by Roxie Noir
“You know any constellations?” she asked him.
Jake’s heart beat faster. Was she intentionally replaying the scene from before, in the tent in his office?
“Sure,” he said, and pointed. “You know Orion’s belt, right?”
“Show me,” she said.
Jake stood and moved his log next to hers. She leaned her head into him, suddenly so close. She smelled like shampoo and sweat, a soft earthy smell. For one moment, Jake closed his eyes and let her scent wash over him, feeling like everything was right with the world.
“Okay,” he began, leaning toward her and pointing. “Orion’s belt is right there, those three stars — the last one is behind that tree — and if you follow it, you can see—“
He was cut off by a scream.
Both of them jerked their heads toward the direction it had come from — the same place Theresa had disappeared to.
They heard a strange, half-strangled sob.
* * *
Ariana jumped to her feet, then froze. She couldn’t move, not even to go help Theresa. What if it was a bear, or a mountain lion? She didn’t stand a chance against either of those, she thought, and she’d only be getting herself hurt in the process.
Still, she had to do something, and she took an uncertain step toward the forest, her heart beating almost out of her chest.
Then, suddenly, something happened right behind her. There was a noise like fabric ripping, and then, before she could even look, something huge and furry blasted past her. Ariana took a step away and tripped over the log she’d been sitting on, hitting the ground hard.
Theresa screamed again, and Ariana scrambled to her feet, then ran toward it. The hell with self-preservation. She batted her way through ten feet of dark forest, barely able to see anything as her eyes adjusted to the moonlight.
Suddenly, her foot hit something soft and heavy, and she squinted down, desperately trying to make out what it was in the dark. Something light and hard to move — Oh, Jesus, it was Theresa and she was just lying there, either passed out or dead.
A terrible noise sounded in front of Ariana and she looked up, blinking, willing her eyes to adjust faster.
Then, everything snapped into focus. The noise was a mountain lion, hissing and growling at a huge, dark shape, fully about to strike.
Is that Jake? Ariana wondered. Is he fucking insane?
The dark shape growled, and Ariana could finally make it out: a bear.
A very large bear. Her panic told her it was a grizzly bear, even though she knew that was stupid. Hadn’t Jake just told her they hated people?
The lion went for the bear, swatting at it with one huge paw. It connected, but the bear shrugged it off.
Ariana had had enough. She grabbed Theresa by her arms and pulled, adrenaline pumping through her body.
If I get her back to the fire, maybe I can fend them off, she thought desperately. Theresa was totally limp, and Ariana knew she was probably scratching the other girl’s back on the ground, but felt it was justified.
Just as she was almost back to their little campsite, the warm glow of the fire nearby, she saw the bear stand on its hind legs and roar. It had to be eight feet tall, at least, and Ariana thought her heart might stop in terror.
With one final, huge tug, she pulled Theresa into the circle of firelight, and then dragged the other girl next to the fire, still on her back. She knelt next to her, trying to remember the one day of first aid she’d taken as part of her job training, two years ago.
Okay, uh, fuck, is she breathing? Does she have a pulse? How do I give mouth to mouth or what if her neck is broken Jesus I think I probably made it worse—
She put one trembling hand to Theresa’s neck, felt around for a moment, and was rewarded with a strong, steady pulse.
Ariana nearly cried with relief, then looked at the rest of the other girl’s body.
That’s when she realized that Theresa had a lot of blood on her, and she had absolutely no idea where it was coming from. How much blood was a lot, and how much was too much? How could she possibly get help for her, ten miles into the wilderness?
Jake. He was gone, and God only knew where, but he probably had some sort of signaling device in his pack. Wasn’t that was forest rangers did?
But as Ariana stood, she heard another noise in the forest, where she’d come from, and she looked up only to see the huge bear, facing her, just barely in the forest. Inside her, something snapped, and she looked around, furious now.
She grabbed a log that was mostly in the fire. It burned her hand, but Ariana didn’t even feel the pain as she stood and ran toward the bear, shouting at the top of her lungs, some sort of primal scream.
The bear turned around and ran, and Ariana stopped at the edge of the circle of firelight. She dropped the log, her hand red. She could feel blisters forming as she stood there, wondering what the fuck she was supposed to do next.
* * *
A minute later, mostly back in human form but still a little furry, Jake walked naked into the circle of firelight to find Ariana rummaging through his pack with one hand.
“What are you looking for?” he asked.
“Your radio, or a phone or a beacon or something,” she said, without turning around.
He took the pack from her, unzipped an outside pocket, and pulled out a flare gun.
“Give it to me,” she said, and turned to look at him for the first time. She recoiled.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” she shouted.
“Is Theresa okay?” he asked.
“Why are you naked?”
He stood and walked to the other girl, flare gun still in his hand. She had a pulse and she was breathing, though it looked like she’d lost a lot of blood. Gently, he turned her over, and then he saw it: a set of claw marks down her back, onto her butt.
“Oh shit,” said Ariana. The wounds were caked in dirt and leaves. “Oh god, I dragged her through the forest.”
