Page 15 of Baby and the Beast

“Anything,” Jesse croaked.

“If you’re not happy or worried or anything ever goes wrong, come and find me. I don’t care what or how long. My number is in your phone.”

Jesse nodded, tears threatening.

Seth bent and dropped another kiss on Maddox’s head and cupped Jesse’s cheek, then without a word, he turned and headed upstairs. Jesse didn’t know how he found the strength, but he turned and left the house. By the time he reached the end of the driveway, the cab had pulled up, and he couldn’t hold the tears in any longer.

Baby and the Bear

Chapter Seven – Three months later

Seth locked the door carefully and headed to his new truck, having absolutely no idea if he was doing the right thing. All he knew was he couldn’t stay here. Not without—

Seth tried to force his mind to focus on the here and now. The past was firmly in the past, and he wasn’t going to see them again. He had even tried making an offer on the cabins but had been too late, so he’d started surfing for similar types of deals because he was serious about changing his life. He’d eventually found one in his budget a little under five hours away nearer the Monongahela National Forest but not so close that he would have to learn to ski, or he hoped not anyway. They definitely had a busy winter season and the tiny local town seemed to have missed all the huge tourist development, but even more importantly this small area didn’t have the amenities needed for a proper resort. It was the sort of area someone would want for a complete getaway. There wasn’t even a local bar, and the nearest grocery store was three miles away.

All Seth’s old co-workers thought he’d lost his mind. He wasn’t convinced he hadn’t, he just knew he had to get away and do something completely different or he would prove them right.

He tucked the chocolate Lab mix puppy into her car restraint, which she didn’t seem too fond of, and kissed her silky head. “Not too long, sweetheart. Then you get to run and play all you want.” She licked his hand in response, then sighed and curled up. He’d fallen apart after Jesse and Maddox had left and spent a miserable week wondering what he was going to do with the rest of his life until he’d seen an ad for a local animal shelter and had been down there as soon as he had dragged clothes on. She had given him a focus. Having something to look after and dependent on him had kept him going when he could have quite easily given up. He’d even named her after one of the characters in Jesse’s favorite film.

Matty had called him once more from Cancún about a marvelous development opportunity. Seth had listened to him spout off about the exclusive beach area and the nightclub for about four minutes—at least three minutes and fifty-nine seconds too long—then had happily wished him luck and hung up. He blocked Matty’s number and thanked God he had remembered to report his credit cards as stolen. Apparently, he was even getting the refund for the $450 someone had fraudulently spent within the first hour the card had been taken on an expensive bottle of champagne, and they wouldn’t be able to spend anymore. He shouldn’t gloat, but it was tempting.

The only problem with this development was that there were no cabins ready for rental so instead of renting his house out as he had originally planned, he had sold it because he needed the cash. It wasn’t a case of just doing repairs; two of the cabins practically needed demolishing, and he needed money for that.

The only one that could be considered remotely livable was up by the tree line. Too far away from the lake. More private but that also meant not quite as good a view.

Who am I kidding?More private and nearer the forest meant it was likely to be more attractive to bear shifters, but he knew even that thought was ridiculous. Jesse was gone. Even if he ever came back, he wouldn’t be able to find Seth. Seth had left a forwarding address for his mail which was good for one year. It was the only thing he could think of to do. He’d even given in only one day after Jesse had left and called him on his new cell phone. Just to see if they were okay. But it had rung once, and then he’d gotten a message to say it was out of service.

As a goodbye, it was especially heartbreaking. It told him that Jesse was moving on, and even though it hurt so much, he understood. Maddox was the important thing here, not him. He knew that.

It took a little longer to drive to the cabin since he had to stop to let Leia pee twice. She was good, but he’d never taken her on a car ride longer than fifteen minutes to a larger park, so he didn’t want to chance it. It was approaching dusk by the time he eventually got there. He jumped out, putting Leia down so she could pee again, and hefted his three bags and all the groceries inside, and stopped. The cabin was roughly the same size as the other one. Two bedrooms plus a bathroom and a lounge and small kitchen. Or they would be when they were finished. He’d had an electrician come and make sure he had power because the occasional bookkeeping work he had taken on to earn money while he got the cabins rentable required internet, and eyed the fireplace longingly, knowing he couldn’t light that until he had the chimney checked out. The building itself was supposed to be leak proof but it needed a lot of work to get it fit for next winter.

Once he’d unpacked and fed Leia he caught himself looking down the hillside and wondering if it might be nice to get in awalk to the lake before it got dark. One of the reasons why he’d liked the development was the fact that each cabin could barely be seen from the others. There was also a patch of land near a stream at the bottom where he could build two more if he wanted. They wouldn’t be as private, but for weekend getaways they were ideal. He’d checked out the fishing rights and licenses and he could provide that for his renters later on as well if he chose.

