I ducked, although I wasn’t exactly sure why. I was the only moving object around, and at five foot ten, I wasn’t exactly small. Someone could see me if they just glanced out the window. A dusting of rain hit me, and I was suddenly extremely glad the last however many days, weeks, years that I’d been here had been good weather, pleasant outside and not too cold at night.
That might all be changing.
I ran as quickly as I could manage to the edge of the house, breathing hard. Tiredness weighed on my shoulders, but hunger came first. I pressed my head against the window. The lights were on, but no people. I ran to the next window and did the same. Perhaps calling the structure a house was pushing the definition. This place was a mansion. An estate. It took me half an hour of cautiously ducking around windows and trying not to be seen to circle it, and the entire time, I saw no one inside. The fact that it didn’t look abandoned—the lights were on and there were occasional pieces of clothing thrown over the backs of chairs—was both concerning and great news. The first, because they could come back at any time, and the second, because that meant there might be food.
I made my decision and refused to overthink it. I was getting in there. I tried the door, fully expecting it to be locked. They had a lot of stuff to be protected from invaders like me. All of it looking very human. The whys of that I would figure out at a later time, if ever. Maybe I’d never think about this period of my life ever again. Or it could feel like a nightmare I’d soon get over.
The door handle turned. The door creaked open. My hands shook, and I shoved them in my pockets. A war raged in my head, and I didn’t know what to do about it. I needed to go in. I had to find something to eat and maybe also steal something to protect me from the elements while I waited.
But I hadn’t been invited. We’d been poor on our colony planet, but my mother had taught me manners and my uncle had his own brand of morality he’d pounded into us. I’d never been in a huge house like this one. I almost felt like I should take off my shoes and leave them at the door.
I sighed. The occupants of this house could return any time. I couldn’t afford to dally. No siree Bob. I rushed forward like my life depended on it and made my way to the kitchen. I’d seen it from outside. I knew where it was. I tracked dirt onto the floor, which made me wince. Someone was going to have to clean up after me.
The bear shifters had what looked like a giant freezer with a small fridge beneath it. Very different than the traditional way humans did it. Perhaps they needed food to stay better for longer periods of time? Oh hell, what did it matter? I flung open the fridge part and grabbed the first thing I saw. It seemed like some kind of porridge.
I pushed it into my mouth, using my hands like some kind of savage. We had manners, if nothing else, in my family, but all of that had gone out the window with my starvation. This was probably not the protein I needed. Still, it tasted like heaven all wrapped up in one delicious bowl. There was a small trace of honey to it.
I rushed over to the sink and placed the bowl down. Okay, next I would look for. . .
“Stop.” A low, masculine voice sounded in the room. I whirled around. The tallest man I’d ever seen—he must be an entire foot bigger than me—stared down at me. He was shirtless, wearing only shorts, and his hair was wet like he’d just gotten out of the shower. I hadn’t heard anyone coming. Then again, I’d been a little busy feeding myself like a maniac.
“I’m sorry.” That was the only thing I could think to say to the brown haired, brown eyed, thick eyebrowed giant. He had muscles for his muscles. Yes, he probably ate human women for a snack, and he wouldn’t even have to shift to do it.
His pupils changed. That was the only way I could describe what happened for the few seconds that his gaze changed from the dark brown look of a man confused about what was happening in his kitchen to the look of a bear that found some woman in his cave. Or wherever it was that bears slept.
The giant cocked his head to the side for a second and took a deep breath. The gaze changed right back.
I held up my hands. “Please don’t kill me. I’ll go back to the woods. No one will know I was ever here. My people will come for the gold. They’ll take me with them. End of story.”
He took a second to answer me. “You’re who they’re looking for. The pilot who crashed here. A small woman. They’re not reporting that part. Interesting. Amazing what humans let their women do.”
