Page 91 of Bear Facts

Shane helped skim off her sweatshirt with his strong hands, but it was too late for her pants. Suddenly Freya was wolf, kicking free of the torn jeans and hiking boots.

She’d never shifted this quickly or easily before. Freya shook out her fur, a howl building inside her.

“That’s how you do it,” Matt piped, and then he too became wolf.

Freya tried to suppress her cry. The sound would alert any enemy force and give away their position, but her wolf had other ideas.

Freya found herself on her haunches, her muzzle to the sky. A long, mournful howl ripped from her throat, floating up through the trees to echo back from the thick branches.

A second howl, much higher pitched, joined hers. Matt sat right next to her, his voice soaring.

“Shit,” Xav whispered.

Reid said nothing at all. He stepped into the shadows of the trees, but instead of teleporting, he moved silently on foot into the gloom.

Freya drew a breath for another howl, but a very large grizzly abruptly knocked her over. The would-be howl came out a snarl, then she struggled under a mass of fur and muscle.

Freya.

The name burned into her mind from miles away. Rolf—it must be—but he sounded very different.

Will you get off me, you freaking bear? she snarled.

Shane’s growl vibrated through her. You gonna shut up, mate of my heart?

Freya was struggling to listen, to pinpoint from where Rolf had cried out—if it had been him at all—but who else would say her name?

She snapped her attention back to Shane. What did you call me?

Mate of my heart. Shane said it in bear body language, which Freya could understand perfectly, to her surprise.

Her worries fled for one glorious moment. Shane’s weight was a comfort, not a burden, and his endearment wrapped itself around her.

Mate of my heart, she murmured. I like that.

Shane nuzzled her. I like it too. Now we need to get the hell out of here.

Freya agreed. If she and Matt had just alerted a compound full of feral Shifters with their howling, they didn’t need to linger here to be found.

Stealth, she told her wolf. Remember what that is?

The wolf inside her laughed in excitement. It knew Rolf was near, and it reached out for the wolf that was its second self. Rolf was her pack, and she needed him.

Freya tentatively opened her senses again, searching for a sign of the other wolf as Shane heaved himself up from her.

Find me Freya. Please!

Freya scrambled to her feet, testing the wind for scent. Matt too was sniffing, his entire body expanding as he sucked in air.

Meanwhile, Xav had followed Reid into the shadows. Freya’s comm, which had fallen from her ear when she’d shifted, crackled.

“Reid’s found something. We’ll …”

The static surged, and Xav’s voice vanished.

Shane abruptly shifted to his half-man, half-bear beast, a terrifying sight. His claws receded enough to lift the comms from the damp forest floor and replace one in Freya’s ear and then his own.

“Xav?” he said in a guttural voice. “What happened?”

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