Her Bear Lovers [Werebears of Shatland, Texas 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jane Jamison

  “Yes. A few. When it was necessary.”

  “And did they tell other humans what they’d seen?”

  “Some did.” He smiled, knowing where her argument was leading him. “But unless they saw for themselves, they didn’t believe. Still, shifters don’t go around showing their animal sides to humans. Our clan has a rule against doing that.”

  “Unless it’s necessary like you said.”

  He was trapped and he knew it. “Yeah. That’s what I said.”

  “And wouldn’t you call this necessary?”

  “Cuz, I think she’s cornered us. Maybe we shouldn’t have connected with a lawyer. She can be downright sneaky.” Curt grinned, then dropped the grin as he faced her father and brother again. “And damn smart, too.”

  Jadon turned her loose. “Yeah. I’d say this is necessary.”

  “Mayla, I don’t know what kind of scam these three are pulling on you, but all you have to do is leave with me. I promise you. Everything will be all right if you come home. Don’t bother with your things. Just leave right now.”

  Her father shifted his rifle from one arm to the other. He hadn’t shouldered it yet, but it was only a matter of time if she didn’t give in to his demands.

  “Sis, listen to us. You’ve got two ways to go on this. Either you come with us or we call the state police and have your ass hauled out of here.”

  “On what cause? I’m hardly underage.” Her family had something in mind. John wouldn’t have made an idle threat.

  “We’ll call in a favor with one of Pops’ friends. Judge Larkin will sign a court order to hold a competency hearing. Until that time, we’ll have you reprimanded to Starling Home.”

  Starling Home was a psychiatric in-patient facility near her father’s home in Amarillo. She couldn’t believe they’d do such a thing. Yet one look at her father’s determined face confirmed it. “You wouldn’t do that to me.”

  “No?” John had teased her all her life. But he wasn’t teasing her now. “Pops and I will do anything to keep you safe.”

  She turned to Jadon, her emotions flaring with pain, regret, and heartache. Taking a stand one way or another would mean losing either her father and brother, or the men she loved. How could she choose between them? She’d hoped to convince her family, but if the men weren’t willing to show that other side of them, then she’d have to make an impossible choice. It was her family or the men she loved. Either way she’d break not only her heart, but someone else’s.

  “Babe, it’s your decision.” His blue eyes sparkled with bits of amber.

  She hated asking them to do it. Hated that asking to reveal themselves to her family might put them into danger. Yet she had to. She couldn’t choose between them.

  “I wouldn’t ask you to do this if there was any other way.” She drew in a ragged breath as her father came closer. “Show them.”

  Jadon gave a curt nod to Curt and Josh, then led the way down the steps.

  “Stay back,” warned John. “I’ll use this if I have to.” He and her father lifted their rifles to their shoulders, ready to fire.

  “John, Dad, I’m asking you to not do anything. Just watch. Please, don’t shoot. They won’t hurt you. I promise you they won’t.”

  “What’s going on, Mayla?” Her father backed up as the Barberson men started taking their boots off. “What are they doing?”

  She held her head high. Pride for her men swelled inside her, but it couldn’t stop the agony swirling angrily inside her. Was she about to lose her family? Would her father try to harm them once they changed into bears?

  “What the fuck? Why are they taking their clothes off?” John drew closer to her father, gathering together for protection. Both of them kept their rifles aimed and ready.

  “Please, Dad, John, don’t fire. I’m begging you. Just watch.”

  The men had their shirts off and had started on their jeans. It wouldn’t be long before her father and brother saw what they were.

  “Mayla, run. Hurry,” pleaded her father.

  “They’re getting undressed so they can change into their bear forms. Please, don’t be afraid. They won’t hurt you. Put your guns down. Dad, please do it for me.”

  “The hell we will.” John leaned his head to the side and put them in his sights. “These guys are crazier than you and there’s no telling what crazy people will do.”

  “Mayla, honey, come home with us. Now, before something bad happens.”

