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She kissed his chest. “Should we check it out?” She was torn between looking for whatever had made the noise and staying here and just enjoying snuggling with Nate in bed. She knew Everest had bonded out of jail and the others might have too, but they hadn’t heard a vehicle pull up. She suspected they wouldn’t come here again that soon after their last mistake in doing so.
“Only as wolves. Our wolf coats will protect us from the rain, and we can move lower to the ground. But only if you think you can stay in your wolf coat while we’re checking things out.”
She sighed. “I can. I think.” She wanted to go with him, to watch his back like she knew he’d watch hers. She didn’t want to be some helpless woman sitting in the cabin worrying about him.
“Okay, let’s go check it out.”
She loved him for knowing she could handle herself when she was a wolf and that he was only concerned that she might shift unexpectedly into her human form. But that wouldn’t be for a while, she thought. She got out of bed, and he joined her, pulling her into his arms and kissing her. “It’s going to be wet out there.”
“Hmm, yeah, but you know if we don’t check it out, neither of us is going to be able to sleep.”
“Yeah, that’s just what I was thinking.” They shifted, and then as wolves, they headed out of the cabin through the wolf door and found just what had disturbed them.
A big, male cinnamon bear.
It was the same bear they’d smelled before on a hike.
They began chasing it off, growling and barking, and the bear loped off. They followed him for about three miles in the pouring rain before Nate bumped into her and indicated with his head that he wanted her to return with him to the cabin.
She was ready, hoping that they’d chased the bear off for good. She hoped she could make it back to the cabin all right without shifting. She hadn’t planned to run for that long, but it felt good to run as a wolf and stretch her legs, especially when she was on a mission—protecting themselves and the cabin. But she hadn’t meant to go quite that far.
They were loping toward the cabin, and shesuspected they still had another mile and a half to go when she felt the urge to shift.No, no, no!She didn’t want to shift right now. Not with that far to go through the woods. Not with it being this cold out at night.
She hesitated, and Nate had to turn around. He stopped and looked at her, a question in his expression. He raised his brows and appeared to suddenly realize what the problem was. But she finally got the urge to shift under control. Sometimes now she could use mind over matter, and it worked.
She dashed off again, but this time he followed her so he would notice if she needed to shift; he didn’t want to accidentally leave her behind. She appreciated his concern for what she was going through.
For a while, she was able to put off shifting, but then she felt the urge strongly again. Heat poured through her muscles, but she kept running, trying to reach the cabin or at least get as close to it as she could. Running through the woods naked was going to be cold and wet!
She let out her wolf breath. She still wouldn’t have let Nate go by himself to check out what had been moving around outside the cabin. And she was glad they had found the bear and chased him off a long way from the cabin. Of course, ideally, she wouldn’t be shifting out in the woods.
Then she stopped, figuring they were about amile from the cabin. She shifted and started to walk as fast as she could, but she had to watch where she was stepping so she didn’t injure herself. At times like this, she really appreciated when she was in her wolf form. Before she could look around and see where her wolf mate was, he was human and naked, sweeping her up in his arms and carrying her.
“Ohmigosh, Nate. You don’t have to carry me.”
“Are you kidding? You have to keep me warm.”
She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You were perfectly warm in your wolf coat.”
“Yeah, but this is just too nice.”
“Ha!” They were both dripping wet, but she had to admit it really was a much nicer way to go than her walking the rest of the way. “But hey, if you get tired and need me—”
“To carry me?” Nate asked.
She smiled and snuggled tighter against him. “I was going to say ‘to walk.’ You could get into your wolf coat, run home, and bring my clothes with you.”
“I won’t leave you alone in the woods, naked, without a lick of protection.”
She sighed. “All right. But if you get tired, let me know. I don’t want you to be all macho and—”
“Wear myself out?” He chuckled. “Not happening. I could walk a million miles carrying you in my arms. It’s my pleasure.”
“How far do we need to walk? I’m sorry. I was thinking about a mile now. We should never havechased that bear so far away while I was having shifting issues.”
“We were having the time of our lives. I only indicated that I believed we should return to the cabin when I thought we had chased him far enough that he might stay away.”
“And you figured I might need to shift.”
