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Chapter One
Charlie
Charlie heldthe field glasses up to her eyes, almost afraid to breathe. She crouched between the roots of a massive evergreen tree, and she could feel the wetness of the moss below her knees already seeping into her pants.
It was going to be another long night on the cold, damp ground, but she hoped it would be the last one. Her pack was getting heavier by the minute, she was out of fresh socks, and washing her hair was a distant memory at best.
None of that mattered, though. After days of tracking, she’d finally found the grizzly, and he was in her sights.
As she watched, he put his huge muzzle to the ground and sniffed. Then he looked up, still smelling the wind. He was a stunning animal, his fur dark at the roots and fading to red-gold at the tips.
Standing there in the afternoon light, his nose up sniffing the wind, he almost looked like a painting of a grizzly bear instead of the real thing.
Then he snorted and shook his head, and Charlie smiled. There was something almost charming about bears, she thought, especially to people who spent a lot of time around them.
He’s not charming,she reminded herself. He killed two people.
Worse, he knows what he did.
It was hard to reconcile with the carefree, almost goofy animal in front of her, but there it was.
Charlie swallowed and got back to work, putting the glasses back to her eyes.
The bear was at least four and a half feet high at the shoulder, maybe closer to five. That was big, even for a grizzly. Charlie did some quick calculations in her head: he was at least eight hundred pounds.
Even bigger than the estimates they’d gotten back at the office.
Shit, she thought.
As quietly as she could, she took her pack off and opened it up, one eye always on the bear. She had a .45 holstered on her side, but it was only for absolute emergencies — besides, she wasn’t even certain that it would stop this grizzly. Slow him down, maybe.
Carefully, she took the vial of tranquilizer from the pouch where she’d stashed it. There was enough in there for two shots, but realistically, Charlie knew she was only going to get one.
Either she hit him and he went down, or she missed, and he charged.
Charlie also pulled a giant canister of bear spray from her pack. Between that and the .45, she thought she could probably get away.
She propped the syringe up next to the rifle, then re-loaded her pack, stashing it securely under the roots of the tree. If he did charge, she wasn’t going to want to take it with her. She wouldn’t want anything weighing her down, that was for damn sure.
The bear took a step forward, and Charlie’s stomach lurched. She held her breath.
Please don’t leave, she thought. I’m so close to finished.
Then he stopped, standing perfectly still, his side facing her. It was almost as if he was presenting himself for her tranquilizer dart, providing the perfect target.
What if it’s a trap?Charlie thought for a split second. It was so easy to forget, watching this bear, that inside the animal there was still a human mind, or at least, what was left of one. No one knew for sure how much rational thought a feral shifter still had.
As he looked around she thought she could almost see a human intelligence in its eyes, like he was considering something.
Do it now, she thought.
Charlie loaded the rifle, gritting her teeth as the tranquilizer dart clicked into place.
Immediately, the bear’s head swung around, his body lowering, his ears perking up.
Of course he knows the sound of a rifle being loaded, she thought, her teeth still clenched.
Charlie brought the rifle sight to her eye, the bear’s huge, furry shoulder squarely in the crosshairs.
“Sorry, Kade,” she muttered, moving her finger to the trigger.
Then she heard a growl right behind her, a split second before she felt the teeth on her neck and the claws on her back.
The last thing Charlie saw was a blur of sharp teeth and gray fur.
