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CHAPTER NINE

emma

M y stomach churned, and images flashed in my brain.

Bear. Lynx. Fox. Wolf. A large, graying wolf stared into my soul.

I shrieked… someone’s name. Logan?

In a memory that couldn’t possibly be mine, an eagle screamed, dipping low over a lake until in the amber eye of a bald raptor, I could see myself flying. What is this? What’s happening to me?

A rush of wind slammed down from the sky, filled with colors. The thundering of my pulse diminished, and the big cat startled and froze as though processing the new sensations. It didn’t leap from my chest, and I couldn’t take a breath in. Whimpering sobs were all I could manage.

The big cat hissed in my face, opened its jaws, and dove for my neck. I grabbed the gaping mouth and pushed against it, surprised I was able to hold it back. This strength was more than I’d ever had before.

The beast slammed its paw into the side of my face, and the fear became something else. My arms weren’t listening anymore, and my hands slipped from the mouth of the beast. My legs went rigid. Was this what it was like to die?

Another rush of air circled our bodies, and another explosion of color burst over me, plunging into my mind. Each color meant something, but I couldn’t make sense of it.

Suddenly, my body bent in half, first one way and then the other, so violently it dislodged the mountain lion. My limbs crunched and contorted, writhing on the parking pad beside the hesitating mountain lion.

The colors obscured everything, and I felt nothing. No pain. No fear.

As abruptly as the colors had arrived, they blinked out. Now I was bigger than the mountain lion, and I screamed.

But it wasn’t a scream.

It was a roar—a bear-throated roar.

When I lifted my hand, it wasn’t one at all. A large bear paw was in the place of five fingers and a human palm. My other matched the first, and dark fur covered my arms, legs, and torso. My shredded hiking clothes littered the ground around me. Every scent around me scratched grooves in my brain.

Lumbering to my feet, I stretched until my snout nearly touched the mountain lion, and then I roared in its face. It hissed and yowled, but it didn’t flee.

A rush of new sensations poured through my mind. Better vision, better sight, and a knowing about the forest around us. In that moment, I knew I could have fled up a tree, but if I had the advantage, I was going to use it.

I lifted a paw and struck the mountain lion, sending it tumbling away. When I lowered my paw, blood tipped my claws.

Dazed, the big cat climbed back to its feet and bolted into the woods.

The next moment, a graying wolf—the one from my head—appeared at the edge of my campsite, its eyes lit up with a light that was more than luminescence. Instead of attacking, it stopped short, its eyes wary.

No, not it. Him! The mountain lion had been a female, and this one was a male. Somehow, the knowledge filtered in with the scents all around me. This wolf… I knew him. He was…

The fuck am I saying?

I’m a bear. I can’t be a bear. A bear who knows a wolf.

The next moment, another rush of wind and colors slammed into me, and my size changed again, condensing until I was smaller than the new visitor to my campsite.

I’d gone small and red, as red as Riley’s hair. A poofy tail curled around me. Small, bloody paws were at the end of my shortened legs, and a yip escaped my mouth.

A fox? Now I was a fox ?

No, I had to be dead. I was dead and dreaming about life in the after.

Shaking, I lay down on the ground, curling into something like the fetal position. I couldn’t process anything more, and I closed my eyes. The waiting wolf could have me.

As the adrenaline drained away, a cool wind moved over my skin and lesser colors filled my mind. Yet no sharp teeth broke my skin, and no jaw snapped my bones. When I finally opened my eyes, my fur had become human skin again.

And the wolf had gone.

In his place, a man sat, crouched, in the same spot.

A naked man with a wide muscular chest and his dick in full view.

Logan!

“Are you stalking me?” I tried to jump to my feet, but a wave of dizziness plowed through my head, and I tumbled back to the ground.

Determined, I rolled over to all fours and then lurched to my feet.

“I don’t know what you think you’re going to get, but I’m not about to let that happen, Logan. I’ll fight you tooth and nail.”

At first, he didn’t respond. Finally, the corner of his mouth turned up in a smirky grin. “Oh, I know you will.” He gestured in the direction of the fleeing mountain lion. “That much is obvious.”

I wanted to tell him off and demand he go fuck himself, but I couldn’t form the words. My thoughts had gone fuzzy. My mouth made a series of sounds but no sense .

My dizziness turned into something much stronger, and darkness rolled through my mind. It didn’t matter anymore. As the ground disappeared from beneath my feet, strong arms caught me before I impacted the pavement.

Damn it all to hell .

I’d done my best, but I didn’t have anything left. I love you, Mom. Don’t read too much into my being naked when they find me. My teeth chattered, and my body went limp, unable to fight against any attack of any kind now.

The cold of the night was too much for my bare skin, and my clothes were still in shreds on the ground, so I leaned into the warmth of the man who’d caught me.

Logan pulled me closer. A million static shocks thawed the chill, and the chattering of my teeth slowed. Without speaking, he held onto me as I fought against complete unconsciousness.

“What’s happening to me?” I finally whimpered.

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe, Emma.”

The rear of my car was still open, casting a dim light over us, and he placed me gently on the carpeted surface inside. Then he took a deep breath, and his lips brushed my cheek and his fingers grazed the rainbow tattoo on my hip.

And I gave in to the dark.