Crush on the Alpha Bear

by Emilia Hartley

  “Sweet!” Looping her arm through Emily’s, Kelly trotted off with gusto in the direction of the Chinese place, dragging Emily along with her.

  Emily followed, earnestly, happy to leave Adam and the troubles he’d created for them far behind.

  Chapter Nine

  Emily couldn’t sleep. She’d tossed and turned for hours but she still wasn’t getting anywhere. Try as she may to leave their altercation in the past, Adam was still on her mind.

  Throwing her head back, she growled softly towards the ceiling, her frustration knowing no release. She’d been so ready to take Savannah’s advice, so ready to just take a leap of faith and kiss him if only to see what his reaction would be.

  Only for that to happen!

  Seriously, what was he thinking!

  And there had been no release afterwards either, no closure. When Kelley and Emily had returned from their Chinese takeout trip, Adam was already in bed. She tried not to let the night’s events bother her, but if she didn’t find a way to burn off some of this steam, she wouldn’t be able to get anything done tomorrow. Just the thought of having to walk for hours with Adam was enough to make her stomach churn. Tossing and turning in bed just wasn’t doing the trick.

  Swinging her legs out of bed, Emily paced lightly around the room, threading her fingers into her hair as she chewed her lips in irritation. Adam had thrown her a massive curve ball. In all her years of knowing him, he’d never been the over-protective type; that had always been more of his father’s thing. For him to try and pull such a thing, and behind her back no less…

  And what was worse, despite this act of betrayal, her attraction to him was only growing! Despite her anger, she couldn’t get the image of how bright his eyes looked bathed in moonlight out of her head. She could ignore the way her breath caught when he leaned down to speak, just before Kelly had interrupted them. She couldn’t ignore anything about him.

  Her chest rattled angrily as her bear shared in her frustration, begging to be let out so that she could release a bit of stress by pounding through the dirt and dead leaves of the forest that lay beyond.

  The thought stopped her in her tracks. She technically could go for a quick run through the woodland to get rid of some of the tension in her shoulders, but that would require going outside alone, which was probably not the brightest idea. She reminded herself that she wasn’t in Woodhaven for a vacation to visit friends. There were real threats out there, possibly in the woods right now, and this town was their target. She couldn’t be too hasty simply because she was having boy problems.

  She shook her head, but not to talk herself out of it. Nick and Tom were supposed to take shifts watching at night while everyone else slept. It was still fairly early in the evening; it would be highly unlikely that she’d find any trouble out in the thickets and coppices with the alpha brothers patrolling in alternating circuits. Nodding her resolve, she peeked her head out the window and took in the quiet town that lived beyond.

  Woodhaven went to sleep early, the only stores staying open long past sunset being the Chinese takeout and a small gas station on the edge of town. It’d be easy to just slip out for a while, to be alone with no one and nothing but her thoughts. With a small start, she realized this must be how Kelly felt all the time, and allowed herself a moment of sympathy for her best friend. Emily couldn’t take five minutes of Adam’s overbearing attitude; she could only imagine how Kelly must feel after twenty-two years of it from her father.

  Maybe after all this was over, Emily could take Kelly up on that offer to find a big forest together where no one could bother them, after all.

  Without a second thought, Emily was out of her room, down the stairs, and slipping easily through the front door on the pads of her naked feet. The door let out a sad squeak as it swung wide, but after checking to make sure no one inside rustled from the noise, she slipped it silently shut with barely a click. .

  The nighttime wind was still chilly with the cold that pre-summer hadn’t yet claimed. It sliced through Emily’s thin pajamas and wrought goosebumps along her skin as she padded eagerly out towards the nearest tree line.

  Seeing the trees in her view, as she left sleeping civilization behind, Emily began tearing off her thin clothing once she’d reached the shadows of the shrubbery. When she was free of clothes, she sprinted gleefully out into the forest, her bear exploding happily from her skin as she ran.

