Two Bears are Better Than One (Alpha Werebear Romance) (Broken Pine Bears Book 1) by Lynn Red Read Free Book Online

throbbed in her neck, but a strange calm overcame her. Here, staring straight at death, all she could wonder was why he hadn’t done anything yet.
    He dug his quicksilver paws into the ground on either side of her waist, and pushed hard, pinning her deeper into the muddy, rotten leaves. She felt his fur brushing against her stomach, against her legs, and opened her eyes again, to find him just studying her face. Again the beast lowered his head, sniffing around either side of Jill’s face, and down her chest until he lingered just above the mark.
    Tingling? Why is it tingling? What’s going on?
    The memory of her dreams, or fantasies, or whatever they were had never left, but her scientific brain wouldn’t allow her to parse it as anything other than a ridiculous dream. Then again...
    Behind and to the left, something crashed through the woods, coming toward them. It was at once a relief, and even more terrifying, as there was always the chance the rest of this strange attacker’s pack was following.
    She took a breath and held it, waiting for whatever was primed to explode to just happen. The slow, patient, crunching was loud and clear, but plodding.
    Jill arched her back, trying to see what it was, but it was impossible to twist herself enough to see.
    From the woods behind, she heard a roar, and something she swore was a voice shouting “No!” and then all hell erupted.
    Something that resembled a massive, black, Mack truck slammed into the wolf, taking both of them head over heels. Jill stared, wide-eyed in amazement, for a split second. The bear, on top for the moment, snapped brutally in the much smaller wolf’s face. He slapped a paw across the canine’s face, leaving an angry, red mark, and looked in Jill’s direction.
    The look on the animal’s face was something entirely too human . His eyes were dark, but flecked with gold, and filled with something she could only describe as compassion. He flicked them to the right, as though telling her where to go for safety.
    She hesitated for a split second, then heard a series of howls joining in with the roars and snarls in front of her. A quick glance back showed her three more pair of yellow eyes coming through the wall of vegetation. There was barely time to think, much less move, before the three wolves blasted through into the clearing, and toward her.
    Move , she urged herself. Now!
    Diving into the undergrowth on the other side of the massive bear, Jill’s first instinct was to run. It made sense – running was the only thing that made sense – but she knew too much to think she’d actually outrun any of these huge animals.
    Two of the wolves dove at the bear, but he simply swiped one of his massive paws in an arc and sent them flying. A noise that sounded vaguely laugh-like came from the bear as he turned to face the third of the newcomer wolves.
    The larger of the two he’d just put down rolled over and crawled to his feet. Blood ran from a wound across his shoulders. The creature lifted a paw to his wound. Seconds later, instead of a paw, he was holding his wound with something vaguely resembling a human hand, with long, thin fingers. He stood on two legs, though they were still more wolf than man, and looked directly into Jill’s saucer-wide eyes.
    He grunted and turned, hobbling away, hunched over and dragging one foot, into the woods.
    She blinked, unable to believe what she’d just seen, but the adrenaline pumping through Jill’s veins overwhelmed her sense of normal. One of the swatted-off wolves wheeled around, leaping onto the bear’s back and drove his teeth into the massive creature’s neck, pulling and wrenching to try and open the wound.
    Effortlessly, the bear shrugged him off and followed through with a swipe that sent the wolf scuttling across the ground and crashing into a tree.
    The bear looked again in her direction, and she noticed what seemed to be intricate tattoos, or maybe just a light pattern on the fur, around his eyes