by C. L. Stone
Wouldn’t you like to know? She shrugged. “Only a few days.”
“Hmm. Well, you need to come to terms with it quickly. I’ve explained things to the boys, but you’ve got a lot to learn if you want to be with them.” Ran sat on the other sofa facing her.
“Like what?”
“Ellie, I think you should hear it from the boys.” He crossed his right leg to rest his ankle on his left knee.
I bet. “They’re not very big on filling me in. Which seems to be partly your fault for making them think humans couldn’t be trusted.”
“I wasn’t wrong look at Dov’s mom, but if you’re determined, I’ll tell you.” At her nod, he said, “mating to your bears will take two steps. First, you’ll hold a ceremony and pledge yourselves to each other, then in the second ceremony, you’ll mate.”
What? “Wait, mate, like have sex?” Ellie’s cheeks were red, but she refused to back down now.
“Yes. I told the boys I wasn’t sure. I think since you’re mating all three, they would all need to be present. I’m not saying more than that…Torben had some ideas about blindfolds and earplugs.”
Woah… “Oh…um…” Ellie was imagining giving herself to one of the guys with the other’s watching. Once she pictured it, she couldn’t get it out of her head. It was so embarrassing! She couldn’t believe she was even having this conversation and with Torben’s dad no less! But hell, the image of my boys is hot.
“You should know bears are very virile. It doesn’t take much to get a werebear pregnant, but werebear females are rare. That’s why we’re always trying to mate our sons early, because we need to build our numbers before we get wiped out.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Ellie shifted in her seat.
Ran uncrossed his leg, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “If you mate with a werebear, you’ll be expected to carry werebear cubs. Now, whether you get pregnant during the ceremony or not is not our concern. However, don’t be expecting to go forever without trying to conceive. With three of our men to attend to you, there’s no reason for you not to be carrying a cub within a few years at most.”
“A few years?” Ellie rubbed her eyes. Maybe I should get some sleep, this has got to be a delusion brought on by sleep deprivation.
Ran kneeled in front of Ellie and gently pulled her hands to her sides. “Darlin’, I’m trying to be straight with you. These boys could raise a lot more cubs if they weren’t tied to you, but you’re their mate. Werebears don’t push women to stay barefoot and pregnant, but you’ve got three times the responsibility to the community the other women do…just keep that in mind.” Ran slapped a hand on her back, the only comfort he knew to give.
“Well, shit.” Ellie tucked her chin.
“The boys will be asking you soon enough to mate with them.” Ran guided her head up with two fingers, forcing her eyes to meet his.
“Soon?” Her eyes were in a daze.
“I wanted them to tell you this part, but seeing as they’ve never even kissed you, I guess that’s asking too much. You see…”
“We’ll take it from here.” Mathin appeared in the doorway with Dov and Torben behind him.
“Good. See you do right by her, tell her everything.” Ran rose and shook their hands again before heading off to find Julia. He had a few questions for her about their lineage. There had to be a reason Ellie was chosen to mate three werebears, and Ran was determined to find out why.
“Ellie, we’re sorry for letting Ran tell you all of that. We should have stopped him earlier…” Torben moved to sit beside her.
“How did you know?” Were you guys listening?
“Werebears have excellent hearing.” He scooted closer to her on the sofa. “What my father was trying to tell you…bears mate during the right season or they don’t mate that year. Mating season starts at the end of summer. It’s already July. Do you wanna hold the ceremony so soon?” Torben asked, hope and dread in his eyes.
Mate? Summer? Oh… “Well…this is a bit…I’m still processing all of this. I don’t want to be without any of you, I know that much. I feel drawn to you—same as you do me—the problem is I’m only twenty. It’s hard for me to know what I should do. Your father says I’d need to have kids within a few years of us mating, I’m not sure if I’m ready for that.” Ellie sat chewing on her bottom lip. “On the other hand, I refuse to leave you all again, so what choice do I have?”
“You can choose to complete the first ceremony with us and not the second. If you’re not tied directly to us, you wouldn’t be pushed to have our cubs, I think.” Mathin sat in front of her on the floor pulling her shoes off so he could rub her feet.
