Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 44191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 44191 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 221(@200wpm)___ 177(@250wpm)___ 147(@300wpm)
He heard stories of bears mating with humans, and they were happy. Wilder didn’t think it was possible he would ever be happy with a human. Not after all he’d experienced. Yet, here he sat on his back porch with a human he was willing to risk his life for to keep safe. This is what being a mate meant.
“Do you think it’s stupid?” she asked, and even though it was dark, he saw her nibbling her lip.
When Poppy found out the truth, he had a feeling he was going to have to chain her to his bed. The revelation that he was a shifting bear would be hard for most people to digest. Perhaps Poppy would be different.
There was time yet.
His bear wanted to get to know Poppy. Just having her close, the beast in him was settled, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before he wanted to be released. Time was ticking. For now, he was going to enjoy this woman, but he wasn’t going to think of her as a human.
She was his Poppy, and that was all she needed to be.
Chapter Seven
Poppy was either out of her mind or a trailblazer. Who followed their dreams these days? Who believed in fate? It felt wrong to throw her life away to shack up with a stranger. Not that she had much of a life to salvage back home.
What if he was being nice, having pity on her because she was running for her life? Maybe he loved his solitary existence and she was pushing herself on him. What if her instincts were right and she should be very afraid of him?
This could be her only chance at love. She had to give it a chance, right?
Her mind was a muddle of insecurity.
She needed to have a heart-to-heart with Wilder to make sure they were on the same page. There was no denying the attraction and connection between them, but living together was a serious commitment.
Over a week had passed now and it was time to have a serious talk about the future. Even if the forest called to her and his simple lifestyle was addictive, she wanted this to be about them before anything else.
She had showered before bed and was drying her hair as she walked up the hallway. There was a bolted room that always made her curious. On the outside of the cabin, the window was boarded over with heavy metal. He’d told her it was just storage, but that was another oddity that didn’t sit well with her.
He wasn’t in the living room, so she ventured outside. Sometimes he was chopping wood or tending his bees. He was an excellent hunter and they always had fresh food for their dinners.
“Wilder?”
There was no sign of him and she couldn’t hear anything but nature. The sky was darkening and soon evening would settle in. Already streaks of pink could be seen behind the tree line, peeking through the lacey network of leaves. The world around her was stunning but terrifying. Almost like Wilder himself. She was desperately attracted to him but there was something darker under the surface that unsettled her.
She started to wander along the beaten paths. He always kept to the same routes to preserve nature, so he had to have gone this way.
“Wilder?”
She slowed as she neared the dense wall of forest, darkness concealing whatever dwelled within. Poppy wasn’t that brave. She remembered the cub and was relieved Wilder rehomed him, but how did he do that? He said he’d found a home for it, but what did that even mean? She kept accepting what he said without questioning him further. Did he find a bear family? How could that go over well? A rehabilitator? There were definitely no neighbors within hiking distance. That same wave of nerves made her uneasy.
She wanted to ignore her instincts because on the surface everything was perfect. More than perfect, and she didn’t want to ruin that.
Poppy had been so engaged in her own thoughts that she hadn’t noticed she wasn’t alone. Some of the leaf litter crunched, and she turned to see a wolf hunched low, teeth bared. When she turned to look the other way, she realized she was already surrounded. There had barely been a sound. The ultimate predators.
She started taking slow, small steps backward, away from the forest. Her heart was pounding in her chest so hard it was deafening in her own ears. How long until they moved in? Ripped her to shreds? She couldn’t even scream. Her voice had completely stopped working. So much for her beautiful paradise. Humans and nature couldn’t mix.
Hot tears traced down her cheeks, born from fear and desperation. Then there was a new noise, heavier steps coming from within the forest. The wolves stopped growling, turning to face whatever was approaching.