Zanthe (Primal Impulse Shifters Book 2)

by Romi Hart

  Poor girls never stood a chance.

  Thank goodness something in my charism took a backseat for a moment to allow her to catch her breath and let her brain function for a moment. Otherwise, I would’ve been knee-deep in her love juices by now.

  Not that it would’ve been a bad thing for me. But for a poor, young, virgin with absolutely no experience, it would’ve been a pretty bad thing.

  Imagining her going to work in the morning with a fresh look on her face – a well-loved look. Her friends would inevitably ask what happened to her. To which she would readily reply, “I met a man. Not just any man, mind you. I met the man. And I gave my innocence to him.”

  Then one of her well-meaning friends would ask, “What’s his name?”

  To which Crina would say with a tired smile – tired because she would’ve been up practically all night making love with me -, “Zanthe is his name. I call him, teddy bear because he’s so massive and cuddly at the same time.”

  And everyone would smile along with her while congratulating her on losing her virginity to such a well-deserving stud. But then there would be that one person. The one who had to ask the tough questions. “What’s his last name, Crina? Who is his family? Where is he from? And what size shoe does he wear?” Some people have to know everything.

  Poor, young Crina wouldn’t know the answers to any of the questions. She would falter, stumble back until she found a seat to hold her plump ass. And then she would say, “I – I… Well, I don’t know what his last name is. I forgot to ask him as our time was heated with passion and desire. Ecstasy soon followed and I just never thought to ask him those very important questions.”

  No longer would her friends smile, nor would Crina. All would shake their heads, collectively and slowly as they all knew she’d made a horrible mistake.

  Sex with a man whose last name one does not know is a silly thing to do at the very least. At the most, it’s downright dangerous. When you added in the fact that I was a bear-shifter, Crina really was dancing on the edge of disaster.

  Crossing the parking lot of the Nature Park, I soon stepped into the woods. The cold night air had my breath forming rather firm clouds in front of my face. Hibernation was the usual thing I would’ve been doing this time of year had it not been for the flood in the cave.

  I had thought of the flood as a bad omen before it led me to meet Crina – the love of my very long life. She didn’t know or understand that yet, but I did. Our children would be gorgeous. And I hoped they would be smart as well.

  Smart was the one thing all the other females in my past had not been. Education wasn’t a thing that women back then had available to them. But I had to admit that none of them had the brains of even a goose. Neither did the offspring they had.

  With Crina, I might finally be able to build a real family. I might even be able to talk her into wanting to change and become what I was. Having a mate for eternity would be a dream come true.

  Not that I’d met anyone I wanted to spend eternity with, but now I may have. The girl had kept me on my toes this far. And I had to admit that I liked it.

  As I got deeper into the woods, I heard some strange and out of the ordinary sounds coming from the direction our cave was in. Breaking into a run as I thought I’d heard Freedrick shout out something, I soon found a swarm of bats flying around the mouth of our cave.

  The first thing I noticed were the tiny green lights that were everywhere. “Freedrick!”

  My shout had taken the attention of half the bats and they came at me. Grabbing one of them as it flew right toward my face, I fell to the ground as the others flew over me, each one swooping in to try to nip me.

  The one I held had green glowing eyes and this one had foam all over its mouth. Other than the odd eyes and foaming mouth, the bat had the exact anatomy of the dwarf bats that we’d peacefully coexisted with for years and years.

  A horrendous growl had the bats that had converged on me going back to bother my brother who had turned into his bear. Which was a great idea for me to do too since they couldn’t penetrate our thick fur.

  Letting the little bat go, I transformed then went to break a leafy branch off the nearest tree. Using it as a large broom, I shooed the majority of the bats out of my way so I could get into the mouth of the cave to join my bother.

  He spoke telepathically to me, “Finally. Where have you been all this time, Zanthe? I’ve been fighting these little monsters for hours. They’re dwarf bats but they’re not acting like themselves. Something’s wrong with them.”

