She braced for the fatal swipe as the grizzly loomed over her, its eyes dark and angry, and she held her hands up to fend it off. "Please don't eat me."
It sounded so stupid she wanted to take it back. Worst last words ever.
But nothing happened. She looked up as the grizzly backed away, crouched down, and then disappeared. Disappeared.
Zoe sat up, heart in her throat. The grizzly deflated and then Simon stood there, buck-naked. Simon. Looking furious. He stormed over to her, grabbing her upper arm hard enough Zoe cried out, and he shook her until her teeth rattled. "What the hell is wrong with you? What were you thinking?"
She stammered, trying to come up with something, and searched for the grizzly. Couldn't be. Maybe they had a pet bear, trained to protect the guests. That would make sense. Simon wasn't a bear. Simon couldn't turn into a bear. That happened on the Internet with special effects magic, not in real life.
Zoe tried to breathe as he hauled her up the trail toward the lodge. "Wh-what did — what's —"
She couldn't get any other words out, between him yelling at her for putting herself in danger and her own labored breathing. Simon shook his head, the muscles jumping in his jaw as he dragged her up the porch stairs and into the great room, slamming the door behind him. He threw her into one of the chairs and loomed over her, posture so much like the grizzly that her heart tripped. "What the fuck were you doingout there? You got between a mother bear and her cubs. Are youtryingto get yourself killed?"
Zoe stared up at him, mesmerized by the dark eyes flashing with gold and the muscles that rippled across his chest and abs and thighs... She flushed and dragged her eyes higher to stare him in the throat. "I don't know what —"
"You could have died." He whirled and strode away, pacing in jerky movements that only made his muscles stand out. He had a perfectly tremendous ass. Zoe drew her legs up to her chest in the chair, huddling lower as he threw one of the kitchen stools across the room and it shattered into kindling against the massive stone fireplace. "That bear would have killed you for threatening her cubs. And then what would I do? What the hell would I do if you got yourself killed?"
Zoe held up a hand to block out his sizable dick so she could actually look at him without blushing, and gulped for air. She'd seen a lot of weird shit online but never seen one that large in real life. She felt almost like it was looking at her. Or pointing at her. Wanting to introduce itself.
Maybe she was in shock. That might explain the hysterical giggle that bubbled up in her chest. Zoe tried to regroup but her thoughts scattered like wild birds and she could only stutter, her voice wavering as the tears returned. "I didn't mean to —"
He swore, turning away once more to run his hands through suddenly shaggy hair. When he faced her again, he tried to look and sound calm, though Zoe didn't buy it for a second. "Please explain to me what you were thinking."
She moved her hands to continue blocking his junk. "I just — did you really turn into a bear?"
He blinked, looked down at himself, then up at her. A red flush crept up his throat and filled his face. He scowled at her,his finger jabbing the air. "This conversation isn't over. Stay right there. Don't move a goddamn muscle."
Then he turned on his heel and stormed up the stairs to his room. Zoe sat in the great room, stunned, and stared at the giant fireplace, almost big enough to walk into. Her brain didn't work fast enough to keep up. He couldn't be a bear. But nothing else explained how he showed up as the grizzly disappeared, and why he ended up naked in the middle of a meadow half a mile from the lodge. She looked down at her phone, still clutched in her hand, and held her breath. The recording... She played it back, watching the cubs play, then the mama bear rear up, then it bounced and blurred as she fell, then a grizzly, then... Simon. Simon standing up, looking afraid and angry. Afraid.
She watched it again. And again. And again. Trying to puzzle it out. Trying to understand. The bile rose in her throat, welling up along with panic and sheer terror.
He couldn't be a bear. And yet, on the video, he was.
5
SIMON
Simon regretted calling her a criminal immediately. He didn't mean it. But the thought of her in his office, working on his books, in close proximity every day, drove him nearly crazy. He wouldn't get any work done. He'd have to spend weeks cleaning after she left just to get rid of her scent. So he came up with the best defense he could. And it sucked. It hurt her feelings. He chased her immediately, and thanked God he did — so he was close enough to save her when she wandered between a mother black bear and her cubs.
Instinct took over and he shifted, burst right out of his clothes to intimidate the furious mother bear, and as soon as the danger passed, he shifted back. But his heart stayed in his throat as he confronted her, terrified at the thought that she might have been hurt, or worse — killed. The thought of losing her nearly paralyzed him.
So he yelled at her the entire way back to the lodge, naked as a jaybird, and then continued yelling at herinsidethe lodge. And then saw her trying to avoid looking at his junk. So he fled like a coward, instead of going to his office to get someextra shorts. Simon paced the confines of his room, struggling with control as he grabbed double handfuls of his hair. A sharp pain in his chest spiked as the image of her, helpless on the ground as the mother bear loomed over her, flashed in front of him.
Simon growled and made another circuit. Crazy, ridiculous girl. No sense of self-preservation. Taking a fucking video of the baby bears without paying attention to anything around her. He would have to put a bell on her and wrap her in reflective tape just to get her through hunting season. And God only knew what trouble she could get in when the snow fell, she might —
He stopped abruptly. She would be gone before the snow fell. Tate would retrieve her, she'd testify against the evil CEO, and then she'd disappear into some federal witness protection program. He would never see her again. His bear roared at the thought, rigid with fury. They couldn't lose her. He didn't know how or why or what trick of fate made it so, but she was his. His mate. The other half of his soul.
Simon scrubbed his face and braced his hands on the dresser, leaning forward to stare at the floor. His mate. That clumsy, wild-eyed computer genius was his mate. The one who couldn't live without good wifi. Who didn't know how to weed a garden or walk through the forest without almost getting killed by a bear. Who was on the run from an international crime syndicate. The universe certainly had a sense of humor.
The door creaked open behind him and Simon turned, prepared to apologize to her for being such an ass, but it was Ethan. The biologist raised his eyebrows as he got an eyeful of naked Simon, and grabbed up a pair of sweatpants thrown across the chair near the door. He tossed them at Simon, then folded his arms over his chest. "So. How's it going?"
Simon shot him a dirty look but pulled on the sweatpants. "What the hell do you want?"
"I'd like to know why you're making so much noise up here, and why the girl is downstairs crying."
"She's crying?" Simon lurched toward the door. She couldn't cry. He would smother the sadness right out of her.
"Whoa." Ethan grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him back, expression tense. "Since I'm guessing you're the reason she's crying, you plant your ass over there and start talking."
