Shifter Country Bears: The Complete Collection

by Roxie Noir

  “Bathroom’s down the hall, second door on the right.”

  “Thanks,” Charlie said. She didn’t dare say more. There were wolves everywhere.

  “Bring you some dinner in forty-five?” Trevor asked. “Chili and cornbread tonight.”

  Charlie’s stomach rumbled, and for the first time in hours, she laughed.

  “Sounds perfect,” she said.

  At last, Trevor cracked a smile.

  “I’ll be back,” he said.

  Charlie still couldn’t really shower with the bandages on her back, but she gave herself a sponge bath and even washed her hair in the sink. When she got back to her room, as clean as she was going to be, she felt like a new person.

  Amazing how different washing your hair makes you feel, she thought.

  I’ll just find Olivia, free her, call in the FBI, and in a month I’ll be on a plane back here, she thought.

  It’ll be a long month, but it’s doable.

  A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. When she opened it, Trevor was standing there, a tray full of steaming food in his hands, and he walked into the room and sat it on the room’s small table.

  “It looks amazing,” Charlie said, her stomach making its presence known yet again.

  Trevor paused.

  “Buck asked me to request that you not leave this building,” he said. “Don’t go to the other dorm, to the main house, and definitely don’t go to the outbuilding past the barn,” he said.

  Then he nodded once.

  “Enjoy your dinner,” he said.

  That was weird, thought Charlie, but she didn’t give it much thought. For the past couple days, everything had been weird, so she ate the chili in meditative silence.

  Then she picked up the cornbread and stopped.

  Underneath it was a key.

  Reflexively, she looked at the door, which was shut. It was placed so perfectly underneath the cornbread that there was no way it was an accident, but she had no idea what it unlocked.

  She shoved the key into her pocket, then ate the rest of the chili and tried to think, her tired brain resisting every step of the process.

  Finally, it dawned on her.

  The outbuilding past the barn, dummy, she thought.

  Jeez, I’m slow today.

  Charlie finished the rest of her dinner quickly, then brushed her teeth with the toothbrush from her pack.

  Before she went to bed, she dug out the emergency beacon and stuck it in her pocket, then laid down and waited for the ranch to get quiet.

  When Charlie got out of bed, it was completely dark, the dorm was quiet, and the moon was completely up. She slipped into her clothes, made sure that she had the key and the emergency beacon, and slipped out.

  She didn’t know why Trevor was helping her, but it sure did make things easier. Searching through the entire ranch could have taken forever, but instead she went straight to the outbuilding, doing her best to keep to the shadows.

  The door was unlocked, and she pushed it open just enough to slip through.

  It looked like it had been some sort of milking barn at one time, she thought. It was full of stalls and had high, long windows that let the moonlight stream through, the bright white light in the darkness almost made the interior of the barn look like it was in black and white.

  Then, at the far end, Charlie saw the cage. She curled her hand around the key in her pocket and walked forward, her heart thumping so hard she was afraid that whatever was inside might hear her.

  As she approached, the grizzly looked up. Charlie stopped ten feet away, suddenly uncertain about this plan. After all, she was about to free a feral shifter.

  She swallowed.

  “Olivia?” she said softly.

  The bear stood, looking intently at Charlie.

  Charlie took another few steps forward, but she could see the bear’s hackles rise, and she stopped again.

  “Your brother Kade has been looking for you,” she said softly.

  The bear just looked at her, its expression unreadable.

  Of course it’s unreadable, she’s a bear, Charlie thought.

  She took another step forward, and the bear didn’t do anything. Charlie got the key out of her pocket and showed the bear.

  “Trevor gave me this,” she said. “I think he wants me to let you go.”

  Charlie could hear the blood rushing through her ears.

  “If I let you out, is that okay?” she asked.

  Olivia grunted. Charlie took another step forward. Now she was within arm’s reach of the cage, and she reached one hand out to the bars.

