Herbert shook his head.
“So,” said Roxy. “You’re going to beat up Herbert, and then just have your way with me, is that right, whether I want it or not?”
“That’s about the gist of it,” said Slam. “Yeah.”
“Like I said,” said Herbert. “Absolutely not.”
“Oh yeah?” said Slam, approaching Herbert by a few steps. He was only about two feet from him now. “And what are you going to do about it, old man Herbert?”
“Whatever’s necessary,” said Herbert, calmly.”
“I’d think real careful about what you’re getting involved in,” said Slam. “I’ve been done to send more than few to the morgue. And I can deadlift 1000 pounds.”
“I don’t doubt you can,” said Herbert, his voice even. “But you’re not touching the lady.”
“Lady, yeah right,” scoffed Slam. “I heard the noise you two were making up stairs. The bed practically came crashing through the ceiling. She ain’t no lady. And all I’m saying is I want a piece of the action. Now step aside, Herbert, before I have to hurt you.”
“The best thing for you to do, would be to turn around and walk away.”
Slam just grunted. In a flash, he had stepped closer into to Herbert. He swung his massive right shoulder around, bringing his arm swinging with it. His fist looked completely massive, and hard as a rock. It came at Herbert’s face with the speed of a cannon.
At first, Herbert didn’t seem to react at all.
How was he going to survive such a powerful punch? was all Roxy was thinking.
What happened next, Roxy would remember for the rest of her life. Before the punch could land, something incredible happened. The enormous fist was traveling fast. It was only an inch away from Herbert’s face. But what happened next seemed to be in slow motion
Herbert let out a primal sounding scream that seemed to erupt from deep within himself. His head tilted back, with the punch still not yet landing, as the scream rose into the Alaskan sky.
At almost the same moment, fur erupted all over his skin.
The next thing Roxy new, Herbert was growing rapidly in size. It was happening so quickly that his growth looked like stop-motion-photography. One moment he was his normal size, and the next he was five times as massive, and completely covered in hair.
Paws grew where his hands and feet had been. Enormous, massive paws, with long, dagger-sharp claws.
A snout grew out of his once-handsome human face. In merely less than a second, the transformation were complete. Herbert was gone, and a bear stood in his place. Herbert had transformed into a giant bear.
Roxy now had evidence for her original archeological hypothesis, that a man once upon a time had turned into a bear mid-step while walking in Alaska. Could that man have been Herbert? Not only would Herbert’s existence prove that these transformation took place, but the rapid speed in which the transformation happened would show that the man could become a bear within a short enough time that his next footprint would be a bear’s.
But those types of thoughts were the furthest thing from Roxy’s mind at the moment. She stepped back, afraid of the giant bear that Herbert had suddenly become. What had happened to her sweet and protective lover? Only moments before he had been Herbert. Was this bear Herbert? Was Herbert inside of him? Or had his personality also become something else?
Time seemed to be froze for a moment. These thoughts were pounding through her head. Now that she reconsidered it, being a giant bear was being pretty protective, actually. What could protect her better than a giant bear with its giant and ferocious claws? Maybe it was because Roxy had already convinced herself back in New Jersey, academically speaking, that some type of man / bear shifter or transformer was possible, and that’s why now she wasn’t so astounded at seeing a man turn into a bear.
Surprisingly, Roxy seemed to be the only one who wasn’t astounded by Herbert’s transformation. Slam had jumped back as Herbert had transformed. If he hadn’t he would have been thrown back by Herbert’s massive and sudden increase in mass. But he stood only about five feet away from Herbert The Bear, looking fairly calm for someone in his situation.
When Herbert had transformed, he had fallen on all fours. Now he rose up, many feet into the air, so that he stood on his hind legs. He roared, a tremendous roar, his snout opening to display what seemed like a thousand glistening sharp teeth. He was a particularly powerful look bear. When standing up, his enormous and massive muscles could be seen stretched taut, on his hindquarter, his chest, and everywhere else.
