Bear with Me (Half-breed Shifter Series)

  BEAR WITH ME

  Half-breed Shifter Series : Book 5

  By

  Miranda Stowe

  Bear with Me

  Copyright 2014 by Miranda Stowe

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses or establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book—except in the case of brief quotations in reviews—may be used or reproduced without written permission of the author.

  Contact Information : stowe.miranda@gmail.com

  Cover Art : Kage Covers Design

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Brick Lowery didn’t have a lot of friends. Aside from his asocial tendencies, large stocky body, enormous gawky nose, shaggy hair and awkward gait, he was just plain weird. At least, that’s what all his classmates told him.

  Mama said he was merely going through a stage. He’d grow into himself. But he had a feeling she had to say that because she was his mother. Inside, he knew he was different. None of the other kids at school could ever smell what he smelled, they didn’t like going off by themselves as much as he did, and they over-valued some of the most ridiculous things he thought were just plain meaningless.

  But lately, his weirdness was even creeping him out. It had started with the hair. As soon as puberty hit, it had begun to grow...in the strangest places. He’d taken his concerns to Mama, but she hadn’t even bothered to glance up from the magazine she was flipping through before waving him off.

  “Of course you’re growing hair in strange places. You’re getting older. Everyone does.”

  But he’d seen the other boys changing for gym class and none of them had gotten quite as much hair as he had. He’d taken to leaving his gym clothes on under his school clothes so no one could see him without a shirt.

  It was too bad he was the product of a one-night stand; he’d really like to ask a father some questions about other things too. But there was no adult male in his life. There was just Mama, which was fine. He adored his mother to distraction.

  But even his beloved Mama had grown concerned when this winter had hit. Exhaustion bore down on Brick with a vengeance, and he couldn’t get out of bed in the mornings for anything. It took nearly an act of God for Mama to pull and yank and demand he get up and ready for school. Finally, still half out of it, he’d stumble awake and slug through each day, only to collapse on his mattress as soon as he made it back home. And weekends...well, Mama had given up completely on trying to wake him during the weekends.

  They’d visited a doctor’s office three times already, thinking he had mono or some kind of rare malady. But every physician announced him as healthy as a horse. One had set his hands on his hips and shaken his head in absolute bewilderment. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were trying to go into hibernation.”

  The word stirred a warm feeling of comfort inside Brick. Hibernation. Yes, that’s exactly what he wanted to do. He just wanted to keep the blankets up over his windows, burrow under his covers into a nice warm den, and hibernate until Spring.

  Mama said that was ridiculous, though, and she kept trying to force him awake every day for school. Just like she did this fateful morning.

  Mondays were the worst. After his nice weekend nap, he was even more resistant to waking up.

  “Brick!” she yelled, probably for the fifth time in the past five minutes. “I mean it. Get your ass up or I’m pouring a bucket of cold water on your head.”

  He groaned something unintelligible, still half out of it, and kept the five layers of blankets on top of him firmly tucked in around him, covering him from head to toe. Then he settled back in and began to drift off once more.

  “That’s it!” His mother’s scream two feet away roused him less than a minute later. “I’ve had enough of this. You are going to wake up. NOW!”

  The covers were promptly ripped away, and icy cold water splashed him in the face, shocking him completely awake. Pissed off to the extreme, he stood up on his bed, roaring, “Mama!”

  Except the word Mama didn’t leave his mouth. It’s what he meant to say, it’s what his brain told his lips to shout, but it’s not at all what came out. Instead, an animalistic rumble ominously echoed around the walls of the tiny chamber.

  What was even more confusing was that his head bumped the ceiling when he stood up.

  If all that hadn’t clued him in that something was definitely wrong, Mama’s reaction definitely would have. Her eyes bulged from their sockets before she dropped the bucket she was holding and screamed bloody murder. The sound she made could’ve put a horror flick heroine to shame. If Brick didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought his mama was seriously terrified of him.

  Trembling and clutching her mouth, she backed toward the opened doorway behind her as if afraid any sudden moment would prompt him into charging.

  He cocked his head to the side. “Mama?” But again, only a thunderous snarl emerged.

  She screeched and turned to race away.

  Hoping off the bed to follow her and find out what was wrong, Brick landed on all fours and the muscles in his body jiggled from the landing as if he’d put on about three-hundred pounds.

  Startled, he glanced down, wondering why the heck he was standing on all fours like some kind of dog. When he saw brown fur, he screamed, except yeah, only a growl emerged.

  What the hell? He lifted his arms, or front paws, or whatever the hell they were off the ground and, glad he could still move on his back legs, he scrambled to the mirror. When a bear stared back, he stumbled in reverse patting his face. Tripping over the clothes on the floor that Mama told him to pick up last week, he sprawled backward, landing on his ass.

  A shock of pain speared through him, and a tingling sensation spread from the base of his spine, covering his skin, or fur, or whatever he had now. Scrambling upright again, he regained his footing and returned to the mirror. But Brick—the human—was back in the reflection. A naked Brick, which was odd because he distinctly remembered being too tired to even strip off his shoes, much less his school clothes, when he’d crawled into bed on Friday.

