Free The Color of Forever: Book Two: Forever Cowboys Series by Hope Whitley Page B

he spoke his voice was low pitched and soothing.
    “Samantha,” he said, “one elemental rule out here or anywhere bears live is that you never, ever approach a baby bear or get between a bear cub and its mother. The mothers are fiercely protective and will attack in an instant if they perceive a threat to their offspring.”
    Oh yeah. Somewhere in the dim recesses of her memory, Samantha remembered hearing this in the past. She hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time because she couldn’t imagine the warning ever applying to her since bears didn’t roam freely around downtown New York.
    “It was only trying to protect its cub,” Ben went on. “But a mother grizzly is one of the most dangerous animals on the planet and she would have killed us both to eliminate the threat to her baby.”
    Sam shuddered and felt big, hot tears well up and start trickling down her face. Her heart was aching with remorse at what she had caused … the death of this beautiful wild animal who was bravely defending her young.
    “Oh Ben, I’ve caused you to have to kill that poor mother bear. Now what will happen to the baby?” She looked up at him, her eyes filled with tears. “Can you find it a home somewhere?”
    Ben tightened his grip on her as he rubbed her back in rhythmic circles, soothingly. “Shhh, now” he said in a comforting tone. “I didn’t kill her. I shot her with a tranquilizer dart. She’ll be fine. In fact, she won’t be out long so I need to get a tracking device on her in order to monitor her movements and make sure she doesn’t suffer any ill effects from the dart.”
    “Stand here,” he directed.
    He wouldn’t have to ask her twice, Sam told herself. No way was she getting close to the bear again, even the darling little baby bear that was the start of all their trouble. She watched as Ben removed a large collar from his saddlebag and then fastened it around the neck of the mother bear. The baby continued to squawl and cry. Even now that she knew its mother wasn’t dead, Sam felt terrible about causing the baby to be so upset and surely frightened.
    Apparently she had a lot to learn about the wilderness and nature. Samantha went weak at the knees thinking of what would have happened to her if Ben hadn’t been with her today. Ack! She’d have been killed. Killed and worse yet … eaten! It was a sobering thought and she resolved to rein in her impulses in the future when dealing with things she knew nothing about. Like bears, for instance.
    The collar securely fastened, Ben strode back to Samantha. “We need to get on out of here. I don’t want to still be here when she wakes up.”
    He looked around. “Your horse is gone. The bear spooked him and since he wasn’t tethered, he cut a trail. You’ll have to ride with me.”
    Now Samantha felt even worse. She hadn’t thought about tying the horse and now he was gone. He could have been killed by the bear or hurt himself in his headlong flight to get away from the grizzly.
    “What will happen to him? Shouldn’t we try to find him?”
    Ben laughed. “Nah, not to worry. He’ll beat us home, I’m sure, and be waiting at the barn for his oats and hay. Animals have a better sense of direction than most people. So he won’t get lost.”
    After untying and mounting his own horse, Ben reached down a helping hand and swung Samantha up into the saddle behind him. “Just hang on,” he said. “We’ll be home shortly.”
    “Ben, how does that collar work as a tracking device for the bear?”
    “It’s a process called GPS Wildlife Tracking. It uses the Global Positioning System similar to what you find in cars and when plotted against a map of the area, will allow me to track her movements in real time. That way if she does have a reaction to the anesthesia in the tranquilizer dart I can find her and provide assistance.”
    Samantha was glad Ben would be able to keep an eye on the mother grizzly, even remotely. She felt awful about the incident