Authors: Cassandra Cole
CHAPTER SIX
Armand and Jaeger were up and dressed in a matter of seconds and their speed actually surprised Sara. She’d never seen anyone react so quickly. She realized they were heading for the door and gasped, jumping up and pulling her nightgown over her shoulders, though she didn’t close the front. She ran in front of the door, throwing her arms out, her eyes full of terror.
“Don’t go out there. He gets crazy when he’s drunk.” She knew he owned a gun and she feared that more than anything.
Armand smiled gently and kissed her forehead, pulling her away from the door and guiding her to sit on the bed, putting his hands on both of her shoulders.
“Don’t worry, Bella. We’ll take care of this.” He kissed her nose and then turned back to Jaeger, nodding.
Sara wanted to argue with him and insist that they stay right where they were but something about Armand’s tone of voice inspired confidence in her and she nodded as they exited the room and stepped out into the living room of the apartment.
The fireplace was still smoldering, though it wasn’t burning so the living room had become cold overnight. Both men looked far more casual than Henry had ever seen them. They were dressed in jeans and plain T-shirts and even like that they managed to look refined. When they stepped out, Henry raised a small revolver that he kept for protection, wavering on his feet a little.
Jaeger took a moment to asses Henry, shaking his head and laughing a little. He was completely blitzed and his round face was red with drunkenness, sweat pouring down his fat neck and leaving a wet ring around the collar of his dirty shirt.
“Where’s Sara?”
“Your
talent
?” Jaeger hissed, his eyes narrowing.
“My girlfriend!” He snapped.
“She hasn’t been yours for a long time, Henry. The second you laid a hand on her...You gave her up.” Armand said firmly, crossing his arms.
“Bullshit! That’s for her to decide!” Henry blubbered.
“Of course it is….And she’s already decided. So put your little toy away and go home, Henry. We don’t want this to be a bloodbath.” Armand said, sounding bored.
Jaeger licked his lips, his eyes shining. “Speak for yourself.” Jaeger had always enjoyed a good fight.
Armand offered Jaeger a bored look and sighed. “It won’t even be any fun. Look at him.” He said, waving a hand in the tubby man’s direction.
Henry was shaking with anger, stumbling closer towards them and wavering for a moment like he might lose his balance and topple to the floor any second. He dropped the gun a moment to balance himself and then brought it back up, cocking the hammer back as he looked between them.
“You lied!” He screamed, face getting even redder, if that was possible. “You took everything from me!” he spat out.
“You let everything go. You were blinded by a little bit of cash and you couldn’t play the long game. I have news for you, Henry,” Armand whispered, stepping forward, Jaeger right behind him and grinning with the same toothy grin that had unsettled Henry so much the first time they met months ago. “If you are so greedy that you can’t even play the game...You shouldn’t have come into our ring in the first place.” He whispered dangerously.
Henry was feeling very intimidated and took a step back, gun still raised. “Just...give me back Sara. I’m not gonna come after any of the money you fuckers owe me but I want Sara back.”
The arguing from the other room caught Sara’s attention and she stood, going to the door and cracking it open enough that she could see but not be seen. Jaeger and Armand were bearing down on Henry with an animalistic bloodlust in their eyes. They wanted him to pay for all the wrongs he’d done and Sara wasn’t going to stop them.
“You aren’t getting anything from us, Henry.” Jaeger said with a grin. “You don’t deserve a goddamn thing in this world other than a shallow grave.”
Armand smiled and turned back to Henry, his head cocking to the side. “I’m afraid my partner here is right, and if you don’t turn around and march yourself right at that door you so kindly destroyed, you’re going to get exactly what you deserve.”
“Are you...Are you threatening me?” Henry whispered, his voice sounding small and vaguely afraid.
Armand laughed and shook his head, his intense golden eyes shining as they settled on Henry’s terrified, sweaty face. “Oh no. I’m making a promise.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Henry raised the gun again, his eyes wide in terror. He couldn’t explain why but he was terrified of the men who were suddenly looming over him, threatening him. It was the strangest type of danger he’d ever seen.
