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me, laying their heavy feet on my back.
    I screamed as loud as I could, adding my roar to the world coming apart around me. Didn't even consider that I'd need to outrun the mess spreading across the lake.
    The stampede consumed everything, burying my senses in a storm of dirt and ice and stomping hooves. More pressure clambered violently on my back, furious hooves leaving their harsh imprint on my bones.
    I roared again, twisting to sink my teeth into a big furry neck. I missed it by a couple inches. Damn it, if I was going to die, then I was going to take some sorry beasts crunching on my tail with me.
    I froze when I saw the huge grizzly bear. His paws slapped at my backside, urgent, but not painful.
    He let me go, stood up on two legs, and opened his mouth wide, unleashing a roar so loud it vibrated to my bones.
    It took me a second to realize it was James. He stepped right over me, standing in front of my body.
    Apparently, the caribou took a hulking bear a lot more seriously.
    They swerved around him, or slapped his sides and ran off the other way after crashing into the big brown boulder. James spread his front paws like arms, giving us more room as the last of the terrified animals fled.
    When the final little calf went trailing after its momma, he dropped to all fours. We faced each other for the first time. He held himself on all fours and shifted.
    My lips curled in amusement and annoyance. Then James looked up, his human eyes glowing with one stern demand.
    “Run, Laura,” he said coldly. “I'll be right behind you. We've got to go. Now. ”
    The whole world exploded. Ice and water began running out of the lake in thick waves, splashing us with stray water.
    I turned tail and ran so fast I didn't even feel the soreness left from yesterday's flight.
    The caribou weren't stupid. They understood the Alaskan wilderness better than I did, and apparently James did too. We hit the edge of the forest before the dirty tsunami filled with ice and dirt slapped the ground behind us.
    If he'd been a minute later...
    You would've been one frozen, dirty tiger. Probably a dead one too.
    A shudder ran up my spine as I pumped my limbs. Broken brush in the forest cut my sides, but I kept going, listening to the crunch and crack of James' huge footprints behind me.
    We both growled when water came rushing in, a mucky tidal wave chasing us. We were fast, but the flood was faster. It soaked our paws, and my tail dipped into cold muddy water each time I bounded up and down.
    The whole forest was flooded. Didn't help that the snow and shallow streams added to the flow as the deluge overtook it. James caught up to me when I hesitated at what used to be a stream, now a raging river with small icebergs floating through it.
    A tree had snapped at the roots and was flopping near the shore. The great big bear at my side shifted into a beautiful man again, and he pulled me to him.
    The sudden motion disturbed the tiger. I shifted, burying myself in human comfort, if only for the last time.
    “I'm scared! How're we ever going to get away from this? ”
    James warmed me with his eyes and nodded. “Hold onto me tight. That wood over there's gonna break and float away any time. It's just wide enough to ride.”
    My mouth dropped. He couldn't be serious!
    But he was, already pulling me toward it with one hand. My knees wanted to seize up and run.
    Anywhere looked better except the log perched in the dirty, freezing mess.
    Of course, James wouldn't have it. I was going with him, whether I liked it or not.
    He forced me onto the wood and then got on top of me. Being smashed up against a huge man I desperately didn't want to fall for would've been awkward anytime. Now imagine being in between him and the tree, completely naked , with all hell breaking loose around us.
    James did something with his foot, kicking the tree away from its last tie to the shore. The roots crackled, and then we were moving. I screamed.
    He pressed me tight, cradling my