Free Bear Temptations by Aurelia Thorn Page B

this without a trace and hadn’t notified my family or the police. Oh, Mary. You’re even worse than I am with your choice of men, I thought with a sigh.
    Then there it was again. The snapping of the twigs and the bristling of the leaves. This time, I was more prepared for it than the previous two times, and I swung my flashlight around to face whatever had been following me. It was all I could do to not scream when I realized that I was standing face-to-face with a wolf. A large, snarling wolf.

Chapter 3

    He was a huge one, with thick, dark gray fur and at least 100 lbs of pure muscle. And he was growling at me, his teeth bared in an almost twisted grin, like he was enjoying the beads of sweat building upon my forehead from fear.
    I had no idea what to do. I never paid attention when my parents taught me about caring for myself in the wild all the times we’d gone camping, because I assumed there would always be my dad or someone else there to protect me, or else it just wouldn’t happen. Now I was kicking myself once again. Am I supposed to run in a zig-zag or pretend I’m dead? I had no idea, so I trusted my body’s instincts and started backing away slowly, careful to not look away from the wolf. Not that it’d matter. If he wanted to kill me, I’d already be dead. Though I could run, outrunning a wild dog just wasn’t in my DNA. Really, running wasn’t in my DNA, period.
    Taking the babiest of baby steps back, I darted my eyes towards the ground to see if there’s a stick or weapon of some sort I could use to protect myself, though I didn’t see anything. I took another step back as the wolf snarled threateningly.
    That’s it. This is it. I’m going to die.
    It was almost comical, that of all ways to die, it’d be because my sister simply couldn’t wait to go camping with her shitty boyfriend. This is all your fault, Mary . Suddenly, I was furious. Was this really the way I’d go? After all I’d been through, after my entire university education, after keeping myself alive this long? It would all be due to some stupid wild animal? I wasn’t going to have any of that. If the wolf wanted me, he could have me—but not without a struggle.
    Turning on my heel, I began to run. Somewhere deep in my mind, a memory kept poking its head out, telling me that most wolves can’t climb trees. Coincidentally, I could . Sort of.
    I lunged for the nearest tree, quickly assessed my path up it, and grabbed onto a thick branch just as the wolf bit onto my boot. Shrieking furiously, I tried to kick at its face with my free boot while clinging onto my last hope desperately. My kicks were to no avail, and as if it was out of nowhere, another wolf leapt out from the shadows and grabbed my other boot.
    My arms were straining to keep me up, my nails digging into the branches, my body stretched between the trees and the wolves. I’d lost my flashlight at this point, but I could see the light pointing at a slanted angle upwards. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t just the two wolves—there must have been at least six or seven of them. The others were just watching, waiting for these two to drag me down from the tree. I could see their creepy eyes gleaming up at me from below.
    Another idea struck me, and I immediately started trying to wiggle my feet out of my boots. I clenched my toes and, with all my might, tried to do a chin-up and use the wolves’ help to separate myself from my boots. Sadly, my upper-body strength isn’t worth shit, and, if anything, it just made me weaker.
    I could feel my fingers slowly lose their strength. They’d held on for so long that they were beginning to lose sensation; I think if I’d even tried to use a pen to write something at that moment, I’d have no luck because my fingers wouldn’t function. As my grip loosened, eventually my fingertips were the only things holding onto the branch. One last time, I tried to hurl my body up, but this effort completely depleted my strength,