“Here!” she cried. “Over here!”
Blood poured down his sides and back, and the eagles still pecked at him. They circled over his head, diving down to slice at him, then circling again. He reared up and slapped at an eagle, then lowered himself and ran on. There were fewer eagles than there had been earlier; he’d taken several out of the fight. The two birds that had gone after Barbara joined the others in tormenting Rick. One dove at his head and sliced open a gash behind his ear.
“I don’t think so,” said Barbara.
Storming outside, she drew her gun and fired into the air near the throng of eagles—not trying to hit them, just letting them know she could hit them if she wanted. Sure enough, the cloud of angry birds paused in their attack on Rick and seemed to mill about, still circling in the air.
“Here!” Barbara shouted to Rick.
Shaking his head, he loped toward her, and she felt dismay at how ragged and raw he looked. The eagles had really done a number on him.
The cloud of birds seemed to gather its resolve and came closer, but Barbara fired off another shot and they stayed back, giving Rick enough time to make it to the cave. Just as he started to pass into it, the eagles sucked up their courage and dove at him in one long, talon-filled column.
He entered the cave and turned about, roaring in challenge. As the eagles neared the cave mouth and began their turn, he clawed at them and snapped his teeth. Barbara felt awe overwhelm her at his primal fury. Screeching, the eagles flew up again and began circling. At least they weren’t attacking anymore.
Exhausted, Rick let his bear go and became human again. Weaving on his feet, he raised a fist at the sky and shook it tiredly. Barbara wedged herself under his armpit, and he dutifully wrapped an arm around her shoulders, allowing her to prop him up.
“Let’s get you sitting down,” she said.
Too worn-out to resist, he let her steer him to the cave wall and lower him into a sitting position. She gasped at seeing the extent of his injuries. Talon gashes rent his chest and arms and legs, and especially his back, making it impossible for him to lean it against the wall.
“Look at you,” she said, feeling her eyes start to burn again. “Look what they did to you.” She had half a mind to go outside and fire her last bullet at the birds. Even now they were starting to move away. Birds didn’t have the patience for a long drawn-out siege, evidently. That was something. Turning back to Rick, she said, “You did all that … for me …”
Tired though he must be, he nevertheless gave her a crooked grin. “Anything for Officer Hotpants. Hey, you’re crying.”
“Am not. Cops don’t cry.” She wiped at her eyes impatiently. Kneeling beside him, she examined his injuries more closely. She could tell which ones were caused by talons and which ones by beaks. Both had done a lot of damage. “We’ve got to get you to a hospital,” she said.
“Naw. Bear shifters heal quick.”
She wiped some dirt from around a long gash on his abs. “Not quick enough to avoid infection,” she said. “I need to clean these.”
“How are you going to do that? The only water around here—”
“Is the creek.”
She nodded, as if that was that, and stood to go.
“Wait!” he said, when she reached the mouth of the cave. “What if the eagles are still out there?”
She slapped the gun at her hip. “I dropped my reserve clip back at the attack site, but I still have a bullet left. They’d better watch out.”
With that, she stepped outside and into the open air.
Chapter 6
Rick watched her go in wonder, feeling his bear make one of those long, low moans inside him. It could feel it, too. It could feel her. She was bold and brave and sassy, unlike any woman he’d ever met. He’d never found a woman that could handle his bear, let alone a bear of her own, but Officer Barbara Thompson …
His jaw dropped open when she returned a few minutes later. She was butt naked—well, almost. She still wore her bra, panties, socks and boots. This last part almost made Rick laugh. But the rest of it made him not. Because she was smokin’. Her cheeks and upper chest turned red when she saw him looking, and he could tell she was uncomfortable with her own body, probably ashamed at her curves. Stupid society. It pissed Rick off how it made women feel bad about themselves. Women like Barbara were not only healthier-looking, but they were hotter, too.
It was easy to see why she’d stripped. Since she didn’t have any buckets or helmets to use to transport the water (and she didn’t want to get the water dirty by using her boots), she’d soaked it up with her pants and blouse. Now, ignoring his leer, she squeegeed the water out of the pants, cleansing some of the wounds on his legs, then did the same with her shirt. As she did, her breasts bunched against each other and water, evidently splashed on her during her efforts, dripped down from her bra across her stomach. It was all Rick could do not to lick it up.
She made several more trips, each time cleaning his wounds a little more. He knew she must be getting tired, but she kept at it until he was all clean. Getting the dirt and filth out of his wounds (eagle talons aren’t clean, he’d learned) seemed to speed up his body’s preternatural healing abilities, and his wounds slowly began to seal up.
Panting after her exertions, when she was finished she sat across from him and put her back against the opposite wall.
He patted the spot next to him. “I’ve got a space available.”
Her jaw was firm. “I’m comfortable here.”
“What, afraid something might happen, just because I’m naked and you’re naked and we’ve been through hell together?”
She didn’t answer.
He lifted one eyebrow. “Well, would that be so bad?”
She took her time answering. “We’re too different, Rick. I’m sorry. Let’s keep this professional. Bad enough I totaled my car, didn’t report in, endangered a civilian and let the criminal go. I’m not going to compound things by fraternizing with a witness.”
