Rescued by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 2) Read online

  She had. There had been so much of it. She had come across plenty of dead animals in the past, and the brutality of some of the scenes had stayed with her, but she had never seen as much blood as what was out there painting the snow crimson.

  Something crossed his face and he hurried down to the ground floor of the cabin. For a moment, she thought he was going to leave, but then she heard him opening and closing cupboards and muttering. He appeared with several colourful bags tucked in his arm and dumped them on the bed.

  “To take the edge off.” He cast her a smile and she wanted to pick him up on the fact he thought she needed half a dozen bags of chips to merely take the edge off her hunger. He didn’t give her a chance. He gave her another serious look. “I’ll be back to make something better. Just stay inside, get some rest.”

  He didn’t stick around for an answer, took the winding wooden steps down to the ground floor two at a time and slammed the door behind him.

  Cameo stood on wobbling legs and peered out of the window, watched him hurrying across the snow in the direction of the other cabin, and disappear from view.

  She sank onto her backside again, grimacing as her leg throbbed, and tried not to worry about Lowe. Her gaze slid to the staircase as the minutes ticked past, thoughts about attempting to head down it and outside to check on Lowe multiplying rapidly.

  Sense told her to remain where she was though. Her leg wasn’t strong enough for her to make it down the winding steps. She wasn’t strong enough. Hunger gnawed at her stomach now, made her head spin from time to time. If she tried to go downstairs, she would only fall and injure herself worse. It was better she stayed sitting on the bed, comfortable and safe. She kept telling herself that, but it didn’t stop the need to see Lowe.

  Cameo busied herself by removing her green jacket and placing it beside her on the blue covers of the bed, close to a thick fur. She inspected the strip of T-shirt that bandaged her arm, grimacing at the dried patch of blood on the white material and the trail of it down the sleeve of her cream sweater, and then lifted her hand and pulled her woollen hat off. She twisted it in her hands as she waited, aching for Lowe to come back, needing to see that he was safe.

  She checked her watch. If he didn’t come back in twenty minutes, she was going to tackle the stairs, because she would probably go mad with worry if she didn’t.

  She closed her eyes and flopped back onto the bed, breathed slowly and evenly in an attempt to calm her racing heart and steady her nerves. They refused to settle as images of bloodstained snow and that bear filled her mind. Worry ate away at her, fear that Lowe was going to get himself killed, fear that her being here was going to get him killed.

  Because she felt sure that the one who had shot the bear was the man who was after her.

  Chapter 7

  Lowe was loath to leave Cameo alone in his cabin and was worried that she was going to get ideas about coming after him with that infernal bear spray she was so attached to. The last thing he needed was her seeing him moving a six-hundred-pound grizzly bear into a cabin of all things. His only hope was that his plan to deter her from attempting to come after him by placing her upstairs in his loft bedroom would work and that her dominant sensible side would take one look at the tight, twisting staircase and tell her to keep her ass planted on his bed and wait for him.

  Gods, just the thought of her on his bed had his mind racing and heart thundering. He shut down rogue thoughts of how beautiful she was, how good she had felt in his arms, and how badly he had wanted to kiss her back there in the woods, and focused on his task.

  Fixing up his alpha.

  He wasn’t sure what had happened while he was away, but both he and Knox had been wrong—Saint hadn’t been safe in the storm.

  Or maybe he had, and the clear weather was to blame for the state of Saint and the fact he couldn’t sense the female cougar anywhere on the property.

  The brothers had come to take her back, which explained the blood and his beat-up alpha, and might even explain why Saint was lying in the snow just staring in the direction of Cougar Creek and showing zero intention of moving.

  Lowe reached his side and looked him over, worry cutting him deep as he saw all the lacerations through Saint’s thick brown fur and took in all the blood. How long had Saint been lying out in the cold, bleeding to death? He didn’t want to think about what might have happened if he hadn’t come back, shook it away before it could take hold because he was here now, and he was going to take care of Saint and make sure he survived to fight another day.

