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“This isn’t going to happen.”
Exhausted, Stephanie Porter glanced up at the steep incline looming before her.
Then again, she’d spent her entire life defying the odds.
Raised by an amazing foster family, she’d worked to put herself through college, made excellent grades, and landed an entry level position at the successful marketing firm Leads to Success. From there, she’d worked her way to assistant director of lead generation at the firm. In the past year, she’d also managed to battle and conquer an onset of sarcoidosis, requiring prednisone steroid shots that had made her gain weight like crazy. No matter how hard she’d tried—eating right, exercising—nothing stopped the needle on the scale from climbing.
“Speaking of climbing…” she muttered.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she let out a deep breath and trudged forward along the rocky incline. Her calf muscles screamed in protest against the test of endurance she’d put herself through, during this hike on the famous Appalachian Trail.
What she hadn’t managed to conquer yet was her broken heart.
A month before their wedding, her fiancé, Kyle, had broken off their engagement. While they’d both been active, outdoor enthusiasts at one time, she and Kyle had drifted apart as she’d gone through endless tests to heal her inflammatory condition. Dedicated to restoring her health, she could no longer keep up with their former lifestyle. He’d continued to take rock-climbing and mountain-biking excursions, leaving her behind. Soon, they were all but leading separate lives—that’s the sorry excuse he gave for breaking things off. The selfish, shallow jerk. It wasn’t like she’d asked for her troubling diagnosis, or the unfortunate side effects of the cure.
As she ascended the steep embankment one labored step at a time, her lungs strained for breath. Her legs ached. Halfway up the hillside, she wanted to collapse in a heap of frustration and self-pity.
“You can do this,” she told herself in the firm voice of a drill sergeant. I’m going to finish this part of the southern trail. And I’m going to post pics on Facebook to prove to Kyle I made the trek—without him.
Burning sadness scorched her heart. This was supposed to have been their honeymoon. The ultimate couples’ adventure they’d planned on taking for over a year.
Damn it, I will do this.
Sweat beaded on her upper lip and soaked the pink bandanna she’d tied around her forehead. She leaned hard on the wooden walking stick she’d found abandoned near the trailside of when she’d started. The carved head of a bear bit into her palm.
Her best friend and maid-of-honor, Ashley, had attempted to comfort her in the weeks after Kyle dumped her. “Better you learned who he really is before you married the dumbass,” Ashley had insisted.
Stephanie appreciated her friend’s rational conclusion, but the deep gash Kyle had inflicted on her heart and her pride required emotional stitches and time, not the brief balm of words.
“Who knows?” Ashley had said. “Kyle might’ve done you a favor. Now you’re free to find your true soul mate.”
Yeah, right, Stephanie thought, lingering bitterness twisting her lips, doubts hounding her about her overall situation. Who would want me now?
Short of breath, but doggedly determined, she reached the top of the hill. She grinned in triumph.
But the thrill of accomplishment was short-lived. Her walking stick caught the edge of a jagged rock and cracked in half. A second later, she toppled to the ground into a pile of prickly brush. Her right shin banged against a boulder. A rush of warm blood trickled down her leg.
Instead of giving into frustration, she channeled the anger and resentment flooding her veins to push up to standing. Retrieving the first-aid kit from her backpack, she patched up her wounded shin. Continuing on, she fought her way through a tangle of thorns to return to the path.
Then, like a mirage in the desert, the slate roof of a building came into view. Had she already made it to the first supply stop on the trail?
“Hallelujah.”
Tired, aching all over, and still bleeding a little, she ignored her sorry condition and raced toward the shelter. The downward trail widened until it became a dirt road, which led to a sloped gravel-paved street.
Relief swamped her. Her heart felt light, hopeful, for the first time in days since she’d set out on the trail. Possibly even months, considering all she’d been through recently.
As the sunlight beamed down, she soaked the rays into her skin. There were occasional clearings along the path, but for the most part the dense, musty woods proved her constant companion.
