Page 1 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 2
Chapter 1
Trinity
I heard something earsplitting.
I thought I was dreaming, but then I jumped as the noise grew too loud for me to ignore. It was my teeth chattering.
The cave had given me some shelter throughout the night, but I was still cold. I was fortunate I had my coat and boots, but I didn’t have gloves or thermals. The cave would not keep me warm if the temperature kept dropping. Judging by the weather I’d seen before, that was likely to happen. I had no other choice. I had to make a plan, any plan, and get out of the cave.
I needed to move.
Hours had passed since I’d heard any howling, but that meant nothing. The Hunt had begun, and I was not prepared.
The sun was barely up. The light outside the cave was pale and thin from heavy cloud cover, but at least it had stopped snowing. My limbs ached from my run through the woods, but I forced myself to stretch them out. I had to figure out which direction was south and then move as fast as I could without wearing myself out too quickly.
This was truly going to be a test of my survival skills.
After stretching, I groaned when my muscles protested. Crawling out of the cave, I was careful to check my surroundings. I spotted no footsteps in the mud, human or wolf.
But are those bear tracks?
“Maybe it wasn’t just another dream.” I reached out and measured my hand against the print.
Before I’d passed out, come to, and then crawled into the cave, I’d seen a bear, but I’d thought it was a figment of my imagination. It was the logical explanation anyway. But those bear tracks were huge, bigger than any I’d ever seen.
I pulled back my hand and stood. There would be time to think about that later. I needed to move and get somewhere safe. I checked the surrounding trees, looking for moss. The moment I found some, I turned the other direction until I was facing south, the route that would take me to the state park rangers.
My pace was steady, plowing through the snow-clad trees. The last thing I wanted to do was sprain anything. I kept my gaze down to avoid any sticks or rocks, and I watched out for dips. The snow cover was only a few inches, but from the look of the clouds overhead, more would come by nightfall. My breath created little white puffs as I went. The air burned my lungs, so I forced myself to slow down.
It was definitely colder than it had been the past few days. I rubbed my arms and kept them close to my middle, but it did little to keep away the chill. There was a tear in the knee of my pants, and a draft blew right up my leg.
“Damn.” I stopped to see if there was a way I could fix it.
But the tear was pretty large. I had no equipment with me to repair my pants—at least nothing that would help. Hell, I didn’t even have my gloves. I’d be lucky if I didn’t wind up with frostbite.
At some point, I’d have to find shelter and fresh water along with something to eat. But water had to come first. I could last a few days without food if need be. Warmth was another necessity, but I’d have to be careful with the fire. I wasn’t sure how Josh Price and his pack would track me during the day.
Do they only turn at night?
How does being a wolf-shifter even work in the real world?
“Guess I should have paid more attention to those damn horror movies,” I whispered. “Maybe I would have learned something useful.” The thought kept me amused.
The more I kept my thoughts positive, the better off I’d be. I knew the genuine horror of my situation hadn’t really sunk in yet. I was being hunted. In the light of day, it seemed like a bad dream. There was no howling or dead elk bodies torn to shreds surrounding me.
All that blood… There’d been so much of it.
I halted and turned to the side to vomit, but all I did was dry heave. Everything else had come up last night.
I leaned against a tree as I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and took a few deep breaths to calm my stomach. I felt shaky, but I didn’t have time to just stand there and hope they wouldn’t find me.
It was up to me to get out of this mess. I needed to head south, find the park rangers.
I will make it.
I will survive.
Chapter 2
