Free The Bears of Blackrock, Books 1 - 3: The Fenn Clan by Michaela Wright, Alana Hart

toward her with purpose. She turned in time to make out the massive black shape, barreling toward her from behind a nearby boulder. She screamed, backing away.
    “No! No! No! Hey now! Get!” John hollered, lunging to her, and throwing her onto the ground behind him. The bear slowed before him, but did not recoil. John stood much as he had the night before, leaning toward the beast, as though challenging it.
    “Go bear! Go!”
    How could this happen again? She thought. Twice in as many nights. She’d lived in Maine, seen bears many times, but never this close – never from anywhere but the safety of a window in a house with four walls. She watched the bear jerk toward John, growling angrily, and she began to pray.
    Please don’t hurt him, she thought. Please, don’t hurt him after I just found him again. Please.
    The bear roared, mouth open and dripping saliva. She scrambled away a few more feet.
    “Catherine! Don’t move!”
    She was panting, bordering on an asthma attack, the stench of the bear overwhelming her from this close.
    “Go bear!” John yelled one more time.
    The beast turned from him and charged toward her, coming to loom like death over her. John was on her instantly, yanking her to her feet and out of its way.
    The bear took two more steps toward them, as John pressed her behind a tree. “No matter what happens, Catie, don’t run! Do you hear me? Don’t run!”
    “What?!”
    With that, John surged toward the bear, smacking it in the face to draw it away from her. The bear turned for him as he backed deeper into the woods.
    “John! What are you doing? Stop it!” The terror was giving way to helplessness, and she was openly sobbing as the bear swatted at John.
    John pulled off his shirt, flapping the light fabric into the bear’s face as the bear followed him further away from her. “God damn it, I don’t know him, Catie. I don’t -”
    “What do you mean you don’t know him? Stop it, John! Please! You’re making him mad!”
    The bear seemed to glance back at her. “I don’t have a choice. Close your eyes, baby.”
    Catherine couldn’t close her eyes if her life depended on it. She searched the ground at her feet, found a good sized rock and lobbed it at the bear’s haunches. She instantly regretted the decision as the bear turned, roaring in her direction with hungry intent.
    John lunged toward the animal, his pale chest the only thing clear in the darkness as the bear barreled at her. Catherine fell back, her backside slamming into a boulder as she landed. The pain was unspeakable, but she braced for the attack, her hands splayed before her as the bear came at her.
    The massive black shape toppled onto its side as something even bigger tackled it, bringing it down with a thunderous crack as they slammed into a young birch tree. Catherine screamed to see something that huge appear before her – like from nothing, taking up the space where John had been. Yet, this something wasn’t John. His pale form was gone, and here stood a massive, eight foot tall, brown bear.
    “John! John?!”
    Dear god, where is he? He must be hurt! Please God, don’t let him be hurt!
    Catherine tried to move away, but the muscles in her backside were atrophied from her injury. She lay there helpless, watching the massive brown bear slam its front paws into the chest of her attacker. The black bear roared up at his opponent, rewarded for his efforts by the brown bear clamping his jaws around the black bear’s throat. The sound it made was pathetic, whimpering in a plea for mercy. The brown bear released its hold, and the black bear scampered up and away, its wide caboose teetering from side to side.
    Catherine listened as the black bear retreated crashing through the brush. She lay there, helpless and alone, staring up at a beast twice the size of the first, waiting for it to turn and claim its meal. John was already gone, certainly lying hurt somewhere in the dark, and she was alone, her body half broken