He was right, she did remember that, but it was obvious that she had seen it differently than it was before. “As I remember, I was the one who caught you.” She pointed it out. “You would have to stay in human form to take this child from my arms and you would have to take me down without hurting him.” The fear started to fade as she continued to point out the flaws with his plan. “Let’s face it, you can’t afford to have a child hurt because of your hatred of humans. How many of your followers would leave you if you caused an infant shifter to die because you wanted to rip him from the arms of a loving mother?”
Fredrick’s voice grew loud and demanding. “Give me the child!”
“I’ve gotten you, haven’t I?” Her voice took a slightly haughty air. She felt as if she had won this fight. He child started to cry. “Leave me and my family alone. You won’t touch him ever again.”
Fredrick moved closer and reached for the child in her arms. She soothed the boy, cooing and telling him that she would be able to feed him soon as she brought the stone crashing down on the invading arm. Fredrick pulled his limb back and cursed at the human, using slurs that had long since gone out of style in any sort of civilized company.
Ursula could still hear the fight going on behind her, but she could hear both of the men panting in near exhaustion. “He can’t protect you, can he?” Fredrick was clearing his mind in order to continue on trying to convince the woman to see the light, to understand why he had to take her child away. “He can barely fight a wolf, a beast that is so much smaller than he is.”
“Stop it.” She tried to continue her little haughty taunts. “He’ll be around a lot longer than you will, and he’s going to stand up for what’s right. We’re going to change things and you won’t be able to keep stealing people’s children for much longer.”
“Don’t you realize that your mate is a joke? No one is going to listen to him. The only reason he hasn’t been killed for his treasonous decisions is because his father leads that tribe, but I can guarantee you that he doesn’t hold any standing with the rest of our world, with the respectable shifters. He abandoned this world, his people and will continue to hurt people. No one trusts him.”
The words hurt her, they struck deep and she was trapped in a loop of them repeating themselves. She was so engaged in the hate filled words that he had said that she reacted late to him reaching for her child again. She managed to fend him off, swinging the rock once again and striking his arm with a violent crack. She wondered if she had broken his arm, but it didn’t matter, she had to keep her baby safe, and it didn’t matter how badly she hurt this man.
The fight behind her died down as she finished her swing. Someone had won the fight, but she couldn’t see who had won. She had to focus on the man trying to steal her baby. She knew that if the wolf had defeated her mate she would be in trouble, having to stand against two attackers by herself. A small prayer escaped her mind. She prayed that Walter had won and he would be by her side to defend the child that she carried.
Her prayers were answered. The man was injured from the combat, but he came limping up, his humanity visible once again. “He’s trying to take the baby.”
“I know.” He turned to Fredrick. “Leave, or I’ll kill you.”
Fredrick nearly spat with rage. “This isn’t going to be the end of it. I’m going to have that child. I can’t let him be raised by a human. She’ll destroy everything, stop the traditions that we’ve fought so hard to protect.”
“That’s a load of bull and you know it. None of us are fully shifter any more. We’ve taken in other people before and it’s going to continue. You’ve been working with people’s fear, and it isn’t going to work anymore.” Walter’s voice varied as he clutched his wounded side.
“I’m right and you know it. We can’t pollute our bloodline anymore.”
“How exactly are we polluting it?” Walter was confused. “We haven’t done anything like that.”
“We aren’t going to let any more humans raise our children. Times are changing and we have to stay together and stop weakening ourselves with the humans.”
Ursula looked at the man with sheer confusion. He had told her so many stories that she had no idea what he was talking about any more. She didn’t even know if he even believed his reasons any more. “You would really punish someone for having a child?” She asked him.
“Yes, humans aren’t worth anything to us. They will take our lands and hurt our people.”
“Look, I’m sorry that humans have hurt you, but we’re not all like that.” Ursula was still trying to reason with him.
“There’s no use, he’s an extremist. You won’t change his opinion.” Walter told her. “Get out of here before I have to kill you.” He threatened the man. The bear didn’t like to kill and tried to avoid it as long as he was capable of it.
Fredrick slunk off into the woods and Walter led his mate out of the woods, grateful that their child was back with them, at least temporarily.
CHAPTER 15
Walter and Ursula tucked their son into bed. He was home and would continue to be in their home. There was nothing in the world that would stop them from loving the boy that had already lived through such an exciting life of betrayal and kidnapping.
No one had threatened them since their triumphant return to the tribal lands that had become Ursula’s home. They had plans for the evening and it was going to be the first time that the child had been left in the care of another. Ursula’s nerves were frayed, but she knew that she had to learn to trust once again. The sitter was another mother in the tribe, a woman who would watch the children during important times. She would be coming to their home along with her eldest son in order to keep the child safe. Walter assured her that both of the guards were powerful shifters from a long lineage of people that were against the extremism that Fredrick had so dearly believed. “Are you sure we should do this?”
