Bearing the Black Ice (Ice Bear Shifters Book 4) Read online

  “Look, Hannah, you’re not going to talk me out of this. My clan needs me, and I’m not going to sit here idly while the Blizzards close in on our newest cub. I’m going to escape, or die trying. And, I’ll tell you one thing—Kenzie isn’t due for a few more weeks. If the Blizzards are really planning to leave you here until the baby is born, you’re going to starve to death. I have a couple protein bars, which I’ll share with you if you want to come with me. There should be plenty of water in the cave. We can make it a week or so, I would guess. You can stay here and die if you want, but I would recommend taking some action and trying to escape with me.”

  Alan crossed his arms and waited for an answer. He didn’t actually want Hannah to come with him. She would probably just slow him down, and having her along would cause his meager supply of protein bars to disappear even faster. But Alan couldn’t in good conscience leave her behind without at least warning her. He had no doubt that waiting around in this dank room would mean certain starvation.

  But, despite his warnings, Hannah shook her head at Alan. “Hell, no. I’m not going down that tunnel into that death trap. You’re an idiot if you think you can get out of here alive.”

  Alan shrugged. “Fine by me. I can move quicker without someone to babysit, anyways.”

  Hannah rolled her eyes at him while he stood and started sliding his backpack straps over his arms.

  “You have no idea what you’re getting into,” she said.

  “Neither do you,” Alan said, and then disappeared down the tunnel. He breathed in deeply as he walked, trying to catch any faint scent of fresh air, or bears. But the only thing the tunnel smelled like was wet rocks. He carried his flashlight in his right hand, but only occasionally flipped on its beam. He didn’t know how long he would be down here, and he didn’t want to waste the battery.

  Alan tried not to worry about what would happen if Hannah’s predictions came true. He was not too concerned about getting lost or starving. But he dreaded the possibility of meeting a huge horde of Blizzards. Alan had enough strength to single handedly take down five Blizzards, but even he couldn’t handle their whole clan by himself. He needed to steer clear of any corners of this labyrinth that might hold members of the Blizzard clan.

  Alan’s heart tightened in his chest as he thought of his clan member, Ryker, who was the father of Kenzie’s unborn cub. Alan remembered losing his own unborn cub like it was yesterday. The look on his pregnant life mate’s face as she died in his arms haunted Alan during every waking moment. Nothing he would do would ever bring Tessa back, but Alan was determined to keep Ryker from suffering the same fate. And he was determined to do everything possible to derail the Blizzards’ mad quest to take over the Arctic.

  Alan walked for the better part of half an hour with no sign of the tunnel ending. Just as he finally reached a spot where the tunnel forked off into two passageways, he heard splashing, pounding footsteps behind him.

  “Alan, wait! I changed my mind!”

  Damn it, it was Hannah. Alan didn’t want her along on this trek slowing him down.

  And he didn’t want to admit to himself the way his heart raced at the sight of her beautiful face when he directed his flashlight’s beam in her direction.

  Chapter Three

  Hannah could see displeasure clearly etched on Alan’s face when he swung around to acknowledge her running up behind him. His face softened a little bit when he aimed his flashlight at her face, but his expression still looked angry enough that Hannah almost wished she hadn’t followed him. Almost.

  The truth was, Hannah had long ago resigned herself to the fact that she was going to die without ever seeing her clan again. They must have presumed her and her other two clan members dead. Otherwise they would have tried to come back for them by now. Hannah herself had no idea whether the other two prisoners from her clan were still alive. Hannah knew that, barring dumb luck, an excursion through black ice cave meant certain death. But after several minutes of contemplation, she had decided she’d rather die by looking for an escape route with Alan than by starving alone or being tortured to death. And at least this way she wouldn’t have to spend her final hours with a Blizzard.

