Slade (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 5) by Becca Fanning Page A

out of the hill at jagged angles. She could hardly imagine the pain of hitting them one by one if she fell. The right was no better, for this side of the mountain was where the trees grew, albeit rather badly. Branches stuck out from hillside roots, rising like warning fingers to tell hikers to turn away. Karina found her footing again and strode on, focused as much as she could on the path ahead.

    It was that focus which let her down. A sudden crack of lightning signaled the oncoming storm, and to Karina’s dismay the bolt landed only a few feet in front of her. The sudden column of light blinded her momentarily, and the shock of being thrown so far out of her concentration was too much. She jumped, a full jump where her feet came away from the ground, and when they reconnected, they hit the mud badly. Karina veered fearfully to the left as one foot slipped clean off the path, and when she tried to right herself by leaning the other way, she totally lost control of her balance.

    In seconds she was tumbling down the right-hand side of the steep hill, connecting with branches that made a resounding crack against her body. Some of them were thin enough to snap on impact, but others bounced her down the hill like the flippers of a pinball machine. Her backpack took a lot of the hits, but every now and then her stomach or legs would connect with something sharp. She cried out every time as gravity delivered her a seemingly endless stream of smacks and cracks. There was no time for pain, no time to even breathe. All Karina could do in that moment was fall and scream.

    The ground rose up to meet her at an alarming pace, and when she finally landed on something flat, it was a thicket of bushes that stung her skin the moment she touched them. Karina rolled down into the dark undergrowth, hoping she was fairly unhurt, but then two things happened to destroy all hope of recovery. Her foot caught sharply in the gap between some tree roots, halting her motion with a sudden jerk. And then, as her body violently came to a stop, she smashed her flailing arm against the hard, flat surface of a rock. She heard the loud, unmistakable crack in her forearm, and heaved out a sudden sob of shock.

    The world was darker than ever, freezing cold and soaking wet. Karina struggled with her foot, but it was totally trapped between the roots, and when she tried to move her arm the pain was so intense that she almost threw up. It was broken for sure, and the rest of her was horrifically bruised. She was still lying on her backpack, the weight breaking a little of her fall, but Karina’s head lolled dizzily as she tried to fumble her good arm towards it. She needed… something. It was hard to remember what. Her mind was growing dangerously hazy, the corners of her vision turning black.

    “Karina?”

    There was a voice in her pocket. Her heart raced weakly at the sound. She tried to reach down for the radio, her hand clumsily feeling the shape of it in her pocket. It was wedged tight against her body, too tight to free it.

    “Karina? Are you nearly here? It’s been over an hour, and I’m worried. Please, answer me. This isn’t about pride. I… I know you can handle yourself, okay? But just let me know where you are.”

    Reinicke’s words were fading, even as Karina continued to struggle for the radio. She couldn’t do it. Weakness had overcome her from the shock of the fall, and her eyes fluttered shut of their own accord. She didn’t want to give in, but there was no more fight in her, not a flicker of energy left to struggle with. Slowly, reluctantly, unconsciousness took her, and she lay in a rain-soaked heap, totally alone in the wild.  

When Karina Vasquez next opened her eyes, the sight that she awoke to convinced her that she wasn’t awake. She had to be dreaming, for what she could see was utterly ridiculous to behold. Before her, clambering through the bushes near the foot of the hill, was a bear carrying a satchel in its