Claimed By My Bear Stepbrother
Ashley Hunter
Copyright 2015 by Ashley Hunter
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced
in any way whatsoever, without written permission
from the author, except in case of brief
quotations embodied in critical reviews
and articles.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any
person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
First edition, 2015
Table Of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 1
“Bye, girls,” Anna shrieked from outside the front door of her house to her friends who were waving her goodbye, half sticking out from the window of their car.
“Bye, Anna,” they shouted back, voices tired and slurred with a mixture of exhaust and sleepiness. “Go back to your fairy tale,” said Nicole, one of her friends.
She was talking about her home, which was no less than a palace. Anna just rolled her eyes, took out her set of keys and after fumbling on the first attempt, opened the door.
It was just like a Disney cartoon. The princess entering her majestic palace to a grand staircase leading to worlds unknown; never-ending tapestries and glass windows lined with expensive portraits and stuffed heads of animals, most probably alive at some point in the not so distant past. Anna didn’t have to tiptoe across the cavernous hall, despite the silence and stillness of the night. Half-Moon, first quarter.
The hall would have been plunged in utter and complete darkness except for slabs of moonlight entering through the large glass windows. Anna felt a sense of spookiness walking in the half black hall, everything so calm and silent, like it always is before a storm.
Her ears were extra sensitive, picking up sounds from far off: the chirping of a cricket, wind whistling through the tree tops, owls hooting.
The big clock on top of the staircase chimed midnight. Anna never knew why Jack, her stepfather, had kept this old piece of machinery when newer models were loitering the market and new ones were practically being produced every day.
It can’t be for aesthetic reasons, she thought, as it was not a particularly fine looking clock. She thought to ask Jack about this, or Emma, her mother. Emma had married Jack just about five months ago, more than two years after Anna’s biological father had passed away in a car accident.
Emma had been grieving for a year or so when Anna finally convinced her to go outside and just find somebody to talk to or something. Luckily she found Jack and they married soon after.
Jack had a son from a previous marriage, Nathan, who had graduated from college a couple of years ago and was now helping Jack with his business; a business that kept growing at exponential speeds. Anna, herself busy with her freshman year of college had seen little of Nathan since she moved in.
She had seen him on the wedding and then on odd nights here at home. He seemed to be working a lot, even more than Jack who had a reputation for being a workaholic. Some days Nathan looked a lot worse for wear than other days.
Anna never understood why he pushed himself to work to such a point that his health started getting effected.
Presently as she was climbing the stairs, there was a strange creaking noise. She froze in her place. First she thought that it was probably nothing, a trick played by her brain with the dark.
Then there was a thud and a small cry. Now she was positively terrified. She was torn between curiosity to see what the source of the noise was and fear at the outcome.
The sound was coming from just a little far away, probably just outside the walls of the house. She plucked up the courage and decided to follow the sound. Now she was tiptoeing, without consciously deciding to; fear does strange things to your body, without you even noticing.
She reached the back door of the house which was ajar, but only slightly. She could look outside by placing only one eye through the sliver of space that was present.
Her first instinct was to throw open the door and see who (or what) was making the noise. But she almost immediately changed her mind when there were sudden movements outside. She pressed her eye against the small gap.
Anyone standing on the opposite side of the door and looking at her eye would see that it dilated in what could only be construed as shock, fear and possibly disgust. Her hand was pressed against her mouth to stop her from screaming; right in front of her was Nathan.
But he was not Nathan. Not quite. As a matter of fact he wasn’t even human. As her eyes were transfixed on the spot where her step brother stood, writhing, she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Her breath was coming in gasps and her feet were shaking like it suddenly dropped below freezing point.
Nathan’s whole body was transforming. First, she thought it was becoming a wolf, like in popular books and movies, but it was not. Hair started covering his body and the whole structure of his physical being changed into a four legged animal. His human clothes were torn apart. The place where previously Nathan was, now stood a huge bear, his jaws exposed, moon light gleaming in its eyes.
Involuntarily Anna’s foot hit the door and it caught Nathan’s attention. The bear, not Nathan. It turned its head and looked at Anna, bearing its teeth. Anna thought she wouldn’t be able to do anything and was most certainly going to be ravished by this beast, when the bear started running in the opposite direction. Woods lined the back of the house and soon the bear disappeared in them.
Anna would never forget the sight of her half-brother turning into a bear and running into a forest in the dark of the night.
Chapter 2
He looked at me. It. It looked at me.
She somehow made it to her room and locked it immediately, somewhat foolishly thinking that a wooden door would be able to stop the huge monster.
