Jessica Sims - Bear Naked

When youre twenty-six years old, youre old enough to know its a bad idea to listen at doorways. But when youre a were-bear with super-enhanced hearing, and your name comes up during a meeting of the clan families? You kinda have to stop and listen.

Id known there was a meeting of the bear clan elders in my fathers basement office that evening, but I hadnt realized they were meeting about me. I paused at the doorway at the top of the basement stairs, frowning. Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe they werent talking about me after all.

Its clear that Nikolinas going to go into heat in the next month or two, I heard Janna Bjorn say. The men are starting to notice her scent a lot more. We need to solve this problem.

An embarrassed flush crept over my face. Okay, so they were definitely talking about me. I paused at the top of the stairs, my glass of water in hand, and grew completely still, listening.

Does she realize that shes going to? Minda Tolfson asked. How sheltered is she?

I realized this was directed at my father a moment after he began to bluster and mumble through an answer. God, how embarrassing.

I knew I was going into heat. I wasnt stupid. I had shifter cousins and had grown up in the were-bear community. I knew what it meant when I started having wet dreams every night, got totally aroused over everything, and my hormones were out of control. Id figured it out when Id gone to the grocery store and cleaned out an entire shelf of chocolate bars.

I just hadnt brought it up to anyone else yet, because I hadnt quite figured out what I was going to do.

Going into heat meant I was ovulating. Like our wild counterparts, if I went into heat, it meant babies. Shifter females had a very lax reproductive system; we only went into heat a few times in our lives. Each time, a shifter female had to consider more than just her own wants and needs. If she went on birth control and elected not to have the baby, there was a chance she was depriving her already small clan of another member.

I could elect not to have the baby, I supposed, butI was in limbo as it was.

What about Ramsey? Cant someone go back and round him up now that we need him?

I heard Janna Bjorn snort. That errant boy has taken a mate. A werewolf. She sneered the word. Hes not asked to rejoin the clan, and I dont see that hed ever be allowed with a mate like that.

I tried not to flinch at the sound of Ramsey Bjorns name. Tried, and failed. Stinking Ramsey Bjorn. I hated the man. He was the cause of my predicament. The bear clans were five families from Norway who had emigrated into the Ozark hills of Arkansas back at the turn of the century. Since bear shifters were rare, we stuck together. We kept the old ways. Old names, old habits, old everything. Our families had grown up intertwined, and a bear shifter knew from birth exactly who he or she was destined to marry. It ensured bloodlines stayed strong and family trees didnt get too inbred.

Ramsey Bjorn had been my betrothed since Id been born. He was the only possible mate for me out of our small clans. He was blond, tall, surly, and wed never been all that friendly. Never really had to. It was just assumed that wed rub along until we got married.

Ramsey had also been exiled at fifteen when hed sided with a were-cougar ambassador over his own family. The bear clan didnt forget things like that. If there was one thing that was pounded into a were-bears head, it was that family was everything. Ramsey had betrayed his, so hed been exiled. Now, years had passed and it seemed that he wouldnt be coming back at all.

I was screwed. No mate? No family. Id be condemned to be a spinster for the rest of my life, simply because there was no one eligible for me to marry. Everyone else was related orhuman. And a were-bear simply couldnt marry a human. They couldnt know about our animal side, and theyd never, ever understand it.

And I wanted a family, desperately. Id been on the outside looking in for what felt like forever. I was included in family events, but I was treated like a twelve-year-old daughter, not a grown woman. Why? Because I wasnt married. Sometimes, the bear clan could be a little backward.

Okay, a lot backward. But if I rebelled, Id be exiled, and the bear clan was all I had.

Someone downstairs spoke again.

If Ramsey has a mate, do you think she would mind if he made a a throat cleared. A donation?

Would you mind if it was your mate?

I flinched again. Jesus.

Good point.

So do we have anyone thats unmated and unrelated? What about Kristof?

Cousin, my father answered. Too close to kin.

And Dag?

Second cousin.

Mattias?

My jaw dropped. Mattias was sixty if he was a day.

Hes a widower, my father said, considering. But Nikolina is young. Far too young for one such as Mattias.

Sigurd Aasen, Janna said in a stern voice. We do not have many options here. Your daughter is twenty-six and unmarried. She is about to go into heat, and we have no mate for her. This is critical. We cannot have her elect to not have the baby. Our clan is too small as it is.

As is evidenced by the fact that there is no one for her, Minda pointed out. So what do we do?

What about the married men? Jokkum Hanssen finally spoke up.

What about them? Jannas voice was stern.

I pressed closer to the door. Yes, what about the married men? I wanted to hear this, too. Not that there were any married men I wanted to sleep with, but I was curious where he was going with this.

Why dont we have one of themyou know. Take one for the team.

Take one for the team?

My jaw dropped. They talked of impregnating me like they would mopping the floors or taking out the trash. This wasnt a volunteer situation. This was my body.

Nikolina is not unattractive. I have seen some of the men watching her lately. I know there are some that would not object to mating with her simply for the sake of a child.

Janna snorted. Some like yourself, Jokkum?

If I must.

I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Jokkum was older than me and had a beer gut. He also drank too much.

That still does not solve the problem of her being unmated, Minda pointed out.

This is the twentieth century, my father said. She can be an unmated mother. Lots of humans do it.

Or we can place the child with the fathers family, Jokkum said. Or someone can take her as a second wife, as the Mormons do.

I wanted to point out that the Mormons didnt really do that anymore, and gross.

And what about Nikolinas choice in such things? She is my daughter and I am responsible for her. All of the choices you present here are not good ones for our family.

You go, Daddy, I thought to myself. You tell em. It would have been nice if hed have defended me a bit more instead of the family, but Id take what I could get.

Gunnar Ludvik, you are quiet, Janna said. What are your thoughts?

I heard Gunnar clear his throat. The quietest clan leader, he was a man my fathers age with a kind smile and sad brown eyes. I liked Gunnar best of all the elders, save my father, of course. I was simply thinking that this would be easier for everyone if my boy Leif was here.

I bit my lip to hear Leifs name. Everyone knew hed gone crazy after the death of his fiance. Still

But he is not here, Janna said sharply. We need solutions. Not wishes. And we need solutions fast.

So, Jokkum said. We are back to this. Which one of the married men wants to take one for the team?

I tiptoed away from the door at that, carefully placing my glass on the counter. I kept my steps light so no one would hear me, and then when I was out of ear-shot of even shifter hearing, I ran back to my apartment above the garage, all thoughts of getting a drink refill gone. Despite being twenty-six years old, I still lived with my father. That was just how things were done with the bear clans. I raced up the stairs and shut my door to give myself the semblance of privacy, and leaned against the wall.