Bearly Escaped Read online

  He passed a slight quip as she was talking to him and she grabbed his arm. The moment she touched him; he felt a jolt of electricity. Was it just static or was it something else? He was rattled. This had never happened before. It touched something deep in him.

  Before he could process it fully, she was laughing. A burst of full-throated laughter as genuine as snow in December. She was no faker. Her body quaked with mirth and he had to join. She was smart, and she understood his humor. Laughing together, he looked into her kind brown eyes and couldn't resist himself from reaching over for a tight hug but stopped himself immediately.

  Are you insane?

  She was a stranger. He was in disguise. There was no outcome here that wouldn't lead to her storming out in disgust. Avoid that. He had to do it the human way, a date, courtship, and all that jazz. That was the only way he could get close to her before the big reveal. He was a romantic at heart and the thought of doing all that pleased him. He would have to keep his feelings to himself and let them be and leave for now.

  The moment he stepped out and closed the door behind him, he leaned on the door and looked up. He felt an emptiness inside of him. His mate was so close to him and how could he stay away. He sniffed the air for any last vestiges of her.

  Desperate to see her again, he barged in with an absolute howler of an excuse. He knew the excuse wouldn't stand and had a plan in hand.

  But once he saw Ari and her smile, he felt whole again and didn't want to leave at all.

  But when Anna basically forced him to, he left with a twinge of pain.

  He ran back to the guard station and switched on the monitors. He had strategically placed the broom to have a view of the girls.

  There was a feeling of guilt, but he rationalized it. It was necessary to know her before he spent time on her. Even if she was his mate, he had to be careful. Being in the public eyes, he couldn't afford a mistake. He was fascinated by her giggles and her soft accent. Her eyes twinkled when she spoke animatedly.

  The girls were talking now and Anna seemed to be a bully. He chuckled as he heard her speak about snagging him. However, he was surprised to see Ari possessing such a rabid imagination as she tried to rationalize him picking her.

  Oh! So innocent!

  As he saw Ann argue and put her down, rage rose within him.

  How dare she say that to my Ari?

  His inner grizzly was chafing at the reins, wanting to get out and set things all right for his mate, wanting to lay waste anger on, on that girl, the so-called friend of hers. Clenching his fists, he was beyond the breaking point as his ears picked up Ari sobbing.

  How dare she make my mate cry!

  His control over the grizzly inside had taken a good amount of years but time and again he felt that he was missing out on taking out sweet revenge. This was one of those times.

  He knew he couldn't afford to. With so many people here, it was not only risky but foolhardy. Even if he did shift, he would only scare Ari away if he confronted Anna.

  He slammed his fists on the plywood desk in front of him, breaking into two; the monitor slid down in the middle with the cables and it was a mess.

  There was no point continuing to stare at the mess here and the one in the other room. The girls were huddled together. Ari sobbing and the other girl Anna was failing to try to comfort her. Now was the time to give a piece of his mind to the other girl.

  Spencer's phone started vibrating and his attention faltered for just enough time. It was a text message from Brendan.

  Where are you? I'm here at the stadium.

  Spencer growled silently.

  The thought of Brendan close by calmed him down and his head cleared, even if for just a moment. The simmering rage cooled for a while as his attention wavered.

  He sat down and stretched himself on the chair. Taking a deep breath, he stopped to think.

  Why am I getting so possessive about a girl I haven't even talked to yet? A girl who doesn't even know me? Or at least the real side of me?

  There was no point in getting angry.

  He replied to Brendan.

  I'll be there in five minutes. Can you arrange an audition panel with the rest of the guys?

  He waited for the reply to arrive and it did soon enough.

  Will do, bro!

  He had to intervene quickly or Ari might just decide to leave. He rushed to them and barged into the room without knocking, and walked to the girls and coughed.

  Ari looked up with her large, teary, blue eyes and Spencer felt his rage melting.

  C H A P T E R 5

  It was Richard. He had come up to them and in her grief, she hadn't even noticed him come inside. He was impassive but his ruffled hair seemed out of place. But Ari paid no heed. A bitterness had risen in her and she found herself speaking in tongues.

  "What now? Does this please you? Does your boss find joy in toying with us simpletons?" she asked in tone tinged with sadness.

  A moment later, the rage had emptied and all that was left was a bare emptiness. The same emptiness that had been haunting her. As a child with a single mother, all she wanted was a run-of-the-mill family. A nice big family like the ones they show in the movies. As her mother kept moving from one job to another, all the love she got was leftovers from uncles and aunts and her working mother, never the hearty love of a family, of brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.

  Then one fine day, her mother dropped dead from an undiagnosed hole in the heart leaving her an orphan.

  Stepping into adulthood, she hoped to find that perfect prince charming and settle down with a big family, spreading her love. But no one she fancied looked past her body, into her kind heart brimming with love. The ones who made passes at her were only interested in their fetishes and were by no means the cream of the crop when it came to settling down as a family. She didn't see the point in getting into a relationship for the sake of a relationship.

