Rescued by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 2)

by Felicity Heaton

  Holly was quick to toss a blanket in Lowe’s face and turn to Saint. “I didn’t see a thing.”

  Saint scowled down at her, his eyes dark and filled with a look that said he didn’t believe that for a second. He huffed and slid Lowe a black look.

  Lowe wrapped the blanket around his chest and tucked the end in, wearing it like a dress. Damn, it felt good to be covered, and not only because it stopped Saint from looking as if he wanted to rip him apart. The warmth of the blanket felt luxurious and he wanted to stand there and savour it for a moment, but a glance at Cameo had worry rushing through him again.

  Cameo eased a step forwards, staring at Saint as if she was in a trance. Her voice was distant as she murmured, “I thought maybe the stress or the pain medication… you…”

  She looked over her shoulder at Lowe.

  “I’m not going crazy. You were a bear… right?”

  He swallowed hard and reached for her, the panic flooding him quick to flow away as she didn’t try to evade him or run. She let him take hold of her arm, let him step up to her, closing the gap between them.

  “I have a little explaining to do.” He stroked her arm, lifted his hand to her face and palmed her cheek. “We’ll get you warmed up and settled down again, and then I’ll tell you everything.”

  And he meant everything.

  Part of him had thought he would never have the mate talk, but it loomed on the horizon, and gods, he was dreading it. Saint was lucky that his fated female had turned out to be another shifter, someone already familiar with their world.

  “Where’s Knox?” Saint looked beyond Lowe and then back at him.

  Lowe’s stomach dropped and his heart ached as he reached out with his senses and couldn’t feel his brother with them. He rubbed at his sternum as that ache worsened when he thought about what his brother was doing.

  “We managed to take the man down.” He neglected to mention it was Cameo who had shot him because he felt sure she wouldn’t like to be reminded of what she had done. He didn’t want her talking about going to the authorities again. “The man revealed more were coming. Knox went to head them off.”

  Saint nodded in the direction of the Ridge. “Come on. We’ll talk more about it when we have you both warmed up.”

  Lowe wrapped his good arm around Cameo and helped her, limping with her back to the clearing. He had never been so happy or so scared to see his cabin as it came into view. His heart thundered, the thought of having to sit Cameo down and tell her everything making him shake a little.

  She glanced up at him. “Are you cold?”

  He shook his head and met her gaze. He wasn’t sure what to say to her. If he admitted he was nervous, would it make her soften towards him? Maybe make it easier for him to convince her that his being a bear shifter wasn’t a bad thing? Admitting he was nervous felt a little like he was confessing he was guilty about something though. At least, he was sure that was what she would make of it.

  The two big males striding towards them provided a good distraction, had Cameo tensing and tucking closer to him when she noticed them.

  “It’s okay,” he murmured and rubbed her arm. “It’s just Rune and Maverick.”

  And damn, it felt good to see the two of them.

  Maverick cut an imposing figure dressed in a black wool coat that reached his knees, hugging his athletic frame, and equally dark jeans. His onyx hair was wild on top, as if he had been running his hand through it, and his clear grey eyes held a sharp edge as he stormed towards them.

  But Lowe figured it was Rune who had made Cameo lock up tight.

  The big six-seven male looked every bit the fighter he was with his dark hair cut close to his scalp, the scar that darted up from his left temple into his hair clearly visible, and a black woollen sweater moulded to his broad chest and huge biceps like a second skin. He clenched his fists, causing his forearms to flex, and his expression darkened, his ice-blue eyes growing as frigid as a glacier when they narrowed on Cameo.

  Lowe bared fangs at the male, warning him to take his eyes off her. While he was no match for Rune in a fight, it wouldn’t stop him from attacking the male. Cameo was his. He tugged her a little closer, that action enough to have Rune shifting his cold gaze to Saint.

  “What’s up?” Saint looked from Rune to Maverick, asking what was on Lowe’s mind too.

