by Jessie Lane
Looking over her shoulder through the back window, Misha noted several people standing on the porch now, watching her. Could one of them be her cousin?
Suddenly, Auntie Arina spoke, making Misha jump in surprise.
“Why did God make only one Yogi Bear?”
Taking her eyes off the people watching them, Misha swung her gaze back to her aunt. What in the world was the crazy woman talking about now?
“I don’t know. Why?”
“Because, when he tried to make a second one, he made a Boo-Boo! Get it? Boo-boo.”
Misha slid her hand over her face in embarrassment. She should have known her aunt was not going to act any other way but herself in front of strangers, especially other deadly predators. Everything was a joke until you pissed her off. Then somebody would be screaming about a claw to the eye.
Looking back at her aunt, she pleaded, “Please don’t scare them off. This means a lot to me.”
Her aunt stopped laughing immediately and reached over to cup Misha’s face. “I know this means something to you, my sweet girl, but I want you to remember one thing.”
“Yes?” Misha asked her warily.
A hard glimmer shined in her adoptive aunt’s eye. “You are my cub, little bear, and kill, I will, anyone who hurts you.”
Misha felt her eyes water up at the fierce sentiment from the other woman. Never had she wondered if she was loved. Her Aunt Arina and the rest of the Vasiliev Pride had always let her know in every way possible that she was their cub.
All of a sudden, Misha had doubts about trying to find her biological relatives. She didn’t want her tiger family thinking she didn’t love them as fiercely as they had loved her all these years.
Grabbing Arina’s wrists where she still held Misha’s face, she tried to convey that exact sentiment. “I don’t have to do this if you don’t want me to, Aunt Arina. We can leave right now, get on a plane, and go home to Russia. The Vasiliev Pride has been and will always be my family.”
The older woman clucked her tongue. “My little bear did not come all this way to turn back now. We shall go meet the Yogis and the Boo-Boos to see if you are kin to one of them. If yes, perhaps we can kidnap them and take them back to our homeland, too!”
Misha snorted. She couldn’t help it. The tigress wouldn’t know the concept of subtle if it hit her like one of those very large, onion-shaped architectural domes their country’s buildings were so known for.
Patting her aunt’s wrist lovingly, Misha gave one last plea. “Please do not piss the bears off.”
A horrified look came over her aunt’s face as she shouted back, “Why would I piss on the bears? What a horrible way to scent mark! Ty che, blyad?”
Misha held her finger up in warning. “No cursing in Russian. Now, let’s go.”
Getting out of the car, she ignored her aunt’s rambling and closed the car door behind her. Turning around, she concentrated on the sound of the gravel beneath her feet to distract her from the racing thoughts going through her head. Misha’s eyes were glued to the people on the porch. They were all male bears and she did not see or smell a sow nearby. Were they protecting their women folk from her?
The gravel gave way to grass as she stood before the steps leading to the den and the large men in front of her. Misha stared right back at them just as all of her tiger relatives had taught her to do. She wasn’t going to look away and show weakness. Every tiger knew how to stare down a potential threat or another predator. Misha just happened to be a bear who knew how to do it.
All four of the men watched her unwaveringly, not moving a muscle, nor blinking an eyelid. They just stood there like giant sentries.
After a few silent moments of staring at each other, Misha got the feeling they were not trying to scare her with their tactics. It felt more like they were curious as to what she would do. Perhaps she should break the ice between them?
Misha opened her mouth to say something, but two things happened that stopped her. First, one of the bears blinked. What happened next would probably mortify Misha for the rest of her life.
“Ah-ha!” Auntie Arina yelled from behind her. “Boo-Boo blinked first! My Misha wins. Now take us to your leader.”
Why couldn’t the ground just open up underneath her and swallow her alive when her family did stuff like that? Because really, who wanted to live through this sort of incessant mortification?
“Boo-Boo?” a deep voice growled from in front of her.