  With a quick glance, he confirmed his clothes and sneakers were a shredded mess on his mattress as if he’d busted out of them like the Hulk...or a huge grizzly bear.

  “What the fuck?” he whispered, glad Mama hadn’t heard him swear, because he didn’t want to get whacked on the back of his head by the palm of her hand for profanity. But if there were ever a time to curse, it was now.

  “Mama?” Snatching up a pair of boxer shorts off the carpet that he’d just tripped over, Brick tried to shimmy into them and run from the room at the same time, only managing to stumble and jab his shoulder into the wall.

  He found his mother in the living room, her back to the hallway and a phone clutched to her ear. “Please help me. Please help me! There’s a...there’s a...in my son’s bedroom.”

  “Mama,” he gasped. She screamed and whirled around, dropping the phone.

  “Brick! Oh, my God. Oh, my baby.” She pulled him close and hugged him as hard as she’d ever hugged him before. Since he was already a foot taller than her, he pulled her in and let her burrow her cheek against his heartbeat. For a full minute, they clung to each other, the fear of both them soaking the room
with relief that they were both okay.

  Finally, Mama pulled away and gaped up at him. “But how did you get away? There was a...a bear in your room. In your bed!”

  He gulped, dread filling his veins. “You saw it too?”

  She bobbed her head up and down. “Where did it go? What happened?”

  Good question. “I don’t...I don’t know. It just...it was like it was inside me. Or outside really, but I was still inside, and there was...we were one. But then I was me again, and the bear was gone.”

  Mama blinked at him and clutched her hands together just under her chin. “Baby, that don’t make no sense. Just tell me where the bear went.”

  “I...it didn’t go anywhere. I was the bear. And then...then I wasn’t.”

  She stomped her foot and scowled. “Brick Michael Lowery. There was a God damn bear in your bedroom. Where. Did. It. Go?”

  She didn’t understand. Or maybe she was just refusing to listen. Brick held up a finger. Maybe he could make it happen again. He’d returned to human just by willing it to happen. Maybe...if he just concentrated...

  He squinted up his face, gnashed his teeth, strained his muscles. And pop!

  His mother screamed and ran from the living room.

  A little excited it’d been so easy to accomplish, he concentrated again, and wham! Human once more. And boxerless...again.

  “Mama!” He chased her down the hall. “Wait. It’s me. See.” But she’d already slammed the door in his face. Fisting his hand, he pounded. “Mama. What are you doing? It’s me. It’s Brick. Your son.” The only answer he got was her muffled sobbing. “What’s happening to me?” he demanded.

  When she still hadn’t answered him after five minutes, his fear and confusion was replaced by rage. Fisting his hand, he pounded on the door...only to tear it off its hinges. As it crumbled inward to the floor and opened a path to his mother, Mama gaped at him from inside her bedroom before fleeing into her private bath where she slammed the door and locked him out.

  A little intimidated over what he’d just done, Brick backed away, deciding to leave his mother alone for a while. He retreated to his room and crawled into his bed, wrapping his blankets up over his shoulders. Pulling his knees to his chest, he hugged himself and rocked back and forth.

  Before the day ended, his entire world changed.

  Apparently, it wasn’t enough to learn to he could turn into an animal and back to human again all in one day. No, his mother had to turn his life completely upside down on its head.

  He ditched out on school, and after learning what he’d just learned, his treasured sleep was also out of the question. It was nearing dusk when he heard voices coming from the living room. Curious what was going on, he shoved out of his blanket and crept down the hall.

  Two men, who looked entirely too serious and formal for his liking, spoke in quiet, hushed tones with his mother.

  “I don’t care what you do with that...beast. Just get it out of my house.” With her hand pressed to her heart, his mother shook.

  Worried about her, about how much strain this whole bear-inside-her-son revelation was putting on her, Brick stepped into the room. “Mama?”

  She lurched away and scrambled toward the men. One pulled her protectively behind him as he turned to face Brick as if Brick was the threat...to his own mother.

  Brick glanced back and forth between the two men. One had his arms spread out to his side as if ready to play high noon. And even more alarming, he actually had a gun strapped in a holster at his waist. Yet even though he was armed, that guy seemed more curious than he did aggressive. He merely eyed Brick as if Brick were a science experiment.

  “Take it away. Please, just...get it out of my house.” His mother clutched the shirt of the more-aggressive, less-curious man and buried her face into his spine.

  The face of the armed guy twitched before he said, “Ma’am, you do realize the creed of the Hunter Association is to eliminate all shifters? You’re asking us to kill your son.”

  All feeling fled Brick’s limbs. “What?” he gasped, even as his mother snarled, “That is not my baby boy. That monster killed him. And I want it gone...forever.”

  Brick gasped. “No! Mama, I’m right here.” He patted his own chest frantically. “Nothing killed me. I don’t know what’s going on, but...I...I’m still me. I’m still your son.”

