So she put the car into gear and headed for the freeway. “You should eat the food. Your stomach is deafening.” And it was. It hadn’t stopped growling since the scents of pizza and cheeseburger filled the car.
His gaze turned to the topmost small box and opened it. Thick burger, melted cheese, tomato, mustard. The sight made her mouth water. He lifted it up in both his hands, but he didn’t eat.
“Sometimes the food quiets the grizzly. It lets the man take control.”
“Good.”
“Sometimes the opposite happens.”
It took her a moment to process that. So the grizzly would take over? While they were in a car together speeding down a freeway at eighty miles per hour?
She shot him a terrified look. His head was tilted and a single brow arched. It challenged her to turn the car around right then and dump him at the nearest tree. Common sense told her that was the best thing to do. But common sense wasn’t trying to save her brother.
“Eat up,” she said, her voice ringing with challenge.
He nodded and chomped down.
Swell.
***
A short hour later the food was finished, the gas tank was heading toward low, and he remained exactly as he had been before: a predator watching her every breath. Eventually, she had enough. She kept her eyes on the road, but watched him closely out of her peripheral vision.
“So which are you now? Bear or man?”
“Both. I am always both.”
Not helpful. “I mean are you about to sprout fur?”
He looked down at his arms. All human normal, as far as she could tell. “Not at the moment. And I must not change again for at least a week. If I do, I will probably stay a bear forever.”
“Jesus,” she muttered. Like she needed more of an incentive to keep him human? “Can you just tell me if you’re about to kill me?”
He straightened as if insulted. “I am not.” His tone indicated he thought the question insane.
“Thank you,” she snapped, her anxiety coming out in a sharp tone.
He waited a moment, then spoke in that slow monotone of his. “Why are you angry? I am answering your questions.”
“Not really,” she groused. He was giving her literal answers to direct questions. But none of it told her what she wanted to know because she didn’t know what she didn’t know. How could she ask the right questions when she hadn’t the first clue how to start? Maybe at the beginning. “How did my brother find out you were a bear? Did he shoot you, too?”
“I rescued him. As a bear.”
She turned to look at him, annoyance eating at her already frayed nerves. God, she wanted to smack him. Instead she decided to bargain. “What do you need to talk to me like a normal person? To have a conversation where your answers don’t create a dozen more questions?”
He tilted his head, the gesture slower than natural. “Communication is hard after a shift. I will get better.”
“With practice?” She didn’t wait for his answer. “So let’s practice now. Tell me the full story of how my brother found out you were a bear.”
He looked at her with clear irritation. Not a studied movement at all but a furrowing of his brow and a peeling back of his lips. His teeth flashed white but she pretended she didn’t see it. She just kept her hands on the wheel, her gaze steady ahead. Part of her screamed that it wasn’t smart to poke at the bear, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“Talk. Now,” she ordered.
“You cannot command me,” he said. “Only my alpha can.”
“And now I have another dozen questions.”Okay.Ordering him around wasn’t working. She hadn’t really expected it to, so maybe it was time for logic mixed with a little begging. “It’s a long way to Detroit. It would help me pass the time and you need the practice. Please?”
His gaze shifted from her face to the road. Then he nodded. “A solid argument.” He pursed his lips. “I will tell you the story of your brother’s stupidity.”
