Bear Apparent (BBW Shifter Romance) (Stone Claw Clan Book 1) Read Online Free

sure would unsteady him more than the concussion he had probably sustained. He shrugged her hands away. “I’m fine.”
    “Of course you are,” she said, then stepped away. “Silly me. I mean, your insides are practically visible, but so what, right?”
    With that, she tipped her chin up, and started walking again. Her brash words stoked the animal inside of him, but not in the way he had expected. It was as wounded as he was, but he got the impression it wanted out to play. His head reeling from the passed twenty-four hours, his brain was too smashed to examine that strange desire.
    They walked for a good twenty minutes, and Garrett glanced overhead. It would be dark soon, and in his condition the pace was slower than a glacier. But so far he hadn’t detected any sounds or smells belonging to the interlopers.
    Looking over her shoulder, the female inquired, “So, I haven’t actually lost my mind, have I? You did change from a bear to a man. Wait, so if that’s true, are you really a man that can become a bear or a bear that turns into a man? My head hurts…”
    “You appear sane to me,” he said, surprised by his playful response.
    She passed him a droll look.
    “No,” he spoke up, concentrating on where he was walking. He knew if he fell, he’d never get up again. “You’re not going crazy. What you witnessed has happened. I would change that if I could, but what is done, is done.”
    The female seemed to mull over that for a long while, and he homed in on her heartbeat—it was slightly elevated suggesting she was in a state of heightened alert, but she appeared otherwise relaxed as anyone in her situation could be. The realization that she was handling this whole thing remarkably well worried him, though. Most humans that learned the truth about his species usually freaked out, and formed search parties to hunt the beasts down—of course, that had been a long time ago and nowadays, the chance of discovery was low considering humans paraded around as vampires and werewolves. But she’d seen him shift, and there was no explaining that away.
    This whole thing could be solved by convincing her she was, in fact crazy. He’d figure something out, but right now his focus was getting them to safety.
    As they walked, he swore he could hear the unanswered questions zipping through her mind. Every now and then, Dahlia would glance at him, her eyes running up and down his body for a quick instant as if she were wondering how he could become a bear. It wasn’t surprising, those that knew of his people’s existence pondered over that same question. Despite her obvious curiosity, she remained silent. At least until they came to the edge of the woods and she gasped, then raced to a beat up Cherokee parked in an overgrown lot. Snatching the little orange slip from her windshield, she whispered some very unsavory curses.
    Garrett barreled right for her car and demanded, “Do you have any rubbing alcohol or cleaning solution?”
    She blinked at him for a moment as if she hadn’t expected him to be there. “Yeah, I think there is some in the first aid kit.”
    Fisting his hand in impatience as she searched for her keys, he examined the environs. The lot was fairly open, the trees that surrounded the picnic area young and smaller so the places to set up an ambush were limited. Finally, the female got the keys in the slot, then leaned in the backseat. Garrett groaned low in his throat as her plump ass pressed against her jeans, and he nearly passed out.
    Wrong time and place, buddy. He felt his animal paw at the inside of his skin in gentle urging.
    “Got it,” she said, producing a bottle of rubbing alcohol.
    Snatching it from her grip, he dropped the sleeping bag then ripped the cap off the bottle. He ignored her squeak of surprise as he dumped it over his head. His body lit up like a bonfire as the chemicals irritated his open wounds. He stayed on his feet by sheer will. Shaking from the cold shock of pain, he