Laid Bear (9 page)

Wow, he’d really thought of everything. Had it all planned out. Her head was still spinning from all of this, but here was Chet, ready to get the ball rolling.

“Thing is,” he said, surveying the apartment, “we gotta start now if we’re gonna get you out before he comes back.”

“I can’t just leave without saying goodbye!” Bethany protested. “That would just be cruel.”

“Crueler than letting him watch you move out? At least this way, you’re gone, outta sight. You can talk to him when he gets back but this way there won’t be any dramatic scene during the move. Plus, I won’t pay if you want to wait. This is a one-time offer, take it or leave it.”

What kind of cold-hearted bastard was this guy? After what he’d been through, he should have more compassion for Max, forget about her. How was she supposed to make this kind of decision so quickly. Exhaustion leaked out of every pore and all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball.
 

But she knew he was right about doing it while Max was gone. She wouldn’t be able to leave if he was there, and he (hopefully) wouldn’t let her go. If she was going to do it, it should be now.

Bethany stood, clutching the robe tight to her like a life preserver, and wandered into the kitchen. She’d miss the woods, but that was nothing compared to how much she’d miss Max. Was there any other way?
 

No, she decided. Babies had always been in her vision for her future and she didn’t want to give up on them. And she didn’t want Max to have to give up on them either. They were still young, they’d both find other, more suitable partners. It wasn’t too late. But if he wriggled his way any deeper into her heart, it would be.

She turned to Chet, who’d been watching her every movement, and gave him a tiny nod.
 

“Great! I mean, um, I’ll get the movers over here right away. You get dressed and pack what you need, then find somewhere to stay. Hell, if you can’t find anywhere, I’ll even put you up at a hotel for a few days.”

Bethany was crushed at Chet’s glee over her decision. She was anything but happy right now. As he called someone on his cell, she wandered back to her bedroom and curled up in a ball on the bed. Through her tears, she punched Charlotte’s contact.

“Hey, B! Had a total blast last night…well, until we had to clean up puke. I hope we didn’t ruin your night.”

“No.” She was having a hard time holding herself together enough to form words. She could hear her voice hitch and jump as she spoke, and was powerless to stop it. “Um, could I come stay with you for a couple of weeks?”

The request was met with silence. “Bethany, what’s going on?”

“I can’t talk about it right now, but I need to get out of here. Can you put me up?”

“Of course!” Charlotte was pretty good about respecting boundaries. She’d let Bethany mope until she was ready to talk, even though it would kill her to do so. “The spare room is already made up so just come over whenever you want, okay?”

“Okay.” Her voice was cracking, ready to break at any moment. “See you later.”

She lay on the bed, allowing the waves of grief and loss wash over her and pool on her pillow. Time had slowed to a crawl, or sped up to lightspeed, she wasn’t sure which, nor did she care.
 

Moving in a daze, she threw on some clothes and packed a suitcase with everything she might need. Or, rather, she hoped she was packing everything she needed — she was in such a fugue state that she had to look at her moisturizer three times to figure out if it was important enough to take.
 

A knock on her door made her jump. Chet poked his head in. “They’re ready to start packing. It’ll probably be easier if you’re not here. Ready to go?”

She nodded and weakly pointed toward to suitcase. Chet grabbed it and left the room. “I’ll put it in your car,” he yelled on his way down the hallway. Man, he really wanted her gone.

She shuffled through the apartment like a zombie, heading for the front of the house, as movers wrapped and packed her life into brown boxes, but she couldn’t resist stopping to get one last look at her woods before she left them for good. There really was no option to come back for fear of running into Max. She’d have to find some other park or forest to explore. Not to mention some other man who would care for her as much as he did. He’d set the bar high, and she wasn’t sure she’d ever find someone who could compare.

Before she knew what she was doing, Bethany was sliding open the back door. “Where the hell are you going?” Chet growled. “Your car’s out front.”