  A fight Lowe feared might be for the female cougar.

  Lowe had had his heart broken enough times to know the look on Saint’s face, even when he was in his bear form. He could practically feel how miserable his alpha was, could see in his dark eyes that he was a shell of the male Lowe had left behind when he and Knox had headed out.

  The big bear was missing the cougar.

  Clearly wanted her back.

  Well, lying in the snow wasn’t going to make that happen.

  Saint’s eyes slipped shut.

  Panic lanced Lowe’s heart.

  “Come on, now. No time to sleep.” Lowe sucked in a sharp breath as he eased to a crouch on Saint’s right and reached for the deep wound on his shoulder.

  Saint growled and weakly bared fangs at him, a sign of life that was both a relief and had his worry increasing. Just how close to death was Saint?

  Lowe edged his hand back, couldn’t keep the bite from his tone as concern got the better of him, the thought that Saint just wanted to let himself bleed out angering him. “Fine. I’ll give you a pass for now. But you need to move. Got it?”

  Saint grunted and kept staring at the trees.

  Lowe huffed and stood. “Don’t make this easy on me or anything. When I hurt you, remember it’s your own damned fault.”

  He looked around the clearing, trying to figure out how to get Saint out of the cold. Warming him up was a priority. The cold would be sapping what little strength Saint had left. His injuries would already be healing, but Lowe would deal with those too. Of course, it would be easier if Saint would just shift back.

  Lowe stomped towards Saint’s cabin.

  He had the feeling that Saint didn’t want to shift back though, even though he was clearly in pain. Normally, intense pain caused them to shift back to their human forms, which meant Saint had to be holding on to his bear form. Lowe suspected he knew why. In their bear forms, emotions were weaker, overshadowed by animal instincts. All the little feelings he had in his human form boiled down to only a few when he was a bear.

  Lowe had shifted once or twice after getting his heart broken, using his bear side to escape the pain of his feelings.

  He took the steps up to Saint’s cabin and walked inside, heading between the log burner on the left and the couch that stood in the middle of the cosy home. Or at least a home that should be cosy. He paused and tossed some firewood into the burner, stoked it a little until it was going again, and then continued with his mission.

  Operation Drag-a-Bear.

  He found what he was looking for in the cupboard at the far end of the room, gripped the climbing rope and tugged hard, testing its strength. It was old now, but it seemed strong enough to do the job.

  Lowe headed back outside to Saint, canted his head and tried to figure out how to do this. He wished Knox were here. With the two of them, the rope wouldn’t be necessary. They could each grab a leg and just pull Saint.

  It was just him though. He couldn’t scent his brother in the area, couldn’t feel him either. He glanced over his right shoulder, beyond Saint’s cabin to the head of the valley, worry about his alpha turning to worry about his brother. Was Knox out there still, looking for him? Gods, he hoped his brother wasn’t in trouble.

  He pulled down a breath, told himself that Knox would be fine, and vowed that if he hadn’t returned by the time he had Saint comfortable and healing up nicely, he would head out and look for him.

  L
owe bent and grabbed Saint’s left hip, fisting his dense fur, and lifted it. He shoved the end of the rope under his belly and then set him down, moved to his right hip and hauled it up. He fumbled around beneath Saint, ignoring his groaning growls and moans of protest, reaching blindly for the end of the rope. He smiled when he found it, gripped it tightly and tugged, threading the rope under his alpha.

  He twisted the two strands of the rope together into one, sucked down a deep breath to gather his strength and tugged on it. Saint growled as he slid backwards, the rope biting into his sides.

  “At least the snow makes some things easier,” Lowe grunted and turned, set the rope over his right shoulder and hauled Saint towards the cabin.

  Saint didn’t fight him, which was one thing he had going in his favour. Lowe fought to keep his footing on the compacted snow, digging his heels in with each step so he didn’t fall flat on his face every time he tugged Saint forwards. When they reached the steps, Lowe turned back to face the bear, gripped the rope in both hands and yanked him up the first step and then the next one.

