The Island Of Bears: A BBW Paranormal Romance Read online

  My mouth had become very dry, and I swallowed for the second time. “So... that was the end of it? Dr. Bradley was never able to come back through the portal to the island?”

  I cringed inwardly at the possibility of the same thing happening to me. I actually felt physically ill.

  Seeming to realize exactly what I was thinking, Cora shook her head. “This will not happen to you, Haley. It just won’t. What happened with Dr. Bradley was just some sort of weird fluke. She’s been the only person out of probably a hundred that this has ever happened to, and—”

  “I don’t like those odds. I don’t care if it’s only been one in a hundred; I don’t like those odds at all. A one-in-a-hundred chance of the same thing happening to me is still way too high for my liking.”

  My stomach was churning with dread.

  Cora reached across the picnic table and gave my hand a quick squeeze. “What happened to Dr. Bradley will not happen to you. I promise. Some of us had suspicions about why she wasn’t able to return to the island, and those suspicions make me pretty certain that the same thing won’t happen to you. See, Dr. Bradley was a very different type of lady, especially for a doctor. Somewhere along the way, she’d gotten involved in the occult, though not with any dark or sinister intent. She was part of a group of women who considered themselves ‘good’ witches, and she thought that through magic, she and her fellow witches could try to cure many diseases that modern medicine just can’t yet. She passed away a few years ago, and I don't think she was ever even remotely successful in her quest, but many people here in the village, including myself, suspected that her involvement in the occult had something to do with why she couldn’t come back over here again. Maybe she just had a different supernatural ‘energy’ about her that normal people don’t have. And maybe this ‘energy’ wasn’t strong enough to prevent her from coming over here the first time, but maybe it had changed those six months later. Maybe it had grown stronger or something; I don’t know. But I just have to think that there had to have been some sort of a link.”

  “But what if there wasn’t? What if her not being able to come back was just some sort of random happening that could also happen to me? What if Holden takes me back to New York, kills all the Forms, but then isn’t able to bring me back here?”

  “I just don’t think that’s going to happen. I think the odds are greatly, greatly in your favor. And obviously, so does Holden. I don’t think he’d bring you back to New York if he wasn’t just as confident as I am that all will be fine.”

  Thoroughly nauseated from anxiety, I wrapped my arms around my stomach. “But, Cora...no offense, but all of you here on the island don’t even know exactly how the portals work. Holden even told me this himself. He’s said that there is still so, so much that all of you don’t yet know and understand about how this island was set up, and about how everything just plain works. So, no one can guarantee that what happened to Dr. Bradley won’t happen to me. You can’t make any guarantees, and neither can Holden. All anyone can give me is odds. And when it comes to my future....” I paused, suddenly blinking back tears. “When it comes to my future with Holden, I don’t want to gamble. Our relationship may still be very new, but...well, I guess I think I’m falling in love with him. And maybe I have been since the day that we met.”

  I paused again, contemplating my realization, and before I could continue, my phone began going off. It was Holden.

  Getting up from the picnic table, I answered right away, telling him that we needed to talk immediately. “You have some serious, serious, serious explaining to do as to why you didn’t tell me about what happened to Dr. Bradley.”

  While I paced away from Cora on one crutch to get a little privacy, I heard Holden groan quietly, but he didn’t speak right away. When he did, after a long moment, his deep voice was quiet as well, though firm and resolute at the same time.

  “I’m sorry, Haley. But this changes nothing about my decision to take you back to New York.”

  That was where he was dead wrong. I was definitely not going back to New York, and even while we spoke, I was formulating a plan to make that so.

  *

  Still speaking quietly through the phone, Holden continued. “I am very sorry that I didn’t tell you about Dr. Bradley, but I didn’t want to ramp up your anxiety any higher than it already is, and needlessly to boot, since I’m very confident that what happened to Dr. Bradley was just some sort of a fluke. It won’t happen to you, once it’s safe enough for me to bring you back here.”

  “That’s exactly what Cora just got done telling me, but—”

  “Cora is right.”

  “But the two of you don’t know that what happened to Dr. Bradley was just a fluke, Holden. You don’t know that. So, how can you possibly even think about taking me back to New York when there’s even the slightest chance of the same thing happening to me?”

  “Because I think there’s a much greater chance of something very bad happening to you if you stay here on the island. Taking you back to New York is a calculated risk, and a risk that I didn’t calculate lightly.”

  Mulling over his logic, I didn’t respond, and he continued.

  “Do you think that I want to send you away? Do you think this is easy for me? I haven’t been lying when I’ve said that I already care about you deeply. And I’m torn between wanting to keep you with me and wanting to make sure, without a doubt, that you’ll never be hurt by the Forms.”

  “Well, if you’re torn, then maybe you’ll still consider letting me stay.”

  “No. As I’ve said so many times that I’m beginning to feel like a broken record, I’ve made my decision. You’re going to back to New York until all the Forms are dead.”

