Saved By Her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 18

Skye couldn’t believe her eyes as the enormous bear roared as it reared up and slammed its dinner-plate-sized front paws into Cooper’s back, taking him down. The pain in her hand drifted to the back of her mind, replaced by terror as the beast snarled and bared fangs as it ripped into him with long claws, easily slicing through his blue jacket. Cooper’s agonised screams and bellows rang in her ears and she tried to look away, but she couldn’t. Her eyes remained glued to the poor man as the bear savaged him, brutally mauled him with claws and battered him with its huge paws.

Panic gripped her, the need to survive and to protect Knox blasting through her to make her move as Cooper went deathly still and silent. She scrambled for the gun he had dropped, her heart pounding so fast she felt dizzy, and her hands shook as she lifted it and aimed it at the bear. She shuffled away from it as it looked at her, tried to stand to move but her legs were like noodles beneath her.

The cinnamon bear roared and charged her.

Knox threw himself between her and the bear, his arms outstretched, as if that would be enough to block the bear and save her.

“Get out of the way!” she screamed, the sight on the rifle jittering around all over the place as she aimed at the bear. She couldn’t get a clear shot with Knox in the way and she feared he was going to get himself killed if she didn’t act fast. The bear was going to maul him the way it had Cooper.

“Back the fuck down!” Knox growled and she wasn’t sure whether he was talking to her or to the bear as it advanced on him.

She locked up tight at the same time as the bear did.

The damned thing had to be at least five-hundred pounds, maybe more, and she had never seen a bear with so many scars. A particularly brutal one cut up the left side of its head, from just above its eye to over the crown of its head, close to its ear, and made it look as dangerous as she felt it was.

Why wasn’t it attacking Knox?

She couldn’t believe her eyes as it just stood there staring at him.

Not moving a muscle.

She really couldn’t believe her eyes when a black-haired man jogged into the room, a little breathless, and his clear grey eyes landed on her and turned to steel as they dropped to the gun she desperately clutched in front of her.

He was big, rivalling Knox’s size, packed with muscle that was clearly visible beneath his tight black woollen sweater and damp jeans. Another of Karl’s men? She wasn’t sure whether to swing the gun at him or keep it vaguely trained on the bear, wasn’t sure of anything as she sat on her backside reeling and trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

“She isn’t part of this.” Knox eased back a step, moving closer to her, and slowly lowered his hands to his sides, but she didn’t miss how he clenched his fists.

Neither did the black-haired man.

The sight of Knox preparing for a fight seemed to trigger something dark within him, had him flexing his fingers into fists too and angling his body, placing more of his weight on one foot. The grim planes of his face grew harder still, his eyes as cold as ice as he fixed them on Knox.

And then he suddenly relaxed, as if someone had flipped a switch in him, and did the craziest thing yet.

He walked right up to the moaning, restless bear and planted his hand between the beast’s ears and rubbed its reddish-brown fur.

Skye stared at the animal, and then at the man, her gaze flicking back and forth between them as she tried to process what she was seeing. She had to be dreaming. Maybe the fear had become too much for her and she had passed out. This was all just some weird, crazy dream.

Knox turned to her and held his hands out with his palms facing her, approached her slowly as if he feared she was going to hurt him. She laughed at that, the sharp barked sound drawing the gaze of the black-haired man and the bear. Knox wasn’t afraid of a bear or that man, but he was afraid of her. She laughed again. Couldn’t stop herself.

She was definitely dreaming.

Or she had finally snapped.

Knox gently took hold of the barrel of the gun and then her hand. He eased her fingers open and took the gun from her, set it down on the floorboards beside him as he lowered himself into a crouch beside her. He brushed his fingers lightly over her palm and she sucked in a breath as the cut on her palm stung. She dragged her eyes away from the bear and the man, stared at Knox instead, into blue eyes that held more worry than she had ever seen in them.

He was scared.

Of the bear and the man?

Or something else?

Something deep inside her screamed that it wasn’t the animal or the man he feared. It was her. He had that spooked look again, the one he’d had from time to time over the last few days they had been together in this cabin. The one that gave her the impression he was afraid he would never see her again.

Sometimes, she had caught him watching her, staring at her as if he was desperately trying to put her to memory, to capture every little thing about her. She had put it down to fear of losing her, that he was scared something would happen to her and she would be taken from him.

Now, she had the impression it wasn’t fear of her dying that had put that look in his eyes.

It was fear of her leaving him by choice.

She looked between him and the bear and the man, going around and around.

“Hey. Don’t worry about them.” Knox smoothed his hand along her jaw. “Look at me.”

Her gaze darted to him and away again, back to the bear. It huffed and she tensed, and the man gave it a chastising look.

“I know them. They’re not going to hurt you, Skye.” Knox applied gentle pressure to her cheek and she looked at him again, obeying his silent command.

She tried to keep her eyes on his, but it was impossible while there was a bear in the room. A huge bear with a bloodied face. A bear that was standing near Cooper’s corpse. She swallowed the bile that rose into her throat and diligently kept her eyes away from the body. She tried not to think about Karl where he bent backwards over the kitchen counter either. Or Wade, who was laying face down beyond the black-haired man, his brains splattered up the wall, a gory backdrop that seemed to suit the man.