Roxy felt a great sense of peace with Herbert there as a bear. She didn’t feel in the last bit scared. Seeing Herbert roar like that, she had an innate sense that he was still Herbert. He might be little different as a bear. He might act a little differently. But he was
still Herbert. And she knew he had transformed into a bear in order to protect her from this drunken alley brute, Slam.
Herbert The Bear’s ferocious roar echoed throughout the alley, nearly piercing Roxy’s eardrums. To her great surprise, Slam barely moved an inch when the full force of Herbert’s roar hit him. It hit him like a glad force wind, blowing his hair and shirt color back, and ruffling his beard.
“Well, well, well,” said Slam, looking right into Herbert The Bear’s ferocious eyes. “We got ourselves a bear. We used to have ourselves a Herbert. But now we got ourselves a bear. I’ve been waiting for this, Herbert.”
Herbert didn’t seem to be able to talk in bear form. He got back down on all four paws. The force of his weight hitting the pavement actually seemed to shake the entire alley. He must have been bigger than an average bear for this year, thought Roxy to herself. She looked at him kind of proudly, in an admiring sort of way. Yes, she thought to herself again, he was certain a bigger and stronger bear than most. Plus, he could turn into a human when he wanted. So he had that going for him.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this, Herbert. Or should I say, Herbert The Bear? Or Herbert in bear form? Yes, Herbert, we’ve been looking for you. We’ve been watching you. We’ve been following you? You think we’re just a couple of pathetic drunks. But we’re much more than that. We’re hunters. And this is a hunt we’ve been on for a long, long time. You’ve finally met the hunter that you can’t beat, Herbert The Bear. Why do you think we keep coming to this crummy bar of yours? For the atmosphere? Come on? And tonight, we knew we had you. We knew that the way to finally draw you out was a lady. But we had to wait, and wait, and wait until you had one. And then she became our own unwilling bait. Yes, that’s right Herbert. The whole thing was a trap. No, it’s not what you were thinking. She wasn’t in on it. And no, I don’t want a piece of her in the least bit. No offense, hon, but I’ve had hotter and better and I’m sure wetter. We staged the whole fight in the bar. All for your benefit, Herbert. Herbert The Bear.”
Roxy didn’t know what to say. So she spat at him. The spit hit him in the chest. She’d always been a pretty good spitter, with good accuracy and a long reach.
The spit just made Slam laugh harder. He tilted his head back and laughed and laughed, a great big cackle.
Herbert tilted his great big bear head to the side, the way Roxy had seen some animals do when they were puzzled. She knew why he must be puzzled. He could easily have destroyed Slam with one swipe of his paw. Slam didn’t have a gun, let alone a rifle big enough to hurt Herbert. He didn’t seem to have any weapons on him at all.
Herbert seemed to have had enough of the guesswork involved in the situation. His woman had been threatened, and he was going to defend her. When the situation got more complex than that, he had tried to remain interested, but the bear in him just wanted to get things over, to defend against the predator and then move on.
Herbert growled a low growl. It was directed right at Slam. Even though there were no words, the intention and meaning were quite clear: He was saying, “Get out of here right now, or else I’m going to hurt you, possibly kill you.”
Slam just
laughed again.
Herbert wasn’t waiting around. With a swift and deft movement, he launched himself forward. It was amazing to see how fast such a big creature could moved. Roxy hadn’t actually seen many bears up close, and certainly she had never seen a bear as big as Herbert. The fluidity of his movements reminded her more of the big cats she’d seen on TV—the jaguars and tigers on the hunt, moving swiftly by the force of their powerful muscles.
But Herbert only got about one foot in front of him before everything happened. He never even reached Slam. That was for sure.
Herbert’s bear reflexes were certainly fast, but Slam’s trap was elaborate and preplanned.
As soon as Herbert had growled, Slam’s partner had pressed the button on the remote control hidden in his pocket.
