by Cara Wylde
When she was a child, her father had decided to remarry. At first, Nieve had been excited, expecting a kind new mother, and perhaps some brothers and sisters as well. But that had turned out to be a short-lived dream, for it soon became apparent that the new queen was not going to be able to give the king another child. In time, the coldness of her stepmother turned to outright bitterness.
And now, all these years later, Nieve still tried to put on a brave face. She never once complained to her father about the treatment she received. He had so many worries to deal with being leader of the kingdom, that she could not burden him even more with her problems. Thus, when it all became too much for her to bear, she would slip out of the palace, unnoticed and unmissed, and come out to the forest to drown her sorrow in nature and beauty.
She sat back and let her tears dry. There was only so much crying one could do in one day, and the sounds of natural life going on all around her soothed and calmed her troubled soul.
Her heart jumped a bit when another sound came to her ears. A heavy kind of rustling amongst the trees. She opened her eyes and looked around, afraid that some of the servants from the palace might have found her and her secret spot. It was weird how she had gotten to fearing humans more than animals. She knew why, too. Most of the people she knew were in the service of the Queen. With no friends and no one she could trust, Nieve had come to appreciate animals and their silent, unbiased friendship more than anything.
As she looked around, she could see no one and hear no human voices calling out for her. Instead, she heard a deep growl and there, from out of the forest, emerged the most gorgeous looking creature she had ever seen. At first, she was a little bit frightened. But when she saw the graceful movements of the creature, she relaxed. Nieve stood and took a step towards the creature. She smiled and reached out a hand.
***
Hunter had followed his target at a distance, tracking her from the royal palace, out through the fields and into the nearby woods. With his keen senses, he didn’t need to keep her in sight. He could easily follow her trail as she wondered aimlessly into the forest. He had decided to wait until she was a good distance from the royal palace before he struck. He didn’t want to attract any undue attention when he attacked.
Though “attacked” was probably too strong a word for what he was about to do. He had seen the petite girl as she snuck out of the servants’ entrance and hurried through the vegetable garden. A pang of guilt had struck him then. Having been hired to kill such a frail and small creature was wrong on so many levels. But he was a professional. He couldn’t let his emotions get the best of him and interfere with what he had to do. So, he had forced his misgivings back down and steeled himself to do the job he had so handsomely been paid for. He was in it for the money. Pure and simple. The money he needed to survive in this cruel world. And he could not afford any soft sentiment to deflect him. Especially not on this job. He didn’t know what this girl had done to the Queen to make her want her dead, and he didn’t care. All he cared about was the extra payment he would receive. Enough money to take his sister and her children far away and start a new life, one where he didn’t have to be a killer for hire anymore.
He had followed the girl into the forest and waited for his moment to strike. Again, he felt he was hesitating. He knew that he really didn’t want to do this. The girl looked so beautiful from the distance, and as he moved closer, he could see her through the trees. She was sitting down on the bank of the river. At first, Hunter didn’t know what she was doing. Was she resting? He was intrigued. Silently, he moved even closer, until he could hear her soft sobs that told him she was crying.
“Well then,” Hunter thought to himself, “maybe if she is unhappy, it might be a mercy killing.” But then, he thought of the cruel Queen and of the evil magic she was famous for. Spells which she would cast far and wide over her enemies and friends alike. And he knew there was never any mercy in what the Queen would do.
But still, he steadied his nerve and started to move towards his target. He had a job to do, and then he could move far away and finally escape the clutches of his dreadful past once and for all.
He stepped out from behind the trees. Moving with natural grace, he didn’t make a sound, but then and there, he decided there was no way he would sneak up on this girl and kill her from behind. He let out a low growl, both to alert her and to frighten her. He hoped she would run, then his hunting instincts would kick in and he could kill her without having to think about it.
The girl didn’t run, however. She stood and turned as she heard his growl. At first, for a moment, she seemed startled. Seeing him come out of the woods in bear form would terrify even the bravest people, but not her, apparently. She simply looked at him and smiled. Even more, she took a step towards him and held out her hand in welcome.
Hunter stared into her eyes and came to a complete stop. Unable to move. Unable to look away. Something woke within him, something deep within his soul, something he had been suppressing for too long. As he looked at this beautiful girl, he knew with every fiber of his being that she was the one for him. His one true love. His soul mate.
And he also knew that not only could he never hurt her, but that no one and nothing in the world would ever harm even a hair on her head while he could still draw breath.
Without consciously thinking of it, Hunter started to shift into his human form. His bear fur began to retreat within his skin pores, his claws turned into fingers, and the bear form morphed into a tall, well-muscled man.
***
Nieve watched in shock as the bear changed into a man. She gasped, took a step back, considered fleeing, but stayed rooted into place, her legs refusing to comply. She had often heard talk of shape-shifters, but they were so rare that they were almost believed to be fairy tale creatures invented to scare children into behaving. And now, she found herself face to face with one of them. It was such a surreal sight that, at first, she didn’t know what she was supposed to feel, or how she was supposed to react. She was terrified and fascinated at the same time.
