by Sky Winters
Almost a hundred guests had gathered at the venue. Anna, clad in a sparkling black gown, had seen each sculpture set up and had occupied a corner of the room with her own art. Influential art critics and bloggers wandered piece to piece, and Gabriel's professors were on scene to assess his progress. Every face was distinguished, either young and haughty, or old and wizened. Then, amongst a sea of refined artists, a face she'd never thought she'd see at an upscale event appeared.
Nate.
He looked uncomfortable in his suit and tie; higher class did not suit him. Black grime still stuck beneath his fingernails, and Anna remarked a streak of it near his ear. He navigated the salon with purpose, and struck Gabriel upon the back with playful affection. Gabriel turned to look at him and grinned, and the two embraced.
What was happening?
Anna watched them from across the room as they chatted, then Gabriel gestured in her direction, and both men turned to face her. Nate's eyes flashed with recognition as he took her in, and he turned sharply towards Gabriel and grabbed him by the lapel. There was no mistaking the hostility in his gesture, and the breath caught in Anna's throat. She'd been found out.
The floor was swarming with men in suits and women in beautiful gowns, but through the masses Anna could see Gabriel shove Nate away, his eyes narrowing in anger. How did someone as refined as Gabriel know someone as crass and unsophisticated as Nate? As Anna pushed her way through the crowd, determined to break them up, she tried to piece it together.
Nate swung his fist right at Gabriel's face, but Gabriel caught his hand with his palm and clenched down, drawing Nate through the crowd and towards the back doors. They were going outside. They were going to fight in earnest. Anna's heart raced, every part of her trembling as she tore through the guests she had been tasked with directing. Gabriel and Nate were fighting over her, and neither of them knew her secret.
Both men burst through the back doors, Nate shoving Gabriel from behind so that he stumbled across the pavement. Then the doors closed, and Anna could no longer track them. The stretch she ran between where she stood and the back doors took an eternity, and when she finally followed them into the deserted back space behind the venue, Nate and Gabriel were gone. Instead, Anna found herself standing not even ten feet away from two towering, snarling brown bears.
At nearly seven feet tall, they were formidable creatures. Each had risen upon his back feet. One of the bears had grappled the other, his mighty paws sunk into his opponent's back. The victim's head was locked between the aggressor's arms, but he had not given up. The throaty sounds he made were aggressive and fearful, and Anna stopped dead in her tracks. Bears? Where had bears come from? A terrified squeak escaped her lips, and she clasped her hand over her mouth to quell it. It was enough to catch the bears' attention.
Everything grew still, both beasts frozen. The bear who had the advantage on his opponent fixed his eyes on her, and Anna noticed the warm amber flecked across them. She'd seen those eyes before.
"Nate?" she asked as the hand dropped from her mouth. She swallowed hard. "Oh my god, is that you, Nate? And... And Gabriel? Please don't fight. Not over me. I'm not worth it."
The bear with the amber flecked eyes loosened his grip, and the bear beneath him reared away. Both of them dropped to all fours, and both turned to look at her. There was silence. If these bears really were the men she had involved herself with, Anna needed to come clean. Maybe this way they could back out and fade out of her life without having to commit to a break up — not that she was official with either of them. Neither man wanted commitment, only a good time.
"I slept with both of you," she told them. Dark, unblinking eyes watched her, neither bear making a move. "Neither of you ever wanted anything serious, and I... I didn't think it was wrong. I didn't think that you knew each other. If I knew you were friends I wouldn't have done it. But now we have bigger problems."
A sob had been building up, and as she inhaled deeply to ground herself it rattled her breath. The darker eyed bear took a small step towards her, and she could see concern in his eyes.
"It's so stupid," she whispered in sorrow, "talking to bears like they could actually be people. Maybe you'll just maul me and that'll be the end of it. Neither of you deserve this. Neither of you asked for this. I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant, and I don't know which one of you is the father."
The sobs could be held back no longer. Anna started to cry, each heavy outburst ugly. The makeup ran from her eyes, and she knew shameful red blotched her cheeks. The darker eyed bear disappeared, and Gabriel stood in his place. He was naked and disheveled, but otherwise intact. Without wasting a second he crossed the distance between them and pulled Anna into his arms, setting one hand on the back of her head to comfort her. The bear with amber eyes lingered where he had been, watching the two of them.
"You're okay," Gabriel whispered into her hair as she sobbed. At that moment, learning that Gabriel was also a bear didn't matter. All Anna cared for was the feel of his skin against hers, and how soothing it felt to be with him. "We're okay. I'm here for you. We're going to get through this together."
Together. Together was all she'd ever wanted. Anna sobbed against his bare chest, arms wrapped around his neck.
"I'm not leaving you to raise a bear shifter baby on your own. No matter who fathered that baby, Kempton blood runs through his veins. I'm ready to step up."
Kempton blood. Even as she sobbed, the pieces started to lock into place. Nate was at the art show because he knew Gabriel, and he was obliged to come because they were brothers. They had to be. United by a last name, sharing the same strange shifter genes, somehow she'd stumbled into both of their lives without realizing the bond that linked them.
