Chapter Four
Poppy didn’t know how she was able to fall asleep, especially with a bear cub in the same cave, yet she did.
She woke up, curled against Wilder’s chest, and the cub was still asleep beside him as well. The fire was out, and she saw sunlight coming in from the cave entrance.
“You slept well,” Wilder said, and she jerked in his arms, to see he was already awake.
“You’re awake.”
“That’s what happens when you don’t sleep,” he said.
“You didn’t sleep?” She was shocked.
“Didn’t need to.”
The cub made a cute little noise, and she looked down to see Wilder stroking the cub’s fur. It was like he was soothing the little bear. She had never been this close to a bear before and her heart started to race.
“It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. If you start to show fear, then he will start to fear you, and trust me, you don’t want that. He’s been through enough. He lost his mother yesterday. It will be hard on him.”
She frowned because it was like he spoke to him.
“He’s going to be getting hungry, and, well, we could be his meal,” she said.
Wilder laughed. “There’s a stream not too far from here. Come on, you can use the bathroom out there, and I’ll catch him some food.”
She felt her cheeks start to heat because she did need to go to the bathroom. She was getting a little on the desperate side. Although the thought of going out in the wild with Wilder knowing, embarrassed her.
They left the confines of the cave, and she noticed Wilder stamped his foot into the fire embers, completely stopping it from burning.
Wilder bent down and picked up the little cub, holding it in his arms, as if it was nothing more than a child.
She knew it had to have weighed close to a hundred pounds, but she loved the way he cared for the bear.
It was so sweet to finally see someone take care of animals, rather than find the means to kill them.
Yesterday, she had been so sickened by what she had seen.
It was why she wanted to bring those poachers to justice, rather than worry about her own safety.
She followed Wilder, and she noticed he went off the main path. At first, she stopped and looked at him, and then at the marked path.
He must have sensed she was waiting for an explanation. “Those poachers are still out there. They’re still hunting you. I’m not going to make it easy for them. This way, we can get to the stream, I can feed this little one, and we can all survive.”
Poppy couldn’t argue with him. She had no way of knowing where she was, or how to get where they were going.
Along the way she lost her map, her wallet, everything, and that alone was terrifying.
If she didn’t have it on her anymore, it could mean the poachers already knew who she was.
They would kill her, of that she had no doubt.
They made it to the stream and Wilder put the bear on the ground, and it walked toward the edge of the water and began to drink.
“If you want to find yourself a bathroom, go ahead. I’m going to catch the little guy some fish.”
She frowned as he didn’t exactly have a fishing rod, nor any kind of knife.
Instead, she just found a spot covered by bushes a bit away.
She had to check to make sure there were no frogs, spiders, or even snakes.
All of this in an attempt to get out of debt.
She was starting to think this was just a giant mistake.
She felt sick to her stomach, but didn’t say anything. After taking care of her business, she made her way back to the stream, and made sure to wash her hands downstream, nowhere near where Wilder was grabbing fish.
Her stomach was growling. There was no way she’d be able to eat raw fish. Once she returned, she saw Wilder standing with his hands on hips, and the bear cub was eating some fish. He’d been able to do all of that quickly.
“It’s about half-a-day’s walk to my cabin from here,” Wilder said. “We follow this stream to the fork and we go uphill. We’ll avoid the poachers. I can then feed you. We’ll settle for the night, and I’ll get this cub to a safe place.”
She was not going to argue with him. So far, he’d kept them both alive.
Wilder held his arms out, and the cub went to him, curling up against his chest. Poppy felt her heart squeeze at the sight.
The poor little cub, she wanted to reach out and stroke him, but she was also afraid.
What if he took a chunk out of her? Slashed her?
She wouldn’t want anything to happen to the bear.
So, she kept her distance, and they moved on.
It wasn’t long before the sun was beating down on them, and they kept to the stream. Her feet hurt, and she felt like she was slowing them down, but not once did Wilder complain. He seemed to keep pace with her. She wiped the sweat from her brow.
At the sound of shouting, all three of them froze, and Wilder turned to her, and they found cover behind several large trees and bushes.
“I need you to hold him while I go and check what’s going on,” Wilder said.
“I can’t hold a bear.”
“If he follows me and that noise is those poachers, they will kill him. I will not allow that to happen. Stop being a selfish human and help me.”
“I’m not being selfish. I don’t want to hurt him,” she said. Or get hurt.
“You’re not going to, because he is going to be good, aren’t you?” he asked.
She didn’t argue as Wilder put the bear into her arms, and then looked at her. He gripped the back of her neck, and she couldn’t help but gasp as the heat of his touch seemed to travel through her body. It felt so good.
