The Bear Shifter’s Desires

by Martha Woods

  “Alright look, I really don’t know what’s been going on between you aside from the drinking contest.” Holly leaned against the counter, addressing both of them equally. “But if this is a serious fight that Matt wants to give Shane then you could be in the line of fire too Todd, do you think he’s going to care who he hits when the moment comes? Shane clearly doesn’t care about what Matt does, but if you do… maybe it would be safest for you to take a step back and wait until all of this blows over.”

  Shane could see what she was doing, it might not have been obvious to everyone else sitting in the bar but he could tell she was talking about more than just the danger that Matt served to the community. He hadn’t even told her about the scouts that he’d run into that day, but just the overhanging threat of the shifters who were going to be coming for him was enough for him to be worried for anyone else that was around him when they hit. They’d discussed things thoroughly when they’d woken up after spending the night together, and though Shane had come to terms with the fact that she genuinely wanted to be involved with what he was doing, he still wasn’t sure about doing any sort of fighting when she was nearby if he could help it.

  He knew better than anyone how much fights could branch out and kill people who were never involved to begin with, who’d just been unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  “I’m not… gonna just back away because I’m worried about what he could do,” Todd said, “If Matt comes for my friend then I’m gonna jump right in beside him, I just want to make sure that Shane fully realizes the danger that he’s in. If he does that, then I’ll let all of this go, no questions asked.”

  “I know this sounds way too confident,” Shane said, “But really, you’ve got nothing to worry about. Just focus on keeping yourself safe and I’ll be fine, I promise, ok?”

  Todd looked at the hand that he was holding out, observing it with some skepticism before he exhaled heavily and took it in his own, shaking once before slumping against the counter. “I swear kid, you have no idea how exhausting it is being your friend.”

  “Oh I do, it’s just something that I’ve gotten used to.” He grinned, holding his glass up for a toast. “It looks like it’s worked out here though, doesn’t it?”

  Todd looked at the blush on Holly’s cheeks, the eye contact that they were still maintaining over top of their smiles, and he understood immediately. “Oh my god, you son of a bitch you actually did it,” He laughed, “Make sure that the rest of the town doesn’t find out, they’ll probably burn both of you in the streets.”

  “I can take care of myself,” Holly said, “I guess all the old guys in town will really be upset they don’t have a chance with me huh?”

  “Oh they were setting their pacemakers to high power in anticipation of the magic night!” Todd chuckled, “How could you disappoint someone like that, they’re just a bunch of feeble old men!”

  “You’re right, how terrible of me. Hey Shane, do you mind if I do something special for all the eighty-year-old drunks in this town, since they’re all clearly owners of what I do with my body?”

  “Knock yourself out, I’ll be sitting here with a beer when you get back. Just be safe.” Shane relaxed in his stool, chuckling as she slapped his shoulder and turning towards the entrance, expecting any moment to see Matt walking through the door with a posse in hand, just in time to ruin the good day that he was having.

  Instead of that however, he saw someone much stranger standing in the entrance way, beard and hair slightly more unkempt than the other locals, but not in a way that seemed unhygienic. He was clean, well dressed, but the rest of his hair, it made him look…

  Shane’s eyes widened, even as he dropped the glass and started standing up. “Like an animal.”

  He would recognize that mouthful of fangs anywhere, had fought against them more times than he could count when he was younger, still occasionally woke up with nightmares when he remembered what they were capable of doing to someone. It had been many years since he’d left home, but even with all that time between then and now there was one thing that was absolutely certain: There was no way in hell that he would ever forget what a wolf looked like.

  “Get down!” Shane shouted, grabbing Todd and hurling him over the counter as Holly got down underneath the bar. He turned back to the entrance, seeing the wolf hold his arms out and snap his fingers, and in that moment the windows all shattered inwards as a wolf burst through each one, tackling dumbfounded patrons to the floor before leaping towards him.

  He ducked the first wolf, sending his fist flying upwards into its stomach and lifting it further into the air, its back slamming against the nearby wall and leaving a deep crack running up the entire thing. The other wolves saw this and paused for a moment, circling him like he was their prey as the rest of the patrons that could still stand all got up and ran out of the bar screaming, shoving past the shifter at the entrance who let them go without a care, still staring only at Shane with glee in his eyes.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Shane said, backing towards the bar and keeping each wolf in his field of view always, “I don’t want to have to kill any of you, you can just… go home, alright?”

  “You know we can’t do that,” The shifter said, stepping closer and shaking his head, “I’m sorry, let me introduce myself. I’m Kenneth, the leader of this little team, and I want you to know that I really don’t hate you for anything that you may or may not have done.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Shane protested, “I’ve been living away from everything for years now, and you just… came here to kill me for some shit that I’m not even involved in. You think that makes you right? You think this is a good thing that you’re doing here?”

  “To be honest Shane, can I call you Shane? I don’t really care what the morality of all of this is, I just know that I’ve been given a job to do and I’m going to do it, and if this is something that can maybe drag Orson out of hiding too, then, well, I guess that’s just something that I’m going to have to do, isn’t it?”

