Finn cleared his throat several times, hoping inspiration would strike, and finally faced her. “Look, I don’t know… I don’t know how to…do this. I’m not good at it. I don’t know how to say it.”
She drew her knees up to her chest and hugged them, eyes wide. “Are you going to eat me?”
He jerked back, the question knocking some sense into him. “No, of course not.”
“Good.” Lauren exhaled. “I thought maybe you needed a meal and stuck around so you’d have a fresh one that couldn’t escape.”
Finn scrubbed his face so he wouldn’t laugh in relief and confusion. “That’s what you think of me? That I’d save your life just to eat you for dinner?”
Although hedidplan to taste every inch of her.
“I don’t know any bears,” Lauren said. “How am I supposed to know what they do? I mean, I’ve studied Bigfoot and Sasquatches and other cryptids, but I can’t say that werewolves or…werebears? Is that what you’d be called? They never really came up in any of the groups, you know, because it’s ridiculous to think that a person could change all the way into…”
Finn held up his hands to cut off the barrage of words, with his mind already spinning, although the tight anxiety in his chest uncoiled with her back to being more the original variety Lauren he remembered from that trek with the sledge. “Uh, I’ve never heard ‘werebear’ but that’s a good thought. We use shapeshifter, but not often. We don’t talk about it much.”
“Smart,” she said, nodding. She glanced at him and away again, a flush rising in her cheeks. “People think you’re crazy when you talk about cryptids or magic or crystals or anything like that.”
God, he loved her. Loved everything about her, including the wonder and wide-eyed earnestness when she talked about cryptids. Finn couldn’t swallow the smile, though he hoped his beard concealed most of it. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, and if she thought he laughed at her, she’d be crushed.
“We don’t eat people,” he said. “Fish, mostly, and deer when we catch them. Beef and pork and chicken when we’re in human form. Sometimes fruit and vegetables, though that kind of grazing is more to keep everyone else happy. Unless it’s honey. We do love honey.”
That got a smile, at least, and she looked around at the dark cabin behind him. “No honey here. Sorry about that.”
He begged to differ. There certainly was honey he wanted to dip into.
Finn shook himself to focus. The bear had to put the libido aside, at least for the rest of the night. He had to wait. Had to give her time to adjust, to get comfortable around him. And he’d damn well have to pack snow down his shorts if they shared the mattress again. Maybe he’d shift and sleep as a bear closer to the door so he wouldn’t be tempted.
“Any other questions?” he asked when the silence stretched. She needed to rest. They both did, really, but her more so than him. Finn would keep one eye open through the night to make sure the smugglers didn’t get close to the cabin and Shotgun didn’t raid the whole fucking park ahead of schedule. “It can wait, too. I’m not going anywhere.”
Her gaze slid away and uncertainty reappeared in the tension through her shoulders. She chewed on her thumbnail and didn’t quite look at him. “You don’t have to stay, you know. You don’t. I understand if you want to go, if you’re better off…”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he repeated. Finn couldn’t take it and eased closer to sit next to her. Even if it was the danger zone, he didn’t want her to feel alone. “It’s dangerous out there, and it’s cold, and there are people out there who want to hurt us. So we have to stick together. I’ll protect you. Of course I’ll protect you.”
There was no question in his mind, or the bear’s, that he would keep her safe.
The nail-chewing intensified. Her foot bounced under the blanket. “They would have killed me, wouldn’t they?”
Finn held his breath, wanting to lie to reassure her the smugglers wouldn’t have done it. But she’d felt the pistol against her head. She knew. She’d been on the run and hiding for herlife. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time, he’d be willing to bet. He held her ankle again, not wanting the agitation to take over and keep her from getting some rest. “They are dangerous and unpredictable. They would try to harm you, but they won’t. I won’t let them.”
Lauren’s smile twisted uneasily. “But it’s…”
“Lauren,” he said, squeezing her foot. He didn’t know how to prove it to her. “I won’t let them hurt you. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
She looked at him, the worry clear, and the entire world slowed down around him. Finn knew it to his bones: he would do anything—anything—to keep her safe. Already his mind spun with possibilities to save her from the bullshit charges, to hide her away somewhere that the rest of the bears could shield her from the law and those stupid fucking hippies who abandoned her, to do whatever it took to ensure the next twenty years of Lauren’s life outshone the last twenty like a fucking beacon.
Her lips parted and his focus shifted immediately to her mouth. The soft temptation of her lips and throat and every inch of her hidden by the blankets and the layers of clothes.
Finn debated retrieving a bucket of snow as his body reacted and he faced a long damn night of trying not to show her how much he wanted her.
LAUREN
She wanted to believe him, that he’d protect her. She’d heard it all before, though. She’d heard it from practically every man from as far back as she could remember. Every boyfriend or trick or drug dealer that her mother brought home insisted they were there to help, to keep her mom safe, to put food on the table, whatever. But none of them meant it. Something always went wrong or they stole all the money out of the hiding spot in the wall or they wrecked the car or got them evicted or tried to creep into her room at night when Mom was passed out on the floor.
Lauren swallowed hard. Of course, Finn said he’d protect her after he’d actually done it. He took on men, armed with all kinds of guns, on his own and managed to keep her from getting shot or even hurt. He carried her to safety even after he’d been hurt, and he went back to clean things up. He could have taken the easy road and let those assholes kill her instead of risking his life, or dropped her at the cabin and gone on his way. He’d stayed. For whatever reason, he’d stayed.
But that didn’t mean they’d be safe forever. The snow fell outside and would keep on falling, it seemed like, but eventually it would stop. Eventually the bad guys would start looking forthem, since Finn messed with their guys, and eventually they’d find the cabin. There weren’t a lot of places for people to hide, at least that she’d found, so eventually trouble would land on them. It was just a matter of time.
And when that happened, there was no telling how the cards would fall. It would probably be better for her to run when she could, to take that exit the second it opened up, no matter what Finn promised. He’d come to his senses eventually about not wasting time on her. He was just being kind because they were trapped together and she’d helped him with his leg and the medical stuff.
