---

"Are you sure you don't want me to hang around today?"

Emilie was forced to strain her smile again. He really wasn't taking the hint.

"You go hunting with your father, Bobby. I'm sick, not dying."

Bobby held her hands securely in his and looked at her as if she was his goddess. His dark curls were hidden beneath a bright orange cap, the ends sticking out near his temples. The camo jacket he wore swished with every movement. All Emilie could think was that he was going to scare away all the deer wearing material like that. But his father was determined to make a man out him. A 'real man,' as he put it. One who hunted and provided for his family. Emilie thought it was a lost cause. He wasn't an outdoorsman, he was a Realtor who collected old cameras, but who was she to judge. Maybe he was on to something, maybe shooting a deer would awaken some kind of manly instinct in him.

She wouldn't hold her breath, though.

"But you'll call if you need anything, anything at all."

For god's sake! Just go.

Her fiancé, Bobby, was a very sweet man, he took care of her, loved and cherished her, but sometimes his hovering was out of control. He'd been on the fence about hunting with his father ever since she told him last night she wasn't feeling well and called off work. To be fair, he hadn’t wanted to go in the first place and was looking for any excuse not to go.

Emilie was entirely capable of taking care of herself, sick or otherwise. And right now, it was otherwise. She wasn't actually sick. She saw an opportunity to have the house to herself for the day and took it. Emilie was in need of a lazy day in her fur. It had been weeks since her last shift into her bear.

Bobby, bless his heart, was always around. Always.

"I will call. Have fun today. I'm just going to sleep."

He smiled warmly at her, which made her feel slightly guilty for lying to him. Bobby kissed her forehead and after a small caress of her cheek, he was gone.

Finally.

Emilie waited ten minutes before getting up. Bobby tended to forget things and have to run back home. At this point, if he forgot something he was too far away to care or turn back.

The morning was a beautiful one. The air had finally turned cold and the leaves had all but abandoned their trees, Emilie found the skeleton forest to be hauntingly beautiful. A few days ago, they had gotten some pretty bad storms that knocked all the changing colors off the trees. Even without it, fall was her favorite season. She tended to run hot because of her bear blood but in the fall and winter that didn't matter.

Emilie pulled the tie from her hair and shook out her long brown hair. She walked barefoot onto the frigid deck out back and slid the door closed. The sun had not risen but the sky was beginning to lighten just the slightest. She wiggled free of her light cotton pants and pulled her t-shirt up over her head. It was around freezing, the early fall had been a warm one and seemed to delay the start of winter. But since those storms hit, the cold had finally come to chill her toes.

The air burned her lungs as she drew in a deep breath. She started her shift, a process that took a minute or two. Her brown bear was a small one but it still took massive amounts of energy. Unlike most people who closed their eyes as they shifted and wished for it to pass quickly, Emilie loved to watch the world blur away as she connected with her other half.

"Emilie? Darling?" Bobby's voice rang across her senses. She turned her head to the door and watched as Bobby came through. Shock widened his eyes at the sight of a bear in his backyard. In a fumble, he raised his rifle.

There wasn't much left of her that he could see. She was all but shifted into her bear. Bobby's eyes darted from the bear to the pile of clothes at her feet. The fear coming off of him was palatable and increased twofold when he recognized Emilie's clothing. He adjusted the rifle against his shoulder. For having limited experience with a gun, he looked pretty confident holding one. "What did you do to her?" he asked, with more anger than she had ever heard in him before.

She scooted away from the clothes toward the trees in the back. "Emilie!" he yelled, his rifle still trained on the bear but his shaking hands kept the barrel moving. "Emilie, where are you?"

With every step, the life she knew was ending. There was no explaining this to Bobby. No "I turn into a bear, sweetie," conversation. Bobby was sweet and innocent; monsters didn't live in his world. Bear transforming fiancés didn't live in his world.

Emilie watched the shake in his hands grow stronger. The barrel of the gun darted around and was making her uneasy. She turned and began to lope off into the woods. She'd hang nearby and see what he did. Maybe she could convince him that she had left to go get some medicine. Maybe...

A loud shot echoed through the mountains. A sharp bite of a bullet hit her back leg. Looking back over her shoulder she saw him cock his gun and aim again.

Emilie roared. She couldn't believe the bastard shot her. She stood there breathing over the pain staring at the wound. She didn't think he had that in him. Actually, she was a little bit impressed.

"You killed her!" he yelled.

Hunting a deer wouldn’t harden him but shooting a bear that he believed to have eaten his girlfriend was the golden ticket. His dad was going to be so proud.

This time, she didn't move slowly. She ran into the forest, her back leg burning where the bullet shredded her muscle. When the next shot rang out a moment later, it hit a tree instead of her chest.

Ok, now she was getting mad.

Emilie didn't stick around to see where he tried to shoot her next. She ran.

"Hello?"

"Oh big brother it is so good to hear your voice." Emile's shoulders sank with relief. For two days she'd been trying to reach her twin. It was a bit hard as a bear to find a phone, but she had collected enough change to make a call. And by "collected," she meant that she knocked over a vending machine and grabbed the change.

When he didn't answer the first time she wanted to strangle him. Emilie continued her way south towards Westlin, New York where her brother lived but it would take her a few days to walk it. And since he didn't pick up his phone, it looked like she would be making that trek on foot.

"Emilie," Dean said with affection "I was wondering when I was going to hear from you. Did you know that you are dead?"

She groaned. It had been three days since Bobby shot her. Emilie bandaged herself up the best she could with a first aid kit raided from the local wolf pack's stash. They wouldn't mind...much. But her leg was swelling and it was making it hard to shift.

"So you heard?"

"Oh yes. Bobby called here with the devastating news that my baby sister, who I love and adore was no longer one of the living. Attacked by a bear," he said, his voice thick with amusement. "That's the official line. She was attacked and eaten by a bear. Idiots. I hope you are out of there."

"I am, Dean. I'm heading your way."

"I figured. I'll work on getting you a place set up."

The shitty part of all this was that she had left everything at home. Clothes, credit cards, cell phone. Everything was sitting back with Bobby. Emilie had a tough time scavenging change to make a call, but what was even harder was finding a pay phone she could use while standing naked and not be seen. That was near impossible. Emilie, though, was known for her tenacity. If she wanted something done, she figured out a way make it happen.

"Could you get my stuff back before he gets rid of it all?" Or worse, his sisters and mother ransack it.

"Of course. I told him I'd be up today or tomorrow. Since today is out and I have confirmed that you were not eaten by one of us, I'll head on up there tomorrow."

Emilie huddled into herself. She needed to shift back or risk catching a cold. The wind was brutal today. "Thank you. Make sure you get my computer and day planner."

He snorted. "Can't have you going without your precious planner now can we?"

"Shut up and get my stuff." She'd hit him the next time she saw him.

"Bye Em. I love you," he laughed mockingly.  

"Love you too."

When she hung up, she looked around to make sure no one had seen her before darting back towards the trees with a limp. No one had peeked their heads out of their room or pulled up to the dingy motel. Only one room had a car out front, which was lucky for her since she was naked.

When she was safe within the boundaries of the forest, Emilie shifted again. Living this way, as a bear, wasn't something she minded doing. She and Dean used to go for weeks in the summer, when school was out, as bears. Life was easy then. She didn't have a fiancé shooting at her.

After a mile, her leg began to burn. The bullet had gone straight through, which was the good news. The bad news was that it had become infected. Now her leg was warm to the touch and ached with every step. It was going to slow her down, that was for sure. But at this point, she didn't have any other option but to move forward.

It was a good thing that she liked solitude or these next two days would be absolutely horrible.