“Yes, everything will be fine. Molly and Abel will be able to protect the boy.”
“I don’t know about this.” Ursula wrung her hands.
“I know it’s hard, but we have to go speak in front of the intertribal council. We have to stop them from doing this to more children.” Walter gripped his mate’s shoulders. “Everything will be fine. I promise you. They will die before they let anything happen to him.”
“I know, I know, but I can’t stop this fear.”
“I feel it too.” It was the first time that he had admitted it to her. “Let’s get ready.” They dressed in ominous silence, knowing that the hardest part of this entire fiasco was leaving their son alone so soon after the first ordeal. His crib had been moved into their room and they had found themselves waking several times each night in order to check on the boy.
Ursula looked at Walter as he let the people that would guard their son into the building. The tiny cabin felt so crowded with the addition of extra people in the front room. “Don’t let anything happen to him.” Ursula begged Molly.
“I will give my life to protect him.”
“Thank you.” She rattled off instructions multiple times in order to make sure that Molly understood along with handing the woman a piece of paper with every possible bit of information that the worried mother could muster on it.
“Don’t worry.” Molly carefully read through the list, knowing that the small action would make the panicking mother feel a little better. Everything was pretty standard when it came to caring for a small child.
“Can’t we bring him with us?”
“We don’t know what supporters they’re going to have in the audience. I’d rather not have him in your arms if a fight breaks out.” Walter reminded her of the reasons they had decided to leave the child at home.
“I don’t like this.”
“I know.” He embraced her. “But we have to stop these people.”
“Do they really need me?”
“You need to talk about the things that Fredrick had told you.” Walter reminded her. “They really
need you there so that you can tell them about the things that he had said.” He forced a smile. “Don’t you remember?”
“Of course I remember, doesn’t mean that I want to be in the same room as that madman.”
“You won’t be in the same room as him.”
“Doesn’t he have the right to face his accuser?”
Walter laughed. “You’re so used to the human justice system. We don’t work that way.” It took some coaxing but he managed to convince Ursula to leave the house. He got her to the center of the tribal lands. She had never really been inside the giant building before, a round building of adobe and clay, something that commanded respect in the nature that had been used to build the place. It was a beautiful construction, reminiscent of the buildings that archeologists had fawned over for countless centuries.
The truth was that every time she had seen this place if felt larger. It wasn’t huge by modern conventions, but it did have the imposing structure of the pyramids and the government buildings in countless countries around the world.
The large front doors seemed to be only there to allow the mass of public spectators in. At the moment they were propped open to allow the free flow of people to and from the building. She noticed that children had attended with their parents and her heart ached for the child that was sitting at home with the guards that had been so lovingly chosen by Walter and his father. Walter looked at her. “We’re going in the back.” He led her around the large round structure, down a path that had been trampled by countless people and animals before them. There was no manicuring, but rather something that they let nature care for over the centuries that these people had used this sacred land.
“Why?”
“We have to speak, they don’t want a bunch of people to stop us before we can get to where we need to be. Also they don’t want us to be hassled or attacked. My father will use the front entrance, but they’re trying to protect the woman who just went through that kind of ordeal.”
“Is this normal?”
“They normally only use the back entrance for important guests.” He left it at that, but Ursula knew what it really meant. They used it for guests they saw as fragile and broken.
“Let’s use the front.”
“Why?”
“If I want to be seen as an equal I have to be treated as one. That’s the way it’s going to work. I’m not going to be coddled because I’m just some weak human.” She puffed out her chest and the pride on Walter’s face was plainly visible as he led her to the front of the building and through the doors, surrounded by the people that she prayed would accept her and she didn’t let Walter stop the people from asking her questions. She was praised and spat on, sometimes with the same breath, she was told how wonderful it must be to exempt from the rules. Ignoring the criticism, she treated everyone with the kindness she hoped that they would give her. She sought to change opinions, change the rules that they had been living with, to banish the fear that everyone had been surviving under.
She sat in the center of the room, surrounded by members of various tribes. She watched what was happening with great interest. People spoke to the prisoners as they were chained in the center of the room. The will of the people seemed to be against these men. Before she knew it, she was given the right to speak.
