Bearing the Whiteout (Ice Bear Shifters Book 2) (7 page)

Delaney dressed as quickly as she could. She threw on two layers of thermal underwear, then a sweater and fleece lined jeans over that. She put two pairs of wool socks on, and then strained and pulled her snow boots on over them. She didn’t have a parka anymore, since she’d had to leave hers back on the ice. But she found another thick jacket that must have been Eric’s and she put it on over her clothes. It wasn’t a parka, but it’d have to do. She found a beanie and earmuffs, and put them on. Then she pulled the hood of the jacket up securely over her head. She chose the thickest pair of gloves she could find and stuffed them into the pockets of the jacket. She didn’t want to put them on just yet. She wanted her hands free, for the rifle. She sat on the floor of the trailer, clutching the rifle and pointing it at the door. She wasn’t sure what she was waiting for. If a bear that wasn’t Eric came bursting through that door, she was pretty sure it would be too late to stop it by the time she knew for sure that it wasn’t Eric.

Outside, the noise of bears roaring sounded horrific. Even with the heavy snow and wind muting the ruckus, the fight just beyond the walls of the shelter was one of the loudest things Delaney had ever heard. She held the gun tighter as she shivered and trembled. Eric had said he was a much stronger bear than any of the Blizzards, but it sounded like there were a lot of bears out there. And Eric was the only Northern Lights bear fighting. The longer the roaring and snarling went on, the surer Delaney was that Eric was going to die. Which also meant that she was going to die. Her shaking finger on the trigger of the rifle might take down one of the Blizzards, if she was lucky. But taking down multiple angry polar bears on her own? Not likely to happen. Delaney had never been the praying type, but she started to pray. Please dear god, she pleaded, if you really do exist, just let me get out of this alive. There was no answer, except for another violent shake of the shelter as one of the bears rammed into it.

Delaney laid down the gun and plugged her ears, while closing her eyes tightly. If she was doomed to die in here, she didn’t want to see it happen. She didn’t want to hear it happening. She just wanted to pretend she was somewhere, anywhere else. Delaney felt herself growing warmer by the second. The layers of clothes she was wearing were too much for the warm interior of the shelter. The roaring continued, although the noise slowly lessened. But Delaney got hotter and hotter, and sweat formed on her skin under the layers of clothes. The temperature was reaching unbearable. Delaney opened her eyes again, and then screamed. The shelter was on fire. No wonder she was so hot. Flames licked at the storage compartments on the opposite side of the shelter from her, slowly growing in size and intensity.

Delaney screamed again and ran outside through the front door, which was only a few moments away from being blocked by flames. The blast of cold hit her like a shock wave, and she was instantly blinded by the solid white of the swirling snow. She looked around, desperately trying to make out anything that might resemble Eric. But all she could see was the faint orange glow of hot flames behind her. A strong chemical smell hung in the air, and Delaney realized that the Blizzards must have set the fire using some sort of flammable substance. Maybe they had even been trying to burn them alive before Eric realized they were there. Eric had said they didn’t like to get in physical fights.

Delaney realized that the noise of bear roars had silenced. There was no sound except the crackling of flames and howling wind. She looked all around in panic. She needed Eric. She had no idea where she was, or how to get anywhere from here. If he wasn’t still alive out here, then she was as good as dead, too. She wanted to scream his name, but she didn’t want to alert the Blizzards to her location if they hadn’t yet realized she was out here.

Suddenly, a large black snout nudged Delaney. She screamed and jumped backwards, not sure who the bear was. Then she saw those familiar violet eyes. It was Eric! He had made it through. Patches of his fur were bloody here and there, but he seemed to be mostly okay. Delaney couldn’t tell whether it was his blood or the blood of the Blizzards. Probably both. He sniffed her, and looked her up and down. Seemingly satisfied that she was okay, he laid on his stomach with his paws outstretched. Delaney understood. He wanted her to climb on his back again. She hopped on and grabbed two big fistfuls of fur. He looked over his shoulder, grunted, and took off running. Delaney had no idea where they were going, but Eric seemed sure. He was running quickly and confidently through the storm, his large paws driving through the snow banks with ease.

Delaney shook her head in amazement. Here she sat, again riding on a polar bear through the Arctic. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was worried about another Blizzard attack, the moment would have seemed almost magical. Delaney glanced down at her hands, full of polar bear fur, and she admired the way Eric’s strong shoulders moved beneath her grasp. He ran steadily, never slowing down for a second. After what felt like the better part of an hour, he came to a stop in front of a small cabin. Delaney had no idea where they were, but Eric let out a large huff that sounded like a relieved sigh. He banged a paw on the door, a clumsy version of knocking. A few moments later, a tall man with violet eyes threw the door open, revealing a small but cozy one-room living space.

