Page 3 of Bear It All (Bears in Love Duet Book 2)

Remy canted his head, his bear drinking in the sight of the woman he was now 100 percent certain was his mate. Or would be after he took care of that pesky revenge issue.

Her hair was as fiery red as ever, twisted into two braids, draped over each shoulder. Her skin was pale, those emerald green eyes standing out in stark contrast, framed by dark lashes.

She wore a hooded sweatshirt underneath a thigh-length overcoat, black leggings, and fur-lined, laced up ankle boots completing her look.

Definitely a pleasant sight for his poor, frustrated bear. Also…

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “I could have sworn you told me you’d never come back.”

She folded her arms across her chest. “Here’s a better question: what are you doing here? How did you even know this is where my pack is located?”

He certainly had that confirmation he’d been looking for, didn’t he?

He scratched his nose. “Just taking care of some business.”

“Some business?”

“I was planning to come find you when I was done. Thanks for making that part easy on me.” Although it certainly complicated the first part of his plan. He’d intended to kill the pack leader’s brother without her prior knowledge. And when he found her, he was going to simply tell her the man was dead.

End of story. But the beginning of her ability to get on with her life.

So he hoped.

“You came here looking for me, even though I said I’d never come back?”

“Nope.” He popped the P. “I planned to go looking for you after I was done here.”

“Done doing what?”

They really needed to get off this merry-go-round. “So, how have you been? Where have you been, anyway?” Why didn’t you call? Why did you leave me in the first place? Are you ready to give us a chance yet?

Her gaze swept around the area while she adjusted the strap on her shoulder. The backpack was smallish, probably meant to hold her clothes while she was shifted into her bear. Was she deliberately planning to shift, or was she simply always prepared?

“I’ve been okay,” she finally said. “Better than four years ago.”

His bear did a little anticipatory jig.

“I didn’t go all that far away, actually. Been living in Chicago.” She chuckled while shaking her head. “It’s hard to find a place to shift when you live in a big city teaming with humans.”

“I seem to recall that had been Peter’s issue too.” And Peter had eventually settled on pack land with his mate, plenty far away from humans.

“I miss it,” she said, giving the area another sweep with her gaze. “Not here, literally, but the ruralness, I guess. Nature. Peace.”

There was lots of nature and peace in southern Louisiana. He bit back that comment, didn’t think she was ready to start that conversation.

Yet.

“So you came back for the nature?” he asked.

She laughed. “We’re both dancing around this subject, aren’t we?”

He took a step closer, and when she didn’t shy away, he took another, and another, until he stood before her, soaking in her beauty, wishing he could pull her into his arms and never, ever let her go again.

“You look good,” she said, and he groaned before he could bite it back.

Her brows arched.

“I just…I just want to hold you,” he finally admitted.

She gave a little shudder, and before he could worry that it was not a positive shudder, she practically collapsed against his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his left pec, right over his heart, which had started beating with an almost desperate urgency.

Closing his arms around her, he laid his cheek against the top of her head and let his lids fall over his eyes with a deep sigh. If his bear were a cat, it would be purring right now. As it was, the animal was rubbing itself against the side of his head like it wanted to be petted.

“This is…” he started, but paused when he heard sounds.

Cracking branches and squawking birds. Heavy breathing. Heavier footfalls.

Someone was running toward them.

Mallory went rigid in his arms before extracting herself, her eyes hard as they scanned the area, clearly trying to determine where the sounds were coming from.

A bear came into view, running like its ass was on fire. It was young, adolescent probably. Possibly had only started shifting in the last year.

The bear had a tawny brown snout, wide, fearful eyes, and its ears were pressed flat against its head. It glanced over its shoulder, its front leg crashed into a fallen branch, and it went tumbling ass over tea kettle until it finally came to a halt on its side in a mound of dirty snow.

Mallory rushed over to the bear before Remy could tell her to be careful. Cursing under his breath, he hurried after her.

“…not going to hurt you,” Mallory was telling the young bear. The bear, a female, darted a distrustful gaze his way.

Mallory gave his arm a squeeze. “He’s with me. It’s okay. We aren’t”—she gave him a quick glance—“we aren’t with this pack.”

Interestingly, that seemed to calm the bear, who slowly rolled to its feet and shook like a dog. With another glance at Remy, the bear nosed at the pack on Mallory’s shoulder.

“Do you want to shift?” Mallory asked.

The animal nodded.

“I don’t have an extra set of clothes in here. I brought this pack for the clothes I’m wearing, in case I needed to shift. But I do have clothes in my car. It’s just beyond the border, over that way.” She pointed to the east.

The bear jutted its snout, then it took off at a jog, pausing a few yards away and pawing the ground impatiently.

