Heart of the Bear (Hells Canyon Shifters Book 5) Read Online Free Page B

Jesse dropped his eyes to his unclothed body and nodded once. “Oh, yeah. Come on. My house is the third from the end.”
    The man didn’t even cover his dick with his hand as he walked with confident strides to his house. She had to jog to keep up, averting her eyes from his swinging shaft. She wasn’t so comfortable with her own body. She even avoided mirrors when she was changing in her apartment. She couldn’t even imagine waltzing around this place naked as the day she was born and not feeling utterly humiliated.
    Jesse, on the other hand, waved to a couple of women walking toward the ranger office. “You going to Reese’s party tomorrow night?”
    “Wouldn’t miss it,” one of them replied with a grin. They waved back, as if his bare body wasn’t on display, and continued talking quietly amongst themselves.
    “Are you all so comfortable with nudity?” she asked, her curiosity too much to stay quiet any longer.
    “Yes,” was his only response, and she got the distinct feeling she wouldn’t get much out of him about his people.
    He didn’t trust her, and looking around at the small existence these people had carved out for themselves, it made sense. They didn’t have much, but they seemed to have each other, and she could put them all in danger.
    A woman drew in a sketchbook as a small child played on a playground near the last house. Two men laughed comfortably as they disappeared down a thin trail in the tree line. At the end of the cabins, Ethan emerged from the office, only to turn around and give the blond-haired woman behind him a lingering kiss.
    Embarrassed at witnessing their private, intimate moment, she turned away and bit her bottom lip. She’d give her knees for a man to kiss her like Ethan was kissing his woman.
    She could only imagine what humans would do to these people if they found out. Maybe they’d annihilate the bear people completely, or maybe they’d do experiments on them. Maybe they’d use them as weapons for some covert government agency. Her gaze slid to the little boy on the swing set, and sadness washed over her. She was angry that she was being forced to stay here, and scared as hell, but could she really blame them for being overly cautious?
    It seemed like Ethan and Jesse had a lot to protect.
    Jesse cleared his throat as he opened the heavy wooden door to his home. He watched her as if he was gauging her reaction, and for some reason, his scrutiny made her self-conscious. He was powerful and different, and with every breath, his rigid muscles flexed. His moss-colored eyes seemed to miss nothing, and under his dry wit was obvious intelligence. And that hair. God, she wanted to touch it. He looked like some wild Viking, all scarred and fierce-looking, and here he was, a stranger, watching her as if her first impression of his home mattered.
    Jesse seemed to be many things—man, bear, brawler—but above all of that, he scared her in ways she hadn’t been scared by a man before. She shouldn’t feel safe in the care of a bear shifter who was holding her here.
    Jesse was clouding her escape plans.
    His home was small but tidy. The living room opened up to the kitchen, and a rustic table sat in a small breakfast nook. A door on the longest wall of the living room was open, and though it was dark inside, she ventured a guess that was the bedroom Jesse slept in. Arching her neck back, she studied a ladder that led up to a loft above. She could make out the edge of an unmade bed, red and blue quilt hanging over the side.
    “Who sleeps there?” she asked.
    Jesse blinked slowly, and when he opened his eyes again, it was obvious he’d shut down. “This way,” he murmured in a low rumble that sent chills up her arms.
    Sidling a plush armchair, she followed Jesse into the dark room off the living room. She’d been right. When he flipped the light switch, a small bedroom with a neatly made bed greeted her.
    “You’re very clean,” she observed.
    “I like my den