  Olivia looked at it, but didn’t do anything.

  Charlie took another step forward. Now her hand was through the bars, and she was shaking.

  Is Kade’s sister even still in there? She wondered. Am I just taunting a grizzly bear?

  Then Olivia nudged her nose right under Charlie’s fingers, before Charlie could move her hand away, and nuzzled the girl.

  The fur on top of her nose was soft, spiky but velvety, and Charlie found herself petting it. Olivia’s eyes closed in satisfaction as she did, and Charlie got brave enough to move her hand to her ears.

  I’m petting someone’s sister, she thought. This is a little weird.

  “I’m going to unlock this, okay?” she asked the bear.

  The lock wasn’t anything fancy, just a padlock with a chain wrapped around the door. The key fit perfectly, and Charlie unlocked it, then started moving the chains from around the cage.

  Olivia’s head jerked up, and Charlie whirled around.

  A light was on in the farmhouse.

  “Shit,” Charlie muttered, still unwrapping the chains from the cage. “Shit, shit, come on.”

  Her hands started shaking again, from fear, blood loss, or both, and as Charlie undid the last loop, she could hear someone approach the barn door.

  She gritted her teeth and forced herself to open the cage door.

  Please don’t eat me, she thought. Please don’t eat me.

  Buck stepped into the barn just as the cage opened silently.

  Olivia padded out as Buck stood inside, blinking in the darkness.

  I wish I brought the tranq gun, Charlie thought. What the hell was I thinking?

  “What’s going on in here?” Buck demanded. “Trevor?”

  A shape moved out of the darkness. It growled.

  “What the hell?” Buck said, as Olivia kept padding forward, menace in every inch of her dark fur.

  Charlie’s eyes fell on some sort of farm implement. She didn’t know what it was, but it was two feet long and heavy wood, and that was all she needed.

  “I don’t think you want to pick a fight,” Buck told Olivia. “If you’ve got any sense left in that dumb animal brain, you’ll—”

  Charlie lifted her weapon and brought it down straight across the back of Buck’s skull, her stitches screaming in protest.

  He fell to the floor without a word. Charlie dropped the wooden tool and grabbed the beacon from her pocket.

  “Go,” she told Olivia. “Just go north by northwest until you pick up Kade’s scent. He’s all over there. It’s a cabin in the woods, it’s him and Daniel, his mate.”

  She swallowed.

  “They’re really nice,” she said, her voice faltering. She looked at the button in her hand. “They rescued me when they didn’t have to, and they took care of me for days—”

  Charlie stopped, her eyes filling with tears. She stared at the button. She knew that there was no way she could go back. She was too wounded and too tired to make it. Besides, in a few hours, the other wolves would wake up and find the bear missing.

  Buck twitched, lying on the floor.

  “Go,” she told Olivia. “I’m calling the FBI and they’re taking me home. I’ll be okay.”

  Somehow, despite the darkness, the bear looked skeptical.

  “Really,” she said. A single tear made its way out of her eye, and she couldn’t help but think of
the cozy cabin, or the way she’d felt that morning, waking up between Kade and Daniel.

  Olivia crouched down and jerked her head toward her back. Charlie’s gaze flicked to the main farmhouse. No new lights yet, but it was probably a matter of minutes.

  The bear grunted.

  Does she want me to ride her? Charlie wondered. Can you even ride a bear?

  Then Olivia stood and walked to Charlie, who backed a few steps away, into a wall.

  Olivia put her nose under Charlie’s hand, then turned, so her back was against the girl.

  “Are you telling me to get on?” Charlie asked.

  Another grunt, and Olivia crouched.

  This is not the plan, Charlie thought. You go back to their house with her, and then what? Are you going to get a new job in Cascadia? You don’t even have any clothes here.

  She thought of the first time she’d opened her eyes on their kitchen table, their faces swimming in front of her.

  Every molecule of her tired, damaged body ached to be back there with them.

