Bear Mated: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranomal Romance (Pine Ridge BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Series Book 2) (3 page)

Rick’s eyes widened as a shadow eclipsed the sun, and he
craned his head up just in time to see a beautiful brown-feathered eagle
sweeping down on Barbara from the treetops far overhead. Damn it all, the bird
moved
fast
.

He shouted a warning even as he
lunged forward, knocking Barbara out of the way. The eagle fell on him instead,
scratching his
upflung
arm and drawing blood. He
struck at it with his other hand, but its powerful wings flapped gracefully and
it soared back up, out of reach before he could touch it.

“Are you all right?” he said to Barbara.
She was on the ground, looking thoroughly out of sorts with him.

“Never do that again,” she said.
Then she saw the blood weeping from his arm, and concern filled her face. “The
bird did
that
?”

He glanced at the wounds. The eagle
really had done a lot of damage, and he could see long, deep claw marks where
its talons had rent his flesh. It hurt like a bastard.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Bear
shifters heal fast.”

He reached his hand out to her, and
she took it. He helped her up, slapping some dust from her rump as he did—and
enjoying it. She had a hell of a rump.

“Watch it, buster,” she said.

“I think I like ‘Buster’ better
than ‘Winnie’.”

“Well, too bad, Winnie.”

Damn, he loved that sparkle in her
eye. Lifting his head again, he shaded his eyes with his left hand (the right
arm was the one that was bleeding), but all he could see were trees. Then—a
winged shadow! It struck in from the west, sweeping under and around stout tree
limbs. Before he could brace himself for the next attack, another bird shrieked,
and he spun to see a second eagle coming in from the other direction. This one
had counted on the first to distract him and had come almost all the way upon
him without making a noise. It was used to its cry paralyzing its victims,
though, and had thought to do the same with him.

Instead he growled low, deep in his
chest, and threw a powerful fist at the eagle even as it swept right at him.

It screamed and swerved aside.

Next to him Barbara was pivoting
and raising her pistol. He wheeled about to see the first eagle barreling down
on them again.

“Stop or I’ll shoot!” Barbara said.

The eagle flew on, thrusting out
its talons to shred her flesh. The sight of its cruel beak and arrogant eyes
made Rick’s bear growl in rage, and the thought of it harming Barbara filled
him with a crazy kind of wildness, a protectiveness, that he’d never felt
before.

She’d told him not to push her out
of the way again, but how else could he protect her? He gnashed his teeth in
frustration.

Luckily, she was no wilting lily
that needed a man to protect her.

She fired her pistol, seeming to
aim just under the great bird. It screamed and veered upward, vanishing into
the treetops.

Panting, Rick and Barbara turned to
each other.

Her eyes were wide. “Did you
see
that?”

He laughed. “You’re one tough cop,
you know that, Officer
Hotpants
?”

“You’re not so bad yourself, Winnie.”

“I think that was almost a
compliment.”

“Are they both shifters?”

“Yes. I can smell it. Eagle
shifters. Huh.”

She was scowling, obviously
thinking fast. “I can’t shoot them,” she said. “They’re people. More or less.”

“It would be self defense.”

She shook her head. “No, I won’t do
it. We’ve got to take them in alive. But …”

Before she could complete the
thought, the second eagle reappeared, flying straight down on them from almost
directly overhead. Its wings were tucked in and its talons aimed for maximum
damage. She raised her gun and fired at it, but Rick didn’t think she aimed to
hit it but to warn it off. It kept coming. She squeezed off another shot, but
Rick could see the irritation in her face. How could she stop the attack
without killing the eagle shifters?

The raptor was almost on her. Rick
could just imagine it slicing up her face.

“Sorry about this,” he said and
yanked her out of the way. He pulled her hard, and they both tumbled to the
ground panting, her on top of him. The eagle screamed and finished its dive
with its talons rending the air just a foot above them. Then it swept back up with
a powerful pump of its wings.

Rick glanced around. The other
eagle was nowhere in sight. Rick had one arm around Barbara, and he liked the
feel of her against him. One of her breasts pressed against his chest, and he
thought he could feel a nipple. He turned to her with a grin, and he had to
fight the urge to lick a bead of sweat trickling down her flushed cheek and
neck. He loved seeing her face up against his, like she was coming in for a
kiss.

Unable to help himself, he bent
forward and pressed his lips against hers. She let out a terrified squeak and
rolled off him, then rose to a crouch.

“What was
that
?” she said, wiping her mouth.

He tried to hide his hurt feelings.
What, did she think he had cooties or something? “Just got caught up in the
moment, I guess,” he said.

“Well, don’t let it happen again.”

She
said
that, but he noticed the way her eyes lingered on his body.

“Shit,” he said, and pointed behind
her.

