Chapter 9
If Grayson didn’t have Kendra in his arms this morning, snuggling with her in her double sleeping bag, he would have been up and out of the tent, searching for Younger.
But damn, she felt good, and he didn’t want to separate from her for anything.
Which made him think about Kendra’s comment that she might need some convincing to leave the sleeping bag in the morning, which sure applied to him now too.
Kendra was still sound asleep, her breathing light, her body soft, warm, and naked against his. Then she stirred, opened her eyes, smiled at him, and sighed. “I guess you’re waiting for me to wake up so we can search the forest to look for Younger?”
“Nope. I’ve been enjoying this time with you, nice and close and comfortable. I didn’t want to leave the sleeping bag for anything.”
She chuckled. “Good. I thought I was the only one who had no control over how I was feeling.”
“Nope. Me too. You’re too irresistible.”
“Likewise.”
He kissed her, but didn’t make any move to leave the sleeping bag yet. It was still dark out.
“Should we just go and get this over with?” Kendra rested her head against his chest.
He ran his hand through her silky hair, leaned down, and kissed the top of her head. “If he wasn’t someone who could potentially be really dangerous to other women, I would consider staying with you a while longer.”
“Yeah, same here.”
Then he unzipped the sleeping bag and began getting dressed. He yanked on his boxer briefs and cargo pants.
“I don’t hear any rain.” She pulled on her panties and tried to fasten her bra in the back.
“Yeah, it sounds like it has stopped.” He joined her and fastened her bra for her.
“Thanks.”
He slid his T-shirt over his head, featuring a grizzly bear snarling. “You’re welcome.”
“I like your T-shirt. It reminds me of me when I haven’t had enough sleep or food.”
He took her into his arms and held her close, looking down into her face as their gazes met, a small smile on her lips. “Then I’ll have to make sure you get plenty of sleep and food to eat.”
“Then I will be like this.” She kissed his mouth, then pulled away and lifted a T-shirt out of her bag that featured a grizzly floating on its back in a lake, looking like it was having the time of its life.
He took it from her and pulled it over her head. “Now that’s better. Maybe we can do that at some time.”
“I would love that.”
They finished dressing and made a quick breakfast of oatmeal topped with walnuts, almonds, and pecans, mixed dried fruit, brown sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon, along with cups of coffee.
After they finished breakfast, they put out the fire and cleaned up.
Then they grabbed their jackets and backpacks and headed out, the stars filling the dark sky.
It was beautiful while a whisper of a cool breeze flowed through the trees, stirring the fir branches as they started hiking back to where they had entered the forest. The other campers were still asleep, with no campfire, no conversations, and no coffee or breakfast food scenting the air.
Not that Grayson was surprised. It was really early. They wanted to catch Younger unaware when it was still dark out, and they could see, but he couldn’t without the aid of a flashlight or lantern.
Grayson and Kendra were quiet as they continued through the woods in the same direction they had gone before, finally reaching the torn-up campsite.
Younger’s smell was here, stronger than before, so they knew he had been here sometime after they had destroyed his tent and the wild bear had eaten his food.
Grayson wished he could have seen Younger’s expression when he discovered a bear had destroyed his camp. He shouldn’t have been camping in the forest. He should have been at a campsite. Though a grizzly still could have torn up a tent at a campsite.
Would Younger try to live off the land, or would he leave and get more supplies and start all over again? Or maybe just leave.
They took hold of each other’s hands and continued to hike through the forest. Birds tweeted all over the place.
A white-headed woodpecker pecked away at a tree, looking for bugs to eat.
A raptor flew overhead, screeching, looking for its next meal.
A brightly colored orange tanager was sitting on a branch with an insect in its beak.
They smelled the male grizzly too. He wasn’t close by, they didn’t think, but he could return.
“Do you want to shift?” she asked.
“Yeah, let’s do it.”
They moved about a half mile from Younger’s camp, and then they made sure that they didn’t get caught shifting.
Once they were certain Younger wasn’t anywhere near where they were, and that the wild male bear wasn’t either, they began stripping their clothes off, tucking them into their backpacks, and hiding them in the brush.
Then they shifted and rubbed muzzles together. They licked each other’s faces, then swung their heads back and forth, smelling the air, deciding where to go next. They headed back to the camp, and then they left again, following where Younger had gone.
