We all sit down with our cups of tea and look at Ràn in expectation.
“I’ve corrected most of the grammar,” he begins hesitantly, “but I haven’t changed any of the content. First though, Isla, can you ask Alis if she knows what happened to her son?”
Alis, did you hear that?
Silence.
Alis?
He’s dead.
I’m sorry. How did he die?
Hera. When she learned that her husband Zeus had fathered a son with me, she went to find him. She’s a jealous woman, she couldn’t bear the thought that Zeus hadn’t been faithful to her. She killed a lot of women and their children over the years. But Zeus kept taking lovers, not caring for their fate. She killed Arcas only a few years after my own death. By then he had become King of Arcadia and had both a wife and children, the ancestors of all the bear shifters today.
He was running as a bear and she had a hunter kill him. She didn’t even do the deed herself. Zeus was actually quite shocked by his son’s death and decided to build him a permanent memorial. If you look up at the night sky, you’ll see him there. Ursa Minor, the little bear. Thinking that I was dead as well, he added Ursa Major in my honour. That bastard.
I wait for her to continue her story, but when she doesn’t, I relay it to the others.
“I’ll never look at the stars in the same way ever again,” Torben mutters and the others nod.
“He’s not dead,” Ràn suddenly says and we all stare at him in surprise. “At least, not completely.”
“Is he like Alis? A spirit?”
I’m not a spirit, she protests but I ignore her.
“The book isn’t exactly detailed on that, but I believe he could be similar.” Ràn flips through some of the pages. “It’s very flowery language, talking about a ‘memory being called back to Earth’. To me it sounds as if someone – they don’t mention his name – called on the ‘Small Bear’ when he was in trouble and the ‘bear came from the heavens’.”
What happened? Alis almost screams in my head.
Patience, he’s going to tell us in a moment, I’m sure.
“Turns out, the man wasn’t actually in trouble but just wanted the power of the bear. He became violent and tyrannical, wanting to dominate humans and make them his slaves. He had to play a slow game though as one bear shifter wasn’t enough. He started impregnating as many human women as he could, trying to create enough shifters to set his plans into motion. Somehow, he was stopped – the book doesn’t say how – and they use it as a warning to never think to use our superior strength to rule others. It’s like the moral at the end of a fable.”
“That all sounds like a load of humbug,” Húnn mutters. “Zeus creating stars? Someone becoming a bear shifter by asking a long-dead bear to come to him? Sorry but I think that’s just a fairy tale, nothing more.”
“I would have thought so too until I saw the note in the back.” Ràn show us the last page in the book which is covered in tiny handwriting. It’s written in biro, so it must be fairly recent. “It’s got yesterday’s date on it.”
“What?” Arnold asks in astonishment. “How is that possible?”
Bertie motions for Ràn to hand him the book. “One of the people on the trading ship must have written it. But that would mean…”
“One of them is a shifter. Exactly. Or at least someone who knows a lot about us,” Ràn confirms. “And they know that we are bears, too. Otherwise they wouldn’t have risked writing this.”
“What does it say?” Torben asks Bertie who is now studying the page.
He clears his throat and begins to read. “He cut his thread. The Ladies couldn’t touch him, so they had to stop him from passing on his seed. They couldn’t differentiate between bears. No more offspring. Now they need someone to reattach the thread. Meet at the beach at sunset.”
“Even more bollocks. This is getting too silly for me. Could we return to real life, please?” Húnn crosses his arms in front of his chest. I’d like to agree with him, but after talking to Alis and seeing her memories, I’ve come to believe that anything can be true. I mean, I can shift into a bear. I’m hardly the right person to judge whether something could be real or not.
“There’s a lot of beach on this island. Couldn’t they have specified it a little more?” Torben complains.
“I assume it’s where we met the traders this morning,” Arnold replies. “So you think we should go there? Sunset is in less than an hour.”