“I’m not a witness. I'm a deputy. You won’t get in trouble.”
Her voice was set. “No.”
He sighed, letting his gaze roam up and down her. Noticing this, she scooped up her jacket (she’d left it in the cave during her trips to the creek) and placed it over herself like a blanket. Her bare legs stuck out, but the rest was covered.
“You’re no fun,” he said.
“And you’re all fun.”
“Is that the problem? You think I’m too much fun?”
She studied him. “You do seem like something of a party boy.”
“Parties are fun. What’s wrong with a party?”
“Nothing, just …”
“What?”
She looked away. “No one ever invites me to parties.”
There it is. “Well, you’re invited to this party,” he said. Making sure she got the point, he patted his dick.
“Screw you.”
“That’s the idea.”
She groaned. “I can’t believe you. After what we’ve just been through, and you say that?” She shook her head and looked close to tears again, but these were tears of frustration and anger, he could tell, not anything romantic. She looked … well, disgusted with him, actually.
He was stung. What had he said? He’d just been honest. He wanted her. What was wrong with that? Especially since she clearly wanted him. He scratched his head, trying to make sense of it. Women were tricky. He usually relied on his good looks and charm to see him past any hurdles his occasionally too-fast mouth put up, but for some reason Barbara Thompson wasn’t going for it.
Rick’s bear growled inside him, and he could tell it was annoyed—with him. Don’t mess this up, it seemed to be saying. How? he wanted to ask it, but he knew it didn’t have any answers.
Barbara still looked upset. Rick tried to think of something to warm her up, but he couldn’t think of anything. Now that he was healing, his senses were becoming sharper. Something teased at his nose. He sniffed
, then blinked.
“There’s a bear in here,” he said, then added hastily, in case she thought he was making a joke, “I mean, another bear. A normal bear.”
“I know,” she said stiffly.
“How?”
“Obviously, I saw it.” She had been looking away from him, but now, seemingly reluctant, she glanced back at him. “It tried to scare me off when I came to the cave. I guess it heard me coming and wanted me to go somewhere else.”
“How did you get it to leave you alone? You didn’t …” His eyes drifted to her gun.
“What? No!”
“Then how?”
Now she seemed even more reluctant. “Well … it sniffed me.”
He drew his brows together. “Yeah? I don’t get it.”
She cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably. “It sniffed … the jacket.”
He threw back his head and laughed. He laughed long and loud, feeling healing waves of delight flow through him. He laughed so hard he was sure the other bear could hear it deep in its den. He laughed so hard he felt tears spring to his eyes. Still laughing, he wiped them away. The laughter shook his body, maybe widening his wounds, but he couldn’t stop it.
“I’m glad you find that so amusing,” she said. She started off by saying it with a straight, stiff face, but by the end of the sentence a smile tugged at her lips.
Rick had the sudden urge to kiss that smile. His bear growled inside him, warning him off from that advance. Too soon, it seemed to say. Reluctantly, he relented. Maybe his bear could coach him on dating.
Or … mating?
Could it be? Could Barbara really be The One? Rick’s mate? From the way his bear was carrying on, he began to suspect that might be the case.
He stared at Barbara in new wonder.
“What are you looking at?” she said, tucking her jacket tighter around her.
“You,” he said.
“Well, stop.”
He looked away, but he still observed her out of the corner of his eye. “I know something that will cheer you up,” he said.
“What?” Sounding wary.
“The eagles. I saw where their nests are. Big ol’ nests up high in the trees.”
She seemed to be thinking about that. “And they’re all shifters?”
“Near as I can tell.”
“And they … live out here? I mean, the thief, he had a car, clothes …”
Rick nodded. “He was living like a man. He must have a place in town. I think I know where he was headed in that Honda. There’s a campsite not far away—you can get to it by the road just a little ways down.”
“Yes, I know it. I had to break up a fight there not long ago. The park rangers called me in.”
“Well, I think the thief was headed toward the campsite parking lot when he got stuck at the bridge and had to lam it. If he’d had his way, he probably would’ve left his clothes in the car when it was parked at the lot and Shifted, then flown his loot to his nest.”
“I don’t understand. Why would an eagle shifter be a serial burglar? And does he live in the nest most of the time, or in town?”
“Some bear shifters live in caves part of the year and houses or trailer homes the rest of it. I’ve done it before. That’s how I found this place.” He rapped his knuckles on the stone wall of the cavern. “I guess that’s what he does. Maybe all of his clan are like that, or maybe they just send one of their people out to live among people. Their eyes and ears in the human world, if you know what I mean. I’ve heard of that before.”
“You shifters are so mysterious.” She sounded interested now, not pissed. That was some improvement, anyway. He would take it.
“You’re interested in my kind?” he said, just to keep her talking.
“Sure. You’re fascinating. You know, you never answered the question about why your Great Alpha ordered your crew to take over the ski resort.”
