by Selena Kitt
“You always say that. Stop complaining and yelling. Celine’s trying to get some sleep before the others get here,” Ryan said in a low voice.
“She’s still not feeling well?”Leon asked looking in the direction of the swaying hammock.
“She’s getting better. She wants chocolate, so I’m guessing it’s a good thing.”
Raddler’s laughter was the thing that managed to wake Celine up. She peeked at the three massive men gathered around the grill, who were now trying not to laugh so loud, but failing. She almost fell as she tried to set her feet on the ground, but she managed to make a graceful comeback. Nobody noticed a thing. She sneezed a few times and that got their attention. It wasn’t on purpose, but her body had a way of getting her in trouble somehow. They turned their heads in her direction and Ryan jogged to where she was standing.
“Come meet the guys, baby.”His excitement was contagious. She hoped they liked her. He kept her close to him as they approached the group. Neither Alex, nor Leon hugged or shook her hand. They had just nodded their “hellos” and polite “nice-to-meet-yous”.
“Wait, so you’re Leon, yeah?” she chuckled.
“Yeah, that would be me,” he said with that serious face of his. “I hope you haven’t heard many embarrassing stories about me.”
“Actually, that’s strange. The first night I came here, a huge bear scared the life out of me and I think Ryan said his name was Leon.”
“Did he now?” Leon smirked as he looked at Ryan. Of course Leon remembered that night. He had been so curious to see why Ryan was up there on a Saturday night – when he was always at one of the restaurants - that he couldn’t stop himself from being nosy. He didn’t realize she was human until it had been too late to stay hidden. Ryan didn’t come up there at the weekend. His restaurants were always packed and he needed to be there to keep the place from self-destroying or something.
“It’s funny you share the name of your rescue bear. That’s all,” Celine half-smiled, unaware how close she was to the truth. The same couldn’t be said about Raddler, Alex and Ryan. They all burst into laughter for some reason Celine failed to get. “What’s so funny?”she addressed all of them now.
Alex was the one to answer her. “It’s just that Leon was the only one that bear loved to steal food from,” he tried to rectify the situation with a believable story.
Leon preferred to stay quiet before he said something to annoy an already edgy Ryan. They had all felt his control on his bear and how close he was to losing his shit if something went wrong.
Sipping from their beers and engaged in funny chit-chat, the guys paid no attention to the couple approaching them. They knew who they were without having to look. Adam and Anna were coming from the forest. Sex-induced oxytocin was seeping through their pores and Ryan was glad Adam’s mate was relaxed. Celine had gone inside just a few minutes before their arrival, claiming she would be back with cutlery for their outdoor lunch.
Adam’s hand tensed around Anna’s waist as they got near the group. All this pressure wasn’t good on either of them. They had no reason to be afraid Anna would have a bad reaction since she hadn’t exactly changed into her bear form and Adam had investigated the situation. Humans that were mated to a shifter could only shift partially in the beginning and it took a lot of time until they managed to control their changes. Anna hadn’t changed at all. Her emotions had been all over the place since she was bitten, but that was just her. It was normal to be afraid of the unknown, we all are. Adam held a firm grip of her, just in case. He was more worried about his brother doing something, anything to protect his mate. His brother was so scared of working with his own bear and that made him very unpredictable. And he was so fucking strong. His bear was the wildest of them all. It was the only one kept on a leash, which was the reason for the violent behavior. At least he had back-up if something did go wrong. The guys were there too.
Celine got clammy hands as she tried not to drop all the forks and knives that were on the plate she carried outside. She was quite clumsy and knives were one of the things that terrified her. Especially the big, pointy ones Ryan had in his kitchen. He had massive hands, more like paws to be more precise, so his knives were huge. Even looking at them made her nervous. She started chanting “keep your eyes on the floor” as she made her way out of the chalet and onto the grass. There were two more people there. That meant Adam and Anna must have arrived. She was excited to be meeting Anna. Ryan’s brother had told her some things about Anna and she needed new friends since her old ones weren’t too psyched about her refusal to go out with them. She wasn’t sorry about that. She wanted a change and this was the perfect opportunity to change her friends. Her old friends always went out in bars and clubs. She wasn’t into that, but went with them just because she didn’t want to be alone.
The grill wasn’t even visible. They were all hanging out close to it, almost in a circle. Laughter and grilled fish filled the air. Happiness. They were enjoying each other’s company and Celine was part of that now. A family.
Not paying attention to where she going because of how distracted she was, she set one foot on the stairs, and she almost fell. The noise made by the falling forks and knives muted the chatter. Everybody turned and what happened after that was all a blur for Celine.
The woman sniffed the air, bared her teeth and the sound that came out of her throat was inhuman. She roared. Adam held her as tightly as he could and now Leon was shielding them with his body.