Yeah, it was time Misha took control of this situation before it got any worse.
Looking up at the four men, Misha waved in greeting. “Hello. I am Misha Vasiliev. I believe your Itan is expecting me?”
The man in front of her pointed to Aunt Arina. “What’s the cat doing here?”
Misha felt as if the hackles were rising on the back of her neck. Her aunt might not be the politest person in the world, but she wasn’t going to let this man insult her family.
“That tigress is my aunt, whom the Itan told me I could bring with me. Call her a cat again, and I will not take too kindly to it.”
The man went to say something back, but one of the other bears stepped forward to put a hand on his shoulder. “Shut it, Jack.” Misha looked over at the man speaking and found his gaze glued to her aunt. Interesting. “Let the ladies come on inside to see the Itan. He’s waiting for them.”
The bear named Jack shrugged off the other man’s touch. “I’m just trying to be careful. It’s bad enough hyenas got to us. I would hate to see what kind of damage a tiger could do.”
Misha’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Hyenas? She had heard about them but never seen one.
The four men didn’t give her much time to think about that as they waved for her to come up the stairs. Two of them walked ahead of her, one of those bears being the suspicious Jack. The other two waited until after both she and her aunt had crossed over the threshold to follow after them.
They entered a common area that looked to be a living room of sorts. The house itself was massive, but the furniture made it feel cozy. Glancing around, Misha was surprised to see several other people there, quietly watching them. Discreetly scenting the air, all she could smell was bear, so she assumed these folks were bears, too. She hadn’t expected to see so many gathered in one place, though. Tigers were notorious for liking their privacy.
“Oy,” her aunt mumbled from behind her. “Multiplying the Boo-Boos, they keep doing.”
Misha cringed, knowing the other shifters had heard her wily relative. Only she didn’t get the outrage she expected from them. Instead, a deep rumble of a laugh sounded off behind her, and the voice of the man who had been staring at Arina like she was his personal jar of honey said, “It’s the clan den. Anyone in the clan can stop by whenever they want, plus a few of the single bears live here, too. I can show you around if you would like, pretty kitty.”
Misha heard Arina snort as they kept walking toward what smelled like a sweet pastry. “You wish, bear.”
Whatever the older bear said back to her aunt was lost in the talking and clamor that they walked into next.
Looking around, Misha took note of the large kitchen with a couple of bears seated at a kitchen island topped with granite. An old sow was bustling around the stove, cooking whatever it was that smelled so good. Misha was tempted to ask if she could have one of whatever the old woman was making, but she reminded herself she was here for something much more important than sweets.
She was there to find her family.
The two bears sitting at the island looked over at her. They were both large men, but one was bigger than the other. There was an air of authority surrounding him that almost made Misha shiver. He had brown eyes, brown hair, wide shoulders, and a strong jaw. She would wager all the cat nip in Russia that this man was the Itan.
He didn’t stand to greet her, but he did give her a slight nod of welcome. “My name is Ty, and I am the Grayslake Itan. You must be the Misha that requested my help?”
/> Misha gave him a nod of respect back, allowing this man, and this man alone, to see she would bow to his dominance. “I am, Itan. If you have a few moments, I would like to ask a few questions about a couple of your clan members.”
When she raised her gaze back up from the floor to meet his hard brown eyes, he rumbled back, “Because you believe you’re related to one or more of them? I’ll want to see some sort of proof before I give you any answers, Misha. I’m very protective of my bears.”
She wasn’t surprised at this response. The Vasiliev tigers were just as protective of their own. This was why she had come prepared with the newspaper article she had found in her aunt’s attic. But first, she needed to explain how she came to find the article.
Misha felt Arina come to stand next to her, silently giving her strength and support. She knew how hard it was for Misha to talk about the family she could not remember but desperately wanted to know. Taking a deep breath, Misha told him what she knew.