Her mind cleared and her smile vanished when she realized there was a man standing in front of her, and she immediately remembered that humans only meant trouble. He could only be there to take her back to the palace, although, if she came to think of it, why would they send a shape-shifter to take her back? Also, he was a stranger, a man she had never seen before. As her eyes travelled down the length of his neck to his broad chest, she was suddenly struck by the realization that he was naked and they were alone in the woods. He was handsome, of that there was no doubt. Chocolate brown eyes, shoulder-length brown hair, square jaw, and big, strong hands that could easily crush someone. At the palace, she had always been completely sheltered. Alone and isolated. No one had ever tried to befriend her, never mind make any kind of adult advances towards her. And now, for the first time in her life, she was face-to-face with a naked man, and the thought was starting to frighten her more than the fact that he was a bear-shifter. He was a naked man who was coming directly towards her.
Nieve’s heart started racing, and her mouth went dry. She tried to scream for help, but no sound came out. It made sense that if he was a shifter, he would be as naked in human form as he was in his animal form. That was her mind trying to come up with reasonable explanations as to what was happening. The thought of him being a bear-shifter was completely overshadowed by the thought that there was only one reason for which a naked man would be approaching her, a young woman, so determinedly. The look in his eyes was enough to paralyze her with fear, even if the proud member between his legs hadn’t announced his intentions. She wouldn’t know, anyway, because she didn’t dare glance in that direction.
She kept trying to find her voice, but all she managed was a pathetic whisper: “Please, don’t hurt me…” She took a step backwards, putting her arm up to stop him. The man kept approaching her. “Please,” Nieve begged.
The stranger was nearly upon her. Nieve felt a wave of blac
kness wash over her as her mind found itself with way too much information to handle all at once.
Hunter dashed forward and caught the princess before she could fall and hit her head on a rock. He had come to murder this girl. Even in his human form, he could have easily dispatched her. Now, he was looking down at her unconscious body as he easily held her in his arms. Every fiber of his being told him that he had to protect her, had to make sure the Queen would never try to hurt her again. He touched her forehead, her closed lids, traced her delicious lips with the tips of his fingers. He could stare at her for hours and never get bored. However, there was no time for that. He took her in his arms and stood up carefully, studied his surroundings to make sure no one was in sight, then turned around and disappeared into the woods.
CHAPTER TWO
Nieve yawned, rolled over, and pulled the bed sheets up under her chin. “Bed sheets?” she thought, while still clinging to sleep. Why was she in bed? And the sheets… they felt different. Coarser and more worn than any she’d ever felt before. Then, it all started coming back to her, and she snapped her eyes open, half expecting to see the naked stranger who had kidnapped her hovering over her helpless body. To her relief, she was alone in a small bed, in a really small room. A simple and plain room, as she could see when her heartbeat calmed down enough to allow her to study her surroundings more carefully. Still, she couldn’t be completely sure she was safe, so she tried to move as little as possible in case anyone might be watching her. There were no tapestries on the walls, no ornate furniture, no carpet on the floor. It all looked so cheap and poor, so harmless.
She rubbed her temples in an attempt to ease the throbbing headache. There were noises coming from somewhere inside the house, which meant she wasn’t as alone as she had hoped to be. She sat up slowly, the bed creaking softly as she moved, and the first thing she did when her feet hit the cold floor was to glance down at herself. She was relieved to see she was still fully dressed.
The room had a small, square window, and sunlight came streaming in through it.
“At least, I haven’t been here that long,” thought Nieve.
But where was she? This room was completely unlike any she had ever seen before. For one thing, the walls were made of wood and cob. Every room Nieve had ever been in had stone walls. Only buildings outside the palace were built from wood. What was it? “A cottage of some sort, apparently.” She stood up and walked around, silently checking if her body hurt anywhere. She couldn’t know what the stranger had done to her after she had fainted. She didn’t even want to think about it, but she had to be sure. Everything seemed to be fine, so she paced the room a bit longer, studying every corner and every crevice in the walls. She couldn’t find anything helpful. She stepped closer to the window and looked out. Outside, she could see a small garden surrounded by forest. It was like the cottage had been built in a glade, deep in the heart of the woods. In other circumstances, she would have loved this place.
Nieve turned her attention from the window and looked at the single door in the room. Down below, she could hear a lot of boisterous noise. It was like every child on earth had somehow been packed into this dollhouse of a structure. Well, every boy at least, for they all seemed to be male voices, and she could not imagine girls being so noisy.
