An exhausted one, sick and wounded and cold and ready to eat a hot meal. That would be nice. A hot meal.Truffle fries.Her mouth literally watered.
Just please don’t be a bear.
With mayo. Eurotrash, the guys called her, but she knew they liked it too. She’d seen them sneak fries…
Something snorted.
It is. It’s a fucking bear.
Her inner monologue stopped short. It only offered comfort when she could pretend things were fine, but in this case, she’d need something a whole lot more concrete to lean on than mental distraction.
It moved.
And she hadn’t even brought the damn bear spray with her. Although the locals scoffed at the idea of that stuff anyway.Get close enough to spray her, Daisy had said with a laugh,better have already put a hole in her hide.
Or preferably, left it the hell alone.
Well, that was all great advice, really. Useless out here in the real, honest-to-goodness wilderness, without a solitary way to defend herself, but great in theory.Just great, she mouthed.
With a slow, careful step away from the fallen log, she took stock—three knives. Waist, pocket, and boot.
A lot of good they would do against claws and jaws that could rip her open and snap her bones.
Another careful step back and another. She’d made it maybe six feet from the den when it chuffed, the noise exactly like a sneeze.
Oddly, that gave her hope. It was sleeping.Please be sleeping.
Another step, another prayer that her foot wouldn’t break a twig or slide in a fresh vat of mud.
Don’t wake up. Don’t wake up. Please, please, don’t wake up.
Funny how she’d thought the worst had happened today, with the long hike and, oh, being chased by killers over deadly terrain. Just proved, didn’t it, that she was right to be superstitious. She was right to think the worst was always to come.
Whenever she thought she could slow down or relax or—hey, stop to maybe kiss a stranger in the woods—it all came crashing down.
Please don’t wake up.
The animal shifted and snuffled, the sound so much like a man waking up that she had a quick moment of panic someone else was here after all. But then it emerged fully from the cave. A grizzly, slow and sleepy and probably hungry as hell. Maybe even mad that someone had awakened it this late in the day.
She stopped moving. It was big, but not fat, the way she’d imagined. It was all muscle and bone and sinew, with a thick, wooly coat that hung loose on its frame, its gait slow and rolling. Though she knew for a fact it could run if it wanted. It could chase her down, shove her to the ground and tear her open in the blink of an eye.
She tightened her hand on the knife hilt, keeping it low.
“Hey.” Her voice was so reedy she hardly recognized it. No way. If she was gonna die against this animal today, she would at least take a real stand first. She spent a long, slow inhale searching hard for her inner badass.
“How’s it going there…bear?”
Its big head turned, shiny eyes finding her in the eerie light.
When it took its first step in her direction, Leo ignored every one of her instincts and held her ground.
***
Elias smelled it first.
Bear. No doubt about it. A growl just confirmed it. He’d heard that sound more times than he could count, and it was close. Too damn close.
Bo stopped eating, tail down, ears up.