The other eagle blasted toward her,
its cruel beak glinting in a shaft of sunlight.

“Stop or I’ll shoot!” she
threatened again, and Rick thought,
Yeah,
you’ll shoot, but not to kill.
What use was that? The eagle shifters would
see right through her.

She seemed to realize it. Instead
of firing, she threw herself to the side just in time, and the eagle swept
harmlessly by. Rick pushed himself to his feel and leapt at it, meaning to
catch its talons and swing it down, dash it against the ground and knock it
cold, but it was too fast.

Even as his feet touched the
ground, the first eagle dove at him again. He crouched, picked up a stone from
the ground and hurled it at the bird. The stone struck with an explosion of
feathers, and the eagle screamed in pain and broke off the dive, vanishing in
the shadows above.

“That was some throw,” Barbara
said, and he liked the way her gaze lingered on his biceps as she said it.

He made a show of flexing them, but
tried to be at least a little casual about it. She didn’t seem to like it when
he was too obvious.

“Ya think?” he said, aiming for
humble.

She cleared her throat. “We need to
leave. Those birds aren’t going to stop until we do—or we’re dead.”

“Or they are.”

“
That’s
not going to happen.”

He gave her his serious look, and
he meant it. “It will if they hurt you.”

She looked flustered. “Anyway, I
think the road is that—”

An eagle was coming back
around—Rick couldn’t tell if it was the first one or the second, and he guessed
it didn’t matter. Both were pretty dangerous. And behind it was another eagle.
And behind that was another … and another …

“
Pissballs
,”
said Barbara.

Rick stared. There had to be a
dozen eagles coming straight at them. The first two giant birds had been
screaming all during the attack, and now he realized why: they’d been summoning
help. All the eagles were shifters, he was sure, which meant that human minds
were guiding those wicked-looking beaks and talons.

Fire coursed through his blood, and
he felt a deep growl shake him. His bear was going nuts. In seconds it would
come out to play.

“Fire your gun,” he told Barbara.

Taking aim at a point just below
the incoming tide of eagles, she fired off three quick shots. The stream of
feathers and talons screeched and veered around Rick and Barbara like a tide
hitting a boulder, and the sound of the birds’ flapping and squawking filled
Rick’s ears. The eagles circled the two like a feathery tornado, gathering
their courage for another strike.

If they attacked again, Barbara
would die; Rick knew it.

“There’s no way back to the road,”
he said. “It’s too far. But there’s a cave—that way.” He pointed. “Just cross
the creek and turn at the outcropping of stones. You’ll see the cave in the
mountain wall. I’ll find you there.”

She turned terrified eyes on him.
“But what about you?”

He smiled.
She cares.
“I’ll be fine. Go!”

An eagle dove at her. She ducked,
but its talons found her scalp, and a thin red line dripped down her forehead
to her eyebrow.

“Damn you!” she said and started to
take aim at it, but it just joined the circling throng. The attack seemed to
make her realize that Rick was right, though; she had to go. Still she
hesitated. Giving him one last look, she said, “Are you sure?”

He made himself sound braver than
he felt: “Hell yeah!”

She eyed him doubtfully, as if
seeing through his bullshit, but she nodded. Reaching out, she squeezed his
arm, and he rejoiced at the feel of her soft fingers. She might be a cop, but
her skin was as soft as a dove’s behind. Or maybe he had that expression
confused.

“Good luck,” Barbara whispered, and
ran.

Rick grinned up at the eagles.
“Come and get me, you mangy pigeons!”

The eagles dove, and his bear
erupted from him.

Barbara turned when she was beyond the screaming tornado of
predator birds, and fear flooded through her—and amazement.

Rick, now in bear form, had reared
up on his hind legs, standing fully eight feet tall. A huge brown beast with a
gray-brown coat and gleaming fangs in his long muzzle, he lashed the air with a
huge paw.
Smack!
He struck an eagle,
and it went spinning to the ground. Another eagle dove at his back, raking his
fur with its talons. Barbara screamed as the talons dug into him and blood
flowed down his back.

Another eagle dove, and another. He
batted one away, sank his teeth into another and tossed his head, throwing it
to the ground, still alive but out of the fight. More and more eagles dove at
him, more than he could fight off, and their beaks and talons found him, and
blood leaked down his furry flanks. Anguish rose in Barbara. Unable to stop
herself, she raised her gun and fired into the feathery tornado, but the birds
didn’t stop attacking and she wasn’t sure if she hit anything.

The shots drew the birds’ attention.
A couple of them broke off from assaulting Rick and flew toward Barbara.

“Nuts,” she said, and threw herself
behind a tree. The eagles flashed past, screaming.