“Eric!” the man said, his voice full of surprise and concern. Eric’s bear huffed and swung his head over his shoulder in Delaney’s direction, then huffed again.

“He wants you to get down,” the man said, then held out his hand to help Delaney hop off of her polar bear escort. Then he nudged Delaney inside, where a beautiful, slender woman with dark brown hair and concerned green eyes was standing.

“Does he need stitches?” she asked, eyeing the blood on his fur. “Tell him not to shift back until I can stitch him up. It’s easier for me if he’s still in bear form.”

The only response was a loud whoosh, and Delaney was thrown backwards unexpectedly from a powerful rush of air. When she looked up, Eric was standing in the doorway, naked as the day he was born.

“Stubborn-ass bears,” the green-eyed woman said, shaking her head in annoyance, and seemingly unfazed by the fact that Eric wasn’t wearing any clothes.

“I’m fine,” Eric said. “Nothing stitch-worthy. The Blizzards weren’t expecting to actually fight me, so they only sent four bears. They were trying to burn down the shelter with Delaney and me inside of it. Oh! This is Delaney, by the way. Delaney, this is Ryker, another one of the clan members I told you about. And Kenzie, his life mate, who’s expecting their cub.”

“Hi,” Delaney said shyly. “Congratulations on the new baby, er, cub. How far along are you?”

“Thanks. I’m somewhere around three months, now. Due in early October.”

“You’re not showing at all,” Delaney said. “You look amazing.”

Kenzie laughed. “Thanks. They say with the first one it can take a while to start showing. I can definitely tell my jeans are getting a little tight, though. I’m starting to wear Ryker’s sweatpants more often than not these days. I just have to roll up the bottoms, because his legs are so freaking long.”

“Speaking of Ryker’s clothes,” Eric cut in. “I’m still naked over here. Do you think I could borrow some pants, man?”

“Oh, sorry, right!” Ryker said, and went to his dresser to pull out some clothes, which he tossed to Eric. After Eric finished dressing, Ryker raised an eyebrow in his direction.

“I think we need to talk, buddy,” Ryker said. Eric nodded wearily, and Ryker grabbed two parkas off of a coat rack in the corner. The men put on the parkas and headed out into the cold storm.

Delaney was left awkwardly staring at Kenzie, who mercifully smiled and asked how Delaney would feel about some tea.

“That sounds great,” Delaney said gratefully.

Kenzie started putting water on a pot to boil. “Black tea okay?” she asked.

Delaney nodded.

“So, obviously you know Eric is a shifter,” Kenzie said.

“Yeah. The last day has been… interesting. Speaking of which, why did they go outside in this weather? Are they planning to shift again for some reason?”

Kenzie shook her head no. “Ryker wanted to talk to Eric about you in privacy. Which isn’t exactly easy to do in a one room cabin.”

“About me? Why?”

Kenzie sighed. “The Northern Lights bears are very kind, don’t get me wrong. But they’re extremely suspicious of humans. With good reason, mind you—their clan has been the subject of bear hunts before. Neal, their leader, whom they call the alpha, forbids anyone to seriously date a human without his prior approval. So, Ryker’s probably a little curious as to where you came from all of a sudden.”

“Wait, what? Eric has to get approval to date? That’s bullshit! He’s a grown ass man!”

Kenzie shrugged. “I know it sounds a little strange. It’s not as paternalistic as it sounds, though. It’s just that they have to be very careful about revealing that shifters exist. Not all humans are as understanding as you seem to be.”

“So how did you find out that Ryker is a shifter?”

“I’m a veterinarian. Long story short, Ryker needed emergency medical attention, and shifted into a bear so I could treat him. I was a little nervous to stitch up a human. Having him be an ‘animal’ made it easier to wrap my mind around. Neal forgave him for shifting in front of me because he didn’t have much of a choice, if he wanted to live.”

Delaney nodded. “Yeah, I guess Eric didn’t have much of a choice either. We were stuck out to sea on an ice floe and the storm was getting worse. He had to be able to swim back to the main land, which is obviously much easier to do as a polar bear than as a human.”

Kenzie nodded. “I’m sure Neal will be understanding of that. He’ll probably act super grumpy, but don’t let it faze you. They all act like grumpy bears now and then.”

“So… you’re Ryker’s life mate? How is it, being married to a bear?”

“It’s not really much different than you’d expect normal married life to be. Every now and then the clan members shift and go off seal hunting, but other than that, I almost forget sometimes that they’re bears. Why?” Kenzie asked, narrowing her eyes at Delaney. “Did you sleep with him?”

