Bearly Begun (BBW/Bearshifter Romance) (Bachelor Bears of Yakima Ridge Book 1) by Isadora Montrose Page B

pulled it up to his waist. Great, now he had woken the boys—probably shouting in his dreams.
    “Yes?” Len whispered hoarsely. His voice sounded hard and mean even to him.
    “I had a bad dream,” Cord said fearfully. He opened the door wider and came into the room. He looked as bad as Lenny felt. His blonde hair was matted on one side and damp. His pajamas were limp and he stank worse than Len. Great. Now he was going to have to explain about wet dreams to a kid on the cusp of manhood.
    Lenny reached for his jeans and pulled them on carefully trying not to jostle his poor exploited package any more than he had too. “Let’s go get us some milk, son,” he said.
    “Do you want to tell me about it?” he asked Cord when they were both seated at the kitchen table with glasses of milk and the package of crackers and the jar of peanut butter. The only light came from the street lights outside.
    Cord nodded. “I keep having the same one,” he said hesitantly. He stopped and put an entire peanut butter cracker in his mouth.
    Len decided to save the etiquette lecture for another time. “Go on,” he encouraged.
    Cord swallowed and took a gulp of milk. “I keep dreaming I’m turning into a bear,” he blurted.
    Len nodded. So Joe had been right all along. “Hmm. Is that scary?”
    Cord nodded vigorously and gulped more milk. Lenny filled up Cord’s glass again and thought desperately.
    “What happens in your dreams?” Len asked at last.
    “I turn into a bear. And then I fight people.” Cord’s voice rose in anguish. “I bite them and then they die.”
    Whoa, buddy. Now that didn’t sound like adolescent bear dreams. At least not Lenny’s. Probably different if you didn’t grow up knowing you were a bear and longing for your first shift.
    “You can’t kill people in a dream,” Len reassured the boy.
    Cord put his left arm on the table and pulled up the sleeve of his pajama shirt. From elbow to fingertip it had become a hairy, pale gold forearm and paw with long greyish white claws. He looked at Len in fear. “Do you see it too?”
    “I do. Looks like you’re having your first shift in your sleep.” Len noticed absently that this development had acted like a bucket of cold water on his tender crotch.
    “What do you mean? First shift?” Cord’s eyes were big. He waved his bear arm. “This is nuts.”
    “Not if you’re a bearshifter,” Len assured him.”
    “What’s a bearshifter? Am I turning into a freak?” Cord’s voice rose to a squeak.
    “Not a freak, a bear.” Len paused. “A bearshifter is a man who can take bear form when he wants to.”
    “Like I’m developing superpowers?” Cord’s blue eyes lit up.
    “Sort of. You’re coming into your second form. You’ll be getting some bear power for sure. Strength. Good sense of smell. Stuff like that. Super powers? Not so much. Up to you how you use your bear. First step is learning to control it. A shifter needs self-control.”
    “Huh.”
    “That’s for the future, son. Right this minute, your trouble seems to be that you didn’t return to human form, or not completely. I want you to calm down. Take a deep breath and relax.” Len’s calm bass rumble seemed to relax the agitated youngster.
    “Now think about using your left arm to pick up a cracker. Don’t try it, just think about it.” Len kept his voice level.
    Cord locked his eyes on his furry appendage and thought.
    “Imagine that you want to reach across your plate to that package of crackers. You are going to hold them with your human hand and you need your other hand to be human too. You are going to reach in past the paper and take out just one cracker.” Len’s instructions were clear and calm.
    “Ow!” Cord jumped up and shook his left arm hard. “That hurts.” He danced around in circles howling. But when he looked down at his left arm and hand they were once again human.
    “How did that happen?” he demanded.
    “Same way you turned into a bear,” Lenny