Working in a club meant that he had to toss a lot of people out. He’d broken up plenty of fights and been in a few himself. He’d seen what anger looked like and what impending danger looked like. He’d seen men stabbed and shot, but he’d never seen such a quiet, devastating storm brewing behind someone's eyes.
Jaeger and Armand were nearly on top of him now and weren’t even giving the gun a second look. They stopped inches from his face and Armand spoke in a cool tone.
“This is your last chance to leave, Henry.” He whispered.
“Don’t you think we’ve given him enough chances, Armand?” Jaeger asked, licking his lips like an animal excited for dinner.
Henry actually considered turning and walking out the door but found his resolve and raised the gun again.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“He’s made his choice, Armand!” Jaeger said excitedly.
Armand chuckled and cracked his neck. “Very well.”
Sara nearly ran out to stop the confrontation that was about to happen. Henry had a gun and Armand and Jaeger were left defenseless. She’d opened the door enough to slip a single leg out when Jaeger’s hand darted out as fast as lightning and snatched the gun from Henry’s hands. He held the barrel in one hand and the butt in the other, bending it like it was a pipe cleaner.
A gasp left Sara and she ducked back into to room, still watching through a tiny crack as a terrified noise left Henry’s lips. His hands came up as if to protect his face and the real show began.
Sara’s eyes widened as she watched hair spring from the back of Armand and Jaeger’s neck. The sea of thick, dark hair spread along their entire body and their hands and feet began to grow, claws sprouting from them and glistening in the early morning light. Their faces elongated and became bear snouts as bones cracked into place. They each grew another two feet or so and now took the form of huge, lumbering black bears. Both of them still stood on their back legs, animal grins still on their lips, though they looked far more menacing and their teeth were much more terrifying.
Sara’s first reaction wasn’t fear. She had to reach down deep to even begin to find the terror that she knew she should feel and when she tried to pull it to the surface, it just wouldn’t come. Somehow she knew that Armand and Jaeger would never hurt her or her baby. Even as they stood in the living room, turned to great beasts, she knew they weren’t the monsters in this situation.
While Sara wasn’t scared, Henry was terrified. The second the gun had been taken from him he felt nothing but sheer terror. He wasn’t big or strong like Armand and Jaeger. He hadn’t stood a chance when they were human. It was the very reason he’d brought his gun! Now that they were bears….He couldn’t even finish that thought. It seemed too absurd.
He was pressed back against the door as one of them lumbered towards him. Its monstrous paws were raised as saliva dripped from its mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Jaeger came closer and closer, while Armand remained behind, guarding the bedroom door with his large form. They weren’t going to drop their guard for a second. They needed to protect Sara and her baby. That was more important than the serving Henry his due.
Jaeger let out a roar that shook the house and made Sara’s eyes close on instinct. He came down, his enormous paws on either side of the door frame that Henry was trapped against. The balding man let out a cry of terror and closed his eyes as the teeth inched closer and closer to his face.
Jaeger would have given anything to tear this guy limb from limb for hurting their precious Sara. She deserved a violent redemption but the last thing either of them wanted was for her to be terrified of them. They would have to let this one go.
Another roar filled the house and Jaeger’s paw came down on the door. It separated from the hinges and fell back into the long empty hall. Henry went with it, falling onto his back as a bear descended down on him.
They were face to face now, Jaegers long snout and wet nose, centimeters from Henry’s face. Hot saliva dripped from his teeth and fell onto Henry’s cheeks. A scream that didn’t quite fit a man left Henry’s lips and he scrambled on all fours, turning and running down the hall, screaming for police to save him from the vicious bears.
Jaeger didn’t move from the hallway a moment, wanting to make sure that Henry was gone for good. He turned back into the living room and his stark blue eyes met Sara’s. She was still standing in the doorway, though she’d pushed it open now, looking between them with huge, sky blue eyes.
There was a sense of worry in their eyes and she just smiled, stepping forward and reaching up to put a hand on top of their furry heads. They were back on all fours now, though even then they were still at her eye level. She reached up and wrapped her arms around their thick necks, smiling.