Delaney said nothing, but her face gave her away.

Kenzie’s face broke out into a grin, and she squealed. “I knew it! The way he looked at you was too sweet! He bonded to you, didn’t he?”

Delaney nodded. “He asked me to be his life mate. I said yes. It’s a little crazy, because I’ve only known him a few days. But there’s just such a strong connection. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”

“That’s the bear bond. It was that way for Ryker and me, as well. When it happens for a bear, it happens fast. And the bond is so strong that even a mere human like you or me can feel it. Bear shifters believe that there is someone out there for everyone. When you know, you know. It’s like the human concept of a soul mate.”

“Will Neal be angry that Eric already asked me to be his life mate?”

Kenzie shrugged. “Neal’s always mad about something. He’ll get over it. Neal has to approve all life mate matches before they’re final. It’s not an automatic shoo-in, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem for you. The Northern Lights Clan desperately needs to grow, and humans are the only option right now for adding clan members. Plus, I’ll give him shit if he tries to decline your membership. I’m so ready to have another woman around here. The bears are all great, but they’re all guys. It’d be nice to have someone to girl talk with.”

“I’d like that,” Delaney said, and smiled. It had been a long time since she’d had a close girlfriend. Traveling around constantly made it hard to develop close friendships. But Kenzie seemed very sweet and down to earth. Delaney had a feeling she was going to enjoy being part of this close-knit group. She glanced toward the window. The storm was finally fading, and she could see the outline of Ryker’s and Eric’s figures. She hoped Ryker wasn’t giving Eric too hard of a time over her. Nothing would make her happier at the moment than being accepted into the Northern Lights Clan.

After about twenty minutes, Eric and Ryker reentered the cabin. The two women, who had been drinking tea and laughing, fell silent as the men entered and stomped snow off of their boots.

“Is everything okay?” Delaney asked, her voice filling with trepidation. She half expected Eric to tell her he had changed his mind and she needed to leave. But he smiled tenderly at her and leaned over to plant a kiss on her lips.

“Everything’s fine. But I need to call the alpha and update him on what’s going on, with the Blizzards and with us.”

“Kenzie said he has to approve me or we can’t be together,” Delaney said, her voice catching a bit.

“That’s true. But don’t worry, he’ll approve you. I’ll fight for you if he tries to say no.”

Delaney grinned, and her heart beat faster at the sexy confidence in Eric’s voice. He was her man! He would fight for her! What more could a girl ask for?

Eric grabbed the cordless phone’s headset and stepped back outside of the cabin.

“We really need a cabin with more than one room,” Kenzie said, shaking her head. No one can ever have any privacy in here, and I’m sure our little cub is going to eventually want to have a door he can slam in our face when he’s angry.”

Ryker laughed. “Hopefully the door-slamming days are a little ways off, still. And how do you know the cub is a ‘he’?”

“I just have a feeling. Mother’s intuition,” Kenzie said.

Ryker laughed, and he and Kenzie started discussing whether they could add an addition onto the cabin to make it multiple rooms. Delaney only half-listened to what they were saying. She was watching Eric outside. He was gesturing emphatically with his arms, and obviously having a very heated conversation with his alpha. The storm had completely subsided, and Delaney could clearly see Eric pacing back and forth and waving his arms. After about ten minutes, Eric stormed back into the house with a strained look on his face.

“We have to go, now. Emergency clan meeting.”

Ryker raised his eyebrows but didn’t look all that shocked. “I take it Neal was pissed?”

“To put it mildly. Can we borrow one of your snowmobiles to get into town? Mine is probably a pile of ashes since it was parked right next to the shelter when it went up in flames.”

“Sure, here,” Ryker said, and tossed a pair of keys to Eric.

“Delaney, do you want to borrow a parka?” Kenzie asked. “That jacket you wore in here isn’t exactly the warmest for this weather.”

“That would be great,” Delaney said, and Kenzie handed her a parka. The four of them bundled up and then headed out to the snowmobiles. The women each hopped on behind their respective man, and the snowmobiles zoomed off toward town. Delaney had no idea where they were going, exactly, but she didn’t want to press Eric with any further questions. His mood had soured considerably. Delaney kept silent and watched the buildings and parked snowmobiles fly by. Occasionally they would speed past a person in a parka trudging along on foot. It seemed odd to be taking in the normal details of society when Delaney had spent so much of the last day thinking that she was going to die. Everything seemed to be in super sharp focus as she took it in, every little detail a reminder that she was, in fact, still alive and breathing.

