He shook off the thought. Not the time.
The trail along the Sagebrush River was becoming genuinely dangerous. Fresh snow camouflaged existing ice patches, turning every step into a potential hazard. The river itself sounded different. Louder, more aggressive, swollen with precipitation.
Nick was calculating their options when movement ahead caught his eye. His blood went cold.
“Everyone freeze,” he said quietly, but firmly enough to cut through any argument. “Don’t move.”
Thirty yards ahead, a massive grizzly bear emerged from the tree line like something out of a nightmare. Nick estimated it was five hundred pounds easy, the bear’s dark coat dusted with snow as he foraged along the trail edge.
The bear’s massive head swung back and forth, completely focused on whatever scent had drawn him to that exact spot.
Nick caught the faint sounds of the group adjusting their bear spray into position. That was reassuring. They knew the drill.
“Don’t run,” he said, forcing his voice to stay steady. “Come together. Make ourselves appear larger.”
The group bunched tightly, moving with deliberate care. Gina pressed against Nick as they raised their arms overhead. The top of her head barely reached his chin, her back firm against his chest.
Her breathing stayed controlled. No panic, no freezing. It’d be easy to lose your head while facing down a grizzly, but she was already assessing, planning their next move.
For a moment, he wasn’t thinking about the bear or the cold—just the comforting rhythm of her breathing matching his.
“Joe,” she whispered. “Breathe. Stay calm.”
Joe’s breathing was rapid and shallow. Classic panic response. In his peripheral vision, he saw Kelsey move closer to Joe, her hand touching his arm.
“Hey, bear,” Nick spoke in an easy tone, the same one he’d picked up on long hikes through the nearby mountains in his younger days. “Just passing through, big guy. No trouble here.”
The grizzly’s head turned toward them, small dark eyes taking in the cluster of humans. When it rose onto its hind legs to get a better look and catch their scent, Nick’s muscles tensed, ready to react if things went wrong. In front of him, Gina stayed perfectly still, but he could feel her alertness radiating outward.
Joe made a small sound of terror.
“Don’t,” Gina whispered. “You don’t want to sound like prey. Right now, he’s just checking us out.”
The bear dropped back to all fours and returned to his foraging, apparently deciding they weren’t worth investigatingfurther. But he remained directly in their path, blocking the trail back to Bearwater.
Minutes dragged. Nick’s eyes searched the bear for any shift in behavior as he swept the area for other wildlife. Cold seeped through his layers despite the adrenaline. Gina trembled against him. He couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or from tension.
“You okay?” he murmured, his lips close to her ear so only she could hear.
“Fine,” she said as her body shivered. “Just cold.”
Nick shifted, using his larger frame to block more of the wind from hitting her directly. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
Incredibly, Brooke was still checking her GPS watch. Even facing down a grizzly, she couldn’t stop monitoring her training metrics.
“How long do we wait?” Joe whispered, fear tight in his voice as he held his arms over his head.
“As long as it takes,” Nick replied quietly. “He’ll move when he’s ready.”
“My arms are going numb,” he said.
“Lower your arms,” Gina offered. “Just Joe. Let him shake his out, then we’ll go one at a time doing the same thing.”
The bear worked his way slowly along the trail edge, occasionally glancing in their direction but showing no signs of aggression as the group shook out their arms. He didn’t seem at all concerned about what they were doing, but still, five hundred pounds of bear could change from docile to deadly in seconds.
Visibility dropped as the snow thickened, and concern spiked in Nick. If they lost sight of the bear, they wouldn’t know where he was or if he was closing in.
