Bear Caves Complete Series: A Bear Shifter Box Set

by Mia Wolf

  Next to me, Sebastian starts dodging attacks from all directions, and I’m surprised to see how adept he is at fighting. I knock down a few operatives myself but more come through the back door. It fires me up; I love a good challenge. Sebastian hurls aside a few people who are about to attack Andrew in the back. Andrew, on his part, is fighting three people at the same time. Warren and Joshua are fighting beside each other, looking as though they’ve done this before. But no one compares to me, of course. I’m clearing men right, left, and center.

  It’s when a dozen or so men in black follow after the last reinforcement that all of us feel cornered, the operatives surrounding us on all sides while we are stuck in the middle. Everyone is in a fighting stance with their fists raised, ready to take an attack any moment, but it’s very clear that we’re greatly outnumbered. There’s a hush in the room; the high ceiling of the hall seems to keep its secrets locked because it doesn’t feel like the events of this day will ever escape this room.

  I see Sebastian’s eyes meeting Joshua’s, and something passes between the two. Joshua then lifts his chin at the rest of our gang and everyone seems to come to an understanding. I can only guess what it is.

  The bulky guy I had seen at Sebastian’s place takes a step towards me. Suddenly, the whole hall erupts with roars so loud that I feel like their echo will outlive us. All the people from the village shift into their bear forms, their clothes ripping, and their claws swiping. I am not used to fighting in my bear form, but the sight of the bears is so powerful that I can feel my body changing of its own accord. My bones transform, my snout is elongating, and my powerful bear body is roaring with delight. My senses are heightened, and I can smell blood on the air as my fellow bears are making their way steadily through the enemy forces.

  I can see that a few of the Code Blue operatives are also shifting, some into bears, others into wolves. But there aren’t very many of them; the other ones remain human, probably because that’s their only form. I can see the fear in their eyes; they have no idea how they’re supposed to fight these giant animals.

  One of the wolves, bigger than I’ve ever seen one, is running toward me, but I’m not afraid because I know I’m not alone. I get ready in a fighting stance, but before it can reach me, Andrew and Joshua pounce on it, and it lands on the floor with a loud thud. Andrew presses down on its muzzle while Joshua takes hold of its claws, and then Warren jumps on it to incapacitate it completely.

  My powerful bear body is aching for blood, for revenge on the people who brought me here. I see that the bulky man has also shifted. But his bear form is way too cocky, severely overestimating its own strength and underestimating mine. I have fought men twice my size for years. He attempts to kick me, but I dodge him and get into position. I lift my paw and swipe, easily bringing him off balance. He falters and falls backwards onto his back as the noise around me reaches a crescendo. The humans appear to have run off, afraid for their lives, and its only huge, raw, wild animals now that are left fighting. The bears from the village are clearly winning.

  I focus my attention back on my victim. He’s still on the ground, slowly making to get up again. I decide to give him no chance and to show him once and for all that nobody messes with Maya Venne Ford. I pounce, landing on his chest and start handing out more blows. I can feel his blood on my snout as I hit him again and again until he shifts back to his human form and moves no more. A pulsing vein in his neck shows me he’s still alive, but he’s not a danger anymore, so I take a step back and look around for Sebastian.

  Sebastian is back in his human form, walking naked toward the door to the room where Daniel has locked himself in. I scan the space around me. The other bears are still fighting, but the fight is almost over, with most of the Code Blue shifters having surrendered. I turn and follow after Sebastian, who breaks down Daniel’s door with one single kick.

  He’s strong. That’s something I was unaware of. I kept thinking this whole time that in our relationship, I’m the strong one, and he’s the sensitive one. Turns out, not so much. I would love to test my strength against his sometime.

  I snap out of my reverie and shift into my human form, following Sebastian into the room and finding Daniel sitting in his chair with a look of horror on his face. How stupid of him; did he not expect this to happen?

  “I see your little friends have managed to ambush us,” Daniel says and gets up. He’s feigning confidence, but his lips give him away; they’re trembling.

