Josh hurled himself out of bed and stalked into the living room of his condo. He lived in a low-rise building but occupied the unit on the highest floor. As a result, he had a great view of the main street. Just beyond the tops of the trees, he could see Lake Gemini and Gemini Island.
This community was his home. He loved the people here and had been doing his best to serve them. It was a demanding life and schedule.
Would Marcelle even want to be part of his sort of life? He’d have to wait a year to find out. It might very well be the longest twelve months of his life.
Why hadn’t he said something the day she left?
“Because I would have looked like a crazed stalker, that’s why.”
His bear stood on its hind legs and roared.Our woman!
Josh doubled over, clutching his side, one hand on the floor-to-ceiling living room window. “Dammit!”
His instincts drew his gaze to the window. His body shaking, sweat on his brow, Josh scanned the view from one end of the darkened main street to another.
A terrified doe ran out of a laneway.
Something about that doe…
Seconds behind her, a bear appeared, chasing the doe down the street.
“Christ,” he said on a breath. “Marcelle?”
Although his logical brain told him Marcelle was in Europe, he threw on some clothes and raced out of the condo. Although his rational brain realized he was likely witnessing a wild doe with some bad luck, he ran out of his building into the night. Josh hurried toward the laneway. It wasn’t far from his clinic, and he knew which route was quickest.
At the crossing of two streets, Josh stopped and inhaled. As he did so, he quickly stripped out of his clothes.
A faded, peachy perfume reached his nostrils.
Marcelle.
Determining her direction, Josh surrendered to his spirit animal. He dropped to his knees as his grizzly bear manipulated his limbs and magnified his size. Governed by fury and fear, the creature tore down the empty street in the search of the bear that dared to threaten its mate.
Josh and his bear agreed on one thing in that moment. The other bear would pay with its life if Marcelle suffered even a scratch.
* * * *
The bear had her cornered at the end of a dead-end street.
Marcelle’s doe uttered low moans of fear, knowing it was no match for the ursine monster. Its hooves clicked on the pavement, but there was nowhere to run.
It was her own fault for leading the bear down the back roads. She should have stuck to the main road, shifted, and screamed her head off. Maybe she would have gotten someone’s attention. Of course, then she would have had to answer uncomfortable questions about why she was naked and being chased by a naked man who also happened to be a bear. She thought she could have outrun the monster. Her doe legs had never let her down before. It was one of the reasons she didn’t mind being a deer shifter when all her friends had fierce spirit animals. As a doe, she had a good instinct for trouble and was fleet of foot.
Just not tonight.
The bear growled, drool dipping from his massive jaws, as it slowly advanced.
Marcelle’s doe looked left and right. No escape. The alleyway was so tight there was no way she could get past the bear, even at her best sprint.
I never got to talk to Josh. Now he’ll never know I came back.
For some reason, that hurt more than the idea of dying in a stinky alleyway.
At the thought of Josh, her doe whimpered.
The bear stopped about twenty feet away from her. It huffed and charged.
Marcelle shifted into womanly form, hoping to spare her sweet doe from the sight of those jaws. She stood up straight and looked death in the face. She might die here, but the bear shifter would remember her human face. He would remember the life he’d taken.
