Free Stranded With Her Bear: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Bear Bluff Clan Book 3) by Harmony Raines

biggest shocks so far for her. “So my parents are how old?”
    “No idea. You are young, but they could be hundreds of years old. Might make them hard to trace. But later I’ll run and talk to the sheriff. Declan is a good man, he will help as much as he can. I can always ask our clan leader, Stuart McCormac, too.”
    “A clan leader. Is he like the mayor?”
    “Something like that. But don’t worry; we will have little to do with him. Except the day we get married. He officiates over all Bear Bluff weddings.”
    For a moment, she turned from him and looked up at the mountain, which stood silent and unmoving above the Bear Bluff skyline. “Do you know how preposterous this all sounds? That if I didn’t know this was real, I would think I was insane.”
    He came and put his arms around her. “I don’t see it like that, because I have known what I am all my life. I know it will take some getting used to. But later, once we’ve had lunch, we’ll go up onto the Bluff and run in the snow.”
    The snow had not melted up on the peaks; he wanted to introduce her to the thrill of running free. They could head out soon, safe in the knowledge that no one from Bear Bluff, apart from others like them, would be anywhere near the mountain. Declan would have put up warnings about how dangerous it was to venture up there in the cold weather. It kept all but the hardened explorers at bay. And those he could usually sense long before they came into view, and in that way avoid them.
    “I’d like that. I want to practice changing as much as possible so that I can control it better.”
    “Then I will show you around quickly, before we go and let off some steam.”
    “I thought your idea of letting off steam would be sex.”
    He held her close, pressing himself against her. “That comes afterwards. When your adrenaline is pumping and the blood is quick in your veins.” He couldn’t wait. In reality, he might prefer to go inside now and make love to her in his bed first. But he could see by the way she looked longingly at the mountain that she wanted to explore the wilderness around them. And he wanted her to be happy.
     

Chapter Eighteen – Willow
    “So it’s definitely safe here?” she asked.
    “Yes, there is no one around. And if there is, they can’t see us in here.”
    They were standing in a small thicket of trees. It seemed a little close to town, to Willow, but Trent insisted it was fine. Maybe for him. What if she made a mess of things and ran the wrong way, back into town? Her nerves made it harder to imagine her panther. Which made her panther upset, it paced along the edges of her mind, desperately wanting to be free. She felt like telling it to behave, but if she spoke the words aloud, he might think she was crazy.
    “Relax,” he said smiling and taking her hand. “Just let it all go.”
    “I’m trying. But so much tries to come in. Thoughts of Ollie, my parents, you speaking to Declan—it seems to have set off my paranoia.”
    “It’s all fine. Take a deep breath. Concentrate. See your panther and then go to meet her.”
    With his soothing words in her ear, she managed to keep the image still long enough to be able to step into it. Instantly the world around her shimmered as if in a heat haze, and then there was nothingness for a split second before she came back to the world where Trent was waiting for her.
    “Wow, so much better.” With that, he shimmered out of existence and then she sensed the bear appearing. When he was standing, whole and complete in front of her, she turned to take her first tentative steps up the mountain. She knew the tail would take a little to get used to, but she had anticipated having to learn how to walk again like a baby.
    Behind her, she was sure that if bears could laugh, then Trent was laughing. It gave her the drive to conquer her panther in every way. Soon she was jogging along, so light on her feet. Then she managed to jump onto a boulder. Pouncing back down and