Free Unbearable Desire (Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance) (Bear Valley Clan Book 1) by Serena Nox Page A

dimmed my sight for a minute.  A small chunk of rock broke free and tumbled out into the void.  My heart leapt into my throat and I backed away from the edge. "Sorry, Gran," I whispered. "We're going to have to let the wind take care of you."
    As I stood back up again, a gale whipped down from the peak above, knifing through my body with a piercing cold.  I cast a look over my shoulder and my heart sank.  A thundercloud was boiling upward over the peak, obscuring the very top.  Lightning flashed silently inside of it, but I knew I would hear the rolling peals of thunder soon enough.
    "Shit, sorry Gran, can't linger" I swore and tumbled the ashes out of the box.  The gale caught the crumbled pieces and sent the swirling off of the ridge and over the forest onto the valley below.  "There," I nodded. 
    Then the thunder reached my ears and I swore again.
    Leaping down from the outcropping, I started my rapid descent back to the cabin, just as the fat raindrops found me.  I heard them hit the leaves first, and I pulled up my hood, obscuring my peripheral vision.  I moved through the forest like I was in a tunnel, my hood only allowing me to see what was exactly in front of me. But that did not matter, because my feet knew the way home.  If I could just get back to Gabby before the rain got too bad.
    I plunged through the trees, knowing that I should steer clear of the exposed, rocky areas when there was lightning. It would have been quicker to stay above the treeline until I needed to descend, and I could have seen my way better, but it was too dangerous in a storm.  The trees offered me a measure of protection.
    As I rushed on, the fat drops hitting my head deafened me, and my hood blinded me.  This is taking too long, I should be there by now , I thought.  Had I taken a wrong turn?
    I stopped and pulled off my hood.  Instantly my hair was soaked through, slicked to my face.  I peered back the way I came, trying to figure out where I was.  Without the clear guide of the treeline, I had become confused.  I decided to take my chances and head upward, hoping to get my bearings once I was out of the woods.
    "Who the fuck are you?"
    I stopped short, skidding on wet leaves. The gunman kept his weapon trained on me as I fell backwards onto my rear end.
    "What the?"
    "Who the fuck are you?" he demanded again.
    I stared at the apparition, dumbfounded.  "I'm, not anyone."
    "Bullshit," he spat, his face twisted in rage. He had a cap pulled down low over his eyes, but I could see his thin lips twisted up in a snarl under his scraggly mustache.  I saw more shapes moving in the trees, and then another gunman joined the first.
    "Where the hell did she come from?" his friend asked. 
    "Fuck if I know, she just showed up.  What're you doin' out here, girlie?"
    I caught the sob of terror before it could escape my throat.  Behind them I saw a ramshackle structure haphazardly thrown up around a twisted mess of bottles and tubes. There was a heavy, chemical smell in the air that the whipping wind couldn't dissipate.
    Meth. 
    I had gotten turned around and wandered right into a clandestine meth production lab..
    "I was just hiking," I told them, clenching my fists.  "I can go, right now. I won't bother you."
    "Bullshit," the first man snarled again.  "Nobody comes up this high, there ain't no trails around here."
    "Thought Marrok said we'd be alone up here," the second man grumbled.
    "Shut up, asshole," he turned to me, lifting his rifle to his shoulder. "So what do you say, girlie? You wanna try and come up with a better story?"
    I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it with a pop.  If I told them about the cabin, then they would go there.  And then they would find Gabby.  They would find my sister.
    "I got lost," I told them instead, and the sob of fear that tore free from my throat lent some truth to my lie.  "I wanted to go to the overlook, and," I thought quickly, "my friends didn't.  They'll be looking for