Bearing the Whiteout (Ice Bear Shifters Book 2) (5 page)

Then, with a giant roar, he transformed himself into a massive polar bear. He swung his head from side to side, sniffing to make sure he was about to head off in the right direction. He used his strong jaw and enormous teeth to grab the handles of the bag that held Delaney. Then, with another giant roar, he took off running in the direction of the ice shelter.

Delaney wrinkled her nose and willed herself not to vomit at the strong odor of fish that filled her nostrils as she watched Eric zip up the bag she had scrunched into. As he finished zipping, everything went dark. Delaney blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the sudden pitch blackness that surrounded her. Moments later, she heard a terrifying roar, and the ground around the bag shook. After another few moments, she felt the bag she was in being jostled and lifted off the ground, followed by another roar, and then a rhythmic bouncing which she assumed was Eric running. Or, Eric’s bear running, she should say.

“What the fuck,” she said to herself out loud. “What the actual fuck. This whole situation is nuts.”

She had thought Eric was going crazy when he claimed to be a bear shifter, until he changed his hand into a paw right in front of her. Now she wasn’t sure if she was going crazy herself, or if she had really just discovered that bear shifters actually existed.

Delaney felt exhausted from the wild rollercoaster ride her emotions had been on today. She had been so excited to spend time with Eric. She had admired him all morning, and quite frankly, had spent more time than she should have wondering what he was like in bed. Who could blame her, after hours of looking at his gorgeous physique and listening to his infectious laugh? But then things had gone to shit when that first polar bear had showed up, and they realized they were floating on a loose ice floe. Eric had gotten so weird, saying things that didn’t make sense at all at the time. But then, Eric revealed his bear shifter secret, and Delaney didn’t know quite what to think. She was still confused about a lot of things, but she felt less angry at him. If they really did make it out of this alive, she had so many questions. So freaking many.

A large splash sounded, and Delaney felt the bag hitting water. She felt that weightless, floating feeling that was her favorite part of swimming, and she could feel the resistance of the water as Eric’s bear started pulling her through the Arctic Ocean. This whole situation was bonkers.

She held her breath, partially so she wouldn’t have to smell the fish odor, and partially because she was terrified of what would happen if Eric lost the bag in the water or didn’t make it across for some reason. She didn’t even want to think about what would happen to her if the bag suddenly sprang a leak and filled with freezing water. She’d be a goner in minutes. She closed her eyes and waited for what felt like an eternity for the feeling of dry land again. In reality, the swim lasted less than five minutes.

Delaney opened her eyes wide as she felt the bag being dragged back onto what felt like dry land. Holy shit, had they really made it across? Had this actually worked? Moments later, she saw giant teeth slowly ripping at the zipper of the bag. She tried not to panic as the bag tore open and light flooded her eyes again, revealing a giant polar bear face right in front of her. The bear’s eyes were violet, with the same expression as Eric’s eyes held. There was no doubt in her mind that this bear was Eric. He sniffed her with his large black nose. Delaney guessed that he was probably trying to make sure she had made it across okay. She gave him a weak thumbs up, and he nudged her with his snout.

He was soaking wet, but seemed unfazed by the frigid water dripping from his fur. He nudged her again, and then laid down flat on his stomach, with his paws stretched out sideways across the ice. Delaney realized that he wanted her to climb on his back. She unwrapped herself from the blanket that had cocooned her, and lay the blanket over his fur as a kind of barrier between his wet fur and her body. Then she gingerly climbed on his back and grabbed fistfuls of his fur in each of her gloved hands.

The bear stood up, and took a few steps gingerly, as if to see whether Delaney was secure on his back. She was, but she was beginning to shiver uncontrollably. Now that she was out of the bag and had no blanket covering her, the cold wind and snow was cutting into her despite her warm clothing. She shouldn’t be out here without a parka, but there was no way she would have fit in the fish bag while wearing a parka.

