BEARing The Frozen Night (Ice Bear Shifters Book 1) (2 page)

Two more weeks of darkness passed, and Kenzie forced herself to stop counting down the days until the light returned. Even though they were nearing the halfway point now, seeing the number of dark days remaining still depressed her. She poured herself into her work, and the respect the townspeople held for her grew. Kenzie had a small office in the main area of town, where people occasionally brought in a pet for a vaccination. But most of the people out here didn’t see the value in spending money on vaccines for their animals, so the office ended up being used mostly for scheduled surgeries. Kenzie made a lot of house calls, stitching up minor wounds or checking in on an animal that was acting lethargic. She took care of both large and small animals. It had been a while since a professional veterinarian had lived in Glacier Point, and, from the amount of work that Kenzie had, it seemed that everyone was happy to have her assistance.

One evening, just as Kenzie was settling in to eat her dinner—a hearty beef and bean chili she had whipped up—her phone rang. Kenzie, like everyone else here, only had a landline phone. A cell phone would have been pointless, as there were no cell towers. Your only option if you wanted a mobile phone was to get a satellite phone, but the cost was outrageous. And even if you paid the exorbitant price, the frequent blizzards tended to make the satellite reception sketchy, at best.

“This is Kenzie,” Kenzie said into the phone’s receiver. It was her standard greeting now. It was a bit more formal than a plain “hello,” but she had found that the people here tended to be a bit more formal with people they didn’t know well.

“Doc!” an excited, breathless voice breathed into the receiver. “Doc, we need your help. Millie Wilkinson’s dog got attacked by a wolf, out on the edge of town. It doesn’t look good. Doesn’t look good at all!”

“Where exactly are you?” Kenzie asked. She grabbed a pen and wrote down the directions, then read them back. The area the caller was directing her to was way on the outskirts of town. Kenzie wasn’t sure if she’d ever been out that far in that direction. She hoped she could find it. Kenzie gave the caller some basic directions on stopping the dog’s bleeding, and said she was on her way.

She left her bowl of chili forgotten on the kitchen table and sprang into action. She quickly checked her portable black medical bag to make sure it was well stocked with all the necessary supplies, and then she quickly started putting on her parka and boots. She grabbed her gun on the way out the door, just in case. Wolf attacks were rare, but obviously they did happen.

Kenzie jumped on her snowmobile and sped off into the night, pushing the engine as fast as it would go. From what the person on the phone had said, things didn’t sound good for Millie’s dog. Kenzie made it to the spot in less than fifteen minutes. She could see a group of several people huddled together and holding lanterns. As soon as she shut off her snowmobile, she heard the sound of a woman wailing. Several of the people looked up as Kenzie approached, and one of them sadly shook his head, no. The dog was gone already.

Kenzie double checked the dogs vitals, just to make Millie feel better that the animal really was gone, and there was nothing further they could do. But the lifeless body was already growing cold.

“I can take the dog back to the village on my snowmobile’s rear trailer,” Kenzie said. “Someone should get Millie home and out of the cold.” One of the townspeople started gently leading Millie away, and a few of the others gingerly placed the dog on Kenzie’s trailer, covering his body with a blanket.

“What was Millie doing way out here, anyways?” Kenzie asked. Usually, people stuck pretty close to the center of town during the dead, dark of winter.

The man standing closest to Kenzie sighed. “She said she saw a bear. A polar bear, of all things. She was worried about it attacking her neighbors’ kids, and tried to chase it down and kill it.”

“A polar bear? I thought they were all out on the sea ice.”

“They are, usually. But with the sea ice melting so much the last few years, they’ve been moving closer to the towns. So I’ve heard, anyways. I’ve never seen one near town myself.”

Kenzie nodded, and shivered, more from the thought of encountering a giant bear on her own than from the cold. As she packed her medical bag back into her snowmobile’s storage compartment, she noticed for the first time that there was a small cabin several hundred feet from them. The cabin was dark except for one small lantern lit in the front window, where the silhouette of a large man could be seen.

“Someone lives way out here?” Kenzie asked, pointing toward the cabin.

“Oh, yeah. That’s Ryker. He’s something of a loner. Works as a security guard at the superstore, and otherwise keeps to himself. He did let me use his phone to call you, though. I don’t think he was happy about letting anyone into his cabin. I have no idea why not. There’s absolutely nothing to see in there. It’s almost completely bare. Just a bed and small kitchen table. Basic pots and pans. Nothing else. No decorations, nothing to make the place homey at all.”

Kenzie stared at the silhouette in the window for a few more moments. “Huh. I can’t imagine why you’d want to be so far out here. Especially with wolves and bears roaming around.”

“I dunno, Doc. Some people in the Arctic really like their privacy.” The man shrugged, and started making his way to his own snowmobile. “Do you know the way back? Or do you need to follow me.”