I almost launched into my equal rights speech, and then I thought better of it. I’d call him a misogynist in my own head and leave it at that. Time and place, Jessica. Time and place. “I’m the one. I didn’t mean to come here. Planet Wolf shot at me for no reason. I was in the registered lane. I thought I would die in the crash or you guys would kill me. I didn’t mean to be here.”
He still hadn’t moved. “You smell. . .” He didn’t finish that thought, instead running a hand through his hair. “This is going to be complicated.”
“You’re telling me. I’m sorry. Please let me go. I’m sorry I tracked dirt. I’m sorry I ate your food.”
He pointed to my head. “You’re hurt. Badly.”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” I backed up. Maybe I could run for it. How fast were bears?
The owner of the house shook his head. “My attempts to calm you are not working. So, I’ll just say it. Be rid of your fear, human woman. You are not in danger from me, and you will not be in danger from my brothers, although they’ve yet to return and don’t know about you. I can guarantee it. You will not go into the woods. You’re hungry.” He pointed to the table. “Sit in a chair. I’ll feed you.”
I didn’t move. “Are you just waiting until authorities arrive to take me away or shoot me on sight?”
“I’m the authority, mate. And no one is taking you anywhere.”
What had he just called me? My knees gave out. I’d never fainted in my entire life, but there was a first time for everything.
2
“There now, small one. Wake up.” A voice called to me, as someone raised my head and touched my forehead with something warm. “You are not so injured that you need to be taken to an infirmary. You simply need to open your eyes. We’ll get you feeling much better.”
I forced my lids open. I didn’t know the voice that spoke, but I immediately recognized one of the three faces staring down at me. The giant from the kitchen and two more, whose high cheekbones had to signify they were the brothers he’d mentioned. Unless all bear shifters looked like that. Maybe they did. Brown hair. Brown eyes. High cheekbones. The one closest to me had a slightly more rounded face, and the third man, who stood next to the one I’d sort of met, had a cleft in his chin.
The closest of them, presumably the one who had been speaking to me, put a straw to my mouth, and I sipped. Water rushed down my throat quickly, and I nearly choked, which had him pulling the drink away from me.
“Slowly. You’re dehydrated, and you fainted. Exhaustion, maybe. I don’t like your head injury. Your physiology is the same as ours in this state. You’re just fragile. Don’t fret. We’ll see to it that you are okay from here on in.”
The third one spoke. “You’re sure, Cole? I won’t risk her. I mean, I don’t understand how this is happening, but it is, so I won’t allow anything to happen to her. She’s so small. So likely to break.”
“She is fragile, for sure. But maybe tougher than she looks at the same time,” the one who had been called Cole answered. “She did survive out there somehow on her own, and we’re nowhere near the wreckage.” He rose from the bed. “You need food and maybe something to make your head stop hurting since you can’t shift.”
Shift. The word made me want to pull the covers up over my head and hide. That wouldn’t do me any good, but it was everything I could do in the world not to simply give in and hide under the blankets. The first guy had told me I was safe and then used the word mate. I didn’t know what customs and rules were on this planet or with their species, but there were all kinds of ways to hurt someone.
I swallowed. My throat was still dry, but I forced myself to speak. “What are you going to do with me? Or to me?”
The three of them stared at each other for a long second before they all turned to look at me. First guy spoke. “I’ve told her that she would be safe here. That I was in charge of what would happen. She didn’t hit her head when she fell, but perhaps the crash? That bump and the cut? Do you suppose she has brain damage?”
“I don’t have brain damage.” I sat up straight in the bed, which was when it occurred to me that I was in bed. I guessed that answered my cave question. They slept in beds. Or at least they had one. I had to keep track of what I’d been saying. “It’s a reasonable question. I am here illegally, but not purposefully. I don’t wish to cause any harm. I’m sorry I stole your porridge. I. . .”
I took a deep breath. “You said I was safe, but then you used that word—mate—and I am not going to do that just because I took the porridge. I have gold in my bag. I’ll pay you.”