The bear started to run, slowly at first, then picking up speed. Delaney held on for dear life, feeling as though she were on a wild horse. All she could think about was the fact that she was riding a giant bear. This felt like some sort of weird movie, but Delaney was slowly starting to realize that she wasn’t in a movie, and she wasn’t hallucinating. She was actually riding a giant polar bear.

The wind and snow whipped around her faster and faster, and she closed her eyes against its relentless pummeling. The area around them was in a total whiteout condition. Everywhere you looked, as far as your eye could see, was white. The horizon had disappeared from view, and no landmarks were visible. Delaney felt fear gripping her heart again. In all of the years she had spent traveling to crazy and remote locations, this was the first time she literally feared that she might die. The thought was sobering, and Delaney felt her heart tighten up. Eric, or the bear, or whatever he was, seemed to know where he was going. Delaney assumed he must be able to smell his way or something. But she had no way of communicating with him right now. No way for him to talk her down and reassure her that things were under control. She was trusting her life to a giant polar bear.

Her shivering worsened, and Delaney could feel her vision fading. She willed herself to stay alert. She focused on gripping the bear’s fur as hard as she could. In an effort to stay alert and take her mind off of the violent shivers quaking through her body. She started counting to one hundred. She focused on each number as it ran through her head. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was saying the number fifty-three to herself.

Eric’s bear ran smack into the ice shelter at full speed. He had been locating it by smell, and had miscalculated how far away it was. In the total whiteout he couldn’t actually see it, and he had thought he still had about fifty feet to go. But he wasn’t going to complain about the bump to his head. The important thing was that they were there. In the next moment, he felt Delaney slide off of him with a thud. At first, he thought she had realized that they were back at the shelter and jumped off. But as he turned to look at her, he realized she was unconscious. She must be suffering from severe hypothermia.

Eric felt his heart drop as he shifted back into a human and lifted Delaney’s still form in his arms. The cold hit his naked skin, and he knew in just moments frostbite would start to form, but all he could think about was Delaney.

“Stay with me, girl, stay with me!” he cried out, even though he knew she couldn’t hear him at the moment. He kicked open the door to the ice shelter and pulled her inside. Mercifully, the heat was still working. The warmth washed over him like a welcome ray of sunshine.

Delaney’s clothes were crusted with snow and ice, and he knew he’d have to get her out of them. He grabbed a pair of heavy duty scissors from a supply drawer and started cutting off the layers. This wasn’t exactly how he would have liked the first time he undressed her to go. He’d pictured something a little more romantic. But he had no choice. Her life depended on getting her warmed up, and the frozen clothes had to go.

The dampness of the ice and snow had thankfully not yet reached down to her bra and underwear, so he left those alone. He dug in her duffel bag that had been left on one of the bunks, and found a pair of thermal pants and the thickest sweater he could find. He pulled those on, and then found some wool socks to put on her feet, as well.

He checked her pulse, just to be sure. To his relief, she still had a pulse, although it was very slow. Her body had been shutting down, trying to protect her from the frigid temperatures. Eric picked her up gingerly and laid her across the bottom bunk, then covered her with several thick, warm blankets. He found himself some clothes, and quickly got dressed. Then he squeezed onto the tiny bunk and under the blankets with Delaney.

He knew she might freak out when she came to, and found him in bed with her, but she needed to warm up. His body heat would help her do that, and, right now, warming her up was more important than worrying about freaking her out. Besides, it probably wasn’t possible to freak her out any more than he already had. She had to be overwhelmed with the discovery that her new friend was actually a giant bear.

But as Eric snuggled in next to her, he had to admit that the feeling of her body against his sent a thrill through him. His bear rumbled within him, and he pulled Delaney close. He had probably lost any chance he ever had with her, which was too bad, because all he could think about right now was how he wanted to hold her there in his arms forever.

* * *

Delaney slowly opened her eyes, feeling completely confused and disoriented. To her immense relief, the view that met her was that of the ice-shelter. She could hear the wind howling outside, but in here it was warm and dry. She was surprised to feel an arm around her, and she looked down to see Eric’s hand draped over her stomach. Delaney could feel the rhythm of his chest rising and falling against her back as he slept. She had no idea why he was in bed with her, but she could feel that she was fully clothed, so she couldn’t be too upset. He was likely trying to keep her warm. The last thing she remembered was trying to stay conscious in the face of the blinding wind and snow. Clearly, she had lost that battle. But somehow they had still made it back here.