She looked back over her shoulder, her eyes sunk deep into her sockets, her normal color drained to a sickly grey. “I need to say goodbye to my woods.” She wasn’t asking or pleading, just stating a fact. Chet could fuck right off if he didn’t like it.

“Just don’t take too long,” he called after her.

As she pushed open the squeaky back gate, she thought,
Fuck you, Chet.

A
n overwhelming sense of peace flooded over Bethany as she entered the woods. They’d always brought her comfort when she needed it most, and she needed it now more than ever. The last few hours had been torment for her so the calm that settled on her heart as she walked her favorite trail was a welcome relief. She felt like she could breathe again.

At the end of the path lay a tiny waterfall that spilled over a rock wall into an equally tiny pool. It was too small for any fish to live in, but frogs liked to hang out there, and sometimes deer and other animals could be spied drinking from it. A nearby fallen log provided an excellent bench from which to watch the goings on, and that’s where she headed now.

Birds chirped and squirrels skittered up the towering pines as she passed. She’d always meant to take a birding class so she could figure out which ones were singing to her in the woods, but she’d never gotten around to it. It was just one more regret to add to the growing list.
 

Being proactive in life didn’t come naturally to her. She always seemed to let things just happen to her. Jobs, boyfriends, whatever, and rarely had any of them turned out well. Never had she made a conscious decision to take a specific course of action, do something that would change her life. Now she had, but for some reason, that didn’t make her feel better. Only the cool, dark closeness of the trees gave her any solace.

Lost in her thoughts, Bethany tripped over a root that stretched across the trail. She thudded to the ground, snapping the root. A split second later, she heard another snap come from the undergrowth nearby.
 

She whipped her head around, unsure of where the sound came from. Fear shot through her system, setting her on high alert as she waited for another noise. But none came. The birds resumed chirping and the wind rustled the tops of the trees.
 

There had never been any sign of predators in these woods — she’d always kept her eye out for scat and other indicators — and she’d never seen another person on her little trail before. She chuckled nervously at her own skittishness, shook off the sudden anxiety, brushed some pine needles off her jeans and continued on. The waterfall was just a little way farther down the path.

Gurgling sounds reached her just before the musty, mossy smell hit her nose. This was her spot, her place to think. She’d puzzled out any number of problems at her hidden sanctuary, and though she’d already made her decision, just sitting on the spongy, rotting log comforted her.
 

She’d fallen hard for Max, no doubt about it. That a man like him even existed in the world was a shock to her system, and that he cared for her had surprised her even more. Over the course of the last several weeks, she’d started to see herself through his eyes, and was absolutely stunned by her own awesomeness. It took this amazing, strange, beautiful man to make her realize her own value, and for that she’d be forever grateful. For that alone, she would love him forever.

But because of that, she also knew what she was doing was the right thing, even though every fiber of her being was screaming that she was an idiot for letting him go. Not only did he deserve a family of his own, Bethany realized that she did, too. As much as she loved Max, a family was non-negotiable. And she couldn’t be party to his being tossed out of his clan, as backward as that practice seemed.
 

Oh, and there was the little matter of her own life. Her time with Max had made her realize how precious life was, and how much of the world she had left to see. There was too much life in front of her to risk it — and her heart — so recklessly. Breaking it off was the best thing for everyone concerned, no matter how difficult it would be.
 

The fact that he was a werebear never entered her thought process. Other than the repercussions of a human-bear union, it was a total non-issue.

Sucking in a deep, cleansing breath, she brushed away the tears that streaked her cheeks.
Well, there’s nothing for it
, she thought.
Better get a move on.

“Goodbye, waterfall,” she whispered. “Bye, trees. See you later, birds.” It suddenly dawned on her that the birds were silent. They normally chattered away quite loudly. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been quiet, and it was unnerving. A feeling of unease, of being watched, creeped over her, setting all her hairs on end. Was someone out there?

“Hello?” She could hear the quaver in her voice and tried to convince herself it was nothing. That it was just like the noise she heard earlier.
 

