Laid Bear (8 page)

Charlotte didn’t take her eyes off Bethany as her head titled from side to side. “Are you sure, B? Have you talked with Max about this?”

“Oh yeah, I’m just gonna bring up the subject of having his babies a few weeks into our relationship. That’d be smooth.”

“Then you don’t know if it’s true, right?”
 

“I have reason to believe it might just be.”

Char was silent, staring at her friend with sad eyes. Paul’s gaze bounced between them until he gave an exasperated grunt. “I still don’t see what the big deal is. Isn’t finding true love more important than anything?”

Char punched him in the arm. “Ouch! What’d I do?”

“Don’t you get it, dork? B wants kids. She can’t just turn that need off, like a switch. The desire for babies will build and build until either she dies a little bit inside or resentment tears their relationship apart.”

Bethany hadn’t really thought that deeply about it, but now that Charlotte was spelling it out for Paul, she couldn’t help realizing the truth of it. “But I really think I’m in love with him,” she said.

Char shook her red curls again. “Oh, B, that’s tough.”

“What should I do?”

Paul just shrugged irritably and looked away, still pissed at being punched. Char finally said, “You should find out if what Chet said is true. If it isn’t, then great. But if it is, then you have a tough choice to make: Max or babies.”

Bethany’s heart broke at the suggestion of having to make such a decision. It would be impossible. The more time she spent with Max, the more deeply she cared about him. But she’d always wanted a big family, and she couldn’t just give up on that dream.

The maudlin mood was broken when Kimmy stumbled into the kitchen wearing nothing but her panties, her mane of gorgeous thick, brown hair jumbled into a rat’s nest of tangles and her makeup smeared every which way. Normally the most stunning of the three women, she was most certainly not the prettiest one in the room at that moment.
 

Especially when she started projectile vomiting.

A
fter Charlotte had helped her clean up Kimmy’s technicolor display, Bethany had called it a night, handing out blankets and pillows to everyone except Kimmy, who got a couple of towels and a prime sleeping spot in the bathtub. Thankfully, no one made a peep for the rest of the night, a fact she could verify since she didn’t sleep a wink. She couldn’t stop thinking about their conversation.
 

“Hey, B?” Charlotte was in the doorway of the bedroom early the next morning, keeping her voice low in case Bethany was sleeping…which she wasn’t.

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna take these cretins home now, if I can wake them up long enough to get them to the car. You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for coming over. I’ve really missed you guys.”

Char laughed. “After last night I’m not sure why.” Her tone grew serious. “Listen, I’m here if you ever need anything, okay?”

“I know. Thanks.”

Char nodded and left. Bethany could hear her dragging a mumbling Kimmy out to the living room where she and Paul struggled to dress her. Bethany just stayed snuggled under the comforter, not wanting to face the world. She heard their car drive off and then dozed off.

The doorbell’s solitary bong woke her.
Someone must have forgotten their keys
, she thought as she shrugged on her robe and padded to the door.
 

The last person she expected to find standing on her front porch was Chet. “Oh! Um, what are you doing here?” she asked nervously, looking around for potential witnesses.
 

Chet’s expression was grim but he held up his hands in a gesture of peace. “I would just like to talk with you for a minute, if that’s okay. Can I come in?”

Bethany gnawed on her lower lip, seriously considering slamming the door in his face, but found herself stepping back to let him in. Normally she would have offered a guest something to drink but she didn’t want to encourage him to linger so she crossed her arms and gave him a ‘Get on with it’ look.
 

“Sit, please,” he said as he took it upon himself to take a seat. She lowered her bottom to the very edge of the couch, tense and ready to spring if he threatened her.

“What do you want?”

He smirked. “I know you won’t believe me, but I do like you. I like your spunk.” He could see her wariness and nodded.

“Okay, so you know about us now. You know what we are, yes?”

She nodded.

“And you’re desperately in love, I suppose?”

She just looked at him. That was none of his business.

“Fair enough. Here’s the thing. Max is young and idealistic. He thinks anything can be overcome with love. And as much as he doesn’t want to hear it, you need to know that he’s wrong. About a lot of things.”

