The Christmas Tree Bear: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Holiday Romance by Rosie Lynne

try and see her way through this.  She could have a breakdown about it later.
     
    “That sounds great!” He took her arms from around his neck and set her down in the snow.  “I’m going to change again.  I want you to get on my back.  And hang on!”
     
    She wanted to shriek at him again -- what did he mean, hang on? – but he was already stepping away.  He struggled back onto the road, and the same thing happened again.  He seemed to blend back into the snow, and then suddenly Willis was a big brown bear.  It was like her mind skittered across whatever change happened and refused to see it.  
     
    The bear whined at her.  On shaky legs, Charlie pulled herself out of the ditch and onto the main road.  The bear snuffled at her once she got herself on her feet, then knelt down.  It took several tries before she could finally make herself reach out and grab a hold of a big tuft of bear fur.  The bear (should she call him Willis? No, that was too much just yet) bent his front paw, and she used it to climb onto his back.  She managed to throw her leg over the other side so she was straddling the area just behind the bear’s shoulders.  
     
    Grabbing on tight to the thick fur around his neck, she told the bear, “I’m on!”
     
    The bear turned his head to look at her, and, with a great huff, he took off down the road.  Charlie couldn’t help but shriek.  The bear was running at breakneck speed, bounding down the road and jumping over slick ice patches.
     
    “Holy shit!” she screamed.  Then she laughed.  She was riding a bear that was a guy she was kind of making out with a lot in the middle of snow storm that could kill them both.  Laughing seemed like a good idea as she hung on for dear life.
     
    They reached the main gate of the farm in almost no time.  She could see the truck where Willis had abandoned it, the snow coming up to almost the top of the tires from all the wind blowing it about.  The gate was wide open, and the bear slowed down to sniff about.  He whined, then started a more careful trot through the fields instead of walking up the dirt road to Christmas Tree Town.
     
    Charlie could see a light not far in the distance, flickering due to the blowing snow.  That had to be the cabin.  She could hardly feel her face from all the ice and cold.  She ducked her head and pressed her face against the bear’s neck.  She could hear his heavy breathing and pounding heart beat against her neck.  It was warmer there.
     
    She looked up again in time to watch as the bear climbed over the fence from the field into the main part of the farm and start to bound again at full speed.  They were headed towards a small, wood frame, single level house.  
     
    “Almost there,” she muttered to herself.
     
    They skidded to a stop.  The bear whined at her again.  With shaky hands, Charlie let go of the bits of bear fluff she'd been holding in a death grip.  She fell, more than climbed, down from the bear’s back, and landed on her ass in the snow.  Her hands were so cold, but she could still feel them a little.  Her feet were like blocks of ice.  She struggled to stand up.
     
    The air pressure changed, which she realized had happened when Willis had changed before, and suddenly she had two warm arms wrapped around her waist.
     
    “Come on, almost there,” Willis whispered into her ear.
     
    He helped her up, and the two of them leaned on each other as they struggled the rest of the way into the cabin.  It took them both to pull the door open, and they all but fell inside.  The wind howled behind them, snow and ice blowing across the floor.  Willis crawled back and shoved the main door closed behind them.  It was suddenly quiet.
     
    “Holy shit,” Charlie whispered.  “Let’s not do that again.  Like, ever.”
     
    “Sounds great,” Willis panted.
     
    They were both flat on their backs on the hardwood floor.  Charlie could hear a heater working somewhere nearby.