Bearing the Late Thaw (Ice Bear Shifters Book 5) (3 page)

Neal looked up at her again, and shrugged. “I just needed a place to start over,” he said. Then he went back to concentrating on his work. He finished up the tattoo and gave her instructions for caring for it, then declined to share any of the food or wine she had brought. He tried to beg off as politely as he could, making up some excuse about how he was too exhausted to do anything right now except head straight home. But the hurt look in her eyes made it clear that she knew she was being brushed off.

She thanked him for his good work on the tattoo and grabbed the picnic basket, walking stiffly through the front door. She left the bottle of half-drunk wine sitting on the front counter. Neal eyed it sadly and went to get a paper cup from the water cooler. He poured a generous helping of wine into the cup, and slowly started to sip the deep red liquid.

His bear struggled within him, demanding to be heard. But Neal refused to listen. It had taken less than an hour of sitting next to Christine, holding her hand while he tattooed it, for him to realize that he would never be able to keep her in the friend zone. In another lifetime, maybe he could have risked mating with a human. But his clan was too fragile right now for him to risk exposing it to another human. Sure, he had made exceptions for his bears, letting them take human mates. But he was alpha. He needed to hold himself to a higher standard.

Besides, even if Christine had been a bear shifter, the constant threat of the Blizzards took up all his energy these days. He had been scouting the area with his clan members, trying to find their hideout. He knew they were close, and hiding in a network of underground caverns. His clan member, Alan, had been trapped down there and narrowly escaped with his life. But the Blizzards had abandoned the entrance Alan had escaped from, demolishing it with what appeared to be powerful explosives, so the Northern Lights Clan had to find another entrance to the caverns. So far, the Blizzards had done a good job of keeping the locations of the other entrances hidden, and searching in the middle of the winter wasn’t easy. The Northern Lights bears had to deal with freezing temperatures and a complete lack of daylight. At least the calendar was nearing the end of January, which meant the sun would slowly start returning. Neal and all of his clan members had excellent eyesight, and they used powerful flashlights when they went out scouting. But the darkness still complicated things, and Neal felt antsy. He had put a great deal of pressure on himself to find the Blizzards and end their reign of terror on the Northern Arctic.

Neal chewed thoughtfully on his bottom lip as he poured another serving of wine into the paper cup. Another clan member, Tyler, thought he had seen bear tracks near one of the open tundra spaces they hadn’t yet scouted. Tyler couldn’t tell if they were Blizzard tracks, because they weren’t super fresh and the scent had faded. But as far as Neal knew, there were no other clans in the area at the moment. The tracks could have been from a real bear, but since most real bears were sheltered down for the winter, odds were good that the Northern Lights Clan was closing in on the Blizzards. Neal certainly hoped so. He was ready for this long nightmare to be over, and for his clan to be able to live in peace again.

Of course, if Christine had any idea who Neal truly was, and why he was acting so detached, she would probably freak out. Neal couldn’t tell her anything. Humans tended to fear what they didn’t understand, and most humans didn’t understand bear shifters at all. Maybe Christine was one of those rare humans who would accept the fact that shifters existed, but Neal couldn’t take chances right now. As beautiful and friendly as Christine was, she wasn’t worth taking risks. She probably thought he was a jerk, and maybe she was right. But his clan came first, and right now they needed him to be on the top of his game.

Neal took the last swig of wine from his paper cup, then crumpled it in one hand before tossing it into the wastebasket and heading for the door.

He hopped onto his snowmobile and sped off into the dark night, ignoring the insistent roaring of the bear within him.

Christine held up her wrist in the harsh light of the warehouse. Jill furrowed her brow as she inspected the North Star now permanently etched onto Christine’s skin.

“I have to say, I was a little skeptical when you showed me that drawing that anyone would be able to replicate it in tattoo form. But Neal did a pretty kickass job of it. It looks fantastic.”

“Thanks. I’m pretty stoked about it. I’ve been dreaming about doing this for so long, and now I have a fun story to tell when people ask me about it. Getting my North Star tattoo while I’m way up North in Alaska is a nice touch, if you ask me.”