“It’s okay,” said Jake. “I think you helped stop the bleeding.”
“We’ve gotta call someone,” she said.
She seemed to have forgotten that Jake was still furry and naked.
“We can’t,” he said. “The best we can do is get her to the lake. It’s only about two miles that way.”
“We can’t hike cross-country at night,” she said, clearly beginning to panic.
“There’s a rough trail,” he said. “It’s not marked, because it’s not maintained, but it’s there.”
Ariana shook her head, firmly. “No way. Maybe in the morning, but I’m not risking all three of our lives.”
Jake reached out and grabbed her wrist, gently.
She seemed to remember that he was naked and furry, though slightly less furry than before.
“I need you to trust me,” he said.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said.
“You’re not going to believe me.”
“I promise I will.”
Jake paused for a second. It was an emergency, but he was about to seriously break shifter code. Outsiders weren’t supposed to know. They just weren’t.
“I can turn into a grizzly bear,” he said, looking her right in the eyes.
She stood and walked away.
“Fine, don’t tell me,” she said. “But I think this is fucked the fuck up, just so you know.”
“I swear to God,” he said. “Look, I haven’t shifted all the way back yet.”
She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms.
“Are you some kind of government experiment gone wrong?” she asked.
On the ground, Theresa moaned a little and fluttered her eyelids.
“We’ve gotta go,” Jake said. He pulled his change of clothes out of his pack and pulled them on. Ariana seemed much happier when he was dressed.
Then, he picked Theresa up, gently, put her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and set out for the trail. Ariana was right behind him.
* * *
It felt
like they were hiking all night, but when they reached the lake, it was still full dark. She realized it couldn’t be later than one in the morning, and she realized they’d still have to spend the night there.
Jake set Theresa, now fully awake, down very gently on the ground, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. She laid on her stomach, the scratches on her back angry even in the moonlight.
“I usually get a bar or two here,” he said.
Ariana sat down beside Theresa on the muddy ground and put her arms gently around the other girl’s shoulders.
“You’re gonna be okay,” she said.
“It was just there,” she said. “I was peeing and there was this enormous cat just there,” she said.
“I know,” said Ariana. “You’re safe now.”
“It clawed me, and I tried to run away, and then out of nowhere there was this huge bear,” she went on. It seemed like she hadn’t even heard Ariana. “And it rushed at the lion, and then, I don’t know, I was waking up by the fire and you were there.”
Ariana glanced quickly at Jake. He was shouting coordinates into the phone, pacing back and forth. He still seemed hairier than normal, but he was no longer furry or naked.
Obviously he can’t turn into a bear, she thought. Something weird happened, though.
It was only another hour until a boat was there with paramedics on it. They took charge of the situation, getting Theresa into it, talking to her as they sped back over the lake toward civilization.
“We’ve got an ambulance waiting,” they said. “Then it’s smooth sailing.”
“Good thing you thought to come to the lake,” the other one told Ariana.
“It was him,” she said, gesturing at Jake, sitting in the back of the boat, trying not to get in the way.
“Nice work,” the paramedic said.
Ariana moved back to sit beside him, letting the paramedics deal with Theresa.
“You did save her,” she said. “Thanks.”
“Are you doing okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” she said. “Tired and shook up, but fine.”
Wordlessly, he reached for her hand. The one she’d burned, chasing away the bear. It was red and burned and blistered, and she remembered it for the first time.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. Suddenly it hurt, even though she hadn’t thought about it most of the night.
“Adrenaline will do that,” he said.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said. “There was this huge bear, and I just—“ she stopped, and looked at him strangely.
“It worked, didn’t it?” he asked, quietly. “Bears are afraid of fire, no matter what.”
He put his arm around her and pressed his lips to her hair, glad to have her okay and safe, boyfriend or no boyfriend. It felt like she melted into him, finally relaxing for the first time all night.
“This probably isn’t the time or the place,” she said. “But I broke up with my boyfriend.”
Jake didn’t know what to do with that, so he kissed her hair again, inhaling her wonderful scent. They stayed like they were, his arms around her, until they reached the ambulance on shore.
Chapter Ten
“Jello,” mumbled Theresa. She was lying on her stomach on a hospital bed, and Ariana had finally been allowed in to see her.
“Jello?” asked Ariana.
“Jello,” said Theresa. “Aren’t you glad to see me?” Her eyes were half-closed.
“She’s on some pretty powerful drugs right now,” said the male nurse behind Ariana. He held a clipboard.
“I like my joke,” mumbled Theresa.
“It was really funny,” said Ariana. She looked back at the nurse.
“Morphine,” he said.
Ariana nodded.
“We’ve called her parents, and they’re getting on the next flight to Seattle,” the nurse said. “She’s out of the woods now, both metaphorically and literally. If you want to go home and shower or something, she’ll be okay.”