“I don’t remember much from before I came to be with the Vasiliev tigers. What I do remember is truly horrific. It’s only brief flashes of memory, but I can recall clowns, living in a cage in my bear form, and being very, very hungry. There was also a man who would shout at me and hit me with a rod when I didn’t do as he commanded me. I remember being scared and sad.” Misha waved a hand at Arina. “Then they rescued me. Apparently, they found me in a human circus stuck in my bear form. Looking back now, I guess my bear was trying to protect my fragile human, so she stayed in control.”
“Do you remember what happened to your parents?” Ty bluntly asked her.
She shook her head sadly. “I don’t remember them at all, to be honest. In fact, I don’t remember one single thing before the circus flashbacks.”
The Itan looked at Arina. “How old was she when you found her?”
“At the time, guessed we did that she was around three years of age. Hard it was for us to tell because, used to dealing with bear shifters, we are not.”
Ty turned his attention back to Misha. “Continue.”
She shrugged. “There’s not much to tell you after that, other than the tigers raised me with love. They accepted me as one of their own and, from that moment on, I had a very happy life. I just couldn’t remember who I was before them or the circus. Then I found this …” Approaching slowly, she gently pulled the aged newspaper page from her back pocket. Unfolding it, she placed the paper on the granite then slid it in front of the Itan.
Stepping back to stand by her aunt, she watched as the Itan and the other man silently looked at the article. It was written in Russian, so they probably couldn’t read it, but both men stared at the picture of little Misha and her parents before looking back to her.
“Tell us what it says,” the Itan ordered.
“Basically, it says that a local Polish couple, Ludwig and Hanna Wisniewski, along with their toddler, Anna, disappeared without a trace. Nothing was missing from their home; they just disappeared. After finding me, the Vasilievs assumed the circus had something to do with me not being with my parents. After Aunt Arina found that article, they knew then that the circus must have come across us while in our shifted bear forms. Bodies were never found, so we know they must be dead.”
The Itan cocked his head to the side. “I’m very sorry to hear about your loss, but what does this have to do with my clan?”
Misha folded her hands in front of her to hide her trembling. “After finding that article, my tiger family and I did some investigating. We were able to uncover a possible relative to Ludwig and Hanna Wisniewski. Borys Anderson. From what we were able to learn, his mother was a relative who moved from Poland to the United States for an arranged mating to an American bear. We later learned that she sought asylum with her son Borys here with you. So, I am here to ask you if you have a clan member named Borys Anderson, and if you do, will you help arrange for me to meet him?”
The Itan watched Misha for a few silent moments, and then sat back on his stool and crossed his arms. “If you find Borys, what are your intentions? Are you going to leave your tiger family to come live near him or something?”
Her aunt growled at the question while Misha answered it honestly. “I do not know yet, but I doubt it. Whoever I once was, whether or not Borys is my cousin or not, the Vasilievs will always be my family. That does not mean I would not like to know any bear family I might have, too.”
The Itan nodded again before gently pushing the article over to the man sitting next to him. It made Misha anxious to see the man handling the only clue she had to whoever it was she used to be. However, she did her best to keep quiet and calm. All she could do was hope for the best, and that they would try to help her find Borys.
Ty nodded to the other bear. “This is my brother Keen. He’s the clan’s Keeper of Knowledge. Do you mind if he takes your article for a little while to check things out?” She must have given away her anxiety at the thought of being separated from the article, because the Itan held his hand up in a seemingly calming manner. “I swear we will give it back to you. I just want to let my brother check a few things out for you; find out if this Borys Anderson is related to you or not, okay?”
Grudgingly, Misha gave her acceptance with a nod. Then she felt her aunt’s hand on her shoulder, trying to help keep her calm.
The Itan waved his hand at the old woman behind him. “Until then, would you like to have some of Gigi’s honey rolls? We can also have someone take you out on the property and show you around a little bit if you like?”
Her stomach was in a million knots, and this man wanted her to eat honey rolls?
