Bears of Burden: STERLING

by Candace Ayers

  He was right, of course, and through the fog that had accompanied the quaking, I realized everything was catching up to me and my poor body. Good old fashioned shock.

  He was moving toward the back of the little cave and I followed him.

  He sank down, his knees drawn up in front of him, his back against the wall.

  I was right beside him.

  Inside the cave, it was dark, the sounds of the rain muted, there was nothing to do but sit together. And talk. Or not talk.

  It was certainly not the kind of night I had envisioned us having during our first overnight survival training mission.

  But, it did seem fitting, somehow.

  CHAPTER 5

  Chad

  My shoulder ached.

  Everything hurt, if I was being honest.

  I could feel the swelling setting in, the burning that accompanied even the most basic movements.

  The landslide we’d gotten caught in was exactly what I had been afraid of happening when the rain began, but at our location on the mountain, the answer was to head up, not down. We would have only been more likely to get caught in a mudslide there, and when we did, it would have had momentum behind it.

  We’d been so close to where we needed to be when that kid had grabbed ahold of the tree.

  Christ. I hope they all made it. I could tell we were getting close to it. I could smell the vague hint of diesel and people. A hunting cabin, if I had to guess, and it would make sense in this part of the mountain, where large animals were plentiful.

  Thinking about that reminded me how close I was to the figurative edge. How difficult it had been to keep my bear in check when I’d hit that tree, how close I had come to shifting right then and there.

  If she hadn’t gotten there so fast, if she hadn’t put her hands on me, grounded me, who knows how things might have ended.

  She was still shaking next to me. Cold, probably, among other things. I’d seen what she was sleeping in. By the time she got dressed she must have been soaked to the bone.

  Of course, standing next to me by our bedrolls in the dark she’d probably thought there was no need to hide from me, in her little shorts and her tank top.

  Fortunately, my night vision was excellent, and I had certainly enjoyed the view.

  But then we had become swept up in our exit, and now we were here.

  I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but somewhere along the way we had managed to lose our packs. The cadets had them or the hillside had them, but whichever the case, we didn’t.

  Which meant all the things we could have used right now — an extra blanket, supplies to start a fire, even something to eat — weren’t doing us any good at all.

  I could still hear her body jumping beside mine, and I knew the cold wasn’t doing her any favors. Sure, most of it had to do with the adrenaline surge catching up with her, the fallout from the evening. Every moment of it had been creeping up on her, adding up, until it had this moment to begin to unravel.

  And she was definitely unraveling.

  I couldn’t let her go on like that, so I reached my good arm over her shoulders and hauled her over to me. Whether she liked it or not, we had to get her shivering under control.

  My injured side was still throbbing, but it was better than it had been and would continue to heal. Rapidly. By the time we actually managed to get off the mountainside and back down to a hospital, I knew I would be in the clear.

  And I knew I was going to have to find a way to get in, get approved, and be on my way before Brenna had managed to piece all of those things together.

  There were some immediate drawbacks to being placed with a doctor when you were a shifter. Especially when that shifter found himself injured, in the middle of the night, out in the middle of nowhere.

  She didn’t complain about being hauled against my body like that, and even covered in mud and rain, beneath the tang of urgency and fear, I could smell that field of flowers.

  There was something about the woman. She was going to be my undoing. I was becoming more and more certain of it with each passing moment.

  We sat in silence for a long while, just looking out of the cave and into the dark. I could smell morning on the air, but I knew it was still going to be a long time in coming to the skies, with the storm.

  The rain had finally let up, now a drizzle, a heavy mist making it seem even darker than it was.

  Her shakes had long since subsided, but she had gone on pressing into me and I hadn’t been in a rush to detangle myself from her either, that floral scent engulfing me.

  “I’m going to go,” she said, giving a little nudge to the outside. “I’ll be right back.”

  I let her go. Whether she needed the space or go to the bathroom, I wasn’t going to ask. Truthfully, I could use a moment to regroup, too. Having her around seemed to make me suddenly unable to do any of the things I told myself I should be doing.

  Which was, first and foremost, not thinking about her. Especially not thinking about her naked.

  Unfortunately, that had started to capture quite a bit of my attention. Especially when I remembered that tattoo creeping up along her back, dipping in and out of her clothing.

  She was gone just a minute, just one minute, when I first smelled it on a breeze coming into the little cave.

  I was on my feet faster than I would have thought possible given the situation.

  It was a cat. A big one, and if I were to guess, he was probably wet and irritable as fuck.

  And Brenna was out there, traipsing around in the dark with prey written all over her damn self.

  I reached the mouth of the little cave and rolled my shoulder, touching it tentatively, wondering how far I could push things with it before I was doubled over in pain. “Brenna!” I called, and I realized it was the first time I’d said her name out loud.

  But I didn’t have time to think about that just then.

  I couldn’t pinpoint where she was, just the lingering scent of her and the feel of her presence.

