Unstoppable (Their Shifter Academy #6) - May Dawson Page 0,33

safely into the city and hidden?

I did the math, then leaned forward, ran the blazers a little faster.

Chapter Sixteen

Maddie

* * *

There was a faint, strange scent in the air. My nostrils flared, trying to get a better sense of the smell. Something unpleasantly musky. Beastly.

“What’s wrong?” Rafe demanded.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I smell something funny.”

It reminded me of when my sense of smell was more keen. Jensen and Rafe both glanced around, nostrils flaring as they inhaled deeply. Jensen tilted his head back, his golden eyes glowing; it made me miss his amber-eyed wolf.

Ever since we all lost our ability to shift—and our wolfish senses—I missed how my men smelled to me. And suddenly I had to wonder… I took a step forward, closer to Rafe. My heart was beginning to beat faster with hope, even as I told myself not to expect anything.

He glanced down at me curiously, his brows rising above those dark eyes as I rested my hand lightly on his coat. None of us spoke; we were all listening intently in case that scent meant trouble.

“I don’t smell anything,” Jensen said.

But when I inhaled, I breathed in the forest around us—the clean notes of freshly fallen snow, pine needles—the faint odor of fur and life, of the animals hidden in the trees, the scent of Rafe who stood so near me.

Not the spice-and-sandalwood notes of his aftershave that had been all I had of Rafe lately; no this, was the deeper scent of his body that I had loved as a wolf. To me, Rafe’s body itself smelled like pine sap and the salty breeze off the ocean; when he wasn’t mine I used to wish he’d shift close to me again so I could smell him, and now that he was mine, I inhaled deeply.

I raised my gaze to Rafe’s very perplexed and slightly irritated face, then looked at Jensen, who waited with his arms crossed over his chest.

“I’m getting my senses back,” I said.

Jensen’s lips parted in surprise, in a hint of a smile, but Rafe asked, “Are you sure?”

The silence of the trees around us was broken by the sound of branches snapping, close by.

I said, “Yep. Sure.”

The musky scent was in my nostrils stronger now. Something big.

A white birch a dozen yards into the forest swayed, then swayed harder, knocking into a pine tree and dusting the snow from its needles.

“Time to go,” I said urgently. I didn’t know what that was, but I had a feeling it was big. Hopefully it wasn’t both big and hungry.

The three of us headed quickly but quietly through the forest, drawing our swords as we moved.

But suddenly the thing came thundering behind us. Branches cracked, splitting the hush of the snow-covered world. A bird nearby squawked, and a family of birds took flight from the trees, soaring up into the cloudless blue sky.

An enormous white bear burst into view through the trees. Black eyes locked on us and it snarled, lips peeling back from its teeth.

“Did we do something to piss off this bear that I’m not aware of?” Jensen demanded. “I thought bears didn’t attack for no reason unless they had cubs or—”

“I don’t think we’re at the top of the food chain here,” I said. The bear charged toward us, giant paws eating up the pure snow between us.

“If it were hunting, it would have crept up on us,” Rafe frowned as he changed his grip on his sword, swinging it to one side, then gripping it two-handed at the ready.

“You can’t fight a bear with a sword,” I said. This was ridiculous; this was not how our story ended, all of us splattered in the woods by some rabid, overgrown polar bear that seemed to hate shifters.

Wait. The bear was acting irrationally, and maybe it did hate shifters. Maybe it saw me as an enemy in particular.

“Pretty sure we can. Guess we’re about to find out if I’m right.” Rafe held his ground as the bear charged toward us.

Or toward me.

I dove to one side, wondering if the bear would follow. There were shifters in the Fae world too; maybe there were shifters here too. Silas would have mentioned them, but maybe even he didn’t know they existed. If there were wolf shifters here, they might very well be the bear’s natural enemy.

The bear changed direction, lumbering toward me. I didn’t want to hurt a bear; it was just another animal, trying to live its best woodland life. But another part