She sat in one corner of her room, facing the door, not daring to move, lest anything bad should happen. Despite the tiredness earlier tonight, she was far from sleep at this moment. She wasn’t even sure if she would even move from her current position.
A thousand questions rallied in her mind: what was happening? Did werebears (are they really called that?!) exist? Is it like a vampire or a werewolf thing: you have to be bitten by a bear? Why Nathan? Where did he go? How long does this last? Is it the first time or has it happened before? How quickly can he change back? And most importantly: did he remember the things he saw as a bear? Did he see her standing in the doorway? If yes, what were her options? Tell Emma? Tell Jack? Would they believe her?
She imagined a conversation with Jack and Emma at the dining table. She thought how Jack would react at learning that his son and now his business partner doubled as a bear.
It sounded insane, even inside her head. Even if she told someone, there was fat chance anyone would believe her. After all, this happened in movies and young adult books.
Reality was supposed to be much more grounded in, well, reality. That’s the problem, she thought: we expect fiction to be real and our reality to be like fiction.
She didn’t sleep the whole night and only went to her bed when the sun was shining. Even then she stayed awake for a full hour before finally drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 3
The next day was Saturday and she was woken up by a knocking on the door. Groggily and still not thinking straight, she opened the
door.
It was Nathan.
Her mouth instinctively formed an O shape and her eyes exuded incredulity.
“You’re…” she opened her mouth to say something, but words failed her. She was pretty sure that all color had escaped her face and she was as white as a ghost.
Nathan didn’t look much better. His otherwise handsome face had dark shadows beneath the yes, as if they had not seen any sleep last night either. Maybe the woods didn’t have a comfortable bed.
“May I come in?” Nathan asked her.
Anna didn’t know if she would be able to speak for a very long time. She was more scared than she had ever been in her life. She didn’t know if this man standing in front of her was her step-brother, who had been sharing this roof with her for the past few months (if only barely) or a monstrous creature who had bared its teeth at her in the gleam of moonlight.
Sensing her hesitation and silence as yes, he walked past her in the room and closed the door. She still stood rooted to the spot, near her door, possibly thinking that if he tried to do anything, human or bear, she would run out that door like the wind.
“Interesting night, last?” he said, staring at her.
His eyes were dark brown. It was the first time that she was so keenly looking at him. She always thought he was cute, but he was her step-brother, so that train stopped there.
Now that she was scared for her life, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She tried her best to keep herself casual. She wanted to gauge if he remembered anything or not, though his coming here was not a good omen.
“I-It was normal,” she shrugged, trying her best at normalcy.
She kept her gaze fixed on him. It was a penetrating look. She couldn’t get away from it.
“Normal in what way?” he said.
The air seemed literally frozen in between them. She was terrified, he was calculating. It was a battle of wills, one she was losing.
“You have a meddling nose,” he said suddenly.
If she thought it couldn’t have gone any worse, she was wrong. Earlier she was frozen in time, now it seemed she wasn’t breathing.
“W-What are you talking about?” she said, petrified, stupefied, and trying to bluff her way out of it. Fat chance.
He chuckled. She sweat.
“You’re not going to get away with it?” he said, menace drawn on his face; a kind of menace drawn out of fear, when an animal is cornered. Never is it more dangerous.
“I saw you,” he said quietly. “Last night I saw you through that door. And you saw me, too.”
He was saying this all in a calm, cool voice. But the volume of his voice did nothing to soothe her. It would have been better had he shouted his anger and frustration. The coldness amplified her fear.
“It was a misfortunate moment,” he continued. “Do not pretend it isn’t the case,” he said, seeing that she was shaking her head. “Now you know,” he ended simply.
There was finality in his voice and she did not know what it meant. Maybe he was going to let her go on the promise that she wouldn’t tell anyone anything.
“I,” she stared but he cut her.
“Listen,” he said. “Let me explain. Come.”
He walked out of the room and she didn’t know where he was going. She decided that she wouldn’t be in any danger in broad daylight in a house full of people.
She walked quietly behind him. He led her to the car in the garage and opened the door for her. He sat on the driver’s seat and drove the car out of the garage.
As the trees and the scenery ran away from them outside the window, Anna clutched her hands in her lap. It had been a weird night and the morning wasn’t getting any better.
The silence was getting heavy. She wanted answers, explanation and then, ideally, to go back to the house and sleep. Maybe she would find out that it was all a dream, after all. She couldn’t believe that the handsome young man sitting right next to her had been a monstrous bear just twelve hours ago.
“When does it happen?” she asked finally when the silence had become too hard to bear.
He didn’t answer but kept on driving; as the scenery changed from greenery to hills and country side, the houses and population started to diminish. She had a bad feeling about this.
