Shifters of Grrr 1 (89 page)

"You are not still thinking about
that
, are you?" she started. "I'm telling you, Charlie, I've forgotten all about it already. We both know it's never going to happen again, so just let it go and let's enjoy our breakfast."

He looked up at her, a confused look on his face spelling out that that was not at all what he was thinking about. Simone raised her eyebrows in a question and he finally sighed deeply and took her hand. A piece of unfinished lemon tart fell back into her plate.
 

"Listen, Simone," Charles said quietly, squeezing her hand in his, "when you didn't come to bed last night, I thought a lot. We've been together for a while and I know... I'm certain you are
the
one
. I don't want to wait any more. I want to be with you. Officially. So, let's do it, let's get married. Today."

Simone's free hand flew up to her mouth.
 

"Are you serious?" she said breathlessly. She'd already started thinking that marriage was not in the cards for them, especially with Charles' acting out lately. She'd suspected that he'd lost interest, that he didn't find her as desirable as before. "But..."

"Yes, I'm serious," he interrupted her, "Why wait? We know we love each other and I've certainly not been the best fiancé in a while, but last night made me reconsider everything. I want us to take that next step. I want you to be my wife and I know why I'm acting so strangely lately. I've realized I'm just frustrated with us always putting off what's really important. We don't need all these fancy ceremonies and flowers and audience. I just want to be with you."

Simone's eyes had glazed over as her lips stretched into a smile of complete bliss. She'd been waiting for a moment like this in years and he'd finally come around. It only took her a second to part with the idea of a big wedding dress and cake and first dances. She was ready and so was he, but most of all, now that the rest of her life was not going anywhere, she could at least do one thing right.
 

"Yes," she whispered, the happy tears finally spilling from her eyes and down her flushed cheeks. "Let's do it."
 

Charles suddenly jumped out of his seat and came over to her side, taking her in his strong embrace.
 

"Oh, you've made me so happy!" he almost shouted and a few visitors turned to look at them, wondering if he'd just proposed. "Let's go then."

"Go where?" Simone said, confused.
 

"I've figured it all out," Charles said feverishly, "I know the perfect place. There's this little church, very old, very beautiful, and it isn't far. The priest is a friend of the family and he only needs a moment's notice. You'll see, you'll love it. We will be husband and wife in a couple of hours. Oh, I'm so happy!"
 

He started jumping around like a kid and Simone was afraid to spoil his enthusiasm. She hadn't realized he really meant
today
today. Was it all too fast? Had she just agreed to something she wasn't ready for? After all, she'd never even met his family and he had his volatile temper and that incident...
Shut up
, she instructed her busy brain. If she didn't agree now, this opportunity, this ecstatic mood might be lost forever and she'd never forgive herself for ruining yet another part of her life just because she overthought things so obsessively. She took his face in her hands and kissed him warmly.
 

"Yes, darling, let's go."

***

Simone shielded herself against the downpour with an old gardening catalogue left on the backseat of the Ford so long ago, its pages were now yellow and crumpled. It didn't do much to protect her from the whipping gushes of rain which slapped her across the face like an angry mother. She ran straight for the blurry silhouette of the chapel, trying to avoid the muddy puddles on the small path that led to it, but by the time she finally reached the unreliable shelter, her legs were already splashed with dirt.
 

She wiped the smudges of mascara that had pooled under her eyes and quietly cursed the weather for making her skirt cling to her thighs, wet and revealing, outlining what she knew wasn't Charles' favorite part of her. A large drop of water landed on her forehead and slid down her face, virtually erasing her effort to fix her ruined make-up. Simone looked up at the decaying wooden roof and saw large holes eaten through the ancient beams.
 

What was this place? She'd expected an hour's drive at the most, but they'd ended up driving for almost three out into the country and the weather hadn't improved in the least. In fact, she had no idea where they were, the pouring rain obscuring her view and rendering their road almost anonymous. And now this chapel was nothing more than a pile of rubble, so she wondered once more how Charles even came up with the location. She squinted to make out the car through the thick sheets of falling water and managed to discern Charles' figure emerging through the obscure scenery.
 

That was a relief. She didn't want to spend another minute alone in this place. It looked almost haunted with its broken windows and peeling paint, with weeds crawling and invading every hole and crack in the old structure. She thought that Charles would be quite disappointed to see that the chapel was not at all what he must remember it to be. And to think he'd been so excited to show it to her and have it be their special place where they would bind their lives together forever... It just broke her heart, but now that they were finally on the same page, they could always find another special spot to call theirs.
 

While she waited, Simone leaned in to inspect the interior through a serrated, broken glass of a lopsided window, the approaching steps of her soon-to-be husband easing the unsettled thumping of her heart.
 

She never saw it coming.
 

A loud thud and a searing pain, and then everything went black.
 

Chapter 9: Brett

By the time he reached the small, secluded chapel in the woods, Brett was short of breath and gasping for air. He'd lost sight of the car a long time ago, but its smell lingered in the air and charted a track for him to follow. As soon as he'd spotted them leave the cafe, he'd jumped from his discreet seat on a table by the window and ran after them. He had no time to go get his car from the underground parking lot he'd left it at and he was now brimming with energy. There was no use in wasting time if he could now run as fast as any vehicle. He'd kept his pace slow at first until he finally left the city and could finally tap into his bear strength to follow them.
 