He decided to get out Leia’s new coat because she was still only a puppy and needed to acclimatize to the colder weather, or he thought so, and they set off down the hill. He explored as much as he could, but the light was fading and he was getting hungry. To be honest there wasn’t much to see. At least two of the buildings were unsafe and he didn’t want Leia getting hurt. Calling Leia, he started trudging up the incline. He hadn’t lost weight in the last three months but he was definitely fitter. If Leia’s baby legs didn’t make it to the top, he could just carry her. Not that he could do that for much longer since she was growing like a weed.

They were panting by the time they approached the tree line, then suddenly Leia growled for the first time. Stunned, he stopped to look down at her. All her hair was up on her neck, and she growled again. Seth lunged for her just as she barked and set off into the trees. “Leia!” he yelled, fear for her making his voice sharp. He cursed himself for being carless not to have her on a leash. The loud snap of branches and a small yelp nearly stopped his heart, but then Leia raced back toward him and he simply bent and scooped her up. She was trembling but before he even managed a step to the cabin, a huge brown bear lumbered out of the trees and straight toward him.

He was going to die. For a wild, insane moment he hoped it was a shifter. Jesse had said there were others, right? But this one opened its huge jaws and let out an angry roar. Seth knew hewouldn’t make it to the cabin. He was cut off. He turned, trying to protect Leia with his body, and looked for a weapon, a stone anything, but in the two seconds that thought had cost him, the bear charged.

And then before he could admit he was royally screwed, get his legs to work, or pray for a miracle, a miracle happened on its own. He heard the second roar and a smaller, but no less ferocious, black bear crashed out of the trees, roared its anger, and ran straight into the brown one. Not wasting a second of the diversion, Seth ran straight past them both and into the cabin, locking the door with trembling fingers. Although, that was hardly going to keep out whichever one of those that won the fight.

He didn’t have anything. Getting a gun had never even crossed his mind, and it wasn’t like he hadn’t read up on bears. They were shy. Only came looking for food. He hugged Leia to him. Leia wasn’t a snack. He took a few more heaving breaths, recalling the image of the smaller bear coming to his rescue.

No.

He shook his head in immediate denial.

It couldn’t be. But…and because he was insane, he scooped Leia up and ran with her to the bedroom, closing her in, then, with his heart racing way faster than his mind or common sense, he unlocked the door and stepped out. They were still there. The brown bear lifted itself up on its hind legs and took a swipe with a much bigger paw at the black one, and he heard the black one cry out like it had just been hurt.

Seth bent and his fingers closed around a small rock. Without questioning his sanity, because he’d clearly said goodbye to that a few weeks ago, he took aim and launched it at the bigger bear.

And managed to get its attention.Fuck.Seth put his hand to his chest, convinced his heart was going to stop any second, but then the black bear dropped to all fours, huffed, turned, andloped into the trees. Seth immediately focused on the second and cursed himself for being stupid, optimistic, crazy even. Or just delusional. The smaller bear was back on all fours with its head hung low and alarm of a different sort ran through him. He couldn’t see well enough in the dusk…no– that was insane. He wasn’t going to see Jesse ever again, much as he wished he could. He took an involuntary step closer as the bear lifted its head and they stared at each other for a moment. Then the bear turned and started to walk but it was limping. It shuffled another step then pitched forward. It seemed to take two huge breaths then before Seth’s startled gaze it shifted.

And not only could Seth see the bare skin of the human that lay in its place, he could also see the blood and he raced over, in no doubt of what or who he was going to see when he got there. He bent down, met Jesse’s pain-filled eyes, and gently helped him up. Seth could see he was bleeding quite badly from a slash that ran down his side from his ribs to his hip bone. Jesse took two steps before his eyes rolled back and Seth caught him as he passed out.

How the hell Seth managed to get him inside and on the air mattress was anyone’s guess. Jesse wasn’t small. He laid him down, then quickly let Leia out because she was howling, but she curled up out of the way and let Seth get on with…what?He pushed the shock back and got out the small first aid kit he had.Where was Maddox?That was his biggest worry, but he knew Jesse well enough to know he wouldn’t leave Maddox in an unsafe place, so he just concentrated on cleaning the cut and warming Jesse up. Weren’t they supposed to heal when they shifted? He was sure that’s what Jesse had said after Maddox was born, and it might have stopped bleeding, but it definitely hadn’t healed.

“Am I dreaming?”

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