Page 8 of Awakened By the Guardian

That’s right, Margaret. Scratch me.

As he leaned his bulk into her body, her feet went out from under her. There was an upside: As she slid sideways, she stretched out an arm to catch herself, and the only thing to grip was him. Which brought them closer. And it was the least he could do. He could give her all his bulk to keep her from falling down.

He hardly noticed her weight. She landed softly on her bottom, her legs extended, but her arm remained wrapped around him for support. He would have returned that hug if he could. Instead, he closed his eyes and wished he was doing this as a man. A normal-bodied man holding the woman he loved.

They sat like that for a long moment.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” She sounded like she was reassuring herself as much as him, and he loved her all the more for her courage. His gratitude was a gentle, burning entity; alive and all-consuming. He wanted to kiss her as a man kisses a woman. Sweet yet powerful. Unstoppable.

Heat burned through him. It was like before, lava starting in his head and rolling through his body, all the way to his feet. His back arched, his legs flexed, and his toes spread, all feelings he’d not known for years. And then, suddenly, he was a man—a man pressing his mouth to Margaret’s.

Well, sort of. He connected for a moment, enjoying a brief brush of their lips before he collapsed downward. His embrace had held firm, but his legs buckled and then he was teetering awkwardly on his hands and knees staring upward, blinking first at her and then back at his naked arms and real hands. Not paws. Not covered in fur.

WTF?

His legs wobbled and he fell sideways. Margaret struggled to catch him, and that arm about his shoulders was the only thing that kept him from completely face-planting.

He was a man again. His body quivered from exhaustion, and his mind scrambled to keep up. Had he really been a bear? Had that really happened? He saw the same startled question in her eyes.

The floor was cool on his bottom, and he welcomed the sensation. He also appreciated the stability so that he could lift an arm to Margaret’s face. Above all, he didn’t want her to be afraid. Whatever was going on, whatever he became, he would never hurt her.

“Gary?” she breathed.

“Margaret,” he replied, his voice rough and weak.

“What do I do? Do you need…a doctor?”

A doctor? Exhaustion pulled at him. Like every cell was depleted, every muscle was dead weight. Even the effort to breathe was too much. But Gary frowned as a memory clicked, a joke his father had made to him on his seventeenth birthday about possibly one day changing into a bear. At the time Gary’d laughed it off. Of course, he had! But now the words came back crystal-clear.

“It might happen. Don’t call a doctor. Definitely not! Call me.”

“No. No doctor,” he managed to tell Margaret. His arm gave out, dropping him heavily onto her lap.

“Gary—?”

“Stay with me,” he murmured as his eyes closed.

“Gary!” His name was a squeak of confusion and fear.

Gary fought the fog of sleep. “Don’t. Leave me. Alone.”

“I…”

“Please.”

Then he lost the fight against the darkness.

CHAPTER 4

Margaret sat on the floor and fought panic. She felt, with every cell in her body, a need to run to the farthest corner of the world and hide. Yet she resisted.

She couldn’t leave Gary. Not after he’d begged her to stay. He was her best friend, and he needed her. But he was also something she’d never seen. Something that shouldn’t exist and sure as hell shouldn’t be in the same vicinity as her. He was a bear. Or at least he’d been a bear. A huge, terrifying grizzly who could cut her in half with one swipe of a paw.

But he hadn’t. When he’d come to her, he hadn’t snapped her in half. He’d nuzzled into her hand and then dropped his head into her lap. He was like a really, really, big dog, except that he wasn’t. He was a man who’d turned…changed…

She took a calming breath and tried to count to twenty in her head. At least the last dose from her inhaler was still working. She could breathe easily, which was a surprise since she didn’t make it past the number three before she was back to seeing her best friend on her lap. Naked. No more fur. No six-inch claws or teeth that could rip apart a wildebeest. And no clothes because they were in tatters about the room.

Focus on the man and not the change, she told herself. See him.