Bearly Breathing (Werebears of New Hampshire #1)(2)
Connor exhaled and shook his head. He watched his two employees with slumped shoulders. “Can you guys just pretend to care?”
“What girls?” Sidney asked. “Are they hot?”
Connor’s bear grumbled inside him. This is not the time.
“It doesn’t matter,” Connor said, reaching over and picking up a broken jar of pickles. “They’re clients and we’ll treat them with the respect that they deserve.”
“Are they going to mate with us?” Edwin asked.
“No,” Connor said, ripping the peanut butter jar out of his hands. “You’re going to teach them how to kayak and that is all.”
Connor shook his head and watched Edwin. The fit, muscular werebear sat on the fridge and looked around at the mess on the floor for something else to eat. What was I thinking when I hired this guy? But Connor hadn’t really had a choice. He needed to hire werebears to work with him and these two jokers were the only ones that he could find. He had to phase into his bear form from time to time and he couldn’t be doing that with regular people around.
Edwin was a very interesting case. His parents were both humans who gave birth to a werebear shifter. It was extremely rare for two humans to give birth to a shifter but it did happen on occasion. When Edwin was ten he changed into a brown bear in their living room. His super religious parents thought that he was possessed by the devil and ran out of the room screaming. His dad returned with a shotgun and Edwin’s bear was sitting down on the carpet, eating the arm of the sofa.
Unfortunately for Connor, his father didn’t shoot him. With the barrel of his shotgun he guided Edwin into the back of his pickup truck and drove the bear into the mountains, deep into the forest. Edwin had spent the rest of his youth and all of his teenage years and early twenties as a bear.
Connor found him a few months ago in his bear form eating out of a garbage bin behind a restaurant. He took him in and offered him a job as a kayaking instructor. Edwin was good with a paddle but he wasn’t very comfortable in his human skin. He was unsure of how to talk and act in social situations and he was constantly changing back into his bear at the most inappropriate times. It wasn’t very good for business.
“Can you guys help me?” Connor asked, as he picked up an apple by his feet.
“Are you going to eat that?” Sidney asked.
Connor whipped the apple at him and Sidney plucked it out of the air with his hand. “Thanks boss,” he said as he bit into the apple with a crunch.
“I was aiming for your head,” Connor muttered. Sidney’s big head lit up in a smile.
Sidney was a polar bear who had applied for a job. He was a former defensive tackle in the NFL who was unemployed after he got banned from the league. He played a total of two games on the Chicago Bears. In those two games he had a total of six interceptions, eighteen sacks, nine forced fumbles and fifteen touchdowns.
He had a very promising future ahead of him until he got tested for performance enhancing drugs. His testosterone level was nineteen times over the legal limit. The doctor was shocked that Sidney was still alive but those were normal levels for a polar bear. And for a werebear.
Connor was a huge Chicago fan but he quickly realized that although Sidney was a skilled athlete, he couldn’t kayak for shit.
Connor pushed Edwin to the side and lifted up the fridge. He picked up and slid the see-through, plastic drawer back into the slot.
“This excursion is important for the business,” he said. “These girls won this trip off of the biggest radio station in New York City. If it goes well the station agreed to buy, advertise and give away a trip a week.” That would be amazing for his company. He could bring Brooke Excursions to the next level. He could surpass the number two, Sunshine Kayaking, and then it would only be a matter of time before he would be on the heels of the number one spot.
He picked up a broken jar of salad dressing and tossed it into the garbage. “Just don’t embarrass me.”
Edwin stood up, naked, with mustard dripping from his penis. “We wouldn’t do that to you boss.”
two
“Miss Sanderson,” the doorman said, looking straight ahead with his white-gloved hand tucked behind his back. “Miss Hawkins.”
“Hi Alfred,” Rebecca said, leaning down to see him out of the passenger window of her car. “We’re here to pick up Grace.”
“She is on her way,” he said in his thick British accent. Grace had told them once that Alfred was actually from San Diego and the accent was all a show and that he had even bought a fake British passport to convince everyone that he was from Manchester. He even looked British. He was an older man with gray hair and a thin, jet black mustache. His tuxedo was always perfect. He never had a single crease or crumple.
Angie winked at Rebecca from the passenger seat. “Hey Alfred,” she said. “Did you see the San Diego Padres play the Braves last night? They really suck this season.”
Alfred’s eyes went wide and he clenched his jaw. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Miss Hawkins.” He looked past them over Rebecca’s car.
“Yeah,” Angie continued. “The Padres’ pitching is atrocious this season. And their batting is the worst in the league.”
Alfred’s neck was turning red over his crisp, white collar. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Miss Hawkins but I will say that the Padres pitching is probably full of rookies that are going to develop over time into the best bullpen in the league. And the batting slump is probably just temporary.”