Bear Shifters: Hunt Collection #1

by Ava Hunt

  Maria didn’t know who this girl was, and she usually knew all the girls that came in the office to see Mark. There was something about Abigail that didn’t show she was one of the usual golddiggers that came in to get Mark’s attention. In fact, she began to feel bad for Abigail. “Alright, I’ll tell you something. It seems to me that you traveled far to get here.”

  Abigail nodded, “Yes. All the way from a small town that you’ve probably never heard of.”

  “I remember now when Mark went out there for the convention. He never mentioned your name before and usually I know all the girls he has coming in to the office. But you don’t strike me as one of those types. Look I can’t promise you anything. And I don’t know if even if I leave word with him that you’re here that he’ll come down to see you. But you can take a seat in the lobby and I’ll give him a call.”

  Abigail was so ecstatic, she could jump over the desk and hug Maria, but that would lose any chance she had to see Mark. Remaining calm, she thanked Maria before finding a seat by the window. All she had to do was wait and see if she’d be able to see Mark.

  The longer Abigail waited, the more she felt like giving up. Of course Mark would ignore the memo from Maria that she was down here waiting for him. This whole spur of the moment trip was wrong. She had never been spontaneous in her life, now she knew why. Everything always turned out better when it was planned in advance.

  She would give Mark another fifteen minutes. If Maria didn’t come over to her with news that Mark was on his way or wanted her to go up to his office, then she’d leave. If she was lucky, she could leave before Mark even found out she had come all the way to New York to see him. This was a stupid idea.

  *****

  Mark was relieved to be done with his meetings for the day. When he arrived at work this morning and saw his itinerary for the day, he thought he’d be in endless meetings until it was time to go home. It was now a little after one in the afternoon and, with a little help of making the meetings go faster, he was done for the day. The only thing he wanted to do now was get lunch, go back to office and finish his paperwork and then go home and hop into bed.

  “Maria, were there any messages for me while I was in the meetings?”

  “I left them for you on your answering machine. I guess you didn’t get them. There was one girl…”

  Mark didn’t hear a word that Maria was speaking. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blonde woman. “No. It couldn’t be.”

  “I’m sorry Sir. It couldn’t be what?” Maria broke Mark away from his thoughts. “Is everything all right Sir?”

  “I just thought I saw someone sitting over there that I knew. But I must be dreaming. There’s no way she’d be over here. She doesn’t even live nearby.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to mean someone by the name of Abigail Yates would you?”

  “Actually yes I do. Wait, how do you know her?”

  Maria smiled. “Because that’s exactly who it is. She came in asking to speak to you but I told her you were in meetings and couldn’t see anyone. I did leave you a message but I guess you never got around to it.”

  “I rushed out of the conference room after the last meeting that I hadn’t gotten a chance to go to my office yet. She still stayed here though?”

  “I told her she could wait in the lobby until I was able to get a hold of you. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Mind? I don’t mind at all. I’m glad you got her to stay actually. I haven’t seen her in months. To be honest, she’s actually my girlfriend.”

  “I knew it! There was something about her while I was talking to her that didn’t come off that she’s one of those girls who come here just trying to get you into bed. That was the only reason I told her to stay. She didn’t mention you two were a couple. All she told me was that she knew you.”

  “That's probably all my fault. She doesn’t know where she stands with me now in our relationship.”

  “Why’s that?” Maria never pried on Mark’s personal life. But after meeting Abigail, she felt too involved not to know the whole story.

  “Because I stopped calling her after the first month I came back home. I started to second guess it all. But I never stopped loving her.”

  “Then why are you still here explaining everything to me?” Maria laughed. “Go on and go be with her. You should be over there embracing Abigail in your arms.”

  “You’re right,” Mark said before running over to where Abigail was sitting by the window. “Abigail?”

  Taking her eyes off her phone, Abigail looked up and saw Mark standing in front of her. “Mark! I was just about to leave. I didn’t think you wanted me to be here so you were going to ignore the message that I came to surprise you.”

  Mark pulled her up off the chair and kissed her passionately. “Does that look like I don’t want you to be here?”

  “I didn’t know what to think anymore. I figured there had to be a reason why you stopped calling me. We haven’t talked in months. I thought you just didn’t want to be a couple anymore. Though, I thought you would breakup with me, even if by a phone call or text. But the texts, the emails, the phone calls. They all stopped together.”

  “I knew this was all my fault. Abigail, I’m so sorry that my phone calls stopped abruptly. I promise you, I'll explain.”

  Abigail had tears in her eyes. “I thought I had done something wrong and you didn’t want to talk to me anymore. Or that the distance was too much to bear and you wanted to have a girlfriend you could go out with any day. I saw the girls who work here, I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to date one of them instead of me.”