  The two bears often looked as if they were on edge, but this felt different to him, and he had the feeling it wasn’t because there was a human female—Cameo—at the Ridge.

  “We’re not the only arrivals.” Maverick’s deep voice was a low growl as he shoved his fingers through his hair. “Scented four males and a female at the trailhead.”

  Cameo whispered, “Karl.”

  Maverick slid her a dark look. “Who’s Karl? Someone to do with you? Figure you’re the one who got my pride into this mess.”

  Rather than shrinking back against Lowe, she stood her ground, but Lowe could feel the fear in her, together with the guilt.

  “Back down, Maverick,” Saint growled before Lowe could say anything and the big black-haired bear immediately backed off, his gaze shifting to him.

  “Knox has gone to head them off and lead them away from the Ridge and the Creek.” Lowe’s chest constricted as he thought about his brother out there, unaware of what he was up against.

  Four males and a female. All of them were probably armed too.

  Knox was going to have to be damned careful about dealing with them if he was going to survive this, and Lowe had the terrible fear that his twin wouldn’t take the necessary precautions, would try to deal with them quickly and all at once.

  “Knox will be fine.” Saint came to him and clutched his left shoulder, lightly squeezing it.

  Lowe looked at him, catching the belief he heard in those words in his eyes, and then at the others. Rune and Maverick looked as if they believed the same thing. He glanced at Cameo.

  Guilt shone in her blue eyes and she lowered them to her feet, avoiding his gaze.

  Lowe turned to her as Saint stepped back. He gently touched her chin, pressing two fingers to it and lifting it up. She still wouldn’t look at him.

  “This isn’t your fault, Cameo.” He wanted to make the others leave, but knew in his heart that they wouldn’t. His pride stuck together and none of them would want to leave him out here alone with only a human female for company when he was injured, exposed and vulnerable to attack.

  She swallowed hard and glanced at him, her eyes leaping to lock with his before they darted away again. “It is. I got you all involved in my problem and now Knox is out there—”

  “Knox can handle these people.” And this time he believed that. His brother was strong, brave, and a fighter. He was clever too. As much as he feared that Knox would go in there with metaphorical guns blazing, he knew deep in his soul that he wouldn’t.

  Knox would scout the group and come up with a plan, would find a way to divide and conquer the enemy.

  “He’ll be back before any of us knows it and he’ll probably have some wild tales to tell us, all of which will sound a little too tall to believe… but they’ll probably be one hundred percent true.” He feathered his fingers along her jaw as she finally looked at him, her eyes colliding with his, and hope shone in hers. Hope he felt deep in his heart. “Come on. Let’s get warmed up.”

  She lifted her hand and brushed her fingers over his chest, close to the bullet wound. “We should take care of this.”

  Maverick opened his mouth to say something and Lowe shot him down with a glare, fearing that the male was about to offer his services in that department. He wanted to be alone with Cameo, could feel she needed a moment to breathe, without his friends surrounding her. She needed to be alone with him. He needed that too.

  Because Knox wasn’t the only one facing a tough battle, one that might end badly for him.

  Lowe gathered his courage, aware he was going to need it.

  Stared into Cameo’s eyes.

 
“We need to talk.”

  Chapter 18

  “We need to talk.”

  Cameo had never heard more ominous words. They rattled around her head as she helped Lowe back to his cabin, as the other men and Holly left them alone at the steps to the deck. Saint gave Lowe a look she could easily interpret, one that said Lowe wasn’t the only one who wanted to talk about something.

  She limped up the steps to the deck, managed a smile as Lowe opened the door for her. She hobbled inside and straight over to her pain meds, picked them up and stared at them. The logical part of her brain had convinced her that the pills were responsible for the fact she had seen Lowe transform from a bear into a man, and it still clung to that. The thought that he might actually be able to change forms was far too out there for her tired mind to grasp, but she tried to make it sink in.

  Tried to make herself believe it.

