Free Snowbound (Arctic Station Bears Book 1) by Amelie Hunt, Maeve Morrick

Chapter One - Alanna

    M y cell phone rang in the middle of the night, which was odd for two reasons. One, among the people I trust enough to have my cell phone number, they’d have to be on fire or giving birth to call me so late.
    And two, the ringtone was his ringtone.
    I still hadn’t worked up the nerve to change it, or better yet, take him out of my phone altogether, even though we broke up ten months ago. Grogginess and curiosity made me stupid, so of course I answered it. I didn’t even say hello.
    “Allie? It’s Oliver.” His voice was like a bucket of ice water tossed right into my face.
    I wrestled with my comforter trying to sit up in bed. “Do you know what time it is?” I asked.
    He chuckled. “It’s nice to hear your voice too,” he said. “Listen, Allie—”
    “ Alanna ,” I said. “Or Dr. MacCready. We’re not friends.”
    “I think you might change your mind when you hear what I have to tell you.”
    “Stranger things have happened. What is it?”
    He was quiet for a moment. “Hello?” I said, trying my damnedest to sound as bitchy as possible.
    “We found something, Alanna,” he said. “In the ice.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You know that I’ve been doing virological research in the Arctic?”
    “I’d heard you were doing research up north. Didn’t realize you meant that far north.”
    “I’m at Arctic Station.”
    I was still blinking sleep out of my eyes, but I remembered that Arctic Station was basically a giant floating research base. It’s a joint venture for several nations and run by a corporation. I’d only heard of it at all because it was staffed entirely with shifters. The research happening there was very hush-hush. I was impressed, but fuck if I was going to let him know.
    “Okay, so? What does any of this have to do with me?”
    “We found a virus in the ice that looks like it might be the progenitor of the Therianthrope virus.”
    My mouth went dry and I swallowed hard. “You’re fucking kidding.”
    “Not kidding,” he said. “But it’s much different than the virus that shifters are born with today. It’s more — I don’t know — pure? I mean, it still has the ability to rewrite human DNA, but without the mutations that we typically see.”
    He took a deep breath. “This could mean a cure. And that’s not all. There’s something else, but this you really need to see with your own eyes. Will you come?”
    I was quiet for a long time. “All right,” I said, and hung up. I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night. What was waiting for me? What was it going to be like to see Oliver again?

Alanna

    I swear to God, I thought, I will swim back to the mainland before I ever get back in a helicopter again. Even if I have to do it naked and handcuffed and eventually die from hypothermia or drowning. The pilot seemed to read my mind.
    “Sorry about the rough air, doc,” he said. His voice was loud and tinny in my headset.
    “Is it always like this?” I asked.
    “It’s a little worse today than most days. Not to worry though. I’ll get you there safe and sound.” He flashed me a shit-eating grin, which I could barely see through his thick beard. It was almost reassuring until another violent gust of wind made my stomach do a belly flop.
    Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to focus on something, anything else.
    “Are we getting close, Ben?” I asked the pilot. More than anything, I just wanted this trip to be over. Do they have hot showers in the Arctic ? I needed one desperately. I’d been on planes from Atlanta into Canada, and then to Alert, which is apparently the northernmost place sane humans will actually live. It’s on the very northern edge of Canada. Then Ben picked me up in Alert and it’s been a hell icopter ride from there. Ben worked as a pilot for Arctic Station and a Canadian polar bear shifter. Nice enough guy, but I think he might have been away from civilization too long.
    “Oh surely, doc,” he said. “Look out your