  “Fuck you,” Shane spat, “And fuck the rest of you for going along with this, I thought wolves were supposed to be prouder than this?”

  “We are, that’s why I’m going to give you an option Shane, before you decide to go too crazy with everything that’s going on.” Kenneth took a seat at one of the nearby booths, draping one leg over his knee and leaning his head on his hand, tapping his free fingers along the table. “If you meet us tonight, in the outskirts, alone and willing to be taken back to face judgement, then we’ll let your friends go. They won’t be able to tell anyone what happened here, no one would believe them anyway, so there’s no reason to kill them other than… well, to hurt you really.”

  “My friends?” Shane asked, before his mouth dropped open in realization and he leapt over the counter, seeing only a small drop of blood and absolutely no sign of either Todd or Holly. “What did you do?”

  “They’re safe, I can guarantee that much for the moment. I really do take no pleasure in involving innocents in this business of ours, it’s a nasty shameful thing, but it’s really the only way to stop this fight from potentially spilling out into the streets and hurting any other people. And I think we can all agree that we really don’t want that to happen, can’t we?”

  Shane had to admit that yes, he did agree on that point, as much as it irked him to have common ground with the enemy that had just snatched his friends away from him, it seemed… wrong somehow.

  “Fine,” He said, clenching his fist tightly and bowing his head, “I’ll meet you, just make sure that neither of them are hurt, do you understand? If they are… I’ll kill every single one of you, no questions, no begging, none of you will make it to sunrise.”

  “That’s a fair compromise,” Kenneth said, standing and clapping his hands together, each of the wolves looking back at him as he addressed them, “Now, I know that all of you are just itching to rip him to shreds, but a deal is a deal. He gets a fe
w more hours to make his peace with the inevitable, and we make sure that our new guests are well taken care of, yes? I know that I’m a man of my word, are all of you too?”

  With assorted howling and whining that Shane could barely recognize as protests, each of the wolves stood up on two feet and took the form of a human being once more, each of the men and women staring back at him with varying degrees of hate and annoyance, though none more so than the man that shuffled past him from behind the bar, clutching at his stomach with a line of blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. He knew that he would be alright, they were shifters after all they were meant to be sturdy, but it was still a sight that made him wince instinctively.

  He was getting uncomfortable jitters at thinking of being back in the forest, those countless years of not knowing where an attack was coming from or when, marching more than once into what was sure to be certain death and still somehow being the only one to make it to the other side. This was indeed bringing back some very uncomfortable memories, and he was very much not a fan of any of them.

  “I’m sorry for this, for what it’s worth,” Kenneth said, stepping to the side to let the rest of his wolves exit the bar, “But a job is a job, I’m sure a professional like you can at least appreciate that much.”

  Shane said nothing as he left, only turning and sitting back down at the bar, picking up one of the bottles of whiskey that had fallen and unscrewing the top. He paused for a moment before he upended the bottle and started swallowing it down in mouthfuls, not stopping until he could see clearly through the bottle and tossing it off to the side to be forgotten. The bar was an absolute mess anyway, snow drifting in through the windows and dusting along the tabletops, glass littering the floor along with countless bottles that had been dropped in the mad struggle to escape the sudden onslaught of the wolves. One more bottle wouldn’t add to the mess, just like a few more bodies wouldn’t really stain his soul any more than it already had been. He didn’t like the person that he’d been, but if that’s the kind of person that he needed to become again in order to save his friends, then he would do it.

  He wasn’t going to just hand himself in, there was no dignity in that, and as much as he didn’t like to admit it he was just far too proud to actually do something that self-sacrificing. When he got to wherever his friends were being held, however many people were waiting there for him, he’d cut through them with all the might and fury that he could muster from a lifetime of running away, a lifetime of constantly being thrust into fights that he wanted no part of only to keep being drenched in blood at the end of it all. He could at least, for once, choose to fight, to throw himself into something wild and chaotic for the goal of saving his friends, not for the aim of achieving someone else’s goals. For the first time he was certain that what he wanted to do was fight, but that realization came with the knowledge that he had to tap into something that he had left behind many years ago, and the best way to bring himself back to that was through the magic of alcohol.

  Like father like son he supposed.

  “Jesus Christ kid, the hell happened in here?”

  He didn’t turn at the voice, but he’d recognize Burnie anywhere. How and why he’d ended up here at this time of all times wasn’t really something that mattered to Shane, not when he could reach over the counter and grab another bottle to drink. “Bad men came and took Todd and Holly, said that I had to turn myself in or they’d die. So really it’s my fault for getting them involved in the first place, but I don’t really want to think about that, you know?”

  “Bad men?” Burnie asked, taking the seat next to him and leaning close, “Are these men… people that you knew?”

  “A long time ago, maybe. Or at least I knew people like them, I’m not really sure to be honest. You kill enough of them and they all start to look the same after a while, you stop seeing any sort of face when you look at them.” Shane took a swig of the new bottle, offering it to Burnie who accepted it with a shaky nod. “I tried running from everything, and it worked for a while, but I guess there really are just some things that you can’t outrun no matter how much you want to.”

