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

mouth. The little white canvas bag was marked with the big red cross of first aid, and the bear was swinging its head to and fro, sniffing at the undergrowth about six feet away.

    “Well,” Karina managed to murmur, “Either I’m hallucinating, or I was right about you being a very weird bear.”

    He heard her. She watched with droopy, pained vision as the bear’s head cocked to one side at her whispered words. At once he found her, sticking his massive head into the bush where she’d become buried in a slew of mud. He put a paw out, feeling the terrain around her, padding into the gloopy mess.

    “Geez, don’t dig me out!” Karina pleaded weakly, eyeing his fearsome claws.

    She flinched at the prospect, and suddenly a shockwave of agony rocked her whole aching body. Karina cried out, and in the same moment she felt a shift in the air beside her. Something funny was happening in her immediate vision, where the bear’s furry head should have been. It seemed to be receding, yet the creature wasn’t moving away. Was he shrinking? Karina was now certain that she had to be dreaming, for this whole moment seemed impossible. She watched on, enthralled by the sight of the fur that was slowly sinking back behind flesh, the strong bare limbs emerging where clawed paws had been just moments before.

    A perfectly cropped head of brown hair followed, and when the man looked up at Karina with his glittering golden eyes, she felt that little jolt in her gut again. Reinicke’s face was a picture of deep concern, his hands reaching out to scoop the mud off of her. He felt her forehead, then pressed against her neck and felt around the joints there. He moved around, checking her arm gently, then moving to the place where her foot was caught to try and break her free of the roots. Karina’s eyes wandered over the curve of his strong, bare back.

    “You’re naked,” she whispered.

    “Really?” Reinicke replied. “That’s the first thing you say?”

    “Gimme a break,” Karina answered weakly. “I just fell off a mountain. A girl needs something to distract her.”

    Reinicke did not reply. He had managed to break apart one of the roots trapping her foot, and Karina felt a sudden surge of relief as her ankle came free. She felt the ranger lay her leg down gently, then his hands were on her hips, turning them ever-so-slightly in his grip.

    “How’s your spine? Any damage?” he asked.

    Karina moved to test it at once. Reinicke had put his hands up to stop her making the sudden shift, but he was too late. Karina hissed at the faint agony of moving after a considerable time lying unconscious, but there were no major problems in her back.

    “It’s just my arm,” she said, “Broken. Definitely broken.”

    The words were suddenly hard to get out, for a sob had clogged her throat. Quite unexpectedly, Karina felt a surge of panic race through her as the tears came racing down her cheeks. She heard the storm rumble overhead as if it was right in her ear, fear and agony overcoming her in one fell swoop. Reinicke took one arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, lying beside her as he reached behind him for the medical bag. Inside there was a radio, much larger than the one he’d given her.

    “Hart, get your ass to the north outpost now,” he demanded in a powerful, almost snarling tone. “I need full paramedic. Broken arm and deep shock. I don’t care what you’re doing. Drop it. This is important.”

    If she had not been in the throes of shock, it might have occurred to Karina that she had a gorgeous naked man lying beside her, trying to comfort her out of the uncontrollable sobs that wracked her body. Eventually, Reinicke managed to persuade her onto her feet, half-carrying her as they began a slow, loping pace back towards the outpost. How he came to be carrying her in his arms, Karina couldn’t remember. She shifted in and out of the moment as her battered body came and went from reality. Later, all she