Read The Christmas Tree Bear: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Holiday Romance for Free Online Page B

on an icy road.  
     
    Quickly, she hit dial on the last number.
     
    ***
     
    Willis had only just walked in the door of the cabin after locking up the reindeer when his cell phone rang.  He glanced at it, then smiled as he hit accept.
     
    “Hey beautiful,” he greeted her.  “Home already?”
     
    “Not exactly,” Charlie told him.  
     
    His ears perked up.  She didn’t sound right.  “What’s wrong?”
     
    “Before I tell you, I’m fine.”
     
    “Doesn’t help.  Tell me.”
     
    “My car went off the road.  I’m stuck and can’t get it out.”  She sighed into the line.  
     
    “Shit.”  Willis glanced out the door.  The snow was picking up, and there was already at at least an inch on the ground.
     
    “I think I can walk back to the farm.  I’m not far,” Charlie started to say.
     
    No! his bear cried out.  “You are not!”  Willis was quick to tell her.  “You’ll fall and break your neck if you don’t catch your death out there.”  He tugged his heavy coat on one arm, then the other, swapping the phone from hand to hand.  “Stay in the car.  Let me get the truck, and I’ll be right there.”
     
    “Willis--”
     
    “You can’t stay in that tiny car of yours all night.  You’ll freeze.  Wait in there.  I’ll be there soon.  Okay?  Just hang on.”
     
    “Okay,” she agreed quietly.  “Be careful, but.  Can you hurry?  The wind is so loud and it’s dark.  Kind of creepy.”
     
    “Be there real quick.”  He dug through his pockets one-handed for his keys.  “We’ve got raincheck plans, remember?  Can’t let you get out of them.”
     
    Charlie laughed, though it was half hearted.  “You’re right.”
     
    “I’m gonna hang up so I can drive.”
     
    “Come be my hero, Willis,” she told him seriously.
     
    He swallowed.  “Big sexy hero, coming right up.”  He hung up and shoved the phone back in his pocket.  
     
    Making sure his gloves and beanie were on tight, he went out the door.  The wind whipped the screen door from his hand.  He had to slam the main door shut and force the screen door into place twice.  He didn’t bother locking up: if someone found the cabin in this weather, they deserved to hide out with him – and, soon, Charlie.
     
    Berating himself for not insisting on driving her home, Willis knocked the snow off the front windshield of his truck as best he could.  If he shifted, he could run out as a bear to meet Charlie within minutes, but what good would that do her?  Riding on his back in the middle of an ice storm wasn’t the best idea. Even if he managed to convince her that it was him, and Willis the bear shifter farmer was just as trustworthy as regular old Willis.
     
    His bear was growling inside his chest.  His mate was in trouble.  Big trouble.  He had to fix it.  It made him jittery and slow.  He had to keep gripping the wheel hard to keep the truck from slipping off the dirt track into the fence.  
     
    “Focus!” he reminded himself.  
     
    He got to the main gate in record time.  He didn’t even bother shutting the truck door as he hopped out to fight open the gate.  The wind ripped the gate from his hands as soon as he took off the chain, the lock lost in the snow.  He would get a replacement later.  He got back in the truck and slammed on the gas.  
     
    The truck growled and the tires spun in place.  
     
    “You are fucking with me!”  he shouted.  He changed gears, but it didn’t help.  Flipping the truck into reverse, he moved maybe a foot before the truck got stuck again.  
     
    He grabbed a flashlight off the passenger seat and jumped out again.  The ground was covered in ice and snow, and even his heavy wheels were not going to dig up out of this one.  He could go back to the main farm on foot and grab some hay, but that might not even work.  
     
    “Shit!”  he shouted into the heavy wind and sleet.
     
    ***
     
    Charlie shoved her hands into her sleeves.