Free Lord of the Bears (Wild Ridge Bears Book 1) by Kimber White

odd about the way Damon reacted when I asked for my
memory card back. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but for now it made sense to
have my own copy of whatever interested him. I threw my bag over my shoulder for
the elevators without looking back.
    As I walked back into my dark apartment, Jax consumed my thoughts. He
was protecting something out there near the pioneer cabin. He’d been guarded
and defensive when I asked him about it. Now, Damon Spence tipped his hand
expressing a similarly out of proportion interest in the pictures I took.
    I sat down hard on my living room couch and grabbed my personal laptop
off the coffee table. My camera sat next to it. I pulled the flash drive out
and stuck it into my laptop. I still hadn’t looked at all of them myself yet.
But, apparently Damon Spence had.
    Leaning back against the couch, I started to click through every frame.
I had some really great stuff in here. I’d captured the lush green foliage, a
panorama of the forest, a slow, trickling stream that made the small pebbles on
its bank sparkle like diamonds. Never mind the Vista Foundation, I might be
able to sell some of these on my own.
    Then, I came to the pictures of the pioneer cabin. It stood in stark
contrast to the surrounding greenery. Lonely and sturdy, it stood as a
testament to survival both of the long dead settlers who’d built it and against
the elements threatening to tear it down now. I wished I’d had more time to
capture it and do it justice. Small details stood out like the solid, stacked
logs of its simple yet ingenious construction. I clicked through, wishing I’d
had the time to get more angles of the structure and close ups on the warped,
weathered door.
    The next pictures startled me. I hadn’t remembered taking these. I’d
gotten one of part of the bear. At the time, I didn’t know what I was looking
at. The hollowed out tree had caught my eye, and I’d been focused on the
snakelike shape of its roots tearing out of the ground. But, there he was, just
his enormous rump tucked into the dirt. The next few frames I’d snapped on
accident. When the bear woke, I must have still had my finger on the shutter.
I’d taken several bursts of pictures.
    “Holy shit!” I whispered. There were dozens of them. I hadn’t realized
what I had until just now. Most of them were blurry nonsense. I got a few of
the tops of my shoes and tree trunks. But, as I’d stumbled through the woods,
I’d captured something else. One picture made me rear back, nearly dropping my
laptop to the floor. I got the bear in full frame. He lunged forward; his great
shoulders rippled as he stretched his neck mid-roar. His great teeth dripped
with saliva and his black lips curled back. God, he was fierce and magnificent.
Adrenaline shot through me as the scene played out in my head all over again.
What if I hadn’t gotten away?
    The next few frames clicked by, showing him in motion, one after the
other as he lifted his great paws and started to chase me. These had to be
unique. God, I wondered if I were among a select few who’d ever taken wildlife
photos this close before. No wonder Damon wanted them so badly. These could be Pulitzer
material. I kept clicking. A few of the frames were pitch black and my heart
sank. I clicked one more.
    This time, I did drop the laptop to the floor.
    I broke into a cold sweat. I stood up and paced, trying to get my heartrate
down and my head to stop spinning. My fingers trembled as I reached down for my
laptop. Thankfully, it had only hit the soft carpeting. I sat back down and
tilted the monitor to cut down on the glare. A rush of heat went through me,
and my mouth went dry. This couldn’t be. It wasn’t real. This was some trick of
the light, perhaps. But, even as my mind tried to explain away what my eyes saw,
I knew in my heart it was true.
    In one frame, there was the bear, bold and mighty, his massive paws
reaching forward. In the next frame, his claws receded. In their place a