Love to Bear: A Werebear Shifter Romance Read Online Free Page B

more than I do. I've lived with this mountain wind all my
life. Grizzly Bone people are used to it.”
    The meager smile blossomed into a grin. She tipped her
head, as if to say, Thank you. I really mean it.
    With Sam close behind me, I opened the door and we
headed out into the night. The distant bonfires and faint electric
lights shone in the windows of the surrounding cabins.
    Most of my neighbors were home, enjoying the night's
solitude, or else turning in for a long rest after feasting on elk
and fish. We didn't hibernate like ordinary bears, but the cold made
us more lethargic, sapping our energy and leading the clan's chubbier
members to easily over-stuff their bellies.
    “ It's just along this path. We're heading straight
for the ether.” Sam stepped up until she was at my side. I saw
lines of worry cross-crossing her beautiful face, deep cracks in
splendid alabaster.
    “ You won't feel a thing. We pass through it all
the time without much more than a tickle..”
    “ I don't know...it sounds pretty serious.”
    I waited until we quickly walked several more steps
through the woods. Down the hill we descended, I caught my first
glimpse of it.
    The otherworldly fog glowed below us. Its soft strands
leaped out like a gentle sea, glittering and tinted in its usual
light blue luminescence. If it were any other night, I would've
stopped and admired the beauty.
    “ You see that?” I said, stopping and guiding
her eyes with my hand. “That's it. Think of it like a veil
between two rooms. It doesn't feel like anything but a pinprick of
ice.”
    Sam stared into it before she spoke. “It's
beautiful. Like the northern lights. I've only seen them once, way up
in Canada on one of my Mom's business trips.”
    I looked up into the wide, dark sky. It was a moonless
night, and cloud cover around the mountains made the stars sparse. I
shrugged, wondering what it would be like if the ether rose up into
the sky in slick bluish waves the way she described.
    “ Now that you've seen it, you know we're almost
clear.”
    Almost. Won't do any good to mention the possibility
of running into anyone out here. Or anything.
    Real grizzly bears were a worry for us as well as
humans. The animals didn't take too kindly to our clan, regardless of
whether we were in human or bear form.
    Like us, their senses were sharp. And they knew we
weren't like them, no matter how much we looked like it.
    “ Okay. Let's keep moving.” Sam said it.
    I sensed the energy rising in her and smiled. She wasn't
afraid anymore – not much, anyway. I reached out and grabbed
her hand, fanning the courage rising inside her.
    The bluish haze moved closer and closer. I sucked in a
breath, preparing to pass through the icy mist, whispering to her to
do the same.
    Then I got bowled over by what felt like a sack of
bricks. The darkness, the trees, the ether, Sam's beautiful body –
everything splintered in my vision.
    It whirled and whirled like a puzzle busted up into
individual jigsaws. I fell to the ground and tried to breathe. But I
couldn't.

III: Fate Is a Harsh Warden
(Sam)

    One minute, we were fine. With my cold hand wrapped in
Don's warmth, I was ready to pass through the rippling ether,
transfixed by its kaleidoscope of blue tints.
    Then his hand was torn from mine. I started screaming
before I saw the two hulking bears on top of him, filling the forest
with their roars.
    “ Don!” I screamed.
    I couldn't do anything except watch the horror. My knees
gave out and I fell onto them, wincing at the sting of gravel.
    It
took me more than a minute of bleary terror to wonder why they
weren't tearing into him. I realized there weren't two, but three roars, and three bears.
    They were all rolling on the ground growling and
snapping their jaws. Rich, dark fur oscillated like an avalanche of
furry rugs. Eventually, the big bear underneath the other two that
had to be Don – or so I hoped – let out a hellish roar
that echoed through the trees.
    I did the only thing