Love Bear Nun by Ava Hunt

they were cubs. He had watched them grow up, helped teach them from time to time. George was no threat to him. But Rayner felt that familiar urge to fight him.
     
    "What's got you so worked up?" Jeneva was at his side.
     
    Rayner scowled. "Not now, Jeneva."
     
    Jeneva leaned on the bar. "If not now, then when? Rayner, you're always like this. This is why your fights are so bad. You have to talk about what's going on with you before you explode."
     
    Rayner sighed and rubbed his head. "You sound just like your brother," he smiled. "You think you know what's best for me but you don't really know, Jeneva."
     
    "I know that you've lost a lot. When Lorna left you -"
     
    "Enough, Jen!" Rayner stood up to go.
     
    "No, wait, I'm sorry." Jeneva reached out to him but fell short. "I'm happy you've got my back. I just want you to be happy, that's all."
    Rayner calmed down. "I appreciate that, Jen."
     
    Marcus finished talking with a customer and came over to join the two. He cleaned a glass surreptitiously, trying to find an opening to talk to Jeneva about the Council's decision.
     
    "Everyone's talked to me about it already, Marcus," Jeneva guessed what was on his mind.
     
    "What are you going to do?" Marcus was tall and bald, with tattoos on his back and shoulders. He wore tank tops and matching pants.
     
    "I should just go be a nun I guess. I don't know," Jeneva said.
     
    "Didn't Jillian go to be a nun back a few years ago?"
     
    "I'm joking, Marcus. I don't really think--"
     
    "Yeah, she did," Rayner answered. "She got the same bad news. I think she went to Brazil."
     
    "So you guys think I should go to Brazil," Jeneva was incredulous.
     
    "Of course not Jen, but you've got to find some sort of meaning with your life or you'll go crazy."
     
    "Yeah," Rayner agreed, looking down at his book. "It's tough without a mate, Jen. You need a plan."
     
    "And that plan is to go be a nun. Well, maybe I will then. You know, I'm going to go call Jill up and see how she's doing down there. Bye," Jeneva left the bar angrily.
     
    "Jeneva," Rayner started to go after her, and was stopped by Marcus.
    "Let her go, Rayner. This is hard. She needs time to think."
     
    Jeneva fumed in the truck on her drive home. Who did Marcus and Rayner think she was? Didn't they value her at all? Her tears made her glasses steam up and she pulled over to take them off. It was starting to rain outside in a light grey mist. Tall pine trees lined either side of the two lane park road for miles in both directions. This was home. She grew up among these trees, hunted in them, climbed them, rubbed on them. What would she be without Reserve Park?
     
    Maybe the same person she was now that she couldn’t mate, Jeneva thought to herself. She hated to admit it, but Misty was right. A huge part of her had changed now. She couldn't take a mate. She couldn't raise kids or start a home of her own now. Living a life as a single Bear could drive you crazy. Henry Paine, Marcus' uncle, was also told that he couldn't mate, years ago, before Jeneva was even born. He tried living alone but, everyone guessed because of the stress, he had gone on a rampage in the human town. He had killed two humans, a pregnant couple. He escaped, but when he got back to Reserve Park everyone knew what he had done. He ran away before they could execute him for his crimes.
     
    Then there was Jillian Campbell. She found out she couldn't mate shortly after Jeneva and Jaime's parents had been killed. She had stayed in Reserve Park for a few years and looked sadder everyday. No one was surprised when she decided to leave the park for good, and serve out her years as a nun.
     
    Jeneva ran a hand through her hair. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all. Bad things happened to Bears who tried to make it on their own here. At least as a missionary, she might do some good with her life. She could serve the poor, and forget all about her own problems.
    Jeneva pulled back onto the road, the stress