The Gift

4

I have dedicated this particular chapter to one of my most vocal and loyal fans. Thank you. I hope that you and others like you realize exactly what your love and support mean to a writer.

Chastity ran into the kitchen, right into her very large bear of a father. It was like hitting a brick wall. Chuckling, Stephen grabbed his youngest daughter by the shoulders to steady her. 

"Whoa, slow down there, slugger. The game isn't for another two hours. What's the rush?" Stephen looked down at his daughter. In her face, her saw her mom. Her hair was long and dark brown. Her eyes a deep brown. She was tall like him. At 6 ft, she towered over most males, or looked them right in the eye. This had never stopped her or upset her. "They aren't my mate, so why should I worry?" Her reasoning was sound, and he was proud of his daughter for her beliefs.

"Dad, I have to be at the ball field in twenty minutes. Coach just called. He said that they were scouts that wanted to see some of us before the game. Oh, and coach is taking us all out for steak after the game. No matter whether any of us get picked." Chastity smiled up at her dad.

"How will feel if you don't get picked? This is something that you have been working hard at for the better part of 18 years. Your mom and I never realized when we signed you for T-ball that it would lead to this." Stephen was worried. Chastity was very emotionally stable for a half-breed. Many so called half-breeds or cross-breeds, as he liked to call them, were often unable to control their emotions until in the early twenties. Fortunately, Chastity had always been a sweet baby and had grown into an even tempered teenager. Her mom, his mate, Jasmine, had noticed that their daughter had an excessive amount of energy. So, they had tried sports. It had worked. She had maintained and Dan and Mariella had taken noticed and had suggested that the other parents of other cross breeds tried something similar. It had worked and many parents had suddenly had more peaceful homes and lives.

"I'll be ok with it. I never wanted to go pro, dad. Just funnel my excess energy and maybe get a college scholarship out of softball." Looking up at her dad she smiled. "That's what I really want."

"But sweetie, mom and I can afford to send you to college. We aren't poor, you know?"

"I know, dad. But because you are Beta, many people will assume that everything was given to me. I wanted to do this on my own. My accomplishment. I know it might sound silly to some people, but I wanted to do it for me." Smiling up at her dad again, she reached up and kissed his cheek and grabbed her car keys from the hook by the back door and left.

Just then, Jasmine walked into the kitchen. "Was that Chastity? That girl is always in such a hurry."

"She received a call from her coach. They have a scout coming and he wanted the girls to be a the field early to do a meet ad greet." Stephan pinched his nose as he thought about the conversation that he had with their youngest child. Even now, at 23, she was just as much of a handful as any other child.

"That's great. Is she hopeful that she will be picked for a pro team?" Jasmine looked up at the love of her life. "What Stephan? What's wrong, darling?" Walking up to Stephan, she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his massive chest.

"She doesn't want to be picked for a pro team. She wants a scholarship. That's all. She doesn't want us to pay her way. It seems that she wants to earn it." He leaned down and kissed Jasmine on the top of her head. "Baby, we're alone...." Jasmine looked up at him and smiled and ran to the room.

Across town at the ball field Chastity and several of her friends were gathered around waiting for the scout to show up. Listening to the conversations around her, she  just tried to tune them out.

"You know it's going to be the same fat, overweight and out of shape old man that always comes."

"Who do you think is going to be picked?"

"What team do yo think the scout is from. or do you think that more than one team is sending scouts."

Sandalwood, eucalyptus, and mint. It seemed to waft to her from somewhere behind her. Turning, she saw the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He was tall. As tall as her dad, and just as massive. Bear. He could only be a bear.

Behr stood off a little distance from the women gathered. He knew that many of them were hoping for a chance on his team. He really wasn't looking forward to the introductions. Women threw themselves at him. It was sickening really what some females were willing to do for power and prestige.Waiting on his assistant, he moved over to the shade of a large oak tree. That's when the wind brought her scent to him.

Rosemary, citrus, and sage. The smell was the most wonderful scent that he had ever smelled in his life. It could only belong to one female. His mate. Now he just had to find her. And there she was. She was tall, taller than any wolf female. She was watching him and had moved one foot forward as if to come towards him.She had stopped suddenly, as if afraid.

Behr looked at her and smiled. Arching a brow, he motioned for her to come to him. Even from this distance he could see her nostrils flare and her eyes dilate. Behr had been waiting for this moment for a long time. Growing up in Germany, he had always been something of an outcast. His mother had been an original wolf and had fallen in love with a bear. It hadn't mattered to her pack that she had been a widow and already had grown children. All that mattered to her father and pack was that she was mating outside her species. Two hundred years ago that was far less tolerated than it was now.

Coming back to the present Behr looked over to his mate and knew instantly knew that she was a hybrid like him. Closing the distance that the two had made, they met each other halfway.

Raising his hand, he gently and reverently brushed it over her cheek as he watched a tear slide down. Leaning in, he kissed her and said, "I am happy to meet you, Mate. My name is Behr. Jorgen Behr, and I am your mate."