by Olivia Harp
He smiled, her camp was near, he’d passed it before coming to see who had entered shifter’s territory, and now that he met her, he would probably be able to tell if she actually left or not, her scent was too unique, too sweet, for him to confuse it with anything else in the forest.
“Thank you.”
They looked at each other for a second, he turned to go but she said “Hey.”
He looked back, she raised her hand for a shake, her eyes looking at him in silence.
He shook it and for an instant his senses were sharper than ever: he heard the sound of every drop of water flowing through the creek, passing through submerged pebbles; the leaves dancing on the wind above him, the damp smell of the canopy. He was one with nature, with the dirt in the ground, the bark of the trees, the moss at the edge of the water... and with her. He noticed he wasn’t breathing, his bear wanting to come out, yelling mate! every second.
“Thank you for helping me down, it was nice to have met you,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” he said, but she was already walking away from him, towards her camp.
Chapter 3
Damien could barely contain his bear from coming out. It was raging inside him as he watched Zoe fade into the undergrowth. Her shape swaggered in the distance, his cock hard as a rock. No. There can’t ever be time for this, I can’t risk the security of the clan for a woman.
He let out a big sigh, bringing his mind back into focus. The wilderness awaited all around him. He was sure the scent he picked up came from somewhere around this place. If the Rot was back, there was no way he couldn’t notice it. The stench of it could be detected for miles away, its effects on nature instantly recognizable.
He crossed the creek in two big strides. He didn’t care much about the water or its temperature. Advancing like a focused beast, eyes open, senses sharpened.
Before going into the woods again, he noticed there was no sound of wildlife, no scent to be picked, not even birds chirping. Ground animals stay away from bears, they leave apex predator be. Grizzlies are territorial and bear shifters give that fuck-off scent that other beasts pick up and take heed to, unless they want to be destroyed. But birds? Birds are free. They don’t care, they know their predators don’t reside on the ground... and some of them even warn you off, if you’re smart enough to listen.
There’s no way she’s in danger, I just came from that direction, he thought. Then he noticed she was still on his mind, taking some level of awareness with her. Zoe Fox, he said to himself—just to make sure he hadn’t forgotten her name— and his bear growled inside.
Stop thinking of her. He tried to force the idea but couldn’t, at least not completely. His instinct told him to go to her, but his will was strong, he wouldn’t budge.
His mind blended with his surroundings. His sense of smell, his sight, his enhanced hearing, everything became one with nature. But Damien was a man too and had to think as a man.
He’d trample all the flaring instincts of a bear if he had to, just to get this job done. The woman is not for us, be done with it, he told his bear, pushing him inside. His bear pushed back, Lies!, it roared, She is mate! Damien had promised himself never to take a partner. He couldn’t do it. He was the alpha, the clan leader, love was a distraction, a weakness. Yes, he had had lovers, girls from Rosenberg and Ike’s bar, some of them bear shifters too, and had enjoyed their company, and the sex, obviously. That satiated his —and his bear’s— urges. He tried relationships but they never worked, so why bother? He never felt really drawn to someone else. Not like other bears who claim someone and breed cubs a week after meeting them.
So, he thought, if there was anything weirder than the Rot coming back, if it really came back... why was his bear flaring up like a mad animal after seeing that girl?
His bear growled inside, still furious in his intent to go after her. A sudden intensity filled him and his mind went back to her, she’s too stubborn, too defiant to do us any good. And she’s gone, anyway, forget about her being my mate. His bear wheezed inside him, panting in frustration.
She didn’t have the qualities of a good bear mate. Yes, she was a fighter, she was pretty, she was independent. She was ready for anything even though he convinced her otherwise. But she didn’t have any experience in the wilderness, she was a city girl, she wouldn’t like it out here. She was prepared, though, bear spray, he remembered, that was funny all right. And Mister Gym guy? he chuckled, that was plain silly. Then it hit him. Does that mean she liked him? He was always striving to be the smartest leader he could be, but stuff like that? Damn. He always missed those little bits of info when someone says one thing but implies “you are attractive to me”.
He laughed to himself. The air was fresh, the trees were strong. The Rot was not around. Maybe things were fine.
Then, in the distance, he heard the air horn blaring.
Chapter 4
The walk back to camp had taken longer than usual. Obviously, going downhill towards the creek was an easier trek than the other way around. She found herself trying to walk fast, but unable to do so. The ground was simply against her. Okay yeah, she could walk faster but going mildly uphill, with the rocks and the leaves and weeds, she would only cramp her legs or fall or whatever.
It had been what, five, ten minutes since she’d met that Ranger, Damien. And she couldn’t concentrate on the walk.
That was fun, meeting a guy who wasn’t a total jerk. Then she thought of her ex, Martin.
Martin was —in his own words— a “chill” guy, a person who swept his troubles under the carpet and forgot about them until they came crashing at his door. Then he’d turn around and put a pouty face and said “please” and asked her for money or whatever he needed, and she always bailed him out.
