Page 1 of Snowed in with the Bear Shifter
1
ELOISE
Mother Nature could kiss her frozen witchy ass. Scowling at the formerly clear blue sky that was now a threatening gray, Eloise Fisk burrowed deeper into the lumpy, hand-knitted scarf her friend had made for her birthday and picked up the pace. If she’d known it was going to start sleeting halfway through her hike, she’d have found another way to manage her burning desire to strangle the agitatingly smug northern cousins who’d come to town for Solstice.
“Lying weather forecasters, promising me perfect conditions for a crisp early morning walk in the woods and failing to deliver,” she grumbled as she skidded along the increasingly slippery trail. And of course, she was miles away from the trailhead and the dry interior of her car when the conditions turned nasty. She was going to need a hot bath and a strong drink to fully defrost by the time she finally made it home.
Except her cozy little apartment above her apothecary shop, The Mortar and Pestle, was in direct line of sight of her mother’s house, currently infested by said relatives. They’d know when she arrived.
She could just picture it. She’d walk through the door, get out of her wet clothes, and draw a bath. As soon as she was about to dip a toe into the steaming water, she’d start getting texts from her aunt and two cousins, asking if she planned to spend Solstice with family or if she was going to avoid them the whole time after they’d traveled all this way. Like she hadn’t just spent the last three days in their delightful company.
Soon after, the guilt of leaving her mother to deal with them on her own would creep in. After a bout of self-recrimination, she’d eventually cave and go over there, only to be bombarded with snide little comments about her weight or the strength of her potions or why she embraced everything Christmas with such abandon when she was a practicing witch who should be focused on her own holiday, as if the whole season wasn’t already an amalgamation of traditions, and she’d be right back where she started, needing to escape.
Honestly, having family come visit wasn’t usually so bad, especially as this particular branch lived a thousand miles away from North Carolina and rarely visited the small town of Stonyburn that she and her mom called home. She liked her cousins well enough in small doses, but they tended to get all sanctimonious over how they believed Winter Solstice should be “properly” honored, and it definitely wasn’t the more casual, modern way Eloise or her mother did it.
Her cousin Patricia was particularly annoying about it, calling herself a traditionalist who eschewed any crossover with the Christmas season. She turned her nose up at anything that wasn’t painstakingly gathered from nature and didn’t fit her narrow definition of witchy versus non-witchy. Absolutely nothing store-bought or run by electricity for her. The horror.
“I mean, who gets persnickety over a decorated tree with all the sparkly trimmings, colorful lights, and shiny ornaments?”Eloise muttered to herself, cracking her neck. “Scrooges, that’s who.”
She shivered as a damp breeze worked its way between her layers to kiss her neck with its icy breath and pulled the hood tighter around her face. If she’d been more survival-minded and less mental-health-walk-in-the-woods, she would have prepared a warming spell to carry with her or grabbed some disposable hand warmers to stave off the cold. If she were a fire-inclined witch, she’d be set, but her family was healing-focused. At least she could prevent frostbite. But still. Her hike wasn’t supposed to be this chilly and wet, dammit.
Her frustration once again on the rise, she kicked a pinecone off the path, almost losing her balance in the process. She needed to center herself or she’d wind up with a broken ankle and no way to contact help because most of this area didn’t get a signal. Too many trees, mountains all around, and a lack of other people. Precisely the reason she’d chosen this particular trail in the first place. Taking a deep breath of cold air that smelled like pine and the promise of snow, she focused on the burn as it filled her lungs.
She needed to get back to her car and out of the elements before the weather became unmanageable. A little discomfort she could handle, but late December in the mountains meant conditions could turn from bad to worse in a heartbeat. She did not want to be this far away from civilization if that happened.
Cautiously picking up her pace, she made her way along the trail’s icy layer of pine needles and hard-packed dirt. The light patter of freezing rain was the only sound in the quiet stillness of the forest. Even the birds and other forest creatures were smart enough to get out of this weather and cozy up in their warm burrows until the storm passed.
Yet, here she was. She blew out a stream of warmed air, the vapor curling around her like smoke as she focused on gettingback to the trailhead, the promise of dry clothes and hot tea floating ahead of her like a glazed carrot on a stick.
A huffing snort pulled her from her cozy fantasy and stopped her in her tracks. Her eyes widened as the biggest black bear she’d ever seen lumbered onto the trail in front of her.
Oh, fuck, she thought as every single learned survival skill disappeared from her brain in a poof. Her body locked up as she frantically tried to recall if she was supposed to run or play dead or scream. Maybe all three?
The bear raised its head and looked right at her.
Her muscles turned watery, and she was pretty sure she peed a little. She took a slow step backwards. “Go home, bear,” she said, raising her voice. “I promise I have nothing you want, and I taste terrible.”
But the bear didn’t care, its pace unhurried as it came straight at her.
“Shitshitshit,” she whispered, taking another big step back.Don’t run, she told herself, her brain finally kicking into gear.Make noise. Make yourself seem bigger. Fight if you have to.Her throat tightened, her mouth going desert dry.Goddess, please don’t let it come to that because I will die. Literally.
Her heart pounding so hard she could hear it thumping in her ears, she fumbled with her daypack and yanked her whistle loose. Putting it to her lips, she raised her hands in the air, waving them like a madwoman as she blew it.Fuck off, bear. Leave me alone, she thought at it as she made slow progress down the incline, desperate to put some distance between them, her eyes never leaving the bear’s.
Until her boot heel caught on an icy patch.
Her feet went out from under her, the whistle flying from her mouth as she tumbled ass over tea kettle off the edge of the trail and down the incline. The back of her head cracked against a tree trunk with a sickening thunk.
Her vision swam, and she let out a whimper of pain as she tried to move, to get up before the bear made its way down to her.
The slow crunch of ice-coated leaves echoed around her, a horror movie level of anticipatory sounds as the predator closed in on its weakened prey. She struggled to push to her feet, the edges of her vision turned black, and her legs refused to cooperate.
Turning her head, she met honey-gold eyes so close she knew she was a goner. She swallowed hard, flinching back against the rough bark of the tree as she waited for its jaws to close around her throat.
Instead, a warm sparkle of magic flashed over her, her skin goosepimpling as the giant bear shifted into an equally massive man. A very naked one with wild black hair, broad shoulders, thick thighs, and an even thicker, well, everything else.
She blinked up at him. “What the hell?” she whispered before the world went dark.
2
