Read Online Return To The Bear by T.S. Joyce - Free Book Online Page B

he said again. “Change back.”
    Her name, shortened and delicious sounding on his lips, brought her back little by little. She gasped and released Blake’s neck. Her jaw was sore and she scrambled backward, away from the limp body. Closing her eyes, she tucked her bear back inside of herself. The storm clouds had opened up and rain came down harder. It washed red streams down her skin.
    “Jesus,” Brody whispered. “How far out is Daria?” he asked Riker, who leaned ins ide the truck where Hannah was.
    She hadn’t even noticed him or the other shifters who were standing in on the roadside, somberly pulling their clothes on. Surprised, she counted them. If the numbers didn’t match the force of bears she’s seen in the woods, it was close. Their losses had been few.
    “Half an hour from the hotel, ” Riker said over his shoulder.
    Her skin was on fire and aching sorene ss surrounded her stomach, legs and shoulder. Brody stood there, hands outstretched like he wanted to touch her as badly as she wanted him to. Why didn’t he? His expression was hard, and a deep rumble emanated from his chest. The two shifters closest to her moved away, but another man approached.
    “We need to get you back to our healer, Daria.” He spoke to her but his earnest blue eyes were on Brody. “My name is Cameron. I’m second in this clan. I swear, we won’t hurt you. We need to leave now though.” He cleared his throat. “You bear our mark.”
    Confused, she frowned and tried to stand. The sound from Brody’s throat intensified and he scooped her up, folding her into his arms like she weighed nothing. “My mark,” he corrected Cameron in a gravelly, inhuman voice.
    His hands were firm and warm against her skin, and he pulled her close, tucking her against the impossibly hard planes of his chest. Rain pattered against her relentlessly , collecting in the bowl of her arms against her shredded stomach. Everything hurt.
    Brody carried her to the big black truck, probably Riker’s, and pressed her against it, effectively shielding her from the other shifters’ curious glances. He dropped his forehead to her cheek and his body began to tremble. “Where are your clothes?”
    “Here,” Hannah said, flapping grass and sprinkles of mud from her damp jeans. “Put her in the back with me and I’ll help her dress.”
    Brody snarled and Hannah shoved him hard in the shoulder. “Cut that shit out, Brody. I’m no threat to her. She saved my life.” She opened the back door and jabbed her finger at the seat, winged her eyebrows into irritated arches and waited.
    “Sorry,” Brody muttered. He sounded s urprised. Setting her gingerly onto the back seat, he held out a hand to help Hannah in, then closed the door when she was settled.
    From the driver’s seat, Benson watched Brody saunter around the front of the truck with an expression that said he thought he had lost his damned mind.
    Brody cast a dark gaze back at Joanna and slammed the passenger side door. And still, Riker stared.
    “We’re alive,” she said lamely. She didn’t mean to say the words out loud, but she really didn’t think they were going to make it out of there. She hadn’t been off of Long Claw land in two years, and even though she was only about twenty yards outside of Nathan’s territory, it still counted.
    “About that,” Benson said, pulling onto the paved road. “You couldn’t warn me you were about to claim a mate in the middle of Hannah’s rescue?” He was yelling and the cab filled with the lightening smell she’d scent ed near the pond.
    “It was a last minute decision,” Brody muttered, staring out the window. He looked relaxed, but his hand was clenched against his thigh.
    Hannah was trying her best to pull Joanna’s jean shorts over the cuts Blake had made in her legs without touching her burning skin. Bless that woman.
    Joanna frowned and fingered the long cuts Brody had made against her torso. “What did you do?”
    Brody slid a