Bearing the Black Ice (Ice Bear Shifters Book 4) (3 page)

Hannah slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Soft light danced from the walls of the cavern, casting long, eerie shadows across the room. She took a mental inventory of her body, trying to determine whether all of her limbs were still intact. She glanced down at her front paws. The matted fur was covered in streaks of dried blood, but there didn’t appear to be any significant damage. She slowly wiggled her back paws, pleased to find that they were in working order as well. When she tried to sit up over, however, a sharp pain shot through her lower back on her right side. She winced and let out a low whine, but managed to make it onto her haunches. That’s when she saw Alan sitting across the room from her, next to a flashlight that was pointing up toward the ceiling.

“Easy there, bear,” he said. “You got into quite a scuffle. Take things slowly.” He was in human form, although he had changed clothes. Hannah knew without asking that the roar in the tunnel had been his. He had come to her rescue. She was grateful, although somewhat embarrassed. She hated feeling like a damsel in distress, but she knew she never would have been able to fight off the other bear on her own. Alan dug into his backpack and pulled out a large fleece sweatshirt and pair of fleece sweatpants, then handed them to her. He pulled out a pair of wool socks and tossed them over as well.

“Everything’s obviously way too big for you, but if you roll up the sleeves and pant legs you can make it work,” he said. Then he turned around to give her privacy while she shifted back and dressed, which Hannah found odd. Shifters were notoriously unfazed by human nakedness. Losing your clothes to shifting was such a part of life that no one ever cared if someone happened to be walking around exposed. But then, Alan had struck her as a little odd from the beginning. With a powerful burst of energy, Hannah shifted back into human form, then pulled on the clothes. She pulled the drawstring on the sweatpants as tight as it would go, but they still threatened to fall down around her waist. She sighed and bent over to roll up the bottoms, then pulled the sweatshirt over her head and pushed the sleeves back until her hands appeared. She pulled on the socks, then looked down at herself and giggled. Alan glanced over his shoulder and turned around.

“What’s so funny?”

“I look like I’m wearing a giant potato sack.”

A strange, pained look crossed his face, but he recovered quickly and shrugged. “At least it’s a relatively warm potato sack.”

Hannah looked over at him sheepishly. “So, I’m not sure exactly what happened back there, but I guess I owe you a thank you. And an apology for storming off earlier.”

Alan shrugged, although the same pained look passed over his face again. “You’re lucky I heard you roaring. That Blizzard was massive. One of the hugest I’ve ever seen. And your bear is pretty tiny. Although quite feisty, from the sound of it. You were blacked out already when I got there, but before that you were putting off quite a chorus of roars and snarls.”

Hannah felt her cheeks flushing from a mixture of embarrassment and pleasure. Alan’s comments about her feistiness sounded like a compliment, and his praise sent a little thrill through her body. For a moment, she forgot about the fact that they were stuck in a death trap of a cave, and enjoyed the gorgeous view in front of her. His face was covered in dirt, which the uneven shadows from the flashlight only emphasized. His dark hair was mussed up from the fight, but the unkempt look only added to his sexiness. He had lost his thick jacket when he shifted, making his defined arm muscles even easier to see.

He seemed to notice her staring at him, because he abruptly turned away and started rummaging through his backpack. He handed her a protein bar and his water bottle.

“Here. I know it’s not the most delicious or filling meal, but it’s better than nothing. And you need to drink to replenish all the fluids your body has lost.”

“Thank you,” Hannah said as she gratefully took the food and water from him. “How many of those do you have in there?”

“Ten more. Five for each of us. Which isn’t going to last very long, but, hopefully we can figure out a way out of here soon.”

Hannah quietly munched on her protein bar for a few moments. It tasted like stale peanuts, but compared to the junk the Blizzards had been feeding her, it actually wasn’t that bad. She didn’t bother to point out to Alan once again that she thought the chances of them escaping were zero. He already knew she thought that, and, from the defeated look on his face, it seemed he was starting to accept that reality as well.

She wondered why he had saved her. It didn’t make much sense. They barely knew each other, and she had ridiculed him and left in a huff. And, quite frankly, having her around did slow him down. Not to mention it cut his available food supplies in half, since he seemed to be so generously sharing with her. Maybe, like her, he didn’t exactly want to spend his last few days alone.