  “So you’re a killer huh?” Burnie swallowed a large mouthful, grimacing at the taste before handing the bottle back. “That doesn’t make you too different to some of the other people in this town, but they’ve never had to run away because of it. Sounds like you’ve made some pretty bad enemies in your time, and you’re still so young.”

  “I’ve been fighting since I was twelve years old, can you believe that? All the fighting, all the war, all the blood, and I still can’t outrun it even after all these years. I think I’m just… I think I’m tired, you know? Like on a massive level, I’m just so tired of having to constantly defend myself from someone or something that has a problem with me, I just want to be able to live properly. I think I’ve earned that, don’t you?”

  “I don’t know kid, I don’t know what you’ve done before, and I don’t know if I’m qualified to tell you if you’ve done enough to earn a life. But I do know that the man that you’ve been when I’ve been around is hardworking, caring, always eager to lend a helping hand. I see you and I don’t see some… irredeemable monster that these people from your past are seeing, I see a man who wants to earn his way back into the world to live it his way, not anyone else’s.” Burnie held his hand out, waiting until Shane took it before he smiled. “I’m glad that you walked into my office out of nowhere kid, and you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. Just let me know if there’s anything that I can do ok? You’re still my employee after all, and it’s an employer’s job to take care of his people.”

  Shane nodded, before he paused, thinking to himself for a moment before he squeezed Burnie’s shoulder. “Can you have a truck waiting outside of town tonight, ready to go anywhere? Todd and Holly’ll be showing up, that much is certain, but I might as well, and… after all of this we’ll really have to get out of here, leave this town behind so they can’t find us, you know?”

  Burnie nodded. “Sure thing kid, I’ll have it waiting out by the woods on the southside, I’ll wait there until you show up, however long that takes. What are you going to do now?”

  “I’m going to go and get a plan together,” Shane said, tossing the empty bottle behind the counter and standing up from his seat, shaking his legs out in preparation for moving, “Then I’m going to go get my fucking friends back.”

  Chapter 9

  “What the fuck is going on?” Todd shouted, struggling against the binds at his wrists, “Who the fuck are these people, what the fuck were those wolves?”

  “Todd, I need you to calm down,” Holly said, breathing harshly herself, “Can you do that?”

  “Can I do that?” He asked, “Are you kidding me? We’ve been kidnapped Holly! By wolves! How the hell does something like that even happen?”

  She debated whether or not she should bother explaining, but if she was being honest with herself she still barely understood it herself. She only knew that they were real because she’d seen Shane transform right in front of her very eyes, there was not much that you could do to ignore something like that, but when it came to discussing the rest of the wolves, or bears, or shifters or whatever they were, she had to admit that she was completely and totally stumped.

  “If he comes here calmly you’ll be let go, I promise.” A young shifter stared down at them, holding two mugs of coffee in his hands and wearing an expression of what seemed to be disapproval. “We didn’t want to involve you in this but… I guess that’s war.”

  “That’s war? No, that’s kidnapping, however you want to slice it,” Todd said, shuffling himself to look up at him properly, “And who the hell are you, you’re just a kid.”

  “I’m Leo,” He replied, “I’m… this is my first job, I was one of the ones who found Shane earlier. Or well, he was the one who snuck up behind me and I’m the only one whose bones he didn’t break, it would have been so easy for him to do though…”

  “
But he didn’t, and you’re still coming after him?” Holly asked, “Where’s your gratitude?”

  “I don’t have a choice!” He protested, “His brother burned down our homes, and now we’ve got to make sure that he’s taken care of before we can keep moving on…”

  “His brother, his brother burned down your homes, not him! He hasn’t even talked to his brother in years, why do you think it’s fair to drag him into something that he was never a part of to begin with?” She scoffed, “Maybe all of you deserve to have your homes burned down if this is how you throw your weight around, did you ever think about that?”

  “I’m sorry,” Todd said, shaking his head to keep up with everything, “But what the hell are you talking about? Who burned down homes? Whose brother? What the fuck is happening here?”

  Leo opened his mouth to explain before he shut it himself, realizing that he wasn’t up to the task of explaining just how things had gone wrong either. There were many things that he’d started to realize since that morning, and if he was being honest with himself he wasn’t too thrilled with what the implications could be, but that was just something that he was going to have to deal with.

  “I brought you two coffee, I know it’s been pretty cold lately. I’ll undo your binds, but just know that you shouldn’t try to run, ok? Everyone else here is on edge, and they’re just looking for an excuse to start hitting, and I don’t want to have anything happen to you ok?” Swiping a claw through the binds and freeing their hands, he leaned back and sighed, “I don’t want to have anyone get hurt here.”

  “Sounds like you don’t have much say in it,” Holly said, rubbing at her wrists before picking up her mug, “After all, you’re going to kill Shane aren’t you? That’s why you grabbed us? So that you can get him back to wherever you came from so you can string him up and watch him die?”

  Leo bowed his head, not wanting to acknowledge what was being said to him, but he knew there was no real denying it at that moment. They were there to collect someone for the slaughter, he’d been on enough hunts back home to know when he was a part of one, and the fact that the prey this time was one of their own… someone who he might have even met when he was a very young child… it just didn’t sit right with him, not one bit at all.