Slade (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 5) (9 page)

“Well, this is where I leave you,” Karina said, eyeing the sight of the road ahead.

“You sure you won’t come back with me?” Bud asked her. “I’d love to invite you to meet Susie. She’d cook us a fabulous dinner on the barbeque, to say thanks you know?”

Karina shook her head. It was tempting to just walk down the roadway back into civilization, but she wanted another day’s challenge at least. She was just finding her feet and her sense of direction, after all.

“I’ll look you up when I get back down to the main park, I promise,” she told Bud.

“Please do. We’re here ‘til Saturday,” he replied.

They shook hands, and he wrung her wrist with such gratitude that Karina felt her arm aching after he’d let go. She waved Bud off, watching his thin frame as he receded towards the horizon, fading out of her journey just as he’d faded into it. It had been nice to have a friend for a while, but now she had to move on alone and really feel the solitude she’d been searching for. As she turned to leave, however, she heard the rumble of a car coming up the road.

“Turning back?” called a voice nearby. “Why am I not surprised?”

Karina felt her gut twist. She turned angrily to the sight of the approaching Land Rover, and sure enough there was a handsome face sticking his head out of the window. Reinicke looked less sullen than usual, his set jaw replaced by a smug smile. She wasn’t sure which expression was more infuriating. Both of them got her right in the chest, making her throat dry when she tried to reply.

“Actually,” she began, clearing her throat, “I was just guiding a quitter back to civilization. You’ll find him a little ways down the track. His name is Bud and he could use a ride back to his wife at the campsite.”

The car had slowed to a stop beside her. Reinicke quirked a tawny brow.

“You telling me my job now?” he crooned.

“Someone clearly needs to,” Karina shot back, “or else you’ll be wasting your day offering your help to girls who don’t need it.”

Reinicke pouted a little, then nodded.

“Message received,” he said. “Although, I’d take Route 16 from this point, if I were you. It’s gorgeous at the riverside around lunchtime.”

Karina chewed on her lip for a moment.

“I’ll consider it,” she said.

Before his window rolled up, Karina could have sworn she caught the ghost of a smile on Reinicke’s lips.

***

He was annoyingly right about Route 16. It was a nice walk, not too challenging, but by no means easy, and Karina had a real sense of achievement by the time she hit the river. At midday, the sun directly overhead meant that you could see straight down into the crystal waters, and she sat on a rock to watch the shoals of fish that were swimming by under the surface. She had situated herself in the shade, resting up and filling up with water and protein bars, but the day was still remarkably hot. Sweat had soaked right through her clothes and her head felt a little heavy with the heat.

Part of the river here broke off into a separate pool which most of the fish avoided, and it looked about twice as deep as a bathtub. Karina navigated the rocks to reach the shady little pool, dipping a hand into the still water. It was blissfully cool, and she scooped up some water to splash against her face. The relief from even a handful of the water was too tempting, and she knew what she had to do. Karina stood up, kicking off her shoes, and stripped off her sweat-soaked clothes, even her underwear.

Here, she was alone and free, and it was wonderful to sink her naked body into the pool and feel cool all over. She paddled around a little and breathed a sigh, even dipping her hair into the water to rinse out the sweat. This was the life. She hadn’t had a phone-call in days, and there were no pressures or other people’s dramas to deal with. She could just be herself here. And yet, she wished that there was someone with her, so that she could say “Isn’t this wonderful?” and hear them agree. It was a perfect moment, one that would have been so much better if it was shared.

The snap of a branch brought her out of her reverie, and she looked in the direction of her pack. The bear with the shining eyes was back.

“Oh man,” she said to it without even thinking. “Don’t you dare. That food’s gotta last me another day at least, and I don’t want you ripping my bag open.”

The grizzly definitely had the claws to do it, but when he reached her bag, the bear did not try to get into it. He stepped over her discarded clothes and walked right past her, dipping his head to drink from the busier part of the river. Karina swam around, watching the creature with interest. He was so placid, yet totally independent of her. He didn’t seem to fear her like he had before. Now, she was just part of the scenery.

