“Just a glimpse,” he whispered to himself as he stepped off the porch of his cabin and shifted. He knew his shift was different from his brothers’. Maxim damn near exploded out of his human form, a volcano of bear, often growling like he couldn’t control it. Anton took his as if it were pain. And perhaps it was. Anton was the brother who’d endured the most pain over their lives. Emin’s thoughts dwelled there for a moment before he moved on. Danil’s shift was the most civilized, of course. He shifted as if he were trying on a new suit. He stretched and stepped right into it.
Emin was told that his shift was quick. A rapid, sleek falling forward that always brought him directly into a trot or gallop. He was the quickest of his brothers, nimble and dexterous. He was a bit smaller and darker than their almost blond grizzly forms. But he held his own. His speed made him a formidable fighter.
He trotted immediately into the forest, catching her scent right away now that he was in his bear form. She was about two miles away over the other side of the mountain. He was there, where she had just been, in just a few minutes, comfortable with clocking in his top speed. He enjoyed racing in the night through the woods. Knowing that to a human’s eyes, he would be little more than a snapped twig, a passing shadow.
He caught her scent, strong and almost warm. She had just been here. He circled the little stand of trees that she had just vacated. He knew that she was gone. She wasn’t there but she had just been. In fact, Emin sniffed at a small pile of leaves on the ground, realizing she’d just lounged here, and what, slept? Watched the night breeze ruffle the pine trees? He wanted to know. He wanted more than just clues. He wanted to see her. A glimpse. A goddamn glimpse.
But for tonight, like so many nights since he’d first caught her scent, just the smell of her had to be enough. So Emin curled his bear into the pile of leaves and breathed her in, the night air like a lover’s touch through his fur as his eyes drifted closed.
CHAPTER TWO
Glory’s tail flicked back and forth as she sat in the pines above the bear who slept where she’d just lain, watching ants march through a fallen pine cone. He was here again. Close enough to touch. But why?
Every night he was so close to her. Sniffing for her. Searching for her, she was sure. But she didn’t know why. He didn’t seem like the bad men. And he certainly didn’t smell like the bad men. So why did he hunt her? She didn’t think she would mind being found by him. He was a very handsome bear. And she was fairly sure he would be kind to her. But she’d been wrong before. That’s how she’d gotten captured by the bad men in the first place. Torn from her mother’s side.
Glory ached as she thought about her mother. Somewhere a million miles away. She hoped so much that her mother had gotten away. That the bad men hadn’t gotten her, too. Glory had waited six months to make contact with the bear because she knew her mother would have wanted her to be cautious.
But she was just so dang curious. Who was he? What did his fur feel like? What did his voice sound like? Was he as lonely as she was?
She followed him just about as often as he hunted for her. So she knew he lived in a cabin and when he shifted back to his human form he was golden and muscular, compact and long at the same time. Glory shifted on her branch. And she knew that he had very interesting man parts. She’d never seen man parts before. But his seemed particularly well put together, if she said so.
She crept down the tree. As silent as the night around them. She just wanted to get a little closer. His steady heartbeats and deep, even breaths soothed her. They made the night less lonely. Each rhythmic noise was like a little friend. She wanted to curl up with her little friends, let them tell her that she was going to be okay. That the bad men were gone for good and that she would see her mother again.
She could feel the warmth of the bear whipping off his big body as if he were a campfire. The nights were starting to get so chilly and it had been so long since Glory had anything but her own warmth. She crept even further down the tree, just over him.
Part of her, the playful part, wanted to see what would happen if she just pounced on him right then and there. But Glory could hear her mother’s voice in her head, so she didn’t.
Instead, she crept down to the ground, right next to the bear, and studied him. She could see traces of his human in his bear face. The dark brow, the natural scowl, and all that hair in his face. And his build, like a wrestler but longer. She knew he was quick, but how, she had no idea. He had too many muscles to be quick.
And warm. He was just so warm. A finger of chilly October breeze flicked over Glory’s haunch, and though she had plenty of fur herself, she wanted his warmth. Needed it. She’d been so lonely for so many months and he seemed like such a nice grizzly, running in all those funny circles for her for months. Never seeing her where she perched high in the trees.