him Changing in that tiny hallway wasn’t the way you planned on coming out to the public?”

  “Ha! No. Drew will not be our poster boy for coming out. His bear is a bit of a beast to handle. Not around you, though, for some odd reason.” A knowing smile spread across Tagan’s face, landing in his bright blue eyes. “I know you have a life back where you came from, but I want to extend an invitation for you to stay.”

  “For how long?”

  “Forever. Drew is acting more like himself around you, and a part of me—” Tagan’s voice cracked with emotion, and he cleared his throat before he continued. “A part of me thought we wouldn’t see this side of him again. The alpha before me, Jed, went mad. His bear took him down a path he couldn’t come back from, and I was scared Drew’s animal was going to accomplish the same thing. You stopped that freefall, Riley. You feel…important here.”

  Riley opened her mouth to say she couldn’t, that when Harper was born, she’d have to leave. She didn’t think she could handle watching the baby bond with her real parents, but she couldn’t come up with the words to reject him after such a generous offer. “I’ll think about it,” she murmured instead.

  Sadness washed through Tagan’s blazing eyes, as if he could hear the lie in her voice. Perhaps bear shifters could. She didn’t know.

  “All right, I’ll see you out front. We’re leaving in ten minutes. Will you be ready by then?”

  “Yeah, I just have to pack some extra snacks, and I’ll be out there.”

  Tagan left, and the ache of a loss she didn’t understand spread through her like a fog. She should feel great right now after his uplifting words. He seemed like the type of man who gave his respect only to those who deserved it, and he’d given it to her. But he’d also brought up the realization that she was full-term, due to deliver in two weeks, and after that, she’d be leaving.

  It suddenly seemed way too soon. Two weeks wasn’t long enough to live a lifetime of memories in this place.

  Baggies of fruit, cheese cubes, honey roasted peanuts, and crackers gathered, Riley zipped up the backpack and slung it over her shoulder, determined to ditch the melancholy thoughts so she could enjoy today. She’d never been camping before.

  When she stepped out of 1010, an immediate grin stretched her face. The trailer park was in chaos right now. Kellen stood near Denison’s Bronco with a giant bird latched onto his arms by long, curved talons. Skyler was an intimidating size. From the animal magazines she’d read as a child, she didn’t remember falcons being that big. Skyler stretched her wings to keep her balance as Kellen reached out to clap Denison on the back. Danielle, his human mate, was filling a small water trough and trying to get a little gray pygmy goat to stop chewing on the bottom hem of her jeans. The others were running here and there, packing up the back of a big, black, lifted truck with coolers, tents, bag chairs, and other camping supplies she didn’t have a guess at. Drew was leaned up against the bed of Bruiser’s truck, talking to him with a lingering smile in his eyes. Damn it was good to see him happy after last night, and it was even better seeing him talk so easily with Bruiser again. There wasn’t any of the tension she’d sensed in them the night they had fought.

  When Drew saw her, he grinned big and jogged over to her. “Let me get that,” he murmured, pulling the backpack from her shoulder. “We’re going to ride with Bruiser, Kellen and Diem. Skyler’s going to find us a good spot to camp from the air. Damn, woman,” he said, raking his gaze down the thick, red sweater she wore and her dark wash jeans. Drew climbed the last stair that stood between then and kissed her gently. “I missed you.”

  Riley sighed happily and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You just saw me an hour ago,” she teased. “What’s going to happen when you start work at the landing in a few days and have to spend entire days away from me?”

  Drew kissed her harder, biting her lip as a tiny punishment. “No more talk of being apart.” He wrenched his voice up an octave and impersonated her. “Today is the best!”

  Giggling, she swatted his arm and followed him down the stairs toward Bruiser’s truck.

  One bench seat in a single cab truck was not going to hold three full-grown grizzly shifters, a dragon shifter, and a pregnant human, but when Kellen tossed Skyler up into the air and watched her fly off, then hopped into the bed of the truck with Drew, it was clear.

  Diem climbed in beside Bruiser, and Riley took the window seat. Drew opened a sliding rear window and gave her a wink. Dadgum, he looked sexy. Those long, powerful legs encased in jeans that hung just right on him, heavy hiking boots, a white thermal sweater that clung to his physique so tightly she could see every muscular curve of his shoulders and pecs. His shoulder-length blond hair was flipped to the side and messy in that sexy, just-got-out-of-bed look, and his blue eyes were practically dancing with happiness. And that smile…holy hell, that crooked, cocky smile was going to be the death of her.

  She grinned at him and felt like the luckiest woman on earth to have caught his attention.

  And she’d be leaving soon.

