A Little Green Magic (The Little Coven #1) - Isabel Wroth Page 0,10

abdomen, but not so thick as to wonder if he was already half shifted. Speaking of…

“You're not about to shift, are you?” Ivy managed, hoping she wasn't drooling.

“Fuck yeah, I am. My sense of smell is better in bear form. Just because we can't see it or hear it, doesn't mean it's nothing.” He paused with his hands poised at his belt, biceps and forearms flexed to show off the corded strength lying just beneath his flesh, looking at her with a hint of wariness. “You don't have to be scared. My bear would never hurt you.”

Her heart melted right then and there. She couldn't hold back her smile or her sass. “Take it off, Care Bear. I'm not afraid.”

An arrogant grin curled his seriously kissable lips; his belt buckle jangled as it bounced off his thigh, and his zipper hissed down.

Ivy crossed her arms over her chest to keep her hands to herself while she watched Uriah take a wide stance, his chin lifted at a cocky angle. He let her look her fill, toeing off his boots before shucking his pants.

Ivy hadn't ever seen a shifter go furry in person, and she knew modesty wasn't really part of their culture, but damn. Uriah just let it all hang out there—and there was a lot to hang—without a single hint of hesitation.

“What, uh... what if it's just a regular human out there hunting or something?”

Uriah snorted derisively. “I would definitely be able to smell that. You might want to stand back. I'm not exactly small.”

With her eyes currently fixated on his groin, Ivy could attest to that fact. “I see that.”

Uriah's laughter turned into a deep growl as his body expanded, his tan skin darkened and started to sprout a thick pelt of russet fur. His face broadened, limbs thickened, wicked black claws pushed from the ends of his fingers and toes, and when he hit the ground on all four paws, Ivy stood there and gaped.

The bear was a monster. Bigger than anything she had imagined by at least twice. From the thick hump between his shoulders to the forest floor, Uriah's bear stood at least eleven feet tall. When he stood up on his hind paws and lifted his short snout up to smell the air, he easily topped twenty feet. She wasn't an expert on shifters, but Ivy was pretty sure she was looking at something extremely rare.

The ground shook when the bear dropped back down to all fours and faced with this thing that could end her with one flick of his enormous paws, Ivy couldn't help the shiver of instinctual trepidation.

The great bear lowered his head until his short snout was level with her belly, his amber eyes focused intently on her. Uriah's eyes. He nudged her ever so gently, his round, fluffy ears perking eagerly while he waited. When Ivy lifted a trembling hand to touch the coarse fur of his cheek, he gave a happy huff.

The sunlight peeking through the trees dappled over his reddish-brown pelt. He smelled musky, not unpleasantly so, and petting him was like touching a wire-bristled brush. Ivy could picture him striding through thorny bushes and dense forests without getting so much as a scratch because of his thick coat.

“So, I guess there's nothing out there to be worried about?”

Uriah gave a shake of his huge head, carefully lifting a paw to push her into motion. He even went so far as to bump her with his nose when she didn't immediately comply.

“What? You're gonna walk me over to your place like this?” Ivy waved her hand at his hairy self. He nodded, herding her the way he wanted her to go. “Alright, alright! Let me grab your clothes.”

She danced around him to pick up his stuff, then fell into step beside him. Her feeling of being watched didn't go away, but with a two-ton bear with claws the size of machetes walking beside her, she no longer felt threatened.

The rest of their walk was made in comfortable silence, and when they reached Uriah's property, Ivy stopped again to marvel at the beauty of his home.

Situated toward the rear of a several acre wide clearing, sat a two-story cabin made of stone and wood. The style was somewhere between a story-book cottage and a manly log cabin.

Ivy loved it.

To access a deep stretch of the river that ran through the area, Uriah cleared a section of trees and manipulated the landscape into a series of rock steps and