Read Bearing It All Online

Authors: Vonnie Davis

Bearing It All (10 page)

BOOK: Bearing It All
13.6Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“I see. So, you're kind of like a modern-day Cicero from Rome or Alcibiades of Athens?”

“To me clan, yes. But I am of no importance to anyone else. Are ye finished eating? We'll take our coffee over to the sofa.” Ronan added more logs to the fireplace and took a seat beside her. He gulped his coffee and cleared his throat a time or two, almost as if he couldn't get started with all he had to say. He placed his hand on her shoulder, the warmth passing through the silk material of her pajamas. His fingers wrapped around a few curls of her hair. “I fear sharing this will destroy any chance I have with ye.”

“Just tell me all of it, from the beginning, the way I told you about the mess I'm in. Lay it out in logical steps so my analytical mind can process it.”

“Aye. Ye're right, of course.” He kissed her forehead and for a few brief seconds, rested his cheek against the spot where he'd pressed his lips. “All Scots value the telling of times gone by. 'Tis a gift we give our children, this passing-on of our history. 'Tis especially important for the Mathesons, fer we are a hearty band of Scots. Strong. Brave. Fearless. I need to tell ye of our olden times if we are to have a relationship. Fer ye must know all that I am. What I came from.”

Oh God, his clan killed Frenchmen. What else could it be? “Okay, I'm listening.”

“ 'Twas the year nine hundred sixty. Our band was growing and prospering. We fished, hunted, and grew as a sleuth. When the Vikings, thievin', murderin' bastards that they were, sailed to our shores in their long ships, we fought them. And they feared us.”

“What is a sleuth? I've never heard that word used except as a person who solves mysteries. But you don't mean it that way, do you?”

Ronan glanced away and sighed. His gaze returned to her face only to soften as he cupped his fingers around her neck. “Both of me brothers told me, one day I'd meet a woman I'd love so much, I'd fear losing her. That I wouldna want to live a day without her. I scoffed at their comments fer I had no idea how love could make a man feel. Now I understand the truth of their words.” He glanced away again and exhaled a deeply held breath. “A sleuth is a group of bears.”

“Bears? So you're telling me in nine sixty you were all bears? Your family—ancestors—were bears.” Her heart pounded heavily in her ears until she got control of her emotions. He was a storyteller. A master of fantasy. None of this was true. It was something made up by the light of some campfire generations ago. No doubt to entertain, like going to the cinema now. “Okay, proceed with your ancient tale.”

“Our battles were long and fierce. Our victories many. A Norseman by the name of Vulund the Flatnose led the attack on our shores. During this era, there were many bears on our shores and in the Highlands. Large, fierce, combative bears.”

Anisa chuckled. “Well, the big bear I landed on when I parachuted from the drone wasn't so combative. In fact, he laughed. I had no clue bears could do that.”

Ronan looked at her strangely and smiled, shaking his head before he continued. “Vulund the Flatnose requested more longships and men from Eric Bloodaxe in York, the last Viking king of Jorvik, to battle the bears. And, as more Vikings came, the bears fought them off. Aye, they were
victorious over the Vikings
.”

She was fascinated by the story. Ronan had a way of adding emotion that drew her in and almost made her believe he was telling the truth. She bent her knees and sat on her calves and feet, warming her hands with the mug of coffee. He had her mesmerized.

“Not to be outdone, Flatnose, devious bastard that he was, concocted a plan. With logs to gain leverage, his men moved large boulders into the bears' caves' openings along the rocky cliffs of Mathe Bay, blocking them all—save one. After that chore was accomplished, large teams of Vikings were dispatched to round up the bears. They captured the mama sows and their cubs and forced them into the one remaining open cave. Then they set about killing as many male bears as they could. Aye, over time, they killed them all. But before they killed our grandfather of many generations past, he mortally injured Vulund who, before he died, placed a Viking curse on our family.”

“What kind of curse?” Man, this guy could write movie scripts. He'd make millions in historical action flicks.

“That the first male of each generation of our family would die before his thirtieth birthday unless he married a woman with the right amount of Norse blood flowing through her veins.”

“Wow, that's…that's the basis for a great legend.”

He took her hand and brought it to his mouth for a kiss. “Not legend, luv. Truth. And so it happened. The eldest male of each generation, our clan's laird, died before he turned thirty. Some by their own hand. Some by illness or by the brutality of another band of enemies. Until Paisley, me Norse sister-in-law, married me eldest brother weeks before he turned thirty and broke the spell. Ye see, even as an American of both Scottish and Viking descent, she carried the right amount of Norse blood.”

Anisa's mind was whirling with all the details of his story, for the man was fervent in his belief of it. “What happened to the little bears and their mamas corralled into the cave?” She might as well hear about it all—no matter how fabricated it was.

