Taming the Bear Collection (4 page)

      
"That's what you think," Rain said, turning her nose up defiantly.

      
"It's what I know. You know, I was where you were, Rain. I was dealing with asshole after asshole. Then I lived with the absolute worst guy I could ever be in a relationship with. Then I met Rowan, and it all fell into place for me."

      
"Yeah, but Rowan still did to you what every guy does to me!" Rain protested, her voice growing high-pitched and whiny. "He claimed you and now you're his property, with nowhere to go!"

      
"I'm not his property!" Eva said, her lip curling in disgust. "We have an equal partnership, dammit. You're taking the word 'claimed' too literally."

      
"Well, maybe Rowan's one of a kind," Rain said. "But when a wolf normally claims you, then you become his property. I've seen it around this town too much. Rowan's one of a kind."

      
"So, then, how do you explain Hawk?" Eva asked, pointing towards the door. "Because he sure is loving with that girl he just met. He sure is treating her well."

      
"Hawk's weird. Besides, he looks up to Rowan, so naturally he'll follow his lead. You should see how Aster is with women—that would completely change your view of male wolves."

      
"Aster is damaged goods. He can't help it."

      
"Sure, give him an excuse. Wolves like Aster are a dime a dozen, though. They can't all have that same excuse."

      
"I'm sorry you feel that way, Rain," Eva said, her beautiful eyes dropping with sadness. Rain almost wanted to step forward and hug her friend—she hated to see any kind of disappointment on that perfect face. "I'm sure when you meet the right guy, it will fall into place for you. The right guy will rock your world and he'll love you."

      
Rain didn't want love, she wanted the kind of wild sex she'd always heard about but had never experienced. Love would be a nice side-effect, but all she wanted was a purely physical relationship. One that was worthy of being purely physical.

      
"I'm not so sure," Rain said, giving Eva a knowing look. It was enough to pique Eva's interest one more time.

      
"Why do you say that?"

      
"Because the man who can rock my world won't be any normal man. He'll be wild and out of control, and he'll need to be tamed. I'll break him like a wild bronco, you'll see. Mama needs a challenge."

      
Eva busted up laughing, forcing Rain to do the same. Together they laughed like two old girlfriends, enjoying an inside joke. What Eva didn't realize was that this was no joke. Rain was one hundred percent serious.

      
"Fucking wolves," Beorn muttered under his breath as he loaded up the back of his truck with supplies. It had been several weeks since he'd made any trips into Bucklin, and he'd forgotten how irritating it was overall. He was going to have a heart attack if he didn't get out of here soon.

      
Everywhere he turned, there were wolves walking around like they owned the place. They all stunk, too, offending his nostrils each time they walked by. Of course, in addition to the copious amount of wolves, he had to deal with loud, obnoxious humans at every turn. The wolves in Bucklin loved their tourism industry and they loved it when the humans came to their quaint town to spend their money.

      
It really bothered Beorn how these wolves had evolved into something they weren't. Shifters were wild animals with a human side, not humans with an animal side. They had completely lost touch with what they were, another factor that pissed Beorn off to no end. He wondered how long it had been since many of them had shifted. Beorn couldn't go a whole day without shifting, but he expected it had been years for some of these wolves.

      
"Maybe that Forrest guy has it all figured out," he muttered to himself as he tied the tarp down over the back of his truck bed. "Maybe he knows better than any of these other assholes in town. Shifters weren't meant to live in houses or around humans."

      
"That's one man's opinion," a voice said from behind him.

      
A lesser man might have jumped or spun around in shock, but Beorn just kept working the knot on his rope: he was made of sterner stuff. This voice was not unfamiliar to him and he shouldn’t have been shocked that he was hearing it. His old friend always had a way of finding him when he came to town.

      
"Took you long enough to find me, Thorn," he muttered.

      
"You know I always find my favorite bear when he's in town," the alpha wolf said.

      
Beorn turned slowly, warily looking at the only wolf he could ever stand to be around.

