by Sky Winters
“What is she doing here?” Harlan asked one day when Dixie appeared at the garage while several of the members were hanging out there and discussing club business.
“Dixie is always welcome here,” Luke replied coolly.
“I don’t recall issuing her a patch,” Harlan replied. “This is a members only gathering.”
“I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t realize I was interrupting anything. I will come back later when you aren’t busy,” Dixie told him, not wanting to cause trouble between him.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Harlan is just being an asshole. Just wait for me in my office. We’re almost done here anyway,” Luke told her, never taking his eyes off of Harlan.
Dixie nodded and walked to the front of the garage. She could hear him and Harlan exchanging angry words, but couldn’t make our exactly what they were saying. It was bad enough that she had to come here to have the conversation with him that she had planned. No doubt it wasn’t going to be received well if he was already in a bad mood. She sat nervously waiting on him.
“What’s wrong?” he said immediately when he came in a short time later.
“How do you know something is wrong?” she asked, surprised he could pick up on it so quickly.
“I have a good sense for these things. I can smell fear and you are covered in it,” he said.
“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out.
His physical reaction was much the same as if she had slapped him. She sat waiting for him to say something. She had known for a week, but had been trying to accept it herself before coming to him. Instead, she had made excuses not to see him while she sorted it out in her head. This had not been a part of her plan and she knew it changed everything with her life, with school, and with him.
“How far along are you?” he asked.
“It’s yours if that is what you are trying to figure out,” she snarled back, upset that he might even think otherwise.
“No, Dixie. I know it is mine. How far along?” he asked again.
“No more than a few weeks,” she replied. “I took two tests and both were positive. I have an appointment with the doctor in the morning to confirm.”
“No. I’ll make you an appointment elsewhere. You can’t see a regular doctor,” he replied.
“What? Of course I can see a regular doctor. Wait, are you telling me you want me to take care of it? You don’t want anyone to know that you made me end the pregnancy?” she suddenly shrieked.
“I am not telling you that. I am telling you that you need a very special doctor and that I need for you to go to who I tell you to see,” he said firmly.
“You aren’t making any sense. Why?” she asked.
“Dixie, listen to me. I can’t explain to you right now, but I will tonight. Just know that I love you and that I want this baby. I want our baby. Do you?” he asked.
“Of course I do,” she told him, knowing that she meant it now that she was saying the words out loud. It didn’t matter how it changed things for her to be pregnant. She wanted this baby more than anything.
“Then, we need to sit down and talk about some things. Let me get a couple of things finished up here at the garage and then I’ll come get you. We’ll go to the house where we can be alone and talk,” he said.
“You are scaring me,” Dixie told him.
“I know I am, but it will be okay. I promise,” he told her.
“Okay. Just call me when you are on your way over,” she told him.
“Dixie?” he called after her as she started to leave.
“Yes?” she said, stopping to look back at him.
“I love you. I love you and I love our baby,” he said
“I love you, too,” she replied before leaving the garage.
Harlan stood just outside the garage opening, looking her up and down in his usual lewd way. There was a smirk on his face that made her just want to walk over and slap him, but she knew that would only cause more trouble between him and Luke. The last thing she needed to do was stir crap between them. Instead, she walked quietly to her car, avoiding any further eye contact with him. She saw him go into the garage after she left and wondered what he was up to.
“I’m on my way to get you,” Luke told her on the phone less than an hour later. “I need you to pack some things and plan on staying at my house for a while.”
“What? Why? I’ll be fine here at home,” she replied.
“No, you won’t. Just please do as I ask and I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes,” he told her, hanging up before she could protest further.
“Luke, what is going on?” she asked when he came to the door.
“Let’s get your things in the car. I need you to follow me to my house, Dixie. Don’t stop for anyone or anything,” he told her.
“What is going on, Luke?” she asked again, more frightened than ever.
“I need you to trust me,” he said. “Can you just trust me until I get you home?”
“Okay, Luke,” she replied quietly. They packed her things into her car and she followed him to his house, parking around back as he instructed her to do. Things were getting really weird and she wasn’t sure that she still felt so good about her condition under these circumstances. What had happened that was making him act this way.
“Come outside with me,” he told her once they had her things inside. “I need to show you something.”
Dixie followed him out, noting how bright it was despite the lack of lighting around his house. Luke lived on a side road with no other houses. It was completely secluded, so there was no lighting from other houses either. Instead, the large full moon overhead cast shadows across the yard. She looked up at it and then back down at Luke.
“I’m going to show you something. I could tell you, but you wouldn’t believe me or understand, so I am just going to show you. Don’t be frightened. I have complete control over it,” he said.
“What are you talking about, Luke?” she said, but before she even finished saying the words, she saw something happening.