  "Call it hubris or whatever you want to label it as I believe that there is someone out there waiting for me," she used to say to her coworkers as they ridiculed her for being without a companion. It was another matter that she knew she had to go searching for this partner of hers and this city lacked in avenues for her to level up and move away. Night classes seemed to help but her real passion was for singing. It gave her an opportunity to express herself and remain normal.

  Richard was quiet for a while as if trying to understand what the issue had been.

  "I think there has been some misunderstanding. My boss isn't that kind of guy. I think he sees something in you and wants to give you a chance. The question is are you willing to give him one?"

  Ari stopped sobbing, wiped her tears and looked at him wide-eyed. His eyes seemed so warm; deep blue pools you want to take a dip in. There was something about his deep voice; she felt honesty dripping from every word. Maybe he was right, she was just being too paranoid. If Richard was ok with this, she was too. She wanted to trust him. No matter what happens, this guy was not going to let her down.

  "OK. Let's go. I trust you"

  "Walk with me."

  Anna stepped forward to go along with them but Richard raised his hand.

  "I think she wants to do this on her own. Right?" He said with a smile dancing on his lips. Anna stared dumbfounded at Ari as she nodded all too enthusiastically.

  "I love you Anna but I think this is as far as we go!" Ari said to her and walked out.

  Walking down the corridor with arched ceilings, it seemed like it would never end. She began to think about the audition. Without Anna by her side, it seemed to her that she was rat climbing on an elephant. Nervousness began to take a hold on her as she got closer to the venue.

  She focused her attention on the man by her side. He seemed amiable enough.

  "Richard, tell me more about Spencer. You seem to know him closely, right?"

  "I know him very closely, but that doesn't mean I need to go blabbering about him to strangers."

  Ari was surprised.


  They reached the huge stage. Bright lights shone richly draped with rich velvety sheets with the music label standing out at regular intervals. The judges panel with a lone empty seat looked intimidating. The crew stood around working on things as her eyes roamed. An open pen across the stage was filled with hopefuls in line. They booed.

  It's real! This is it!

  "Shall we?" Richard motioned her towards the stage.

  Ari was all nervous energy. The crowd seemed to sense her trepidation and booed louder. She looked back at them and smiled, hoping that it would calm them down.

  I'm one of you!

  "Don't look at them, "Richard whispered into her ears.

  Gingerly walking alongside Richard, she waited at the foot of the stairs to the stage. The lights illuminating the stage blinded her, and she paused waiting for her eyes to acclimatize.

  Crap! If I have to do this, I better give it my best! There's no turning back, dear! Stay positive!

  The booing was getting noticeably louder. She took two steps and stepped on her skirt and began tumbling backward with arms flailing in the air.

  "No—", a shriek escaped her lips and she found herself wishing she had never been here and closed her eyes in panic.

  A moment later, with her fall arrested by something, she opened her eyes to stare wide-eyed at the same deep blue pools of Richard, holding her.

  She could see black specks in the iris of his eyes. She felt his warm manly breath wash over her face laced with musky overtones.

  What surprised her was the electric tingling she felt in her back where his hands held her, and a warm feeling filling her body.

  This is new!

  She failed to recall her body responding this way to a man's touch. Her face flushed, and her body seemed to go limp for a moment.

  Ari smiled, a smile so wide, that the corners in her eyes crinkled.

  "Thank you. Thank you for saving me the embarrassment."

  "No worries. That's what I'm here for." Richard smiled, his eyes darting all over her face as if to make sure that everything was all right

  "Now, let's get you up there, and let's hear you sing."

  She looked back and the judge's seat was still empty.

  Thank god, Spencer isn't here yet!

  "Where is your boss? All this buildup and the dumbass misses the most important audition of my life?" Ari whispered into Richard's ears.

  "Hey! Let's not be calling names!"

  Richard smiled and ripped off his mustache. Still smiling, he paused and then removed his glasses. Ari's mouth fell agape as he continued his transformation. What she didn't know was that this was not the only transformation he was capable of. Richard rubbed a towel over his face erasing all the makeup.

  Ari gasped as finally realization dawned.

  It was Spencer. She recognized him from the posters along the way. It was him all along.

  After the surprise wore off, she felt a rising anger and a sense of bitterness.

  Was that a betrayal?

  Walking backward, Spencer kept smiling with a twinkle in his eyes.

  "I believe in you. We're waiting to hear you sing."

  What the hell! What was that!

  Ari bit her lips and tried to make sense. The booing crowd didn't help.

  She had to perform and show everyone what she was capable of. There was nothing more important right now. She had been through so much. She was angry and anger was good. Anger made things happen.

  Focus! Focus!

  Don't fuck this up!

  Taking a deep breath, she mustered up courage and walked to the center where the spotlights merged.

  Richard sat and looked at the her with a smile.

  The smile made her falter. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all. The crowd was getting impatient.

  Focus!

  She got hold of the mic and began with a soft country song. Her voice carried over effortlessly and the crowd stopped chanting to hear her.

