Dancing Bearback (BBW Shifter Cowboy Western Romance) (Bear Ranchers Book 3)

by Becca Fanning

  She moved into her bathroom, watching Russ. He was standing at the mirror, a towel around his waist, combing his hair. His body rippled with muscles. She had seen him naked before, outside of the hospital, but hadn't had the chance to really appreciate the man in front of her.

  “Wow,” she muttered, moving a hand to her mouth in embarrassment. She hadn't meant to say anything.

  He laughed again, her defenses falling farther. “And just think, out of all of the shifters in my Clan, I'm the scrawny one.”

  “You're the scrawny one?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “You should introduce me to your friends if they have better bodies than you.”

  She'd meant it as a joke, but his voice was guarded. “I'm the brains of our Clan. It's almost a stereotype, actually. Brains versus brawn. Guess which one every shifter wants their son to be?”

  “I was just kidding, Russ. I didn't mean anything by it. If it makes you feel better, I would rather be with someone that's smart and cares about others.”

  She came close to him, their bodies nearly touching. She hesitated, but raised a hand, trailing a finger down his back, from his neck all of the way down to the towel. He shuddered in pleasure.

  “You seem fine to me. Sorry for what I said,” she said. Glancing at his reflection in the mirror, she watched Russ perk up. In more ways than one, she saw. “You can pillage my closet for something that fits you. I have plenty of hospital stuff I got for free. You know how that kind of stuff only comes in extra-large. Some of it is bound to fit you.”

  “I'll wait downstairs for you,” he said, turning to leave the bathroom. She moved in front of him, blocking his exit. They stood close. Zoe looked up at him, standing on her tip toes to plant a slow, warm kiss on his lips. He kissed back, passionately, warmth flowing over her body. And then he broke the kiss. “You don't want to get involved with me. It's dangerous.”

  He left her standing alone in the bathroom, breath heaving in lust. She had wanted him. She had almost had him. She could tell that Russ was a man who cared about others. Who helped others. But he was someone who couldn't let himself be helped. She feared he would keep pushing her away, claiming it was for her own good, while he suffered. Luckily, she was good at helping others.

  She found Russ standing in the living room, peering out through an open window. He wore a pair of gray sweat pants with her hospital's logo on one leg and a large T shirt that was two sizes too large even for him, the back emblazoned with a cheerful smiley face and the words, Thanks for seeing us! Hope we don't see you soon! Wrapped around it. Not her favorite motto for the hospital, but it cracked her boss up.

  “I think we're good for the night,” Russ said, back to business.

  “Those clothes look good on you,” Zoe teased.

  “Not my usual style, I'll admit.”

  “I'd like to see you in your usual style. How about after all of this blows over, you take me out for some dinner?”

  “Thanks for the offer, Zoe. But you know I can't. My line of work… my life… it's dangerous. I don't want you to get caught up in this any more than you already are. You can head up to bed. I'll keep watch out here.”

  “I would feel safer if you would watch from my room,” Zoe offered, wondering if her attempt to get Russ into her room would work. To her surprise, he nodded.

  They went back up to her room. With a sigh, Zoe watched as the shifter moved towards her open window, peering out into her yard. The snow was still falling lightly, the wind howling against the window. Zoe climbed under her thick covers, the warmth washing over her.

  “You don't have to stay up there watching all night. You need to get some rest. You'll be able to smell anyone that comes close, right?”

  “Yeah, you're right. Do you have an extra pillow and blanket? I can sleep on the floor.”

  She did, of course, but she said, “This is it. We can share the same bed. It's big enough.”

  Russ raised an eyebrow at her. He knew it was a lie, but said nothing. He moved over to the bed, peeling the shirt over his head and dropping it to the floor beside him. He crawled under the covers and for the first time since she'd bought her bed, she wished she had bought a smaller size. Despite his huge size, Russ was still far away from her. So close, yet so far away, flashed through her mind.

  “Okay, don't go getting familiar during the middle of the night. I'm a good girl,” Zoe teased, curling up next to him.

  She heard his laugh, happy and relaxed. He snuggled under the covers and she reached a hand out, placing it on his toned stomach. To her surprise, she felt his fingers intertwine in her own. All of the excitement of the day washed over her, and she was out in seconds.

  *

  Zoe awoke to movement beside her. She smiled when she felt Russ's toned stomach slide out from under her hand. Weak sunlight shone through the open window, snow falling softly. With a yawn and a stretch, she pulled herself out of bed.

  “Morning.”

  “Morning. How'd you sleep?”

  “Better than I thought I could have,” was Zoe's reply. She felt well rested, refreshed, the worries of yesterday washed away. She knew there would be plenty of worries today, but she tried not to let that bother her. No use ruining the whole day mere minutes after waking up.

