Bear Love Read Online Free

thicker. Dropping to
all fours, they stood there, five gorgeous lions, breaths steaming in the snow
that settled in their thick manes and melted on their long red tongues. Their
beautiful green eyes flashed in the night.
    “ Lion shifters,” Suzy breathed. “I don’t believe it.”
    The lead one, Bryce, stepped
forward, toward Jess, and she marveled at how his muscles rolled and bunched
beneath that silky golden fur. He was a bastard, but he was gorgeous, and he
wanted her.
    She scooped up a ball of snow from
the ground and hurled it at his face. The snow exploded right in his eyes. He
flinched back, a threatening cough coming from his throat.
    He started forward again, the other
four with him—
    A bear erupted from the woods. Huge
and black, covered in scars and rolling slabs of muscle, the eight-hundred-pound
behemoth swiped a huge paw and blasted one of the lions backward. It struck the
Hummer with a screech of groaning metal and slid to the ground.
    Jess stared at the bear in
amazement. It was so huge, so primal, so full of wrath—but also, clearly, the
urge to protect her and Suzy. Could it be … ?
    The remaining four lions wheeled to
face their enemy.
    With a demonic growl, the grizzly barreled
into them, swiping left and right with its wicked paws. A lion leapt onto its
flank, claws digging into the shaggy hide, but the bear didn’t stop in its
drive toward Bryce. Another lion lunged at it, but the titan knocked the feline
away. Before it could reorient itself, both Bryce and the fourth lion leapt on
the bear together.
    Jess felt the blood drain from her
face. The three lions mauling and slashing at the massive black animal, while
the bear raged and growled, biting and swiping and stomping, was the most
jaw-dropping sight she had ever seen. She couldn’t tear her eyes away.
    Mike,
is that you? she thought. Then: Oh God,
don’t let them hurt him!
    “Come on!” Suzy said, and grabbed
her hand.
    “What can we do?” Jess said. They
didn’t have any weapons, and they were still blocked in. And if they waited,
and the bear didn’t win the fight, the lions would be sure to drag them back to
their dens for mates.
    “It was your idea!” Suzy said, and
hauled her toward the side of the road. “Run!”
    She was right, Jess realized.
    Swallowing a gulp of air, she followed
Suzy down the slope and into the dark, snow-covered forest while the battle raged
behind them.

Chapter 4

 
 
    Pain filled Mike as one of the lion shifters raked a claw
down his back. He felt blood seep into his thick fur, almost burning hot. The
big cat had latched onto him tight with all four claws. Mike shook himself
violently. The lion shifted balance and clung tighter, but at least it couldn’t
rake him while it was holding on like that.
    The other two had blasted into him
from both sides and were raking and chewing on his shoulders and the back of
his neck. He raged and bit. Growling out his fury, he threw himself to the
ground and rolled back and forth, hoping to crush the bastards. All three
scattered.
    When he rose, dizzy from blood loss
and on fire with pain, they were already surrounding him, lifting their teeth
back from long, bloody canines. Blood even dripped from their manes. Damn, the
things had really chewed him up good.
    He was starting to think this was a
bad idea. It had seemed like a good one at the time. He couldn’t drive fast
enough to catch up with Jess, but he could shift and lope down the mountain
until he was able to get ahead of her on the endless switchbacks. He was still
debating how that meeting would have gone. It had been a shock to smell the
reek of strange shifters—he’d never smelled lion before, not even at a zoo—and
a greater shock to see them advancing on Jess and her friend when he’d finally
caught up to them. He hadn’t even hesitated in coming to her defense. Now,
though, she was lost in the woods and he was about to get massacred. He could
handle one or two lions, sure, but three was