Bear With Me: Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant

was—here on the mountain, or back in the city—no force on Earth could stop her from ripping his clothes off.
    That was her body talking, and that strange, deep urge inside her. But the longer she was cooped up inside the tent, forced to think about what had happened, the more her mind began to agree with her body.
    Yes, it was strange. And a little terrifying. But it had also been incredible. He had touched her like she was the most precious thing in the world. He had been gentle when she wanted him to be gentle, and hard when she needed him to be hard.
    And when she had asked for time, he had given it to her.
    Jamie had made up her mind. She might have sent him away once, but when he came back down that mountain, she was going to make sure he knew she was his.
    CRACK-OOM!
    Jamie jumped, jerking away from the tent flap. Had that been thunder? She hadn’t seen any lightning. And it had sounded too close to be thunder.
    Another huge crashing sound rolled through the forest, and Jamie jumped to her feet. She was out of the tent in a second, struggling into her waterproof coat.
    She was right. It was too close to be thunder. Which could only mean one thing.
    Something had fallen in the forest. Something had creaked, groaned, crashed, and splashed—into the river.
    Jamie ran, slipping on the wet ground. The stand of old-growth pines appeared in her mind. And below them, the dead tree that had fallen down into the river.
    Please don’t let what I think just happened be true , she begged desperately.
    Sure, none of those trees were tall enough to reach the cliff on the other side of the river if they fell. But the trees above the cliff…
    How could she not have thought of this earlier? The condors were young adults, only just mated. They’d made their nest in a convenient cliff in an inconvenient location, because they didn’t know any better. A tree could slip down the cliff and scrape away the nesting site as easily as she would squish a mosquito.
    Jamie didn’t even stop to think what she was going to do when she got to the river. She just ran.
    Lungs burning, she skidded down the scrubby bank where she had first met Mark. Running down beside the river probably wasn’t the smartest idea after this much rain, but if she tried to get down to the water from the lookout, she would break her neck on the steep slope. This was the only easy access for a good mile. She would just have to risk it.
    Besides , she thought, glancing sideways. The river doesn’t look that bad. It can’t have been raining further up in the mountains as much as it has been here.
    Skidding on wet stones, Jamie made her way to the beach-like cove opposite the condors’ nest. Her boots splashed as she leaned against the fallen tree and tried to get her breath back.
    Oh, shit.
    She had been right.
    A huge tree had crashed down over the river, taking half the cliff with it. The rain must have waterlogged the cliff and weakened it enough that the whole thing collapsed , she thought numbly.
    There was no sign of the condor nest. Where it had been, a broken branch hung cracked across the rock face.
    Jamie swallowed back a sob. Five years of her life—and one rainstorm had destroyed it all. What was she going to tell her boss? Her colleagues?
    A flutter like a ragged black flag caught her attention. She squinted through the rain. There it was again—two great black wings, camouflaged against the dark leaves of the fallen tree. Jamie blinked water out of her eyes, barely daring to hope…
    The river was wide here, maybe thirty feet across. Jamie had good eyesight, but she didn’t want the distance and her own hopes to make her see anything that wasn’t there. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked again.
    Black wings. A flash of a pinkish-orange head, then another. Coco and Louis were still alive.
    Jamie heaved a sigh of relief. The two adult birds were safe. But why weren’t they moving?
    A creaking, crunching groooaaaan cut through the