by Ava Hunt
He stood there on the concrete drive, watching her turn the corner and head into the darkness. He could only blame himself for what had occurred. He should have been upfront with her at the very beginning, but how could he bring that up? Hey I'm Alexander, I'm a corporate executive, I love the color blue, and I'm a werebear. No, it's just not how it’s done.
He went inside the house and immediately called her with it going straight to voicemail. He sent her a text:
We really should talk. Don't shut me out, please. Call me.
He tried to go to work the next morning but he was in a fog of sadness. The phone stayed silent except for a few business calls. Each day he'd wake hoping to hear from her, each evening he’d go to bed still able to smell her on his pillow. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into a full month. He sent flowers, letters, candy, anything and everything he thought of that could win her back. He didn't want her to go a day without knowing she was thought of, missed, and loved.
There had been two opportunities to talk to her when he had seen her. Once at the coffee shop, when he had walked in before heading to work to see her in the corner. He had waved, she’d got up and left. The other had been at a gallery opening. She had been friends with the artist and Alexander had been there as a patron of the gallery. He’d at least got a stilted "Hello" out of her that night, one that he had treasured for days to follow.
His friends kept telling him to start seeing people. They would fix him up with their friends, their relatives, and any hot chick that their girlfriends knew. Alexander would have none of it.
After five full weeks of waiting, he started to take more and more time off work and just roamed the wooded areas behind the city. He'd leave for hours, prowling, taking in nature and roaming in full bear form. He began to embrace the animal within, even considered living full time as a bear if his human form was going to be so forlorn.
After his bear needs had been satiated, he was back in full human form full time again. He went to his job every morning and stayed late every evening. He was throwing in everything he had to the job, trying to find some balance between his human and his bear. One night, late when the paperwork was piled high and the view of the city was creeping in through his window, his phone chirped with the tone he had set for her alone.
Brooke.
He had finally received a message from Brooke.
Chapter Eight
"It was you, wasn't it?" She texted Alexander. It had been six weeks. Six long weeks of yearning to be near him again, of wrestling with her emotions and trying to come to grips with what she had once put aside as Ian's drunken ramblings might have been the truth.
"I don't understand what you're asking Brooke. By the way though, I've missed you terribly," Alexander texted back, trying to rein in his feelings about her finally getting back to him after all this time. He'd been relentless in trying to win her back and he didn't want to lose this opportunity now that he had it. I've got to take it tremendously slow and I can't mess this up, he thought, I need to make sure I answer things perfectly.
"The night Ian took off, he was raving about some half-man, half-bear creature that attacked him. It was you, wasn't it?"
"Yes, but no. I didn't attack him for no reason. I saw him knock you out and I only did what I needed to do to ensure that you were going to be safe." It was the complete truth. In all fairness, had he not taken her feelings into account at all he may very well have killed him; the rage had boiled that greatly in him. No man should put his hands on a woman and the fact that he berated her size while doing so just angered Alexander further.
"You were there that night?" She texted, trying to think back to that hazy night in her memory. She vaguely remembered a large person/animal hovering over her. She had waved it away as trauma from the head wound at the time, but he had actually been there. He was the one that had helped her. She had told her best friend of the instance, but had been assured it was due to her head injury. Now Brooke wasn't too sure it had been just a figment of her imagination. Now she believed she really did have that guardian angel she had said she had; only it was a guardian werebear.
"Yes, I was there with you afterwards. I made sure you were okay and then took off after him. Yes, I threatened him. He deserved it and I won't apologize for that."
"You called me moonlight."
"Yes, yes I did."
"We need to talk about this....this situation. You. The bear thing."
"I know we do," Alexander replied, nearly holding his breath in hope of reconciliation.
"I'll come over on Saturday. We'll talk. See where we go from here," Brooke relented. After all the flowers, cards, letters, little gifts on her car, she realized that perhaps he wasn't some vicious animal, but a soulful person with a shifter side. He'd never let up either, even after six months. There were still daily reminders that he missed her, that he cared. She could remember him standing above her when she had been beaten by Ian. How he had called her moonlight, made sure she got the medical help she’d needed and reassured her that it would all be okay. While she didn't understand what part of him was, she wanted to try to understand it.
