Chapter 17

 

Bas, or the bear, stopped by a stream and Sky stumbled off his wide back. Falling back, she crab walked away from the beast.  It was too dark to see the transformation, but in the next second Bas was standing over her.

"Babe, please don’t be scared. This is part of the stuff I wanted to explain to you once you were safe. It just didn't work out that way." 

"What? That you can turn into a bear like out of some science fiction movie!" 

Sky started to hyperventilate. She wasn’t really scared, more flabbergasted. Bas, the man she had this incredible connection to, could turn into a bear. Was she drugged? She pinched herself again. 

"Shit babe, quit hurting yourself,” Bas said. “Yes, this is all real. I am a Shifter, and if my suspicions are right, you also have Shifter DNA." 

"Nope, sorry Bas, all human here. I can’t turn into anything, just a little grouchy if I don’t get my chocolate fix during my time of the month, but definitely no fur or fangs. I don’t even have claws." She splayed her hands out in front of her. “Look, just little nubs,” Sky said as she held up her hands. 

Working on bikes all the time definitely didn’t help a girl’s manicure.  Not that Sky had ever had one.

Bas had the nerve to laugh, “Babe, I said you have Shifter DNA, not that you could Shift, big difference. But I will make sure to have lots of chocolate on hand during your time of the month."

"This isn’t funny, Bas. You turned into a bear, and I rode that bear like a freakin horse. How is that possible?  How is any of this possible? Did you know that snake guy, are there more of you out there?  Shit, am I like the dumbest broad in history and you’re after me just like that other guy?  What the hell!  I knew you were different, but this is pretty fucking beyond different, don’t you think?" 

Sky continued, “Fuck, what are your plans for me?  That other guy said some weird crap about training.  Are you taking me to your lair as a virgin sacrifice to your other werebear friends? How could I be so stupid? I followed you.  That’s it, isn’t it? You drew me in with all your muscles and pretty face, now you are going to turn me over to your clan or cult. Bas, I don’t want to be a bear.  It's fine for you, but I already have enough stuff going on right now.  Shit, on an average day my mind is so cluttered it makes daily life a challenge. I don’t want to join your werebear cult.  No way, I won’t drink the Kool-Aid and I sure has heck won’t let anyone bite me.  Sorry, not happening, not this girl. You’re just going to have to find someone else."

Even as she said that she knew it would kill her to let Bas go. He had become so important to her so quickly it was even scarier than becoming a bear.  Sky whisper screamed as she crab walked further away from him talking out loud to herself. " Oh, Mother Fudgers, that’s why I obey you, isn’t it? You put some kind of werebear spell on me, didn’t you?" she accused him.

It took Sky a couple of seconds to notice Bas was laughing so hard he was bent at the waist. When he looked up at her, he had actual tears in his eyes.

"Babe, please, you have to stop with the Werebear cults and Werebear spells. Where do you come up with this stuff?  I am a Shifter, honey. No one bit me and the government didn’t do weird science experiments on me. I was born this way, just like your Dad."

Bas continued, "I don’t have any magical skills.  Well, I guess I do if you count the transformation, and of course my amazing abilities in the sack," Bas said with a grin and a wink. "But I can’t influence you in any magical way.  Shit, I haven’t even had Kool-Aid since I was a kid.  I do like to bite a little, though, and if you ask really nicely, I might just show you how much, so you’ll like it too," he joked. " But even if I do that, babe, you will never turn into a bear. You have to be born this way."

Sky was not thinking straight. In the last twenty-four hours, she had been grabbed by three different men, watched her cousin die, and had a man turn into a snake right in front of her eyes, not to mention all that Bas had done.  Additionally, she had been chased down a highway, dodged bullets, well, Bas did that but still.  Then to top it all off she rode a bear through the fucking forest.  Oh, but wait there was still more, because all of it linked back to her dead parents.  Yeah, Sky was not having a good day.   

So not fair, and to top it all off, the asshole was laughing at her.  If she stepped away from the shock of everything that had happened, she might see the humor, but she highly doubted it.  This situation was insane. Fuck, maybe she was crazy.  Maybe none of this was real, and she was just having a really funky dream.  But she knew better. Unfortunately for her, she was one hundred percent present and accounted for in this mess that she called life. 

She knew from the start there was something different about Bas.   Did it matter if he wasn’t going to turn her into a bear? Not as far as she was concerned, it just made him more unique. Before she could tell him what she was thinking Bas said something that shocked the shit out of her.

"By the way, babe, the only person you’re going to sacrifice your virginity to is me, so don’t expect any orgies in your future."

Sky felt the heat of her embarrassment on her cheeks. Sky was pretty sure she just had her first full body blush in her life. It also proved to be her breaking point. 

"Now wait a minute. What the hell?  One minute you are telling me you are broken and we aren’t good for each other, now you're telling me that you’re the one that is going to take my virginity?  Get a clue, Bas. When and if I give up my V-card, it will be my choice, and it won’t be up to a man that can’t even decide if he wants to be with me or can’t even give me the answers I need to survive." 

