Bear Trapped (Bear Creek Grizzlies #5)

4. Lauren

LAUREN

L auren was minding her own business, chopping wood, when a series of sharp retorts echoed through the air. She froze and stared in the general direction. Gunshots. Definitely gunshots. High powered rifles with measured, deliberate shots. It didn’t sound like anything she’d heard in the two months since she’d been at the cabin. Something roared and all the small animals disappeared. Not even the birds moved.

Was it hunters illegally shooting elk or deer out of season? Or was it cops searching for her who’d run across some other kind of illegal activity? Surely there were other felons or fugitives hiding out in the wilderness.

She held her breath, axe in hand, and waited for something else to happen: someone running up the trail toward her, more howling or the sound of a dying elk, more gunshots, things breaking. Anything except the eerie quiet that followed.

She swallowed hard and glanced back at the cabin. She hadn’t expected anyone else to be close enough for her to hear gunshots, and since she hadn’t seen many traces of rangers or anyone else in the vicinity… What if bounty hunters searched for her and tried to scare her into running so they caught her away from the cabin? They could have run across a wolf or a bear or something and wanted to scare it off, too, or maybe… maybe they found something even more intimidating: Sasquatch.

Something big moved nearby and made a low, keening noise. Her heart jumped to her throat. What was that? Injured animals were incredibly dangerous, and she only had an old shotgun for self-defense. And the axe. The shotgun was more likely to explode in her hands if she actually tried to fire it, so… She hefted it. Not that she wanted to get close enough to an injured bear or wolf or elk that an axe would make the difference, since if that happened, something else had gone horribly wrong.

And what if it was a Sasquatch, injured and alone? Maybe dying? Could she really leave it there, suffering an alone? Or leave any animal to suffer until it died from blood loss or was killed by some other predator?

Lauren tried to ignore it. She retreated to the cabin and stared at the door, wishing for the first time for some kind of cell phone reception, just in case she needed to… The thought set her back a second. Who would she call? It wasn’t like the police or paramedics would be able to respond fast enough to help her, if something went wrong, and they’d for sure arrest her regardless of what happened.

She started to investigate at least half a dozen times before turning back around and pacing through the falling-apart cabin again. A Sasquatch could be out there and she was missing her opportunity to document and help it. Maybe save its life. She would be known as the person who saved the Sasquatch from vicious hunters, and maybe that would…

Well, the bail bondsman wouldn’t give a shit if she saved a Sasquatch, he’d still want his money back and she’d still end up in jail. And Lauren was pretty sure folks in the county jail wouldn’t be impressed by that sort of thing, either. It might help fundraising for a better defense attorney than the public defender she’d been assigned initially.

She finally couldn’t take it, though, and strode toward where she thought she’d heard the sounds. She brought the machete she’d found in the cabin and the old shotgun, more for intimidation than because she expected the weapons to help her out. She definitely didn’t have the stomach to shoot a person, and she seriously doubted she could shoot a Sasquatch. Hunting small animals and the occasional deer was one thing, but having to make the choice to confront a human or cryptid…

She shivered and slowed her pace, straining to hear anything through the trees and the slowly-returning bird calls. At least there hadn’t been any more gunshots for quite a while, and no one shouted or threatened. No one screamed, either. A good sign, maybe. It didn’t keep her heart from pounding against her ribs and trying to break out of her chest entirely. She’d never been brave. Ever.

The first thing she heard was breathing—deep, heavy breathing, more like panting. Stressed. Pained.

Lauren crept closer to a huge, dark bulk half hidden in brush off the tiny deer track she’d used to get closer. It didn’t move until a twig broke under her foot, and then the breathing silenced and the forest stilled.

Her hands shook and she almost dropped the shotgun. She wet her lips and tried to edge closer as the giant thing didn’t move. It was certainly big enough to be Sasquatch, and it definitely… smelled like it could have been a wildman. Or a bear. Something really terrifying…

But at least it wasn’t a regular man: dark, thick fur covered what she spotted through the leaves and dim shadows.

Her heart jumped to her throat as it groaned and moved, pulling against something, and the massive brown bulk strained. Sasquatch . She’d found him. Dear God, she’d found him. She started shaking. And she didn’t… She didn’t have her camera. Or even her phone. Nothing. Stupid Lauren! What was wrong with her? Lauren shook her head over and over, desperate. Maybe she could run back to the cabin to grab her phone, at least to get some evidence. But what if the Sasquatch left? Or died? Oh no. Oh no. Why wasn’t there anyone else with her?

Lauren stumbled back so quickly she tripped and landed hard on her ass as it flopped over and she saw the ears. A bear. A huge brown bear, larger than any she’d seen in the park, even at a distance. Holy shit. Holy shit .

Even as her guts clenched to see a bear that close, her heart dropped to know she hadn’t found a Sasquatch. Another disappointment in a very long life of disappointments. Lauren shook her head and tried to focus. She’d mourn that later. Now… Now she had a giant damn bear looking at her from a couple feet away.

