So Much To Bear (A Werebear Erotic Romance) Read Online Free PDF

was
fine and that she could leave at any time. He insisted on hanging
the clothes to dry himself, showing Jennifer the line he had set up
away from view, behind the screen of trees and brush. The sun shone
down on the fabric, the wind rippled through it, and Jennifer
thought that in spite of the way the rough washing faded the
colors, the clothes would probably come out of the experience
smelling fresh from the breeze, and warm from the sun.
     
    He broke his monotonous insistence on
not answering her questions to bark softly to her to be as quiet as
possible as he led her deeper into the woods, beyond the river. The
green canopy of the trees filtered the light, but it was not nearly
as creepy in the deep woods during the morning as it had been the
night before. As they walked quietly—the mysterious man somehow
managing to be almost completely silent, preternaturally
so—Jennifer could hear the sounds of the denizens of the forest
going about their own daily routines, scuttling through the brush,
flitting from branch to branch. She identified a few of the bird
calls, but not all of them. Unaccustomed to working so hard so
early, Jennifer’s stomach began nagging, twisting with hunger
inside of her; but she didn’t even entertain the notion of asking
the man what he had available for breakfast. He didn’t even want
her there with him—if she admitted to needing to eat, he’d probably
just renew his efforts to get her to leave.
     
    Abruptly, the man stopped, glancing at
her with the faintest trace of amusement in his eyes before he
leaned forward and stripped a low-lying bush of berries. The dark
juices stained his fingers as he extended his hand to her. “Here,”
he said. “They’re good. Sweet and ripe.” He ate a few to
demonstrate the safety of them, and Jennifer plucked one from his
open hand, popping it in her mouth. The berry burst with a rush of
sweetness, and whether or not they truly were safe, she knew she
had to have more. The bear-man chuckled as she snatched the rest of
them from his rough palm, eating them quickly. “Your stomach was
growling loudly enough to alert the prey,” he said with a glimmer
of a smile twitching at his lips, leaning in and stripping another
bush and handing her the next handful.
     
    “My apologies; it’s not every day I’m
indebted to a bear-man and feel the need to tag along with him
without any breakfast.” The man snorted.
     
    “You’re not indebted to me. You can
leave at any time. I’m fine.” Jennifer shook her head.
     
    “You got hurt attacking the asshole who
was trying to… well, I’m not sure what exactly he had in mind, but
I am pretty sure I would’ve gotten hurt in the process even if I’d
been able to fend him off.” The man shrugged.
     
    “If you’ve had enough?” he gestured
that they would go on, and Jennifer nodded, half-wishing for
something more substantial. The berries had at least given her a
rush of something in her stomach, and they would help her keep up
with the surprisingly agile injured man who was leading her…
somewhere.
     
    He stopped again and knelt in the
underbrush, lifting foliage away carefully to expose a snare among
the branches. Jennifer’s eyes widened at the sight of the rabbit
caught in it, cleanly killed by a jerk of its neck when the snare
activated. It was plump and healthy, and would certainly make a
good meal. The shape of her strange benefactor’s days began to
clear before Jennifer’s eyes as he extracted the rabbit and reset
the snare, handing the dead animal to her to carry. “We’ll skin it
at the river.” He moved to another snare and then another, each of
them loaded with a small animal of some kind.
     
    Loaded down with three healthy, heavy
animals, Jennifer followed her guide’s lead back to the river.
Jennifer had never been terribly fond of game, but her stomach
began to growl at the thought of all the protein the animals
represented and she had to admit that rabbit stew, or