She had spent so much of the last few hours thinking that she was going to die. It felt strange to be in the shelter now, safe and warm. Every color seemed more vivid than before. The sound of the wind and snow beating against the shelter sounded abnormally clear. All of her senses were heightened, still. Her body was still coming down from the adrenaline rush of a near death experience.

Delaney wiggled her fingers and toes. They were all still there. She hadn’t lost anything to frostbite. She looked down at Eric’s hand, and admired its strong, manly appearance. She recalled how he had so easily morphed it into a giant polar bear paw. She should feel terrified right now. Or appalled. At the very least she should be angry that he had taken her out onto the ice and into the middle of his little fray with that other polar bear.

But all she could feel at the moment was the butterflies in her stomach as she relished the way his arms so perfectly fit around her body. She didn’t have much anger left in her. It was hard to stay mad at someone who had just saved your life, even if the whole reason you needed saving had been kind of his fault in the first place.

Eric stirred, and then sat up suddenly, pulling his hand back quickly. Delaney tried to push away the disappointment that flooded her at losing the feeling of his hand on her stomach.

“You’re awake?” he asked. He must have felt her wriggling her feet or something.

“Yeah, I’m awake,” she said. Her voice sounded weak and far away. The odd tone of it surprised even her.

Eric carefully rolled over her and off the bunk, then started warming some water in a teakettle on the gas stove. “I’m sorry about the whole sleeping in the same bed as you thing. But your body temperature was dangerously low. I was trying to warm you up. I also had to cut you out of your clothes and put warm, dry ones on you. But I left your underwear on because it wasn’t soaked yet. So don’t worry, I didn’t see too much.”

Eric blushed, which was kind of adorable. This big hunk of a man, who was also quite literally a bear of a man, was blushing at the thought of seeing her naked.

“It’s okay. I figured you were just trying to keep me warm. Thank you, by the way. You saved my life.”

Eric shrugged. “It was the least I could do, considering it was kind of my fault we ended up stranded in a whiteout in the first place.”

“Well, still. Thank you. Although I’ll admit I’m still completely weirded out by the fact that you turned into a polar bear. You can just do that at will? How does that work.”

“I can do it at will. It’s a genetic mutation. It just takes a lot of energy to switch back and forth, and I can’t stay in bear form too long or I could get stuck that way. But, as you can see, switching can be quite useful.”

“You could get stuck as a bear?” Delaney asked, her voice sounding slightly horrified.

“Well, yes, but it would take about a month of constantly being a bear for that to happen.”

“Wow. So, does it give you any other special powers, besides being a bear?”

Eric laughed. “Not really. It’s not magic. It’s just a genetic mutation. Although I keep my heightened bear senses, like ultrasonic hearing or my sharp sense of smell, even when I’m in human form.”

“Ah. All of a sudden all of your comments about smelling things make so much more sense.”

“Yeah. I guess it does sound weird to a non-shifter when I say I smell certain things. I forget, sometimes, that not everyone can smell as well as me. I also can recover from wounds super quickly if I sleep.”

“Doesn’t sound like this bear gig is too bad.”

“Well, it has its drawbacks. For one thing, a lot of humans aren’t as understanding as you seem to be of shifting. Most shifters try to keep a low profile and avoid anything that might reveal to humans who we really are. In the past, there have been huge bear hunts when people discovered shifters among them. Entire clans have been wiped out.”

“Clans?”

“Yup. There are several polar bear shifter clans in the Arctic Circle. Or, there used to be at least. We’re being slowly wiped out by the Blizzards. The Blizzards are a clan that basically wants to get rid of all the other clans and be the only shifters in the Arctic. They killed most of my clan, the Northern Lights Clan, with silver poisoning. That other bear on the ice today was a Blizzard. He was trying to kill me, but the bears in the Blizzard clan are relatively weak, physically. And the bears in the Northern Lights Clan are physically very strong. So he can’t just attack me. He’ll lose for sure. He has to be cunning about how to kill me.”