  Russ sat down on the edge of the bed, his baggy clothes pulled over his body. He picked up the phone, dialing the number to the building. There was no answer. Likewise, no answer from Clive. Zoe watched the concern deepening on Russ's face. He tried Jace as a last resort.

  He answered almost immediately. Even from her position on the other side of the bed, she could hear the worry in his voice. “Hello? This isn't a good time.”

  “Jace, it's me. Russ. What's going on?”

  “Shit, Russ. We've been looking all over for you. We've been attacked. Another Clan of shifters is targeting the clients we've helped, the families of our clients, and us. We've lost a lot of people already. We need your help, there are a lot of hurt people down here.”

  “Is everyone alright?”

  “No. Walt's dead. Austin's dead. Derrick's not going to make it. Beth, some of the other girls… they're in bad shape, Russ. Clive can't even function right now. We need you here, now.”

  “We're on our way,” Russ stated, hanging up the phone. “Grab any medical supplies you have here. Grab your keys. We'll drive your car as far as it can go, then we'll run.”

  Zoe was dressed within a matter of seconds. She reached into her closet, grabbing three large bags of medical supplies: gauze, tape, bandages, thread, needles, IV packets, and tubes, anything she could get her hands on at the hospital. She'd hoped she'd never need them, but time for that was over.

  Russ grabbed two of the bags, one in his hand and the other under his armpit. He grabbed the keys, running down the stairs three at a time. Zoe could barely keep up with him. When she got outside, he already had the car started. She had no idea how he managed it, but it was chugging along, coughing, but it was running. The bags were tossed in the back seat and Russ was using his large hands to scoop large armfuls of snow off of the car. Some snow had leaked through the windshield, but the interior was mostly dry.

  Zoe hopped in the passenger seat right as Russ dropped into the driver's seat. He slid the seat back and she winced as she heard a crack, this seat definitely broken. It wouldn't matter, anyway. She knew this was the last ride for her old car. Russ gave her an apologetic look, shrugging and telling her, Whoops. I'm sorry.

  They rolled backwards down her driveway and as he put it into drive, he bent over to her, planting a thick kiss on her lips for the briefest of moments. And then they were off, tires kicking up plumes of dirty snow behind them. The car sputtered even more, but kept rolling. She could only imagine the trail of vital fluids her car was leaking behind them.

  “I'm going to need your help when we get there,” Russ said, eyes blazing. “If it's as bad as they say, it's much more than I can handle alone.”

  “Russ,” said Zoe. “I don't do this ki
nd of stuff. I work in a hospital. I do everything by the books. Exact dosages, knowing my patient's allergies, their situation – I wasn't trained for this!”

  “Zoe, listen to me. You can do this. You're going to have to do this. People will die if you can't.”

  She nodded, realizing she was crying. Despite Russ's words of encouragement, she knew she couldn't. Sure, she'd ran into bad situations in the hospital, but they were nothing like what she thought they were walking into.

  Twenty minutes later, they turned down a street of rundown buildings, and her car gave a final heave. An explosive boom! shook the car and black smoke started billowing out of the engine, flooding through the cracked windshield. Russ was out of the car before it even stopped moving, grabbing the three bags in his hands and sprinting down the road. Zoe was right behind him.

  “It's not far! It's just right up here!” Russ yelled, a few steps ahead of her. She didn't need Russ to tell her where they were going, though. A chain link gate was smashed through by a car, the car a flaming ball of wreckage. Ahead of her was a courtyard, bodies strewn across it, some already covered in a light dusting of snow. Bright red blood was splashed everywhere she could see. Naked bodies lay everywhere, but she didn't see any bears, remembering that when a shifter died, he reverted back to his human form.

  Running through the gate, Russ stopped as he stepped over a body. Looking down, he winced. “I'm sorry I couldn't be here for you, Austin.”

  Zoe looked down at the body. The man was young, probably not even out of college yet. Ahead, a snowy body moaned at hearing Russ's voice. He dropped the bags, running to the person and dropping to his knees. He wiped snow off of them. Zoe grabbed the three bags as best she could and came close.

  “Oh, shit, Judge,” Russ said. “We have to get him inside.”

  “You're not supposed to move bodies like this,” Zoe said, softly.

  “I don't care. He's going to die if we can't get him inside, get him warm, and patch him up,” Russ yelled, sliding his hands under the dark skinned man's body. He moaned in pain, but said nothing, as Russ moved towards the building.

  When they reached it, Russ kicked at the door, yelling for someone to let him in. The door opened, a man saying, “We thought he was dead.”

