I awoke the next morning, filled with such peace I was tempted to just stay in bed. Young Daniel was snuggled against me, his breath warm against my chest.
He rumbled sleepily, snuffling through my fur until he found my nipple. He began nursing at my tit and I smiled as I caressed his head, feeling coarse bristles beginning to poke through the soft strands.
"Don't think you're going to get anything from that," I whispered.
"If it makes my papa happy, that's enough for me," he replied, his voice rougher and deeper this morning.
"I'm sure you'll be making him happy for a long, long time," I said, hugging him tightly, feeling his strength as he returned my embrace. "In fact, I'm sure you'll be making him very happy later today."
"Or maybe I'll make him happy now," he said impishly, licking his way down my body.
I laughed lightheartedly.
"I mean you're in the process of changing for the first time," I said.
"I am?" he said excitedly.
I threw back the covers and pulled him out of bed.
"Take a look at yourself," I said, turning him toward the mirror.
His eyes widened as he took in the subtle changes that had occurred to him. He reached up and touched the tip of his darkening nose.
"Talk about brown nosing," he grinned.
"Well, considering how much time you've spent down there, it's no surprise," I joked.
"I thought you liked it, too," he said with a pout.
"I do, but I can't wait to get that big bear cock up there later on," I leered, reaching around him to grab his dick.
He groaned as I nuzzled his neck.
"Today I'm gonna get my first fuck," I growled. "And I can't wait."
"I happen to know you ain't no virgin," he laughed, grinding himself back against me.
"No, but you get to celebrate your first change by showing your papa how a real bear fucks."
"Hope I do a good job," he groaned as my hands wandered stocky body. "Certainly had a good teacher."
I heard his stomach gurgle.
"I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "But I swear I smell bacon."
I sniffed the air.
"I do believe you're right," I said, squeezing him tightly. "I think we have been invaded. C'mon."
He trailed after me, following the scent of cooking food.
"Morning!" Paul called from the griddle where he was flipping pancakes.
"Hope you don't mind," Brian grinned, sliding a plate of crispy bacon onto the table. "I thought you might want your energy to go elsewhere today."
"You know you're always welcome here," I said.
"Especially when you cook," Daniel grinned, snagging a slice.
Brian looked at him quizzically.
"I already know my nose is brown," Daniel smirked.
"But Keith didn't...," Brian began.
"Everyone's first change is different," I chuckled. "My claws came in first."
"I sprouted a tail," Paul said, setting down a plate of flapjacks. "Eat up. You'll need your strength. Both of you. C'mon, Brian. You're slacking on your toast duty."
"Yes, Papa," Brian sighed, then bent to whisper in my ear. "I'm so happy for you."
I glanced at him and he grinned unapologetically.
I scowled back at him, but I couldn't maintain it.
"Toast!" Paul roared.
"Coming," Brian laughed.
"So how did Keith start?" Daniel asked.
"His baculum came in," Paul said.
Daniel looked confused.
"He put the bone in boner," Brian quipped. "Literally."
Daniel stifled a laugh.
"I'm serious," Brian said with a grin. "A lot of placental mammals have them. Just not humans."
"Why not?" Daniel asked, reaching down to feel his cock.
"How the hell should I know?" Brian shrugged. "Nobody asked my opinion. Maybe they figured man is too horny as they are. Most of them are walking erections as it is."
"That's a problem?" Paul asked as he joined us at the table.
"There's more to life than sex," Brian smirked and Paul winked back at him.
"Yes," Daniel agreed, reaching under the table for my hand.
"Couldn't agree more," I said, squeezing back.
"So what changed first for you?" I asked Brian as I cut into my stack of 'cakes.
"Honestly?" he said, looking from Jim to Paul. "I don't really know. It was all kind of a blur. Was it my teeth?"
"Teeth?" I asked in alarm.
"Nobody mentioned that?" he glared at the two papa bears.
"Didn't come up," Jim said with a grin.
"Well," he rumbled, with one last glare at Paul. "Your human teeth will be replaced with werebear teeth. After your first change, they with change with you. Same with your claws."
"Sorry," Paul said sheepishly. "Though in my defense, you were my first cub and I ended up having two months less than I'd expected to explain things."
"True," Brian agreed.
Then he turned his glare to Jim.
"Why would I need to tell him when I've got you around?" he said wryly.
Brian rocked back at the rebuke, then dropped his eyes.
"There I go again," he said, his broad shoulders slumping. "Sorry, Jim."
"You're still a young cub, Brian," Jim said, gripping his shoulder. "You have to know that sometimes, we have to be careful what we say. Can you say with absolute certainty that if you had known what would happen to you, would you have been able to go through with it?"
Brian opened his mouth, then snapped it shut, dropping his gaze.
