Free Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1) by Sloane Meyers

several hours of weight training, and then, when he couldn’t stand to lift one more barbell, he would go for a run through the streets of Kodiak. He was going to spend the next few days making sure he was in the best shape of his life.
    Sawyer let out a roar as he headed out the front door, adrenaline and anger filling his chest.
    He wasn’t just going to defeat Simon. He was going to crush him.
     
    * * *
     
    Several hours later, Sawyer finally made his way out of the gym. He had spent the entire day pushing his muscles to the limit, only taking a brief break to grab food from the gym’s café and then sit in the sauna for a half hour after eating. He had seen the look several of the gym’s personal trainers had given him. It was a mixture of awe and disbelief. One had even approached him and asked if he was looking for a trainer, but Sawyer didn’t need someone telling him how to work out. He had been pushing his body to its limits his whole life, and he didn’t need a trainer to tell him how to do that. Especially not a human trainer, who didn’t understand how quickly his body would heal itself.
    If a human had done the workout Sawyer had done today, that human would probably be unable to move for several days due to the soreness that would follow. But Sawyer’s muscles would repair themselves at lightning speed, and tomorrow he wouldn’t even feel the strain of the work he had done today. He would, however, see the increase in his strength.
    And Sawyer wasn’t done working out yet. As he closed the front door of the gym behind him, he broke into a run. He didn’t have any plans for how long or how far he would run. He just planned to keep going until he was too bored or too tired to continue. The cool evening air felt refreshing after the hours he had spent in the stuffy gym, and Sawyer picked up his pace as he ran toward downtown Kodiak. He jogged along the waterfront, then ran past the buildings and continued into the darkness, well past where the path ended. He ran for an hour, and finally decided to turn around and head back into town. He was getting hungry, and he had seen several bars that served food in Kodiak. He would find one that offered steak and chow down until he couldn’t stuff another bite into his mouth. No alcohol for him tonight, though. He needed to stay on top of his game. There would be plenty of time for celebratory drinks after he had taken care of Simon and reestablished his clan’s respect.
    Sawyer slowed his pace as he jogged back into town. He took in the flickering lights from Kodiak as they stood out against the blackness of the vast Alaskan wilderness. The waterfront path was surprisingly deserted. Even though it was late, it was tourist season. Usually, more people were out here, milling around and taking selfies with their cameras so they would have plenty of evidence to post on their social media accounts that they had, indeed, braved Alaska. Of course, Sawyer didn’t mind the quiet. He breathed in deeply, closing his eyes for just a moment to savor its fresh crispness. Just as he began to open his eyes again, he suddenly stumbled as he bumped unexpectedly into another person.
    Catching himself before he completely fell to the ground, Sawyer turned around to apologize to the woman whom he had knocked over.
    “I’m so sorry,” he started to say. “I didn’t see you there. Are you okay?”
    He stopped speaking abruptly when he realized that the person picking herself up from the pavement was none other than Amanda. She was examining her hands, which looked slightly scraped from their impact with the ground. His first instinct was to rush over and help her, but he didn’t know how she would react after the scene he had caused in the diner earlier.
    “Sawyer?” she said in surprise when she finally looked up at him. She didn’t sound as angry as he had expected her to, which filled him with a sense of relief. He decided to try to apologize again, and see if he could