To Save A Bear

by Emilia Hartley

  Addison would wait for her mate. She would let him get the element of surprise over this man.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Reid’s leg burned. He shook it, confused. The pain refused to go away. It sent a thrill of fear through him. It curled in his stomach and made the world around him tilt. He hadn’t even made it to town when something made him turn around. The bear knew something the human part of him didn’t. It was as if the beast recognized the strange feeling that had overcome him.

  The pain remained as he raced up the mountain-side. The beast worried. It pushed itself to its limits, afraid it wouldn’t be fast enough. Reid pestered his beast for answers. Panic gripped them both, but he couldn’t figure out why. The beast had no time to answer him. All its attention was pointed elsewhere.

  Toward Addison.

  He’d left her alone. Reid kicked himself.

  He should have asked Emmy to sit with her. He could have asked Dominic to sit outside the cabin. He never should have left Addison home alone. His mate was smart. She was the smartest woman he’d ever met, but the hunter was crafty and lethal.

  Reid growled and fed more power into his beast. Working together, they ran home to their mate.

  ***

  The edges of her vision were going white. It was a strange feeling. Everything was slowly fading, becoming distant. She could no longer feel her leg. Addison knew the term for that was shock, but it felt like death. How much longer would she have to stand before it came and took her by force?

  The hunter had climbed a tree and hid himself among the foliage. That was likely where he’d been when she stupidly came crashing through the woods. All this time she’d called the other shifters idiots and she was the one who had walked directly into a trap meant for a bear. She would have kicked herself if she could feel either leg.

  “How much longer are you going to wait? They’re going to kill you when they find you here.” Addison felt strangely brave. Maybe it was because she knew she was already in the worst situation possible.

  What could he do to make it worse? Kill her? She was already slowly dying. Addison knew her time would run out eventually.

  “When are you going to die?” he grumbled from his perch in a tree.

  “It’s just a little blood loss,” she lied.

  It wasn’t. The leaves beneath her were soaked. Every small movement, every pulse of hope, sent another surge of blood trickling down her leg.

  Distantly, a roar split the air. Addison’s stomach tightened. Instinctively, she recognized the sound. Her mate was on his way. She didn’t know how he figured out she was in trouble. Just as hope rose, it fell. Reid had given away his approach. Surprise was lost.

  Above, she heard the man moving. She couldn’t see him where she was, but she heard the click of a gun. It echoed through her and brought her back to the bank. To the robbery.

  “Bullets won’t hurt him,” she said, brazenly.

  “No, but they will slow him down if I fill him with enough.”

  Her throat tightened, and tears burned her eyes. She fought to temper her heart. She couldn’t let it race or thump. She had to keep her wits about her, but it was growing more and more difficult. Reid was thundering toward his imminent death.

  She was going to kick him in the afterlife if they both died.

  Her vision grew whiter. The clouds overtook the woods around her until she was hit with a wave of darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  He hoped the others had gotten the message. Reid wasn’t one to ask for help. He didn’t even know if the other shifters would want to help. They weren’t close. They had their own necks to protect.

  Normally, he wouldn’t have blamed them for staying out of this mess, but he could feel his mate dying. The bond between them tightened to the point of pain then slackened. He lifted his head and roared once more. She couldn’t die.

  He wouldn’t allow it.

  He was coming. He just needed her to hold on.

  The hunter was smart. Reid needed to be smarter. The thought made him ache for his mate. Addison was the smart one. Reid had always saved the day by stepping in with no plan. He’d taken punches to the face and bullets to the legs just because he could. Now, his mate’s life was on the line, and he knew he needed to be careful.

  The cabin came into view, and Reid asked his beast to switch places. The hunter would be expecting a bear. He wouldn’t expect a man. The beast was reluctant to let go of the power its body gave them. Already, their energy was flagging. The shift back to human would be a drain, but Reid knew it was necessary.

  For Addison, the bear would do anything. It gave him control and their form shifted from golden-furred bear to blond human once more. Reid didn’t stop to put on clothes. Immediately, he darted toward the slack connection with his mate. He prayed to whoever might be listening that she was still alive.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two more bears. A shaggy grizzly stood beside a sleek black bear. They saw him and nodded. Boomer and Emmy had arrived.

  “I’m going to find a man. You two look for Addison.”

  The scent of blood was thick in the air. Addison’s blood. His beast howled inside him. Anger tinted his vision. Reid forced the fury aside, just for a moment, to search for the man’s scent. The familiar human odor of cigarettes floated on the air. He followed it into the woods near the cabin.

