Cinderella's Billionaire Bear: A Shifter Fairy Tale (6 page)

Chapter 6

Charming

I sat in the hotel
suite inside my casino building waiting for Cinderella to join me. It had been
30 minutes since I had sent Paul to retrieve my mate from where she was working
on the casino floor.

As the minutes ticked
by, I became increasingly worried that something had gone wrong.
It
shouldn't take this long for her to get here.

A moment later, there
was a knock on my door. But when I answered, it turned out to be Paul instead
of my mate.

"Where's
Cinderella?" I asked, now certain that something was terribly wrong.

"She wasn't down
there, Sir. They said she had left for the day. But when I checked her house, a
young woman by the name of Tasha said Cinderella still had not come home from
the casino. As soon as I heard that, I rushed back here to let you know,
Sir."

"Where could she
be? Do you think the Beast would be crazy and stupid enough to kidnap my mate
just because our casino's doing better than his?"

"I don't know,
Sir. The Beast can be quite crazy sometimes, but I'm not sure about him being
stupid."

Paul was right. This
didn't sound like something the Beast would do. Still, I couldn't completely
rule him out. So I sent Paul to investigate. Meanwhile, I was going to take
matters into my own hands and find Cinderella myself.

****

Cinderella

They carried me inside
what looked like an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere and tied me down
to a chair. I tried to yell for help, but the gag they placed inside my mouth,
effectively muffled my screams.

My mind whirled with
questions I didn't have answers to. Who were these two men? Why did they take
me here? And was Donald somehow in on it, too? After all, he was the one who
told me to go outside the casino's entrance to get inside the black limousine.

But why would Donald
want me to get captured like this? What could he possibly have to gain? And who
was the mastermind behind it all?

Yesterday, on the way
home from the fairy tale amusement park, Charming told me that the owner of a
competing casino was the one who had been giving our casino trouble with the
police. Could this somehow be related to that? Were they now using me to
somehow get to Charming?

Even in my current dire
situation, I couldn't help but worry about Charming. If these people were
holding me captive in order to get to him, then he could be in danger soon,
too. I must find a way to get out of here alive. I needed to warn him that
someone dangerous might be after him next.

I was in the middle of
thinking up a way to escape when a familiar voice took me by surprise.

"Cinderella, did
you really think I wouldn't see through your lie last night?"

I looked up and saw my
stepmother standing there with an evil grin on her face as she continued to
talk.

"You're a horrible
liar, Cinderella. I could tell just by the look on your face that you were
lying when you denied that you were skipping work to meet up with someone in a
black limousine. So I asked Donald about it. And he confirmed that you had been
slutting it up with Mr. Moore. How did you even get a billionaire like him to
notice you anyway? Did you throw yourself at him when he was conducting
one-on-one interviews with the staff a few days ago?"

I tried to answer and
defend myself. But with the gag still in my mouth, none of the words really
came out.

"Ungag her,
Gavin," said my stepmother to the man who had restrained me in the
limousine earlier. "I want to hear what the little slut has to say for
herself."

The man my stepmother referred
to as Gavin did as she had instructed and took the gag out of my mouth. Able to
speak again, I immediately pleaded with her to please let me go.

"Now why in the
world would I just let you go like that? It took way too much effort to get you
here in the first place. Anyway, I didn't ungag you to hear you beg and plead.
I want to know how you got a billionaire to fall for you. Did you seduce him in
his office?"

"No, I knew him already
from outside of the casino."

"From where? Where
were you going to meet a billionaire like him?"

"I met him at the
wedding in New York."

"The wedding in
New York? You mean the one I forbid you to go to? How did you even get there?
And how could you possibly afford a decent dress to wear to a billionaire's
wedding? Have you been stealing the family's money?"

"No! I didn't
steal. Tasha gave me her dress and her limo. She didn't want to go, so I went
in her place."

My stepmother's eyes
narrowed into slits. "I don't believe you, Cinderella. You must have
tricked Tasha into letting you go. Then once you got there, you must have acted
like a slut to get Mr. Moore's attention. You wretched little whore, you stole
my daughter's fortune. Tasha should have been the one at the wedding, and she
should be the one dating a billionaire now. You stole all of that from her. And
for that, I will make you pay dearly."

My muscles quivered
while my face reddened. I had never been so angry in my entire life. I had
tried so hard to please my stepmother over the years, yet it had all obviously
been for naught. She hated my guts. There was nothing I could do to change
that.

This time, though, she
had gone too far. She called me a whore and threatened to harm me. Considering
the circumstances, I probably should have been scared and kept my mouth shut
like I always did around her. But instead, I finally told her what was on my
mind.

"I'm not a whore,
and I didn't steal anything from anyone. The house you live in is the one my
mom and dad worked hard to buy. Most of the money in your bank account is what
was left to you by my dad plus the money I make at the casino now. And no, I'm
not a whore. I didn't hook up with Mr. Moore because he's a billionaire. I
didn't even know he was filthy rich when I first met him. The only reason I'm
with him is because I genuinely like him, and I'm sure that's not something you
can honestly say about your relationship with my dad."

"How dare you talk
back to me like that? I'm not going to stay here and listen to any more of your
nonsense," said my stepmother before turning to look at the man named
Gavin. "Get rid of her for me. I don't want to see her still breathing by
the time I get back."

