"It's nothing to do with you, specifically. My grandfather, he was killed by a shifter. He went to purge them from a forest near the town he lived in and he never came back. Shifters have always been this bad, scary, terrible bedtime story that my mom told me growing up. I never thought-" Maya cut herself off, knowing she was about to come out with something she'd regret.
"So, he went to try and hunt them and he ended up getting killed?" Adam sounded incredulous. "Look, I'm sorry that happened to you, and him, and your family. But he went after them first. You can't really blame them for the reaction they had."
"They killed him, Adam! There was basically nothing left of him when they were done!" Maya snapped, pulling her coat tight around her shoulders in an attempt to keep out the cold.
"And what would you have done if you'd been living peacefully and someone came along and tried to oust you?" He parried, turning to look at her again. His gold-green eyes were narrowed, and he looked furious.
"I don't know! But they were animals, Adam, they weren't like you," Maya tried to rationalize.
"But they were. They were just people, like me, who happened to be in their animal forms when your grandfather came by and tried to destroy whatever life they'd built for themselves." Adam shook his head. "I knew there was a backlash when we first came out, but I never thought I'd meet someone who tried to defend it."
Maya found herself momentarily lost for words. All her life, she'd prided herself on being open-minded, liberal, decent, and here was someone pointing out the big, ugly block of bigotry at the centre of that. The wind whistled even louder, as if trying to fill the awkward pause in the conversation.
"You have to understand, I like you, but I could never be with someone who had…that. How could I ever trust you not to hurt me?" Maya replied tersely, her brain whirring as she tried to put the pieces together in her head.
"You're here with me right now, aren't you?" Adam pointed out. "Do you feel like you're in danger? Do you think I'm going to hurt you?"
"No, but you're not like the rest of them," she snapped back, exasperated.
"Oh, so I'm one of the good ones, am I?" He almost laughed. "You do realize how fucking ridiculous you're sounding right now."
"How do I know you've never hurt anyone before?" Maya shot back. Because she knew he was right, from the moment she'd met Adam, she'd felt safe in his presence, comforted, even. And she couldn't connect the two parts of her brain in a way that made sense.
"How do I know you haven't?" He looked at her, eyebrows raised.
"Because I'm not-"
"You're still a person, though. You're just as capable of hurting someone as I am. It's just that I might be a bear when it happens, or I might not. I don't lose control when I'm shifted. Do you know anything about our kind at all?" He cut across her, and Maya stopped walking, taken aback.
"You're a bear?" She asked with incredulity. She had never really given much thought to exactly what kind of animals people could shift into, the only ones she knew about for sure were wolves. But a bear? That sounded particularly scary, especially threatening.
"Um, yeah," Adam mumbled, embarrassed. "I don't usually talk about it, but…that's my shift."
"Not the cute cuddly kind, I'd wager?" Maya raised her eyebrows.
"Nah. Grizzly."
She shook her head, unable to wrap her brain around the concept.
"So you just expect me to hear that, and 100% trust you never to hurt me. It's a fucking predator, for Christ's sake!" She yelled over the wind.
"That's me you're talking about," Adam replied sourly. "I'm not an it."
"But if you're an animal, that's what you are. You can't be in your right mind. You can't be in control."
"You want me to show you?" Adam turned to her, and stopped walking again. They faced off against each other, feet planted, expressions steely.
"Are you fucking serious? Now?" Maya gestured around. "In the middle of nowhere?"
"I can show you that I'm in control when I shift. And I'm not doing this because I want you to be with me. I'm doing this so you can understand that we're not the threat you think we are." He spoke with more certainty now. Maya looked him up and down, and weighed up her options. Either she said no, and held on to what was left of the anger and hatred she had bottled up for his kind, and walked away from here unscathed. Or…she said yes. And what would happen would happen.
"Do it," she lifted her chin, meeting his gaze.
"Are you sure?" He took a few steps back from her. "It's pretty weird, if it's the first time you've seen it."
"I want you to." She challenged him again.
He raised his hands in acceptance, and began to get undressed. Maya quickly averted her eyes, but snuck one quick look over her shoulder, damn, he was exactly what she'd expected. Muscular and toned, but not to an absurd degree. She wondered how he wasn't freezing in the cold, but brushed the thought from her mind as he handed her his clothes and turned away.
"You're certain about this?" Adam yelled over the wind.
"Just get on with it already," Maya demanded. And he did.