  ******

  Adam heard Emily muttering listlessly to herself through the thin walls, his own mind sympathetic to her insomnia. Like with him, the events of the walk home must’ve been messing with her mind. Though unlike him, she likely wasn’t kicking herself for stepping out of line.

  He hadn’t meant to be so overbearing with her. He hadn’t meant to play the dominant male. But he’d look at her face and imagine finding her beaten and bloodied on the battlefield. The image in his head alone was enough to set him reeling. His bear would roar with rage and fury, threatening to tear out of him at any moment to seek revenge.

  Sighing, he walked over to the window and threw it open, thankful for the cool night breeze that greeted him. Maybe the chill would help lull his tired muscles to sleep.

  Of course, he knew he’d have to speak to Emily soon, and try to explain all of it to her, but he just didn’t know how to go about it. The perfect time would obviously be during their first patrol in the morning, but just thinking of that impending conversation was enough to make him grimace. It would be painful, but necessary. He needed to let Emily know that he wouldn’t let his emotions get in the way of what they had blossoming between then anymore. It wasn’t fair to her. It was foolish for him to have assumed anything else.

  As he lamented his poor emotional management skills, the soft clack of an opening door inside the house caught his attention. He froze, his ears picking up the padding of Emily’s soft footfalls as she descended the staircase. Where was she sneaking off to at this time of night?

  It was only a moment later that his question was answered, the telltale squeak of the front door sounding lightly in the sleep-quieted house. Despite his earlier self-reprimand, concern flooded Adam almost immediately. He stared intently out the window for any sign of her. She appeared right at the edge of his range of vision, slipping silently around the side of the house before he could get her attention. His worry turned to anger as he realized that there was only one thing she’d be doing outside at this hour.

  “Don’t go out alone!” he growled, his bear already standing at full alert. He pulled off his t-shirt and socks, opting for a simple pair of shorts to follow her in. “It’s too damned dangerous!” the words gave him pause as he reached to tear open his room door. Hadn’t him reacting in such a way been the whole reason they were at odds in the first place?

  His bear growled urgently, uncaring of his internal dilemma. All he knew was that Emily was in danger and they needed to save her, even if the person she needed saving from was herself. He stepped out into the hallway, un-swayed by the bear’s demands. He’s go make sure she was okay, but he wouldn’t pressure her into coming home on his orders like he’d tried to do earlier in the evening.

  Emily’s scent was easy to follow as he slipped out of the house behind her. He darted in the shadows, careful that no one saw him as he tracked the trail she’d left behind to the nearby tree line. Once he was far enough away from the streetlights of the town’s roads and the sparsely illuminated windows of the houses that dotted Woodhaven, he stripped off his shorts and tore off into the woodlands, allowing his bear to break free as he cleared the cover of forest.

  The bear came easily, only faltering in its stride for a moment. He didn’t have time to recover from the snapping of bones and tearing of muscles; Emily could run right into danger in any moment. He had to find her before the Northern Wind did.

  “What are you doing?”

  The moment he rounded a particularly thick patch of trees, a heavy weight slammed into his side, knocking him on his tailbone. He fell
with a crash, branches and twigs snapping beneath him angrily as local wildlife scurried for cover.

  As his vision cleared, he saw Emily’s angry expression before anything else. Her ears were flattened to her head, eyes wide and lip curled back to reveal her glistening teeth. When he tried to rise, she lunged at him, pressing him back down into the dirt.

  She was so obviously furious at his intrusion that he instantly regretted it.

  “Emily, please, I know you’re angry, but I just wanted to make sure you—” He let the words die, remembering that this was probably the worst sentence he could ever choose to open with.

  “I… wanted to join you.”

  “Liar,” she growled threateningly, pressing him back into the ground once more as he tried yet again to rise.

  Summoning a bust of strength, Adam worked against Emily’s weight, pushing back against her as she struggled to keep him from standing. One on one, she was no match for him, but they weren’t out here to spar. He just wanted a chance to talk. “I couldn’t sleep, Emily. Same as you.”

