Page 26 of Polar Fates
Nine
We meet the other Fates in the room I first woke up in. The girl, Airlea, has disappeared and I’m quite glad about that. Three ageless women are enough trouble already. Especially as I have no idea about what theywant.
Somehow, woven white armchairs have appeared in the room that definitely weren’t there before. What a strange, magical place. I’m not sure I likeit.
Lachesis bids me to sit down and instinctively, I choose the chair closest to the door. I’m not feeling comfortable around them. And it’s worrying that I’m having to do this on my own, without myguys.
To reassure myself, I think of how I’ve been on my own for most of my life and have managed to survive. If I managed to deal with my uncle for over ten years, I can get through an hour or so with theFates.
“I believe Airlea has filled you in on the bear situation?” Lachesis begins withoutpreamble.
“If she’s the one who wrote a note in the back of the book we got from the trading ship, yes. But she only said something about a guy having his thread detached and that you need to reattachit.”
Atropos chuckles. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea to send Airlea. She’s good in bed but not muchelse.”
She looks at me as if it’s my fault I don’t know more. “Let me tell you the full story. About two hundred years ago, a man called James Van Deen found out that bear shifters existed. Jealous of their strength, he searched for all the material he could find on them. There’s not much written down on bear shifters for exactly that reason, but he managed to amass quite a bit of knowledge nonetheless. Enough to make the connection between the Little Bear star system and bearmythology.”
“Somehow, he managed to coax Calisto’s son back down to Earth,” Lachesis continues the story. “By then, his thread was already frayed so even we don’t know all thedetails.”
“How did he manage to fray his thread?” Iinterrupt.
Clotho’s pearl white cheeks redden. “A moment of distraction,” shemutters.
Lachesis picks up the story, ignoring her sister. “He forced Arcas to bond with him, effectively becoming the human’s slave. Van Deen became a bear shifter just like he’d wanted – but he didn’t stop there. He’d noticed that just because he was stronger than humans now, they didn’t listen any more than they had before. He didn’t automatically get the power he hungered for. So he decided that if there were more of him, he’d be able to take respect by force. He wanted to be in charge, he wanted to rule. His solution werechildren.”
“He started to rape women, dozens, hundreds of them,” Atropos says quietly, to my surprise. She sounds sad, regretful. “Some killed themselves before it was time to cut their thread, but most bore his children. New bear shifters. But instead of the children of natural bear shifters, these were feral. They could shift as soon as they were born and their human side was only half developed. Some killed their mothers. They killed each other. It was carnage. But Van Deen carried on, fathering more and more children. The ones who survived, he trained. With Arcas inside of him, he managed to control them. They had no choice but do what he said. When the first boys reached maturity, he told them to find their own women to rape. It was a massive operation and Van Deen was no longer able to keep it a secret. So to cover his tracks, he started a compound in the East of Canada, pretending to be the leader of a religious cult. That gave him the privacy he desired, as well as curious people coming there from time to time that he could brainwash or capture, depending on theirgender.”
Atropos’ eyes are filled with tears now. I’m having trouble holding my own back. What a monster. How many lives did that man destroy? How many people did hekill?
“So many threads marred orcut…”
I’m starting to suspect that she’s not crying because of the people, but because of her preciousthreads.
“There would be no life without our threads,” Clotho admonishes me, clearly reading my mind again. “You better start having some respect for ourwork.”
I sigh. “What happened next?” I ask tiredly. This is emotionally exhausting. I want my guys, I want to be home in ourcottage.
“When we wanted to stop him, his thread snapped. It was too damaged to be manipulated. So suddenly he was cut loose and we couldn’t reach him. We sent some servants but none of them managed to neutralisehim.”
If they were as competent as Airlea, I think I can guess why. But I don’t say thataloud.
“We only had one other option,” Lachesis continues. “We had to prevent more bear shifters being born. But there was no way to distinguish between Van Deen’s abominations and natural bearshifters.”
“Which is why there are no more shifter cubs,” I conclude. “But you said this happened two hundred years ago. My mates are in theirtwenties.”
“We didn’t start stopping new bear cubs until two decades ago,” Clothoexplains.
“But…”
“But that means Van Deen is still alive, yes,” Lachesis confirms. “The combination of losing his thread and having Arcas as his slave means his lifespan has dramatically increased. I don’t think he’s immortal, but he’s still got a lot of life left inhim.”
“Is he still a danger to humans?” I ask and Lachesisnods.
“He’s refusing to believe that there will be no more new shifter babies. He’s continuing to make his sons find women to impregnate. And he’s still doing the deed himself. Women are continuing to suffer and enough isenough.”
Her voice has turned hard. Finally, I’m seeing a glimpse of humanity in the Fate’s expression. She’s angry at Van Deen, sad for the women, desperate for asolution.
Just likeme.
