Love to Bear: A Werebear Shifter Romance (10 page)

The other settlers began to scream when they saw the
bear. But there wasn't much time to be afraid. Before they'd even
taken a single step from the creature, they also began to fall,
shredding their clothes as their bodies twisted and transformed
underneath the winter moon.

The Grizzly Bone Clan was born, and severed from the
human world forever.

“
God, I wish your people didn't have to live in
the shadows. My friend Jenn would love this. She's a real history
geek.”

“
If you say so,” Don said. “Interesting
or not, I don't think history is what Emmerick wants you for.”

I looked away from the old chronicle, mildly irritated.
But he was right.

With a heavy sigh, I shoved the old records away, pawing
deep into the stacks for the less dusty, more modern folders
beginning in the late 1980s.

Half an hour of skimming through the files later, I
wanted to face-palm my forehead. It amazed me that the scouting
missions had kept the clan safe at all.

The latest entries went back a decade. I stared at them
in mild disbelief:

10/11/97: Ben's Sporting Shop is selling a sort of
homing device. This “GPS” claims to image roads and track
vehicles. When I had the shopkeeper demo it, all I saw was a static
dot. There's no way this tracking could work outside the cities
anyway. A passing fad.

06/03/03: Heard a science report on TV about National
Parks threatened by global warming. The one they all Glacier was on
the list. Scientists say the glaciers will be gone by 2030 and the
park will flood. These fools must be bored out of their minds to
believe such nonsense.

08/12/06: Scared off several trespassers just past
the ether. They were holding up their telephones like they were
cameras. I think they were deluded.

04/20/09: All the reporters are buzzing about a pig
flu epidemic in Mexico. They say it will sweep across the USA and
make the Spanish flu outbreak a hundred years ago look like practice.
We should consider scouting parties to haul back supplies once
Kalispell is uninhabited.

I shook my head. Again and again. I could practically
hear the confusion ratting inside me like tiny pebbles.

“
What?” Don said for the second time. “I
can't tell if you're about to laugh or cry.”

“
Maybe both! I have to ask...who's responsible for
writing up these little reports?”

“
Just three of us.” Don pointed at himself.
“Alex and a guy named Barry rotate. It's been that way for
almost twenty years. Emmerick used to go, but he's past his prime for
that.”

Yes, way past his prime.

I didn't want to think about the little census I'd seen
in the older records. It recorded an Emmerick Hoskin's birth in 1910.
If it was him, it meant he was over a hundred years old – and
he didn't look or act a day over sixty.

I cringed. Don seemed
like the smartest man among them here, and certainly the most
powerful. If he was so far off the mark on these missions, then the
clan had
a lot
of
catching up to do.

“
There's a lot you're missing with these
technologies. The news reports too.” I shook my head. “But
I guess that's why I'm here – to clear things up.”

“
That's right. You'll have to go through Emmerick
for that.” He yawned, rolling his biceps up over his head. He
pushed his hands together and flexed in a mighty stretch.

For a second, I forgot all about the monumental job
ahead. I couldn't think about anything but jumping his bones again,
something I never imagined I'd feel about any man – especially
after such a long, passionate night.

I should be satisfied for a little while. But all I
want is more, more, more...

I forced myself to turn back to the records. Don must've
caught my gaze.

A second later, his hand was on my shoulder, making
slow, shallow strokes along my neck. What started as a shoulder
massage moved quickly to my breasts. They pressed tight through the
old blouse he'd found for me after destroying my sweater, nipples
purring for attention.

“
Tonight,” I said, unable to hide my hunger.
It hurt like hell to stop him. “We should wait. We'd probably
end up ruining these records and covering ourselves in dust.”

Yeah, it sounded wild and sexy in theory. But the
reality, combined with the threat of enraging Emmerick even more if
he caught us, was something else.

“
Fine,” he said, disappointment in his tone.
“Just remember, Sam, I
will
hold you to your word.”

A low, happy growl followed. He leaned into me, pushing
his face where his hand had been, and nipped playfully at my neck.

I squealed, slapping pitifully at his chest until he
backed off. Don stood up and completed the full body stretch I'd
interrupted.

Feels like I'm a student again. Never could
concentrate too well in the library when the hot guys out jogging on
campus used to lean on the window and stretch...

And the men in my memory didn't hold a candle to him.
Don was bigger, more mature, and infinitely more skilled. If I wasn't
going to be ruthlessly mauled for upsetting an Elder shifter, I
would've given up and followed him back to the cabin that very
second.

“
They want me to make the rounds,” he said,
stepping around the table. “You feel safe enough here on your
own? Emmerick won't try anything. He's a rat bastard, but he doesn't
step out of line if it upsets the rest of the council.”

I nodded. “Stay safe, Don. I'll see you this
evening.”

He blew me a kiss and stepped outside. I had to get his
damnably sexy movements and muscles out of my head.

I turned into the records and dove deeper, hungrily
devouring as much as I could. After what seemed like hours, I pressed
the old pen to paper and began to write.

Later, the door popped open. I half-expected to see Don
calling me in for evening, but Emmerick's shadow fell across me. His
cloak sprawled out like a bat's wings at rest.

“
Let me see your observations, female.”

Shit.
My fingers
tensed on the notepad and passed it to his waiting hand. I'd only
written a single page.
Surely, he doesn't expect everything
today, when I'm just trying to find my bearings. Does he?

“
That's it?” The bitter annoyance in his
voice bored into my ear.

