BEARing The Frozen Night (Ice Bear Shifters Book 1) Read online

  Kenzie rubbed her forehead and let a huge sigh of relief. Ryker, or the bear, or whatever he was, had a long road ahead to a full recovery. But at least his condition had stabilized. Kenzie grabbed her flashlight, then slowly tiptoed over to the cabin’s door and creaked it open. She didn’t want to go out into the black night when there were obviously violent bears out there, but she didn’t want to sit in here without a gun, either. Kenzie looked around as best she could in the darkness, sweeping the flashlight’s beam back and forth in large arcs. Satisfied that, at least for the moment, there were no creatures lurking outside, she dashed to her snowmobile. She unstrapped the gun from the sled trailer, and then dashed back inside.

  It occurred to her that being trapped inside the cabin with a polar bear might not be all that safe, even if that bear was Ryker. Or formerly Ryker. Maybe that’s part of why she wanted her gun. But she sure as hell wasn’t driving home alone on the deserted snow paths right now. She wanted to wait until the early morning hours when more people would be out and about. At least then she wouldn’t feel so alone out there, even though the darkness would still be there. But she wasn’t quite sure if she could trust this bear that was passed out on the kitchen floor. She wondered if he was permanently a bear now, or could change back. She had heard legends of shifters, who could morph back and forth between human and animal form at will. But, until tonight, she had thought such legends were just that—legends. The stuff of myths and folklore.

  Kenzie walked over to Ryker’s bed, and sat down on it. She set the gun down on the floor next to her. She pointed the gun in the bear’s direction, but kept the safety on. She would try to stay awake and watch her patient, both for his safety and hers. But she was so exhausted. She didn’t know how long she could keep her eyes open.

  The answer was “not very long.” Only a few minutes after sitting down, Kenzie slowly leaned over to lie out fully on the bed, and drifted off into a deep sleep. She tossed and turned in her sleep, as creatures that were half-men and half-bears chased her across her dreams.

  Chapter Eight

  Ryker, back in human form, watched Kenzie sleeping soundly across the room from him. The irony of the situation was painful. After all the times he had wished to see her lying there on his bed, that wish had been granted. Just in a completely different way from what he wanted. Ryker wasn’t sure how long she had been sleeping. He wasn’t sure how long he had slept, either. His memory of the night before got fuzzy after he switched to bear form. He still couldn’t believe Kenzie had stayed after he switched. When she had screamed, and a wild, terrified look had filled her eyes, Ryker had thought she was going to take off into the night. He would have certainly died, if she had. But she hadn’t. She had stayed, and sewn him back together. He owed her his life. And he owed her an explanation.

  He was sure she had a thousand questions. She had brought her rifle in, and it didn’t escape his notice that she had fallen asleep with it pointed in his direction. He couldn’t say he blamed her. She was going to be astounded at the fact that he was nearly fully recovered from his wounds, too. The Northern Lights bears all had a genetic mutation that allowed their bodies to heal at a super fast speed when the bears were able to sleep for a stretch of several hours uninterrupted. This mutation was one of the reasons the Northern Lights Clan had been so powerful, and so hard to kill. The silver poison the Blizzards had used with the seals had been strong enough to act with lightning speed, purposely avoiding the possibility that the poisoned bears would be able to sleep enough for their bodies to repair themselves before dying. It was also the reason why, when a Northern Lights alpha wanted to punish an insubordinate clan member, he made sure to keep that bear from a long stretch of sleep. Otherwise the wounds from the bear’s beating would just close up in a day or two at most, defeating the pain of punishment.

  Ryker was wearing a pair of jeans and a button down flannel shirt, but he had left the shirt unbuttoned for the moment. The cabin felt incredibly warm to him, although that might just be because he was still on adrenaline overload from the events of the previous evening. He glanced at his watch. It was after 8 a.m. now. Ryker stood and went to the front window. The bodies of the Blizzards he had killed the night before were gone. Other Blizzards would have come at some time during the night to remove them for proper burial. Ryker was lucky that they hadn’t tried to attack his cabin, although he realized that they probably didn’t know how badly he was injured. After losing six bears in one night, they might not have been in the mood for another fight.