  Backing into the further reaches of our cave, I found the bats wouldn’t follow us too far back. “They’re staying at the mouth.”

  “I think the idea is to trap us in here.” He growled as one of them went for his eyes. “Get away from me, you little imp!”

  The idea that the tiny creatures were trying to trap us in the cave reminded me of the flood that had only occurred that very morning. “Someone wants to trap us.” I thought about the poisoned beartrap I’d stepped on as well. “Who would want to trap us? And why?”

  “Like I know, Zanthe.” He walked backward, following my lead as we moved into the recesses to get away from the bats. “All I know is that we can’t let them keep us in here. We have to clear them out.”

  “I agree.” Looking for something to make torches with, I found an old broom and mop we had. “Grab some old clothing. We’ll make smoke. They’ll leave if we smoke them out.” Finding a small birdcage, I grabbed it. “I’m going to grab a handful of them to get them tested. Maybe they have rabies. Bats can have that disease.”

  “The foaming mouths and the agitated behavior goes along with that,” Freedrick agreed. “The green glowing eyes do not.”

  “Some sort of poison maybe?” I really had no idea what could be wrong with bats. “Whatever it is, we’ll have to get someone else to find that out. We can turn the ones we catch over to the rangers at the park’s headquarters tomorrow.”

  After making the torches, we lit them, then moved toward the opening where the bats still shrieked as they flew in every direction imaginable.

  Handing my torch to my brother, I let him scare them off while I grabbed a few of them and put them into the cage, closing the door on the little rascals as they tried to bite my bear-fingers. “There. Take a nap, guys. You have a date with some park rangers tomorrow to see what’s wrong with you.”

  Putting the cage on the floor, I took my torch back and helped my brother get rid of the rest of the crazed bats. With the last of them gone, having flown away into the night, I transformed back into my human form and so did my brother.

  Extinguishing his torch, he took mine and put it out too. “So, the female who happened to find you in the ravine.”

  I interrupted him, “The most wonderful female in the world, you mean?”

  Picking up the cage with the bats in it, he retreated back to the cavern we stayed in the most as I came along. “I mean the female who has shown up at the same time that we’ve had not one, but two incidents in the matter of one day. You shouldn’t trust her is what I’m saying, Zanthe.”

  He had to be delusional. “Freedrick, she’s no threat. She’s just a human. No human can harm us. You know that. She’s ripe and ready and her scent found me. It’s nothing more than nature taking its course.”

  “And you don’t want to share her,” he pointed out as he put the cage of noisy bats on a ledge then put a sheet over them which made them get quiet right away.

  “We haven’t always shared, Freedrick.” I didn’t see why he wanted to bring up sharing a female who only I had scented. “You didn’t even catch a whiff of her anyway. Don’t tell me that you’re jealous.”

  “I won’t tell you that because I am not jealous in the least.” Pulling up an old wooden chair, he took a seat. “She’s pretty. She seems nice enough too. But she’s not your type. Should I say it?”

  What he was getting at was obvious. “She’s smart and I have never liked smart females.” He
had though. “You are the one who likes to talk for hours with females. You are the one who likes to share intellectual words with them. While I like to…”

  Nodding, he butted in, “Screw them until they can’t walk right.”

  “Well, yes. But Crina’s different. She’s witty. I like her sense of humor. And I doubt you would like it. It’s a little on the mean side.” The truth was that Freedrick didn’t have much of a sense of humor at all. He was dry-witted, and I didn’t think he was funny at all.

  “My main concern is that she has shown up just as we start having troubles.” He sniffed the air. “And you didn’t even succeed in mating with her. So, what’s the deal with that? You’ve never, not scored with a female. Do you see what I’m saying here, Zanthe? Something is amiss with this young female.”

  Sitting on the floor, I didn’t want to talk about Crina in a negative way. “She’s a virgin.”

  The news didn’t seem to phase my brother. “Of which we’ve had more than a handful. So what?”