It was if he was getting taller and his muscles seemed to expand, ripping open his clothes until they were merely threads. His skin was rapidly covering with dark brown fur and his face was contorting, forming a snout. Large jagged teeth flashed in the moonlight as he let out a loud growl and fell down onto all fours. Dixie stood there in disbelief. Her heart hammered against her chest and she took a step back. She watched as the huge bear took a step toward her and then everything went black.
“Dixie? Dixie? Are you okay?” she heard Luke’s voice saying to her. She came too lying in his bed. It must have been a dreamed. She struggled to recount the time leading up to this moment. There didn’t seem to be any missing pieces where she might have gone from being in the backyard to being in bed, asleep and having weird dreams about the man she loved shifting into some sort of bear. Still, that had to be the answer. Things like that didn’t happen. They didn’t exist.
“I dreamed you were a bear,” she replied with a smile.
“It wasn’t a dream, Dixie. It was real. You passed out and I carried you in here to lay down,” he said.
“No. That is impossible,” she replied.
“It isn’t impossible. I was born this way, as my father was before me and my grandfather before that. Our child will be one, as well. There will be anomalies on your ultrasound. That is why I need for you to go to a specific doctor,” he replied.
Dixie’s eyes grew wide. Her hands shot down to her stomach, clutching it as if she expected whatever she was carrying to claw its way out right this moment. She was suddenly more frightened than she was a short time ago watching Luke turn into some sort of were bear. Knowing she had one inside of her was well more than a bit more than she had bargained for in this whole thing.
“It’s okay. You won’t be hurt by the baby, Dixie. He will develop like a normal child and he will appear to be a normal child. Not even he will know any different until he begins to shift in his teens. I will have prepared him f
or that well before it happens to him. He’ll need to know how to cope, how to conceal it and how to control it. The only thing that will need to be addressed is any doctor’s visits. He can’t go to normal doctors and he can’t go to normal hospitals,” he told her.
“What if something more than a scrape happens to him?” she said.
“Most anything that happens to him will heal rapidly on its own. Anything beyond that will be taken care of by the club physician,” he said.
“The bike club? All were bears?” she said, suddenly understanding a lot more about the close bond between most of them and the animosity from the second in command toward Luke.
“Yes, all of them. There are many of us here and we’ve coexisted peacefully for centuries,” he said.
“Centuries?” she repeated. “How old are you?”
“I am not immortal, Dixie. I will live for several centuries, but I was born here just like you were and am very young compared to some of the others,” he said. “It is the reason I am having issues with Harlan. He is much older and feels he should be the leader.”
“Why isn’t he?” she asked.
“Because it was decided long ago who would be leader. Each generation, a new boy is born to the leader of the pack and that boy replaces his father when the time comes. I replaced my father and our son will replace me one day,” he said.
“That is why Harlan is angry? Doesn’t he know that he can’t ever be leader and it is useless to cause problems because of it,” she said.
“Listen closely to me, Dixie. I have to keep you here, out of sight. Harlan is dangerous. I know he has intentions of trying to take me down so that he can take over as leader. If I am out of the way, it falls to a vote and that is usually who is considered to be the strongest of the pack. The one that took down the previous leader is the most likely successor,” he said.
“You mean he would try to kill you? Oh my God, Luke. What about me? Why do I have to hide?” she asked, still not completely grasping the situation.
“Because if Harlan kills me, our child becomes next in line. An elder would be appointed by the council to hold his place and teach him what he needs to know until such time as he can step into my shoes. Do you understand what I am saying?” he said.
“Harlan would have to kill all of us,” she replied.
“I’m sorry, Dixie. I had no intention of this happening anytime soon. I have some other ways of dealing with Harlan that I was working on, but things have escalated and I’m afraid that if he finds out about the baby, it will set him off completely. I can’t risk him harming you,” he replied.
Dixie sat crying on the bed. This was too much, way too much. How had she gotten herself into this mess? She had tried so hard to do better than her sisters and had only landed in more of a bad situation than any of them could have ever gotten themselves into. Luke held her close, trying to sooth her, but she couldn’t seem to get a grip on herself. A knock on the door disrupted them.
“I’ll be right back,” Luke told her, stepping out of the bedroom and closing the door.
She heard the front door swing open and angry voices coming from the living room. It was Harlan, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. Creeping out of the bed, she put her ear against the door so that she could hear better.
“How long did you think you could hide that you knocked up your little college girl?” she heard Harlan saying.
“Who told you a tale like that, Harlan?” Luke asked.
“I could smell the hormonal stink on her when she left the garage earlier. Seems I’ve acquired a few skills you haven’t. Only more reason for me to be leader,” Harlan said.
“You aren’t fit to be leader. You have too many anger issues and a nasty streak. Have you forgotten what you did to those guys down at the river house last year? You almost got us all hunted down and killed for that. The council was furious,” Luke told him.
