Bearly Hanging On (A Werebear Shifter BBW Romance) (Laid Bear Book 3) (12 page)

It was all a moot point anyway. Crystal had made her decision. She didn’t want him, and he couldn’t blame her. Why would she want to be burdened with a cast-out werebear — a mutant by most humans’ standards — when she could live a very normal life with a very normal human?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was for the best that she walked away. She deserved so much better than the life of an exile. She deserved love and happiness and babies and a full, long life in a house with a picket fence and a pool in the backyard. Maybe even a waterslide. The pain he felt couldn’t override his desire that she have a long and happy life.

“…And by swearing the oath, all are vowing to uphold these principles in all their actions! Step forth and receive your mark!”

One by one, the other young people solemnly walked up to the elder, who held his torch high and blessed them…with more chanting. “We are strong! We are one!”
 

Once a blessing was finished, the initiant was instructed to shift into bear form for the first time as a full clan member. Applause and cheering from the adults rang out, then a medallion was hung around the bear’s neck. The bear walked back to his or her spot in the circle and shifted back to human form, a parent quickly stepping forward to wrap them in a cape of their own.

“They used to brand initiants instead of giving them a medal,” whispered the pimply faced kid next to him. “Totally barbaric!”

“Heh. Yeah.” It was all Chet could think to say. He didn’t want to offend the guy by telling him he thought the whole ritual was comically old-fashioned and, frankly, a little silly. Besides, this was his life now. Maybe after the ceremony, he’d get to know the
weres
in his clan a little better, make some friends.
 

Then it was Mr. Zit-Face’s turn. His new best friend…whatshisname. The dude practically floated up to the elder, so eager he shifted in the middle of his blessing. No biggie, everyone got a kick out of it. Chet’s laugh was hollow, but he was pretty sure no one noticed.

Then it was his turn. He thought he’d be nervous when the time came, that the act of becoming a full member would override his angst. But all he felt was resignation. Resignation to a fate that wasn’t supposed to be.

Approaching the elder, he kicked aside the growing pile of shredded clothing the others had left behind. If he’d known this was going to be part of the show — um,
ceremony
— he wouldn’t have worn his best suit. Whatever. Glamor and fashion and popularity meant nothing to him anymore. He knew what mattered in life and he knew he’d never have it again.
 

He stopped in front of the elder, doing his best to impersonate someone who gave a shit. The elder held his torch high, as he’d done with the others, and took a deep breath to perform the invocation. “We are—“

“
TUBBS!
”

Chet’s bear recognized her voice an instant before he did, roaring and clawing to get out. Then her scent found his nostrils and he breathed her in. Hope sprang into his chest, making him happier than he’d been in a week. Whatever she had to say to him, he was ecstatic to see her one last time.

The entire company turned in unison toward Crystal, who was standing at the edge of the clearing, behind the adults. A smattering of snarls and growls echoed through the group. How she managed to sneak into a werebear gathering without a single one of them noticing was impressive. That horrible incense coming from the fire probably masked her scent. Didn’t matter, she was here now.

Chet took one faltering step toward her, whispering her name. He could barely hear it above the hammering of his heart. This was the excitement he should have felt about the ceremony, but instead he was feeling it about a funny, quirky, wonderfully curvy human girl who had a penchant for pink hair.
 

“What—“ He started to ask what she was doing there but was interrupted by his aunt, who’d apparently pre-functioned before coming to the ceremony.

“Whuh the
hhhhelll
are you doin’ here, you human
whhhore?!”
 
She hadn’t just pre-functioned, she’d had a party all by herself! An ugly rage filled Aunt Clea’s normally perfectly preserved face a split second before she shifted and charged at Crystal, a murderous scream rending the air.

Ever since Sandy hijacked her that afternoon, Crystal couldn’t stop thinking about Chet. Okay, honesty time. She hadn’t stopped thinking about him almost since the moment they met. He was so cocky and ridiculous on the ferry, but something changed in him when they met again at Paulie’s. From that moment on, he was charming and funny and caring and sexy as hell.