Behind them Nate had shifted back into his human form. The suits they'd worn had been discarded in haste to the side of the door, and he moved to the mess to dress slowly.
"I don't do relationships," Nate said, voice like stone, "I don't do babies. If you leave me out of this, I'll do my part and end contact. If you need financial support I'll man up, but I'm not ready to commit. This one's on you, Gabe."
Gabriel shot Nate a look over his shoulder, eyes narrowed. Still, he ran his fingers through Anna's hair and held her as the sobs simmered into nothing.
"She's mine now," Gabriel warned his brother, something near a growl in his voice. "The mother of my child, and the children to come. If you touch her, I won't hesitate to take you on again. I will fight to the death to defend my family, Nate. No more games."
The thought occurred to her, no matter how brief, that the first night she'd coasted into the garage and met Nate that he might have been able to smell Gabriel on her with his bear senses. Had his involvement with her all been a game? Anna didn't let herself consider it too deeply; what Gabriel had said was much more important.
"Mate?" she asked. "Children to come? What about Italy? You have so much potential, and I can't ask you to give it up for me."
"We will figure it out together," Gabriel assured her, pressing a soft kiss to her temple. Nate had dressed, and now that he was fully clothed, he ducked by them and entered the venue as if nothing had ever happened. "Maybe we'll go together, as a family. You, me, and the baby in a vineyard in the country. What do you think of that?"
Sunshine and simple living. Laughter and love. Anna blinked away the last tears and managed to smile at him.
"You mean it?”
"With all my heart," Gabriel assured her, and Anna had always known his words to be true.
Italy wasn't his future anymore — it was their future. And there in Gabriel's arms, adored and valued, Anna knew that all of the poor choices she'd made had turned out for the best. The heart of the talented bear shifter was hers and hers alone. She'd walked into Gabriel's life expecting an internship, and instead she'd found the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
Despite the hardships suffered, she wouldn't trade him for anything.
*****
THE END
>
Weekend with the Bear
“You had plenty money in 1922…You let other women make a fool of you. Why don’t you do right? Like some other men do?” Ursula Blake sang her heart out night after night at the Big Dipper nightclub in Silver Lake. She was five foot six with long, red hair that was curled like a ‘70s TV starlet. Her eyes were a purplish blue. At twenty-six years old, she was well on her way to gaining a loyal following at the club. She was hoping to really make a name for herself and make it big as a jazz and soul singer, but so far the only thing big about her was her size.
Ursula weighed two hundred and forty pounds. This usually did not get to her, because she didn’t allow it to, but it was hard to ignore some of the looks she received from people as she came onto the stage. People in LA were varying levels of rude, but they were all judgmental in some way towards her.
It wasn’t all bad, though. She had the support of her boyfriend Wesley, who came to see her performances and sat at a table in the front row, smiling up at her every night. He was tall and handsome, with sandy hair and hazel eyes. As long as she had him, she would be okay.
After the light applause at the end of her set, she stepped down off the stage and joined him at the table. He gave her a kiss and helped her into her seat, but he did not sit beside her. Something was amiss. She could feel it in the way he was looking at her.
“I have to go,” he told her. “This… This isn’t going to work out.”
Ursula felt like something was breaking inside of her. “What? What are you talking about?”
He sighed, looking down at her now instead of up when she was in the spotlight. “I’ve met someone. It’s not you, it’s me… I feel like we’ve been moving in different directions for a while now.”
Her head was reeling. How could he be doing this to her now? Right there where she worked and everything? She felt like everyone was staring at them and listening in.
“I’m sorry, Ursula,” Wesley said.
Shaking his head, he walked away from her and was gone. Ursula could feel the pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. She felt like she could faint at any moment. She could not be there anymore.
The table was prepared for a meal for two. When the waiter came and asked what she wanted, she stared at him numbly. “I’m sorry,” she said shakily. “I’m not staying, actually.”
Doing her best to stay upright, Ursula removed her silver high-heeled shoes and walked back to her dressing room. Once inside, she closed the door and allowed the waterworks to start.
The icing on the rotten cake for her was that Wesley had chosen to dump her at the Big Dipper and not at their apartment or something. Sure, it still would have hurt anywhere, but the Big Dipper club was her home. He was moved out of the apartment that they’d shared for four years by the time she got home that night, and she was somewhat relieved that she hadn’t been sent out on her ass. Now that her hurt and sadness had passed, she was mad at Wesley. He had given up on her and had found someone else. After everything they’d been through, all of the love and support he’d claimed to have for her…That liar. That untrustworthy, two-timing bastard!
Ursula lay on her bed and cried, hugging a plush cat to her face. Then she realized that Wesley had given her that cat and threw it across the room in angry frustration.
She was not going to give up just because of him. She was going to go right back to the club tomorrow and belt out her soul like she always did. She didn’t need Wesley King. She didn’t need anybody.
Walking onto the stage the following evening, her shimmering purple dress catching the light in all of the right places, Ursula felt beautiful in her own skin for the first time in a while. A weight had been lifted. She could do this on her own. She could be her own support.