But as she watched him lay down using his backpack as a pillow, and turn his face away from her, she couldn’t reconcile his antisocial attitude with the idea that he wanted company for his final days. Maybe he really was crazy enough to think they could make it out of here. Hannah swallowed her last bite of protein bar.

“So what do we do now?”

“Now we sleep. I’m exhausted, and you need your rest to recover,” he said. Then he killed the flashlight and the cavern went dark.

Alan stared into the darkness as he heard Hannah sigh, then finally lay down. A couple moments later, her steady, rhythmic breathing told him she had fallen asleep.

Sleep wouldn’t come so easily for Alan. It never did. A never ending loop of disturbing images played through his mind whenever he tried to drift off to dreamland. He always saw Tessa’s face, laughing with delight as she threw her arms around him and told him that she was expecting. Then he saw his child, a son. Even though the baby had never had a chance to be born, Alan’s mind had somehow conjured up an image of the child. The boy had Alan’s face and build, but Tessa’s golden tresses. Laughing, the boy would run off, his silhouette growing smaller and smaller until he disappeared into a puff of smoke. Then Alan would see Tessa’s face, looking up at him with a desperate, pleading look as she writhed in pain from the silver poisoning. She would blink a few, final times, and then vanish. Every night, when Alan went to bed, this stream of mental images played over and over in his mind. No matter how hard he tried to think about something else, the same playback reel repeated itself. Tonight, however, two images had added themselves to the loop. First, Alan would see Hannah’s face, her stubborn, spunky expression daring him to disagree with her as she warned him not to go down the tunnel. Then, he would see her polar bear face as it lay lifeless on the floor of the cave, with her eyes rolled back into her head.

Alan couldn’t ignore the strong, gut reaction he’d had when he heard her terrified roaring echoing through the cavern tunnels. He hadn’t stopped to think. He’d just shifted and took off running in the direction of the sound. At least he’d had the presence of mind to grab his backpack of supplies in his mouth before running off. Otherwise he and Hannah would both be naked and frozen right now. As it was, he wished he had taken his jacket off before shifting so that it wouldn’t have become ruined. The temperatures were too cold for bare human skin. But Alan hadn’t been thinking about jackets or clothing in the heat of the moment.

He had found the spot where Hannah was unsuccessfully trying to fight off the Blizzard, and his angry polar bear had quickly decimated Hannah’s attacker. The other bear had been a giant compared to most Blizzards Alan had seen, but Alan still had no trouble taking him down. His first worry after killing the Blizzard was that there were more of them around, but after a few moments of sniffing around and not smelling or hearing anything else, Alan was satisfied that the bear had indeed been alone. He had probably been a lone guard bear patrolling the tunnels for signs of foul play. Well, he had found some foul play, alright.

Alan had shifted back to human form and pulled the flashlight out of his bag. When the beam landed on Hannah’s face, he had seen the image that now haunted him of her eyes rolled back into her head. Even though her bear form was on the smaller side, he still had to shift back to bear form to manage to drag her to a remote space in the cave. Shifting back and forth took an enormous amount of energy, which he hated to waste with such low food supplies. But he hadn’t wanted to risk being on the main patrol route, in case another bear guard came along.

Luckily, Hannah’s wounds had been minor. She had a couple nasty gashes, but nothing that required stitches. The Blizzard had mostly knocked the wind out of her, and when she came to she had been alright. After a few more hours of sleep, she should be up for more traveling.

Alan tossed and turned, willing his mind and body to rest. But the gravity of the situation weighed heavily on his heart. He wanted to believe that everything would work out okay in the end, but he knew deep down that Hannah’s worries over their situation were legitimate. They had almost no food, and they were completely lost down here. The only spark of hope Alan felt came from the realization that the Blizzard who attacked Hannah had not been carrying any supplies with him. This meant that they had to be less than a day’s journey from some sort of food supply. The problem was finding it.

Alan squeezed his eyes shut tight in the pitch black darkness. He had no fear of dying. Since losing Tessa, everything always seemed slightly out of focus. Colors were less vivid, and every emotion except grief had taken on a dull edge. But he found himself strangely troubled by the possibility of Hannah dying. When she had shifted back to human form earlier, and he had seen her exquisite human form standing right in front of him, he had felt his bear leaping with pleasure inside of him.

