Once Upon a Shifter (12 page)

The dark clouds were creeping in overhead. It looked like rain.
Who cares now?
The weather had been a perfect reflection of his mood today. Sunny and bright this morning and now dark and depressing.

Connor had seen bitter old bears who had been separated from their bonded mates. It wasn’t pretty. They lived with inner bears in a state of constant agitation. Never at rest, never at peace. It was a dark life. And not one that Connor wished to live.

Little waves erupted as his paddle cut through the smoothness of the water. Tomorrow she would be gone, back to the city and Connor would be stuck here. In a deep state of depression.

His paddle jerked forward under a large wave that came from behind. He glanced at the water level against a passing rock. It was raising.

Thunder erupted like a cannon overhead. Little waves smashed into the side of his kayak as the speed of the current picked up.
Shit
, he thought as the Park Ranger’s warnings of flash floods replayed in his head.

He turned backwards and saw a wave coming at them. A bigger one followed it and a bigger one followed that one.

“Get the girls!” he yelled, as he began frantically paddling to catch up with Rebecca. The dark cloud moved over their head and the sky opened up with rain. Another bolt of thunder hit as the sky turned dark. The light blue water was now a dark gray. Stinging rain pelted into Connor’s face as he paddled.

Rebecca was struggling to control her kayak when the first wave hit her. Her body jerked forward and the paddle went flying out of her hands.

Connor paddled as hard as he could. He reached her kayak just in time and grabbed it as it was about to flip over.

He glanced up the river. Sidney was in the water clutching onto Angie’s kayak. The tail of his kayak was sticking out of the water and sinking, along with all of the supplies. It looked like they’d be sleeping in the rain tonight.

Grace screamed as her kayak flipped over and she plunged under the water. Edwin flew over to her and reached under the water. He pulled Grace out with one hand and pulled her onto his kayak. He held her up with his arm around her. She was coughing and drenched but she was okay.

Connor’s pulse raced as he turned and saw bigger waves coming around the bend. They smashed into the kayakers with force. The wind and rain slashed into them and the current was speeding up and getting out of control. Angie’s kayak disappeared down the river traveling at an incredible speed.

Connor held onto Rebecca’s kayak so hard that his knuckles burned and then went numb. There was a fork in the river up ahead. Edwin struggled to keep his kayak left but couldn’t steer properly with Grace on his lap. Their kayak veered right and disappeared out of view.

Connor tried to follow them but it was hard steering two kayaks with only one hand. A large wave smashed into them and they both flipped over. Connor released the kayaks and swam to the surface. He looked around frantically for Rebecca. He couldn’t find her. The rain was pelting into his face, making it hard to see. He was flying down the fast current.

He started to panic when she still didn’t surface. “Rebecca!” he screamed. Their kayaks were far down the river, way out of reach.

He whipped his head around looking for a sign of her when he saw a flash of pink rise to the surface of the water. He swam as fast as he could, cutting into the water with frantic strokes. She was being held down by the strong current.

He grabbed her under the arms and yanked her above the water. She desperately gasped for air. Her eyes were wide open and she breathed in quick, violent breaths. Her chest was heaving. She wrapped her arms around Connor’s neck as a flash of lightning lit up the sky, quickly followed by deafening thunder.

The current was taking them down the river fast. Connor held onto Rebecca tight and kicked towards the river bank. They had traveled another hundred yards by the time that he reached the land. They stumbled out of the water and both collapsed on the wet grass.

They took in deep, heavy breaths and stared at the dark cloud moving away overhead. The late evening sun peeked out as the river calmed back down.

“What the hell was that?” Rebecca asked, sitting up.

“Flash flood,” Connor said. The clouds were passing and the sky was clearing up again. “That was so weird. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

Rebecca looked down the river. “I hope the others are okay.”

“I’m sure they are,” Connor said. “Sidney and Edwin are experts.” He bit his lip.

Rebecca looked at him and smiled. Her sunglasses were long gone somewhere at the bottom of the river. He could see her stunning brown eyes. “I guess it’s just us for the night.”

Connor looked up. The sun was beginning to set. Light streaks of pink painted the sky. The universe had given him a chance.

He had one night.

CONNOR AND REBECCA

seven

Rebecca wrung out her wet tank top on the ground and glanced back at the river. That was close. She was held under the water a little too long.

Her throat was on fire. Her lungs desperate for breath. She could see the surface of the river and was kicking with all her might but the current kept holding her down. Her reflex was just about to kick in and she was about to inhale a lungful of water when strong arms wrapped around her and lifted her up.

Nothing had been so glorious as that breath of air.

Connor was beside her on the river bank in his bathing suit, bare chested, wringing out his shirt. His hard arms flexed and tightened as he twisted on the fabric.

Well almost nothing as glorious.

“Can we walk back?” Rebecca asked him.

“No,” he said, running his hand through his wavy hair. “It’s going to be dark in about half an hour. We’ll have to camp here for the night.”

“We have no stuff.” The thought of sleeping on the ground covered in ants and spiders wasn’t too appealing.