After Chet’s aunt shooed her off, Crystal went for a walk. She walked and walked and walked until her brain hurt. Nana had told her all about the werebears in the area, about how they lived beside but apart from the human population. That they were well-respected members of the community whose ancestors had lived there for generations.
 

If anyone else had broken the news to her, she would have laughed in their faces but her grandparents would never play with her like that. Besides, she’d seen Chet turn into a bear with her own eyes and he’d openly talked about it on the way back to town that night.
 

Accepting that werebears existed wasn’t as difficult as accepting that she’d fallen in love with one, though. She’d been ready to give herself to Chet — not just her body, which was far from ‘pure’, but her heart, too. The whole enchilada. Then he’d gone and broken her brain with his true nature.
 

She barely remembered walking back to her grandparents’ house the night of their big date. It was like she had some kind of amnesia or something. But the one thing she wanted to forget wouldn’t stop replaying in her memory. One minute he was Chet, the next a bear. Chet, bear. Chet, bear. ChetbearChetbearChetbear. It was on a continuous loop in her mind.

For nearly a week she’d barely been functional enough to make it to work, but it was the only thing keeping her sane. Cleaning out the boats was mindless but it kept her busy and, more importantly, kept her from thinking too much. Thinking would be her undoing, so she came in early and stayed late, venturing home only after everything at The Whale’s Tail had been properly stowed. Andy was particularly pleased, though he might have had some pity on her if he knew the reason for her sudden productivity.

The nights were the hardest. Her grandparents tried to cheer her up by renting all the videotapes they thought she would like. Of course, it didn’t dawn on them that renting sappy John Hughes romances might not be the best thing for her at the moment. More often than not, she ran crying to her room, tormented by losing her true love.
 

No, her fated mate.

Now she was aimlessly walking the streets of town, trying to figure out what she was feeling, now that she could feel again instead of wandering around like a zombie on Valium. Part of her was devastated that Chet had kept such a big part of himself a secret, the other part was devastated that he felt the need to. He didn’t trust that her feelings for him wouldn’t change, and considering how she reacted, she couldn’t really blame him. What she’d said was unforgivable, and combined with her running off, under the circumstances, was as good as dumping him.
 

Was that what she wanted? She’d never given her future much thought, beyond heading to college in the fall and majoring in partying. But now…now she had daydreams about other things, and all of them included Chet. Getting wasted and doing all the other crap she’d been playing with back in Seattle wasn’t even a blip on her radar anymore. The so-called friends she hung out with, the ones she thought she couldn’t live without, hadn’t so much as called her once since she left town and it didn’t even bother her.

It was all just happening way too fast. She barely knew the guy! It was what? Less than a month since they met? Impossible!

Wasn’t it?

Catching her toe on a tree root, Crystal stumbled, snapping her out of her thoughts. She somehow navigated her way to the playground where they had their first kiss. The swings swayed lazily in the late afternoon breeze, calling to her. She couldn’t help smiling when she wedged herself into the small seat. Chet had nearly charmed the pants off her right there on the playground.
 

Scuffing her toe in the dirt, she thought back on their stolen mornings and afternoons. No one had known and that made their time together all the more sweet. More than once, she tried to get in his pants but he always stopped her.
 

“Are you ready?” he’d ask.
 

She knew he meant more than just having sex. Was she ready to commit to him fully, to become his ‘fated mate’? A huge part of her always screamed, “Holy shit, YES!” But her brain kept tripping her up, whispering that it was going too fast, that he’d leave her like all her mom’s boyfriends (and two husbands) left, that they were too different.
 

Little did she know just
how
different…

The crunch of approaching footsteps drew her gaze. Four very put-out Valley Girls stood before her, their glares practically catching her on fire. “Well, look who we have here, girls,” sneered Tiffany, the ringleader.

Crystal had almost forgotten about these bitches.
 

Her grandparents had hooked her up with them as soon as she stepped foot off the ferry, hoping to ’normalize’ her. Back home, she would have blown off mall rats like them, but her choices were limited out in the boonies, so she let them give her a makeover. Over the course of a week, they transformed her from a “punkadelic freakazoid” to a Madonna wannabe. She’d even thought they might become friends for the summer.

