How It's Meant to Be

by T. S. Joyce

  “It’s a bear,” the kid said.

  “It has a lot of arms.”

  “Because it’s punching the air.”

  The air in question had a lot of flying figures that looked suspiciously like crows.

  The little blond boy was squinting at him. “You’re the one everyone is so scared of, but you’re not scary to me.”

  “Mmm,” he rumbled, sitting down across the table from him and ignoring the other adults in the kitchen staring at him. “I’m Moore. The bear.”

  “I’m Tuck. The crow.”

  Moore pursed his lips against a smile. He liked the boy. Little spitfire. Probably gonna get them all killed for being a crow, but whatever. They were all in hell now. He’d just never thought hell would look like Brick handing him a beer, and Aux asking him if he still only ate meat, and Trinity enlightening him that his mate—his mate—was eight minutes away according to something called a GPS. Aux’s mate introduced herself as Gwen the human, and then handed him a thirty-pound black and white pig with a bowtie around its neck like Moore was supposed to cuddle it instead of eat it.

  So there he sat, arms stretched out, holding the little porker as far away as possible while his inner animal plotted ways to eat it, and Tuck chattered about what kind of punches the cartoon bear was doing, and his beer sat opened on the table in front of him.

  And screw his brothers for grinning right now.

  All he wanted was for Aurora to walk through that door and work her magic, and make everything easier—like she always did.

  Chapter Ten

  Spoiled.

  Aurora was so spoiled on Moore.

  She was used to him being at her place after work. Or meeting him up at his cabin and spending nights with him while he carved away on his furniture business. She was even learning a thing or two about woodworking now.

  Aux’s house should be up this mountain, another mile on the main road and then a steep turn up, according to Trinity’s directions. Tonight, she was going to meet Gwen for the first time. She already had plans to facilitate a girls’ night, because Lord knew she could use some ladies in her life that understood what she and Moore were going through.

  For that reason, and many others, today was a great day.

  She would meet Gwen.

  She would also meet and snuggle Gwen’s pet pig, Samson, and she really loved pigs.

  She would befriend Gwen, like she was befriending Trinity, and Trinity’s son, Tuck.

  She’d had an amazing meeting with a new client and had just been hired to re-decorate her entire mountain mansion while her husband was away on business in Barcelona.

  Her home design website was live as of yesterday, and already she’d sold two pieces she’d found at an antique store in town, and been hired to design three rooms for three different clients remotely.

  Moore had played with her boobies first thing this morning and started her day off on the right foot, but also she didn’t know what that saying meant, because her left foot was also special.

  Moore has showed her a picture of her early birthday present last night, and it was a literal pair of baby ducks. One was black with a little black beak, and one was yellow and black. He’d ordered them from the feed store and they were supposed to come in tomorrow. He’d sent her pictures all day of the bear-proof enclosure he’d built for them, but they both knew she was going to finagle them to be inside ducks.

  He’d kissed her four times before she left and said those words again—I like your mess just fine. Now, she didn’t know a lot about bear shifters, but she was sure learning a lot about Moore, and she was convinced that was his version of ‘I love you.’ Her heart melted a lot when he told her that.

  She’d gotten her favorite Rueben and chips for lunch from her favorite diner because she’d gotten paid from a job and had a little left over this month for treating herself. She’d also found a present for Moore, but it wasn’t as sweet as his duckling present. Aurora grinned and patted the little pack of coasters she’d hand-painted for Moore’s house. They were floral with little hidden wieners in each one. He would pretend he hated it, but she would catch his hidden smile and then find him using them when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. It’s what he did with all her presents.

  And to top off the already amazing day, she was going to have a family dinner with Moore and his family. She was five minutes from being with him again.

  She really and truly loved this life. It had taken her completely by surprise, but in the best way.

  A drop of rain splatted on her windshield and she leaned forward and looked up at the dark sky. A few more drops of rain fell, and that might have dampened her mood if she didn’t love the rain!

