Cinderella's Billionaire Bear: A Shifter Fairy Tale (7 page)

"Paul should be
here any moment now to take us back to the casino," said Charming in
response.

As if on cue, Paul
walked through the abandoned house right then and greeted us. Seeing that Charming
was completely in the buff, Paul quickly went back out to the car again to
retrieve some clothes for Charming to wear.

Once Charming was fully
clothed again, we followed Paul out to the car. Paul drove us back to the
casino. Then Charming led me by the hand back to his hotel suite.

As Charming opened the
door to his hotel suite, I remembered back to the night we first met. I had
followed him back to his hotel suite just like I was doing now, and we had an
incredible night of hot sex. At the time, I didn't think I was ever going to
see him again after that night. Yet here I was walking into another one of his
hotel suites once again. In comparison to last time, though, there was a lot
more on my mind this time around.

After he had closed the
door behind us, Charming scooped me into his arms and kissed me again. I kissed
him back for a bit, then broke the kiss in order to get some answers from him.
After all, after everything I had seen today, I deserved an answer or two.

So I said, "As
much as I want to continue kissing you, Charming, we really need to talk. And
you, Sir, have got a lot of explaining to do."

Chapter 7

Charming

Cinderella wanted to
talk. I knew it was coming, yet I still dreaded it. There was so much to
explain to her, and I was afraid she'd freak out after hearing it all.

"So you were a
bear earlier. Care to explain?" asked Cinderella.

"I don't know. Do
I have to?" I tried to stall for more time.

"Of course, you
have to. You can't just turn into a bear in front of me and not explain yourself."

"I figured you'd
say something like that. Anyway, Cinderella, as you saw earlier, I can shift
into a bear. That's because I'm a werebear just like most of the people in my
family."

"A werebear? Is
that similar to a werewolf?"

"Yes, except
werebears are infinitely cooler than werewolves," I said with a smirk.

"Does that mean
werewolves are real, too?"

"Yes. So are
dragon, tiger, and lion shifters."

"Oh my! And you
all just live amongst regular humans without anyone being the wiser?" she
asked with obvious wonder in her eyes. She was like a kid listening to a fairy
tale story for the very first time. Seeing her like that brought a genuine
smile to my face.

 "Yeah, we usually
try our best to hide our shapeshifting capabilities from people. If word ever got
out that shifters existed, our entire community would be in great trouble.
People tend to be prejudiced towards anything they can't fully understand, and
not everyone would be willing to take the time to understand us. Then there's
also the issue of people becoming so intrigued by us shifters that they might
try to capture us in order to run scientific experiments on us. Personally, I'd
rather be a dead bear than locked away in some mad scientist's science lab.
Hence, I'd appreciate it if you would keep this whole shifter thing a secret
from everyone you know."

"Yes, of course. I
would never do anything to put you in any type of danger," said Cinderella
quickly.

Of course, she
wouldn't, you doofus. She's our mate. She'd never harm us.
My
bear chastised me, and after some thought, I must say I deserved it.

"I'm sorry,
Cinderella, if I sounded like I didn't trust you. I actually do. It's just that
you're the first person to know that I'm a werebear. So I'm just a bit nervous
about it, that's all."

"It's okay,
Charming, I understand. If I were in your shoes, I'd be nervous, too."

Seriously, every time
she speak, I find myself loving her more and more!
How
did I get so lucky to have such a beautiful and understanding mate?

"Thank you,
Cinderella, for taking this all so well. I thought for sure you would freak out
the moment you found out I was a werebear."

"Believe me, I did
have a freak out moment when I first saw you in your bear form talking to me.
But I also saw how you heroically came in to rescue me from those other two
werebears and just intuitively knew that I could trust you to not hurt me.
Besides, werebears might be big and powerful, but if you ask me, humans are the
most terrifying creature of all."

"Why do you say
that?" I asked, perplexed by her words.

