She missed him already.
THE PLAN
As Kyle drove off, Jessica’s face came swimming into his vision against the stark contrast of night. Her light perfume of lilacs was still fresh in his nostrils. He wanted to kiss her so badly just now. Every part of his body was twitching and yearning to be with her.
She’s human. How can I want to be with a human so much? She is not my designated mate and she will never be.
And yet, there it was – that pervading, miraculous attraction he felt towards her.
It can’t be.
He had been massively attracted to human females before, of course. But he had always attributed it to his animal hormones. Werebears were attracted to both humans and other werebears alike, but when they took a mate, they mated for life. In the clan’s history, there had been only one ancestor who had taken a human female for mate. That ancestor had been banished from the clan and his name purged from clan records, which accounted for why Kyle couldn’t remember it.
But he had a task to complete, and by his father’s wishes, he would complete it.
If only she wasn’t so wonderful. He wondered if his father ever had such misgivings. Then again, he was not privy to his father’s machinations. All that was required was that the virgin be willing (and not coerced in any manner) when she first entered the house.
The rest would be up to his father.
Sometimes, he wondered why the rules were as they were. He was one of the few who actually questioned them in secret. Most of the time, he was asked to shut up or face the wrath of the Elders. But gad, Jessica was affecting him in the most primal of ways! He felt his crotch stiffening and his hand crept down to stifle it.
What’s the matter with me?
There was only one way to work it through.
He drove at top speed back to the woods of the Enclave. The woodlands here were copious and crowded, stretching over hilly regions and valleys alike. Jericho Atreides owned a large part of it and the rest was merged into government forest reserve. Here, the air was as fresh as the sweet pines which scented it and there was always glistening dew and squirrels and woodchuck in the undergrowth.
Here he could be free.
He parked the car at his usual spot under the moonlight. No one else was around, and he would know if someone was watching from afar anyway. He climbed out of the Mustang, took his clothes off and shifted. His facial bones changed. His limbs lengthened and thickened and hair sprouted out of his pores. His skeleton grew taller, much taller until he was almost double his human height.
The shadow he threw against the ground was now very different from the one he started the night out with.
Kyle put his nose into the air and sniffed. He wasn’t hungry because he just had dinner, but he caught a whiff of honey in the near distance. He loved honey. As a child, he had a significant craving for it, but it wasn’t until he came into his change that he really gave in to his temptations.
He broke into a run. He was extremely heavy and large – heavier than a grizzly because werebears tended to be even bigger than normal bears – but he was graceful for his bulk. He scented the honey in the nest which was wrapped around a tree branch like a parasite. Bees were buzzing around it angrily. Sensing that he was about to steal their honey, they launched their furry little bodies at him.
But a werebear’s fur was thick and long. Kyle took a lazy swipe at the nest despite the cloud of wrathful bees darting at him with their stingers. The nest broke and came apart, and he grabbed the honeycombs. He put one honeycomb into his large mouth and chomped on it happily.
A growl came from the undergrowth. Kyle had sensed the presence of the other werebear from far but chose to keep mum.
“Still gorging yourself on childhood simplicities, brother?” the other bear said.
Bears did not speak as per human speech but communicated through grunts, snarls and gestures.
“Simple childhood pleasures are sometimes necessary, younger brother,” Kyle replied. “They ground us in humility and nostalgic pursuit.”
“Not seemly behavior for a future alpha, some would say.”
“You know me. I like to carve my own niche in life.” Kyle held out a honeycomb. “Want some?”
“No thanks.”
His brother’s refusal of his gesture of friendship was not lost on Kyle. They had not been friends for a long, long time – not since Caleb perceived (rightly) at the tender age of ten that their father favored Kyle.
“Fine. More for me then.” Kyle turned his back on his brother and finished the honeycomb, though every sense of his was on the alert for his brother’s movements. This was one member of the family he could not trust, sad to say.
“Heard you went hunting tonight, brother.”