  Something flew across the trees that lined the road. Bird. Or perhaps a bat, yeck. From the pine forest that lined the road, this was probably a gorgeous drive in the daytime.

  Something clicked against the hood of her car. Hail? Oh no.

  The weather hadn’t predicted hail.

  Another click against the hood of her car, and then one hit her windshield. She slowed to make sure she didn’t miss the turn-off.

  There was a mailbox ahead.

  Click, click, click. The hail was bouncing off her car. Shoot! Okay, worst case scenario, she got hail damage and her little vroom-vroom mobile had a little more character.

  Best case scenario—Boom! A huge rock slammed into the hood of her car and sank into the metal. The airbag deployed and blasted into her face and on reflex, Aurora hit the brakes. She couldn’t see out the front window! The car was skidding and she couldn’t see around the rock and the front end was scraping loudly against the asphalt.

  Her back end swung wide and she went sliding sideways across the road. She screamed as her back tires swung off the road. The car rocked violently to a stop, and Aurora gripped the wheel. The airbag was hanging out, and warmth trickled down her lip to her jaw line. Panting, she looked down at her lap. Drops of crimson were staining her jeans, and when she wiped the back of her hand under her nose, it came back smeared red.

  Caw, caw, caw.

  Over the sound of her pounding heartbeat, she heard a sound that chilled her blood.

  Caw, caw.

  Caw, caw, caw, caw.

  In dread, she slowly looked up at the trees that were illuminated by her headlights. The woods moved with crows landing on branches. The sky was peppered black with them. So many.

  “Oh my gosh.” Rocks didn’t fall from the sky. Rocks like this didn’t fall from the sky! A boulder had caved in her entire hood, and smoke was hissing out of her car. She could barely see around the damn thing!

  A man strode from the woods. He had black hair, black eyes, and wore a black T-shirt and black jeans. Tattoos stretched down his arms, and he had his chin tucked to his chest, empty gaze on her.

  Heart in her throat, she fumbled for her phone in her cupholder and opened a text to Moore. Help. Crows! Send.

  The reception was patchy here. Even GPS had been struggling. Please go through!

  The man was coming for her. A whimper clawed its way up the back of her throat and she hit the lock button on the door.

  In a rush, she reached over to the glove compartment and pulled out the huge knife Moore had put in there a few days ago ‘just in case.’ She was there. This was just in case time.

  She understood now. She wasn’t in the dark. Moore had talked to her about everything. Fucking crows had made life miserable for the bear shifters. They’d pushed and pushed, and now they were here to what? Hurt her?

  Aurora gripped the wheel and slammed her foot on the gas. The car scraped loudly against the asphalt, but it still ran. She aimed right for the asshole, but right as she prepared for impact she lost sight of him behind the boulder. A cloud of black smoke wafted across the windshield, and a crow appeared in her rearview. And then he was the man in black again.

  Aurora was scared. Shaking uncontrollably from fear and adrenaline. That man could move through space like smoke?r />
  The cawing in the trees was deafening. Aurora cranked the wheel hard and aimed for the dirt road by the mailbox twenty yards away. She was swarmed by the crows, couldn’t see a thing, and her windshield shattered inward. All she could do was throw her arms over her face and try to protect herself as much as possible.

  Her door ripped off, and she gasped at the cold wind that blasted across her face so suddenly. An impossibly strong pair of hands reached in, ripped her seatbelt off, and yanked her out of the car. She hit the ground hard and rolled before she skidded to a stop on the side of the road.

  Everything hurt.

  “Easy with her, Laken,” the man in black said. “We don’t need to hurt her any more than we have to.” He was kneeling a few yards away, the headlights exposing his sharp features. Those black eyes weren’t so empty anymore. They were filled with something she didn’t understand. “We’re supposed to protect humans,” he gritted out. “All they had to do was leave you alone.”