  Dragging her attention to the front window so he wouldn’t see the pain that thought had caused her, she made a silent promise to herself. For the trip, she wouldn’t think about the end to what had turned out to be the happiest time in her life. She would live in the here and now and enjoy being with the man she was falling in
love with, future complications be damned.

  Tagan was driving the lead truck and followed Skyler for about an hour before they all pulled into a clearing where she landed on a mossy tree trunk.

  “Aw, this is perfect,” Bruiser muttered, leaning forward to stare up at the thick canopy of pine limbs above them. Along the clearing was a gently rolling river, and the ground was smooth and level. All around them, the woods were alive with the sound of late season birds.

  Drew opened her door, then helped her and Diem out. His hand was warm when he slipped it around Riley’s and led her toward the river with the rest of the Ashe Crew. They stood on the edge looking over the body of water in silence. Evergreens lined both banks, and the sound of babbling water was a beautiful soundtrack.

  “Look out!” Denison yelled, ruining the moment as he leapt between Riley and Diem. He exploded into a bear just before he hit the water.

  The giant splash that followed got them all.

  “I just saw Denison’s butt-cheeks,” Riley complained.

  “Girl, get used to it,” Danielle said sympathetically. “Shifters have no reservations about nudity, and the boys haven’t had a chance to Change together in a while. You’re going to see all kinds of butt-cheeks this trip. Swinging dicks, too. Give it a few hours, and it won’t be uncomfortable for you anymore. They literally don’t care, so it’s hard to keep up that level of embarrassment for long. Trust me. They look the same to me naked as clothed now.”

  “Little nudists,” Riley murmured, shocked as Brighton and Kellen began shucking their clothes. “Will you Change, too?” she asked Drew, suddenly excited by the thought of meeting his bear when the animal wasn’t raging.

  Drew hesitated, eyes on the others as they jumped into the water one by one. “I don’t know.”

  “I want to see him. And maybe this is a good time for your bear to be with the others, when there’s no tension.”

  “Yeah, you’re right.” His words sounded confident, but his blond brows were still knitted with concern.

  With an encouraging smile, Riley tugged on his hand and led him into a grove of lodgepole pines. “I’ll help.”

  He held still with a sexy smirk on his face while she pulled at the fly of his jeans. “You’re gonna help me get off?”

  “No, I’m going to help you get undressed. Stop fondling me,” she said with a giggle, swatting away his wandering hand. “People will see us.”

  “It’ll be erotic. Race to come and try not to get caught.”

  “Stop it,” she muttered, tugging his sweater over his head.

  “Let’s go into those bushes, and you can sit on my face.”

  “Drew! Shut your filthy mouth.” She bit back her smile because the man didn’t need the encouragement. “And I’m pretty sure you are the first man who has ever said that combination of words.”

  “Let’s wander off in the woods and fuck like ferrets.”

  “Drew.” She gave him dead eyes.

  Sidling closer, he gripped her hips and waggled his eyebrows. “Let’s scamper off into these here trees and bang like bears.”

  With a put-upon sigh, she quit trying to take his pants off. “Or we can make whoopee like walruses.”

  Drew snorted and tucked a wayward strand of her short hair behind her ear. “You’re fun.”

  She glowed under his compliment. She hadn’t felt like much fun over the past couple of years, but here, with him, she was opening up like a spring flower. “We can make coitus like caterpillars. Oh,” she said, wincing. “That one’s weird.”

  “Do caterpillars do it from behind or missionary.” He frowned and canted his head. “Or is it the butterflies that hump? Humping butterflies?”

  “Not sexy.”

  “Nah, they’d be so cute, like…” Drew put his pointer fingers on top of each other and wiggled them around, then said, “Oooh,” in a squeaky, high-pitched voice.

  “Turn into a bear, gosh dangit.”

  “Bossy,” he accused.

  “You like it.”

  “I love it,” he growled out, nipping at her neck.

  He kicked out of his pants and backed away a few paces. His eyes were already lightening to that icy color she’d grown to adore. He pushed a quick huff of air out of his lungs, then hunched inward for a split second before an enormous grizzly burst from his skin. The Change was instantaneous, and a smattering of pops echoed off the trees.

  His fur was a grayish color, soft looking from here, and his nose was pitch black, contrasting with the stark white teeth she could see behind his curled lip.

  Even on all fours, he was taller than her at the muscular hump behind his shoulder blades. If he stood on his hind legs, he’d tower over her like an ancient oak tree.

