A Bear In the Honey (BBW Unintentional Mail-Order-Bride Paranormal Shifter Romance) (2 page)

“Thank you so very much again for coming out here, I really appreciate it. If you require any compensation for your troubles, please don’t hesitate to ask.” He smiled and reached out to shake my hand.

“Oh, it’s no problem,” I blushed as I took his warm, strong hand into mine.  “The Beekeeper’s Association is happy to assist in any way we can; it’s our mission to reach out to the public and help educate people about bees.”

We both stood there looking deeply into each other’s eyes for a moment. I was transfixed—his were such beautiful light-green orbs; they appeared to radiate energy. I couldn’t look away. I gulped hard.

After what seemed like an eternity, he finally said, “Well, should we suit up and go take a look at the bees?”

“Yes, of course.”

Whew
, I thought as he turned away. I didn’t know if it was him or me, but there was definitely some intensity in the air between us!

We put on our protective veils and jackets and then went over to his beehives. Of course, I had to inquire about the absence of a bear fence.

“Don’t you have a problem with bears around here?”

“What do mean?” he asked, turning my way quickly with an expression of annoyance (or maybe it was suspicion, I couldn’t tell). Clearly, the question threw him off for some reason, and his reaction, in turn, caught me off-guard. It was an awkward moment to say the least.

              I smiled, trying to diffuse whatever tension or anxiety I seemed to create. “Well, bears love brood and honey. They’ll rip apart hives and destroy bees to eat the resources. A bear fence is absolutely essential to having bees, and I noticed you didn’t have one as I drove in. We have a running joke we like to tell people who are thinking about getting bees. ‘There are two kinds of beekeepers: those who
HAVE
a bear fence, and those who
WILL
have a bear fence.’”

              “Oh, I see,” Sebastian laughed nervously. “No, I guess, I guess I haven’t had time to put one up yet.” He seemed really thrown off by the question for some reason.

But I didn’t care. It was a straightforward request for information, so I pressed on. “How do you keep bears out then? You said in your ad that this is your third season keeping bees. In all this time you haven’t had
one problem
with bears knocking over and destroying your hives?”

              “Uh, no. I guess not. Maybe there aren’t many in these parts.”

              “Hmm. Well maybe. It’s funny, but I just saw a black bear not far from the end of your driveway as I drove in. In any event, you’re a lucky man, Sebastian, if you don’t have problems with bears.”

              “Oh, uh. Yes well maybe I am,” he said quietly without looking at me.

              The topic of bears seemed to sincerely bother him, so I let it slide. Instead, I shifted gears and began a general inspection of the layout of his bee yard, followed by an examination of the hives for various diseases or conditions that might shed light on his problem.

              And what I found was most curious: His hives appeared to be well-managed, healthy and strong; I couldn’t find the slightest defect in his management. In fact, the most remarkable observation I was that
the bees didn’t seem to like Sebastian!
Whenever I removed a frame and handed it to him, the bees got agitated and angry. Whenever he moved about the yard, the bees would move around him or attempt to sting him through his protective clothing. It was the darndest thing!

              “I’ve got to tell you, Sebastian,” I said with a voice laced with amusement, “It’s the weirdest thing, but your bees don’t seem to like you.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed,” he deadpanned.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were a bear! They are clearly agitated by your presence alone, I just can’t figure out why. It’s as if you emanate a warning pheromone to them or something!”

              “You don’t say,” he said calmly with an arched eyebrow. “Is there anything I can do?”

              “Well, for starters, take the smoker and douse yourself and your gear with smoke before cracking open a hive. It may not make a difference, but it can’t hurt. All in all, your hives appear to be quite healthy; it’s just that the bees don’t like you, for lack of a better expression. And unhappy, nervous bees are unproductive bees, making them more likely to swarm. I’m sorry I can’t say more, but again, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m as confounded as you are.”

              We talked a little while longer, and we both agreed that I would return every two or three days to work his bees for him to see if they would improve; he only had four hives, and I lived about fifteen miles away, so it was no problem for me to come check on them. I was curious to see if the bees would start making more brood and honey if there was a set of hands in their hives they didn’t positively abhor. Of course, having the opportunity to meet up with the sexy stranger yet again sealed the deal, at least in my mind. I was thrilled just being in his presence.

              ****

Sebastian

             
As if her curvy, voluptuous body wasn’t bad enough—all I wanted was to rip off her clothes and fuck her hard and fast—but then she had to call out my bear on top of it all. I’ve never seen anything like it! She was so thorough and professional, the way she handled my bees, and then how quickly her powers of observation detected me as the culprit! Clearly, not only was Sara beautiful, but she was a beautiful genius, too, a hard combination to come by! I could only imagine what it would be like if she were my mate…if she were the one to attend to my bees and give birth to our cubs. Oh, she was perfect! She was everything a bear could ever wish for. I had to have her…but how? Thank God she was coming back. Waiting for her to return literally caused me pain in my heart and stomach
.  