She swallowed hard, her entire body shaking as adrenaline and fear did a number on her.

“Look at me, Skye.” Knox stroked his thumb over her cheek, his voice lowering, softening as he gazed at her. “Look at me.”

Her eyes leaped to him and locked with his, and this time she managed to keep them on him.

“There’s my girl. You’re fine now. You’re safe now. Maverick and Rune aren’t going to hurt you.” Knox smiled softly, his blue eyes brightening with it, but that edge of fear they held didn’t go anywhere. “It’s over, Skye. It’s over.”

He sank to his knees beside her, gathered her into his arms and held her, his cheek pressing to hers. She lifted her arms and wrapped them around him, needing to hold on to him, afraid too now as his words echoed in her mind and she heard a different meaning in them.

She didn’t want to leave him. She didn’t want him to leave her. And for some reason, she felt convinced that was going to happen, as if it was inevitable, already written in the cards for them.

They were going to be parted.

Again.

And it killed her.

Knox drew back and her gaze darted to the bear and the man again, her mind still struggling to process the fact he was petting the damned thing, calming it by degrees as he murmured things she couldn’t hear to it. Was it a tame bear? One trained to attack on command maybe?

Knox palmed her upper arms, regaining her attention, and she looked at him, felt a little dazed as she gazed into his eyes and saw all the hurt in them, the fear, and what looked a hell of a lot like regret.

He looked as if he was breaking up with her.

She had seen that look on men’s faces a few times, enough that she automatically braced herself for the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech she felt sure was coming. Or maybe it would be the ‘it was nice, but…’ one.

He drew down a deep breath that shifted his chest beneath his shirt, stretching it tight across his broad shoulders, and exhaled hard.

She braced herself, tried to deny the tears that were already welling to the surface.

His eyes darted between hers, his dark blond eyebrows furrowing a little. “Skye, there’s something I need to tell…”

Her eyes widened, his words lost on her as the bear behind him did the damnedest thing.

It rose onto its hind legs and transformed into a man.

A man!

A very naked man.

The huge brute stood even taller than the black-haired one, had glacial blue eyes that held no trace of emotion as he stared at her. The scar she had seen on the bear was there on him too, darting from his left temple up to the crown of his head, and there was a notch missing from his ear on that side. He looked like a fighter, was bigger than the other man, his muscles heavy and hard, making him look as if he would have enough power in one punch to knock a man out.

Or kill him.

Skye looked from him to the kitchen counter, to the half-empty bottle of whiskey that stood off to one side, close to the left wall.

She was either dreaming or really drunk. But she swore she hadn’t touched a drop since the night they had arrived. Maybe it was the shock of everything making her see things.

“Fuck,” Knox muttered and then glared over his shoulder at the two men. His jaw flexed and he gritted, “You two get to clean this mess up while I clean up your damned mess.”

What did he mean by that? What mess had the men made? Her eyes slowly widened further as Knox pulled her onto her feet, as he helped her to the front door, shielding her gaze with his hand. Stopping her from looking at the bodies that littered the lodge.

Was he talking about Cooper? The man—bear—whatever he was had killed him, making a mess.

Or was he talking about the fact that same man—bear—whatever he was had transformed before her eyes?

Oh God.

She looked at Knox as they stepped out into the chilly air, a thought hitting her hard. The idea that had pinged into her head only grew clearer, gripped her more fiercely and made her want to put a voice behind the crazy notion, when the two men in the lodge behind her spoke to each other.

And one of them muttered, “How was I supposed to know Knox had a human with him?”

A human.

“Either I’m going crazy… or you can all…” She didn’t want to say it. She wanted to just pretend none of this had happened. She wanted to go on with her life as it had been. Only she couldn’t. There was no burying her head in the sand and forgetting what had happened and the things she had seen. She needed to know. “You can all turn into… bears?”

Something else hit her as Knox’s face crumpled and he reached for her and then dropped his hand to his side and stepped back from her, a hurt look entering his eyes. That same look he’d had just minutes ago, when she had thought he was going to dump her.

“This is the reason you left that night.” She closed the gap between them, unwilling to let him place any distance between them again, whether it was physically or emotionally. They had brought down their walls, shed their armour over the past few days and she was not going back to a hollow life without him. She wasn’t going to let him give up on them. She wasn’t going to run, even when he clearly expected her to, had braced himself for just that several times since that bear had barged into the lodge. She lunged for him and seized his hand, some desperate part of her pushing her to hold on to him, to make him see that she wouldn’t let him go. She couldn’t. She needed to know the truth though, sought it in his eyes. “This is why you left me, isn’t it? Because you’re like that man… those men… you can turn into a bear.”

His throat worked on a hard swallow and she cursed the bleak look that entered his eyes, one that left her cold inside and had her feeling he was drawing away from her, desperately bringing up barriers to protect his heart.

Because he was convinced this was it for them.

Well, he was wrong about that.

