Rapunzel And The Billionaire Bear: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Novella (The Shifter Princes Book 4)

by Sable Sylvan

  Zelda reached up and touched the mark as it glowed, but she had to pull back her hand: the mark felt as hot as fire. She looked up into Lance’s eyes, which flashed bright blue as his bear raced and roared.

  Lance pulled out of Zelda slowly. “That was amazing,” said Lance as he rolled over to lie next to Zelda, pulling his mate close so that his crotch was cradling her wide hips, which were small compared to his. Lance held Zelda until her after glow had faded, and her body realized just how tired it really was and started to let her sink into the golden luxury sheets comfortably.

  “Will you come back tomorrow?” asked Zelda, yawning as she cuddled into Lance. “Or do you have work?”

  “I’ve got a few things to take care of, but I promise, I’ll visit you tomorrow, princess,” said Lance, getting out of bed. He got changed back into his jeans and undershirt, leaving his button-up shirt tucked under Zelda’s pillow before tucking Zelda in before giving her a kiss on her forehead. “You’re tired. I need to let you sleep. Until tomorrow...Rapunzel.”

  “Until tomorrow, Prince Charming,” said Zelda, before the man flicked off the lights at the doorway and headed out. The smell of Lance’s shirt was intoxicating and it made it seem as if he was sleeping next to her all night, as his natural scent was strong and masculine, smelling of the woods after the snow first melts.

  Zelda fell asleep quickly, visions of Lance still permeating her every thought, but at least, she thought to herself, she’d get to see him tomorrow...and the next day, and the next, and if she was lucky? Every day, for the rest of her life. She never would have guessed she’d be his fated mate, but there was nothing that could get between two fated mates...

  ...but that didn’t mean that nothing would try to keep them apart.

  Chapter Eight

  The next morning, Zelda woke up, cleaned up, and got changed excitedly into a dress and heels for her day with Lance. The buzzer buzzed, earlier than she expected. She hoped that Lance was at the door with the bundle of bear claws he’d promised to bring. She let up the visitor without checking to see who it was, and when there was a knock at the door, she opened it almost immediately.

  But her big cuddly polar bear wasn’t in the doorway...her adopted mother was, and she looked pissed, even though she had a smile on her face.

  “Mom?” asked Zelda.

  Lorelei’s smiled widened. “Hello, dear...you look surprised to see me.”

  “Mom...why are you here? I thought you were busy,” said Zelda.

  “I was, but I made time for my little girl,” said Lorelei, walking in before stopping to pinch Zelda’s cheek, the same cheek she’d slapped hard a few days before. The cheek was still very sore. “Were you expecting someone else?”

  “Well, yes,” admitted Zelda. “I thought Lance was going to come by.”

  “Oh, honey, Lance had work,” said Lorelei, standing in the living room, the hazy Seattle sky letting in very little light through the glass roof, as the metal covering hadn’t gone back up after the power outage due to a glitch in the controls system . “And I don’t think you’re going to see much of him for quite some time.”

  Zelda’s stomach lurched. “Really?” asked Zelda. Here eyes started to well with tears. Had Lance really just used her for sex and left? He’d told her she was his fated mate...but all that nonsense with the mate mark and the light must have just been a lie, a long con but a lie nonetheless.

  “Oh honey, don’t tell me you actually...felt something for him,” said Lorelei, getting down so she could look Zelda in the eye. “Honey, he’s just a stupid bear. You’ll find someone else.”

  “How will I, trapped up here?” asked Zelda, looking out the window over the broad city, wondering if Lance was somewhere out there, already hitting on some other naïve girl who would fall for his shifter lies.

  All of a sudden, something burst through the glass, hard, sending glass flying. A loud sound whirred overhead: it was the sound of a helicopter’s blades, of the opening and shutting of a door. There was a loud thump. Zelda covered her eyes as soon as the glass shattered, blocking her eyes with her arm, but when she moved her arms away, she couldn’t believe who she saw.

  Tall and a bit chunky, he didn’t look anything like he usually did, in an all black tactical suit with a bungee attached to him via a harness that he was in the process of slipping off, but it was definitely him. He was her saving grace, her guardian angel, who had come from above to protect her, to bring her to a better place.