              ****

Sara

              I would have done anything to wrap myself around Sebastian’s thickly-muscled body and have him inside of me! It killed that I couldn’t have him. After several trips out to work with his bees I learned he was single. And I got the distinct impression that he was into me almost as much as I was into him. Maybe he would have asked me out if we hadn’t agreed he not get into the bee yard as often—we both thought it the best for the bees, but it limited our time to chat.  I was left alone to work while he had other forestry-related duties to attend to in the woods behind his house.

              The only time I got the impression he might ask me out was when Jim happened to call me right at the moment when he started to say, “Sara, I’ve been meaning to a—“

              Of all the rotten times to get a phone call! I tried to excuse myself, and apologized for taking the call, but Goddamnit if Sebastian declined to say what was on his mind after that. And from that point on he turned cold. Had he been merely leading me on all this time? It really hurt. I didn’t know what I did, all I knew was I wanted him to be friendly and flirtatious towards me once again.

              Three weeks passed after that incident, and I was finally coming to terms with the fact that he had given up on pursuing me. Our exchanges became curt and professional, although I sensed he was holding something back. Nevertheless, I soldiered on, determined to get his bees ready for the second honey flow of the year because they bombed the first.

              One morning, as I was driving to Sebastian’s, I noted an increased amount of bear activity. I saw three bears on the dirt road leading to his driveway. It was exciting. They all stopped to look at me, and I got out my cameral to take a picture. They were so cute! At least that’s what I thought initially.

              Because later on that day, while Sebastian was off in the woods and I was alone in the bee yard working, two bears came ambling into his yard.

At first, I didn’t give much notice. They were about a hundred yards off and non-threatening. I knew bears rarely attacked people, and I was busy with my own tasks, so I ignored them.

But when they started walking directly towards me I started to become afraid. I hollered and yelled and waved my arms about, I even threw a few rocks at them. But they continued towards me, undeterred.

That kind of behavior is very unusual, and I knew from my wildlife management training back in college that if a bear approaches you, you should be very worried. A human has zero chance of outrunning a bear or fighting it off.

I backed away, positioning myself such that the hives were between me and the bears. I cried out for Sebastian, hoping he was near and had a gun. I figured I was in for it.

“Sebastian!” I screamed wildly. 

Just then one of the bears charged forth, jumping over a beehive and tipping it over in the process. I screamed again as the bear collided and knocked me to the ground.

It hovered over me menacingly, straddling me with its forelegs as if it was going to devour me.

“Help!! Sebastian, help!!” I shrieked with all the power I could muster.

“Hey!!” I heard Sebastian’s deep voice bellow a second later. “Get off her!!”

The two bears turned to look around to see Sebastian racing forth.

And then the unthinkable happened: In full tilt, Sebastian himself turned into a bear!

I screeched yet again as he came rushing forth, this time in bear form. As if in slow motion, I watched as he leapt through the air and came crashing into the bear standing over me, taking the attacking bear’s head into his front paws just as they hit the ground in a cloud of debris and flying rocks.

I heard the sickening
‘crunch!
’ of the one bear’s neck snapping in half as they tumbled over the ground, coming to rest at the base of a tree.  A second later Sebastian was on his feet and racing towards the other bear, but apparently it had already known it was overpowered and took off running. But Sebastian continued to chase, and once he caught up the other he gave him such a ferocious blow to the hindquarter that bad bear bellowed in pain.

After he had done his damage Sebastian loped back towards me and returned to his human form.

“Sara, I’m so sorry. Please let me explain,” he panted, trying to catch his breath.

I was freaked out, to say the least, and I instinctively scuttled away from him.

“Sara! I won’t hurt you! I promise,” he announced as he registered my fear of him. He stopped in his tracks, not wanting to alarm me further.

“W- what the fuck happened?” I breathed. “What are you?”

He knelt down onto his knees, not drawing any nearer. “Sara I’m sorry. I’m sorry for calling you out here. I shouldn’t have. My clan has rules against bringing humans to our sacred woods. I only wanted help with my bees; really, it’s the truth. But when I first heard your alluring voice message, I was intrigued. And then when saw you for the first time, all of my better judgment went out the window. I should have never encouraged you to come out here. I should have known the others like me would have wanted you as I did. I’m sorry for putting you in danger.”

I didn’t know what to say, but my sex pulsed when he alluded to wanting me. I instantly forgot all about the fearful events of the previous few minutes.

“What do you mean by ‘want’?”

“Er…well. You know. Want you. Like how a man wants a woman.”

I gulped. Did he just say what I thought he did? I got up, dusted myself off, restacked his beehive, and walked over to him.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me you wanted me?”

He looked confused for a minute and said, “Well…I tried. One day. But as I was trying to ask you out your phone interrupted me.  A man called, and you set up a dinner date. I figured you were already in a relationship, or were in the process of getting one off the ground.”

“Oh Sebastian! That was Jim Thompson, the old-timer I told you about from the Beekeepers Association. We were setting up a dinner date to go over some financials! I’m a single woman. I’ve wanted to fuck you since the moment I met you.”