Love Never Dies

Love Never Dies
I crept out of bed, carefully crawling over the multitudes of bodies that lay snuggled together in the middle of the bed. I glanced over them with a smile on my face. My own little sleuth of bears that nobody could touch made our bigger sleuth look stupid. I had never felt this level of acceptance from people that I had known my entire life. The last few weeks with my mates had been the most amazing time and now that Timothy had finally woken up, we could finally get back to running our individual people more efficiently.
I silently got dressed before sneaking out of the room. Mona, Tara and Terse were meeting me in less than 15 minutes in the woods and I still had to get Valerie. Last night I was woken up repeatedly by both Tasha and the men. I had never understood why she always had their scents on her so strongly, but being privy to their insatiable appetites the night before made me fully get it. They had taken turns riding me or letting me take them from behind, rolling their bodies in a way that made me go crazy and left me no choice but to cum inside of them.
Tasha had watched each time, completely enthralled with our lovemaking. The whole night had been one big orgy and I was excited for many more nights. I knew the guys had taken it easy on me because it was my first night but they had given themselves to me so freely that I was left wondering why they hadn’t asked me to go further. I knocked lightly on Valerie’s front door and she opened it, smiling at me.
“Ready?” I nodded. “Lead the way.”
I led her into the forest and soon after we entered, the other three members of our party joined us. Valerie stopped to turn in a circle. I knew by the look on my sister’s face that I wasn’t the only one who could detect her sorrow at being back in the woods. From what I could remember, she and Rosemary had been best friends. It had shocked the entire sleuth when she had been accused of killing Rosemary. I was glad to know that she wasn’t responsible for her death.
“This way.”
We followed her deeper into the forest, away from where any large populations of animals had ever been. She turned in a circle, looking around before running her fingers over a carving in a tree trunk. I peered closer at it to see that Rosemary’s and her initials were in a heart.
“We used to come out here where nobody could see us or hear us. We would sneak away to enjoy each other. We knew it was wrong but we were in love. We used to sit under that tree and plan our escape. We were going to go to Vegas and get married. She was going to be my wife and we were going to be happy.” She closed her eyes. “We never got to do that. Vincent took everything from me. My first love, my son, my home and my family.”
I walked over to give her a hug. “I know it’s a little late, but you have some of that back. I will never be able to give you back everything you lost but I promise you, you will never lose anything else at my hands.”
She squeezed me. “I appreciate that.”
I gently pushed her to the others. Terse shifted before Tara helped Valerie climb onto his back. Tara and Mona shifted and took their places around her. I let Carson take over. The forest would only consider our request if we came to it in our bear form. Carson had successfully retrieved the last body and that gave me hope that we would succeed this time. We lowered our snout and silently spoke to the forest, asking for Rosemary’s body. We kept our snout low until the vines began to appear from everywhere. We tried to keep our excitement from taking over as the ground started to open up under the ever-growing pile of vines.
We waited patiently for the vines to clear a path to the tightly wrapped body lying on the ground. I shifted back to walk over to her and as I neared the body, the vines unwrapped themselves from around her and I was left stunned at the perfectly preserved corpse of Rosemary. Bear teeth and claw marks were easily identifiable. Valerie whimpered from behind me and I glanced back at her before shifting back into Carson. We thanked the vines before lowering our heads in submission to wait for them to decide if they were going to leave her with us.
It took around an hour for the last vine to creep back into the woods, leaving Rosemary’s body lying in front of me. I slowly shifted back and Mona tossed me shorts. I pulled them on quickly before lifting Rosemary up into my arms. I turned to face my family and when Valerie rushed over to me, I lowered the corpse for her to run her fingers over her face.
“Oh, Rose,” she murmured. “You’re still as beautiful as the last day I held you in my arms.” She leaned down and pressed her lips against Rosemary’s. “I want you to know that your son has grown up to be such a wonderful man. I promise to watch over him for you.” She swallowed down a sob before looking up at me. “What now?” she whispered.
“They are going to take her into town to our funeral home. We will bury her and give her the send-away that she should have had in the first place. We will bury her somewhere you and Timothy will be able to visit her anytime you want.”
She brushed Rosemary’s hair back. “Thank you, Falcon.”
“Please, stop thanking me, Valerie. You have been so wronged by our town and our sleuth that I can not right, but you will never be wronged again. That I promise you,” I told her as we walked toward the road where I knew Mona’s truck was waiting for us.
She walked silently beside me and helped me carefully position Rosemary in the back of the truck before leaning her head on my shoulder as we watched Mona drive away. She wiped her nose.
“You are such a good man, Falcon. So was your father. He really loved Tom. Just like you love your mates.” She put her hand on her stomach. “If Osprey is really her mate, I know he will love her just as much. I didn’t get to hold my forever for long, so please, I beg you don’t keep him from her. I know what it feels like to have to hide how much you love someone. Don’t make Osprey do that.”
I put my arm over her shoulder and began to guide her back through the forest.
“If Osprey is truly her mate, I will support him. Them. I just want them both to grow up. She has to choose him as much as he has to choose her. I chose for Tasha. I tried to force her hand and I missed out. She missed out and so did Osprey. If they want to be together, good for them, but I won’t let them force each other. It’s the least I can do to ensure both of their happiness.”
She hugged me again at her door before thanking me and going inside. I jogged back to Timothy’s house and was disappointed to find it empty. I sighed. I wished I had been there to say goodbye to them but there was always tomorrow.
I threw myself down on the bed and reached for my phone on the bedside table. I started checking my messages and my smile grew wider with each ‘good morning’ text from my mates that I read. It got even bigger when I read Timothy’s summons to the town hall for 8:30 AM. I quickly got dressed and made my way there. I didn’t care what he wanted to talk about. I was just excited to see him.