Free Mine to Bear: Icy Cap Den #2 (Alaskan Den Men) by Jennifer Hilt Page B

I could do anything about it. That little shifter was a hard habit to break.
    With Gary gone, I paced the floor before dropping into my office chair. This project was a mess financially. Ash was skilled in carpentry, not the handling of the project as a whole. And now the vamp was making me edgy. I hated his predatory stares at Trudy. It could be him setting these bear traps.
    But I knew it wasn’t.
    I tugged on my hair in frustration. How to keep Trudy safe?
    She was never far from my thoughts when I was in Icy Cap. In California, I’d blocked her out with a steady diet of work and buxom models. Even then her sweet face had haunted my dreams more than I wanted to admit.
    Before he left, Ash told me of the dark-magic traps. Trudy was still recovering from the bear-trap injury. Every time she winced from standing up too quickly, I wanted to kill the source of her pain.
    I didn’t need an ice bear to protect her. I’d take care of this my own way. Luckily, she’d welcomed me back to Icy Cap—and her bed. Now keeping an eye on her was easy. I’d be lying if I said she didn’t thrill and excite me like no other woman.
    Was she better than Icy Cap? Absolutely. But she was happy here. Happier than I’d ever been, certainly. Back in high school, she’d begun shifting without warning. Unlike most other shifters, she’d never completely gained control of her form.
    Once Trudy understood that her pre-shifting life was gone, she accepted her fox spirit. She’d be out on the Arctic tundra in her fox form for days. When I left for college in California, Trudy stayed in Icy Cap to study online. Her argument to my failed attempts at persuasion: “No matter how cool college is, no one is going to allow a fox in their classes.”
    Trudy was wasted in Icy Cap. She would’ve made an excellent lawyer.

2
    Trudy
    I t took all of my willpower not to launch myself at Dane when he walked in the door. Too bad it wasn’t just the two of us at the inn. Even though he acts badass about denying his ice bear spirit, he is still a shifter. His strength, speed, reflexes, and stamina are paranorm. He would totally catch me if I tackled him and ran. Plus, what would follow would be great.
    Unfortunately, we were not alone.
    Dane had promised to interview the other bear-trap victims this morning. Never one to sit around waiting to be rescued, I was starting my own investigation and planned to interview Max and Gary. I’d known Gary my whole life, but Max’s arrival made me wonder what he knew. To be honest, they were the only other paranorms in Icy Cap proper. Everyone else was scattered deep in the tundra; paranorms love privacy.
    I still walked with a slight limp from the trap. Meg’s healing vamp blood had saved my life, but a fox with a limp is no good. I hoped my foot would continue to improve, but in the meantime I was determined to find out who laid that trap for me and why—and deliver some justice.
    “Need anything else?” Gary asked.
    He was so quiet, I wished he wore a bell. Once his odor permeated a place, keeping track of his movements was impossible.
    “Hey, thanks for your help. Looks like this part is all done.” I smiled at him. He couldn’t help it if he ate flesh. It’s who he was, the way a fox shifter is who I was. If Dane hadn’t spent all his energy suppressing his ice bear, he’d have been more at peace.
    Ghouls are scavengers, but vamps are predators. Theoretically neither is a threat to me, because I’m a shifter. Vampires don’t like our blood. And Gary is my friend, so I’m pretty certain he won’t eat me when I die. Gary had tried going vegetarian, but that had just made him feel awful. Also, he’d smelled worse. He reminds me of a rodent, probably because his eyes are unfortunately close together. Too bad my fox spirit loves chasing rodents.
    I climbed down from the ladder and turned right into Maxim’s wall of chest. What the fuck had he been doing standing so close to me? Smelling my