Kenzie waved him off as she started climbing on her own snowmobile. “No, no, I’m fine. Go on ahead.” The man roared off and Kenzie started strapping on her helmet. Just before taking off again, she paused and looked back at the man in the cabin. She must be going crazy, she thought, because she could have sworn she saw his eyes glowing yellow.

Kenzie shivered and turned her snowmobile toward town. She’d clearly had enough excitement for one night, if she was imagining things like seeing Ryker’s eyes glowing. It was time to get home, warm some chili back up, and head to bed.

* * *

Ryker watched Kenzie speeding off, and sighed. He let out a low growl, but he resisted the urge to go after her. He had been surprised when one of the guys from town had banged on his door about an hour ago. There had been such a commotion outside. People dragging what looked like a dying dog, others running toward the sparse forest with their guns drawn. He hadn’t wanted to let the man in to use his telephone. He had even considered saying the phone didn’t work. But, in the end, he figured just letting the guy make a quick phone call would draw less attention than absolutely refusing him. And the last thing Ryker wanted was attention.

Ryker frowned. It seemed one of the Northern Lights bears was drawing unwanted attention. Ryker retained his keen bear senses even when in human form, including his ultrasonic hearing. That’s how he had heard every word of Kenzie’s conversation with the villager, even though they were several hundred feet away from his cabin. The mention of Millie’s polar bear sighting troubled him. Neal had forbidden anyone in the clan from shifting to bear form, unless it was an emergency or they were on a group hunting trip. Occasionally, the clan went on a seal hunt together. Sometimes for fun, and sometimes because they were in need of the extra boost of fat that seal meat provided. But the last seal hunt hadn’t been for several months. It had taken place before the sun went dark for the winter. And as far as Ryker knew, there hadn’t been any emergencies requiring a shift. So why had Millie seen a polar bear?

It was possible it had just been a regular polar bear. But what if it wasn’t? What if Millie had spotted a Northern Lights bear? They had to be more careful. Ryker didn’t even want to think about how angry Neal would be if their cover here was blown. But another possibility, one that bothered Ryker on an even greater level, was that the polar bear had been a bear shifter from a different clan. Was it possible the Blizzards had found them? Ryker felt his hair standing on end. He stood in the front doorway of his cabin and breathed deeply. He didn’t smell anything unusual. The only abnormal scent was the stench of death from the dog that had just died right outside his cabin. Other than that, everything seemed normal.

Ryker rubbed his forehead and went back inside, shutting the door behind him with a loud thud. He needed to talk to Neal about the polar bear sighting. If there were Blizzards around, everyone needed to be on high alert.

The next day, Ryker was scheduled to work the day shift at the superstore. Not that it mattered much to him which shift he worked. With the constant darkness, and with work being his only responsibility, time was a very loose concept for Ryker. The only reason he didn’t like the day shift was that Kenzie never came into the store during the day. She only showed up during evening hours, and usually it was to buy ice-cream. She hadn’t been around much, lately, though. Ryker tried to push her out of his mind, but it was a losing battle. He could feel himself being drawn to her. She wasn’t a bear shifter, true. But there was something different about her. She had a more spiritual presence than the other humans in Glacier Point. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he knew that her incredible beauty wasn’t the only thing that attracted him to her. She had a certain peace, a certain aura about her, that calmed his aching bear heart.

Ryker needed her. If he couldn’t have her as a mate, he at least needed to see her. He knew he was playing with fire, and he knew Neal would be furious if he found out that Ryker was looking for excuses to spend time with Kenzie. But Ryker couldn’t help himself. He was so drawn to Kenzie that he would risk the wrath of his alpha to see her, if that’s what it took.

Ryker started plotting places she was likely to be. In a small town like Glacier Point, that wasn’t that hard to do. There were only two pubs, and most people in the younger crowd favored the Northwinds Pub. Ryker started going there whenever he had an evening off. At first, he had sat at the bar with his head down, trying to avoid all contact with the other pub patrons. But after a few visits, the bartender started to consider him a regular, and would toss him a free beer now and then between paid rounds. Ryker didn’t want to be rude to someone giving him free drinks, so he made an effort to at least be civil to the bartender and look him in the eye when ordering. Ryker soon realized that he actually enjoyed a small amount of interaction now and then. He didn’t want to get philosophical or discuss his life story with anyone. But a “How’s it going” and “How was work today” tossed in here and there made the dark Alaska winter seem a little less dark.

It was on Ryker’s sixth visit to the pub that Kenzie finally showed up. She came in stomping snow off of her boots with gusto. Then she hung her oversized parka on the equally oversized coat rack near the front of the pub.

“Hey, Doc,” the bartender greeted Kenzie, sliding a cardboard coaster in front of her. “The usual?”

