“Well, we figure we are digesting enough meat what with our task and all. Plus the vegetarian option helps re-energize us properly. I long for the summers when the strawberries are in harvest. I often dream of biting into a ripe, juicy strawberry. For now, we just have to make due by collecting measly rowan berries by the barrel.”
They heard someone nearing the cabin. “Get down!” Afonso shouted to Aurelia. She dropped to the floor and crawled under the kitchen table. Afonso slowly moved toward the window to see who was approaching.
“Oh, no worries. It’s just Nico.”
Aurelia started moving from under the table when Afonso spoke again, “I feel like I should warn you about my brother. He can be a little rough around the edges.”
“Oh?” Aurelia questioned. “Should you have asked him if I could stay here before inviting me to your cabin? I do not wish to cause a rift between the two of you.”
Afonso shook his head and insisted that it would be fine, but Aurelia could read his apprehensiveness. She knew she was about the meet the alpha brother.
The front door swung open, and Aurelia got her first glimpse of Nico. He was also very well built, like his twin brother Afonso, but there were subtle differences. Afonso was tall and lean with shaggy, almost carefree hair. Nico had shorter hair and a light growth of beard, which accentuated his extremely chiseled jawline. He was also tall but noticeably more muscular than Afonso. Nico was wearing boots, earth toned pants, and like Afonso when he and Aurelia met, no shirt. He had a dead doe draped around his neck like a scarf, which he was planning to begin butchering right then and there on the kitchen table.
“Venison, again?” Afonso asked in a rather pouty tone. “Was nothing in harvest?”
Nico slammed the deer on the kitchen table and responded, “You can quest for bird food all you want, and I will continue to provide us with proper meals. No man in his right mind can survive the winters eating like a picky rabbit.”
Aurelia couldn’t help but laugh a bit, which caused Nico to notice her for the first time.
“Who’s this!?” he asked Afonso.
“Nico, this is Aurelia. She’s a princess in hiding. She knows about the forest’s magic and she hopes to find her father in the mountains. She will be staying with us,” Afonso said very matter-of-factly.
Nico shot Aurelia a look of disgust and turned back to Afonso.
“Um, no, she will absolutely not be. Have you lost your mind, Afonso? You don’t know this woman. She could be mad! A princess, eh? Sure, I’m a princess too. I want her out of here this instant!”
Aurelia’s jaw dropped. She had never been spoken about in such a rude manner, especially not from a male. She always demanded the highest level of respect from gentlemen, and this was the first time she had seen it denied.
“Excuse me,” she hissed at Nico, “I am too a princess. I was set to marry Prince Olric yesterday, but I escaped instead. My father went missing while searching for my mother who was attacked by a vicious animal in these woods. My father was never found, but after learning about shape shifters, I am certain he must be captive in this forest.”
Nico shot another fuming look at Afonso and interrupted Aurelia’s speech, crying, “You told her about our shape-shifting?”
Afonso started trying to explain himself, but Nico was not done talking. “You can’t just give away our identities to some hussy you meet in the forest.”
“Hey!” Aurelia yelled. She walked up to Nico, grabbed his face to ensure she had his attention, and said, “First of all, I wasn’t finished talking. Your brother seems to have manners so I suggest you learn some from him. Secondly, I’m no hussy! My story is true. I do not need your hospitality. If you want me out, I’m gone, but don’t you dare call me a hussy again. You got that?”
Their eyes were locked. Nico gently grabbed Aurelia’s wrist to remove her hand from his face. “I could crush your entire arm with one squeeze if I wanted, but I won’t… because I do have manners. But you are right about one thing: I want you out of here. Why should we help you? What are you offering in return?”
Afonso jumped in, “She doesn’t owe us anything. I told her I would protect her. There is too much evil in these parts for someone to go at it alone.”