Torben shrugs. “If nobody turns up, we won’t be off any better or worse than we are now. And if they mean us harm – well, there’s seven of us. I’d say the odds are in our favour.”
Húnn shakes his head in frustration. “You’re not seriously believing all of this? We should be focussing on the real world, not some mythical bear spirit and the Fates.”
Alis growls and I’m on my feet before I even notice.
“Isla, your claws,” Finn warns and I look down at my hands. Damn it, I thought I had my claws under control by now.
Alis is furious within my head and I’m having trouble reining her in.
Tell him to apologise, she seethes.
“She wants you to apologise,” I explain. “She feels that you insulted her son.”
Húnn holds up his hands in deference. “No insult intended. Until a moment ago, she believed him to be dead. And if the story is true, then she should probably be grateful for that. I don’t think being called back from the dead to serve some evil guy is a nice thing.”
Alis goes quiet. Then despair, bottomless despair seeps through our bond and I feel tears pooling in my eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever felt such sadness. I sink to the ground, tears flowing freely down my cheeks. The border between Alis and me is getting blurred, her emotions become mine.
Her son. Our son. Suffering.
I want to comfort her, but her pain is my pain. I don’t have any comfort to give. I’m so sad. Breathing is becoming harder. Living is hard. Existence is pain. I’ve lived for so long and it’s been nothing but sadness.
“Isla, you need to shut her out.”
A voice close to my ear. Torben. He puts a hand on my shoulder and through the haze and sobs, I can feel the bond between us. It’s like a light in the darkness, beckoning to me. I use it as a rope to drag myself out of Alis’s despair and back into my own mind. As soon as I feel the distance between Alis and me, I slam up my barriers, shutting her out as much as I can.
I get up on my knees sink into Torben’s arms.
“She’s so sad,” I whisper. “But there’s nothing I can say to make it better.”
He gently rubs my back and I welcome the comfort he gives me. The others are quiet, giving us some space. Slowly, my feelings return back to normal. I’m still sad for Alis, but it’s my own sadness, not hers.
When I leave Torben’s embrace, I notice that Húnn is no longer in the room.
“Where did he go?”
“He was worried he might set Alis off further so he decided to leave. Want me to call him back in?”
I nod. All Húnn did was state how sceptical he is about it all. Which I would have done too had I not seen some of Alis’s strange memories.
I sit back down on the sofa next to Ràn who hesitantly puts an arm around my shoulders. I lean against him, smelling his scent. Even before I turned bear, I recognised each of their individual scents, but now it’s even stronger. I can smell them from another room – not in a bad way. They don’t stink. I smile. What would they say if they knew that I’m thinking about their scents?
Húnn returns, giving me a small smile.
“It’s okay, it wasn’t your fault,” I tell him and pat the sofa next to me, inviting him to take a seat there. I like sitting between the two brothers. It makes my ovaries happy.
“I’ll try and keep an open mind,” is all he says and I’m okay with that. He puts an arm around my waist and everything is okay again. Except for the low wails in my head. Alis is still crying. I shut it out, it’s n
ot helping.
“So everyone agrees that we should go to the beach and see what happens?” I ask and everybody nods. Even Húnn.
I hesitate before I voice my suspicion. “That girl who was there with the traders this morning. She was strange, she didn’t seem to fit in with them. And her eyes… I don’t know, I found her creepy.”
“The redhead?” Finn asks and I nod. “I didn’t notice anything special about her, except that her hair was amazing.”
I growl.
“Not as amazing as yours, of course,” he hastens to add.
“Besides of her hair, did any of you get a strange feeling from her?” I ask but it seems I’m the only one with that premonition. “Well, I think it might be her meeting us.”
“A girl? She didn’t seem older than fifteen perhaps?” Bertie is sceptical.
“I know but her eyes… they were older. Much older. I don’t know how to describe it… anyway, my bets are on her.”
