Wild Action by Dawn Stewardson Read Free Book Online

good.
    “Hi, Attila,” she added to the bear as Nick set the pail beside the fence. “I’ve brought someone to meet you.”
    Attila grunted, then fixed Nick with a glare that didn’t look even remotely loving.
    Not that he really wanted the bear’s love. He’d be happy if it just didn’t eat him. After all, Carly had admitted she couldn’t really count on Attila to listen to her at the moment.
    “Now, I know you’re probably feeling a little uneasy,” she said, glancing at Nick and slipping into her queen-of-understatement routine again. “But just try to remember everything I told you. Especially that you should never excite his predatory instinct by running.”
    With that, she slowly walked over to the bear and scratched him behind the ear.
    “You still okay?” she asked, looking at Nick once more.
    “Sure,” he said. In truth, of course, he was as far from okay as he could ever remember being. He couldn’t keep his eyes off those claws, and he couldn’t stop thinking a scratch from them would make one of Blackie’s feel like a pinprick.
    Carly rubbed the bear’s nose for a minute, then said, “Attila, that’s Nick over there. I want you to go and say hello to him. Two feet.”
    The bear glared over again. Then he pushed himselfup onto his hind feet—sending a rush of utter terror through Nick. Standing up, he looked like an enormous sumo wrestler in a fur coat.
    “Good boy,” Carly said. “Now go say hello.”
    Attila gave a little snort and started toward Nick, stopping a couple of feet away. Nick stood stock-still, even though the urge to run was almost overwhelming. In his cowboy boots, he was well over six feet tall, but the bear’s eyes were level with his. And it was so close he could smell its earthy scent and hear it breathing.
    “Nick?” Carly whispered. “Say hello to him.”
    He swallowed hard. “Hello, Attila.”
    The bear eyed him for another second, then took a final step forward, wrapped its arms around him and began squeezing him to death.

CHAPTER THREE
Boys Will Be Boys
    “C ARLY , I can’t breathe!”
    She was so thrilled to see that Attila liked Nick, his words didn’t register for a second. Then she realized Attila was getting carried away with his bear hug.
    “Attila, enough,” she said. When he didn’t stop, she felt a flutter of concern. An enthusiastic bear was hardly the same as an enthusiastic puppy. “You tell him, Nick,” she quickly suggested. “Enough is the command, and be firm.”
    “Enough,” he said, sounding more strangled than firm.
    Miraculously, Attila grunted and backed off. Dropping to all fours, he began snuffling the leg of Nick’s jeans.
    Carly almost jumped for joy. If Attila was going to listen to Nick, things just might work out.
    “He obeyed you!” she said excitedly.
    “Obeyed me? He practically killed me!”
    “No he didn’t. He was being friendly.” And she was so relieved. She hadn’t told Nick about the phone call, because she hadn’t wanted him feeling even more stressed when he met Attila, but now she could.
    Before she had a chance, though, he took a backwardstep and said, “Listen, if that’s his way of being friendly, I sure as hell don’t want to be near him when he’s being grouchy. This isn’t going to work, Carly. We’ve got to figure out some way of making him listen to you better.”
    “Give him his chicken.”
    “What?”
    She pointed at the pail. “Give him his chicken or he will be grouchy.”
    Nick grabbed the pail, then turned back toward her. “I just put it down in front of him?”
    “You could. But if you feed him by hand, it’ll help the two of you bond.”
    “Bond? Did you go deaf in the past minute? I said this isn’t going to work. I’m not… comfortable close to this animal. You’re going to have to handle him.”
    “Nick, do you want Jay Wall to be happy with us or not?”
    “Of course I do. I just don’t want to work with a bear.”
    “Well, it could take months to figure