Free Taken by the Werebear Pack (Steamy Innocent BBW Werebear Menage Romance) by Nikki Wild Page A

niceties. That was about right.
     
    "Jenkins, ma'am. Tommy Jenkins." He tipped his Smokey the Bear hat so chivalrously that I smiled again, this time more widely. Men in the north always reacted this way when a female was present. Someday, maybe in my retirement, I would make a formal study of it.
     
    The green painted Jeep had the seal of the National Parks Service. It started up on the first try, making me smile again to think of Tommy out here in the whipping wind, warming the engine block.
     
    From the reports I had received before flying up here, the bears were ranging in an area north of the river. The only crossing was at Jervis Point, about seven miles over rocky terrain.
     
    I bumped along the rushing river, watching the shoreline carefully for signs of the bears.
     
    A series of footprints along the muddy wash was my first clue, but a strange one. I pulled closer, parking the Jeep on an exposed bit of rock and stepping out into the windswept tundra.
     
    The muddy wash was slick and the river was high. I picked my way carefully down the slope, mindful not to disturb the prints.
     
    I fixed the lens of my camera on the intertwined prints, adjusting my light to take in the huge footpad and deep claw marks.
     
    Then I exhaled slowly, lowering it down and furrowing my brow. There, amidst the bear prints, was the distinct impression of a human foot.
     
    I approached it slowly, pursing my lips in concentration. Perhaps the footprint had been there first? But then I spied another print, and that made me stop in my tracks.
     
    The distinct curve of a human heel, spreading out wide into the unmistakable pad of a huge bear-paw, tipped with four claw marks dug into the mud. I photographed it several times, my confusion growing. I had never seen a print like this in my life. It looked like it might belong to a new species, perhaps? But then again, it was composed of two distinct parts; a human heel tipped with bear claws.
     
    Like a human had turned into a bear as he stepped forward.
     
    Shaking my head, I snapped more pictures of the prints. They were in a jumble, but I could carefully parse out the four different sets. From the angle and the depth of the impressions, I could see that they were all here at the same time, mingling together, almost like they were just...hanging out here at the edge of the river. There was no sign of hunting behavior.
     
    And there was that human footprint right in the middle of it to confuse it all.
     
    I followed the tracks with a renewed sense of excitement, my heart pounding in the thrill of discovery. If this was indeed a new species of bear, up to now undiscovered, I was on the cusp of making one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the century. A large mammal discovery like this was a rare thing in the days of satellite imagery and GPS tracking. Tracking them on foot, using only my keen scientific mind and my knowledge of the terrain was even more of an accomplishment.
     
    I dashed forward as the trail led me along the river and up into the foothills of the wild mountains that rose above the tiny village of Fort Jervis. The buildings were nestled snug in a hollow at other side. From the looks of the trail, that was exactly where the bears were heading.
     
    A broken branch here, a claw mark there. All fresh indicators of bear activity. I couldn't be far off now. My excitement grew, the strangeness of this assignment thrilling me, my mind whirling with the possibilities.
     
    In the sky above, I saw three wheeling, circling scavenger birds. There had to be a recent kill nearby. I stopped, letting the wind whip my hair around, testing its direction. The birds would be downwind of the scent of the fallen prey. Turning slowing, I squinted into the glaring sun.
     
    Far off ahead of me, I spied four black shapes. Like moving rocks or living boulders, they moved in a strange dance around the downed caribou.
     
    The bears. I had found them.
     
    I watched their strange