Stranger things had happened. She could adjust.
Chapter Nine
Alexander was pacing the floors come Saturday. It was only after waking that he realized they had never finalized a time to meet. He sat there in his kitchen and watched the clock over the stove tick away the hours, wondering how many of them would be counted before she arrived. He kept thinking of how to start this conversation; a conversation he had never had to have before with the women he had known. But this wasn't just any woman. Brooke was his mate and he knew he owed her the truth and hoped that she could still love him afterwards.
When he couldn't pace the floors any longer, he went to his home gym and started working out, anything to release the nervous energy that was plaguing him. He wondered if this was going to be the final nail in the coffin of their relationship or its saving grace.
It was only noon when Brooke knocked on the door, startling Alexander out of his intense thoughts. He ran to the door, flung it opened, and suppressed everything in himself that wanted to pull her close to him. Instead, he stepped aside so that she could enter, unmolested.
She took a seat at the table, hands folded, nervously twitching her foot. Alexander sat opposite her, so that he could look at her when she spoke, and waited. He knew she needed to begin. He sat, breathed her in, completely and irrevocably happy to be in her presence again. He loved his woman to his very core.
"Alexander, I just... I just need you to explain to me what I saw. What you are. How this could ever work."
"I will do my best, Brooke. I've two lives. My human is successful, lonely, and prone to all the faults men can have. My bear comes out in periods of intensity, whether that is anger or passion. If I get riled up, it is hard to keep him inside. When we were making love, I wanted you so badly, I wanted to experience it all, and I shifted a little during. I didn't mean for you to see. I know I'm not the most gentle during that time and I really tried to keep it under control."
"You don't kill people, do you?" she asked of him, genuinely concerned about the answer.
"I've never killed anyone. I don't hunt. I've used my bear senses to track before as evident with Ian. I've used my form for its strength and the ability to scare, but I've never killed anyone. Just as I've injured as a human, I've done so as a bear as well."
She nodded, still twitching her foot, clearly taking it all in and trying to make sense of it. Her mind had so many questions that she dared not even ask him about at this stage. Do we have kids or pups was a thought that kept rearing its head to her.
"How did the other women in your life react?" she asked quietly.
"They never did. I've never mated before. I've had cheap and meaningless sex with girls that meant nothing to me, so I was fully capable of staying in human form."
She didn't think she'd be as happy as she was hearing this. Alexander could hear he
r exhale, as if a weight was lifting off her body.
"And now, what?"
"And now, if you'll have me, I'll spend the rest of my life making you happy. Keeping you safe. Making sure you are loved beyond measure," Alexander said, leaning over just enough to take her hands in his, hoping that the small gesture would show his heart without scaring her again.
"I do love you Alexander. It was just a shock, and I still have so many questions, and..." she began before the sobs overtook her.
"And I will answer each and every one of them as many times as you ask them, whenever you ask them. I promise you," he said, pulling her up for a hug. He wrapped her up in his arms, brushed her hair back and nestled his face in her neck.
"I love you so much Brooke. I will always be here for you."
"I love you, too," she said, "and I'm here for you too. Always. No matter what now."
About the Author
Ava Hunt was born in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, where stories of the mysterious and unknown echo among the hollows and quiet ridges. She lived out her later teen years in Georgia, where the summers are long and slow and the nights are sultry and hot.
Now living in the Southeast, she pens stories of paranormal romance, infused with plenty of real life mysteries and steamy, scintillating sex. She’s particularly fond of gruff, growly bear shifters and the women who tame their hearts. While most of her tales have happy, joyous, romantic endings, sometimes there’s an element of mystery left, some unsolved riddle – much like life.
When she’s not writing, Ava spends her time walking through the forest, or lying under the skies at night, staring into the starry expanse, thinking about her next bear shifter hero…
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