Kenzie nodded, and the bartender started filling a pint glass with White Moose Ale from the tap.

Ryker tried to contain the heat rushing through his body at the sight of her. This was only the second time he had seen her without her parka on, and she was just as stunning as he remembered her. Perhaps stunning wasn’t even a strong enough word to describe her. There was just something about her that was absolutely breathtaking. Her skin somehow managed to stay looking soft and smooth, even though he knew she was constantly being exposed to the harsh winter air. She pulled her chestnut brown hair out of the bun it had been held in, and Ryker forced himself to look away. He could already feel the heat in his body centering itself between his legs. It had been so long since he had looked at a woman in this way. He had pushed away any feelings of passionate desire for so long. But his feelings for her were too strong to be pushed away. They came over him in waves, drowning him with an animal instinct that told him to bond to her, to make her his mate. But he couldn’t. His hands were tied. He could not betray his alpha, or his fellow Northern Lights bears. They had all been through enough already. He would not add his insubordinate behavior to their list of heartaches. It had been a mistake to come here. He needed to leave, now, before the throbbing stiffness between his legs got any worse. But just as Ryker reached to grab his wallet, he heard her say his name.

“Ryker?”

He looked up at her, telling himself to remain calm, and hoping that the telltale yellow glowing of desire was not showing up in his eyes yet.

“It’s Ryker, right?” she asked. “Aren’t you the security guy at the superstore? I’ve run into you a few times when I was trying to scurry out of there without anyone seeing me buying yet
another
carton of ice-cream.” She laughed at her own little self-deprecating humor, and the music of her laughter filled his heart with such a longing he thought it might burst right out of his chest. He felt himself go rock hard between his legs, and he slowly put his wallet away. There was no way he was getting out of here at this moment without being completely obvious.

“Yup, I’m Ryker,” he said, extending his hand to her, He thought he saw a hint of a blush pass across her cheeks when their hands touched, but he couldn’t be sure.

“I’m Kenzie,” she said. “Although most people around here call me Doc. But I’m not a real doctor—just a veterinarian. But, please, call me Kenzie. Not Doc. I just thought maybe you’d heard of people referring to me as Doc.”

Ryker smiled warmly at her. She
was
feeling a little flustered at his touch. He could tell by her nervous laugh and mile a minute sentences. Was it really possible that he was turning on Kenzie Atwell just as much as she was turning him on? He signaled the bartender for another beer. Since he was going to stay for a little while longer, he might as well enjoy himself. After all, Neal hadn’t put any prohibitions on harmless flirting, right?

* * *

Kenzie was a little embarrassed to admit how excited she had been to see Ryker sitting at the bar when she walked into the Northwinds Pub tonight. He was wearing a plaid flannel shirt in navy and hunter green tones, and relaxed fit blue jeans. She had thought he looked plenty sexy when she saw him at work in his boring old uniform. But she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him now that he was sitting in front of her, basically looking like a male model for an outdoorsmen’s catalog. When he glanced up at her, his deep violet eyes had looked like they literally flickered yellow. He must have just caught the reflection of one of the ceiling lamps, but the effect made his eyes look otherworldly. Kenzie was captivated.

When he quickly looked away, and then started reaching for what looked like his wallet, Kenzie quickly jumped in to distract him. She was starved for some interaction with another human being that didn’t revolve around discussing a sick or dying animal. Of course, she was in the middle of nowhere in the Arctic Circle, so she couldn’t be too picky, but she wasn’t going to complain if the most gorgeous man she had ever seen was the available option for conversation this evening.

Much to her relief, after she introduced herself he put his wallet away and ordered another beer. His handsome face and wide smile made her heart do delicious flip flops. It had been so long since she’d felt that wonderful feeling of being flustered simply by the way a certain guy looks at you.

“I’ve never seen you in here before,” she said.

“Yeah, well, I’m often working during this time of the evening.”

“Right. Well, I was just wondering if I’d ever get the chance to see you outside of the superstore. Word around town is you like to hide out in your cabin like a recluse.”

“Who told you that?” he asked, immediately switching from a smile to a frown.

Uh-oh, Kenzie thought. She had obviously just hit some sort of nerve.

“Just one of the guys who helped me load Millie’s dog onto my sled after it died.”

“Well, I don’t like nonsense. And hanging out with people at pubs in the middle of winter tends to involve a whole lot of nonsense. People get a little batshit crazy after two months of darkness and a couple rounds of beer.”

Kenzie laughed. “I’ll give you that. The weather, the darkness, and the people have all been a big adjustment for me. I moved here looking for an adventure, and I got one, that’s for sure. I’m just not sure if it’s exactly the adventure I was looking for.”

“Where did you move from?” he asked.

