Bear With Me (BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

towards me, bearing a teeth for all the world as if she was still a wolf. I tried to scramble to me feet but my legs were no better than water beneath me and I collapsed hard back down to the ground, every wound on my body suddenly all clamouring for attention.
    The wolf-woman made to snatch at my ankle, but the bear – who I had all but forgotten in the fight – got to her before she could get to me. It didn’t take much, just a single swipe with outstretched claws to the back of her head. She twitched once and, without even a final cry, it was over.
    I stared at the inert body, hardly daring to breathe. Her ‘pack’ had long since fled, although I had not noticed them go, and silence had fallen once more save for the heavy panting of the great creature standing no more than three feet from where I sat.
    With a trembling hand I wiped from my cheek and raised my head to look at the bear – my saviour. Its fur was, from what I could see in the pale moonlight, was a deep brown and flecked with gold, its eyes a deep, bottomless black… I swallowed hard. I recognised those eyes.
    Ignoring the shooting pains in my legs, I crawled towards the bear with one hand outstretched. The bear blinked but did not move, even when I reached out with shaking fingers – half expecting my hand to be bitten off.
    “ Thank you,” I whispered, gently stroking the soft muzzle. Through its panting lips, my eyes were drawn to its rows of razor-sharp teeth, bigger and even more powerful than those of the wolves. “Thank you for looking after me.” Then, after a moment’s hesitation in which I could hardly believe what I was thinking, “I know who you are.”
    It was as if I had lifted a curse.

Chapter4
     

 
    No sooner had the words left my lips than the creature began to transform as the wolf had done – shifting its form from beast to man. I could hear the grind of its bones and smell the change in its scent. It shrank and compressed down and down until the whole great bear was condensed into the shape of a human being. A bear-man.
     
    I bit my lip to keep myself from screaming. Even though I had been expecting it, the pure abnormality of seeing a great grizzly bear slowly transforming into a human was terrifying. If this was real – and the ‘if’ was a big one – then who knows what else could be possible? It defied nature and revolted me so intensely that I found myself shrinking back and hiding my face, my own body physically incapable of accepting such bizarreness. In my head, I had already justified it and accepted it, but my stomach was heaving and my head was swimming with nausea. I had seen a thousand werewolf movies, I was a connoisseur of horror, and this transformation was no way as gory as, say, Company of Wolves. In the grand scheme of things, it was pretty tame actually. There was no reason to feel so utterly repelled. I told myself this sternly as I fought down the bile rising in my throat. Don’t be so fucking pathetic!
    “ No!” I flinched involuntarily as I felt a coarse hand on my cheek. I blushed furiously with shame and forced myself to let him gently turn my face towards his. His black eyes were filled with concern as they searched mine, a frown furrowing his brow as they passed over the wound on my forehead that was still oozing blood.
     
    “Wait,” he ordered me.
                 
    I wrapped my arms around my shivering body and obeyed, huddling into myself as I watched him scramble around in the undergrowth nearby, searching frantically for something. Every bit of me was covered in goose-flesh; every hair down my arms and on the back of my neck was standing on end. I didn’t know if I was hot or cold, or if I should be scared or safe. I did know that I was so tired I could lie down on the cold, hard ground then and there and just sleep forever. I also knew if I did give in to sleep, it probably would be forever. The last remnants of energy was used keeping my eyelids open
    My bear-man