“No, I don’t think any of us should be banking on that. Once we start the ceremony, we’re going to feel pulled to complete the second half. It’s just like how we feel the pull to claim her now, I can’t say how I know it, I just do.” Dov watched Ellie’s eyes roll back as Mathin rubbed her arch.
“Okay, so I guess we’re doing this then…what else do I need to know?” Her eyes remained closed tight.
“It’s more what we need to know.” Torben grimaced. “In order for the ceremony to work…it needs to be…” Torben mumbled the rest too quiet for Ellie to hear.
Her eyes popped open. “Need to be what? Speak up, Torben!” Ellie pulled her feet away from Mathin with a nod to assure him he wasn’t being rejected.
“You need to be ovulating!”
Ellie’s face turned beat red, but she sat still, afraid any movement would bring more attention to herself than she desired at the present. After a few minutes, the silence grew heavy, but Ellie’s color returned to normal.
“If we have sex when I’m ovulating, there’s a good chance I’ll get pregnant.” Ellie wrung her hands. She’d watched the videos in health class; she knew theoretically how it all worked.
“That’s true, but we can try to take measures to avoid that. Ran said it was too late for the pill, but we could wear protection.” Mathin squeezed her ankle gently. Dov groaned, not only was this conversation uncomfortable, but he also secretly hated the idea of wearing a rubber with his girl. He wanted to feel her around him; still, he’d do whatever she asked.
“Um, okay. Well, I usually write my cycle on a calendar on my phone. I’ll show it to you once, but after that you better look at it when I’m not around. This is too awkward…” Ellie pulled out her phone, brought up her tracking app and paged forward, she showed the guys how to interpret the marks.
Mathin pulled out his own phone to record the data. “Okay, got it.”
“I’m okay with us planning the first ceremony together, but I’d rather the second be a surprise to me. I can’t imagine planning my first time.” It’s already going to be weird enough—exciting, yet unexpected.
“We can do that.” Mathin nodded eagerly.
“It might be easier on you, not knowing, less pressure.” Torben nodded, sitting back.
Ellie looked at each of the guys in turn. “Okay, when do we hold the first ceremony?”
“Well, since the second ceremony will be private, for obvious reasons…we should consider treating the first ceremony like a wedding.” Torben caressed Ellie’s cheek.
“I like that idea.” Mathin grinned and nodded.
Dov smiled. “I’m good with that.”
My father would stop us before we even got to the second ceremony. “I’m not sure…maybe we could do that after we’re mated? My father isn’t going to be cool with this. Yours might be pushing us towards the alter, but mine’s going to have a coronary when he hears about this. I’m not even going to mention the bear part!”
“If you want to wait to be legally married, then we can, but if we got you a ring, would you wear it?” Dov held her hand gently.
“Are you asking me to marry you, Dov?”
“I am.”
Mathin stood in front of her. “I am, too.”
“Will you marry me, Ellie?” Torben grinned.
“Ye
s, yes, and yes. I love you all! I can’t believe I haven’t come out and said it until now, but I do.” Ellie pulled the guys tight to her, hugging them all at once.
Mathin poked Ellie in her side. “Save the I do’s for the wedding.”
Ellie laughed and squirmed, but didn’t let them go. “Okay.” She looked around at the fading light and realized the day was already coming to a close. She heard Julia and Ran in the kitchen banging the pots, Julia was already fixing dinner.
“Should we pick out a ring tomorrow?” Mathin caressed Ellie’s finger where their ring would sit.
“I guess we should. We are engaged, after all.” I’m engaged…to my bears! It seems so surreal.
The rest of the night was spent catching up with Ran. Torben asked a million questions about the past, and they all listened intently. Ellie tried to understand everything he said, but some things were too cultural for her to grasp just yet. Ran did tell her if she got pregnant with a werebear cub, she would be expected to stay with them up north at least for the birth if not longer. Since Ellie wasn’t planning on getting pregnant, she agreed easily to his request.
