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She gave in to the power within; she ran as she’d never run before. Now that she’d seen what was behind her, her fear faded. The bear was a fool for even thinking it could track and kill her. She was more than a wolf, more than a woman. She was both; she was neither. She was better.
Alex hugged the edge of the trees just as dawn burst over the horizon, and as the sunlight touched her, she stumbled, falling head-over-paws, which became heels and feet and toes as she shifted.
Chapter 6
Naked and vulnerable, she scrambled upright. Just as the bear came out of the woods.
Goose bumps raced across her flesh, and not just because of the chill air across her skin. She might not die from the coming attack, but it was certainly going to hurt. And if there were pieces of her all over the place, would she really be able to heal? She just didn’t know.
“Barlow!” Alex shouted.
The bear roared right in her face. Its breath smelled like…
Blood and hunger. With a little rotten fish on the side.
“Shit,” she muttered. Should she run, or shouldn’t she?
Her wolf howled for fight not flight. Her human self knew better. Even if she could shift in the daylight, a wolf wasn’t going to win a battle against a polar bear, and while human she wasn’t going to be able to outrun this thing.
The polar bear leaned to the left to swipe at her with its right paw; the animal was pretty damn quick for its size.
Alex eluded the claws; she was faster, even in this form, but she would never be fast enough. Unable to stop herself, she took several steps back, and the polar bear roared again.
Which was all Alex needed to make up her mind. She wasn’t going to stand there and let it slice her apart. She had to at least try to escape. Maybe she could get far enough ahead and make her way up a tree.
Polar bears couldn’t climb trees. Could they?
Alex ran deeper into the forest, thinking that perhaps she’d find a place so dense that she could fit through but the great white beast could not.
The earth trembled beneath her feet; the animal’s hot, stinky breath brushed her ass. What was a polar bear doing in the forest anyway? Didn’t they live on the ice?
Alex bore down. She couldn’t keep up this pace for long, but she had to put some distance between them.
Suddenly Barlow stepped from behind a tree. Alex was so startled she forgot if she had two feet or four and got them tangled, tripping, skidding, almost falling. She managed to right herself, but those few seconds cost her.
The bear slapped Alex with one massive paw.
She heard her ribs crack, felt her skin tear, smelled the blood as it splattered. The blow lifted and tossed her several yards, where she landed in a heap at Barlow’s feet.
Alex glanced all the way up his tall, broad, naked body. Too bad she was in too much pain to enjoy the view.
Why had he bothered to reveal himself? Without weapons, in this form, Barlow could do no more than she against this massive foe. They’d both be torn to bits, and they wouldn’t be able to heal wounds like that completely until night fell again, and they shifted.
Barlow’s gaze flicked over her, and his blue eyes darkened to black; then he threw back his head and emitted a be
llow of fury that seemed to shake the leaves upon the trees.
The sound caused the polar bear to pull up short. Barlow threw out his arms, hands spread wide, and at the very edge of his fingertips something twinkled.
Then he was shifting in the blink of an eye, so fast Alex couldn’t tell the exact instant he changed from man to beast.
Fury turned Julian into an animal. Rain or shine, sun or shadow, if he became enraged enough, he changed. That was how he’d become what he was in the first place.
He shot out his hands, reached for his magic, believed he could become a wolf in the sunlight, and he did.
As he leaped over Alex’s inert body, the scent of fear that oozed from her pores only infuriated him more, made him stronger, faster, better. She was one of his now. She should be afraid of nothing, no one.
But him.
