Naughty But Nice: A Bear Shifter Christmas Romance

by Mirajane

  He was an evil, horrible human being, but I wasn’t sure that I would have wished this on anyone. But it was done and there was no way I could help him now. I would just have to find a way to get past it. But the fact that I was willing to dismiss it and put it behind me really unsettled my stomach.

  I went through the rest of the day enjoying time with my family. My mom and dad and I talked for a bit about the future, what their plans were, what mine might end up being, and how our extended family was doing. The holidays had a way of bringing us all together and many of them might be stopping by throughout the week to say hi, or we might all just get together at my aunt Rosie’s house later in the week.

  Tyler called me a bit after lunch. He asked me if I’d heard about Brad. I told him I had. “That’s so terrible,” he said. “We were just with him last night and now he is gone from this world forever. It makes you think we are all living on borrowed time. Life is so short. It makes me angry about the time that I wasted wondering what if. I should have asked you out the moment I realized how much I liked you in high school. This wasting time wondering and debating with myself—what did it accomplish? Wasted years. But at least we are making up for them now, right?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I feel the same way. I should have realized what was right in front of me the entire time, but I was seduced by something as flashy as popularity.”

  “Well, we all make mistakes. Let’s not waste any more time. I want to take you out tonight. Thought we could check out a movie and maybe have a good old fashioned date. What do you think?”

  “Sure, I’d love that,” I said.

  “Great, I’ll pick you up at six.”

  “I’ll be ready.”

  I ended the call and instantly felt so much better. I loved to hear his sweet, strong voice comforting me on the phone. I just had to hear him talk and I was automatically in a much better mood. It was crazy how a person could have that much effect on me. I was falling madly in love with this man. It was inevitable I realized. There was no denying it. And I felt that I was ready to let him know it as well.

  He picked me up that night right on the dot and we went and saw the hilarious new Jim Carrey film. It was good to see him back to his wacky funniest now.

  We left the movies feeling pretty good. There were several moments during the film where I wanted so badly to reach over and just kiss Tyler, to start making out with him hardcore like a couple of teenagers. But I was able to keep myself in check and we got through the film just watching and snuggling. It was romantic enough just that way. It was so funny how the smallest, simplest things could really be the most romantic and bring two people together so quickly. I was so happy with the way things were going between us. I had to fight back the urge to turn to Tyler and just say “I love you”. I wasn’t sure how he would really respond to that. And at this point I wasn’t too sure I was that concerned either. I was ready to throw caution to the wind. I was ready to get on with life and not waste any more time wondering “what if”, as Tyler had basically said earlier.

  “So, I’m surprised you didn’t try to pull the popcorn trick,” I said teasing Tyler as we got to his car.

  “What? You think I would do that? I totally would have, but I forgot my little pen knife at home.”

  He winked at me. Then he got behind the wheel and we drove back to his house. The night was bright with a big full moon, or maybe it was just a little past being full and was waning down the other side of the cycle. At any rate, it was beautiful and bright. It was one of those nights where it almost seemed like it was daytime that it was so bright.

  As we stepped out of the car, I took a deep breath to take in the crispy winter air. It didn’t quite feel like winter. It was exceptionally warm for this time of year, but I was holding out hope for a cold front to come through and give us that beautiful white Christmas I loved. It had been a while since I saw one of those. Waking up on Christmas morning to the house smelling like apple cinnamon and the white snow on the ground illuminating everything so beautifully. And then the Christmas tree with presents lining the bottom. That was the most perfect sight I had ever seen. It was the fondest memory of childhood.

  And then at some point the adult in me took over and there was the magic just gone suddenly. It happened overnight. It was like somehow the air of change infected my lungs and I was done with those little girl memories and I had to embrace the realities of becoming an adult. I used to think we could hold onto that forever, but I was no longer sure.

  We pulled up into Tyler’s driveway and got out of the car. As I walked towards the front door of his house, I saw Tyler looking at me with that mischievous look in his eyes. I knew that some great things were in store for us when we finally got into the house. And I was more than ready. I’d been turned on just being beside him during the movie. My oven was hot and burning for him.

  I bit my lip and then smiled at him giving him the signal that it was definitely on tonight. He smiled back wider.

  We were just reaching the bottom step leading up to the porch when I saw something coming at us out of the shadows.

  “You stupid bitch!”

  Tyler was instantly standing in front of me. I peered around his shoulder to see who was there. It was Oren. He was holding a pistol. He seemed drunk and he was so angry. I could see the hatred burning through is eyes. His teeth were grinding, his legs were staggering back and forth as he tried to keep himself steady. His eyes were blinking rapidly and his chest was heaving up and down as if he’d just run a few blocks to get here right now to surprise us. Most likely, he’d been waiting for us to arrive, ready to do this. It had been several days, and that anger from the bar had burned in him and driven him insane since then.

  “Whoa!” Tyler said. “Take it easy.”

  “Shut up! You bastard,” Oren said. He cocked the pistol. “You think you can just get away with that shit. You come in here and take my woman. Then punch me in my bar in front of my friends. That’s what you think motherfucker!”