She knew they had expected her to run. They’d expected her to be afraid, but she couldn’t manage to feel anything other than an overwhelming gratefulness and adoration for them. Sara didn’t say anything. She felt like words would ruin the moment and so she just stood there and held them as their wet noses pressed into her neck. It was akin to a kiss and she decided she liked it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Henry brought the police back eventually, blubbering drunkenly about a wild animal but Jaeger and Armand had long since gone back to their human forms. Jaeger had fixed the gun and when Henry came back with the police, all three of them attested to the fact that Henry had broken into their home with the gun and threatened them. They claimed he had been hallucinating and ran screaming when he saw some invisible bear.
The police took Henry away, screaming and kicking, insisting that the men inside were bears and that they’d threatened to kill him. Needless to say, his story didn’t really hold up in court and he was found guilty of breaking and entering as well as assault with a deadly weapon.
Sara didn’t know much about the law or what the charges meant, but she knew that Henry was going away for a long, long time. After Henry was put away, Sara continued living with Armand and Jaeger and her life couldn’t have been more perfect.
At first they seemed terrified that one day she would decide they were monsters and run away. It had happened so many times before that they couldn’t help but be weary. They found something in Sara that they loved and they didn’t want to lose her.
When they finally mustered up the courage to ask her why she was staying and why she wasn’t afraid, her answer had been simple. She’d cupped their cheeks and smiled at them, kissing each of them as she explained that they hadn’t given her any reason to be afraid. If they’d wanted to kill her...they would have already. Armand and Jaeger weren’t wild animals in her eyes. They were men...Her men. That explanation seemed to suit them just fine and they never questioned her again.
Over the next months, she got bigger and bigger and Jaeger and Armand’s fear slowly began to subside. They cared for her and loved her, insisting that they take the place of the child’s biological father. They wanted to raise this little cub with the amount of love and care that it deserved. Sara wasn’t going to say no. Armand and Jaeger could provide the stability and love that her child needed to grow and they provided her with the stability and love that she had been looking for all her life.
The apartment over the club was going to be way too small for the soon-to-be-family and so they moved out to a large farmhouse where their family could grow and thrive. The club was still open for business and Sara still performed, even if it made Jaeger and Armand nervous. Then again, everything made them nervous towards the end of her pregnancy. It was actually kind of cute to watch them fret over her after reading something in a baby book that might be ‘adverse to the health and development of the child’. She heard that a lot, especially when she was craving sushi.
When the baby was finally born, it was a bouncing baby girl with thick black curls and big blue eyes like her mom. She was an absolute angel and Jaeger and Armand had both cried over her in the hospital. The first time they held her it was like their lives had finally begun.
They both took to being fathers like a duck took to water. They kept a constant watch on the little girl who they had named Emily. When she’d cry in the middle of the night, one of the proud papas would fetch her from her little bassinet and cradle Emily to her mother’s chest so that Sara didn’t have to lift a finger.
They doted on their girls like the princess and queen they saw them to be. Sara couldn’t ever imagine giving up her singing career but she only performed on Friday nights now, opting to stay home with their child for the rest of the week.
Sara had feared for the children she might have had when she was with Henry. She’d felt stuck in that hole and whenever she tried to crawl out she just fell right back into the muddy waters. When she’d been with Henry she hadn’t wanted a family because she never wanted to put her child through the things that she suffered through.
Now that she was with Armand and Jaeger, the world was bright and she wanted more children. She wanted as many as she could possibly have and her lover’s granted her that wish. They were just as eager to add onto their little family.
When she was pregnant with their second child, they’d all gathered together to go through the traditional binding ceremony that would make them all mates for life. A gentle, graying woman with wise eyes had come to do the ceremony, sprinkling flower petals over their heads and declaring that they were forever joined in a union that couldn’t be separated by death itself. They would be each other’s everything for all time.
Those words had made Sara’s heart flutter in her chest. It was exactly what she had wanted. She wanted to wake up in the morning to their smiling faces and warm embraces. She never wanted to face a day without her family.
The words that the priestess spoke meant everything to Sara and when she kissed them it felt like the first time all over again. Their lives were just beginning and she knew they would have so many adventures together.
This was her happily ever after and she wouldn’t have changed a thing about it.
THE END
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ella Hart resides in Seattle, Washington with her two children, husband and pet puddle, Mishka. Ella has been in the Romance writing field for over 8 years, and has recently begun sharing her passion to online readers around the world.