The heavy rain hadn't worked in his favor, partially washing away the trail he'd been following, so he'd lost his way a couple of times, but managed to pick up the distinct scent once more and run with renewed stamina. He knew he had to drain every last drop of strength he had if he needed to, but he simply had to get there in time. His heart had contracted painfully at the memory of her happy-tears-streaked face and the way her arms had swung around the monster's neck, the kiss she'd planted on his lips in misguided gratitude. He'd never thought he had the instinct to kill a human before, but now his blood boiled with hatred so strong, he could easily picture ripping this creature to shreds.
 

He sniffed around the abandoned Ford and discerned her sweet, clean aroma against the pungent stink of her fiancé. It wasn’t that the man actually stank, but to a bear shifter’s nose, his deceptive nature materialized as a sharp, acidic odor. They'd left the car not that long ago from what he could tell, so he started sneaking his way towards the decrepit building ahead, which was barely visible in the ever increasing downpour. It was quiet. Perhaps too quiet. Brett strained to hear Simone's elated chirping or the poisonous, greasy lies of the other man, but nothing came through the muffling sound of the rain.
 

He finally reached the chapel and peeked in through the jagged broken glass of the front window. What he saw paralyzed him for a moment. The love of his life sat bound in tight ropes to a creaky old wooden chair, her head drooping over her chest as if she was unconscious. Her left sleeve was ripped off and her milky white skin shone almost supernaturally in the murky interior. Her hand lay, palm up, on the armrest, a thick rubber hose squeezing her biceps, so her veins bulged out, eerily blue and pulsing. The man held a big syringe full of clear liquid and a couple of small empty glass jars lay scattered at his feet. He held the syringe poised up with one hand and with his other one, he slapped Simone forcefully back into consciousness.
 

She blinked a few times, trying to make sense of the situation and when she finally put things together and tried to scream, nothing came out from behind the dirty rag that covered her mouth.
 

"How is it that people think they can get away with murder?" the monster croaked, "How come a woman brutally murders another woman, but gets to live her life and walk about baking dinners and reading the papers like nothing ever happened? No. Things have a way of catching up with you and here we are. Justice will finally be served and your mother will get what she deserves. When you take away a life, the least you deserve is losing everything you care about, not just your lousy job. Let's say I accidentally made a mistake and filled up this syringe with the wrong kind of medicine. Let's say it was innocent and I didn't mean it—"

Simone's temples burned and thumped with adrenaline, her eyes bulging out in horror. She wiggled in her seat, but her restraints were too tight. She writhed and twisted as she saw the pointed needle approach her, but she couldn't do anything to stop it.
 

Brett finally snapped back. Within the same breath he splintered the drenched and moldy boards of the windowsill and flew in, taking no notice of the scratches the sharp edges of the glass traced on his skin. Midflight, the transformation was already under way. The man holding the syringe turned at the sound of crashing wood and did not even manage to produce a sound to voice his terror. When Brett landed on top of him, he was already a huge brown bear, almost triple the size of the massive man he normally was, with sharp-edged teeth and deadly claws. His victim tried to twist his hand to stab him with the syringe, but Brett swung a mighty paw and forced it out of his hands and into a distant corner. The man had gone completely pale, his face drained of blood and contorted in a grotesque grimace. Another powerful swing of the giant paw followed and the man was suddenly flying out the hole where the window had been moments ago.
 

Only now did Brett allow himself to look at Simone who was no less horrified than her abductor. Her ample breasts heaved with short, strenuous breaths and her eyes darted around frantically, looking for anything that might provide an escape. He realized he was only frightening her in his bear form and slowly stood up on his hind legs, letting go of his animal nature and urging in his human side. It was a strangely intimate process to let a human being see him transform right in front of her and her shock didn't seem to subside as she watched him, wide-eyed, shrink back to his original size, his limbs and torso elongating and smoothing out. Finally, he stood in front of her, naked and intact, with only a few scratches along his arms.
 

In the distance, Brett heard the old engine of the Ford roar into life as he pulled the final knot that tied his beautiful mate to her execution chair. He half expected her to run screaming now that she was free, but she only fell forward into his embrace, quiet and exhausted, shivering and completely defenseless. Tears of relief burned his muscular chest as she finally let her emotions overtake her. He only pulled her closer and squeezed her tightly in his arms.
 

Chapter 10: Simone

Simone had never expected that she would find her way into this lavish bedroom once again. Not after she'd sworn to herself she'd never return. But here she was, kneeling by the nightstand, her brows furrowed in concentration as she rubbed an alcohol-soaked cotton pad over Brett's scratches. She saw him wincing out of the corner of her eye, but pretended she hadn't noticed. She'd never met a man who enjoyed his momentary weaknesses pointed out. She tried to distract him instead as she started to treat a particularly deep cut.
 

"So, is this other bride really so ugly you had to resort to humans?" she said light-heartedly. He laughed and she smiled, happy to have achieved her mission of taking his mind off what she was doing. If the situation were any different, she'd have considered herself completely insane for even uttering these words.
Bear shifters
? She'd seen him with her own eyes, and though at first she'd thought she'd hallucinated the whole thing from the shock, his long tale of clans hiding deep in the mountains, of bear kings and queens, of years of hiding and dominating the woods, had answered more than one of her numerous questions. He'd had his driver pick them up from the chapel and the long wait and even longer drive back through the thickening traffic had given them plenty of time to talk. By the time they made their way up the stairs to his bedroom, she'd had only one question left.
 

"Why me?" she'd asked.
 

"I can't tell you that," he'd said, "I didn't expect it when it hit me and I can't explain how I knew, but I was suddenly filled with this overwhelming need to protect you, to be close to you. That's the way we are wired. We don't consciously choose our mates. Our hearts recognize them."