Before she got a chance to say anything else to him, he was gone.
****
Wilder was ready to kill.
Only, the shouting turned out to be a couple of families enjoying the trails.
There were dogs with them, and a bunch of kids.
They shouldn’t be out this far in the wilderness.
Although they looked completely harmless, he also noticed they stuck to the path.
There was a point near the stream, where the distance between the main path and the stream was close.
Provided they kept close, no one would see them. The last thing he wanted was to have his picture in any paper carrying a bear, and assuming he was raising them.
He returned to Poppy, and before he let his presence be known, he watched her for a bit. When he put the bear into her arms, she held it almost like a baby she was afraid was going to bite her. Now, she held the bear close.
“You’re adorable. It’s not that I didn’t want to hold you, but I don’t want you to bite, and, well, where I come from, for instance, if a dog bites you, then you have to fight for it not to be put down.
I would never want any animal to be hurt because of me.
I know humans have been total bastards to you.
Shoot, I don’t know if I should curse in front of you.
I’m not much of a cursing woman. I’m so sorry about what those evil men did to your mother. If I can, I am going to make them pay.”
She held him close and the cub fell fast asleep. It was so cute how she cradled him, and Wilder couldn’t help but wonder if that was the way she would be with her own child. She had a natural mothering instinct.
He cleared his throat and she gasped, putting a protective hand to the cub. She actually looked like she wanted to protect him. Holding his hands up, he smirked.
“Now you see why I kept him safe?” he asked.
“Yes, I knew from the start.” She was not letting the cub go. “What was the noise?”
“Some families. No threat at all.” He held his arms out to take the cub. He heard her stomach rumbling, and he could have taken the time to build another fire when he was getting fish for the cub. However, he felt she would prefer to have something more than fish caught in a stream.
“I’ve got him,” she said.
“We’ve still got a ways to go. You’ll tire and you haven’t had enough food.”
He saw the way she looked at him, and there was a yearning there. Did she want to be a mother?
She sighed. “Okay, fine. Hold him tightly. I don’t like the thought of him getting cold.”
The sun was high in the sky, it was hot, and the little guy was covered in fur. They were not going to worry about the cold. She reluctantly gave him the cub, hardly able to hold him, and they made their way past the fork in the stream, and were on the final trek uphill to his cabin.
The moment they got close to his land, he grabbed her hand. “I have wires and traps, so you’re going to have to do exactly as I say, otherwise this is going to end badly for you,” he said.
She held onto his hand tightly, as they made their way through his maze.
He didn’t like humans, and any wrong move could set off one of his traps.
He wasn’t exactly kind with his traps. Most poachers didn’t deserve kindness.
On rare occasions, there were humans that tried to cross his property, who didn’t deserve it.
In those cases, he did help. He wasn’t a total monster.
They got to his cabin, and he pulled out his key and let himself inside. Poppy stood at his back door, and he turned to look at her. “Like I said, if I was going to kill you, there were plenty of times I could have already done so.”
She glared at him. “You know, it doesn’t make a woman feel all that great when you keep threatening like that.”
“I helped you, sweetheart. Not the other way around.” He put the bear on the floor, and the little guy was curious.
He did stop to have some water out of the dog’s water bowl.
His dog, Fester, a chocolate labrador, was so lazy he came wandering into the kitchen.
It took one look at the bear, paused, and then padded right back out. He adored that little dog.
“You have a dog?” she asked.
“I have three, actually. That grumpy sod is Fester. I’ve got two more I imagine are upstairs. Milly and Tilly, little Jack Russell terriers who are giant pains in the ass, but don’t believe in walking,” he said.
“Weren’t you worried about them last night?”
“I was, but it’s not the first time I’ve stayed out at night, and they know how to take care of themselves. I leave enough food for them, and they know how to get into it,” he said. “I’ve trained them well.” It also helped that he was an alpha. “Are you hungry?”
Her stomach chose that moment to growl and her face went beet red.
“Yes, I’m starving.”
He went to his fridge and grabbed some sausages, bacon, and eggs.
Without another word, he got to work cooking as Poppy just stood there. “You can go and take a shower if you’d like. I’ll have a change of clothes ready for you in the bedroom.”
She clearly had no idea what to say, but he sensed she was not going to argue with him. The clothes she wore had a horrible odor, from what he imagined was sweating in them the past few days.
“Where’s the shower?” she asked.
“Just down the hall, first door on the left.”
She nodded, then took off, and he couldn’t help but watch her ass as she left. He didn’t have any clothes for a woman. But he did have a few pairs of his old sweatpants.