Free Finding Alien Love (SciFi Alien Romance) by Meg Ripley Page B

away—had felt that same tug, that same animalistic drive to reproduce. In their current forms, it was more difficult for both of them to suppress instincts. Dov knew that of the two of them, he was the more impulsive; he was the one who had spurred Ben to go on more than one skinny dipping trek when they had been in high school together, and he had been the one who had started their somewhat solitary wanderings in the forest they worked in, telling his clan-brother that there was nothing for them to fear—the other bears in their sleuth would not mind, and there were few things in the woods to harm them apart from the occasional hunter.
    Some nights, they would hunt together, skulking through the woods quietly until they came upon a deer. Other nights—like this one—they simply wandered, browsing the bushes and trees for treats, enjoying the freedom that their fearsome bodies provided them. Ever since the night when their Alpha had rescued a human female from a pack of wolves, the pack had been wary of impinging on the bears’ territory, keeping their predations to the perimeter. There would be problems from the pack in the future, but Dov looked forward to dealing with the wolves; the battle would bleed off some of the testosterone charging through the ranks, and it would be instructive for some of the younger members of the clan, just coming into the full flush of their adult forms.
    In spite of the joint resolution to avoid the woman, Dov caught her scent again, once more coming closer to them. He turned his thoughts towards his clan brother. Let her see us, he suggested. She might scare. Run away. That would solve both of their problems, after all; if the woman left, then there would be no more tempting, warm-sweet smell to distract him, and Ben’s worries about dealing with her would be moot.
    Ben snorted into the underbrush, turning a bright-eyed gaze towards him, and Dov received a series of impressions from his friend’s mind, images tinged with bear-like emphasis: screaming woman, panicked, possibly armed, going back into the town and telling the others about bears in the woods. Possibly shooting them. Messiness. Questions. She’s not armed, Dov countered, his thoughts becoming more and more human as he struggled with his animal impulses. Do you smell a gun? Ben snuffled at the air, rising up onto his hind legs for a better vantage point, for a better scent to catch. Dov chuffed and barked, twisting his head from side to side. He knew there was no gun; he knew the woman was unarmed. She would be frightened by the sight of two bears, but there would be no other problems—she would likely run back into town, and never come into the woods alone at night again. More’s the pity, he thought fleetingly, imagining—briefly—the possibility of changing back into his human form, of bearing the woman down onto her back in the soft leaves of the forest floor and taking her. It is not to be , he reminded himself firmly.

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    Daphne wandered aimlessly, looking around her as every step carried her more and more deeply into the forest, hands trailing on tree trunks, pinching off the occasional leaf after a quick visual inspection confirmed it was non-noxious. The smells of the velvety-soft evening filled her nose, calming something she hadn’t quite known was coiled tightly inside of her, relieving some stress she hadn’t realized she bore. Every step into the woods seemed to drag more of the weight off of her shoulders, lightening her feet, making her hands wander more carelessly over the plants that caught her eye.
    She had taken the job in Green Tree on an almost-whim; there was nothing for her in her hometown, hundreds of miles south of the little logging town, ever since her fiancé had been abruptly wrenched out of her life in a chance, tragic accident. He had been driving from his little college town to meet her, when a semi truck had overturned onto his fragile, lightweight sedan, crushing it to almost