She’d been with him for two years before realizing she was being used more as a human ATM than a girlfriend, and made herself say “no”. He never cared for her, and she had been stupid enough to not notice it and excuse the behavior for some reason or another, keeping the farce up to avoid the confrontation and fallout. She never realized that was the very reason she was constantly depressed. She didn’t value herself enough to live the life she wanted and she was stuck in a depressing relationship with a no-use kind of guy. Not even for sex.
Oh, yeah, they hadn’t had sex for more than eight months before she kicked him out of her apartment, and from there, it took another year to gather all her strength and boldness to say “no more” once again, this time to the life she was leading.
After a year of hard work, overtime and sacrifice, she had saved enough to go. To leave Detroit and find her place in Portland, where the standard of living was way higher, according to an article she read in a magazine while waiting in line to pay for her groceries. Now that she thought about it, she never confirmed that, but hell, she’d seen the pictures online, it didn’t look bad.
Now she met a gorgeous man and couldn’t help herself. She had always been kind of shy but talking to him came so natural, so easy, that it felt as if she knew him for a long time. It was absurd.
She pulled up her cell phone, opened the MyCycle app, which she thought was a dumb name for a women’s period tracking app... after all, how many cyclists would download it and find it was rather not for tracking speed and all those weird things they track? Yeah... she just confirmed it. She was just being a weirdo. Maybe it was the change of air from Michigan to Oregon. She was not on a hormone high, her period had a long way to come still, so who knows. She met a cool guy, went along with it and it went relatively well... before he told her to leave the place and never come back.
Or words implying the same thing.
Then she felt it. There was a stillness in the air, like having your ears covered and having faint, far noises coming in. An unnatural, acrid smell almost made her gag.
Her stomach turned, realizing she didn’t recognize where she was. She was so lost in thought that she couldn’t tell if she made a wrong turn, or started walking in
another direction. She pulled out her compass, it pointed out North, where she was going. She made two steps and then saw how the pointer slowly changed direction. It turned to northwest, west, then back to north.
“What the hell?” She said out loud, looking everywhere. And up ahead came a faint, rumbling noise, like the wind going through leaves, but it was constant, it didn’t have that periodic, natural sound. Then it stopped.
She felt undiluted, true dread. “Hello?” she said, her voice lost in the forest. Her skin crawled, her heart about to jump out of her chest. This was a kind of fear she’d never experienced. Move, Zoe, get out of here, you can’t stay here and wait for whatever-it-is to get you.
She wouldn’t let it, not now that she got this far. A flash of anger gave her the power to continue. She was sure now that she didn’t go any other way that wasn’t straight to her camp. She would continue walking until she reached there.
She slowly composed herself, walking in silence for a few minutes, until she heard it again, a kind of raspy breathing, closer now. It made her stop in her tracks, “to hell with it”, she said, and pulled out her air horn and bear spray.
“You better not become animal food now, Zoe”, she said out loud, walking forward, “life’s getting a little bit better than the shit it was and this will not be your ridiculous end.” Her eyes narrowed, treading forward with an angry face, she felt empowered.
She could feel the sweat soaking all her clothes, the hike was harder than before, but now she was afraid. More like pants soiling scared, she thought, but what could she do? Stay there? The camp was not far off and from there she’d just walk the trail back to her Nissan and leave.
Then her heart stopped.
Fifty feet ahead, she saw it: a wildcat, a huge wild cat. It’s skin completely black. A damn panther? Seriously Zoe, please survive this, just survive this and go back to Detroit, to that damn construction firm and carry on with their boring accounting and be happy and thankful you’re alive, okay?
The wildcat was like a living shadow. She never saw one out of the old Discovery Channel documentaries, but this one was more than black. She couldn’t stop looking at it, the blackness of his fur contrasted against its glowing yellow eyes, fixed on her. It stepped forward just like she remembered predators did in those documentaries, confident on catching an easy prey, and she unconsciously stepped back, prompting the wildcat to jump towards her.
Her body froze, she’d heard the words “like a deer in highlights” but she didn’t really understand. She wanted to move but it was impossible. She was lucky though, when she froze she tightened all her muscles, and pressed both the air horn and the bear spray, the noise instantly pulling her out of the spell.
She had a moment of clarity. She pressed the air horn again, a long horrible screech coming out of it, stopping the animal mid tracks, and then sprayed the hell out of him —or as close as she could— before fleeing back to the creek.
I think I got him, I think I got him, I bought myself some time, she said, and pressed the air horn again. Gosh, I’m in love with that horribly loud sound! Normally she couldn’t stand it, but now it sounded like a choir of angels. She heard the mountain lion running after her, closing in. A rush of adrenaline kicked in and she cleared bushes and undergrowth like an Olympian. She’d be glad if she wasn’t about to be dead. The creek was in sight, almost in reach... wait, what am I going to do after getting there? It’s not like the tiger or whatever that thing is will stop, shake its head and turn back when I reach the water
She was screaming like a maniac now, the air horn joining her yelling like a brain damaged chicken. The creek was just a few yards away, but she couldn’t reach it. She tripped with some weeds and next she noticed she was on the ground, the air horn and bear spray far from her. She kicked and pushed and pulled, trying to get her right leg unstuck but it was impossible, the damn thing had a million thorns sinking into her skin, and the more she fought the more it tightened. She used her hands, trying to loosen the grip but soon they were dripping blood, it was no use.
