Chapter 18 18
An hour later, I was this close to collapsing when the forest itself decided to spice things up.
A roar split the rain-soaked air, deep and bone-shaking. My ears perked, my stomach dropped, and every instinct screamed run. I glanced over my shoulder and—yep. A hulking brown bear, teeth bared, eyes wild, was charging straight at us.
I screamed. Loud. “WHAT THE ACTUAL—GREGOR, THAT IS A BEAR!”
Alpha Smugpants didn’t even flinch. Didn’t break stride. He just leapt to a tree branch like some smug action hero, looked down at me, and barked, “Fight it.”
“EXCUSE ME?” I shrieked mid-run. “That thing is a bear! Like claws-and-fangs, murder-in-the-forest bear! I don’t do National Geographic!”
“You’re a wolf,” he said, annoyingly calm. “Shift and fight it.”
“I am also a person who values not dying!”
“Shift. Now.”
The bear bellowed again, closing the gap, and I realized it was either get mauled or… fine. Fine.
I snarled, bones snapping, fur bursting across my skin as I shifted mid-run. My wolf exploded free, adrenaline burning through every nerve. We skidded to a stop, spun, and let out a howl that vibrated through the rain.
The bear did not care.
It lunged.
We collided in a frenzy of claws and teeth. Mud splattered. My wolf yelped when its paw raked across our flank, but rage surged hotter. I snapped at its throat, missed, got a mouthful of fur instead. The bear reared, massive and terrifying, and swiped again. Pain seared my shoulder.
But my wolf—my wolf was done. She hated being told we were pathetic. She hated being looked down on. And right now? Oh, she was thrilled to sink her teeth into something that wasn’t Alpha Gregor’s ego.
We darted low, fast, jaws clamping down on the bear’s leg. It roared, staggering. We twisted, biting harder, until blood filled our mouth. The bear swung again—caught us across the ribs, knocking the breath out of me—but we rolled, scrambled, and pounced on its back.
The forest rang with snarls, roars, and one smug alpha’s occasional commentary from the tree.
“Lower your stance—”
SNAP The bear nearly crushed me under its weight.
“Shut up!” I barked through the mind-link, biting down again.
“You’re sloppy.”
“I’m BUSY!”
Finally, after what felt like hours but was maybe minutes, my wolf clamped down on the bear’s throat and shook, wild and furious. The beast shuddered, staggered, and collapsed into the mud with a heavy thud.
We stood over it, chest heaving, cuts and bruises stinging everywhere. My wolf howled, triumphant, her song echoing through the dripping pines. She wanted to bask. To gloat. To prove she wasn’t pathetic.
“Enough,” Gregor ordered, dropping from his branch like the smug tree squirrel he was. “Shift back.”
I snarled at him in wolf form. Absolutely not.
“Now,” he pressed.
I shook my wolf head violently. Hell no. Do you know why? Because shifting back means naked. And naked in the rain in front of you? Not happening.
His arms crossed. “Pathetic.”
Oh. Oh.
Did he just—?
I froze. Then growled. Then froze again because my brain translated it properly: he wasn’t just calling me pathetic in general. He meant my body. My very naked, very human body.
My wolf’s ears flattened. My human brain screamed: This. Is. WAR.
“You—” I barked at him through the link, voice sharp, “—did you just say my body was nothing special?”
A faint smirk tugged at his lips. “If you’re too scared to shift, then maybe it isn’t.”
OH NO HE DID NOT.
The sheer audacity lit me up hotter than battle adrenaline. With a growl that rattled my chest, I let the shift take me back, bones snapping, fur melting away until—yes—there I was. Bare, bloody, muddy, and completely unclothed in front of the world’s most aggravating alpha.
I screamed immediately. “OH GODS, THIS WAS A MISTAKE!”
I dove into the nearest bush, ripping off giant leaves and trying desperately to cover myself. My ribs burned, my shoulder stung, and my dignity was in tatters.
Gregor’s laugh—his actual laugh—rolled through the clearing. Not a smirk, not a huff, but a full, rich, infuriating laugh.
“You’re—” he choked out between chuckles, “—you’re actually covering yourself with leaves? Like some naïve little—”
“DON’T SAY IT.” I jabbed a leafy branch at him like a weapon.
“—fairy,” he finished, smirking like the devil. “Naive little fairy girl in the woods.”
“I hate you,” I snapped, clutching my leafy modesty gown.