Mine
his bear had whispered as Hannah’s perfect, full breasts came into view.
Beautiful
, the bear added, as Hannah bent over and her smooth, round ass was put on display. Alan had turned away quickly, trying to stop the rush of passion that had unexpectedly started coursing through his veins. Seeing another shifter naked was a commonplace occurrence, thanks to how destructive shifting could be to clothing. But Tessa had been the only woman who had ever excited him. After she died, Alan had pushed the thought of any other woman far, far out of his mind. Thinking about anyone besides Tessa in a sexual way seemed wrong. But Hannah had somehow broken through that invisible wall. He couldn’t deny that the sight of her heated his blood and filled him with desire.

Alan groaned when he felt an involuntary stiffening between his legs as his body responded to his passionate thoughts. He tried to change the subject in his head, but his dick insisted on hardening. It stood firm and erect, reminding him that he was still a man with needs and wants, no matter how much the grief had been overshadowing that reality.

Alan squeezed his eyes closed even tighter than they already were. He desperately needed sleep, and if they made it out of here alive, he could worry then about sorting through these feelings.

Right now they needed to focus on surviving.

* * *

Alan woke with a start several hours later. He could hear teeth chattering in the darkness, and he realized that Hannah must be freezing. The temperature felt like it had dropped another couple of degrees, probably due to the dropping nighttime temperatures up above ground. Alan sat up on his elbow, and fumbled around in the darkness trying to find the flashlight.

“Hannah? Are you awake” he asked, feeling along the edge of the wall to locate their light source.

“Uh-huh,” she said, her voice sounding shaky from the shivering. Alan found the flashlight and turned it on, the small beam flooding the cavern with its light.

“We should get moving,” he said, glancing at his watch. They had only slept about four hours, and it was still the middle of the night. But it didn’t sound like Hannah was going to be able to sleep again anytime soon, and getting her blood flowing to warm her up seemed like a good idea at this point.

Hannah sat up slowly. “Can I have another protein bar?” she asked. “I’m starving.”

Alan hesitated. His own stomach was growling insistently, too. But if they were going to stretch out their meager food supply, it was best to limit themselves to a bar a day each. On the other hand, Hannah’s body had been through quite an ordeal. She needed fuel to warm up and to heal. Alan decided to let her have another one but hold off for the time being on eating any more bars himself.

“Sure,” Alan said, digging into his bag and pulling out a bar to toss to her. “But enjoy it. We’ll need to wait a while before allowing ourselves to dig further into the food rations. And make sure you drink plenty of water.” Alan tossed her his water bottle as well. Thankfully, there were plenty of underground springs and streams in this cave, providing an abundant supply of water.

As soon as Hannah finished eating, Alan stood up. “Are you up for walking? I think moving around will help you warm up. And we should try to get some more distance between us and the dead Blizzard. I don’t know how long it will be before someone realizes he’s missing and comes looking for him, but I don’t want to be anywhere near here when they find him.”

Hannah nodded. “I think I can walk. Just take it slow. I only have socks on, so the ground feels pretty rocky and rough.”

Alan smiled at her kindly. “We’ll go slowly. But let’s keep moving at a steady pace.”

Hannah smiled back at him, and Alan felt his heart melting. His bear leaped inside of him, demanding to be heard. Was it possible that Hannah could be his new life mate? Alan turned abruptly away and headed for the entrance to the next tunnel. He didn’t want to think such heavy thoughts right now. He walked quickly, trying to stop the stiffening of his dick between his legs as it responded to the warmth spreading through his body from Hannah’s smile.

“Alan, wait. I can’t go that fast,” Hannah called out. He looked over his shoulder and saw her trying to gingerly run across the rocky floor. Guilt immediately flooded him. He needed to be sensitive to her predicament and take care of her. His conflicted feelings weren’t her problem.

“Sorry,” he said. “My mind was somewhere else. Do you need a hand?” Alan reached out his arm to her, and she gratefully grabbed onto it to steady herself. As soon as she touched him, an electric passion shot through his body. He may have been in an icy cold subterranean cavern, but the heat washing over his body right now made it feel more like a tropical island.

Hannah had worked her magic on him, breaking through his ice cold barriers and warming his heart.

“Sorry, Tessa,” Alan mouthed into the dim light of the cavern. He looked toward the ceiling.

The only answer was a strange feeling of peace that washed over Alan. Was Tessa sending him a sign from somewhere in the spirit world? Despite finding himself in less than ideal circumstances, Alan suddenly had a feeling that everything was going to be alright.