My Past Laid Bear

by Becca Fanning

  Shifting quickly, she entered her bear form and bounded over the snow-covered landscape, allowing her senses to catch the scent of the deer that she had smelled earlier. They were nearby, as she had already detected. Just a couple of miles out. Turning to the east, she bounded as fast as she could and quickly spotted them.

  The deer was grazing on a patch of green that still sprouted out of the snow. She stood a few feet away, silently watching, and crept up on it. She had never been much of a hunter, but her instincts took over. Every muscle in her body propelled her forward as she silently inched toward it. She was on the verge of making her move when there was a blur of movement, and…

  No!

  The wolves moved all at once on the deer in perfect synchronicity. There were several of them, at least three, and the deer never had a chance. Norah backed away quickly, but one of them spotted her as she did so. And as it saw her, she realized that this was no ordinary wolf.

  Shifter.

  This could be either good or bad. It all depended on the type of people that they were. She stood stock still as the wolves circled around and then transformed—two men and a woman. She shifted herself out of courtesy.

  “Ah… hello…”

  “What are you doing here?” asked the man, a tall fellow with jet black hair and dark skin.

  “I’m here with my mate, in an abandoned cabin nearby. We’re just here seeking shelter.” She spoke as quickly and as bluntly as she could. “We don’t mean anybody harm. We’re not trying to intrude on anybody’s territory.”

  “You are intruding. This is our pack’s land,” said the woman, inching closer. She was tall, too, and had a mean look in her eyes. But the man held up his hand to stop her before she came too close.

  “What is your clan?” he said.

  “We have no clan,” said Norah. It was the truth now.

  The man raised a brow. A bear shifter without a clan was practically unheard of. And it was dangerous, for both the shifter and for anybody who came in contact with them.

  “Is that the truth?”

  “It is,” she said.

  “You’re a defector?”

  She paused. Admitting as much would be putting herself and her family in a precarious position, but she didn’t think she had a choice at this moment. After a long moment, she nodded. “Yes. That’s right,” she said. And quickly added, “Please, just let us go. We mean you no harm.”

  The wolves looked at each other, maintaining their circle around her. Norah was ready to shift at any moment, though she hoped she wouldn’t have to. A larger bear would be able to handle wolves, but she was small and lean and knew that she would have a difficult time fighting off three of them, especially ones that knew how to work as a unit. It would be even worse for her if there were others around.

  “It would be unsafe to just let her go,” said the woman, moving closer to the male leader of the group and placing her hand on his arm. Norah tensed. This situation was quickly going exactly the way she had feared it would, and she was quickly running over her choices for escape, wondering just what she should do to get out of this scenario. But she didn’t know what she could do, especially when Abram was still injured and unable to run. Fleeing was an impossibility.

  “I have no quarrel with you,” said Norah again.

  “We have no reason to harm her,” said the third of the wolf shifters, speaking up for the first time. He was a younger man, hardly more than a boy, and when he spoke the other two looked over at him. He must have some status in their pack, Norah thought, because despite his young age they gave him his due attention.

  “She invaded our territory with her mate. We can’t just ignore that,” said the woman, her agitation evident now.

  “Calm down,” said the dark-skinned man, reaching out and putting his arm on hers.

  But she pulled herself out of his grasp, turning to Norah and marching toward her. Norah immediately stood and prepared herself to fight. But before she could do anything, she heard a sound from the cover of the woods, a growl, and then a familiar black bear emerging from the underbrush.

  Before she could do anything, she was standing there as the black bear faced the three wolves, swiping at them. She shifted herself and stood with her back to the black bear. Between the two of them, the outcome of this fight was obvious. Three wolves could take on a lean, underfed female bear, but they could not take on two bears fighting in unison.

  The three wolves fled into the woods, just before the black bear collapsed to the ground and Abram returned to his human form.

  “I sensed… I could tell you were in danger…”

  “Shh, my love. It’s all right now. But our son…”

  “He’s all right for the time being, but let’s return to him quickly.”

  Together, they made their way back to the abandoned cabin. They knew that the wolves would not take this defeat lightly. They would return, and in larger numbers. They needed to leave, to find another place to seek refuge. With the deer that the wolves had slaughtered, they had enough meat to feed themselves. It was a small miracle that would keep them moving for the next several days.

  They found another abandoned hunting cabin the next morning, some distance away, and after some searching in the nearby area, Norah was certain that this territory had no shifters anywhere around. After putting their son to rest, she went to attend to Abram.

  “At least you’re still healing well, my love,” she said, reaching forward to cradle his face in his hands, smiling. “And as always you came for me. To save me. Thank you.”

  “I’ll always come for you, Norah,” he said as she leaned down to kiss him.

