Taylor put her palm against her forehead. I will not panic. It was still early afternoon, and though it was getting a little cloudy, there was no snowfall. Yet. Maybe, just maybe, she’d been right when she’d checked the Doppler radar this morning, and it wouldn’t actually start snowing until tomorrow.

Taylor was not an outdoorsy girl. The outdoors was best admired from a window. Or a painting. But growing up with two brothers, a few things had soaked in. It was best not to move. She’d only walk in circles.

Unless she could mark her path.

She opened her handbag, pulled out an ink pen, and made an ‘X’ on the nearest tree trunk. She couldn’t even see it. And scraping the bark off each tree would take far too much time. She’d just had her nails manicured that morning and didn’t care to damage the pretty pale pink nail polish she’d chosen.

She put the pen back in her handbag and noticed her lipstick. She pulled out the black tube as she studied the light red color, she pushed a crazy thought out of her mind. She was about to put it away when she heard something rustling in the brush behind her.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. She made a mark on the nearest tree with the lipstick. And this one she could see. Squaring her shoulders, she walked a few feet and marked another tree. She knew she was going in the right direction because the mountains stayed to her right.

Twenty minutes later, she still hadn’t found the path. She sat down on a fallen log to rest. Her boots were completely ruined. She should probably be thankful she hadn’t fallen in a hole or off the side of a cliff.

She heard rustling again, this time behind her. She turned around and sat very still. And waited.

Then she saw it.

A bear!

With a little squeal, she jumped up and did the first thing that came to mind. She looked for a place to hide. She darted behind the nearest fir tree only two yards away.

Still too close to the bear.

“I know. I know bears can climb trees, but maybe it won’t see me.”

Taylor had never climbed a tree in her life. She hooked a leg over the lowest limb and pulled herself up. Then she did the same thing on another limb. Sitting on the second limb, she looked behind the branches of the fir tree and realized she wasn’t that far off the ground.

And the bear was ambling toward her.

She went up another limb and decided she was up high enough. What would be worse? Being eaten by a bear or falling out of a tree? Holding her breath, she decided there was no good answer. Especially since falling out of the tree doubtlessly led to being eaten by the bear.

The black bear reached her tree and stopped. It pawed at the ground and sniffed. Taylor held her breath. Then the bear turned its head looked up at her. She looked right into its dark brown eyes only inches away.

And realized too late that the bear could easily reach her.

Her heart was beating so fast, and the blood was pounding into her ears, that she could barely hear herself think.

“Good bear,” she said. “You look like a very nice bear. If I’m in your space, I’m so, so sorry.” She attempted a smile. “I just got turned around. Maybe you could just point me in the right direction to the trail.”

The bear tilted its head as she talked.

“If it helps any, I’m a vegetarian, so I don’t eat animals. It seems like a fair trade. I don’t eat your kind, and you don’t eat me. Seems fair enough, right?”

Taylor knew she was babbling to a bear. But the bear seemed to be actually listening to her.

And it wasn’t trying to eat her. Encouraged, she continued. “In fact, I should get a free pass because I’ve never trespassed before. My name’s Taylor. You might know me from the news channel. I do the weather. But then you probably don’t watch the news. Anyway, I’m hoping I don’t have to do the weather much longer.”

The bear made a noise that sounded much too much like a growl.

“Not that there’s anything wrong with doing the weather. The weather is very important. Especially for a bear. Which… by the way… shouldn’t you be hibernating?”

Why had Michael sent her up here to look for bear shifters in the cold weather when bears were hibernating anyway? He’d taken her for an idiot.

“Hey. Actually, if you want to eat someone, I can make a recommendation. Michael Banks. He’s not a very nice man, but I think he’d be much more worthy of eating. He’s probably at least twice as big as me. If you let me go, I’ll send him out here, and you can eat him.”

The bear shook its head and, turning, ambled away.

Taylor sat quietly for a minute. Then she muttered under her breath. “Bye. It was good talking to you. Just wait until I see that Michael Banks.”