  Her throat closed up, but she still managed a strong voice, making her seem convinced that it would work. “Put the guns down, Dad. If you’re right, they can’t change and hurt you.”

  “And if I’m wrong?”

  The small piece of hope that had come to life fluttered stronger inside her, pushing away the darkness. Her father was trying to understand, trying to believe. “If you’re wrong, then you’ll see three bears in front of you. Remember that no matter what forms they’re in, they won’t hurt you. Even as bears, they’re still the men I love.”

  Her eyes found his. “Dad, I love them.” If she thought that getting down on her knees and begging would help, she’d do just that.

  Fully undressed, Josh asked, “Baby, are you sure this is the only way? If you are, we’re ready.”

  She heard the gruff tone in his voice, the part that said his inner bear was at the surface and clawing to be set free. One last pleading look at her father confirmed her decision. “Change.”

  Their shift came slower than she’d seen them do before. Was it a slower shift to give her family more time to adjust to what they were seeing?

  Their human bodies blurred as the transformation came over them. After the initial change started, the blurriness grew less and she could see their ears change shape, growing rounder and sliding higher on their head. The faces were gone except for their eyes as they widened and their snouts began taking shape. Fur spread over their jaws replacing stubble.

  “Holy crap.” John lowered his rifle, his eyes widening, the horror and revulsion all too clear.

  Her father almost dropped his gun, caught it in time, but didn’t raise it again. Instead, he gaped at the men, his mouth moving, but with no words coming out.

  The awful cracking of the men’s bones breaking split the air while their hands formed into massive claws and their backs grew humps over their shoulders. The shift sped up, until at last, three huge grizzly bears stood shoulder to shoulder.

  She straightened her body, then strode over to stand between Jadon and Curt. “I told you the truth. And I’m telling you the truth about my feelings. I love them. As men and as bears.”

  Her father’s shocked gaze lifted away from the bears to hers. “This can’t be real.”

  “It is, Dad.” She pleaded once more. “Please, try and understand. I know it’s hard, but if you open your mind and trust your own eyes, you can do it.”

  Yet even as he spoke, he started backing away, his face a mask of terror. John stayed by his side.

  “Pops, we have to help her. It’s the drugs. They somehow got them into us, too.”

  “Don’t be stupid, John.” She wanted to cry, to scream at them to accept what they saw. “There are no drugs. What you’re seeing is real.”

  He lifted his rifle and aimed. “Get away from them, sis.”

  “No. I’m staying. These are the men I love and this is where I belong.”

  Her father raised his rifle again. The expression on his face was more terrifying than anything she’d ever seen.

  “I won’t have you living with monsters. Run, honey. I’ll protect you.”

  “Dad, you’re not listening. I love them.”

  Couldn’t he see that they wouldn’t hurt her? She was standing between two of them with her fingers buried in their fur. What more proof did he need to know they wouldn’t harm her?

  Her father and John had backed up until they were at their pickup. They split apart with John standing on the driver’s side and her father on the other.

  The be
ars and Mayla moved forward until they were only a yard away from the hood of the truck. Jadon’s body tensed under her palm, ready to bolt if he had to. “Please, Dad.”

  “Dad, shoot! Now!”

  It happened too fast for her mind to comprehend. The moment after John shouted, the shot rang out.

  Pain seared into her right arm. She reeled back, then fell to the ground on her back. She stared up at the blue sky, surprise and shock flooding her.

  “Mayla!”

  Curt, shifting back into his human form, crouched over her. The sounds of roars shattered the air and she felt the ground underneath her shake from the weight of Jadon and Josh rushing toward the truck.

  “Curt?” She didn’t understand. Did John really shoot her? Lifting her head, her mind whirled, spinning images around in a kaleidoscope of colors and movement.

  John and her father jumping into the truck. The rumble of the engine as it started. Two bears, their huge paws banging against the sides of the truck.

  “No, don’t hurt them.” She gazed into Curt’s face and wondered if she’d spoken out loud.

  “Take it easy, baby. You’ll be okay.”

