Bearly Hanging On (A Werebear Shifter BBW Romance) (Laid Bear Book 3) (10 page)

“You sound like you hate them, Nana.”
 

Nana gasped. “Not at all! Pearce Forestry is the largest employer in these parts and Mr. Pearce is a wonderful, um, man. He’s been so good to your Pop-Pop and I wish him and his family nothing but the best.”

“I don’t understand what you’re getting at?”

Nana took a deep, steadying breath. “What I’m telling you is that you can’t see that—”

~ * ~ * ~

“—girl again, Chet, and that’s final.”
 

Uncle Max paced the room furiously as he read Chet the riot act, but that was the least of Chet’s worries at the moment. Where had Crystal disappeared to? Was she okay? Would he ever see her again? Would she even want him to? Almost certainly she’d simply run home to her grandparents’ house a block away, but the other questions were anyone’s guess.

“Not only did you put our entire family — our
clan
— in jeopardy by dating this human, you put her family in a terrible position. Pete Witherspoon is one of my best employees, and now he’s stuck pretending this isn’t a big deal, or risk getting fired.”

“You’d fire him?!” Chet’s stomach clenched. Could this nightmare really include that, too? Did he just get Pete fired?

“Of course not! But he doesn’t know that, and even if I told him, he probably wouldn’t believe me.”

He raked a hand through his dark hair, hair that had become thicker since he started yelling at Chet. He had to be really upset for his bear to come so close to the surface, especially at his advanced age.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Max, but you don’t understand. Crystal’s my mate.”

“WRONG!” His uncle’s shout roared through the house, shaking the photos hanging on the wall. He grew about three inches and loomed over Chet, who cowered back into the corner of the sofa. He’d never had an adult bear down on him like that and it shook him to the core.

Uncle Max took a deep shuddering breath and somehow got control of his beast. “Chet, it’s impossible for
weres
and humans to mate. Trust me, it’s been attempted and it always —
always
— ends in heartbreak. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’ll be the exception. You’re a smart kid, so don’t be stupid now.”

“But—“

“No buts! Humans are genetically inferior to
weres
. It’s a proven fact. We do not, under any circumstances, want to dilute our bloodline like that, do we? That’s, of course, assuming, any child born of such an unnatural union survived to adulthood, which is extremely unlikely.”

Chet had heard the stories before, stories of mutant babies and human women torn apart during the birthing process. He felt nauseous at the thought of that happening to Crystal. Uncle Max settled on the couch next to him, one big hand resting on the back of Chet’s neck. Anyone who walked in would think his uncle was comforting his dear nephew, but Chet could feel the fury pulsing under his uncle’s hand. That hand was there to show him who was boss.

“So,” Chet started, his voice cracking as he tried to get the words out. This wasn’t turning out at all like he expected. He thought he’d have to take some shit when he told his family, but this… He cleared his throat and tried again. “So, in the course of history, there’s never been one successful human-
were
mating? Like, ever?”

He could only focus on the tips of his loafers as he waited for the answer. Uncle Max’s hand tightened slightly but let up so fast Chet wondered if he’d imagined it.

“No.”

Chet’s heart sank. The last thing he wanted to do was put Crystal’s life at risk. Then an idea popped into his head that gave him so much hope he couldn’t hide it and he felt the hand tighten again in response.

“We could just adopt, or not have kids at all! Right? I mean, why wouldn’t that work?”

Uncle Max sighed again. It was a sound so forlorn that it nearly broke Chet’s heart that he was the cause.

 
“You think that’s fair to the girl? You would let your selfishness take priority over her desire to have her own children?” He barked out a humorless laugh. “And you sit there pretending to love her. Shame on you!”

Chet was so confused. He
did
love Crystal! She was his mate, he felt it in his bones. He was old enough to know the signs: the instant attraction, the nearly uncontrollable inner beast, the simple-yet-powerful understanding that this person completed you in a way no other could. He felt all those things when he was with her.
 

Didn’t he?

“But…” he whispered, nearly beaten.
 