But who was Slam’s partner? It was the short drunk man he had supposedly knocked out only minutes before wish a vicious punch. In actuality, the two were just very good actors. The punch had been real, though, otherwise it wouldn’t have looked good. But the rest had been acting. The shorter man, named Jilly, had been Slam’s hunting partner for almost a decade. And the two had never gotten into a real fight. They knew that Herbert would be a special target. They’d followed the rumors over the years, first not believing that they were real. Eventually they’d tracked down Herbert, and strongly suspected that he was a bear shape shifter. But until tonight, they hadn’t had any definitive proof, except for some very ‘bearish’ qualities that Herbert sometimes exhibited when he thought no one was watching.
Slam and Jilly had set the trap that night while Herbert and Roxy were getting acquainted sexually in his apartment. In had been the perfect opportunity for the hunters who had waited more than a decade for their dream to come true. They had built the trap many years before, constructing it from industrial supplies.
It involved a huge net, supported by massive steel beams. The whole apparatus had been ingeniously hidden in the alley so that even a man with the senses of a bear would be unable to detect it. They truly were master hunters. They practiced their trade like an art, and treated their prey like their religion and their god, a god they wanted to slay. They wanted to display its carcass on their walls. They were still in disagreement about which one of them would get to display Herbert The Bear’s carcass on their wall, but they also couldn’t agree about whether it would be better to kill him in human or bear form. But realistically they both knew that there was going to be no carcass. They wanted the fame and glory of watching a real shifter, but they also wanted the money they undoubtedly get from selling him. They had already been in contact with a small and secret branch of the US military that was positioned here in Alaska. It was a group that investigated paranormal
and strange phenomenon that were not believed to be true by the regular public. It sounded a little weird, but they were known to pay very good money for the delivery of strange specimens.
So when Slam had been trying to distract Herbert, Jilly had waited, pretending he was passed out, for just the right moment. He had hit the button when Herbert had growled that last time, sensing that it was the right moment in the conversation.
The button on the remote control had activated a complicated machine that had been specially built by Slam and Jilly the two hunters themselves. The device had allowed for the net to drop from where it was hidden high above.
The net fell on Herbert, surrounding him. The net was made of very thin and bendable pieces of titanium. It was a new piece of experimental material, known so far only in the world of industry as “titanium threads.” Herbert was stopped dead in his tracks. His majestic pounce had ended in complete and total entrapment.
Herbert thrashed against the metal threads. He roared ferociously. He slashed with his claws, but he couldn’t get out.
Jilly got up from where he was pretending to be passed out. He went to stand by Slam. The two of them stood with their arms crossed, looking contently at their prize, Herbert, in bear form.
“We’ve got him now, Slam,” said Jilly. He talked out of the side of his mouth and sounded a little like an old black-and-white movie gangster.
“Congratulations,” said Slam, slapping Jilly hard on the back. “That’s all I’ve got o say. I’ll bring the truck around, and then hopefully we can drop him off at the military base tonight.”
“That’ll be all right,” said Jilly. “That’ll be just all right with me. I just hope they return his head to us when they’re done with him.”
“We’re about to be rich and famous, that’s what,” said Slam. “Yup, rich and famous.”
Herbert tore and tore and thrashed and thrashed against the metal net. But it was too strong for him. The modern technology had trapped him, and it seemed like there was nothing he could do.
Roxy looked on, feeling emotionally pained. It felt like someone had stopped her heart with a dull wooden spike. She hated to see Herbert like this. He had seemed so ferocious and wild and free. And now his spirit was trapped in this horrible net, this terrible modern contraption.
When Roxy looked at the struggling and thrashing bear, she didn’t see just a big fury and ferocious animal. She saw Herbert himself, as if she was looking into his soul.
It was at that moment that Roxy realized she was really in love with Herbert. Even if he was a giant grizzly bear.