Before they could circle around for
another strike, she ran toward the creek Rick had pointed to. She couldn’t see
it, but she trusted him. She craned her neck, hoping to see him one last time
(well, at least for the moment), but trees blocked the way. She knew she would
never get that image out of her mind, of Rick in bear form standing tall and
brave against a circling tide of outraged eagles even as blood cascaded down
his gleaming fur.

And she knew, in that moment, that
she loved him, at least a little. It didn’t make any sense, but there it was.
Anyway, there was no time to think on it now. The creek appeared ahead,
babbling pleasantly as it wound through the forest and throwing a little foam
into the air whenever the channel narrowed.

Movement off to her right. She
turned to see an eagle barreling down on her. She fired at it and it veered
off.
Shit
. Only three more bullets in
her clip.

The creek proved to be shallow
enough for her to wade across, so she jumped right in. Water splashed around
her knees and she shuddered. It might be late summer, but this must be spring
water, because it was
cold
. She made
it across the creek just as the second eagle found her; she saw its shadow on
the ground, right next to hers and getting larger.

She jumped to the side, turned and
lifted her gun. She didn’t fire, but the eagle veered aside anyway. Breathing
hard, Barbara turned and continued running. Sweat stuck her uniform shirt to
the small of her back.

There! The outcropping of stones
Rick had told her to watch out for came into sight. She turned at it and
continued on, ducking when a raptor flew at her head. It missed, but not by
much. Ahead of her loomed a wall of rock, part of the mountain, and sure enough
she saw several cave mouths opening along it. She ran toward the biggest one.

Closer, closer …

Just as she reached the cave, she saw
a shadow move deep with the tunnel of stone. The shadow grew.

Crud!
What now?

A bear stepped around a bend in the
tunnel and growled at her. It was a big animal, but not as big as Rick, and
something about it was different. Well, no time to think on it.

“I’m Barbara,” she told it,
assuming it to be one of Rick’s cronies. After all, it was in the cave he’d
told her about. “I know Rick Barnes.”

The bear lifted its lips and
growled at her again. Ice pricked her spine, and gooseflesh popped up on her
arms.
Now
she knew why this bear was
different. This was a regular bear, not a shifter. Somehow she could just tell.
She felt very foolish for having tried to talk with it.

It stalked toward her, growling
deep in its throat.

She swallowed. Overhead, an eagle
shrieked, and she thought it must be preparing for another dive.
Great
, she thought.
Death by eagle or bear?

Well, hell. She’d thrown in her lot
with bears, so she guessed she’d choose them. Summoning her courage, she stepped
forward, toward the great beast. She glanced over her shoulder to see the eagle
stop the dive it had just begun and start circling again. Good. They wouldn’t
come too close to the bear. That was something.

Unfortunately, there was a
reason
they weren’t coming close. That
bear did not look happy at all. It growled again, spraying spittle past its
canines, and slapped a paw in Barbara’s general direction—not attacking, just
letting her know it was tough and not to be messed with. It had heard the noise
and come out to investigate, and now it was defending its home.

She holstered the pistol, feeling
ridiculous. As if it saw the gun as a threat. Just the same, it seemed the
right thing to do. She was trying to make peace with it, after all, and you
can’t make peace holding a gun. Or at least that was her thinking.

With her empty hands outstretched,
she stepped forward, toward the bear. Overhead, the eagles were still circling,
waiting for their chance.

“See?” Barbara said, wagging her
empty hands. “I’m your friend. See? Your
friend
.”
She knew it couldn’t understand her, but she hoped the sound of her voice
relaxed it, soothed it.

Its ears pricked forward, as if
were listening. Its wet black nose quivered, scenting her, and then it sniffed
again. Barbara edged forward, her heart beating so fast she was surprised it
didn’t just jump out of her chest and do a little dance, maybe salsa-style. She
came right up to the bear, and it sniffed her hands, seemingly curious. Barbara
shuddered as she felt the bear’s breaths on her upturned palms.

Then, curiously, the bear prodded
Barbara’s side with its nose. The motion startled her so much that she nearly
screamed. It sniffed again, its nostrils inhaling, and she realized what it was
doing. It was sniffing the
jacket
! It
was sniffing Rick’s big sweaty cock!

The bear sniffed once more, sort of
grunted, then turned about and made for its lair again. With a final grunt, it
disappeared deep in the cave and was gone.

Barbara stared down at the jacket
in wonder.
It smelled Rick’s dong
,
she thought.
It smelled a bear on me and
let me go.

Shaking her head, she pushed
further into the cave. She was trembling. Now that she was relatively safe, her
body was shaking like a leaf. To steady herself, she leaned against the cave
wall. Peering outside, she saw the two eagles still circling in the sky
overhead.

She watched them for awhile, but
they didn’t come any closer. Neither did they vanish. She took a deep breath
and let it out. The blood that had been flowing from her scalp had stopped; the
cut really hadn’t been deep, she realized, feeling it with her fingers and
wiping the blood away. She was safe. For the first time since the eagles
attacked, she was safe.

