Page 23 of Bear for the Holidays

They sat in silence, watching as the white cat pushed out another kitten. Nik thought she was probably calmer about it than they were, even managing a soft, almost humming, purr from time to time.

It’s all fine, silly humans,she seemed to be saying.All I needed was a safe place to nest and some food, and I have everything handled. Calm down. Perhaps fetch me some more tuna.

“Oh hey, look at the new one,” Deanna said suddenly.

Startled, he looked closer, and yes, there was something strange about the newest kitten, who was a coal black compared to its pale siblings. It nursed as easily as the first two, but there seemed to be some kind of growth on its back, giving it a lumpy shape.

“Huh,” Nik muttered. “Okay, I might be about to do something dumb.”

He reached gingerly into the drawer, moving slowly so that the mother cat could see what he was doing at all times. She hissed half-heartedly at him, but allowed him to prod at her kitten with an extremely gentle finger, teasing out the structure on its back so he could see it more clearly.

After a moment, she decided enough was enough, lifting one of her rear legs to push his hand away, and Nik sighed, pulling back.

“Well, that explains a few things,” he said.

“Does that baby have wings?” Deanna squeaked. “Honest to goodness wings?”

“Yup. And the other two don’t. We’d been wondering for a while if these little guys breed true. All the other kittens we’ve found come from litters with bat-winged momsandbat-winged dads.”

“I guess this is one for the record books,” Deanna mused, reaching into the drawer to pet the mother cat’s head. The cat gave a tired but pleased-sounding purr, curling more tightly around her babies.

“It really is. Well, Ard’s going to be excited to know, and he can talk with Dag, who’s the big bat-winged cat specialist in the midwest. All knowledge is good knowledge. Come on. I think mama could use a little break from all the visitors.”

“How do you get to be the big bat-winged cat specialist in the midwest, or any given region, for that matter?”

“Easy. You’re the one who’s not fast enough to saynot itwhen people have a litter of unwanted cryptid kittens to rehome. I think he’s on his third bottle-raised litter at this point.”

*

After feeding the wood stove., Nik went out again before dark, a shorter trip than the first one, but no less frigid. The snow had slowed, but it was far from stopping, and the temperature had dropped in fits and starts until he reckoned it was approaching zero. There was no sign of the bat-winged cat, either in the trees or his traps, but something told Nik he was still close.

He wouldn’t leave his mate,Nik couldn’t help thinking. In his line of work, it was a bad idea to attribute human emotions to animal instincts. He was probably letting the fact that he and Deanna had found each other cloud his thoughts, but he couldn’t quite shake the idea that he was right.

“Any luck?” Deanna asked when he returned.

“Unfortunately not. I’ll check again tomorrow morning. Maybe by then, my scent will have died down enough that he ventures into one of the shelters.

“Do you think he would be braver if you went in your bear form?”

“I doubt it. No one likes an apex predator.”

“Oh,” she said, and he tilted his head at her disappointed voice.

“What’s up?”

“I kind of hoping that I’d get to see you shift,” she said apologetically. “I know it’s not, like, a circus trick or anything like that. I wouldn’t ask you to shift just so I can–oh wow.”

Inwardly, Nik grinned as his vision went a little dimmer and the rest of his senses skyrocketed. In his bear form, he could smell the food they had prepared earlier, the cat and her kittens in the bedroom, and most important of all, Deanna,hisDeanna who was looking at him as if she had never seen anything so amazing.

“Oh, you’re beautiful,” she said, her dark eyes as round as saucers. “I can’t believe you’re real. Can I–that is, can I come closer?”

Carefully, he nodded, because trying to talk in his bear form produced a series of threatening growls, and smiling meant baring far too many teeth. As Deanna fearlessly crossed the cabin towards him, though, Nik had the idea that he needn’t have worried. There was nothing in his mate that suggested fear, and when she stood so close to him, he could smell her as well, her shampoo, the food she ate, the smell of her skin. It was all her, and it was all good, and he didn’t know he had thrust his head under her hand until he heard her delighted laugh.

“Oh, I can’t believe howgorgeousyou are,” she crooned, her fingers magically finding the best places to scratch behind his ears and his throat. He felt there should maybe be a lecture here, something about never being so intimate with a wild animal she didn’t know, but he wasn’t a wild animal, he was hers, and right now, all he wanted was for her to smile, to laugh, and to never stop scratching him under his chin.

He wasn’t aware he was making a contented groaning rumble until Deanna laughed again, her fingers buried deep in the ruff circling his neck and his shoulders.

“Just as if you were purring. I love this. I love every part of it. I love how warm you are. If the power goes off, I’m going to go right to sleep next you, and you can wake me for spring.”

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