"I'd like to say yes, but...," he said, glancing pensively at Paul.
"At last, you're showing some doubt," Paul smirked, hugging him.
"You're not upset?" Brian said in surprise.
"No. It's just a little thing called experience. Sometimes a little knowledge is a scary thing."
"There have been guys who were convinced they wanted it, but when it came right down to it, they couldn't accept it," Jim said sadly. "That was what I was worried about most when I first met you. You seemed a little over confident."
Brian glanced at Paul.
"Guess I fooled him, too," he said. "When I found out what Paul was, well...."
He gave a pained smirk.
"I was terrified, but well, I've had a lot of experience burying how I really feel. But I felt what he was offering was worth facing my fear," he said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
He took a deep breath, like he did when he was bracing himself to share something unpleasant.
"After...what happened to me," he said, hanging his head. "I...I tried killing myself. But every time I cut myself, I'd heal."
Paul stood behind him, rubbing his shoulders comfortingly.
"I thought I was being punished for what had happened to me. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to die. That I'd have to live with the shame forever."
"But you still...?" I said, reaching over to touch his clenched fist.
"I felt Paul was worth it," he said. "After losing everything that meant anything to me, the thought of having something that might last forever...."
He looked up at Paul.
"Are you sure it was worth it?" Paul whispered.
"Yes," Brian replied. "You are."
He cast Jim a mock glare.
"And then you and Grandpapa showed up," Brian grumbled.
"That was a lot to deal with," Jim nodded.
"But I was more frightened for Paul than for myself," Brian said, glancing at Paul askance.
"Me?" Paul asked in surprise. "Why?"
"Well, if you felt about me the way I did you, I was worried about what you might do if something happened to me," Brian said pensively.
"I hate to admit it, but that had a lot to do with why I agreed to come with Grandpapa," Jim said softly.
"So we were all more worried about each other than ourselves," Paul said calmly. "That's what you do when you love someone."
"Suppose you're right," Brian said, leaning back for a kiss.
"But, yes, I would have to say Brian's teeth were the first thing to change," Jim said, steering the conversation back to its original topic.
"Physically," Brian winced.
"Daniel's not likely to go through that," Jim chided. "He's had a fairly uneventful, conventional change."
"And you were a special case," Paul said, patting his hand.
"Exactly why I won't do that to Bobby," Brian said, jutting his chin out.
"I agree with you," Jim said approvingly. "It's not a matter of life and death, or a choice freely made."
Jim face darkened uneasily.
"You mean there are weres that change people indiscriminately?" Brian asked in alarm.
"It's happened," Jim said somberly. "You've heard the 'stories' about werewolf attacks. Well, a lot of times, old legends and myths have a whiff of truth about them."
"But that's old news, isn't it?" Brian said.
"Not necessarily," Jim said, clearly troubled. "And not always wolves, either."
"Bears have done that?" Brian growled, rising to his feet.
"Sit down," Paul said sternly. "It's not our place to judge."
Brian sat back down grudgingly.
"Maybe it is mine," he muttered.
"Brian," Jim said. "When it has happened, we...take care of things in our own way. Unfortunately, usually a little more permanently than you...have done."
"They kill their own kind?" he growled.
"We don't always have a choice," Paul said soothingly. "Your...knack for affecting people's memories isn't exactly common. We usually don't have any other choice. We can't let our secret get out."
"You're a good man, but we don't live by man's rules. We can't. We aren't a part of that world anymore."
"Yes we are," Brian refuted, letting out a heavy breath. "But we're apart from it."
He smiled sadly at me.
"Sorry. This is supposed to be your day," he said ruefully.
"That's okay," I said, reaching across the table to grip his arm.
He looked down and his eyes widened. I followed his gaze and realized my forearm was sprouting thick reddish fur.
"Whoa," I whispered.
I had been so engrossed in the conversation, I hadn't really noticed the changes to my body. I'd been itching for weeks, ever since hair had started growing through my scar tissue, but this felt as if thousands of creepy crawlies were skittering across my flesh.
"Oh, geez," I grunted, frantically scraping my fingernails through my hair.
"You get him downstairs," Paul said. "We'll clean this up."
"Thanks," Jim said, urging me to stand.
"Should we give you some privacy?" Brian asked, grabbing empty plates.
"We shared your change," Jim said as he began scratching my back.
I let out a moan of relief, even as his touch inflamed my need for him.
"Just come on down when you're done," Jim told them and guided me downstairs.
"Now, I'm going to be right here with you, Daniel," Jim said when we got to the playroom. "There's nothing to be scared of."
"Why would I be scared? I have the best papa in the world," I said.
"Don't let Brian hear you say that?" he laughed. "We'd have a fight on our hands."
"Will...will this hurt?" I said, scratching my chest.
