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Chapter Ten
Quinn
Watchingthe two grizzlies wrestle around the clearing, snorting, growling, and grunting happily, Quinn couldn’t help but smile. She stayed out of their way, just in case, but it was obvious that Julius and Hudson would never do anything to hurt her. They’d taken her to this special place, after all, and while neither of them had said it, she got the impression that not a lot of humans got to see a grizzly shifter actually shift, let alone touch a shifter in his bear form.
It had felt surprisingly intimate, at least. Quinn couldn’t think of a time when she’d felt more vulnerable than standing directly in front of a grizzly bear, her hand on his face, staring into its eyes.
The two bears splashed through the freezing creek, seemingly impervious to almost everything: teeth, claws, the cold.
No wonder they like being bears, she thought. Just shift if the heat in your house isn’t working or something. It’s probably pretty convenient.
Hudson came out of the creek, shaking himself off, starting with his head and then twisting his whole body until his fur stood out in wet spikes. Julius came up from behind him and gave him one more swat.
Suddenly, Hudson toppled over and lay on the grass, unmoving.
Quinn frowned. It hadn’t even been a hard swat. At least she didn’t think so.
Then he shifted back to human, shrinking and folding in on himself, until he laid there naked, still unmoving. Julius walked up and nudged at him with his nose, and then looked plaintively at Quinn.
“Hudson?” she said, panic edging into her voice. She rushed over to where he lay on the ground, kneeling down in front of his naked, tattooed form. Any other time, she’d have been a blushing mess this close to one of the hottest men she’d ever seen, but right now, Quinn was just terrified.
He didn’t answer.
“HUDSON!” she shouted, grabbing him by the shoulders and rolling him onto his back.
His chest wasn’t rising and falling. His eyes were still shut. Frantically, Quinn felt for a pulse in his neck and felt it beat against her fingers, steady and strong.
Why isn’t he breathing?
She put the side of her face above his mouth, trying to feel any faint breath that might escape his lips, as she tried frantically to remember how to do mouth-to-mouth.
Then Hudson’s lips puckered, dropping a quick kiss on her cheek.
Quinn sat bolt upright as his eyes flew open and Hudson grinned from ear to ear.
“Boo,” he said
“You asshole!” Quinn said. “You scared me to death, I was about to do mouth-to-mouth.”
“Damn, I should’ve waited,” he said. “It’s been a long, long time since I kissed a pretty girl.”
Quinn’s mouth dropped open slightly, but she managed to regain some of her composure, rocking back onto her knees above him.
She very pointedly made eye contact, determined not to let her gaze look any lower. Not that she wasn’t curious.
Or interested. Very interested.
“You could have just asked,” she said, still half-pretending to be angry.
There was a soft whump behind her, and Quinn looked up to see Julius, standing there, arms crossed over his chest, also totally naked.
Eye contact, eye contact, she thought.
She looked.
It was impressive.
“Okay,” said Hudson. Still lying on his back, he reached one hand across the grass and rubbed one of her knees softly with the backs of his fingers. “Can I have a kiss?”