“We’ll see in a moment. It’s sunset in less than twenty minutes, we should leave,” Arnold says with a glance at his watch.
As much as I hate leaving the warmth of the two bears sitting on either side of me, I’m also excited about what’s going to happen. Time to go and find out.
Four
There’s nobody to be seen when we reach the beach. The sun is setting to our right, turning the gently lapping waves a beautiful shade of orange. The trading ship is anchored far out and there’s no boat in sight. It doesn’t look like anyone will be coming from the ship, but maybe they’re late.
Torben looks like he’s anticipating a threat. He’s in a defensive stand, ready to shift any second. The other bears are similar, except for Húnn and myself. I trust Alis to come out and shift us if the need arises. She can shift faster than the guys, but it’s her doing the shifting, not me. All I do is open my mind to her and let her take over. It still goes against all my instincts, but it works. And if I expect her to let me have full control while we’re human, I better give her the steering wheel when we’re a polar bear.
I chuckle to myself. Yup, we’re a polar bear, occasionally. Life is strange.
“Yes, it is,” a melodious voice says behind us, making me jump. It’s the girl from earlier, as I predicted. She looks the same, except that her green eyes are glowing now. Like cat’s eyes that are hit by light. Creepy.
Torben takes a protective stance in front of me. Silly man, I know how to protect myself. I can feel Alis watching, close to the surface, ready to jump.
“Thanks for coming,” the girl says, looking at us curiously. That makes her even creepier. She looks at us as if we’re strange, unusual, even though she’s the one with the glowing eyes.
“Isla, would you mind calling off your bears?”
“They’re not mine to call off,” I reply coldly, but I notice that Torben’s claws retract at my words.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure they are,” she laughs brightly. “Just because only one of them is bound to you doesn’t mean the others don’t belong to you.”
“How do you know that?”
“Isla sweetie, I know a lot more than you think. And feel free to voice your suspicion to the others. They can’t hear your thoughts like I do.”
Stunned, I steel my mind, doing the same that I usually do when I try to keep out Alis.
“Not working,” the girl says cheerily and I glare at her.
“What suspicions?” Bertie asks quietly.
I sigh. “That she’s one of the Fates.”
“Before you all faint from shock - no, I’m not one of the Fates,” the girl giggles. “I’m only their lowly messenger. Servant, if you like. Lover, occasionally. Have you figured it out yet?”
Dumbfounded, we all stare at her. I was right, she’s not a normal girl. She’s definitely not the age she seems to be. And probably dangerous.
“Have we figured what out, exactly?” I challenge her and Torben shoots me a proud glance.
“Why you’re on Inchbrach. Why this island is special.”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell us.”
She sighs. “Yes, but only because I have better things to do than babysit a horde of bears. The Ladies want to see you and Inchbrach is the place you’ll get to do that. There’s a portal somewhere... but telling you where wouldn’t be any fun!”
She laughs brightly and runs off, leaving us without looking back.
I’m stunned.
“What just happened?” Húnn asks, just as confused as I am.
“Well, we either met a deluded young girl or a servant of the Fates. Take your pick,” Arnold says drily. “I never heard of them taking on servants. I always thought they work alone.”
“So you knew about them before this?” I ask, my mind spinning.
“They’re a legend, but so are werewolves and werebears. I tend to keep an open mind about it all, even if some of it doesn’t turn out to be true. There’s usually a grain of truth in every fairy tale.”
“He’s very wise like that,” Bertie says lovingly and puts an arm around his partner’s waist. My heart warms at the sight of those two lovers. One day, I want to be like them. Except that I’ll have four bears to cuddle, not just one.
“So what do we do now? She spoke of a portal, any idea what she could mean?” Torben asks our hosts.
“No clue. We’ve never noticed anything unusual while roaming the island. But then, we’ve not exactly been looking for portals. I didn’t know such a thing exists.”