  Sebastian takes a step towards Daniel. I can see he’s flaring with rage, and without further ado, he slaps Daniel hard across the face.

  “I told you you’d regret it, didn’t I?” Sebastian says with anger in his voice.

  Daniel makes to hit Sebastian back, but Sebastian dodges him and lands a hard punch on Daniel’s nose, which starts bleeding immediately. Another blow to Daniel’s face, and he falls to the floor, clutching his mouth. This man is no match for Sebastian. He’s just a pathetic fly who likes to get into people’s heads.

  “Let’s go, Sebastian,” I tell Sebastian, looking at Daniel’s bloodied and bruised face, one of his teeth sticking out weirdly. There’s nothing left worth fighting for here. “He’s done already.”

  But Sebastian won’t stop, and I have to hold his hand mid-air with all my force to stop him from hitting Daniel again.

  “Sebastian, get a grip,” I say loudly, my back to Daniel now. “Don’t go where he wants you to go. He’s not worth it.”

  A chuckle comes from behind me, and I turn to find Daniel smiling with his face all smeared with blood.

  “Yeah, Sebastian. Listen to your woman,” he sneers. “Like you listened to me for all those years.”

  The words rile Sebastian up, and he’s applying more force to get out of my grip.

  “Get out of my way, Maya. This is my fight,” Sebastian says. “You don’t know the things he has done, the ways he has broken me, the things he continues to do. You have no idea—”

  “You’re right,” I say while staring into Sebastian’s eyes. They’re damp from tears. My to-be husband seems to be on the brink of a very precipitous cliff, and I’m afraid I can’t let him keel over, even if it means fighting him.

  It reminds me of that nightmare I had, where Ma was standing on the edge of the waterfall, saying sorry then falling. Along with the memory comes the pain.

  “I don’t doubt that you’re right about all the things he has done, Sebastian. But that’s him, that’s not you. You’re not like him. Don’t do the same things to him that he has done to you, don’t cross that line. Because the only person who’ll get hurt by that is you.”

  Daniel bursts out laughing behind me. He’s really a piece of work, isn’t he? And he definitely doesn’t understand the position he’s in. If I let go of Sebastian, I’m sure Daniel will be dead in seconds.

  I look at Sebastian and meet his gaze with all the love I have for him. “You’re not your past. You can decide right now that the rest of your life will be different.”

  “Both of you are pathetic,” Daniel says.

  His words push me over the edge, and I turn around and punch Daniel just hard enough that he loses consciousness. Better.

  I turn back around, and Sebastian puts his arms around me. His face is covered in tears, and it looks like he’s fighting a hundred demons inside of him right now. He keeps me close to his chest, and I reach for his cheek and wipe away some of the tears.

  “You did good,” I tell him and smile a weak smile; it’s all I can muster at the moment.

  “It hurts so much that I don’t know if it’ll ever end,” he says.

  “It will,” I tell him. “Trust me.”

  Chapter 38 - Sebastian

  We’re at Maya’s house, lying in bed. Maya is asleep in my arms, and I stare at the ceiling, my thoughts going back to the fight yesterday. I see Daniel lying unconscious on the chair behind his desk again, in the same cursed spot where he would sit and sneer at people who would wait for their fates to be d
ictated by his tyrannical rules at Code Blue. There’s no reason to be afraid of him anymore. With most of his bodyguards gone, he’s helpless. Seeing what bear shifters are capable of, he’ll never dare to take revenge on us. But Joshua, Warren, Andrew, and I agreed to keep an eye on him going forward nonetheless.

