Bear Trapped (Bear Creek Grizzlies #5)

17. Finn

FINN

H e heard her start to spiral into a panic attack and didn’t want her to completely lose control outside. Screaming would bring the other smugglers down on top of them faster, and the snowstorm presented a very short-lived opportunity. He could confuse the trail leading away from the bodies before it became covered with snow, and there was a possibility he could completely disguise the bodies and the incident itself in the snow so the smugglers would not find them until spring. There wasn’t time to waste.

Already his leg ached and the thought of going back outside into the cold made him want to curl up on the mattress next to Lauren and sleep until the snow stopped falling. It wasn’t an option, though. One problem had to be solved at a time, and now that Lauren was safely inside and warm, the next problem was dealing with the possibility of smugglers surrounding the cabin with guns and trying to kill them both.

Lauren cowered near the unlit fire and watched him with wide, unblinking eyes. Finn didn’t think his nudity would distract her this time. He stayed crouched down, just out of reach, so as not to loom over her or pressure her. “I’m going to get some wood for the fire, Lauren. I need you to stay here, okay? It’s not safe outside.”

“There are bears outside,” she whispered.

Finn didn’t want to laugh and had to bite the inside of his cheek. Lauren still hovered on the verge of a complete breakdown. He nodded, patting her hand where it rested on the mattress. “There are. Will you promise me you’ll stay inside? Stay right here under the blankets?”

Lauren blinked at him. Finn debated whether he could actually leave her, and the risk if he didn’t. He took a deep breath and handed her a few protein bars, then leaned to kiss her forehead. She pulled back and he stilled, swallowing his disappointment. Sure, she’d just seen him turn back from a bear. Her reaction shouldn’t have been a surprise, since she’d already seen him shift forms, but maybe she didn’t realize what happened the first time.

Finn struggled. He didn’t want to leave her. She looked so adrift and frightened, and to know that he’d contributed to it… His chest ached. How would he make it up to her?

The bear knew the answer: by protecting her, feeding her, keeping her warm.

He nodded, said quietly, “I’ll be right back, just stay put,” and he pushed to his feet before he lost his nerve and stayed there with her.

Finn waited to shift back to bear form until he was outside and had shut the door, then immediately lumbered into to the tree line. He pushed down some of the dead trees standing around the cabin. They needed the firewood, and he could prop the logs up outside the door to make sure no one else bothered her. And to make sure Lauren didn’t bolt into the snow and freeze to death.

Then he focused on dealing with the men who might attempt to hunt them down. The snow flew fast and furious and already drifted in places along the narrow trail. His tracks from the flight back had already been buried, so that was good news, at least. He stayed away from the trail and instead made his way through the trees. He moved slowly and strained to hear any hints of other predators moving through the forest—human or animal.

Only a hint of blood remained just off the trail, and snow covered the lumps of the bodies. Finn continued past them a ways, searching for any indication that the rest of their team searched for them, but it seemed like everyone else had settled in to survive the blizzard that brewed over the mountains. Which was good for him and the nasty business he was about.

It didn’t take much effort for a grizzly to drag the bodies toward town and down the hill from where they’d come. He didn’t want anyone to realize the sons of bitches made it to the trail and crossed Lauren’s path. As he worked, he puzzled over some of the things she’d said. She thought the smugglers were trying to take her to jail. She’d panicked when talking to him or thinking he would take her to town. She’d said something about everything falling apart again, which meant her life must have fallen apart before.

Finn grumbled and stuffed one of the bodies into a narrow crevice, then wedged the other one in. He pushed a couple of massive rocks over the crevice, covered it with some leaves and sticks to conceal any hint of fabric, and got out of the way to let the snow cover the rest. He worked his way back to the trail and took care of a few more lingering clues before turning back to the cabin. He’d crushed the radios they both carried, so at least there wouldn’t be sounds coming from the crevice and the bodies.

He wasn’t troubled in the slightest about dealing with the smugglers. But he worried about Lauren. What if he’d scared her away forever by manhandling her and dragging her around as a bear? She’d have questions about the smugglers and what he said to them, why they grabbed her out of nowhere, and obviously she’d want to know about the bear thing. His answers would make or break whatever nascent thing remained between them.

Finn waited outside in the trees, halfway between the cabin and where he’d confronted the smugglers, and listened to the soft hiss and crackle of snow piling up all around. It fell faster than he’d seen since the previous Christmas. And his senses told him no end was in sight. The clouds would likely make the sat phone irrelevant until the storm passed, so he couldn’t call Simon and the guys for an assist.

He listened for more activity from the rest of the smugglers but the afternoon sun dimmed until it was dark as night and nothing else moved. Finn knew they hadn’t escaped all the trouble coming their way, but he’d at least delayed it, hopefully until he called in reinforcements or figured out how to get Lauren out to town safely and unobserved. But first he had to convince her to calm down and accept that he was a shifter. That shifters existed. That someone threatened her and there were bigger dangers than him in the forest.

He stayed off the trail and in the trees as he lumbered in a circuitous route back to the cabin, glad that the cold had numbed most of the pain from his leg, and studied the structure to make sure no one else had arrived while he was gone. No sign of movement disturbed the clean blanket of snow around the building. Of course, enough snow had fallen that it could have easily covered Lauren’s prints if she managed to sneak out through one of the holes in the cabin roof or walls.