  “Lance!” shouted Zelda, running across the broken glass which crunched against the soles of her shoes. She pulled Lance close. She knew he’d come back...although she hadn’t counted on him making such an entrance.

  “Zelda!” said Lance, running up to Zelda and hugging her tightly. “Did she hurt you again, my love? I’ve come to take you away. I have no time to explain...but I’ve got my helicopter team all ready. They can circle back in thirty.”

  “I thought you said he didn’t want to see me anymore,” said Zelda, pulling away from Lance. “Mom, what’s going on?” Zelda looked to her mother, who hadn’t answered her, as she was busy closing the roof. The metal housing went up slowly, but once it was up, there would be no way for the squadron to come and rescue Lance and Zelda.

  “It’s not that I didn’t want to see you: she forbade me from seeing you again, and I’ll tell you why she didn’t let me see you,” said Lance, walking closer to the center of the living room. “She was trying to sell you, Zelda.”

  “What...what are you talking about?” asked Zelda, a shiver running down her spine. She looked at her mother, or at least, the woman she’d considered her mother for as long as she could remember. “Mom...what’s he talking about?”

  “She’ll just lie to you,” said Lance. “Lorelei asked me, after I visited you twice, to pay to keep seeing you.”

  “Like...like a prostitute?” asked Zelda, her stomach lurching.

  “No, as in, she’d let me take you out of the apartment, as long as I purchased you, as my own,” said Lance. “As a sex slave, as a wife, I don’t know, but I refused. I thought it must be some sort of a sick test, maybe the kind a mother gives to ensure her daughter isn’t going to a scumbag, but your mother is the real scum...she’s just keeping you here so she can sell you, Zelda. If not to me, to someone else.”

  “Lorelei...is this true?” asked Zelda.

  “Honey...think of it as a dowry,” said Lorelei gently, walking back with the remote in her hands. The remote would let people in and out of the apartment, and it also controlled the ceiling...and it was what both Zelda and Lance were focused on, as it would make escape easier. “I wanted to make sure that whatever man you were with was man who could take care of you.”

  “How much did you ask for?” asked Zelda.

  Lorelei was silent. Lance looked at the black bear shifter. “Aren’t you going to tell her?” asked Lance. As Lorelei remained silent, he turned back to Zelda. “A billion dollars. According to Lorelei, you’re only worth a billion dollars. It’s extortion, and it’s a surprisingly common scheme: people like her arrange fated mates, but charge a fee for the freedom of one of the mates. It’s not so common in America anymore, it’s a scheme often found in the ex-USSR countries, with mail order brides, and I never expected her to try and pull it on me.”

  Only? The word only made Zelda’s stomach turn. “Wh-why?” asked Zelda.

  “Your mother travels the world, looking for men that will pay to meet you, based on their mate marks,” explained Lance. “My mate mark made it obvious you’re my fated mate...but Lorelei’s decided fate owes her a cut. She ran into me by chance, but now I think it must have been planned, because this all fell together just a little too easily for my liking. She knew what my mate mark meant and that’s why she introduced us...asking for money later.”

  “Think of me as...a matchmaker,” said Lorelei, gesturing with the remote. The ceiling was over halfway closed at this point: if the helicopter team didn’t come back within a few min
utes, they’d lose their window of opportunity to save the pair of lovers from the wrath of the werebear. “Bringing together girls like you, who have nothing, with men who can take care of you. Of course, Lance wasn’t exactly supposed to sample the product, or the honeypot as the case may be, but I’m sure we can all work this out.”

  “ ‘Girls’?” asked Zelda. “ ‘Girls’? Just how many girls like me do you have? Is this why you’ve been gone? This is, isn’t it. I got old, and you found new toys to sell off like gems. I’m going to be sick.”

  “And see, now you’ve upset her,” said Lorelei, turning to Lance. “It’s best if you just go.”

  “If I go?” asked Lance, walking up to Lorelei. “If I go...Zelda is coming with me.”