When she was fully cooled down, Karina ventured out of the pool. The bear, who had been glancing in her direction every so often, promptly turned its back as she emerged from the water. She stifled a laugh, rummaging in her bag for new clean clothes to put on.

“I’m just gonna say it,” she began playfully, “you’re a really weird bear.”

She wasn’t expecting another snap of a branch, nor the sudden voices which followed it. Panicked, Karina threw on her panties and desperately searched for more clothes, a chill rushing through her as she heard two male voices approaching from somewhere nearby. Any second, the pair of hikers would appear and see her frantic half naked form.

“Shit, shit, shit…” she mumbled, throwing things to and fro as she fumbled for a t-shirt.

Her panic appeared to have alerted the bear. Just as she managed to scramble into her shirt, two figures appeared through the trees to her left, and the bear made a leap from her right. Karina yelped, shocked by the sudden vaulting force of the wild animal as it jumped clean over the pool she’d been in, right into the path of the oncoming strangers. A low growl began to erupt from the creature, and Karina covered her mouth before another yelp could escape her.
 

“Whoa!” cried the first of the strangers, a young man with hiking sticks and khaki shorts.

“D-don’t w-worry miss,” stammered his equally youthful companion. “W-we’ll, w-w-w-we’ll scare this bear off f-f-f-for you.”

As if they could. Karina watched as the bear reared up onto its hind legs and let out a massive roar that rocked the whole area. She felt her damp body shiver with the force of the sound, combined with the sudden shrieks of the men. The strangers turned and ran at once, not even sparing her a second glance. She could have been mauled to death, for all they knew. Karina sighed, then jumped a little as the bear landed back on all fours with a thud.

“Geez,” she mused, “they’d have left me for dead. I guess there aren’t any gentlemen left in the world, huh?”

The bear glanced her way, those shining golden rings locked with hers for a moment. Karina felt something spark in her heart, and she quirked a brow. No. The thought that had
almost
hit her was impossible, almost totally unheard of. And yet. She stepped towards the bear, still studying his glowing gaze, reaching one hand out towards his massive head. Her whole body grew tense the closer she got, and yet she felt a wave of heat between them, a radiance that made her feel strangely safe.

“You can’t be an ordinary bear,” she reasoned softly.

Before she could touch him, the bear made a dash for it. He shook the ground as he deftly spun and scrambled back the way he had come, vanishing into the thickest trees before Karina had a chance to see where he was going. Her hand was still hovering in the air, waiting to touch him. She sighed again, and went back to searching for the rest of her clothes. Somewhere above her, the sky had sheathed itself with silver clouds, making the day darker and more humid than it had been before. Karina fumbled for her waterproof, fearing rain, but all the while her mind was on the golden gaze of the creature who had just fled the scene.

“Attention. Attention. Are you picking this up?
Bad driver lady
, come in. This is urgent.”

It took Karina a good long while to realize where the low, dry voice was coming from. Reinicke had never even had the decency to learn her name, and Karina felt somewhat inclined to leave him hanging as his voice rattled through on the radio. It was much later in the day, approaching evening, and the crystal clear rain had been falling solidly for a good hour now. Karina clutched the radio in one damp hand, watching droplets flick off the speaker as the voice came through again.

“Please answer me,” Reinicke said, “so I know that you’re safe.”

His tone was softer the second time, so much so that, on anyone else, Karina might have called the sound tender. It gave her one of those funny gut twists that she was rapidly learning to ignore. She held down the button on the side of the radio, holding it a little unsurely to her lips.

“What do you want, Ranger Boy?” she asked.

There was a sound of static at the other end. A sigh of relief? Karina couldn’t be sure, and she couldn’t stop herself from thinking that’s what it was.