“Ye see, Anisa, the bears imprisoned in the caves were smart.” He tapped a finger against his temple. “They knew they couldna escape, for Vikings guarded the entrance to the large underground chamber. They cut down trees along our shoreline and cliffs, dragged them to the cave's opening, and set them afire. Roaring flames imprisoned the bears.”

“Most animals are just as fearful of fire as we humans are. Didn't they starve?”

“The bears hatched a plan, ye see. The mumma bears were intelligent and cunning, certainly smarter than the enemies. When the Vikings, with all their weapons, came into the cave to kill the bears, they were all dead. Or so it seemed, fer they all acted as if they were sleeping.”

Anisa nodded. “Like they were hibernating. How ingenious.” She could almost visualize the fairy tale in her mind.

“The Vikings left but, before they did, they rolled more boulders in front of the last cave's opening. For many years, the bears were trapped. They ate roots of plants and herbs that grew downward from above. Ants and insects, too. In one of the chambers branching off from the main cave opening was a pool of water, fed by an underground spring. Aye. They survived.

“Several years later, another group of Vikings, led by Olaf the Yellow, sailed to our shores to rape and pillage our countryside. They sought a place to hide their stolen loot and, not knowing what they'd find, rolled away the rocks from the bears' underground penitentiary. Imagine the Vikings' surprise when people walked out. Proud, strong, fierce human beings.”

A chill raced up Anisa's back. “Humans?”

“Aye. Men. Women. Children. And they were feared. Aye, invincible. Indomitable. Victorious.” He made a sweeping gesture with his hands. “And so we remain today, survivors from those fierce warrior mathes, or bears. We are Mathesons. Sons of bears. We are shifters. Part human and part bear.”

Chapter 10

He stopped talking and stared at her as if waiting for her to respond. She stared back and swallowed. What did he mean they were part man and part bear? Hadn't he just told her a tale to entertain, like Saint Nick and his sleigh on Christmas Eve? She shifted on the sofa, planting her feet on the floor. “How much of the story you just told me is true?”

“All of it, Frenchy,” he whispered as a log tumbled into pieces in the fireplace. His hand trembled as he reached to touch her cheek. “The bear ye landed on when ye parachuted from the sky was me.” Anisa's jaw dropped. Ronan tucked two fingers under her chin and closed her gaping mouth. “Aye, luv, I am a shifter. When ye landed, me bear was in the forefront and I was in the background of our dual persona.”

A nervous laugh bubbled forth and she slid about a foot away from him on the sofa. “Th-that bear was you?” Surely, he didn't expect her to believe one word of that fantastical tale. “That was a great story. Now am I supposed to make one up to entertain you? I never read fantasy books. My reading runs to math, physics, and theoretical ideas that might happen in the future or have happened in the past, like the big bang theory.”

He nodded and reached for his coffee. “Like parallel universes and being in two places at one time?”

“Well, yes, and how one can become younger by traveling through space. Space and time dilation.” These were theories she had studied and was comfortable with. How one could travel through time, for instance.

“Have ye ever read Charles Dickens's book
A Christmas Carol
? 'Twas that not a form of time travel?”

She was getting into the exchange of ideas now. There was nothing she loved more than open dialogue between intelligent minds. “You know, I never thought of the story in that light, but, yes, one could perceive it that way.”

Ronan's dark eyes suddenly glowed golden. “And yet is it so hard for ye to accept one species can shift into another? To me, all yer bloody theoretical ideas are on the same otherworldly level as me and me clan's existence. If I shift before ye, will ye believe then, I wonder? Or will ye only fear me?”

Dear God, the poor soul believes his own delusions
.

“I dinna want ye to be afraid of me bear, but I do think 'tis time ye met. He's been begging me since yer first night here. Fear not. He willna hurt ye. Me other half is crazy about ye and wants us to be a family. I call him Brother Bear. Ye can, too, fer he would love it.” Ronan tugged off his socks and untied boots. “He likes to play and have his ears rubbed.”

This guy really is a whack job. He calls his pretend bear a name just like some men do their cocks. Master Johnson. The Whopper. The Beast. Willy Wanker. Wait…maybe that's what he calls his penis—Brother Bear. Maybe the ears he talks about rubbing are his balls. Okay, I get it now.

He stood, unwrapped his kilt, and stepped backward, away from the furniture, standing naked before her. “Ye are awfully quiet. Are ye scared, luv? Brother Bear is a playful sort. Aye, he'll want to touch ye, but dinna be afraid.”

Damn if this isn't the strangest foreplay I've ever had. I guess he's trying to make up for the way he acted earlier about the condoms and refraining from having sex.