  “My daughter isn’t going anywhere,” said Lorelei, walking over to Zelda and crossing her arms.

  “Yes, she is,” said Lance, holding his hand out to Zelda. “Zelda...don’t you want to leave?”

  “I do, but I can’t,” said Zelda. “I’m...I’m sick.”

  “Are you sick?” said Lance. “Or is that another lie Lorelei has told you, to control you? I bet she’s told you that it’s normal for moms to hit their kids, too, and I’m not the one that left that bruise on your face.”

  Zelda touched her face: the bruise had faded but it was still there, still prominent on her face and still sore.

  Before Zelda could reply, Lorelei started removing her suit jacket. “You have ten seconds to get out of my penthouse, snow beast,” said Lorelei, putting her jacket on the couch and walking forward. She turned the lights off using the remote, a dirty tactic as the house would only be lit by the lights that streamed in through the windows, and there were mere seconds left until the ceiling’s metal housing would be entirely closed. The light coming in through the ceiling formed a wide line that was closing by the second.

  “Or what?” asked Lance, removing his own jacket and walking up to Lorelei.

  “Or this,” said Lorelei, and in front of Zelda, she did the most terrifying thing she could do: she turned, into her shift, a form that Zelda hadn’t seen in years, but which still haunted her nightmares. Lorelei turned, her muscles changing with her skeleton as her fur popped out of her body and the only thing that remained the same was the dark color of her hair and her mean deep-set beady brown eyes.

  Lorelei roared at Lance, and Lance backed up, his hands up, walking towards the door backward. Lorelei took it as an honest gesture of retreat, not knowing Lance had a trick up his sleeve. Lance then ran, getting on all fours mid sprint as his already big body got bigger and he turned into a polar bear, crushing the various luxury goods around him, glass vases shattering and Persian rugs tearing beneath his claws as he ran up to Lorelei.

  Zelda had met many shifters, but the only one she’d seen shift was Lorelei, back when Lorelei lived with her and got angry. Lance’s form was intimidating and fearsome: it was hard to imagine that the caring man she knew was deep inside that angry bear, the bear that shared his bright blue eyes but which had gnashing teeth that were exposed as the bear roared at Lorelei.

  Lance was bigger than Lorelei, as polar bears are naturally larger than black bears, but the extra layer of fat that Lance had put on for the winter, expecting hibernation, made him slower. Lance could move about 75% as fast as Lorelei, but that 25% loss in speed was crucial: every time Lorelei swiped at his nose, Lance was unable to move fast enough to dodge the hit.

  Zelda tried to reach for the remote beneath Lorelei’s body, but was unable to do so without possibly getting in the way of the swiping bears. There was nothing long she could use to fish for the remote, like a broom or even a long candle stick. She felt entirely useless, powerless, until something inside her told her that she could stop this, that she could take care of Lorelei, once and for all. Zelda couldn’t explain it: it was as if something was talking to her, in a language only they could understand.

  Lorelei snarled at the bear before lunging, aiming for the bear’s neck, but latching onto the shoulder and tearing, hard. The skin was broken and Lorelei snapped again, snagging onto the wound and pulling, ripping the white fur from the black skin polar bears have underneath their fur. She ripped harder, tearing the skin from muscle and the muscle from the bone, leaving bright red spots over Lance’s body as Lance tried to push her away, which only caused the bears to tumble and turn over the glass tables, splaying magazines and glass and metal about. Part of the glass got into Lance’s paws and he howled in pain as the small black bear got on top of him, ready for the killing strike.

  Lance did the most dangerous thing a werebear could do: he shifted out of his bear form, for if he died in his bear form, the bear would die and he would never be able to shift again.

  “No, stop!” begged Zelda, pulling on the big black bear’s fur as the light across the room turned from a slit into a line and then disappeared entirely. “Leave him alone!”

  The bear turned and pushed Zelda, careful not to swipe its property with its claws, before getting on two legs and letting out a roar before getting on all fours, walking towards the man lying on the ground, bleeding. Lance hadn’t been able to make it towards the shadows in time to hide from the black bear, not that it would do him any good: black bears are nocturnal, whereas polar bears are diurnal, so Lorelei had the advantage in the shadows, with her advance sense of sight. She could see Lance as clearly as if it was daylight, and it was about to be lights out entirely for the man who had soiled her property.