  “She’s more innocent than any we’ve ever had before. I got her first kiss tonight. I want her first everything.” He’d never felt about a female the way I felt about Crina. “I want her first, I love you. And I will give her mine.”

  A smirk formed on his lips. “Sappy, brother.” He gestured to my cleaned-up appearance. “And you have shaved for this girl too. Not like you at all. I think it was you who said that if a man must gussy himself up to attract a female, he’s not really a man but more of a…”

  “Mammary gland.” I had thought myself clever to have come up with that. “Yes, a boob, Freedrick. And I don’t think I was wrong. I did behave much like a boob tonight.”

  “I’m sure that you did. But please tell me in what way you acted like one.” His undivided attention was square on me as he grinned.

  “She asked a simple question and I froze.” I still couldn’t believe myself.

  “What question was that?” Crossing his legs, he put his hands on one knee. “Was it something about me?”

  He had a lot of nerve. “No. She didn’t say a thing about you, Freedrick. You’re much too fancy for her.” Some females liked men with a feminine side to them. Crina wouldn’t like a man like that at all. Not for her lover anyway. “She asked me what my last name was. And I drew a blank.”

  Blinking, he too seemed stumped for an answer, but then chuckled, “Boris would be the answer you should’ve given her. A father’s last name is always taken by the children.”

  “I figured that out.” Sure it had taken me a while, but I had figured it out. “Eventually. And too late. But I did figure that out.”

  “So, what about her now?” He looked over his shoulder. “Where is she? You’ve never come home without the female you were after. Will she be here later? Surely, you will want her with you until you managed to mate her and breed her.”

  “Normally, yes, I would want that. But she’s a modern woman. And as such, she and I will have a very different relationship. You should find yourself a modern woman as well, Freedrick. We could be couples together.” I thought that might be fun. “We could go out on the town together. Do things other young couples do. Go clubbing. I think that’s a thing.”

  “Sounds horrifying.” He yawned and stretched his arms. “So, you and she are dating? Like some sort of human? Are you mad?”

  “No.” I hated how he couldn’t seem to come into the new age. “We’re not living in the old days anymore, brother. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing things the way people do them now. And women have become empowered. I – for one -think that’s a great thing. It has made them so much more interesting.”

  “How?” He laughed as he waved his hand through the air. “By being argumentative? I’ve heard females talking to their male counterparts you know. They have no qualms speaking their minds. It’s a travesty if you ask me. A quiet female who is quick to jump to do a male’s bidding is by far the best sort of female there is.”

  “You are wrong.” He had no idea how exciting the challenge of a smart woman who knew she had power was. “She told me to leave, brother. In the middle of some very intense making out, she told me to leave her apartment.”

  Gasping, he held his hand to his chest. “And you just did as she told you to?”

  “It was her demeanor that bid me to. She had power and she knew it. The essence she gave off told me to do as she had said to or she would make me do it. I didn’t want to fight. I like her and I want her to like me. Plus, forcing myself on her would’ve not only felt wrong, but it would also have been wrong. Males don’t do that in this time. It’s not only frowned upon, but it’s also illegal. This isn’t the old days, brother. If you ever do scent a female in this era, you best let her go at her own pace and not rush her.”

  “And you have always called me a pansy-ass.” He snorted as he laughed at me. “My time with her was far too short. I must meet this little girl who has turned my brother’s advances down.”

  “She hasn’t turned me down completely. She just told me to leave her for the night.” And she’d been right to do it. “When I couldn’t give her a name, she assumed that something wasn’t right with me. Which she is correct about. I am not a human. Perceptive of her is how I see it.”

  I don’t care what he thinks. I like the spunk and spark Crina has. I wouldn’t have her any other way.

  10

  Crina

  The night had been agonizingly long and lonely after I’d sent Zanthe away. Never had my body ached so badly. But I knew I’d done the right thing.