  With his wounds, they had to be careful. But they had been so long without each other that they couldn’t resist being with one another now. They undressed slowly, their skin heated by the fire beside them as well as by each other’s touch. Norah rested her head on Abram’s shoulder as he stroked his hands up and down her back, feeling her muscles tremble beneath his fingertips, just as if it were the first time they were laying together. So much had changed in the years that they had been together, and yet they still hungered for each other every time they were together.

  “My love,” he said softly as he let his lips run along her jaw line, and he twined his fingers through her long hair. “My mate.”

  “This is why we can never be apart,” said Norah, moving slightly away from him so that she could stare into his eyes. “Can’t you see?”

  “I know,” said Abram as he let his forehead fall against hers. “I’m just so frightened, what with all that’s happened in these past few months. With the Iron Fur Clan coming after us. With the possibility of you, of our child, being hunted because of the choices that I—”

  “That we made,” she interrupted, before he could even say what she knew he was going to say. Then she leaned in to kiss him again, letting her lips fall gently against his. He was too hurt to move, so she undressed him slowly, and then herself, and lay him back against the floor and moved over him. Abram watched her as if she were a goddess—his own special goddess—and she slowly slid down onto him. A fire rose up in the pit of her belly at the sensation. And yes, it was like the first time in some ways, but there was also the aching sense of familiarity between them that drove her wild.

  It was the pleasure born of being with her mate. The pleasure of being with the man that she loved, that she knew she would be with for the rest of her life. Norah sighed as she moved, as he reached over and held on to her hips so that she could ride him properly. Her hair fell over her shoulders as the fire illuminated her pale skin, giving her the appearance of a fairy from one of the tales that had drawn them together so long ago in the books she used to read in the human library.

  “My love, my love,” Abram said, over and over again as she moved, and he moved with her until their mutual pleasure grew too much to bear. Norah gasped in pleasure as she reached her climax and arched her back, while under her Abram groaned and held on tight as he e
mptied himself into her. Then she fell down onto him and they held on to one another, warmed by the fire as their son continued to slumber nearby, oblivious to the love and the passion of his parents—the same love that had brought him into the world.

  CHAPTER 7

  O ne Year Earlier

  Norah first felt the stirring in her womb as she walked through the woods in the early morning hours on one of her usual treks to the human city with Abram. Though they had been going together for years now, still nobody knew about these journeys she took with him or the fact that she had fallen in love with the man that she now considered her destined mate.

  But they had already realized that they were destined to be together. That nothing would ever draw them apart from one another. And now, something else would soon connect them, Norah realized. Putting her hand over her belly, she felt another stirring and felt her face heat up. There was life inside her. A young shifter cub.

  Two days later, as they sat in the woods under the evening stars, she told him.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Abram stared at her, eyes wide, then he practically tackled her to the ground.

  “You’re serious?”

  “I am, I am!” She laughed. Her mate could be so young at heart sometimes. It was one of the things that she loved most about him – his sometimes silly nature. He was wild and carefree, he was passionate, and he was full of life. But he loved her so much, and she knew already that he would be a dedicated father to the little one that grew inside her.

  But now that she was pregnant, it meant that they could no longer keep this relationship that had blossomed between them a secret. And so, they went to Kegan and the other leaders of the Iron Fur Clan. Abram was not happy about having to be so formal with the announcement, of course, but it had to be done. Norah, meanwhile, was worried about other things. Would they accept her as the mate of someone who held such high rank in their clan? She hadn’t even grown up among them. She wasn’t even from their clan, originally. She had grown up among others.

  However, their coming together was destined. Surely, they would understand that…

  The day that they went to see Kegan and Abram’s father, it was late summer, and Norah was already five months along in her pregnancy by her account. She was already dreaming of a little boy cub that had her husband’s black hair and her own blue eyes.

  “This woman is my destined mate. I have chosen her,” said Abram to Kegan and his father, holding Norah close to him, her hand clasped in his own. “And she is pregnant with my child.”

  His brother and his father were silent for a long moment, and then the two men smiled.

  “This is good news,” said Kegan.

  Norah’s heart began to beat wildly in her chest. Good news… They had said it was good news?

  “A child to carry on the Iron Fur Clan’s legacy. This certainly is good news,” said Abram’s father. “We should get in contact with the other clans.

  “With the other clans?” said Abram.

  “Well, not until the child is born, of course, so we know if it is a boy or a girl. But if we want to keep the blood purity of the clans, then an arranged mating would be ideal. Honestly, we were worried that you would mate outside of the clan… with a human. This has happened with many of the clans lately. So, we want to prevent this if at all possible.”

  “The blood purity of our clans must be preserved, Abram,” said Kegan.

  Meanwhile, Norah stood listening to all of this, practically having been forgotten as the men spoke. Only Abram seemed to remember that she was there, as he was squeezing her hand tightly throughout this exchange. Her mind was racing. Did they really expect to arrange a mating for her child? Was this really possible? It was the last thing she wanted for her child, to be treated like some kind of pawn in whatever game it was that they were playing, in this strange fight for “blood purity.”

