She turned to face him, hating the evil gleam in his eye.
“I was going to be nice to you,” he said, wiping his mouth. “But now you’ve done it.” He took a step forward. “If I were you, I wouldn’t fight anymore. You’re just going to make me angry.”
She tightened her hands into fists. Like hell she wouldn’t fight him. If today had taught her one thing, it was that she wasn’t going to just go along with whatever a man wanted from her.
Never again.
2
The scent of sweat mixed with blood and pine carried over the raucous shouts of the spectators as Riker and his brothers watched the the last match of the day.
Inside a round arena marked off by thick steel poles, two bears clashed with intense ferocity, hoping to claim a victory on the first day of the Bear Canyon Brawl, one step closer to the prize.
Riker could already tell which one of the fighters was going to win. But that didn’t stop the poor bastard who was clearly outmatched from fighting tooth and claw for whatever reason he came here for.
As opening days went, this one hadn’t been too bad. Both Rock and Ryland had been at the top of their game, and things had gone smoothly as match after match took place, the winners staying for the hope of victory, the losers heading home to lick their wounds.
Then Riker caught the scent of something new wafting into the clearing. He froze immediately, lifting his head.
It was so faint he was certain most of the blood-crazed fanatics plowing through booze and calling out wildly around the arena would pick up on it, but it was so distinct it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
Floral, soft, delicate, with just a hint of something citrus. Most definitely human.
And female.
Immediately, Riker stood from the chair he sat in that rested on top of a small wooden platform, which gave him a better view of the fights and the surrounding area, searching for the source of the scent.
The smell was as pleasing as it was alarming. No human had ever been allowed at the Brawl before, and Riker made sure all roads leading into the area were blocked off and inaccessible once the event started in order to prevent something like this from happening.
Regardless of the fact that humans were never supposed to know of the existence of shifters, the most unsafe place in the world right now for any human being would be right here. A place full of violent maniacs.
Let alone the fact that it was a woman.
Suddenly, Riker spotted what he’d been looking for. At the far edge of the clearing past the ring, he saw a group of men crowding around something. Even above the cacophony of roars and shouts, he could hear the woman’s voice with his hypersensitive bear senses.
Without hesitation, he jumped off the platform, landing on the ground with a thud, and took off in the direction of the tiny mob that had gathered. Thankfully, the rest of the attendees were so riled and eager with the excitement the fight offered that they didn’t even notice as he sprinted toward the group.
Riker acted first and asked questions later, as always. Within seconds, he reached the men, their backs turned to him as they encircled the human, and he grabbed the collars of the first two he could reach and yanked hard, throwing the men backward.
Immediately, he saw the cause of the ruckus. A small woman—though, in fact, she was probably only average height; all humans just felt small to him—swinging defiantly at the shifter in front of her.
The shifter must have scented Riker, because he stepped back, and the woman appeared triumphant until she turned to see Riker standing there. She stared at him, heaving, and he stared back.
She was wearing a large hiking backpack and was outfitted accordingly with hardy-looking jeans and a green flannel shirt that seemed serviceable enough but did nothing to hide her tantalizing curves.
Aw shit. Already he knew this was going to be one helluva problem.
The men who were crowded around were stunned for a moment at Riker’s sudden displacement of two of their friends. They gaped at Riker and then back at the woman. He could see the lust in their eyes, could sense the animals inside them prowling like cats circling a cornered mouse.
Riker growled. “Break it up, guys. Go back to the fight.”
“She’s not supposed to be here!” one of the group called out.
“It’s against the rules,” said another.
“I know,” Riker snarled. “But as overseer of this event, I’ll be the one to decide what happens, not you dumbasses. Now clear out before I make you clear out.” Riker’s blood was starting to boil the longer he felt the men’s eyes on the woman.
Seemingly sensing the opening, the woman started to back away a few paces, creating distance between her and the group, and glancing to the side as if wondering if she could make a run for it.
Sorry, lady. But you’re not getting away that easy.
“I say we take her back to the hotel and make her pay us back for breaking in on our gathering,” one man on Riker’s left said grossly, a wolf with a gaunt face, missing one tooth.
Unable to control himself any longer, Riker whirled around and punched the man straight in the face, sending him flying.
The bearded man who’d been encroaching on her earlier protested the sudden turn of events, and Riker challenged his outcry by grabbing the man by the face and tossing him into a nearby pine tree, sending loose pine needles flying in every direction.
“Give me a reason. I dare you,” Riker snarled, the bear inside him dangerously close to the surface as he urged anyone else to speak up.
Behind him, he could still hear the snarls and clashing of the bears fighting in the arena, and Riker was glad the noise from the fight would hide the fact that he was going to break as many skulls as it took to send the message loud and clear to these guys that this woman was off-limits.
By then, most of the others had dispersed. One lone man stood there before Riker, mouth half open as if about to say something. It was the bearded man, already recovered from being thrown against a tree.
But then he decided living was better than whatever shit he had planned on barking out, and he scurried away to rejoin his companions.