Fifteen minutes later, they pulled in front of a building with a sign that read “Neal’s Tattoo Shop.” There were already several snowmobiles in front, and Delaney assumed that the rest of the clan was there already. Either that or the tattoo parlor was doing a heck of a lot of business at the moment. Delaney realized she wasn’t entirely sure what the day or hour was right now. Everything had melted together into a blurry continuum of events.

Ryker and Kenzie filed into the shop, with Eric and Delaney behind them. They walked past the front waiting area and a few tattoo chairs and privacy curtains, and into a back room that was full of boxes and filing cabinets. Delaney recognized Tyler from the Northwinds Pub. He gave Delaney a friendly nod of greeting, but his face had a somber expression on it. Another large man with violet eyes leaned against the wall next to Tyler. And sitting on a large stack of boxes, was a large man with arms crossed and an air of authority. This must be Neal. His expression appeared so angry that Delaney almost expected to see smoke literally coming out of his ears.

“You must be Delaney?” he asked. His voice was strained, but he didn’t sound unkind.

Delaney nodded.

“I’m Neal, the Northern Lights alpha. I see you’ve already met Ryker and Kenzie. Over here is Tyler, who I understand you’ve also met?”

Delaney nodded again.

“Next to him is Alan. This is our entire clan.”

“It’s nice to meet you all.”

Neal gave her a brief nod. “Likewise. If you’d like to have a seat, we’ll begin this meeting.”

Delaney scurried over to sit on a box next to Kenzie. Neal stood and raked his fingers through his hair, pacing back and forth for several moments before speaking.

“There are a few reasons I called this meeting today. The first of which is that we’ve now been exposed as shifters to another human. We’ve got to be more careful, guys. I know you were in an emergency situation, Eric, but you all need to be more careful about putting yourselves in these situations.”

Eric frowned. “With all due respect, Neal, I was being perfectly safe. And you said yourself that you thought the Blizzards were gone for the season. I wasn’t expecting to encounter them out there on the ice.”

Neal’s eyes burned with anger. “I told all of you that I want to approve any human before you start dating her. You took Delaney out on the ice without even telling me about her.”

“I wasn’t planning on it being anything serious.”

“You smell like sex!” Neal bellowed. Delaney’s face turned bright pink at the accusation, but no one else in the room seemed surprised at the blatant accusation.

“I wasn’t planning on anything serious,” Eric repeated, then took a deep breath and stood tall and straight, facing his alpha head-on. “But my bear had other plans. I mated with Delaney and we bonded. I’ve asked her to be my life mate, and she has agreed. We would like to seek the clan’s blessing.”

Delaney saw Tyler’s eyes widen, but no one in the clan said anything. They all focused on Neal, waiting for his response.

“You asked her to be your life mate?” Neal said, his voice filling with rage. “You barely know her.”

“I do know her,” Eric said. “We bonded. She’s forever a part of me now.” Despite the tense situation, Delaney felt her heart filling with warmth at Eric’s words. She was a part of him! He was hers, and she was his.

The warm, fuzzy feeling didn’t last long, however. In the next moment, Neal let out a giant roar, and his hand morphed into an enormous polar bear paw with impossibly long claws extending from its edges. Neal slapped Eric across the room with his paw, sending Eric tumbling into a pile of boxes with a yelp. Delaney sucked in her breath and resisted the urge to run to Eric. Eric stood, slowly, and glared at Neal.

“What is your problem, Neal? I found a wonderful woman, who not only accepts me for who I am, but loves me for who I am. Why don’t you take off your blinders for a minute and stop automatically thinking that all humans are out to get you. Of course, many are. But many aren’t. Delaney’s a good, noble woman. She’s exactly the type of person we need to help rebuild our clan.”

“What is my problem?” Neal asked. “My
problem
is that I have a clan to protect. A clan with hardly any bears left. If the humans start a bear hunt against us, we don’t stand a chance. We have to be more careful. We can’t afford to keep recklessly exposing ourselves to humans.”

Delaney’s heart burned with anger. This wasn’t fair. Eric was a good man, and a good bear. And she was a loyal human, perfectly capable and willing to keep their secret. Neal was punishing Eric for no good reason.

“No!” Delaney yelled, standing up and looking Neal straight in the eye. Neal’s violet eyes appeared startled, and Delaney could see Eric in her peripheral vision, shaking his head at her, silently pleading with her to sit down and stay out of it. But Delaney had never been one to sit idly by when someone she loved was being attacked. She didn’t care if Neal was an angry bear. She wasn’t going to let him treat Eric this way. Besides, she had already faced death more than once in the last few days. She wasn’t going to let a hot-tempered alpha bear scare her off.