"Well, it won't be pleasant. Unless you're like Brian," Jim chuckled. "And I don't think even he enjoyed it, so take it as you will."
I chortled as he took me into his arms, stroking my back.
"Though I don't think it'll be as bad for you. His body didn't have as much time to adjust as you have had."
I buried my face into his neck, inhaling his scent. In the last few months, I had become familiar with the way he smelled, but now, there were intricate layers to his personal aroma. I caught a wild, heady scent as thick fur began pushing through his hair, tickling my nose.
I pulled back to look at him, blinking rapidly as my sight blurred.
"It's all right, Danny," he said, stroking my shoulders. "Focus on me."
I strained to focus on him, realizing his face wasn't fully human any more.
"I'm going to be showing you the way. Try to follow me along," he urged.
"Yes, Papa," I said and he grinned back, showing growing canines.
"Will it hurt when my teeth come out?" I rumbled.
"Well, considering mine started coming out while I was eating," Brian said, startling me. I hadn't heard them come downstairs. "Not too much. Not sure how many I ended up swallowing."
He and Paul sat down on the floor, waiting expectantly.
"Don't worry," Paul said. "You'll be fine."
It was strange. I was able to look at Jim and still see Brian and Paul, embracing against the wall.
"You're going to be such a handsome bear," Jim rumbled. "Just keep going."
My nose began to itch. When I reached up to scratch it, I found I was growing a muzzle. As my jaw extended, spaces began to grow between my teeth.
"I thought you said my teeth would fall out," I grumbled.
"They will," Jim replied. "We told you everyone changes in their own way."
"Be glad you're growing room for your teeth first," Brian laughed. "My bear teeth tried to come in in my human jaw. Wasn't pleasant."
"Stop scaring the boy," Paul said.
"I'm not scaring him," Brian said. "I'm letting him know he's doing well.... Well, that it could be worse."
A soft tink drew my gaze down to where a tooth lay on the floor.
"Told you it wouldn't hurt much," Brian said.
"I didn't even feel anything," I said softly, reaching up to feel my mouth.
I could feel the difference in the texture of my dentition. As I probed my extending maw, more came out in my hand...well, it had been my hand. My wrist was expanding, thick pads growing across my palm. I rubbed my...paws together, wondering at the sensations.
I looked up at Jim and he was grinning toothily at me. I shuddered as I felt my spine spasm, the individual vertebrae shifting and reshaping, one after another down my back.
"Oh, geez," I groaned as my groin stirred.
"Danny's getting his boner," Brian snickered. "Told you it was weird. As a bear or even the hybrid form, you'll be hard."
"And here I thought it was because you liked me," I laughed giddily, then gasped as my pelvis changed position, making me drop to all fours.
"You're doing just fine," Jim said huskily. "You're almost there."
Suddenly, I...I felt Brian in my head. I glanced over at him and he was grinning madly. He nodded.
"He's there," he said.
I had 'felt' him before, like when he had help me with my...issues. But now there was another...presence. Something...ancient, yet no less welcoming than him.
"Grandpapa feels him, too," Brian said.
I looked from him to my papa. Jim was gazing at me, pride brimming him his eyes.
I stumbled toward him, and he backed away, letting me acclimate to this new method of locomotion. My need for him drove me on. I lunged at him, wrapping my forelegs around his thick neck.
"I love you, Papa," I growled in his rounded ear as I caught it gently in my teeth.
"Show me," he rumbled, pulling away, turning to present me with his ass.
I shuffled up behind him, heaving my bulk up, letting him feel my strength. I awkwardly maneuvered my bear cock toward his crack. My drooling head found his puckered hole, a groan tearing from my throat as I felt the heat of his sphincter as it dilated, accepting my rod. He grunted as I prodded his butt, then bellowed as I shoved in deep.
I had had a lot of encounters over the last few months. Most of them had me on the bottom, but I had learned something from almost all of them. I knew what I had liked the most and tested what I had learned on him. And apparently, I was a more astute pupil than I had ever thought, because he moaned beneath my assault, shoving back to meet my thrusts, the walls of his rectum undulating along my shaft.
I was dimly aware of other noises in the room. I assume our show was having the desired effect on Brian and Paul, but my world had narrowed down to my papa's ass wrapped around my needy cock. I have no idea how long I lasted. It felt like I had been fucking him for hours, yet no time at all. Finally, he couldn't restrain himself any longer and with a roar, he blasted his load onto the mats covering the floor, his fluttering ass sucking the last of my man cum from my bear balls.
I collapsed atop him, driving him down into his puddle of bear seed. We lay there, panting.
"You sure fuck like a bear," Jim murmured, shifting beneath me.