His uncle, sensing his hesitation, played his final card. “And don’t forget, Chet, taking a human mate would get you cast out of the clan. You would be shunned.”

“What?! I thought you couldn’t get banished if you were a juvenile, if you hadn’t been initiated yet. Besides, I thought that was only for really heinous stuff.” He couldn’t believe his ears. How could his clan kick him out for simply taking his fated mate? That didn’t make sense at all!

His uncle shook his head sadly. “Don’t you see, Chet. To us, taking a human mate
is
a heinous crime against the clan, regardless of your age. For all the reasons I just told you. The reason you never knew before is because
humans and weres never mate!”
His hand tightened with each of his last words until it was actually painful, and his voice grew deeper and louder until it reverberated through Chet’s entire body.

Anger boiled up within him at the injustice of it all. “Fine!” he shouted, jumping up from the sofa and flinging off his uncle’s hand. “I’ll just live the rest of my life knowing my fated mate is out there but I can’t be with her because my family says so!”
 

The last words came out as a whiny sneer. They didn’t help him sound like an adult who could make sound decisions, but he was powerless to stop them. His beast was agitated, pacing inside him, urging him to do whatever it took to claim Crystal as his own. But there was more than just animal lust at stake here. There was so much he’d never considered.

He needed to get out of there, if not the house, at least the room. There had to be a way around this, but he couldn’t think of one. He needed to think in solitude.

Turning on his heel, he stormed out of the family room without another word. It was unfortunate the family room didn’t have a door he could slam. He’d just have to make do with his bedroom door.

For the sixth night in a row, Chet left the dinner table as soon as was polite and went to his room to endlessly chuck a tennis ball against the wall and think about Crystal and her final words to him.
Thump-thud!
Tension in the house was thick, but starting to ease.

Uncle Max was still angry that Chet had been dating a human right under his nose. At the office, Uncle Max kept him in sight at all times, even going so far as to follow him to the restroom. Chet had spotted Crystal’s grandfather once, across the cafeteria, and he was sure Pete had seen him, but the old man had spun around and hobbled off on his crutches in the other direction. Even if he hadn’t, Uncle Max was there to usher him back to the office.

Aunt Clea had been righteously pissed off at him for leaving Sandy alone, which was a joke, considering how often the brat must have snuck out before he even arrived on-island. But his aunt calmed down enough to realize that the other night wasn’t the first time Sandy had hung out with those human girls.

Sandy was pissed off at everyone, though Chet wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve her wrath. Whatever. If it hadn’t been for her little outburst, he wouldn’t be sitting in his room nursing a broken heart.
 

And Chet…Chet was angry at the world. Bitterness had crept into his heart because he couldn’t be with the one he loved. It wasn’t fair, dammit! They were so perfect together and now everything was ruined. Even his bear was curled up in a corner of his soul, pouting and refusing to budge. He knew, he just
knew
he’d never be happy without her. He’d end up some cranky old fart who chased kids off his lawn with a broom.

A soft tap sounded on his door as he threw the ball and he knew instantly it was Sandy by the scent of her sickly sweet Love’s Baby Soft perfume. She was grounded for about a hundred years, and that included not being able to spend time with Chet. He’d been deemed a ‘bad influence’ by Aunt Clea.

“Come in,” he said quietly so her parents wouldn’t hear.

She didn’t waste time popping into the room and closing the door with barely a click. “Hey, cuz,” she whispered, tiptoeing over to sit next to him, pulling her knees up to her chest. “How they hangin’?”

Chet rolled his eyes and continued smacking the ball against the wall, picturing Sandy’s face on the receiving end.
Thump-thud!
 

“What do you want?”

“Listen Chet, I’m really sorry I messed up everything for you,” she murmured, keeping her voice low. “And I’m sorry for acting like a bitch all week. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She was sincere, there was no doubt about that, but he was still pissed off.
 

“What the hell happened, anyway? How could you spazz out like that?”

She shrugged defensively, looking away. Then she took a deep sigh and tried to explain. “You know Amber was, like, my B.F.F., right? She was my only human friend who totally knew all about
us
and was chill about it. The other night, this boy—“

“Oh, God,” Chet moaned. “This was all over a
boy
?!”
Thump-thud!