  He could see the wariness in her eyes as she scrutinized him, and the guilt over his white lie hit him immediately. Slowly, her lips closed to cover her bared teeth, and the snarl on her face receded to something a little more neutral, but her ears stayed low to her head in distrust. “So you followed me.” It wasn’t a question.

  Adam let out a long breath. He didn’t want to admit that she was right from the jump, but he couldn’t bear to tell her another lie, not even a relatively harmless one. Slowly, he turned his head skyward to the moon, watching the crescent as it shined brightly in the night sky.

  “I wanted to go for a run?”

  “So you don’t deny it,” she snorted.

  “I’ll tell you if you beat me in a race,” Adam proposed.

  There was a break in the conversation when the two bears stared each other down, the wind rustling restlessly in the space between them and tossing about a few damp leaves. It replicated the state of their minds perfectly as they sat down.

  Then, without warning, Emily tore off deep into the forest.

  “The lake from our patrol is the finish line,” she growled, her words riding on the wind she’d kicked up as she rocketed away.

  Never one to pass up a race, Adam harnessed the full potential of his bear’s strength to make up for lost ground. Win or lose, he’d tell her the truth either way.

  Chapter Ten

  Emily tore off into the night with a victorious huff. It was a feat in itself to best an alpha, even for a moment, yet she’d managed to do so with Adam not once, but twice. Just replaying the scene from moments before as he lay sprawled out on the forest floor, it made her chest rattle with satisfaction. That’ll show him not to try and sneak up on her again in the future.

  Currently, she made a beeline for the forest lake, a place they both knew well from their daily patrols. She didn’t believe for a second that Adam had simply felt restless and meant to go for a run. She knew he’d be much too cautious to step out at night, had she not compelled him to go against his instincts. He was following her, simple as that. Now she just needed for him to admit it.

  The ground thundered beneath her feet as she ran, out of time with her gallop, and she knew that Adam was already gaining on her despite her head start. Kicking her body into high gear, she renewed her speed, knowing that the lake was too far off. She just needed to make it there first, and then she could give him a proper scolding for trying to police her actions yet again.

  She thundered passed the break in the trees that signaled that the clearing with the lake was nearby. The sound of small waves splashing in the cool summer breeze met her ear, before she rounded the trail and the first sight of gentle waters came into view. Victory was hers.

  A large blur of brown hurtled by Emily in a mass of flesh and fur, launching high and far into the air. With a triumphant growl, Adam dove sloppily into the forest lake mere moments before she cleared the finish line.

  Adam stayed submerged for a moment before bobbing his head out of the water with a lazy loll to his jaw. He glared smugly at Emily, as if he dared her to challenge his victory.

  Emily tried to be angry with him, but the heat wouldn’t come. She saw him there, paddling lazily in the waters of the lake, and she couldn’t help but find it endearing. Of course she was still irritated at the thought of being followed, but try as she might, it just didn’t get to her the way she’d expected it to.

  She padded lightly to the bank of the lake, the water washing up enough to dampen her paws. She looked from the damp ground to Adam as if she were contemplating joining him. He swam invitingly to the edge of the water, beckoning her to jump in, but she didn’t move. She waited patiently for him to swim just a bit closer before swiping a paw-full of lake water directly into Adam’s face.

  Adam sprang backward, spluttering water out of his snout as he recovered from her surprise attack. Emily snorted pleasingly before turning her back on the lake. She heard the telling splash of water before taking off once more, knowing that Adam would be close on her heels.

  They dashed through the forest for a while after that. Emily narrowly dodged a soaking wet Adam, as she dipped under low-hanging branches and dove over fallen tree trunks. By the time he’d finally overtaken her, he was nearly dry from the run. As they tumbled and wrestled in the darkness of the forest, things almost seemed like they were okay.

