Page 4 of Hunny and the Bear

Hunny dropped the hold on her suitcase, frantically searching her jeans pockets for her keys. Shit, shit, shit! Where were her freaking keys?! She must have left them back in the cabin. Hastily, she glanced back at the opened cabin door, her eyes locking on a set of keys sitting on the table in the entryway.

You’ve got to be kidding—

Wrenching her hands from her pockets, she grabbed the truck’s door handle, hoping like hell she’d left it unlocked so she could at least get inside. There was a spare key in the glove compartment. She tugged hard, but the door didn’t budge.

Fuck!

The wolf stepped from the treeline, calmly stalking toward her. Hunny’s mouth dried, fear slamming into her like a battering ram.

She was dead if she didn’t do something!

Natasha spoke as she prowled closer, her voice taking on a distorted edge that sent terror skating down Hunny’s spine. “I heard rabbits are fond of running. You should try it.”

And then Natasha hunched over, fur sprouting over her skin, bones cracking as she began to shift into a wolf.

New plan, Hunny thought desperately. Kicking off her shoes as she quickly backed away from Natasha, she ripped her shirt over her head and unbuttoned her jeans.

And then Hunny shifted, shaking free of her clothes right as the she-wolf lunged for her, jaws opened wide.

Luckily for Hunny, in her rabbit form, she was quick and agile. She bolted to the right, barely dodging Natasha’s fangs as she snapped her mouth closed. And then Hunny took off, rushing into the woods like her life literally depended on it.

Terror dogged her heels as she heard Natasha give chase from behind, plowing through bushes that Hunny weaved seamlessly through. She wouldn’t last long in an outright chase though; wolves were objectively faster than rabbits, and although Hunny had the advantage of panic and adrenaline on her side, it wouldn’t help her keep this grueling pace for long.

Maybe she could find a burrow and use that tunnel system to escape. Nose twitching as she ran, she tried to scent for other creatures, but she was moving too fast and was honestly far too panicked to detect much of anything aside from the foul odor of her own fear.

It filled her lungs, clogging her throat as she kept up her intense pace. She ran hard for several minutes, Natasha’s growls echoing in her ears as she bobbed and weaved through any underbrushes she could find, hoping to lose the shifter or atleast slow her down. It didn’t work, and she had the distinct impression the wolf was toying with her.

Suddenly, Natasha charged her from the side, sharp teeth biting into her front leg, breaking through skin and bone. Hunny screamed, the sound loud and high-pitched, echoing through the woods as blinding agony flared through her leg.

Natasha jerked Hunny backward, the movement too quick to counter. She felt a moment of panic as the wolf released her leg, wind whipping through her fur as she was launched through the air. She slammed into a tree a second later, her side and head smacking against the thick wood with a sickening crack.

With a small whine, the fight went out of her, and Hunny collapsed, landing in a heap on the ground. She tried to stand, but her legs barely twitched, and a pitiful, desperate cry poured from her throat.

Jason really was right. She was weak. And now she was going to die here. Alone. And no one would even remember her or care.

Natasha chuffed, the wolf’s version of laughter ringing in Hunny’s ears as her vision doubled, black spots flitting in front of her as she struggled to blink. Her head hurt and her body was killing her. As she wheezed, laying there, the scent of her own blood filled her nose.

No, notjustblood.

She tried to inhale once more through the pain and smelled musk, clovers and berries invaded her senses. What on earth was that smell? It was so distracting, so soothing, that she didn’t even notice Natasha approaching, drool dripping from her muzzle as she reached Hunny’s side.

The wolf opened her maw wide, lunging for Hunny.

A blur of brown fur filled her vision—was that a giant paw? It slammed into Natasha, batting her body away before she could strike. The wolf yelped and went flying, right as a bear’s ominous roar tore through the night.

Great, she’d traded getting eaten by a wolf shifter for getting eaten by a bear. The throbbing in her head increased tenfold, and before she had a chance to feel an ounce of fear for this new predicament she’d fallen into, Hunny fell unconscious.

Two

The last thing Henry ‘Tank’ Sinclair expected to find on his nightly stroll through the woods was a she-wolf attacking a rabbit shifter. And he damned sure hadn’t anticipated knocking the large wolf into some nearby vegetation like a pesky fly, his every instinct demanding he protect the small, wounded creature at his feet.

It was odd—Tank never felt compelled to protect anything that wasn’t his family or part of his bear clan. And yet, he knew if that wolf struck again, he’d rip the canine to shreds without a moment’s hesitation. In fact, as he inhaled, drawing the two warring shifter scents deep into his lungs, his claws ached to inflict even more damage on the damned beast.

What was a wolf shifter doing in bear territory anyway, preying on a rabbit shifter? Every supernatural creature knew that rabbit shifters, along with other small woodland shifters, were relatively harmless and, by nature, submissive, though there were always some that broke the mold, being more dominant.

At least he’d arrived in time to stop the wolf from finishing what she’d started.

As an enforcer for his brother’s bear clan, it was Tank’s duty to wander the edge of their territory at night to hunt for intruders. Typically, he didn’t find much of anything—his clan was located deep in the woods, more than an hour away from ‘civilization,’ and although the occasional hiker wandered into their domain, they usually fled in terror after he charged at them, roaring loudly for the entire forest to hear.

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