“Either someone is following her or she suspects someone will be soon,” Remy noted.

“Definitely seems that way,” Mallory agreed. “Should we shift? I can stuff your clothes in here with mine.” She flipped the pack off her shoulder. The bear grunted and nodded, apparently agreeing with Mallory’s suggestion.

“Okay, you go first,” Remy joked, earning a smirk from Mallory. He pulled his beanie off his head and handed it to her. Then he shed his jacket, his fleece, and finally the T-shirt underneath.

Damn, it was cold out here. Although that look Mallory was giving him was definitely helping to stabilize his body temperature.

It was also perking up a certain part of his anatomy, which she was about to realize as he unlatched the button on his jeans and shoved them down his legs, taking his boxers with them.

Unfortunately, the chilled air was effectively emasculating his erection, so he quickly toed off his boots and shed his pants and summoned the magic of the shift.

His bear roared its approval in his head as his bones stretched, his nose elongated, claws sprang from his fingers while fur sprouted all over his body. A moment later, he dropped to all fours, gave a shake, and hurried over to rub against the nearest tree. The shift, with its almost-instantaneous hair growth, always made his back itch.

While using the tree trunk as a backscratcher, he blatantly watched Mallory undress and stuff her clothes into the small pack.

Damn, she was beautiful. The memory of how she’d looked, naked and spread out before him on the sheets in that hotel room four years ago hadn’t dimmed in the least, but he couldn’t deny that seeing the real thing again was something akin to nirvana.

She finished stuffing her clothes into the pack and then waved him over while she stood there stark naked and seemingly entirely at ease, other than the goosebumps spreading across her creamy skin.

He trotted over, more than happy to get close to her. She looped the pack around his neck, magic sparked off her skin, and in the blink of an eye, she, too, was a bear, albeit with dark fur instead of white, like his.

If only they could simply romp around, being bears, getting reacquainted. Unfortunately, that other bear was pawing the ground, making grunting noises, clearly impatient to get out of here. Yeah, this was not a casual meetup, and they did not have time right now to remind themselves why they belonged together.

Forever.

Shaking it off, he nodded at Mallory to lead the way, and then he trotted along with her, flanking her to the left, while the other bear fell into step and flanked her on the right.

He kept his senses sharp, but he didn’t notice anyone following them. When they reached what he assumed was Mallory’s vehicle parked on the side of a two-track lane leading to pack land, she stopped and summoned the magic of the shift again, and he got another eyeful of the most spectacular female body he’d ever seen in his life.

“Down, boy,” she murmured as she slipped the pack from around his neck.

He snorted.

She pulled out their clothes, opening the door of the vehicle to lay them across the seat instead of on the wet, chilled ground. Once she’d covered all the good parts and was guiding the other bear around to the back of the vehicle, he shifted and dressed.

When Mallory next stepped into view, fully dressed, a scrawny young woman stood next to her, the borrowed clothes obviously too big for her form. She hovered next to Mallory while tossing Remy defiant looks.

She had curly dark hair, her skin was topaz, and her eyes were paler than Mallory’s, more gray than blue. She was going to be a knockout when she grew into her gangly arms and legs and filled out a little. At the moment, though, she was practically a child with only hints of the woman she’d eventually become.

“Alaina, this is Remy,” Mallory said, waving at him.

Alaina nodded but made no attempt to shake hands or move any closer to him. In fact, she looked as though she was ready to flee at any provocation.

“What happened?” he asked. “Who has you running scared?”

She glanced at Mallory. The two women had managed to bond in a very short period of time.

Yeah, Remy was jealous. He’d been waiting four long years to bond with Mallory.

“It’s okay,” Mallory soothed. “We’re on your side.”

Did she even know what happened?

Alaina’s gaze kept darting around, like she was afraid someone was about to jump out from behind a tree. “Can we get out of here first? I—this place makes me uncomfortable.”

“Yes, of course,” Mallory said without pause. “Get in.”

Before Remy could offer her the front seat, Alaina dove into the back. Remy wasn’t exactly keen to have his back to the girl, although since she’d been in bear form when they came across her and Mallory had loaned her clothes, he was more than reasonably confident she did not have a weapon she could use against him.

With a little maneuvering, Mallory turned the vehicle around, heading away from pack land. No one spoke for long minutes that felt like a damn hour, until Mallory came to a stop at the main road that would take them back to Duluth if they headed south, or even deeper into the middle of nowhere if they went north.

She turned south.

“Okay, start talking. What happened back there? Why were you running like your ass was on fire?” Remy asked.

Alaina wrapped her arms around her middle and stared out the side window. Several heartbeats passed. Finally, she spoke.

“I killed the pack master’s brother.”

Well, hell. That was supposed to be Remy’s job.