  Alan mystified her. Hannah had heard legends of the Northern Lights Clan. Everyone said they were the strongest polar bear shifters in the Arctic, and, looking at Alan, Hannah could see why. Even in human form, he towered over her. He wore a thick jacket, but that didn’t hide the fact that his arm muscles were the largest she had ever seen. No wonder the Blizzards were determined to take down any new Northern Lights cubs. The Blizzards were incredibly smart, but physically weak. The physical strength of the Northern Lights bears made their clan one of the biggest threats to the Blizzards’ plan of Arctic domination.

  Alan hadn’t exactly warmed up to Hannah. He had been cordial enough with her, but Hannah could sense his standoffish attitude. She knew he didn’t really want her along on his little expedition, but she figured that his polite displeasure was better than the outright cruelty she had dealt with for the last several months. Besides, she hadn’t been able to get Alan’s eyes out of her head since the first time she swung her head around to look at them in the bottom of the first cavern. They were a gorgeous shade of violet, which even the dim light of the cave couldn’t hide. They complimented his chiseled face perfectly, and set hundreds of butterflies fluttering in Hannah’s stomach.

  Common sense told her that now was not the best time to indulge in a crush, but her heart didn’t seem to be getting that message. She couldn’t stop thinking about the handsome, dark-haired bear trudging along in front of her, and wondering if they could have hit it off better if they had met under different circumstances. Oh well, a lot of things in her life could have been better under slightly different circumstances. All she could do now was make the best of the circumstances in which she found herself. And the best of these circumstances was watching Alan’s hot ass walking along in front of her.

  They walked in silence for two hours, and Hannah let Alan lead the way the whole time. Whenever they came to a fork in the passageway, Alan would stop and sniff carefully in either direction. Hannah rolled her eyes at him, discreetly at first, and then with open derision. Everything down here smelled the same. Every path led to nowhere. Hannah knew this, but Alan seemed unwilling to accept it. At first, he ignored her mockery. But after about the fifth time, his patience had worn thin.

  “What?” he snapped at her. “Do you have a better idea of how to navigate down here? Because I would love to hear it.”

  Hannah shrugged indifferently, which seemed to only irritate him further.

  “I should have just left you back there to starve,” he muttered, and took off down the left path.

  “As opposed to leading me blindly through this maze to starve? Look, I appreciate the company, buddy. You’re charming, really. But don’t act like you’re doing me some big favor. We’re both as good as dead down here.”

  “Speak for yourself,” he called back over his shoulder, quickening his pace.

  Hannah had had enough. “Whatever,” she said to herself. “He might be gorgeous, but he doesn’t have much going for him besides his good looks.”

  She started off down the path to the right in a huff. She knew she had triggered his display of hostility with her blatant eye rolling, but she still didn’t want to spend any more time with him if he was going to be so unpleasant. She’d had enough time to enjoy his good looks, and it was time to move on. She would find her own way.

  After only about ten seconds of walking she realized she had no flashlight. She grimaced, but her pride kept her from turning back and running after Alan. So, she’d die in the dark. Whatever. Maybe it would be less scary that way, anyways.

  Tossing her long black hair over her shoulder, she kept moving forward. She put one hand on the wall to keep her balance and stay aware of where the path was located. It was slow going, but what did it really matter?

  Suddenly, she felt herself thrown back
wards violently as a huge, furry mass slammed into her. A scream of pain escaped from her throat as she landed on a sharp rock and felt it digging into her upper arm. The scent of bear filled her nostrils and she roared in anger. How had she missed the smell until the Blizzard was right on top of her? Had she been that distracted?

  Hannah didn’t have long to ponder the question. The bear roared and smacked at her with its paw. In the pitch blackness of the tunnel, Hannah couldn’t see where the next strike was coming from. She covered her face with her hands and roared. She needed to shift. She was going to lose her clothes when she did, which meant she’d be stuck in bear form in this freezing cold cave, but she didn’t have time to think about that right now. She’d be lucky to be alive after this fight, regardless of the form. She could tell the bear attacking her was huge just from the size of his paws.

