Bearly Breathing
BEARLY
Breathing
By KIM FOX
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.
18+
Copyright © 2015 by Kim Fox
one
The cabin had to be perfect. Today was the day that the three girls from New York City were arriving and Connor was determined that the kayaking excursion wouldn’t get fucked up like last time.
He slid his finger along the top of the shelf behind the desk and inspected his fingertip. No dust. The clubhouse was spotless. He smiled in relief and looked around with his hands on his hips. Connor had done a great job in restoring the deserted cabin. During the year that he had been here, in the mountains of New Hampshire, he had purchased land on the Saco River, rebuilt a cabin complete with guest houses and started a retreat for kayakers called Brooke Excursions, which he quickly made into the number three kayaking excursion retreat in the area. There were only four in the area, but still.
He stepped out the front door onto the wooden porch and breathed in the crisp, mountain air. The cabin was secluded in the thick forest with the river only a stone’s throw away. Connor jumped down off the porch and made his way to the water.
The sun was rising and the birds were just starting to wake up. They sang to him as he came up to the river. The water level was higher than normal and moving fast. The park ranger had warned him about flash floods this time of year. He would have to keep an extra close eye on those city girls tomorrow.
Six kayaks were lined up perfectly on the bank of the river. The yellow and blue kayaks were shined, polished and looked like they were just taken off the racks of the factory. Connor nodded his head in approval.
He had woken up at 4:50, ten minutes before his alarm clock went off, sprung out of bed, cleaned the guest cabins, clubhouse, shined the kayaks and swept the pine needles off of the front porch. The place looked great.
Now I can have my coffee.
His inner bear grumbled inside him now that all of the chores were done and he was finally relaxed. Connor took a deep breath. His bear had been lonely lately and was starting to bother him with getting a mate. There had been no shortage of girls over the years for Connor. He was a charming, muscular and sexy werebear and the girls always came flocking in droves but here in the mountains there was nobody knocking on his door. He decided to put that part of his life away to focus on building his business but apparently his bear wasn’t on board.
A large crash clanged from the kitchen and Connor’s hand flew up to his chest. He sprinted back up the path with his heart racing. He flew through the entrance, sailed over the counter and burst through the kitchen doors.
The fridge had fallen over on its side with all of its contents spilled onto the floor. There was an enormous brown bear standing over it licking ketchup from the freezer door. Connor gasped and stared with his mouth wide open.
Sidney was sitting at the table eating a bowl of cereal wearing only a pair of boxers. “Grab the milk before he eats it,” he said, pointing with his spoon to the turned over milk carton on the floor. The spoon looked like a kid’s toy, wrapped in his massive hand. “I want another bowl.”
“What the hell?” Connor screamed with his hands on his head. “I just cleaned this. The girls will be here this afternoon!”
“Don’t worry boss,” Sidney said with his mouth full of cereal. “He’ll be done eating all of this in a few minutes.” Milk dripped down his broad chin and onto his enormous, hairy chest. Sidney was definitely the biggest werebear of the three of them.
The brown bear raised his head and stared at Connor as he chewed a long cucumber still in the plastic wrapping. The bear’s big brown eyes watched him with a peaceful serenity.
Connor’s pulse sped up as he gritted his teeth together. He stepped towards the bear and ripped the cucumber out of his mouth and slapped him over the head with it. The bear winced and stepped back with his head lowered.
Sidney postured up and pointed at the ground. “Watch out for the…” The bear stepped on the milk carton with his back paw and it exploded under his weight. Milk sprayed the kitchen cupboards and coated the bear’s hind legs.
“Ah damn it,” Sidney cursed under his breath. He slumped back down on the chair and shoveled another spoonful of cereal into his big mouth.
Connor raised the half eaten cucumber over his head. “Phase now Edwin or I’ll hit you harder.”
The bear stepped back and looked at him like he was unsure of what to do next. He slowly lowered his mouth and picked up a head of cabbage, never breaking eye contact with Connor. He chewed it slowly.
Connor threw the cucumber onto the messy floor and reached behind the counter to the frying pan hanging on the wall. He squeezed the handle and raised it over his head.
The bear opened his mouth and dropped the cabbage onto the floor. His face contorted in pain as his body folded in on itself. The long brown hairs receded back into his body as the big, hulky bear shrunk and turned pink. His long snout retracted in on itself and his massive head shrank and rounded out.
Connor placed the frying pan back on the hook over the counter. When he turned around Edwin was lying on the ground naked. Edwin sat up and looked around at the mess on the floor. He picked up an open jar of peanut butter off the ground, stuck his finger in it and then licked his finger clean.