But the moment Tiffany started hitting on Chet, all bets were off. Thinking back, her reaction was probably a little over the top, especially for having just met the guy.
I wonder what that was all about
, she thought as the four girls inched closer to her. Crystal backed up until the red rubber seat was digging into her thighs.

“Tiffany, Michelle, Becky, Heather. Always a pleasure.” She tried to suppress the sarcasm, but apparently she failed.

“Fuck you, freak!” spit Heather.

“Nice. You kiss your mother with that mouth?”

Heather’s response was to glare, which Crystal took as promising. If that’s as aggressive as she got, they probably weren’t going to scream ‘Dogpile!’ and beat the living shit out of her. In fact, they were all dolled up. They must be on the prowl.

“Now, girls,” Tiffany chirped, her words slathered in a huge helping of saccharine. “Let’s not lower ourselves to her level, okay?”

Crystal didn’t have the energy for them right now. “What do you want, Tiffany?” she sighed, leaning back and letting her feet leave the ground. The girls scampered back, out of reach of her feet as she started swinging.

It only took a moment for Tiffany to regain her composure, including a new level of haughtiness. “We just wanted to warn you that you’re done in this town. We all know what happened at Paulie’s the other night.”

“So?”

“You’re tainted! And we felt it was our civic duty to let all the guys in town know that you’re damaged goods. No one’s going to date you ever again. God only knows what kind of diseases you caught from that filthy animal!”

A terrifying rage filled Crystal from her toes to her head, where it came screaming out of her mouth as she launched herself at Tiffany. How dare this bitch talk shit about her man?! She was going to pay!

Tiffany wasn’t prepared to be tackled by the shorter but stouter Crystal, so she crumpled like a paper doll, landing with a loud, “Ooooff!”

Before she was even aware she’d done it, Crystal had Tiffany pinned under her weight and was pressing her nose up against the other girl’s, staring into her shocked eyes. “You
never
speak about Chet like that again, do you understand? Blink once for yes.”

Tiffany blinked. It was all she could do. She was gulping for air like a trout on shore, unable to speak or even breathe, from the looks of it. Alarm shot through Crystal, thinking that she’d really hurt the girl, but then realized she’d just had the wind knocked out of her. At least she’d keep her pie hole shut.

The other three girls scrambled to help her sit up as soon as Crystal released her. No one said a word. The only sound was Tiffany gasping for a breath as Crystal strutted away, deathly calm and exhilarated at the same time.
 

She knew. She finally knew what she was going to do. Now she just needed to find a rowboat.

Chet watched in horror as Aunt Clea let her beast take over and run bellowing at a stunned Crystal, her clothes falling away in shreds while her colorful cape flapped around her. It would have been comical if she wasn’t running straight for his mate.
 

“Nooo!” he screamed. Instinct kicked in and, before he could so much as blink, he was running after his aunt, even though he knew it was hopeless. Even in her drunken state, Aunt Clea had a huge lead and would reach Crystal before he could make it halfway across the clearing. Shifting wouldn’t help him gain on her either, and the last thing he wanted was for Crystal to see
two
bears running at her.

What was his aunt thinking? Even he knew it was absolutely forbidden for
weres
to attack humans, at least in their animal form. She was risking banishment herself, but he couldn’t care less about that at the moment. All he cared about was saving Crystal from being torn to shreds.

He didn’t need to see Crystal’s face as his aunt bore down on her to know she was terrified — the sharp smell of her fear filled the clearing, broadcasting her emotions to everyone gathered there. A low growl of fear and anger filled his chest as he ran, vibrating throughout his body. He was oblivious to everything else beyond Crystal and the fast-approaching bear. He had to make it to her in time, he just had to!

A flash of black and bright colors caught the corner of his eye. A moment later, Aunt Clea was tumbling to the ground under the weight of a gigantic black bear, who also wore the ceremonial cape. Tufts of black and brown fur floated up from the
weres
writhing around in front of Crystal, who could do nothing but stare in shock. Teeth flashed, fabric tore, claws slashed and blood splattered around them. Screams of pain and fury pierced the air as the huge black bear struggled to contain Aunt Clea.