Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Imogen

Later that night, I dreamed of the bear again.

Actually, make that bears.

The big, white polar bear of the other night's dream ambled through the forest, but this time he brought friends. The grizzly bear was considerably smaller, almost cute, even though a sensible part of me knew he would tower above me if he reared up on his back paws. Then there was the Kodiak. I think that's what he was, the bear almost as big as the white one, but his fur was the lightest. Almost looking like he'd sat in a hairdresser's chair to get a balayage between blond and brown, he started to really move, loping through the forest with a rocking gait. The other bears instantly responded.

The hunt was on.

The grizzly bear nudged the polar bear as if to say let's go , and off they went.

And so did I.

Floating free like a bird above them, I watched them get faster and faster. They were like freight trains, taking a while to get to speed, but once they did, I was tugged along with them. The polar bear was the one that I thought would take the lead, but it was the brown bear that did. The gap between him and the Kodiak began to close, and then as the bigger bear looked up, the grizzly shoulder charged him, right as the polar bear rushed in.

This was all a set up. My heart beat too hard, too fast, wondering at what I was about to see. I always looked away when the predator tore apart the baby animal in the nature documentaries, something that had Mike roaring with laughter, but I needn't have worried. Despite the roar of the polar bear, his jaws snapped on the space just in front of the Kodiak's throat, then jerked away.

They were… playing?

That was the only way to describe the way the polar and grizzly bears nipped at the Kodiak, right before he leapt to his paws, then rose up on his back feet and started swiping at the others. In my bed, I stifled a giggle as I watched all three of them spar with each other. Bears were powerful, but graceful wasn't a word I would use. There was something almost slapstick about their fighting, like The Three Stooges had taken fur.

While the Kodiak was dodging the swipe of the polar bear, the grizzly darted in, raking his paws across the other bear. With more power than he intended, I think. The roar of the Kodiak echoed through the forest, sending birds up and out of their roosting spots for the night, but that wasn't the strangest thing.

"Fuck!"

A human voice, a familiar one, the Kodiak gave way to Kyle who now stood there naked, inspecting a now bleeding claw mark that raked down his side.

"Shit, you OK?"

I shifted restlessly in my bed, my brain trying to free itself from the dream, but something kept me right where I was as Lucas appeared where the grizzly bear was.

"Just a scratch."

Asher stepped forward, just as naked, just as glorious as he looked the other night, but the sly smirk on his face was new.

"All right for you." Kyle jerked back when Asher went to touch the wound, and the bunch of his abs caught my attention. I hadn't felt free to stare at those hard muscles when he slept beside me, but now? I was nothing but an eye in the sky, free to trace each one lovingly. "The two of you ganged up on me."

"Like you normally do me," Asher shot back.

"That'll be healed in a day, if that," Lucas said, his body gleaming pale in the moonlight. Those broad shoulders, those arms thickly corded with muscle, drew my eye as he stepped closer. That perfectly formed arse and long legs were new, though. Dream me was very good at conjuring the ideal male form it appeared. "Stop complaining."

"Might leave a scar." Kyle sounded pouty, right up until the point he looked up, a slow smile forming. "Chicks dig scars."

"Doesn't mean Imogen does."

Asher's words, they felt like a rope tied around me, tugging me down to earth as I rushed closer.

"She will on me." Kyle tried for cocky, but now that I hovered just beyond them, I saw the flash of worry in his eyes.

"She will on us," Lucas asserted, his chin jerking up.

Evidently dream me had decided I was the mysterious woman they were pining for.

"Then you better earn every one of them," Asher told the two of them. "To protect her from that prick Phil, we'll need to use every tool at our disposal." His jaw flexed as his tone grew grim. "Even our bears."

Dreams were wish fulfilment, that safe place where we can let our fantasies come to life, that's what I told myself furiously, because right then he looked past his friends to a space over Lucas' shoulder.

To where my consciousness hovered, disembodied and adrift. Just as he had the other night, dream Asher held my gaze, those blue eyes of his glowing brighter and brighter, right before he was forced to jerk them away.

"So you want us training in fur?" Kyle grinned, and I saw then something I'd never seen before. Long canines like a dog's… No, a bear's. "Heard loud and clear."

One minute there was a man there, and the next the Kodiak stood, ready to attack the other two, but they took fur in seconds and rallied. I was pulled out of the dream, flying higher and higher into the sky as I watched them spar, bear paws slicing through the air even as their bodies twisted to avoid blows. Up, up, up I went until my eyes flicked open.

Light was starting to seep past the curtains, and by the sounds of the birds' songs, it was nearly morning. I rolled out of bed with a groan, putting my sling back on with more ease now, the bruising reducing with each day. For just a moment I sat there, piecing it all together, that I wasn't in the forest watching bear shifters fight, but here.

With a job to do.

I blinked, remembering the kids' complaints about the supplied breakfast and that I'd planned to cook pancakes and eggs and bacon for everyone this morning. I pulled on another set of borrowed clothing, going for an easy to wear loose t-shirt and some leggings, but when I walked out into the hallway, it wasn't towards the kitchen, but into Ursula.