It was about two in the afternoon, and Ariana hadn’t slept at all the night before. At some point her hand had been cleaned and bandaged, but she hadn’t changed clothes since the night before, and now that she didn’t have to worry about Theresa anymore, she realized she was a disgusting mess.
“How bad was it?”
The nurse sighed. “She’s not going to have a great couple of months,” he admitted. “The lion got some muscle in there, and she did lose a decent amount of blood. But thanks to you and the ranger, she got here in plenty of time to suture the tissue together and stave off infection.”
“I’d like to stave that ranger guy,” said Theresa, who sounded as if she’d had about seven drinks.
The nurse smiled. “Anything she says for the next day or so you can’t take too seriously.”
“Beaaarrrrrr,” said Theresa.
The nurse just shrugged.
“She’ll need physical therapy, but she’ll be okay in the end,” he said. “Go home and shower. Take care of yourself.”
“Thanks,” she said, and walked back into the hall to the sound of Theresa giggling maniacally.
Jake was still waiting there, just outside the room.
“Everything ok?” he asked.
Ariana nodded. “Physical therapy and she’ll be ok in six months,” she said. More giggling. “She’s on morphine right now. Her parents are coming.”
The two of them ended up taking a taxi back to Evergreen from the hospital, using CRF’s money. It was the least they could do, Ariana figured, after getting one employee clawed apart and one burned. She fell asleep in the cab, only waking up when they were at the lodge.
Jake wound down his window. “I’ll see you again,” he said.
Ariana just nodded. There was a whole mess there to figure out, but she couldn’t just now.
She went upstairs and barely got her clothes off before she hit the bed and fell asleep.
* * *
Jake let the taxi drop him at the end of his long driveway and walked the mile back up to his cabin. Even though he hadn’t slept and had carried that girl two whole miles, he just didn’t feel that tired.
Probably because of what Ariana had said to him, last night, on the boat: I broke up with my boyfriend. It hadn’t been the time or the place for it, but was it because of him? Why else would she tell him that?
He showered the dirt off, then went to the fridge and got himself a beer.
Regular humans weren’t supposed to know that shifters existed, but Jake couldn’t have cared less right then. She’d broken up with her boyfriend — and told him that after he admitted that he was only partly human. Maybe she would be okay with it. Maybe he could talk her into sticking around or something, and then they could be together, and—
The thought hit Jake like a sledgehammer.
Was Ariana his mate?
Was that why she smelled so good, so much better to him than any other woman he’d ever met? Was that why he felt drawn to her, from the very first moment he saw her?
If this was what finding your mate felt like, a lot of the insanity he’d always seen in shifters began to make sense. He’d transformed and then fought a mountain lion when he was afraid she might be in danger, and he hadn’t even thought twice about it. Something about her brought out his primal need to protect her at all costs.
He downed the rest of his beer in two gulps, setting the empty bottle heavily on the counter. There was just one thought in his mind: he had to see her before she left Evergreen.
* * *
It was dark when Ariana finally woke up, six hours later. She was amazed at how much better she felt, even though her hand still throbbed a little.
Bleary-eyed, she stumbled out of bed and into the shower. It took her a long time with her bandaged hand, but she finally managed it. When she got out, she almost put on her pajamas, but then her stomach growled.
She cursed herself for not having granola bars or something in her room. She did not want to go out, a
nd the Lodge didn’t have room service.
Ariana had just gotten dressed when there was a knock on her door. Quickly, she came up with a list of who it could be: either the police, wanting a statement, or... Jake, wanting something else.
Either way, her stomach tied itself in knots. She opened the door.
Jake stood there, towering over her, huge and muscular in yet another flannel shirt.
“Hi,” she said. “Come in.”
“Thanks,” he said. The doorway wasn’t much taller than he was.
Hurriedly, Ariana kicked her disgusting, dirty clothes from before under the bed. “Sorry it’s a mess,” she said.
“I’m a bachelor,” he said. “I’ve seen much worse.”
Ariana stood in front of the fireplace and looked down.
“I guess we have a lot to talk about,” she said. “I know I’ve been sending a lot of mixed signals, but I’ve been thinking about it, and, my life is just complicated right now, and—“
His fingers were under her chin, tilting her head up.
“—It’s probably not a good time for me to be making—“
Jake put one finger across her lips, and Ariana looked up at him. His eyes were dark with something — desire? Lust? She stopped trying to talk.
Slowly, he bent and put his lips to hers.
All the thoughts went out of Ariana’s head, and suddenly, there was nothing but Jake’s mouth on hers. Though he’d showered and changed clothes, he hadn’t shaved, and his stubble tickled at her face.
Without breaking them apart he moved closer to her and put one hand on her head, his thumb stroking over her cheekbone as he deepened the kiss. Ariana felt her body respond, all in a rush, the heat flowing down through her like she’d been struck by lightning.
She opened her mouth into his and felt his tongue invade her mouth, seeking through her, and she met it with her own, suddenly desperate to touch him, to blend herself with his man she’d only met a day before. Not satisfied with just a kiss, she reached for his shirt, grasping it in both hands, pulling him toward her.
