So Much To Bear (A Werebear Erotic Romance) (2 page)

It was still much bigger in scope than
the town they all lived in, and Jennifer’s adventures—while tame
compared with some of her college classmates—were hilarious, or
thrilling, to her friends. Alex and Lucy asked about the bars where
she had gone to school, and Jennifer told the story of getting her
fake ID, and the tale of how she had had it confiscated. The
bartenders in the town all knew the ages of the town’s residents,
so in order to be able to drink underage, her friends had been
forced to creative ends, sending in friends or family members who
were of the legal age to buy alcohol and then carrying it away to
an abandoned house for a party.

Jennifer wondered again why Robert had
stuck in town instead of going off to college; he was smart, and he
could have easily—with a little application and effort—have scored
enough scholarships and grants to go almost anywhere he would have
wanted. It would have been good for him, Jennifer thought. He would
have been on his own, independent, away from the influence of the
small town; he would have become more confident in his ability to
think for himself, just as Jennifer had become, and he would have
learned that the world didn’t revolve around their little corner of
it, that there were things well beyond the town that were worth
knowing, worth visiting, worth seeing. He marveled at her
adventures and the things she had seen, the opportunities she had
taken advantage of to learn more, but he seemed too insecure in his
own abilities and status to think he could achieve them for
himself. It saddened Jennifer, but she thought that he would have
to come into his own without the aid of an out-of-town
college.

“So tell us about the romance situation
at your school,” Lucy said. Jennifer shrugged. While she certainly
hadn’t suffered from a romantic drought, sex and romance hadn’t
been the first focus of her time. Jennifer knew that a lot of the
girls in her town thought that she had chosen a far-off college
mostly to find an interesting husband; there was a kind of
old-fashioned undercurrent to thinking in the small town, and many
of the girls she had graduated with were already married, and some
of them were starting their families. Jennifer didn’t have anything
against marriage as an institution, and thought that perhaps one
day she would have an interest in starting a family; but there were
so many more things she wanted to do with her life before she
finally settled down. Jennifer thought that maybe, by the time she
was thirty or so, she would be ready for that kind of relationship,
for that kind of commitment and settling. But that was still many
years off; and in the meantime, she could only hope that she could
have some excitement in her life.

“Eh, I try not to date too much in the
dorms,” she said, making a face. “Everyone seems to have dated
everyone else. Picking anyone would be too much like sloppy
seconds.”

“Jen just needs to get some, clearly,”
Liam joked crassly. “Too much studying and she won’t be any good to
anyone.” Jennifer rolled her eyes.

“Maybe I’ll be a nun, then. Anyone who
wouldn’t want me because I was too educated isn’t someone I’d want
to be with anyway.” Jennifer glanced at Robert, who had always
encouraged her academic pursuits.

“Jen’s pretty enough and fun enough to
get whoever she wants,” Robert said, flashing a slight grin at her.
Jennifer wondered idly if he had finally noticed the discreet
signals she was trying to get across to him. Even if she had long
ago given up—consciously at least—the idea that Robert would take
her in his arms and love her, she couldn’t actually quite convince
herself to no longer be attracted to him. Jennifer both wanted and
didn’t want a fling with Robert; it would be satisfying to finally
have him to herself, but she didn’t want to ruin a perfectly good
friendship to finally get him in bed. But that would probably never
happen anyway, she reminded herself firmly.

After a long stretch of joking and
walking, it started to become clear to everyone that they were
lost. It seemed impossible; they had all lived near the woods and
walked through it countless times to get to the next town—they
should have been able to navigate, even after dark, with no
trouble. Jennifer knew by the brittle quality in everyone’s voices
that they were not just starting to get tired, but were also more
than slightly afraid of the dark labyrinthine depths. “We should
just go back, call it a night,” Lucy suggested, sitting on a
tumbled-down log and easing her feet in the warm boots that encased
them.

“But we can’t be that far from the
town,” Alex countered. “We could totally get there in just a few
minutes if we could figure out where we are in the woods.” The
torches were still bright, but Jennifer knew that they wouldn’t
last at their current supportive level for too much longer—they
were only rated for a couple of hours of use.

“It’s cold though, and my feet are
starting to hurt,” Lucy said, a whining edge entering her
voice.

“You should have picked more
comfortable shoes,” Liam said, unconcerned. He leaned against a
tree and Jennifer fought the urge to roll her eyes at him. Lucy
should have picked more comfortable shoes, but she hadn’t; it
didn’t matter at this point.

“We can’t be that lost,” Alex insisted.
“We should just press on and we’ll come to the end of the woods
eventually.”

“Or we’ll wander around endlessly until
dawn,” Jennifer retorted, though a slight smile played at the
corners of her lips. The idea of wandering the woods until dawn was
not that bad, really; she could enjoy the adventure of it, if it
weren’t for Lucy’s aching feet.

“Look,” Liam said, raising his hands to
forestall an argument. “It’s pretty clear what we should do; we
should split up into two groups—some of us go back and retrace our
steps, figure out where we are, and the rest of us stay here and
wait.” Lucy was all for the plan, clearly intending to be one of
the ones to stay behind.

“So once we figure out where we are, do
we go on to the town or head back home?” Jennifer hated the thought
that they might end up just going home. At least if they wandered
around they might find something interesting, even if they didn’t
make it to the town. She didn’t like just giving up once she had
committed to an adventure.

“We’ll see how we feel, and anyway I
think Lucy wants to get home.” Jennifer was all for finding their
way back—it would, at least, extend the fun they were having,
especially if she got to go with Robert, who was game for being
part of the group that retraced their steps. Liam agreed that
Robert, who knew the woods better than the rest of them, would be
the best choice to lead the group back but he insisted that
Jennifer should stay.

