by Sy Walker
Everybody agreed on the instructions, and began to approach. James led them quietly around to the back of the castle, helping them to avoid stepping into traps and triggering them so that they did not get into trouble. He could smell Sadie and knew that she was both fearful and relieved. He tried to will his voice to reach her, but because she was not part bear, he knew that it would not work. So instead, he willed his voice to his unborn children, telling them that he was on his way and would do everything he could to bring them safely into this world.
Chapter 9
“I want to have your wedding dress on for this," Lord Lachlan said with a seedy smile as he pushed Sadie into the entrance of the castle. He summoned the servant, the same one she had seen the first time she opened her eyes in this new world of the past, and told her to fetch the wedding dress. The woman gave Sadie a fretful look, but disappeared up the spiraling staircase to retrieve the dress.
“Nobody humiliates me like you and lives to tell about it," Lord Lachlan said, running his finger along the polished wooden table. "Then again, few people are as beautiful as you are, so it's almost funny to me to be shamed in this way. I almost like it. Almost."
Sadie said nothing, just glared at him as they waited for the servant to bring down the wedding gown. When she finally arrived, she gave the wedding dress to Lord Lachlan and retreated. However, she cast her eyes upon Sadie, fixing on her a worried but caring look, and disappeared up the stairs again, peeking over the railing to watch what became of the wisp of the Highlands.
“Put it on,” Lord Lachlan ordered.
Sadie stared at the dress, her nose crinkled in disgust. Although the gown was beautiful, she did not want to humor this sick man in that way. She refused, and Lord Lachlan instantly grew furious. He was used to everybody doing exactly what he said the first time he said it. That was what he thought obedience should be.
“I said put on the dress!” he shouted. He pressed the tip of his sword against her throat.
Sadie's hands shook as she picked up the dress. She was about to pull her clothes off when a huge banging noise startled them both. They turned to find the cause of the commotion and were met with a loud, malicious roar. It was James, and he had come to rescue her just in time.
“James!” she exclaimed, running toward him. He gave her a gentle nuzzle and pushed her behind him with a large paw. James wasn't alone. Lord Lachlan was left staring at a huge circle of warriors, who had surrounded him within his own home. Most of them recognized him and had stories of vast personal loss associated with him, and so tearing this man apart limb from limb was actually some kind of closure for them. She stared at them with wide eyes, and Lachlan held his sword in his quaking hand as if he could somehow prevent the inevitable from happening.
Soon, the bears advanced upon him, and Sadie could hear the sound of his screams shrieking from in between the giant bear forms devouring him. Finally, one last gargle escaped his lips, and a snap cracked through the air crisply. With that, the vicious tyrant Lord Lachlan was gone.
Chapter 10
James motioned for Sadie to get onto his back. She climbed up on him gently, worried that he might have been wounded in the battle. However, he seemed to be fine, although he moved slowly across the yard. The guards had wisely avoided attacking the massive group of bears, knowing that they were vastly outnumbered and would have been slaughtered if they had tried anything stupid. James carried Sadie to the point where he had left Gail and Dodd, and Sadie ran to Gail, who was covered only in a scrap of tartan cloth, and embraced her. Dodd remained in his bear form, ever alert to the danger.
“Are you all right, lass?" Gail exclaimed, looking Sadie up and down. “I can't believe we almost lost you and your precious ones."
“My what?” Sadie asked, looking at Gail and confusion.
Gail clasped her hands over her mouth and exclaimed, “Oh, I'm so sorry. You didn't know yet, did you?”
“What's she talking about, James?" Sadie asked, turning to James. He was no longer in his bear form, instead in his striking, muscular human form, naked in all his glory and glimmering silver in the moonlight.
“I even heard them, it was unbelievable," James exclaimed, looking up to the sky in reverence. "You're pregnant, lass, you're having my twins. I didn't know that it would happen so soon, but it has. That was how we were able to avoid danger. They warned us of the traps. They heard Lachlan talking to you and did their best to give us a warning.”
Sadie gazed at James in disbelief; he had to be joking with her. But Gail was looking at her with a bright smile and nodding enthusiastically. She couldn't help but believe what they were saying.
“I know, it seems crazy. And about the babes speaking in the womb, using their bear voices...I just thought that it was old ridiculous rumors, but they truly could talk to us when it mattered the most. It must have taken a tremendous amount of energy, so I doubt they would try it again, but they were able to this once. It was amazing." James picked up Sadie and twirled her around in the dark, both of them laughing in disbelief. She was going to have his babies. And they had saved their lives.
Chapter 11
James and the rest of the clan were very tired after their battle with Lord Lachlan and his men. It had taken a lot out of them to arrive in such a short amount of time, and so as they approached their camp, they decided to take a long rest by the river. Sadie and James camped a little ways apart from the rest of the group, knowing that having each other back finally would be a cause for celebration. They had a lot to talk about and wanted some privacy. Gail understood and did her best to keep everybody from protesting their camping separately.