“Oregon,” Kenzie said. “I got a fellowship from an organization that places professionals in remote Alaskan towns. It covers two years of living and working here. I’ll admit, I wanted to turn around and head right back to Oregon when I first got here. But it’s starting to grow on me. Or maybe I’m just going a little crazy from all the snow and darkness. What about you? I heard you moved here not too long ago. Where’d you come from?”

“Canada,” Ryker said, his voice taking on an oddly defensive tone. “I just needed a change.”

Kenzie nodded. “I totally get that. This has been a big change for me. But it’s pretty incredible the amount of work experience I’ve been able to get out here. Back in Oregon I would have been working as a junior vet at a large clinic or struggling to find customers for my own new clinic. Neither one of those options would have given me even close to the number of opportunities I’ve had to treat animals out here.”

“People say you’re very good at what you do.”

“Thanks,” Kenzie said. She could feel herself blushing. “I try really hard to do my best for every animal. I love animals so much.”

Kenzie saw an unreadable look pass over Ryker’s eyes when she said she loved animals. Was he not an animal person? He didn’t have any pets, as far as she knew. But everyone out here loved animals. It was hard to live in the Arctic wilds and not have an appreciation for wild creatures. Maybe he had lost a pet recently, or something. Kenzie decided to switch gears a little bit.

“Speaking of animals,” she said, and lowered her voice until it was a dramatic whisper, “Did you hear that there have been a few polar bear sightings around town?”

This grabbed Ryker’s attention. He looked at her warily, the violet in his eyes turning deep and dark. “Multiple sightings? How many? Where? By whom?”

Kenzie laughed and held her hands up in surrender as he peppered her with questions. “I’m not sure. I was kind of hoping you would have more details. Millie was the first one to see one. She was out searching for it with her gun the night her dog got attacked by a wolf. People were actually pretty angry when they found out she was hunting down a polar bear. The polar bear population has dropped sharply over the last year, so no one really wants people going around on bear hunts.”

“Why was Millie hunting it down, anyways? Was she worried it was going to attack the village or something? And what kind of gun was she using?”

Kenzie shook her head and smiled. “Man, you’re pretty rapid-fire with the questions when something piques your interest, aren’t you? I don’t know what kind of gun she was using. Some sort of rifle, I guess? And, yes, she’s worried that the bear’s going to attack the village. I guess she heard of another town in Canada where the bears got too bold and started coming into town, running into humans and causing trouble. Millie’s one of those people who watches the news too much and is always afraid that the next big tragedy is imminent. But anyways, then another guy thinks he saw a polar bear when he was out ice fishing the other day.”

“People still ice fish in this darkness?” Ryker asked, seeming surprised. “My buddy Eric ice fishes, but he takes a break during the dead of winter.”

“Yeah, I dunno. I think it’s crazy, too. But some people get big spotlights and go even now, in the middle of all the darkness. This guy thought he saw a polar bear, but he wasn’t sure. Now everyone in town is starting to worry. If there’s a bear, or multiple bears, getting too comfortable around humans, then that could cause some real issues. No one wants to kill a bear. Well, no one except Millie, I guess. But if one gets too tame, it might inevitably lead to a confrontation where the bear has to be gunned down.”

“Hmmm,” Ryker said.

Kenzie took another sip of her beer and waited to see whether he would say anything else. He seemed to be keenly interested in the polar bear sightings. She wondered if he worried about being alone in a cabin way in the outskirts of town. A hungry bear could make quick work of tearing down his cabin’s door. But he didn’t look worried, exactly. Just perplexed. When he didn’t say anything for several moments, she continued talking.

“If there is a polar bear roaming around, I wish I would get a chance to spot him.”

Ryker seemed amused by this. “Do you now?” he asked, his expression lightening as he grinned in her direction. His smile intoxicated her. She found herself wondering if his lips tasted as good as they looked, then forced herself to tear her eyes away from his mouth and focus on his eyes.

“I love polar bears,” she said. “They’ve always been my favorite animal. They’re just so… majestic. And magical. They seem to be on another level from other bears.”

Ryker turned his whole body toward her on the barstool, his eyes suddenly blazing and glowing yellow around the edges again. Kenzie was amazed. How did his eyes do that? It creeped her out a little bit, but it wasn’t unheard of, right?—for people’s eyes to change colors with their emotions. Her response seem to hit some sort of emotional chord with him. He must be a big fan of polar bears, as well. He gazed at her with hungry eyes. Kenzie recognized the look. He found her attractive, and he wanted her. Kenzie felt her pulse quicken. She wanted him, too. It had been so long since she felt a man’s touch, and she had a feeling that she had never felt a man’s touch that was quite like Ryker’s. She had never seen hands like his, so big and strong. She wanted to feel those powerful hands holding her. She wondered if other appendages on his body were as big as his hands, then blushed at the thought. She momentarily let her focus drop to the space between his legs, but quickly forced her gaze to come to eye level with him.