He turned back from where he’d come, deciding that the best he could do was shift and go introduce himself. He was barely two steps toward her before he realized how startling seeing a naked man come tromping out of the woods would be. He stopped. His closest cave was at least two hours away now, and he didn’t want to risk losing her by going back to find himself some clothes. With as spooked as she seemed, she might run and then he would have to track her again. He could do it easily, but he considered that would seemeven creepierwhen he caught up. That wasn’t even touching on how he’d smelled a snow leopard nearby and seen grizzly scat as they walked. Anything could happen to her in the four hours it would take him to retrieve clothes.
His only other option was worse, a partial shift between a man and a bear which would surely make her soil herself. No, he would stay close by, as a bear, which seemed the least threatening option somehow, so he could watch out for her. Hopefully, she would dismiss the sound and calm down in a moment.
She did not, in fact, calm down. All night.6
Berne spent the night nearby, the sharp scent of her fear on the breeze. He paid special care to be silent, so her alarm confused him. She couldn’t possibly know he was still close, but she remained afraid. Easy to spook, he supposed.
As the night wore on, he crept closer when the scent of her fear lessened. Each of his steps brought him closer, and he halted when her aroma changed to enticing notes of arousal. He rumbled, low and deep in his chest, and couldn’t stop himself from nearly entering her clearing. She huddled next to the fire, tent abandoned, clutching a sheathed knife as she squirmed on the ground. Her breathing was labored and he had trouble interpreting her confusing bouquet of feelings and sounds.
Should I leave? I should leave. She’s asleep, but this is private.
He turned to go and the scent of her pure terror washed over him as she startled awake.
He froze. He hadn’t even made a noise, not asound, so he wasn’t sure what had woken her. Berne hated feeling trapped, and that’s exactly what he was. He couldn’t show himself to her, but he couldn’t leave, couldn’t even let her know he was there to keep her safe. As silently as he could, he backed away and eventually allowed himself to sleep. If she was determined to stay up all night, at least one of them needed to be sharp during the day and he’d be able to hear anything approaching anyhow.
The explorer writhed on the ground, her arousal wafting toward him like a siren’s song. Berne swayed toward her, momentarily confused why he was a bear. He wanted to touch her, taste her, savor her intoxicating scent as it danced along his tongue. Those things required his man’s body—surely. Suddenly he was upon her, still a bear, and her round little face was inches from his own. She gasped and opened her eyes, deep pools of molten desire in which he could easily drown. She smiled up at him, a glint of mischief in her eyes before she was pulled away from him, fading into the distance. He ran toward her, but he could never quite reach her, never managed to taste her sweet arousal, and he wondered if he was doomed to chase after her forever.
In the morning, she hastily packed her camp and practicallyranupriver. He followed at a distance but couldn’t believe how fast she moved. She traveled nearly as far as he would have been able to on two legs, but she pulled that massive sledge the whole time, a feat he’d never have guessed she would be able to do. Her fear scent stayed strong throughout the day, but he didn’t dare leave her. She was moving farther away from his closest cave and plowing headlong toward Sanctuary.
Berne still had no idea what she was researching, and she didn’t speak to herself any longer, as he’d hoped she would, so he didn’t get any additional information. She didn’t stop to draw any tracks again, but a few times she lingered over some and made a frustrated sound before stomping away. When he passed, he tried to see what was so interesting about the tracks, but to him they looked like regular old prints.
Near the end of the day, the woman left her gear in what he guessed would be her camp for the night and walked over to the river. It was eternal twilight this time of year and in the water, the lunula was glowing faintly. Small trickles of light played in the waters as they rushed by. Berne crept through the forest and reared up onto a tree to watch from a distance.
The explorer removed a cloth from her coat pocket and knelt to dip it into the cool waters of the Spine. It wasn’t hot, by any means, but he’d have been sweaty after a day’s hike like that if he wasn’t in his bear form, so he imagined she’d be the same. Berne watched her from a distance as she removed her outwear, unbuttoned her shirt, and dabbed at her chest.