  Ryker heard a stirring behind him and turned back from the window. Kenzie had woken up, and was looking around the room in confusion. He watched her face slowly registering where she was, and he saw her look at him with suspicion.

  “Ryker? Did I drink too much last night or something? I had the weirdest dream, although I swear it felt so real. But you were nearly dead in the dream, with a huge chest wound and a broken leg. And… other stuff. But you’re sitting here in front of me looking pretty healthy right now, so that couldn’t have actually happened.”

  Ryker watched Kenzie shake her head in confusion, as if trying to settle all of the confusing fragments of memories into some sort of coherent form.

  “Kenzie, it wasn’t a dream. I have a lot to explain to you.”

  Kenzie narrowed her eyes at him. “Did we sleep together?”

  “No! I was at death’s door last night. As lovely as you are, mating with you was not exactly my priority.”

  “Mating?” Kenzie looked at him like he had lost his mind.

  “Sorry, sleeping together. I forget mating is a weird term for humans. Look, I have a lot of things to explain to you but I can’t do it alone. I need some help.”

  “Okay. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I must have had a lot of booze last night because I dreamed you were a bear. I know that sounds ridiculous. I promise my imagination isn’t usually that crazy. And now you’re acting really bizarre. I think I need to get home.” Kenzie threw off the blanket that was covering her and stood up.

  “Kenzie, I was a bear last night.”

  Kenzie stood still and just stared at him, like she wasn’t sure if it was him or her that had lost their mind.

  “This is all too weird,” she finally said, then grabbed her medical bag and started walking toward the door.

  Ryker hesitated. Should he just let her go? If she thought she had dreamt the whole situation, and didn’t realize that he actually was a bear, then his cover had not been blown. Maybe he should just let her think she had imagined the whole thing. But what if she talked? What if she told someone familiar with shifters about her “dream?” There were plenty of Alaskans familiar enough with shifter legends to become suspicious of Kenzie’s story. And besides, the bear bodies might be gone, but the massive blood splotches across the snow were still there. If Kenzie saw those she was going to freak out and realize that at least some part of last night hadn’t been just a figment of her imagination. And Neal would never forgive him if he let Kenzie loose in the village to potentially let everyone else in Glacier Point know that there were shifters among them. He had to convince her to stay.

  “Kenzie, wait,” Ryker said. “Look at me. Look at my hands.”

  Kenzie sighed, but paused by the cabin door and turned to look at Ryker. He held up his hands, and then morphed them into giant bear paws. Kenzie’s face was overcome with an expression Ryker couldn’t quite pin down, but she definitely looked a little on the frightened side.

  “Now do you believe me? Please, stay. Let me explain everything.”

  “But, you were horribly wounded. And had a broken leg.”

  Ryker pulled the two sides of his flannel shirt back so that Kenzie could see his chest. She took in the long, bright scar that traveled across his ribcage in a diagonal line.

  “I was wounded. I’m better, now.”

  Kenzie set her bag down. “Okay,” she said warily. “I’ll stay. But I’m so confused right now. You have some serious expl
aining to do.”

  “I know,” Ryker said. “I know. Let me call a few of my buddies who can help me explain, and then I’ll get you some food while we wait for them to get here.” Ryker grabbed the cordless headset from the kitchen counter and headed for the cabin door. “I’ll be back in a minute. There’s coffee in the coffeepot and mugs in the cupboard directly above it. Help yourself.”

  Ryker stepped outside, and as far away from the cabin as the cordless phone’s range would allow. He wasn’t sure how this conversation was going to go, and he didn’t want Kenzie to overhear him getting a verbal beating from his alpha. Neal answered on the first ring.