It was completely unlike anything she was used to at the palace. There, growing up, she had played with the children of the courtiers, but everything they did had been organized games played at set times between lessons. Now, they were all grown up, and with the Queen and King having no royal children, there was no need for anyone to bring their own children to the palace anymore. It was a shame, because Nieve would have loved to play with them even if she was 18 now. Judging by the noise coming from below, Nieve could only imagine it was one big ball of hyperactive boys rolling about from one side of the cottage to the other. It was not something she wanted to experience directly, but the thought of so much fun and joy made her heart swell a bit.
She looked around once more and decided she would have to leave sometime soon, before the man who had obviously brought her here came back for her. Nieve took a deep breath and tried the door handle. It was unlocked and opened easily. Slowly, she pulled it open and looked out onto a narrow set of stairs, only to cry out in shock. At the bottom of the stairs, there was a naked young boy being attacked by a bear. A bear cub, actually, for it wasn’t much bigger than the boy under attack. They both looked up at her when they heard her scream.
Nobody moved for a good few seconds. Nieve stood at the top of the stairs looking down while the bear cub and the boy lay on the bottom step looking up at her. Nieve began to scream again, this time at the bear cub, trying to move him away from the human child. But both the boy and the bear cub jumped up and ran off. The human child had seemed more afraid of Nieve than the bear cub.
With her screams, the pandemonium which was taking place within the house quieted. Taking that as a good sign, Nieve walked down the stairs. Her head was spinning with questions. What kind of place was this? Where was she? Should she call out for help? After all, there was a human child, so perhaps his mother was around. She then thought better of it, as she couldn’t imagine what type of mother would let her son run around naked and play with bear cubs.
Nieve reached the last step and edged her way to look around the corner. What she saw defied belief: there, sitting at a table, were seven children, some of them in human form, others in bear form. Nieve covered her mouth with both hands as she watched the children, then saw a woman with a pot and spoon about to dish out their meals.
“Finally, you’re awake!” The woman looked at Nieve rather disdainfully and gestured for her to sit in a vacant chair. “Sit down and you can eat some food with us,” she said.
Nieve didn’t know what to say. For one thing, no one, except for her father and stepmother, has ever addressed her without using her royal title of “Your Highness”. For another, she had no idea who this woman was and why she showed no alarm at having bear cubs and little boys running about like headless chickens in her house. She did as she was bid and sat at the table, thinking for the moment it was the safest thing to do. There was something about the woman that frightened her. But even more frightening were the seven bear cubs and boys who sat quite still and looked at her.
“Now boys,” the woman said. “We have company, so show some manners and eat politely.”
Before Nieve’s eyes, the bear cubs shifted into little boys, and that was when Nieve put two and two together and came to the conclusion that they were all brothers. They looked too much alike. She was in the house of a shifter family! The realization didn’t make her feel any less afraid, for all the stories she had ever heard about shape-shifters, bears or otherwise, had them doing bad deeds while in the pay of evil witches.
The woman went around the table, spooning out what looked like oatmeal mixed with fruit into the plates set at each place. The seven boys just sat and stared at Nieve like they had never seen a stranger before.
“Boys, stop staring,” the woman said. “You’ll make our guest feel unwelcome.”
“Thank you,” Nieve said hesitantly, as the woman served her. When she looked at the food in the bowl, she didn’t feel very much like eating. Her stomach was tied in knots. The woman filled her own bowl last, then put the pot back on the stove before sitting down to eat.
Eventually, the boys had grown bored of the human woman in their company and, having picked up her scent now, they turned their attention to their food, which they wolfed down at an amazing speed. If this was what the boys thought was polite and mannerly, Nieve didn’t want to think about what they were normally like. Within seconds, the children had licked their bowls clean. They all looked at the woman, who Nieve assumed was their mother.
“Okay,” the woman said. “Put your bowls in the sink and go outside to play.”
They all stood up as one, and after putting their bowls into the sink, ran for the door, chasing each other and pushing and pu
lling as they went. As they left, Nieve caught a glance of some of them changing back into their bear form.
Once they were all outside, Nieve took her opportunity to talk to the woman.
“Who are you?” she asked, half afraid she might not get an answer.
“My name is Margaret,” the woman said while eating her own food. She seemed completely unimpressed with Nieve’s tense posture and slightly quivering voice.
“Why am I here?”
“Because I’ve been told to take care of you.”
“Where am I?”
“You’re safe. My brother found you and brought you to me. He told me to take care of you until he returns.”
“But how did I get here?”
“Hunter brought you.” Margaret rolled her eyes and washed down the food with some water.
“Hunter, your...?” Nieve looked around as some of the shifter children tumbled back into the cottage. They began running in and out of the house playing some kind of chasing game. The table where Nieve and Margaret sat became the calm at the center of the storm.
“Hunter, my brother,” Margaret said.
“Ah, your brother.” Nieve was relieved, though she didn’t know why. Would she have felt differently if Margaret had said Hunter was her husband?
“Yes,” Margaret confirmed, and then her stance softened. “I presume he had his reasons for bringing you here.”
“You do? He does?” Nieve said. “But why?”
