by Lola Gabriel
Rachel nodded. Despite her fear and the fact that Lewis’ story had to be nonsense, she found herself engrossed in it all the same.
“What the witch didn’t bargain for was that shifters could turn human women into shifters—and those women could make female children. There is a catch, though. A lot of the women the shifters tried to turn died during the transition. A few didn’t, and over the years, the shifter community worked out the secret. For a human woman to be able to turn into a shifter without dying in the process, she has to carry a protein in her blood called Sanmere. Are you with me so far?”
Rachel nodded. She didn’t believe a word he was saying, but she was following the story easily enough.
“So, shifters began to seek out these women. Over the years, the process evolved and Matchmakers appeared on the scene. Matchmakers are people who go out into the world, find women with Sanmere in their blood, and sell them to shifters to be their mates.”
“What if the women don’t want that?” Rachel asked.
“Who wouldn’t want immortality?” Lewis said as though it was a foregone conclusion that no one would object to being abducted and sold to someone as some sort of sex slave. “Shifters stop aging at twenty-nine, and so do women who have been turned. The only way to kill a bear shifter is with pure silver or with a rare metal called Ure. Or, of course, decapitation. But I digress. Where were we? Ah yes. Matchmakers. In case you haven’t worked it out, I’m a Matchmaker.”
“So, you’re going to sell me to some man to be his wife?” Rachel asked.
“Not exactly. I have a different arrangement with the alpha bear of District 212,” he said. He saw Rachel’s confusion. “District 212 is Texas. The alpha bear already has a mate, a natural-born bear who can’t have female children. His pack is severely lacking in female bears and he’s handling the situation by bringing in women with the Sanmere protein and breeding with them.”
Rachel felt the color drain from her face. If any of this were true, she was going to be a literal sex slave, a breeding machine abused by monsters. If Lewis noticed her reaction, he made no comment on it.
“So normally, the shifter who purchases the woman likes to turn her himself to help to develop a bond between them. In this case, the alpha bear has no interest in bonding with his women, and so I will turn you before he arrives. Don’t worry. It only hurts for a short amount of time,” Lewis said.
“I… no,” Rachel said. “Please. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be immortal. Please just let me go. I swear I won’t tell anyone about this, and even if I did, who would believe me?”
Lewis smiled at her.
“I’m sorry if I somehow implied this was optional, Rachel,” he said.
He stood up and headed toward the door to her cage, pulling out a bunch of keys as he went.
“Wait,” Rachel said, thinking about what he had told her. “I don’t have the weird protein. I’m just normal.”
“You have the protein, Rachel,” he smiled. “Do you really think I’d go to this much effort to get you here if there was any doubt about that?”
“How do you know?” Rachel asked as Lewis unlocked her cage door and stepped inside.
“That doesn’t matter,” Lewis smiled. “Just trust me when I tell you that you have the protein.”
He walked toward her. Rachel tried to cower away, but she couldn’t move. Lewis lifted her t-shirt up and she flinched, thinking he was going to rape her. He lifted it high enough to expose the flesh on her belly, but no higher, and then he stepped back and Rachel relaxed a tiny bit.
The moment didn’t last for long. Rachel’s jaw dropped as Lewis began to change in front of her eyes. His face seemed to flicker out of focus and then black fur began sprouting through his skin. His body grew, his clothes tearing away. Within seconds, a large, black bear stood in the cage with Rachel. Horror filled her. She had thought Lewis was crazy, and she had been scared about what he was going to do to her, but it had never occurred to her for even a second that he was actually telling the truth.
The bear stepped closer to Rachel and she screamed as it reached out toward her with a paw. She screamed again as it ran its claws across her exposed midriff. Pain exploded through her body and she felt the warm trickles of blood running down her sides. The bear ignored her screams, her protests. It stepped even closer and leaned its head down over her stomach. It roared and opened its mouth, sinking its teeth into the raw flesh the scratches had exposed.
She knew then it was going to kill her. She wondered if that was a better or worse fate than the one Lewis had described. The thought was pushed from her mind as she felt its teeth clamp down tighter on her, tearing through the scratches in her flesh. She screamed in pain again.
The bear stepped back from her and began to change again, and within seconds, Lewis stood in the cage once more. He bent down and picked up his tattered shirt, using it to cover his cock.
“There,” he smiled. “Now you’re a bear.”
Rachel ignored him, lifting her head and looking at the ruined mess of her stomach. She almost gagged at the sight of her mutilated flesh and the blood pouring freely from her. She was going to die here after all. It would just be slower than she had first thought it would be.
Lewis turned and walked away, leaving Rachel shouting after him. He locked the cage and left the room. Rachel lay in the room alone, tears running down her face. She realized her stomach was no longer hurting and she lifted her head, sure that she would be dead soon now that numbness had set in. Her jaw dropped when she looked at her stomach. Smears of blood still covered her skin, but where the wounds had been, new pink skin covered her stomach.