“I'm not afraid. Do you want me to undress, too?” She stood and unbuttoned the top button of her pajamas. Evidently she stood too fast because Ronan became blurry, which made her disoriented even with all the hours she'd spent training in the centrifuge to see how well and at what strength she could handle G-forces. A strange form of dizziness made her crumple to the floor. Odd, the sofa and coffee table remained clear. So did the fireplace, but Ronan's body flickered and the edges of his frame appeared distorted no matter how many times she blinked.

There was a strange popping noise. His torso extended and his arms and legs shortened. A little tail grew. The positioning of his ears moved from the side of his head to the top and changed into a rounded shape.

She opened her mouth to scream as she skittered backward like a crab across the floor, but the only sound she could produce was a frightened squeak. Hiding behind the large upholstered chair, she peeked around the edge. Ronan…the beast…
whatever
being was in the room, grew sable fur—maybe a shade darker than Ronan's honey-colored hair—a black muzzle, and a wide dark brown band of fur around his massive neck. Sweet Lord in heaven, a bear. Hell, it was the one who woke her up the other night. She was sure of it.

Her heart raced, yet she couldn't draw a complete breath. Her mouth was so dry she was barely able to swallow. Had a man really changed into a bear? She hadn't been drinking any booze, so she couldn't be in a drunken stupor. Yet, how had this happened? She'd gone to a movie once where humans shifted into werewolves. The concept had bored her. She woke up as the credits were rolling and other moviegoers were vacating their seats. Now she'd like to see that movie again, if it was anything like watching the real thing; this was both scary as hell and miraculous at the same time.

Oh my God, am I losing my mind? I've just watched one species morph into another. Is this merely the manifestation of all my stress of the past week? I'm just hallucinating; that's all.

Once all the transformation was complete, the bear shook its head several times. He padded in her direction.

Oh hell, I'm gonna pee my pants! He's coming straight in my direction and I have nowhere to run that he can't catch me.

If she screamed, she might startle him and he'd kill her with one slash of his paw. He sat in front of her and tilted his furry head to peer into her face with his golden glowing eyes. A low crooning murmur drifted from his chest. For a few minutes they stared at each other. When she trembled, he patted her hand, almost in comfort.

“Br-Brother Bear?”

Darn if he didn't nod his big head once and pat the darker patch of fur on his chest. Was it possible he understood what she said?

She imitated him. “I'm Anisa.” She nodded her head once just as he had and then patted her chest. “Anisa.” Holy mother of Prada, she was talking with a bear. A living, snorting, smelly bear.

Big Brother patted her chest and she fell backward on the floor. Did he mean to be so rough or didn't he know his own power? How silly! Bears certainly didn't think about their strength. He made a blowing sound through his nose and lifted her onto his lap.

She gasped in fear and he patted her head, moaning softly almost as if he were remorseful.

Dare she venture to show him how to touch her? Or would she pull back a bloody stump? Ronan had said the bear liked her. Should she trust his words? Her trembling hand reached the bear's chest and gently patted. “Brother Bear.” She gave him another mild tap, followed by a tender caress with her palm. “Brother Bear.”

He made popping noises with his jaws and rubbed her chest with a much lighter touch. There was almost a sing-song response from his throat.

“My, what a smart bear you are.”

He straightened and preened as if he were showing off how proud she made him.

“Do you like your ears rubbed?”

His jaws popped some more and he leaned his head toward her.

She rubbed his ears and he exhaled a blowing noise. As she scratched the backs of them, he closed his eyes and murmured a low soothing sound.

“I think you're very handsome. Maybe just as handsome as Ronan.”

Oh, the bear perked up at that remark. Why, he understood every word she spoke. How incredibly odd—and beyond fantastic.

“Will you be my friend?” She'd love to study him, to try some experiments on his communication skills.

The bear nodded. He stroked her arm, even though a couple of his claws got caught in the silk and tore the long sleeve. Yet he didn't touch her skin to harm her. His low growling was more a contented humming than anything menacing.

Brother Bear suddenly shook his head and growled loudly as if he were angry. He pressed her head to his shoulder, shook his head, and he sniffed her hair. Finally, he picked her up and set her on the floor.

This whole experience did not happen. I'm asleep in the bed, dreaming.

Just as before when Ronan had gone through his shifting process, the bear flickered and his edges became blurred. Bones popped as they grew in some places, shrank in others, and changed shape. Anisa took the opportunity to bolt for the bathroom. One's bladder could only take so much excitement, and she'd had her quota for the week.

Ronan was in his kilt and stockings, yanking on his boots when Anisa stepped out of the bathroom. Her heartbeat was nearing normal range again and her trembling lessened. To help recuperate from her harrowing experience, she'd washed the sweat from her face, neck, and the arm where Brother Bear had shredded her sleeve.

Ronan's dark eyes locked on hers as he tied the leather cord around his ponytail. “Are ye okay, Anisa?” His body language displayed an inquiring yet worried nature. “Did me bear scratch ye when he shredded yer sleeve?” He reached to check her arm and she jerked it behind her back.