  Would she? Could she ever be okay without her family? Blissfully, the swirling images slowly faded into nothingness.

  * * * *

  “I still can’t believe her brother shot her.” Jadon poured whiskey into a glass, then downed the rest of it. Curt stood staring out the back window of their home while Josh was upstairs with Mayla.

  “Did you ever think that it wasn’t Mayla he shot at? That maybe he was aiming at one of us?”

  He poured another drink then downed that one, too. “She said he’s a good shot.”

  Curt joined him in the kitchen. “Even good shots miss when they’re scared. The smell of fear coming off him burned my nostrils.”

  His cousin was right. He’d caught the same smell. It had grown even stronger as he’d barreled toward John. “That doesn’t excuse what he did.”

  “No, but it does make it better. I can get past his shooting at us, but I’d never forgive him for shooting her. At least not if he’d done it on purpose.”

  “What do we do now?”

  Curt chugged his drink. “About what? They took off and haven’t been heard of since. I don’t think they’ll try and come back. What good would it do? They can’t haul her before a judge to declare her incompetent. If necessary, we’d expose ourselves to the entire world before we’d let them get away with that.”

  “Naw, I’m not worried about them.” His gaze lifted toward the ceiling, to the bedroom above him. “I’m worried about her. She is, or was, very close to her father. And you’ve seen how she’s been since the shooting. She’s herself, but not really.”

  “I don’t know what we can do about it.”

  Jadon started to pour another drink, then stopped. Although it would take two full bottles of whiskey to get him drunk with his inner bear’s metabolism, it wouldn’t help for her to smell liquor on his breath.

  The thought hit him. He didn’t like it, but if it had a chance of working, he’d do it. “We should get Liam to help us.”

  Liam McGarrett was a werebear whose family had been one of the first to settle in Shatland. It had been a bold move by the McGarrett family, deciding to help build a town that had so many vampires in it. In time, the vampires who liked to keep an even lower profile than shifters, had been so impressed by the way the McGarretts ran things that they’d finally turned over the running of the town to the werebears. For a price, of course. Vampires never did anything out of the kindness of their stone-cold hearts. No one but the McGarrett family knew what that price was, but everyone figured it was worth it. If not, where would Shatland and the werebears be today?

  Like Jackson Carr, Forever’s unofficial leader of the werewolves, Liam McGarrett and his brothers were the ones the werebears of Shatland turned to for help.

  “How can Liam help? What do you want him to do? Shift and show her father that there’s more werebears around her?”

  Jadon wouldn’t give up. “Unless you’ve got a better idea, then I say we get Liam to go to her family and act as our liaison. What can it hurt?”

  “Liam could get a butt filled with silver bullets.”

  “Silver bullets don’t kill werebears. At least, not from the silver.”

  Curt shrugged. “Yeah, I know. But most humans get their myths mixed up.”

  “So what do you think? Should we see if Mayla wants to give Liam a try?” He’d asked, but it didn’t really matter. He’d already made up his mind.

  Curt growled, then followed Jadon toward the stairs. “I get the impression that my opinion isn’t necessary.”

  “Nope.”

  “That’s what I figured.”

  * * * *

  Mayla had heard of a broken heart, but she’d never really believed a heart could actually break. Now she knew it could.

  Sitting in the rocker next to her bed, she heard Josh mumble a greeting as his cousins came into the room. Although she didn’t feel anything but a heavy sadness, she stood, then opened her arms to them. She gave each of them a hug, then sat on the bed.

  She managed a big smile. “Guys, I’m fine now. Would you stop treating me like I’m about to shatter?”

  Josh shook his head at the other two men.

  “Don’t pay any attention to Josh.” She waved him away. “It’s been a week since they left and I’ve accepted that they’re out of my life.”

  It was a lie, but one she had to make come true. Not accepting it would mean a lifetime of sorrow.

  Determined to fake it until she made it, she shot them as sultry a look as she could do. “Like I said. It’s been a whole week. When am I going to get a little lovin’, huh?”