  And another overwhelming scent of wet cat.

  Dammit. I was going to have to find one of them, and fast.

  Mountain lions in these parts didn’t mess around, and that was on a good day. I was fairly certain this particular cat was not having a good day.

  CHAPTER 6

  Brenna

  I just needed a minute.

  If I was pressed up against him another second, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to control myself.

  With the rain letting up, I found a quiet spot where I could lean against a tree for a few moments and just try to gather myself.

  I wasn’t there two seconds before I heard Matthews shouting for me. He was using my actual name, so I suspected it was an emergency.

  I pushed off the tree, spun and headed back toward him as quickly as I could in the darkness.

  I never saw it, but I heard it. The loud, unmistakable sound of a mountain cat.

  We knew they were out here, of course, but this time of year wasn’t as bad as in the fall, where they seemed to be on the sudden hunt to fill their bellies before the unreliable winter came. During the summer they were leisurely, the deer plentiful. There it was again, that low pitched scowling growl, followed by a hiss.

  I froze. I’d already done irreparable damage by letting it see me run. There was nothing left for me to do but be as still as I could be and prepare for the attack.

  I heard him say my name again, but I didn’t want to upset the delicate balance I had created by responding.

  The cat heard him, too, and though I couldn’t see it well, I heard a rustling that suggested it was changing positions, preparing itself for an attack.

  That was when Matthews came bursting onto the scene.

  “No, Chad!” I yelled, but it was too late. The mountain lion flew through the air, its claws extended. I was screaming.

  I heard the sound of one body hitting another, an unmistakable squeal of a cat, the grunts of a man.

&nbs
p; And what sounded like another animal altogether.

  I hoped Chad wouldn’t fight back. I hoped he’d play dead until the animal thought its prey was under control.

  I hoped this was something we were both going to walk away from, but I’d seen maulings out in these parts, and I didn’t have a lot of hope.

  I heard the cat cry out and scamper away. Maybe, just maybe, Matthews had somehow managed to get the better of it.

  I scrambled over toward him. I was entirely unprepared when my hand came in contact with long, thick fur, instead of mauled flesh.

  “What, the…” muttered, unable to process what I was touching. “What is…?”

  I never finished the thought, because suddenly the thick fur was slipping out of my hands, and that hulking body was…

  Well, it was becoming Chad Matthews.

  Which was right about the time I thought I might have officially lost my mind.

  Chad

  I was on a freaking roll.

  First the tree, now the goddamned cat.

  My shoulder burned where he’d caught me across the back and his claws tore through my clothing and into my flesh.

  I was sure there were long gouge marks there. Just like I was sure we weren’t going to have anything to clean it with and the wound was going to close up before I could get the damn thing taken care of.

  Another round of antibiotics for me. Fortunately, I had a person I could call the script in to. We all did. We wouldn’t be able to exist out in society the way we do if we weren’t in every possible pocket, making things happen for the rest of us.

  I suppose that was sort of how I’d ended up in the military in the first place. I was a beacon for every other shifter out there looking for someone to guide them into a successful career.

  I’d already been shifting when the cat had launched itself at me, every one of its claws out stretched.

  That had probably saved me from the brunt of the attack. After all, bear hide is a sight thicker than human skin.

  What I hadn’t counted on was how quickly Brenna would get to me afterward. I wasn’t able to change back in time.

  I felt her hand tangle in my fur, I heard the sound of her gasp, imagined the whirring of her thoughts as she began to put it all together.

  That it wasn’t a human she was touching. It wasn’t me she was touching.

  It was a goddamned bear.

  I was a goddamned bear.

  Her touch pulled me back quickly, setting me to shift right back.

  If she was surprised by the skin beneath her fingertips, she didn’t let on. “We should get back,” she said, but I noticed there was something strange in the way she spoke the words.

  “You go ahead. I’ll be right there.”

  I had to get my damn clothing situation figured out, first.

  At least — when I heard the cat making that threatening sound — I had the foresight to strip as much as I could as quickly as I could, so I wasn’t completely without clothing.

  Well, I was at the exact moment, but once I sent Brenna on her way and had a few minutes to search the grounds around us, that problem should be solved.

  At least it would be one thing cleared up for me.

  She didn’t argue, and I felt her step away from me and back toward the little cave.

  The fog was heavy now, with the first morning glimmer beginning to peek through.

  I didn’t think I’d ever been so happy to see morning come.

  It took me just a few moments to track down my clothes and pull them on, and when I made it back to the cave, Brenna was back in her original position.

  “Well?” she asked expectantly.

  “Well what?” I asked, not wanting to walk into something if I could avoid it.

  “Well, how are your injuries?”

  “Injuries?”

  I realized I sounded like I didn’t have two brain cells to rub together, but I was having a hard time focusing, because she had reached for me and her hands were moving back over my limbs, pressing against my dislocated shoulder, her fingers tapping over my collarbone.

