He’s nothing like the person I could have seen myself settling down with. He’s wild looking, quiet and a little gruff, and he’s bossy and demanding. But surprisingly, none of that matters to me. How can he be all those things, and I still want him? Can I base a future just on how someone makes me feel? Is that even the right thing to do?
All his talk about wild animals coming into the cave makes me feel like I need to get up off the ground and be ready to fight if anything does come along. So even though I could sit here all day and think about Ray and how he makes me feel, I need to concentrate on surviving this first.
I make my way around the cave. I still have a limp, but today I can at least put weight on it. I take care of business and then position myself in the cave to be ready for any intruders.
It’s quiet and it feels like hours have passed since Ray left. A fear crawls through me that stems from what I went through with Arney.
What if Ray gets lost and doesn’t come back? What if he just doesn’t come back because he doesn’t want to have to take care of me?
A loud roar echoes through the cave, followed by another from a different animal. I get the torch ready to scare anything that comes through the curtain of snow with the fire.
It sounds like the two animals are fighting when suddenly the noises stop.
I wait and wait, my knuckles white from gripping the log. I figure one animal killed the other or maybe killed the other and was wounded with a fatal blow that had the victor falling dead too. All the scenarios are going through my head and all I can think is, this would be a good opportunity to bring in some food. I can prove to Ray that I’m useful too.
Taking the torch in my hand, I hobble out of the cave into the blizzard. I can’t see very far, but I’m confident I can follow my own footsteps back to the cave.
Once I’ve hobbled several hundred feet, I see the shadowy outline of a huge bear and terror has me frozen in place.
The bear is moving, coming in my direction.
Run!
I know that’s what I need to do, but I’m too scared.
It’s close enough now I can see it better, but it’s so strange because it looks like a polar bear. It’s probably just the snow clinging to its fur, making it look white.
I’d just settled in on that reasoning when the bear stands up on its hind legs and makes a loud groaning noise. The ground seems to shake under my feet as I hear bones snapping. The bear is shrinking. I think it might be falling into a pit or something, but then the fur falls away like it’s being washed off and the naked skin beneath looks pink. The snout of the bear shrinks to that of the size of a human jaw, mouth open.
Long, wet, brown hair hangs in ropes around a human face.
Ray’s face.
I yelp and fall back in the snow.
Ray
I hear her and see her fall. I can’t believe she followed me out into the blizzard. I put my clothes back on and clean the blood from my face and hands of the mountain lion that’d been stalking us outside of the cave, no doubt waiting on us to separate.
Keri saw me. She knows I’m a shifter. The thought keeps going through my head over and over. The law is simple and firm. Humans who see a shifter shift are strict. There can be no witnesses. If Keri was anyone else, she would be dead right now at my hands. But that’s not even an option.
When I’m sure I’m clean, I go to her and even after everything she saw, she doesn’t pull from me or even look scared.
Her eyes are filled with wonder. “Ray? What was that? How did you…”
I shake my head, acting clueless. “What are you talking about?”
“You were a bear! A big bear!” she says and then flinches at her own words. “I’m sure that’s what I saw,” she says softly and with less confidence.
I help her up and hold her to my side as we walk back to the cave. She looks so confused, the lie comes easily out of my mouth. “You look like you’re about to faint. Are you hallucinating, Keri? The fatigue and hunger is getting to you. Let’s get you back into the cave.”
Luckily, she is ready to accept the lie and allows me to get her back into the cave. “Why did you leave?”
She sits down on rock, her head in her hand. “I heard animals fighting. Did you see them?”