Summer in Apex

A gold chain with the little metal bear hanging from it was sitting on Finley Rochon’s desk. He was swirling the chain around with his finger, pushing into different shapes and designs. He’d taken it off, something he hadn’t done in years. With his cousin Angel and his brother Rainier finding their mates and moving on with their lives, he didn’t feel like they shared the same connection that they had before. The necklace that he had given them to represent their friendship seemed childish now.

Rainier and Angel had found their Ones. The mates that the Fates had chosen just for them. The three of them had watched their cousins and uncles wait decades, forty or fifty years, sometimes more, before they found their partners. Worse, some never did. As the years passed them by, they feared that they would be the same.

His brother and cousin had gotten the biggest cosmic luck out. They had found their mates and the loves of their lives when they were barely into adulthood. The options for them were different from those that had been made to wait so long. They could get their educations, have careers, and still have plenty of time to start their families.

Finley wasn’t so sure that he was going to be like them. His sense of being adrift was more than just about how he was doing at school. He’d assumed that he would figure out what he wanted to do with his life at some point. Instead, he’d lost his way.

His summer break had been quiet. Well, as quiet as it could be in his huge family. His parents weren’t happy that he wasn’t staying with them. His mom had informed him that his Spiderman sheets were washed and put on his bed, ready and waiting for him. Like that was some kind of enticement.

Only his mom would find king-size Spiderman sheets for her twenty-year-old son. Fin had chosen to stay at his brother’s house for the summer. He got less crap from Cash and his sister-in-law Cassie than he ever would at his parent’s house.

Plus, that meant he got to play with the cubs. They were full on talking toddlers now, but they would always be the babies to him. He got to hold them when they were only a few hours old, and to him, they were perfect little monsters that he adored.

Giving a break to his brother and his mate allowed them to go on dates and work like normal adults. The twins were still shifting randomly and it wasn’t as though they could be in a regular preschool. Fin loved spending time with them, and now that they were talking, he’d rather converse with them than anyone else.

Cash had both of them in the tub at the moment. Finley thoughts turned to going back to university, or actually, thinking about how he didn’t want to go back. Part of him wanted to quit, he was just wasting his time there. He had no set major and didn’t know what he was going to do for another year. It seemed like a waste of money; then again, not finishing was also a waste.

His brother Rainier had found his mate during senior year and they were happily ensconced in a small apartment in Seattle. His mate Quinn was working for a local adoption agency and Rain was going to graduate school to be a lawyer. Their paths wouldn’t cross much the next semester, and he’d be lucky to see his brother back at home during the holidays.

Angel was off making music. It was a crazy, whirlwind life, but his mate was following right behind him and he was on his way to being famous.

And then there was Fin. Lost Fin. Maybe ‘undecided’ was a better way to phrase it. Now that Rainier had settled into his new life, it made Fin even more unsure of his. As a shifter, his lifespan was much more than the average human, and the thought of having to decide his future at twenty seemed unrealistic.

He picked up the gold chain and stared at the little bear. Not so many years ago he thought it had meant that the three of them, him and his brother and best friend, would always be together, he dropped it into the duffel bag that held all his clothes. Cassie had told him to unpack, but he never really did. His clothes came out of the bag, were worn, washed, and went right back in. He was putting a little effort into keeping his side of the room that also doubled as Cash’s office as tidy as he could. He liked staying there and he didn’t want to piss his brother off. Not that Cash was that easy to annoy.

Getting up, Fin decided that he needed some breakfast before he figured out what he was or wasn’t going to do for the day. As soon as he opened the door to the long hallway that all the bedrooms branched off of, he saw a flash of a naked three-year-old running down the hallway.

“Man, catch him. If he shifts he’ll climb!”

Finley turned to see Cash holding his daughter Jett in his arms wrapped in a towel that had some kind of hood on the top. It looked like a ladybug, but the antennas flopped over the little girl’s face while she clapped and cheered her brother on.

“Wun, Axie, Wun!”

“You hush, naughty,” Cash said, giving the girl a kiss.

Fin took off after the naked baby and managed to scoop him up just when the sparkling shimmer of the change started around the little body. By the time he got the little boy in his arms, he was holding onto a larger bear cub.

“Damn, they’re getting big!”

“Tell me about it. I’m almost looking forward to when they stop shifting. He’s getting heavy,” Cash said moving towards the pair.

“Me too!” Jett squealed.

“Yes, baby girl, you are enormous.”

“Yeah, ‘normus,” she said emphatically.

Finley gave the bear a few scratches on his head and the bear licked at his face. “Axel, you need clothes on. At least your pull-up,” he told the little bear.

The bear shimmered and sparkled in his arms and the little boy, who looked shockingly like Cash, pushed out his lower lip.

“No puwup. I wan diapy.”

Finley had been the house for a few months now, and the main topic of conversation was potty training the cubs.

“You can’t have a diaper, bud. You’re a big boy now. Big boys use the potty.”

“Yeah,” Jett piped in.

Jett had taken to potty training like a champ. She was happy to have the freedom to use the bathroom when she wanted and the addition of pink princess pull-ups made the deal all the sweeter.