That noise! What had made that noise? An irrational — or maybe a very rational — urge to run screaming down the trail nearly overwhelmed her. Instead, she tried to control her racing heart and slowly moved toward the path, every sense running in hyperdrive.

The smell hit her first, a familiar feral scent. It reminded her of something, but her mind didn’t have time to make the connection before a monstrous form emerged from the thick brush ahead of her, stopping her dead in her tracks.
 

The bear turned its pale golden eyes on her, lowering its massive head in a threatening pose. Bethany heard a low rumbling, and her confused brain wondered how a semi truck had made it all the way out in the woods. It took a moment before she realized it was coming from the bear.

Her feet felt as if they were cemented in quicksand. She was paralyzed. Even if she could move, she had nowhere to run. The bear was blocking her only escape route. Behind her lay the rock wall.
 

The beast swayed back and forth in place, that horrible noise coming from someplace deep within it, its mesmerizing eyes locked on hers. Her stomach threatened to spill its entire contents, as did her bladder, but she managed to control both. It was her pulse and breathing she couldn’t control. Oh, and the violent shaking that suddenly seemed to consume her body.

Those eyes,
she thought. Something about those eyes seemed familiar. And the lush rust-red fur rippling along the beast’s back struck a chord in her memory, too. Was this another werebear? Suddenly, she knew.

“Ursula?” she whispered hoarsely. Those hypnotizing eyes answered her by narrowing into mere slits. The bear’s upper lip curled up in a snarl. This was the woman who had taken Max to Charlotte’s party!

“Why are you doing this?”
 

Max had told her that werebears were still sentient while in bear form, so Bethany knew Ursula could understand her. She’d purposely stalked Bethany during her walk. But why? It couldn’t be over Max, could it? They’d only gone out on one date after all.

Slowly, Bethany backed away, her hands out in front, somehow thinking that would calm Ursula’s apparent rage. But the bear matched her movements step for step until her feet fetched up on her log bench.
 

“Please, Ursula, I don’t understand.” She hated the weak, pleading tone in her voice, but it seemed she couldn’t control that either. There was no use hiding it — she was terrified.

Then Ursula reared up onto her hind legs, threw her head back and bellowed a scream so loud and full of fury that the world stopped moving. Only then did Bethany know true terror.

Her knees buckled at the unholy cry, thumping her ass onto the log. Her vision greyed out, threatening to take her away from this place, and she welcomed it.
Please make it quick
, she silently pleaded with Ursula…or maybe it was God, or even herself. She didn’t know, but she understood completely that this was the end of the line for her.
 

Bethany watched in a daze as Ursula dropped to all fours and charged at her. She concentrated on the bear’s beautiful eyes. Even though they were filled with hate, she wanted to believe there was something beautiful inside the monster bearing down on her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of brown shoot past her and launch itself at Ursula, knocking the bear off balance. Wait, two bears. There were two bears rolling around in the underbrush, growling, biting, clawing.
 

Ursula managed to break free and lunge for Bethany again. Again, the much bigger brown bear attacked, batting Ursula aside. It turned its head and caught Bethany’s stunned gaze. Cinnamon eyes looked into her soul.
 

Max.

He was caught off balance when Ursula threw herself at him, sinking her canines into his shoulder. He roared in pain and surprise as he fell to the ground. But instead of turning on Bethany, as she’d done before, Ursula beat at his head with her massive paws, howling at him as he struggled to gain his feet.
 

Before he could, Ursula backed away and turned sad eyes on Bethany. Were those tears? They were blinked away in an instant. Then she turned and loped down the trail.

“B
ethany! Baby, are you okay?” Max’s voice reached her ears from a great distance, or so it seemed. A foggy mist shrouded all sight and sound, and she felt herself tipping over into blackness. But when his strong arms wrapped around her, the world came back into focus.

She searched for his eyes, and when she found them, a profound sense of love and safety washed over her. Tears spilled down her cheeks while huge, gulping sobs wracked her body. He pulled her head into the nook of his bare neck, his fingers fisting in her hair, murmuring soothing words she couldn’t hear over her own weeping.