He stood quickly, startling Bethany into jumping back into the embrace of the couch. He ignored her and started moving around the apartment, absentmindedly picking up knick-knacks or flicking imaginary specks off the walls. “Max and a few younger bears think that we should mix with humans. They think that since most of their lives are spent in human form, it shouldn’t be a problem And it wouldn’t be, except when it comes to breeding.”

Bethany’s nose squinched at the clinical term. She’d never thought of babies as ‘spawn’ or ‘offspring’. They were
babies
, not a medical condition. But she kept her thoughts to herself and let him continue.

“You see, these young bears don’t fully understand the ramifications of diluting our bloodlines with impure stock, such as yourself. No offense.”

She almost laughed at the last bit because the first bit was so blatantly offensive. Instead she just stared at him.

“I used to be like them, actually. I thought the same thing, but I’ve come to see how important it is to keep our bloodline untainted. But there’s more to it than just that.”

His voice tightened a bit and he stopped fidgeting. He stood in the doorway to the kitchen and gazed off into the woods behind the duplex.
 

“You see, I know firsthand how devastating it can be to mate with a human. Her name was Crystal, and I loved her more than I thought a soul could love.” He glanced over his shoulder at Bethany and gave her a rueful smile. “You probably can’t imagine me in love but I was.” He turned back to the view.

“My parents forbade me to see her but I thought I knew so much. We eloped and lived quite happily for several years. We were pretty good about using birth control but one day she turned up preggers. I don’t know whose fault it was but it didn’t matter because we were both happy about it. Thrilled, in fact.”

Bethany was enthralled with Chet’s story. He was right; she never would have imagined him as a young man in love. Her heart softened to him just a little, but she couldn’t understand why he would be so opposed to her and Max hooking up if he’d been in the same situation as a young man.

“But, as it turns out, werebear babies don’t gestate well in human women. I didn’t know this at the time, or I would have been more careful. No one warned me, you see…”
 

He trailed off. She remained quiet so he could compose himself.

“I lost them both. The baby killed her, then died before the clan’s doctors could get him out. He wouldn’t have lived long anyway — he was a mutant.”

Bitterness had crept into his voice, and Bethany could tell he was fighting back tears. Hell,
she
was fighting back tears. She couldn’t imagine the devastation he must have felt. Her heart broke for his loss. When he turned to face her, the trauma he’d gone through was etched on his face. This was not an easy story for him to share.

“I’m so sorry, Chet.”

“Don’t be sorry for me, girly,” he snapped. “Listen to me instead. I like you. I don’t want to see you hurt. I don’t want to see my nephew hurt. But if you continue down this path, that’s exactly what will happen. You’ll be injured or killed and my nephew will…” He sniffed back his emotions. “I’m afraid he’ll end up like me.”

Bethany was speechless. Chet moved back to the chair across from her and just sat there looking at her. What was she supposed to say to all that? Was he saying there was no chance for a human to carry a werebear baby? That was the question she was finally able to ask.

“I’ve never heard of a successful mating between a human female and a bear male. You humans are too delicate to handle our babies. Now, bear females should have no problem carrying a half-breed baby but why would they want to?” He shuddered with disgust at the mere thought.

“How can you say that when you mated with a human?”
 

“Like I said, I’ve come to realize that I was wrong. I don’t have anything against your kind, but I just think we need to remain separate species.” He shrugged matter-of-factly.
 

Bethany tried to absorb what Chet had just told her. Her stomach was knotted up and she felt ready to puke. Her suspicion was true. She’d never be able to have Max’s baby, so what was the point in continuing their relationship. If Chet hadn’t been sitting there, she would have been sobbing already. She did her best to maintain a tiny shred of dignity.

Chet reached across the divide and patted her knee. She still didn’t like him much but he was trying to be kind, and she would take what she could get right now. It hit her like a ton of bricks: she was at that critical point Charlotte had warned her about. She was going to have to choose between her man and the possibility of a family.

The tears she’d been fighting back refused to be contained any longer. Big dollops spattered the lap of her robe as she struggled with this new information.
 

