Free Bearing The Long Road Home (Ice Bear Shifters 7) by Sloane Meyers Page A

perfect bear and fell asleep.

Chapter Eleven
     
    The next few months passed in a blur for Seth. He spent most of his time hauling loads back and forth across the frozen ice, as did Chloe. But they often spent nights together, forgoing an extra hour of sleep for the chance to make love. And when an occasional snowstorm brought the trucking operations screeching to a halt, Seth and Chloe spent their unplanned days off together. They would go into Yellowknife and shop at the small mall, or enjoy a dinner out together.
    They couldn’t hide their budding romance from their coworkers, and before long Seth was constantly enduring teasing and ribbing from his fellow truckers. He didn’t mind, though. Let them tease all they wanted to. They were just jealous because he had managed to snag the only female ice road trucker that winter—who just so happened to be drop dead gorgeous.
    As time went on, Seth’s conflicted feelings over Chloe began to diminish. In the beginning, he spent most of his hours alone on the road staring out at the ice and wondering how he was ever going to face his clan again, knowing that he had been sleeping with the enemy. But the more time he spent with her, the more he realized how much Chloe was the opposite of a bloodthirsty murderer. She was sweet and friendly, and seesawed back and forth between spunky and shy. She had obviously been through quite a bit herself. Even way out here, far away from almost all civilization, she was still constantly looking over her shoulder, worrying about who might have tracked her down with the intent to kill her.
    Chloe eventually went into more detail with Seth about what she had suffered at the hands of her alpha. Tears filled her eyes as she remembered with fondness the days before Dominic had taken over the clan.
    “We used to be a close-knit group,” she had said. “We kept to ourselves, mostly, but we did everything together. We were always looking out for one another. That all changed when Dominic took over. No one trusted anyone anymore. You never even knew if you were safe confiding in your own family what you thought about the clan wars. Then, when the males were all killed, the females started bickering because the stress of fending off attackers on our own was so high. Life has been an absolute shit-show for me since the day Dominic was sworn in as alpha.”
    Seth had held Chloe close, letting her talk and letting her cry. As they began to trust each other more, something amazing happened. The emotional scars they both had began to heal. Seth began to understand why they had been fated to become lifemates. They needed each other. After everything they both had been through, they could understand each other and rebuild a future together. By March, when the ice roads had begun to melt to levels unsafe for driving, Seth had made up his mind that he and Chloe needed to stick together no matter what.
    Chloe felt the same way, but she did not want to return to Alaska. One of their few arguments occurred a week before they were scheduled to leave Yellowknife. They were in Seth’s room, and Chloe was watching him pack up most of his things into his small duffel bag.
    “Look, Seth,” Chloe said. “I don’t think you understand. Alaska is a death sentence for me. Not everyone is as nice as your clan. A lot of shifters don’t respect any kind of rules about not killing women or children. They just want any remaining Blizzards dead. And, besides, even if your clan doesn’t kill me, they’re going to hate me. Look how hesitant you were about me at first, even when you knew that I didn’t support the clan wars that my old alpha had started.”
    “I know I hated you at first,” Seth said. “But I did come around eventually. Actually, I came around pretty quickly, once I had the full story. You have to give me that.”
    Chloe looked at him with her mouth set in a hard line, and did not reply.
    “Chloe, please just give my clan a chance. They are really good