  Partly because she was hoping this talk Lowe wanted to have revolved around that fact.

  It struck her that she had been right to feel Black Ridge had a secret, and it was one that she never would have guessed.

  One that blew her mind.

  Everyone here could turn into a bear at will.

  He sank onto the couch, a weary sigh escaping his lips, and she closed the door and looked at him. He was pale. A little too pale. She glanced at the blood that covered his chest on the right side and had soaked into the beige blanket near his hip too, and sickness swelled inside her. She swallowed the bile that rose into her throat and steeled her nerves, focused on taking care of him and pushed everything else to the back of her mind. Right now, tending to his wounds took priority.

  Maybe she was just trying to pretend her world hadn’t taken a sharp turn towards crazy out in the woods.

  “Do you think… I think we should call Yasmin.” She looked over her shoulder at the door and considered going out to find Saint to ask him to get the doctor for Lowe.

  She looked back at him.

  Lowe shook his head and sat up a little, his lips pulling taut as pain flared in his eyes. If he had been trying to make himself look less like he was knocking on Death’s door by sitting up, it hadn’t gone to plan. He grimaced and dabbed at his shoulder with his fingers.

  Sighed.

  “It’ll heal.” He swallowed hard and his hand dropped to his lap.

  It would, but it was going to take days and if a bullet was still inside him, he might get sick. Could he get sick? She looked at the pill bottle in her hand, tempted to offer him one.

  Lowe glanced at her, a look in his eyes that made her want to go to him, because he looked as if he expected her to run from him.

  She wasn’t going anywhere.

  As crazy as this place was, she wanted to be here.

  With him.

  And it wasn’t because Karl was out there looking for her.

  Being here with Lowe felt right. As if she belonged by his side. She might feel as if she was going mad, had imagined half of what she had seen, but she was sure of one thing.

  She had fallen for Lowe.

  And she had fallen hard.

  When she boiled it down, the fact that Lowe was different to her didn’t change a thing. She gazed at him, seeing the same man she had met in the forest that night—a noble, kind, and wonderful man.

  “Do you have a med kit?” She wanted to smile when her words seemed to startle him, had his eyes widening and a look of disbelief flitting across his handsome face. “I said I wanted to take care of your injuries. Remember? If you won’t let me ask Saint to go for the doctor, then I’ll have to do.”

  “I do… just…” His throat worked on another hard swallow and he gestured towards a cupboard. “Black bag.”

  He hadn’t believed her. He had thought that as soon as they were alone that she would run from him, as if he was some big bad monster she should fear. There wasn’t a monster before her. There was only Lowe. Only the man she loved.

  A man who needed her help.

  A man who had bravely fought to protect her.

  A man who had kept his promise to her. He had kept her safe. He had taken care of her. And now she could see in his eyes that he wanted to take care of the rest of her problem and deal with Karl. She couldn’t let that happen. Even once his wounds were bound, Lowe would be in no fit state to go out into the cold and up against five people. Knox was right about that.

  For his twin’s sake and hers, she would keep him in this cabin, even when part of her wanted to be out there too, facing her problem and dealing with it.

  Cameo found the bag and went to Lowe, settled the med kit on the couch beside him and focused on her task. She checked the wound on his shoulder first, grimacing as she moved around behind him and found an exit hole that was ragged and had tracked blood down his back. An exit wound was a good thing though.

  She tried to recall her training and as it all came back to her, she sank into it, moving methodically from one step to the next. Using taking care of him to clear her mind and give this strange turn of events time to sink in. First, she cleaned the wounds. Then, she checked them, inspecting them more closely. Satisfied she couldn’t see any shrapnel from the bullet and the fact the bleeding had already slowed to a crawl, she cleaned around the wound again and covered it with a large dressing. She carefully smoothed the sticky edges down against his chest, her gaze tracking her fingers as guilt flared again.