A few quaint buildings lined the street. Several large 4x4 trucks and SUVs parked along the berm next to deep grassy ditches. She lifted her nose in the air and inhaled the clean, fresh, open arena.
Another glorious scent filled her nostrils. Barbeque.
She salivated. Her stomach rumbled.
Someone was grilling something far more delicious than the MRE meals and granola bars and beef jerky she’d packed.
“My kingdom for a hamburger,” she announced to the squirrels chasing each other across the road into the grass.
Then she sized up the impressive lodge, the one that had stood out as her beacon. The building was a two-story behemoth of a structure, topped by the massive slate roof she’d spied from the distance.
Above the door a rustic sign read: Bear Necessities Survivalist Store.
Well, thank God for them.
After scraping caked mud off her hiking boots, she stepped inside. The spacious main floor was lined with a dozen shelves stocked with supplies. Exposed timber beams soared high above. Through a huge glass display case behind the counter, she noticed an assortment of knives, axes and machetes glinting in the light.
Then she saw the Holy Grail of amenities—a sign that advertised bathrooms and showers.
Maybe the forest gods were on her side after all. Had she not stumbled and fallen when she did, she might have missed her glimpse of this supply store.
Uncertain when she’d encounter civilization again, she plucked a woven basket from the stack by the front door and wandered the shelves. She selected items to replenish her supplies. Happy to be under a sturdy roof, in a building with air-conditioning, she roamed lazily along the aisles.
Until she came face to face with a giant bear.
“Oh!” she shrieked.
The basket dropped from her hand. Her knees buckled, and she reached for a shelf to steady herself.
The bear wasn’t real—or, it had been, but a skilled taxidermist had performed a commendable job of making the beast continue to look life-like. Eerily life-like, as if the powerful bear’s spirit still lingered in the air surrounding the creature. She shuddered.
Her hand loosened its grip on the surface she’d grasped for balance. A warm, muscular surface, lightly hair dusted and utterly masculine. The scent of inviting cedar and crisp pine invaded her senses, with musky male undertones.
Glancing up, she found a broad chest blocking her view of anything else. Her gaze moved up, up, up… Whoa, this guy was tall, and big all over. And he radiated a primal sexiness that took her breath away.
At last her gaze met his eyes. They crinkled at the corners, and glistened as he took her in with a head-to-toe sweep. They were an unforgettable dark, moss-green color, flecked with gold. The hue of his hair matched the glossy deep brown
of a buckeye. She dropped her hold on his forearm, hands flexing at her sides grasping at air, her mind grasping for words.
“Hello,” he said, his voice a smooth rumble that vibrated in intimate places on her body.
Oh, my God, you’re gorgeous.
“Sorry if the bear startled you.”
If that brought you to my side, then I’m not sorry.
“What’s your name?” he asked, bending to collect the items that had spilled when she’d dropped the basket.
When he returned the basket to her hand, she gripped the handles with diminished strength. The hugeness of him made her feel slight and feminine—two things she had doubted she would ever feel again. Heat prickled up her neck in a blossoming flush. Her body felt weightless, her head dizzy. “My name’s Stephanie,” she managed.
“I’m Mason.” He held out his giant paw of a hand. His wide smile, revealing perfect white teeth, nearly knocked her back on her heels. “A pleasure to meet you.”
Fingers trembling, she took his hand which quickly engulfed hers in a cozy embrace. “Thanks. You, too,” she said, wondering where her quick wit and saleswoman charm had gone. Both had apparently vanished the moment she looked into his eyes. She forced herself to make conversation. “Are you the owner of Bear Necessities?”
He dipped his chin in affirmation. “One of many—there’s a group of us. You could say we’re practically a clan. We all contribute to running the chain of stores.”