  Another bear greeted him. The reddish-gold beast rose onto its hind legs and let out a ferocious sound. The trees around them shook, and Reid heard a soft curse. Looking up, he found the hunter seated on a branch. The gun in his hands, a long rifle meant for taking out large beasts, was aimed at Orion.

  At the base of the tree lay a familiar form. Her eyelids flickered. The urge to go to her was overwhelming. It halted his motions. The hesitation was going to get Orion killed. He knew it and, in a split second, made a decision.

  He hoped Addison would forgive him.

  Powerful muscles propelled him from the ground. He tackled the hunter from behind, the gunshot booming through the air, and they crashed to the ground. The human’s bones cracked. He grunted in pain. Reid pinned him to the ground, knee in his back and hand on his throat.

  Behind him, Emmy’s low whisper was nothing more than a curse word on repeat. His heart stuttered. His hands on the man tightened. He wanted to break every bone in the man’s body and dump him in a hole in the ground. The darker side of Reid showed its head. It wanted the man to suffer.

  “She’s just a human. Why did you have to hurt her?”

  The man’s response was muffled by the ground in his face. Reid gripped his hair and yanked the man’s head up.

  “The trap was meant for you. She was the idiot who stumbled into it.”

  Reid growled. This was over. The man’s shifty days of sneaking around was over. He would never hurt anyone else again. No matter how badly Reid wanted the man to suffer, he knew Addison would look at him and know. She would see the truth in her mate’s face and he would have to watch the disappointment overcome her.

  He couldn’t face that kind of life. She would have to deal with the man’s death, at the very least.

  A whisper of worry snaked through his mind. If she survived.

  The bond between them was slack. She might already have died. Guilt and fury sliced through Reid. Without hesitation, he twisted the man’s neck. It was simple and quick. He wished it could have been more painful, but he didn’t have the time to waste.

  Orion sauntered up to Reid and the hunter’s motionless body. He spared a moment to be thankful the wayward bullet had not hit his reckless friend. Orion nodded toward Addison, silently promising Reid that he would take care of the hunter’s body.

  Reid stumbled away from Orion. Boomer had shifted back, and his hands were in the process of prying a metal jaw out of Addison’s leg. The shifter grunted, and the metal snapped. Fresh blood dripped down Addison’s leg. Emmy immediately launched into triage. Reid was stuck, rooted to the ground, useless in the moment
that could decide his entire future.

  The bear was close to the surface. Reid was ready to give in to the beast, to give it everything and never look back. He couldn’t face a world without her. He couldn’t imagine a human life that didn’t involve her now that he’d found her.

  Emmy craned her neck and found Reid. “She’s alive, but barely. You need to change her. It’s the only thing that will save her at this point.”

  “There has to be another option. We could get her to a hospital.”

  Emmy’s lips formed a tight line. Her jaw twitched.

  It was Boomer that spoke for her. “And what? Have her die on the way? It’s not like we have the supplies that will keep her alive. We don’t even have that kind of stuff on the work-site.”

  His stomach churned. This was never something they’d talked about. Reid had no idea how his mate would take to it. What if she hated him for the rest of their lives? What if she struggled with the new beast in her mind the same way she struggled with her anxiety?

  The one thing he knew was that she would survive. Addison was as much a survivor as Emmy. She’d lived through the worst and risen from it, birthed anew. This was just another fall before the rise.

  Reid dropped to his knees beside his mate. She didn’t respond, her body limp and her skin pale. He silently begged for any kind of response. He needed to know she was still in there. She looked dead as he gathered her into his arms.

  Beneath his hands, her heartbeat pulsed. It called to him, told him what he needed to do. There was no way Addison was dying here. Not today.

  This time, when he bit her, he bit deep. His teeth grazed bone and a sickening feeling came over him. It felt wrong to hurt her. His gaze met Boomer’s. The other shifter nodded. He’d been through this. Only, his mate had been awake for it.

  At the very least, as Reid bit her again and opened veins for his saliva to enter, Addison was unconscious. It was his only respite.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The world was the same, yet slightly different. It was as if everything was recast in a sharper resolution, the color saturation turned on high. It gave her a headache most days. Don’t even get her started on odors. The bathroom was the worst. It reeked, even though she constantly scrubbed it with unscented cleaners.

  “Are you done in there? I have to use it.”

  She spun on her mate. “What? So, you can make it stink again?”