Berne’s breathing quickened, huffing in and out in a ragged staccato. He leaned into the tree, as a breeze carried the scent of her skin to him. This washer,unadulterated by leather or cloth, and deepened by the day’s exertion. Her shirt fell to reveal a smooth golden shoulder and his mouth watered. She was delectable, round in all the right ways, he salivated andlongedto sink his teeth into her.She was everything he could ask for, at least as far as he knew, in a mate.7
A mate? How did I get to the point of mating her already? She’s trespassing! And,he reminded himself with a growl,how am I to explain that away to the council? It would be better if I could steer her in another direction, court her away from the village and introduce her without any complications.
He dug his claws into the bark of the tree in frustration, how was he meant to turn her from her course? The woman froze, her head snapping to the side. Surely she hadn’t heard him growl, or his scratch. He was too far away, too quiet.
She certainly acted like she’d heard him though. The woman grumbled in frustration as she wrung out her cloth and called out to the surrounding woods.
“If you are going to eat me, please kindly get on with it! This is torture and this level of sustained stress hormones is unhealthy.” She looked around and Berne ducked behind the tree before she continued. “Hello? Please, just eat me and be done with it! If you’re not going to, then please mind your own business!”
Well, it was not like he could “go mind his own business,” asshewas currently his business. Instead, he settled on making a small noise he hoped sounded pathetic, or at least not threatening. It was a moan of frustration.
Upon hearing it, she threw her cloth in the river and screamed out her frustration. He growled his own right back at her, causing her to freeze. Screaming like a hoyden was reckless, which he was starting to worry was a theme with her. He shook his head and ambled back to make sure her camp was ringed in his scent. Once he found an area where he could see her camp as well as the river, he relaxed, laying his head on his paws as he stretched out to wait for her to return.
Before too long, she’d made camp, eaten dinner and spent more time with her wee book. As she stood to turn toward her tent, she called out again.
“I am going to sleep now. It would be a great time for any monsters or whatever to eat me if that is their plan!” she announced. She waved her arms around for a few moments before she gave up and ducked inside her tent.
Berne scoffed. He wasn’t a monster, or at least not in personality, he supposed shemightclassify him as a monster depending on his form. Not that he was anywherenearas monstrous assomehe knew. He wasn’t about to kill her in cold blood though; he needed evidence, one way or the other, and he was content to wait for it. He settled down with his muzzle back on his paws. He would get some sleep and stay close to her. Tomorrow he would figure out her motives, tomorrow he would know what she was up to. He would have the situation dealt with and be home by the end of the week. Then he could find her again and court her correctly, bringing her back to the village in a way that wouldn’t get her killed. Wiggling himself into a more comfortable position, he fell asleep, content that he had a plan that would work to both keep her safe and win her hand.
1.I am still in awe of this process. The energy expenditure and weight differential between forms defies whatever math and logic I attempt to throw at the problem, my current thesis is that lunula enables the mass to be converted to energy and stored somehow in the smaller form. I have yet to isolate where said energy is stored, however.
2.To this day, Berne and I disagree about my trip. He maintains that the Lady would have brought us together regardless without me endangering myself and that I shouldn’t have gone alone, but I don’t subscribe to the idea of fated mates as he does and will be forever grateful that I did.
3.I’d like to assure the reader that Berne has now been through therapy for the traumatic events that gave such desperation to his need to protect me.
4.The reader can imagine, I hope, the discomfort that comes from seeing oneself through the eyes of another, and I assure you I have endeavored to meddle with Berne’s thoughts as little as possible.
5.All these years later, Berne still waggles his eyebrows at me the second he hears a twig snapping.
6.Please let’s remember that as far as I was concerned there was a very dangerous predator stalking me.
7.My memory of this event is very different and I collapsed into giggles upon hearing what a pivotal moment it was for him.