“I’m human.” She cleared her throat. “I get that, I’m not someone who can be easily trusted and you have good reason to fear us. We’ve hurt the things that we need to survive, we need to learn more about the world that we live in. We made mistakes, big giant mistakes that have damaged our reputation. I understand all of this, and I can’t tell you how much I regret those decisions even though they weren’t ones that I made personally.” She paused, debating on the next words that she was going to say. The audience seemed to be willing to hear her out. “None of that matters for this case, and I’ll tell you why. They took a child from a loving home, someone who deserved to be embraced and placed him into a world where they hated half of who he is. My son is half human, and that doesn’t change a thing. At least it shouldn’t change a thing. He’s my son. I love him, no matter if he is a shifter or not. He’s my son and no one can replace the love that I feel for him. Hatred can never replace love, so I’m going to choose not to hate these men and this woman.” She indicated Rebecca, Timothy, and Fredrick with a wave of her hand. “I can’t hate them because they were raised to fear the reputation of humans, a reputation that we earned, by the way. Now that I’ve said that, it doesn’t change the fact that they reacted badly to that fear, that they hurt their own community by taking the children of loving parents away.” She launched into her story and it was fairly easy to hear some of the sniffles that were coming from the audience, but she noticed that most of the people were stone-faced. They didn’t want to give their emotions away to the newcomer that was addressing them. After she told of the pain that had been caused for her she sat down and waited.
Judgment was passed. The three people who refused to repent had been banished from the tribal lands and would be forced to live in the human world. They would be given enough to be able to make it on their own, but they would stand no chance to be among their own kind ever again. It didn’t make Ursula as happy as she thought that it would have. She wanted rehabilitation. She wanted them to recognize the pain that was caused and work through it, but there was no chance of that now. They would sit in the human world stewing in their hatred until they snapped, killing someone who didn’t deserve. The tribes had washed their hands of the people that needed it the most. Walter stopped his mate from standing up to defend them. He knew that it wouldn’t make a difference. She had already pleaded for mercy. “We’ll change things, but it’s going to take time.” He promised her and she believed him.
The baby had been safe while they were gone and Ursula was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. “He’s sleeping.”
Walter touched his mate’s hand. “Let him sleep.” He pulled her into the bedroom while the babysitters slipped out the front door. The cradle was still in the living room, because it was more defensible as they watched the child sleep and play. He left it there and lay the woman down on the bed. Her red hair flowed around the pillow like a living halo of bronze light and he was entranced by it as he slowly undressed the woman that had come to mean so much to him. He knew that he had to have her in that moment, to celebrate the little successes that they had just achieved.
He kissed her, it was the kind of kiss that seemed to last forever as he fell into her body, carefully entering and consuming her with one all-encompassing breath of the universe. They moved together in unison, a magical moment of perfect clarity that seemed to exist between them.
They made love that night, for what felt like an eternity and were laughing when the baby awoke for his middle of the night feeding. There was so much to do and they cared for their child, a happy family that was ready to face all of the injustice in the world in an effort to fill it with the kind of love that they always knew had existed.
THE END
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BOOK SEVEN
THE BEARS
SHARED BRIDE
A PARANORMAL SHIFTER ROMANCE
AMY STAR
Copyright ©2015 by Amy Star
All rights reserved.
About This Book
Two Bears, One Bride, One Love...
The LeKing Werebear tribe is one that is different from most. Since the beginning of time they have traditionally always had TWO leaders and only ONE queen.
Now, after years of preparation, Lavinia LeKing is about to become Queen and she will be married to Parker and Thearo
n, the Alpha and Omega bears of her tribe.
However, Lavinia feels very unsure about her ability to be able to please not just one but two alpha males at the same time. She then finds herself torn between the rough sexual attraction of Thearon and the seductive nature of Parker.
And so she wonders...
Can THREE in ONE marriage actually work?
And is she really headed for a life time of menage-a-trois bliss or are there some dark surprises still to come?
PROLOGUE
The legend of The Alpha and the Omega is one of the first the cubs of the LeKing Werebear tribe learn about. It is a tale that explains how the Tribe came to have not one, but two leaders, and yet, only one Queen.
It is said that in the days when the Were Tribes ruled the world, the LeKing tribe was the most powerful. Not only did the other Werebear tribes look to the LeKing Tribe for leadership and guidance but the Werewolves, Werehorses, and Werelions - kings among beasts - all considered the LeKing Tribe as the most powerful and learned of all the Werebeasts. For a time, because of the LeKing Tribe, there was harmony on the earth and each species gave as much as it took from the land and the world was a happy place.
However, as men began to dominate the world, breeding in numbers too high for the Werebeasts to keep up with, the Were community was hunted for its magical powers and long life. Rather than fight the tide of fate, the LeKing Tribe counseled the Werebeasts to quietly retreat to the background of the world. The King advised that in doing so, they may continue to guard the earth and keep balance in the face of the greed and devastation of the humans.
Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection Page 66