The third one held up his hand. He spoke to his brother. “We’re having a meaning of the word problem. That means something different to them, and she can’t understand scent as we do.”
First guy made a noise in his throat that sounded like a growl. “Okay. We’ll start over. I did bumble it. I was in the shower. The aroma hit me. It was all I could do to get down the stairs and not destroy things to do so. You had the same reaction. You might have made mistakes too if she had been conscious when you got here.”
Cole sighed. “Hold on, you two. Please. You’ll have to excuse my brothers. Oldest and youngest. They bicker while I make peace. We are the Durojo family. You are in our house. You met Finn first. He was here when you arrived.” First guy nodded to me. “He is the oldest of our family and the leader of this planet. I’m Cole. I have some medical skills. That is why I examined you. And my youngest brother, Rylan. He’s actually been looking for you for several days. You managed to elude him. You’ll have to tell him sometime how you did that. And he’ll have to tell us why he kept the fact that he scented what you would be to us to himself.”
“Hasn’t exactly been the time.” Rylan growled, his voice lowering. “It is illegal. I wasn’t going to discuss it with strangers. I was waiting until the three of us could be alone.”
I got up on my knees. I understood about half of what they were talking about, but I wasn’t worried about it. The fundamentals of things had not changed. I had to get out of here before whatever they smelled caused them to hurt me.
“I’m sorry I’m here. I’m sorry I came in here uninvited. I can go. You never have to see me again.”
Finn scrunched up his face. “We’re not angry. Relieved, in some ways. And confused. But not upset.” He patted the top of my leg. “I was going to feed you. I scent hunger from you, and if we are to proceed, in whatever way we can possibly do that, then I need to make sure you are cared for first.”
Rylan laughed. “You were going to cook? You don’t cook.”
“Maybe I was going to warm something. I would have gotten her fed.”
I shook my head. “I think we’re having a little bit of a translation problem.” They all turned to stare at me when I said that. Okay, that was good. They could take me seriously. I had a chip in my ear that let me hear in my own language. Although these shifters hated people from other planets, presumably they must have them, too, since they could hear me just fine. Otherwise, planet-to-planet, and sometimes within one planet itself, people would struggle to make themselves understood.
Still, things went askew. This had to be one of those times. I pointed to my ear. “I’m hearing things that don’t make sense, and that is fine. That happens. My name is Jessica White. I work for the Union as a courier. I bring things through space. Well, this was my first mission.” Rylan opened and closed his mouth. I didn’t know what he was going to say or why he decided not to speak. Or maybe that was some kind of tic thing he did. It didn’t matter right then.
I had their attention, so I continued. “I was flying through the assigned corridor of space, and the wolves shot some kind of planet to space missile and knocked me off the corridor and sent me crashing onto your planet. I don’t really remember anything from after the strike until I woke. I was pretty sure I was going to die. My family tends to be blown up in lots of different ways, but the end result is the same. We just do.”
Cole rubbed his chin and rocked back on his feet, but he didn’t interrupt. I really appreciated them not talking over me. Whatever the glitch was in our language chips, we could overcome it if we just all listened very carefully.
“I know that you guys, as a rule, don’t allow non shifters here. That is fine. I don’t want to be here. My people will come get me. I can either wait until they do somewhere else, or maybe you could contact them.” I might have been expendable, and I really hoped I wasn’t, but the gold would get them here fast. “You can all go back to your lives.”
Cole shook his head. “I am going to go do the cooking. You can explain this, Rylan. Finn needs to call off the searchers.”
I rubbed my eyes. Why weren’t they focusing on the fundamentals here?
Rylan sat down on the bed next to me, patting my leg under the blanket. “Are you in pain? Cole wanted to get you a pain block. I can do that.”
“I am in pain, but I’m less concerned about that than about the things I said not being answered. I am grateful you are trying to help me. Concerned, but grateful.” There. I’d been magnanimous, hadn’t I? I knew big words sometimes. I could read and did when I had any time.