He hadn’t taken the time two years ago to find out whether she could live with the truth about him. He had convinced himself that she couldn’t. He had given up before he had even tried. And that look in his eyes told her that he had spent every day of those two years building on that foundation, constructing and cementing his belief that this thing between them could never work.

He was wrong about that too.

“Prove it.” She released his wrist and stepped back to give him room.

His blue gaze darted between hers and she knew what he wanted to ask her. He wanted to ask her not to do this, because he was scared. He was soul-deep terrified that she would run from him the second she saw him as a bear. He had feared that for two years.

Now, she was going to prove to him that he was wrong about her. Fear had made him weak. It had coloured his judgement and had made him ruin something that could have been amazing, tearing it all down before it had even got started.

When she realised he wasn’t going to do it, she squared up to him again.

Looked him deep in the eye.

“You told me that we don’t belong together even if the universe said we do.” She searched his eyes, catching the barest hint of hope in them. Her brow furrowed and she reached her hands up, framed his face with her palms and kept his gaze on her. “Do you remember what I said?”

He nodded. Swallowed again.

But just as he had that night, he didn’t say a word.

“I’m getting a say in this Knox, whether you like it or not… because this… this second chance we’ve been given… this is the universe telling us that we belong together. You can be scared. I am too… but I’m not the sort of woman who gives up when things get a little scary. When shit gets real, Skye Callaghan doesn’t run, Knox. She fights.” She brushed her thumbs across his cheeks and sighed. “When shit gets real for you, Knox Grayson… You’re a fighter too.”

She dropped her hand to his chest, placing it over his heart.

“I know you, Knox, better than you think I do. I know that deep in here, you want to fight. You want this as much as I do. I’m not running. Am I?” She smiled for him. “You expected me to run and I haven’t. I won’t. But I need to see the truth about you, Knox. I need to see it with my own eyes.”

His face twisted and he looked away from her. He blew out his breath and his shoulders sagged, all the tension draining from him as he closed his eyes.

Nodded.

He stepped back from her and stripped his shirt off, followed by his black pants, stood before her naked and very distracting, and sighed again. The look he gave her offered her one last chance, an out she could take if she wanted it.

She gave him one in return. A look that demanded he get on with it.

Her mind struggled to compute what she was seeing as fur swept over his body, as it morphed into that of a bear, the whole process happening in only a few seconds. She stared at the big grizzly before her, and as the initial shock of seeing him transform from Knox into a bear slowly subsided, she realised something.

“You’re the bear from the woods.” She stared into his eyes, recalling how those same dark eyes had locked with hers that night. “You’re the one who killed Patrick and then charged towards me. At the time I thought I was going crazy, because you looked so desperate to reach me.”

Before she could find the courage to run her fingers through his fur, he shifted back, becoming Knox again. A terribly naked and tempting Knox.

“I was desperate,” he whispered and reached for her, touched her cheek again and lowered his hand to her neck. He slid it around her nape and held it as he stared deep into her eyes and husked, “I was so scared you were going to get hurt. I wanted to get you out of there and I couldn’t stop myself… When I’m in my animal form, instinct can take over, the logical human mind falling away as the animal one takes control. I couldn’t stop myself from trying to reach you.”

She cupped his cheek as she saw in his eyes how much he meant that, how badly he had needed to get her away from Karl and his men. He had managed it in the end, had brought her through this whole ordeal unscathed.

But altered.

Her entire world was different now. She was different. But in a good way. She felt that deep in her heart, in her soul. From here on out, things were going to be better, brighter. They were going to be everything she had wanted for the last few years.

“I know we’re too different, Skye. I know I don’t belong in your world.” Those words leaving his lips left her cold and she wanted to curse him for trying to bring up that wall between them, for letting fear get the better of him and ruining her moment.

She was having that future she wanted with him, whether he liked it or not. All she had to do was come up with the perfect counter-argument and he would crumble. She could see it in his eyes. He was reaching, desperately trying to get her to break down his defences and show him that she wanted him, that she felt something for him, and that the fact he could turn into a bear didn’t change a damned thing.

Which sounded crazy as she thought it.

But she always had been a little crazy.

“It seems like the same world to me.” She looked around at her and took a deep breath, savouring the cold air, the crisp scent of snow and Knox, and how bright everything was. How beautiful. “Same small town. Same wild valleys.”

She shifted her gaze to him.

“Same Knox. Same Skye. All I see before me is the man I fell for… an idiot who walked out on me. Don’t walk out on me again.”

He stared at her. “Fell for?”

And there it was.

That spark of hope, of resolve. The fighter coming to the fore now that his fears had been silenced.

“It was never a one-night stand to me, Knox. It was never too much whiskey and too many lonely nights.” She sighed. “I fell for you a long time before that night.”

His blue eyes softened and warmed, shining with affection. “It was never like that for me either. I think I fell for you the second I set eyes on you.”

She smiled at that, warmed from head to toe, not feeling the chill of the winter air as she bathed in the heat of the look he was giving her. She wanted to kiss him too.

His gaze dropped to her lips, growing hooded as he gently pulled her towards him.

Skye wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing her future, as crazy as it might be, and kissed him.