  She looked from him to the crows that landed and morphed to men lining the road. Black smoke everywhere. The knife had flung from her hand when she’d been ripped from the car, and was lying by the discarded car door. Stall. Aurora forced herself to stand. “I-I don’t understand. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “In our world, if you choose a monster, you become collateral damage.”

  She inched toward the knife, but he was following her step-for-step. The other Crow Blooded were following behind him in a solid wall. More and more of the crows were dropping from the tree branches and the sky, and turning to men.

  “Tonight has been building for a long time,” the man said. Krome. This had to be Krome. Moore had said his name before. “I wish I could make it make sense for you before you have to go, but there isn’t time.”

  On the other side of the road, more crow people were gathering, trapping her by the car. It wasn’t fair. She’d just found happiness. Just found it with Moore and now she was going to get hurt. And he would be hurt. “Please don’t come any closer,” she whispered, tears burning her eyes. “I only just found him.”

  “Do you even realize what you’ve done?”

  “Fell in love.”

  “No!” he barked out. “You gave the devil power. That’s what love is to our people. Did you even read all the journals?”

  “We read it! We read it!” she screamed. “We did what you wanted and we read it.”

  “There were three journals in there!” The mans’s powerful voice crackled through the woods. “His mothers, and mine.” He gripped his shirt and his eyes flashed with rage. “Did you ignore the history? You ignored the journals that told you exactly what he is!”

  “What is he?” she screamed.

  “He’s the Destruction of Days! His fucking lineage is made of monsters, and the last of the line is the beast of all beasts. Can you not feel him? Does his touch not bring dread to your stomach? There is a prophesy. You think his father was bad? Cyrus was a fucking teddy bear compared to what Moore will be. And he will drag his brothers right down with him. There will be death. There will be exposure of our people. There will be so much pain, and you’re feeding his animal.”

  “No, you are!” she yelled back at him. “He wants to be left alone. He doesn’t want to kill, and you will put your goddamn carcasses right in front of him. Don’t you see? You’re the ones fulfilling that prophesy!”

  He shook his head and gritted his teeth as he drew closer. “You’re wrong, little human. You can’t understand the damage that has been done to my people. My family. You are a part of this. All he had to do was leave you alone. He made a blood oath.”

  The unforgiving metal of her car brushed her back. She had nowhere to go now. Nowhere to run. He would hurt her for what? To hurt Moore? She hated him. Hated what he and his people had done, and would do to the man she loved.

  “You don’t know him like I do,” she forced out past her tightening vocal cords.

  The man shook his head. “I’m sorry. My entire life has led to this. We have been trained for this. His destiny has to be stopped, and you just got in the way. I’m sorry for what we have to do, but it has to be done.” Ah, the apology of a monster. She was an obstacle to him. Nothing more. She was nothing but a bump in the road on his way to Moore.

  Rage and adrenaline roiled inside of her as she watched Krome bunch up his muscles. Around his edges, the black smoke unfurled. Now!

  Aurora dropped to the ground. The giant crow’s talons aimed her face as she dropped. She could feel the slice of his nails across her cheek, but nothing more. The bird catapulted into the open doorway of her car, and Aurora frantically scrabbled for the knife from under the car. She couldn’t see it! Couldn’t see it, and accidentally grabbed the blade. She gasped and spun it fast just as someone grabbed her leg and dragged her backward.

  With a screech, she slashed with the knife and cut Laken’s arm deep. She kicked viciously and rammed the blade at him as he grabbed her by the throat. With his other hand, he crushed her wrist and the blade fell away from her grasp and clattered onto the ground. She struggled but he was so strong. So impossibly strong. Stars sparked this way and that on the edges of her vision. Moore. Moore, Moore, Moore. She wanted to stay. She wanted to live! All she could hear was her gasping breath and the cawing of the crows that blackened the sky above her. She scratched at his hands and kicked, but he was too much. Too heavy.

  The edges of her vision were shattering inward and tears of agony poured out of the corners of her eyes.

  There was chaos around her, but she could only hear the roaring in her ears.