“The girls are supposed to be here in a few hours!” Connor yelled.
Edwin looked up at him with his eyebrows raised. He scooped his finger back in the peanut butter jar and shoved it into his mouth.
Connor exhaled and shook his head. He watched his two employees with slumped shoulders. “Can you guys just pretend to care?”
“What girls?” Sidney asked. “Are they hot?”
Connor’s bear grumbled inside him.
This is not the time.
“It doesn’t matter,” Connor said, reaching over and picking up a broken jar of pickles. “They’re clients and we’ll treat them with the respect that they deserve.”
“Are they going to mate with us?” Edwin asked.
“No,” Connor said, ripping the peanut butter jar out of his hands. “You’re going to teach them how to kayak and that is all.”
Connor shook his head and watched Edwin. The fit, muscular werebear sat on the fridge and looked around at the mess on the floor for something else to eat.
What was I thinking when I hired this guy?
But Connor hadn’t really had a choice. He needed to hire werebears to work with him and these two jokers were the only ones that he could find. He had to phase into his bear form from time to time and he couldn’t be doing that with regular people around.
Edwin was a very interesting case. His parents were both humans who gave birth to a werebear shifter. It was extremely rare for two humans to give birth to a shifter but it did happen on occasion. When Edwin was ten he changed into a brown bear in their living room. His super religious parents thought that he was possessed by the devil and ran out of the room screaming. His dad returned with a shotgun and Edwin’s bear was sitting down on the carpet, eating the arm of the sofa.
Unfortunately for Connor, his father didn’t shoot him. With the barrel of his shotgun he guided Edwin into the back of his pickup truck and drove the bear into the mountains, deep into the forest. Edwin had spent the rest of his youth and all of his teenage years and early twenties as a bear.
Connor found him a few months ago in his bear form eating out of a garbage bin behind a restaurant. He took him in and offered him a job as a kayaking instructor. Edwin was good with a paddle but he wasn’t very comfortable in his human skin. He was unsure of how to talk and act in social situations and he was constantly changing back into his bear at the most inappropriate times. It wasn’t very good for business.
“Can you guys help me?” Connor asked, as he picked up an apple by his feet.
“Are you going to eat that?” Sidney asked.
Connor whipped the apple at him and Sidney plucked it out of the air with his hand. “Thanks boss,” he said as he bit into the apple with a crunch.
“I was aiming for your head,” Connor muttered. Sidney’s big head lit up in a smile.
Sidney was a polar bear who had applied for a job. He was a former defensive tackle in the NFL who was unemployed after he got banned from the league. He played a total of two games on the Chicago Bears. In those two games he had a total of six interceptions, eighteen sacks, nine forced fumbles and fifteen touchdowns.
He had a very promising future ahead of him until he got tested for performance enhancing drugs. His testosterone level was nineteen times over the legal limit. The doctor was shocked that Sidney was still alive but those were normal levels for a polar bear. And for a werebear.
Connor was a huge Chicago fan but he quickly realized that although Sidney was a skilled athlete, he couldn’t kayak for shit.
Connor pushed Edwin to the side and lifted up the fridge. He picked up and slid the see-through, plastic drawer back into the slot.
“This excursion is important for the business,” he said. “These girls won this trip off of the biggest radio station in New York City. If it goes well the station agreed to buy, advertise and give away a trip a week.” That would be amazing for his company. He could bring Brooke Excursions to the next level. He could surpass the number two, Sunshine Kayaking, and then it would only be a matter of time before he would be on the heels of the number one spot.
He picked up a broken jar of salad dressing and tossed it into the garbage. “Just don’t embarrass me.”
Edwin stood up, naked, with mustard dripping from his penis. “We wouldn’t do that to you boss.”
two
“Miss Sanderson,” the doorman said, looking straight ahead with his white-gloved hand tucked behind his back. “Miss Hawkins.”
“Hi Alfred,” Rebecca said, leaning down to see him out of the passenger window of her car. “We’re here to pick up Grace.”
“She is on her way,” he said in his thick British accent. Grace had told them once that Alfred was actually from San Diego and the accent was all a show and that he had even bought a fake British passport to convince everyone that he was from Manchester. He even looked British. He was an older man with gray hair and a thin, jet black mustache. His tuxedo was always perfect. He never had a single crease or crumple.
Angie winked at Rebecca from the passenger seat. “Hey Alfred,” she said. “Did you see the San Diego Padres play the Braves last night? They really suck this season.”