Taming the Beast

“You’re going to lose your bear. You’ll be a normal human again.”

“What? How?”

“It began when you…well…let me ask.” He picked up the wand, whispered to it, then held it up to his ear again. “You got married.”

“Yes, I did, but what does that have to do with anything?” If I had had another option, I wouldn’t have come here.

“How much do you know about the curse? Your curse? You obviously know that it was a shapeshifting spell.”

“A witch came to our castle at night. She asked for a room, and my father refused her. I came downstairs, awoken by the noise. She saw me and decided to curse me.”

“You realize that you’ve left out most of the story?”

“I beg your pardon.”

“That witch was your mother.”

I staggered a little. “What?”

“She wanted to take you home with her. She intended for you to be raised as a prince, but she saw that your father was too strict with you. A bear, if you will. She meant to curse your father. It would be broken when he truly loved again. He had a politically motivated alliance with the neighboring kingdom, where your stepmother the queen was from.”

“Then how did I end up as a werebear? Why would she do it to her own child?”

“She cast the spell, but you came into the door right when she sent it to your father. She and your father came to me. She was weeping. She made it so that it was difficult to reverse without true love. You married your true love?”

“I married my mate. I didn’t meet her at first, but my bear accepted her as soon as he smelled her.”

It was hard to read the expression on his face. He looked like he h

ad sat on a pinecone.

“I don’t know how to tell you this.”

“What is it?”

“You’re going to lose your bear.”

“So, I’ll be just human, then?”

“Yes…but there’s something that I’ve heard about shifters and their mates.”

“Which is?”

“If one dies, so does the other.”

“But my bear isn’t dying…”

The wizard looked at me. I swallowed hard.

“Is he?”

“Already. Have you felt tired…weaker?”

I thought back to the time since I’d married my mate. “I slept in the middle of the day.”

“Not surprising. Bears are active at night and twilight. Anything else?” The tone of his voice had an edge of hardness, like he was done with my idiocy.

“The potion smelled different this time around. Tasted a little more bitter than usual.”