  “Just get it out of here,” she screamed, quivering as she cowered against a complete stranger. “Kill it. Kill it. Please. Just kill it.”

  “Mother!” What the hell was she saying? “Are you crazy? I’m not an it. I’m still me. I’m Brick. Your son.”

  He moved toward her, but the the twitchy Hunter pulled up a gun he’d been hiding behind his back and aimed it at Brick’s head.

  Brick knew something funky was going on with him, but he was pretty sure his new abilities didn’t cover stopping a speeding bullet...as least he wasn’t willing to test that theory just yet.

  Realizing what was about to happen, and that his own mother was sanctioning it, Brick stared at the end of the gun as tears blurred his vision. It was a humiliating way to die. Boys weren’t supposed to cry. And being a teenage boy made it even worse. But shit, he was about to die...because his mother commanded it so.

  The Hunter’s finger found the trigger and Brick gulped, just as Hunter number two growled, “Wait. We don’t want to stain Miss Lowery’s carpet, now do we?” He stepped toward Brick, and before Brick knew what he was about to do, he produced a needle and plunged it into the teen’s neck.

  A sharp prick, and wham, blackness overtook him.

  When Brick next blinked himself awake, he was sprawled in the backseat of a car. A motor hummed under him, and the slight jostling back and forth told him the car was moving. It was fully dark now, he had no idea where he was or where he was going.

  Sitting up with a groan, he rubbed the side of his sore neck.

  “Sorry for knocking you out back there,” A male voice from the driver’s seat said. “It was the only way I could think to get you out of the house alive and not blow my cover.”

  Realizing it was the official-looking dude who’d needled his ass, Brick scowled at him. “In that case, I’d say thanks for saving my life. But I don’t feel very thankful at the moment. What the hell is going on?”

  “Well...” The man blew out a long breath. “I can probably answer most of your questions, but I’m not sure where to start. What exactly do you know about what you are?”

  “What I am?” Brick shook his head. “I’m a teenage boy who attends Jasper Middle School. And I woke up this morning as a fucking bear...which I know isn’t possible. But it happened and...and...I don’t know. Did my mom seriously want you guys to kill me?”

  The man didn’t answer the last question. Actually, he was silent for far too long. Growing impatient, Brick clutched the back of the front seat. “I thought you said you had answers. And where’d that other guy who was with you go?”

  “I told him I’d take care of you myself, so he went back to wherever it is he came from.”

  Ice flooded Brick’s veins. “So...you’re still going to kill me?” Though he was scared enough to piss his pants, he snorted. “I’d like to see you try. Did you forget about the part where I can turn into a bear?”

  “Yeah, I heard that. But it doesn’t concern me. I’ve dealt with plenty of bears before.”

  Well, that didn’t sound reassuring. Brick glanced toward the doors of the car, wondering how much it’d hurt if he bailed at fifty-five miles per hour?

  “You don’t have to be scared,” the man finally told him. “My wife and children are half-breeds as well. I won’t be killing you today, Brick.”

  “You...” That today part worried him some, but the word half-breed had him more curious. “What’s a...half-breed?”

  “You are, apparently. Since your mother’s reaction to what you are was so severe, I’m guessing she’s one hundred percent, pure human. That would mean all your shape-shifter come
s from your father’s side...making you half. But you must be pretty diluted if you couldn’t even shift until you hit puberty.”

  Brick shivered at the word shape-shifter. He’d read about them and seen plenty of movies, sure, but...those things weren’t real.

  Were they?

  “I never met my dad,” he mumbled, not sure why that even mattered, but the rest of what he was learning was so mind-blowing, it was easier to focus on the easy, understandable parts. But what the fuck had his dear ol’, nameless father passed on to him?

  “I’m not surprised. If he knew your mother was as opposed to shifters as she seems to be, I can’t blame him for taking off. But leaving you with her is a little more puzzling...unless he never learned you existed.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Brick shook his hands, needing to blot out all the confusion filling him. “You’re saying I’m seriously a shape-shifter.”

  “Yes. A half-breed shape-shifter.”

  “And...and I had to have inherited it from my dad? I didn’t get bitten by a radioactive spider or anything to turn into this?”

  In the rearview mirror, he saw the man’s mouth twitch with humor. “Wouldn’t you shift into a spider instead of a bear if a spider and turned you?”

  “Well, I think I would’ve noticed if I’d been bitten by any bears recently.”

  This time, the man chuckled. “Good point. Not that any of it matters. You can’t be ‘turned’ into this kind of shifter. It’s purely hereditary.”

  Brick chewed on his bottom lip, thinking that through. It was easier to think about this than the fact that his mother had just—yeah, lots easier to think about this.

  Shit, he still couldn’t believe his mother had not only disowned him, but she’d actually begged complete strangers to—

  And yep, still not going to think about that. His bottom lip started to tremble. Damn it, he did not want to start crying again.

  “So, you’re one too, right?” he asked, ducking his face to swipe the back of his hand across his eyes. “You’re a shape-shifter who works undercover for that Hunter gang to...to save kids like me?”