  Mark wiped away her tears with his thumb before the fell down her cheek. “Abigail I don’t want you to blame yourself at all for what I did. I was wrong to not call you. I broke the promise I made to you. I’m surprised you didn’t call to breakup with me after I did that.”

  “I just felt wrong to bother you. I know how busy you are with this job.”

  “That’s exactly the reason why I hadn’t had time to call you. Well that and another thing. I know it’s no excuse, but it’s true. Things were slow in the office the first month I got back. But then everything got hectic. I haven’t had one moment of time for myself. Every day from the moment I got in until I went home, I had one meeting after another. Today is the first day that the meetings ended early.”

  Abigail smiled. “Is that why you never came down here to see me? You were in meetings the whole time? I figured you were mad I showed up and didn’t tell you.”

  “I would never be mad at you. Abigail, you flying out here is the best surprise I could ever ask for.” He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as he kissed the top of head. “It feels so good to have you back in my arms. Tell you what. I’m pretty much done for the day. Any paperwork I had can wait until I come back on Monday. How long are you in town for? I’d like to spend as much time with you as possible.”

  “I’m only here for the weekend. I couldn’t afford a hotel for any longer than that.”

  “I wish you would’ve told me about your trip out here. You could’ve stayed with me at my apartment. You sure you don’t want to make your stay longer?”

  “Can’t. At least not this time. I only took the weekend off from work and it wouldn’t be fair if I called up my manager to take more time off.”

  Not this time she said. That means she still wants to be my girlfriend and plans on coming to visit more often. Mark couldn’t be happier hearing those words from Abigail. “We can go out now if you’d like.”

  “Are you sure? I mean if you have work to do, I don’t want you to put it off because of me. Plus I have to go to my hotel and check in.”

  “Even better. I’ll go with you to the hotel and then we can plan a date for tonight. Don’t worry about my work. Like I told you, I can take care of it after the weekend. It’s nothing important really.”

  “Don’t you have to tell someone you’re leaving?”

  Mark laughed. Abiga
il was so innocent when it came to how businesses are run in the big city. “It’s not like your job at the diner. I can come and go as I please. Plus, my business partner is still here. I can text him that I’m taking off the rest of the day and he can handle everything while I’m gone. But I don’t think there’s going to be much since the meetings are over.” He grabbed Abigail’s suitcase. “Come. My driver is outside waiting.”

  “You’re driver?” Abigail never experienced this kind of service before. Back home, she had to call well in advance to get a taxi. “I mean, he’s here whenever you need to go somewhere?”

  “I just send word down to the lobby that I need to go out and they page my driver for me. It saves a lot of time and hassle of taking the subway or bus.”

  *****

  Friday night, Mark took Abigail to his favorite restaurant. It was obvious how frequently he visited, as every worker knew him by name. She was surprised to see how popular he was in the city. Her popularity back home came from her winning beauty pageants for most of her life. The town was so small that as soon as she was crowned beauty queen, every resident knew. But New York was bigger. To be so well known in a place like this, you had to be good at your job.

  Abigail was pleased that her romance with Mark took off right where they left it before he returned home. The Saturday after she arrived, he planned a whole day for them, which started with a picnic at Central Park. He laid down a blanket for them to sit on as she placed the picnic basket on the ground. “How are you liking it here so far?”

  “I love it Mark. I can see why you wanted to come back home. This is nothing compared to the country life. I wish I could live here.”

  “Maybe it’s because you haven’t been here for long. I actually found it more relaxing being in your town.” He wrapped his arms around her. “I want to take you somewhere tomorrow.”

  “I have a flight at night so I can’t be gone for too long.” Saying those words made Abigail sad, knowing the weekend was going by too fast.

  “Perfect because my parents don’t live far from the airport.”

  “Parents?” There was no way Abigail heard him right. They weren’t together long enough to take their relationship to the next level and meet the parents.”

  “Yes my parents. I want you to meet them. I swear they will love you and they’ll be happy to know that I’ve finally settled down.”

  How could Abigail disagree? His heart was set on her meeting his parents. And the next day, that was what they did. Mark and his driver picked her up at the hotel. He rushed to meet her in the lobby, carrying her suitcase to the car.

  “My parents are excited to meet you.”

  “I...I can’t wait to meet them either,” she said nervously. She never had to meet the parents of her previous boyfriends before since everybody knew her.

  She sat at Mark’s parents’ house. Nervous, feeling as if their eyes never stopped studying her. They probably think I’m no good for their son. I don’t blame them. Mark apologized to his parents that their stay was short, but Abigail had to get to the airport. She didn’t have the heart to tell Mark, but she knew his parents couldn’t wait for her to get out of their house. The feeling was mutual. She felt uncomfortable, like she was a subject they were studying.