Dixie had some vague memory of an incident at the river while she was away last fall. It was chalked up to wild animals but no one was sure what kind or why they had attacked the men while they slept. Hunters had spent weeks in the woods looking for anything rabid or large, bringing in hundreds of large game trophies as a part of their excused killing of normally protected animals.
“They had it coming, man. They ripped me off in that card game,” Harlan spat back at him.
“I don’t think that should have been a death sentence.” Then, “Don’t do that, Harlan. I’m warning you,” Dixie heard Luke say.
She heard the low growl, the same one she had heard earlier when Luke had changed. It grew louder and was joined by a second. Panic set in as she realized they were changing. Harlan was challenging him, here and now. This was really happening. Right now, in the middle of his living room. The sound of things breaking and large bodies colliding shook the house. Dixie began looking around for something, anything to protect herself and their baby if she had to.
The terrifying noises coming from the living room sent her scurrying to the closet. She cowered there listening to the fight that was happening in the next room. She had never been near two wild animals fighting, much less something like this. Her heart felt like it was going to leap out of her chest and tears fell down her face as it seemed to go on endlessly. Finally, there was the horrible sound of an animal in pain. Everything stopped for a moment except for that sound.
Dixie reached for the wall beside her to steady herself and prepare to run if needed. Her hands landed squarely on something hard. She felt quietly along it to discover it was in fact a double barrel shotgun, something she was very familiar with thanks to her father teaching her at least a little about guns when she was younger. Before she could check to see if it was loaded, she heard the sound of the bedroom door being ripped open and crashing noises of what sounded like the bed being broken. Cocking the gun, she waited, terrified.
The door shook as it was ripped off its hinges. Dixie couldn’t see anything as the dark shadow of the were bear blocked out the light behind it. Without thinking, she pulled the trigger on the shotgun, hoping it hit somewhere that would do enough damage for her to escape. The sound was deafening in the small closet as the gun went off and the bear fell backwards toward the broken remains of the bed. He attempted to get up, but she cocked the shotgun again, unloading another round squarely in its chest. It fell still and she watched as it slowly reshaped into the figure of a man . . . Harlan.
She gagged at the sight of him, falling forward from the closet and holding on to the wall for balance. Fear immobilized her for quite some time before she could bring herself to make it to the living room. There, she found Luke, lying on the floor. He was naked, covered with blood, bruises and scratches. Tears fell down her face as she knelt over him, crying. Holding him close to her, she could feel him still breathing.
“Hold on, Luke. Don’t leave me,” she cried, reaching into her pocket for her cell phone.
Dixie called the bar and asked them to get anyone that was there from his gang to the phone. She wasn’t sure if they could even comprehend what she was saying due to her near hysteria, but a short time later, bikes arrived in droves. An older man she recognized as a frequent visitor instructed someone to calm her while he tended to Luke. She found herself escorted to the back porch and given a glass of water while one of the other club wives let her lean on her shoulder.
A few days later, Dixie stood looking at the mess that had once been Luke Robert’s house. There was very little in the living room, kitchen or bedroom that hadn’t been shattered or crushed from the fight between the two alpha bears. In the bedroom was a stain where the body of Harlan Simmons had once lay. There was now a missing person’s report for him, but the club assured her he would never be found. She placed her hand on her stomach and smiled at the child the doctor had confirmed she was carrying and walked out of the house with the bags she had brought over days ago.
“You ready?” Luke asked as she stepped out.
“I’m ready,” she rep
lied.
Luke nodded at a few of the club members and tossed Dixie’s bags in her car before kissing her softly on the cheek. She followed him down the road, glancing into her rear view mirror just in time to see the house go up in flames and bikes coming into view behind her. Twenty minutes later, she pressed the button on a garage door opener and watched Luke’s bike disappear inside the opening before pulling in beside him.
“Welcome to your new home,” Luke told her.
“It’s beautiful,” she replied, looking around the refurbished plantation home set far back off the road where no one would bother them.
“I’m glad you like it. I had planned on a much less dramatic transition from the old house to this one, but things didn’t work out quite like I planned them. There is just one thing lacking,” he told her.
“What is that?” she said.
“The other half of my plans when I bought this house for us,” he said.
Dixie watched as he fished something from his pocket and took her hand, slipping an antique black diamond onto her finger. She looked at it in surprise and then back at him.
“That ring has been passed down from generation to generation in my family. Now, it is yours and someday, our son will give it to the woman he loves. Will you marry me, Dixie?” he asked.
“Yes! Yes, I will!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him and kissing him passionately. Luke picked her up and carried her upstairs to their new bedroom. She was amazed at how quickly his body had healed from the fight with Harlan, a fight which she later learned he was ill equipped to fight after having changed so recently before it. At the end of the day, it seemed they had saved one another and could now spend their lives in peace, as could their unborn son. That was all that mattered.