"Because as far I
know, my stepmother's fully human and yet she's fully capable of killing me.
Right before you showed up to rescue me earlier, my stepmother was at the
abandoned house where I was held captive. She admitted to sending those guys to
capture me, and before she left, she ordered them to kill me. If you hadn't
shown up in time, I would surely be dead by now."

The bear inside me
growled while anger rose within me. I couldn't imagine living the rest of my
life without my mate. "Your stepmother, doesn't she also work for the
casino? And her name's Giselle, right?"

"Yes, do you
personally know her?"

"No, not really.
I've seen her a few times in group meetings but that's about it. However, I've
recently heard some rather disturbing news about her. Apparently, she was the
one helping the Beast to get our casino in trouble with the police department.
I was going to let her get away with it since she was pretty much the only
family you had left. But after hearing what you said about her hiring people to
kill you, I'm definitely going to make her pay for everything she did."

"She was helping
the Beast? But who's the Beast?" asked Cinderella in confusion.

"He's the owner of
a competing casino in the area. Like me, he's also a werebear. But unlike me,
he's an arrogant asshole who likes to fuck everyone over. He accidentally
pissed off a witch once, and she placed a curse on him. Still, that didn't get
him to change into a better werebear as far as I can tell."

"So I take it that
werebears are just like humans in that not all are good and not all are evil?"

"Yeah, that's
about right," I responded. "By the way, there's another thing about
werebears that I think you should know."

"And what's that?"
she asked.

"We mate for life.
And you're my mate."

Cinderella

His words bewildered
me. "What do you mean I'm your mate?"

"It means you're
the only one for me. It's kind of like what humans mean when they say they've
found their soul mate. Except for shifters, it's a much more certain thing. I
know for a fact that you're the only one I want to mate with for the rest of my
life."

"Mate? God, that
sounds so primal," I said in response to his explanation.

"Well, I am a
werebear," he said with a chuckle. "Besides, everything about lust,
sex, and passion are all primal."

"True. And yes,
primal does sound all hot and sexy. But what about love? Shouldn't you be in
love with the woman you're with for life?"

"Who said I didn't
love you?" he asked matter-of-factly.

It never even occurred
to me that he could be in love with me. After all, we had only known each other
for a short amount of time. So with that in mind, I asked, "Don't you need
more time to get to know me before actually falling in love with me?"

"No. I knew from
the first moment I laid my eyes on you that you were the only one for me. And
the more I've gotten to know you, the more I've fallen in love with you,"
he said as he grasped both of my hands.

He sounded so sincere,
I couldn't help but feel touched by his words. Still, wasn't this a bit too
soon to be talking about love and forever?

Based on what he said
next, he must have been able to read my mind. "It's okay, Cinderella. I'm
not asking you to feel the same way now. I'm here for the long haul, so I don't
mind waiting for you to fall in love with me. I just hope I haven't scared you
off with everything that has happened today."

"No, you haven't
scared me off yet. Although, it will definitely take some time for me to grasp
my mind around everything I've seen and heard today. Plus, I'm still dealing
with the fact that I no longer have any place to call home now that my
stepmother wants to kill me."

"Speaking of that,
let me quickly send a message to Paul to let him know to submit the evidence we
have on your stepmother to the police. That way, she'll get arrested for the
wrong things she did at the casino. Then whenever you're ready, I'll take you
to the police to testify about how she tried to kill you."

Charming took out his
cell phone and typed a message to Paul. Once he had sent the message, Charming
put the phone away and held my hands in his before speaking again. "It
shouldn't take long for your stepmother to get arrested with everything we have
on her. However, even with her in jail, it's probably not safe for you to go
back to your old house. So for now, I want you to stay right here with
me."

"Stay with you?
But it's way too soon for us to be living together," I protested.

"Then don't think
of me as your live-in boyfriend. Instead, consider me your personal bodyguard.
Because protecting you is what I aim to do. If you want, I can even sleep on
the couch and let you have the bedroom all to yourself. But I refuse to have
you living anywhere else for now. I don't want another one of your stepmother's
paid assassins showing up without me by your side. So please, don't argue with
me on this, Cinderella. You can have your way with anything else but definitely
not this."