  She should’ve been terrified to be around such an enormous, dangerous animal. Hell, his paws were bigger than her head, and his claws were each like black, curved daggers. But she could still see some of the Ashe Crew in their bear forms, splashing around in the river like kids on summer vacation. It was hard to be intimidated, knowing their human sides still ruled their logic.

  And Drew was looking at her with such uncertainty, as if he was afraid of her reaction.

  “Can I touch you?” she asked.

  Drew approached slowly and rested his head gently against her arm. With the other, she ran her fingers through the course fur behind his ear. She slipped her arms around his neck and hugged him to her, burying her face in his scruff. He smelled like animal, earth, and something familiar that she was helpless to identify with her weakened human senses. When at last she eased away, Diem was staring at them with tears in her big whiskey-colored eyes, her hands clasped in front of her mouth as if she’d just seen the ending to a romantic movie.

  Drew turned but waited for Riley with questioning eyes. She twined her fingers into the fur over his ribcage and walked alongside him until they reached the water’s edge. Denison was headed their way in a determined doggy-paddle, so wise woman she was, Riley backed away and avoided another helping of river water splashed across her clothes. Already she was going to have to change her wet jeans from Denison’s first grizzly-sized cannonball.

  As she stepped back beside Diem, Riley watched the bears on the bank and in the river. She watched the giant falcon as Skyler took off into the air again. Brooke was laughing and chasing little Wyatt around while Kellen unloaded the backs of the trucks. And it struck her that she belonged. No one was staring at her stomach, wondering why there wasn’t a ring on her finger, or judging her based on the trial or what had happened last night with Seamus. She was caught up in this simple existence with these people who were wiggling their way into her heart.

  Diem draped her arm across Riley’s shoulders and rested the side of her head against her temple. “You feel it?”

  Riley knew what she meant. Diem had been right about the magic, but it wasn’t contained in the trailer park. The magic was in these people.

  “Yeah,” she whispered, afraid to break the enchantment of the moment. “I really do.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Haydan had created a new drinking game. Each time anyone said “dragon,” they took a swig. Boxed wine and beer seemed to be the go-to libations of the raucous group, while Riley was already on her second glass of ice water. Now, it might’ve sounded easy to not say “dragon,” but apparently it was nearly impossible for Kellen.

  And now even Brighton was slurring his whisper.

  Riley couldn’t stop laughing, and at this point, her cheeks hurt from grinning. She swallowed another bite of steak and shook her head in disbelief that anything could be this good outside of a dream. “Why does food cooked over an open fire taste so much better than food cooked in a kitchen?”

  “Have you never had a cookout before?” Haydan asked, tearing into a package of marshmallows. He was the most intimidating looking man of the group with his shaved head and a tattoo across his neck and down one arm. He was wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt, as if the cold didn’t affe
ct him at all. But when she’d gotten the chance to talk to him throughout the day, he had been nothing but polite. He’d even made her plate before anyone else had filled theirs.

  “This is my first cookout ever. Even when I’ve eaten s’mores before, I made them in the microwave.”

  “Nooo,” Denison drawled out. “That’s not right. S’mores are made for open fires.”

  “Yeah, but Denny’s a bit of a pyro,” Danielle said, tweaking his cheek with her fingers.

  Denison snapped his teeth at her with a hungry look that made Riley blush for witnessing the intimate moment between them.

  From behind her, Drew chuckled warmly at their antics. He was resting against a log he’d dragged by the fire, and Riley was encased warm and safe between his legs, leaning back against his chest. He was absently stroking her belly, chasing Harper’s movement as the firelight threw a golden glow across her.

  Today had been amazing. Drew had stayed a bear for a couple of hours, while she, Danielle, Diem, and Kellen had pitched the tents. She’d been a bit lost on the first one, but apparently Danielle was some super-outdoorsy environmentalist who wrestled tents on the regular, and she had Riley whooped into shape in no time. It was satisfying working with them to get camp set up instead of sitting around wondering how she could help.

  When the bears had Changed back, they’d all gone on a hike through the woods and witnessed the most breathtaking mountain views. She’d never seen anything like this place. Sure, the pine beetles had killed off a lot of the trees, but it was still beautiful wilderness. Drew had doted on her, helping her up, and resting with her when she was tired. He even carried her for a while when her feet began to swell and her hiking boots felt too tight. He’d steadied her on the hike, his touch never far away, as if he anticipated her needs. And he wasn’t the only one. The men here were all like that. Every one of them treated the women like equals, but rushed to help if they ever asked.

  Lunch had been eaten on the trail, and all along, Danielle had collected plants and late season flowers into a little notebook she carried with her, while the others joked constantly in that easy banter that only came when people truly enjoyed spending time with each other.