  Zelda felt something happening that she couldn’t explain: it wasn’t a surge of bravery or courage, although that was happening too, but it was something she couldn’t explain. It was as if her body was being shared with another, and that being was guiding her.

  Lance winced: it was lights out for him and for the bear. He clutched his wounds as he looked around the penthouse for his beloved, to say some last words to her.

  He didn’t see Zelda. Instead, he saw something he’d never seen before: a huge golden bear, galloping towards the black bear. In all his years, he’d never seen a golden bear before, and this bear was larger than the black bear, but smaller than his own shift. The golden bear’s fur glistened even in the low light and although the black bear moved to the shadows, it was no use, as the golden grizzly also had good night vision and thus, the ability to see well in the dark. The golden bear roared a warning roar at the black bear, but the black bear did not retreat, instead growling back. That was the only signal the golden bear needed. It meant it was game on.

  The golden bear got on its back two legs to give a warning growl. The black bear did not retreat, holding its stance, and looking to Lance, whose throat the black bear was ready to rip out...but before it could move its paw an inch towards Lance, the golden bear ran up and rolled the black bear away from the side, catching it off guard, before standing in front of Lance. Lance recognized the coloration of the fur: it was an albino grizzly, but the fur matched Zelda’s golden locks perfectly. Lance ran his hand through the fur: it almost felt just as soft as Zelda’s own fur.

  Zelda had no idea how to control the bear. It was as if she wasn’t in control of her body at first, as if she was fighting with a copilot for dominance...but then she started to trust the bear and let the bear take over, because all Zelda knew was that she had to protect Lance. Her primal instinct told her to let the bear handle the situation, so Zelda sat back and let the bear do its thing. She turned, looking at Lance, and nodding, to let him know that she was in there, in this body she didn’t know she had access to, a body she had no idea how to control just yet...a body that was being controlled by something else entirely, for the most part.

  The golden swiped at the black bear’s nose, and then, at its throat, keeping it undertow while Zelda roared, loudly, right in the bear’s face, snarling. Lorelei didn’t get out of her shift, but distracted by Zelda, this gave Lance a chance for escape...but he didn’t reach for the remote, or for the door. No, he had his eye on something else entirely: a red light in the room th
at read ‘FIRE’ in glowing letters. Lance made his way over to the fire alarm and pulled it, hard.

  Even though the penthouse was secretive, it was still built in accordance with the fire code, which stated every building in Seattle had to have an emergency fire alarm. Pulling that fire alarm would send an alert to the fire station, and the police would always follow after, in case of arson or other foul play. Although there wasn’t a fire, the pulling of the alarms made the sprinklers go off, soaking everyone and everything in the apartment with gallons of water. It was a faster bet than waiting for the helicopter squad to fly back around, and besides, the roof was covered again by the metal housing, and it would have been hard for them to get in through the thick, nearly impenetrable windows.

  Lorelei, wet, underneath Zelda’s big bear body and bleeding from various parts, unshifted, back into her human form. Zelda unshifted once Lance had a firm hold on Lorelei. The shifting out of the bear form hurt, because it was unfamiliar, the way that using any unfamiliar muscles after years of never knowing they existed could be exhausting, but it was a pain that would go away with practice; years of practice, but practice nonetheless.

  “Zelda...I didn’t know you could shift,” said Lance, keeping Lorelei down.

  “I didn’t know I could,” admitted Zelda. What had happened was all so new and scary...and her body suddenly felt fuller, as if there was another presence she was sharing her body with, the presence she’d shared her bear body with.

  “But look at your hands,” said Lance, turning Zelda’s hands over in his. Her hands had callus marks on them in the shape of a bear’s paw pads, paw marks that matched his own, even in coloration. Lance ran his fingers over the paw pads. The pads were the softest he’d ever felt before, barely different from human palms, although the shape of the pads was there, and the rough skin was growing in. “I don’t know how I missed this before.”