  “Get my tools out of my room, Jace,” Russ ordered. Zoe followed inside, carnage laid out before her. Jace ran past her down a hallway to her right. Bodies were lain across a bar to her right and two were on the floor, bar stools pushed away in a heap. To her left was a recreation area, strewn with bodies. Men and women sat on couches, covered in blood or holding their wounds. Two pool tables were covered in bodies. Everything was awful. Zoe felt sick.

  Russ moved towards a couch, ushering a couple of shaken up women to move. They complied, Russ setting Judge down, yelling, “Get this man some blankets! Has anyone called the hospital?”

  Someone yelled, “Yeah, they're on their way!”

  “We have to keep these people alive and stabilize them before the ambulances get here,” Russ said to Zoe.

  He came towards her then, grabbing two of the bags and yelling for Jace to hurry up.

  “I can't do this,” Zoe said, feeling herself nearly faint on the spot. Things in the hospital had been bad… but never this bad. This was a whole new level of violence, sadness, and death. She felt it overwhelming her, an almost real feeling of the room smothering her.

  Russ grabbed her by her arms, pulling her close to him and bending down. “Zoe. Zoe, listen to me. You can do this. You're trained for this kind of stuff. If there's any doctor in this city I would want by my side during a time like this, it would be you. People are relying on you. I'm relying on you. We can do this. We can save these people. But only if we work together. Together.”

  He kissed her on her forehead, moving off to start working. Jace ran up, carrying a massive bag, twice the size of hers. Another shifter ran up, thick dark hair sweat slick, tears flowing down his face. “You've got to help them, Russ. I can't lose my brother and Beth!”

  “Where are they at, Clive?”

  Clive lead Russ over to a pool table.

  “I'm sorry, Clive. He's hurt too badly. I have to save others that I can save first,” Russ said, visible weight settling over his shoulders. He moved to another woman on another table, going to work immediately, digging through bags. Zoe felt helpless, overwhelmed.

  “Help!” a woman screamed, stumbling through the front door. “They came after me at my house!”

  She came straight towards Zoe, who took two steps back. “I can't.”

  “Please,” the woman said, holding her arm. The wound was a thick gash, blood pumping to the floor, but it wasn't life threatening. She could do this much, at least.

  “You!” she yelled at the shifter called Jace. He raised his eyes at her. “Come over here and give me a hand!”

  “I don't know anything about this kind of stuff!” he said, frozen solid.

  “You do exactly what she says, Jace!” Russ yelled over his shoulder. “She's going to help save everyone here!”

  That pushed Jace into motion. He came close, holding out his outstretched hands as Zoe piled huge butterfly bandages and medical glue into his hands. “That wound isn't life threatening. Use the glue to close it up and then cover it with these bandages, then get her out of the way. Who's hurt the worst?”

  She moved off to one of the men on the bar that Jace pointed to. She yelled orders at another shifter sitting behind the bar to get up and help her. He looked dazed and she noticed half of his face was red, burned, though he appeared to be in otherwise good condition. He was young, what little golden hair he had left that hadn't been burned away a striking match to his golden eyes.

  “What's your name?” she asked the golden haired shifter, inspecting the man on the bar top. His throat had been ripped out, probably by a rival shifter. Blood was pooling all around him.

  “It's Rick,” he said, shaking. “Rick.”

  “Okay, Rick. We're going to save this man's life. I'll need you to hand me what I need.”

  “I don't know anything in this bag.”

  “I'll give you descriptions. We're going to do fine. Are you ready?”

  Rick nodded. “Give me my scissors,” was Zoe's first command.

  They'd stopped the bleeding pretty quickly. The man on the table might never talk again, but he wouldn't die here. If they couldn't get him to a hospital soon, though, all bets were off. She ordered another man to keep a watch on him and ordered Rick to follow her. The other man on the bar was already dead. “Cover this man up!” she yelled, moving on. A frightened woman pulled a table cloth from a table and covered him.

  The next man was missing almost his entire leg below the knee. It was bloody, brutal work, cutting away the dead skin and cleaning his leg. Halfway through, he jolted awake, adrenaline coursing through his body, screaming. She'd told Rick, “Give him a dose of that!” and had pointed towards a syringe. He looked as if he was going to question what it was, but instead he plunged the needle into the man. He stilled almost immediately.

  “This guy is in bad shape,” she said. “Those ambulances need to hurry. He's stable for now. Who's next?”

  She found herself standing over the woman called Beth. She was laid on the same pool table as Derrick, their bodies close and a tangle of limbs. Not her ideal working conditions, but she had to work with what she had.

  “You're doing great, Zoe,” Russ offered. He bent close to Derrick's chest and she could tell that he had been crushed under something heavy. Zoe knew that shifters were resilient to damage, but this looked like too much. She knew that Russ was torn up about having to leave Derrick for last, but she understood why. He was in bad shape. She didn't think he would survive even a few minutes longer.