  “Neal’s tattoo shop.”

  “Neal, we have a big problem,” Ryker said.

  Neal let out a low growl. “Tell me this problem’s name is not Kenzie,”

  “Well, it is. But it’s not what you think. Let me explain.”

  Ryker gave Neal a complete rundown of the night before, starting with the Blizzard’s surprise attack, and with his inability to contact the town doctor. He explained that he thought that Kenzie might be able to help, so he called her. Then when she arrived, she was worried that she only knew how to treat animals. Ryker had been desperate, so he shifted to a bear, hoping it would give her the confidence she needed to save his life.

  “I’m sorry, Neal. I didn’t know what to do. I was on the verge of dying, and my instincts kicked in. I was delirious, and I wasn’t thinking about anything else except surviving.”

  A long pause followed Ryker’s explanation. Ryker wanted to say something else to convince Neal that the shift had been necessary. After all, they were allowed to shift in emergency situations, and last night had surely qualified as an emergency, right? But Ryker kept his mouth shut and resisted the urge to over-explain things. After what felt like an eternity, Neal finally spoke.

  “I can’t say I’m pleased with this turn of events. But I understand why you did what you did. And it sounds like you owe Kenzie your life, so we’re all in her debt. But you should have called me last night.”

  “I know. I’m sorry I didn’t. But, honestly, Neal, I was so far gone mentally at that point that the only thing I could think about was trying to stay alive.”

  “I understand. But we have some damage control to do now. You said Kenzie is still at your cabin?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Keep her there. I’m going to call the others and we’ll meet you there. All we can do now is lay out the whole story for Kenzie and hope she’s one of the rare humans who is willing to keep our shifter secrets. Otherwise, we might be moving on to a new town, again.”

  “Don’t worry, Neal,” Ryker said, conviction filling his voice. “Kenzie will be understanding, once everything is explained to her. She’s different from most humans. She’s special.”

  “I hope you’re right, Ryker. I really hope you’re right,” Neal said, and then hung up the line. Ryker sighed and went back inside to make some bacon and eggs for his guest. Don’t let me down, baby, he silently pleaded to her. Please, don’t let me down.

  Chapter Nine

  Kenzie sat warily at the kitchen table, watching through the window as Ryker paced back and forth with the phone in his hand. She couldn’t make out his words, but she could tell from his expression and hand gestures that the conversation he was having was an intense one.

  Kenzie rubbed her forehead and frowned. She was still having a hard time believing that this wasn’t all some weird dream. She pinched herself, and felt the sharp stab of pain from the pinch, just like she had the dozen other times she had pinched herself in the last ten minutes. She was really here, sitting in the cabin of a man who could change from human to bear and back at will. This was really happening.

  Kenzie stood up and walked to the coffeepot, deciding to take advantage of the fact that Ryker had made a full pot. She needed to clear her head, but she wasn’t quite sure how to do that. She had a feeling her head wasn’t going to feel completely clear again for quite some time. She poured herself a mug of coffee and then went to stand at the cabin window, holding the steaming beverage between her hands. She watched Ryker pacing, his expression looking pained. But even tired and worried, he looked like the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. She felt drawn to his body. Even now, when she knew that he had some deep secrets, she felt drawn to him. They had a connection. She had heard people talk about this kind of thing before, where you saw someone and your body instantly responded to the sight. She had always thought that was just something that happened in fairy tales, but, here she was, her body growing hot and filling with desire at the sight of him.

  Kenzie turned abruptly away from the window and sat down at the table again. This was crazy. She was crazy. She barely knew him, but she was in love with Ryker. She was in love with a bear.

  Kenzie jumped as the front door opened suddenly and Ryker reentered the cabin.

  “Bacon and eggs okay?” he asked. She nodded, and he set to work making a huge batch of both. He started a fresh pot of coffee, too. He worked in silence, and Kenzie did not interrupt him. She had so many questions, but she didn’t know where to even start. And Ryker didn’t look like he was exactly in the mood to talk, at the moment.