  When Saint’s head hit the bottom step, he snarled and grunted and began fighting Lowe. It was a weak attempt at escape, one that spoke of how tired Saint was. Lowe held on to the rope, refusing to let Saint have his way, dragging him up onto the deck.

  Lowe reached the door and released the rope, huffed as he looked at Saint’s round backside and the gap he had to pull it through, and then at the interior of the cabin.

  “Should’ve moved the damned furniture earlier.” He swiped the back of his hand across his forehead, clearing the sweat away, and went into the cabin.

  He kept his senses pinned on Saint so he couldn’t make a break for it as he moved the couch out of the way, clearing enough room in front of the log burner, and then went back to him.

  “Getting your fat ass into this cabin is going to hurt. Just remember… it’s your own damned fault.” Lowe grabbed the rope and began tugging.

  Saint growled and groaned as Lowe hauled him backwards, as his rear got stuck in the doorway and Lowe had to brace his left foot against the frame for leverage. The big bear pushed onto his back feet and shuffled forwards, his weakest attempt at escape yet. He ended up flat on his stomach, stretched out long before Lowe.

  “Thought that would get you moving.” Lowe grinned and wanted to congratulate himself on making this whole thing a lot easier for him.

  Saint didn’t respond, just sank against the wooden boards of the deck and went far too still for Lowe’s liking.

  Lowe gripped his hind legs, pulling them out behind him, and shook him. “Don’t sleep now, buddy. Rise and shine.”

  Saint moaned at him, the low rumbling groan sounding mournful. Yeah, Lowe had been there. He had been there more times than he wanted to admit, and he had thought he had learned his lesson, but his gaze strayed to his right, his mind fixed on a point a few hundred feet beyond the thick log wall that blocked his view.

  Cameo was beautiful, smelled like heaven, and fit against him so perfectly that all he wanted to do for the rest of his life was hold her in his arms.

  Part of him warned that no good would come of this, while the rest ached to see her again.

  “What’s gotten you so down anyway? So the cougars took the female back. You should have known it would happen.” Lowe shoved thoughts of Cameo out of his head and hauled Saint backwards into the cabin.

  Saint responded to that by digging his five-inch-long front claws into the wood, splintering it as he tried to anchor himself and stop Lowe from pulling him. It was just as Lowe had suspected then. His alpha had fallen for the female, was miserable without her, and thought it was all over.

  Lowe sighed. Some females were worth fighting for and he had the feeling this female was one of them, and so was Cameo.

  He pulled Saint in front of the fire and the big bear lay there, his front and hind legs stretched out on the wooden floorboards.

  “You look like a fucking rug.” Lowe stepped over him and went to a cupboard near the stairs, rifled around the shelves and found what he was looking for.

  He grabbed the large black bag, went back to Saint and set it down near his head. Saint bared fangs at him, a pathetic attempt to warn him away that Lowe wasn’t going to heed.

  “Yeah, I’m about to let you bleed out. I don’t think so.” Lowe pulled bottles and bandages from the bag and scowled at him, at all that thick, coarse brown fur that stood between him and Saint’s injuries. “You could make this a lot easier on both of us by shifting back.”

  But that feeling struck him again, the one that said Saint was staying in his bear form because it was easier to handle the hurt that way. It wasn’t like Saint to be like this. Lowe couldn’t remember ever seeing him caught up in a female.

  Lowe tended to his shoulder as best he could, cleaning the wound and mopping up the blood with towels. He was almost done with the first of Saint’s injuries when the bear suddenly decided to move, almost knocked Lowe on his ass as he tried to stand. Lowe grabbed him and shoved him back down, making him stay.

  “Now you get feisty?” Lowe huffed and went back to tending to his wound, secretly relishing the stronger sign of life from Saint. Maybe his alpha was going to be all right after all. Maybe there was still enough fight left in him for him to make it through his heartache and find the strength not to let the female get away from him. “Just lay there and accept your fate.”

