The Misfit and the Bear

by Sloane Meyers

  For several beats, Oskar only stared at her with that same intense gaze. Zora thought he might kick her out, or at best, push her away. But he didn’t. Instead, he spoke back to her in a husky whisper.

  “I see you, too, Zora. I see that you’re not like them. That you care. And that you’re even lovelier on the inside than you are on the outside. Which is saying something, because you’re so goddamn beautiful.”

  And then, he leaned in and put his lips on hers again. The fire that roared through her body was even stronger this time than it had been during their first kiss. Her whole body felt like an inferno, and she was melting at his touch. Everything around her faded away. She forgot who she was. She forgot to be scared that they might get caught. She forgot that it was impossible for their love to ever blossom. All she could think about was that this moment was the happiest of her life. She had never truly felt like she was home anywhere. She’d never truly felt like she belonged. But in Oskar’s arms, she was home. She belonged.

  He moved his hands from her back down to her hips, leaving little trails of fire on her body as he did. Then, in a bold move for a man who could die for just kissing her, he moved those large, strong hands from her hips to her breasts. Her nipples responded to the pressure of his hands against them, even through the barrier of fabric that separated his skin from hers. Her breasts felt full and heavy, and her nipples stood hard and alert. Her whole body burned, and she wanted to tear off every piece of clothing that kept her from feeling Oskar, really feeling him.

  She wasn’t bold enough to do that yet, so she settled for reveling in the pure joy of just being with him, and of feeling his tongue dancing with her tongue. The fire in her body grew hotter and slowly lowered her inhibitions, until she worked up the courage to slide one of her hands down to the bulge between his legs.

  She gasped when she felt it. He had gone rock hard, his stiff erection straining against the fabric of his pants. He let out a low groan when her hand touched it, and thrust his hips forward so that her hand was pressed harder against the proof that he desired her.

  Zora took a deep breath, thinking that perhaps she would finally find the courage to pull her shirt off, ridding herself of the obnoxious barrier between them, when a knock sounded at the door.

  “Oh, shit,” Oskar said, jumping backward and off the bed as though Zora had electrocuted him.

  “It’s okay,” Zora said, standing quickly as well and straightening her shirt. “I’ll just say I couldn’t sleep and came by to check that you were healing up okay.”

  “No, no. You don’t understand. It’s…just hide under the bed, okay? There’s no time to explain.”

  Zora still hesitated.

  “Trust me, please,” he whispered. “If you care about me, just do what I’m asking.”

  Zora bit her lip and nodded, then shimmied underneath the bed. She did care about Oskar. She didn’t think that hiding was a better option than just acting like she had come in here to check on him, but if that’s what he thought best, she wouldn’t argue. It was his life on the line, after all.

  The knock at the door sounded again, more urgently this time, and this time, Oskar walked over to answer it. Zora wondered if the person knocking would notice Oskar’s erection. Hopefully Oskar was smart enough to stand in the shadows. Zora heard the door click open and then click shut again. She could see two pairs of feet now. Oskar’s feet were bare, but the newcomer wore the standard-issue boots of the Severson guards.

  A guard? Why in the world would one of the guards be coming up here? Fear gripped Zora’s heart. Had someone seen her come into Oskar’s room and then not come back out? But Zora had been so careful, and she’d been sure that no one else had been in the hallway!

  “Oskar, my man, how are you feeling?” the newcomer’s voice asked.

  Zora’s eyes went wide with both shock and relief. “Leo?” she whispered. The voice was unmistakable. Leo, the one shifter on the Seversons’ guard force, had come to pay a visit to Oskar. And Oskar had known he was coming. That’s why he’d asked her to hide under the bed. Zora felt angry for a moment. Was Oskar ashamed of her? Surely, Leo more than anyone would be willing to look the other way and accept Zora’s explanation that she had been in the room to check on Oskar. No shifter wanted to report on another shifter, and Leo would know that saying anything that might imply something was going on between Zora and Oskar would result in Oskar’s death.

  Zora didn’t have long to think about the question, though. Leo was speaking again, and Zora wanted to hear what he had to say.

  “That’s good. I’m glad you’re alright. I’ve never seen such crazy wild animals in the Games. And a lion? That was just over the top.”