“If Lucy wants to go home, it would
probably be better for her to head back with you and Alex anyway,”
Liam pointed out. “Once you get out of the woods, she can head for
home.”

“I really want to rest a bit longer,”
Lucy said. Liam shrugged.

“It’s going to get darker with only one
of the torches, and you’d be safer with Robert and Alex anyway—and
closer to home.” Jennifer bit her lip; she would really rather have
gone with Robert.

“If Lucy wants to stay behind and rest,
she should—those shoes are probably killing her feet. I’m still
fresh, I can make the walk.” Liam’s brows knitted together and an
expression almost like a pout came over his features for just a
moment.

“Robert or Alex can carry Lucy if she’s
really having trouble,” he suggested with a faint smile. “Unless of
course you’re scared to stay behind, Jen.” Jennifer started to
contest the accusation, but before she could, Robert and Alex had
pulled Lucy to her feet and were making their way away from them,
saying they’d be back soon.

The light dimmed to a bare flicker as
she and Liam were left with the one torch, hanging back in the
gloomy woods. Jennifer hugged herself, pacing in a wandering circle
around the clearing they had come to, looking as deeply into the
trees as she could. “You’re not scared, are you Jen?” Liam asked,
his voice teasing. Jennifer rolled her eyes.

“No, I just wish we could’ve kept
moving. I don’t like standing still just waiting.” She turned her
head to look at Liam; he was watching her with a look in his eyes
she didn’t quite like, something like a smile—unpleasant, almost a
leer—curving his lips.

“Pretty cold out tonight, isn’t it?” he
asked her, and Jennifer could tell that he was trying to be
charming; the effect was less that than it was faintly nauseating.
She had never been the least bit interested in Liam. When they were
younger she’d considered him a spoiled brat, the kind of kid who’d
always had the best of everything, whose parents didn’t seem to
have the word “no” in their vocabulary when it came to their only
son. He had—at different parts of their childhood—even occasionally
been something of a bully, taking what he wanted from other kids
with few consequences to his actions. He’d tempered it somewhat in
recent years, and Jennifer had reluctantly had to agree with Robert
that Liam was not as annoying as he once had been, but he would
never be her idea of a good companion.

“It’s not that bad,” Jennifer said,
even as a shiver worked through her spine. She wasn’t sure if it
was more due to her dislike of Liam or the chill in the air; while
they had been walking steadily, she’d been warm enough—she had even
broken a sweat climbing over some fallen trees—but now that she was
mostly still, the cold of the night seemed to creep through the
weave of her clothing, slipping underneath the thick jacket she
wore to test the few patches of skin she had exposed.

“You could come over here and we could
cuddle—that would keep us warm while we wait,” Liam suggested,
another leering smile curving his lips. “I know I’d heat right up
with you in my arms.” Jennifer scowled.

“I wouldn’t cuddle with you if it was
20 degrees colder,” she said brusquely. Liam snorted.

“Come on, Jen. You know you’ll give in
eventually.” Jennifer turned on her toes when she heard Liam stand
up.

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” Jennifer said, stepping back slightly as Liam started to
move towards her. “I’ve never been even a little bit interested in
you.” Liam laughed, the haughty sound echoing off of the nearby
trees.

“Don’t lie to yourself. You’re totally
into me. I’m hot, I’m wealthy, I’ve got political power—you’d be an
idiot not to be into me.” Jennifer sidestepped as Liam moved
closer. She didn’t know why she felt afraid of him; she had never
been afraid of Liam, never truly afraid of him, the entire time she
had known him. But something in his determined expression gave her
a sense of alarm she couldn’t deny. She didn’t think she would have
to run away—and even if she did run, she’d quickly get lost in the
depths of the woods with no torch to see by. As she looked around,
her gaze scanning the line of trees around them, she thought she
saw a pair of shimmering golden eyes in the dark; but they were
gone so quickly Jennifer was sure she must have imagined
them.

“Liam, you aren’t even remotely my
type,” Jennifer said, shaking her head. “If you really wanted to
attract me, you’d stop being such an asshole and pretend like you
actually give a damn about other people.” Liam’s eyes widened and
then narrowed into a scowl.

“What’s wrong with you?” Liam’s voice
dropped to a near-hiss, his face starting to redden with his
frustration. “Are you frigid or just an idiot?” Jennifer shook her
head.

“Neither. I’m just not into jerks who
think they’re entitled to me.” Liam let out a growl and lunged
towards her; Jennifer dodged his first movement, slipping away from
his grabbing hands and dancing on the balls of her feet to the edge
of the clearing. She thought she was more than amply prepared to
deal with someone like Liam; he wasn’t that much taller than her,
and while he worked out, Jennifer had taken a full self-defense
course as one of her electives in college. It had seemed only
reasonable at the time, since as an anthropologist, she planned to
travel to areas where she couldn’t entirely depend on the police to
protect her.

Liam was quicker than she bargained
for, however, and as she moved to evade him once more, he grabbed
her wrists. He was so occupied in trying to pull her to him that he
didn’t see it—but Jennifer caught sight of a tall, shadowed man
coming up from behind him. The man’s hands fell onto Liam’s
shoulders and pulled him back savagely, wrenching him sideways and
backwards so quickly that Jennifer’s hands fell free of his grasp.
The shadowy figure threw Liam to the ground with a dull roar, and
Jennifer heard the thud of contact, the whoop of surprise that left
Liam’s lips as some of the air left his lungs involuntarily in the
impact.

“Robert?” Jennifer called out
hopefully; it had to be him—maybe they weren’t as deep in the woods
as they thought, and Alex had taken Lucy home while Robert doubled
back.