“You know young love,” she said, although she wasn't very old herself. The rest of the clan begrudgingly agreed and allowed them to have their privacy.
James lay on the ground naked, his muscles rippling handsomely in the moonlight. Sadie ran her hand down his chest as they spoke, letting her palm roam the firm, warm curves of his body. He smiled at her, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight, and pulled her on top of him. She nestled there, instantly aroused by the feeling of his bare groin pressing against her middle. She buckled against him and he grinned at her, knowing what was on her mind, squeezing her ass in both his hands.
He thrust against her, his rod growing hard as it pressed between her legs, and she sighed softly, feeling the bulge of the tip of his penis as it massaged her clit, sending tendrils of pleasure winding throughout her entire body. He sighed as she squirmed out of her clothes, pressing her naked body on top of him. Her hot breasts trailed along his cool body, the hard mounds of her nipples arousing him uncontrollably, making him groan as he grew hard to the point of bursting. She nestled on top of him, her hot loins enveloping him inside of them, and he slid fully inside of her, eliciting a groan from both of them.
Her groan turned to a cry of pleasure as he thrust hard inside of her, going as deep as he could go, burying himself in her and pumping again and again. She moaned with pleasure as he made love to her, their bodies entwined on the ground. James brought her nipples to his mouth, his strong, skilled hands roaming her body expertly and lovingly, resting gently on the mound of his unborn children for a moment before finally he bent her over and began pounding her in earnest, until she gripped the grass in her hands and cried out, pushing her mouth into the crook of her arm to muffle the sounds of her intense orgasm.
Her body quaked around James, contracting and pulling on him until he uttered a low moan, flooding her inside with his hot explosion. They collapsed into each other, breathing heavily, gripping one another with pure love as they instantly fell asleep.
Epilogue
When they finally returned back to the camp, Ivar was waiting expectantly with a smile on his face. James had confessed what he knew of Sadie's past on the journey, but she had taken it surprisingly well, gripping his muscular arm and leaning her head into it. She asked him never to lie to her again, and he promised he wouldn't.
“What is it, Ivar?” Jam
es asked with a grin, slapping the old man on the back.
“We figured out how to send Sadie back to her own world,” he said. “We weren't totally sure we could, it was risky, but we know it will work now. Once she delivers the twins, we will open the portal and she can return.”
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Sadie asked, her heart thudding. “I'm not leaving my twins.”
James and Ivar looked at each other nervously.
“You don't have to leave them,” James said softly. “Not if you stay here with me. And even if you just want to go home, that's all right, too. You can take them. I don't know how you'll teach them the bear ways, but we can manage. Maybe I can go with you. I think Gail would make a great Alpha.”
He winked at Gail and she laughed.
“What would you like to do, Sadie?” Ivar asked, furrowing his brow. He had been so relieved just moments before, but now he was back to his old brooding self.
“I'd like to stay here with you,” Sadie said. “I want to be a Highlander.”
The clan was silent for a moment, until finally eruptions of glee and excitement followed. Everybody was cheering; they couldn't imagine life without Sadie now that she was there.
James picked her up and swung her around and they laughed, kissing passionately. They would raise their family together, free to be bears.
THE END
PAPA BEAR
CHAPTER ONE
The Man Child
“How has the job hunting been going?” Maggie asked her fiancé Tony.
He answered her with a shrug, not even looking over at her when she came in the door. Typical.
Maggie Bullock worked full time – plus a lot of overtime – as a customer service representative at a toy company. It sounded like it would be so much fun when she first got the job, but now that she was struggling to pay the rent for her and her deadbeat boyfriend, it was nothing short of draining. She spent eight-plus hours every day responding to stupid people and their stupid questions, only to come home and deal with Tony the couch potato.
Tony Deburgi was an artist, though Maggie was starting to think that he was actually an “artist.” His easel always seemed to be empty, ignored off in a corner somewhere. She bought him a really fancy set of paints for Christmas recently and he’d barely touched it. He claimed to be in a dry spell. “I have lost my muse,” he had told her.
“Well, maybe you should make video games your muse, since you’re so attached to them,” she had replied.
“No,” Tony had argued. “My art is not fan art. It’s abstract!”
They’d had many fights like that lately. Maggie wanted to support his art and help inspire his creativity, but she also wanted him to be realistic and apply himself more.
“I know it’s not ideal,” she said, going into the kitchen and fixing herself a drink. “But I really think you ought to start looking into more options. Painting houses is still a form of art.”
Once she had poured herself the perfect mixture of Scotch and Coke, Maggie carried her glass out to the living room and sat beside Tony, who was sunken into the couch, as though he had molded himself into it. Game controller in hand, he stared at the screen, blasting away werewolves or some other type of shifter. Maggie couldn’t keep track. They all seemed the same.
