Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
The bears.
His arm is the same color as the bears in the woods, and it gradually spreads higher, taking over his bicep, stretching his shirt as his shoulder becomes bulkier. Before my eyes, it slowly morphs back into his human arm, and my fingers grip the hardwood as it happens.
The other side of the coin. Not human.
Not a werewolf. A changeling.
I’ve read fantasy books about creatures that can blend from one form into another at will, but I never thought they really existed.
My eyes must be deceiving me. They must be.
This can’t be real.
“I won’t hurt you,” Robert says softly. “In either form. Unless it’s in a way you like.” He grins, his eyes full of shame and hope, and I must look like a startled rabbit because his face falls.
“You’re… you’re—”
“A bear,” he says softly. “Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?” I shake my head, the reality of what I’ve seen still not sinking in. “How?”
“That’s a good question. It’s just how it is. How it’s always been.”
“You mean like a genetic thing?”
Robert nods and turns from the window, his hand now completely human again. He reaches out to touch my face, and I flinch. His expression falls, and he buries his hands in his pockets. “Our family, for as long as we can trace, could change form.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Many,” he says but doesn’t elaborate. I must be dreaming. Am I still asleep in the bed in the sex room? I look around, and everything looks too crisp to be a dream. I pinch the skin on my arm, and it hurts. Not a dream.
The world is nothing like I thought it was. If Robert can really change himself into a bear, what other creatures from children’s storybooks are real? Werewolves? Goblins? Dragons? Fae?
“You look shaken,” he says. I put my hand up, and he stops immediately.
“Are you surprised?” I hold out my trembling hand, looking at it as though it belongs to someone else. “It’s not something I see every day, Robert.”
“It’s not something that I reveal every day. In fact, you’re the only outsider who I’ve ever told. I’ve put us at risk by showing you, but I had to because—”
I push away from the desk and pace to the other side of the room, my mind whirring. It’s not a good thing that he’s told me the truth about himself. How is he going to trust me to leave? I could tell the sheriff. Robert and his brothers could be arrested and locked up. They won’t risk it, will they?
“You’re not going to let me leave, are you?” I say. “Now you’ve shown me this.”
Robert focuses on the ground, avoiding my gaze, confirming my fears.
“I didn’t want you to show me that. I didn’t want you to tell me your secret,” I hiss. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Because you’re destined to be with us, Goldie. It’s not something I’ve chosen. It’s something that has chosen you.”
“I’m not destined for anything!” I shout. “My life is ordered and ordinary, and that’s how I like it.”
Robert shakes his head. “I don’t believe you. If you felt that way, you wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t risk everything.”
I stop in my tracks, his words provocative but hitting me in the gut with their truth. I did take a risk tonight, a risk that proves I’m not content with my life as it is. I came here seeking something more, but not this. Not a weird, fated coupling with three strange men.
Three.
There are three of them, and I’m supposed to be their destiny. How the hell would that work?
“Do you realize how crazy this sounds to me? How crazy this looks?”
“Of course. It’s why our family has lived here for generations, on the outskirts of normal human life.” His voice is low and quiet, and his shoulders slump. I experience an overwhelming sense of sadness for him and for his brothers. What must it be like to live amongst people but never be yourself with them? To carry around such a massive secret for your whole life and not be able to confide in a soul?
A soul until me. I guess I understand because I’ve hidden so much about myself from my family and friends. Only Robert has seen that part of who I am.
“Why me?” I ask softly.
Robert shrugs. “I don’t know. It just works this way for us. The planets aligned on the day you were born. Our instinct tells us you’re a match for us because of your genetic makeup.”
“Genetic makeup. Why would that be a factor?”
A flush spreads high on Robert’s cheekbones. This man has done things to me that no other man has ever had the privilege of doing, but talking makes him blush.
“All of this must be hard to comprehend. Even as I say things, I hear how strange they sound. And I wouldn’t be here with you, telling you these things if it wasn’t imperative. You’re in danger at home.”