Oh my God, Rachel thought to herself. It was all true. Lewis wasn’t killing me. He was making me a monster like him, like the other bears. Now I am one of them. She lowered her head back down to the gurney. She felt different all of a sudden, strong and powerful. Her senses felt heightened, and she could feel a stirring inside of herself—something primal and animalistic in its nature. She knew what it was. It was the bear Lewis had somehow put inside of her.
* * *
Lewis checked his watch. Half an hour had passed since the agreed pick-up time had come and gone, and he was beginning to feel a bit nervous. The District 212 alpha was never late to pick up his girls. Not that Lewis had ever actually met him. He didn’t even know the man’s name. He had a contact within the pack, someone who made the necessary arrangements on the alpha’s behalf. Lewis had always been paid on time and it had never bothered him before that he was mostly kept in the dark about the man at the other end of the deals. Now it was bothering him. If the alpha bear didn’t bother coming for the girl, he would be stuck with her.
He would end up having to kill her, something he didn’t much want to do. She had seemed nice, nice enough that he had almost felt guilty about taking her in the first place. Almost. But business was business. He didn’t really want to have to kill her, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to find another buyer for her—no shifter would want a mate whom he had already turned. And even if he sold her cheaply enough to make the idea slightly more attractive, it ruled out every one of his contacts except bears.
Lewis felt his temper rising. He had put weeks of his time into sourcing Rachel, tracking her down once he learned of the presence of the Sanmere protein in her blood. Not to mention trailing her for a few days to find a good time to run his ruse on her.
Annoyed, he snatched his cell phone up and tried to call his contact. The call went to voicemail. Lewis swore and hung up. He told himself to calm down; maybe traffic was particularly bad this evening. He paced the floor and when his cell phone rang a couple of minutes later, he snatched it up immediately, feeling relieved to see it was his contact calling him back.
“Hello?” he said. “Are you almost here?”
“Actually, there’s been a change of plans,” he said. “We’ll no longer be requiring the girl.”
Lewis opened his mouth to argue, but the man w
ent on.
“You will still be paid your fee, but instead of it being for us to receive the girl, it will be in exchange for her freedom. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” Lewis said.
In all honesty, it wasn’t clear to Lewis at all. It made no sense. But he was still going to get his fee and he wouldn’t have to kill the girl, so he would make it work.
“The fee will be in your account within the next five minutes. I am under strict instructions from the pack alpha to remind you that the girl is to go free and be totally unharmed. If he finds out that didn’t happen, then there will be trouble.”
“It’ll happen,” Lewis assured him. “May I ask why? Is there a problem with this girl? If there is, it will be easier if you tell me now and I can make sure it doesn’t reoccur on any further transactions.”
“There will be no further transactions,” the man said. “That’s all I know.”
“Okay, thank you,” Lewis said.
He ended the call feeling a little confused. No further transactions? Perhaps the alpha had decided he now had enough female children to keep the pack growing without his help. Lewis shrugged. It wasn’t his concern. He had plenty of other customers and he was still getting paid for the work he had done on this so far. He sat down to wait for the notification telling him the money had gone into his account. Once he received it, he would let the girl go.
* * *
Rachel cringed when she heard the door to the room where she was being held opening once more. Did this mean her buyer was here? Was it time to go off and become a breeding machine? She turned her head to look and she saw only Lewis coming toward the cage. That didn’t mean that the buyer wasn’t here and waiting in another room, though.
“Well, Rachel, it looks like today is your lucky day,” Lewis smiled as he opened the cage door.
Rachel didn’t reply. She couldn’t fathom for even a second how she was meant to believe that anything about this was lucky. Lewis came toward the gurney and unfastened the strap across her chest. When it was open, he looked at Rachel.
“In a second, I’m going to undo the other straps and you’re going to walk away from here. If you try anything, I’ll kill you. Is that clear?” Lewis asked.
“You mean you’re letting me go?” she said.
Lewis nodded.
“I won’t try anything,” she said quickly.
It felt like it was too good to be true, like he was setting her up for something, but he had made no effort to conceal her destiny from her before and why would he start now? She decided to just go with it and see if he really would let her walk away.
“Don’t even think about going to the police or telling anyone about this, because if you do, one of two things will happen. You’ll either be deemed crazy and most likely be locked away for your own good. Or they’ll believe you and lock you away in a lab somewhere,” Lewis said.
Rachel knew that what he was saying now was the truth, and while the idea of him being free to prey on other women didn’t sit well with her, it wasn’t her problem. She was just glad to be getting out of here.
“Got it,” she said.
Lewis looked at her for a moment longer and then he began unfastening the straps around her ankles. Finally, he freed her hands. She sat up, rubbing her wrists, almost afraid Lewis would laugh and tell her she wasn’t going anywhere. Instead, he nodded toward a door opposite the one he had entered through.
“Out there and follow the hall to the front door,” he said. “Close it behind you, please.”