“
There was a lot to go through. Over a hundred
year's worth. The council said I have all winter, and I've already
given you some ideas on the obvious.”

“
Stop making excuses,” he said. His whispers
sounded like something hot and greasy simmering in a shallow pan.

“
Excuses? I think you're the one who's falling
apart on the job.” I couldn't hide my irritation anymore. “You
want this to fail so you can throw me to the wolves.”

Or to the bears,
I thought unhappily.

He lowered his tight clenched hands to his sides, giving
me his trademark predatory stare. If it weren't for his eyes, he
wouldn't have scared me.

But now, I saw the pent up rage of a very old being, a
man who remained fully conscious and strong when anyone human
would've been weak and half-senile at the hundred year mark.

“
I'll tolerate you as long as you do your job.
You're working for the clan, and you ought to consider it a
privilege.”

“
That' doesn't mean it should all be on my
shoulders,” I snapped.

The Elder took a step closer to me, until he leaned on
the table. I stared into his angry eyes, cold and unwavering.

“
You owe me some time to understand your history.
If you really want me to help your people, then you'll treat me more
like a partner. An assistant, even.”

Damn it, I was trying to be sensible.

“
Our history doesn't concern you. The present
does.” Emmerick's lips twitched.

“
I don't think
so. If I had a better understanding about what really happened here,
blow by blow, then I could clear up all your misconceptions. And
there are
a lot
of
them.”

I stopped, and resumed a second later, rattling off the
most ridiculous reports I'd read. “And that only covers the
last ten years. Your people didn't even realize the internet existed
until 2005! You can't hope to understand my world with these brief,
probing glances, and no real interactions.”

For a moment, I feared he was about to shift and lunge,
tearing me to pieces. But at last, the Elder sank backward, hung his
head, angry and trembling.

“
I don't deny that, much as I'd like to.” He
paced to the wall and turned around again, refusing to meet my eyes.
“So, you must know everything, then. Our whole history? The
reason why we can never interact with your kind.”

“
That's what I was wondering about. The chronicle
didn't make sense. It has to be a legend.”

“
It's irrelevant. Who cares if it was an angry
shaman who created us with a curse or space aliens? We're not human.
We never will be.”

He had a point. I opened my mouth, but stopped, still
processing what he'd said.

“
It does matter, though. If I could understand
where the beast ends and the man begins...I could help you see
through your weaknesses. Maybe even ease the relations between our
two peoples.”

“
That isn't what you're here for,” he
muttered. “I don't want an envoy to the world of man or a
philosopher. I know damned well what we are, and what we can never
be.”

“
Which is what?” I whispered, not really
expecting a serious answer.

“
An abomination.” Emmerick looked up. Some
of the fury in his eyes had been dashed with sadness. “A
creature that shouldn't exist, and won't exist after another few
decades. Not if I have anything to do about it.”

“
I don't understand.”

“
We just want to live out our lives in peace. The
clan's numbers are dwindling. There's nothing anyone can do about it.
In another forty years or so, we should be extinct.” His jaw
tightened, like he'd said too much about some great secret.

And he certainly has. Jesus...extinct!

My eyes widened. I stared at him, hating myself for the
way my heart stirred. Despite how they'd treated me, melancholy pangs
throbbed in my chest. I felt bad for all of them – Don, the
Elders, and even Emmerick.

I had more questions. But Emmerick turned away from me,
moving toward the door, suggesting he was in no mood to elaborate on
the insane surprises he'd just leaked.

“
Just do your job and go when the winter is over.
Never speak of this place again.” With one hand leaning on the
frame, he turned to me, the fire flashing once more in his eyes.

“
Don't think about continuing your little tryst
with Don Flood. He can't be with you. It's cruel and unnatural.
You'll only hurt him.”

Denial thundered through me. Still, I wasn't about to
argue with the mad rage boiling beneath his surface. I simply nodded.

“
Can I take some of these records back to the
cabin? It might help if I had more time with them.”

“
Yes, but you'll return them immediately tomorrow
morning. And you need to focus on the reports that happened in your
lifetime.” He said it dismissively.

And why not? Twenty-two years was nothing stacked up
against more than a century.

Emmerick stepped out and pulled the door shut. It
clamored loudly in its frame.

I gathered up the older documents I wanted to review and
went on to the cabin. The sun had set, and it was more than a little
scary walking through the leafy strewn paths alone, surrounded by
shifters.

Don hadn't returned yet. My stomach growled, but I'd
wait for our nightly steak and vegetables. I was too hungry for
knowledge just now.

I dove into the history. I learned the clan had
dispersed into the mountains, sometimes as far as the Pacific Coast,
mining gold for spending cash and partaking in an ill fated silver
mining adventure in Idaho over a hundred years ago.

The census reports mystified me. No children were born
during some decades. But suddenly, during others, there was an
upswing, a baby boom of young shifters that included one, Don Flood,
in 1973.

My mouth dropped a little. I knew he was older, but more
than forty? Don's physique and smooth skin mirrored a man in his late
twenties perfectly, a young man at his powerful zenith.

Just how slowly do they age?

The records gave no indication. Sometimes, I saw birth
and death years that spanned more than a hundred years – far
too many to be a statistical anomaly.

And then there were others with more normal lifespans,
forty to seventy years. I wondered if the early deaths were tragedies
or normal attrition.

When I read about the
humans brought back to Horseshoe Creek, I began to understand. God,
the birth rates linked up perfectly with the wives and husbands
traveling members of the clan brought back! The baby booms with
humans were the
only
way the clan could reproduce.