“Listen, there’s a massive thunderstorm imminent,” Reinicke said, his tone suddenly darker. “I need you to get to the outpost before it hits. I’m here waiting, but I’ll come out and get you if-”

“No, no,” Karina said at once, “I can make it there. I’m not having any problems with the maps now, thank you.”

“Now?” Reinicke repeated, catching the word. “When were you having trouble?”

He sounded amused again now, and it made Karina grumble. She clasped the radio tighter.

“The outpost is marked off Route 12, right?” she said, glossing over his teasing question.

“Right,” he replied, “where are you now?”

“Never you mind,” she told him firmly. “I’m near. Gimme an hour at most.”

The last thing she needed was him trying to come to her rescue again, no matter how unpleasant the climate was getting. Underfoot, the dry earth had gradually soaked up the water, creating a muddy layer that slipped and slid beneath her boots. The world overhead was much darker than usual too, making the trees look sinister and full of shadows. When Karina consulted her map, the large droplets of water threatened to tear a few holes in the weak paper, but she managed to make out the marker for the outpost. The swiftest way to it was to climb the next hill and walk the ridge between that peak and the one on which the outpost stood.

That had seemed easy on paper. Karina had neglected to consult the difficulty level when she planned this sudden, rain-drenched route, and it took her the whole hour to reach the top of the considerable peak, which had looked fairly easy on the map. Still, when she reached the top, her body heavy with rainwater, she squinted through the drizzle to see the faint outline of the outpost. It was a wooden structure no bigger than an RV, built into the high hillside of the neighboring mountain. The weather up at the top was too poor to see much of it, even though it wasn’t that far away. All that stood between her and the outpost was a narrow walkway, no wider than two feet.

It was a straight enough path, and when she tested it with her foot, it didn’t seem too muddy. Alarm bells rang in Karina’s mind even as she began to step onto the ridge, but what other choice did she have? Going back around the other way would take hours, and the storm was well and truly closing in now. The world was dark and grey, shrouded in cloud and chill breezes at that height, and Karina desperately tried to keep her focus on the outline of the building in the near distance. It was imperative not to look down.

But she knew what was there. Even in her peripheral vision, Karina could see the sheer drop to her left and right. One side, the left, was a craggy cliff faces that was probably popular with climbers, littered with rocks that stuck out of the hill at jagged angles. She could hardly imagine the pain of hitting them one by one if she fell. The right was no better, for this side of the mountain was where the trees grew, albeit rather badly. Branches stuck out from hillside roots, rising like warning fingers to tell hikers to turn away. Karina found her footing again and strode on, focused as much as she could on the path ahead.

It was that focus which let her down. A sudden crack of lightning signaled the oncoming storm, and to Karina’s dismay the bolt landed only a few feet in front of her. The sudden column of light blinded her momentarily, and the shock of being thrown so far out of her concentration was too much. She jumped, a full jump where her feet came away from the ground, and when they reconnected, they hit the mud badly. Karina veered fearfully to the left as one foot slipped clean off the path, and when she tried to right herself by leaning the other way, she totally lost control of her balance.

In seconds she was tumbling down the right-hand side of the steep hill, connecting with branches that made a resounding crack against her body. Some of them were thin enough to snap on impact, but others bounced her down the hill like the flippers of a pinball machine. Her backpack took a lot of the hits, but every now and then her stomach or legs would connect with something sharp. She cried out every time as gravity delivered her a seemingly endless stream of smacks and cracks. There was no time for pain, no time to even breathe. All Karina could do in that moment was fall and scream.

The ground rose up to meet her at an alarming pace, and when she finally landed on something flat, it was a thicket of bushes that stung her skin the moment she touched them. Karina rolled down into the dark undergrowth, hoping she was fairly unhurt, but then two things happened to destroy all hope of recovery. Her foot caught sharply in the gap between some tree roots, halting her motion with a sudden jerk. And then, as her body violently came to a stop, she smashed her flailing arm against the hard, flat surface of a rock. She heard the loud, unmistakable crack in her forearm, and heaved out a sudden sob of shock.