The shotgun wouldn’t make a difference against an animal that large, especially if it was hurt or enraged. Her mouth dried out and her vision blurred. It was a thousand times more terrifying than even being in court and facing years in jail. She wouldn’t have minded if a whole slew of bounty hunters popped up out of nowhere to drag her away to safety.

But the bear didn’t swipe or charge toward her. Its massive head lifted and swung in her direction, the broad snout snuffling and sniffling the air, though it remained prone in the dirt. Lauren frowned as the terror started to clear from her thoughts as the animal didn’t move. That wasn’t a comfortable position, certainly, even for a grizzly bear.

She eased back to her feet, clutching the shotgun, and worked at breathing normally. “Hi, bear.”

It tensed but didn’t react except to look at her with surprisingly clear honey-brown eyes. She couldn’t look away as it watched her. Lauren had never seen knowledge and pain like that in an animal’s eyes. It took her breath away again, and she braced against a nearby tree so she didn’t pass right out. She almost believed it would answer her, if she just asked the right question.

She swallowed hard. “Are you hurt, bear?”

She must have lost her mind. She stayed and talked to the injured bear instead of running away like a sane person would. He could charge and kill her at any moment. But her chest hurt at just the thought of leaving him there to die alone or to suffer until something else came along and killed him. Or the hunters tracked him down and finished him off.

The bear didn’t respond, of course, but kept watching her. It turned slightly and a huffy groan escaped, and the clink-clank of metal on metal made Lauren blink. She searched for what caused the noise, since she didn’t think bears typically walked around with metal on them, and swallowed a curse when she saw what kept the bear from really moving: a massive trap clamped high on its back right leg.

Lauren whispered, “Oh damn,” and sank to sit on her heels. “That’s a kick in the balls.”

It must have been her imagination, but it seemed like the bear huffed an amused snort and tried to turn more toward her, though it did so gingerly to avoid moving its leg.

She rubbed her temples and tried to figure out what the hell to do. She couldn’t free the bear from the trap without getting close enough for the bear to tear her apart with its claws and teeth. But she couldn’t shoot it to put it out of its misery, since he would survive the bear trap injury if he just escaped, and she didn’t want to murder such a magnificent animal.

Because he was damn impressive—sleek with rich brown fur, round tufted ears, terrifying claws easily longer than her fingers, and teeth that glinted white as he grumbled and watched her closely. And those brown eyes, like melted milk chocolate now instead of honey, that watched her like he knew she wanted to help.

He didn’t act like he wanted to eat her, even as he tracked her every movement. He didn’t threaten or bluster or even stretch, almost as if he didn’t want to scare her off, and continued breathing in that uneven, half-growling sound.

Lauren swallowed the knot in her throat and sat heavily in the dirt as her legs gave out, and she finally uncurled her hands from where they’d kept a death grip on the shotgun. “I’m sorry, bear. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to help you. I wish there was a way… I don’t have any tranquilizers so I can get rid of that trap without you trying to eat me. Not that I think I’m strong enough to get you out of that.”

He didn’t respond, of course, though he rested his head on his front paws to watch her. Almost like he tried to make himself look smaller and less intimidating to encourage her to get closer. And damn her if she wasn’t tempted to edge over to see whether he reacted. The trap had to be chained to something, so it wasn’t like the bear would chase her that far.

Not that she thought she could actually run, with her legs wobbling like Jell-O. Lauren worked her aching fingers and wrists. She’d held on to the machete and shotgun so hard everything hurt and her fingers didn’t want to straighten out. The chill in the air definitely didn’t help. It worked into her bones as she sat on the ground, since she’d forgotten her jacket before storming out of the cabin like an idiot. Her vision blurred as she stared at the bear as it stared at her.

She’d always been a screwup, but she’d never screwed up this badly. She couldn’t do anything right. She tried to protest to protect the environment and Sasquatches, and ended up arrested for someone else’s crime. She ran away to hide from the trial she knew she’d lose, and was barely surviving. She couldn’t even remember to put a jacket on in the late fall. She was actually considering getting closer to an injured bear because it hurt its paw and she felt sorry for it.

Her breath caught. God, what was she going to do? She was only twenty-two and already her life was over. She couldn’t move forward but she couldn’t go back. She had nothing, no safety net or way to get her feet under her. No family to help her, no friends who wanted to take in a fugitive. She couldn’t go to jail. She couldn’t.

Lauren pulled her knees up to her chest and hid her face, even though it was stupid to take the risk less than five feet away from an injured grizzly bear. The tears were coming and she didn’t want even the beast to see. If she could have stood up, she would have run the hell away to hide in the cabin. She sniffled and tried to smother the miserable sounds. She didn’t want the bear to figure out she’d be easy prey. Well, easier prey than she already was.

She’d begun to wallow when a strange tearing sound filled the air around her and someone groaned. A real groan, not the bear equivalent. Lauren tensed, not daring to look up. She didn’t think she wanted to see whatever had just happened.