Hansel's Bear (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tale) (21 page)

People were everywhere setting up
booths for the festival and decorating floats for the parade that
would kick it off on Monday.

“
Excuse us!”

The group’s attention was pulled by a
woman calling out with a loud screeching voice form a cream-colored
Winnebago with green detail down the side.

Greta could feel the tension and hear
the murmurs of the other Were’s around her. Den residents didn’t
like outsiders and humans were the worst in town. If they even
sensed something was off or different in Den they could bring more
attention to their county. The last thing they wanted was more
strangers nosing around and asking questions, possibly discovering
that shifters existed.

Cord broke from the pack and walked to
the passenger side of the vehicle to the pale-skinned white woman
with faded red hair. “You all lost?”

With a large smile and wide eyes she
glanced over to the middle-aged man with dark hair driving.
Returning her gaze to Cord, she said, “Why yes we are. We’re from
Idaho. We were looking for an event we heard about, but I think we
got turned around. Our GPS lost signal and with nothing but long
roads and trees around this area isn’t easy.”

“
An event?” Cord folded
his arms over his broad chest as he eyed them. “You all are a bit
far from home.”

The woman’s giggle was high, pitchy.
“True. However, we home school our kids and believe education
should be experienced in life not four walls.”

Her husband was nodding his head,
causing his long stringy hair two sway around his face.

Greta could see the children, three of
them, peeking from between the seats and pointing at different
things they saw through the front window.

A good example of just why they closed
off the town during the festival. Tomorrow the barriers would be
put into place. After this, Cord may order them to be set up
tonight.

“
Where are you all trying
to get to?” Cord’s voice was tight, urgent.

Distracted by her kids chatter she
glanced around. “What do you all have going on here? Is it a
carnival? Maybe we could hang around and have some
fun—m”

“
I’m sure you all would
like to get on the road and get to your destination. You all have
traveled so far as it is.” He demanded as he cut the woman off and
ignored her question.

“
Oh, yes, yes. My kids
have never seen a wild animal circus…kind of a freak-show like.”
She was pulling several papers down from the dashboard as she
spoke.

Hansel’s body tensed beside hers as he
moved in a few steps toward Cord.

Greta, like most of the people, was
more interested in getting rid of the family. She wasn’t really
paying much attention to what the woman was saying. However, when
Hansel kept moving closer an uncomfortable feeling began at the
base of her spine and crawled upward.

Hansel
?

Hansel didn’t respond.

Cord placed a hand on the door.
“What’s the town you’re looking—”

“
Ah, here it is!” She held
the tan flyer up. “Circus of the Wild.”

Even from her distance she could see
tigers, bears on hind legs with ruffled collars and decorated
horses with a rider.

Hansel reached over Cord and snatched
the paper from the woman’s hands.

“
Well.” The woman pulled
her hand back and placed it against her chest, shocked by Hansel’s
rudeness. “You can have that one if you like, we have another one.
We picked them up at a convenience store when we crossed over from
Nevada.”

Cord frowned at Hansel but addressed
the woman. “What’s the address on your other sheet?”

Residents had stopped working and were
observing the strangers and the situation. Greta knew everyone was
analyzing whether they would need to assist in any sort of way, by
attacking or hiding things. Were-bears of Den stuck
together.

Lifting another flyer from her pile
she gave Cord the name of the town.

“
I know where that is. The
county is about a couple hours down the road. It is the next town.”
Cord gave them directions that would lead them onto a road far away
from Den, then a direct route straight into the next
town.

As the Mayor of Den County did his job
getting rid of the interlopers, she weaved her way through the
crowd and went to Hansel’s side.

The family finally waved as Cord and
Theo directed the people and traffic out of their way so that the
driver could make a wide U-turn. Soon they were driving out of
town.

“
How about those
strawberry ices?” Theo tried to return the focus back to where they
had all left off before the visitors’ arrival.

She slipped her hand around Hansel’s
bicep. His muscle was tight with tension. “Hansel—”

“
I have to go.” He still
hadn’t taken his gaze off the flyer, now crumbled at the side by
one of his hands. His jaw flexed as he started in the direction
he’d parked his motorcycle instead of to the ice cream
shop.

Still holding on to him, she applied
pressure as she stood firm and yanked on his arm.

Jolted some, he stopped and glanced
back at her. There was a red tint to his eyes, making them appear
more burgundy than black.

She removed her hand from his
arm.

Hansel blinked once, twice, three
times before his gaze cleared and she could tell he was seeing her.
That he finally recognized her.

“
Where are you going?” She
truly knew she didn’t need to ask. The name of that horrid
spectacle was just as ingrained in her mind as Hansel’s. However,
the question she was asking was deeper than a mere physical
destination.

“
Greta, this is it.” He
lifted the paper, now fully crumbled in his fist and shook it. His
eyes were bright, a frightening excited tone entered his voice.
“It’s a sign. Information to help me locate them has come back
around. I thought it was lost with my delay here.”

“
Your delay?”

He shoved his hands through his hair,
frustrated as if he struggled to find the right words. “You know
what I mean. They don’t stay long in one place, you know that. So,
when I stayed to help out I knew it was a sure thing those men had
already packed up and moved on to another town.”

She shook her head, even as the
members of the two teams that had not already dispersed after the
strangers had left began to gather around them. “You don’t even
believe in signs or fate.” Or us evidently. “Don’t you think it’s
time you let it go? If you don’t they are still controlling your
life.”