  As the evening drew to a close, Mark drove Abigail to the airport. He couldn't help but look over at her and know that he needed to tell her the truth.

  "Abigail, there's another reason why I stopped calling," he said quietly, looking straight ahead.

  "Yes?"

  "How familiar are you with shifters?"

  "You mean, people that can change to animals and such? Let's see, one of my friends was dating one once. I've no major thoughts of them one way or another, why?"

  "Abi, I don't know how to tell you this but..."

  Her eyes went wide and she slid to the door frame of the car. "Oh my God, you're in love with a shifter?"

  "No, no, no! I ..." he sighed deeply, "I'm not doing good trying to tell you this it seems. Abi, I'm a bear shifter."

  "You're a... wha?"

  "Bear shifter, I can transform from human to bear and back again." He just managed to squeak the words out as they pulled into the terminal. This was not how I wanted this to go.

  *****

  Mark stayed with Abigail in the waiting section as she waited for her flight to be called. A weekend wasn’t long enough to spend with Mark. She wished she could’ve stayed longer but she was needed back at the diner. She couldn’t leave Oscar alone to deal with the customers. She was his best waitress, a point he always made sure to tell the others. She had obligations that couldn't be stopped just for a what-if of a relationship with Mark.

  Her flight was called and she slowly stood up. Mark went over to hug her tightly. He didn’t want her to go back as much as she didn’t want to leave. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear.

  “You know I love you too.” She refused to let the tears fall from her eyes, especially in front of Mark. If she was going to cry, it would be on the plane.

  “Abigail, I swear I will keep in touch with you. Between the meetings and the bear shifter secret, it was just all too much. But now you know the truth. This weekend wasn’t nearly enough time for us to catch up on lost time.”

  “It wasn’t enough time for me either. I really wish I could stay longer. Hopefully I can save more money to come out here and visit again.”

  Abigail found it hard to believe that Mark was going to keep in touch. Wasn’t that what he said when he had to leave to go home? And look how that turned out. Something inside told her that if she didn’t fly out to surprise him, he never would’ve contacted her, but she didn’t want to tell him what she believed. She would pretend that she believed him. That way if he didn’t call her, she wouldn’t be disappointed.

  Abigail’s flight was called again and Mark leaned in to kiss her goodbye. The kiss was long and passionate, as if he refused to let her get on the plane. “I...I have to go. I can’t miss this flight,” Abigail pulled away. She looked back one last time before handing her ticket in and going inside the gate.

  Chapter Five

  Mark sadly walked back to his apartment, surprised to see his parents waiting out in the hall. “Mom! Dad! What brings you here? I just left your place earlier.”

  “We know you did. But there was something your mother and I wanted to speak to you about but we couldn’t given the company at our place,” Leroy said stepping inside the apartment with his wife.

  “You mean Abigail. She has a name Dad.”

  “Yes I am aware that she has a name. After you left, your mother and I had a talk and well...Martha you tell him what we talked about. You can say it better than I can.”

  Mark rolled his eyes, he knew where this was leading. He noticed his parents looking at Abigail like she was out of place being in the city. Deep inside he had a feeling that they didn’t like Abigail, but he hoped he was wrong. “Let me guess, you don’t like Abigail do you?”

  “It’s not that we don’t like her son. We don’t even know her. And you did bring her to us by surprise. But…” Martha started.

  “But what? Come on you and dad don’t ever come to my place unless you have a reason. And since you’ve been waiting for me to come home, this has to obviously be something big involving the girl that I love.”

  Martha turned to Leroy. “Did you hear that? He says he’s in love with her.”

  “Let’s just talk to him about what we came to talk about.”

  “I’m standing right here. So why don’t you just tell me what it is you want to tell me. I figured you didn’t like Abigail and I figured it was because I started a relationship with her without telling you about it. But that’s obviously not the case. What is it about Abigail that you don’t like about her? That she’s caring and polite? Or the fact that she flew all the way out here from her town to surprise me? Because if that’s not love, then I don’t know what is.”

  “Son, you’re right about one thing.
We don’t want you to be with Abigail,” Leroy spoke.

  “I’m sorry, it sounded like you said you don’t want me to be with Abigail.” Mark laughed. “That is funny because I was under the assumption that at my age, I didn’t have to go through you when it came to girls I want to date.”

  “You have to think of your future with the company. Mark, you can’t be seen with some girl that’s from the country. Think about how that’ll look when you have to go to all those important meetings and dinners.” Leroy was a top business man himself and wanted his son to be exactly like him; only the finest things and the most upscale woman on his arm.

  “Since when have you known me to care what people think? And why would they have a problem with me dating Abigail? My love life shouldn’t be anyone’s business in the first place.”