by Sky Winters
“Not a bad guess, given the name,” Joshua said.
“That’s what he said. He told her that it was close, but that the more accurate answer was that he was a great orator and expert on pronunciation. He asked if she was kin to him.”
“Awh, man,” Joshua remarked, smiling over at her.
“Oh, that’s not the end of it. She tells him no and he tells her that she’s probably not an expert on pronunciation then,” Randy said.
“That’s harsh,” Joshua laughed.
“That’s when it got really funny. Miss Snarky Pants over there looks at him indignantly and said, ‘Maybe not, but even I know that the word is “magenta” and not “mangled” like you are saying. Calling them mangled eye fruit flies is ridiculous!’ The entire class just lost it.”
“Oh My God! She didn’t!” Joshua said, laughing loudly. “What did he say to that?”
“He sent me to stand in the hallway until his class was over. He said he didn’t want to look at me anymore that day,” Goldie finished, now laughing herself at the memory of being put out of class for correcting her biology teacher.
They all laughed some more, sharing stories about their respective childhoods and some of the trouble they had gotten into over the years. Before they knew it, they had been there for hours and it was getting incredibly dark outside, the weather not letting up in the least. Randy and Ian excused themselves, leaving her there to try to excise herself from Joshua’s company. Though she was honestly enjoying it, she still knew she should remove herself soon. She was guessing he sensed it, as he did her work for her.
“Well, it’s been great seeing you, but I guess I better get going. I need to call up some of the guys and find a place to crash tonight. Hopefully, this will clear up and you can get out of here tomorrow at some point,” he told her, standing up and tossing some cash on the table with what Ian and Randy had left to cover their drinks.
Incredulously, Goldie heard a voice that she was quite certain couldn’t actually be coming from her asking him if he wanted to stay with her. He paused, narrowing his eyes at her for a moment before answering.
“Are you sure? I’ve gotten the impression lately that you were doing your best to avoid me,” he said, a note of sadness but no anger in his voice.
“I am just leaving soon and saw no reason to start anything,” she admitted. It was partially the truth, but what the hell. One more night of passion before she left couldn’t hurt. After all, he knew the score and was willing, so why should she turn down hot sex with a man that knew how to make her beg for more?
“Well, if you are sure, it would be a huge help today. I will even sleep on the floor or something if you prefer,” he offered.
“Nonsense. We are adults. We can both sleep in the bed . . . or not sleep in the bed,” she said, feeling a bit brazen,
“I’m guessing that not sleeping is more likely,” he smiled, reaching for her arm and leading her toward the stairs that led up toward the rooms.
She pointed him down the hallway toward the one she was staying in and they went inside, already losing their clothes no sooner than the door was shut behind them.
Chapter Eleven
Lying in the aftermath of a rousing session that left them both heaving for breath, Goldie and Joshua drifted off to sleep on their respective sides of the bed. [T1]
His phone, still in the pocket of his pants on the other side of the room, began to ring and he ignored it. After a moment, it began ringing again.
“Ugh. Who is that?” he muttered, climbing from the bed and crossing over to retrieve it. It had stopped ringing, but began to ring again in his hand. He clicked a key and spoke into the mouthpiece. “Hello?”
Goldie listened to his side of the conversation, which was obviously with someone else who had gotten stranded in the weather. She listened to him apologizing to them, telling them that he was staying with a friend and couldn’t really extend an invite. It was obvious that it was a guy from the way he was addressing him and Goldie felt bad about someone else being stranded out in this mess, so she interrupted.
“Joshua, if they need a place to go and need to stay here, they certainly can. It’s a big room and there is a roll away cot in the closet that we can set up for them.”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to turn your room into some sort of refugee shelter,” he said.
“Of course, I’m sure. It’ll be fine.”
Joshua nodded at her and told the person on the phone to come on up, giving him the room number. He turned to her once he ended the call and smiled.
“This is very nice of you. I hate leaving friends out in the cold if I can help them at all, but I didn’t want to disrupt our evening together.”
“It’s a crisis. I wouldn’t leave a friend of mine out in the mess either,”
“He will be up in a moment. He was actually down in the lobby trying to get a room and they told him they were all booked up. Seems I wasn’t the only one who decided their only option was going to be to start calling people until I found a free sofa.”
“Oh, God. I need to get dressed!” she said, bounding out of bed, grabbing her clothes and running to the bathroom to make herself a little more presentable.
“I suppose I should too,” he said as she retreated. Someone knocked on the door just a moment later and when she came out, he had only managed to pull on his jeans, standing there shirtless to introduce her to his friend. Goldie froze in her tracks, her mind racing to consider such ridiculous things as whether she could hide under the rug by the bed.
“Goldie, this is my friend, John Sebastian. He owns the general store in town,” Joshua said, seemingly oblivious to the looks on both their faces.
“We’ve met,” John said evenly.
“Oh?” Joshua started to say, then looked back and forth between them, the situation seeming to register with him suddenly. “Oh, you mean you’ve met, as in MET.”
