Alpha's Rescue (Shifter Ops 5)
1
Teddy
The sun warms my side of Bad Bear Mountain by the time I set out on the trail for my morning run. Something in the wind pulls me toward the summit.
Typically, I head past the town or towards the family cabin, but it’s later in the day than usual, and I don’t want to be accosted by my neighbors or any of my brothers. The town of Bad Bear has a population of only two hundred spread over the mountain, but some days, it feels like a fishbowl, and lately everyone's been beating a path to my door.
If I go this way, I can avoid seeing anyone and get some peace. That’s what I tell myself, anyway, but the decision feels less rational than instinctual. My bear’s guiding me.
Maybe there are early berries up on the peak.
I need a good hard run, and then maybe a long flight to take my mind off things. How long has it been since I’ve been in my bird? The helicopter taxi business has been slower than usual, but that’s another thing I don’t want to think about. I could contact the Black Wolf pack up in Taos to get jobs, but I keep putting it off.
Maybe my brothers are right, and I am becoming a hermit. But my bear has been riled up, more surly than usual, ever since our last mission. I took a break, even stopped doing flights up to Taos or visiting my wolf pack friends. I told myself I was giving them space, but the truth is, the sight of them happy with their mates brings up too much shit.
No matter how hard I run, I can’t outpace the past.
The day is fine with a clear blue sky, but a gust of wind tells me we’re getting a rain storm this afternoon. It’s been a wet spring, and more flowers are blooming than usual. But the flash of bright pink ahead of me on the trail isn’t a native flower blooming in the wild.
There. My bear wants me to charge forward. Instead, I stop running and slip into stealth mode, sidling up to a cluster of pines that can hide my bulk.
The pink color belongs to a floral scented human. Her dark skin is set off by bright pink. Even her water bottle is the same outrageous color. Who goes hiking dressed like that?
The wind shifts, and I catch her scent again. Flowers and honey, and something more. Most human women smell fussy with the fake scents of body lotion. But this human smells clean as rain, like creosote.
I stalk her a few paces before I realize what I’m doing. Usually, I stay away from humans, especially females. They’re trouble, and I’d ban them from the mountain if I could. Which I can’t. Our little town loves tourists, and no matter how much I protest, the mayor keeps coming up with schemes to lure more of them here.
Of course, if more of the tourists looked like this one, I wouldn’t mind. After a few minutes of stalking, I’m close enough to get a clear view of her when she stops to drink some water. With her free hand, she flips her long braids–black with neon pink tips– behind her shoulder, then props her fist on her well-rounded hip. The move makes her breasts jiggle. There's some glorious cleavage packed into that eye-wateringly offensive outfit. I don’t normally have anything against the color pink, but this shade is bright and blinding, as subtle as an ice pick to the eye.