Page 5 of Handcuffed to the Bear

“Are you hurt badly? Let me see your foot.”

“It’s not that bad—Agent Ross!” Her voice rose in a squeak when he went down to his knees, carefully keeping his handcuff arm raised, to inspect her foot.

Belatedly, he realized that this had put him right on face level with the mound of curls between her legs. With his senses as tuned in as possible, in case his weak human nose could detect anything on the night wind, he couldn’t help smelling her rich female musk.

Jack flushed and dropped his gaze hastily to her feet. Being all right with other people’s nudity was one thing; sticking his face in her crotch was something else entirely.Business, business. I’m only down here for important things. Pretend she’s got pants on.

Really ugly pants.

“When you’re on the move, taking care of your feet is your number one priority,” he said, and was relieved his voice came out steady. “Even a little scratch can get infected. A thorn can leave you lame. Which foot?”

“Left,” she said, and gave a little gasp when Jack grasped her foot.

“I’m going to pick it up and check it over; is that okay?”

“Fine,” she said, still sounding a trifle breathless, and leaned on a tree.

Jack ran his thumb firmly over the ball of her foot and heel, and tested the toes by pressing on the ball of each one. It was still too dark to see well—his vision was all right at close range; it was at longer distances that his nearsightedness became an issue—but she didn’t flinch or cry out. He noticed in passing that there was some kind of tattoo on her ankle, a little flower nestled into the hollow beneath her ankle bone.

“Seems to be okay. We can go slower. I probably should slow down myself. My feet aren’t any more armored than yours.”At least not in this form.

He managed to get up without embarrassing himself or touching anything he shouldn’t. He watched her for their first couple of steps, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on her lower legs and trying not to notice the flexing of her buttocks. She didn’t seem to be limping.

“How are you holding up?” he asked.

“Okay,” she said. Her face was pensive, heavy brows drawn together in a frown. “Confused. Will you tell me who’s after us now?”

He’d really hoped he’d have more time to earn her trust before he had to bring her world crashing down. Or at least a more graceful way to lead into it. But there was nothing to be gained by lying to her. She deserved to know what she was up against, and she seemed to be able to keep her head in a crisis.

“Roger Fallon,” Jack said. “Lion shifter Roger Fallon and his pride. They brought us here to hunt us.”

Casey gazed at him. She hardly even seemed to react. Shock, Jack thought. Or—something else? She didn’t even seem surprised. Then he realized it had just taken her awhile to get far enough past her initial astonishment to react, when her mouth opened and her eyes went wide.

“What? No, that’s impossible.Why?”

“That’s what I was trying to find out,” Jack said. “Shifters have been going missing in the Seattle area for a while now. It looks like Fallon and his pride have been abducting people and playingThe Most Dangerous Gamesomewhere in the north woods up here.”

Perhaps unconsciously, Casey moved closer to him—so close, in fact, that her arm brushed distractingly against his.

“So you’re saying Roger brings people out in the woods and ... hunts them for sport?” she said. There was a small catch in her voice. “That’s completely insane. I—I don’t believe it.”

“I wish it wasn’t true, but ... do you have another explanation for how we got from Fallon’s party, to waking up handcuffed together naked in the woods?”

“Do people ever survive?” Her voice was tight with fear.

Lying to her wasn’t going to make their situation any less dire. “We haven’t found any yet. Which doesn’t mean it’s impossible.”

Casey swallowed. “How many?” she asked, her voice tiny. “How many people has he done this to?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “I’m sorry.”

Casey took a couple of deep breaths and dragged her fist across her eyes. “I’m okay,” she said, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself as well as him. “I’m okay.”

Jack gave her cuffed hand a quick squeeze. “You’re holding up really well.”

She tried to pull away, but succeeded only in jerking the cuff against both their wrists. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed—a watery laugh with an edge of hysteria, but genuine amusement in it too. “This stupid thing,” she said, shaking the cuffs. “As if it’s not bad enough that we’re naked in the woods and someone’s trying to kill us. This is justembarrassing.”

“It gets worse,” Jack admitted. “I think they’re my handcuffs.”

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