He shakes his great head and swings it in my direction. His lips peel back from ferocious teeth and he bellows again, even more furious than before.
The women in the cages scream.
He seems to see them for the first time, and roars some more.
He slices his claws through the bindings holding my wrist, scratching some of my skin in the process.
I gasp but quickly mutter, "I'm okay."
He rips the other side and I'm free. I sit up and yank the needle out of my thumbnail, screaming again as I do. Bear whines at my side, licking my hand and the bloodied scrape on my wrist.
Caleb bares his teeth again, lifts his head toward the ceiling and roars his anger.
I get up to search the body of our captor for the keys to the cage, but Caleb grabs the door of one of the cages with one huge paw and pushes his foot against the body of the cage and tears the door off from its hinges. Rachel lifts the hypodermic needle, ready to plunge it into Caleb's neck.
"No, don't!" I scream.
She freezes.
Caleb snorts and bats it out of her hand.
"It's okay. He's, um… he won't hurt us." I help her out of the cage.
Caleb moves to the next cage, where he tears off its door, too. Then the next.
"Let's get out of here," Rachel says, rushing through the door.
Caleb plows through on all fours, knocking us out of the way, like he needs to go first.
"It's okay. He won't hurt you, I promise," I tell them, my brain already working overtime trying to figure out how to explain my pet bear to them.
We go up a set of stairs-he had been keeping us in a cellar, as I suspected. Upstairs is a crude, filthy cottage. Signs of a man barely able to take care of his personal needs.
We all rush outside, even though we're barely dressed and don't have jackets or shoes on.
I grip Caleb's furry shoulder. "Go get Caleb," I tell him firmly, shivering in the cold. We need him in man form now. We need to call the police and maybe an ambulance.
He shakes his great head, like he's unwilling to leave me.
I show him the hypodermic needle I picked up after he batted it out of Rachel's hand. "I'm pretty sure he's dead, but I'm armed, just in case."
Caleb snorts and lopes away, his great strides taking him up the side of the mountain with shocking speed.
"What. The hell. Was that?" Julia asks.
"Um, my friend Caleb has a, ah, pet bear. I mean, he's not really a pet, but they're friends. He's highly intelligent."
Julia, Rachel and Tracy all stare at me with disbelief.
Damn, I'm a terrible liar. But I promised Caleb I'd take his secret to the grave, and I intend to keep that promise.
"I don't know about you three, but I'm not sticking around here another minute," Tracy announces, walking into the snow in her bare feet.
"No, no, no," I call out. "Wait here. Caleb will come and bring help. I promise."
Tracy looks back, eyes narrowed. "Are you nuts? You told a bear to bring back your friend and you think he's going to show? You're as crazy at that guy down there." She points in the direction of the cellar.
"No, really. Did that bear just save our asses? He'll bring Caleb. Trust me."
Her lips tighten, but she comes back and the three of us go back inside because we're freezing our asses off. I find my clothing in with his dirty laundry and put it on. I don't have any luck finding the rest of their clothes, but it's okay, because Caleb's truck tears down the dirt drive and skids to a stop. He's out of the truck and running for me before I can even breathe his name.
I rush down the steps and launch into his arms.
"Caleb!" Suddenly, I'm crying. Bawling, actually. "I knew you'd come for me. I mean, I hoped you would. And you did. Thank you so much."
"Fuck, baby, fuck. I'm so glad you're alive. I'm so fucking glad." He's spinning me around slowly, my feet not touching the ground. "I never should have let you leave here. Wait-that's not what I meant." He glances up at the three women standing in the doorway. "Nevermind, I'll tell you later." He waves a beckoning arm to my fellow captives. "Get in the truck. I'll take you to the sheriff's."
My heart's still stuttering on the I'll tell you later. He has something to tell me? About not letting me leave?
We all squeeze into the cab of Caleb's truck-Bear included-and he drives a couple miles up the road into the town of Pecos and tears into the sheriff's building.
It's a small town, so people come out to see what all the fuss is about. Someone recognizes the women from the Missing Person posters and points and then everyone's chattering, moving in for more information as we troop into the sheriff's office.
Caleb takes my hand protectively as we go in and my heart does a full flip flop. We tell our story five or six times each to the sheriff, who calls an ambulance to take all four of us down to Santa Fe to get checked out. Caleb stays by my side the whole time, my strong silent bodyguard. The sheriff speaks to him with respect, like they go way back. Caleb tells him my dog came to get him and that's how he found us. None of us contradict him-the bear story was too fantastical, anyway.
He doesn't believe our story about the man turning into a monster, either, until Caleb and his deputies on site confirm it was true.