Luckily, Julia had gone to sleep directly after dinner. She felt her presence wasn’t needed, so she politely took to her room. Torben and Mathin sat beside Ran, while Ellie and Dov sat on the sofa opposite them. The television droned on in the background, but no one paid it any mind. Ellie wondered how the guys were able to ignore noises when their hearing was so much better. Just one of the many mysteries she would need to solve before committing to three werebears.
“So, I think it’s time I learned more about my future daughter-in-law. Tell me more about yourself, Ellie.”
“You mean you need to know something other than when I ovulate?” Ellie dropped her arm from her face. Jerk.
“Ha! I knew you had spunk. You’ll need that to live with bears, but in all seriousness, I’d like to get to know the girl who captivated my son and nephews.” He sat back into the couch, getting comfortable.
Ellie crossed her ankles as she recited her bio. “I’m going to school to be a veterinarian. I live with my father when I’m not on campus. My mother died when I was born.”
“A vet, huh? That’s rather poetic, your bears will never need to see another doctor.” Ran chuckled placing his hands behind his head to cushion his neck.
“True. I’m top of my class, and I’m in my junior year.”
“Good, so you’re almost through with your undergrad…that’s excellent.” You could almost see the wheels turning in Ran’s head.
Ellie wagged a finger at him. “That still doesn’t mean I’m going to be carrying any cubs next year.”
“We shall see…” Ran half smiled, staring off into the distance.
When Ellie couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer, they all headed off to bed. She pulled out the sofa sleeper and got comfortable. Her dreams were filled with bears and kisses. She was still too innocent to dream about sex; her lack of knowledge created too many holes in the images. So, her mind stuck to kissing and touching. She was looking forward to the first ceremony—she wanted to finally kiss her bears when they weren’t actually bears. I wonder if we should practice kissing, only so we can get it right for the ceremony, of course.
The next day while out shopping for her ring, Ellie decided to broach the subject.
“No.” Dov shook his shook. “Let’s save it for the ceremony.”
“You don’t want to kiss me, do you?” Ellie stuck her bottom lip out, and Dov sighed loudly.
“It’s not that. Trust me.”
“If it’s not that, then what is it?” She stuck her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one foot.
Dov pulled her into a corner and nodded to the other guys. They formed a wall between them and the other customers, giving Dov and Ellie some privacy. The bears could still hear every word, of course.
“If I kiss you just once, it will be hard enough to control myself. If you want me to go around kissing you all day long, you better be ready to part your silky legs and come for me because I’m not fooling around here. I want you mated and naked in my bed.” Dov’s breath warmed her ear. Ellie felt moisture pool between her thighs; she squirmed against him. “Be still, Ellie. I’m not going to mate you here.”
“Dov…”
“I know, Sweetheart. That’s how you make me feel all day, every day. That’s why I’m not going to kiss you until the ceremony, until I know you’re mine. It’ll be hard enough to wait until the second mating ceremony to really taste you.” He growled in a deep sexy tone.
“But I thought we were going to kiss during the first—”
“Not your lips sweetheart…lower.” He spoke so close to her ear she felt his lips caress her skin.
Hot damn! “We wouldn’t need to wait for those kisses…” Ellie’s eyelids drooped, and she bit her bottom lip. Dov’s eyes popped halfway out of his eye sockets.
“Don’t tease me.”
Still listening in, Mathin adjusted himself, while Torben rubbed his hands over his face. Ellie was going to make the wait long and hard—very hard if Torben’s current state was any indication.
Ellie tugged on his shirt to get him to bend over to her level. “What if I’m not being a tease?”
“Then you’re encouraging me to be a very naughty bear.” Dov sighed.
“Ellie,” Mathin said breathlessly, “maybe it’s time you picked out a ring.”
“I agree with Mathin. Unless you want us to embarrass ourselves, this isn’t the place for this type of conversation.” Torben pulled Ellie from Dov’s arms and kissed her hand, leading her to the rows of jewelry cases in the center of the room.
Ellie stared down at the rows of glittering diamonds. “How are we going to pay for it?” Rings aren’t cheap…
“Ran gave us some money our parents had saved up, enough for us to live off of apparently. They started it when we were kids, it’s been sitting in some bank in Switzerland for years, just accumulating interest.” Torben pointed out the biggest diamonds to Ellie.