“Why are you telling me all this, Chet?” Her watery blue eyes met his. For the first time she saw the resemblance between Max and him. It was in the eyes; the same gold and cinnamon flecked irises. She’d never noticed before because he was usually scowling so hard at her she couldn’t see what color they were.

“Like I said, I’m worried about the both of you if this little ‘relationship’—“ he used actual air quotes, the jerk — “continues. Max is too stubborn and selfish to end things, even though he knows full well what the outcome will be if you get knocked up. So you need to do it. You need to man-up and break it off before it’s too late.”

Bethany’s entire body was trembling. She couldn’t break up with Max. He was the best thing to ever happen to her. He saw her for who she really was, and liked her all the more for it. How could Chet ask her to give that up?

“Why now?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

Chet crossed his arms and cast a frustrated glance in the direction of Max’s apartment. “Honestly, I thought he’d do the right thing and end it a long time ago. I waited till Max was gone because I knew he’d pitch a fit if I tried to tell you the truth. You needed to know what was at stake.”

Her life. Her life was at stake. So her choices, as laid out by good ol’ Uncle Chet, were to live childless with the love of her life, die in childbirth, or move on and hope to find someone she loved as much as Max. They all sucked balls.

She was drained of all emotion. A void seemed to have eaten her heart, which wasn’t as painful as trying to choose between Max and some fictional rugrats, so she welcomed it. Then Chet drove the nail home.

“And of course there’s the shunning.”

“The what?”

“The shunning. When a werebear chooses a human mate, they’re shunned from the community. Happened to me. They only let me back in after Crystal and the baby died and I pledged to push for strict breeding rules.”

“So Max gets kicked out of your little werebear club if he chooses me as his mate?”

Anger flashed in Chet’s eyes. “Don’t be snide, girly. I’m trying to help you. And Max. Can you imagine every member of your family, every friend you’ve ever had, suddenly never speaking to you again? If you loved him half as much as you seem to think you do, you’d let him go so he could continue being part of the community he belongs to.”

It was true, Max was dedicated to his fellow werebears. And the thought of all of her brothers, her parents, her friends turning their backs on her was unimaginable. She couldn’t believe he’d never told her about the repercussions of their love. But then maybe he only saw this as a short-term fling. If that was the case, it would behoove her to end it now before her heart was shattered.

Even if he didn’t feel that way, ending it seemed to be the only option. She couldn’t ask him to give up everyone and everything he held dear just to be with her. That would tear him apart, and he’d probably end up resenting her for it sometime down the road. But she knew him well enough by now to know that he’d resist Chet’s attempts to control him, regardless the outcome.

No, as much as she hated to admit it, Chet was right. But how could she live next door to Max and not be with him. It would be impossible to see him without her heart breaking over and over again. The hot tears burning down her cheeks turned into sobs of grief.

Chet leaned over and roughly patted the top of her hanging head, doing his best to comfort her, but she was inconsolable. For several minutes, the only sound in the apartment was her crying. When the heavy sobs eased to a few hitches and sniffles, Chet handed her a handful of Kleenex he’d pulled from his pocket. She had to give it to him, he came prepared.

“Listen, I can help you. You know I’ve kinda been wanting you to move out for a while, right?”

Bethany nodded and blew her nose. “Yeah, you’re not very subtle.”

“Well, now you know why. I knew Max would think nothing of dating you because he has these crazy ideas about interbreeding—“ He looked at her sharply. “Which are just plain wrong.”

She nodded again, tears threatening to break through the dam again.

“Anyway, you obviously can’t stay here now because you know you’ll just go back to him. I can see it in your face.”

Looking him in the eye wasn’t an option because he was speaking the truth, which she couldn’t admit. They both knew it, that was enough.

“So here’s the deal. Max is gone for a couple days. You find some friend to stay with and I’ll pay for movers to get all your stuff out. I’ll even rent a storage unit for a couple of months till you find a new place. And I write a glowing recommendation about what a great tenant you are, so you shouldn’t have any trouble.”