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“Yeah, that.”
“I guess we entertain ourselves.” She motioned to the bookshelf.
He looked at the plethora of books and thought about taking some time to catch up on reading. With a varied selection from nonfiction to autobiographies to genre fiction, he decided to pick a book at random and just read.
Following his lead, she selected a book as well.
The first hour went well enough. The cabin felt toasty. His aches and pains faded little by little, and his full belly made him drowsy enough that he fell asleep on the couch.
The next thing he knew, he heard Laura humming and the scent of hot chocolate filled the small space. He stared up at the ceiling, unaware of having flattened himself on the couch. But he knew he hadn’t put a throw over him.
He felt warm at the notion she’d been looking over him. The snow continued outside, and he wondered if and when it would let up. They hadn’t had so much snow in years.
Gerald still felt a little twinge in his leg and decided to speed his healing. He wouldn’t have minded discomfiting her again, but she’d been so nice covering him up. So seeing as how Laura wasn’t looking his way, he felt safe to slide out of his clothes and shift.
Now a fox, he sniffed around the room, taking in the scents of various bears and a few cats who’d visited in the past few months. Then he raced over to Laura and sniffed her.
She laughed. “Stop. Your whiskers tickle.”
He licked her foot then darted around the cabin, feeling the need to run around.
“You want to go out? I wouldn’t do too much running, but I understand feeling stir crazy. Getting out last night felt good.”
He yipped, and she opened the door.
“Just scratch when you want back in. And hurry. It’s freezing out there.”
She shut the door behind him, blocking the snow.
She hadn’t been kidding. It was a few levels beyond cold. But the fresh air did more to revive him than that stuffy cabin. Granted, he got to be closer to Laura, but Ac-taw needed nature as much as they needed each other to feel complete.
He marked territory around the cabin, scented Laura in various spots in addition to a few lingering scents from her alpha and some more dominant bears. But mostly he kept an eye out for nosy birds.
Instinct got the best of him while out, and he pounced and ate a few field mice. Tasty snacks that satisfied his fox, allowing him to fully reset so that he only had a small twinge at his temple to remind him he’d been in an accident.
Gerald returned to the cabin in a much better mood. By the disappearing stray beam of sunlight through a storm cloud, he surmised it to be later in the afternoon. Maybe four? The sky grew dark fast, and he hustled back inside.
“Oh my gosh, you were out there forever,” Laura snapped. “You have no sense.”
He barked back at her.
“Don’t take that tone with me, attorney at large.”
He liked the scent of her anger, a spice over the earthy homecoming of a woman in need.
In need? He cocked his head.
She frowned, wary. “What’s that look for?”
He took a discreet sniff. Yes, that’s what it was. Laura was in heat. And he was just the man for her.
He grinned, suddenly not so upset that he had to spend the next few days with Deputy Bossy. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he found their circumstances fortuitous.
The woman was growing on him, for sure.
And his fox… Well, his fox had lost his damn mind. But he still had a few good points. Like not letting a lovely, sexy woman go to waste.
Chapter Ten
