Page 18 of Coveted By the Bear

Caleb sighed and leveled me a look that said he wished he could tell me everything that had ever been. “He went missing last year, and his place was already in default a couple years before that. I picked the land up cheap because nobody in town wanted to touch a property they said was haunted.”

“Is it?” I asked.

“It is now.” He said it quick but looked like he immediately regretted it.

I pushed before he shut down completely on me. “Do you think that’s why he did it?”

“Who?”

“Eli Emmerson. Do you think he turned you because you own his land?”

“Like revenge?” he asked with a slight frown.

And that’s all I needed to know. I couldn’t help the triumphant look that stretched my face. That had been a test, and Caleb McCreedy had failed. “You’re a bear shifter too now, aren’t you?”

“Mira,” he warned.

“Who am I going to tell?” I made a show of looking around. “These walls don’t share my secrets, Caleb. You still human or not?”

His expression darkened, and he looked away, staring out the window like the woods outside were the most interesting sight on the planet. Fine. If he wasn’t going to talk, he could listen.

“Eli’s sons were killed by poachers. He told me and Uncle Brady about it. People in town think they just up and left for a different life somewhere, but they got shot up when they were running as bears out in the woods one night. Eli wasn’t right after that. Even Uncle Brady called him crazy, and you’ve probably heard about how unstable he was. When you have a lunatic calling you a lunatic, you’re a damned lunatic. And that’s where Eli was headed. Maybe he felt like turning bear for good, or maybe you all go full bear when you get old and sick like he was. I don’t know. But if he knew you were the new owner of his land, the land that has passed to the sons in his family for generations, maybe he wanted to punish you.”

“It’s not a punishment, Mira.” Caleb had said it as softly as he possibly could. “I don’t think he saw it like that. He bled me slow. Killing me would’ve been a punishment. That crazy old shifter thought he was giving me a gift.”

“How do you know?”

Resting his elbows on his knees, he dropped his head and ran his hands through his hair roughly. “Because I think about it all the damned time, Mira. The way he tortured me…” Caleb swallowed hard. “The way he did it makes me think he was deliberately trying to turn me, not kill me. He had no sons left. He picked me to keep the monster alive.”

“Do you think it’s a gift?”

He jerked his head up, and I gasped at the gold-rimmed, inhuman eyes that met mine. An empty smile crooked his lips. “No, Mira. Seeing you fear me isn’t a gift. Knowing what the town would do to me if they found out what I am isn’t a gift. Eli Emmerson’s last act on this earth was to curse me.” He stood and gripped the knob on my bedroom door. He kept his eyes cast away from me to hide the unnatural color. “I put jacks up on my land and they are already paying. It won’t be a permanent solution if it is one at all. You are going to have to find a job so you can live.”

“I am living,” I said defensively.

“Mira,” he said, squeezing his eyes tightly closed. When he looked at me again, they were blue again. “This isn’t living.”

He reached into his pocket, then handed me a piece of crumpled paper. I read over it and tried to hide the disappointment from my face.

Don’s Butcher Shop

May’s Florist

Soft Time Linens

Library

Pizzeria

“I’ve already applied to all of these places,” I said quietly. “Except for the butcher shop. The sign on his door said now hiring but when I tried, Mr. Don said he didn’t have any openings.” The rest of them had said different variations of the same thing. I’d be bad for business.

Caleb stared at me for a long time, then shook his head like I’d said something unbelievable. “Before we do anything to your place, we need to have the title squared away for you to give me permission to do the electric and open the gate wider. Is the deed in your name?”

“Uncle Brady’s will put it in my name when I turned eighteen. I have to sign some paperwork with Mr. Burns before it’s all official, though.”

“Okay, get dressed,” he said. “We need to go into town and get that taken care of before anything else.”

“Right now?” I asked. Usually, I mentally prepared myself for a couple of days before a trip to Main Street.