“So many asshats. So little time,” Riker grumbled as he turned back to the woman who had already backed away at least five or so feet in the few seconds it had taken him to clear out the miscreants.
Her curly red hair was pulled back in a tight ponytail. Her face was flushed, probably from anger, which only accentuated her green eyes and full red lips.
“I, uh… I have to go,” she squeaked out, her voice trembling slightly.
At that, she turned on her heel and made a break for it. But Riker was there in an instant, grabbing her first by the backpack, then hoisting her effortlessly in the air onto his shoulder.
“Sorry, miss, but you have some explaining to do,” he said, carrying her away from the fight and deeper into the forest, hoping to be out of sight of any prying eyes. As soon as the fight was over, the spectators would disperse. And if any more of them knew a human woman was here, there would be a riot.
And Riker hated nothing more than riots.
“Put me down! Put me down or I’m going to call the police!” she yelled.
“I’d simmer down unless you want to attract more of those guys,” Riker said sardonically as he lumbered through the quickly thickening ferns and undergrowth.
Once they reached a small clearing, Riker set her down gently, and immediately, she crossed her arms and stood squarely in front of him, anger burning in her eyes. Probably from being carried around like that.
Maybe next time he’d just try asking.
“You tell me what’s going on right now or else,” she said angrily.
“You intruded on us. I’ll ask the questions,” Riker retorted, holding back his amusement at the fact that this human thought she could threaten him.
“I just want to go home,” she said. “You’re the one who went all He-Man on me.”
H
e folded his arms and cocked his head. “And you’d rather I wouldn’t have?”
She flushed, pressing her lips together as she thought about it. She shook her head. “No. No, I’m glad you saved me. But I have to go now.”
He stepped forward. “It’s not that simple—”
She blinked up at him, almost as if she were afraid of him, but before she could do anything, the sound of footsteps crushing through the brush interrupted them, and a familiar voice spoke up.
“What do we have here?” That was Ryland. Riker turned to see both his brothers watching intently.
“Someone’s in trouble,” Rock drawled, assuming a relaxed position against the tree.
Riker watched the female’s eyes angrily move from one brother to the next and then back to him.
How she managed to still be angry at a moment like this, he didn’t know. He was almost… proud of her.
“She’s fiery,” Ryland said.
“Can we keep her?” Rock asked.
“No,” Riker snapped.
“So we can’t tell her, then,” Ryland said.
“Do we have a choice?” Rock said. “She saw the fights, right?” He took a menacing step forward. “What’d you see, little lady?”
Her green eyes flared up at his words, but she shut her mouth and took another step back.
“You’re scaring her,” Ryland complained.
“Someone do something,” Rock said.
“You have experience with humans,” Riker said, eyeing Ryland.
“Not that much,” Ryland retorted. “And definitely not with women.”
Riker groaned inwardly as he looked at the woman who was cagily glancing side to side, ready to bolt at any moment.
“So we tell her, then?” That was Rock.
“Tell me what?” she asked, looking between them as she took another step back. “I already know you’re holding illegal animal fights. If you think you’re going to get away with it, you’ve got another thing coming.”
Rock’s pride was pricked at that. “And what are you going to do about it?”
Riker put out a hand, stopping his brother as he glared at the woman. “It’s not what you think.”
“And you can just legally hold bear fights, is that it?” She shook her head. “That’s cruel.”
He kind of felt that was the last thing she should be worrying about right now. “The bears want to fight. Wait.” He ran a hand through his head. “They aren’t bears.” He turned to Ryland. “Help.”
Ryland stepped forward. “They are sort of bears. See, we’re half bear, half human.”
She took a step back, eyes widening, sweat beading on her forehead. “Um. Right. Okay.”
“No, see, we can change from bears to people and back,” Ryland said. “It’s hard to explain. You know werewolves?”
She went paler at that.
“Bad example,” Riker muttered.
“Right,” Ryland said. “Um. I don’t know.” He turned on his brothers, exasperated. “How do we explain it? I wasn’t planning on having to do this.”
“I got it,” Rock said, nodding. He closed his eyes, and by the time Riker figured out what his plan was, it was too late.
He was growing, shifting upward into his larger, furry bear form.
The woman took two steps back, gaping, and then turned on her heel and bolted.
Riker took off after her, unsure how this was going to work out with her panic, her massive pack, and the rocky mountain terrain.
But he didn’t have to wait long to find out. About ten steps in, she tripped, caught her foot, and slammed facedown onto the ground. He winced as he heard the knock of skull on rock.
He skidded to a stop beside her and turned her over, seeing a nasty bump on her head, and swore.
His brothers came up beside him as he checked for her pulse, relieved she was fine, just out.
“Let’s get her back to the house,” Riker commanded. “We have to figure out what to do when she wakes up.”
3
“She’s going to wake up soon.”
Ana sat up in the darkness with a start. Was she dead? Dreaming?
She reached around for her lamp, anything familiar, and came up empty-handed.
Where the hell was she?