  A man who refuses to give a woman his last name is a scoundrel. Everyone knows that.

  After parking my car, I headed inside the office, needing a cup of coffee to get my day started. But what I heard before opening the door had me frozen in place. “Yes, sir. This is Zanthe Boris. He and his brother, Freedrick are working in the park for the Animals of the World Foundation, headquartered in the United States. They’ve been studying the brown bear population we have here. And they encountered a swarm of dwarf bats behaving erratically late last night,” the voice belonged to Peter, the senior ranger. He must’ve been on the phone with someone else.

  Another tour guide came up behind me. Maude was in a hurry to get inside. “Hurry up and open the door, Crina. It’s cold out here.”

  “It’s always cold, Maude. Why hurry?” I didn’t want to go inside and have to face Zanthe now that I knew his scientist’s story was true and that he did have a last name.

  Maude wasn’t having it though and pushed me inside with her. I moved to the side, hugging the wall as I went to the coffee machine in silence.

  Only Maude had to shout, “Get me a cup too, Crina. Black, no sugar.”

  Zanthe didn’t even look at me, I found as my eyes snapped to him. He hates me now.

  It was obvious the grown man saw me as a stupid little girl now that I’d thrown him out of my house for such a dumb reason. With a sigh, I made myself a cup of coffee and got Maude one too.

  Peter was next to call everyone’s attention to me. “Crina, we’ll take a couple of coffees over here too, please. We’ve got a case to deal with this morning. We’ll need everyone’s help this morning. There aren’t any tours scheduled until later this afternoon anyway.”

  Filling a couple more paper cups, I put them all on a tray then took them to the table where Peter sat with Zanthe and Maude had taken a seat too.

  She poked at some tiny dwarf bats who lay sleeping on the bottom of a birdcage. “Wake up, little guys.”

  Zanthe put his hand out to stop her. “I’m not sure if those guys have rabies or not. Best not to touch them.”

  “Rabies?” I put the tray down. “Why do you think they might have rabies?”

  One of the little things woke up and started making a terrible noise. The first thing I noticed was the white foam around its mouth and then I saw its eyes glowing green. “Good, Lord!”

  Peter tossed a towel over the cage. “Best to leave them sleeping. We’
ve got a specialist coming to test them. If it’s not a disease, then it could be a reaction to some chemical spill. Someone may have even dumped something toxic in the park. It’s important that we find whatever caused this.”

  “And if it’s not a chemical spill and it is rabies, then what?” I took a seat next to Zanthe. Him ignoring me wasn’t working for me. “Morning, Zanthe.”

  Peter and Maude looked at me with surprised expressions as Zanthe greeted me, “Morning, Crina. I trust you had a good night.”

  “I did, thank you.” I hadn’t had a good night at all, but I wasn’t about to get into that with others listening in on us.

  Peter and Maude exchanged glances. “Seems Crina already knows Mr. Boris. Maude, this is Zanthe Boris. He and his brother, Freedrick are scientists who’ve been working in this park for years, researching the brown bears who call Apuseni Nature Park home.”

  So, I had it in a nutshell. Zanthe had told me the truth. All he’d left out was his last name, for reasons that I couldn’t figure out. Maybe he was famous in the scientist world and thought that if I knew his last name I would become starstruck. Little did he know that I knew next to nothing about famous scientists.

  “And where is Freedrick this morning?” I asked. “And how is your leg doing today?” Looking at Peter, I offered an explanation of how I knew the man who had already grown a fair amount of hair back on his handsome face. “Mr. Boris here was injured yesterday when he stepped on a beartrap near the old trapper’s cabin. I met him and his brother yesterday not long after that.”

  “Are you okay, Zanthe?” Peter asked with concern.

  “I’m fine. My brother used some of his more potent medicine on me. Someday his medications will be available for public use. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet.” Zanthe hooked a thumb at me. “I’ll take her with me. We’ll take the right quadrant.” He got up and I hurried to follow him.