Dare to Bear (Book 1 Trail Guardians Series) (20 page)

“I will be, when I see Mason.”

“We were just talkin’ about that,” he said in a thick southern drawl filled with concern. “Do you know what happened?”

Yes
. But she couldn’t make her brain form sentences in the proper order. She remained silent.

“Just askin’.” The man shrugged. His tanned, deeply lined face drew tight. “Seems our Trail Guardian ran into some trouble, with wicked claws and fierce fangs.”

“Something like that,” she whispered.

“Straight through that entrance,” the man said, sweeping his arm at the door with the medical symbol of staff-and-serpent tacked to the door.

She didn’t make it inside. She collapsed on the porch, her mind sinking into a gray place.

The spaces between realities are a mystery
, she thought, in a strange, reflective state.
I want to know them with Mason
.

Then the black hole of unconsciousness sucked her under.

12

Pain.

Torment.

Fire.

Pure hell.

Its flames lashed Mason’s body, roasting his flesh from the inside out.

I’m burning alive…

This must’ve been the torture the Ancestors had suffered, when humans’ diabolical need to destroy what they didn’t understand had nearly extinguished his kind. Pagans, witches, shamans, shifters—they’d been called by many names, some incorrect, all misunderstood. Shifters were a class unto their own, but no less persecuted through the ages.

While lucid thoughts drifted in and out, the Dark Ones sank their poison-tipped talons into his soul. He had no other way to describe the monstrous, shadowy figures dragging him downward, no matter how fiercely he defied them. In old writings, he’d been taught the Dark Ones were put on earth to destroy the Ancients. His Ancestors had persevered. Mason wasn’t so sure he would.

Again and again, the grip of evil clutched his mind. He fought it with his entire being. A brutal battle to free his wild spirit from a cage of dark, dangerous suppression.

There was the option to surrender, to give into the chilling, hollow darkness. There were moments when the inferno crippled him to the point of breaking, burned him to the edge of disintegration.

The only thing saving him from the abyss were the quenching waves of softly spoken words, wafting over him like a river coasting across the hottest desert. Sometimes he feared they wouldn’t return, but they always did. The calm, gentle consolations soothed his torture. Feminine caresses whispered over him, and he reveled in their cooling ministrations.

Other times, he heard the primordial, echoing words of the Ancestors calling him back from the brink. “
You have everything to live for, son of light. Keep the faith and your love steady. She’s waiting for you. She needs you. Do not give up this most precious gift
.”

Steph.

He fought for
her
.

The image of her came to him at intervals, like a shimmering mirage. False but true. He would—he had to—reunite with his mate, forever under the blessing of the Ancients. He prayed to them. And his heart spoke to her.
I will find you again, my precious half of me
.

Then the pitch-black fire overtook him again, plunging him to the depths of agony and despair.

I won’t give you up, Steph
, he vowed, gnashing his teeth against the brutal pain.
I will never give up on you
.

Love.

Soothing. Cooling. Healing.

I love you
. He reached out to a blurred image of her that materialized before his scratching, aching eyes.

But the flames returned, riding higher and hotter, searing his flesh down to his bones, searing his determination down to his soul.

“Give in to usss,” the Dark Ones hissed in his brain.

Never
, he vowed.

Yet they clawed. Ripped. Scraped. Eviscerated. He couldn’t hang on…

A fresh sound interrupted his agony, sweet and pure, the golden sound of an angel. “Come back to me, Mason. I love you.”

The words pierced him.

He fought for his life. He fought for fate. He fought for the Ancestors. He fought for her. He fought for love.

Was it enough…?

*

“You need to shower.”

Stephanie’s head snapped up. The blurred image of Dr. Tyce over her shoulder finally came into focus. “Hey,” she said with a weak smile.

“Doctor’s orders,” he stated firmly, placing a comforting arm around her, lifting her from the chair at Mason’s bedside. She hadn’t left him for two days.

Instinctively, she panicked. “Will he be okay?”

Tyce nodded. “He’s a strong man with a powerful sense of survival. He knows you’re here for him. This town’s Bear Necessities store is right next to the hospital. A quick shower in the locker room won’t dampen your commitment, I assure you. If Mason comes to, I’ll tell him of your unwavering devotion.”

She twisted her hands. “I want to be here if—
when
he wakes up.”

“The fever’s still strong, but I believe he’ll beat it.”

“You do?”

“I’ve known Mason for many years. He’s too damned stubborn to give up. Especially when he has something so important to live for,” Tyce said, tilting his head at her.

“A shower. I smell that bad, huh?”

“Scent is the least of our worries.” He offered a kind smile. “You need some reviving to be at your best, if you want to be there for him.”

She stifled a yawn. “I guess that makes sense.”

“A shower will do you good.”

As a completely random thought occurred to her, her brow furrowed. “Do bears shower a lot, all year around? I mean, like, do you guys hibernate in the winter?”

Tyce chuckled. “We are as human as you, though with a few bear-ish quirks of our own.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Quirks?”

“Well, we have our advantages and disadvantages. Is that so different than humans?”

“No,” she sighed in concession. “It’s just, he seems so fragile right now. Nothing like the big, badass bear who defended me against the wolves.”

That brought a hearty laugh from the stoic doctor. “I assure you, Mason is anything but fragile. Did I tell you about the time, when we were cubs, and Mason dared me to leap off a waterfall?”

Soon she realized she could barely focus on the scar Tyce showed her on his arm, thanks to Mason, let alone follow the details of his story. She wanted nothing more than to drop where she stood and fall asleep. Although his recounting of their youthful adventures couldn’t hold her attention, a luxurious rain-head shower would.

