Bear Shifter Games: A Four Story Paranormal Shifter Collection

Katherine Kalani shook her head in disbelief as she gazed in awe at the bustling crowd; she’d never seen so many different shifters in one place. Every kind that Katherine had ever heard of was limbering up, changing from their human forms into foxes, bears, wolves, and dozens of other animals as they waited behind a single, glowing line marked, “START”. “What is all this?” Katherine asked Sylvester. She stretched her long, tanned legs and tried to work out the kink in her neck. The six hour flight from Hawaii had left her rumpled and knotted. “Welcome to the shifter games!” Sylvester opened his arms out wide, encompassing the crowded clearing in the woods. “These gorgeous specimens...” her friend gestured at the shifters, “will be running, jumping, flying, climbing, and doing whatever else they need to do to get through the course our badass game master has concocted.” He pointed at a pale woman with rose tattoos all across her chest standing atop what looked like a lifeguard stand. Her long black hair was tied up in dozens of braids all floating in the air, bobbing and nodding, seemingly on their own accord. “That’s Lola. Bartender, matchmaker, and game master.” Sylvester grinned. “Also bookie. She’s taking bets on the winner, if you’re interested in some action.” “Sly, I didn’t fly all the way to the mainland to see a bunch of hunks run a race.” She laughed at Sylvester’s faux pout. “Not that I mind seeing a bunch of hunks run a race.” She scanned the crowd. “You said you were taking me to see Raymond Bellwether.” Sylvester took Katherine by the shoulders and gently turned her so she faced the far end of the pack of participants. There, wearing a smarmy grin and nothing else, was Raymond Bellwether. “That son of a--” Strong arms wrapped around her middle and her feet left the floor as Sylvester captured her in a bear hug. “Sly.” Katherine gasped. “Too. Tight.” “Oh sorry!” Sylvester's jolly laugh rang loudly in her ears as he released her. “I just thought it might be a good idea to keep you from assaulting my boss. When I got your text yesterday, I thought you were joking.” “What’s funny about any of this?” Katherine jumped as the starter pistol went off and the assembled horde of shifters dashed away. All of the racers ran nude so they could shift back and forth between forms without destroying their clothes. Her eyes followed Raymond's back, narrowing as he disappeared into the throng. “You’ve been my friend for ten years and you know I adore you, but Kat, you’re a crazy person.” Sylvester said. “You’re here to give the CEO of Bellwether Resorts a lecture about how he shouldn’t have closed the Maui resort? What’s that going to accomplish?” Katherine ground her teeth, hating the feel of the enamel scraping. “There’s no way the Maui Turtle was doing poorly. We were booked solid every single day. I would bet any money that somebody’s skimming off the top, and Mr. Bellwether is a part of it.” She clenched her fists. “At the very least, screaming in that rat bastard’s face will make me feel better.” “And it’s a terrific career move,” Sly quipped. “Let me worry about my career.” She wasn’t employed at the Bellwether resorts, in fact she wasn’t employed anywhere anymore. Until the resort closed, Katherine was a very successful personal trainer working at the Maui Turtle, the Hawaii branch of the Bellwether chain of resorts. She was well respected on the island, training rich regulars and vacationers visiting paradise. Her resort was a typical tropical getaway, decorated from floor to ceiling in palm trees and colorful leis. It might have been hokey, but it was home. Friends told her to set a private studio and charge much more for her personal training sessions, but working at the Maui Turtle hadn't been just about the cash. Katherine still felt the shock that coursed through her body when she heard the Maui Turtle was closing. It was during the normal Monday morning staff meeting, and the news was presented so casually, most people thought it was a joke. Just thinking about their head of housekeeping, Mrs. Mahiʻai's, face when they began to read out the termination notices made Katherine want to bash in Raymond Bellwether’s face. The stark reality of the situation had become all too clear, then. Mrs. Mahiʻai had a seven-year old son with cancer in the hospital. Without her job, how could she possibly keep up with the hospital bills? And Mr. Kapule, one of the gardeners who helped Katherine in high school pass her AP Biology test, has five kids. Maui was a small island, there weren't that many jobs to go around. The coworkers and friends who had been Katherine's surrogate family were already scattering to find work elsewhere. And it was all Raymond Bellwether's fault. Katherine's fists clenched and unclenched at her side “Well f**k that,” Katherine mumbled as she struggled to get past Sly. “If the head of the company wants to ruin my friends'' lives, he’s going to have to explain himself to my face.” “I know,” Sylvester said. “That’s why I brought you here. After the games, everyone drinks their faces off at the bar.” He pointed over his shoulder to a glowing sign reading AUDREY's. “Raymond is going to be exhausted and drunk. I figured that would be your best shot to get the truth out of him.” “Solid plan.” Katherine tapped her foot as she waited for the race to end. “So tell me about these shifter games. I’m a personal trainer