  A lone girl still yapped but someone in the crowd put his hand over her mouth and shushed her. Even the crew busy as they were, turned to listen mesmerized by what they heard.

  Of course, Ari didn't see all this. She had closed her eyes and sang without a care in the world. It was as she had been magically transported to the comfort and anonymity of her living room.

  C H A P T E R 6

  All Spencer could think that why did it take so long to find an angel like her. He sat mesmerized.

  Her voice soared like an eagle when she sang and it seemed everyone just stared at her, not wanting to break the spell that she had cast on them.

  He chuckled thinking back to how angry her voice sounded when she screamed at him. That was not how he pictured their first day to be, at all.

  But then, when he caught her in his arms, their first touch, it had been literally electric.

  Amongst shifters of a particular kind, such as werewolves, werebears, and all such creatures with more than a reptilian brain, lore prophesied a fated mate for each one of them. A bond supposedly created at birth. A bond that would pull them towards each other.

  When paths cross, signs would start to appear and an unnatural affection and attraction develops between them. This was just one sign. There were others lost to time.

  But the surest test according to some, was the first touch. They said Fate will move heaven and earth to make it special and you will know it and there will never be a doubt after that.

  Spencer found the concept interesting but ultimately, he decided that it was probably mumbo-jumbo. The humans had a thing called dating and that appealed to him. You take a woman for a date and get to know one another and then decide if you want to continue.

  But as time went by and he went through an unnatural number of dates without feeling anything like love, he had begun to revisit the fated mate idea. He wondered if that really was true and set about his search.

  How could the first touch be the end-all and be-all of finding a mate? There had to be something more. He also found it strange that the fated mate had to be of the same species. He also began to read a lot to understand more of his kind.

  As time had passed, things had begun to change. Werebears, lonesome creatures that they are,kept to themselves and it was difficult to get details and events in the shifter world. Spencer kept his ear the ground though, to stay ahead of anything that might affect his Billionaire status including anything other werebears had been up to. After all he had a lot of enemies lusting after his Billions and some other fellow werebears who weren't too pleased to see a werebear in the limelight. They said it was not right, you have to keep low. That was true, it was a zero-sum game. Spencer's billionaire status was like a giant red target painted on his back.

  As much as he wished that all shifters would live in harmony, he knew it was impossible. The animal nature precluded that. There were some who used powers for good and there were some who were basically mercenaries in the fights of men.

  And that's how he came to from the grapevine that mates were being found even in humans. It kind of made sense, after all shifters were a part human right. There was no accepted theory as to how shifters came about but there must have been a point of time when interbreeding must have happened. It stands to reason that it could happen yet again.

  Pushing those thoughts to the back of his mind, Spencer now concentrated on Ari. She was still singing in that ethereal voice of hers.

  He began reminiscing again though.

  When he caught her, he had known then. Like prophesied, with the touch, there was no doubt at all. A strong tingling sensation had run through his hands and to his heart. His inner bear had reared up at the touch. That had never happened before.

  She is the one! She is ours!

  His bear growled inside him as he looked over her in exquisite detail.

  His inner bear, ever the quiet one, had never spoken up like that even when he had met every female werebear in America. Never with any of his drop-dead gorgeous
girlfriends—basically eye candy to further his image as a playboy— elicited such a response. He was attracted to many, but none had made a lasting impression on him or his werebear until now.

  When he caught her stumbling his bear sense was at its peak. She had been very close then, barely a couple of finger-lengths between their eyes. He could hear her heart fluttering at the unexpected fall and her face flushing from the embarrassment.

  Our mate She's safe! She's fine!

  His brash bear was not Shakespeare when it came to expressing his wants and desires. That was expected since the bear was more intimated connected and expressed the basal animalistic part of his brain.

  He had felt lust in its voice. And it terrified him. His bear would not understand the need for dating and all that. All it knew was lust. He would have to keep that in check for a while and that made him anxious.

  Spencer felt blood rushing southward to the part he didn't want to arouse now, least of all in from of all the people in the audition.

  The spotlights on Ari took away all the attention of the crowd. Spencer was mightily thankful for that.

  He walked back to the panel to see a familiar face smiling at him.

  "Nice save, bro!", he winked.

  "Nothing like that, Brendan. Believe it or not, I had nothing to do with that. Just at the right place and at the right time," Spencer said and continued in his head.

  And the right man!

  Sitting next to Brendan, Spencer was happy to see his friend. It was nice to have a normal friend after all.

  "So, is this the one? The one that has caught your attention? She's gorgeous.", muttered Brendan with hands steepled.

  "Umm. Not really."

  "Come on bro. I saw what you did there. I know when you are lying. After all, why did you do all that, the disguise and all, just for a singer? You've got the entire country willing to anything to get into your good books and sing."

  Spencer raised his hands and bent his head forward.

  "All right! All right! You got me! She's the one!"

  "You mean your mate! Like the one, you've been talking about! The one fated for you? Are you sure?"