Read Bear Run: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Pine Ridge Bear Shifters Book 1) for Free Online Page A

never leading her to trip or stumble—down
an incline and toward a clearing. There! A stripe of moonlit coated a timber
roof. Even from here she could see the cabin was a ruin, holes showing in the
top, grass and ferns crowning the surviving timbers. A couple of the logs
composing the sides had caved in, too, but the cabin still stood, even if it
was weathered and listing and being slowly reclaimed by the forest.
    As they approached it, rain began
to patter on Alice’s face, and she looked up to see that the stars and moon
were masked by dark clouds. Thunder rumbled, and lightning lit up an inky bank
of thunderheads, then switched off, returning the world to darkness. Alice
shivered as cold droplets hit her, and she scurried the last few feet, all but
jumping across the threshold of the tilted but homey-looking cabin. Taggart
came in immediately behind her, and there was a protectiveness to his stance,
as if she might need to be saved from some cyclops or something waiting inside.
Or maybe a bear.
    Ha!
I’m the one with the gun! she thought.
    She stamped her feet and blew on
her hands, peering into the darkness. “Is this the right place?” she said.
    He sniffed loudly, scenting. “This
is it.”
    She stared at him, or what she
could see of him, in awe. “You recognize the smell, after all this time?”
    “Enough of it, yeah.” He paused,
then with a sly smile added, “I think I can even smell one of Sam’s better
farts.”
    “Ha ha.”
    “It was a real stinker. Woo! Just
about burned out my nose hairs off.”
    “I said ‘ha ha’.”
    He grinned, but she thought it was
more for her benefit than his. It worked, though. She felt lighter and more at
ease.
    He didn’t say any more but strode
throughout the rooms. There were only four or five, including one large living
and cooking area. The ceiling in one corner had fallen in, admitting a steady
stream of rain. More thunder boomed, and Alice flinched, then laughed at
herself. Her belly rumbled again, not quite as loud as the thunder, but close,
and she dug out one of her snack bars. She always carried around a few, even
when not hunting (usually for deer, never for any shifters until today, of
course), and sometimes Pa made fun of her about it. Yer not even hungry , he’d say. Yer
jes feedin’ the fat.
    Well, she was hungry now, and she
took a big bite and then another. When Taggart returned from inspecting the
rooms, evidently not finding anything of note, she offered him a snack bar of
his own. She knew he must be famished. From what she’d read about bear
shifters, their metabolisms were ridiculously fast and they ate all the time.
    “Naw,” he said. “You take it.”
    She insisted, shoving it towards
him.
    “I’m fine,” he said.
    “Bull doody. I want you to have
it.” When he still hesitated, she realized that some macho code of his was
preventing him from taking food away from her. Thinking quickly, she said,
“You’re protecting me, right? Well, what good are you to me if you can’t do
your job? You can’t protect anyone if you’re weak from hunger.”
    He grunted, maybe in hunger, maybe
in appreciation of her logic, and accepted the snack bar. He ripped the plastic
open and munched loudly, devouring the oat and honey bar with such speed that
she knew he really had been famished. Probably still was, poor thing.
    I
could take his mind off it , she thought, feeling naughty, and her cheeks
burned at the thought. Heat pooled in her middle.
    “I have a flashlight,” she said,
and dug inside her jacket, coming up with a slim little light. She hadn’t
wanted to use it in the forest in case one of their enemies ( I have actual enemies! she thought)
might see the light, but in here, concealed by walls and rain, they should be
okay. She played the beam around the old, weathered walls and floor, noting the
ruins of ancient furniture, then passed the light to Taggart, or tried to. Men
liked toys, right?
    “I don’t need that,” he reminded
her,