A Bear's Baby by Vanessa Devereaux Page B

chance that Brady might want a true relationship with her,
tonight’s fiasco had probably brought it to a roaring halt.

 
    ****
    Brady
watched as the skin from the injury joined together. He threw away the bandage.   He felt somewhat guilty. Poor David
wasn’t lying about him being a bear. Bear shifter if he wanted to be picky. The
closeness of the smell of the bear during the attack had probably left the
scent etched in his brain forever. He could only imagine what the poor guy must
have gone through. He knew the fierceness that resided in a bear. Even some
shifters got into scraps with one another, and if someone didn’t stop them they
could rip each other to bits. A rift over mates or some other argument that
escalated and caused them both to shift into bear or wolf, or cougar form at
the same time and there was trouble.
    But
bear versus human? A human was always going to come off worse. Poor Jenna had seemed
mortified by what had happened. Her brother was telling the truth, but he
couldn’t put her mind at ease by telling her that. What if she thought the poor
guy was going crazy and had him locked up? How could he explain to her what he
was, what they all were, without giving away their secret?
    The
anti-human shifters were right. Being around humans was foolish and dangerous.
But he was somewhat addicted now. He’d had a taste of Jenna and he liked it.
Every time he looked at her, something strange happened in his body. And no, it
was no longer only in his cock.
    There
was no future for them. She hated bears. Her brother would go crazy every time
Brady was around. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, make her choose. That would be wrong.
Therefore, their relationship would never work. He sat and pulled the gift
she’d given him onto his lap. He smiled. He liked her sense of humor. Liked it
a lot. He put the frame on the table in his bedroom and walked to the window
where he’d placed the telescope. A Christmas gift he’d brought for himself.
    Brady
looked through it. One of the other reasons he loved this house. There was an
opening in the fir trees where he could see the night sky. Being this far out
of town and away from any lights, the stars twinkled and put on a wonderful
show. He didn’t have to wait for their star gazing get-togethers. He could glance
up there and figure out where his home once was.
    He
was sure his home was straight ahead. Maybe to the left just a tad. The gap in
a host of stars where their planet had been.
    He
bit his lip. He hadn’t cried for years. Not since he was a young boy. A sudden
orphan on planet Earth. None of the surviving adult shifters had taken him in.
Some of the orphans had been lucky to find new families. Maybe they’d seen his
independence even before they arrived here. They had realized this bear could
make it on his own. It was that attitude that had driven him to be Mr. Perfect.
The guy who was going to take the human business world by storm.
    A
loner, he’d moved to Vancouver, and then Vancouver Island. He’d met only a
handful of shifters there, and in his heart he’d always wanted to return to the
place where they’d landed. Kalispell. Most of them thought of it as a second home,
a temporary home should they ever find a way to go back to their planet. He
really did like it here. He’d made up his mind to stay.
    He
looked into the sky again. Nope, no chance of them ever going back to their
true home. It was gone and gone for good.
    Maybe
it was the time of the year. Maybe that’s why bears on earth hibernated. They
were introspective creatures, and the holidays made them sad. Humans thought of
bears as loners but that was all a show, a front. They loved company.
    He’d
never felt so all alone in all his life. Perhaps he should find his mate,
settle down and make some babies.
    ****
    Jenna
made an appointment for her and David to meet with a therapist. She’d filled
him in on her brother’s crazy notion that Brady was a bear, and told him about
the biting