Misha had known he probably would not give her immediate answers, but a small part of her was still disappointed. Did she want to stay; sit around and helplessly wait until they gave her some sort of answer? Or did she want to go back to their hotel and ask if she could come back later? The bear inside of her wanted to stay and have a honey roll. The human in her wanted to book it out of there. She didn’t like it when others could see or sense her nervousness or vulnerabilities.
Of course Auntie Arina took the choice right out of her hands when she asked the oversized male leader, “You bears eat a lot of these honey rolls? Like that Pooh of the Winnie with his head stuck in honey jar?”
The Itan gave her aunt a disbelieving look then cautiously answered with a yes. Misha knew then, whatever her aunt said next would make her want to curl up and cry a little.
She was proven all too right when the woman squeezed her shoulder and shouted with glee, “This explains my little bear’s sweet tooth! We thought the honey and bear thing was a … what do you call it? A legend? No, that’s not right. A myth! Yes, we tigers thought that honey thing a myth. Now I know why my sweet Misha likes the stuff that is sugared and has an ass to worship because of it!” With that, Arina slapped her on the ass as if Misha was a stripper on the stage shaking her goods.
The bears around her tried to stifle their laughs, but she heard every single one of them as her face turned bright red in embarrassment.
Dear God, could lightning just strike her dead right now?
Chapter Four
One second Borys was enjoying the blissful peace of doing nothing but watching guys chase each other around, trying to kill each other, and the next, his phone was ringing, totally ruining the moment when the villain took a cheap shot at this movie’s hero.
Dammit! Couldn’t people just leave him the hell alone today?
If that wasn’t bad enough, it was his house phone, which meant it wasn’t a business call of any sort. He only gave his cell phone number out for that. With his luck, it was another one of those damn telemarketing robots that just kept talking no matter what you said.
Irritated beyond belief, he picked up his phone and roared into it. Perhaps not the best way to answer a phone call, but at the moment, he didn’t really give a shit. So, as his roar echoed around his house, Borys didn’t feel the least bit bad that it accidentally set off his neighbor’s
house alarm … again.
When he brought the phone to his ear, he expected to hear either a robotic voice, a sobbing human, or the beep-beep-beep of someone hanging up. Instead, what he heard was calm breathing and silence.
A few seconds passed before the voice of his clan’s Keeper of Knowledge came over the line.
“If you’re done throwing your hissy fit, the Itan demands your presence at the clan den.”
Borys wasn’t a bear to cower before others. He was big, strong, and had a big set of balls any man or bear would be jealous of. All of that being said, even he knew not to fuck with the Itan.
Swallowing a little of his pride, he made sure his voice was calm and moderate when he replied. “Sorry about that. Please tell the Itan I’ll be there shortly.”
Keen hung up the phone on him, which spurred Borys into action. He set his house phone down, turned off his television, and grabbed the keys to his truck. He had no idea why his Itan would request his presence today since he had done what little bit of landscaping their Itana wanted done just last week. Either he had fucked his job up and his clan leader was just now getting around to tearing a chunk out of his hide for it, or something else was going on.
He really, really hoped it was something else. Borys wasn’t exactly vain, but he liked his hide the way it was. Missing a chunk of it might hurt his chance with a little lady action in the near future. Sows didn’t exactly appreciate a man who was scarred up.
Borys’s mind raced the entire drive to the den. Not that it was a long drive. That didn’t mean that, for six minutes and forty-seven seconds, Borys didn’t grind his teeth in worry that he was about to get chewed up and spit out literally. At this point, all he could hope for was the best.
He had never been in trouble with his Itan, neither the old one or his current one. Therefore, as he parked his truck in front of the den, he assured himself that everything was going to be okay. As far as he knew, he hadn’t done anything wrong, so he should leave here with his hide intact.
Getting out of his truck, he spotted Keen, the Keeper, waiting for him on the porch with a couple of his clan mates. The important thing was they didn’t look like they wanted to hang him. Perhaps he had worried for no reason at all.