“Fascinating.” Completely unsettled by him, she reverted to calm, rational work mode. Never without a business card, even in the middle of a forest, she unzipped a side pocket on her shorts and handed one to him. “Should you ever need help marketing your company, give me a call. I’d love to be there for you.” Her cheeks heated. “You know, to take your company brand to the next level. In the marketplace.”
The comforting warmth in his eyes surrounded her in a soft, hazy glow of wistfulness. Could she already have a crush on a stranger, even though Kyle had dumped her only a month ago?
Uncertain if these unfurling emotions were a good thing or a bad thing, she swallowed. Her palms turned clammy.
They stood staring at each other for a full thirty seconds. Anything clever that popped into her head sounded lame, so she said nothing. She simply wanted to bask in his majestic presence. For as long as he allowed.
Then his gaze dropped and he cursed under his breath, breaking the charismatic spell. “You’re bleeding. I can’t believe I didn’t notice before now. Come with me.” He took her hand and led her toward the back of the building. “You need to see our medic.”
They had their own personal medic on staff? Wow, these people ran a great niche enterprise. Perfect along the Appalachian Trail. Except her minor injury didn’t require professional treatment. “I’m okay. No need for a medic.”
His grip firmed on her hand. “Yes, there is.”
She frowned at his domineering nature. “What I really need is a hot shower.”
His dark eyes sparked like green firecrackers as he glanced at her over his shoulder. “I can make that happen. First, we’ll take a look at your injured knee.”
“That’s not necessary—”
“You will come with me.” He uttered the words with clipped finality.
Overbearing male, she grumbled to herself. But then she decided she’d let this very sexy man lead her just about anywhere.
*
As he gripped Stephanie’s delicate hand, Mason suspected his body resembled a nuclear reaction zone. Hot and explosive. He ground his teeth.
With every ounce of effort, he fought the primal urge to drag this woman into the nearest shower and fasten his mouth on any part of her body she’d let him taste.
Although he would’ve taken her with or without the shower, since she’d mentioned it his sexual imagination had run wild. For his kind, the richer and muskier a woman’s scent, the better.
Stephanie fit all his criteria and then some. She was damned near perfect, and he’d wanted her the second he saw her terrified expression, staring at his great-grandfather. His kind had robust appetites, especially when it came to sex.
No mousy little thing would satisfy a bear’s needs. Rolling around together, rough-play, stamina…all necessary requirements his kind found only in women who didn’t starve themselves or strive to be stick figures. Women weren’t meant to be thin. The natural world had endowed them with large, luscious curves for a reason—because it was hot. The woods had endless sticks. What was far more rare and precious was a delicious conquest like Stephanie. His sexual urges kicked into overdrive.
As he arrived with her outside Tyce’s closed office door, Mason managed to rein in his ferocious appetite. He assumed any minute now her companion would enter the lodge—probably some weird, awkward guy who didn’t appreciate or deserve her, but who she settled for—and he’d never see Stephanie again.
The thought bothered him more than it should.
He pounded the side of his fist against Tyce’s door. While waiting for Tyce, he glanced at the plaque on the wall bearing the Rod of Asclepius, the iconic symbol associated with healing and medicine of a snake twined around a staff.
Their gifted doctor, however, wasn’t answering. Mason knocked harder.
“I’m not a medical emergency,” Stephanie said, her lyrical voice music to his ears. “If the doctor is busy, I’ll just go take a shower.”
“Not until Tyce judges your condition for himself.”
As a master Trail Guardian, Mason knew all too well that any wound, no matter how small, could become infected and render a hiker weak or ill within days. What might start as a minor scratch could spiral into an extended hospital stay, and without proper antibiotics worse fates awaited. He’d happened on countless hikers over the years who’d dismissed an injury only to be carried out of the woods and fast-tracked to the nearest emergency room by him or one of his fellow bear Guardians.
