Free Bound To Her Bear (Bear Bluff Clan 1) by Harmony Raines

dress, wondering if she should wake Eirik. Then a strange feeling came over her, as if something was pulling her back to his side. She buttoned her shirt up, casting a glance at his still-sleeping form.
    Then it hit her. The wind went out of her lungs and her heart beat so rapidly, she thought she was going to have a seizure. How could this be? She grabbed her skirt, dragged it over her hips, zipping it up before putting her shoes on, hopping away from him as she did so.
    But the pull of him. A desire so deep that it threatened to tear her soul from her body as she tried to move away from him.
    Eirik stirred in his sleep, could he feel it too? Panic swept over her. He was too good for her. Maybe if she left now, if she completely avoided him for the rest of her life, then he would never know. Because she didn’t want this. Yes, she did .
    With a strangled sob, she changed into her bear, who immediately wanted to turn around and go and lick his face with her big bear tongue. Her bear wanted to run free with her soul mate. Yet Drew managed to exert her dominance over the animal side of her and, one slow step at a time, she made her way down the mountain.
    Once out of sight, the invisible pull started to ease. She could do this. All she needed to do was go home and never leave the house. Impossible, she knew, but maybe if she called in sick, if she avoided him for a few days, it would pass over. Who was she kidding?
    It didn’t matter; she convinced herself she could hide from this. A woman who had never hidden from the hardships life threw at her was determined to hide from the thing that should bring her the ultimate happiness. She ran blindly away from Eirik, barely stopping to change in the grove of trees before running the rest of the way into town.
    Only when her feet hit the pavement did she stop and try to walk normally. She put a calm expression on her face and made her way home, not wanting anyone to stop her and ask her why she looked upset. A few minutes later she let out a sigh of relief—she was home. There was her front door, and she had to stop herself from running to it and flinging it open. She wanted to hide this from her dad too; she wanted to keep the whole thing her secret alone.
    “Hi, Drew, how was your evening?” her dad asked.
    “Great. I just wanted to run upstairs and change.”
    “Marjorie McCormac is here. We thought Eirik would walk you home. She left a message on his phone. We thought we would all have dinner together.”
    Drew stopped at the foot of the stairs. Keeping her face averted, she said, “I don’t think he got the message.”
    “Did he go home? I can call him there,” Marjorie said, coming out of the sitting room to stand by Drew’s dad.
    “I’m not sure,” she answered, desperately wanting to get away.
    “Didn’t he walk you home, Drew?” Marjorie asked.
    “No.”
    “Drew, what’s wrong?”
    “Nothing, Dad, just give me a couple of minutes and I’ll get changed and come back down.” She took two more steps.
    “Drew. Look at me.”
    “Dad, please don’t fuss.”
    “Did Eirik hurt you?” Marjorie asked, her voice full of concern.
    After everything her dad and Marjorie had been through, she couldn’t allow either of them to believe that. So she took a deep breath, put a smile on her face and went back down to them. “No. Of course he didn’t. I just left him to come home, that’s all.”
    Her dad came up to her, she couldn’t meet his eyes. He would know. She told herself not to be so stupid, that she was making them more suspicious, so she put on a bright smile and looked at him. “I’m fine. It’s been a long day and I wanted to change into something more comfortable.”
    “Oh my,” breathed Marjorie.
    “Drew?”
    “What?” But she knew she had been rumbled. How did they know?
    “Is it Eirik?” her dad asked gently.
    She nodded, tears pricking her eyes. “It just happened. How can it just happen like that? We’ve known each other most of our