  Lowe lifted his left hand and caught her wrist. She glanced at him, got snagged in the soft look he was giving her.

  “Don’t blame yourself.” He shook his head slightly.

  How was that even possible? Lowe had been badly hurt because of her and if he had been human, like her, he probably would have died from this wound. Her gaze dropped to his hip. He certainly would have died from that one.

  “You didn’t hurt me, Cameo. The man did.”

  She sank to her backside on the couch beside him. A man she had killed. Lowe was right. It had been in part done in self-defence and in part done to protect another person and stop them from being killed, but she had still killed a man. Two men.

  “What you did… it doesn’t make you a bad person. It doesn’t change who you are.” Lowe stroked his thumb over the inside of her wrist, belief ringing in his deep voice, luring her gaze back to his. His blond eyebrows furrowed as he stared into her eyes. “Cameo…”

  Pain surfaced in his eyes. Fear there too. His hand shook against hers again and she swore she could feel he was nervous. Maybe she was the nervous one.

  Because she was about to take a leap.

  “What you are, Lowe…” She clutched his wrist as he tried to draw his hand away from her, the fear winning in his eyes. She stopped him from distancing himself. She wasn’t out to hurt him. She only wanted to make him feel better. “That’s who you are and it doesn’t… it doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

  “It doesn’t?” His blue eyes softened, a hopeful edge to them. “You… Cameo, I know this is all a lot to take in and it’s what I wanted to talk to you about. This place… everyone here—”

  “Can turn into a bear.” She put it out there for him, hating the sight of him struggling and the fear that began to fill his eyes again. “Were you bitten by one and this just happened or… were you born like this.”

  “I was born like this. We all were.” He tried to shift to face her and grimaced, his other hand falling to his side.

  Cameo cursed herself for forgetting about his other wound. She gathered the necessary supplies, set them on the couch between them, and undid the blanket he had tucked around himself. It pooled in his lap, revealing his chest down to his hips, and she glanced at him.

  Caught the fact the nerves that had been in his eyes were gone now. Because she was occupying herself with his injuries again and wasn’t talking about the fact he was a bear-man or because she wasn’t running?

  She figured it was a bit of both, but she couldn’t stay silent. She could however make this easier on him by busying herself rather than stari
ng at him while she talked about what he was.

  “So this place is like your sanctuary? You’re all bear-men in a kind of… pack?” She grimaced at her poor choice of words as she cleaned the wound above his hip.

  “Bear shifters, and it’s a pride. Wolves have packs. The rest of us have prides.” He tensed and a glance at him revealed it wasn’t because she had hurt him. The awkward and worried look on his face said it was because he had just revealed bears weren’t the only shifters in this world.

  “Wolves. Like werewolves?” She stared into his eyes, finding that oddly easy to believe, surprised by how it made all of it much easier to believe when she thought about Lowe and the others as werebears.

  Only she didn’t think they changed during a full moon and howled at it.

  He nodded. “Wolf shifters are a little divided on that though. Some like to be called werewolves and others prefer to be called wolf shifters. Me and my kin just call them wolves.”

  She frowned and pursed her lips as she thought about what other shifters might be out there. Her eyebrows rose.

  “Is Holly a bear or a wolf?”

  “She’s a cougar.”

  Cameo’s eyebrows shot up as something hit her. “That’s what you meant when you said you wanted to kill the cougars. Your neighbours are cougar… shifters.”

  She hoped she had that right. Werecougars just sounded weird. She wanted to chuckle at that. If the thing she found weird was the name they gave their species, then she really had lost her mind. Or everything was sinking in and beginning to make sense to her.

  Something else dawned on her.

  “Oh my God. The bear. The bear that was bleeding everywhere.” She stared at Lowe, stunned as she thought about it. “That was Saint.”

  Lowe nodded, but his features pinched in a way that made her feel he was worried about things again. He was tense for a few seconds, until she looked back down at what she was doing and started cleaning his wound again.