and even I think this is a little nuts.” “Oh it’s great!” Sly nearly spilled his beer as he gestured enthusiastically. “Lola sets up a different course every week, and she sets it up so that no type of shifter has an advantage over the others; something for the big and small, fliers and the swimmers, stuff like that. The games are mostly won for bragging rights, but there’s also a prize and it’s always random as hell. One week it was a pack of breath mints, the next it was an all-expenses-paid Alaskan cruise, but you never know until after there's a winner.” The racers were finishing up the course, n***d men and women splashing out of the lake and dashing toward the finish line. She scanned the crowd, searching for Raymond, and her eye caught on a tall man emerging from the water, rivulets running across the toned muscles of his bare chest and abs. Her mouth went dry as she watched the droplets weave a path through the defined grooves of his musculature. The man's hair was neatly trimmed against his scalp and his skin was darker than even Katherine’s perpetual tan. Bulging muscles worked under his skin as he ran across the last field toward the finish line, still behind a few other racers. “I can’t complain about the view,” she said. Even with so much skin on display, the tall man stood out above the rest. “Watch it with that one, he's--” Sly’s warning was cut off with a deafening roar. Raymond had crossed the finish line, and the assembled crowd was going nuts. Katherine clenched her teeth. Of course the asshole won the race. Karma is a lazy b***h. “For our conquering hero, a prize!” Lola’s magnified voice echoed through the clearing although Katherine couldn’t see any sort of microphone. Lola held up a tall white box tied with a shiny red bow. “Now Lola, what am I going to do with this?” Raymond shouted as he opened the box and pulled out a crushed blue velvet hat, waving it at the laughing crowd. “Wear it proudly as you buy the first round!” Lola placed the hat firmly on Raymond’s head and led the way back to the bar. A few of the shifters lifted Raymond on their shoulders and carried him, singing a warbling shanty as they went. Katherine and Sylvester followed the rowdy crowd into AUDREY’S. Raymond had disappeared amongst the masses. Probably hiding out to avoid paying for the first round, the bastard, Katherine thought. She bit the inside of her cheek. She had flown all this way to give Raymond a piece of her mind, but he was always just out of reach. The man destroyed her home and scattered her family, he had to suffer consequences. She scanned the room, waiting for him to reappear. It wasn’t just shifters seated at the long wooden bar and small tables scattered throughout the room; Katherine spotted some fairies, a few vampires, and even a massive troll talking, drinking, and laughing together. Sylvester kissed her on the cheek, saying he was going to sit with some friends. "Stay out of trouble, Miss. Just remember that you do want them to reopen the resort and hire you again," he said. Katherine waved him away, promising nothing. She walked up to the bar, hoping for a better view of the crowd. She didn't have much hope that the Maui Turtle would be reopened, but she wouldn’t leave the game until she'd played all her cards. “What is this place?” she asked the bartender. Katherine settled onto her bar stool, feeling herself relax despite her rage. There was something about this bar that made anger hard to hold onto. “Welcome to AUDREY's.” Lola poured an Old Fashioned, Katherine’s favorite, into a glass and slid it towards her. As the bartender spoke, her braids bobbed, almost like they were waving in greeting. “Thanks?” Katherine could hear the wobble in her voice as she took in the spectacle. As a bear shifter herself, she was used to the extraordinary, but she’d never seen any place like this. “You get used to it after a while.” The tall man Katherine had spotted coming out of the water at the games appeared at her side. His hair was still wet and his bare chest was streaked with mud. Katherine noted with a touch of disappointment that he had put on pants. He nodded to Lola and she poured him a glass of whiskey with a splash of Coke and slid it across the table to him. He tasted it and smiled. Katherine was pleased to see it took his handsome face from a nine to an eleven. The man lifted his glass in salute to the bartender as he slid cash across the table. “Perfect, as always." He turned back to Katherine. "Lola rarely takes a drink order.” “Bartender knows best, dears.” Lola winked and walked down the bar to tend to a group of babbling centaurs. “I saw you out there. Participating in the games, I mean.” Katherine lifted her glass, the cool condensation a stark contrast to the heat coursing through her body. This isn't what you came here for, she reminded herself. He smiled again, this time directly at her, and Katherine felt herself blush. There was something so authentic about his smile; she couldn't help but return it. Down girl. Mr. Kapule's youngest kid had wanted a swing, so he spent extra on a house with a tree tall enough to attach a rope set. When they defaulted on the mortgage, they were going to be lucky to end up in a cramped apartment if they wanted to stay on the island. Keep this professional, you're here to stand witness, not hook up with a random hot guy. She pressed the side of the glass to the side of her face. “You weren’t bad, although if you worked on your balance you might have had a fighting shot at first place,” she said. The man laughed, his chuckle low and melodic. “I’ll try not to be too hurt by that. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with second place.” Katherine looked down into her glass. “Sorry. Professional habit.” She put her Old Fashioned down on the bar and reached out her hand. “Katherine Kalani, personal trainer.” Walter grinned, shaking her hand in a firm grip. “Walter Bellwether, resort manager.” Bellwether? Katherine clutched at the glass before it fell from her fingers. “Little brother!” A large hand clamped down on Walter’s shoulder. Raymond was still wearing the ridiculous hat and holding an empty stack of shot glasses. He swayed slightly as he leaned close to Katherine, his tequila-infused breath wafting towards her. “And who do we have here?” He leaned close, his beady eyes never leaving her chest. “You.” Katherine pushed every ounce of hate she felt into the one syllable. “I’m Katherine Kalani from the Maui Turtle.” She stood up off the bar stool and stared him down. “You know, the resort you just closed? Six hundred people just lost their jobs, and you’re sitting around playing games and doing shots. Those were loyal employees you fired, good people who had worked decades for your company.” “What?” Walter jumped off his bar stool as well, facing Raymond. “You didn’t tell me we closed the Turtle.” He looked a little wobbly on his feet and Katherine grabbed his arm to steady him. Drinking after running, probably not a great idea. “Calm down, little brother. Leave the business to the adults.” He rolled his eyes at Katherine as he dropped the empty shot glasses onto the stained bartop. “Listen, Miss, your resort was losing me money hand over fist. I’m not running a charity here.” “That’s bullshit!” Katherine spat. “We were booked solid until you shut us down.” She raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Look me in the eye, and tell me where the money really went.” Walter moved between Katherine and Raymond, using his body to create distance between them. “Whoa, that’s a serious accusation.” “The truth is, the Maui Turtle was a poorly-run piece of shit." Raymond pointed at her. "The staff was so incompetent, we couldn’t pay customers to be around them.” He grabbed another shot from the bar, and tossed it back. “Besides, it’s my money. I’ll do what I want.” Katherine lunged at him, but Walter’s hands wrapped around her waist, holding her back. "I got this." Walter stepped closer to this brother, his voice a low growl. "I can't believe you closed down an entire resort without cause. Those are our employees, we owe them our loyalty. This is Dad’s legacy we’re talking about." Katherine looked at Walter in surprise. At least one of the Bellwether brothers wasn't a waste of space. Raymond grabbed Walter’s drink off the bar and downed it in a single gulp. “I’ll run my company however I damn well please. Dad’s will put me in charge.” He belched. "He didn't leave the company to you just so you could piss it all away like you did your trust fund!" Walter grabbed one of the shots that had appeared between them. Katherine looked around for where the shots had come from and saw Lola leaning against the back wall. The bartender winked. Katherine glanced between the two brothers, a sense of foreboding brewing in her chest. "You think you're so much better than me, don’t you?" Raymond pushed at Walter's chest, bellowing, “You can’t even beat me at the shifter games, how can you possibly expect to do better than me at business?” Walter pushed back. “I could totally beat you at the games!” And the next time we race, I will." He grabbed another shot and pounded it. “Don’t embarrass yourself in front of the lady here.” Raymond slurred. “Besides, what do you have to bet?” He tried to bring another shot to his mouth, missed and spilled the liquid down his chin. Walter stepped closer. “I know you want me gone. If I win, I’ll go run whatever far-flung resort you want and leave you alone to run this business into the ground.” Walter slammed his palm on the bar. Maybe I still have a shot to save my home. Katherine stepped up. “And if Walter wins, he runs Bellwether Resorts. The entire chain.” “Good one.” Walter toasted her. He turned to Raymond. “Yes, if I win...that.” “You’re on!” Raymond hollered, steadying the ridiculous hat he was wearing. “Make it official," Walter slurred. "We need Lola to--” “Right here, guys.” Lola appeared behind the bar, holding a sheet of paper that let off a green glow. She winked at Katherine. “We have a lot of bets made in this bar.” Katherine eyed the paper that seemed to be lit from within. “Is that a Binding Quire?” She poked experimentally at the document. “You got that right, hon,” Lola said. “It’s got all the details of the wager. Once they both sign, Walter and Raymond are bound both legally and magically to fulfill these obligations.” She scrunched up her face. “The last guy who tried to get out of one of these ended up with an elephant trunk right in the middle of his face. It was a real turn off for the ladies.” She paused. “Well, most of the ladies, that is.” “I’ll sign if you sign.” Raymond smirked. "Little brother." Katherine held her breath. “Give it here.” Walter pulled the document toward himself, and both brothers signed it with the overwhelming confidence of the truly inebriated. Walter turned to Katherine, swaying a bit. “So...about that balance thing...?”