Page 17 of Taming Her Bears

“There you go. The first line of defense is to prevent wars. This is a hot one in the making. We need to get to Denisovich before he can act, before he can cross over into Canada. If he senses things are going wrong, he’ll disappear. We have one strong point on our side. He doesn’t know what happened in Valdez. He doesn’t know we have you. As long as the harbor master stays quiet, Denisovich won’t know he lost two of his men.”

“Meaning he will continue his plan.”

“If he’s in Ketchikan, he could be in Canadian waters, halfway to Russia before we catch sight of the island if he receives one whiff things went south. We have to make him believe nobody is on his tail. We’ve got to catch up with him while he is still in our jurisdiction.”

She stood up and went to the window. The cutter was purring smoothly through the blue waters, sea otters floating along beside it on their backs, waiting for treats. I could tell she was in a turmoil. Her blue-green eyes were cloudy, and her fingers tapped continuously against her thigh. Embracing her from behind, I nuzzled her neck. No perfume was as delightful as the sweet natural scent of her freshly-washed hair and skin. I inhaled deeply. She patted my arm, as though she was the one comforting me. “It’s the girls. Thinking about them in that despicable man’s hands. If we put out an all-alert, we could find them quickly.”

There was music floating in from someone’s quarters and I swayed with it, rocking her back and forth. “Natalia, you said yourself you didn’t know who could be trusted in Valdez. Who do you think can be trusted along the entire coast? There are a lot of ports that can be infiltrated. This could be a national security issue.” I nuzzled more deeply against her neck. “You don’t run rabidly through the streets screaming that the sky is falling unless you’re holding a piece of the sky.”

She giggled. “How did you do that? It’s a ridiculous analogy.”

“Yes, it is,” I agreed, and hummed to the music.

“I hope they do all get mauled by bears,” she said viciously. “I hope they get cuffed and slashed, and when the life has been mauled out of them, they get torn to shreds.”

My embrace slipped down to the soft crease of her inner thighs. “Bloodthirsty little woman, aren’t you? I like that.”

I would have liked to have taken the exploration further, but I was interrupted by a rude voice. “You’re on watch,” said Josh, steering me toward the pilot’s cabin. “We’ll arrive at our destination in two hours. You have the helm.”

I blew kisses at her. “He did that on purpose. Remember, whatever he gets, I get some, too.”

She gave me a big, Hollywood-girl smile. “Even if it’s a beating?”

“Especially if it’s a beating.”

I went up the cabin steps to relieve the commander, and Natalia followed me in. I sighed. “As much as I would like, I really can’t play doctors and nurses right now. When I’m on the captain’s deck, I’m serious. I have responsibilities to a crew.”

She stood next to me at the wheel, with its high overhead view of the ship’s passage. “I know that.” She peered intently ahead, her eyes seeking a passing boat, a structure that would provide answers. “I’m really not into playing around. Not now. Not this close to our target.” She laughed nervously. “I’m on pins and needles, actually.”

To prove just how anxious she was, she walked rapidly around the cabin then rushed back to my side and said in a low, urgent voice, “I need a gun.”

I felt the hairs crawling up the back of my neck and took a deep breath. Just one look at her face told me what she was thinking about. “No, you don’t. You’re not coming on land,” I said tersely.

She was going into combat mode and there wasn’t so much as a harbor seal out in the water to distract her. “Yes, I am,” she said, leaning so she was nearly shouting in my ear. “I know this is a military operation, but it is also a criminal investigation within the State of Alaska. I am a state trooper. I investigate criminal activity. I’m licensed to carry a gun.”

“Natalia, you are our witness. It’s too dangerous. You know we can’t take any risks with you. That’s insane.”

“I am authorized by the state.”

Even though we weren’t close to Ketchikan, I picked up the binoculars and scrutinized the islands as we went past them. Here, they were like a jigsaw puzzle, with ribbons of water separating the pieces. “You need to take it up with Josh. He’s the captain.”

She threw her arms in the air and pouted. “He already said no.” She waited for me to say something, maybe give a gasp of indignation, but I kept my eyes firmly on my navigational equipment.

“Fine,” she snapped. “You want to play it that way? You’re in violation of state law. I demand to be allowed to assist in the investigation or I will file a report that I was hindered from observing the evidence.”

The backs of my wrists were beginning to feel furry and I swallowed mightily. There was only one thing I could do. I hit the com button. “Captain, you’d better come in here. We have a problem.”

He was up the steps in seconds. “Did you see something?”

I pursed my lips. “No. It’s Natalia. She’s threatening to tell the state if we don’t let her assist with the investigation.”

“Just a minute,” he said. There was a great deal of urgency in his eyes, and I knew exactly what that urgency meant. He began running to the lower deck, ripping off his clothes, until he reached the leeward guardrails. Completely naked, but with the hair starting to sprout from his limbs and back, he jumped over the rails.

Pete peered through the window, surprised but not shocked. “What was that all about?” he asked.

“Woman trouble,” I grumbled as I shoved my way past him, tearing away my shirt and knocking off my shoes. I barely made it to the guardrails when I shifted. I leapt into the water. fully bear, terrifying the surrounding fish and marine mammals.

Although all bears can swim, only polar bears find it enjoyable. We paddled around in the water, circling the boat until our more rational sides took over. Or at least the sides that didn’t explode into eighteen hundred pounds of flesh. Eighteen hundred for heavy-weight Josh. Twelve hundred for me. We shifted back to human form in the water. It was warmer than the Valdez storm, but it still felt cold to an unprotected body. We pulled ourselves up the rope ladder before we began to get stomach cramps.

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