  “Oren, don’t do this,” I said. My voice barely came out a harsh whisper. I felt faint. This was going to be bad. He was crazy. He was ready to kill Tyler. Maybe even me.

  “Shut up!” Oren pointed the gun at me. “You are even worse. You dumped me in high school. It’s your fault my head was messed up and I didn’t see that tackle coming. Tore my knee up and ruined my life. Then all my friends started turning against me. You fucking bitch. How dare you? Then you come back here and start cozying up to the biggest fucking nerd in our class! So everyone can laugh at me and call me a pathetic loser. Me! I was king of our school. I was supposed to play pro ball. I was somebody. Your fucking fault, all of it! I’m a loser now because of you. And I’m going to take you fucking down. Say hello to the devil you filthy whore.”

  Oren pointed the gun right at my head and pulled the trigger.

  It all happened so fast. I saw the flash of the gun, heard the loud crack of the explosion, and then I could almost see the bullet leave the barrel. It couldn’t have been more than ten feet between him and me. I had no time to even react.

  But suddenly, as if by magic, Tyler was standing in front of me again and I saw him bounce back a bit as if something had pushed him. I realized quickly that the bullet had hit him in the chest. He staggered, but did not fall down.

  How? How was he still standing? My hands covered my mouth as I watched this unfolding before me in terror. He was still standing there. I watched for an exit wound, or something to show that Tyler was hit. Was it possible that Oren had somehow missed? We were very close to him, but he was drunk and I wasn’t sure how good his aim was even when he was sober. I’d never known him to even own a gun, let alone shoot one.

  Tyler glanced back at me. I could see the look of terror and pain on his face, but still he was standing there. He seemed to be ok. But then, I saw something else happening. He was enraged. The look in his eyes was terrifying. I’d never seen anyone look that pissed before. And were his eyes turning red…?<
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  “What… no…” Oren said.

  He pointed the gun to take aim again. Tyler was on him in a heartbeat and slapping the gun away. He had covered that distance in the blink of an eye. I could hardly even see him run over there to do it. But he was there knocking the gun out of Oren’s hand.

  I was staggering backwards and to the side crouching in terror. How was this happening? What was going on? I was so scared, so confused. I felt sick all over and my knees were weakening. No… this was not real.

  But it was real. I was witnessing every single moment of it.

  Tyler was changing…. What?

  He was bending over, his body morphing. I saw all of it happen in the span of about ten seconds, but it felt like an hour. What the hell was I witnessing?

  Tyler was growing taller, busting out of his clothes. His body starting to bend over as fur began to fill out his shirt, appearing on his arms which were growing thicker and larger. His hands were twisting, turning into…claws?

  A roar escaped his throat just then. It was loud. It echoed off in the distance. Oren was so scared he could not speak. I was too. This was not real. There was no way this was really happening in front of me. I had to be dreaming. This was the worst nightmare I’d ever had in my life. But somehow I knew I was wide awake. This was no dream, not at all.

  Standing before me now, where Tyler had been a moment ago, was a huge black bear. It was a real bear. It was huge. It stood up on its hind legs and roared as it beat those huge paws against its chest. It was crying out to the heavens.

  Oren was starting to stumble over his feet as he scrambled to get away. But it was no use. The bear pounced on him knocking him backwards to the ground. He tried to stand up, but the bear grabbed him and threw him about ten feet through the air where he landed on the grass with a sickening thud. He cried out in pain and anguish. He was crawling now, doing his best to get away.

  The bear was on him again. I had a feeling it was going to kill him. But then I came to my senses a little bit to realize that it was Tyler. He’d changed into this thing. He wasn’t human. He was…something else…?

  But he was about to destroy a human life. Oren had this coming, but I couldn’t let Tyler kill him. Although, what could I do?

  “Tyler! No!” I yelled.

  The bear stopped it looked up at me. In the midst of that animal’s face, the fur, the snout, the roaring jaws, and the eyes, I could see that there was something else there. Tyler. He was still in there. He was listening to me. He was stopping himself. He knew that what he was about to do was wrong.

  “Oren! Run!” I screamed.

  Oren scrambled to his feet and took off running, stumbling down the road. I could see his car parked at the end of the block. He reached the car, got in and drove away like crazy. I feared for his and everyone else on the road’s safety. The man was a menace and he was lucky to be alive.

  But now I was alone with a big black bear. It was marching towards me slowly, growling a little bit, its eyes staring me down. I was scared to death, but slowly as it walked towards me and then sat down on its haunches in front of me, I began to become less afraid. I felt Tyler. I could feel his spirit, his soul. He was in there.

  “Tyler…” I said.

  The bear sniffed loudly, and then something began to happen. The bear was growing smaller. The fur was receding. The eyes were changing color. The teeth were retracting, along with the vicious nails and the claws turning back into regular human fingers.

  Soon, within seconds really, I was looking at Tyler. He was sitting there on the ground nude. I was only vaguely aware that someone might see this and think it odd, but I was too caught up in what was happening to care. Tyler was back. He was there. He was real again. The bear was long gone.

  “I’m sorry,” Tyler said. “Let me explain.”

