Grizzly Flying Home by Sloane Meyers

her. She had spent so long being crushed under the weight of an abusive relationship that she had forgotten what it was like to have people in her life who actually cared about her and treated her like she was important.
    “We wanted to,” River said, starting to light some candles that had been placed in the cake.
    “Oh, for Pete’s sake, River,” Chance said. “You’re lighting candles? It’s not my birthday. I bet those are trick candles, too.”
    River didn’t answer, but she shot Chance a grin that told him his suspicion was likely correct.
    The group gathered around and sang a song that sounded something like “Happy Trails,” but, of course, had its own ridiculous spin on it. At the end of their singing, everyone started cheering for Chance and Emily to blow out the candles. Emily enthusiastically started blowing, but Chance was more reticent. As he had suspected, the candles were trick candles, and nearly impossible to blow out. River laughed triumphantly even though Chance had guessed the trick beforehand. Despite his show of annoyance, though, Chance couldn’t keep a grin off of his face. He loved the silly ideas the girls here came up with. One more thing he was going to miss once he was back in Alaska.
    When the candles were finally extinguished and everyone had loaded desserts onto their plates, Chance found himself finally getting a chance to sit next to Emily.
    “Hey, you,” he said softly, trying to hide the husky note in his voice but knowing it was useless. “Having a good time?”
    Emily nodded as she took a big bite of a grilled pineapple. “Fantastic time,” she said around her mouthful of fruit. “I almost can’t believe I’m leaving this place.”
    Chance smiled. “I know what you mean,” he said. “But don’t worry. Alaska will be filled with plenty of good people and fun times, too.”
    Emily answered him by grinning and popping another huge bite of grilled pineapple into her mouth. The sun had set, but the moon was full tonight and the cloudless sky glittered brightly with thousands of stars. Chance took in Emily’s beautiful face as the soft glow of moonlight illuminated it, and he briefly considered kissing her. She looked so beautiful, sitting there with a smile on her face and her eyes dancing from the excitement of the night. From the heated way she kept looking at him, he was pretty sure she would have let him do it, too. But he held back, as Ian’s warnings danced in his head. He knew Ian was right. It was better to wait until he had explained shifting to Emily before jumping in to steal her heart away. He didn’t want her to feel like he had kept anything from her before asking her to fall in love with him.
    Still, he couldn’t keep himself from lowering his voice once more and looking at her with a burning gaze as he said, “You look so beautiful under this starry sky. I can’t wait to see you under an Alaskan night sky.”
    Even in the low light, Chance could see Emily blush. He smiled at her, then forced himself to get up and walk away before he did something really rash and stupid. He’d already had his fill of dessert, but he pretended that he wanted to get another round of chocolate cake and pie just so he had an excuse to leave.
    He was going to run out of excuses pretty soon. He could only hope that when Emily found out who he really was, she would still look at him the way she just had.
    Because, damn it, the hunger he saw in her eyes made him hungry, too. He wanted nothing more than to satisfy that craving for her for the rest of her life.

Chapter Ten
     
    Emily chewed her fingernail nervously as the airline shuttle pulled to a stop in front of the hotel that Chase had booked for them in Anchorage, Alaska. She couldn’t believe that she was actually here, in her new home state. So far, she hadn’t seen much. Just the little bit she could see from the window of the plane, and the view on the short ride from the airport to the hotel. But she could