  They played in the woods for what felt like an eternity, neither of them worrying about the troubles between them or the pack they’d vowed to help. Emily finally realized that this was what she needed in order to get a little peace, even if it was with the man who had stressed her out in the first place. Perhaps, this is what he needed as well.

  When Adam finally had her sufficiently pinned for what felt like the fiftieth time, Emily finally conceded defeat. With a confident snort, Adam backed off of her without hesitation. Emily stood with a defiant look in her eye. It was as if the break in contact was enough to make a little bit of that distrust trickle back into her mind. In a way, she was grateful; she didn’t want him to think that she’d forgiven him simply because he’d won the race or pinned her successfully a couple times. Whether he had to admit his wrongs or not, he needed to know that what he was doing was not okay.

  Adam’s chest rattled softly as he brushed by her. “We should head back.”

  Emily snorted, refusing to openly admit that she was growing tired, but even she had to admit that the idea of a warm bed after their long run sounded nice. “I suppose so.”

  They fell into step beside one another, innately effecting the patrol formation that they’d been using since Nick assigned them the job. Emily could see the dim beginnings of the town’s streetlights through the canopy of trees when an alarming sound caught her ears.

  “Are you sure?” a quiet voice carried on the wind to her and Adam.

  A low harsh voice followed, rattling Emily’s bones as he spoke. “If you don’t, I’ll make you wish you’d kept your mouth shut and just followed orders.”

  Emily sniffed in a long breath, taking in the scents of the two men that were somewhere beyond her field of vision. They didn’t register as anyone she knew, but they both were definitely shifters. She could only assume that they were from the Northern Wind. As if to confirm her suspicions, Adam growled low and long in his throat, his ears low to his head in apprehension.

  “But—but Lucas said—”

  The sound of flesh hitting flesh ricocheted against the trees, followed by a muffled howl of pain.

  “Mention that name again and I’ll skin you alive,” the second voice growled roughly. “You don’t answer to that trash anymore. You’d best remember that.”

  A whimper of distress responded to the threat, and Emily took the first subconscious step to help.

  Adam cut her off almost immediately. “We have to go,” he growled gently, but with a sense of urgency.

  “That shifter is injured!” Emily argued. “We have to he
lp!”

  “They’re a part of the Northern Wind pack, Emily,” Adam rebutted. “They aren’t ours to help.”

  Emily stood defiantly still, of a mind to go and help the whimpering bear anyway. How could she know if Adam genuinely cared or if this was just another ploy to exert his overprotectiveness on her yet again?

  Adam sighed in irritation. “Remember the first thing Nick demanded of us. If we spot the enemy, we leave and get help. We leave,” he emphasized. “It’s fine if you don’t want to listen to me, but at least listen to him.”

  “Did you hear something?” the harsh voice spoke as if he hadn’t just concussed a man.

  Emily’s bear instincts went wild, warring between fight or flight. She didn’t want to defy their number one’s order, but at the same time, a bear was hurt. She wanted to help. Adam shot her a longer, more insistent growl before nudging her towards a far exit in the tree line. She knew he was right, and eventually she swallowed her pride, relenting to his demand.

  They retreated slowly into the night, giving the small clearing in the woods where they’d heard the voices a wide berth as they exited into the field that led back to town. Luckily, the men didn’t follow.

  “We need to get to Nick. Now,” Adam said.

  Emily couldn’t agree more, the morning dew weighed heavy on the grass, and the stars were disappearing in the sky as she watched it. Morning would be there soon enough, and they’d have to meet with him anyway. “You think he’ll be up already?”

  Adam nodded. “He’s way too worried about the safety of his pack. He’s probably been waking up hours earlier than everyone else since we arrived.”

  They circled back around to where they’d entered the forest, in search of the clothing they’d left behind. Adam grunted softly at Emily, nodding towards a scrap of light clothing that hung limply from a low hanging branch. It was her pajama top.