Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1) by Sloane Meyers Page B

familiar-looking human.
    “Oh my god,” Amanda had whispered to herself. “It’s Sawyer.”
    Standing there, naked and with a body that was every bit as gorgeous as Amanda had imagined it would be, Sawyer began yelling something to the bear on the ground about being banished. The bear got up and limped away, and that’s when Sawyer had turned and locked eyes with Amanda.
    The moment she knew he had seen her, Amanda found her feet. She turned, and began running for her life. Fear and confusion washed over her. Sawyer had never given her a reason to think he was violent, but she couldn’t take chances by stopping to chat with someone who had just turned himself into a bear.
    Amanda pumped her arms and legs as fast as she could, the adrenaline in her body helping her run much faster than she normally would have been able to. She reached the edge of town and didn’t slow down for a second—she just kept running into the woods, not caring what kind of wild animal she might meet there. Nothing could be worse than the pack of human grizzlies behind her. All she cared about right now was getting away from Sawyer. Trees, bushes, and rocks rushed by her in a blur as she propelled herself forward. She didn’t hear Sawyer’s voice yelling at her anymore, but she didn’t dare turn around to look. She couldn’t afford to slow down, even for a millisecond.
    But, suddenly, Amanda realized that the little girl, Silver, was still alone on a porch somewhere. Guilt washed over her and she forced herself to stop running. The little girl must have seen the weird human bears. She had obviously been disturbed by something, and she had been talking about bears. Amanda frowned, and began to turn around. She couldn’t leave the child behind in good conscience. Who knew what all those bear people would do to her? Even though she was risking getting caught herself by going back, she had to try to save the girl.
    She didn’t see or hear Sawyer anymore, so she must have lost him somewhere back in town. Encouraged by the fact that she wasn’t being hotly pursued anymore, she quickened her pace again. Maybe she could sneak up to the cabin, get the girl, and sneak out before anyone saw her.
    As she rounded the trunk of a particularly large tree, however, she ran smack into a familiar body. He was so strong and solid that just colliding with him knocked her backward. He didn’t move a centimeter, however. He stood there looking down at her as she slowly picked herself up from the ground, brushing leaves and dirt from her pants.
    “Where did you come from?” she asked, her voice sounding ragged and afraid.
    “I could ask you the same thing,” he said, reaching to help her brush the leaves away. She flinched and took a step backwards, and he raised his hand in a surrender motion and took a step backwards himself.
    “Sorry. I was just trying to help,” he said.
    “Who are you?” Amanda asked, hating the way her voice was shaking. “ What are you? And what was going on back there? Some sort of weird Bearman Fight Club?”
    If she was going to die at the hands of a man-bear, she’d at least like to know what the deal was with the whole changing into a bear and back thing before he killed her. As if he read her thoughts, Sawyer shook his head no and sighed.
    “I’m not going to hurt you, Amanda. Far from it. I just wanted to make sure you were okay after what you saw. And to try my best to explain.”
    Amanda cocked one eyebrow up in his direction, her voice slowly settling as she realized Sawyer wasn’t interested in hurting her, at least not at that moment. “It’s going to take a lot of explaining. That was some pretty weird shit.”
    Sawyer laughed. “Yeah, I guess so. It must seem really weird to someone who’s not used to shifters and clans.”
    “So explain,” Amanda said, crossing her arms and trying her best to look tough. Which was a little bit pointless when she was standing in front of someone like Sawyer. Even in human