Snowbound With The Bear (Bear Creek Clan 4) by Harmony Raines

Chapter One – Hal
    Hal’s whole body stiffened. He lifted his short snout into the air and breathed in the scent, which tried to evade him on the breeze. The air was so cold it left frozen icicles on his whiskers, but he had to stop, had to be certain. Now he was. Against all odds, here on the mountainside, in near blizzard conditions, he had found his mate.
    Well, found wasn’t perhaps the best word to use. The snow was falling so thickly he couldn’t see a thing. The scent could be from anywhere. All he could do was search. Because, if he didn’t, his mate would freeze to death.
    He shrugged his shoulders, settling the straps of his pack on his broad back. There had been a small window of opportunity, a lull in the winter storms before bad weather settled in again. It had driven him to risk a trip down to Bear Creek to top up his supplies. He could survive on rice and beans, but he was a bear with a sore head without coffee.
    He would have made it back in plenty of time. His thick fur kept the worst of the cold out and his big paws easily coped with the snow on the ground. Now he had to make a choice: either make it back to his cabin safely or search for his mate. For most other bears, there would be no choice, but Hal was not most bears. He enjoyed a life of solitude. Purposely living up here, high in the mountains, to avoid people, and other bears.
    Being a loner, he had never actually sought out his mate, preferring to spend his days in the forests with only himself as company. When winter came he did what bears were meant to do. He hibernated, or as good as, in his lonely cabin.
    He liked it that way, always had. However, when her scent came his way again, he knew it had affected him and changed him. There was no denying it, even though he wanted to. She was his and he had to find her.
    In his head, he carried a clear map of the terrain of his mountain, despite it being featureless in the snow. It was rough going, the forest so dense in patches it was hard to push through. Steep slopes were pitted with holes where rockslides had taken the mountainside, leaving it treacherous. These holes would be filled with snow. If you fell in one, you could easily disappear and suffocate. However you looked at it, time was not on his side if he wanted to find her alive. And he did. Didn’t he?
    He began to circle around, making a wider sweep each time. The snow continued to fall; only his skills were keeping him from getting hopelessly lost. As he walked, he went over all the things that were bothering him.
    This far over, the chances of it being another bear were slim. No one came this way from Bear Creek, and Bear Bluff was even further away. Someone coming from there would never have got this far in the snow. The same could be said for a human, which meant this was most likely a shifter of a different kind.
    So far, not a problem. However, if you took it one step further, the chances of anything other than a wolf being up here were slim. They were the only bigger shape-changers that were around here. But wolves didn’t trespass on Bear Creek territory, not unless they had good reason. And the only reason you would be up here in weather like this was if you were on the run. It meant his mate was in trouble, and his protective instinct kicked in.
    He began to move faster, knowing he was up against the weather. If she was lying in the snow, then she would freeze. Even if she was still on the move, chances were, she would soon succumb to hypothermia. As would he, if he didn’t get back to his cabin before dark.
    He thought about dumping the pack. It was designed to come undone if he pulled a cord with his teeth. But he needed the supplies, especially if there were going to be two mouths to feed. So he plunged on, the scent becoming fainter. Maybe she was on the move, or maybe he was going in the wrong direction.
    Snow began to blur his vision and he had to fight every step of the way. This was madness. He needed to get to