Bearing the Black Ice (Ice Bear Shifters Book 4) Read Online Free

more tired by the second. The other bear clearly had the upper hand, and he realized it. He seemed to be playing with her, amused by how little her attacks did and how easily he could knock her over with a whack of his paw.
    But Hannah refused to give up, no matter how ineffective her fighting proved to be. She wasn’t going down easily. She lunged forward again, teeth bared, and was met with a particularly strong smack from the other bear’s paw. A pitiful yelp of pain escaped her throat as she felt her body making contact with the jagged rock wall behind her. She felt warm blood oozing from her right side, but she ignored it and stood back up. She lunged again, and the bear huffed in seeming amusement as he smacked her again with even greater force. Hannah cried out in pain as she hit the wall again, her soft, furry muzzle making contact with cold, hard rock. She saw yellow and green speckles in her field of vision as she started to lose consciousness.
    The last thing she remembered before everything went black was the sound of the loudest roar she had ever heard echoing from somewhere further down the tunnel.

Chapter Four
    Hannah slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Soft light danced from the walls of the cavern, casting long, eerie shadows across the room. She took a mental inventory of her body, trying to determine whether all of her limbs were still intact. She glanced down at her front paws. The matted fur was covered in streaks of dried blood, but there didn’t appear to be any significant damage. She slowly wiggled her back paws, pleased to find that they were in working order as well. When she tried to sit up over, however, a sharp pain shot through her lower back on her right side. She winced and let out a low whine, but managed to make it onto her haunches. That’s when she saw Alan sitting across the room from her, next to a flashlight that was pointing up toward the ceiling.
    “Easy there, bear,” he said. “You got into quite a scuffle. Take things slowly.” He was in human form, although he had changed clothes. Hannah knew without asking that the roar in the tunnel had been his. He had come to her rescue. She was grateful, although somewhat embarrassed. She hated feeling like a damsel in distress, but she knew she never would have been able to fight off the other bear on her own. Alan dug into his backpack and pulled out a large fleece sweatshirt and pair of fleece sweatpants, then handed them to her. He pulled out a pair of wool socks and tossed them over as well.
    “Everything’s obviously way too big for you, but if you roll up the sleeves and pant legs you can make it work,” he said. Then he turned around to give her privacy while she shifted back and dressed, which Hannah found odd. Shifters were notoriously unfazed by human nakedness. Losing your clothes to shifting was such a part of life that no one ever cared if someone happened to be walking around exposed. But then, Alan had struck her as a little odd from the beginning. With a powerful burst of energy, Hannah shifted back into human form, then pulled on the clothes. She pulled the drawstring on the sweatpants as tight as it would go, but they still threatened to fall down around her waist. She sighed and bent over to roll up the bottoms, then pulled the sweatshirt over her head and pushed the sleeves back until her hands appeared. She pulled on the socks, then looked down at herself and giggled. Alan glanced over his shoulder and turned around.
    “What’s so funny?”
    “I look like I’m wearing a giant potato sack.”
    A strange, pained look crossed his face, but he recovered quickly and shrugged. “At least it’s a relatively warm potato sack.”
    Hannah looked over at him sheepishly. “So, I’m not sure exactly what happened back there, but I guess I owe you a thank you. And an apology for storming off earlier.”
    Alan shrugged, although the same pained look passed over his face again. “You’re lucky I heard