Page 10 of Bred By the Beast

“I’ll give you some when we get to my cabin tomorrow. It’s the best. The bees have a lot of wildflowers around them.”

“Really? I love wildflowers. I think they’re one of my favorite things. I have so many photos and scrapbooks of them at home. And I know a lot of fun useless plant facts on top of it. I’m a catch, Wilder.”

He smiled. And couldn’t stop smiling. Somehow, she made him feel happiness. It must be a mix of her honesty, innocence, and childhood wonder. He didn’t want her to leave the forest.

She’d make a great mate for someone. For some reason when he envisioned her with someone else, he became agitated. More than agitated. She was a human, not a shifter. He should hate her and everything she stands for.

He thought of his parents and that doused those rising feelings. Humans were the enemy, and he had to remember that.

Chapter Four

Poppy didn’t know how she was able to fall asleep, especially with a bear cub in the same cave, yet she did.

She woke up, curled against Wilder’s chest, and the cub was still asleep beside him as well. The fire was out, and she saw sunlight coming in from the cave entrance.

“You slept well,” Wilder said, and she jerked in his arms, to see he was already awake.

“You’re awake.”

“That’s what happens when you don’t sleep,” he said.

“You didn’t sleep?” She was shocked.

“Didn’t need to.”

The cub made a cute little noise, and she looked down to see Wilder stroking the cub’s fur. It was like he was soothing the little bear. She had never been this close to a bear before and her heart started to race.

“It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. If you start to show fear, then he will start to fear you, and trust me, you don’t want that. He’s been through enough. He lost his mother yesterday. It will be hard on him.”

She frowned because it was like he spoke to him.

“He’s going to be getting hungry, and, well, we could be his meal,” she said.

Wilder laughed. “There’s a stream not too far from here. Come on, you can use the bathroom out there, and I’ll catch him some food.”

She felt her cheeks start to heat because she did need to go to the bathroom. She was getting a little on the desperate side. Although the thought of going out in the wild with Wilder knowing, embarrassed her.

They left the confines of the cave, and she noticed Wilder stamped his foot into the fire embers, completely stopping it from burning.

Wilder bent down and picked up the little cub, holding it in his arms, as if it was nothing more than a child. She knew it had to have weighed close to a hundred pounds, but she loved the way he cared for the bear. It was so sweet to finally see someone take care of animals, rather than find the means to kill them. Yesterday, she had been so sickened by what she had seen. It was why she wanted to bring those poachers to justice, rather than worry about her own safety.

She followed Wilder, and she noticed he went off the main path. At first, she stopped and looked at him, and then at the marked path.

He must have sensed she was waiting for an explanation. “Those poachers are still out there. They’re still hunting you. I’m not going to make it easy for them. This way, we can get to the stream, I can feed this little one, and we can all survive.”

Poppy couldn’t argue with him. She had no way of knowing where she was, or how to get where they were going. Along the way she lost her map, her wallet, everything, and that alone was terrifying. If she didn’t have it on her anymore, it could mean the poachers already knew who she was. They would kill her, of that she had no doubt.

They made it to the stream and Wilder put the bear on the ground, and it walked toward the edge of the water and began to drink.

“If you want to find yourself a bathroom, go ahead. I’m going to catch the little guy some fish.”

She frowned as he didn’t exactly have a fishing rod, nor any kind of knife. Instead, she just found a spot covered by bushes a bit away. She had to check to make sure there were no frogs, spiders, or even snakes. All of this in an attempt to get out of debt. She was starting to think this was just a giant mistake.

She felt sick to her stomach, but didn’t say anything. After taking care of her business, she made her way back to the stream, and made sure to wash her hands downstream, nowhere near where Wilder was grabbing fish.

Her stomach was growling. There was no way she’d be able to eat raw fish. Once she returned, she saw Wilder standing with his hands on hips, and the bear cub was eating some fish. He’d been able to do all of that quickly.

“It’s about half-a-day’s walk to my cabin from here,” Wilder said. “We follow this stream to the fork and we go uphill. We’ll avoid the poachers. I can then feed you. We’ll settle for the night, and I’ll get this cub to a safe place.”