He shrugged. “It’s a public relations thing. Everyone wants to know about bear shifters after we came out of the den. Well, all they see are lumberjacks and the like. We used to be lumberjacks, but the Great Alpha didn’t think that was the right image for bear shifters everywhere. I don’t know why not. The ladies didn’t seem to mind. But he wanted what he called a beacon. A flagship. A symbol representing all bear shifters everywhere. So he had a lumberjack-off—don’t joke; okay, well you can joke a little—and our crew won. So we got the gig of restoring the old resort. It’s a lot of work, harder sometimes than woodcutting, but I can’t wait to see the place up and running.”
“It would be nice,” she admitted. “For the town, I mean. It’ll bring a lot of business in.”
“Exactly.”
“But I still don’t get it. I mean, there are a lot of shifters in Pine Ridge. Why? And then you guys buy the resort. There’s something not quite right about it all. I know you know what I’m talking about.”
“You and your conspiracy theories. I’m going have to call you Agent Scully, not Officer Hotpants.”
She studied him again, and he knew she was searching for signs of duplicity. He tried to keep his face honest-looking, but he wasn’t sure if he succeeded. She had a way of looking right through him, or at least through his façade. Anyway, the last thing he wanted now was for her to sense that he was lying about something. Her eyes were narrowing, though, and she looked suspicious.
He released a breath. “If there is a secret,” he said carefully, “it’s secret for a reason.”
“So,” she said with some finality, as if she were Hercules Poirot solving a murder mystery. “There is a secret.”
“Maybe,” he allowed. “But if there is, only members of the crew can know what it is.”
“Only other bear shifters, you mean.”
“Only Pine Ridge Crew shifters.” He chewed on his lower lip, then added, after some deliberation, “And their mates.”
Her eyes widened, just slightly. He could see her start to look evasive, as if she didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Well, if it’s a state secret, then never mind,” she said. “Just let me know when you’re able to walk and we’ll try to make it back to the road. We’ll have to swing around the eagle territory, but we can do it. Still can’t believe they attacked us like that. Look what they did to you!” Finally, some concern touched her face, and he could feel the raw emotion behind her words. In a suddenly thicker voice, she said, “They could’ve killed you. And for what? Some diamonds?”
“Shifter laws are different from human laws. We were chasing one of them, in their territory—they were just defending themselves.”
“Bullshit! They almost committed murder.”
“Not from their point of view.” He sighed. She would never understand; it was a shifter thing. The idea that shifters could have their own laws would probably be offensive to a policewoman. He decided not to push it. “Anyway, I’ll be ready to go in a little while.”
Sudden inspiration hit him, and he smiled.
“What is it?” she said, and again she sounded wary.
“I know just the route to take,” he said. He listened for his bear to override him, but instead, to his delight, it growled in approval.
Chapter 7
The sun was dipping toward the horizon by the time Barbara and Rick left the cave. Her clothes were still stiff from being wet, so she only wore her jacket in addition to bra, panties, boots and socks. Rick seemed to find it all very amusing, and she was tempted to punch him in the ribs to get that smirk off his face, but his ribs still looked a little raw. He had healed amazingly fast, though, she had to admit. He’d appeared to be on death’s doorstop just a couple of hours ago, and now he looked liked he’d only been involved in a fender bender.
At any rate, he’d healed enough so that she didn’t have to feel guilty about thinking about how damn sexy he was. He was once more a big, bold, confident alpha male, wearing that infuriating smile (but nothing else!) and letting his big cock swing as he walked, thumping against h
is muscular thighs as he went. His big cock that had already saved her life once. She still thought she could smell it on her jacket. The wind was picking up, though, bringing with it a chill, and so she never even considered taking the jacket off. That was the only reason, though. The only reason.
For his part, Rick didn’t seem cold at all, and when she touched him (total accidents!), his skin seemed almost hot. Bear shifters really did have amazing metabolisms. It came with a price, though. She could hear his belly growl and could occasionally see a look of discomfort cross his otherwise annoyingly confident face. He must be starving.
“We need to get you something to eat,” she said, mainly for something to say—and also because she couldn’t help but feel a little maternal toward him—no, wait. Nurse-like. A sexy nurse. Totally not maternal. Gross!
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll get some grub where we’re going.”
“Does this forest have a McDonald’s or something?”
He grinned. “For a bear, the forest is a McDonald’s.”
She didn’t know what he meant by that, exactly, but at least he sounded confident and positive. He knew what to do, even if she didn’t. Too bad they were walking side by side now. She missed the view of his backside. Now if she wanted to look, she actually had to go through all the trouble of turning her neck! She tried to resist. Not because she didn’t want to admire the view, but because she didn’t want to get caught. Rick had an awfully high opinion of himself as it was; she didn’t want to make it any worse.
“You must be hungry by now, too,” he said. “I mean, you don’t have a shifter metabolism, but you can’t have eaten since, what lunch?”
“Breakfast.”
He tilted his head cutely. “I think I can hear your belly rumbling.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“So you are hungry.”
“I guess.” Why was she so reluctant to admit that? It wasn’t like she was owning up to some deficiency. She supposed it was because she didn’t want him to rescue her anymore. If she were hungry, he would feel obliged to correct that. To fix her. She wanted to fix herself.
Bear Mated: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranomal Romance (Pine Ridge BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Series Book 2) Page 4
