Breakwater: Custer (BBW Bad Boy Space Bear Shifter Romance) by Becca Fanning Page B

She hadn't thought of that. Pausing for a minute, she turned to him and cocked her head.

    "I think bear trumps wolf, no?"   She carried on, striding with more purpose.

    "Yeah, but not a pack of them!" he protested. "We'll need-"  

    "Let's just call this a reconnaissance mission," she offered in response. "We scour the island to find wherever they're hiding, and then we go back and find everyone and-"

    "Take them on?"

    "If that's what it takes." She replied firmly. She could already see the caves in the distance. Even though she knew she was being belligerent and probably a little stupid, she just wanted to protect Dina, and this was the only way she knew how.

    "This isn't exactly how I pictured spending today," Sam grumbled, and Lorne raised an eyebrow.

    "Oh, really? What did you have in mind?"

    "Well, I was definitely going to pluck up the courage to talk to you sooner than last night," he replied straightforwardly, and Lorne practically spluttered on a mouthful of rain.

    "Sorry, not the time to be hitting on you," Sam acknowledged.

    "You think?" Lorne snapped back, unable to keep the giddy grin off her face.

    "When you're facing a potential pack of wolves with anger issues, I guess it really makes you want to skip the small talk," he shrugged. Lorne noted what felt like a fizz in her chest, even in the circumstances, she couldn't deny the fact that Sam was cute as hell, and they were alone together at last.

    "I promise that when we've dealt with all of this, we can skip all the small talk," she responded, surprised by her own brazenness. Being this forward and this open, it wasn't like her. Maybe it was because he'd dumped a giant secret on her less than a minute after they'd met, but she didn't feel like beating around the bush. Or maybe he was right and it was the giant pack of wolves that were possibly hiding around the next corner.

    He grinned, but before he had a chance to respond, a distant sound echoed off the cliffs. His head snapped round, his expression suddenly fatally serious.

    "What? What is it?" demanded Lorne, desperately scanning the horizon and trying to figure out what bothered him so much.

    "The caves. They're in the caves." He froze stock-still, as if he could hide from them as long as he didn't move too much.

    "There're more than one?" Lorne demanded, taking another few paces forward till she could see into the caves.

    "Yep. And they're close. Don't get-"

    But before he could get the rest of his warning out, Lorne realized that he was right. She could see deep into the cave from this angle, and, stalking around the damp rock, she could make out three, maybe four, wolves.  

    "Oh, fuck," she breathed, her words immediately whipped away by the wind.

    "What is it?" Sam hurried to her side, squinting to make out what she could.

    Maybe it was his scent carrying on the wind, or maybe it was just intuition, but all at once, the wolves turned to look up at their spot on the cliff. Lorne's heart jumped into her mouth, her brain was instantly crunching numbers, figuring out how far away they were from the wolves, how fast they could run, how far they could get. One of the wolves took off down the beach, and the other three turned out of the cave and came barreling towards them.

    "Fuck, shit, fuck," muttered Sam, and Lorne internally echoed his sentiments. Suddenly, she remembered the gun stashed in her coat, the cold metal pressing against her chest through her shirt. She reached into her jacket, and pulled it out, her heart leaping into her chest as she realized she might actually have to use it.  

    "Christ, Lorne where the fuck did you get that?" Sam exclaimed with horror.

    "Doesn't matter. Will it stop them?" She snapped, lifting the sight to her eye. They had two minutes, maybe three, before the wolves got there.

    "Yeah, but-"

    "Then get behind me and get ready to run." She snapped, placing her finger on the trigger.  

    "Let me shift, I can take them-" he pleaded with her, not