Laid Bear 2: The Kodiak Clan by Marina Maddix Read Free Book Online Page B

keeping his mouth shut. He stood his ground, but focused on not taking a defensive — or even worse, an offensive — stance. He was an invited guest but this was still their territory and he had to be respectful of that.  
    The bear just stood there, assessing him. When it began moving toward him, Max continued to stand perfectly still, never breaking eye contact with the strange were. He swore he saw something, maybe a warning, flash in the bear’s eyes as it passed him and ambled into the forest, never looking back.
    He released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. That was weird , he thought. He’d been in plenty of altercations with other werebears but there was usually a reason for a fight. Never had he heard of one were attacking another unprovoked. And certainly not when one of them was in human form. Not that this one had attacked, but it was definitely trying to let him know who was boss.  
    Did it know who he was or was it just asserting its position? He had no idea but he hoped that were , and any others like it, didn’t underestimate him. He’d hate to hurt anyone from the clan he’d been brought here to assist but he wouldn’t hesitate to defend himself.
    The run back to the hotel helped shake off some of the residual willies he had from the encounter. He’d noted the male bear’s scent so he would recognize its human form if they met again. He had no idea how, or even if, this bear would affect his mission here, but something was telling him to watch his back.
    By the time he got back to the hotel, he was wet all the way through from the heavy mist that had been like running through a cloud. His feet were completely soaked. In other words, he was cold, wet and hungry, not to mention distracted by that damn werebear.
    That explained why he didn’t notice anything amiss when he opened his door, why his inner bear smelled the intruder before Max realized what was happening, and why he let his bear take over the instant he saw a dark form hurtling at him. In the blink of an eye, the intruder lay in a heap at his feet and, just as quickly, he sank to his knees, a single word escaping his lips before a howl of grief shook the walls.
    “Bethany…”

“T he run’s pretty strong this year, Fred,” Jess said to his chocolate lab. The dog’s blotchy tongue sagged happily from his mouth as his big brown eyes watched his owner’s every move. “The bears are going to go into hibernation this fall with big fat bellies, my friend.”
    Kneeling down, he stuffed his notebook in his backpack and took Fred’s head between his hands, digging deep behind the ears. One hind leg started thumping as the dog’s eyes rolled back into his head from sheer bliss.
    “Well, we’d better get back to the cabin before those bears fill their bellies with us, dontchya think?” Fred barked and bounced in response as Jess grabbed his pack and rifle, and they made their way up the barely-there trail from the creek.
    Normally Fred’s exuberance made Jess laugh but all he could muster today was a wan smile. It had been days since Veronica had shut him out, literally. He’d emailed a few times but she never responded. One day he saw on his contact list that she was online so he opened a chat window but she quickly logged off. No doubt she’d set her profile to private so no one could see when she was online after that. Either that or she’d suddenly lost her internet connection.
    At first, he’d been worried. Even when she dodged his previous invitations to meet, she hadn’t cut off all communication with him. Horrible images of her in a car wreck flitted through his mind during the first couple days, but when she’d gone offline so quickly that day, he knew she was fine; just didn’t want to talk to him.
    Fred was tearing up the trail and back, barking madly and generally making a fool of himself. He seemed to sense Jess’ moods and now he was trying to cheer up his human. Just that lifted a bit of the