Torben frowns. “From tomorrow, we’ll search the island. Arnold, Bertrand, do you have a map we can use to assign areas? And Isla, you should try and ask Alis if she knows anything about portals or even whether the Fates really have servants.”
“There’s a map but it’s not very accurate. It’s from before the Drowning, but we’ve marked the current coastline on it.” Bertie sadly shakes his head. “I can’t believe this used to be a village far away from the sea. I’d never have thought...”
“None of us did,” Arnold comforts his partner. “I think people would have looked after our planet much better had they known what the Drowning would do.”
They had a portal back in Arcadia, but not for the Fates, just for the Gods. Most of them dwelled on Earth but sometimes they disappeared through the portal and wouldn’t say where they went.
Alis is back and this time, her sadness doesn’t overwhelm me. I didn’t even notice that I’d let down my barriers. Maybe it was that girl with her strange mind-reading abilities.
“What did it look like?” I ask aloud before noticing that the men don’t know what I’m talking about. “Alis says she’s seen a portal before,” I explain.
A marble gate, two big columns with a shimmering ethereal fabric in between. Like silk, but magical. It was always guarded and us humans weren’t allowed to get close. But even from the distance it looked both beautiful and dangerous.
Why dangerous?
It felt strange, like it was trying to suck you in.
I can almost see her shudder. If it worries Alis, then it should warn us all to be careful.
Everything seems to be spiralling out of control. When did the world become so complicated? I’ve only just got used to bear shifters existing - and being one of them - and suddenly there’s Fates and Gods and portals. And girls with glowing eyes. This time it’s me who shudders. I’m glad creepy-girl is gone. Although she ran off and didn’t take a boat back to the trading ship, so is she still on the island? Or did she disappear through the portal?
“We should follow her tracks,” I suggest. “If she went through the portal, that will save us having to search for it.”
“That would almost be too easy,” Torben mumbles but he doesn’t challenge me. I know it’s not the best idea ever, but better than just randomly searching the island.
“Ràn, you’re our best tracker, go with Isla and see what you can find. The rest of us will be back at the house.”
They leave while Ràn starts taking off his clothes. Oh.
Of course, tracking is going to be easiest as a bear. Silly me. Instead of undressing myself, I watch. Ràn is broad and muscular, his chest a chiselled landscape that begs to be touched. His arms are big and I notice that even without having shifted, I can see a bit of the bear in him. I resist the urge to touch him and focus on the ground instead. It’s neutral. It doesn’t upset my ovaries. It doesn’t make me want to jump one of my men.
I take a quick peek just as he steps out of his jeans. Oh. My. Bears. He’s aroused and looking at me, now only wearing my bra and trousers. This is not going to end well... or at least, not productively.
I clear my throat. “The tracks might get old if we don’t leave now...”
I don’t want it to be true. I want to do... things with him here, fun things. Taking advantage of the fact that we’re already mostly undressed.
“Yes, we should get a move on,” he says hoarsely, obviously just as sad about that as me. Curse this quest. I’d much rather hibernate in our little cottage with just my four men.
With a sigh, I take off my jeans and underwear and lower my mental barriers, giving Alis access. She shifts us quickly and I take a backseat as she and Ràn begin to run back towards the village, following the scent the strange girl left.
I can hear her whispering to Ràn’s, but I try not to intrude on their conversation. She rarely gets the chance to chat with the others’ bears, so I don’t want to take that away from her.
Instead, I watch as we run through the snow, tiny flakes whirling up all around us. It’s almost dark, but the snow is reflecting the moonlight enough that we can still see where we’re going. The track is leading us away from the beach and inland, but not towards the village. We seem to be heading to one of the hills in the centre of the island, but it could be any of them. Although I know we’ve explored them thoroughly on our hunts so I can’t imagine there being a portal on a hill somewhere. And we didn’t find any caves either that might hide it.
Polar Fates: A Reverse Harem Novel (The Drowning Book 2) Page 3