After taking a moment
to consider my current situation, I finally agreed. "Okay, since you
insist, I guess I'll stay here. I mean, it's a tough life having to stay in a
fancy hotel suite right on the beach's boardwalk with a sexy billionaire as my
personal bodyguard. But hey, someone's gotta live that tough life, right?"
I smiled at Charming and his face softened in response.

"So now that we've
got your living situation figured out, is there anything else I can do to make
you more comfortable while you're here?"

"To be honest with
you, Charming, this hotel suite is already a million times nicer than the room
in the attic that I have been sleeping in for years. So no, I have nothing else
to request from you."

"Well, at the very
least you'll probably need some new clothes to wear. After all, I'm sure you
didn't happen to have an entire wardrobe full of clothes on you when you got
abducted earlier today."

"Yeah, I guess
I'll try to sneak into my house at some point tomorrow to bring a suitcase of
clothes here."

"No way,
Cinderella! Like I said before, it's probably not safe for you to come back
there anytime soon. So how about this? Tomorrow morning, after we've had
something to eat, I'll take you on a little shopping spree to get you some new
clothes to wear."

"I don't know,
Charming. Just the fact that you're letting me stay here with you is already
generous enough. I don't want to take advantage of you any further."

"You're not taking
advantage of me, Cinderella. Whether you want to believe it or not, you're
still my mate. It's my job to love you and take care of you today, tomorrow,
and forever."

My heart swelled from
hearing his words. Ever since my dad passed away, no one had ever said such
nice and loving things to me. For years, I had been the stepchild that no one
cared much about. Now all of a sudden, there was a gorgeous billionaire
offering to love me forever without any attached stipulations.

Instinctively, I wanted
to wrap my arms around him and let him carry me to an awesome fairy tale land
that was even more spectacular and real than the amusement park we had visited
yesterday together. But based on how awful my luck had been before meeting him,
I was afraid to believe the wonderful thing we had together right now could
truly last forever.

So I agreed to let him
buy me new clothes tomorrow, but I said nothing about forever loving him back.
Even though, I could definitely see myself loving him until the end of time.

****

I woke up this morning
with Charming spooning me from behind. Last night, he had gallantly offered to
sleep on the couch so that I could have the bedroom all to myself. However, I
didn't feel right about having him sleep on the couch. The bed was plenty big
enough for the both of us, and it wasn't like we hadn't slept together before.

Last night, however,
was certainly different from the first night we had spent together back in New
York. We actually used the bed for sleeping instead of having sex. That was
because, after everything he had told me yesterday, I needed more time to
absorb it all before complicating things even further by adding sex back into
the equation.

But even though we
didn't have sex and remained fully clothed throughout the entire night, in some
ways, we were more naked and exposed than ever before. I was no longer hiding
behind a secret identity. Instead of being the mysterious Sin Natasha like I
was at the wedding in New York, I was just myself, plain old Cinderella. And
Charming had revealed his deepest secrets to me. I now knew he was a bear
shifter and that I was his fated mate.

Despite not being ready
to commit to anything long-term with Charming, I definitely wasn't going to
start running away from him just because he was a bear shifter. Because whether
he could shift into a bear or not didn't change the fact that he was a sweet
and charming man who cared about me and could make my pulse race anytime he was
near me. Like right now, with his chiseled body pressed against my backside, I felt
dizzy with teeming lust.

He stirred a little
from his sleep, pushing his erection right up against my body. My nipples
hardened as my body started to feel warm all over. I tried to wiggle out of his
arms to prevent myself from having sex with him this morning. But even in his
sleep, the hold he had on me was so strong that all I really managed to do was
rub my ass all over his hardness.

All of my moving around
must have woken him up, because next thing I knew, he was greeting me with a
morning kiss on the nape of my neck. That turned me on even more, and I
silently hoped that he would make love to me, even though, I had expressed to
him last night how I thought it was best for us to not have sex with each other
for a while.