  With a quick burst of energy, Hannah shifted from her human form into a small, sleek polar bear. She snarled and snapped out with her teeth, trying to make contact with her attacker. She guessed where the bear stood and rammed into it at full speed, but he barely budged. He was huge. Hannah started to panic. She swiped wildly at the air in front of her with her paws, attempting to land one of her long claws on a vulnerable spot. But the other bear seemed unaffected by her efforts. Hannah roared and snarled in frustration as she grew more tired by the second. The other bear clearly had the upper hand, and he realized it. He seemed to be playing with her, amused by how little her attacks did and how easily he could knock her over with a whack of his paw.

  But Hannah refused to give up, no matter how ineffective her fighting proved to be. She wasn’t going down easily. She lunged forward again, teeth bared, and was met with a particularly strong smack from the other bear’s paw. A pitiful yelp of pain escaped her throat as she felt her body making contact with the jagged rock wall behind her. She felt warm blood oozing from her right side, but she ignored it and stood back up. She lunged again, and the bear huffed in seeming amusement as he smacked her again with even greater force. Hannah cried out in pain as she hit the wall again, her soft, furry muzzle making contact with cold, hard rock. She saw yellow and green speckles in her field of vision as she started to lose consciousness.

  The last thing she remembered before everything went black was the sound of the loudest roar she had ever heard echoing from somewhere further down the tunnel.

  Chapter Four

  Hannah slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Soft light danced from the walls of the cavern, casting long, eerie shadows across the room. She took a mental inventory of her body, trying to determine whether all of her limbs were still intact. She glanced down at her front paws. The matted fur was covered in streaks of dried blood, but there didn’t appear to be any significant damage. She slowly wiggled her back paws, pleased to find that they were in working order as well. When she tried to sit up over, however, a sharp pain shot through her lower back on her right side. She winced and let out a low whine, but managed to make it onto her haunches. That’s when she saw Alan sitting across the room from her, next to a flashlight that was pointing up toward the ceiling.

  “Easy there, bear,” he said. “You got into quite a scuffle. Take things slowly.” He was in human form, although he had changed clothes. Hannah knew without asking that the roar in the tunnel had been his. He had come to her rescue. She was grateful, although somewhat embarrassed. She hated feeling like a damsel in distress, but she knew she never would have been able to fight off the other bear on her own. Alan dug into his backpack and pulled out a large fleece sweatshirt and pair of fleece sweatpants, then handed them to her. He pulled out a pair of wool socks and tossed them over as well.

  “Everything’s obviously way too big for you, but if you roll up the sleeves and pant legs you can make it work,” he said. Then he turned around to give her privacy while she shifted back and dressed, which Hannah found odd. Shifters were notoriously unfazed by human nakedness. Losing your clothes to shifting was such a part of life that no one ever cared if someone happened to be walking around exposed. But then, Alan had struck her as a little odd from the beginning. With a powerful burst of energy, Hannah shifted back into human form, then pulled on the clothes. She pulled the drawstring on the sweatpants as tight as it would go, but they still threatened to fall down around her waist. She sighed and bent over to roll up the bottoms, then pulled the sweatshirt over her head and pushed the sleeves back until her hands appeared. She pulled on the socks, then looked down at herself and giggled. Alan glanced over his shoulder and turned around.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I look like I’m wearing a giant potato sack.”

  A strange, pained look crossed his face, but he recovered quickly and shrugged. “At least it’s a relatively warm potato sack.”

  Hannah looked over at him sheepishly. “So, I’m not sure exactly what happened back there, but I guess I owe you a thank you. And an apology for storming off earlier.”

  Alan shrugged, although the same pained look passed over his face again. “You’re lucky I heard you roaring. That Blizzard was massive. One of the hugest I’ve ever seen. And your bear is pretty tiny. Although quite feisty, from the sound of it. You were blacked out already when I got there, but before that you were putting off quite a chorus of roars and snarls.”