Tired of waiting, Mason threw open the door and strutted inside. At a long counter spanning the back of the medical office, he spotted Tyce hunched over a microscope. Sandy, their outpost’s office manager and only female Trail Guardian in this territory, leaped away from her close proximity to Tyce. She blushed.
Mason shook his head, bemused by the pair. Why Sandy bothered hiding or denying her feelings for Tyce, Mason would never understand. He supposed it didn’t help that Tyce always had his nose buried in his work. The guy wouldn’t notice a tick infestation in his fur unless someone pointed it out, let alone a sweet beauty like Sandy, in her prime and eager to mate.
“Did you not hear my fist on your door?” Mason asked loudly, dragging Tyce’s attention away from his vocation. That microscope sure as hell wouldn’t keep the good doctor warm at night. Mason sent Sandy a compassionate look. She glanced away.
Tyce stood and removed his glasses, setting them on the countertop. His eyes seemed glazed and it took him a moment to readjust to the real world around him. “My apologies.” Tyce gestured for him and Stephanie to come further into the room. “How can I help?”
“The lady needs treatment,” Mason explained, pointing at her swollen knee trickling blood beneath a soggy band-aide.
“Sure.” Tyce patted the surface of a physician’s bed lined with sterile white paper. “Let’s have a look.”
When Tyce sat on a stool in front of Stephanie and parted her thighs, his fingers methodically touched and investigated her leg.
A shock of possessiveness seized Mason. Totally out of character. He took a step back, shook his head.
What was it about this woman? Why did she impact him like a meteor strike? Tyce was a doctor, a professional, for God’s sake. He was doing his job, not fondling Stephanie. Still, Mason found no peace from the relentless need to protect her from every other male. As if she was his, and belonged to him alone.
Rolling on his short stool to a cupboard nearby, Tyce withdrew sanitary items, a proper bandage and tweezers. “You have a splinter wedged deep. I’ll remo
ve it and send you off with antibiotics.”
“See,” Stephanie said, half-glaring at Mason. “I told you it was nothing.”
Tyce lifted his head. “Not true. Depending on the spores or fecal matter on the material that cut you, a splinter like this could cause you all sorts of trouble if you didn’t care for it properly.”
“See.” Mason grinned. “I told you it was something.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes. Mason laughed.
Glancing between them, Tyce looked puzzled. “How have I amused you?”
“Don’t worry about it, doc.” Mason sighed. “Just do your thing.”
How a pretty girl like Sandy could fall for a nerdy, socially awkward brainiac like Tyce, he’d never understand. None of my business, he thought. Reason and logic have nothing to do with love.
Or so he’d been told. He had no personal experience with those complicated issues. He’d had it easier than many of his Guardian brethren. Most of his close friends had mated already, and while they seemed happy and contented with their lives, Mason didn’t see the need to rush that eventually.
He figured when he’d met his mate, he’d probably know it. Like a flash of lightning across the sky. Or a meteor impact…
The blood drained from his face. He had a hard time swallowing all the sudden. Then he had a hard time breathing.
Dazed, he stared at the woman clenching her jaw, as the doc dug the splinter out of her knee. Impossible. A territorial rush tunneled through his veins, proving him wrong. But…how? Bear shifters only mated with their own kind, not random outsiders. Right?
Confused and unnerved by the startling possibility Stephanie was his mate, he excused himself on an errand to find towels for Steph’s shower. He moved as if in a stupor.
This bizarre twist of fate couldn’t be real. Maybe he hadn’t read the signs correctly. He must’ve mistaken the power of lust and attraction for something more, something deeper.
Moving on auto-pilot, he entered the locker rooms and went to the supply closet. He used a key from the ring on his belt to unlock the door and gather bathing supplies for Steph.
At the thought of her sexy body naked, dripping with warm water, he groaned. His hands shook a little, and the raging hard-on in his canvas shorts refused to stand down. If just the thought of her naked did this to him, what would happen if he had sex with her?
Dare to Bear (Book 1 Trail Guardians Series) Page 1