Hansel's Bear (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tale) (3 page)

He had never been as close to his goal
as he was now, yet he couldn’t drag himself further. Couldn’t keep
pressing on to victory, because of one thing—her.

She was the reason he’d awakened and
left the park at five in the morning and journeyed back up the road
where he’d come from. With the sun just barely starting to rise and
lighting the sky to a soft orange and pale purple he’d started his
ride up and cruised toward the turnoff for Den County.

He had no doubt he would be spotted.
In Were communities, even greater than small town USA, they didn’t
take well to outsiders or what they would consider to be disruption
to their lives. A single male Were-bear was a definite problem. It
was still early and the area only had a few people driving around,
unlocking businesses. However, if the number of people he’d seen
out at the stream was any indication, this place had an ample
number of residents.

It only took thirty minutes to drive
down Main Street and park his bike in the middle of the long wide
strip of Paw Tracks Street before the Fur Fill, which stated in
small letters that it was some kind of general store. However,
peering through the big windowpanes on the front of the store, he
would have described it as a grocery store, plain and simple.
However, maybe they sold more than groceries.

He shrugged and waited. After swinging
his leg over his ride, he leaned his backside against it, digging
his heels into the dirt for purchase just in case things got a
little hairy before they got friendly. Pulling a strip of smoked
salmon jerky out of his saddlebag, he gnawed on it patiently.
Waiting.

A door across the street opened and
someone stepped out and eyed him. The first person to stride toward
him was a Were who was not only big but wide—built like a typical
Were-bear. No one had to tell him who he was, the uniform and badge
proclaimed it clearly.

“
Morning. Can I assist you
with something? You lost?”

The big burly guy stopped a few feet
away from him, so Hansel could read the name on the bronze badge.
Hansel had pretty good eyesight, as did most bears, and could
clearly see the stenciled letters on the glass door of the place
the male had come from—Sheriff’s Office.

Hansel didn’t even have to take a wild
guess, Sherriff Smokey was boldly engraved on the badge.

“
No, sir.” Hansel
continued to tear off chunks of dried meat between his teeth as he
kept his other hand resting at his side, the heel of his palm
pressing into the leather of the seat. He swallowed. “I generally
don’t find myself lost. I go where I intend to end up.”

One side of the uniformed were-male’s
lip curled slightly.

Hansel was impressed the man didn’t
let out a growl, a warning to his flippant answers.

“
Well, let me ask a more
direct question. What are your
intentions
in Den
County?”

A few other people began to move in
closer and gather around behind the law male. Hansel could see
multiple trucks and cars moving with swiftness into
town.

Yup. Word had gotten out
quickly.
There was a stranger in
town.
Would he be friend or foe was
probably the question going through all of their minds.

That was still to be
determined in
his
mind. However, he didn’t come here for trouble. Trouble was
already waiting for him sixty miles up the highway. He was here for
one thing…one person.

Scanning the growing bodies of men and
women observing him, Hansel did a slow check behind his back and
sure enough there were two men standing practically
shoulder-to-shoulder like a human wall. Most likely they had
positioned themselves there to keep him from fleeing as he had
yesterday. But, he had no plans of going until he got what he’d
come for.

The men were the two on the rock in
the middle of the stream with the woman. Hansel’s bear clawed at
him as he met the gaze of the dark-haired male standing beside a
blonde male.

Hansel dragged in a long, deep breath
through his nostrils as he put a leash on his bear. Answers were
what he needed, but he wouldn’t get them if he started a brawl on
Main Street.

He returned his gaze to the were-male
before him. “I’m here to check up on a friend.”

“
Well you sure have a
strange way of dropping in. You frightened our children and some of
our elderly with all that noise you made yesterday,” the lawman
said, his voice gruff.

That couldn’t be helped, Hansel
thought but kept his silence. A comment like that would spark more
questions than the five hundred these folks already had.

“
What friend is it you’re
looking for? Let’s get them out here so you can conduct your
business and be gone.”

The sharp, hard glare from the male
before Hansel spoke volumes. He wasn’t welcome in town.

“
Name.” The lawman
asked.

~YH~

Greta rolled over to her side in bed
and pulled the covers over her head. She was awake. She had been up
for hours since she’d awakened from a dream/nightmare. It had been
years since her mind had returned to images she’d worked hard to
keep buried. Since two in the morning she’d found herself on a
mental sit-and-spin remembering things she was better off never
having recalled.

However, her bear declared that wasn’t
completely true. Even though some of the things she remembered were
frightening, there was something…someone that she felt altogether
different about. Over the years, she’d told herself she wanted to
forget and erase everything…however, that wasn’t the case. It
wasn’t true.

Him, she could never
forget.

Him, she occasionally sat alone on the
bank of the stream and allowed herself to bring up his image. His
face. What he would look like now.

His scent had saturated her soul and
even though she hadn’t smelled it since the last time she’d seen
him, it was there. A part of her.

He had the smell of warm, woodsy
cashmere. It had been that smell in the woods yesterday that had
gotten her in a quagmire of emotions.

She was grateful today was her late
day for work and she could attempt to reclaim the sleep she’d been
denied all night. Taking in the darkness beneath the covers, she
slowed her breathing and concentrated on clearing her mind so she
could lose herself to the sandman’s power.

Knock. Knock.

Nooo
. She groaned.

“
Greta, are you up?” her
papa-bear, Manni Armel’s muffled voice came through her closed room
door.