  He sighed. “One of these days, it won’t bother you so much. If you would sit still long enough for me to help you, then it wouldn’t be such a problem.”

  Addison was still convinced there was something lurking in the bathroom that she couldn’t reach. Her mate was right, though. She needed to sit down and work with him. Ever since he’d changed her the world had been turned up on high, and it was draining her.

  Honestly, she’d worried about having a monster lurking inside her head, but the voice of her bear was the least of her problems. If anything, the instincts it granted her allowed Addison to alleviate some of her anxiety. The bear’s voice was level-headed and soothing. She welcomed the addition and reveled in the fact that it was all her.

  “No matter what, you need to get out of this bathroom. I have a gift for you and I can’t bring it in here to show you.”

  This made her head perk up. She raised a brow and let her mate take her hand to lead her out of the bathroom. The smell of chemical cleaner followed her, but not for long. Soon, a new scent filled the air around her.

  Fresh cut wood and varnish. Her core tightened, remembering what they’d done in the shed. Her beast rose, eager to take part in some love-making, when Addison saw what Reid had made for her.

  It took up nearly the entire living room wall. What had once been an empty expanse of white was now filled with book spines. They were nestled on the shelves to look like clouds of foliage on a tree, a center plank made to look like a tree trunk holding it all up.

  She clamped her hand over her mouth. It was beautiful.

  When she turned to face her mate, the smile in his face was filled with not only pride, but joy. Seeing his happiness always filled her with a sense of accomplishment. When they’d met, she hadn’t realized how close he was to the edge. His bear had been close to overtaking the human side of him. Each time he’d jumped to help someone in town had been a cry for help.

  “It’s wonderful,” she whispered as she reached for her mate.

  She clung to him, knowing that he would be by her forever. They’d helped each other.

  When she thought death would take her, the specter ready to pull her into another world, Reid had grabbed her and pulled her back. There were still scars up and down her leg, the shape of the jaws that had tried to rip her from this world. She was okay with that. It was proof that once more, she had risen from the ashes.

  Reid, too, had been reborn.

  Unable to deny what the smell of wood did to her, they fell together again. This time, they shook a few books from the wall and laughed as they picked them up later.

  ***

  Addison leaned against her friend’s shoulder, trying to offer support. The group had gathered for another party. While the temperatures were dropping, the beasts inside them made it feel like a summer day all over again. The trees that lined the lake were brimming with gold and orange leaves, proof that autumn was in full force.

  Once more, Addison nudged her friend. It was time to tell the truth. Emmy was scared, but Addison was there to remind her that there was absolutely nothing to fear. Emmy nodded and pushed herself up from the ground.

  Reid quickly appeared to take Emmy’s empty place. They sat back and watched Emmy approach her mate. Reid leaned in and whispered in Addison’s ear.

  “What’s going on?”

  She held her finger to her lips in the universal shush gesture. He cocked a brow and pursed his lips, but otherwise held his tongue. This moment wasn’t about them.

  Emmy approached Boomer. Her mate’s confusion was clear on his face. Boomer didn’t try to hide anything. Emmy fiddled with her fingers for a moment before reaching into her pocket and taking out one of the tests.

  “Boomer, I’m pregnant.”

  “Oh, I was wondering why you smelled like piss on the trip up here.” He took the pregnancy test in his hands and turned it over. Then, everything about him stilled. His head jerked up. It seemed her words took a bit to sink in. “You’re what?”

  Emmy laughed. It was high pitched, nervous.

  Then, in a sweep of his arms, Boomer lifted his mate from the ground and spun her around. Her dark hair filled the air as Boomer danced with delight. Emmy laughed in his arms.

  All around them, the others started to clap. Addison chuckled to herself and leaned her head on her mate’s shoulder. This wasn’t the life she ever thought she would live, but it was the one she would never let go.

  Reid’s arm snaked around her back and he turned to look at her. She could almost hear the question poised on his tongue. Before he could say anything, she held a finger to his lips.

  “Let me get one book published first. Then we can talk about it.”

  He hauled her onto his lap so that his chest pressed against her back. Their breathing synced as she leaned her head back to rest on his shoulder. He kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear.

  “Fine. But you do realize that means people will have to read it.”

  “One more draft and I swear I’ll let you finish reading it.”

  They both knew she wouldn’t settle at one more draft. It would be at least two, or more, until she let anyone set eyes on the book. For now, that was her baby.

  Thank you!

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