  Laken’s eyes went wide and he looked to the side. His grip loosened just before he disappeared. Aurora jerked to the side and hit the tire of her car. Couldn’t think straight. Breathe. She crawled on her hands and knees, dragging precious air into her burning lungs.

  Her throat hurt so bad. When she looked up, she didn’t understand what was before her. The crows were gathered in piles. Moving, undulating piles. Cawing and attacking.

  A roar shattered the chaos and shook her thoughts free. The bears were here. Moore was here. He’d come for her.

  She struggled upward, grasping her throat and searching frantically. Laken was crawling on the ground in front of the headlights, bleeding from a massive claw mark on his shoulder, but Moore wasn’t after him. He was after something different.

  Krome was being dragged away by two of his men, and the crows were crowding a massive dark bruin who was chasing after him. They were slashing at the bruin, pecking, clawing, aiming for his eyes, but Moore was barreling toward Krome like they didn’t hurt him.

  The other bears were warring, clawing, lashing out at the flying torpedos, but Moore wanted Krome.

  He couldn’t kill him.

  Dread filled the pit of her stomach as she realized it.

  If Moore killed him and the crows, he would lose control. He wouldn’t be salvageable.

  Her Moore. Aurora staggered toward him. “Moore?” she choked out.

  It was dark there at the edge of the woods. They were making their way out of the headlight range.

  No, no, no. “Moore!” she rasped out, jogging.

  Something hit her like a cannon ball in the back and she pitched forward, fell onto her hands and knees.

  He couldn’t kill them. He couldn’t!

  “Moore!” She shrieked as she pushed upward and ran for him.

  So many crows.

  There were more men gathering around Krome, human, fighting the relentless bear attack.

  Moore’s red matted fur twitched with every step he fought to take.

  A few of the crows pulled off and grabbed Krome by the arms, flapped their wings hard but they weren’t fast enough. Moore charged forward and wrapped his powerful paws around Krome’s body before he was even five feet off the ground. He yanked Krome and his crows right back down to earth.

  “No!” she yelled as she pushed her legs faster. “Don’t kill him!”

  Kr
ome morphed to his crow under Moore’s weight as they came crashing down, and he almost slipped away. Almost, but Moore had him pinned. He roared a death warning, and behind her, Aux and Brick bellowed, too. Their powerful voices shook the woods.

  So close!

  Moore lifted his paw in the air.

  “You’re hurting me!” she screamed.

  There was a second of hesitation. Through the warring birds, she could see the bear slide a glance back at her. It was all she needed. That one second of hesitation.

  “If you hurt him, it will hurt me!”

  Aux and Brick were here now, flanking their brother. The crows lifted into the air as the bruins circled him. Krome struggled under his paw, his wings beating against the asphalt frantically.

  “We want a truce!” God, she was about to get herself killed. Moore’s eyes were ravaged with blood lust right now, burning ice white. “We want a truce,” she screamed into the air.

  Beside him, she dropped to her knees. “You can’t kill him, or it will kill the man in you.”

  Why was she crying? She couldn’t stop. Tears were streaming down her face and everything felt too big. It was too loud and everything hurt and she couldn’t do this. “I can’t lose you. I need you. I’m not going to lose you for this.” She jammed her finger at the black and white crow pinned under Moore’s massive paw.

  “You will leave me just like your father left your mother if you do this.” She swallowed hard. So many tears. “Don’t leave me.”

  Moore towered over her, his chest panting. His eyes bored into the bird he held and every breath brought a growl. He raised his paw to swipe the crow from existence, but before he came down on him, Moore changed back to his human. Just a smattering of pops as his bones reshaped and his human skin slipped over the other. It happened so fast. So effortlessly, and a rush of power pulsed from his skin.

  He still had his grasp on the crow, and he snarled out, “You tried to take my mate away from me.” He dragged the struggling crow to him as he sat up, yanked him upward by the neck and looked him in the eyes as he said, “So I’m going to take the sky away from you.”