Even though Maya knew on an intellectual level what Adam was capable of, seeing him actually do it was a whole different kettle of fish entirely. She watched, her mouth agape, as fur sprouted from his back, running down his legs and up his arms, covering his entire body. His back seemed to warp upwards, his spine elongating and his neck cricking up, as he pushed himself closer and closer to the his other form. His ears shifted a few inches up his head, and he twisted his neck in time for her to see him sprout fangs and a short muzzle. She took a few steps back, her natural sense of self-preservation kicking in, but stayed to watch until the laborious process was complete.
The wind and the rain seemed to dim down to nothing as she stared at Adam-or at least, what he'd become. The bear turned around to face her, towering a few feet above her head, it was only now that she could make out the length and ferocity of his claws, the way the light gleamed from his carnivorous teeth. Suddenly, he fell to all fours, and moved towards her-slowly, as if trying to coax her into calmness. He bent his head down, and she tentatively reached out a hand to touch him, she closed her eyes as soon as her fingers came into contact with his coarse fur. Hearing about shifting and seeing it in person were two very different things, and Maya couldn't suppress the tingle up her spine. It was something like magic, something she could never even have imagined before. But yet here it was, in front of her-a bear, gentle and sweet and soft, who seemed only a few steps removed from the man he had been moments before. The wind whipped Maya's hair and clothes as she stared at him, a lump quickly rising in her throat. She had no idea what to do next. Luckily, someone else made that decision for her.
The bear twisted his head quickly, attuning into a noise that was too far away for Maya to make out yet. Soon enough, though, she could hear it, a barking, like a pack of dogs moving closer. Her eyes widened, and she looked down at the creature in front of her. It was like something had changed, a chunk of the humanity he'd possessed only moments before seemed to have vanished. Suddenly, and at a terrific pace, he took off down the beach, galloping towards the source of the noise. Maya went to go after him, but before she could move, she saw something that made her blood turn to ice.
Standing atop one of the rocks only a hundred yards away-a wolf. But no ordinary wolf. This wolf had something like guile in it's eyes, something too close to human to be pure animal. And it had seen her. The bear had long since vanished down the beach, and Maya was left staring into the eyes of an animal she prayed she'd never see. The kind who had killed her grandfather.
Dropping Adam's clothes, she turned and ran, her heart was tearing through her chest, her body stiff from the cold and the rain. She glanced over her shoulder, and saw the wolf in pursuit only a dozen or so yards away. She saw a blurring at the corner of her vision as she felt panic wash over her entire body, no, God, please, not now. The hotel was only a couple of hundred feet away, but it seemed like a mil
e.
As Maya rounded the corner and sprinted up the path back to the hotel, she could hear the pounding of the wolf's paws only a few feet behind her. Her breath tore up from her lungs, her chest burning, as she urged her legs to keep on moving. She was just able to make out a handful of figures standing near the plate glass window, Dina, and one of the groomsmen.
"Help!" She yelled with what little breath she had left. "Help!"
Dina turned her head, and leapt forward, just in time to slide the door open to let Maya fall inside. The groomsman slammed the door shut as Maya collapsed on to her knees, leaving the wolf to slam painfully into the glass. Maya glanced over her shoulder, trying to confirm her safety, but all she could see was the figure of a man tearing off into the distance.
"What was…?" Maya panted, as Dina helped her to her feet.
"It's my ex. We think…we think he brought his pack with him." She murmured, brushing the rain-whipped hair from Maya's face.
"What?"
"Look, it's not for you to worry about. Just stay with us, don't leave the hotel. You'll be safe, I promise." Dina replied soothingly, sounding as if she was saying it as much to herself as to Maya.
"Where is everyone?" Maya ran a hand through her hair, looking around. She knew the groomsmen had gone out, but she couldn't see any of the bridesmaids or other wedding guests either.
"We managed to organize an emergency trip off the island for most of the guests," Dina explained. "We didn't have time to come find you. I'm so sorry."
"So why are the rest of us staying?" Maya demanded.
"He's not going to stop, no matter what. We need to get this dealt with. And…no one's going to stop us here." Dina sounded nervous even as the words came out of her mouth.
"Are we in danger? Are you?"
"Yes," Dina answered, her gaze steady and firm. "But not for much longer."
Suddenly, with a crash, the door burst open once again. Maya leapt back on instinct, only to see Lorne, carrying what looked to her untrained eye like a shotgun, and two of the groomsmen.
"We had a skirmish, but I think most of them are unhurt. We're fine. One of them got away down the beach, though, did anyone…?" Lorne demanded, shaking the rain for her hair.