  “I won’t stand here and listen to this,” said Abram, pulling her with him as he stormed out of his father’s house. His father and Kegan stood and angrily shouted for him to return, but he and Norah were already well on their way back to Norah’s house.

  By the time they got there, he was already in a rage, shouting expletives and pacing back and forth.

  “The nerve of those men! I can’t believe… Are they serious about this?”

  “I don’t like it either, but what can we do? They’re this clan’s leaders,” she said, placing her hand over her stomach.

  “We’ll leave,” he said, turning on his heel, eyes blazing.

  “Defect?” Norah immediately felt her head start to spin at the very thought.

  “Yes. We’ll defect. We’ll escape this nightmare. We’ll take our child, and we’ll find a place in the human world for us and him. We’ll let our child grow up out there. It’s possible, right? It’s happened before—shifters growing up among the humans.”

  “But…”

  “Norah. Wouldn’t that be best for our child? Look at what growing up here has done to us. We’re just shells of what we could be. I don’t want that for our child. I want them to have more.”

  She sighed. “I do too. But I don’t know if we can do this.”

  “I know we can. If we do it together.”

  And with that, they began their planning. It was too dangerous to leave before the child was born. They needed to let him grow a little, and so they waited until he was a few months old before fleeing the Iron Fur Clan. They knew the consequences, but they also knew that they had to give their child the best chance that they could. Abram and Norah, and their beloved Cole were a family against all odds, but one that would continue to fight together for the sake of freedom.

  CHAPTER 8

  P resent Day

  The big city was only a few days away now, but the closer they came to the end of their journey, the more apprehensive Norah became about the possibility of something going wrong. It had been quiet for the last week—too quiet. Her senses were reeling after the incident with the wolf shifters, and after the attack from the lone member of the Iron Fur Clan who had found her a month prior, she had the sense that there were still members of the clan following them just waiting to make their move.

  But there was nothing they could do but continue onward and hope for the best. Norah continued to think about the incident that had started them on their journey, the fight that had left Abram hurt.

  Kegan had found them only a week after they had set out. The battle between the brothers had been furious and had resulted in a stalemate in which both were seriously injured. She still thought back to that moment on a regular basis. She had been so sure that Abram would be killed, that she would lose the man she loved. And though he had survived, fear still besieged her almost every waking moment that something would happen and she would lose him.

  There was nothing she could do but push those fears aside and carry on. And so, she did, as day after day passed.

  “We’re almost there, little one,” she said, brushing aside a lock of dark hair from her son’s face. They had come to a small town not too far from the city where they could rest for a little while and were staying in a little motel for the night. It was their first time in civilization in what felt like ages.

  Abram was in the bathroom bandaging his wound, and Norah was bundled up under the covers of the bed. They could only afford this room because a kind stranger had offered them enough to rest up for the night, and that only because they had a child with them.

  “Humans really can be kind, don’t you think?” said Norah.

  “Some of them, yes, just as some of them can be cruel. They’re no different than shifters.” Abram stepped out of the bathroom and came over to her, taking a seat on the side of the bed. “The point is, we can’t treat them like they’re different creatures. That’s what I want our son to learn. Why he needs to grow up among them.”

  “Yes.” She looked down into his face. What would it be like for him to grow up among the humans, she wondered? Would he feel
strange and outcast because of his powers? Or would he think himself no different than them?

  She was in the middle of these thoughts when she heard a sound from outside. Abram heard it too and immediately stood up. “Hold on,” he said as he made his way to the door.

  “But…”

  “I can already smell him. It’s my brother,” he said.

  Norah froze. It didn’t matter what she said or did now. Abram would never let her get in between him and Kegan. She held Cole tight to her chest, wondering what she could or should do in this situation. The only thing she could think to do was run. And so, after only a moment’s hesitation, she quickly began to gather her things.

  By the time she got to the door, she could see the form of a bear already running off into the distance. She wanted to follow after him, but she knew that she needed to take care of Cole first. Taking a deep breath, she turned and ran away from the motel and into the town.

  “My sweet little boy,” she whispered to him. Her thoughts were racing. She had to keep him safe at all costs, but she also had to keep Abram safe.

  And then she saw the church with the sign indicating the orphanage attached. Running to it, she banged on the door, and then she gently placed Cole and all his things at the foot of the door before turning.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, her hand over her mouth.

  Before anybody could open the door, she turned and raced away, her decision made. She had to protect her family. And sometimes that meant making sacrifices.

  The two black bears stood facing each other on their hind legs, ready to strike. They never even noticed the smaller brown bear as she ran into their center and rose up toward the larger of the black bears, jaws aimed at his neck. Her teeth sunk in neatly and tore into his flesh, and he let out a mighty roar as he fell to the ground. His claws lashed out and tore at her, scraping at her shoulders, but it wasn’t enough to dislodge her from him.