Bear Shifters: Hunt Collection #2 (12 page)

Chapter Three:
Mercy's Going Away Party

Time was a blur for Morgan, who spent every moment he could with Mercy, trying to show her another life outside of being Jackson's doormat. While there were moments where he thought he was getting closer to her staying, in the end she was here, at her going away party at MakeSoft.

He'd taken the time to make the tree cake, sat it lovingly in the center of the table with the rest of the potluck entrees and the finger foods, and waited for her arrival. She arrived at the glass double-doors and strode confidently in, dressed beautifully in a black suit with her hair up in a bun.

Morgan noticed a few tendrils of hair that floated effortlessly down her face, and was overcome with the want to stroke them behind an ear.

"I really appreciate everyone coming and saying goodbye. It's been hard these past few weeks. There are times when I've counted the minutes until my plane leaves, and there's been moments when I've thought about staying..." Mercy began, looking at Morgan there at the end of her statement. "In the end, it's been a wonderful time here at MakeSoft, and I will take a small piece of everyone with me when I go."

Everyone clapped and started eating as Mercy made her way to Morgan.

"I really appreciate you taking me out and making sure I wasn't bored in my off time, Morgan. And this cake, oh my word, it's every bit as tasty as it always is! What are you some kind of bakery wizard? All these secrets stored up in you," she said, poking him in his hard chiseled chest, "and so little time to unlock them."

"You could stay, unlock all of them, get to know me better, if you wanted to that is." Morgan whispered, barely audible.

For a moment he couldn't tell if she had heard him or not, until she turned to go and he heard, "There are times I think about it."

Night came and people left MakeSoft, climbing into their vehicles and headed to their respective homes. Morgan said goodnight to Mercy and for a moment hesitated by her car door.

"Anything wrong, Morgan?"

There was so much he wanted to say to her. His mind wrestled with what to do as his bear wanted nothing more than to throw her over its shoulder and carry her off, keeping her away from Jackson and his heart-breaking ways.

"No, just thinking. Be safe, Mercy." He uttered as he turned to walk to his own car.

****

Morgan turned the corner, having stayed back just far enough Mercy couldn't see him. She stepped out of the car, and went inside her apartment. Bags were carried out and placed in the rental. Morgan started up his own car again and tailed her to the airport.

She parked in the rental lot, turning over the key.

It was time. He exhaled, rubbed his hands through his dark hair, and stepped out of the car.

Morgan walked up behind her and said, "Need a hand with those?" startling her.

"Morgan! What are you doing here, I thought you...." she didn't finish as his hand went around her mouth keeping her from speaking. He placed her in the front of his car, clicking a handcuff to the chair. The soft fabric gag kept her from making too much noise in the seat while he loaded her bags into the back of his own car. Her eyes held questions, a slight bit of fear, and wonderment.

Now,  what the fuck am I going to do
, was the last thing he thought of as he climbed into the car and headed back to his place.

Chapter
Four: Settling In

She sat there on the couch, minutes after arriving at Morgan's home. He'd brought in her bags, made her room, fixed her a drink and a snack, and then sat beside her. She carefully surveyed her surroundings. Well furnished, clean, not your typical bachelor pad.

"Mercy, I'm going to take this gag off. I'm sorry I put it on, but I couldn't let you scream. You know me. You know I'd never put you in harm's way. At least, you should know."

His hands shook a bit as he took the fabric from her mouth. Handed her the water as she glared at him, eyes streaked and menacing.

She took a long drink, sat the glass down in her lap, as she quietly and calming began talking.

"Morgan, I don't understand this at all. You knew I was leaving. I don't know why you would do this? What the hell has gotten into you?"

"I will explain everything if you just give me time. I swear to you on everything I love dear in this world, that you can trust me. That I'd never hurt you. And that I did what I did because I truly couldn't see an option at the time."

****

Morgan and Mercy had come to a general understanding. She wasn't to yell and she could have the gag removed. If she didn't try to break down the doors or windows, she could walk around unrestrained. She wouldn't get a key, she couldn't answer the phone or have one of her own, but she was able to have her own room and things and her door locked whenever she wanted.

Time progressed and while Mercy skirted the line between still being scared of the situation and understanding that Morgan would never hurt her, the two seemed to get along.

"Tell me more about you, Morgan." Mercy asked between sneezes.

"Sounds like you caught a bug somewhere, damn office parties full of germs..." Morgan grumbled, leaving without answering her question.

Morgan returned in moments with a handful of medications and a tall glass of water and sat them by her table at the opposite end of the couch.

"Would you like to watch TV with me?" he asked, grabbing the remote.

"Sure, may as well make the best of this, right?"

"Mercy, I swear to you, this wasn't planned to be this way, but you gave me no choice in the matter. I couldn't let you go to New York."

"You keep saying that but you never say why that is."

"There are many reasons... Jackson's a giant douche for one. I need more time with you for number two. And thirdly, I don't want you to spend years of your life with someone that you'll regret."

"So you're going to keep me here, against my will, and that's better?"

Morgan understood she had a point, but he was clueless on how to fix the situation now. Surely Mercy would go straight to the police. He'd never have a chance to show her how he could love her.

No, this had to be done just like it is and see how it plays out.

Chapter
Five: Bedtime Stories

It had been two days since Mercy came down with a cold. Morgan's brushes with viral sicknesses meant a few vitamins and some bed rest and he was good as new. Mercy, on the other hand, seemed to have grabbed hold of the virus invading her body and made it breakfast. She looked worse after two days than he'd ever seen. However, her fever had subsided and he knew she was out of the woods and healing, even if her coughs and sneezes made him question it.