She wondered if she didn’t answer him
if he’d go away. Her parents knew her schedule. She kept it posted
on the refrigerator as she had done since going to work with her
cousin years ago. Manni and Rita had kept a watchful eye on her,
Greta didn’t mind. Most of the time.

“
Wake up, dear.” It was
her mother’s voice coming from the other side of the comforter
under which Greta had buried herself.

“
Grrrr.” She snatched the
covering down and rolled to her back, staring at her
mother.

“
Don’t you go growling at
me.” Her mother stood beside her bed dressed in her jam-making
apron with her hands on her hips. “It’s the Sheriff you can give
your temper to when you get to town.”

“
Why am I going to town?”
Greta didn’t have plans to go anywhere but to la-la land located in
the warm bed she was currently in. “Whatever you need me to pick
up, I’ll get it on the way home.”

“
Sheriff Smokey radioed
in, Greta. He needs you in town immediately.” It was her father, a
big dark-skinned gray-haired were-male, who spoke.

Shoving herself to a seated position,
she fingered her messy long ebony strands away from her face and
scratched her head. Letting loose a loud yawn to show her parents
just how exhausted she still was, she met their gazes. “I don’t see
any reason Den’s sheriff would need me. Right now. What can’t wait
until later this afternoon?”

Her father rubbed the smooth skin of
his head and his gaze shifted away from hers.

That loss of eye contact made the
heavy worried feelings she’d been battling all night settle heavily
in her stomach. Her father was always upfront with her.

“
Papa-bear?”

“
Look, dear, apparently
there is some dispute happening in town right now. You’re the only
person that can settle it.”

“
Me?” She looked from left
to right. She didn’t have a significant role in town, like sheriff
or mayor, nothing that was so important a town decision would rest
on her shoulders.

“
Yes, Greta. Now up and
out.” Her no-nonsense mother waved her out of bed.

Heeding her mother’s urging, she
crawled out of bed, feeling more like a contrite sixteen-moon girl
than the grown female she was now. Her ankle was tight and a twinge
shot through it as she put her weight on it, proof of her over use
of it yesterday. “Is anyone planning to explain to me what is going
on?”

“
I’m sure you will
discover all the answers you need soon enough. Dress quickly, you
can ride into town with your father.”

A parental escort.
This was getting worse by the minute. Padding
into her bathroom as her parents exited her room, Greta wracked her
brain in an attempt to figure out what could be going on. If her
dad didn’t want her to drive into town alone, that meant it was not
only serious…but possibly dangerous.

Twenty minutes later she was showered
and dressed and sitting beside her father in his truck eating one
of two honey biscuits her mother had prepared that morning. Greta
would have preferred the full spread of breakfast her mouth had
watered for, but apparently there was no time for a proper
meal.

“
Dad, is there something
you can tell me about what is going on?” She tried her small
innocent voice on her father. It always worked to soften him to her
side, especially when she was in trouble for pulling some teenage
prank with her were friends.

“
I don’t know much, Greta.
Instead of me giving you the bits and pieces I know and you
surmising the wrong situation, I believe it is best we just wait it
out. We’ll be in town soon.” He reached across the seat and patted
her knee.

Damn, it didn’t work. Whatever
information her dad had, he was holding close to his
chest.

“
Tell me. Do you think
Chase Furfield or Simeon Grizmen will start pursuing you more
seriously after that big catch and win of yours yesterday? Maybe
even Lenny Gobi.”

She let out a laugh followed by a
groan. “Oh, gracious papa-bear, neither I hope.” Both of the men
annoyed her. They were best friends who competed over everything.
Their arguments always ended in an arm wrestling or a grappling
match. Dating either one of them would make a girl
exhausted.

“
I think you could handle
them. Chase is doing well at the lumberyard, he just made shift
leader. And that Simeon will be taking over his family’s meat
curing business.” Her father couldn’t keep the corners of his mouth
from twitching in humor.

Greta knew he was trying to keep the
mood light; she played along for the sake of time.

“
You know, papa-bear,
maybe I’ve judged their silly antics too harshly. I need to take
more of a serious look at the two of them. They are very easy on
the eyes. I’m sure you and mama are ready for me to get out of your
house and start providing you with grands.”

That got her father’s fur all ruffled.
“Hell if my daughter will settle for either one of those two
nincompoops.”

“
Just think. My life would
be full of laughs.” Turning to him, she gave him a small innocent
smile. “Don’t you want me to be happy? Chase or Lenny would be an
excellent choice for that.”

“
Only if you wanted to be
in the next town that had the closest nut house. I swear those boys
have knocked more than one screw from each of their brains.” Her
father shook his head in disgust.

“
Well, then papa-bear,
just for you. I’ll just have to wait and see who the Great Spirit
brings my way.”

Her father frowned and eyed her
sharply as he glanced away from the road briefly. She noted in his
deep onyx gaze that he knew she’d played him.

Winking, she reached over and patted
his knee as they turned onto the road that led into town. As they
progressed toward the center of Main Street, her father started to
slow his truck as they both spotted the large crowd gathered in the
road.

“
What in the
hell?”

Her father took the words right out of
her mouth. Whatever was going on it was major. By the time on the
truck clock it was barely seven in the morning and the number of
people and vehicles around made it appear closer to noon and a
lunch rush.

A few people turned and pointed in
their direction as her father drew the truck to a complete
stop.

“
Since everyone seems to
be waiting for me, I guess I can’t stay in the truck.”