All of the games he played involved shooting shifters. He never played the cute, colorful games where he could save princesses and collect coins. He always played some form of murderous hit-man against an army of vicious monsters. Tony hated shifters, and Maggie thought he was ridiculous. He’d never even met one before. Video game monsters were not the same thing as living, breathing beings.
At first, Maggie had seen his video game heroics as a sign of his manly, caring nature. Now, however, she saw them more for what they were – another way to slack off.
“Is this all you’ve been up to today?” Maggie asked him. “I was gone for eight hours, and you’re still wearing your pajamas.”
Annoyed, Tony paused the game. He finally turned to look at her, but it was a glare. Not at all the appreciative look Maggie expected or felt she deserved. “I’ve told you, it’s a dry spell,” he said.
Maggie did not want to fight with him about it anymore. She was tired of nagging him and trying to get him to contribute. She was tired of feeling frustrated at him all of the time. She was just tired.
“Whatever,” she said with a sigh, knocking back a large gulp of Scotch and Coke. “I just don’t want to keep coming home after a long day and finding you just sitting here, playing games. When’s the last time you showered?”
“Ugh!” Tony shouted, throwing the controller down on the table and standing up. “Fine, I’ll go take a shower. I wish you’d stop acting like you’re so much better than me. You can’t rush art. And you hate your job. Don’t take it out on me.”
With that, he stormed off to the bathroom. Maggie heard the water start running. She turned off the TV and looked over at the abandoned easel. It would make things easier if he just tried to even pretend like he still cared about working.
Maggie was twenty-five. Tony was twenty-seven. They had met in college and they shared a mutual love of a lot of things, including video games. Initially, everything seemed blissful and perfect. He did all sorts of really captivating paintings in the beginning, while she worked hard in customer service. He had even entertained the idea of someday being an artist for video games, which she would then help sell at her company. It all seemed pretty great…
Until that slowly turned into him just sitting on the couch, playing the games like some kind of mindless zombie himself. There was market research and then there was just making excuses.
Maggie was tired of excuses most of all.
“I don’t know why you’re even still with his lazy ass,” her friend Trish told her over the phone.
After his shower, Tony had switched to a computer game that involved lots of intense silence when he wasn’t shouting commands at an unseen person who spoke to him over a headset. Maggie hated that game, but she capitalized on the fact that he was completely absorbed in his own world. That was the best time to complain about him to her friends.
“I don’t know either sometimes,” Maggie said, sounding a bit sadder than she felt. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s just that I love projects.”
Trish laughed. “Girl, if he’s your project, he is not your best work.”
“You should see the Tell-Tale Easel.” Maggie chuckled a little. “He’s not even trying to hide his lack of progress. He just leaves it out for all to see; blank canvas, paint barely even touched, brushes cleaner than they were when I bought them. Oh, and I bought them. Let’s not forget that.”
Trish tisked. “You should break that blank canvas over his head.”
“I would if I hadn’t paid for it.”
“What, his head?”
Maggie laughed. “Practically. I have supported that creative noggin’ of his for three years now.”
“You should try and get your deposit back.”
It was all well and good to make jokes about things like that. But even though Tony annoyed the shit out of her, a lot of the time… Maggie still loved him. He was her college sweetheart. He was still the reason she got up in the morning and worked so hard.
She just wished she would get a ‘thank you’ now and then.
“Hey, honey?” Tony suddenly asked her, removing his silly, large headset. He resembled an air-traffic controller when he wore that thing.
Maggie swallowed her annoyance. “Yeah?” She even managed a smile at him. She was glad to have his attention at last.
“Do you want to play Zelda with me?”
She rolled her eyes a little, but she continued to smile. At least playing with him was better than him playing without her all of the time. She moved the phone back so Trish could hear her. “I gotta go for now. We’ll talk again soon – hopefully with good news.”
“Bye, Mags. Hopefully the good news is that you’re leaving tha
t f—”
Cackling, Maggie hung up on her friend.
Friends did not let friends date douches. But friends also did not let friends give up.
Tony was not really a hopeless case. He just needed a lot of pushing.
They played the fantasy video game for a while, and then he left her to it while he went to his easel and began covering it with yellows and greens. Maggie glanced over at it and smirked at him. “I thought you said you didn’t paint video game characters.”
“This is just inspired by it,” he said, indicating that it was similar colors but not actually any shapes that were specific to the game. No fairies were to be found. “It’s also inspired by you.”
Maggie paused the game. She got up and went to him, wrapping her arms loosely around his shoulders. They kissed each other. “I don’t know why you’ve gotta be such a pain in the ass all the time,” she murmured against his neck. “I just want you to reach your full potential and be happy.”
“I know, Magellan,” he said, using that silly nickname he’d been calling her since their awful and boring eight a.m. history class four years ago. “I’m sorry for sucking. I promise I’ll go check out some jobs tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay,” she said with a smile, petting his thick, brown mop top. “I love you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t care so much.”