“How much money?” Ellie moved away toward a case of smaller diamonds.
“Enough to buy you ten rings and still have more money than three young guys should have,” Dov gestured to all the rings. “Tell us what you like, let’s find one and get out of here.”
“Okay, I want a white gold band with three diamonds, one for each of my bears.” Ellie smiled at them in turn.
“That’s sweet, Baby.” Mathin gave her a kiss on her forehead.
Torben glanced around and spotted a case to his right. “I think there’s some three stone diamonds over here.”
There they found the perfect ring. It took several tries, as Ellie had to find the right size since they didn’t have time to wait for another to be shipped. The saleswoman insisted on showing them the stones underneath a microscope, and she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Even Dov was reluctantly shown the close up. The sales woman showed Ellie the price tag and her jaw dropped. Apparently, the ring was almost flawless. She tried to back out, but Dov had stepped up to pay while the others ushered her out of the store. Ellie wouldn’t wear the ring until the first ceremony was complete; it would be part of their vows during the proceedings. My mating ceremony, to my bears…
Ellie tried again when they reached the house to broach the topic of sex. While she was good with waiting to go all the way, she was nervous about that part. She didn’t see why they couldn’t have a little fun beforehand. Mathin was on her side, but Dov and Torben refused to budge. They maintained their stance that it would be too tempting to go further, and they wanted her first time to be special.
Dov put his foot down. “It will mean more if we wait until our mating ceremony.”
While Ellie was happy her first time wouldn’t be in the back of a car like Josh, her ex, had wanted, she wasn’t convinced the second ceremony would be romantic if all four of them had to be in the room together. She was having trouble picturing it. All she could focus on was th
e idea of the guys wearing earplugs and blindfolds. The blindfolds had intrigued her, but the earplugs didn’t. It was a necessary precaution, but one that wasn’t very sexy.
Julia was waiting with lunch when they arrived home, and Ellie couldn’t wait to show her grandmother her ring. The guys thought it best to wait since they weren’t sure Julia would approve of the flashy piece, and they didn’t want to take the chance of Julia telling them to find something more practical. The bears thought of Julia like a mother, but they refused to go ring shopping again, even if she didn’t approve of it. Not only did they need cold showers after their day out, but they were tired after spending so much time looking at rocks.
Ellie put the ring on a chain around her neck, hiding it beneath her tee-shirt, where she felt like it was branding her skin. The weight of it against her chest was substantial. Secrets always weighed heavily on her, but it was even harder keeping secrets from her grandmother, especially one like this that she was dying to share. Sure, her grandmother knew the boys were wanting to mate her, but she didn’t know they’d bought a ring. Or, that the ring was so enormously gorgeous that Ellie had a hard time acting casual the rest of the day. Ran helped by stealing everyone’s focus by telling them stories about the boys when they were babies. Apparently, werebears could shift as early as six months, and most were-children spent a big chunk of their early months as bears learning how to shift back. Mathin was the first to shift, but the last to figure out how to return to his human skin. Ran said his mother would try to demonstrate the process for him, but he’d just sit and whimper.
“Dov seemed to take to shifting quickly, he was a faster learner than the other werebear cubs. Which was good, since he was larger than them as well. They looked up to him like a leader. My boy Torben here, he was right on schedule with all his milestones. He’d been on the larger size of average as a boy, though Dov was the biggest, with Mathin falling just slightly behind.” Ran boasted about the boys, he was certainly a proud papa, but he was equally proud of his nephews.
Mathin grew quickly through adolescence and caught up with the other boys by adulthood. The guys were all very tall with Dov being the tallest and Mathin being the smallest. They towered over Ellie, but she didn’t mind since they were great for reaching high places. She didn’t let them sit her on their shoulders though. Mathin tried once, but the experience left her feeling ill. She trusted him with her life, but she couldn’t sit on his shoulders in a house with regulation ceiling heights without being afraid of running into the ceiling fans. Luckily, the experience had not been repeated.