She was done. This was as far as she would go. There it is, she thought. The wildcat was coming now, not wasting any more time. Her leg felt tighter in the thorny weeds, she began to cry.
The wildcat didn’t care. It had found her, ignored all her precautions: the bear spray, the air horn, the screaming. They were nothing to it. In a minute she would be another victim found in the woods. She couldn’t stop looking at it, couldn’t avert her eyes.
This was it. Her whole body tightened, time slowed down. She could see the beast leaping, her scream muted by its fury. All her muscles hurt, she closed her eyes, the worst had come, and she could do nothing about it. She yelled but this time it wasn’t frustration or adrenaline, it was goodbye... and her yell was joined by another one, a deeper one.
She opened her eyes just in time to see Damien lunging at the wildcat and catching it midair, both falling to the ground, Damien’s shirt getting ripped apart in the struggle.
Chapter 5
Damien roared and clashed with the wildcat, rolling on the ground before jumping ahead to keep it down. The cat was fast, though, leaping back before he could catch him. This was a face of fury, its glowing sickly eyes fixed on him.
Both opponents faced off for a second, Zoe a few yards back, her mouth hanging open, unable to process what she was seeing.
Damien growled again. An inhuman growl, he had his back to her, his muscles against his shirt seemed to grow, as if he was flexing them real hard.
“Stay back!” he gruffed, she tried to pull her leg away from the weeds, but their grip didn’t budge at all.
The cat used its hind legs and jumped at him, claws several inches long, and Damien jumped forward to meet it, the sound of his bones shattering as they clashed.
In a flash, his clothes filled and ripped apart. Fur covered every part of his body, his own hands turned to paws, hitting and pushing the wildcat back. The cat roared and was met with a hit to its head, tearing it’s skin. It fell back and tried to turn and flee, but it was too late. The Grizzly bear now standing in front of Zoe was above it, its paws bringing destruction. There was no blood coming out of the body. Just a black, sticky fluid.
The bear held down the remains and pushed them to the mud, a low snarl filling the air, heat emanating from it. Suddenly the mangled corpse started releasing a plume of smoke.
Little by little the remains were consumed by an invisible fire, the creature melting, vaporizing.
When nothing remained, the bear turned to her.
***
Zoe couldn’t move. Her hand was covered in blood, just like her right leg, black thorns fixed on her skin.
She could now see the huge Grizzly bear in all its glory. The magnificence of its light brown fur, it’s big, bumpy back, it’s deep blue eyes fixed on her. It stepped towards her with heavy, confident steps. She knew this animal had never known fear, its muscles able to destroy just about anything and anyone she could think of. Just now, one of its enemies was obliterated like it was nothing.
The bear came closer and she whimpered a soft plea, “help”, she said, she almost couldn’t hear herself.
The bear stopped.
It didn’t seem angry, gazing at her in silence. The bear sat down, uttering a small soft growl, placing its head on the ground. Her mind started to come back, it was unraveling a minute ago and now some thoughts came to her.
She looked around and found ripped clothes near the remains of the cat. She looked at the bear and found those blue eyes looking sternly back at her. The bear raised its head a little and lowered it, then stepped forward slowly, carefully.
“Damien?” she said.
The bear didn’t react to her words. It looked at her leg, caught in the thorns, snarled and approached her.
It reached the weeds and grumbled at her, she thought it was going after her but it started biting the plant, careful not to hurt her. The shrub started to tear, hot against its breath, then she saw i
t again: just like with the wildcat, it seemed to be burning, rapidly turning into vapor.
The grip on her leg loosened. She looked down, the whole bush was dead, and the bear... Damien, sat looking at her.
“Please don’t hurt me”, she said, the bear’s gaze was fixed on her.
She tried moving her leg but a million different needles did their damage, sending jolts of burning pain in an instant. She screamed in pain, unable to move.
Zoe looked up in tears, the huge grizzly made a guttural sound, puffed and then its fur started to go back into its skin, the claws retracting into its paws, its muzzle slowly turning back into its skull.
The bear was gone in a second, now there was only Damien. Naked, his toned muscles pushing against his skin, his big pecs and huge back, his toned legs, covered in sweat.
He got up in front of her. She couldn’t help but notice the thick, hard cock on him. She had slept with some guys before, but this was something else. That thing promised and threatened a damn good fucking, but she couldn’t allow herself to think of that. She looked up and Damien was looking at her straight in the eye.
She blushed, maybe it was the adrenaline coming down, what she just saw, that transformation, had been incredible, but all she could think was how to stop her thighs from getting so wet.
“Are you okay?” he said in that deep voice of his.
She hesitated, “y-yes...”, then pulled her unwounded leg back and looked at him.
He turned around and found his ripped clothes.
“I’m sorry for this”, he said wrapping his shirt around his waist, his cock still plenty visible against that fabric anyway.
“Can you walk?” he asked
“I, I don’t think so...”
Damien took two steps and lifted her in his arms as if she weighted nothing, he looked around, sniffing a few times.
“I can’t let you leave until we examine your wounds”
“But... I should... shouldn’t we—?”