Page 6 of Coveted By the Bear

At least when I was unconscious, I didn’t feel the hunger.

Bright side.

Chapter Four

Caleb

Mouth parted, I cleared my throat. The rasp sounded as dry as the south side of a cactus growing in the sand. I was so thirsty, surely I’d die of it. I turned my head to the side and jerked back with pain. “Sss,” I hissed, drawing air through my teeth.

I’d known pain. I was a man, and Lord knew I’d done some dumb shit in my day that got me really hurt, but I’d never felt pain like this. I was burning.

Searing flames engulfed every surface of skin I possessed. The wooden ceiling above me offered little to focus on. The wood was an aged dark gray and unpainted. Other than the tattered white curtains that had seen better days over the front window, the house remained untouched. Unadorned. Uncared for.

A low grumbling noise sent my heart into a panic. Adrenaline laced my veins as my brain screamed that the grizzly had followed me here. It was back to finish the job.

Nothing happened.

Another grumble sounded, this one more pathetic than the last. I turned my head gingerly to the side, wincing as clotted injuries stretched and reopened. Crazy Mira lay on her side, completely unconscious. Was she dying? At some point in the throes of pain, she had lifted her knees to her chest and wrapped her thin arms around her abdomen. The position shielded most of her frame from me. I looked at her face. It was relaxed and free of fear. She was beautiful when she was asleep.

Her slightly parted lips were paler than they should’ve been, but they were full. Her dark eyebrows arched attractively, and her nose was small and feminine. Her thick, dark hair didn’t look so overwhelming when it was flipped to the side and laying harmlessly across the wooden floor beside her.

A man could tangle his fists in hair like that.

I turned back to the ceiling. Maybe I was hallucinating from shock.

The adrenaline had done something uncomfortable to me. It hurt to move, but I felt fidgety like I must. I tried to sit up but realized I needed help to get anywhere. And stitches. Lots of stitches.

“Mira,” I said.

She stirred. Her stomach growled again. She was starving, and I thought about Jake’s Quickstop for the hundredth time in a week. She probably hadn’t had groceries for a while because of me. I felt like grit.

I pulled my foot to the side and caressed her head with the tip of my boot. It was all I could do. “Mira, can you hear me?”

Her eyes fluttered behind her eyelids, and she opened them slowly. I couldn’t look away. Her eyes weren’t like everyone said.

Don’t look into Crazy Mira’s eyes. They’ll pull you down to hell.

She’ll cast her spell on you if you look into the black abyss of her eyes.

Her eyes weren’t black. They weren’t even dark. They were gray. My mind raced with the realization. Maybe I really was dreaming. Perhaps I was already dead. I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t be. Heaven wouldn’t hurt this much, and I saw no hellfire.

As realization dawned on her face, her pupils began to dilate until her eyes looked black once again. A fear induced response then.

I looked back to the ceiling to give her privacy. “Mira, I think you need to eat something. Do you have anything to eat?”

She shook her head, her face scraping softly against the grain of the floorboard beneath it.

I clamped my teeth until my jawline worked. I’d never known hunger. Not like this. “Can you make it to the sink? Run the water and drink it until your stomach feels solid. It won’t help for long but it might make you feel a little better until we can figure something out.”

“Okay, I’ll try. Don’t look.”

I turned my head to the wall, ignoring the pain in my neck. She scuffled to the kitchen and ran the water. She drank for a long time.

“Not too much or it’ll make you sick,” I advised.

The glass clinked on the counter. The sound of her boot steps faded, then returned as she came back to stand beside me.

“I’m dressed,” she said.