Read Bearly Breathing (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) for Free Online Page B

protecting the young and helpless.”
    He thought for a second, then wrinkled his forehead and simply said: “No.”
    I stared at him, a little dumbfounded. Had I really lost all sense of joking and fun? Was I not actually as funny as I always thought? “You’re going to laugh or I’m going to make fart noises,” I said.
    The sound that came out of Orion’s mouth was very close to a laugh, but it was pained and sounded like he hadn’t done such a thing in a very long time. At first his voice kind of waivered, and then it boomed, but only for a short time.
    “There we go,” I said. I grabbed his hand again and held on tight. “I knew I wasn’t so boring that I couldn’t even get a smile out of you. You can stay with us, if you want. One more friend around the campfire just means one more ghost story.”
    I caught the barest glimpse of a sad smile on Orion’s face before he shook his head. “I can’t,” he said. “I have to keep moving. I have to make sure nothing happens to... to you or to me. There are things in these woods that you have to watch. Always have to watch them.”
    “What do you mean?” I asked him, but then I reconsidered. “No, no, it’s none of my business. You’re...”
    I had no idea what to do. Just standing there I felt my chance to actually learn about this guy slipping through my fingers, but maybe I never had that chance in the first place. Maybe he really was just a weird forest guardian destined to continually save cubs in danger.
    He was making a move to leave. I could tell he was uncomfortable, like he felt trapped.
    “Okay,” I finally said. “But... but thank you. You saved two lives today, and saved a whole lot more hearts than that. Whatever your danger is, whatever you’re hiding, you’re a good man. Thank you.”
    That got another scoff of a laugh. “I don’t know about that. But I’m trying.” He said it as an afterthought, partially under his breath, partially out loud. Orion turned back and pierced me with his eyes. “I’ll see you again,” he said.
    My stomach twisted into a knot the size of Pluto. “You... will?”
    A strange wave overcame me, pulsing, tightening my breath inside my lungs. “Were you gonna ask?” I asked with a smirk. “Or just tell me?”
    “Tell,” he said. I swear half a smile crossed his lips for a quick moment. “But not now. Too much at risk.”
    “Well, okay,” I said. “I don’t understand, but okay.”
    I turned away for a second to check something that brushed by my ankle. It turned out to be a little gecko running through the leaves around my feet, but when I looked back, Orion was somehow gone.
    Standing there, dumbfounded, I started to wonder if maybe I’d made him up. I wondered if my mind was going in some kind of early-onset dementia brought on my eternally foiled plans to find a mate that loved me as much as I loved him.
    “Where did your boyfriend go?” Leena asked, running up and latching on to the back pocket of my soaking wet jeans. “He was big !”
    Unconsciously, my hand went to my ear, looking for that security anchor to tug.
    A knot twisted up in my stomach.
    It’s gone . My lips tightened into a wrinkly circle. My earring – my mom’s earring. It’s... This can’t be happening.
    That damn thing was my socially-acceptable-for-a-thirty-year-old version of a blankie. As stupid as it is, without that cheap little stud, I didn’t know what to do when I shook with fear. Somehow, almost having been killed had less of an effect on me than losing an earring. How was I going to cope with... well, with anything?
    I had to force myself to calm the hell down. I couldn’t fall apart in front of all the cubs and my two friends. Dean and Malia would fall all over themselves trying to help me find it – they both knew why it was so important.
    It’s just an earring , I told myself over and over. Just an earring.
    I comforted myself a little by staring at the place Orion had disappeared back into the woods,