  Ever since the fight, it’s felt like my body has been exorcising demons that no longer need to be caged within me. There’s still a lot of anger, and there’s still a lot of pain. I wasn’t able to release as many of the feelings while fighting him as I wanted to, because he gave up much easier than I thought he would. I think that’s what hurts the most, knowing that he was always this weak and pathetic while hiding behind a powerful facade. All he did was prey on people’s minds, and he did it well because so many people were willing to fight in his stead as if they owed him their lives. I used to be one of those people until…

  I shift all my attention to Maya in my arms because Daniel doesn’t matter anymore; it’s her and me now, our new beginning that matters. We can move on from the past, both hers and mine, and we can start fresh. I graze the now healed spot on her cheek where the red mark on her cheek used to be and plant a kiss over it. She doesn’t move in her unconscious state.

  Her face is so relaxed, so still, and I don’t want to her wake up if I can help it. It’ll take me a while to forgive myself for letting Daniel get to her. I want it to be just us for a while, her and me, and the clear blue sky. I think it’s time we both stopped fighting the demons of the past, throw off the shadow of the worlds we used to belong to.

  Outside, the sun is already up and shining even though we’re pretty far up north. After it’s been overcast for months, I feel like it’s shining just for me. To mark the disappearance of darkness from my life. It feels good and weird at the same time. Everything I’ve been fighting for all these years is gone; everything I was trying to run away from is gone too. There’s a slight sense of anxiety about this new development, and I’m suddenly contemplating what to do with the rest of my life now that I no longer have an evil organization to get off my back. One thing I know for sure: I am never going to touch another weapon in my life. All I want is to sit on a couch, eat potato chips, and watch TV. If I could do that for the rest of my life, I would die a happy man. Of course, the plan is silly, and I know that two weeks in, I’d be itching to get out of the house and do something. That was the reason why I left home in the first place; that’s what started this whole thing.

  Anyway, I’ll have a lot of free time to think about this from now on. Together, Maya and I’ll figure something out together. Just as I think of her, she stirs and opens her eyes, blushing when she sees me lying naked next to her.

  I smile at her innocence and remember Joshua’s proposal to have our mating ceremony here in the village. I can’t wait to be officially mated to Maya. Spending all my time with her is only the beginning of the rest of our lives. I already see it in my head: we’ll have children and raise them together, here in the village, away from all the unrest, in the calmness of the caves and the woods.

  “How many kids do you think we should have?” I ask Maya, and she lifts her head slightly. I chuckle at her incredulous expression. “What are you thinking?”

  Maya lays her head back on the pillow and is silent for a while, then finally speaks. “I’m wondering when it will be okay to ask questions.”

  I sigh, knowing that we’ll need to have this conversation sooner or later. I do owe her a lot of answers.

  “Go ahead,” I say. “But before you do, just know that I’m really sorry about everything. And I hope you can forgive me. I didn’t think Code Blue would find you so soon, I was trying my best to throw them off your trail—”

  “So, you knew they were looking for me?”

  That shuts me up. “I did.” What else can I say? Is this when my stupidity comes to bite me in the ass? “I was assigned to deliver you to Code Blue.”

  “Is that why you got close to me?” Maya asks. The hurt look in her eyes almost kills me.

  “No.” I raise my voice more than I need to. “Of course not. It’s a total miracle that you happened to live right next to where I was staying. It was already too late by the time I realized that you were my target.” I look out of the window and think back to that night on the porch when I really saw her for the first time. “It was too late already, I had already fallen for you.”

  “Is that so?” she asks, not quite convinced yet. “So, you didn’t approach me because I was your target?”

  I shake my head. “And as soon as I figured out it was you I was supposed to target, I knew I could never hurt you. So I tried to throw them off your trail and told Daniel that I would leave Code Blue. But clearly, things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to. I didn’t think Ash would figure things out so quickly.”

  Maya takes her time to take in the information, all the while looking at me as though trying to figure out whether to believe me or not.

  “I have more questions,” she says. “Why were you working for Code Blue? How did you ever end up working for a crazy maniac like Daniel? What about your past, the time before you started working for Code Blue? There’s so much I don’t know about you, Sebastian.”