I pushed up, my still hard cock withdrawing from his abused hole. A trickle of cum seeped out before he clenched his sphincter, holding my load within him.
He rolled onto his back and I sprawled across him, my sticky cock humping in his cum matted fur.
"Now you know the wonders of a baculum," he chortled. "Better than any little blue pill."
"Don't think I'd even need one with you around," I whispered back.
"Think you can change back?" he said, his long tongue licking around my muzzle.
He rolled us onto our sides and gradually shifted back into the man I had fallen in love with. I did my best to follow suit. There were a couple of times I got...stuck. But with his patient encouragement...and a little help from Brian, I think, I became the man the bear wanted me to be.
I looked at him anxiously and a broad grin spread across his face.
"I was right," he said. "You do make a very handsome bear."
"I love you, Papa," I said.
"I love you, too, Danny," he said and wrapped his arms around me.
We had enjoyed the show, memories of my own change fresh in my mind. I just hope Jim doesn't know that I kept an 'eye' on Danny during his shift back, in case he needed a push.
But I wasn't really needed and soon, two red bears...human bears, lay on the floor, limbs entwined.
Jim looked up at me, an amused twinkle in his eyes and I grinned back.
He stood up, helping Danny to his feet. Jim still had a couple of inches on his cub, but from what I've been told, a cub doesn't reached his full height for a few years after his first change.
Yeah, like I need to get any bigger.
But it appeared that most, if not all of Danny's scars were gone, and his body was covered in almost solidly ginger fur.
As he turned to face us, Paul gripped my arm.
"He looks just like Rick," Paul breathed.
"No," I chuckled. "He looks just like Jim. After all, he is Jim's several times grandson."
"What?!" he gasped.
"I told you he had bear blood," I laughed. "And Jim has told us he had real children."
"But you didn't tell me Danny was one of them," Paul growled.
"Well, didn't think it was my place to say," I chuckled, nudging him. "Might explain why Rick was so...interested in his well being, too."
"Could be," he whispered as the new papa and cub joined us and we went upstairs to greet the first day of his brand new life.
Epilogue
I woke up alone in bed. I lay there for a while, wondering if he was coming back. It is possible he was just taking a leak, after all. Finally, I got up and headed down the hall.
"Here we go again," I muttered to myself.
But this time, the light was on in the livingroom.
I walked in, blinking in the light. He was seated at his computer, typing away.
"You okay?" I asked with a yawn.
"Yeah," he said sheepishly. "Grandpapa had asked me to work on something for him."
"Oh?" I asked, stepping up behind him, kissing his neck. "So what are you doing?"
"Well, you remember those guys he went to visit after my change?"
"The ones writing the were porn?" I said with a leer.
"Yep. But they're really stories of their 'family'. Grandpapa was thinking we might pass some of our own histories off as fantasy porn, too."
"And you got drafted," I said, and he smiled ruefully.
"Well, I do hold a lot of memories. Just that most of them aren't bears. Maybe if I can get them written down, they'll let me get some rest."
"Hopefully," I said.
"So figured I'd start with us." he said.
"Oh?" I asked, looking over his shoulder. "Standing on the Edge of Forever?"
"It's something that's been stuck in my head since I took Joe to see a Garth Brooks show several years ago."
"The porn star?" I teased.
"Garth, not Girth. The country music star," he said, shaking his head. "He did a concert that was shown at movie theaters. Was some Fathom Events thing."
"Okay...?" I said, smirking as I folded my arms.
"I'm not much of a country music fan," he said with a shrug "But Joe is. For whatever reason, that phrase got stuck in my head. Don't know if it was in the lyrics or what.
"Standing on the edge of forever, the future clear to see. Unsure of which way to go, for you're not here with me," he sang.
"After I lost Joe, it had an extra meaning for me. That I was standing on the edge of forever without him. Looking into an eternity of loneliness and grief.
"Then I met you and found out what you really were, I thought it was apropos then, too. I was standing on the edge, looking into forever, literally. And I could either stay as I was, or take that first step into the unknown."
He looked up at me and I bent and rested my chin on his shoulder. I scanned the screen, reading what he had written.
"The night we met?" I said, nuzzling his neck.
"As good a place to start as any," he said as I reached for the mouse to scroll down the page.
"Boy, this Paul guy sounds really hot," I teased. "But you don't say anything about how smoking Brian is."
"Oh, come on," he said, blushing.
"Seriously, don't you think it's a little one sided?" I asked.
"Well, I am the one telling the story. You could always write your own perspective...," he challenged.
"Well, maybe I will," I shot back. "But then what would you do with it."
"Maybe I could weave them together into one story," he said, then grinned at me. "After all, Grandpapa has already sent me his take on it."
"And what will happen if you actually post it?"
"Well, it's not like anybody will believe it's actually real, now will they?"