Phantom Warriors: Riot by Jordan Summers Read Free Book Online Page B

could swallow her whole if he desired.
    “Sure, why not? None of this is real anyway,”
Nina said.
    “You’re not going crazy,” he growled, then
snorted as if to clear his throat.
    “Sure, whatever you say.” She wasn’t about to
take a bear’s word for it that her sanity was still intact. Nina
scooted further down the log, although it wouldn’t do much good if
he rushed her. A ‘normal’ bear could outrun a person. This one,
given his massive size, could probably match a cheetah. “What do
you want to know?”
    He took a step closer and she stiffened. The
bear stopped instantly.
    “Why aren’t you frightened of me?” he
asked.
    Nina frowned as she took inventory of her
emotions. He was right. She hadn’t been frightened since he began
to speak. She was nervous, sure. Anyone would be when confronted by
a bear the size of a draft horse. But she wasn’t afraid. “How do
you know that I’m not?”
    “I can smell you.” He sniffed. “You smell
musky and sweet. You’re rich, ripe, and full-bodied like a woman
should be.”
    She blinked. “You make it sound like I’m a
bottle of wine.”
    “In a way, you are. At least your essence
is,” he added.
    Was the bear flirting with her?
    Her face flushed. Nina didn’t know why she
was blushing, but it seemed odd to have a bear talking to her in
the way that a man would. “Thanks,” she murmured, then glanced
away. She didn’t want him to notice the affect he was having on
her.
    Flirting? What was she thinking? This
was a bear, not a man. He wouldn’t know embarrassment if it hit him
upside his fuzzy head. And he darn sure wasn’t flirting. Bears
didn’t flirt. But that didn’t stop her from changing the
subject.
    “You asked why I’m not afraid of you. One
reason is that I’m a vet. I treat all kinds of animals at my
practice.” It was a reason, but not the main one. Nina never
fancied herself as a Dolittle . Her patients didn’t routinely
come in and talk to her. Nothing in her work life could have
prepared her for this moment, but the same couldn’t be said about
her personal life. She thought about her grandfather. Nina couldn’t
believe she was about to admit this. She knew it would sound crazy,
but did that really matter when one was talking to a bear? Nope,
she didn’t think so.
    “And the other reason?” he asked,
patiently.
    “My grandfather, Harold Twofeathers,” she
said.
    She was pretty sure that the bear’s face
crinkled in confusion, though it was hard to tell with all the fur.
Maybe he just had fleas. “What does he have to do with your
fearlessness?”
    Good question. Without the bear meeting him,
it was going to be hard to explain, but Nina did her best. “Ever
since I was a little girl, he’s filled my head with stories of The
People. One of his favorite stories is that of the Great Bear.”
    “The Great Bear?” he sounded puzzled.
    Nina laughed. For some reason, it struck her
as funny that he wasn’t familiar with The People’s stories about
him. “Sorry, I guess that concept would be weird to you. The Great
Bear is a story that has been with the Cherokees for
centuries.”
    The bear sat down. “What exactly does this
bear do?”
    She smiled. He looked so content to sit there
and listen to the story it was almost comical. “He leads a band of
brothers on a merry chase. See, the brothers are hunting the Great
Bear. They are so determined to catch and kill him that they follow
him into the sky, where they remain to this day.” Nina glanced up,
but could barely see the stars through the trees. When she looked
back, she noticed the bear was staring at the sky too.
    He didn’t say anything for the longest time.
He just continued to watch the stars. “Did they ever catch
him?”
    “Yes, and they killed him, but the Great Bear
has powerful magic. He was able to put himself back together. When
he does, the brothers chase him across the sky again,” she said.
“It happens every year.”
    His gaze lowered and he