Jill nodded and laughed, then dissolved into a fit of coughing.

“Hey, are you okay?” Christine asked. “You’ve been coughing an awful lot today.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just caught some sort of cold bug, I guess. My throat’s killing me.”

“Why don’t you take a day off? You’ve been working like a maniac. You need to rest every now and then, too.”

Jill frowned. “Easy for you to say, since you’re planning to leave the firm. I, on the other hand, have to impress my managing partner with how many billable hours I work.”

“Look, I might be leaving, but I’ve worked at this firm for three years. I get it. I know there’s a lot of pressure to go way above and beyond the minimum work requirements. But I can tell you one thing, if you don’t take some time to recharge now and then, your body is going to force you to take time off. Trust me when I say you don’t want to let yourself get to that point.”

“I’m fine. I’ll skip the pub tonight and get some rest, and by tomorrow I’ll be as good as new,” Jill said.

But Jill was not as good as new the next day. She winced in pain every time she coughed, which was at least every minute. Christine kept a wary eye on her, and, around noon, put her hand up to her forehead.

“Jill, you’re burning up! Have you taken your temperature today?”

Jill shook her head no between another coughing fit.

“That’s it. I don’t care how much you protest. I’m calling the town doctor and you’re going to go sit over there and rest.” Christine pointed to a large office near one of the corners of the warehouse. It had been abandoned by its owner long ago, but a large guest couch still sat near a decrepit old desk. Jill didn’t argue this time, she limped over and collapsed onto the couch while Christine called the doctor, who, luckily, was available. Glacier Point only had one medical doctor, so it could be hard to track him down during cold and flu season. But today was apparently a slow day, and the doctor showed up within thirty minutes. He poked and prodded Jill, taking her temperature and listening to her lungs with his stethoscope. After a short examination, he looked at Jill and shook his head gravely.

“Young lady, I do believe you have pneumonia. I’m going to recommend that you take the next flight back to Fairbanks or Anchorage. You need better medical care than I can provide for you here. I’d like to see you checking into a hospital, stat.”

Jill’s eyes grew wide, but she didn’t argue with the doctor. His diagnosis and solemn manner seemed to frighten her, and she nodded as he spoke.

Christine left their colleague Steve by himself at the warehouse, and took the rest of the day off to help Jill pack. Glacier Point’s small airport only had one flight out left that day—an afternoon flight heading to Anchorage. Jill wanted to be on it, and she told Christine she didn’t plan to come back.

“I’ve had enough of this adventure,” Jill coughed out. “If the firm wants to fire me then so be it. I’m not going to stay out in the middle of nowhere anymore, where they can’t even properly treat pneumonia.”

Christine didn’t argue with Jill. She gave her a hug and told her she’d see her back in Texas, then left her at airport security.

That night, Christine went back to Northwinds Pub by herself. Now that Jill had left, Glacier Point felt lonelier than ever. Christine had given up on Neal. He was attractive, and at times he even seemed friendly and fun. But in the next instant he would revert back to his weird standoffishness, and Christine had decided to leave him alone to work out whatever issues it was that he clearly had. She told herself that it was better that way, anyways. As fun as it would have been to have a little Alaskan fling, Christine needed to focus on finishing up the work she had left here.

With Jill gone, Christine had seriously mulled over the possibility of leaving Glacier Point early herself. But she wanted that bonus, and she actually kind of liked the town, apart from the whole “no friends” thing. The nature here was beautiful and mostly untouched. And the online farmer’s almanac she had checked said that sunlight would begin returning with the next few days. Christine wanted a chance to see this area in daylight.

Christine didn’t need a man, or even a friend, to enjoy her time here. She would make her own fun.

When the bartender came back to offer her a refill, Christine decided to see if he knew of any of the good spots out on the tundra to go snowmobiling. She thought the idea sounded like a lot of fun, but she didn’t want to have to ask Neal. She’d had just about enough of his attitude. Luckily, the bartender’s face lit up when Christine asked him.

