Shifters of Grrr 2 (28 page)

"It all started with the Hughes Contracting job," he finally said, surprising me. He brought the plates to the table and set one of them in front of me. Our eyes locked when he sat down. "I wasn't always like this."

"How did it happen?"

Bryce's eyes glassed over as he gazed at something just over my shoulder. "There was an accident at the site. A minor one. Some lighting equipment fell on my head and knocked me out. And while I was unconscious, the spirit of White Bear Mountain visited me."

I felt goose bumps sprout up along my arms. "The spirit of White Bear Mountain?"

"He said I'd been selected to be punished for mankind's folly," he said, his voice dropping to low tones. He began to speak as if in a trance. "He said he was putting me under a curse. I was to protect White Bear Mountain from my own kind until I made everything right.

"I thought it'd been a dream at first until the next full moon. I turned into a bear. I was so scared. But every full moon since got easier, until eventually I was able control my shifts entirely."

"So that's why you did everything you did," I said, piecing all the bits together. "The conservation, the sustainable energy, buying this piece of land in particular..."

"I worked day and night to make the world a better place," Bryce said. He gripped his fists on the table so tight they began to shake. "But nothing. The curse still holds."

I wanted to touch him, comfort him, but I didn't know how I could help. Bryce had gone through so much, and his story was so fantastical that I wouldn't even have believed it if it wasn't for last night.

"I think you've done pretty well for yourself in the meantime," I said. It was probably the understatement of the century, but it was true. "You're successful, and you really have made the planet a better place all on your own. Being a bear on top of that doesn't seem all that bad."

Bryce dropped his head. "That's not even the worst thing about the curse, Sarah," he said.

I reached for his hand. Then, I saw his hair falling forward to shield his eyes. I bit my lip and ran my fingers through it, catching it to tuck behind his ears. My finger barely grazed the skin of his earlobe, and I shivered.

Bryce raised his head at my touch. He caught my hand in his. I had to stifle a gasp as his fingers closed over mine. He closed his eyes.

I bit my lip. "What's the worst thing?" I prompted.

"Until the curse is broken," Bryce said, his eyes still closed, "no woman will ever love me."

I jerked my hand away. Bryce opened his eyes and looked at me lucidly.

"Sarah?

"Bryce, I--"

I couldn't find the words. I stared down at my breakfast. The eggs and bacon had gone cold. The grease was beginning to coagulate on the edges of the plate. Suddenly, I couldn't find the urge to eat and fill my stomach.

I just felt sick.

"Sarah," Bryce said softly. He scooted his chair closer to mine and took my hand. "What's wrong?"

I knew what was wrong, but I couldn't put it to words.
No woman will ever love me,
Bryce had said. So why had he invited me to have dinner with him?

Most troubling of all, though, was that I was beginning to form feelings for him. Feelings that were real to me, or so it had seemed. But if no woman would ever love him until the curse was broken, what were these feelings? Were they even real at all?

Bryce kept whispering my name. He squeezed my hand.

"I want to go home," I said. I pulled my hand out of Bryce's grasp and hugged myself.

He sat back in his chair and pressed his lips into a straight line. "Okay," he said flatly. "I'll take you home."

Chapter 5

One thing I loved about Lindsay was that she knew how to be a best friend. The moment she heard my voice when I called her, she knew something was up.

"Change into some pajamas and put on Netflix, stat. I'm coming over with some ice cream and we're having us a good ol' fashioned sleepover."

"What about your low-cal diet?" I asked.

"Screw that. What kind of friend do you think I am?" she said.

A good one,
I thought to myself as I hung up.

Just as Lindsay ordered, I put on my rattiest, comfiest pajamas and began scrolling through my Netflix queue on the T.V. Ten minutes later, Lindsay showed up at my door holding a tub of ice cream under one arm and a bottle of wine in the other.

"I wasn't sure what you wanted, so I got Neapolitan," she said.

I waved her in. "That'll be fine."

We folded out my Ikea futon into a bed and lounged on our stomachs, each of us armed with a spoon for the ice cream, which sat right in the middle of us. Lindsay flicked through the movie selection with the remote.

"What are you in the mood for?" she asked.

I wanted something comforting and happy. "I don't know. Disney, I guess."

"Disney it is."

Lindsay continued scrolling through the selection until I made her stop.

"
Beauty and the Beast
?" she said.

I studied the movie poster on the screen. The Beast was some sort of...creature, I guess. But if I squinted, he kind of looked like a bear. And Belle, brunette and bookish, was practically the cartoon version of me.

"It's perfect," I said. I grabbed the remote out of Lindsay's hand and hit
play.

* * *

"Do you think Belle loved Beast even before Gaston rallied up the townspeople?" I wondered aloud as the movie reached its happy ending.

"Of course she did," Lindsay said matter-of-factly around a mouthful of cold ice cream.

"Then, I wonder why he didn't change back into a prince before all that drama happened. You know, since love breaks the curse and everything."

Lindsay was silent for a few moments. I spooned more ice cream into my mouth.

"Maybe," Lindsay began slowly, "Belle has to realize she loves him herself. I mean, love is a two-way street, right? Beast knows he loves Belle, that's why he let her go. And Belle finally knew when she came back."

"Wow," I said. "That's...that's actually incredibly insightful of you, Lindsay."

Lindsay threw her sock at my face. "Don't act so surprised. You aren't the only one who got a full ride scholarship, you know. I'm
smart
."

"And drunk," I said, nodding at the half empty bottle of wine sitting on the floor. Lindsay had done most of the work on that.

