Page 32 of Monsters, Vows, and Growls
"Was that… that bear… there was a bear… why are you naked? Patrick?"
"That was me Ells, in bear form," I said lowly, afraid if I spoke too loudly or harshly, she would bolt again.
"You?"
I nodded, giving her time to process.
"Oh."
I didn’t think.I just ran. My dress caught on branches, my shoes slipped off—I didn’t even notice when. All I knew was that I had to move, toget away, before I fell completely apart in his arms. Again.
The tears came fast. I didn’t sob, didn’t scream—just ran like my lungs were on fire and the forest floor was chasing me. Needing to get away. From him. From the memories. From the present. It was all too much. I wasn't ready for this kind of emotional turmoil. I wasn't ready to give myself to Patrick again. I wasn't sure I ever would be. At the same time, my heart was breaking harder with every step that took me further away from him. I couldn't bewithouthim either.
And then I heard it. A loud sound like… crashing. It was heavy and fast and oh, so wrong. I turned just enough to see it—a bear! A massive, hulking, fur-covered beast, charging through the trees like the forest itself was nothing.
I couldn’t breathe.
A bear. A real bear. His eyes were wild, his snout snarled, his head was as big as a damn truck, and he was coming for me. Terror rooted me where I stood. I was utterly frozen, all I could do was stare as he thundered toward me—and then, right as he launched into the air, right as IknewI was about to die?—
Heshifted.
Fur peeled back into skin, fangs into teeth, eyes into eyes I recognized?—
Patrick.
Naked. Wild. On his knees behind me, chest heaving like he’d been running for a hundred years.
“Ella,” he rasped.
My mind could not keep up. I stared at him, frozen, my body too caught between primal terror and raw relief to move. First, there was a bear, then there was aman. There was a… both?
“What—what the hell was that?” I whispered, voice shaking. “Was that… a bear?”
Patrick’s hands were on either side of me, caging me in—but not touching. Like he knew I might shatter, and that he would be the reason for it. His voice was breathless, "Don't run from me. Not ever."
"I didn't mean to run," I tried to explain my panic, "I just…" I didn't know how to form the words, my heart was racing a hundred miles an hour, and my mind didn't seem like it wantedto work and explain all the jumbled emotions that went through my head. "I couldn't."
He closed his eyes, his voice was deep and filled with empathy, "I know." He swallowed hard and repeated, "I know."
I was still having a hard time understanding what just happened; that had been a bear chasing me, right? Where did he go? I looked around wildly, he could still be out there. Patrick must have seen him. "Was that… that bear, there was a bear…" While I was turning my head this way and that, my eyes landed on Patrick. A completely naked Patrick. What the hell? “Why are you naked? Patrick?”
He swallowed hard, eyes still wild but… there. “That was me, Ells. In bear form.”
I blinked. “You?” I repeated.
He nodded once, slow and careful, as if any sudden movement might send me bolting again. I stared at him for a long moment.
“Oh,” was all I could get out. It didn't make any sense. A bear!Patrickwas abear.
I had known he was ashifter. I had thought I’d known what it meant, too. I’d been wrong. This entire time, I’d thought it meant bloodlines. A family history. Something that might have made him faster and more agile, given him an above-average sense of smell, andmaybeeven made his bones ache at the full moon. But not this. Not an actualbear-charging-through-the-woods-and-stripping-out-of-his-bodyshifter. This stuff only happened in books.
Yeah, denial is a bitch, my inner bitch chimed in. Unfortunately, she was right. I had been in denial. All my life, my mom hadtold me how horrendous shifters were, how dangerous. Not that I had given my mom's words much thought, because my mother is, to put it nicely, certifiably crazy. But somewhere over the years, I must have internalized it, enough so that when I actually fell for a shifter, I never dared talk about it with him. Did that make me a bad person?
I sank back against the tree and slid to the ground, still breathing hard.
“Okay,” I whispered again, more to myself than him. “Okay. So you’re a bear.”
He crouched in front of me, still giving me space. Still naked. “Yes.”
