Page 11 of Bred By the Beast

She was not going to argue with him. So far, he’d kept them both alive.

Wilder held his arms out, and the cub went to him, curling up against his chest. Poppy felt her heart squeeze at the sight. The poor little cub, she wanted to reach out and stroke him, but she was also afraid. What if he took a chunk out of her? Slashed her? She wouldn’t want anything to happen to the bear. So, she kept her distance, and they moved on.

It wasn’t long before the sun was beating down on them, and they kept to the stream. Her feet hurt, and she felt like she was slowing them down, but not once did Wilder complain. He seemed to keep pace with her. She wiped the sweat from her brow.

At the sound of shouting, all three of them froze, and Wilder turned to her, and they found cover behind several large trees and bushes.

“I need you to hold him while I go and check what’s going on,” Wilder said.

“I can’t hold a bear.”

“If he follows me and that noise is those poachers, they will kill him. I will not allow that to happen. Stop being a selfish human and help me.”

“I’m not being selfish. I don’t want to hurt him,” she said. Or get hurt.

“You’re not going to, because he is going to be good, aren’t you?” he asked.

She didn’t argue as Wilder put the bear into her arms, and then looked at her. He gripped the back of her neck, and she couldn’t help but gasp as the heat of his touch seemed to travel through her body. It felt so good.

Before she got a chance to say anything else to him, he was gone.

****

Wilder was ready to kill.

Only, the shouting turned out to be a couple of families enjoying the trails. There were dogs with them, and a bunch of kids. They shouldn’t be out this far in the wilderness. Although they looked completely harmless, he also noticed they stuck to the path. There was a point near the stream, where the distance between the main path and the stream was close.

Provided they kept close, no one would see them. The last thing he wanted was to have his picture in any paper carrying a bear, and assuming he was raising them.

He returned to Poppy, and before he let his presence be known, he watched her for a bit. When he put the bear into her arms, she held it almost like a baby she was afraid was going to bite her. Now, she held the bear close.

“You’re adorable. It’s not that I didn’t want to hold you, but I don’t want you to bite, and, well, where I come from, for instance, if a dog bites you, then you have to fight for it not to be put down. I would never want any animal to be hurt because of me. I know humans have been total bastards to you. Shoot, I don’t know if I should curse in front of you. I’m not much of a cursing woman. I’m so sorry about what those evil men did to your mother. If I can, I am going to make them pay.”

She held him close and the cub fell fast asleep. It was so cute how she cradled him, and Wilder couldn’t help but wonder if that was the way she would be with her own child. She had a natural mothering instinct.

He cleared his throat and she gasped, putting a protective hand to the cub. She actually looked like she wanted to protect him. Holding his hands up, he smirked.

“Now you see why I kept him safe?” he asked.

“Yes, I knew from the start.” She was not letting the cub go. “What was the noise?”

“Some families. No threat at all.” He held his arms out to take the cub. He heard her stomach rumbling, and he could have taken the time to build another fire when he was getting fish for the cub. However, he felt she would prefer to have something more than fish caught in a stream.

“I’ve got him,” she said.

“We’ve still got a ways to go. You’ll tire and you haven’t had enough food.”

He saw the way she looked at him, and there was a yearning there. Did she want to be a mother?

She sighed. “Okay, fine. Hold him tightly. I don’t like the thought of him getting cold.”

The sun was high in the sky, it was hot, and the little guy was covered in fur. They were not going to worry about the cold. She reluctantly gave him the cub, hardly able to hold him, and they made their way past the fork in the stream, and were on the final trek uphill to his cabin.

The moment they got close to his land, he grabbed her hand. “I have wires and traps, so you’re going to have to do exactly as I say, otherwise this is going to end badly for you,” he said.

She held onto his hand tightly, as they made their way through his maze. He didn’t like humans, and any wrong move could set off one of his traps. He wasn’t exactly kind with his traps. Most poachers didn’t deserve kindness. On rare occasions, there were humans that tried to cross his property, who didn’t deserve it. In those cases, he did help. He wasn’t a total monster.

They got to his cabin, and he pulled out his key and let himself inside. Poppy stood at his back door, and he turned to look at her. “Like I said, if I was going to kill you, there were plenty of times I could have already done so.”