Another roar pierced the silence, but this time it wasn’t coming from the woman. She desperately looked for Ryan, but she couldn’t find him. How could that be? He had been there a few moments before. He was the only one wearing green, so it was easy for Celine to recognize him. Thick, dark chocolate-brown fur came out of nowhere and the most enormous brown bears started fighting. Actually, one of them was the aggressive one and the other two were trying to stop it from getting to the woman whose face was deformed now. What the hell was happening? Where had the bears come from and where were the rest of the guys? Celine felt like she was thunderstruck. She couldn’t move and her lungs were fighting for air. Her knees could barely support her body weight and threatened to give in.
The two men who were restraining the woman pulled her away towards the forest and soon they were out of sight. The three bears kept snarling at each other and the aggressive one attacked. Sharp claws gripped into one fur and seemed to sink deeper into skin. She couldn’t follow what was happening.
Celine found herself alone with the bears that were now on their hind legs, looking as tall as the trees behind them. She wanted to call for help and run inside, but couldn’t do anything. She remembered she was supposed to be surrounded by people, not animals. Warm people, not wild animals.
She fell to her knees as she scrambled to get inside. She dropped the plate and it broke into a million pieces and that distracted the animals. They stopped throwing paws and scratching long gashes into one another and looked her way. She was so screwed! They noticed her and were going to eat her. One of them let out a roar and started moving in her direction.
Hot tears the temperature of lava burned their way down her cheek. She was in the forest again. She was fourteen again. She was so hungry and thirsty she couldn’t think straight. That bear was getting closer. Anger was written all over its face. On all fours, he crashed to the ground. It looked exhausted. Something was happening to it. Its thick fur started shrinking and soon there was no more fur. The massive body that had belonged to the bear only seconds before looked like a mess of bones and skin as it was reshaping into a human body. A man’s body. A man with long hair. The naked man on the ground in front of her was lying on the ground as still as a corpse. Was he dead? What kind of question was that? Get up and run for your life. You’re going crazy, Celine. You’re running a fever. Wake up! Her mind screamed at her. She wiped her hands on her shorts again and again as if the movement would make him wake up.
His head moved and he groaned as
if everything hurt. His body was covered in blood and long claw marks blanketed his back. Even though she was scared out of her mind, she reached out to touch him and noticed that blood no longer gushed through the skin. Her mind could barely process what had happened. A wild, aggressive bear turned into a man. A man who was familiar.
Then it struck her. “Ryan?” The word came out almost inaudible. Had she screamed? Had she lost her voice?
Two men approached her, but she didn’t even bother to look up. She was still in shock. One of them crouched next to the passed out man and the other put a hand on her shoulder.
“Celine? Let me help you up,” the familiar face said. She knew he was one of Ryan’s friends, but couldn’t remember his name. It wasn’t even relevant. She had seen three wild bears fight just meters away. He supported her body as she stood. The man on the ground hadn’t moved.
Alex guided Celine inside and made her sit on the red couch in the living room. He knew it hadn’t been the best idea to touch Ryan’s mate, but he had no choice. She just stared blankly into space. She was like a zombie. Poor thing, Alex thought. He covered himself with one of the towels from the bathroom. As he went out of the bathroom, a naked Ryan entered. His body was covered in blood and cuts. He almost lost it again when he saw the state Celine was in. She was now sobbing, hugging her legs and rocking her body. Ryan hurried to hug her, knocked the coffee table out of the way, kneeled on the floor in front of her legs, but she retreated to the end of the couch, repeating “stay away” and protecting herself with her arms.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I ruined everything. I’m so sorry,” his voice was hoarse and he was shaking all over. He was panicking. It could trigger another change if Alex didn’t do something soon. Alex’s bear tried to reach Ryan’s bear. He focused on their childhood. The connection between them was open so he flooded it with the sound of water flowing peacefully, leaves rustling in the wind at night, memories of them playing in the snow and running together in the mountains in winter. It was working. Ryan’s shaky body was calming down. Ryan and Alex looked at each other for a few moments.
“Thanks, man,” Ryan managed to say as he fought back tears.
Alex went out of the room to give Ryan and Celine some privacy.
As soon as they were alone, Ryan broke down. He gently hugged her legs and kissed them.
She flinched.
“It’s me, baby. I’m not going to hurt you. I love you, brave girl.”
She stopped rocking and her legs slid to the floor. She hugged him back, but kept crying. She looked so small and terrified. They didn’t move for a while. They just stayed like that, holding each other, neither wanting to break their connection.
Still sniffing, Celine touched his lips with her finger. Her emotions were all over the place. She didn’t know what to say. Was he special to her because of his ability to change into a bear?
“There are so many things I have to tell you. Can you hear me out?” Ryan whispered without lifting his head.
“Were you ever going to tell me you change into a bear, Ryan?”she asked, lifting her head and forcing him to look at her.
“You would have found you anyway, I’m aware of that now.”
“Telling me was never your plan. I… I understand. I have no idea what sort of thing this is and it sounds straight out of a fantasy book. Why did you think it was better to keep me in the dark? You said you were serious about us and I trusted you! Can’t believe you, Ryan!” she shouted.