  “But—”

  “Despite the fact that you were attacked by two of them not too awfully long ago, I just don’t think you have the proper level of fear in regards to these Forms, Haley. They’re getting even stronger, more bloodthirsty. To be completely frank, my men and I aren’t exactly weaklings, yet we’re beginning to have a hell of a time holding them back. While we try to kill them one-by-one, we’re going to try our very, very best to make sure that they never reach the village, but there’s no guarantee than one or two of them won’t be able to get past us at some point. And when and if that happens, I want you gone, and you will be. I should probably also add that there are many in the village who probably wish they could trade places with you. There are many in the village who probably wish they could ride it out in New York until all the danger here has passed.”

  Suddenly a bit misty-eyed again, I blinked back a tear or two. “Well, I still can’t say I feel very lucky that you’re sending me away.”

  There was a long pause, and I thought I heard the faintest hint of a sigh before Holden spoke again.

  “I want to enjoy this last week we have together for a while, Haley. Please, please try to do what you promised me yesterday that you would. Please try to trust me that this will all work out just fine. Please. Now, I have to go. We injured a dragon Form as he was trying to rise out of the lake earlier today, and while he’s still staggering around the jungle unable to fly, we want to try to corner him and take him out. So, goodbye for now. I’ll come back to the village as soon as I can. Hopefully tonight.”

  I said okay and goodbye, then hung up, now knowing that I was going to have to execute the plan that had been forming in my mind. I had to. I just couldn’t take even the slightest risk that I might not be able to return to the island and have a future with Holden.

  Of course, I fully realized that I wouldn’t have a future with him if I were killed by a Form, either, but I was going to make sure that wasn’t going to happen. I just had to get enough firepower.

  I was still pretty certain that I wouldn’t be able to take out all the Forms myself with a gun, but I’d recalled that guns weren’t the only weapons stockpiled in Sun Cove. Once while we’d been taking a stroll around the village, Cora had pointed out to me some type of in-ground
steel structure that had reminded me of a root cellar, but it didn’t store food. Cora had said that it was actually filled with boxes packed with sticks of dynamite, which the scientists who’d first come to the island to create the shifters had used to blast parts of the island away in order to build houses, cabins, and even a few underground laboratories. I knew for a fact that dynamite remained useable for decades, even centuries. I also knew something else, too.

  A few days earlier, I’d happened to overhear Holden and Cora’s husband Conner talking about the Forms, specifically about how they all seemed to return to sink to the bottom of the lake every night around midnight. Holden and Conner both thought this was odd, how they seemed to do this like clockwork. It was as if they were designed with some sort of need to refuel their energy in the mystical lake at that very particular time or something.

  I was going to blow up the lake. Although not the lake itself, to be exact, but the area around the lake. I figured this would accomplish two things at once. For one, with massive craters around the large pond-sized lake allowing all the water in the lake to drain, the lake itself would be destroyed. For another thing, if I timed the blast for a short while after midnight, when all the Forms would be in the lake, the dynamite blasts would likely instantly kill all the Forms at once. And if the blasts didn’t take them all out at once, I’d just throw in a few more sticks for a second bang. If I packed a large bag full of dynamite sticks, which I intended to do, I figured I’d have enough “ammo” to blow all the Forms to kingdom come at least twice over. Luckily for me, while shifters couldn’t use man-made weapons against each other, I could use man-made weapons against them. And once I did, and once I’d accomplished my two objectives with the dynamite, I would have also accomplished a third, because then, with all the Forms dead, I wouldn’t have to be parted from Holden.

  Sometime over the next week, I’d get into the underground storage cellar and fill a backpack with sticks of dynamite. Then, the night of the clambake, around midnight, I’d sneak away somehow while everyone else was occupied, grab the backpack, and make my way to Black Lake. With it being located more or less in the dead center of the island, I didn’t think it would be too hard to find. My biggest concern would be avoiding detection by the guards who I knew would be patrolling the area around the lake. Community party or no, I knew Holden would definitely still be leaving a few guards in place.

  However, these guards would simply be between the lake and the island; they wouldn’t be actually at the lake itself, meaning that I could probably just go around them. They never patrolled too close to the lake because they never wanted to fight the Forms on their own turf, for fear of being sucked into the magical, murky lake, which I planned to avoid, too, by launching into my plan with zero hesitation the very moment I arrived at the lake. I’d have the Forms blown to smithereens well before they’d even have a chance to emerge from the dark water and attack me.

  After parting ways with Cora, I spent the rest of the afternoon by myself, contemplating different stages of my plan. Despite how it might have seemed to others, I didn’t think I was being reckless or stupid. After all, I’d be heading to the lake with plenty of dynamite to do the job, and also, I couldn’t think of anyone better to do the job than myself, since I could use man-made weaponry against the Forms.

  It wasn’t lost on me, though, that what I would be doing was morally wrong, as far as going behind Holden’s back. I knew it was deceitful and sneaky, but that just wasn’t how it felt to me. I felt like although what I would be doing certainly wasn’t noble, it was what I had to do in order to ensure that my relationship with Holden could continue. It was what I had to do to ensure that what had happened to Dr. Bradley wouldn’t happen to me.

