Chapter One – Teagan

Her fingers curled around the neck of the calf, and she tried one more time to heave him out of the creek. The muscles in Teagan’s arms burned from the strain of attempting to help the young animal out of the creek a dozen times already. They both knew it was no use, but they both knew he would die here in Bear Creek, the waterway from which the town earned its name, if they didn’t find a way to get him out soon. The water was rising as the rain ran down from the mountain in rivulets, which joined together to form a hundred small streams, each feeding into the creek, making the water swell higher than had been known for years.

Teagan pulled, and the poor baby flailed his legs, trying to get a grip on the side of the muddy bank, while his mom lowed mournfully. It didn’t work, of course it didn’t, but Teagan couldn’t walk away, and she couldn’t call for help; there was no phone reception, the peaks of the surrounding mountains blocked it out.

Teagan gave a sob of frustration, the calf going limp in her arms as he stopped his struggle for life. “Damn it.” She looked around, eyeing the same steep muddy banks she had already examined countless times in an attempt to find a more suitable place to drag him out. It was useless.

“I’m so sorry, baby,” she said to the calf. He couldn’t be more than a couple of months old, his big soft eyes looking at her with trust as she held his head up above the water. She was weak, and if she didn’t let him go, she might never get out herself. But Teagan could not do what she needed to do, not when his mom was standing watching them.

So she stayed put, fighting against the rising water, ignoring the chill in her bones, only focusing on the little fella who needed her.

“You need a ha…?” A muffled voice came from above her. She hadn’t heard anyone approach, the rain hitting the water in the creek drowning every other sound out, or maybe she had closed her eyes for a moment, closed her eyes and imagined her own mom standing watch over her, not willing to abandon her.

“Yes,” Teagan said, through chattering teeth, her body suddenly alert, a strange feeling coursing through her veins, which she put down to complete and utter relief.

“Come on up.” He held out his hand, and she reached for it, but then the calf strained away from her.

“Wait, no, you have to pull him up first. And I’ll push.” She blinked the water out of her eyes, the torrential rain making it difficult to see him properly, but he looked big, and muscly, which was all she needed, a good strong man to haul the calf out of the water and return him to his mom.

“It’s too dangerous, you need to get out now,” he commanded.

Teagan completely ignored him. “Are you ready?” She scooted around behind the calf, her hands on his shivering hindquarters, as she prepared to push.

He muttered something, but she didn’t catch what it was, and she wasn’t interested, even if her eyes were drawn to his lips and the way they curved up, so full and sensual. Just ripe for kissing.

“OK, I’m ready,” he said. He had his arm wrapped around the neck of the startled calf.

“One, two, three, heave,” Teagan called out, and pushed with all her remaining strength, which wasn’t much. But the guy on the bank was strong, and as he pulled, the calf managed to dig a small hoof into the muddy bank, and in a strange sideways-walking motion, as if he were mountaineering, he pulled himself up.

Teagan pushed, putting all of her strength into saving the calf. Unfortunately, this left her unprepared for what happened next. The bedraggled calf clambered from the creek, with his savior dragging him until he was completely out. Teagan’s feet slipped, and she misjudged her step, her hands slipping down the muddy side of the bank, her head going under the water.

She fought to resurface, her hands flailing upwards, and she began to understand exactly how the calf had felt, when a hand reached out for her, grabbing the back of her jacket and hauling her toward the bank. His muscles strained and he pulled harder, the water fighting to keep her prisoner, but he was not going to be beaten.

Breathing heavily, he lay flat on the bank, his arms, encircling her waist as if he were afraid to let her go in case the deadly water swept her away. Teagan placed her hands on his back, holding on to him as if she never wanted to let go. And she didn’t want to let go. The touch of him, the nearness of him, swept her away to a place where there was no rain, no soaking-wet clothes clinging to her body, only warmth and a bright sun shining down on them.

He’s our mate, her bear said inside her head.

I know, Teagan acknowledged, her own internal voice dreamy and far away.

