She swallowed. “I know. We do have something. That’s why I want to leave. Hunter, you aren’t a bear. You’re a person. I love that you believe me, and that will always mean a lot. But you’re no good to me dead, and I don’t think that bear will ever stop coming.”
“I told you I’m not going to lose.”
Her hands tightened into fists in frustration. “How do you know that? Hunter, he’s an apex predator. He has claws like knives, and all I can imagine is you getting torn up by them.” She lowered her head. “I love your confidence, but I’d rather lose you than see that happen.”
“Why don’t you have faith in me?” He reached down and took her hands, holding them gently in his. “When have I ever let you down?”
She blinked back tears. “You never have. Of course not. But that doesn’t mean you can fight a damn bear. Can’t you see that’s why I’m worried for you? You’re a good guy. You want to be the hero. You won’t ever back away from a fight when someone needs you.”
“Damn straight.”
“Even if you should,” she added, causing him to stare at her.
“You can’t be serious,” Hunter said. “After all we’ve been through, you’re going to give up?”
“I’m not giving up,” she said. “I’m just considering my options. I’m just dealing with the fact that someone could get hurt for me, and it’s someone I care for very much.”
“If you care for me, that’s enough. I’ll fight that bear for you. I promise.”
“I wish you wouldn’t.” She swiped at an errant tear. “I wish he would just go away. But I know he’s never going to, even if nobody understands. I know it deep down in my heart.”
“And I know something in my heart,” Hunter said. “How hard I’ll fight for you. How much you are mine.”
Despite her determination to argue with him, his words made her swoon.
No man had ever made her feel like this. No man would ever be like Hunter, with that hat he always wore or that beautiful, sun-bleached blond hair. Those sparkling, playful eyes that were reassuring no matter what was happening.
That personality that would walk into danger for another person no matter how unsafe it was for himself.
As much as it ached, she wanted him to be happy. Someone should get to enjoy him for a nice long life. He shouldn’t waste it getting killed by a bear for her.
“Want to take a nap? I’m still tired.” She patted the bed next to her.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Hunter said, flopping down on top of the covers with a sigh. “I’m fucking tired from last night.”
“I thought you were relaxed because I was there.”
“I was, but making love is overwhelming. Besides, if I’m going to protect you, I need to keep up my strength.” His voice was a mumble by the time he finished, and before she could even laugh softly at his comment, he’d fallen asleep.
For a while, she just sat by him, brushing his hair back and treasuring a quiet moment with her man. Memorizing his handsome features, the long lines of his body.
It could all be hers if she was willing to risk it for her own safety.
Hopefully, things would still work out fine.
She’d go back and grab what she could and take off somewhere. Like she probably would have to for the rest of her life. But at least she would know Hunter was safe. As much as he cared for her, she was sure any woman would be lucky to have him.
And any woman who loved him wouldn’t want him to die because he thought he could take on a bear.
He was so damn overconfident. Perhaps if she knew the reason why…
But a part of her knew that was just Hunter. He didn’t explain himself, and he made decisions on the fly. And he was too good of a man to ever walk away, so she would have to.
* * *
Hunter woke drowsily later that afternoon, groggy from sleep even as he realized that the sun was still blazing overhead, shining on the forest outside their window.
No time for more sleep. He had things to do today.
But something felt wrong.
“Sorry, Kelly. I didn’t know I would sleep so long,” Hunter said through a yawn, rolling over to see if she was still sleeping.
Pure horror froze Hunter’s veins as he turned onto his other side, hand reaching for a person that was not there. Like a bolt, he sat up in bed, looking around the room for her.
She was gone.
Maybe she was in the bathroom.
He practically leapt out of bed, checking all of the adjoining rooms. All of them were empty. So he raced to the kitchen. But as terrifying as it was that he couldn’t see her, the fact that terrified him most was that Kelly’s scent was faint, almost gone from the house.
If she’d been up walking around, he would have known it.
How had she disappeared on him like this? He was right there.
Hunter supposed staying awake all last night hadn’t helped at all.
“Hey, what’s up, man?”
Hunter whirled around to see Garrett standing in the hallway, looking at him curiously.
“Kelly’s gone.” Even the words made his blood run cold. An admission of failure with terrible implications, given their situation.
All he could see was Kelly’s face. Was she in danger at this very moment?
“Whoa, what?” Garrett’s cheerful gaze was instantly alert. “You sure?”
“She’s not here, but…” Hunter rushed to the front door, looking out the living room windows. Shit, her car was gone.
“Maybe she went to the store,” Garrett offered hopefully.
“No.” Everything felt wrong. She would have told him if it was just a casual stop at the supermarket. She knew what was at stake.
“Here, I’ll call Grayson. We’ll go looking for her.” Garrett pulled out his phone.
“I’m going after her.” Hunter interrupted, bursting out of the door and feeling the shift take over instantly. Huge paws and long, powerful legs took the place of his human arms and legs. He felt his senses heighten, his eyesight sharpen like a blade on a whetstone.
