Page 5 of Taming Her Bears

Due west was over some rocky terrain. Over centuries, the northwestern end had been beaten and slammed by furious Arctic winds and pelting rains. The green brace of forests was claiming it with a struggle. We began picking our way through, and I had to admire the way those nicely shaped hips and that pleasantly round butt slid her weight from one side to another as she climbed up over the rocks. I still didn’t know her name.

We found Roy on a bluff about five hundred yards off some mud flats. He was only half-dressed and appeared disoriented. His head cleared, though, as soon as I called his name. “Ensign Roy Stevenson. At attention.”

He stood up and saluted, his pants sliding below his hips. He pulled them up on one end and continued saluting.

I waved him down. “At ease, ensign. Put your clothes on.”

“Yes, sir,” he said hastily. “Permission to speak freely.”

“Speak away.”

He fumbled with his shirt, twisting it as he slid it halfway into his pants, then pulling it out again to straighten it. “You have a girl with you.”

I grunted. “I’m glad you confirmed what I thought might be a hallucination.”

He looked at me from under a crop of curly, rust-colored hair. “Did she shoot down the chopper?”

“What? No! Of course, she didn’t.” I looked at the girl uncertainly. “You didn’t, did you?”

She rolled her eyes and scoffed. “If I had a high-powered rifle, would I be hitting you with a stick?”

I decided if she could be suspicious of me, I could be suspicious of her. “How did you end up here?” I asked. “Did you burn down the cabin?”

She looked like she was getting ready to take another swing at me. “I didn’t burn down anything. Denisovich’s men did. They’re the ones that shot at you.”

Denisovich again! I was contemplating another question when we heard an earth-shattering roar that frightened a covey of ducks into scattering in all directions. The brush in front of us quaked and a giant bear sprang up from behind it, rearing on its hind legs, pawing at the air.

The girl screamed and threw herself into my arms. “Do something! Kill it! Didn’t you bring a firearm?”

I tried to calm her down in a gentlemanly manner, but dude! All that soft, warm flesh pressed against my chest was causing the wild and wooly hairs to pop out all over. With a low rumble, I told her, “It’s okay. I know that bear. He won’t harm us.”

“He won’t harm us?” Timidly, she turned her head to peak at the bear. He had dropped on all fours, lowered his head, and was backing into the brush.

As much as I hated to do it, I broke away from her and turned her over to Roy and Lee for care and comfort. “I’m just going to talk to the bear, so he doesn’t come back and scare you again,” I said in what I thought was a reassuring voice.

She grabbed my shirt, trying to force me into staying. “You don’t have to play the tough Coast Guard macho man with me. I get it. You can swim among icebergs and rescue baby walruses, but you can’t just walk up and start talking to a wild bear. These things don’t happen.”

I took those sweet hands and set them aside, wanting more than anything to pretend I was just another helpless guy, truly in danger for my life, instead of just going to see the boss man. “Trust me. It will be all right.”

I trusted Lee and Roy more than I did Captain Josh right now. He was pumping high octane. Nothing pissed him off more than losing a good helicopter, unless it was accidentally running into a beautiful dame while in bear form. I’ll bet he’d gotten one whiff of her and went berserk.

His trail wasn’t hard to find. He had lumbered his way through, snapping back every branch and pushing aside every sapling that had gotten in his way. When I found him, he was phasing into his human form. I waited for him to sit back with a sigh and open his wetsuit before confronting him. “What the fuck, Josh? What the hell were you thinking?”

He waved at me as though I was a gnat. “I wasn’t. I wasn’t damned thinking at all. I hadn’t shifted yet and I heard you talking. And I heard the name Denisovich. Who the hell is Denisovich?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I’ve been trying to find out.”

“And that girl.” He slapped at his face repeatedly with his hands. “That girl did something to me. Her smell. It did something to me.”

“We don’t spend enough time in town where there are women.”

Folding his arms over his chest, he grumbled the age-old Alaskan complaint, “There aren’t enough women, even in town.”

“That’s because we don’t spend enough time there. The good ones get taken while we’re gone.”

He pondered my words. “We’ve gotta change that when we get back to the mainland. Find a good woman we can come home to at the end of the day.”

He was coming around. He buckled his belt and slid his hoodie, stamped with the Coast Guard emblem, over his head. “What have we got?”

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