She wasn't sure what the noise had been. A scratching? She thought that once she was inside a cabin like this, she’d sleep better than when she had to attempt to sleep in the wilderness, fending for herself. She got up and moved the table away from the door, then opened it. In the dark, she made her way into the living room and heard something bumping into something outside. A trashcan? Her heart racing, she peeked out the living room window curtains and saw a black bear trying to get into a bear-proof trashcan. She took a calming breath. She was safe, she told herself. Not like when she was running in the wilderness as a cougar. But her heart was still beating a million miles a minute. A gun went off—a crash, and she made a small cry of distress. Not meaning to. She just hadn't expected the gunfire and it had scared her—the thought flashing through her brain that she could be the one being shot at and the reminder that Chase had shot her. The bear quickly took off and Shannon saw Chase with his rifle at the ready, then he moved back into the shadows of the woods and disappeared.