  Even though her stitches ached and felt like they were pulling apart, Charlie grabbed handfuls of fur and climbed onto Olivia’s back. She hadn’t ridden a horse since a birthday party when she was ten, but she tightened her knees against Olivia’s ribcage and held onto the handfuls of fur for dear life.

  This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, she thought. I don’t think there’s any going back to my old life after this.

  Then they were off. Olivia went through the barbed wire fence, pushing a post down like it was made of straw, as Charlie held on for all she was worth.

  They went through the forest, over streams and boulders, through clearings. Somehow, Olivia seemed to have a firm sense of where she was going, stopping to sniff every so often. Charlie felt like all her muscles had locked into place, sore and aching from the long ride.

  Then, at last, there it was. The cabin.

  “This is it,” Charlie whispered.

  When she tried to dismount, she simply fell off and then laid there, on the ground, for a moment as she tried to unclench all her muscles. Olivia nuzzled her, over and over again, until she finally got up.

  Just as she did, the door opened.

  There were Kade and Daniel, both stark naked.

  “Hey,” Charlie said, leaning on the bear for support. “I’m home.”

  13

  Charlie

  Charlie adjusted her power suit in the full-length mirror in Kade and Daniel’s bedroom.

  Well, it was sort of her bedroom now, too. At least it was where she slept every night. She kept telling herself that her stay there was temporary, and she was going to rent an apartment in town for a while. Moving in with two shifters only days after they’d met was completely insane, after all.

  Not that she’d started looking for a place yet.

  And, to be honest, everything was going pretty well. They hadn’t complained when she’d had her roommate ship over all her clothes, and they also hadn’t complained when she’d gone grocery shopping and filled their fridge with human food, or when she’d put her foot down and absolutely insisted that they needed a phone line and the internet.

  In further miracles, the Cascadia branch of the Fish and Wildlife task force was recruiting, and Charlie had a job interview in two hours.

  The suit still looked good on her, she thought, and it was more than thick enough to cover the bandages on her back. By now, it was mostly an annoyance. Her wounds itched and drove her crazy, but the doctor at the hospital had said that Hunter did a perfectly good job sewing her up.

  Miracles on miracles, after all.

  The only thing left was Olivia, but Charlie was starting to get used to having a pet grizzly bear. Well, Kade’s sister wasn’t exactly a pet — it wasn’t like she played fetch — but she hadn’t shifted back yet. Kade and Charlie weren’t sure that she even could anymore, though Daniel went on long walks with her during bear time.

  Truthfully, he probably understood her best, and he still had hope.

  Just then, Daniel walked into the room, looked at Charlie, and whistled.

  “You look like a hot lawyer,” he said. “I’d take the stand in your defense, if you know what I mean.”

  Charlie laughed.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  The two of them walked into the dining room, where Kade drank his coffee and stared out the window, lost in thought.

  “I should go,” Charlie said. She hoisted her new purse onto her shoulder, ignoring the itch underneath her bandages.

  “Good luck,” said Daniel.

  “Go get ‘em, Tiger,” Kade said.

  Charlie laughed.

  Then, there was a knock on the door.

  Charlie’s heart skipped a beat, her stomach instantly tying itself in knots. No one had knocked on the door since Buck had come by, offering to trade her for Olivia.

  No one moved.

  The knock sounded again, soft and tentative. The three of them exchanged glances, and then Daniel strode to the door and opened it.

  Behind it was a tall naked woman, with ragged light brown hair down to her waist. She stood awkwardly, leaning against the door frame, almost like she wasn’t used to her body.

  Everyone stared. No one moved.

  Then the woman swallowed, looked at each of them in turn, and licked her lips. She seemed as though she could barely remember how to speak and she was summoning a voice from decades back.

  Finally, she spoke.

  “Hi,” Olivia said.