"Yes, Ma'am,"
said Gavin as my stepmother turned to leave.

Alone with just my
stepmother's henchmen now, fear crept into my body once again. Gavin and the
man who had gagged me earlier stepped closer, each of them with a menacing
stare in their eyes.

"You know, she's
actually quite pretty," said Gavin to the other man. "It would be a
total waste to just kill her like that. How about we have a little fun with her
first?"

Charming

Using my shifter sense
of smell, I was able to scent my mate and found my way to what looked like an
abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. Still in my bear form, I carefully
looked inside to see if Cinderella was in there.

Sure enough, she was
sitting inside, tied to a chair. Two men were standing nearby, looking at her
like they wanted to eat her alive. I could tell by their scent that they were
bear shifters as well.

The other shifters
outnumbered me, but I didn't care. I had to save Cinderella no matter what.

I ran inside and attacked
one of the bear shifters from behind. He soon fell to the ground while his
buddy shifted into a bear. I heard a gasp coming from Cinderella's lips, but I
dared not look at her at that moment for fear of breaking my concentration.

I recognized the bear
standing before me. He was Gavin, one of the shifters who worked for the Beast.
Gavin launched at me with his paws. But even though, he was strong and
fearless, he proved to be no match for me since I was the larger bear.

His buddy, who was
lying on the ground earlier, finally was able to get up. He too shifted into a
bear and joined in to help Gavin fight me off. However, since I had deeply
wounded him earlier, he wasn't all that much of a help to Gavin in this
particular fight.

Knowing that they
couldn't beat me, the two shifters ran for their lives. I let them run without
chasing after them because I needed to make sure my mate was unharmed.

I hurried to where
Cinderella was sitting and quickly untied her. She looked at me with fear in
her eyes for a moment. Then her expression softened, and she cautiously reached
out her hand to pet me.

"Thank you, kind
bear. You saved my life," she said while still petting me.

It felt good to have
her hand on my fur like that. I could probably stay there all day to be her living
teddy bear.

But then she removed
her hand from my fur and exclaimed, "I need to get to a phone. Charming
might be looking for me right now, and I don't want him to have to worry about
me. Thank you again for saving my life, kind bear. But I really must go
now."

She slowly backed away
from me as if she was afraid that any sudden movement from her would somehow
agitate me. I knew I had to let her know then that I was, in fact, Charming.

But how the heck was I
supposed to do that without freaking her out? Should I shift back into my human
form first? Or should I just start speaking to let her know who I was? Either
way, I was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

As she continued to
slowly back away from me, I decided it might not be a good idea for me to shift
back into a man right now. That type of sudden movement from me would have her
thinking that I was getting ready to attack her or something. So I opted to
just call out her name.

"What? Did
you...did you just say my name?" Her question came out as a stutter,
probably because she wasn't expecting a random bear to know her name.

"Yes, Cinderella.
It's me, Charming," I said in what I considered to be my most calming voice.

"Charming? You're
Charming? But...but you're a bear? And oh my God, you're talking! I must be
losing my mind!" She sounded delirious as she rambled on.

"No, Cinderella,
you're not losing your mind. It really is me, Charming."

Her eyes locked on mine
as she stood still before me. Then after what felt like a really long time, she
finally said, "Oh my God, it really is you. I recognize your eyes."

She then walked towards
me and slowly but surely tried to wrap her arms around me. I couldn't believe
it. My mate was hugging me even though I was still in my bear form!

My bear softly growled
with contentment, and I felt so happy inside. Cinderella really was destined to
be mine. She saw me in my bear form and didn't even try running for the hills.
I loved her even more now than before.

Cinderella

Nothing made much sense
to me anymore. My stepmother tried to kill me. The men she sent to do the job
turned into bears before my very eyes. Then a bear came to rescue me and told
me he was my sexy lover, Charming.

At first, I thought I
was going mad. But when I saw that the bear had the same eyes as Charming, I
knew it must really be him for real.

It was all so surreal.
If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I definitely wouldn't have believed it.

I had so many questions
for Charming, but I didn't want to ask them right now. Because at this very
moment, I wanted nothing more than to snuggle up to him to feel safe.

It probably sounded odd
that snuggling with a real live bear would make me feel safe. But how could I
not feel safe around him? He had risked his own life to save me from those
other two bears. He was outnumbered, yet he didn't hesitate to come rescue me.
So I had no reason to believe he would harm me now whether he was human or a
bear.

As I snuggled with
Charming, I suddenly noticed his body changing. The fur turned into human skin.
The claws and paws became hands and fingers. And his face shifted into the
handsome face I adored.

In just a few seconds,
he had fully shifted from being a big, furry bear to being a sexy, naked man in
front of my very eyes. Even though I had already known the bear was him, I
still had to do a double-take to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.

Sure enough, it was
Charming standing there where the bear had been only a moment before. My face
lit up upon seeing him in his human form again.

Charming smiled back at
me. Then he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a passionate kiss. It
didn't take long after that for me to feel his hardon rubbing against my body
as we continued to make out.

Suddenly remembering
that we were still at the abandoned house in the middle of nowhere, I pulled
away from Charming and told him we should probably get out of here and continue
this somewhere else. After all, the guys from earlier could come back at any
moment with more men to help them take us down.