Delaney shivered in fear. “Do you think he’s still around?”

“Nah, he’ll have gone to find shelter. These whiteout conditions are dangerous even for a polar bear.

Delaney nodded. “So, wait. Is Tyler one of your clan members? Is he a bear shifter, too?”

“Yes. There are five of us left. Me, Tyler, Alan, Ryker, and Neal. Neal is our alpha. Which basically means he’s the clan leader. We also have a human member of the clan, Kenzie. She’s Ryker’s life mate, and she’s expecting his cub. We’re all pretty excited about that.”

“Will the baby be a bear shifter, or fully human?”

“Almost certainly a shifter. The genetic mutation is a dominant gene. Kenzie’s going to have her hands full with that little cub,” Eric said, and chuckled.

“Can I meet the rest of your clan?” Delaney asked.

Eric hesitated. “Neal is pretty anti-human. He doesn’t like to unnecessarily expose our identity as shifters to humans, so I’m not sure how he’d feel about your meeting everyone.”

“Oh,” Delaney said flatly. She felt deflated, and she hated herself for feeling that way. She watched Eric as he poured the now-boiling water from the teakettle over some tea leaves to steep. She felt cheated. She had found a man who turned her on with something as simple as the way his hands looked. He was gorgeous, and fun. She loved everything about him that she had learned so far. He had an adventurer’s spirit, and a love of the wild like she did. Of course, the fact that he could turn himself into a bear would take a little getting used to, but even that was more fascinating than frightening, now that she had processed the initial shock of the news.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Eric said, obviously noticing her disappointment. “I would love to introduce you. But Neal has some pretty strict rules. I can ask, but I can’t promise he’ll say yes. He usually only allows humans who are planning to become a bear’s life mate.”

“That’s like, marrying?”

“Essentially, yes.”

Delaney fell silent, and Eric handed her a cup of the tea he had just made. The soothing, hot liquid warmed her body, chasing away any last vestiges of the cold chill the snowstorm had given her. Eric sat on the bunk next to her, sipping his tea. After several minutes of silence, Eric looked over at her and let out a huge sigh.

“I guess I fucked up pretty royally, huh?” he said.

What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve blown any chance I ever had to be with you. When I brought you out here to help you get your sunrise photos, I was hoping to have a chance to get to know you better. I was hoping we might hit it off, and that I might eventually be able to convince you to go on a few dates. Maybe then I could have explained the whole bear thing to you. I don’t think I was even willing to admit to myself that dating you is what I wanted. But it was. Then the whole fiasco on the ice happened. I swear to you, I never would have taken you out there if I knew there was a Blizzard shifter around. I’m sorry I put your life in so much danger. Then I tell you I can’t even introduce you to my friends because they’re afraid of humans finding out that they’re half bear. I should probably just stop talking. You probably think I’m some kind of freak.”

Delaney glanced over sideways at Eric. “I don’t think you royally fucked up,” she said. Delaney took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves. Her heart had started beating faster as Eric confessed that he had been interested in her. Eric had wanted to date her! He had delivered his monologue as an apology, but Delaney could see through to what it really was. He wasn’t just trying to apologize. He was trying to test the waters and ask if there was any teeny tiny chance left that he might have a shot at being with her.

Delaney took a long, final sip from her tea and stood up. She grabbed Eric’s mug from him and took both of their mugs to the small sink. She stared out the small window above the sink for a few moments. The blizzard still raged outside, and the view out the window was just a solid white expanse. Delaney took a deep breath and turned around. She could hardly believe she was about to come on to a bear man, but, really, she could hardly believe anything that had happened today. Why stop now? Besides, if there’s one thing that life in the wilds and on the road had taught Delaney, it was that nothing was going to be handed to you on a platter. You had to be vigilant about going after what you wanted.

And Delaney wanted Eric Caldwell.