“Mm.” He eyed me up and down, still amused. “Naive. But not pathetic.”
And then he walked past me, as if my entire leafy crisis wasn’t the most humiliating moment of my life.
I glared at his broad back. My wolf growled inside me. My human pride burned.
Fine. Let him laugh. Let him think I was ridiculous. I’d show him. Next time, I wouldn’t just beat a bear—I’d wipe that smug smile off his face, too.
By the time we staggered back into Nonna’s cottage, I was a mess. Mud dripping, blood crusting, bruises blooming like abstract art all over my body. My leaf bikini had seen better days. My dignity? Nonexistent.
Nonna took one look at me, then at Gregor, and didn’t even hesitate—smack! Right to the back of his alpha head.
“Testa dura!” she scolded in Italian. “Making fun of a wounded girl! You’re supposed to protect her, not laugh like a donkey in mating season!”
Gregor actually flinched. I. Lived. For. It.
Nonna turned her warm eyes to me, clucking her tongue. “Go. Bath in the river, bambina. You stink like dead boar. Behind the cottage, small river. Wash, relax. I’ll prepare herbs.”
“Gladly,” I said, glaring at Gregor like I’d already buried him in my imagination.
But Nonna wasn’t done. She pointed her spoon—her deadly spoon—at him. “You. Guard her. There are crocodiles there. Big ones.”
I paused mid-step. “Wait. Crocodiles?”
Nonna shrugged like it was normal to share a bath with prehistoric monsters. “If you don’t splash, they won’t notice. Probably.”
Gregor smirked. I smirked harder. Oh, two could play this game.
Ten minutes later, I was in the river. And not just bathing—no, no. This was petty payback modeling hour.
I let my hair down, slicked back by the water, arching like some ridiculous magazine spread. I did the whole “swan rising from the depths” move. I even pushed water up my arms dramatically like I was advertising fancy soap.
And yes, I was naked. Naked and very deliberately making sure Smug Alpha on the riverbank had a front-row seat.
“You’re doing that on purpose,” Gregor said flatly, arms crossed, jaw tight.
“Doing what?” I asked innocently, tilting my head as I floated on my back, breasts gleaming in the moonlight. “Bathing? It’s called hygiene, Alpha. Look it up.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You’re insufferable.”
“You’re welcome,” I said sweetly, flipping my hair like a shampoo commercial.
I was mid-“sexy mermaid rise” when the water shifted beside me. Something massive slid close. The ripples turned into waves.
I thought it was Gregor being dramatic. “Oh, you’re finally joining me? Took you long en—”
Then I saw the scaled back. The jagged ridges. The teeth rising from the water.
“OH MY GOD!” I shrieked. “CROCODILE!”
Gregor didn’t hesitate. One second he was on the riverbank, the next his body blurred and cracked into his massive black wolf form. He thundered into the river, paws pounding, a monstrous shadow tearing straight at me.
I screamed louder, thrashing in the water. “WAIT—ARE YOU BATHING WITH ME OR SAVING ME?! PICK ONE!”
The crocodile lunged. Gregor collided with it mid-snap, snarling and slamming it back beneath the surface. The water erupted into chaos—splashes, snarls, my screaming (very helpful soundtrack).
Blood bloomed red in the moonlight. Gregor’s wolf sank his teeth into the beast’s neck, twisting until with a sickening crack, the crocodile went limp.
Silence fell. My chest heaved. My hair plastered to my face.
And then—oh no.
Gregor shifted back.
Right there. In the river. Naked.
Now it was both of us. Both naked. Both dripping wet. Both staring at each other like this was the universe’s cruelest joke.
“Don’t. You. Dare. Look at me!” I shrieked, clutching my arms across my chest and sinking lower in the water.
His eyebrow arched. His very naked, very broad body gleamed in the moonlight. “Weren’t you just making a scene to get me to look?”
My mouth opened. Closed. Rage and embarrassment fought for dominance. “That was DIFFERENT!”
He smirked—smirked!—and waded closer, water sliding over the ridges of his muscles. “Go to hell, Alpha,” I snapped, shoving water at him.
“I’ll see you there, fairy,” he said, voice low, dangerous, and infuriatingly amused.
And we just stood there. Naked. Wet. Breathing hard. Staring each other down like the sexual tension itself was a third party in the river.
I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to slap him. I wanted to kiss him until he drowned.
But mostly? I wanted clothes.
Damn it.