Aurelia looked at Afonso and said, “No. It’s alright, Afonso. I prepared to do this on my own, and so that’s what I shall do. You’re right though. Your brother is pretty rough around the edges. Good luck with that.”
She grabbed for her bag and started walking toward the door, before Nico called her back, “Wait!” he yelled.
She had the doorknob in her hand, and turned to look back at him. “What’s this about your father being missing?”
In a very stoic manner, she said, “When I was young, my mother went missing, so he and some of his chosen men went out looking for her. Some time later, my mother and all of my father’s men were found dead in various, strange ways. My mother was mauled to death by some creature. My father was never found, but due to the horrible conditions of the forest and the amount of time he had been missing, our town assumed he was dead and had my uncle take the throne. I was very little, but even then, I knew he was still alive. I always had a feeling there was magic in these mountains, and your brother validated that for me today.”
She turned to Afonso. “Thank you again for your hospitality, but I do understand that you both risk your safety with me staying here. I wish you luck on your missions.”
Afonso looked at Nico, then back at Aurelia.
“Please stay!” he pleaded of her.
Then, to the surprise of both Afonso and Aurelia, Nico chimed in, “Yes, you can stay. I’m sorry to hear about your parents. One of the reasons we do what we do here is so that these unfortunate events become less frequent.”
Aurelia smiled and shut the door. “Are you sure, Nico? I really do not mean to intrude. I just had to close the door because it’s freezing outside.”
They all laughed. Afonso went to grab her bags and put them in her new room, which was a corner space meant for storage. This would give her relative privacy.
Nico assured her that it was fine. “Yes, I’m sure. Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to have another body around. It gets pretty suffocating here with just my brother.”
Aurelia looked confused and said, “That’s funny, because Afonso said that it gets lonely up here. Lonely and suffocating are basically polar opposite views.”
Afonso laughed. “Yeah, well beside the whole twin genes thing, my brother and I basically ARE polar opposites. I stay to myself most of the time and he always wants company. Therefore, living with me is lonely and living with him is suffocating. You’ll just have to wait and see which is your cup of tea.”
Aurelia confidently chimed in, “Or maybe I will find it just right. I am living with two bears, after all.”
Afonso looked at her with judgmental eyes, but he could clearly see that she was very proud of her terrible joke. “In that case, I meant to say your cup of porridge.”
CHAPTER THREE
Aurelia was curious to see how her first night’s stay with the brothers would turn out. Do they transform in their cabin before leaving, in the same way she would dress up with Sabina before attending a local party?
She imagined that would be silly. The creature she saw the night before was wearing no clothes. That meant they had to be naked in human form before and after their transformations. No wonder they were both shirtless the first times she met them. They must be more comfortable in the flesh… or fur… than in proper garments. But they have to be in the moonlight, she thought. That meant that they HAD to leave their cabins naked, unless they planned on destroying numerous articles of clothing. She was deep in thought about this process when Afonso walked into her storage space/bedroom.
“Hey!” he yelped into the doorway, startling Aurelia.
“Naked!” she yelled. “Whoa, sorry! Wait, what? No you’re not.” She couldn’t believe she said that, but she did and she had to think fast.<
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“I meant, I could have been naked! Sorry, you scared me. I am so used to people knocking. Could you please do that next time?” Unlike her sister, Aurelia was fairly good at lying. She tried not to make it a habit, but she was confident that if she needed to, she would be golden.
“Oh, you’re right. God, I’m so sorry. I just wanted to see if you wanted some dinner. Nico cooked up the venison and I grilled some squash to make hot soup. We normally don’t sit down to dine together, but I figured since we have company and all…”
Aurelia thought that was actually very sweet and considerate of Afonso, but she was tickled at the thought of him bringing it up to Nico.
“Oh, that sounds great! What did your brother think of your kind idea?”
Afonso smirked, “Oh, he thought it was a great idea. He loves bonding and feelings and manners. You didn’t gather that already?” They both laughed.
