Bearly Breathing (Werebears of New Hampshire #1)(13)

Rebecca looked at him crooked. “Do you have a stove in your pocket?”

He smiled and pulled out more roots and stripped the plants off. Rebecca imagined how Mark would handle himself out here. He would probably be sobbing by the river praying that a more manly man would come rescue him. Actually she wouldn’t have been around to see it. She would’ve drowned without Connor there to save her. Mark wasn’t the best swimmer.

Connor rose slowly with his face still and serious. He stared over Rebecca’s shoulder into the forest. Shivers crawled up her neck.

She glanced back but saw nothing. Only trees.

Connor lifted his chin and inhaled through his nose, never taking his eyes away from that spot.

“What is it?” Rebecca asked, holding her elbow.

“Nothing,” he said, with a tight, forced smile. There was a hint of unease in his face. His dimples were hidden. “Let’s keep walking.”

He folded his t-shirt around the scavenged food and headed in the opposite direction of where he was staring. Rebecca had a sinking feeling that something was out there.

She looked back at the darkening forest and felt eyes on her. The frightened hairs on her arm raised up in attention.

She rushed to keep up with him.





Connor glanced at the sky. He had about an hour until all of the sunlight was gone and they would be pitched in darkness. He had to stop to make a fire and build some shelter for the night but he couldn’t. Not with an angry black bear on their tail.

He could smell him. They were in a dominant bear’s territory. He had been following them for the past twenty minutes. He must’ve smelled Connor’s bear and not liked it.

Connor was trying to leave his territory rather than pick a fight. He didn’t want to terrify Rebecca by changing into a Kodiak bear in front of her. How would that look for his company on Google Reviews?

Connor was having a hard time being himself. How could he try to be with another man’s mate? He glanced sideways at her. She had been keeping his fast pace, not slowing down and not complaining. She even seemed to be enjoying the hike, looking up at the trees, admiring them. How could he not try to be with her?


“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she blurted out, cutting the silence of the forest.

Connor almost tripped. “What?” he asked, feeling like somebody just shoved him.

Rebecca’s cheeks turned red and she looked at the ground, not wanting to meet his eye. “I don’t know why I just said that,” she said. She laughed nervously. Heaviness lifted off of Connor’s shoulders like a cloud. He was glad that she was looking away because he couldn’t stop smiling.

“I was engaged,” she said. “We were supposed to get married last month but he cheated on me. With my wedding planner.”

Connor felt fluttering in his stomach. He couldn’t believe the stupidity of some people. How could someone throw away a treasure like her?

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Up until you pulled me out of the water I was always hoping that we would get back together. I blamed myself for what he did. I thought maybe I wasn’t pretty enough or not fun enough. I thought that if I could just have a second chance I would do whatever I could to make him happy.”

They stopped walking. Connor gazed at her, mesmerized by every detail of her face. Her long eyelashes, her cute ears. Everything disappeared around him.

“When I was under the water I thought that I was going to die. I made a vow to myself that if I got out of this alive that I would live my life for me. Not for him. But for me.”

Connor felt lightheaded in her presence. His inner bear was grumbling, moving around inside him.

“I’m not getting back together with him,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m done.”

Connor’s bear was running circles inside him. He was growling, fighting to be let loose.

Rebecca looked past Connor and her face dropped. Her mouth hung open and her eyes went wide as all the color in her face drained.

“Connor,” she whispered, quiet as a mouse.

A loud roar filled the air as Connor felt hot breath on the back of his neck.





Rebecca meant what she had said. She was over Mark. There was no going back. She was proud of herself, finally making a decision for her and not what was best for their relationship.

Rebecca saw a flash of black in the trees behind Connor and her heart skipped a beat. She thought that her mind was playing tricks on her until an enormous black bear burst out of the trees and stormed over with his head low and the hair on his back sticking up.

She froze. Her fight or flight instinct malfunctioned and she just stood there unable to move, like a car with a seized engine. She finally managed to whimper out Connor’s name right before the black bear roared. Connor’s hair blew forward. Little specks of spit flew into her face.

The bear’s terrible black eyes were focused on the back of Connor’s head. The bear’s teeth were the size of daggers. Her head could’ve fit into his mouth, and that’s probably what he had planned.

I survived a near death experience to die an even worse death an hour later. Rebecca would’ve preferred drowning to being eaten by a bear.

Connor turned slowly and faced the bear. He raised his hand and pointed to the forest. “Go,” he commanded.

The bear lowered his head and growled. He stepped to the side, circling Connor. Connor pivoted, following him, never taking his eyes off the beast.