“No, you’re wrong,” Delaney said, her voice still raised. “Eric wasn’t reckless. He had no way of knowing the Blizzards were going to set us out to sea. And he tried everything he could to save me without shifting. But you know what? I’m glad he had to shift in the end, because I got to see him for who he really is. And I love him for who he really is.”

Neal’s eyes blazed with anger, but he said nothing, so Delaney continued.

“I know you’re the alpha here, and you’re concerned with protecting your clan. But you’re so blinded with rage that you won’t see what’s standing right in front of you. I’m here, willing to stand by your side and help the clan. I will help you keep your shifter secrets from the rest of the humans. I will protect you from anyone who wants to start a bear hunt. And, although I’m not physically very strong, I’m smart. I’ll do whatever I can to help you push back the threat of the Blizzards. I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m here to help. Your fight is my fight. Your clan is my clan. Let me stand with you. I promise you will not regret it.”

The room was completely silent. Delaney held her breath as Neal stared at her with agitated eyes. After several moments, he crossed his arms, and sat down on his box again, looking contemplative. Finally, he spoke.

“In all my time as alpha, I’ve never had a woman stand up to me like that. I should be furious, and I sort of am. But I’m also impressed with your gumption. And you’re right. I’m being too hard on Eric, and potentially passing up the opportunity for an amazing new clan member. Clearly, you have what it takes to manage a bear.”

Delaney felt her breath returning to normal, and her wildly beating heart slowly settling down. She had just stood up to the alpha of a clan of bear shifters, and she was still standing here unharmed. Eric still stood with his mouth agape, hardly able to believe that he had just witnessed his girlfriend standing up to his alpha like that.

Neal morphed his paw back into a human hand, then looked over at Eric and smiled. “Eric, you’re right. I should have given Delaney a chance. I’m impressed with her loyalty to you, and we could use more of her kind of tenacity in our clan. I give you my blessing to make her your life mate.”

Eric let out a whoop and ran to Delaney, nearly knocking her over with his enthusiasm as he scooped her up into his arms. Cheers rang out from the rest of the clan, and Kenzie ran up to Delaney to join in on the hug.

“I’m so excited!” Kenzie squealed. “It’s going to be so awesome having you around!”

As the cheers died down, Neal called his clan to order again.

“Congratulations, Eric. And Delaney, welcome to the clan. Now that we’ve settled that issue, I have another pressing matter that we need to think about. As we can see from the recent Blizzard attack on Eric, the Blizzards are still here, despite the warming weather. I’m not sure how long they’ll stay. I’m hoping that with the temperature continuing to rise, we’ll have a break from them soon. But, there are no guarantees.”

Neal looked around at his clan members. Their faces were all somber as they waited for him to continue.

“All of the recent Blizzard attacks have occurred when a bear has been alone, or when the Blizzards have at least thought the bear was alone. If we stick together, the Blizzards are much less likely to attack. With that in mind, I came up with the idea of moving us all to the outskirts of town, where Ryker’s cabin is located. There’s a lot of land out there, and it can be bought up pretty cheaply. We could use clan funds to do that, and to build several more cabins close to each other. It would be a slight inconvenience to those with jobs in town, but I think the extra protection of having the clan together would be worth it. And, quite honestly, I think having more bears around to protect Kenzie will be a good thing. It won’t be too much longer before it’s obvious that she’s expecting a bear cub, and I don’t want the Blizzards to feel like they have an opening to attack her. I know asking everyone to build a new cabin and move is a lot, but I think it will go a long way toward curbing Blizzard attacks. I’d like to hear your thoughts on the plan.”

“I think it sounds fantastic,” Ryker said. “I’d love to have the clan out there near my cabin.”

“I’m fine with the idea,” Tyler said. “Of course, it will make my commute to work a little bit longer. But it still won’t be that bad. Glacier Point is a small enough town that it never takes too long to get anywhere.”

Alan shrugged. “Fine by me. I work from home anyways.”

“Eric?” Neal asked.

Eric grinned. “As long as I have Delaney by my side, I don’t care where the clan lives.”

Neal smiled, and nodded. “Alright then, it’s settled. I’ll handle purchasing the property out there, then you can all decide amongst yourselves who wants which spot for their cabin. We should be ready to build as soon as the snow and ice melts, so we can get everything done before next winter. In the meantime, try to stick together as much as possible. Building cabins close together is just the first step in preparing to defend against a Blizzard attack. I’m not sure when they’ll be back, but they will be back. I thought we were in the clear for a while, but this last attack has shown us that we need to be constantly alert. Stay aware, and look out for your fellow clan members. If we stay close to each other, we can fend them off. We’re much stronger than they are, and there’s safety in numbers.”