Aurelia agreed to come out in a minute after she made her space a little more organized. She was surprised at how the neat the cabin was. She did not want to jump to conclusions again, but she assumed two werebears would live like… well, animals.
However, it was quite the opposite. The storage closet was pretty full, but very organized. She did not want to bother any of their personal items, so she managed to make some extra space on the floor under the lowest shelf, for her bag.
As she walked into the kitchen, Afonso was setting her place at the table while Nico was already sitting, devouring his plate of food which consisted of half a rib cage lying over some chopped liver and a fillet of some sort. Her jaw dropped.
“That’s quite the generous portion you’ve made for yourself. I don’t know if I will be impressed if you eat the whole of it or horrified,” she said to him.
Nico kept his gaze fixed on his meat feast and managed to express between chews, “Well, I wasn’t sure how long you would be, so I figured I would grab enough food to ensure that I would still be eating once you arrived. I usually do not plate my food, but I’m assuming I will be having seconds.”
Afonso had finished setting up her dining space. He gave her a place mat, a dinner plate, a dinner bowl and some silverware. “This is beautiful, Afonso! Thank you!”
Sure, Aurelia was self-sufficient, but she always did appreciate the kind gestures bestowed on her by gentlemen. Even before her engagement to Olric, her previous male suitors would naturally treat her like royalty. At first, she wondered if they only behaved this way due to her title, but then she began secretly watching young couples throughout town and noticed the same thing.
She could always tell when a man was smitten with a female because of how he was behaving. He would let her walk in front of him when approaching a narrow space, or find different ways to touch her for no reason and most importantly, he would look deep into her eyes while she was talking as if he was looking through her physical body and into her soul.
Aurelia became fascinated with watching couples. She would pity the girls chasing boys whom were not interested. The men’s body language would be distant and aloof, and yet the women would swoon. Aurelia had always been a very altruistic person, so when she saw heartbreak she felt real, lingering pain and when she witnessed acts of love, she was filled with idiotic joy and lightness for hours.
She had to live vicariously through these couples she watched throughout town, because she never got to experience an organic courting. If a male was interested in her, he would have to go through many authorities before approaching her so that they could make sure his actions were pure. For this reason, the men that got all the way through the obstacle course of pursuit were surely head over heels for Aurelia.
Sometimes she expressed interest and other times she immediately knew that there would be no chemistry. There was only one man in her life that she actually felt smitten with but could do nothing about.
From time to time, Aurelia would dress in rags and walk among the common folk, because she was forbidden to go without kingdom guards. It was at the farmer’s market where she first laid eyes on the produce man. She never learned his actual name, and he never learned hers. He was very handsome and polite, but also extremely sexy. Any other man working with vegetables and an apron might have come across a bit emasculated, but he carried much confidence. She would see pathetic women swarm around him, basically prostituting themselves out to him, but he would politely decline all offers. Aurelia felt that he treated her differently. It was just his gaze. She would approach the stand and his eyes would lock onto hers from yards away. They would small talk about the vegetables but without taking their eyes off one another. If she inquired about a turnip, he would reach for one without looking away and hand it to her confidently. A few times he grabbed the wrong vegetable but would just play it off by joking that all the produce starts to look the same after a while, which she thought was cute. She was very much infatuated with him, but she wondered if it was just because he was her little secret. Princesses are not allowed to court and he was not royalty, so the mere fact that this arrangement was factually impossible made the illusion that much more enticing.
She did confide in one person with her secret: her sister, Sabina. Sabina had always been incredibly reserved, but for whatever reason, she encouraged Aurelia to have an affair with the produce man. “He could be killed if someone were to find out, Sabina,” Aurelia would argue to her sister.
“I understand that Aurelia, but I dream of that kind of chemistry with a man, and once I find it I swear to you I will act on it immediately.”