  My head was spinning. I felt the fear, the adrenaline, all of it was starting to crash inside of me and I found myself falling downwards a little at a time as if my knees were buckling under me, but I couldn’t tell. My head was somewhere else.

  I felt like I was actually going to pass out now. Everything was growing dizzy, spinning around me.

  But Tyler was there, letting me lean on him. He was holding me up. I knew that no matter what happened, I would never be alone or in any real danger with him by my side. And that was the most comforting thing I’d ever felt before.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Tyler

  “And that is basically how it happened,” I said. I had just finished telling Angie the story about going out in the woods and being attacked by the bear that time. I had been a shifter ever since.

  “Wow,” she said. “I can’t get my head around this. Shifters are real?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I’m not the only one.”

  “How many are there? Have you met a bunch?”

  “Not really. We are pretty isolated and don’t go advertising ourselves around. From what I know, most of my kind allow it to turn them evil. This kind of power can be intoxicating and it can easily corrupt you. There have been so many times when I wanted to give in and give full reign to my inner desires. It is my greatest fear that I won’t always win that battle.”

  “That’s rough,” she said. “I can only imagine how hard that might be.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “It is. But it’s a cross I’m forced to bear, so I have to keep on doing it. There is no other choice.”

  She sighed and put her hands behind her neck. She massaged herself and leaned back. She was trying to deal with this, and so far she was doing pretty well with it. “So, what happened back there? The bullet had no effect on you. I saw you get shot at almost point blank range.”

  “Yeah, bullets don’t do anything. They hurt and it pissed me off, mostly because if I hadn’t been there that moron would have shot you dead. He needs put in jail for murder, or at least attempted murder. Of course we have no proof. No one is going to believe this story.”

  “I would never tell anyone about you,” she said.

  “Thanks, but even if you did they wouldn’t believe you. And they would just think you were crazy.”

  “Right,” she said with a laugh. “Maybe I am going crazy. I can’t wrap my head around this. So, you’re not human?”

  “Not entirely,” I said. “I’m a bit different. It’s just a different part of me.”

  “This is crazy. How are things like this real? I mean, how many people know about them?” Angie asked.

  “Not many. I’m telling you only because of what you saw and so you will realize that I’m still the same person. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

  “No, I understand. This is something you don’t really want to get out. I mean, if everyone who was a shifter came forth and showed the world what they were, proved they existed, wouldn’t that be better? Instead of hiding and pretending that you are the stuff of myths and legends?”

  “I’d like to think that, but people can’t handle it. You know that. Most people would be lining up to kill us because they’d be afraid, or they would lock us all up to do some sort of experiments on us. And they might actually find a way to use us to make more of their kind for war purposes, that sort of thing. There is just too much at stake, too much danger to allow us to come out into the spotlight.”

  “I see,” she said. “I guess that makes sense. How do you control it? Does it ever happen when you don’t want it to?”

  “It used to, at first,” I said. “But I’ve learned to control it over time. Last night I was not in full control when I shifted. The anger, the pain—it triggered the change. So there are environmental factors that can bring it on.”

  “Not the full moon?” she said with a laugh.

  “No, that is really just for werewolves.”

  She laughed. But after a few seconds realized I was serious. Her eyes went wide. “There are fucking werewolves?”

  I smiled. “Yeah, there are a variety of shifters. Different types. From what I’ve been able to gather, mo
st of it stems from ancient tribes around the world who were basically pagans, they felt there was a different spirit that controlled each element of the earth. They believed that we could harness the spirits of animals and merge our souls with theirs inside of our bodies. So, they began to perform rituals until they eventually acquired this power. But I believe that something went wrong and their secrets were lost. I am one of the remnants of those secrets.”

  “There is no way to cure this thing?” she asked.

  “No. I’ve searched the world over and never found anything. I didn’t honestly think I ever would, and now I don’t want to. If there was a cure, I’m not sure I’d take it.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “Well, if I didn’t possess this power, then I wouldn’t have been able to save you back there. You’d be dead. Me too, probably. And there are other gifts I’ve gotten used to, things that have proven useful in my life. I use them responsibly so they become an asset of humanity, instead of a curse against it.”

  “I see,” she said.

  I wasn’t sure if she was really taking all this in, or was pretending to. It could be rather overwhelming. I knew that it was hard, but she had to know. I was going to tell her soon anyway. I just didn’t want it to be this way.

  I was still steaming about how Oren had tried to kill the woman I loved. That bastard deserved to die, or at the very least he should never have seen the light of day again. I was determined to find a way to put him behind bars, and his daddy wasn’t going to keep his ass out of jail. I just wouldn’t let it happen. The prick. He was going down.

  I felt the rage rising again and I had to stuff it back down. It was so hard to control, but I was doing it. I had no choice. I never wanted Angie to see me like this ever again. I wanted to keep this hidden away from her as much as I could. I was afraid she might allow it to color her mind and her perception of me.

  “What do you think of all this?” I asked her.

  She sighed. “Well, I’m not sure. I’m still trying to figure it all out. On one hand, I don’t believe any of it, but I just saw it with my own eyes. There is so much I don’t know, so many questions I still have, you know?”