  He worked to clean the next wound, losing himself in the task, trying to keep his thoughts off Cameo. His heart wanted to think about her though. He needed a distraction, a better one than saving his half-dead alpha apparently.

  Movement behind him had him stiffening, fearing that it was Cameo and she had left the safety of his home and snuck up on him while he had been focused on Saint. But it wasn’t her soft scent that hit him.

  It was a masculine one.

  “Christ! What happened to him?”

  Lowe had never been so relieved to hear his twin’s voice as Knox stepped into the room and sank to his knees beside him on the wooden floorboards.

  Lowe flinched in time with Saint as he dabbed at the wound on the bear’s right shoulder, cleaning the last of the deep grooves in his flesh. “I came back and found him out in the snow like this. Don’t know how long he was out there, but I do know it was the cougars. The female is gone. Place reeks of them.”

  “I’ll murder them.” Knox’s voice lost its sharp edge as he looked back over his shoulder into the clearing. “Gods, look at all that blood. You think it’s all his?”

  Lowe nodded and looked at Knox, tried to keep all their spirits up as he said, “He’ll be fine.”

  He didn’t really believe that and the look on Knox’s face said he didn’t either.

  “I was about to kick your ass for running off like that, but now… I’ll save it for later.” Knox ran a shaky hand over his dark blond hair, mussing it. “I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t come back here. Someone needs to put those cougars down.”

  Lowe slid a look at his brother, worry arrowing through him. “No one is going off to start a war. Saint needs us here.”

  “Why didn’t he just shift back and come inside?” Knox eyed the wound and then Lowe. “Wound like that is painful, sure, but no reason to lay out in the snow waiting for help.”

  Lowe gave him a look, one he knew had conveyed his suspicions when Knox’s expression only grew darker and more grim.

  Saint hadn’t been waiting for help.

  He had been waiting for the cougar female to come back.

  Or death to take him.

  Knox huffed, grabbed one of the clean towels, and stood. He went to Saint’s rear and started drying his fur and massaging his legs, warming him up. His brother was right. Saint might want to give up, but they couldn’t, and they wouldn’t let him either. They would get him healed and then they would convince him to follow his heart and fight for the female.

  Or at least Lowe would convince h
im.

  Knox would probably try to make Saint do the opposite, giving up on the female and forgetting her.

  It was growing dark by the time Lowe had finished cleaning all of Saint’s wounds and he couldn’t stop himself from glancing at the door every few seconds.

  “You got somewhere you need to be?” Knox said as he watched him from the other side of Saint.

  Lowe avoided his gaze, dropping it back to his work, even though he had no work left. Every single one of Saint’s wounds were clean and now on the mend, and Knox had dried him. A heavy silence fell as Saint dropped off to sleep, as Lowe sat there with his brother staring at him.

  “I know you have a visitor in your cabin.” Knox didn’t sound happy about it either, and Lowe braced himself, sure that his brother was going to tell him to get rid of her or lecture him on the dangers of having a human at the Ridge and then tell him to get rid of her. Only his brother just heaved a long sigh and scrubbed a hand over his hair. His stormy blue eyes dropped to Saint. “I’ll keep an eye on him. You go get some rest.”

  That surprised him and he glanced at Knox, his gaze colliding with his, and wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Don’t give me that look, like you’re shocked I have a soft bone in my body.” Knox grabbed one of the towels and tossed it at him, hitting him hard in the face. It smelled like wet bear. “You might want to make a break for it before I change my mind.”

  Lowe eased onto his feet, grimacing as his stiff muscles ached, and turned for the door.

  Knox stopped him with only a handful of words.

  “You have until morning, and then I want to meet her… and you know Saint will too.”

  Chapter 8

  Lowe kept his head down as he stepped out of Saint’s cabin, stared at his boots as he banked right at the bottom of the steps and headed for his own home across the compacted snow, troubled by the thought of Knox meeting Cameo, let alone the thought of Saint meeting her. His alpha wasn’t going to be happy about her presence at the Ridge, and he really wasn’t going to be happy when he learned that she had seen him in his bear form.