“We’ll walk around. Find something for shelter. I’ll find some food.”

“You’re just going to find some food?” she asked, with a chuckle. “Like a granola bar tree or something.”

He flashed his dimples. “Something like that.”

They walked for awhile as it started to get dark. They chatted lightly about her work. She told him about her kids in her kindergarten class, how much she loved them, how much she loved not seeing them all summer even more. He listened attentively and asked pointed questions. He stopped every few minutes and picked at a plant.

“These are ostrich ferns,” he said, pulling up a handful of the small plants with the tightly curled heads. “They’re a bit bitter raw but you can eat them.” He wrapped them in his shirt and they kept walking. He stopped at another bush and waited for her to finish what she was saying. “This is a Jerusalem artichoke.” He pulled up the plant and there was a long root underneath that looked like a potato. “We’ll cook this up. It will be great.” He stuffed it into his already overflowing shirt.

Rebecca looked at him crooked. “Do you have a stove in your pocket?”

He smiled and pulled out more roots and stripped the plants off. Rebecca imagined how Mark would handle himself out here. He would probably be sobbing by the river praying that a more manly man would come rescue him. Actually she wouldn’t have been around to see it. She would’ve drowned without Connor there to save her. Mark wasn’t the best swimmer.

Connor rose slowly with his face still and serious. He stared over Rebecca’s shoulder into the forest. Shivers crawled up her neck.

She glanced back but saw nothing. Only trees.

Connor lifted his chin and inhaled through his nose, never taking his eyes away from that spot.

“What is it?” Rebecca asked, holding her elbow.

“Nothing,” he said, with a tight, forced smile. There was a hint of unease in his face. His dimples were hidden. “Let’s keep walking.”

He folded his t-shirt around the scavenged food and headed in the opposite direction of where he was staring. Rebecca had a sinking feeling that something was out there.

She looked back at the darkening forest and felt eyes on her. The frightened hairs on her arm raised up in attention.

She rushed to keep up with him.

Connor glanced at the sky. He had about an hour until all of the sunlight was gone and they would be pitched in darkness. He had to stop to make a fire and build some shelter for the night but he couldn’t. Not with an angry black bear on their tail.

He could smell him. They were in a dominant bear’s territory. He had been following them for the past twenty minutes. He must’ve smelled Connor’s bear and not liked it.

Connor was trying to leave his territory rather than pick a fight. He didn’t want to terrify Rebecca by changing into a Kodiak bear in front of her. How would that look for his company on Google Reviews?

Connor was having a hard time being himself. How could he try to be with another man’s mate? He glanced sideways at her. She had been keeping his fast pace, not slowing down and not complaining. She even seemed to be enjoying the hike, looking up at the trees, admiring them. How could he not try to be with her?

“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she blurted out, cutting the silence of the forest.

Connor almost tripped. “What?” he asked, feeling like somebody just shoved him.

Rebecca’s cheeks turned red and she looked at the ground, not wanting to meet his eye. “I don’t know why I just said that,” she said. She laughed nervously. Heaviness lifted off of Connor’s shoulders like a cloud. He was glad that she was looking away because he couldn’t stop smiling.

“I was engaged,” she said. “We were supposed to get married last month but he cheated on me. With my wedding planner.”

Connor felt fluttering in his stomach. He couldn’t believe the stupidity of some people. How could someone throw away a treasure like her?

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Up until you pulled me out of the water I was always hoping that we would get back together. I blamed myself for what he did. I thought maybe I wasn’t pretty enough or not fun enough. I thought that if I could just have a second chance I would do whatever I could to make him happy.”

They stopped walking. Connor gazed at her, mesmerized by every detail of her face. Her long eyelashes, her cute ears. Everything disappeared around him.

“When I was under the water I thought that I was going to die. I made a vow to myself that if I got out of this alive that I would live my life for me. Not for him. But for me.”

Connor felt lightheaded in her presence. His inner bear was grumbling, moving around inside him.

“I’m not getting back together with him,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m done.”

Connor’s bear was running circles inside him. He was growling, fighting to be let loose.

Rebecca looked past Connor and her face dropped. Her mouth hung open and her eyes went wide as all the color in her face drained.

“Connor,” she whispered, quiet as a mouse.

A loud roar filled the air as Connor felt hot breath on the back of his neck.

Rebecca meant what she had said. She was over Mark. There was no going back. She was proud of herself, finally making a decision for her and not what was best for their relationship.

Rebecca saw a flash of black in the trees behind Connor and her heart skipped a beat. She thought that her mind was playing tricks on her until an enormous black bear burst out of the trees and stormed over with his head low and the hair on his back sticking up.

She froze. Her fight or flight instinct malfunctioned and she just stood there unable to move, like a car with a seized engine. She finally managed to whimper out Connor’s name right before the black bear roared. Connor’s hair blew forward. Little specks of spit flew into her face.

The bear’s terrible black eyes were focused on the back of Connor’s head. The bear’s teeth were the size of daggers. Her head could’ve fit into his mouth, and that’s probably what he had planned.