“Where are you going?” Garrett yelled. Even from a dozen feet away, Hunter could hear the tinny warble of Garrett’s phone still dialing Grayson.
If his intuition was right, he knew exactly where she was.
“Her place!” Adrenaline was pumping through Hunter’s body, making him numb.
“I’ll tell Grayson and meet you there as soon as I can,” Garrett called from behind him.
But Hunter’s legs were already carrying him forward with lightning speed as he took long bounds through the forest, making a direct line from Garrett’s place to Kelly’s little cabin on the far side of town.
In a vehicle, the drive would take much longer, even at reckless speeds, due to the circuitous route and the crappy condition of the roads. But as a giant cougar, he could traverse any terrain, no matter how rough.
As he ran, he knew this was all his fault. She’d been nervous before he’d taken a nap, and he hadn’t been able to reassure her. He’d hoped just his word would convince her enough.
But what had he even been thinking? That she’d just be okay with a human that claimed that he could take on a bear? It sounded stupid now that he thought about it, even if he’d never thought about it that way before.
He just hadn’t been ready to tell her about his cougar, to risk her looking at him with alarm and confusion in her eyes. What if she hadn’t believed him? What if she had rejected him.
He had just wanted to solve her problem first.
Now that wasn’t an option because her safety was the only thing on his mind right now. Not her opinion of him, not how she’d look at him for being a cat.
She must care about him. Otherwise, she never would have run to protect him. She didn’t want him or anyone to get hurt. But Hunter was desperate for her not to get hurt either, and now he was just praying he could get there in time.
He leapt over a log, not losing speed as his body compress
ed and lengthened in long extensions, covering several meters of distance with each stride. Birds flew away and small creatures fled the presence of the big cat running through the forest. But everything around him faded into the background as he whizzed through ferns and bushes and dodged trees and rocks, the singular thought of keeping Kelly safe circling his thoughts on repeat.
The minutes flew by, his lungs taking great heaves to keep up his pace, until he finally arrived at the cabin.
And with great relief followed by utter dread, he found Kelly.
And the bear that was about to become fucking mincemeat.
She was in her car, parked in her driveway. The bear, its gray and brown fur catching the light and making him look even bigger than he had at night, was pacing around the vehicle, scratching and scraping at the windows while Kelly huddled inside.
She’d probably tried to get home for safety, but the bear had been there at her house, waiting to trap her before she could get indoors.
It was time to end this.
Hunter strode forward, his cougar growling protectively, ready to tear anything and everything apart that threatened to harm his mate.
The bear had its front paws on the front of the vehicle and was rocking it up and down, making the shocks groan against the weight of the creature. Then suddenly it stopped, soulless black eyes looking over its shoulder in the direction of the sound.
Kelly had been mid-scream when the bear stopped, and she turned to look, too. Her eyes met Hunter’s, and she immediately shrieked again. Hunter was confused at first, then realized she was probably only more alarmed by the sight of a cougar coming into the fight.
The bear, however, knew exactly what was going on, and he pushed off the car, landing heavily on all four big paws. It moved away from the car but kept itself between Kelly and Hunter, blocking a direct path for Hunter to his mate.
He’d just have to rip this fucker to shreds before he could get Kelly out.
“Yeah, that’s right. Come and get a piece of pissed-off kitty,” Hunter growled at the creature. Even twice his size, Hunter had no fear of it.
The bear just cocked its head, growling with sinister possessiveness, too feral to be able to speak while in animal form. It paced slowly while Hunter circled it, every muscle in his body tensed, ready to strike first.
And then, with everything his cat had been holding back for days, ever since he’d heard about this fucking bear threatening Kelly, he leapt at it.
Kelly would never have to run again.
Chapter 16
The ground rumbled beneath Kelly’s car while she watched in horrified shock as the cougar that had appeared from seemingly nowhere bounded off the ground at the grizzly in front of her car.
The bear swung at it with heavy, slow motions, but the big cat was too fast, razor-sharp claws scraping along the brown and gray beast’s back as it flew past.
Bright red rivulets of liquid cascaded onto the ground, and the cougar landed on its feet on the other side of the bear, which whirled around.
The bear stood on its haunches, looking terrifyingly tall for a moment before crashing back down to the ground and roaring, making her car shake back and forth like there was an earthquake.
The sound was deafeningly loud, ferocious and wild, striking icy fear into her very soul. But the cat, its long body crouched low to the ground, ears pinned back, just growled, a loud, raspy sound, as if in challenge.
Kelly couldn’t believe what she was seeing. A bear fighting a cougar right in the dirt road in front of her house. For a moment, she wondered if anyone else would drive by and possibly see what she was seeing. Then she remembered her cabin was on a private road on the far end of Silver Lake. The chances were astronomically low.
Dammit, why hadn’t she charged her phone before leaving? With all of the excitement, she’d forgotten and didn’t have a charger in the car.
But even if she could take a video, she doubted anyone would believe it.
Why would a cougar do this for her? What did it possibly have to gain fighting a bear twice its size?