  Basically, I felt like the ends of my plan justified the means. I just hoped and prayed that Holden would agree. I figured he’d be so happy to have the Forms finally all dead that he probably would.

  When he came home that night, I was already in bed. He climbed in beside me and took me in his arms, and we didn’t talk, though we did make love before going to sleep. But when I woke up in the morning, he was already gone. I thought how wonderful it would be to actually get to spend long, uninterrupted stretches of time together once my mission was complete.

  To that end, I was determined to get all the dynamite I needed before the day was over. Then, I’d store it somewhere in my cabin where Holden would never see it. After that, I’d just have to wait patiently for the night of the clambake to use it and fix everything.

  After a beach-side breakfast with Cora, Amy, and Amy’s daughter Emily, I decided to put my plan in motion. Cora and Amy were going to take Emily for a swim, but I declined, saying I was going to take a walk, which was partially true. My ankle was still a bit sore, but just slightly, and I was off crutches at this point, which I was incredibly thankful about, because I was going to have to walk to the eastern outskirts of the island to get to the underground storage cellar. I knew it wasn’t locked, so I wouldn’t even need a key. The day we’d strolled by the cellar, Cora had said that the heavy steel door was plenty heavy enough to keep out curious children, but I was sure it wouldn’t slow me down at all.

  When I told Cora and Amy the little white lie about my “walk,” I felt a distinct pang of guilt. I didn’t like lying to friends at all, but I certainly didn’t feel like I could tell them the truth, either. Of course, fearing for my safety, they’d tell Holden. Then I’d quickly find myself back in New York City, not having a clue when I’d see him again.

  Once Cora, Amy, and Emily had left for their swim, I hiked back to my cabin through the borderland of the jungle area, which was behind all the cabins in the village. This provided me some cover from anyone who might be watching to see what I was doing, though there really wasn’t anyone around. All the men in the village were out on Form patrol, and at least a dozen women with children had joined Cora, Amy, and Emily at the beach. Most of the remaining women in the village were working at the chocolate shop that day, and their children were being looked after by several women at an extremely large cabin that served as the community’s childcare center and school.

  Once at my cabin, I grabbed a backpack and started off again along the border of the jungle behind the cabins, heading toward the underground cellar. I hadn’t been walking more than a minute or two before I caught sight of a big, dark shape moving through a dense cluster of palms maybe twenty feet to my left. I froze, startled, but almost instantly realized the big, dark shape, which was now heading toward me, was Holden in bear form.

  With his black fur glinting in the sun, he lumbered over to me, immediately shifted into human form, and looked at me with his expression unreadable. “Well, well. Where are you headed off to with such a big backpack?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Right after he’d asked me the question about where I was off to with my big backpack, Holden broke into a grin. “Running away, are you? Well, if you wanted to go back to New York City even sooner than planned, all you had to do was ask.”

  Relieved almost beyond words, I exhaled in a rush. “I’m not running away.”

  Holden’s grin became replaced by a frown, and he pulled me close.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you in my bear form like that. I scared you didn’t I? I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to make you rattled.”

  I gave my head a little shake. “No. No, don’t worry about it.”

  Holden pressed his full lips against my forehead. “I’m really sorry. I was just running a patrol by the village, and I caught sight of you, and you just looked so beautiful with the sun on your pretty honey-brown hair how it is...I just had to say hello. And I know you’re not actually running away with your backpack. But I bet I know just exactly what you are doing with it.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  My voice had come out in some sort of high-pitched squeak.

  With his pale blue eyes twinkling, Holden nodded, moving his arms lower to hold me around my waist. “Y
eah. The three giant wheelbarrows full of shells you have back at your cabin aren’t enough. You’re on the hunt to fill your backpack with more shells so you can pile them high in a fourth giant wheelbarrow. Am I correct?”

  Despite my anxiety, I couldn’t help but crack a smile. I did not have giant wheelbarrows full of shells back at my cabin. I kept my shells for jewelry in clear glass jars, and fairly small jars at that. And I only had seven of them.

  Leaning into the length of Holden’s long, hard body, I scoffed, though still smiling. “Yup. You’ve got me pegged. Hunting for more shells to fill my fourth giant wheelbarrow with, because that wouldn’t be ridiculous at all or anything.”

  He chuckled and gave me a brief kiss. “I have to get back now, but I’ll see you tonight, hopefully.”

  “Okay.”

  He gave me another brief kiss, released me from his arms, and began walking away backward, slowly. “I know you’ve already thoroughly combed the beach in front of the village, but I’m not sure how many shells you’ll find back here. There are some that the kids have dumped back here at various times, though. Just try not to stray too far into the jungle. My patrolmen will be coming by here soon, and they run at a pretty high rate of speed, and I wouldn’t want you to get accidentally run over.”

  “Okay. I won’t go far from here.”

  Holden gave me a smile, then turned, shifted into bear form, and ambled away into the jungle, accelerating into a run.