Bear With Me (BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance) Read Online Free Page B

over. The rest was merely a formality, and it seemed that the wolf’s pack mates thought the same. Their voice rose in a single unified howl of triumph, calling out their victory for all the forest to hear. No doubt they would do the same when they delivered the final blow to me too. Maybe that’s what they were singing about earlier… maybe I had been listening to the moment they murdered my mother.
    Murderers…Murderers… A haze seemed to descend upon me, clouding my thoughts of everything except for that one word. Fierce adrenaline coursed through my veins, charging me with the energy I thought I would never possess again since heading out into the forest. All my senses were sharpened to a keen edge, and I knew what I had to do. My mother was dead, I knew that for a fact now, and it was my fault. The only thing I could do was avenge her. Looking back it was an insane thing to do, but at that second I had no doubt that I would come out as the victor.
    My pulse racing with equal measures of excitement and terror, I hurled myself at the bear and, dragging myself up its broad side with handfuls of dense fur until I was within fingers’ reach of the wolf. I made a grab at it, knowing that I had one chance and only one chance , and was rewarding with a good handful of dusty grey pelt. I felt the wolf release its mouthful in surprise, its snout turning to see what was pulling at it, and I was certain that those amber eyes widened in shock when it saw me clinging onto it before we both lost control and tumbled off the bear in a tangle of fur and teeth and fists.
    I was hardly aware of the teeth snapping at me, or of the claws tearing at my clothes and hair and skin. I didn’t care that blood was trickling down my cheeks from where the wolf had slashed at me. I didn’t care that I couldn’t breathe from the wait of the vile creature. I gave it as good as I got, tearing at its fur with my hands and kicking the soft flesh of its underbelly whilst all the while sobbing and screaming my hatred for what its kind had done to my mother until my throat was in as much pain as the cut on my head. Somehow I managed to lock my hands around the wolf’s neck, my fingers digging through the mass of fur to where a could feel a pulse pumping the creature’s life-force around it’s ugly, evil body. And I squeezed . As hard as I could, I squeezed using every bit of strength I possessed. The wolf’s eyes bulged in its head, the claws in my side retracting just a fraction. I had never experienced such physical exhilaration. This was power in its purest form and in that second I was hooked.
    The body on top of me was growing heavier the longer I kept my hands around the wolf’s throat, the fight leaving the creature as life drained away. But as it did so, so did the face above me change. The long face seemed to retract and the thick fur withdrew into smooth, clean skin. I felt the bulky form shift against me as it shrunk and diminished, growing lank and scrawny, and I was certain that I was hallucinating. Finally, the long fangs that had been protruding from the wolf’s slathering jaws shrunk back until they were no bigger than the teeth in my own mouth.
    It was only the eyes that never changed – wild, yellow eyes whose promise of retribution mirrored my own. They captured my own gaze and held it fast even as they faded and grew dim. My heart gave a lurch which brought me sharply back to reality as I realised that I was looking into the face of a human woman. With a cry, I shoved her off me and scrambled back out of reach, shivering in shock. She rolled off, clutching her throat and coughing harshly. She was draped in furs and leathers that hung loosely from her scrawny body. Long, dank hair fell in curtains over her shoulders. Her amber hate-filled eyes never left mine.
    “ Two-legged little bitch ,” she snarled, spitting blood at me. Her shoulder blades were stark and sharp as she fell forwards onto her hands and began to crawl