But what about Rick?

Worry gnawed at her, and her eyes
burned. She held the tears back, though.
Cops
don’t cry
. It was something one of her trainers had drilled into her. It
wasn’t the only thing he’d tried to drill, but it was the only thing he’d
succeeded in.
Cops don’t cry,
she
reminded herself, and dried her eyes with a sniff.

It was time. She needed to call for
back-up. With a sigh, she reached for the phone. Her hands clutched empty air.

The phone had been clipped to her
belt, but now it was gone. Somewhere during the initial attack or the flight
afterward she’d lost it.

Great
,
she thought, sagging backward.
I’m stuck
out in the forest, trapped between a bear and a swarm of murderous eagles, and
I don’t even have a flipping phone!
She wanted to scream in frustration.

And where the hell was Rick? He should
have come right after her. Stupid brave man, he must have stayed behind longer
than necessary to give her more time to get away. She imagined him crumpled in
a bloody heap under a fury of flapping eagle wings and wanted to cry all over
again. She held it in, though.
Cops don’t
cry. Cop Rule 103. Keep it together, Barb.

What cops
did
do was rescue civilians in distress. If Rick was still out
there, then by God Barbara would just have to go after him, eagles be damned.
She still had three bullets left.

Standing, she marched to the cave
mouth and was about to step outside when a giant bear burst from the
treeline
in the direction of the creek. Rick! She
recognized him. Her heart slammed back into motion.

“Here!” she cried. “Over here!”

Blood poured down his sides and
back, and the eagles still pecked at him. They circled over his head, diving
down to slice at him, then circling again. He reared up and slapped at an
eagle, then lowered himself and ran on. There were fewer eagles than there had
been earlier; he’d taken several out of the fight. The two birds that had gone
after Barbara joined the others in tormenting Rick. One dove at his head and
sliced open a gash behind his ear.

“I don’t think so,” said Barbara.

Storming outside, she drew her gun
and fired into the air near the throng of eagles—not trying to hit them, just
letting them know she could hit them if she wanted. Sure enough, the cloud of
angry birds paused in their attack on Rick and seemed to mill about, still
circling in the air.

“Here!” Barbara shouted to Rick.

Shaking his head, he loped toward
her, and she felt dismay at how ragged and raw he looked. The eagles had really
done a number on him.

The cloud of birds seemed to gather
its resolve and came closer, but Barbara fired off another shot and they stayed
back, giving Rick enough time to make it to the cave. Just as he started to
pass into it, the eagles sucked up their courage and dove at him in one long,
talon-filled column.

He entered the cave and turned
about, roaring in challenge. As the eagles neared the cave mouth and began
their turn, he clawed at them and snapped his teeth. Barbara felt awe overwhelm
her at his primal fury. Screeching, the eagles flew up again and began
circling. At least they weren’t attacking anymore.

Exhausted, Rick let his bear go and
became human again. Weaving on his feet, he raised a fist at the sky and shook
it tiredly. Barbara wedged herself under his armpit, and he dutifully wrapped
an arm around her shoulders, allowing her to prop him up.

“Let’s get you sitting down,” she
said.

Too worn-out to resist, he let her
steer him to the cave wall and lower him into a sitting position. She gasped at
seeing the extent of his injuries. Talon gashes rent his chest and arms and
legs, and especially his back, making it impossible for him to lean it against
the wall.

“
Look
at you,” she said, feeling her eyes start to burn again. “Look
what they
did
to you.” She had half a
mind to go outside and fire her last bullet at the birds. Even now they were
starting to move away. Birds didn’t have the patience for a long drawn-out
siege, evidently. That was something. Turning back to Rick, she said, “You did
all that … for me …”

Tired though he must be, he
nevertheless gave her a crooked grin. “Anything for Officer
Hotpants
.
Hey, you’re crying.”

“Am not. Cops don’t cry.” She wiped
at her eyes impatiently. Kneeling beside him, she examined his injuries more
closely. She could tell which ones were caused by talons and which ones by
beaks. Both had done a lot of damage. “We’ve got to get you to a hospital,” she
said.

“Naw. Bear shifters heal quick.”

She wiped some dirt from around a
long gash on his abs. “Not quick enough to avoid infection,” she said. “I need
to clean these.”

“How are you going to do that? The
only water around here—”

“Is the creek.”

She nodded, as if that was that,
and stood to go.

“Wait!” he said, when she reached
the mouth of the cave. “What if the eagles are still out there?”

She slapped the gun at her hip. “I
dropped my reserve clip back at the attack site, but I still have a bullet
left. They’d better watch out.”

With that, she stepped outside and
into the open air.