“Oh, girl, if you want to snowmobile then you’ve come to the right place. There are hundreds of miles of trails near Glacier Point. The ones out on the tundra have deep powder, though, so I wouldn’t recommend going on those unless you have some experience.”

“My only experience is riding back and forth across town for the weeks I’ve been here,” Christine said. “But I want to get out and have some fun. Can you recommend something?”

The bartender grinned. “I know just the trail. Let me go grab some paper and I’ll make you a map.”

Later that night, armed with a detailed map and several helpful snowmobiling tips from the bartender, Christine left the bar with a new spring in her step. She was ready to really get this adventure started.

For the next four weeks, Christine did nothing except work and go snowmobiling. She forced herself to put in twelve hours of work a day, but, since she could review documents at any time of the day or night, she set up her schedule so that she could use the now returning daylight hours to check out the trails that her bartender friend had mapped out for her.

Christine started out slowly. She worried about wiping out on the snowmobile, or running into an angry bear or wolf by herself. But her snowmobiling skills and confidence gradually increased, and, after going several weeks without spotting any vicious wildlife, Christine stopped worrying about animal attacks. She still kept a gun in her snowmobile’s storage compartment for good measure, but she didn’t constantly look over her shoulder in fear like she had at the beginning of the month.

Christine became addicted to the thrill of flying over the trails on her snowmobile. She loved the whooshing sound it made as she sped across the powder, and she couldn’t get enough of the beautiful Alaskan landscapes that stretched out before her as she explored trail after trail. Reviewing documents became almost unbearably boring. All Christine wanted to do was be out on the trail, racing across the fresh powder. She even forgot about Neal. Occasionally his face popped up in her mind, but she always shrugged it off. It annoyed her that she hadn’t been able to win him over easily like she had done with virtually every other man she had ever pursued. But she realized that this was bound to happen eventually. No sense wasting precious time in Alaska pining over a guy. Although mountains of documents still remained, she knew her return to Texas would be here before she knew it, and, with it, the end of her winter adventures.

On the first day of March, Christine hopped onto her snowmobile and headed to the west side of town. Even though March had arrived, the weather report today called for a high of -7 degrees Fahrenheit. Out of curiosity, Christine had checked the weather in Dallas, Texas to compare. Dallas would have a balmy high of 72 degrees today. Christine did miss the warmth of Texas a little bit, but she loved her new snowmobiling hobby, so she couldn’t be too upset.

Christine decided to revisit one of her favorite trails today. The trail wound from the west edge of town through a thick pine forest that towered impossibly high. After several miles of forest, the trail broke out onto open tundra, where it wound through flat, icy snow before moving on to zigzag through rocky terrain. After the rocks came more flat tundra, but, this time, with a view of the Arctic Ocean in the distance. Christine loved to stop and watch the giant ice floes bobbing in the water. She almost never did the same trail more than twice, since her time was limited and there were so many places she wanted to explore. But this particular trail had such fantastic views that Christine had taken it five times already. Today would be her sixth go at it.

As she wound through the pine forest, she smiled at the familiar sights and smells. She had grown to love this place, and would miss it dearly when she had to go back to her old life. As she neared the edge of the forest, she grinned and sped up for the final, straight stretch of trail that would take her between two giant pine trees and out onto the open tundra.

“Vroom, vroom,” she said to herself, smiling as the snowmobile moved forward at top speed and the tundra came into view.

In the next instant, Christine screamed in confusion as she felt the snowmobile lurch violently and then launch her off the seat and several feet into the air. For a horrible, awful moment, Christine felt weightless and saw the ground flying by her a dozen feet below. Then the ground started coming closer again, and Christine collided with it, causing a loud, painful thud. She screamed out again as a searing pain shot through her arm, and the momentum of her body caused her to roll across the tundra several times before coming to a stop. Disoriented, she tried to sit up, but moving caused too much pain. She felt warm liquid seeping down her arms and legs, and she knew she was bleeding in more than one place. A quick glance to her right showed her that her snowmobile hadn’t fared very well in the crash. It had crumpled into a heap of red and black metal, and barely even looked like a snowmobile anymore. Small plumes of smoke rose from where the engine used to be.