Which he needed to patch before a whole fucking snow drift formed inside the living room.

But first, firewood. Finn clawed apart the trees he’d felled near the door until most of the logs were small enough to fit through the door and feed into the fireplace. He had to keep Lauren warm, and ideally with a fire rather than making her curl up next to his bear form.

He braced himself for the freezing cold and the shock of pain in his leg as he transformed, but the combination took his breath away until he fell against the rickety cabin door and squeezed his eyes shut to control the misery so he didn’t scream. He didn’t want to scare Lauren, and he damn well didn’t want to give away their location to any other predators in the forest.

He fumbled the door open and fell through, bringing logs and snow with him, and immediately scanned the room for Lauren.

She still huddled on the mattress near the corner, only her eyes visible over the sleeping bag she’d pulled up to hide behind. Finn relaxed for just a heartbeat when he saw her; at least she hadn’t run. At least she’d stayed there.

Of course, he’d left two trees across the doorway to discourage her from leaving.

He focused on hauling as much of the trees through the doorway as possible. Stacking it neatly would wait, after he used the pocket saw to cut them into reasonable lengths. When he couldn’t tolerate the cold air against his naked skin another second, he shut the door and retrieved more clothes. Finn kept every motion slow and deliberate as he moved through the cabin, knowing that Lauren’s gaze followed him everywhere. The tarp he used for a cover while camping sealed off the biggest hole in the roof, supplemented with some of the larger chunks of bark from the logs, and he stuffed more bark into the larger cracks between the logs in the wall.

Lauren’s frantic breathing eventually evened out as Finn worked; he kept his ear tuned to her, listening to her breathing and every indication that she shifted her weight or moved around. It wasn’t until he’d done as much as he could to repair that side of the cabin that he approached her side. She tensed, but Finn carefully didn’t look directly at her as he stacked logs in the fireplace and got it going with all the splinters that clung to his clothes.

He didn’t speak until it crackled and popped merrily, the bright flames kicking out enough heat that his face tightened. Finn kept his voice low. “We need to talk about some things, I think.”

She sucked in a breath and hugged her knees to her chest. “We don’t. It’s okay. I think I hallucinated and I’m sorry those g-guys bothered you or tried to take your money, and I won’t…”

“Not them,” he said. Finn sat on the edge of the mattress, just out of reach, and hoped she would keep breathing and eventually relax again. “About me.”

Her eyes got bigger. “I’m sorry I ran. I know it wasn’t smart and I knew you’d track me down, but I couldn’t just sit here and wait for them to arrest me again. I didn’t want you to be the one who turned me in, I wanted my memories of you to be…untainted. Whoever is coming to get me, I won’t fight. I promise. Just…don’t let them hurt me, okay?”

Finn frowned, trying to catch up with what the hell Lauren was talking about. But he couldn’t overreact without scaring her. She didn’t want him to arrest her? She feared someone coming to get her, possibly hurting her? The bear knew that shit wasn’t going to happen ever again, but he needed to know what he might face. Was she linked to the smugglers in some way? Did those men actually know her and intend to even a score with her?

He shook his head and took a deep breath. “Back up, babe. I meant we need to talk about how I turned into a bear. What are you talking about? Who is going to turn you in, and for what? Why would someone be coming here to hurt you?”

Her head tilted, but the sleeping bag slipped lower as the air around them warmed. “The bounty.”

As if that explained everything. Finn still couldn’t get over the fact that she hadn’t said anything about the bear. The other issue owned all the real estate in her head, clearly, which made him even more concerned for her. What the hell kind of problems did she face that him turning into a grizzly took second seat?

“What bounty?”

“My…” She paused, then her mouth snapped shut. He watched her trying to reorder the world, maybe search for a trap, but she finally put her face in her hands and groaned. “I can’t do this. I can’t. My bounty. The bounty you’re here to collect by turning me in.”

“The bounty I’m here to collect,” he repeated slowly. What the hell was she talking about?

“I know,” she wailed. Tears broke free and she dashed at her cheeks. “It’s just not fair. Why did you have to be a bounty hunter? I tried to be good in my life, I really tried to help people and it’s not my fault what happened that night. It’s not my fault. I feel terrible that he almost died but I really wasn’t…”

She hiccupped and kept talking, though he couldn’t understand a damn syllable between the tears and high pitch and increasing tempo. Finn edged closer and held his hands out to get her attention. He wanted to wrap himself around her to smother away the fears and regrets. He would fix everything. He would fix everything for her and they would find a happy place to live together forever. “Hold on, Lauren. I need you to take a deep breath. We can figure it all out, I just need you to start from the beginning. I don’t understand what you’re talking about, darlin’.”

Lauren still snuffled and sniffed, wiping at her cheeks, and looked so miserable he couldn’t help himself. Finn eased to sit next to her and put an arm around her shoulders, holding her close. He waited, breathing deep and even in the hopes she would follow, and waited for her to release some of that fear and tension.

She had a bounty on her, then. Although it could have been a real bounty or something from the smugglers. And for some reason she thought he was there to claim it? He leaned his head back against the wall and half closed his eyes. He only wanted to breathe her in and enjoy being close to her. Maybe exhaustion left her confused, after everything that morning and the day before. They could rest and enjoy the warmth for a little while, before he had to confront reality. Including figuring out who almost died and why Lauren was involved.