She knew it had to be the cougar she’d seen in the clearing a few nights ago. Kelly instantly recognized its long, majestic body, the oddly blue eyes that were somehow familiar and foreign at the same time.
The cat squared off with the bear, eyes glaring at it, unblinking as its long fangs glowed pure white in the afternoon sun. The bear just took slow, lumbering strides as well. And if she wasn’t mistaken, she could swear she saw it lick its lips hungrily.
Up close like this, Kelly could tell more definitively that this cougar was not the size of any ordinary cougar, probably standing a foot or two taller than any big cat she’d ever seen in person or in books and a great deal longer from head to tail.
But then again, the bear most definitely wasn’t the size of any normal bear, either, towering over the big cat and, well, practically everything else around him. It was a shock he hadn’t split her car in two when she’d first driven up to the cabin. But she’d gotten the impression that the bear was taking its time with her, in a horrific way.
This time the bear charged first, swinging a huge paw at the cat, pitch-black claws like giant spikes as it slashed. The cat gracefully moved to the side as the paw missed, and it quickly reached forward, slashing at the bear’s face before retreating back a pace, out of the bear’s reach.
The bear roared in pain, and Kelly could make out blood dripping down the side of its face, deep gashes where the cougar’s claws had made contact.
But her beastly stalker didn’t give up, barreling forward like a freight train, swinging everywhere and trying to catch the cougar. The huge cat slashed where it could but had to duck to the side out of reach of the rampaging creature.
Then, to her utter surprise, the cougar leapt up and onto the bear’s side. Like they were razor-edged meat hooks, the cat dug its claws into the bear’s back and shoulders, slicing through its thick hide. The bear growled and yelped in pain, standing up on its back legs and swiping futilely at the big cat behind him but unable to reach it. The cat climbed farther up its back, digging in its long, blood-covered, bladed claws over and over.
In desperation, the bear rolled to its side and onto its back. The cougar, only barely escaping being crushed by the gigantic creature, was forced off and onto its back. But just as it made to stand clear of the bear’s counterattack, Kelly watched as a wild slash of black claws struck the cougar in the side, sending it careening to the side. When the cougar pushed itself back up, she could see several long gashes leaking red over its sandy-colored hide.
It was only then that she noticed something new. In the forest, crouched in the bushes not far from the cougar, she could make out the shape of a huge black wolf with gray eyes watching the fight intently. And next to it, pacing back and forth, was another gigantic grizzly of similar size to the one that had been stalking her for months. But this one had a ruddy brown coat and amber eyes, plus an expression of almost humanlike worry in its gaze.
What the hell was going on?
To her shock, the cougar looked over its shoulder and actually hissed at the two creatures as if to warn them off. The brown grizzly stopped pacing and sat back on its haunches, looking almost disappointed, and the wolf just stayed eerily still, watching from its place in the bushes.
Apparently, the big cat wanted this fight to be his and his alone.
Kelly wished she could call Hunter about this. But he would only want to come over and put himself in even more danger than before.
As touched as she had been watching Hunter go outside, gun in hand, after the bear showed up the night at the bar, Kelly knew what it took to actually kill a bear of this size. She’d read reports of bears taking dozens of bullets before finally going down. And she was quite sure this bear was larger than any reported instance in the wild she’d seen.
Hunter was perfect. Handsome, funny, good. He would do fine with a woman who didn’t have a psycho bear stalking her. He was better off s
haring all of his perfectness where his life wouldn’t be in danger.
On the other hand, she was starting to worry for the cougar.
The bear, confident in its advantage once more, brazenly rushed forward, hoping for another lucky blow. The big cat was able to duck and dodge out of its way, but its movements were slower, less graceful. And she could see its chest heaving great breaths, the injury clearly taking its toll.
None of this made sense. The cougar could run off and live to fight another day.
So why did Kelly get the distinct impression that it would rather fight to the death instead?
Thankfully, the bear was looking winded, too, its blood-soaked fur a testament to the cougar’s sheer speed and determination. Even as it pressed the attack, swinging over and over at the much smaller, much more agile cat, the bear began to falter, its movements becoming wilder, less accurate.
Then, in a sudden, shocking turn of events, the cougar followed up one of the bear’s missed attacks by leaping forward. Kelly watched as its long fangs dug into the scruff of the bear’s neck, paws gripping into its side and pulling downward. The bear struggled, shaking back and forth, trying to stay on all four legs. But it only lasted a few moments, the cougar’s powerful muscles straining and wrenching the bear onto its side on the ground with a terrible thud.
The bear, now struggling for its life, flailed desperately, growling and snarling and trying to roll back onto its feet. But the cougar, in one lightning-fast motion, snapped its teeth down on the bear’s neck, growling and pulling at its jugular, and Kelly instinctively turned away in horrified shock.
After she had a second to breathe, she forced herself to turn back to the fight.
The struggling bear was still trying to slash at the cougar, catching it in the shoulder and legs with haphazard attacks. But gradually, the roars from the bear lessened, its movements slowing as the ground turned red, then maroon, with thick liquid pooling over it.
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