Zena Wynn: Mary and the Bear

With that, he dropped the keys in her hand, took one last look around and headed out the door. For such a big man, he moved quickly and quietly. She couldn't even hear him on the stairs as he descended.

Looking around at what was to be her new home, she realized she had a lot of work to do. The place was definitely a fixer-upper. A few coats of paint would go a long way toward sprucing it up. You could tell it had been several years since anyone had lived there.

Under the tiredness, there was a tiny spark of excitement growing. She'd always liked do-it-yourself projects and now she could indulge. She'd done it. She'd moved, and now she had two weeks to get settled into her new place before reporting to work.

A brief look at her watch showed it was almost six p.m.. She made herself get moving. There was the truck to unload, the bed to make and some cleaning to be done before she could call it a night. Groceries would have to wait until tomorrow. Good thing she'd packed a few things and stored them in a cooler for the trip. They should suffice until she could get to the store.

Trudging down the stairs, she made the first of many trips to the truck. She doubted she'd get everything unloaded tonight, but at least she'd have the essentials. One thing for sure, after all of this, she shouldn't have any problems sleeping.

It was close to eight o'clock when she finished. She was deeply satisfied with all she'd accomplished today. It had been a long day. She was exhausted, but there were still a few things to do before she could call it a night. She cleaned the bathroom, made the bed and unpacked the few essentials that she'd need in the morning.

That done, Mary Elizabeth gave a sigh of relief. She considered going down to the dinner for some real food, but was too tired. She fixed a sandwich and ate it standing up at the kitchen counter. Now that she wasn't moving as much, she realized it was cold in the apartment. After searching for a few minutes, she managed to find the thermostat and turn on the heat. She made sure everything was locked up tight, turned off the lights and went into the bedroom.

She grabbed her nightclothes and headed into the bathroom for a quick shower. She really wanted to soak in the surprisingly large tub, but was afraid she'd fall asleep and drown. Rushing through her shower, she dressed for bed and turned in for the night.

Normally she had problems sleeping in unfamiliar beds and strange surroundings. She prayed that tonight it wouldn't be an issue. She needed sleep. In the last few weeks since Babs died, she'd only napped. If she didn't get any rest tonight, she'd break down and buy some sleeping pills.

As she was falling asleep, her thoughts drifted back to her new landlord. What a strange man. He was appealing, but not handsome in the traditional sense. Grandma Pete would have said that his face had character. Her last thought would have shocked her if she'd been more alert. She wondered if it were true what they said about men with big hands and feet.

Hugh glanced through the open window of the kitchen into the dining room every time the door opened. He wondered when his new tenant would show up. It didn't sit well with him that he'd left her to unload all of the boxes he'd seen piled on the back of her truck by herself. Unfortunately, he had a diner to run and the food wouldn't cook itself.

For a human, she did an admirable job of hiding her reaction to his size. People quivered with fear upon first seeing him. They equated his largeness with violence. Then, there were the women. The ones whose eyes would measure the size of his body before falling to his crotch like they had x-ray vision. Those wanted to see if his penis was a match for the rest of him. It was, but they'd never know. Aggressive women were not attractive to him.

He knew his size was intimidating. It was something he used to his advantage when needed, like while he served in the military. Like all were-bears, he was very large and very strong. In bear form, he was over five hundred pounds of pure muscle. Despite his appearance, he was a gentle man until riled. Fortunately, it took a lot to spark his temper.

One more hour and he could pack up and go home. Again his thoughts wondered back to his tenant. She was a little bitty thing. He admitted to himself that she probably didn't appear small to anyone else, but it was all comparatively speaking. He was six-seven and weighed in at over three hundred pounds of solid muscle. To him, most women were small, especially this one that barely managed to come up to his sternum.

This one managed to bring out his protective instincts. There was a sadness in her eyes that punched him right in the gut. He didn't know what her story was, but could tell she'd recently been through the wringer. If her eyes hadn't given her away, the dark circles under them and her pallor would have. He made his spiel about the apartment as short as possible because she was so tired, she'd swayed on her feet. It made him want to gather her close and tell her everything would be alright.

He would have to pick her up to kiss her . The thought stopped him in his tracks. Where had that come from ? He couldn't remember the last time a woman managed to catch his interest sexually. The hours he put in at the diner were long. He had neither the time nor the energy for a relationship. Yes, he had needs but he was past the age where he needed sex just for the sake of sex. He was at a time in his life where he was looking for a long-term relationship, something that would lead to marriage and kids. He was looking for a mate.

His tenant was off limits, for several reasons. First and foremost, Alex requested that he watch out for her. That meant she was under Hugh's protection. Also, she was living in his building and it was bad business to start something sexual with someone he was in a business relationship with. Lawsuits had been won over less. Besides, she didn't need any attention from him. Soon, she'd have men coming out of the woods to take a good sniff at her, literally. Young, single women were in short supply in Refuge. The human men in town would be checking her out to see if she was a potential conquest. The male shifters would be sniffing her to determine if she was their One—their true mate. He would not be one of them.

Finding a true mate among humans was rare. True mates were humans whose DNA was compatible with the shifter to whom they destined to be mated. The odds of his finding a human female match was between slim and none. The lack of compatible mates was one of the reasons shifters as a whole were dying out. There'd be no true mate for him. He didn't have one. As far as he knew, the true mates discovered to date had all been for wolf shifters.

The thought saddened him because his species was nearly extinct. Their birth rates were extremely low. In his lifetime, he'd only run across three other were-bears, and those were all male. Breeding with a female of another species was not an option. Just as in nature bears didn't breed with wolves, the same was true for shifters. While he could and did occasionally have sex with females of other species, he couldn't procreate with them. If he took a woman from another species—including humans—as mate, there would be no children, and he wanted a family.

He was proud of who and what he was. He was determined to do all that he could to continue his species. To that end, he'd been hunting for a female were-bear. He'd managed to find an on-line dating service that matched shape-shifters with others of their species. The service was a well-kept and closely guarded secret. Many of his kind used it in an effort to find compatible mates. So far, the service managed to find two promising prospects.

He'd been meeting with the two ladies in a supervised chat room, trying to get a feel for them. He had no idea what they looked like or where they were located. He was hoping one of them would accept him as mate, but competition was stiff. There were several males for them to choose from. They could afford to be picky and take their time.