      
The Stonewall pack alpha was always an interesting sight to behold. Flamboyant and showy, he wasn’t afraid to flaunt every physical gift he had. Today he wore a black see-through shirt with no sleeves that seemed to shimmer in the mid-afternoon sun. He wore dark sunglasses, but Beorn knew his bewitching violet eyes were just on the other side of those lenses, always piercing anyone who looked at them. His dreadlocks seemed to have gotten longer, all pulled back and running down his impressively muscled back. He wore black leather pants that looked like a second skin at this point. Beorn couldn’t decide if he looked like a goth movie reject or a gay club owner.

      
“What do you want, Thorn?” Beorn asked, sighing deeply. He just wasn’t in the mood to deal with pack politics, especially after the last couple of days. He’d had his fill of wolves for the time being.

      
“How about a drink tonight?” Thorn asked, a smile creeping across his face. His teeth were large and pearly white, nearly blinding Beorn as the sun reflected off of them. The alpha wolf stood calmly and casually with his hands clasped behind his back, a cocky assuredness written across his face.

      
“I don’t feel like it,” Beorn said, hoping the gruffness in his voice would put off Thorn’s invitation. “I bought a lot of stuff and I need to get home.”

      
“Come on, friend,” Thorn said, still unmoving in his confidence. “It’s been far too long. I heard you’ve had an interesting few days.”

      
“I have,” Beorn admitted. “Still, I just don’t want to. I’ve had enough wolves for a long time.”

      
“Pish posh,” Thorn said, flipping one hand dismissively. “You should meet me at Peppercorn’s around eight. We’ll share a bottle of whiskey.”

      
It was nearly impossible for shifters to get drunk—their bodies metabolized the alcohol too fast. But Beorn enjoyed the smooth burn of a good bottle of whiskey. It was just like a child drinking a soda pop and letting the bubbles dance on their tongue.

      
“I suppose I have no choice,” Beorn muttered. “I’ll see you there.”

      
“I’m looking forward to it,” Thorn said, clapping his hands in front of him. “You can catch me up on what’s new.”

      
Beorn knew there was an ulterior motive to this meeting. Thorn and Aster had no idea what had happened with Hawk in the forest and Thorn was going to do everything possible to pump Beorn for that information. He was a very engaging wolf and he usually got what he wanted, but Beorn was harder for him to pull his tricks on.

      
It pissed Beorn off that he was so familiar with so many wolves, especially the important ones. He had spent his childhood playing with Thorn, Rowan and Aster. Occasionally Hawk would join them, but for the most part it was the usual foursome. Rowan and Aster were like brothers, so they always broke off, forcing Thorn and Beorn to branch off together too. Beorn was older than the other boys so Thorn had always looked up to him. As he got older and Beorn realized there was something different about him, Thorn came around less and less.

      
Then Satan’s Angels attacked, and all of his friends lost their parents. Luckily they weren’t little children anymore; they had grown into young adults. Still, they all had their own grief and pain to be stricken with. Beorn might have looked gruff and might have carried himself like an asshole, but his heart went out to all of them. He had experienced the same thing; the only difference was, his experience was the way of the bear.

      
Bears are solitary creatures and they wean their cubs in adolescence, which left Beorn by himself by the time he was fourteen. It hurt not to have his mother or father around to take care of him; after all, this wasn’t the way humans treated their offspring. But bear-shifters tended to be more in touch with the wild animal inside than even wolves were. The experience made Beorn strong, stronger than anyone else he knew. It also changed something in Beorn. His bear was constantly growling for a mate, demanding to spread his genetic seed, but Beorn would not give in to him. Unlike the wolves, who were on the brink of disaster with their own inner beasts, Beorn had complete control of his. The bear side of him and the human side worked in perfect harmony, allowing him to squash any wild desires before they became a problem. Beorn would not have children; he refused to put his children through the pain he'd been forced to go through. He also refused to end up like his wolf friends' parents: dead and leaving orphans behind. There was too much that could go wrong and the world was too fucked up to bring a child into these days—especially a shifter child.

