A massive paw struck the weapon out of Jason’s hand, sending the rifle flying across the yard. Another massive swipe cut Jason’s face open. Although Jason must have been hurting pretty badly, the combination of beer and his own arrogant bravado meant that he would have still fought the bear. At the very least, he would have grabbed me and tried to force me to leave with him—not because Jason loved me or wanted to protect me, but because he wasn’t going to leave without the object that he came for.
As a matter of fact, during this entire scene, I knew Jason never once thought of my safety. He never told me to go inside the cabin or to run. I had absolutely no pity for Jason when the bear cut his face open. I also had no pity for Jason when the bear pinned him to the ground.
I remembered watching in disbelief as the bear quickly transformed from a six-hundred-pound creature into a two-hundred-fifty-pound naked man. I rubbed my eyes to make sure that I wasn’t hallucinating from the shock. Even as I thought that, though, I knew that what I was seeing was the truth.
I quickly processed all of the clues from the past—Amon’s statement that they had a bear of a family secret, and Gage’s response to me seeing the bear tracks—and everything made sense. Gage was a bear shifter.
I watched, scared to death, as a badly injured Gage fought Jason, who wasn’t hurt as badly. Relief flooded through me as Jason got up from the ground and ran.
The amount of blood on Gage and on the ground had frightened me badly. There was a lot of blood there. I was also mad as Hades. Gage should have told me. I didn’t know why he felt he couldn’t trust me with his secret, but as soon as this was all over, he had better have a darn good reason why.
With a sinking heart, I realized that Gage had lost a lot more blood than I thought he had. As I helped him off the ground, I noticed that he could barely support himself. I have no idea how I had the strength to half drag him into the house.
Both of his wounds, especially the one on his side, were bleeding profusely. It was as though someone had turned a faucet on and left it running. I tried packing them the best I could, taping down gauze and towels as tight as I could make it.
He was extremely pale. He was slurring his words, and I had a hard time understanding how to find his doctor. I didn’t know anything about bear shifters, but I assumed they might need a different kind of doctor than humans did.
Finally, I was able to get some directions out of him.
The doctor wasn’t answering her phone. I hated to leave him in the cabin, but I had no choice. I had grabbed my compass and took off through the woods. The trees and bushes were dense, and as I ran through them, in some places, they were so thick that they almost blacked out the sun.
The cave was about two miles away from the cabin. By the time I reached it, I couldn’t breathe. I had a stitch in my side that was almost unbearable. If it were any other day, I would have been terrified as five grizzly bears looked at me as I ran into the cave and collapsed against a cool wall.
My chest heaved, and I willed myself to control my breathing so I could speak. Each breath felt like a thousand knives stabbing my lungs and chest. Finally, between painful gasps, I managed to say three words haltingly. “Gage. Need. Doctor.”
Instantly, one of the smaller bears transformed into a beautiful, exotic woman. She was almost six feet tall with waist-length golden brown hair. Her eyes were a pool of pure gold. She was extremely muscular. She didn’t seem to notice that she was standing completely naked in front of a woman she didn’t know. She was only concerned for Gage.
“I am Doctor Ursa Eberon. What happened?”
Every eye was on me as I stated that Gage had been shot in the shoulder and the side. When I left him, he had been losing a lot of blood and was struggling to stay conscious.
“Was he in bear form or human form when he was shot?” she asked.
“Bear form. But a few seconds after he was shot in the side, he transformed into a man. I don’t know exactly how long he stayed in bear form after he was shot. He disarmed the man who shot him and managed to injure him and pin him to the ground. Then, he changed. It seemed like it was hours, but I imagine it really was a matter of seconds.”
I was surprised that I was able to sound as coherent as I did.
Dr. Ursa nodded. She said something to one of the other bears. He went toward the back of the cave and came back a few minutes later with a large black bag.
It crossed my mind briefly that it was true. Doctors really did have a black bag.
“I am going to change into bear form. I need you to get on my back. It will be quicker than you trying to walk back. I also need you to hold on to my bag as we go. Hold on to my hair, so you don’t fall off. Also, crouch down as much as you can, so the tree branches won’t smack you as much and knock you off.”
I nodded, letting her know that I understood her instructions.
She turned back into bear form as one of the other bears turned into a human. He picked me up by my waist and set me on Dr. Ursa’s back.
I wrapped my legs around the bear’s torso as tightly as I could, hoping that I wasn’t going to impede her breathing. I asked her if it was okay, and she said it was fine as long as I didn’t try to kick her. She wasn’t of the horse shifter clan.
I smiled at her humor attempt, but my heart was heavy, and worry laid on me heavily.
I tucked her bag between her back and my stomach and leaned over her, as much as I could. I wrapped my arms around her as best I could and grabbed hair, hoping she wouldn’t be bald by the time we got to the cabin.
“Hang on,” she said and began to run.
The feel of her muscles beneath my body was hypnotizing. Although she was running, every stride was smooth. If I wasn’t so scared for Gage, I thought that I could be lulled to sleep. There was also the fact that the branches from trees and bramble twigs reached their sharp fingers out to me, grabbing at my hair. There were a couple of times that I was sure chunks of my hair had been ripped out of my head. The knife-like thorns were intent on inflicting more scratches on my throat, chest, face, and arms, too.
I was certain that by the time I reached the cabin, I looked like I had been through a war zone and lost the battle.