Christine started to panic. She was miles away from town, and the only person who would miss her was Steve, her coworker. But her work schedule was so erratic that it might be days before he realized something had gone amiss. By then she would probably have frozen to death out here. She could barely move at the moment, so hobbling her way back to town wasn’t an option.

“Shit,” she said out loud. Her voice sound raspy and hollow. After all of her worrying about being careful while on the trails by herself, she had grown too complacent. She was going to die out here. She didn’t even understand what had happened. One moment she had been happily speeding along, with a clear view of the open tundra ahead. The next moment, she had been flying through the air. She must have hit something. But what? She had been on this trail several times, and nothing had seemed different or unusual.

She groaned again as she tried to move once more. She had to think. She had to figure out a way to move. Just as she closed her eyes to try to concentrate, she heard a deep male voice.

“Well, well, well. Aren’t you a pretty little thing?”

Christine’s eyes flew open again and she looked in the direction of the sound. A tall man, with creepy, jet black eyes stood several feet away from her. She had no idea where he had come from, or why he had greeted her in such an odd manner—especially when it seemed pretty obvious that she was injured. But she didn’t care. Somehow, she had lucked out and there was actually another human being out here. Maybe she wasn’t going to die, after all.

“Oh my god. Thank god. Can you help me? I crashed my snowmobile. I can’t move very well, and I think I’m bleeding,” Christine choked out, her voice shaking with adrenaline.

Instead of rushing over to help her, the man just smirked at her. “Of course you’re injured. You ran your snowmobile straight into the metal cable I strung across the trail. I must say, you were going much faster than I anticipated. You’re pretty lucky that you aren’t dead, actually. But I’m happy about that. You’ll make better bait while you’re still alive.”

A terrible, sinking feeling started growing in the pit of Christine’s stomach. “What the hell are you talking about?” she asked, the shaking in her voice growing worse.

The man laughed. “You’ll see,” he said, then stuck his hand right in front of Christine’s face. To her horror, his fingers morphed into giant animal-like claws. Was she hallucinating? Had she hit her head harder than she thought? The man watched her face carefully, and Christine’s eyes widened in disbelief as his hand was suddenly covered in coarse white fur. His hand looked like the paw of a giant polar bear.

“Scream for me,” the man demanded, his face twisting into an evil grin.

And she did. Loud and long, with all of her remaining energy, Christine let out a terrified scream that echoed out across the tundra.

* * *

The hair on the back of Neal’s neck stood on end as the sound of Christine’s scream rippled through him. He knew whose scream it was from the way his bear roared inside of him. Neal had tried to push Christine out of his mind after the night he tattooed a North Star on her wrist, but his bear had constantly insisted on pining away for her. His bear thought she was his mate, which had to be impossible. Neal was the alpha of a bear shifter clan. There’s no way his mate was a human.

Yet here he was. Out on the tundra with Eric, sitting side by side on their snowmobiles, with the sound of Christine’s scream reverberating through the air. Neal’s heart tightened in fear. What had happened to her? Why was she screaming like that? And why was she out here on the tundra, so far away from town?

“What the hell was that?” Eric said, his eyes wide.

“That was Christine. Let’s go,” Neal said, even though he knew that simple explanation would mean nothing to Eric. Neal hadn’t told anyone in the clan about her. His struggle to push away his feelings for her had been done in silent agony.

Neal turned his snowmobile in the direction the scream had come from, and took off as fast as the vehicle would allow. Eric followed his lead, undoubtedly still confused, but trusting his alpha. They had been on the tundra on another one of their wild goose chases, looking for the Blizzards’ hideout. Their last big lead had proved futile, and so they were back to their original plan of wandering the tundra, hoping to get lucky. Eric had even timidly suggested that perhaps the Blizzards had given up and moved on, since no one had seen them for so long. But Neal knew better. He could feel them. They were nearby, somewhere. And they were biding their time, waiting for a chance to attack his clan. He didn’t know exactly what they were up to, but he knew it wasn’t good. The Blizzards had been on a mission to kill Neal and his clan members ever since the poisoning attempt had failed to completely wipe out the Northern Lights bears. They had no plans to stop until every last Northern Lights bear was dead.