Sky liked seeing Bas laugh, but her words brought him around quickly and he wasn’t laughing anymore.  Bas gave her a quick kiss, shocking Sky. This man ran hot and cold all the fucking time.  He helped her up off the ground saying, "Come on, babe, we need to keep moving. I have a feeling those guys aren’t going to give up so easily."  He placed the backpack on his back, and they started walking.  Where Sky wasn’t really sure but after a while, she just couldn’t hold back some questions. 

"Bas, um... How come you still have your clothes on after you Shifted?  In every book I have read about Shifters, they have to strip before they transform.  Shouldn’t you be like naked right now?”  And yep, that got another laugh out of her big and burly man.

"Now babe, if you want to see me naked, all you have to do is ask. Just what kind of books have you been reading?" he said wiggling his eyebrow.  No way was she going to expose her obsession for exotic paranormal romance novels, and truth be told, she was kind of disappointed he wasn’t naked. The guy was gorgeous and she was dying for a peek. 

When she didn’t respond, he answered the question, "Babe, we Shift fully clothed and when we Shift back the clothes remain.  That stuff you read is fiction. The only things those writers got right were our animals and the size of our cocks," he laughed.  Sky noticed said cock was starting to bulge from his really tight jeans.  The man had no shame and adjusted himself right in front of her.  

Dang, she would pay for some alone time with that bulge.  She was a virgin, but that didn’t mean her battery-operated boyfriend didn’t get some much-needed use every once in a while. Sky just wanted to experience the real thing now for the first time in her life.  She was surprised to find that the whole bear thing didn’t bother her anymore.  The draw to Bas was intense, and she wanted to explore it further.  Now the question was, would he let it happen or shut her down? 

Right now, though, Sky was spent. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten or slept.  She knew it had been at least seventy-two hours but couldn't be sure.  The adrenaline from all that had happened was wearing off, and she was practically dead on her feet.  All she wanted right now was some sleep and maybe a few more kisses. Or an up close and personal introduction to the mysterious bulge, yeah, wishful thinking. Even she knew she was just too tired for that. 

"Okay, Sky, we have a couple of choices. If I know my brother, he packed a pup tent.  We can either bed down for the night or keep going.  There are some lights up ahead, so we might be coming to a town or something.  Ladies choice." 

Skylar was kind of shocked that he offered her a choice, but she was just too tired to analyze it very closely.

"Whatever you want, Bas. I’m tired, but I can keep going if you think its best. Or you could go furry and I could take a nap while you do all the hard work," she tried to joke. 

"No can do, babe, I don’t think there are any wild grizzlies in rural Illinois. If someone caught sight of us, we would have more to worry about than the guys trying to track us down." 

"Do you think those guys are linked to the others?” Sky questioned.  “They didn’t look the same or act the same. They weren’t like you or the snake man."

"No, Sky, those guys back on the road were different and all human," Bas said.

"Do you have any idea who they are or what they want?” Sky asked.  “I mean, how many people can be after me?" 

Bas didn’t answer for a while, but then said, "Listen, there is a possibility of three fractions after you.  I don’t have all the details, but two of the groups are human.  They are looking for breeders, women that hold Shifter DNA.  The last group of people, the one that you have already had contact with, are all Shifters. They are known as The Association.  They want the same thing as the other, only they want pure DNA, women with only one strand of animal DNA." 

Bas continued, "Your dad was involved with them in some way.  I don’t know how, and we might not ever know, but Sky, there aren’t any natural born female Shifters that we are aware of right now. There hasn't been for over a century.  You, this connection we have, and this mark, all mean that you are my mate. But things aren't adding up because we aren't supposed to get the mark until we have mated with each other. So, how is that possible? I don’t know. You’re an anomaly that my people haven’t encountered yet.  Do you know if your parents used artificial insemination, adoption, or any other means to have you?  I know it’s a weird question, but all the women we are finding have been a product of one of those types of engineered conceptions, with a little DNA manipulation thrown in the mix." 

"Bas, I have no idea,” Sky responded. “I was five when my parents died.  I don’t know how I as conceived, and really don’t want to know.  What I can tell you is that I look just like them, a mixture of both my mom and dad." 

"Honey, that isn’t possible. I just said Shifters only breed boys.  Your dad, or at least Lloyd Thomas, was a known Shifter." 

“Yeah, I kind of already figured that out on my own, Bas.  But I do look just like him and my mom both. Give me my bag out of the backpack I’ll prove it."

Bas dropped the backpack off his shoulders and pulled out Sky’s small bag, handing it to her.  She opened it and dug through it for a while then pulled out a picture and held it out for him to take. 

"Now tell me that I don’t look like both my parents."

Bas looked at the picture.  It was of three people; a man and woman holding a little girl.  The mom had Sky’s build and nose, but her eyes and mouth was all her dad.  It shouldn’t be possible.  There hadn’t been a female Shifter birth, besides McKenna, in over a hundred years.  But there was no denying that she was related to both the people in the photo.  

"Shit babe, I see what you are talking about. These are your parents, or really close relatives.  I don’t know what to think about all of this.  I need to get us somewhere safe where I can make some calls.  Maybe even get a bird in for an evacuation.  But none of that is going to happen unless we keep on going."