"Whatever," Lindsay said. "Speaking of being drunk, I'm going on a date with Jerry this weekend."

"What?"

"I know, I know. I
must have
been drunk when I accepted, but..." She shrugged. "Love's worth every risk, am I right?"

What's the world coming to?
I asked myself as I stared at Lindsay. She, a former high school cheerleader, was going to go out with a guy who was probably Robotics Team captain or something. Not only that, half a bottle of wine had turned her into a brilliant love guru,
and
I'd just learned bear shifters were real.

It was like I woke up from one dream to enter another.

"You're right," I said. "Love
is
worth every risk."

"I know I'm right. I'm
always
right," Lindsay added loudly.

"I think you should go to sleep."

"I think
you
should--"

"You're spending the night here, by the way."

Lindsay stopped talking. "Okay." Then, she leaned over and poured some more wine into her glass. "Might as well finish this off, then."

I watched her chug the wine and sighed. "How about you save some for me?" I asked.

Lindsay looked pleased as she poured some wine into my glass before refreshing her own. We toasted to, unsurprisingly, love and friendship, and drank.

Chapter 6

That night, I dreamt about Bryce.

I made Lindsey comfortable on the futon with a pillow and a fleece blanket. I went to my room and closed the door. My bed felt cold and unwelcoming, perhaps because last night I'd slept in Bryce's cozy cabin bedroom. His bed had been warm, the covers soft. It was the physical embodiment of how Bryce made me feel.

Sure, he was a ferocious bear, but on the inside he was a softie. Just like Beast.

I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep. Then, I was there at White Bear Mountain.

I stood in the little clearing where Bryce's cabin sat, only it was gone. The sky was black with night, but a sun still burned at its center. I breathed in a lungful of crisp, mountain air. The energy surged into my system, rooting me to the ground. I felt whole, complete, and part of the earth.

In the back of my dream-mind, I knew that this was how Bryce felt when he was in his bear form.

Nothing purer than love.

Love is worth the risk.

The words repeated in my ears like a spell. I turned around, examining my surroundings. I was still looking at the clearing and blinked. A split second later, there was a bear in a spot that had been empty previously.

A white bear.

Somehow, I knew this was the same spirit that had visited Bryce. And he was now visiting me. He regarded me with black eyes like two deep pools sinking into infinity, saying nothing except for those eyes.

Then, the bear turned into Bryce. He was without his shirt. The scratches from his torso were gone. He beckoned to me, mouthing something.

"What? I can't hear you!" I said. I ran forward and kept running, but I couldn't reach him.

I tried to read Bryce's lips.

I had to find out what he was trying to tell me.

Chapter 7

Somehow, I was able to find the narrow dirt road leading to Bryce's clearing. He hadn't contacted me at all yesterday, but something told me that he was still here.

Perhaps it was the dream I'd had with the white bear. The spirit was trying to tell me something, and it was up to me to figure out what it was. I gripped my steering wheel tight, feeling more determined than ever. The spirit of White Bear Mountain had given Bryce a curse, but a gift to me.

I finally located the clearing. Bryce's red convertible was parked in the same exact spot. I slid my car in right next to it and shut off the engine. When I got out, the sight of my crappy sedan next to his pristine sports car was so extreme that I had to laugh.

A door slammed from the direction of the cabin. I spun around with a gasp and saw Bryce standing on his front porch. He was frowning against the sun, so his expression was hard to read.

A nervous smile twitched onto my face. "Hey." I stepped cautiously forward.

"Hey," he replied. His voice was carefully neutral. He came off of his porch and strolled toward me. "What brings you back?"

I tried to think quickly. "Belle had to figure out she loved the Beast."

Bryce laughed. "What?"

"I mean--" I started blushing.

"Are you talking about
Beauty and the Beast
?" Suddenly, his face turned serious. He pointed at himself. "Are you comparing me to the Beast?"

"No! Just the cursed part of you. Love broke the spell in the movie, right? Well, Belle had to realize that she loved him. She already did, but the moment she actually figures it out for herself--"

"I know how the movie ends, Sarah," Bryce said, cutting me off. "But my life isn't a Disney fairy tale. This is real. The spirit of White Bear Mountain cursed me."

"Well," I began, letting my volume rise, "the spirit also visited me last night."

"He did?"

I nodded. "Yeah. And I think he was telling
me
to..."

I paused. Well, I didn't exactly know what he'd wanted me to do, exactly. I'd come here to see Bryce, but what was next? All I could remember from the dream was that he was mouthing some words I couldn't hear.

"I think he was telling me to hear what you have to say," I finally finished.

Bryce nodded, understanding in his eyes. His hair shifted in the wind, and he looked away for a moment.

"So, what do you have to say?" I said.

"You know the type of background I come from," Bryce said. "It's so hard to find someone who really appreciates how hard I had to work to get here. Most people see me for my money, but I want more."

I drifted closer to him. "Yeah?"

"With you, I can...be honest," he said.

When I came close enough, he grabbed my hand and placed it over his chest. My stomach clenched when I felt how hard his pectoral was. And beneath that marble-hard plane of muscle was his heart, beating strong and frantic against my palm.

"You...you're so incredible. You understand the deepest part of me, and now you know my biggest secret. I was wrong about the curse. The very worst part is knowing that I could love you, but I can't have you."

Our faces were drifting closer together. I looked up into his eyes, honey-brown and dark with agony. His wild, spicy scent filled my nostrils, intoxicating me, and I could feel the heat of his body radiating through his clothes.