Choose the Bear

1

It wasn’t supposed to end like this…

Hadlee Wilson scrambled through the underbrush deep in woods deep of the Colorado mountains and ducked behind a tree, crouching down to hide. For a moment all was silent around her, except for the soft whisper of the breeze through the aspen trees and an occasional bird twittering far above her. But all of that was drowned out by the pounding of the blood in her ears as she tried to remember how to breathe.

Tears blurred her eyes, and she clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle a sob. Was this how her life was going to end? Being assaulted and murdered in the woods by Chad, her boyfriend?

She desperately tried to think back over the last six months. What signs had she missed? Chad Parker had seemed perfect. He was handsome, single, and had a good job. Everyone who met him liked him. He had showered her with gifts from the day they’d met, and this wasn’t the first trip they’d taken together. So what had changed? Had she done something to make him angry enough to⁠—

Her thoughts careened to a halt and her instincts took over as she heard footsteps approaching. It sounded like hiking boots crunching leaves and snapping twigs. Soft, but definitely moving in her direction.

Hadlee... Chad’s voice was almost polite, almost pleasant, but she heard a hint of a sneer lurking in the way he said her name. We talked about this, babe. I told you men have needs. You can’t freak out over a little bit of choking, okay?

Hadlee’s hand reached up to touch her bruised throat. If she survived this, there would be a black circle around her neck in the shape of Chad’s hands. He’d gotten too rough, too quickly for her. She’d thought she might like it when he first put his hands on her throat in a possessive but gentle hold while they made love. But seconds later, he’d squeezed hard. He hadn’t paid attention when she’d started to blackout and clawed at his fingers. She breathlessly begged him to stop, but he’d only laughed at her. When black spots danced before her eyes, she knew she’d made a terrible mistake. She liked rough sex sometimes, but Chad hadn’t just been rough. He'd been brutal. Homicidal. It wasn’t fun, but rather terrifying when he’d started to slap her and then punched her skull. Then he tore her shirt and tried to undo her jeans. She’d fought him, despite the blinding pain in her head. She’d kicked and clawed and somehow gotten free to run into the woods. But he’d still found her…

You don’t even know where the hell you are, bitch. Chad’s voice sounded hardened. "Why do you think I blindfolded you? It wasn’t for romance, babe." He snarled out a laugh.

Every breath that escaped her was too loud. She covered her mouth with her hands, trying to stifle the sound.

If you don’t come out now, I will leave you here and you’ll die in the woods. If you get eaten by a bear, serves you right, he spat.

At this point, Hadlee would have gladly chosen death by bear. All the creature would do was kill her. Whatever Chad had in mind for her … would be far worse than death. She held still, continuing to hunker down against the large tree and prayed she’d hear his footfalls grow quieter as he moved away.

Silence.

She didn’t dare move. In every horror movie she’d ever seen, the woman thought she was safe and left her hiding spot, which always revealed her location to the homicidal maniac. There was no damn way she was going to do that. She’d stay right where she was for the rest of her life if it kept her alive.

Suddenly Chad’s face peered around the tree that she was hiding behind and she screamed. His brown eyes were lit with demonic fire. Pure terror exploded through her chest, and she couldn’t even scream, let alone breathe.

He lunged at her, his fingers digging into her hair and wrenching her head toward him as she tried to escape. He punched her in the face with his other hand and pain exploded around her left eye. She crumpled, a wail slipping from her lips as the pain worsened.

That’s it, scream, bitch! No one will hear you. Chad threw her to the ground. Kicks rained down on her and it felt like one of her ribs cracked.

Fight.

The single word broke through the stabbing agony fogging her mind.

Fight!

A sudden surge of adrenaline shot through her. She rammed an elbow into his throat as he bent down. Something crunched beneath where she’d hit him, and he choked out a sound of agony. Without another glance back, she ran. It didn’t matter to where, anywhere was safer.

Something hot and wet dripped down her face and she wiped frantically at her nose. When she lifted her hand up, she saw blood smeared over her fingers. The blood dripped onto the leaves and plants at her feet as she fled.

Oh God, could he track her blood trail? Terrified at the thought she was leaving a path for him to follow, she ran recklessly now, taking every leap and springing step she could, desperate to put distance between her and Chad before she found another place to hide.

Ahh! She barreled straight over a ledge that dropped suddenly, and she plummeted fifteen feet into a stream. Something twisted sharply in her ankle, and she landed face down in the shallow water. The cold stream felt like ice, but she welcomed the numbness of her face. She lifted her head to breathe. Water rushed around her in little swirling eddies as she pushed herself up a few more inches.

Have to keep moving. Can’t stop, the voice in her head said again. Keep moving! The voice practically bellowed at her. The words were deep, insistent, and tinged with fear. Her inner voice had never sounded like that before. She tried to breathe, her lungs straining against the broken rib. and all she could draw in was a raspy inhalation.

Was she dying? That must be it. Her inner voice no longer sounded as it should because she wasn’t getting enough oxygen for her brain to work.

Come on, honey, you need to move, her inner voice begged her.

She dug her hands into the mud and dragged herself up to her hands and knees, despite how much it hurt.

Such a pity. Chad’s voice came from behind her. Everyone back at the office will be devastated to hear that you had an accident and fell just after I proposed to you. I didn’t have time to put the ring on your finger. You turned and looked out over the incredible view and slipped… You fell down a ravine and broke every bone in your stupid little body. He was telling himself a crazy story, his tone gleeful. Hadlee kept moving, even if it was just a few inches at a time. She refused to look back at him.

