Bearllionaire(47)

Her heart sank and she brushed her fingers over the phone again. Had Barry left the threatening message? Because he knew if she stayed at the lodge, she’d expose him? If so, Barry was stupid if he thought Janna was the real threat. Ryder was equally capable with numbers and was clearly on to him. She shrugged, shook her head, and kept walking, but then something darted out, bit down on the back of her coat, and yanked her viciously off the path.

She screamed but was cut off when the animal brutishly jerked her around. It dragged her, stunned, into the woods, and Janna was grateful for her thick coat that protected her from the cold ground and the protruding sticks.

“Let me go!” she said, struggling against the hold on her coat that had it pulled up, almost choking her. “What are you doing?” She craned her neck and gasped when she realized it was a bear holding her. Shit! The bear from the window. “No!”

She thrashed her arms, and the bear ignored her, dragging her farther into the woods where she doubted anyone would hear her.

Even Barry, who might have been close enough to help a minute ago, probably couldn’t hear her now. If she could even scream when the coat was cutting off her air.

“Can’t… breathe,” she choked out, and the bear went a few feet and then dropped her. She yanked at her collar, pulling the coat down and preparing to scream, but the bear got in her face, snarling and snapping its jaws viciously in warning. Each time she dared open her mouth, it did it again.

She cringed away, heart stammering. But because this was her third encounter with the bear, she was determined to try and stay calm. After all, her life depended on it.

The bear paced in front of her, somehow satisfied as long as she seemed afraid. It wasn’t hard. The teeth in that massive jaw could easily tear her apart. Thinking about it was… not enjoyable.

“What do you want?” she asked. She somehow sensed this was no regular bear, and even though her rational mind knew there was no point talking to animals, she knew it couldn’t hurt. And rational thinking didn’t exactly apply to being stalked and kidnapped by a bear who didn’t seem to want to eat her.

Why would it want her, then?

Then the bear stopped, eyeing her, and she swore she could see hunger in those deep, dark depths. But not for food. She opened her mouth in shock, and the bear roared, raising a paw as if to strike her. She put up a hand to block her face and winced, bracing for the blow. This was it. There was nothing she could do.

She wouldn’t even get to say good-bye to Ryder. To find out his mystery.

The blow never came. Instead, with a roar, a large, brown, shaggy mass flew at the black bear, knocking it away from her and wrestling it to the ground. It was the grizzly from the night before. Though it was twice the size of the black bear and truly a terrifying, ferocious sight, for some reason, all she could feel was relief at its presence. She scrambled back as the bears fought, roaring and slashing at each other.

She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the scene. She knew that her life depended on who won.

Luckily, it was over fairly quickly. The black bear was in submission and trying to crawl away, and the grizzly had him pinned with one paw. The black bear winced as the grizzly raised his other paw to finish the job, and then, as if something were blurring in front of her eyes, the black bear changed. She blinked and nearly missed it but could swear that black bear had just twisted and transformed into a man.

Barry. Naked.

Her eyes went wide as saucers and she covered her them as the grizzly bear let out an angry roar.

“You can’t kill me while I’m human,” Barry stammered weakly.

Her heart pounded and her brain struggled to comprehend his words. While he was human? She looked at the grizzly.

The grizzly looked angry, frustrated by Barry’s cowardice, but it stepped back to let him go. Barry put his hands up as the bear stared down at him.

“I’m going. I promise. I didn’t think she was your mate. I thought you were just playing with her. I’m not stupid enough to come between a grizzly and his mate. But I didn’t think you’d take a human with so little bear in her…”

The grizzly roared, and Janna felt lightheaded at what she was hearing. But the weirdest was yet to come.

“Mess with my mate again, and I’ll make you wish you were never born. Human or not!”

Janna recognized that low, growly voice. But had never heard it sound so angry.

“Ryder?” she asked, wondering where he was hiding. Why was he somewhere in the woods when she was being attacked by a bear?

The bear looked at her with something like guilt in its ageless eyes. Eyes that were shadowed by a long, shaggy pelt but nevertheless looked right into her soul with a piercing shade of sapphire blue.