  “Yeah, well. It’s what they want, right? A good show for the rich masses.”

  “I know. Stay strong. We’ll defeat them yet, one step at a time. Do you have your food?”

  “Yeah, it’s all packed up, except for tonight’s dinner. I was too sore to get up and pack it before the servants came to take it away.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I think everyone understands that it’s been a rough day for you. Otto’s pretty beat up, too.”

  Zora watched as the two pairs of feet made their way toward the closet in Oskar’s room. The door to the closet slid open, and Oskar started setting several wooden boxes on the floor.

  “That’s all of it,” Oskar said after four boxes. “Are you going to be able to carry all of that yourself? I could help you.”

  “Naw, it’s okay. I can carry it. And it’s better if you don’t help me. If anyone sees two shifters walking around together carrying a bunch of boxes, they’re going to get suspicious.”

  Zora felt wildly curious. What was in the boxes? Food? That didn’t make any sense. What would two shifters be doing with boxes of food? It’s not like they needed to stockpile anything. They were given giant meals three times a day.

  “Alright,” Oskar was saying. “Well, let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”

  “You just rest up,” Leo said. “You deserve to take it easy for a bit. You and Otto both. I’ll get this stuff to the tunnel and be back to get you tomorrow night.”

  Tunnel? What tunnel? To where? Zora was starting to put the pieces together. Leo was taking food that Oskar had stockpiled to a tunnel. There was only one place a tunnel could lead that Oskar and Leo would want to take food to: Bear Hollow. But no, that was impossible. Building a tunnel to Bear Hollow would require an enormous amount of effort by many, many people over many, many years. The tunnel would have to go deep enough to avoid being flooded by the river above it, and when you dug that deep, you were bound to hit some rocks that weren’t easy to get through. The task would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

  “Ok. Thanks for coming by to get this. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Leo bid Oskar goodbye, and then the sound of the door opening and closing again could be heard as Leo left with the boxes. Oskar stood by the door for several minutes, probably waiting to see if Leo was really gone. Finally, Zora saw his feet turn back towards her.

  “You can come out now,” he said. He voice sounded even wearier than before.

  Zora shimmied out from underneath the bed and gave him a sharp, suspicious look. “Want to tell me what the hell all of that was about?”

  “The resistance.”

  Zora’s mouth fell open at how casually he spoke the words. “So you admit there is one, then?”

  “Yes, I do. But I’ll be in big trouble with the guys if they find out you know because of me.”

  Zora could only stare at him for a moment. “Are you freaking kidding me? You’re expecting me to act like I don’t know about this? I already knew about it, actually. All you’ve done is confirm it for me. But in any case, if there’s a resistance, then I want in.”

  “It’s not up to me. Otto’s in charge, and he has to approve any new members.”

  “Oh, come on. I’m sure if you put in a good word for me, he’ll listen.”r />
  “I’m not sure it’s that simple.”

  “You could at least try. And what’s with all this with the boxes of food?”

  Oskar shifted his eyes downward, refusing to look at her.

  Zora crossed her arms. “Food? And a tunnel? Is there actually a tunnel over to Bear Hollow?”

  Oskar sighed. “So I’ve heard. I haven’t actually seen it, but Leo has been taking food over for a few weeks now. Tomorrow is supposed to be the first time I go with him. We didn’t want to send too many people at once at first, in case the tunnel was being watched.” Oskar slapped his forehead. “God, I can’t believe I’m telling you all of this. The guys would kill me. Leo would kill me if he’d known you were hiding under the bed when he came in here.”

  It was Zora’s turn to sigh. “I’m not going to tell anyone what you guys are doing. Don’t you get it? I want to help you.”

  “I believe you. But the other guys are not so trusting. And, well, it’s true that the fewer people who know, the better.”

  “Don’t you guys get it? You could really, really use a Gilt Hollow citizen on your side. I can watch out for you in ways you could never watch out for yourself.”

  “I know, Zora. And I trust you. But I can’t pressure the other guys into this. You know the penalty for what we’re doing.”

  Zora bit her lip and lowered her own eyes. “I know. Death. And death for everyone you love.”