“Where are you taking me?” she said in a panicked voice.
Again, he didn’t answer. She tried to open her door, but it was locked.
“Let me out, HELP!” she shouted.
He halted the car and Anna realized that they were outside a house.
“What is this place? Answer me!”
She seriously considered running away, but she didn’t know where she would go. On one side there was a valley and on the other there were woods. It was a dead end.
Nathan walked in the house and indicated for Anna to follow suit. Her gut was telling her not to do that at any cost. But she didn’t have any choice. It was strange what humans could do when pushed; something they shared with animals.
Resigned and forlorn, Anna followed Nathan into the dark room (abyss, in her mind). It wasn’t a huge place, but it was not small, either. Nathan was standing in the middle of the hall, his hands behind his back.
“I promised you an explanation,” he began. “And that is precisely what I plan to do.”
She clung to his words. Finally some answers.
“I am a not entirely human,” he said. “I change into a bear once a night every month.”
“Is it a specific night?”
“First quarter,” he said and a dark shadow crossed his mind.
“Is-is it…painful?” she asked.
He thought about it for a second and his eyes exuded a kind of pain.
“Yes,” he said, in a low voice.
Then a strange kind of light came in his eyes and suddenly Anna, who had kind of established a false sense of security was again taken aback. She was scared once again.
“And you cannot tell anyone,” he said, his voice rising with every word.
“I won’t,” she said quickly and trying to inject all honesty in her quivering voice. It hit her at that moment that you can’t fake sincerity when you are afraid. It is just impossible.
Nathan was shaking his head. He looked tired, desolate, menacing and angry at the same time.
“I can’t trust that you won’t tell anyone,” he said and he started circling around her and finally stopped behind her.
“W-What?” she said, tears streaming her eyes. She had a feeling that this was going somewhere not at all what she had.
“I can’t let you go,” he said and he looked strangely torn about it. “Not now. Not until I know for sure that my secret is safe.”
The world around Anna crashed.
Chapter 4
She was sitting on the bed in a dark room, the only light coming from outside the window. Her eyes had dried up and it seemed that the infinite source of tears had finally been used up. It was a shattering moment. She hadn’t even bothered to turn on the light in the room.
Several times since she had been cooped up in this room, the reality had sunk in and it was more terrible every time: I am stuck in a faraway place where no one can find me and I don’t know how long I will be a prisoner to my half-brother.
There were moments of hope interspersed with despair: Emma and Jack would surely miss me, they would look for me or something. But these moments were short lived.
She was sure that Nathan would cover his tracks and explain her absence in a rational way. It was when thoughts like this crossed her mind that everything seemed to be dark and unconquerable.
She cried some more. Clearly, there was no upper limit to the amount of tears a person can shed.
It was fully dark outside when the room opened and she saw Nathan standing there, lit up from the light from the corridor. His silhouette was strangely fascinating.
“Food is ready,” he said softly and walked out.
Anna didn’t come down to eat.
By the next
morning, her decision not to eat seemed like a stupid one. She was hungry beyond anything she has ever experienced. She kept looking at the wall clock; it was nine in the morning. Must be nearly time for breakfast, she thought. The door was unlocked and Nathan materialized in the doorway.
“Breakfast is here. Come if you want to,” he said and left.
His tone was cold and Anna was sure that he was stung by her refusal to come downstairs. This time hunger trumped everything and she went down. The table was set and all sorts of breakfast food covered it, including, strangely a tea saucer.
She sat down timidly. He had already started breakfast. She started as well. For a few minutes, there was silence except the clatter of knives and forks on plates. But she wanted answers, still.
“How long do you plan to keep me here?” she asked him.
“As long as it takes,” he said, not taking his eyes off the food.
“That’s not an answer. I want a number,” she said, more confidently than she felt.
He stopped eating and looked at her. Anna felt color rising up her neck. His gaze seemed to have a strange effect on her. She tried to strengthen her resolve and confront him but she knew it was a fighting battle.
“You leave when I tell you to leave,” he said and thumped his hand on the table which shook with the force of his smack.
Silence took its place in between them. He had stopped eating and was looking at her. Her chest was heaving up and down, red color on her face. After a few seconds, he resumed eating.
“You will have no problem living here,” he said, in an even voice, without emotions as if by pretending that this was not odd would make it so.
“You will have ample supplies: food, television,” he said.
“But it is not living,” she said, her own anger rising to match his. He could not just sit there and pretend to play house.
“It will have to make do,” he said. “I will be back in the afternoon.”
Claimed By My Bear Stepbrother: A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance Standalone Page 1