"Tell me a story, Morgan," she whispered before the siege of coughs began again.

He had placed the bowl of chicken broth and the tumbler of ice water beside her on the night stand when he turned to look at her oddly.

"A story?"

"When I'd get sick, my mother used to tell me a story to cheer me up." She explained.

"And Jackson would do this, too?" Somehow he couldn't see Jackson the selfish prick sitting next to her contracting her germs and making up a story out of thin air. Jackson hired people for that.

"No, he always stayed away when I was sick. There was always somewhere he needed to be,"she said quietly. "Please?"

"One condition, Mercy."

"Anything." She said, looking up at him for the first time since he brought in her food.

"You can't laugh at me for it."

"Why would I...no, I won't laugh at you. Swear."

"Okay then, Mercy, settle in. Get some soup in you and get those covers pulled tight."

He rested at the foot of her bed and made sure she took a few swallows of the steaming broth he made before beginning:

Tricky Tina was in a quandary. Her bookstore, Tricky Tales Told, was in dire need of a new storyteller. She asked her friends, she begged her family, she even advertised in local papers. Still, no new storytellers were found. Children came and went from the bookstore, dejected from the lack of fun and adventure that was once a part of every Saturday morning.

Then one afternoon, having coffee and bagels in the park by her store, Tricky Tina spied a fleeting object fluttering around a very large live oak. Hues of blue and tendrils of fuzz blurred her sight. Was it a butterfly? Was it some sort of strange new toy?

"No," she exclaimed, "I know what that is!"….and she did, only she knew that what she thought it was couldn't possibly be true.

"It's a fairy!"

She leapt up, leaving half a bagel behind, to chase after the curious fairy.

"Fairy," she cried out, "Fairy, stop and talk to me a while."

Yet the harder she chased the quicker the curious fairy flew. Finally, she realized that her lunch time break was indeed over, and it was time to go back to the land of books and stories.

Perhaps another day, another afternoon," she thought.

She made her way through the park, across the asphalt, down the two blocks to her cozy little shop. Keys were out, locks were re-opened, and once again she was reading to help people find their effortless vacation through the adventure of words.

After an hour of organizing, of reshelving and repositioning book after book, she sat down to reflect. It was in that time she saw it again. Just outside her field of vision, just in the corner of her eye. A wee bit of golden dust. A bit of fairy fluttering, if you will…

"Fairy, just tell me your name…"

"Hmmm, I suppose that wouldn't hurt to divulge. My name is Casey. You think me a curious fairy, so I guess you can call me Curious Casey"

Tricky Tina grinned. She knew she had found her new storyteller. And what a storyteller she would be….people would come far and wide to hear a fairy storyteller spin her tales of lore.

"Curious Casey, I have a business proposition for you…." And it was with that opening that the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to get the Fairy Casey to agree to spend two hours a week weaving an adventure to the bookstore's children.

Whatever Tina bribed or promised must have worked because come the next Saturday morning, bright and early and dressed in her colorful best, Casey and her elfish pointed shoes sat perched atop a pedestal prepared to partake of story hour. The children listened with rapt intent at her words….

"…. It was a land far far away…where common bugs ruled the world… a land with no mommies and no daddies, no kids and no pets…. A land where Sam lived. Sam was a ladybug but he was no "lady" bug. In fact Sam was quite insistent on telling every bug he met that he wasn't a "lady" bug. He told the beetle butlers, the firefly firemen, and the grasshopper gardeners. He told the cricket carpenters, the moth mailmen, and the aphid actors. Just when he thought there was no one left to tell, he heard "Hey sweet lady, you sure have pretty spots"…Angered and agitated, Sam spun around to see a praying mantis priest. "Father, I assure you. I may be a ladybug, but I am not a "lady" bug." Sam sighed. He wasn't even a girly color. He was a respectable manly tan and black instead of the more feminine red and black. He was beginning to think it would never end, that in a fit of despair he would have to fly right into fluorescent lighting…..Times were tough for a male ladybug. He was already seeing a therapist to deal with insect anger management issues. There was even that unfortunate incident he was still trying to get over when he was in Bug High School where he was teased about his spots being more oval than circular. Yes, times had always been tough for a male ladybug….. Then one day, among a leisurely fly among some buttercups he came across a katydid. "Hello Katy" he volunteered. But there was no response….so he said it again, louder… "HELLO KATY"…still, no answer. Hmmm, it was indeed a strange feeling. He flew directly in the path of the katydid and said "I said HELLO".

"Oh, I'm so sorry I didn't realize you were referring to myself…you see, my name is Stan"

It was as if Sam was looking at his inner self. Stan was a Katydid in a land where ALL Katydids were somewhat dimwitted bugs named Katy. It was a pairing that would be an instant friendship……

"And you see children, you should never ever judge someone before you have all the facts," Curious Casey completed.

The children roared their approval, book sales were through the roof that afternoon, and Curious Casey and Tricky Tina forged ahead into a new and hopefully long lasting arrangement. The end.

He looked up at her and saw her smile at him. Her eyes were red and her nose even redder, but she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. And she didn't laugh at him for his story.

"Why that story?" she asked.

"Because I wanted you to see that not everyone is who they seem to be. Jackson isn't going to be your white knight and I am not the black death you may make me out to be," he said simply as he got up to let her sleep.

He turned only once to make sure she was still eating before closing the door behind him.