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

her cabin. It held, but for how long she had no idea. There was a deadbolt, but after all, it was only a wooden door standing between her and whatever horror was trying to get at her.
    She swallowed the taste of bile as it crept up her throat with a second, then a third, impact. Whatever was out there wanted her fiercely, but not in the way she wanted Rogue.
    For a second, she wondered why it wanted her. Wondered why all of this was happening. She was just Jill, just a dorky scientist who was too tall for most guys and not coordinated enough to play basketball very well.
    Thunk!
    And why wasn’t that thing trying to come through the window?
    She shook her head, focusing. Questions didn’t matter right then, neither did doubts or anything else. Survival was all that mattered. Another slam sounded, the door began to creak. There wasn’t much time left, Jill knew.
    If it breaks the door, I’m gonna be real screwed. Not much way to get new hinges out here.
    She stood, approaching the door slowly, measuring her steps. She forced herself to breathe slowly, in and out, consciously keeping her heart from racing. Sweat beaded on Jill’s temples, ran down the sides of her face where her lover’s fingertips had been only minutes before.
    She swallowed her terror, and reached for the doorknob. Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, she focused her attention to a laser pinpoint.
    With her hand on the door’s handle, she waited, listening for the next crunch. From here, she could hear the claws outside, scraping against the ground, like a dog digging after a half-buried bone.
    “Come on you son of a bitch,” she whispered. “One more time, just come at the door one more time.”
    She gripped the pistol, squeezed the handle with her thumb on the deadbolt’s latch. “Come on...”
    The paws scrabbled, the beast charged. A split second later, another thunk! met her ears. In one smooth motion, Jill flipped open the lock, swung open the door and grabbed the gun with both hands. Her eyes narrowed, she pointed the revolver straight at the middle of the gray, fur-covered half-monster, half-man.
    He lunged, diving straight at her.
    She squeezed the trigger.
    The entire thing took barely more time than a breath, but for Jill, it extended into eternity, like being pulled through the middle of a black hole and stretched out into space.
    Every single action of the gun’s firing filled her mind. The click of the hammer, the sound of metal on metal, the blast of the exploding bullet, even the sound of the hunk of silver erupting from the barrel, all sounded plain as day.
    The only thing she blocked out was the noise the creature made when the bullet hit him square in the chest.
    Right before her eyes, the wolf stood on its back legs. They started flexing and twisting, as the monster lurched back and forth. Backing away, Jill couldn’t tear her eyes away. The wolf made a screeching sound, then a gurgling one, and when he finally fell to the ground in a heap, half his body was vaguely human.
    Trembling, she sat on the floor, scooting backward until she felt her bed against her back. Not for a second did she take the shaking gun barrel off the dead wolf – at least, not until the body began dissolving.
    A sizzling sound – and the smell of burning hair and cooking meat – hit her, and moments later, where once there was a huge, dead werewolf was only a pile of fur and bones. Her bullet was lodged into the back of the ribcage that lay on the rough wood floor.
    “Jill!” she heard. The voice was hollow and sounded distant, though the man speaking it was right in the doorway. She looked up at him, unable for a moment to recognize the face.
    “I... shot it,” she said. “It was beating on the door and I shot—”
    “You did what you had to do.” Rogue crossed the room and wrapped an arm around her trembling shoulders. The fur on his massive forearm receded as Jill buried her face in his chest.
    He kissed her fiercely, running his thumbs