  After about fifteen minutes, he piled a generous portion of food onto a plate and set it in front of her.

  “You okay on coffee?” he asked, and she waved him off. She had plenty, still. She ate silently for a few minutes, and then looked up as she heard the sound of approaching snowmobiles.

  “My friends,” he said. “They’re going to help me explain everything.”

  Kenzie set down her fork and looked out the front window. Four men, all just as large and muscular as Ryker, were dismounting from their snowmobiles and walking toward the cabin. Kenzie recognized one of the men, Neal, as the owner of a tattoo shop in town. She had thought about getting a tattoo when she first moved to Alaska, as some sort of commemoration of her grand new adventure. But she had backed off from the idea, mostly because she couldn’t think of anything that she felt passionate enough about to put on her body permanently. The other three men Kenzie didn’t remember seeing before.

  As the four men entered the cabin somberly without bothering to knock, Ryker started piling bacon and eggs onto plates for them. There were only two chairs at the table, and Kenzie was occupying one of them. Neal sat across from her, and the other men leaned against the counter, holding their plates up with one hand and shoving forkfuls of food into their mouth with the other. Neal took a long sip of coffee and then broke the silence. He seemed to be the one in charge of this gang.

  “Kenzie, first of all, Ryker told me about how you saved his life last night. We owe you a huge debt of gratitude for your courage and help. Thank you, from the bottoms of our hearts. I know you probably have a lot of questions, and we’re going to do our best to answer them for you.”

  Neal paused, but Kenzie said nothing, so he continued. “My name is Neal Ray. I think we may have met before at the tattoo shop I own?”

  Kenzie nodded. Neal’s eyes were the same shade of violet as Ryker’s. In fact, all of the men had deep violet eyes.

  “Over there is Eric Caldwell, he’s an ice fisherman. Next to him is Tyler Cox, a personal trainer. And then Alan Jensen, a writer. He likes to call himself a jack of all trades, which really just means he does a whole lot of nothing.” All of the men except Alan laughed, which mercifully broke up the tension in the room a bit.

  “Of course,” Neal continued, “You already know Ryker. Together, the five of us make up the remaining members of the Northern Lights Ice Bears Clan. Are you familiar with shifters, Kenzie?”

  “Well, I mean, I’ve heard stories about them before. But I always thought they were just stories, until last night.”

  Neal nodded. “Most people don’t think shifters exist, even here in Alaska where folks tend to be a little more believing of myths than most people. But we do exist, as you now know.”

  “So, what are you, actu
ally? Bear? Human? I don’t understand.”

  “We aren’t fully bear, but we’re not fully human, either. We’re caught in a world between. We tend to spend most of our time in human form, but sometimes our inner bear demands to be let out. And we hunt in bear form, as well. The Arctic used to be full of polar bear shifters, better known amongst ourselves as ice bear shifters. But many humans have tried to kill us off, thinking we’re dangerous and evil. Which isn’t true at all. We try to keep to ourselves as much as possible. Rivalry between the ice bear clans has done quite a bit of damage to the ice bear population as well. Most clans, like the Northern Lights bears, have been reduced to less than ten members. The only clan left with a large number of bears is the Blizzards. The Blizzards are weaker bears, physically, but they’re smart. They have a knack for sneak attacks, and they’ve been able to kill off quite a few clans that way. They almost completely eradicated the Northern Lights Clan through poisoning. But the five of us managed to survive. Now, they’re trying to finish us off completely. We had laid low and evaded them for a while, but it looks like they found us.”

  Understanding dawned on Kenzie. “So those dead bears last night—those were all Blizzards?”

  “Exactly,” Neal said. “Luckily, they weren’t able to take down Ryker. But we’ll have to be more careful. They’ll likely be back.”

  “So, all of you here can change into bears?”