Bearly Breathing (Werebears of New Hampshire #1)(17)

“God damn it!” Grace screamed as she clung onto Edwin’s kayak. “Those were seven hundred dollar sunglasses.”

She was draped over Edwin’s kayak like a kid about to be spanked as it flew out of control down the wild river. Stinging rain pelted her body as waves jumped up and smacked her across the face.

“Fucking Becca!” she screamed as she bounced up on the hard kayak. “This shit would never have happened in Ibiza!”

Becca couldn’t hear her. She was long gone. Connor and her had turned left in the river fork and she and Edwin had turned right. God knows where Angie was.

Grace tried to push herself up but slipped on the wet, smooth surface of Edwin’s kayak and fell back down with a thump.

“Will you pull this f*cking thin-” a wave slammed into her open mouth and she swallowed a pint of water. “Gross,” she mumbled. “Fish poop.”

It was like Mother Nature had pulled the ultimate bitch fit on her. What did I do to deserve this?

Edwin didn’t even seem bothered. He was silent, his face calm. Just a grunt here and there as he tried to control the unruly kayak on the ferocious river.

The kayak bounced on a huge wave and Grace flew up. A strong arm draped over her ass catching her, and pulled her back down. His hand never left her ass even though she was back on his lap and holding the kayak.

“Excuse me!” she yelled, squinting her eyes up against the pelting rain. “Do you mind?”

Edwin looked down at her and grinned. No way was this country boy, redneck going to put his hands on her, no matter how hot he was. She postured up with one hand and slapped him across the face with the other.

His arms flew up in shock and the paddle sailed out of his hands. It landed with a splash and traveled away from them down the river like a rocket.

The kayak began to vibrate under Grace as Edwin’s head shook. A grumbling was coming from him that was so loud it was drowning out the sound of the roaring river.

What the hell?

Edwin’s face was turning brown before her eyes. His nose was extending and turning black. She felt weight on her ass and turned to see his hands swelling up five times their size and turning brown. Long, thick claws extended from his fingertips.

She gasped as the kayak hit another wave and bounced. She looked back up at Edwin and screamed when there was a brown bear in his place. The kayak creaked and snapped as the massive bear stretched it out from within.

The unsteady weight of the bear toppled it over and she slid into the river head first. She plunged under the water flailing her arms and legs frantically. Her hand hit something furry. She grabbed a handful of fur and held on.

Her lungs were burning and she spit out her last bubble of air, when her head broke the surface. She gasped and breathed in. She was holding onto the bear as it was swimming towards the shore.

She almost let go, almost screamed when a wave crashed over her head. She breathed in desperate breaths and looked around for Edwin. The blue kayak was floating away down the river in pieces. Edwin wasn’t on it.

But she had seen Edwin change into this…no something was wrong. It couldn’t be. Her mind was playing tricks on her.

The rain started to let up, the darkness turning back to sunlight as the clouds moved on to f*ck someone else’s day up.

But she had seen what happened. This bear was Edwin.

The bear swam lazily to the shore. Grace held on until her feet scraped the squishy river ground. Ew!

She got to her feet and stood up. The water was waist high. The bear glanced at her with disinterested, soft brown eyes. She screamed and sprinted out of the water into the forest.

Grace ran.

All of those hours on the treadmill were finally paying off for something other than reducing her cellulite and tightening her ass. She raced through the trees, jumping over rocks and ducking under tree branches.

By the time that she stopped to look back she couldn’t see anything but trees. She had left that bear in the f*cking dust.

And now she was lost in the woods.

God damn it!

Grace looked back to see if the bear was following her. A flash of gray darted across a clearing and disappeared behind a bush.

She gasped. But the bear was brown. She heard footsteps behind her in the other direction and spun back around. There was nothing there but she could feel a dark presence. Something was watching her.


A low growl, like her neighbors’ doberman watchdog, filled the forest, sending her closely trimmed arm hairs up.

A skinny, ragged, gray wolf walked out of the trees on her right. She spun around and gulped. This wolf didn’t look like the wolves that she saw on TV. Grace could count his ribs. His hair was matted in some areas and chewed off in others. He stared at her with hungry, desperate eyes.

Another wolf stepped out of the bushes behind her. Another in front. Two more to her left.

Grace tapped the pocket of her shorts just in case her cell phone was there to call her Senator Dad. Maybe he could drop a SEAL team from a helicopter to save her.

Nope.

She was on her own.





Edwin drank some river water in his bear form as the blond ran out of the water into the forest. Where is she going? To the bathroom?

He stared at her baby blue shorts as she ran away. Her ass moved like a chipmunk’s cheeks full of nuts. An invisible force felt like it slapped him across the face and he jerked his head back. The forest disappeared around her as only she remained in his view. His bear legs weakened and he collapsed into the water.