  “Well, not everyone,” Oskar said, reaching over to lift her chin up with his finger, until she was looking into his eyes. “They’d never kill you.”

  Zora swallowed hard, not sure how to react. Had he really just implied that he loved her? “Oskar, I…uh…”

  He put a finger to her lips, silencing her. “Look, let’s not talk about this too much right now. It’s been a long day, and we should probably both get some sleep. I’ll talk to the guys about you, I promise. But I can’t promise how they’ll react.”

  “Just promise me you’ll do your best to convince them.”

  “I will. Trust me.”

  “I do trust you. Just like you trust me, right?”

  He smiled at her. “Right. I trust you. Now go get some sleep before I can’t restrain my desire to throw you down on that bed and strip you naked.”

  Zora felt her cheeks heating up, but she managed to tilt her head and give Oskar a flirtatious smile. “Would that really be so bad?”

  Oskar grinned and let out a low growl. “Our time will come.” Then he bent his head to kiss her smile before gently nudging her toward the door. She went, knowing he was right. It was better for her to leave. She’d been in here far too long, and every minute was laced with danger. Still, as she walked down the dark hallway back toward her own room, she couldn’t help but whispering into the dark the question that burned in her heart.

  “Will our time come, Oskar? Will it really? The divide between our lives is so great. Can love really build a bridge across it?”

  There was, of course, no answer from the dark walls around her. Zora went to bed with a heavy heart, realizing that she would have to find her own answers on many things, including the resistance.

  And she was determined to do that, for Oskar’s sake and hers.

  Chapter Twelve

  Oskar had never been outside of the Seversons’ estate without a Gilt Hollow escort of some sort. After his first day in Gilt Hollow, he’d never been told that leaving was forbidden, and perhaps strolling through the Gilt Hollow markets in the middle of the day might not have raised too many eyebrows. But he had a feeling that Loki would be livid if he knew his prized shifter was sneaking toward the edge of the Golden Claw River at just past midnight.

  Good thing Loki didn’t know. With any luck, Loki would never know. Because if Loki knew, Oskar was dead. He, and all his companions. Otto and Leo were coming with him tonight. Or, perhaps, it was more accurate to say that he was coming with Otto and Leo. Oskar could hardly contain his excitement. He was going home. Only for an evening, true. But it was better than nothing. Worlds better than nothing. In less than an hour, he’d be giving Whisper and Axel both giant hugs. And he’d be giving them more than enough food to fill their hungry bellies. Maybe he’d even have a pint of beer at Bear Hollow Brews. His mouth watered at the thought. It was going to be a good night.

  It had been a good twenty-four hours, in fact. He’d kissed Zora again, which, despite the dangers it came with, gave him a high unlike anything else. And now, he was going home.

  Oskar’s heart twisted up in his chest at the thought of Zora. Things with her were so complicated, and that complication would only get worse the further down this path they went. True to his word, he had asked Otto about letting Zora into the resistance crew. He’d even fessed up about Zora being in his room when Leo came to pick up the food. Otto had been, predictably, quite angry. He’d called Oskar a fool, telling him that no Gilt Hollow citizen could be trusted and that the whole tunnel operation was doomed now.

  It had been Leo, who had been in the background silently listening to all of this, who had come to the rescue. “Oskar’s not wrong,” he’d said. “Zora is different. She’s been a friend to me for a long time. And I’ve been at the Seversons for a long time. I’ve seen in her eyes how much she hates the Games, and how she doesn’t like to play along with all the Gilt Hollow shenanigans her family likes to participate in. She doesn’t like the way shifters are treated, and she wants to change it. She just doesn’t know how, exactly, to help. She’s asking us to show her how, and I think we should.”

  But Otto had been unyielding, and Oskar had spent the day trying to figure out how he was going to explain to Zora that he hadn’t been able to convince Otto to let her join. Even though Oskar had tried to warn her, he could already tell that she wasn’t going to let this go easily. She had a stubborn streak a mile wide, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. He liked a woman who could stick up for herself, but stubbornness on this particular issue was going to make his life difficult. Very difficult.