  Hannah felt her cheeks flushing from a mixture of embarrassment and pleasure. Alan’s comments about her feistiness sounded like a compliment, and his praise sent a little thrill through her body. For a moment, she forgot about the fact that they were stuck in a death trap of a cave, and enjoyed the gorgeous view in front of her. His face was covered in dirt, which the uneven shadows from the flashlight only emphasized. His dark hair was mussed up from the fight, but the unkempt look only added to his sexiness. He had lost his thick jacket when he shifted, making his defined arm muscles even easier to see.

  He seemed to notice her staring at him, because he abruptly turned away and started rummaging through his backpack. He handed her a protein bar and his water bottle.

  “Here. I know it’s not the most delicious or filling meal, but it’s better than nothing. And you need to drink to replenish all the fluids your body has lost.”

  “Thank you,” Hannah said as she gratefully took the food and water from him. “How many of those do you have in there?”

  “Ten more. Five for each of us. Which isn’t going to last very long, but, hopefully we can figure out a way out of here soon.”

  Hannah quietly munched on her protein bar for a few moments. It tasted like stale peanuts, but compared to the junk the Blizzards had been feeding her, it actually wasn’t that bad. She didn’t bother to point out to Alan once again that she thought the chances of them escaping were zero. He already knew she thought that, and, from the defeated look on his face, it seemed he was starting to accept that reality as well.

  She wondered why he had saved her. It didn’t make much sense. They barely knew each other, and she had ridiculed him and left in a huff. And, quite frankly, having her around did slow him down. Not to mention it cut his available food supplies in half, since he seemed to be so generously sharing with her. Maybe, like her, he didn’t exactly want to spend his last few days alone.

  But as she watched him lay down using his backpack as a pillow, and turn his face away from her, she couldn’t reconcile his antisocial attitude with the idea that he wanted company for his final days. Maybe he really was crazy enough to think they could make it out of here. Hannah swallowed her last bite of protein bar.

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Now we sleep. I’m exhausted, and you need your rest to recover,” he said. Then he killed the flashlight and the cavern went dark.

  Chapter Five

  Alan stared into the darkness as he heard Hannah sigh, then finally lay down. A couple moments later, her steady, rhythmic breathing told him she had fallen asleep.

  Sleep wouldn’t come so easily for Alan. It never did. A never ending loop of disturbing imag
es played through his mind whenever he tried to drift off to dreamland. He always saw Tessa’s face, laughing with delight as she threw her arms around him and told him that she was expecting. Then he saw his child, a son. Even though the baby had never had a chance to be born, Alan’s mind had somehow conjured up an image of the child. The boy had Alan’s face and build, but Tessa’s golden tresses. Laughing, the boy would run off, his silhouette growing smaller and smaller until he disappeared into a puff of smoke. Then Alan would see Tessa’s face, looking up at him with a desperate, pleading look as she writhed in pain from the silver poisoning. She would blink a few, final times, and then vanish. Every night, when Alan went to bed, this stream of mental images played over and over in his mind. No matter how hard he tried to think about something else, the same playback reel repeated itself. Tonight, however, two images had added themselves to the loop. First, Alan would see Hannah’s face, her stubborn, spunky expression daring him to disagree with her as she warned him not to go down the tunnel. Then, he would see her polar bear face as it lay lifeless on the floor of the cave, with her eyes rolled back into her head.

  Alan couldn’t ignore the strong, gut reaction he’d had when he heard her terrified roaring echoing through the cavern tunnels. He hadn’t stopped to think. He’d just shifted and took off running in the direction of the sound. At least he’d had the presence of mind to grab his backpack of supplies in his mouth before running off. Otherwise he and Hannah would both be naked and frozen right now. As it was, he wished he had taken his jacket off before shifting so that it wouldn’t have become ruined. The temperatures were too cold for bare human skin. But Alan hadn’t been thinking about jackets or clothing in the heat of the moment.