Page 23 of Once Upon A Bear

She’d left food for him.

Warmth burst through his chest at the thought. She could have simply fed herself and left, but instead, she’d made sure that he had something available when he woke up.

That was incredibly sweet of her…nearly as sweet as the honey he intended to eat with the porridge.

He filled the bowl with the porridge that was left and tested the temperature with the tip of his tongue.

It was just right.

Making his way to the table, Gideon poured the remainder of the jar of honey onto the porridge.

Was it an obscene amount of honey? Perhaps. But he’d repay her with another full jar, and the sweetness would help his body recover from the transformation.

Gideon washed the spoon, bowl, and honey jar, leaving them to dry on the table before he took his leave. He would rather have seen her and said thank you—or perhaps sorry would be a better choice.

But she wasn't there, and he had been gone too long already. His mother would be worried. So he left the cabin, closing the door carefully behind him, and began the journey home.

The honey had boosted his energy, so the walk was not nearly as tiring as it could have been, but he was still growing quite weary by the time he stumbled through the gate into the courtyard, where his brother was sparring with Hopkins.

His brother's eyes held no censure, only sorrow, and Gideon turned away from his gaze as he made his way to the kitchen. Cook made him a plate immediately after seeing how haggard he looked, bless her, simply nodding as she offered it.

Shame swirled in his stomach as he took the plate and sat at the kitchen table to eat it.

They didn't know what to do with him.

If he was being honest, he didn't know what to do with himself, either. He could only hope that Guinevere would be successful and this nightmare would soon be over.

The door of the courtyard opened, and two of the stable hands came in. They must not have noticed him, because they continued their conversation.

“The tracks were closer this time,” the shorter one said.

He ought to know their names, but he'd spent so little time in the stables recently, since the horses seemed to be afraid of him. Just another way he was failing in his role of supporting Kellan and his father with the estate.

“I'm beginning to worry for our livestock. Bears wouldn't go after goats or cows, would they?” the second man asked. “I didn't think that was their preferred prey.”

“I don't know what it is,” the first said, “but I mean to have a word with His Lordship about it. We ought to do something before it's too late.”

Gideon's stomach churned, not with shame this time. He needed to stay farther away, but with the transformation coming on so quickly now, it was hard to predict when to leave.

But that didn’t change the fact that it was becoming more dangerous every time he transformed.

Gideon found himself standing next to the training dummy with anger running through his veins.

It wasn’t often that he was angry anymore. He’d given up on that emotion a long time ago, but something about the way Kellan had looked at him this afternoon had brought it back.

He was angry at the man who had cursed him for putting him in this position in the first place, angry at himself for not figuring out the man was trouble and avoiding him, and angry that, no matter what he did, he continued to disappoint his family because he couldn’t do anything else. He didn’t have any choice in the matter, and that made him very angry.

Gideon punched at the dummy again and again. It wobbled back and forth as he punched, but it didn’t fight back.

Just like he wasn’t fighting back against his curse.

He had given up.

Guinevere was helping him, but if it weren’t for her, he would have just accepted his fate.

His maudlin thoughts were interrupted by his father arriving, moving to stand behind the fighting dummy, bracing it against Gideon’s blows. He didn’t say a word, just let Gideon take out his anger, punching harder and faster until his energy began to fade and he gave up, letting his fists fall to his side and looking at the floor so he didn’t have to see the disappointment on his father’s face.

“You’ve grown strong,” his father said.