"He chased me, but I'm okay," Maya responded. "Where's Adam?"
"I'm right here," he cut in, and Maya spun around. It felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders-she hadn't realized just how worried she'd been about him till that moment. He had a small cut above his eye, and Maya grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the light.
"What are you doing?" He demanded, sounding as if all the wind had been knocked from him.
"I did first aid, trust me, I need to treat that." She replied firmly.
"Really, we've got increased healing time, I'll be fine in a day or so."
Maya touched the area around the cut, and he flinched.
"Yeah, I still want to treat that. Come up to my room." She dragged him by the hand towards the stairs, and left the hustle and bustle of reception behind.
As Maya led Adam into her room, she could still hear the distant whistle of wind and rain across the island. He sat down on the bed, and she went to the bathroom for clean towels.
"Guess there's worse places to be trapped in a tropical storm, right?" Adam commented, looking around her quarters. "You guys definitely got a better deal than the groomsmen did."
"I'm not complaining," Maya shrugged. "Well, apart from the fact that a werewolf just chased me across the beach. Other than that, fine and dandy."
"Seriously? Are you okay?" Adam leapt to his feet, but Maya placed her hands on his shoulders.
"I'm fine," She replied soothingly. "You're not, though. Let me deal with that."
She held the damp towel against his cut, and managed a smile. He gave her one in return, and she felt her heart skip a beat. Standing up quickly, she turned her back on him, there was still some stuff she needed to figure out before she was happy just falling at his feet.
"What actually happened out there?" She asked, peering out of the window, trying to see if there were any other figures in the distance again.
"The wolf pack found Lorne and Dean, tried to cause them some problems. We have it under control, but they're faster than us, so they got away. Then I had to go find my clothes." He smirked up at her, and she blushed a little, remembering how she'd dropped them on the beach. Then another query crossed her mind.
"So…they saw you like that?" Maya furrowed her brow. Adam grinned furtively.
"Trust me, I don't think it came as too much of a surprise to them."
"Whatever you say," she shrugged. After a pause, she took a deep breath, then continued.
"On the beach, when you were…shifted. I've never seen that before."
"Seen what?"
"Someone so in control of it. You know? I didn't think you were going to hurt me or anything. It was…new."
"Trust me, you never have to worry when you're around me," he reassured her, dabbing at his cut with the towel some more.
"But…I thought I always would. With you being a shifter, and everything. I guess I just wanted to say that I think I might have been…wrong?"
"You don't say?" Adam raised his eyebrows sarcastically, and she swatted at him playfully.
"Look, you don't know how long I've been told that I should be scared of people…things…like you. And now that I'm not, I don't really know what to do with that feeling." Maya tried to explain. "I saw today…I saw you, and I saw that wolf, and I could see the difference. You were still in control, and I didn't feel scared or threatened or…anything."
"I never want you to feel like that around me. I never want anyone to feel like that around me." He stated emphatically. He looked up to meet her gaze, and Maya sat down on the ledge of the windowsill. She needed space between them, needed time to think.
"I can't just let go of everything I've been raised with. My mother…" Maya waved her hand in the air agitatedly. "If she found out that I was even talking to you, she'd probably never forgive me."
"I don't go about announcing it to everyone I meet," Adam replied flippantly. "I mean, most people I know, they've got no idea. They don't have to, because it doesn't affect the way I live my life."
"I know. You're just a person." Maya admitted, the words feeling foreign in her mouth. But she couldn't deny it any longer, with Adam sitting in front of her, right then, right there, she couldn't argue with the fact that he was no better or worse for what she'd seen on the beach.
"Do you shift…often?" She asked, needing more information, needing to find something to rebel against. He shook his head.
"Only when I need to, and I've got to say, the requirement to become a giant bear doesn't come up that often." He replied solemnly. Maya giggled, and felt a familiar flutter in the bottom of her stomach. Adam got up, and sat next to her on the ledge, pulling the towel away from his face and wincing slightly.
"I don't think there's anything else I can do to convince you that being with me is safe," he murmured, covering her hand with his. "All I can do is prove it to you."
And with that, Maya couldn't take it any longer. She leant in and pressed her lips against his, it felt like an age since their first kiss the night before. But this kiss felt different. It felt honest, and sweet, and open-she felt his tongue slip past her lips and into her mouth, and a wave of relief passed over her. She wanted Adam. She really did. And nothing was going to get in the way of that.
Colby (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 3) Page 52