Midnight Eclipse (Paranormal Viking Romance, Completed)

Chapter 3: Inuit Cowboy

Greenland, present day

Not a breath escapes my lips. Not a muscle moves in my body. Not a wink, not a tremble, not a twitch. I'm frozen in fear of the formidable predator.

Then, the beast growls, and I fall apart. All tension releases and my limbs can no longer hold me. I tumble into the cold waters. I hear a yelp from the man on the cliff above as I hit the jagged rocks with my knees. Red blood mixes with dark blue water into a purple mess.

Supposedly, bears can smell blood. It ignites all their predatory senses and makes them go berserk.

Before I can get on my feet, the animal is above me. Warm breath touches my neck and the raspy sound reverberates through my ear canals while I scramble in the cold waves. As I turn, soaked to the bone and scared senseless, the beast is everything I see. White fur with a few dark strands woven into it, splashed and dirty like snow in March. Rows of jagged teeth, cracked from tearing into its unlucky prey. Paws the size of frying pans, one of them dangling in the air precariously close to me. Water drops fall from it onto my forehead.

The beast is ready to strike at any moment.

But it doesn't.

A second passes and then another. The bear studies me as if the animal is trying to figure something out. Our gazes meet. Its eyes are big and black, like puddles of water, but around the pupil, there's a small line of blue.

I can sense something in those eyes. Something familiar and relatable. Something that doesn't seem beastly at all. A hint of pain and confusion.

Without even thinking about it consciously, I squeeze the object in my hand. I clasp my fingers around it as hard until my nails hurt, because it's the only thing I have to hold on to. "Go away," I whisper as if the artifact can help me control something driven purely by primal urge.

The paw splashes into the water beside me, without causing harm. Instead sharp teeth come closer. So close that I can see cavities on the enamel of the fangs. I hold my breath, waiting for the sharp weapons to tear into my flesh.

But the bite doesn't come. Instead, a soft nose nudges against my shoulder, continuing down my arm. I open my balled-up fist as the animal touches it. The artifact I retrieved from the waters is revealed in my grip.

A sound emanates from the beast. Not a growl and not a roar, but rather a whimper. Like a wounded puppy calling for help.

The animal retreats. It backs away toward the rocky shoreline and then, it runs. The bear gallops away from me as if I hurt it, with dirty fur swaying and water drops cascading from the body.

Everything is over so quickly, that I can barely process it. Numb from cold and fear, I remain in the water, unable to keep myself from thinking of what could have happened. In my mind, those teeth are munching on my flesh and those paws are pulverizing my bones. Perhaps I'm just too shocked to feel it. Perhaps I'm already dead.

"Get up! Hurry!" the words jolt me back to reality, away from the silent allure of the cold waves I'm submerged in. I look up into big black eyes once again. But these eyes don't belong to a bear, but to a human. A man who is holding out his hand toward me.

I take it. With the beartooth still secured in my other hand, I let the mysterious stranger fish me out of the arctic waves.

I've always been told to not trust strange men. But it's not like this guy's company could really be much worse than a bear's. He probably won't kill me at least. Hopefully.

"It might come back," he says, looking with concern toward where the beast disappeared. "Let's go to my car. Quickly."

I nod, because what else can I do, and follow along as the man guides me across the cliffs, toward a jeep on a small dirt road on the other side. The vehicle is dirty and a bit banged up--perhaps from driving on these kinds of roads--but it's safe.