“They say I’m crazy, got no sense… but I don’t care…”
As she sang, she paced around the stage like a tiger on the prowl. She caught the eye of a mysterious young man that she hadn’t seen at the club before. He winked at her and she blushed a little but did not otherwise skip a beat.
Her song was met with loud applause at the end. Ursula looked out at the small crowd of people sitting down at the tables, surprised and delighted at their response. Then she realized that the loudest and biggest amount of applause was coming from the new fan of hers.
At the end of her set, she went back into her dressing room and touched up her hair and makeup, preparing herself to go out and try and talk to the young man who had aroused her curiosity. However, when she went back out, he was no longer at his table.
Disappointed at that missed opportunity, she went to the bar and ordered herself a gin and tonic. “That young man who was here,” she asked the bartender. “Who was he?”
She suspected that he was perhaps a talent scout. Then again, she always suspected new people like that were talent scouts. She supposed she was just optimistic that way.
The bartender shrugged his shoulders. “Probably just the usual Silver Lake hipster type,” he said. “We get a lot of those on Saturday nights. He didn’t even order himself a drink.”
Odd. “Huh,” she said. “Maybe he saw my flyer or something.”
Ursula promoted herself well by tacking and taping flyers about her performances all over town. Anyone who was interested in listening to old timey jazz standards while drinking cheap beer and eating burgers could definitely be happy at the Big Dipper on Saturdays.
On Saturdays, beer was half off.
When she went back to her dressing room to change out of her sparkly costume, Ursula saw that an envelope had been placed on her dressing table. “Weird,” she said under her breath, stepping out of her dress. “I don’t usually get mail at work.”
She tossed the dress into the laundry bin and walked to her dresser, wearing only her bra, panties and tights. She picked up the envelope. It was kind of big, but thin and it was manila which made her think it was important. Upon opening it, she found a letter proclaiming her a winner.
“Congratulations!” the letter said in a big, red font. “You have won the Black Bear Inn Sweepstakes! Enclosed is your ticket for one week’s all-paid vacation at the Black Bear Inn, located beside Lake Tahoe. Enjoy boating on the water, hiking the wondrous mountain trails, or gambling at our world-renowned casinos.”
Ursula checked the date on the plane ticket. The flight would take her there in two days! Whoever was in charge of this sweepstakes didn’t waste time. The problem was that Ursula hadn’t entered any sweepstakes. There must have been some mistake.
But that was her name on the envelope. Ursula Blake. That was the address of the Big Dipper club. Someone had clearly entered the sweepstakes on her behalf. She wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but then again with the way things had been going for her lately… She could definitely use the vacation.
As soon as she got hope, she went to work packing her suitcase. She hadn’t been on an airplane in years. The tight space of the seats was usually a problem for her, especially when flying without any of her friends or family, but she could make do on the hour and a half long flight to Lake Tahoe.
Now that she was packing for the trip, she was excited about it. She’d never been on a vacation like it before. She wasn’t really into boating, but she loved waterfront views as well as mountain views. It was one of the things that had drawn her to living on the west coast in the first place. Oh, sure, there were mountains on the east coast, too, but there weren’t many in Delaware. The Shenandoah mountain range was nothing compared to the Sierra Nevada.
Taking a week off from work was no problem for her. The club paid her per performance set, so Ursula figured she could make up for lost time later. This was, after all, a once in a lifetime opportunity.
While she was waiting for her plane, Ursula read a book and did her best not to notice the gazes that were cast her way. When the stares came from children, she could be somewhat understanding, but when adults gaped she felt justified in her annoyance. Two hundred and forty pounds was not that bad. It
was overweight and unhealthy, but it wasn’t like she didn’t know she was those things.
“I get this a lot,” she said to an older man who was watching her on her left. “No, I’m not Emma Stone.”
“More like seventeen stone,” he muttered under his breath.
This was going to be a long flight.
After making her way through the uncomfortably tight aisle of the plane, she squished herself into the middle seat somehow. Great, she thought. It just had to be the middle seat, didn’t it?
The flight wouldn’t be long enough for a movie or even a meal, really, so she sat back and got as comfortable as she could, reading her book and munching on the free salty snack. As the plane began it’s slow, featherlike decent before landing, Ursula glanced over at the window and saw a spectacular view of the mountains. They looked like a velvety quilt! They didn’t even look real to her. And the water! So blue!
Grinning a bit, she closed her book and put it back into her carry-on. She was going to enjoy this random vacation for all that it was worth. Maybe she would even go out on a boat. Why not? It’s not like she had any reason not to try new things. She didn’t really believe in destiny or anything like that, but someone clearly believed in her.
She slowly made her way back through the plane’s aisle, waiting for her ears to fully pop back into normal. Once she got to the baggage claim and retrieved her rolling suitcase, she was +on her way! The taxi ride to the lakeside cabin was thankfully short, and the view outside the windows helped to make the trip feel even shorter.
The concierge at the Black Bear Inn was all smiles as she welcomed Ursula to Lake Tahoe and gave her the key to her personal cabin. As promised, it was right on the lake and big enough to keep a whole family comfortable. It had a large bedroom, a cute little living room area complete with a pull-out couch, fireplace, a kitchen and a hot tub. She felt like she was set for life there.
