Fealty Of The Bear Read Online Free

couldn’t just leave him here, not knowing if he was pretending or not. “If you’re playing opossum, I’m going to be pissed.” Her voice echoed across the silence.
    Not to be outsmarted by a serial killer, she reversed the jeep until she was right beside him.
    She smelled it then—what the exhaust fumes had covered up. He reeked of blood, and her gaze collided with the sliver of crimson soaked material that peeked out from his open jacket.
    “Oh, my gosh,” she murmured, jumping from the jeep. “Hey, mister?” Ripping off his sunglasses, she pried open his eye. Light brown, like the color of good whiskey, and otherwise completely unresponsive. His skin was pale and cold, and when she pulled the open zipper of his jacket away from his torso, she gasped at the carnage.
    What the fuck was he doing here? Leaning forward, she inhaled the air around his neck. Animal and man. He was definitely a shifter, so why wasn’t he with the clan seeking medical attention for injuries like these?
    Lifting the hem of his soaked thermal shirt, she stared at the shoddy bandage job and bit her bottom lip. She gasped when she pulled a corner loose and saw the long, razor edged gashes across his torso. It was painfully obvious he’d been attacked by a bear, which would explain why he was running from the clan.
    Pulling out her phone, she dialed out and waited as it rang and rang. Finally, Dad picked up with a gruff, “What do you want.” Lovely.
    “I found one of your bears. He is traveling alone and he’s hurt. What should I do with him?”
    “He’s a rogue,” Dad spat out. “Let him die.”
    Pursing her lips, she nodded slowly. Right now, she was a rogue. She supposed he probably felt the same way about her. The urge to chuck the phone into the woods was overwhelming, but instead, she hung up and clenched it in her shaking hand. Just like she couldn’t afford the repairs on her jeep, buying a new cell because of her lack of control was unacceptable.
    Let him die? Dad’s heart had only grown blacker since she’d moved to Joseph. He was the one who always preached about how important each bear shifter was now that their kind was dying out. And here, he’d just let one of them die. What purpose did that serve?
    Her gaze landed on the man’s slack face. He was handsome with dark eyebrows and chiseled jaws—if she were into that rugged biker gang, muscled type. Which her hormones were screaming she was.
    What a waste of life. She hadn’t a guess at why he’d gone rogue, but she couldn’t just let him bleed out on the side of a dirt road. Even if he didn’t pose so many intriguing questions, she understood what it was like to live on the outside. Plus, her healing instincts were kicking in, and she was already ticking off half a dozen ingredients she would need for a poultice to relieve the inflammation.
    The bike was heavier than she thought it would be, but she righted it and dragged it off into the woods. It wouldn’t fit into her jeep, so if he lived, he’d have to come back for his ride some other time.
    If she thought the bike was heavy to wheel over the rugged terrain, his body was nearly impossible to get into her jeep. He was pure muscle and dead weight, and though she was stronger than a human, he had eighty pounds on her at least and kept slipping through her grasp like a wet bar of soap.
    For all this effort, he was probably going to turn out to be a creeper.
    With a grunt, she hoisted him into the front seat and leaned it all the way back so he wouldn’t flop over like a landed herring. By the time she’d buckled him, her arms were shaking from the chore of getting him situated.
    She could count the number of cops in the small town of Joseph, Oregon on one hand, but knowing her luck, she’d attract them all as she tried to get the dead looking man home. So, she threw the gear into drive and busted a U-turn. She’d have to take the long way around to her house.
    With a glance at the pale stranger, she hit