“Exactly what I mean,” John said. “I guess now I know why you couldn’t return my messages. You’ve been busy elsewhere.”
It was too much for Goldie. Though she had never fainted in her life, she suddenly found herself feeling incredibly dizzy. She reached for the bedpost to steady herself, but it was too late. Everything went black. When she came to, she was laying across the bed with both men looking down at her. She was awake, but she felt incredibly ill. This was definitely a nightmare.
“I thought we were going to have to try to find a doctor in this mess,” John said to her, stroking her hair softly.
“What happened?” she said in a raspy voice. Her mouth felt like it was full of cotton and she was grateful to see Joshua walking toward her with a glass of water.
“You blacked out or something. I guess it is to be expected considering your condition,” Joshua told her.
“My condition?”
“Yes, your condition. I’m guessing you realize you are pregnant by now?”
“Yes, but how do you know?”
“I’ve known since I saw you downstairs and you confirmed it by drinking just water, but I didn’t realize that it might not be mine.”
“What makes you think it is or isn’t yours?” she asked him wearily.
“Well, while we are nursing you back to wakefulness, John and I had a bit of a discussion and it seems you’ve been with both of us in the past week. I don’t mean to be indelicate, but are there any others?”
“Joshua, don’t,” John told him, though neither seemed angry about the situation. In fact, they were oddly calm about it. It was quite odd.
“I think I have to, John. I know you won’t ask, but we do need to know if there are other possibilities, don’t you think?” he said, giving John a very stern look. John dropped his head and nodded in agreement.
“Not that it is really any of your business, but it was definitely one of you two. Don’t worry, I don’t want anything from you. I had every intention of leaving here and never telling either of you, but the weather stopped me.”
; “Yes, this would definitely explain the sudden onset of a flood,” John said.
“What? Now I am the cause of the flood?”
“Something like that,” John said with a little smile.
“Look. I feel better, but this is just awkward. I tell you what. You two can have this room and I will go sleep in Randy and Ian’s room for the night,” she said, trying to get up from the bed.
“Oh, no you won’t. We have a lot to discuss,” John told her, putting his large hand on her arm to stop her from getting out of bed.
“We have nothing to discuss. This is not your problem, either of you. I have no intention of you being involved in this child’s life. I don’t even know which of you is the father, for God’s sake!”
“It doesn’t matter. We don’t care,” Joshua told her.
“What? Are the two of you mental or something?”
“Well, you might think that after you hear what we have to tell you, but we really aren’t,” John laughed.
Goldie pulled herself up in the bed and sat there looking back and forth at the two of them as they stood on either side of the bed. Joshua nodded his head toward John and sat down on one side of the bed as John began to speak. After a moment, he sat down on the other side, holding her hand as he talked to her.
“First, you need to know what Joshua and I are to one another,” he said.
“Oh, Jesus. If you tell me you are lovers, I may just lose my own mind,” she told him.
“What? No. Of course not, but we are very close. More like brothers than friends. We belong to the same club, but it isn’t your ordinary organization. It’s more of a secret society sort of thing.”
“Like Freemasons?” she smirked.
“Older than that. This is going to sound crazy to you and you aren’t going to believe it, but we will show you if you need for us to do so. Joshua and I are bear shifters.”
“Okay. Now you guys are just fucking with me. I guess it’s fair to get in a laugh at my expense considering everything, but if you think I’m falling for something as far-fetched as shapeshifting, you’re sadly mistaken.”
“We aren’t joking and we can show you, but only if you tell us you are ready for us to do so. Given your condition, we won’t risk a shock to your system.”
“Yeah, right. Okay. Show me.”
“Are you sure?” John asked.
“Positive,” she replied sarcastically.
Joshua stood up and walked to the end of the bed and then took a few steps away from the bed. Goldie watched as his shape began to shift into something contorted, his nose pushing forward into a snout and hair sprouting out everywhere on his body. He dropped down on to his hands as his body quickly morphed into a four-legged animal. She found herself looking into the large green eyes of a sandy colored bear. It was much larger than any normal bear would be and she caught her breath as she realized that what she was seeing was real.
“Are you okay?” John asked.
She turned toward him, her eyes wide with amazement and nodded quietly. When she turned back toward the bear, he had begun to shift back into the man she knew as Joshua, his sandy blonde hair and green eyes shimmering just as they had in bear form.
“Neat trick, eh? Told you I was an animal,” he joked, causing her to blush and then feel awkward with John sitting there beside her.
“And you can do that too?” she asked him.
“Yes. My bear form is just better looking and stronger,” he replied, drawing a groan of disagreement from Joshua.
Goldie tried to wrap her head around what she was being told, but even having seen it, she was still having trouble believing it. Even worse, it occurred to her that this baby was going to be some sort of freak. Would it be a shifter? Was she going to be putting a diaper on a baby or putting down newspaper for a bear cub? She began to feel a bit sick again.
“I know it is a lot to absorb and we wouldn’t even tell you if we had time to break it to you gently, but you need to know something about this baby and it can’t wait.”
