Page 16 of OctoBEARfest

The bear sent an image of them bumbling happily through the woods in bear form, raiding honey or eating berries before napping in a den they'd dug in some tree roots. Then, thoughtfully, it added the idea of Gwen napping with them, all cuddled up snuggly warm against the bear's belly.

Bill couldn't help chuckling.I'm going to have to explain the whole shifter thing before we can do that, buddy. For all I know she'll scream and run off into the woods on her own.

Then we'll chase her!the bear suggested happily, then paused.As long as she doesn't run very far.

As long as she doesn't run far,Bill agreed, amused. It was probably better to let the bear imagine a human could out-pace it on a distance run, although the truth was, even true bears could move a lot faster than humans over at least a couple of miles. Shifter bears had considerably more stamina and a far greater ability to judge their pacing, so in the hypothetical situation where they were chasing Gwen through the woods, she was in trouble.

His bear gasped.Our mate is not in trouble from us!

Another chuckle escaped Bill's chest, and he had the impulse to give his bear a hug.

Bear hugs,it said with satisfaction.

Bear hugs,Bill agreed, and Jon, watching him, said, "That's better. Your bear's reassuring you, isn't it?"

"Something like that." Bill passed a hand over his eyes and glanced at his younger brother. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, you know, keeping busy. I'm actually glad the Faire season is over this year. I don't think I've slept since May."

"I guess it's just about time to hunker down and hibernate, then."

Jon squinted thoughtfully at some distant thing. "Have you ever wanted to try? Just…forget about humaning, go see if you can sleep from December through March?"

"You have no idea," Bill said, heart-felt, and Jon pulled his gaze from the distance to smile at him.

"But who'd get things ready for Faire then, right? We miss you at it, you know that? Steve was never as into it, but you used to be good."

"Somebody's got to run this place, Jon."

"Yeah, I guess there's that. Your girl's back," he added with a lift his his chin toward one of the booths. Bill turned to see Gwen sprawled in it, her guitar across the table and her phone in her hands as she typed lightning fast with her thumbs. "You should go tell her."

"I've only known her for four hours!"

"No time like the present, right? No?" Jon smiled again at Bill's desperate glare. "All right, no. Are you gonna hang out long enough to see Mom and Dad when they get here, or would you rather not introduce her to the parents four hours after she met you?"

"Believe it or not,shesuggested she meet them aboutthreehours after I met her."

"It's fate, bro!" Jon clapped a hand to his heart theatrically, then laughed. "Oh. I guess it really is."

"I don't think I've ever met anybody asconfidentas she is," Bill said a little dazedly. "She blew in here like a rock star—" He broke off with a rough laugh, but turned his hands up, indicating it was true metaphorically as well as literally. "—turned my life upside down, found out what I'd done wrong, and just threw herself into fixing it as best she could all within about fiveminutes. It's like she never met anything she didn't think she could handle."

"Well, in that case Mom and Dad will be a breeze," Jon said. "First because they're really pretty easy-going, and second because you know Mom's been dying for us all to meet our mates and settle down and have a series of large, bear shifter babies, so she'll be thrilled, and if she's happy, Dad's happy."

"Right. Because what rock stars want is to stop their careers to have babies."

"Didn't slow Mick Jagger down any, did it?"

Bill stared at his brother. "Mick Jagger had the easy part, you idiot."

Jon turtled his chin in, looking startled. "Well, I guess that's true. I hadn't thought of that."

"You're an actual Neanderthal. Except I think that's probably doing an injustice to Neanderthals. Seriously, how did the same parents raise us? Youknowhow hard Mom worked with four kids."

Jon said, "I guess," in a tone that suggested he hadn't thought much about that, either.

For the first time, it dawned on Bill that as the oldest, he probably had a much clearer idea of just how hard their motherhadworked with four kids than any of his brothers, but especially Jon and Laurie. Jon had still been a toddler when Laurie was born. He wouldn't remember their mother's frazzled days or the hours of screaming babies and changing diapers the way Bill himself did. He said, "Jesus," under his breath, and then, aloud, added, "You need to go volunteer at a day care or something and get an idea of how much work kids are, man."

"I think you have to bevettedto work at a day care, bro. And probably trained in childcare or something. I don't think they let randos walk in off the street."

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