  She hoped that they would grin and lunge at her, tearing off their clothes as well as hers. Instead, although she saw the interest in their eyes, they stayed where they were.

  “Guys, come on.” Did she have to beg to get them in bed? What could have a better chance of making her forget about her father than having her men make love to her? “How about we go into your room? The one with all the toys?”

  Curt’s low moan told her she was getting through to them. She was halfway to the door when she realized they weren’t with her. So why hadn’t they moved?

  “No, babe.” And yet Jadon licked his lips.

  He needed her, yearned for her, so what was holding him back?

  “We’re not going to do that until you’re really ready.”

  “I told you that I’m fine.” The sorrow that had held her captive in the room slithered around her heart again. “See?” She held up her arm with the white bandage wrapped around it. “It wasn’t as bad as it looked. I’m embarrassed that I passed out.”

  “Yeah, your arm’s doing great, but it isn’t your body we’re talking about,” added Josh.

  She knew there was no way she’d fool them. “At some point, I’m going to have to let it go.” It sounded so easy to do, and yet, she knew it was like asking her to touch the moon.

  “Maybe.” Jadon took her hand and had her sit on the bed. “And maybe not.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Curt and I got to talking just now.”

  Curt scoffed. “I did more listening than talking.”

  “Whatever.” Jadon grabbed his cousin by the back of the neck and shoved him away. “Anyway, we think we could send someone to talk to your father. Not one of us. He’d probably shoot us before we could knock on his door.”

  Had they really come up with a solution? “Then who?” Hope and fear made a bad mix, churning in her stomach. “Me?”

  “No, we can’t risk that. He might try and take you again. We thought we’d ask Liam McGarrett to go. He’s kind of the unofficial leader of the werebears in this area. He’s a persuasive guy.”

  Would her father listen to a man he didn’t know? Yet, she had to do something. He hadn’t answered any of her calls. “Could he take a letter to my f
ather? At least then, he couldn’t just ignore me.”

  “Sure, he could.”

  She smiled, and for the first time in a week, felt some of the warmth of it. “Then let’s give it a try. But first…”

  “But first what?” Josh tilted his head in question. The gesture was one they all three did when they had a question.

  “First, I want you to hold me. Just hold me. Make me feel safe, like everything’s going to work out in the end. All three of you.”

  Curt moved the fastest and brought her into his arms. “But no sex?”

  She loved his earnest expression. “Not yet. You guys are right. I need a little more time. Until then—”

  “Just hold you.” Curt eased her toward the headboard, placing her in the middle of the bed. “It’s going to be a challenge for all three of us to hold you at once, but we’re up to it. If we can’t think of anything else, we’ll take turns.”

  Jadon and Josh were on the bed next. Curt got behind her, letting her lean her back against his chest. She heard the rapid thump, thump-thump and realized how hard it was for him not to slide his hands down her shoulders and around to her breasts. Jadon sat beside her, skimming his palm along her arm, while Josh did the same to her leg.

  She fought back a tear. How lucky was she to have found three men who would give her exactly what she needed?

  Chapter Nine

  Mayla ran toward the door as soon as she heard Josh turn the doorknob. As she’d done three times in the past month, she’d waited in impatient silence for his return. Curt and Jadon lounged on the leather sofas, then sat up as Josh came in.

  “Is he back? What’d he say? Did my father speak to him?” She bounced from one foot to the other and chewed on her thumbnail. Liam’s trips to see her father were hard to handle, especially since Liam refused to call and give her any news. He was still standoffish, not too pleased that her father and brother had seen the Barberson men in their bear forms. Still, he’d said he’d do her the favor of talking to her father, but would only discuss the results with one of the men.

  His first trip to see her father had proven worthless. Once he’d found out where Liam lived, he’d refused to speak to him. The second trip was the one that had given her hope. Surprisingly, it had been John that had allowed Liam into their home and had talked her father into seeing him. They hadn’t said much, but at least her father had asked if she was all right. It showed that he still cared.