Rachel didn’t wait to see if Lewis was going to change his mind. Instead, she ran from the cage, ran from the room, and ran from the hotel. She was still running when she reached her house and let herself in. Locking the door, she made it into the living room and sat down heavily in a chair, trying to process everything that had happened to her since she was taken.
* * *
After a few minutes of sitting staring at the wall blankly, Rachel had gotten herself together and decided she needed to learn more about this bear thing. She had patted her pocket and found she still had her cell phone. The date and time on the screen confirmed it was still Saturday, only now it was almost midnight. No one would ever have to know about this, because she knew Lewis was right about what would happen if she went to the authorities. And she had no intention of telling any of her friends or family that she was now a monster.
She’d sat up until three a.m. researching shifters on the internet. Of course, most of the information only came from legends and stories, but from what she had gathered, Lewis had told her the truth about the immortality and the silver, although she found no mention of Ure. She learned that shifting was a choice; she could go through her whole life without ever becoming a bear and that suited her down to the ground. Those creatures were vile, evil monstrosities and she wanted no part in becoming one.
She was just going to live her life as normal and try to forget this had ever happened. And if she felt the evil side of her taking over, she would act on it then.
As she lay in bed now staring up at the ceiling, she smiled bitterly to herself. This had certainly solved one problem—finding Mr. Right. There was no way she could enter into a long-term relationship if she wasn’t going to age.
1
Present Day
Rachel smiled at the man as he gave his name.
“Take a seat Mr. Duncan. I’ll let the doctor know that you’re here,” she said.
Mr. Duncan walked away from her window and she marked his name as present on the computer screen, knowing that Dr. Gordon would see the message and call Mr. Duncan in when he was ready for him.
She glanced back up and saw Melanie, another one of Dr. Gordon’s receptionists, walking through the waiting room and she pressed the door release button. Melanie ducked inside and closed the door behind her. She pulled a face of disgust.
“Ugh,” Melanie said, a shudder going through her. “I hate having to walk through the waiting room every time I have to go and get a signature for something.”
“Why?” Rachel asked, glancing up from her computer where she had gone back to typing up letters for patients.
“The patients waiting to be seen; they’re coughing and sneezing and spreading who knows what germs,” Melanie said, shaking her head.
“I never really notice,” Rachel said.
“Yeah, because you never get sick,” Melanie said. “In the last month I’ve had two colds and a stomach bug from this place.”
Rachel made a sound she hoped sounded sympathetic. In truth, she just wanted Melanie to change the subject. Over the last eight years, she had pretty much gotten used to being a bear shifter. She had never shifted—she just didn’t let it affect her daily life—but it seemed that one of the benefits of immortality was no longer picking up any human germs. It made her uncomfortable whenever the conversation came around to anything about that sort of thing. Maybe working as a doctor’s receptionist isn’t the best idea, Rachel thought to herself, not for the first time. It was certainly somewhere where talk of germs was rife.
Rachel thought in general she managed to hide her lack of illness pretty well. She made sure she got the yearly flu shot she didn’t need to keep up appearances and twice over the four years she had worked here, she had called in sick and stayed home for a few days, just to keep suspicions low. She would have done it more often, but she felt guilty about the lies.
“Come on, Rach, what’s your secret?” Melanie asked, sitting down at the computer next to Rachel’s. “Do you take some weird concoction of herbs or something?”
“No,” Rachel laughed, hoping she didn’t sound like she was nervous. “Just a multivitamin every day. I guess I just have a good immune system.”
That was a lie on both counts. Rachel had something far superior to a good immune system and she had never taken a multivitamin in her life.
“Maybe I should start that,” Melanie said. “If it stops me getting sick all the time and makes my skin as amazing as yo
urs, I’ll be happy.”
“Oh, I have Acure Skincare to thank for my skin,” Rachel laughed.
Another lie. Her skin had never been clearer and her hair had never been shinier since she had become a shifter, but she suspected a big part of it was because she didn’t age. She had already had to move away from her family and friends before they started to get suspicious. She now lived in Fredericksburg where she tried to keep a low profile. She was friendly with the other people who worked here, but she made a point not to get too close to people so when she inevitably had to move away again at some point down the line, it wouldn’t be quite so painful to leave everyone she knew behind.
She had lost all of her old friends when she came here. Even Beth had given up on her after a couple of years of her claiming she was too busy with work to visit home or host Beth at her place. It had hurt her to slowly lose all of her old friends, and even now, she often wished she could call Beth and just tell her everything, but she knew she could never do that, and she knew a clean break was the only way forward. It wasn’t fair to keep pushing Beth away and expect her to not ask questions.
She had bought herself a couple of extra years here. When she had arrived, she had told people she was twenty-four. She hoped that her lack of aging wouldn’t be as apparent when people believed she was younger than she actually was. In human years, she would be thirty-two now, and she figured she could get another four or five years out of her looks before her lack of aging started to draw too much attention to her and she had to move on.