Aurelia would later come to learn that her conservative sister had ten times the sexual prowess than she did, which she thought was hilarious considering Sabina was the textbook definition of prim and proper. Aurelia’s secret rendezvous with the produce man came to an end after her engagement to Olric. She suddenly had an agenda full of parties, meetings, greetings and other diplomatic obligations. There was little room left in her life for herself and because she was watched over so intensely, she would use her free time to go on walks by herself… or in certain cases, with Lady Gertrud secretly trailing behind.
“Do you want me to serve you a plate or did you want to make it yourself?” Afonso asked Aurelia, bringing her back to reality.
“I fear I have no idea what a normal sized human meal is anymore,” she said as she gazed back to Nico’s monstrous serving size. They all made their food and sat down to eat, except for Nico who just continued to eat. Aurelia assumed it would feel a little awkward, but it was actually very nice. She was surprised at how comfortable this all felt.
“This is all so delicious,” she said to the brothers. They both nodded at her, then continued pile driving food into their faces. They all ate in silence for a while, and then Aurelia asked, “So, when… or how… um, when do you guys, you know, uh, go out at night?” she hesitantly asked.
They both kind of shrugged, and then Nico said, “usually a little later into the night. We’ll sleep after this meal, and probably get into it around 11 pm.”
Afonso chimed in, “Unless you want to go out and see some of the forest in the daylight, in which case I can stay up and go with you.”
“No, I’ll be fine. I’m still very grateful to be out of the cold, and I know you both need your rest,” she said.
They continued to eat, and more and more questions started coming to Aurelia. She did not want to irritate the brothers, so she decided she would wait a good few minutes in between each so they didn’t feel interrogated.
“It must be nice to live on your own terms like this. I would often sneak off into woods to find some solitude. Do you guys ever wonder into town to find some… interaction, I guess is the word?”
Nico looked very intrigued by the questions. “What kind of interaction? Like sex?” he responded.
Her eyes grew as wide as golf balls. Afonso rolled his eyes and added, “I think she just meant social interaction, brother.”
Nico nodded his head. “Oh, well sure, that too.. Yes, we go into town
from time to time to socially interact with others.”
Afonso was clearly embarrassed by his brother’s bluntness. Perhaps because he was trying to express interest in Aurelia, and his brother just outed him for taking in with town prostitutes.
Aurelia coughed a little from inhaling a piece of meat.
“Are you alright?” Afonso asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I think I was trying to swallow that information along with my steak and it was just a little too much all at one time.”
Afonso brought her a glass of water. “I’m so sorry. I’m sure you’re not used to discussing such shameful topics during dinner,” he said.
She gulped down the water and said, “No, I’m not. You’re right. But it’s great! I have so many more questions! Do you have any elixirs?” The brothers both got bright eyed and yelled, “Yes!” at the same time.
For the remainder of dinner, Afonso, Nico and Aurelia share three bottles of mulled wine and shared their most embarrassing stories with one another. The table was filled with burst of laughter, finger pointing, shaming and applauding.
Aurelia felt more free than ever before in her life. She was never allowed to speak this way at the dinner table in the kingdom. These conversations were strictly held between her and her sister and sworn to secrecy.
At that moment she wished that her sister had escaped with her. What a wonderful time they could all be having. For the first time, she felt a true sense of family. In the three hours they all shared at the dinner table that first night, Aurelia knew that they were creating an unbreakable bond. Afonso poured the last of the third bottle of wine evenly among the three. Aurelia managed to slur out some words between laughter. “I’m soo surry for keeping you up. You guys need to sleep if you’re going to go… kill things and stuff. I think I’ll sleep after this, too.”
They laughed and Nico said, “Don’t appooologize! This was probably the most fun we’ve had in a long time.”
Afonso added in, “Yeah, this has been the best, the worst, and the best again… day of my life. Let’s knock these back and pass the fuck out!” They all held their glasses up, yelled “Cheers!” and threw their heads back to inhale the last of their wine.
Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection Page 97
