Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
And then I do look over, because, yeah—beautiful breasts—and I realize she’s not recovering as quickly as I’d expected.
Of course, I know dick about human females, but I didn’t expect her teeth to still be chattering, or her body to be shaking so much.
Fuck.
My bear snarls as if Death is some real foe it can defend her against. I shove him down—I can’t fucking think if I’m half-crazed with animal thoughts, and I need to think. I have to figure out how to save this female.
I abandon the dog—his fur is close to dry now anyway—and march over to the tub.
“Out,” I order.
She doesn’t move. Not even her eyes. It’s like she’s in shock.
Damn.
I grasp behind both her elbows and lift her to stand. “Out you come,” I attempt to order again. I need her help or I’ll have to resort to tossing her over my shoulder again.
She just stands there, shuddering.
Dammit. I grab a towel and wrap it around her shoulders, then scoop under her knees and swoop her up into a baby carry. “Let’s go, princess. Gotta get you warm.”
“I’m c-c-c-cold,” she chatters.
“I noticed,” I say drily, carrying her out to the living room, dog at my heels. I lay her down on the couch and finish toweling her off, patting the skin that’s bright red from the elements gently. Her damp dog sits beside the couch, watching everything. Still alert in case she needs help.
And she does. This human needs medical attention. A hospital, or some other kind of emergency help. I don’t fucking know, because shifters heal on their own without a doctor’s interference.
A sleeping bag!
That’s what I need.
I remember hearing it’s one way to raise a person’s body heat. You zip them up in a sleeping back with another body. Uh, preferably naked.
Shit. I am so screwed.
My cock gets hard just thinking about lying skin to skin with the lovely scientist. My bear twists just under my skin, antsy. Always antsy. Always ready to come screaming out and tear his claws and teeth into something.
Especially for a threatened female.
She’s not even a bear, I want to tell him. Calm the fuck down.
Maybe he’s lost reason, too. We’ve both gone mad. Me with too much time in animal form. My animal with too much… fuck if I know. Misery? Grief?
I cover the freezing female with a blanket, cursing myself for not having something softer. After I build up a roaring fire in the fireplace, I dig a sleeping bag out of the closet and drop it on the throw rug in front of the hearth. My bear’s still flickering at the surface, jumbling my thoughts with deadly aggression. There’s a reason people fear the mama-bear. The instinct to protect runs fierce in our species.
No one to kill here, fucker. And you’ll hurt the girl if you don’t back the hell down.
The human still shivers on my couch, teeth chattering. Delicate fucking flower. “Come here,” I say gruffly, grasping her wrists and pulling her to stand. “We have to get your body temperature up. Get in that sleeping bag there.” I point to it and lead her over.
She moves like an awkward wooden doll, her steps stiff and uncoordinated. She manages to fit herself into the sleeping bag.
“Take off the panties.”
Damn. That doesn’t sound good.
She doesn’t move.
“They’re wet and cold. Take the damn things off now,” I bark, putting alpha command into my voice. The dog hears it and tucks his tail even more, dropping his head.
I actually don’t expect her to obey me. She’s not a shifter so she doesn’t respond to alpha command for one thing. For another, she doesn’t know me at all. I’m a complete stranger ordering her to take off her panties. It could definitely be misconstrued.
After a couple beats, she wriggles around in the sleeping bag, but the movements seem to exhaust her and she falls still, just shivering.
Shit. I unzip the side of the sleeping bag and grab the sides of her panties. Her eyes fly wide when I pull them down.
I nearly shift right there. And it’s not to protect her.
Apparently my bear thinks this curvy human is the next best thing to a sow because my teeth sharpen in my mouth like he wants to give her a mating bite.
Crazy, crazy bear. I need to get this under control or I could inadvertently hurt this fragile human. I close my eyes and turn my face away in case my irises turned yellow. I fight back a growl from my bear. Fates, having a naked female within kissing distance does all kinds of things to the beast within.
Go back to sleep, bear.
Touching her, lying next to her naked body is the last thing I should do considering how little control I have over my animal. But it has to be done. Her life is still in danger.