Claim the Bear Read Online Free Page A

came on and she muttered a curse. From years of experience with her ride, she had about eight miles until she was running on fumes. And right then, a big yellow sign informed her that the campsite area was fifteen miles away.
    Panic chilled her blood, congealing it in her veins until it was hard to do anything but grip the wheel while her knuckles turned white. From years of little money and long commutes to work, she knew she should be coasting down hills and conserving gas, not burning it faster by topping out her speed. But Thomas was right on her tail, swerving left, then right behind her like he was looking for a way to nudge her off the cliff.
    If she slowed down, she died, simple as that.
    She ticked the miles off as they passed, dropping her gaze to the odometer every chance she got. Any second now, her car would run out of fuel, and she’d be stuck in this car at Thomas’s mercy.
    No, scratch that. She had two legs and a lion buried somewhere in her. She could run like the wind, and Thomas’s lion would be weighed down by his mass. She’d seen his animal before. He was muscular, and bulky, but she was lithe and built for hunting. She just had to buy herself enough time to change.
    At the first putter of the engine, she slammed on the breaks, threw the car into park and jumped out the driver’s side. She fell onto her knees with the force of the momentum, but righted herself and bolted for the trees. Thomas cut the engine behind her, but she hadn’t time to look back. He was coming, whether she saw him or not.
    Branches and brush whipped by her as she ran, clawing her face like they were ushering her back to her fate. As if these woods weren’t her home and didn’t want her here. Bear or lion, bear or lion —she was going to die today, but at the hands of which?
    She could smell them now. The rich scent of unfamiliar fur. It was faint, but the bears were close. She followed a thin trail, grateful for an idea of where to go. A deafening roar sounded behind her, lifting the birds from the canopy above her. She sobbed in terror as her heart filled her throat.
    Thomas was coming, and he wasn’t hunting her as a man.
    She wouldn’t be able to hear him like this. Not with his stealthy movements and soft padded paws. Every instinct in her said to turn and fight, and every downy hair on her body electrified with fear. If he caught her, it wouldn’t matter if she fought back. She was no match for a lion his size. The urge to change was overwhelming, but it would take too long. She was too frightened and her inner lion was still cowering deep within her. It would take time to conjure her.
    Screeching tires filled her oversensitive ears just before something big and metal blasted against her.
    Thomas was coming.
    Breshia pitched forward and hit the side of a tree as she spun out of the jeep’s way.
    Thomas was coming.
    A woman with bright green eyes exited the vehicle that had struck her.
    Thomas was coming.
    There she was. Amid agony and terror, the lioness within her stirred. And with an explosion of ligaments, bones, and skin, she fell into the skin of a predator and bolted away from the woman who’d struck her with the forest colored jeep.
    Pain. Everything was pain. Every footstep burned, every twitch of muscle hurt. She ran and ran until she felt nothing but a red ache, and when at last she stopped in near a rocky cliff that shot straight into the sky, she looked back for the first time.
    Birds sang like she hadn’t just run for her life, and the breeze lifted leaves. Branches creaked and tufts of wild grasses swayed. Leaves bounced across the ground as the wind picked up. This was the most peaceful place she’d ever encountered in her twenty-four years. Exhausted and hurt, she panted and searched the clearing for clues at a direction to the campground. If she was really still, and listened closely, she could hear the faint murmur of a brook. And beyond that, the soft, lyrical voices of humans.
    She took a