Her mate’s arms tensed and he pulled, hard, fast, until she was out of the water, and lying on her back, the rain battering her upturned face. Then his lips descended on hers, and he kissed her, his mouth moving against hers, his breath filling her lungs.

It was only when she coughed and he rolled her onto her side as water spewed out of her lungs, that she realized he had been attempting to give her the kiss of life. Teagan coughed twice more, and he rubbed her back, helping her empty her lungs completely. Only when he was sure she was OK did he let her roll back over to a sitting position, and say to her, in his wonderful, deep voice, “What the hell did you think you were doing? You could have been killed.”

“I was saving the calf,” she said defensively, looking over with satisfaction to where the calf was on his feet, feeding from his mom, no worse off from his ordeal.

“You would have both died if I hadn’t come along,” he said, his face a mixture of anger and concern.

“But you did come along,” Teagan said simply, her teeth chattering.

He knelt up, and then stood up, his hand going under her arm and he hauled her to her feet. “You got lucky.”

“I did,” she agreed. “And so did that little guy.”

“That little guy? He’s a calf. His life is not as important as yours.”

“It is to his mom. She never left him, so neither could I,” Teagan said, her temper rising, while her body continued to shake from the cold, but also filled with other sensations, brought on by the nearness of this man who was looking at her as if she were a lunatic.

Oh, did that mean he wasn’t a shifter? Teagan felt a wave of disappointment; she was going to have to go through the whole, hey, by the way, did you know that some people can turn into bears, and other animals. She had gone through that experience once before, when she told her best friend Fern, but then she had help in the form of Fern’s mate, Theo. He had done the real explaining after showing himself as a bear.

But this time, this time it was going to be all her. Unless… She leaned forward, her teeth still chattering as she tried to pull her sopping clothes around her in a fruitless attempt to get warm.

“What?” he asked, hooking his hand under her arm and turning her toward the road.

“Just looking.”

“Well, we need to just walk. You have to get out of these wet clothes, before you catch your death. My house is just up here.”

“It’s OK, I can get myself home. I live in Bear Creek.”

“Oh, no, I am not letting you out of my sight, not until you are warm and dry. Who knows what you might stop and do on the way home?”

Teagan yanked her arm out of his hand. “I am not a child.”

“No, you are not.” He surveyed her body in a way that told her he knew exactly what she was hiding under her wet clothes. The hunger in his eyes confirmed her suspicions, that along with his bad mood. She might feel the same way if she had found her mate up to his neck in water, about to drown for the sake of a calf.

“Then don’t treat me like one,” she told him firmly.

“You could have died.” The thought pained him.

“I needed to save him. I don’t expect you to understand.”

“Try me,” he said. His truck was parked on the road, behind her car, and she longed to sit in the warm, confined space next to him. In fact, she longed to follow him wherever he might lead, but not if he was going to be such a grouch about everything.

“The calf’s mom. She was waiting for him.” Oh, this was going to sound lame, even to her own ears. “I couldn’t let her down.”

“You couldn’t let a cow down?” He lowered his head and any minute now he was going to reach out and touch her forehead to check she wasn’t feverish, that was how stupid she sounded.

“It was her baby.” Teagan frowned, trying to blink away the tears that were stinging her eyes.

His face softened. “And that means a lot to you?”

She nodded. “Yes. I couldn’t let her baby die, not when she wouldn’t leave him. It wouldn’t be right. Not every mom in the world stays with their child. This one did.”

“OK, I hear you.” He opened the passenger side of his truck door, and turned to her, the rain dripping off his hair and running down his face. “I like your mama bear instincts.”

His words hung between them, neither of them noticing the weather. In this moment, in this time, it was just the two of them. Boy and girl. Man and woman. Male and female. Or maybe that should be the other way around; there was no way this girl was going to be a pushover for that boy.

Her bear sighed. OK, maybe they would be, just a bit of a pushover, especially if he looked at her with those amber eyes that told of unfathomable depths. Maybe it was a good thing it was raining: at least with the rain running down her face, he couldn’t see her drooling.