Lumberjack Werebear (Saw Bears Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

outdoors and find my muse again.”
    “You drew starscapes.” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.
    “Yes.”
    “Put your jacket on.” He sat up and scrubbed both hands down his face. His hair was still mussed from sleep, but when he looked back at her, his expression wasn’t tired. It was kind. Her fingers twitched for the warmth he’d taken with him when he’d let go of her hand, but in this moment, she knew exactly what Tagan was.
    He was a friend. He was a decent person. And he was a good man.
    And as scary as it was to trust someone with her darkest secrets, he wasn’t running. This perfect stranger was offering her sanctuary she hadn’t known existed.
    Five minutes later, teeth brushed, jeans and sweater on, jacket folded over her arm, Brooke waited on her porch for Tagan. She hadn’t known which trailer he lived in, but one across the road and two down had the light on. When Tagan ducked under the front door and smiled at her, all doubt was erased. A strange zing of excitement traveled up her spine that he lived so close.
    With a silent twitch of his chin, he gestured her to follow. She jogged to catch him, pulling on her jacket as she ran. It was still winter, but on the cusp of spring, and even though the days were warm, the nights had a chill that bit right through those trailer walls. She’d been sleeping with the window unit heater blasting and still hadn’t managed to keep the gooseflesh off her calves.
    The light from the park disappeared as Tagan opened a gate for her and waited for her to pass.
    “It’s so dark,” she whispered, afraid to wake the others. If she could hear every word through the walls of her rental, surely they could, too.
    “I figured you’d have trouble seeing,” Tagan said, handing her a cold, black cylinder. “Here.”
    Brooke clicked on the flashlight and pointed it toward the ground. “And you don’t have trouble seeing in the dark?”
    A simple “no” sounded over his broad shoulder before he marched off at a grueling pace.
    The trail wound this way and that like some giant serpent through the trees. The smell of pine was fragrant, and the sound of forest birds soft in the distance. Gentle wind rocked the branches in the evergreen canopy over their heads, and the pine needles made swishing sounds as she walked across them.
    “Where are you taking me?” she asked, desperate to fill the silence. The dark had frightened her as a child, and out here in the middle of nowhere, those fears crept back.
    “You’ll see.”
    She halted. “I don’t know about this. I think we should go back. It’s the middle of the night.”
    “You scared?” he asked. It wasn’t a taunt. She could tell when he turned around. In the illumination of the flashlight, his expression only held concern.
    Embarrassed, and afraid her voice would shake, she nodded her head.
    “Of me?”
    “No.” She frowned. By all accounts, she had every right to be afraid of him. She’d only met him yesterday and was in the woods with him, in complete darkness, and no one knew where she was. But for whatever reason, instinctual perhaps, Tagan didn’t feel like a threat to her. Instead, he made her feel…safe.
    He approached slowly arms extended, but didn’t touch her, as if he were trying to calm a frightened animal. “It’s five minutes more hiking, and we’ll be there. You shared something big with me tonight, and I know that was hard. I’m sharing something of mine, too.”
    A slow smile stretched her face. “Something special?”
    His Adam’s Apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Yes.”
    Something flashed, and she jerked the beam of light toward it. “What was that?”
    Tagan’s warm palm pushed her hand down, and softly, he pressed her thumb against the button that turned the flashlight off. “Look,” he said, so close his chest pressed against her shoulder blades, and his breath tickled her ear.
    A tiny glow shone then disappeared. Another followed, farther away and to the left.