She felt along her legs, covered by a soft blanket, silky sheets, and then her own jeans, thanks goodness. She was still dressed.
She swung both feet over the side of the bed and felt a wave of nausea and pain. She put a hand up and felt a sore spot on her head that was covered by a bandage.
Memories flooded back, a barrage of images she didn’t want to see. Corey angrily dumping her. Charging into the woods on her own, seeking a town. Seeing the ring with the animals in it. The men who had accosted her.
And then her rescuer. Her heart hammered like a woodpecker as his face filled her mind.
Handsome didn’t describe it. Rugged. Striking. Liquid sex poured into a man-shaped mold.
And why did he have to come into her life now, when she’d sworn off men?
Not that his personality was what she wanted. He was everything she despised in a man. Bossy. Conceited. Full of himself and used to giving orders and expecting everyone else to fall in line.
Wait, what was she thinking? He wasn’t anything to her. He was just a guy she was grateful had come out of nowhere to save her from the bad guys.
She still had no idea what had happened after that or why she was here, but as she focused, the murky answer came to her, too.
There had been two others, handsome like her rescuer, and one of them… had changed into a bear…
Hadn’t he?
She let out a gasp as she saw it clearly in her mind.
Yesterday had undoubtedly been the weirdest day of her life.
Male voices floated up from beneath her, and she realized she must be on the second floor of the cabin.
Had they kidnapped her? That must be it. She crept out of bed slowly, so as to not aggravate her sore head, and searched with her hands in the darkness until she found her backpack.
Good, they’d left it here for her. She searched until she found her self-defense spray, which happened to be made to deter bears. Perfect, she thought with a grin.
She snuck along the floor, trying to be as quiet as possible. For a second, she wondered if she should give the man who’d rescued her the benefit of the doubt. But then she remembered the fact that he’d thrown her over his shoulder like a bag of beans and not listened to anything she was saying in protest. He wasn’t someone who could be reasoned with. Clearly, he did what he wanted, damn the consequences.
And Ana would be damned if she would let another man control her again.
She reached up and felt the handle, the cool metal smooth in her hand. As she turned it lightly, she brought her bear spray up in her other hand, pointed it in front of her, and pushed the safety lever off so it was ready to deploy.
She slowly pulled the door open a crack, thankful there was no creak and the men downstairs were talking loudly enough they wouldn’t hear what she was doing.
Her eyes widened as she looked down in front of her through the second-floor railing to a wide, round table on the main floor, which was wood and covered with large, handwoven rugs. It was rustic but homey.
She kept the door open only a crack and studied her captors.
How things had changed in a day, going from one man’s chump to another man’s prisoner.
Men were beasts. These men in particular.
She narrowed her eyes and tuned in to their conversation. Perhaps if one of them had a phone, she could steal it and call Sarah to pick her up. Corey had insisted on driving up early this morning because he’d said something about the canyon closing for a week, but he had to be joking, right? They’d let people in and out if it were an emergency, right? And being here with these men definitely counted as an urgent situation.
“We’ll have to figure it out when she wakes,” one of the men said.
&
nbsp; She opened the door a little wider and crept forward when they didn’t look up. If she stayed back against the wall, they couldn’t see her. And if she leaned slightly forward to put them in sight, then they were still preoccupied talking to each other and too busy to look up, hopefully.
No such luck. A pair of stormy gray eyes met hers, and the man who had rescued her stood up, sending his wooden chair back with a thud.
She backed into the wall, clutching her bear spray against her until she realized she should be pointing it at them and did that instead.
He simply raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. “You aren’t going to use that in here, are you? The only thing you’ll accomplish is blinding yourself. For us bear shifters, it’s not nearly enough.”
She ignored him, keeping her weapon pointed his way as if to warn him to stay back. “So that’s what you call yourselves,” she said. “Bear shifters.” She waved the spray. “Stay back,” she said, trying to keep the shakiness out of her voice.
His lip curled and one bicep twitched. Heavens, he was built. A meat popsicle. A man sundae. Ugh, this kind of thinking was what had gotten her in trouble with Corey in the first place.
Hot guys made it hard to think straight.
His sandy hair was in short spikes and slightly ruffled, like he’d been running his hands through it. He had big hands, the kind that made her tingle just looking at them. And his handsome face was hidden behind a couple days of stubble that only accentuated the masculine, straight lines of his perfect features.
She bit her lip. “Why did you kidnap me?”
One corner of his mouth turned up. “What?”
Her hand shook. Her eyes darted down to his crotch. Stop that. “I told you I would just go. But you brought me here.”
“It’s more complicated than that,” he said, not seeming in any hurry to come up and get her. That seemed like a start.
She crept forward, eyeing whomever might be down there. She saw the other two men from before. Now that she got a good look at all of them together, it was clear they were brothers. All tall, handsome, and built, with varying features but the same striking gray eyes like storm clouds when lightning struck.
Sheltered by the Bear (Trapped in Bear Canyon Book 1) Page 2
