Page 4 of Handcuffed to the Bear

He relocated his eyes firmly on her face in the hopes of making her less nervous.

“I’m Jack Ross,” he said, and tried out a smile. “Special Agent Jack Ross.”

Her eyebrows went up—dark thick brows, making her large eyes look even bigger. “Special Agent? FBI?”

“Something like the FBI,” he said. “You?”

She held out her right hand, reluctantly freeing the arm that had been trying hopelessly to conceal her breasts and their dark nipples. “I’m Casey.”

I know,he could have said, but didn’t. He took her hand in his. It was a strong hand, but small, and devoid of calluses like the ones on his own fingers from handling knives and guns. Casey was an office worker, not a fighter.

Jack couldn’t remember her animal type off the top of his head, but it was most likely some sort of cat; lions tended to get along best with similar predators, and it was unlikely any of Fallon’s higher-level employees would be non-felines. Which meant she’d be comfortable in the woods and used to being out at night. She would also have some experience at moving quietly. They were going to need that.

Most likely her shifted form was a small cat, a margay or a bobcat. That would fit the profile of Fallon’s other known victims perfectly—a small, pretty shifter without any particular combat skills. They wouldn’t want someone who might seriously hurt one of them, any more than cats went after mice who weighed twenty pounds and had fangs.

Hopefully we’ll have a few surprises in store for them.

“It’s nice to meet you, Casey,” he said. “Do you think you can stand up?”

“I guess so,” Casey said. She didn’t look happy at the idea. “I’m not an expert, but when you’re lost, aren’t you supposed to stay where you are until someone finds you?”

“We’re not lost,” he said. “We were put here deliberately.”

Casey’s eyes narrowed. “Youdoknow what’s going on, don’t you?”

“Some of it,” he admitted. “And I’ll tell you while we walk, but right now we need to get moving.”

As he spoke, he started to get up. The cuff yanked on his wrist, and he went back to his knees, just in time to pull Casey down asshestarted getting up.

They stared at each other for a minute. “Okay,” Jack said. “Guess we have to coordinate this. One, two ... three.”

They got up together. Casey was astonishingly short; he hadn’t realized on the ground just how short she was. She couldn’t be over five-two or five-three. Jack, on the other hand, was six five in his bare feet. This was going to make it even more awkward to move in sync, which they had no choice but to do until they found a way to get the cuffs off.

“Okay, I’m up,” Casey said. She wrapped her right arm defiantly over her breasts again. “Now will you tell me what happened to us?”

“While we walk,” Jack said.

She hesitated. For an instant she opened her mouth as if she meant to say something, then closed it again.

“Look, I’m not trying to be difficult, I swear. There are going to be people coming after us, and we need to get moving.”

He expected more questions, but instead, after a quick widening of her extraordinary eyes, she nodded and settled into step with him when he started walking.

It took them a few moments to get the rhythm of it. Casey had to hold her arm up and forward so she wasn’t jerked off balance with every step he took. On top of that, they were both barefoot. The forest floor was a prickly minefield of brambles, sharp sticks, and pine cones.

But it was possible, although they had to plant their feet carefully. The ground sloped, so Jack pointed them uphill, trying to find deer paths and other openings in the undergrowth so they wouldn’t get their feet and legs torn up so badly. He was hoping to come out on a ridgetop or something similar, a high point where he could get a feel for the lay of the land.

Security takes priority.An old memory: the U.S. Army’s survival manual.Find a safe place and assess your situation.

If they just stayed here in the woods, they’d die. But it was possible, he hoped, to come up with a means of evading their pursuers until his team could find him. And theywouldbe coming for him. Avery and the rest would never leave him behind.

So, in the meantime, it was his responsibility to keep himself, and the civilian he was now responsible for, out of danger until his team could get to him. They couldn’t outrun a transformed lion shifter, let alone fight off the whole pride. So they had to throw them off the trail. There was little point in trying hard to hide their tracks unless they could conceal their scent trail as well, because the lions would almost certainly be hunting them by smell. Their best chance was a waterway of some kind, but he hadn’t seen any sign yet of creeks or streams?—

There was a sharp tug on the handcuffs. Casey had started to fall behind, only to be jerked ahead at his next step. Jack’s momentum pulled her forward in a skipping stumble before he could stop. Casey gasped in pain and hopped on one foot for a minute.

“You okay?” Jack asked. He tried to rein in his longer stride so she didn’t have to hustle to keep up. This was going to be very weird. He was used to having teammates, but not a teammate who couldn’t get more than a few feet from him—especially a civilian, untrained in evasion and survival, who would probably do little more than slow him down.

“Ow. Stubbed my toe on something. I’m not used to walking barefoot in the woods at night.”

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