As grizzlies, they continued to search for Younger, but damned if they didn’t run into the same male bear they were trying to avoid.
They paused. If they confronted him, staring him in the eyes, that was aggression.
But Grayson was ready to fight the bear.
He didn’t want to appear subservient, even though he knew that if he fought the bear to protect Kendra from him, she might get involved in the fight and could be hurt.
And truly, he didn’t want to injure the male bear either.
Kendra nudged at Grayson, encouraging him to take a step back, but the bear wanted her and charged Grayson.
He knew it would. If he had backed off like Kendra wanted him to, telling the other bear he wasn’t going to fight him, he was certain the grizzly would have gone after him anyway. Grayson was too close to Kendra, and the bear would be sure Grayson wanted her for his own.
The bear charged at Grayson and bit him in the right shoulder.
Grayson bit the bear back in the face, their teeth clashing.
Grayson fought back, slapping him with his powerful paws.
The bear backed off, but he wasn’t done.
With his teeth bared, he came at Grayson, grabbing the back of his head.
Grayson was trying to shake him loose, but bent down under the bear's weight and aggression.
The bear was not an easy opponent, and Grayson knew the bear wasn’t new at this.
Grayson came at the bear’s head, forcing him down this time, when suddenly Kendra attacked the bear from behind.
The wild bear swung around to bite her. But she was smaller and couldn’t fight a bear that big or aggressive.
Grayson tore into his backside to get him to turn around and face him. That did the trick, and the bear pivoted and attacked Grayson again. Ferocious, hearts pounding, burning up calories in the primal, aggressive action, both were becoming exhausted.
The bear tried to grab his neck and force him down, but Grayson got the best of him and grabbed his neck and pushed with all his might to hold the bear down.
The bear was swinging his arms, his deadly claws trying to reach Grayson.
The testosterone-fueled males kept fighting, the bear freeing himself as the two reared up, mouths wide, baring wicked teeth, biting, clashing, growling.
They backed away from each other for a moment, gathering their energy for another bout. He wanted to make sure Kendra was okay, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the wild bear.
Grayson had even seen wild bears mating in the park, and another male bear attacking the other male just to get the female! So it wasn’t even like once a bear was in the middle of mating, it was a done deal. It wasn’t like a sow had chosen a male, and no other bears need apply.
The bear came at him again. Hell. He just wasn’t giving up.
Grayson knew that even if Kendra left, they still had to fight it out.
He’d torn part of the bear’s skin off, but the bear had clawed him and torn some of his skin too.
At least as a shifter, it would heal quickly, but as a wild bear, it would take so much longer, and he would be scarred for life.
Plus, depending on the severity of his injuries, Grayson feared this would end his search for Younger.
Then the bear came at him again, probably assuming that if he was as aggressive as he could be, Grayson would give up.
Even if he tried to run away from the fight, to break it off, he knew the bear would come after him.
Kendra came after the bear again, and Grayson quickly stepped in to garner the bear’s attention, again to keep him from hurting her.
This time, the bear acted like he’d had enough and hurried off.
Females did not defend a male she was mating.
She would become highly aggressive and fight off males to protect her cubs, but in the wild, females mated with several males.
She would just wait around for the winning male and mate him, keeping herself out of danger until the males were done.
So the bear had to have been thoroughly confused. When he loped off, she nuzzled Grayson’s face.
He ached all over from the bear’s claw marks, the torn skin from the bear biting him, and the muscles that he’d overworked. But he didn’t want to stop searching for Younger.
It was probably a lost cause. Not because of his injuries. He could probably just get some stitches and bandages and continue to search for him. But Kendra was ripe for any grizzly in the area to vie for the chance to mate with her.
He kept looking forward, sniffing the air, wanting so badly to look for Younger, while she waited beside him, letting him decide what he intended to do.
He wanted to keep her safe. He licked her face and motioned to return to camp.
Younger might have left the park after all his gear was destroyed.
He might even be worried about the grizzly coming for him.
If he’d witnessed the fighting grizzlies, Younger probably would have decided this was too dangerous for him.
Grayson let out a sigh and a growl, then rubbed his head against hers where it didn’t hurt, then he indicated with his head that he wanted to return to their camp.