As Neal rounded a corner around the edge of the forest, he saw a crumpled mess of a machine, and a woman’s body lying in a heap not far from it. Standing next to the woman was a Blizzard in human form. His arms were crossed, and he had a satisfied smirk on his face when he looked up to meet Neal’s eyes.

“Well, if it isn’t the great Neal Ray, alpha to the Northern Lights Clan,” said the Blizzard. “I knew you’d come to rescue your mate.”

“She’s not my mate,” Neal said. “Why are you involving her in this?”

“Oh, really? She’s not your mate? Then why did you run like a love struck puppy to the sound of her screams. And why are your eyes glowing yellow?”

Neal felt his bear roaring with anger, and he fought to maintain control. Beside him, he heard Eric’s surprised intake of breath. Eric must have just looked at Neal’s eyes to confirm what the Blizzard was saying. Male Northern Lights bears all had a genetic mutation that caused their violet eyes to glow yellow around the edges when they saw a female to whom they were attracted. Neal couldn’t remember the last time a woman had made his eyes glow, but if Eric’s shocked reaction was any indication, Neal’s eyes were lighting up like a Christmas tree at the sight of Christine. He had to maintain control, for Christine’s sake.

“Neal?” Christine’s asked weakly. “What’s going on here?”

She turned her head to look at Neal, and the pain and confusion in her eyes tore at his heart. He couldn’t believe she had been dragged into this. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her.

“She’s not my mate,” Neal said evenly. “Leave her alone. Your beef is with me.”

“Oh, I’ll leave her alone alright. Leave her alone here to die. In the meantime, I’ve got a few plans for what to do with you,” the Blizzard said, then held his hand high in the air and snapped twice. At his signal, dozens of Blizzards emerged from the forest. They were all still in human form, but Neal had no doubt that they were only moments away from shifting. And although he and Eric were strong, they weren’t strong enough to fight off this many Blizzards on their own.

“Eric,” Neal said calmly. “Scenario number seven.”

Because Neal knew that the Blizzard clan far outnumbered the Northern Lights bears, he had prepared his bears for several possible scenarios before heading out on scouting missions. They had planned for as many different possible situations as they could, coming up with plans for how to deal with each different one. Then they had memorized the scenarios and the appropriate responses. Like a playbook for a football team, the memorized scenarios would instantly provide the Northern Lights bears with a plan of attack if they found themselves facing trouble.

Scenario number seven was created to deal with a situation where a clan member was down and needed to be rescued, followed by a quick snowmobile retreat. Although Christine wasn’t a clan member, Neal knew Eric would understand that Neal wanted to rescue her. Eric would run interference while Neal picked up Christine, and then they would retreat as quickly as possible in the direction of town. Once they were close enough to Glacier Point, the Blizzards would likely call off the chase. Being in bear form too close to so many humans was dangerous. Even the Blizzards would be wary about exposing their shifter status.

“Scenario number seven,” Eric repeated. “You got it, boss.”

Neal took a deep breath and then said quietly, “Let’s go.”

The sound of Neal’s and Eric’s snowmobiles revving up at the same time roared across the tundra. Eric launched full speed ahead toward the Blizzard who was standing next to Christine. The Blizzard looked at Eric in surprised confusion as his snowmobile barreled straight toward him. At the last second, the Blizzard yelped and jumped out of the way, tumbling across the snowy ground as Eric zoomed by just inches away from where Christine lay. Eric caught the edge of the Blizzard’s foot, and the Blizzard roared in pain and anger as he fell.

Close behind Eric, Neal swooped in on his snowmobile. He came to a rapid stop next to Christine, and pulled her onto his snowmobile. She yelped in pain, and he winced at the sound. He knew she might have broken bones, and that moving her wasn’t the smartest idea. But the Blizzards had left him little choice. If he didn’t get her out of here, they were all going to die. He set Christine in behind him on the seat.

“How are your arms? Can you hold on?” he yelled.