Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 11:03:54 -0500 (EST) From: Pwrlftrbear@aol.com Subject: Falling Into Forever Chapter 14 By the time we finally got to his place I was stiff as a board. Well, down there, too. Don't know how I could be this horny. Only been a little over an hour since I'd shot off. Twice. It's not like I'm still a teenager, after all. All things considered, I'm glad I'm not. When I was in my teens, only had mom. And Brian, for a while. But I'd never known anyone like Jim. We hadn't known each other for that long, but I felt closer to him than any of my 'brothers' and 'sisters' in the corps. Probably because I was able to be honest with him. At least mostly. "Something's been bothering me," I said as I got out and stretched. "We can take care of that in a few minutes," he leered. "It's not that," I laughed. "Well, not just that. Why is it that Tucker and Josh look so much alike? I mean Brian only resembles Paul a little bit, but Josh looks like a younger version of Tucker." "Not sure," Jim shrugged. "I've often wondered that myself. As I've been told time and again, I'm the spitting image of Rick. Mark looks a lot like us, but really none of the others do. Especially Gene." His expression turned sad. "What do you mean?" I asked, touching his arm. "Gene was African-American," he said. "So, he was a black bear?" I quipped, trying to lighten the mood as I began pulling flattened boxes from the back of my Jeep. He laughed, shaking off his introspection. "Well, depends on your definition of 'bear'," he said. "He was a big, hairy black man, but his ursine form was a polar bear." "Really?" I asked in surprise. "Don't pretend to understand it, but have never seen a were-polar bear who wasn't black." "So would an Asian be a panda bear?" I quipped. "Actually, no," he laughed. "Not saying there aren't Asian werebears, but a panda isn't really a bear. They're in the same family as the raccoon." He dropped his load on the porch and dug his keys out. "But as to your question," he continued. "I don't know for sure why some cubs look a lot like their papas. Don't know if it's genetic or what. Can't exactly have our blood examined." "Why not?" I asked. "We can't risk having 'normal' humans find out about us. I'm sure you know what people are like with something with any tinge of something different." I shuddered at a memory spike. "Yeah," I agreed. "S'why I kept my attraction to men a secret for so long." "Well, it's worse for us. If they found out about us, they'd likely either hunt us down, or try to figure out what makes us tick." I understood that all too well. "Though I've got an old buddy who's grandcub was a geneticist. Bet he's itching to see what makes us different, but wise enough not to risk it falling into anyone's hands." He rubbed his beard, pondering, leading me into the house. "Too bad, too," he said at he flipped on the lights. "I have a theory about why some papas and cubs look alike, but will never really be able to test it." "Oh?" I asked, intrigued. I followed him into his house, edging my way through the doorway, trying not to spill my load. Well, at least not yet. "As I told you before, there must be a lot of people with were blood. I think that when a papa and cub are from the same...line, they end up looking alike." "Hmm," I grunted. "I'm guessing the way Brian looks now was a lot like Grandpapa looked when he was a young werebear." "So," I said slowly. "Were you and Rick...?" "Like I said. No way to know really," he said with a smirk. "When Rick and Paul pulled me out of my collapsed cabin all those many years ago, I had no memory of my past. I never recovered my memory and have never been able to find any record of myself. In those days, we didn't always keep track of who was where. Hell, don't even know what my own name originally was. After a while, you learn to stop dwelling on the past. Not always easy when you have as much past as we do." The melancholy in his eyes made me turn away. I wished there was something I could do to help him, but I don't know what I really could do. As I took in the spacious living room, I realized something about it made me feel safe. I don't know why. There was an air of disuse to the place, with a hint of something musky and familiar. I looked at him in surprise. "It smells like you," I blurted out, then blushed. "As well it should," he laughed. "I've lived here for a long, long time." He stepped up and wrapped his arms around me. "Impressive," he said, tipping my chin up so I had to look him in the eyes. "You can recognize my scent already." He bent and kissed me, taking my breath away. "Do we have to start packing right now?" I asked softly. "No," he leered. "What did you have in mind?" "I think I can come up with something," I said, tugging his shirt out of his jeans. "I bet you can," he said, caressing my ass. "I bet you can."