Lauren even leaned onto his back as exhaustion crushed her down. She buried her face in the bear’s rich brown fur and tried not to cry. She didn’t look up until the bear’s stride slowed to an amble. Her heart thumped oddly. The bear brought her back to the cabin. Right to the front door. He made more of those bear noises and leaned to the side so she slid to her feet.
When her legs, already sore and cramped from trying to hold on to the wide grizzly, wobbled and gave out, the bear caught her before she hit the ground. Lauren clutched the bear’s arm and found herself staring into his honey-gold eyes once more. Those familiar, mournful gold eyes, almost like…
Her heart thumped harder against her ribs, almost like she faced that rifle again. Or when she’d found a bear with his leg in a trap and he turned into a man. Into Finn. Lauren shook her head and jumped back, holding up her hands to fend him off even though the bear hadn’t moved. “No. No, I think this is tooweird for me. I don’t think I can handle this. It’s just not possible that you might…that you could be… No. Nope. Definitely not. I mean, I believe in Bigfoot because cryptids are totally possible from an evolutionary standpoint. It’s perfectly reasonable that early apes diverged from homo sapiens and created a Bigfoot-like creature. Completely plausible. But this…this isn’t like…”
Her words trailed off as her mouth dried up and her thoughts derailed. Crazy. She was out of her mind, talking to a bear like it understood. And even worse, she thought it was Finn in there, behind the fangs and claws. Maybe if she explained it all to the police or the judge or her defense lawyer, they would put her in a psychiatric hospital instead of jail. She needed oodles of therapy, apparently, if she actually believed a bear turned into a man. Or a man turned into a bear. Did it make a difference which way ’round she thought about it? A man in a bear’s body seemed infinitely better than a bear in a man’s body, but how the heck was she going to tell the difference?
Lauren shook from head to toe so badly she had to lean back against the cabin to keep from falling, and started to slide down to the frozen ground. The sky had darkened overhead as the bear carried her down the trail, and snow fell silently in big, fat flakes. They clung to the bear’s fur like frosting. She covered her face. “I can’t do this. I really can’t do this.”
Sure. Snow. Maybe it would be a blizzard and she’d be stuck in the cabin with a real bear—and no food—for a week or so. Why not. If she was dead or frozen, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about firewood.
A tearing sound and the sharp scent of blood overwhelmed her, but Lauren kept her eyes covered and closed. Didn’t want to see. Didn’t want to know. Knowing things just led to trouble.
The bear exhaled in a gust, then a warm hand settled on her forearm. “Come on, now. Let’s go inside.”
Nope. Definitely wasn’t Finn. Definitely wasn’t Finn instead of the bear. She cracked an eye open, just to be sure, and confirmed there was no more bear and a very naked Finn kneeling in front of her once again. Which he shouldn’t have been able to do on his injured leg, or because it was freakin’ freezing out and no one in their right mind would go out without clothes.
“Lauren,” he said, voice rusty. Possibly bearlike, if bears could talk. Or would it have been a snarl with syllables? Maybe bears had accents when they talked, depending on what kind they were. Maybe grizzlies sounded Canadian. ‘Oh hey, Imma eat some salmon now, eh?’ Or something.
Finn squeezed her elbow very gently. “Come back, Lauren.”
“I don’t want to,” she whispered. “This can’t be happening.”
“It is, babe.” He chafed her upper arm, still moving slow and easy. “But those guys weren’t alone and they fired off a shot before they…were dealt with, so the other folks might be looking for us. I need to clean some things up, and I need to know you’re safe before I can do that.”
She shook her head. “I’ll stay here. Right here. Can’t move.”
Her teeth started to chatter, but she didn’t know if it was fear or cold. Did it really matter, in the end? She hugged her knees to her chest, staring past him at the snow falling more heavily to conceal the trail. What did he think he would clean up? The bodies? She shivered again. Bodies. Dead bodies.
Finn caught her other elbow and tried to make her stand up. “You’re freezing, Lauren. You’ve got to get inside.”
That didn’t seem like a great idea, not when he turned into a bear. What if he did that while they were in the cabin? There wasn’t enough room in there for a person and a grizzly, and there wasn’t anywhere for her to hide in the ramshackle structure, not if an angry bear wanted to eat her. Maybe she could hide in the rafters away from the hole in the roof.
When Lauren refused to stand on her own and Finn’s efforts to jostle her to life didn’t work, he sighed. Finn squeezed her shoulder and bent until he met her gaze. His eyes still glowed like warm honey. Just like the bear. “I’m going to pick you up and carry you inside so you can get warm. Okay? Don’t flip out on me.”
She managed a watery laugh as tears dripped onto her cheeks. “What am I going to do to you? You’re a b-b-b…”
She gulped for air and refused to say the word. Since it wasn’t possible, since it wasn’t real, there wasn’t any reason to say it out loud. No reason to sound completely unhinged in front of the bounty hunter. She tensed as those broad, strong hands caught her under the armpits to haul upright, then he picked her up like a baby.
Finn shouldered aside the door and grunted as he limped over toward the fireplace and the cold ashes. “Yes, I’m a bear, but I’m a bear who likes you a lot, so there’s no reason to worry.”
Lauren stared at him, flabbergasted. He just…said it. Just said he was a bear. She hiccupped in fear and then she couldn’t seem to draw a good breath or exhale at all. Finn put her down on the mattress and dragged the blankets and sleeping bags over her. “Breathe, Lauren. Just breathe, and I’ll be back. I can explain.”
She stared at him. What was there to explain? They were both certifiably nuts. People didn’t turn into bears. Did. Not. Turn. Into. Bears.
He waited as she struggled, but Lauren couldn’t keep it together. She backed into the corner and braced for the worst, waiting for his golden eyes to turn molten and his fingers to claws. Her heart pounded until she thought her chest would explode. What the hell would he do next?
FINN
He heard her start to spiral into a panic attack and didn’t want her to completely lose control outside. Screaming would bring the other smugglers down on top of them faster, and the snowstorm presented a very short-lived opportunity. He could confuse the trail leading away from the bodies before it became covered with snow, and there was a possibility he could completely disguise the bodies and the incident itself in the snow so the smugglers would not find them until spring. There wasn’t time to waste.
Already his leg ached and the thought of going back outside into the cold made him want to curl up on the mattress next to Lauren and sleep until the snow stopped falling. It wasn’t an option, though. One problem had to be solved at a time, and now that Lauren was safely inside and warm, the next problem was dealing with the possibility of smugglers surrounding the cabin with guns and trying to kill them both.
Lauren cowered near the unlit fire and watched him with wide, unblinking eyes. Finn didn’t think his nudity would distract her this time. He stayed crouched down, just out of reach, so as not to loom over her or pressure her. “I’m going toget some wood for the fire, Lauren. I need you to stay here, okay? It’s not safe outside.”
“There are bears outside,” she whispered.
Finn didn’t want to laugh and had to bite the inside of his cheek. Lauren still hovered on the verge of a complete breakdown. He nodded, patting her hand where it rested on the mattress. “There are. Will you promise me you’ll stay inside? Stay right here under the blankets?”