“Oh, Jesus. I won’t have like a whole litter of cubs will I?” Goldie gasped, the realization that it might be a possibility coming over her without warning.
Joshua laughed and then sat back down on the bed beside her, holding her other hand. It was unusual for him to come across as thoughtful as so it caught her off guard for a moment. She found herself wondering how much more awkward this could get. Two men she had slept with on either side of her, fawning over her at the same time and telling her fairy tales that it seemed might just be true was more than a little surreal.
“You won’t have a litter. You will have one child and it will be a boy. He will be a shifter like us, not human like you. We are more than willing to accept responsibility for the baby without haggling over which of us actually fathered him. In fact, Goldie, we don’t want you to run off and be some sort of single parent. You didn’t get pregnant alone and you shouldn’t try to raise him alone, especially given his special considerations that will unfold as he grows.
“I appreciate that, but neither of you know me very well. I came here to get away for a while and things just happened between us, each of us. I never intended for it to be permanent and I certainly didn’t intend for either of you to be chained to me because of an unwanted child.”
“That’s what you don’t understand, Goldie. It’s not unwanted. Neither are you. Bear shifters are much like normal wolves. We bond quickly and each of us fell for you immediately.”
“I just really can’t choose. I find you both interesting in different ways,” she admitted.
“Then don’t choose. We aren’t asking you to choose, at least not between the two of us. We would like for you to stay here rather than returning to the city. We will both sell our lake houses and buy something we can all share as one big family.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t see how that works. We all live together as some open relationship type situation and sleep in separate bedrooms? That’s going to really cut into your dating lives I think.”
“No, Goldie. We live together as a monogamous trio. It would be like having two husbands, both of us completely committed to you.”
“I just don’t really follow how that works. I just roam from one bedroom to the other depending on who I’m in the mood to be with? Do you realize how crazy all of this sounds?”
“It’s not crazy at all, Goldie,” Joshua said, finally speaking up though he had allowed John to do much of the talking so far.
“Then you have an odd sense of normal,” she replied.
“Well, that is true. Both of us do, but we’ve been out of sync with the rest of the world for a very long time. Our ancestors have always existed in the shadows, knowing that others wouldn’t accept us if they knew what we were. It’s important that our son be kept safe from those who might not understand him. It’s even more important that he not be made to feel like he is fucked up in any way. Living here with us will expose him to other children like himself and to two fathers who will make sure he learns to control how and when he shifts.”
“So, basically, this has nothing to do with me at all. The two of you just want to raise your baby bear and you’re willing to take me on in order to make that happen?”
“That isn’t what I said at all. Who did this to you, Goldie? Who made you feel like you aren’t worthwhile? Give me their names and I’ll go pay them a visit. It angers me that you are so down on yourself when you are such an incredible and beautiful woman,” Joshua said, his anger apparent.
Goldie looked at him, surprised. Not only was she caught off guard by his sentiments, but his anger was reflected in John’s face, as well. While she deemed herself just having fun with a couple of guys that wanted to get laid, it would seem she had misjudged their intentions completely. There seemed to be genuine emotion there, though it was hard to accept as being true. Rather than respond, tears fell down her face.
“Let it out if you need to, Goldie, but you don’t need to cry. You don’t
ever have to cry again. We promise you that what we feel for you is the real thing and that it will never change. Not many women can say that she bonded with a bear shifter and I don’t know of any other that can claim she bonded with two in the way you have captured the two with you here in this room tonight,” Joshua finished.
Goldie blinked up at him as he pulled her into her arms and held her tightly to his chest. She was aware of John moving closer to rest his head against the back of hers, sandwiching her between the two of them and things suddenly didn’t seem awkward at all. In fact, they seemed quite perfect. Though she didn’t have everything quite sorted out in her head, she at least understood that this might just be exactly what she had needed all along.
Still, something nagged at her. In her experience, threesomes always ended with someone feeling left out and especially when one of them was the actual father of the child and the other wasn’t. This seemed doomed to just be another failed relationship episode in her life. She expressed her concerns to them, apologizing for her inability to just let things fall as they may.
“Don’t worry, Goldie. It will be just fine,” John told her in his soft way. Despite his apparent conviction, she wasn’t sure that she could quite believe that.
In the end, she decided she had nothing to lose. There was no guarantee that her next relationship would be any better, especially with a child now in the mix and what kind of mother would she be if she was subjecting her child to failed experiences with different men? If she was going to do this right, then they were perhaps right, this was the path she should take.
She nodded quietly as they kissed her tears away. Soon, she found herself being undressed by the both of them. Turning toward John, she curled up to his chest as he kissed her hungrily, drinking her in as if she were the last woman on earth. Behind her, Joshua reached between her legs, exploring her swollen pussy lips, already seeming to show signs of pregnancy. She wanted them, both of them. It had always been somewhat of a fantasy of hers to be with two men at once, but she had always thought it would be some sort of one-night stand.