  It’s time to come clean, to tell her everything. “I can tell you everything, Maya, you can ask me anything you like and I’ll answer. I want no more secrets standing between us,” I start. “I come from a bear village up in the north east part of the woods around her. I lived a normal life like a normal kid. I did decent in school, and then I went off to college…”

  I tell Maya about my childhood, about how my dad used to teach me pistol shooting in the woods, and about how my mom used to bring the latest technology home from the local stores: tape recorders and cameras and then a smartphone before it was cool. My childhood was not like Maya’s; I was loved and supported and shielded from any violence and bad circumstances.

  But everything changed after college. Unsure what to do with my newfound freedom after finishing my degree, and not having been successful in finding a job yet, I started hanging out with these guys who would do drugs and drink like there was no tomorrow. Daniel found me during this time; he ran into me and told me that I was different from those people. That I was special and didn’t need to waste my life away like the rest of them. He was extremely charming and well-read, and everyone around the neighborhood seemed to respect him. He slowly opened me up, starting to talk to me about Code Blue. He became a kind of mentor to me, someone I looked up to. I fell for his words, fell into his trap, and before I realized it, I was entangled in his web of lies and working for Code Blue. It wasn’t until Daniel’s words started becoming harsher, until there was a slap here then a ‘harmless’ beating there, until he was ‘keeping me in line’ by beating me up every other day that I realized what a mess I had gotten myself into.

  After hearing the story, Maya is almost in tears.

  I wipe away her tears with my fingers. “I’m sure you had it tougher,” I say.

  “I think we both had it tough,” she replies.

  I take her into my arms again and stare out of the window. There’s nothing that weighs on my mind anymore. I feel at ease and let this calmness soothe every part of my being. I can do this for a long, long time. Just exist and do good for the people I love.

  Epilogue - Maya

  On the day of my mating ceremony, I realize that I miss my canary, the one with the broken wing. I haven’t seen her for a while now. Perhaps, having her beside me would’ve helped with the wedding nerves. I’m alone in the house, waiting for Jessica, who has decided that my mating ceremony should be as extravagant as possible.

  “It’s an excuse for us to dress fancy and celebrate,” she had said. I had agreed to all of their ideas and demands. The concept of having friends and spending quality time with them has started to grow on me.

  One of Jessica’s rules is that Sebastian and I are not allowed to see each other before the ceremony today. I always thought this t
radition was pointless, but when your friend tells you to do something on the most important day of your life, you listen to them, or they make sure to tease you about it for the rest of your life. She’s already teasing me that I can’t bear to stay away from Sebastian for a second. Now that I’m sitting here waiting for Jessica, I realize that she’s right. In my current state of anxiety, his presence would soothe me like milk on ghost peppers. I’m otherwise very self-sufficient; it’s just that I don’t see the point in staying away from him if I don’t have to. We’ve already lived most of our lives up till now without each other.

  Are you nervous? I text him, and my heart relaxes the moment it says ‘typing…’ on the screen.

  Not at all. Can’t wait to see you tonight. I miss you already. Are you nervous?

  What do you think? I send the text with the rolling eyes emoji at the end. I’m slowly getting the hang of texting lingo.

  Is there anything I can help with?

  Yeah. Sneak into the house and stay with me, I text.

  Can’t do. Joshua and Warren are standing guard in my living room. They just told me that Jessica is on her way to you right about now.

  All of my spirits die down, and the anxiety only rises. It’s not that I’m afraid; I’m not. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I want to spend the rest of my life with Sebastian. But I’m not good with large crowds, and the whole village is going to come to the ceremony. I’ve been the girl that hides behind trees and is adept at being invisible. Showing my face in front of a gathering is a big step outside of my comfort zone.

  Before I can catastrophize the situation in my head even more, Jessica barges into the house with a dry cleaning package in one hand and a large metallic box in the other.

  “I have your dress with me.” She dangles the package in front of me as if it’s supposed to be bait. “A little more enthusiasm wouldn’t hurt, you know,” she says as she strolls into the bedroom, gesturing for me to follow her.