      
It wasn’t long after Satan’s Angels left that Thorn came looking for Beorn. He excitedly told his old friend everything there was to know about the new packs, the new system of government and the new alphas who had taken over. He was more excited about the fact that he himself was an alpha—allowing him a say in Bucklin’s affairs.

      
Beorn was happy for his friend, not yet feeling the weight of years of solitude. In those days he was happier, more willing to help his friends out. He wasn’t prepared for what happened next, though.

      
Before he could speak any words of congratulations Thorn had dove into his arms, laying a heavy kiss on Beorn’s lips. Beorn immediately shoved his friend away and jumped back, his lips curling in disgust.

      
“What the hell is your problem?” he had said to Thorn.

      
“I finally realized who I am, Beorn,” Thorn had declared, looking at the sky. “I’ve always loved you, my friend, and I can’t lie to myself anymore.”

      
Beorn was ashamed of his reaction nowadays. He had cast Thorn out of his territory and banished him from ever returning. It was a petty and childish reaction, one born from fear and ignorance more than anything else.

      
Over the next couple of years he didn’t see or hear from Thorn, until one day during a heavy winter snowfall. Beorn was driving home and he saw a car stranded on the side of the road. His heart immediately sank when he pulled up and Thorn walked up to his side window.

      
He gave his old friend a ride back to his territory, promising to return him when the snow let up. Just being close to him made Beorn uncomfortable, but it also calmed something deep inside of him.

      
Over the long weekend they were snowed in together Thorn had put it all on the line, explaining that he was in fact homosexual and that the rest of the alpha council knew about it and that they had all accepted him for who he was, except Forrest. It broke Thorn’s heart that he had been rejected by Beorn, but over time he had realized he had put Beorn in an awkward position by coming on to him so strong. It wasn’t fair to force Beorn to try and love him. It wouldn’t have been fair if Beorn was a male or a female.

      
Beorn accepted Thorn for who he was. It was who Thorn was; he was born that way and there was nothing wrong with it. Somehow their relationship came out stronger and they were both better off for it. Thorn was mated now, to a male wolf from his own pack. Opinions in town varied wildly, but he was an alpha and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

      
Thorn came around less and less with each passing year as he grew happier and happier with his mate, leaving Beorn alone more and more. Maybe that was when his bitterness had truly grown, he thought, because the one wolf who had always been there since his childhood had found love where Beorn couldn’t. There weren’t many bear shifters left in the forest and Beorn sure as hell wasn’t going to shack up with a wolf or a human.

      
Even a man whose love preference is frowned upon by society as a whole can find love, but I can’t find anyone to even talk to me,
Beorn had thought on more than one occasion. He shouldn’t think that way; it was just petty jealousy. Thorn deserved every bit of happiness he could find—he was the one alpha who played everything straight. He didn’t politic and he didn’t resort to underhanded tactics. You always knew where you stood with Thorn regarding Bucklin matters and Beorn could respect that.

      
As Beorn shut the door of his truck he looked at his friend still standing on the sidewalk, smiling at Beorn as his truck roared to life.

      
“Maybe I should have given in to him,” Beorn muttered as he put the truck into gear. “At least then I wouldn’t be alone.”

      
He was too big and strong to be having a pity party, but occasionally they cropped up. Even the sternest of men found themselves ruled by their hearts.

      
"I look fucking sexy," Rain said, spinning around in Rowan's living room. She'd picked out the tightest red dress she could find in the back of her closet, one that accentuated her lean, hard muscles in addition to her small, yet perky and at attention breasts. The thing that stuck out to Rain the most, though, was how her ass looked in the dress. It was round and shapely, not like that of a girl who spent too much time on the couch eating ice cream, but like that of a woman who worked out day in and day out. She'd avoided doing her makeup too gaudily but she'd fixed her hair with a curling iron for the first time in a long time.