Page 21 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 1
Well,that answers that question, Cutter rumbled through our mental link as Grant and I stood beside him.Don’t think she knew what they were.
Apparently not,I replied tightly as my right eye twitched.
I growled, seeing the woman tied to a tree as she had been forced to watch Price and the rest of his small group shift right before her eyes. Then they had gone hunting, and even from this distance, I could smell the fear pouring off her, not that I could blame her. I could only imagine what was going through her head right then. She was lucky there weren’t any other shifters around besides my group and Price’s.
If anyone else had smelled her fear, it would draw them straight to her.
Stupid humans.
Fearful of what they don’t understand.
My bear whined and pawed anxiously at the ground. I was torn between what I usually felt for humans and this woman, this insane woman who had found herself alone in the wilderness with a pack of shifters.
Do we move in?Grant asked, yanking me from my thoughts.
No, we’ll wait. I don’t want to risk this chance of catching Price,I responded.
Price had killed an elk in our territory. Technically, that wasn’t against shifter law, but if they shifted in front of a human unaware of shifters, killed the woman, or hurt her, then I would have a vendetta against Price and his entire pack—not just those here, but any he might have left behind in my territory. It would start a war, something that hadn’t happened between the shifters in decades, and I didn’t have time to deal with that.
But if Price started it, I would be the one to finish it, no questions asked.
Cutter, Grant, keep a close watch on the campsite, I ordered.I’m going to call home base and see if Taggert has any new information.
Might want to check back home, too,Grant suggested.Just in case things go south.
Let’s hope they don’t,I replied.
I made my way back through the trees. When I reached my gear, I shifted back into my six-foot-three human form and pulled on my gear. I tried to ignore the whining of my bear in my head. I kept thinking back to the woman and the fear on her face as she’d watched the wolves hunt and take down the elk.
Part of me wanted to run to her, rip the ropes off her body, and take her far away from here, from this nightmare.
But she was a human. I should have no feelings for her.
So why won’t the beast inside me shut up?
It was acting as if she were my fated mate.
Oh fuck no. There’s no way that’s happening.I was the alpha of the largest bear-shifter clan in Alaska and destined to mate with an alpha-female shifter.
I ignored the inner beast, reaching my gear where I could get some sort of signal to call Taggert and then check in back home with the clan.
My home was near Valdez, out in the Alaskan wilderness, where my family could roam freely without the fear of being spotted by humans. My family’s territory, which had been passed on to me when my parents died, was vast and had grown over the years by acquiring property via the annual sealed-bid land auctions. But it was getting harder to keep up with the needs of my clan and the demands of my position on the council. Plus there was always a lot of pressure on me to keep the peace with other shifters, especially the wolves. For centuries, there had been territory disputes, but for the past fifty years, peace had reigned between the families.
I wondered how long it was going to last. Price had to know he was in bear territory.
So why risk coming out here to hunt?
Not to mention, why did he bring a human if they are trying to keep the peace?
I radioed home base and told the man at the other end to connect me to Taggert. The soldier told me to hold on for a minute while he figured out where the general was. I waited impatiently as my bear clawed at the edges of my mind, begging to come out and go to the woman. The struggle made my head pound. It took everything I had to fight the instinctual need tearing up my gut.
That damn woman.
If it weren’t for her, this mission would likely be over.
I needed to keep it together.Maybe it’s been too long since I had a good roll in the woods with another bear. Yes, that’s exactly what it is.
“Sheenan? Did you get Price yet?” General Taggert’s voice came over the satellite phone.