She excused herself to go next door. She grabbed soap and towels from the shop clerk. Then she let the cascading warm shower water shed the dirt from her body and the dullness from her spirit. Enlivened by the feeling and scent of her own clean skin, she donned the terrycloth robe and white flip flops, and headed to the row of sinks to use one of the hairdryers attached to the wall.

When she glanced in the mirror, she dropped the hairdryer. A strange sensation embraced her, like an out-of-body experience. As if she was looking at herself, but someone different looked back at her.
She
looked different.

Everything about her appearance had changed. Her eyes sparkled bluer than the crystal-clear Appalachian sky. Her skin glowed. Her hair appeared glossier than usual. And she’d lost weight—a lot of weight. Her face showed off the heart-shaped point of her chin and her high cheekbones. She seemed so much slimmer than she’d been over the past year.

Or had her negative perceptions of herself blocked the beauty she radiated from within?

Granted, she’d anticipated shedding a few pounds over the duration of her hike. Yet she’d been hard on herself since she’d gained weight, as hard as Kyle’s subtle, off-hand comments were to take. Perhaps this fuller, healthier version herself was actually the better version.

She flashed a smile in the mirror. She felt great, inside and out. Was this strong, pretty, curvy girl what Mason had seen in her from the beginning?

Self-acceptance washed over her, sinking into every cell of her body. She
was
beautiful. She
deserved
love in her life. And she deserved the love
of
her life. Mason had shown her the true beauty she held inside. She fell in love with him a little bit more.

Slightly giddy with a renewed awareness of all she had to offer, she picked up the hairdryer and finished drying her hair.

Sandy, Dr. Tyce’s assistant, had suggested she try out the sauna, right off the women’s locker room. Stephanie did, and found herself blinking awake later, staring at the cedar slats above her.

Crap, how long had she slept? Desperate for water to quench her thirst, she changed into laundered clothes from her pack. It had been tracked and retrieved, along with Mason’s, by a friend of Dr. Tyce. She’d anticipated Mason’s brother might’ve sent someone, disappointed that when he’d visited Mason hospital room he’d all but ignored her. The man remained laser-focused on his brother’s recuperation. Understandable, but his cool indifference left her feeling like she’d mangled and maimed Mason herself, instead of the wolves doing all that harm. He clearly disapproved of them being together. She wasn’t about to breach his icy exterior to ask him why.

She exited the locker room and saw Sandy discussing a work-related issue with the young male clerk behind the counter. The woman seemed like a natural teacher, gently explaining why the company followed certain protocols.

She walked up to Sandy. “Any change in Mason’s condition?”

Sandy smiled encouragingly. “Not yet, but Tyce told me the fever looks like it’s finally breaking.”

“That’s great,” Stephanie said, relieved. “Can I go back to him?”

“I’d wait a few minutes.” Sandy sighed. “Midas is with him now.”

“Oh.” Stephanie understood. Better to let the brothers have some time alone. She was the newcomer, and they were family.

To pass the time, she wandered through the town’s Bear Necessities store, fully appreciating the clever double-entendre in the name.

As an avid reader and marketer in her real life, she picked up several different magazines perched on their shelves. Flipping through them absently, she started to wonder why Bear Necessities didn’t have their own magazine displayed more prominently. That way people could identify the trademark right away, as soon as they walked through the door. Come to think of it, why weren’t their brands of clothing and necessities better displayed on the shelves?

If their own personal chain of outlets offered these bears their survival through sales, they needed to change the layout of their stores. Completely.

Since the family was in the midst of its personal powwow, and Sandy had disappeared into a back room, Stephanie seized the opportunity to talk to the clerk. She pointed out her concerns, and the young man helped her rearrange the floor space to better promote company-specific items. The teen seemed to agree, eager to help change what had been in place long before he’d landed the job.

Their companionable interactions gave the clerk a chance to vent about his minimal role regarding website maintenance. Oh, she could totally help him there. She joined him at the computer workstation at the end of the counter, and they dove into the task.

After two hours spent updating the website SEO and visibility, she asked him where they advertised online.

“Um…” was his shrugging response.

“Here.” She reached for the keyboard and moved it in front of her. “Step aside, if you don’t mind. I’ll access a program from work I can run to determine your online reach and the best places to set up advertising.”

Finally—
finally
—she felt useful. Validated. Within the next hour, she updated their Facebook page to sync with their website updates and links. Then she reached out to fellow advertisers for cross-promotion. Then she set up Twitter and Instagram accounts—neither of which they’d engaged with previously—and through those portals she connected to other relevant companies. Plus, she uploaded a dozen images, to start bringing attention to their survivalist provisions.

Smiling, she sat back in the chair the clerk had vacated on her behalf. Helpful at last, she thought. Maybe she couldn’t administer emergency medical care, or navigate through a pathless forest, or traverse a cavernous ledge by herself. But she could provide Mason’s business with valuable marketing venues, navigate the Web on the company’s behalf, and scale the numbers necessary to improve visibility for their venture.

Her stomach rumbled. She realized she hadn’t eaten much of anything in two days, stationed vigilantly beside Mason, hoping beyond hope he’d pull through.

She swiveled in the chair to find Tyce, Sandy and the clerk staring at her with equally mesmerized expressions on their faces. “Hi,” she said, ducking her head. “I guess I kind of took over. Sorry, I should’ve asked permission first. It’s an occupational compulsion.”