Pain dug its claws into her spine as Chad stomped a boot on her lower back and crushed her back into the stream.

He leaned over her and whispered, Don’t you get it, Hadlee? You caused this. Were you stupid enough to think I actually want you? That I gave a fuck about you? You’re just another dumb bitch who deserves everything I’m about to do to you.

The fire to fight, which had burned so hot within her, died out, leaving her weak, cold, shivery. She couldn’t move, couldn’t get him off her. He was simply too strong. Her body gave up a second later, every muscle sinking into the rushing stream and mud-covered stone bank beneath her.

Hadlee’s face was wet with blood and water as she lifted her head with the last of her waning strength. If she was going to die, she wanted to see the trees and the sky one last time. The thick foliage formed a pattern of silvery veins, branches fanning out so the trees could touch each other. The leaves rippled in the breeze, sounding like waves washing upon a beach. It was peaceful. But she was so tired … so very tired, and as her head dropped toward the ground, that was when she saw it.

A bear. A massive grizzly bear stood downstream, its muzzle dripping with water. It was staring at her.

"Help me … please…" she whispered, knowing how very stupid it was to beg a wild animal to help her.

The bear’s golden-brown eyes continued to watch her.

What the fuck? Chad’s boot lifted off her back. That’s a fucking bear! Now you’re going to die, you bitch! She glanced over her shoulder to see Chad sprinting up the slope and running back the way they’d come.

The bear raised its head to the sky, opened its jaws, and roared. A second later, the bear began loping toward her.

This is it. This is how I die…

Hadlee covered her head with her hands and held still as it thundered directly at her, his paws rumbling the earth with their impact. She felt a rush of air above her and a hard, shaking blow to the ground behind her.

Chad screamed in the distance, then the sound abruptly cut off and the woods were silent except for the faint gurgle of the stream. Hadlee heard the grunting pants of the bear as it came back to her.

Play dead. Wasn’t that what she’d heard on some documentary? Most bears would leave you alone, right? But wait, that was black bears. This wasn’t a black bear but a grizzly. Was that the one you were supposed to run like hell from? She tried to remember, but her thoughts spiraled over and over in her mind like a kaleidoscope until she felt like she would throw up.

A snout nudged her knee, and she flinched but she forced herself to hold still. There were soft splashes by her face and she peered between two fingers covering her eyes to see the bear washing its bloody jaws off in the stream. Red blood blended with the crystalline waters as it moved past her downstream.

That was Chad’s blood. It had to be. A chill rippled along her spine when she realized she would be next. But at least the end would be swift. The bear wouldn’t torture her. The creature huffed and splashed his paws in the water before turning to look at her. Its head tilted slightly, and it made a snorting sort of sound, as if deeply breathing in the air to scent her.

She tried to stare back at the bear, but the pain in her body was too much to tolerate any longer. It was harder and harder to pull her thoughts together, to make sense of anything. Her consciousness began to slip, and she blinked, slower and slower. Just before her eyes closed for the final time, she thought she saw a shape far too small to be a bear coming toward her … and then she blacked out.

Indiana Rivers stared at the injured woman lying half out of the stream. She was unconscious now. His blood still pounded in his ears as his body finished the last part of the physical change. The remnants of the bear receded and left the man part of him behind. He curled his hands into fists and stared at the woman, then glanced at the woods over his shoulder.

The human male was dead. One good bite and Indiana had torn the man’s throat open. The memory of killing the male was sharp and clear, like all the things he saw and experienced when in his bear form, but unlike the other memories he had when he changed, this was not a memory he wanted to keep. He wasn’t a killer, at least not of men. But just moments ago, he’d taken a life to save this woman. A woman he didn’t even know. Yet he would have done the same for any female in danger, without thought or hesitation.

Crouching down, Indiana put his arms around the woman and lifted her from the water. She was soaking wet, and the scent of her blood was sickly sweet in his nose. As he carried her through the woods, he tried to make sense of what it just happened. He had been in his bear form for less than an hour, prowling as he usually did on his lands, taking in the scent of the fall leaves on the breeze.

But less than ten minutes ago, he’d started feeling strange things. A panic in his chest, an erratic flash of images in his head of the forest, and he’d felt the wild urge to fight, to strike out at what was making him panic. He’d never felt so … out of control and unlike himself before.

Trying to clear his head, he’d made his way to the little stream that ran through part of his land. He’d only taken a few licks of water when he’d heard a frightened animal tearing through the forest, coming in his direction. He’d waited, unmoving, that hard pounding of fear still in his chest even though it hadn’t felt quite like his own fear. And that was when he’d seen the human female fall down the embankment and crash into the water. She’d lain there but seconds before a human male followed her down into the stream and continued the attack he’d clearly started somewhere else. Indiana had stood frozen, stunned by seeing something so vicious occurring on his land right before his eyes. His gaze had locked with the woman’s as she’d stared at him.

Help me... she’d pleaded. The breeze carried her broken words to him and the shock that had kept him still spurred him into motion. A primal rage had exploded through him, demanding justice. He had killed that male for daring to harm a precious female. Bear shifter clans fiercely respected and revered females for their bravery and strength, and to attack one, even a human female, was an