  I heard the intake of breath.

  “This can’t be right,” she said, giving my arm a vigorous shake.

  “Dammit,” I said, wrenching away from her and grabbing it with my other hand. “Christ, Doctor, it still hurts.”

  It did hurt. I mean, it might be a hell of a lot better than it had been just a few hours earlier, but I wasn’t at a hundred percent. Not yet. And I wouldn’t be for a while.

  “Good,” she muttered. “It’s supposed to hurt. Your collarbone…”

  “I know.” I didn’t want her to talk about it any longer. I didn’t want her puzzling through it, or sorting it out.

  “Take off your shirt,” she said. A thrill spread through me, and I was instantly thinking about the very first time I had seen her.

  Well, the second time. Maybe, technically, the third time.

  But it was definitely the first time I’d seen her, sitting on that barstool, her back to me, her body the perfect shape for a pair of hands to settle on her waist, to press her up against something —

  I shouldn’t be having those thoughts. I definitely should not be having those thoughts, but the way she told me to take off my clothes had me thinking of all the scenarios where those very things might happen.

  I gingerly peeled the undershirt over my head. I could feel where it was sticking to me across my back.

  Where I was still bleeding, no doubt.

  She inspected me unceremoniously. “Come toward the light, so I can see you,” she said, though there still wasn’t much light to speak of. I moved toward the front of the cave anyway, the lightening sky offering a little bit of visibility.

  I was still thinking about bending her over a damn bar, and she was touching my body like I was just another cadaver on a gurney ready for study.

  “This is…,” she said before clearing her throat and trying again. “This just isn’t possible.” Her fingers slid back and forth over the part of my collarbone that had snapped like a twig when I’d plowed into the tree. It had knitted. Cleanly.

  What I wasn’t ready for is when she ran her fingers down my chest, making a point to pull her fingertips through the smattering of chest hair there.

  “Turn around,” she said.

  I wasn’t going to argue with her just then.

  She found the gouge right away. I could feel her fingers on either side of the wound, like she was trying to see exactly how far the extent of the injury was.

  Then, she was letting one of those hands move over my injury-free shoulder, over the smooth skin of my back, down toward the tops of my pants.

  “There’s no hair,” she said abruptly.

  And that was right about the time it clicked for me, that those caresses of hers weren’t really caresses at all.

  Brenna had just been looking for a hunk of body hair that she might have been able to confuse with animal fur.

  She was just going to have to keep on looking. I’d happily shed my pants for her continued search.

  “These claw marks, the edges are already healing. You’ve already stopped bleeding. It looks like it’s hours old. A day old.”

  She circled around me, so we were face to face, and in the early light I could make out her dark eyes alight with something like anger and accusation.

  “What are you?”

  “It’s complicated,” I said, even though it really wasn’t complicated at all. It was just a fact.

  “Try me,” she said, “Because this,” she gave a dramatic wave in my direction. “Is literally impossible.”

  I stepped in close to her, thinking maybe I could distract her, my hands reaching out the capture her arms.

  It was a goddamned mistake.

  Once I was touching her, there would be no stopping.

  My hands skimmed up her arms, my fingers caught in her hair, tipping her head back until I had easy access to her mouth.

  And then I kissed her.<
br />
  But, more importantly, she kissed me.

  We were migrating toward the back of the cave, her arms wrapped around my neck, running along the top of my shorn hair.

  “But, really,” she said when I pulled away from her long enough to unbutton the front of her BDU and push it over her shoulders.

  “I have got to see this tattoo,” I growled instead.

  “This…what?” she asked, dazed, and I couldn’t help the smirk I felt coming on.

  Apparently I’d kissed her well enough that she could no longer function in the conversation we were having.

  And I took that as a win.

  CHAPTER 7

  Brenna

  I hoped he wouldn’t notice how much his kisses had rattled me.

  But I was pretty sure that it was more than obvious. I could barely string two thoughts together.

  His kiss had taken me by surprise, but it was more than welcome. Right now, out here, I didn’t care about protocol and decorum.

  It had been one disaster after the next, and who knew what was just around the corner. I hadn’t thought we’d be able to top the landslide, but then the next thing I know, we’re attacked by a mountain lion.

  Moral of the story: move on things while you can.

  Because who knows when one of you will become a bear.

  Okay, I maybe the bear part wasn’t part of the moral, but the fact remained that I was going to go on kissing Major Matthews, and if he wanted to check out my tattoo, I was damn sure going to let him.

  He spun me around so I was facing the wall, what light there was falling across my back, and with a quick tug, my tank top was pulled over my head and discarded.

  I could feel his fingers tracing along the ink, stopping at my bra to casually flick its clasp undone.

  As though he already knew I would say yes.

  And I wasn’t denying it. It was definitely a yes.

  His fingers came to a rest at the flare of my hips, and he pressed kisses along the same trek his fingers had just taken.