“Listen, this must be confusing. It is for us too.” Rylan sighed. “You see, we were raised to believe humans smelled bad. That upon encountering a human, we would instantly want to kill it.”
It. I tried not to wince, but failed. His use of that term was exactly what I was afraid of. I was a cockroach to them. Every planet had them. The little bastards probably had their own interstellar travel arrangements.
He made a growling noise in the back of his throat and then abruptly stopped. “I didn’t mean to say what I said the way I said it. I’m not. . .good at this. Finn should be explaining. Okay, listen, we don’t hate the way you smell. If anything, we’re sort of addicted to it. You smell like our mate. I don’t know what you know about us since we know little about you, but we mate as clans. Brothers usually mate the same woman. There are always more males than females. Our kind evolved that way. Helps us protect you better too. You’re ours.”
My mouth fell open. “That’s not possible. I’m not a bear shifter.” Now at least I understood that word Finn had used. “Bear shifters must mate other bear shifters.”
“Yes. Usually. But we don’t often find ourselves with others outside of our population. You’ll adjust to the idea. You’ll like us. We are the strongest clan on the planet. Finn is in charge. It’s an honor to be our mate.”
I’d had enough. I couldn’t be reasonable. My head pounded. Fear made me stupid. I’d used up all my reserves to keep my freak out from coming.
“No.” Okay, I shouted. I did. I’ll admit it. “No. No. No.” I repeated myself over and over. I wasn’t going to stay here. I wasn’t going to adjust. This just wasn’t happening. I shoved at the big brick wall that was Rylan. He didn’t budge with my attempted assault. Instead, his eyes changed, like Finn’s had earlier.
One second, his dark brown depths were human, and the next, they weren’t. Finn’s had immediately changed back, but Rylan’s weren’t.
“You will hurt yourself.” His voice was low, much deeper than earlier. He rose to his feet. “I won’t let you do that.”
Finally, I grabbed the blanket, and I threw it over my head. I’d had a temper tantrum, and now I was hiding like a child under the blankets. Maybe they’d decide I wasn’t worth all this hassle and kick me out. That would work just fine by me.
The bed was too big. I wasn’t used to having so much space, and when I was really lost in the universe, I liked to feel squished. T
here was too much room around me for things to happen.
The bed dipped. Rylan must have sat back down. “You’re frightened.”
Did he expect me to answer? I had nothing to say about that. Zilch. Nada. Yes, I was terrified. “Imagine if you were unexpectedly on Earth or one of the human colonies somewhere and someone said you could never leave. That you belonged to them. What would you do? You wouldn’t be scared?”
He tugged on the blanket, but only so much as to get my attention, not to pull it off me. “Well, to start, I would probably have done less well than you did avoiding capture. How did you do that?”
I pushed the blanket aside. His eyes were still bear-like. Huge and brown, unhuman, not matching his very male and terran looking figure. “I don’t know. I don’t know how I didn’t die in the crash. I don’t know how I avoided being caught. All of it was accidental. I’m a good pilot. I’ve survived in the woods before, but that’s about it. I don’t know.”
“We’ll figure it out another time. Let’s just focus on the basics right now.”
I let him take my hand and lead me from the room. They were all very preoccupied with getting me fed, and I wasn’t going to object. Not if I had to run away, which I did, in order to not have to belong to them. What did that mean? What would their expectations of me be? Cleaning? Cooking? Sex? I had plans, and damn it, they didn’t include this level of crazy.
I sat down in a chair that was way too big for me, and a second later, Cole stood in front of me, placing a plate down. I stared at it for a second. “This looks a lot like a fish we have on Earth called salmon.”
“I imagine you have a lot of the same foods we do.” Cole sat down next to me. “Because we gave them to you when we deposited your ancestors on the terraformed planet many, many millenniums ago.”
Planet Bear Page 2
