Saving Briar
Chapter Two: Torin

He stood, not intending to approach the little female. Even from a distance he could sense that she didn’t smell entirely human, but he also knew without a doubt that wasn’t one of his kind either.

Torin knew every single Bear shifter, from Anchorage to Fairbanks and he had never seen this tiny slip of a woman before in his entire life. She’d seemed confident enough, when she came striding out of the forest, her gaze focused forward in the direction of the stream, not a stitch of clothing on her rather battered body. But just as suddenly, after she’d reached the water's edge, before she’d even tasted the water, she’d crashed forward, writhing in pain on the rocky shoreline.

He’d been staying down wind until that moment.

While there was nothing here in these woods and grasslands that was truly dangerous to him, there were creatures that he would rather not tangle with if he could avoid it. There were places in town where the Grizzlies and Wolverine shifters, the Cougars, and sometimes even an occasional Dragon shifter would go to socialize, bound together in a way, he guessed, by the fact that they were not altogether human.

The Wolf packs further west rarely spent time with those who were not members of their own packs. And shifters who were prey in their animal form generally avoided the predators species, even though there hadn't really been conflict between their kind in the last few decades. At least not the sort that the Grizzlies had been involved in.

Torin had never spent much time in those places though. He was considered a leader to his people, and his father had hammered into his head from a young age that that set him apart. Still, when he saw the girl fall, though he was still a fair distance away, he knew that he would go to her, even if she wasn’t his responsibility. He couldn’t just leave her there alone and unconscious. She clearly needed help and he had found her at exactly the right time.

The idea that it might be a trap of some kind, which his parents very likely would have suggested had they been with him, didn’t even occur to him.

In a matter of moments he was beside the unconscious girl, because really she was hardly more than a girl, staring down at her. His eyes traveled over her body. She looked as if she had been half starved.

Bending he tried to find a way to pick her up that wouldn’t cause her more pain than she had already suffered, for now that he was close to her he could see what he hadn’t been able to see at a distance. A part of him was surprised that he hadn’t been able to smell the blood when he’d first scented her downwind, for he certainly could now.

Someone had hurt this girl and hurt her badly. What he'd seen at a distance was just the tip of the iceberg.

She had been beaten, apparently while restrained. His eyes traced the deep purple and black bruises on each of her wrists. While her face had been battered, her lip split, long bruises beneath her eyes, and along her jaw, it was clear that her advanced healing powers were in effect, at least in some measure, and that she had already begun to heal although probably not as quickly as she would have if she’d been well fed and healthy.

For the young woman before him was anything but healthy. Her collarbone and ribs protruded beneath her battered skin. He didn’t want to think about what other injuries she might have that he couldn't see.

Running an enormous hand over his dark beard, Torin shook his head. He needed to get her back to his home, where he could get her fed and begin to treat her injuries. He could call Ted, one of his best friends and the doctor who treated most of the Bear Shifter injuries and have him come over to take a look at her.

Moving slowly he slipped one hand under her shoulders and the other under her knees, lifting her with as much care as he could manage, a shiver running through his body when her dark hair tumbled across his thick, tan arm. She didn’t make a sound as her head leaned into his chest and he adjusted her weight so that he would be able to easily carry her, cradled close to his body, like a child.

It wouldn’t be hard to carry her to his home. She weighed next to nothing. Her scent wafted up to his nostrils, much stronger than it had been when it was carried on the wind by the river, and this time he could make out a note of strawberries and cream, and the salt of sweat and tears, beneath the more overpowering iron of dried blood. And then he caught the scent of something else that surprised him.

Wolf. His jaw clenched and he cast his eyes down at the top of the chocolate colored waves that were badly tangled by her run through the forest. A small, angry part of him wanted to put her down and leave her, but he knew already that he wouldn’t. He couldn’t do something like that. He wasn’t a heartless bastard like the men that had hurt his Aria. But fuck if he wasn’t beginning to wonder if bringing this tiny waif of a woman into his home wasn’t looking more and more like it would be a mistake.

Suppressing the growl that he felt forcing its way up his throat he picked up his pace. The girl needed a doctor and he’d make sure that she got to one. Once he'd made sure that she had access to the treatment that she needed to get better he would have done all that anyone could expect of him. After that he would send her on her way.

He’d even buy a bus ticket somewhere. The idea calmed him as his home came into sight, high on the side of the mountain. It was a long walk but they’d be there before nightfall. And he’d be on his way to getting rid of his little house guest as soon as she got back on her feet.

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