Chapter 57: Inseparable

When I had finished gushing to my sister-in-law, I shifted gears. "Can you call the boys back in? There's something else I wanted to ask them about."

Within moments, their identical faces crowded the screen on either side of Bella. They were handsome, and they knew it, but they only had eyes for Bella. The average person wouldn’t be able to tell them apart, except that Wyatt had long hair that was usually tied in a ponytail, while Byron had a short, stylish cut. But I could tell them apart easily. They might share identical DNA, but they were as different as night and day in personality.

“Tell me about werebears,” I demanded, as I moved from my desk to my bed, propping myself up on my pillows so that I could comfortably gaze at the screen.

“Werebears?” Wyatt scratched his head. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” I squirmed in anticipation.

“Well,” Byron said, “They are mostly solitary, they live alone, or in mated pairs, or in small family groups called sleuths.”

“Werebears are kind of an endangered species,” Wyatt added.

“Why is that?” I asked, sitting up. Although I have always known about the existence of other species of shifters, I had never personally met a werebear. Suddenly, I really wanted to meet one.

Maybe not the one I suspected was murdering university students.

“I heard that they are so shy and solitary they have a hard time finding a mate. A lot of them end up inbreeding with werewolves or humans out of loneliness. And the resulting offspring are…well, they aren’t usually bears.”

Byron naturally picked up where Wyatt left off, "Most of them have moved up north, into Canada and Alaska. Modern civilization is crowding them out of their natural habitat here in the lower forty-eight."

It made my heart ache to think about a bunch of lonely, isolated bears out there, wandering around in the woods, never finding their true love. Worse, they kept moving farther north, into cold, harsh, unfriendly wilderness. “Are they aggressive?”

“Aggressive? No. Well, I mean, if you f.uck with them, they will mess you up, but they generally just keep to themselves. They aren’t terribly social, like to keep to their own kind.”

"Unless," Bella interjected, "You count the one that kidnapped me. She was pretty aggressive."

Both of my brothers winced at the same time, at the mention of the incident that had happened almost two years ago. I also got a sick feeling when I recalled the day that Bella had gone to use a public restroom, and never came back out.

"That's a different matter," Byron said grimly. "That woman was a hired assassin."

Wyatt leaned closer, and gave me the suspicious-big-brother-look. “Why are you asking all these questions? Are you dating a werebear, Daffy?”

“No I’m not! Why would you even jump to that kind of conclusion?” I snapped, “And don’t call me Daffy!”

“So why all these questions about bears all of a sudden?”

“There have been several bear attacks in the last few months, in the forest around campus,” I explained, and went on to tell them about the most recent attack. “The locals claim it is just a crazy black bear out for blood. I went to check it out myself,” I said, “And I could scent a bear there…but barely. And I was reading in this book that eastern black bears aren’t known to be aggressive. Bear on human attacks are extremely rare.”

“Bears are almost unscentable,” Wyatt said, “Unless they are rutting or in heat.”

“Or if they roll in something stinky,” Byron added, with a wrinkled nose. “Remember Kevin?”

“Oh yeah, Kevin!” Wyatt chuckled. “The guy was as stoic and serious as a priest, but every once and awhile, he loved to have a good roll in a bit of two-day-old road kill.”

“Made for interesting conversation in the locker room,” Byron said with a grin.

“So what do you think?” I pressed, dragging them back before they started reminiscing about their high school glory days. “Is it a regular old black bear, or do we have a homicidal werebear on the loose?”

“Hard to say,” Wyatt said cautiously, “But you need to be careful, Daphne. A werebear couldn’t stand up against a wolf pack, but in a one-on-one fight, they could take you down.” He wagged a finger at me through the screen. “Don’t go looking for trouble!”

“Please be careful,” Bella pleaded earnestly, her eyes wide. She looked so sweet and small and innocent, no one would ever guess she was a royal badass. Literally.

“I never look for trouble!” I protested. But trouble has a way of finding me, whether I like it or not. “I’ll be careful, I promise.” I blew a kiss to the screen. “I’ll see you in a few weeks!”

“Can’t wait! Miss you like crazy baby sister!”

“Miss you too, big brothers. Bella, you keep them in line!”

“Always!” Bella blew back the kiss. “Love you, Daphne!”

I cut the call and tapped the phone against my lips as I considered what I had learned. Black bears aren’t aggressive. Werebears aren’t aggressive. Both are known to be shy and solitary. So whether it was an animal, or a man with an animal spirit, something was horribly wrong.

Maybe someone needed to investigate it a little deeper.

Someone with sharper senses than the average law enforcement officer, someone who could scent out the very faint taint of a bear, someone who could see in the dark, someone who could shift to run or to fight if the situation called for it.

I sat up in bed, suddenly feeling energized with purpose. I glanced over at the empty bed across the room. If Nate knew I was going out looking for the bear, he’d skin me alive.

But then again, he didn’t know what I was, or what I was capable of. What would he say when he found out that I was a werewolf? Was he open-minded enough to accept what I was, or would he chase me away?

I had a momentary and almost comical vision of all the residents of Bleakley House coming for me with pitchforks, lanterns and hunting rifles. Weapon in one hand, cheap beer in the other.

I shook my head and pulled on a pair of black yoga pants under the old t-shirt I was wearing. I could easily slip them off if I needed to shift in a hurry. I yanked a dark blue hoodie over my head and started for the door. I glanced back one more time at Nate's side of the room, at the bare mattress we had just had crazy, magical sex on.

Nathan Straight had already made it clear that this was a one-and-done arrangement. I might be fantasizing that he could be “the one”, but he’d already given me fair warning. No matter how mystical it had seemed to me, this was just a fling for him, an itch to be scratched. He knew nothing about shifters and mate bonding.

“He doesn’t need to know,” I whispered as I slipped out of the Bleakly House into the dark night. It was cold enough that my breath turned to white vapor as I spoke the words out loud and headed for my car. I had an area in mind I wanted to explore, but the access point was several miles away. I could have shifted and covered the distance quickly as my wolf, but it was too risky. I would drive to the trail head instead. I slipped behind the wheel and stuck my key in the ignition. I gripped the wheel tightly, and shifted on the seat, still feeling the delicious ache between my legs.

“He doesn’t need to know,” I repeated, and put the car in gear.