  The End

  A Bear’s Journey

  Book Four

  1

  Olivia

  Olivia stepped out of the library and into the cool fall air. She stood there for a moment, her eyes closed, she inhaled the perfect scents of autumn: the dead leaves that scattered every yard and pathway in town, the earthy smell of yesterday’s rain, the sharp snap of evergreen that was present year-round but seemed especially pungent this time of year.

  Fall always sent a bolt of panic through her. Winter’s coming, the cold air always said to her. You need to eat more, you need to find a den that’s safe.

  Cascadia was far enough south, in what had once been northern California, that the bears there didn’t so much hibernate as merely sleep more, but even that took preparation. Olivia had a strong yet hazy memory of it: constantly eating, constantly feeling hungry, sleeping fourteen hours a night only for it to still be chilly when she woke, hours past sunrise.

  The door behind her swung open, nearly hitting her , and Olivia moved out of the way, almost tripping over her own feet. A woman walked out and gave Olivia a sour look, her mouth narrowing in disapproval at Olivia’s mere act of standing on the steps of the library.

  “Excuse me,” she said, fixing her eyes straight ahead again.

  “Sorry,” muttered Olivia.

  The woman was the head research librarian, and Olivia watched as she stomped off into the garden behind the library.

  Cranky old bat, she thought. The woman had hair like a dark brown helmet, all dyed so uniformly that there was no doubt it wasn’t her real color. She had watery pale blue eyes behind frameless glasses, and even though Olivia was at least eight inches taller than the older woman, she had a way of looking down her nose at Olivia even as she physically looked up.

  Finally, the sound of her sensible shoes faded away, and Olivia was alone again.

  It was her favorite way to be.

  She slid her sunglasses onto her face, since the day sunny despite the chill in the air, and went off to her favorite bench, lunch in hand. It was hidden in the back of the garden, on a short dead-end path. The rosebushes that usually abutted it had gone dormant already, but the cedar trees that hid it from the main path were evergreens, still lush.

  Olivia sat on the bench, putting her book next to her and her bag lunch on her lap, taking out her first peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. Her stomach growled in approval, and she bit into it.

  Ten years of eating
berries, roots, squirrels, and deer really did wonders for a girl’s appreciation of peanut butter.

  Add it to the list, she thought, and made a mental note. Back in her tiny cubicle in the library, she had a very small notebook with one purpose only: so she could write down the things she liked about being human, and access to peanut butter was definitely on that list, along with time with family, indoor plumbing, and marshmallows.

  She finished the first and started on the second sandwich, letting the quiet of the garden settle in around her. Even though her part-time job was to shelve books in a library, a job that involved very little human interaction, sometimes it felt like too much. Time and lots of therapy meant that her first inclination, when annoyed with someone, was no longer to rip their face off, but that didn’t mean she had to like being bothered.

  Olivia finished the second sandwich and took a tart Granny Smith apple from her bag. A week ago, she’d mentioned how much she liked them to her mom, and in response, her mom had called up the nearest apple orchard and gotten them to bring over two bushels of them. Normally they didn’t deliver, but Olivia’s mother knew someone there.

  Mrs. Lessing always knew someone.

  The apple crunched between her teeth, its tartness perfectly complimenting the fall scents in the air surrounding her.

  I should add apple pie to the list, Olivia thought. Though the list is getting a little food-heavy.

  She took another bite. The list was food heavy because it was fall, she knew, her first fall as a human in ten years, and her body still thought it was going to hibernate in a couple of weeks. She’d gained fifteen pounds in the three months since she’d managed to shift back, but to be honest, the weight gain was the last thing on her mind.

  Besides, she didn’t mind the way she looked with some curves.

  She finished the apple and put the core in the plastic baggie that still had a smear of peanut butter on the inside from her sandwich, then pulled out two chocolate chip cookies. Olivia packed her own lunch every morning that she worked — she was twenty-seven, after all — but her mom always managed to sneak in some cookies.