“
They’re not controlling a
damn thing about me anymore,” Hansel spoke through a tight jaw.
“I
choose
to hunt
them. You should understand.”

“
What’s going on?” Rorke
stepped out of the group and moved closer to them.

Fear gripped her heart and
caused her eyes to burn with unshed tears. “I understand the hatred
for them, believe me. But, the thirst for vengeance is something
that only you have.
I
want a life.”
I thought you wanted
that too.

He closed his eyes and stood there
before her taking in a deep breath. When he stared at her there was
an emotion filling his gaze. She didn’t even allow it to give her
any hope.

I do.
“I do…it’s just I
need
to see this through or it will haunt me
forever.”

“
Greta, let us help you
two with whatever is happening here.” Rorke tried again.

She ignored the big male
beside her. “You do what you feel you
need
to do. I’ll do the same.”
Turning away she started walking.

“
Greta…I’ll be back. I
promise.”

She paused. Glancing over her
shoulder, she allowed every bit of her hurt, anger and emotions to
fill her gaze as she stared at him. “Save your promise. When you
finish with your quest just get on your bike and move on to another
town, no life.” Finished she strutted through town with her head
held high, even though the pain in her gut was overwhelming. She
wouldn’t let anyone see her beat. No, she would save that until she
got home in the privacy of her own room.

~YH~

“
Greta!”

Hansel watched the woman he loved
continue to walk away.

“
You going to tell me
what’s got you and Greta so riled up and at odds?” Rorke stood
before him, his hands planted on his sides.

Hansel groaned. “I need to talk to
her. Make her understand but I don’t have the time.”

“
Generally people make
time for what is important to them. She important to
you?”

“
Hell, yes!” Hansel
growled and leaned his head back. He was torn in two. He stared up
at the cloudless sky but he held no answers for him. Lowering his
head, he glanced at the were-male he had grown to call friend. “But
right now there is something I need to do.”

“
What’s that?”

Hansel held his fist out to him and
opened it.

Rorke removed the crumpled paper and
straightened it out. “I saw you snatch the flyer from that woman,
this where they’re headed?”

“
Yes.”

“
What does it have to do
with you?” Rorke looked from the paper depicting the ridiculous
costumes Jackal and Damian liked to dress animals up in.

Besides Greta and her family, he
hadn’t shared his life or experience with anyone. But, he had grown
to not only like Rorke but trust him as well. “You all know about
Greta being taken when she was younger.”

“
And thankfully she made
it back to us.”

“
Yeah.” Hansel nodded
recalling the ache in his soul the day she escaped, but he knew she
had a family she needed to return to. “Well, these are the ones
that had her…had us.”

Frowning, Rorke stared at him. “So
this is where you and Greta know each other from?”

Greta had told him that she hadn’t
shared any of her experience with anyone until recently and that
was only to her parents. Hansel felt it was time that Den knew both
their stories, instead of holding it away as if it were something
to be ashamed of.

Dainton, Cord, Theo, Gordon and a few
other males circled around them.

“
That’s right. I was
already there. Had been there for a few years. They killed my
family and took me. Just to train me to be one of their circus
attractions,” he pointed to the bear on the flyer. “Their idea of
training was with whips and pokers until you submitted, learned and
got it right.”

“
Shit! Well that explains
the scars all over your back. You must have been really young.”
Rorke shook his head.

Hansel shrugged. He knew that Rorke
had probably seen the markings on his back while he was working
with him, but the male had respected his privacy at the time and
never asked. Another reason he thought of this Were as a
friend.

“
I was much younger when I
was taken than Greta’s age when she arrived.” Hansel let out a
heavy sigh. “I knew that if I didn’t belong there, she really
didn’t. The first night she got there, she told me about you all.
About the town she was from. She had to get away otherwise they
would have destroyed her spirit as they had done mine. Meeting
Greta renewed it.”

“
So what do you plan to
do?”

He looked toward the direction Greta
had gone. She was no longer in sight. He refocused on the males
around him. “I have to finish this. If I don’t, these men will
continue to hurt animals and possibly other Weres in the name of
entertainment and money.”

“
Then we’re with you.”
Dainton placed a hand on his shoulder.

“
You don’t have to do
that.” Hansel stared at Greta’s cousin and business partner. He
hadn’t spent as much time with Dainton as Rorke, only a dinner at
Greta’s parent’s home where Dainton and Ebony had joined
them.

From Greta he was aware that even
though Ebony and Dainton loved each other they had not completed
the final mate mark. Greta explained to him that Ebony wanted to
have her first shift before she allowed Dainton to commit himself
to her permanently. The dark skinned woman reminded him of someone,
was an outsider like him. When he had first met her, he swore he’d
seen her somewhere before, but he could never place his finger on
it.

“
On behalf of my cousin,
and you, these asses need to be stopped.” Dainton looked around at
the other Weres surrounding them. “Who’s with us?”

Hansel was amazed at how fast the
circle closed around them as everyone stepped up. He gave a sharp
nod of thanks. His throat felt a little tight. He’d fought every
battle in his life alone and to know that these Were-bears had his
back in this situation left him speechless for a moment. Hansel
cleared his throat. “We’re going to need a plan.”

“
Meet at my office in
twenty.” Sheriff Smokey ordered. “I’ll pass the word around and see
who else is in.”