She wanted to get out of this place, even though being close to Ryan made her feel so safe and loved. She didn’t recognize this version of her man. He looked broken beyond repair. She tried to get on her feet, but he grabbed her wrists, gently urging her to stay.
“Please, baby…” The pained expression on his face made her listen to him and stay. For now. She didn’t know if she could forgive him for this lack of trust. He continued. “My ex-wife, Joana, was three months pregnant when she found out I was a shifter. I am a bear shifter, Celine. It’s who I am and it’s with the animal inside that I have the most problems with. I wish I had a bear that was tamer, but mine is a beast, so it takes great effort to keep under control. Not many people know about us. So, Joana… when she found out that I was a monster- as she called me- she got hammered and committed suicide. She drove off a bridge. She said she didn’t want to bring a monster in the world. She preferred to end her life and our child’s life, rather than give me a chance to make things right. We are not monsters and I wanted you to see that before I told you.”
Celine was speechless. What could she say now? It was clear in how much pain Ryan was. He was like a different person. She remembered Adam had the same expression on his face as he restrained Anna.
“Anna is just adapting to her new senses. We thought she might react this way, but we were prepared. I did it all for you and…”he placed one hand on her belly. “Our little one.”
Understanding crashed on Celine. “Are you telling me I’m pregnant?”her lips trembled. Too many things were happening faster than she could process.
“Yeah, baby. I’m guessing that’s why you have this cold. It’s your body adapting to it.”
“So you’ve been married before. How long ago?”
There were no emotions on her face that gave Ryan any signs of what she was thinking, so he just went for the full disclosure policy. “She died seven years ago. It really messed me up to the extent that I slowly pushed the animal inside me deeper and deeper. I focused on building our business. The whole situation affected my whole family and I owed it to my brother not to let this burry us,” he was rambling now, so he shut up.
A few minutes passed and none of them said anything. They just sat there, Celine on the couch – sitting yoga style- and Ryan on the rug in front of the couch. He was stark naked, but there was nothing sexual about the way he was sitting. It was just a vulnerable space of allowing the other to process what was happening. They were holding each other’s hands and Ryan put his hands on Celine’s lap. She went on to caress his hair. Her handsome and strong man. Bear. Both. He had been through something she couldn’t even imagine and had survived.
“Did you love her?” she was talking about Joana.
“Joana? She was my first love, so yeah, I cared about her deeply. Everything started going down the drain when her parents died and she started drinking. We were only married for one year and two months when her parents were gone. She never recovered from that. Anyway… this is about you and me now, not her. I guess I was and still am living with the fear of you leaving me because of what I am. I tried to work on being more human than animal, but it just blew up in my face.”
“Do you love me?”
He lifted his head and looked straight into her acorn-brown, round, big eyes. “I do. You’re the light guiding me back to myself. You’ve awakened and strengthened my bear enough to fight me. You know… my mother wrote us a letter before she died. She believed in soul mates.” Celine chuckled. “I know, it sounds stupid. I didn’t believe in it until today actually. She said our bears recognize their mates, that person who comes into their lives to spark change and bring to the fore feelings we keep hidden with the purpose of healing those wounds. She mentioned it wouldn’t be easy and that we would probably go against our bears and would fight the attraction because of how much it hurt, but I guess she was right, the need to be in that soul union would be greater than the fear.”
“Will I turn into what Anna is? I saw her face contort and change. I’m so afraid that it’s paralyzing me.”
“About that… Adam and Anna are a fully mated couple. That means she accepted my brother and his bear and he bit her during sex. She has his mark and is in transition to becoming a bear shifter. She wasn’t born one, so the transition is long and quite difficult. The problem is we are quite an isolated community here and because all of us are so young, we’re still discovering things on our own.”
“You bit me too,” she said as she touched and rubbed her shoul
der right over the bite.
“I did, but it was a superficial mark. It wasn’t as deep as the one my brother left on his mate. It only created a link between us. Can’t you feel it? I already feel my bear trying to reach out to the cub.”
“Cub? You mean the baby? The baby’s going to change too? Into a bear?”
“It will take time. It’s going to be born in its human body and the first transformation is around the age of one.”
They had been talking for over an hour when Raddler knocked.
“Yeah, come in, Raddler,” Ryan only turned his head to look at the door.
“I just wanted to let you know Anna is okay before we leave.”
Ryan already knew that. His brother was in a better mood now.“You don’t have to leave, right Celine? We can still have lunch. I just need to shower.”
At the mention of food, Celine’s stomach growled “I agree. Let’s get into that shower.”
“We’ll be right out,” Ryan said, getting up and scooping Celine in his arms.
Raddler chortled and Celine’s cheeks warmed. Everybody knew what Ryan’s intentions were. At least one orgasm was on the list. It was written all over his face. His cocky, confident side was slowly coming back to her.