"There you are!" She had the bright, chipper demeanour of someone who'd had more than one cup of coffee, or worse, that of a morning person. "I was just coming to get you."

"To get breakfast on?" I swallowed hard. "Don't worry, I'm on it."

"No, to get you to come and work out with me."

"What?" I stared at her uncomprehendingly, but the smile didn't falter for a second.

"When you love someone who doesn't treat you right, they teach you something dangerous." Her gaze was intense, reminding me of her brother's. "That you need to put everyone else first before yourself. You're the only one you've got." Her finger tapped my chest. "No one else will prioritise what you need in the same way, so… Come workout with me."

"But breakfast?—"

"There's cereal, toast, and coffee for the early risers. If they want something more exotic, they'll either wait or cook it themselves." That had my hands tightening into fists, something she noted with a raised eyebrow. "You'll have your chance to wow everyone with your culinary delights. I, myself, will be first in line for your famous bear pancakes."

"With lemon and sugar," I said with a snort. "Or maple syrup. I got both."

"Of course you did, so…"

Exercise sounded like hell right now, but she was right. Mike made clear who my priority was supposed to be and it wasn't me. There was something almost naughty about walking away from the kitchen and towards the gym, Ursula shoving the doors open.

I couldn't help but remember the last time I was here. The boxing bag hung limp on its chain now because it didn't have Asher dancing around it. In my mind I saw him punching into it with a power no man could match, forcing the bag to swing wildly. Asher who hit with all of the power of a sledgehammer.

Or a polar bear.

I jerked my eyes away, not wanting to get lost in yet another dumb dream. It wasn't hard to work out what was happening. The guys stepping in to help me, it was like a scene from one of my books, and for some reason I didn't see them as my usual werewolf romantic leads. Too big, too solid, too… powerful to be just wolves, seeing them as bear shifters made sense.

Except it really didn't.

This was the real world, and all the magic seemed to have been lost from it long before I was born. They were just guys who helped people, and right now Ursula was trying to do the same.

"Let's take a look at your range of movement." She watched me tense as she reached for the sling. "It's OK. I won't hurt you. I talked to Ginny and she said some movement would be good for the injury. Just the right movement."

The sling was removed and she took over holding my arm up, very carefully moving it until I started to hiss from pain, trying this direction then the next.

"Leg day, I think." She nodded to me before putting the sling back on. "Have you done squats before?"

"What, like this?"

I dropped down into a half squat, not daring to go too low.

"Kind of." She looked me over, then asked me to do it again. "You're letting your knees go too far over your toes. Come over here and I'll show you what I mean."

I ended up with the backs of my calves pressed against a weight bench, forced instead to hinge my body at the knees and hips. Over and over I performed the movement slowly, surprised at the wobble in my legs.

"Been a while, huh?" Ursula asked with a smile.

"Exercise was never something I did willingly," I replied. "I loved art and hated PE at school. Running? Ew."

"Sports is one thing," she replied. "Some people enjoy it, some don't, but being strong? Everyone likes that."

As she stared into my eyes, I saw something I didn't expect to see: kinship. I couldn't say how or why, but I was willing to bet Ursula had her own Mike at some point, someone who made her feel weak when she was so obviously strong. I looked over the slim muscles of her arms and then nodded, able to see the way she would've dealt with Phil. A karate chop or a punch to the face, driving that fucking arsehole back with each blow, yeah I liked that idea a whole lot.

"OK, see if you can make me strong then," I replied.

"Stronger." She nodded and then took up position against the weight bench across from me. "Let's go with three sets of ten and see how we go from that."

I was sweating, my muscles were burning, and yet there was a strange kind of exhilaration about it. My thighs turned out to be stronger than I thought, able to perform the exercises she assigned me and move onto the next. Ursula was experimenting with finding the right weight for me when doing leg extensions when the doors opened again, this time to let them in.

It was hard not to see it, the way the three men walked in together in a loose group, the bonds between them clear, the easy confidence. The fact that they looked just like they had in my dream wasn't what caught my attention, but this. Kyle ripped his tank top over his head and used it to mop his sweating brow, revealing something that wasn't there when he slept beside me. A red, ragged series of scratches down one side of his hip, it was nowhere near as angry as it was in my dream, but its presence was enough to get me disengaging from the machine, Ursula looking up as I crossed the floor.

They stopped talking before I got close, their eyes all finding mine. With an animal-like awareness, they watched me quietly, implacably, right up until the point I stepped in front of Kyle.

It could've been a girl's nails, my fingers spread apart, trying to see if it would match the scratches. No amount of stretching my hand would allow me to match it. Something far bigger, something with claws, left that mark. I looked up as my hand moved of its own accord, Kyle's honey-brown eyes widening as I did something extremely weird. His stomach muscles tensed, a low hiss escaping his lips as I set my palm against the mark. I felt the rough rasp of the tiny scabs, the ridge of the mark, and just how small my hand was in comparison.

"How…?" My voice died in my throat, my brain realising belatedly how dumb this was, but my mouth was determined. "How did you get this mark?"