“God damnit,” yelled Roxy, over Herbert’s ferocious roars. “What do you guys think you’re doing? Let him go right now, or I’m calling the police.” It was a pretty poor threat, but Roxy couldn’t think of anything better to do in the moment.
“Call the police,” said Slam, laughing uproariously. “What, little lady, you think hunting is a crime in Alaska or something?”
“Maybe hunting a bear isn’t a crime. But hunting a man is.”
“But look at him, lady. This ain’t a man. This is a bear. And plus, you think the police wants to mess with the military, if they do find out about him being a transformer, or shifter, or whatever you want to call him?”
Roxy didn’t know what to say. She was furious, but felt completely helpless. Tears started to form in her eyes. Her anger was powerful. She thought about how she could hurt the two hunters. She was surprised at herself. She normally never had thoughts of violence. But she found herself wondering what types of weapons she could find back in Herbert’s apartment. Then she remembered he didn’t own any guns. Maybe he had some big knives. Maybe if she ran, swinging the knife at Slam, she could cut him, or stab him, or maybe injure him just a little.
The sound of her lover’s terrified and angry roars was driving her mad. She felt like she was crawling out of her skin. She felt like she had to do something. Something. Anything. But she didn’t know what.
“I’ll go get the truck,” said Jilly. “I think with the crane we should be able to load him on no problem.” Jilly ran off down the alley. No doubt moments later he would return, and they would carry her new lover off to where she was unlikely to ever see him again. He would be locked away in some horrible military basement, experimented on again and again, in who know what way.
Just then, Herbert did the only thing he could do in the situation.
He couldn’t escape the net as a bear. But he could escape it as a man.
That was what the hunters hadn’t counted on.
In a flash, he had shifted back into regular Herbert. He was again a muscular and wiry human with tattoos and some grey in his hair and beard.
Even though he had transformed, he was of course still in the metal net. But he was thin enough that he was able to slip between the titanium threads. He was already halfway through by the time Slam had understood what had happened.
Slam charged forward, determined to stop Herbert no matter what. He lowered his head, and slammed into Herbert with all the force of a college level football player. Herbert was only partially free of the net. His leg was still caught in it.
Roxy knew intuitively that Herbert couldn’t transform with part of his body in between the net. As a be
ar, his leg would swell to massive proportions, and the titanium wire would still be where it was, and it would cut through his bear leg as if it was Swiss cheese.
So Herbert had to free his leg from the metal net before he could transform. But Slam was on top of him now, trying to push all his weight against Herbert so that he would stay in place.
They were huffing and cursing at each other. Herbert was strong and wiry, but as a human he wasn’t quite a match for Slam, who was simply too massive and too muscly.
Suddenly Roxy had an idea. She ran away from them, hoping that Slam wouldn’t completely overpower Herbert before she returned. She ran into the bar. This was an old trick from the movies. She reached over the bar, her big boobs pressing against it, as she grabbed a huge bottle of tequila from underneath. It was a generic brand.
She rushed back outside and without stopping, sprinted over to where Slam was. He had his hands around Herbert’s throat. “Dead of alive,” he was saying, practically growling. In that moment Slam certainly seemed the most animal like of the two.
Herbert was turning blue in the face.
Roxy swung the tequila bottle high in the air in an arc before slamming it onto Slam’s head. It connected with a crunch, and the bottle shattered into a million pieces, tequila pouring onto Slam’s head. He passed out instantly, falling in a heap onto the pavement.
Regaining some of the color in his face, Herbert, said “Thanks, Roxy,” and finally pulled his leg out from the net. “I’ll see you soon, baby,” he said, before transforming again.
The transformation happened this time in just a split second.
Herbert was again a giant grizzly bear.
He roared a ferocious roar.
Surprisingly, Slam woke up. It seemed like the loud roar had woken him up. Facing Herbert as a giant bear, with his barred teeth and massive muscles, Slam looked terrified.
Wild Ride: A Bad Boy Romance Page 21