  But in the end, he hadn’t seen her at all today. He hadn’t had training, since in a rare stroke of kindness the Seversons had given all of their shifters the day after the Games off to recuperate. Oskar had wandered the Severson estate, hoping to run into Zora, but she seemed to have disappeared. He told himself that she probably had things to do today and was simply off somewhere, busy. But he couldn’t completely stop his mind from worrying that her absence was due to something less benign. Was she avoiding him on purpose? Did she regret what they had done the night before?

  Oskar tried to push these thoughts out of his mind as Leo drew up to the entrance of the tunnel. The food was already in there, loaded on wheeled carts and ready to be pushed across the tunnel into Bear Hollow. Oskar felt his heart pounding with both nerves and excitement. He wouldn’t have chosen this life—a prisoner in a Gilt Hollow estate. But he was happy that he could at least use his captivity to benefit the people of Bear Hollow. They deserved to have food to eat, and taking food from the Gilt Hollow nobles to feed them gave Oskar more satisfaction than he’d ever taken in any of his mischievous deeds before. And he’d been involved in quite a few mischievous enterprises over the years. What could he say? Sometimes a bear had to have a little bit of fun.

  Leo paused in front of the door to the tunnel, which didn’t look anything like a door. The door was chiseled into a rocky ledge near the side of the river, and covered with moss and ivy. The only thing that might raise suspicion was a small, circular piece of metal, which served as a handle. But that handle was well-hidden behind a thick layer of ivy, and anyone who didn’t know what it was would never see it. Leo turned around to peer into the darkness, breathing in deeply to use his bear senses to see whether anyone was nearby other than them. Otto and Oskar did the same. They didn’t expect anyone to be out here, but it was prudent to check.

  But no sooner had Oskar breathed in deeply the first time, that he knew they had a problem. He turned with wide eyes to look first at Leo and then at O
tto, and he saw by the expressions on their faces that they smelled it too.

  “We have a problem,” Otto said. “Let’s move.”

  The three men began to briskly walk away from the tunnel’s entrance, hoping that the fact that it smelled like a Gilt Hollow citizen was following them was just a coincidence. Perhaps one of the humans had insomnia and had decided to come for a late night stroll by the lake. But as Oskar breathed in one more time, he knew that was not the case. He knew the smell of that human, and he knew she wasn’t here by accident. Zora.

  No sooner had he put her scent together with her name in his head that she burst through the trees.

  “Wait!” she said in a hissing whisper.

  The three men stopped, all of their shoulders tensing up. Otto turned to give Oskar an accusing look, but Oskar shrugged his shoulders in confusion. He hadn’t told Zora anything about where the tunnel was. He hadn’t even seen her all day. But suddenly, he understood. She’d been avoiding him so that he would let his guard down, and wouldn’t expect that she’d be stalking him.

  “You’ve been following me!” he said, his voice full of accusation.

  She looked guilty, but did not apologize. “I had to. I knew Otto and Leo weren’t going to agree to let me in on the resistance, so I had to force my way in.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Otto said. But his voice didn’t hold much conviction, and Zora rolled her eyes at him.

  “Come on, Otto. The gig is up. I know about your group, and I want to help. And I’m not going to give up until you let me. I can be quite persistent when I want something, and I’ve never wanted anything like I want this.”

  Zora turned to look at Oskar when she said those last few words, and he felt the warmth of her gaze sending a thrill through his whole body. He told himself to look away before he started going hard, but he could not bear to tear his eyes from her face. Her perfect mouth, sticking out in a bit of a pout right now, beckoned to him to kiss her. He could not act on that impulse. Not here, in the open, in front of Otto and Leo. But damn if she didn’t look like he could eat her up. She was wearing the plainest clothes he’d ever seen her wear. He was surprised that a Gilt Hollow citizen even owned an outfit so bland: simple black pants and a black shirt, all fitted and showing off her impossibly perfect curves. Oskar was glad for the darkness, because he could not possibly stop the arousal from sweeping through him and stiffening his dick. Not when she looked like this. Her hair was pulled into a simple, tight bun, and as best he could tell, she had no makeup on. He had never seen her looking so natural, so pure. Damn, he wanted her. If the other two shifters hadn’t been there right now, he would have thrown her down in the grass by the riverbed and made love to her.