“Don’t wanna!” Axel whined, folding his arms.

“Hey, let Uncle Fin get you dressed then we will do something fun. Wanna go play outside?”

“Yeah! Outside!” They both cheered at the same time.

“I need to run into the office for a bit. Do you mind watching them?” Cash asked.

“Nah, man. I got ‘em. You know I’d much rather play in the dirt than do any real work.” It was a self-deprecating thing to say, but when everyone already thought you were a slacker, it didn’t hurt to run with it.

Cash gave him a hard look then turned on his heel to head for the kid’s rooms. Fin followed with a squirming Axel under his arm, and they got the kids dressed in their own rooms. Finley convinced Axel to wear a pair of sweat pants so he could shift easier and not be uncomfortable. A shirt with a flaming skull topped off his outfit. The kids generally ran barefoot because shifting in clothes at their age was still okay, but shoes were a nightmare.

Soon the little ones would stop shifting randomly and their bears would go dormant until puberty. It was a sad time as well as a necessary one. The little ones needed time for their human side to catch up with their nature smart animals. Their bears would always be with them, even if you couldn’t see them, and it would be a constant companion and guide inside their heads.

For now, they were still randomly shifting and causing chaos when either his brother or sister-in-law were trying to manage them.

Fin led Axel out of his room and came across a fairy princess in the hallway. Jett was twirling around, her light blonde locks pulled back with a sparkling headband. She was dressed in a pink dress that was made of shining satin and bows with a layer of glittering tulle over it. Jett was also sporting a pair of purple fairy wings.

“Wow, don’t you look like an angel,” Fin said, ruffling her hair.

“No! Pwincess Awowa!”

“Princess Aurora, huh? Wasn’t she the one that liked to take naps?”

Jett stuck out her tongue. “No naps.”

“Okay, princess, we’ll talk about the naps later.”

Cash came out of her room and just shrugged at the look Fin gave him. “It’s not worth fighting with her about. I swear if Cass could burn her wardrobe, she would. She blames me for buying it, but Jett likes what she likes. And she likes princesses.”

“I love that it messes with Cass. She had plans for her baby badass and she got cotton candy instead,” Fin said with a laugh.

“I know, it’s funny. Not that I’d ever say that to her. Of course. I like to keep my mate happy, and pushing her buttons isn’t the best way to do that. Still, my kid is cute as hell and I’m not going to tell her no.”

“You’re a smart man.”

“I’m a man that loves his mate. You don’t piss off your mate if you don’t need too.”

“I don’t think that is something I’m going to have to worry about anytime soon. I’ll probably be like you and Eddie and I won’t find my mate until I’m old and decrepit and suffering from erectile dysfunction.”

“I do not have erectile dysfunction as my children are a clear example of my virility. I was talking to Tanner the other day and I think some of the reason you young ones are finding your mates so early is because you’re out there in the world. For us, even if we went to school, we still hung back. Keeping our secret meant so much that we didn’t venture out like you do. Your opportunities are much more vast than we were ever brave enough to venture into. Finding your mates so young is amazing. And even if you don’t, the time that passes will float away the moment you see her.”

Finley didn’t respond to that. He didn’t really agree with his brother. He thought that Rain and Angel had just been luckier than he was. They were off fulfilling all of their dreams. They had their mates, they had their careers. Maybe not everyone got to be as lucky as them, but it seemed par for the course for Finley. Nothing had ever really settled in like way he thought it would.

He’d always been a few steps behind. He was younger and admittedly less mature than his brother and best friend, and he had gone through life watching them get to those life milestones first.

First embarrassing mustache, first girlfriend, first to get their driver’s license, first kiss.

Finley had made up for the last one over the first few years of his life in college. He’d gone a little wild, reached out for too much freedom and now he and his bear regretted their actions.

Finley’s bear, a large brown bear, had actually stopped communicating with him for a while. Not that his bear talked to him, but he could make his presence and his opinion known by feelings quite well. Fin took the estrangement as maybe he was working something out of his system and his animal was giving him the space to do that. After a while, it became apparent that his bear was protesting his lack of control and his inability to make good choices.

Last year, when Rain had found his mate, his brother had thought that Fin was still out partying and sleeping around. In fact, he hadn’t been with anyone for a long time. The previous summer he’d spent a week out in the woods, just him and his bear as a way of apology for being a shit. His bear forgave him and Fin had felt the peace of knowing the other soul inside him was supporting him again.

Now Finley and his bear were oddly happily being celibate. Fin didn’t miss the chase, and he’d never felt right sleeping with women that weren’t his mate. It was fun, sure, but there was always something hollow about it. Oddly enough, he was still friends with a number of those women. Fin chalked it up to the fact that he was a charming enough guy that girls didn’t harbor grudges against him, plus he’d never treated any of them badly, it just hadn’t worked out, and the breakups had been amicable.

Fin shook himself out of his thoughts, grabbed a kid under each arm, and took them over to Cash.

“Go, work, keep our family in honey. I’ve got these two,” Fin said.

Cash gave each kid a noisy kiss and reminders to listen to Uncle Fin before leaving, walking backward towards his truck and giving his giggling toddlers more waves and air kisses.