Free The Bear In Me: A BBW Bear Shifter Romance by Amy Star Page B

nearer.
                 
    When he reached the bottom his heart stopped for the second time that day. He heard a loud crack issue through the forest, and stopped, his ears pricked. It wasn’t thunder; it was too sharp. It had to have been a gun.
                 
    He growled and pushed through the undergrowth, making no effort to lessen his impact or the sound of his coming. Around another aisle of cedars he could finally make out a small human form. There were two of them, and one of them was limping. Sam hoped it was from the crash of the plane, and not from Emily. If she had accidentally wounded them when she was running away, they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her.
                 
    From his vantage point it looked as if they’d cornered her against a small bluff. She was fully in Bear form and making a pitiful growling sound as she tried in vain to scale the stone escarpment, only to fall back down again. Anger bubbled up in Sam when he saw one of the hunters with a thin mustache and sideburns raise the barrel of his rifle toward her.
                 
    “You brown bitch!” He shouted. “This is for taking the girl!”
                 
    Emily turned, her big brown eyes full of fear. She seemed to cower back against the wall, expecting the worst – to die alone, here, at the hands of two hunters. She made a small growling sound that tore at Sam’s heart. Emily, I’m here , he wanted to shout, but instead it came out as a muffled bark. He was close enough that both hunters turned in their boots toward the sound.
                 
    What they saw was a massive dark shape lumber tirelessly out of the thicket, its black eyes locked on them with murderous intent. One of the hunters tripped backward and as he did the gun flew from his hand, hitting the stones beside him and going off. A terrific boom rocketed the small alcove. Both hunters cringed at the sound, as did Emily, who hid her head with her paws. The only one who didn’t flinch in the slightest was Sam. The bullet whizzed past his left ear, burying into a dead tree behind him.
                 
    “Christ, what the hell is it?” One of the hunter’s shouted.
                 
    Sam let out a low blood-curdling growl.
                 
    “Shoot it.” The other hunter said to his friend.
                 
    His friend fumbled for the other gun, and Sam’s head turned toward him. He was on top of the hunter in moments, his giant paw scattering the gun into the bush. The hunter wept as Sam leaned over him, his jaw open and teeth bared, his snout pulled back in a grizzled sneer.
                 
    Sam took one step back, allowing the hunter to scurry out from under him. Then, as if emphasizing his domain, Sam stood up. His massive black haunches buried into the dirt as he stood up on his hind legs and opened his wide paws and growled. It was a growl unlike anything the hunters had ever experienced. It ripped from Sam’s throat like the thunder above, and a thin drizzle of rain plummeted down from the skies as he bellowed, long and hard.
                 
    When he fell back on all fours, the hunters had taken the hint and ran back the way they’d come, tears in their eyes. Sam waited until they were gone and only then slowly approached Emily who was still shaking in her Bear form. He nudged her gently, and she relaxed, all her muscles collapsing at once, partly in relief, partly in exhaustion. In a moment she had reverted to human form. Sam watched her from behind his big black eyes – her naked form strewn elf-like on the moss, the small cut on her forehead, her eyes shut tightly. Still in Form, he nudged her naked body gently until he managed to drape her over his broad furred back. She instinctively clung to his fur, her fingers strung through the brown hair.
                 
    Rain started to come down again, and Sam loped