She wasn't ready to have him touch her yet. Silly, she knew, but her nerves were still teetering on a seesaw. “Don't you know? Can you see what your other half is doing? Hear what is happening and being said?”

“Depends. Usually, we can tell what's happening with each other. If we want, we can close our telepathic shield which blocks one half's awareness from the other. Brother Bear gets so excited, he doesna always get the shield closed all the way. All I can detect is vague movement through a fog, hear muted conversation as he talks to himself, and sense his emotions with a dimmed grade of awareness.”

“I see. Why did he seem angry before he started to shift back?”

“I told him it was time to shift back. He wasna ready to relinquish his time in the forefront, as we call it. If he had his way, he'd still be with ye. Did ye brag on him? I detected a deepening of affection and devotion fer ye, as if he wasna crazy about ye from the time ye landed on him near the stream. Nay, this was more intense.”

“Perhaps because I told him he was a handsome fellow and very smart. I wanted to study how much of our language he understood.”

Ronan nodded and smiled. “That explains his current behavior.”

“What do you mean?” She fiddled with the shredded sleeve.

“He's dancing and singing his version of a childhood rhyme sung over daisies: ‘She loves me, she loves Ronan not.' Hold on, I'll get ye a sweatshirt to keep ye warmer.” He entered his bedroom and rummaged through a chest of drawers.

“So, the two of you can talk to each other? Do you do it by thought process? How?” She followed on Ronan's heels and accepted the faded orange top he handed her. A peculiar uneasiness slipped into her heart as she tugged on the sweatshirt. Would the bear touch her in a sexual way? Would that even be possible? After what she'd observed this evening and all she'd learned in her many classes, she'd accepted with hesitancy that almost
anything
was conceivable.

“I can hear his voice. At home, I talk to him, mentally, like we humans talk to ourselves, but up here, where no one can hear us, I talk to him out loud. Ye should be in me head and body right about now. Ye have captivated Brother Bear since ye fell from the sky.”

Oh, dear God. She backed up a step. “He wouldn't try to…to…ah.”
Is that why he came
to her in the middle of the night?

“Bears don't mate with humans, do they? I mean, my mind tells me I know better, but I just observed a human morph into a bear so, I'm more than a little confused right now. Or as one would say, ‘I'm freaked out.' I mean, why would he come into my bed my first night here? How did he get out of your body without your knowing it?”

Ronan's large hands encircled her biceps. “Let me put yer first fear to rest. Nay, luv. He does not think of ye sexually. More like a boy for his mumma. In some ways, Brother Bear is childlike. In others, he's ferocious. Nay, he willna, nor can he, touch ye sexually. But our bears do often pick our mates, or try to. Myths tell us our inner halves contain an inherent ability to decide on who would be the best match for us.”

“Surely you don't believe that! A bear picks your wife?”

“Aye, it might sound bizarre, but 'tis how me brothers' bears helped select their mates.”

She forked her fingers through her curls. How much more weirdo-wacko was she going to have thrown at her tonight? She took a deep, cleansing breath. Hell, she'd had more physical and emotional trauma shoved down her throat before.
Listen and ask questions, Anisa.
She rolled up the long sleeves of the shirt Ronan had yanked over her head and she'd shoved her arms into. “He can say anything to you? But not to anyone else?”

“Dinna look at me like that. Our bears lead a rather lonely existence. At times, a bunch of them are allowed to shift to play or run through the Highlands together, but often they go for days hidden within their humans. We develop our own way of speaking, I suppose. To be honest, I'd never given it much thought.” Ronan scratched his knee between his kilt and stockings, his eyebrows furrowed as if he were giving the topic some consideration now. “The tone of Brother Bear's voice when he crooned to ye was different, too. I'd chalked it up to shyness. Ye were the first human to talk to him.”

“What about your mother?”

He clasped his fingers behind his head and stretched his long legs. “Och, aye. But she's Irish and canna speak to him the way I do. Only as ye did, but they have their own relationship, ye see.”

“This is all rather complicated.” Anisa sighed. So often, human nature was. Throw in some bears and it became relationship mayhem.

“As our bairns grow into adolescence, the children of the humans knowingly shift. Before that, the human babies do change into bears, but dinna understand the significance of it. Their awareness of what happens to them doesna strike them until they are around ten years old. So, bears long for family just as many humans do.

BOOK: Bearing It All
13.6Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Belgarath the Sorcerer by David Eddings
The Gift-Wrapped Groom by M.J. Rodgers
Elliot Mabeuse by A Good Student
The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg
Dragon (Vlad Taltos) by Steven Brust
His Perfect Bride? by Louisa Heaton
My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life by Besteman, Marvin J., Craker, Lorilee
Love With the Proper Husband by Victoria Alexander