“Bag your face, buttwad!” she hissed. He had to chuckle, his first since the other night.

“Anyway…this boy, Sloan, came over to our table and started flirting with me. I’d seen him in town a few times and thought he was pretty cute, so I flirted back. Amber never told me she had the hots for him?!”

“Uh oh.”

“Right? She got mad and told Sloan that I was a freak of nature. I thought she was my best friend! My stupid bear jumped out to defend me, and it only made things worse.”

“No shit, Sherlock. You’re old enough to control your beast by now, Sandy. You should know better.”

”Don’t talk to me about knowing better, Mr. I’ll-Date-A-Human. You know how anti-human our clan is.”

He certainly couldn’t deny that. “So why do you hang out with them? Why not stick with
weres
your own age, like everyone else?”

Sandy studied the flaking polish on her nails for a moment before answering with a shrug. “They’re, like, the cool kids at school, you know? I mean, I know I don’t go to their school, but…I wanna be like them. I want to be…normal.”

“Aw, kiddo.” He wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. “It’s no use chasing that dream, you know. You are who and what you are, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re
not
a freak, but you’ll never be totally human. You’ll always be different, and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”

She tilted her head to look up at him, an eyebrow raised questioningly. “Even when you fall for a human and are told you can’t be with them?”

Darkness swept over Chet again. He dropped his arm and recommenced the ball chucking.
Thump-thud! Thump-thud! Thump—
With preternatural speed, Sandy’s arm shot out, snatching away the ball mid-air with a grin. “It’s all bunk, you know.

“What is?” he asked as he tried to grab the ball back, but she held it out of reach.

“That B.S. about
weres
and humans not being able to mate. The mutant babies and stuff? All lies and I can prove it.”

It felt like a giant had punched him in the stomach. “H-How?”
 

“These,” she said, pulling a stack of envelopes from her pocket and tossing the bundle at Chet. Sorting through them quickly, he saw they were all addressed with the same handwriting, and all had a return address from the U.S.S.R.

“What are they?”

“Letters from my pen pal, Tatiana. She lives in this really tiny town in eastern Russia where humans and werebears not only mingle, but they mix, if you get my drift.”

Chet’s pulse quickened. “Really? Are you sure?”

“Sure I’m sure. You can read them, if you want. She’s a half-breed herself. Mom’s
were
, Dad’s human. Almost everyone in the village has some
were
blood running through their veins, and everyone gets along just fine.”

Sandy thumped the tennis ball against the wall while he skimmed through several letters looking for confirmation. Sure enough, Tatiana wrote openly about their Siberian village where interspecies breeding was not only accepted but often encouraged. The more he read, the more excited he became.
 

“This is incredible,” he breathed, hardly able to contain himself. His bear was out of its hidey hole and prowling around, chuffing at him like it was saying ‘Told you so, moron.’
 

“Thought you’d find it interesting reading. I feel bad for not giving them to you sooner but, well, like I said, I was being a bitch. So the question is, what are you going to do about it?”

He saw himself running down the hallway, elbowing his aunt and uncle aside as he raced for the door. The moment he was outside, he’d shift and run straight for Crystal’s house. She’d run out, wrap him in a tight hug, climb on his back and they’d run off into the sunset together.

But then he remembered her expression after he shifted in front of her. And how she slipped out of his car and ran away from him as soon as she had the chance. But most of all, he remembered her hurtful words.
Don’t ever touch me again, freak!
 

That was a pretty clear message to leave her alone. If she wanted to have any contact with him, she surely would have found some way of getting word to him. No, it was obvious she wanted nothing to do with a freak like him.

His upper lip pulled back in a cynical sneer. He’d just been telling Sandy not to think of herself as a freak, and here he was doing the same.
 

“I’m going to do exactly nothing about it.”

Sandy gaped at him, letting the ball bounce off her face on the return.

“You’re shitting me, right? How can you do nothing when your true love, your
fated mate
is out there waiting for you?!”