Benjamin found himself on Jewel's doorstep once again, this time holding a sleeping Samantha in his arms. He had a sinking feeling that, unless some major changes occurred in the family he found himself in, he would begrudgingly have to make a habit out of this. Giving up his position as the only male physically present in Samantha's family was one of the last things he wanted to do, but he could hardly be in two places at once. Hunting in his scorpion form meant he had to go out farther from home, which meant less protection for Samantha even if he let her tag along with him. Shifting Samantha's weight to just one arm, he mentally prepared himself for dealing with Jewel's large family and even larger opinions; sighing loudly and rolling his eyes, he reached out to knock on the door to find his clenched fist whiffing into thin air. "Jewel said you were probably here to see me," came a raspy voice so full of self-confidence that it could only belong to Timothy. Benjamin returned the bear beastman's grin with a long-suffering look on his own face. "I don't have time to play games with you," Benjamin replied wearily. "I have to go hunt for food for Samantha. She's had a long day and needs to rest, especially when you take into account the other unpleasant experiences that have occurred over the past few days. Even if this oblivious female can't see it, to me, your infatuation with her could not be more obvious. So, here's the deal I'm willing to make with you until Samantha is awake enough to decide for herself on this matter: I will procure enough food to feed the three of us, and you will protect Samantha every second that I'm gone. If that includes protecting her from your own fantasies or perversions, so be it. If I return and find that she's suffered at all, I won't hesitate to kill you."

Now it was Timothy's turn to roll his eyes. "So what you're trying to say in normal beastman is that you need my help to protect Samantha. You need my help badly enough that you're willing to leave me alone with her for hours, and all you can use as leverage are empty threats. You're pretty lucky that I do have feelings for her, and you're even luckier that I would rather die than see any kind of harm come to her. But I'm going to need a favor from you, especially if this arrangement becomes frequent. That favor is that you won't hinder me from joining your family as long as Samantha is not opposed to it. If you can agree to that, I'll watch her platonically as often as you need me to. Oh, and I'll still be taking you up on that offer for food; my hunting time is going to be spent guarding your female, but I still gotta eat. Lucky for you again, I'm not picky." The look of fury in Benjamin's eyes would have stricken fear into the hearts of most other beastmen, but Timothy simply reached out his arms, his own expression blank, to receive Samantha and go back inside Jewel's home. He was shocked when Benjamin grabbed hold of his arm and leaned in, quietly snarling, "It's too noisy in there; go back to our house and take care of her there. You're a three-stripe beastman, you should be able to handle it. Just don't go in the main bedroom, Samantha doesn't like it in there. May the Beast Deity help you if that's where she wakes up," he finished with a rude chuckle. "Yeah, got it," Timothy replied nonchalantly, brushing past Benjamin with careless cockiness in every step and crossed the street without looking back. The scream of frustration and rage that was rising in Benjamin's throat would have to wait until the combat of this hunt before he could let it out.

Meanwhile, Timothy cradled Samantha in his arms as he opened the door to her home. How she'd stayed asleep this whole time was a mystery to him, but her soft, warm cheek pressed against his shoulder and he suddenly felt like he wouldn't mind if this female, whose gentle breathing tickled his bare skin, slept for a little bit longer. The house was dark and cool thanks to the newly installed and promptly closed shutters, and the large bear beastman did his best to maneuver through it without jostling his charge. There was only one interior door that had been shut, and he assumed this led to the bedroom from which Samantha's mate had been taken. He turned away from it and purposely walked to the other side of the house, entering a bedroom that was too small to belong to adult beastmen. Contemplating everything that her family had gone through over the past couple of days, Timothy placed his back against one of the smooth stone walls and sunk to a seated position on the floor while holding Samantha as close to his body as he could manage. Gradually, her warm skin became cool to the touch, and Timothy glanced around the room for furs to cover her with before the cold woke Samantha from a sleep she probably really needed. As his gaze passed over some fancy woven baskets in different shapes, neatly stacked shallow stone dishes, and wooden baubles that were teething staples, the purpose of this room dawned on him for the first time. He probably wouldn't find any furs here that would warm the female, even though a typical Bear tribe nursery would have a fur to cover a female as short as Samantha.

Timothy wondered if she would mind if he transformed. In his limited experience, females either loved it or hated it, and he didn't know which category Samantha fell into. Would she recognize him in a form she had never seen him in before? He remembered how she had taken to Bub, who was still too young to transform into a beastman at all. She must have some affinity for bears if she rescued his nephew and cared for him for as long as she did, and with so much affection. He decided to risk it when the freezing tip of her nose rubbed against his bare torso. Slowly, he reached down to the leather wrap that kept his genitals from view and untied it with one hand so it wouldn't rip. Hopefully, his shifting wouldn't disturb the sleep of the gentle female whose nose still chilled his neck. The short blond hair covering his head began to grow longer and sprout from the rest of his skin as his physical features gradually changed. He had never slowed these changes to such an extent, and it was more difficult than he thought it would be; however, the response from Samantha made his efforts more than worth it. As his fur grew, he felt her sigh happily against him after taking a deep, relieved breath through her nose. He must be growing warmer already, he thought happily. As his physical size increased drastically, Timothy felt chilled, weak fingers making their way through his fur in an attempt to hold their place on his upper back. As her arms slipped over his shoulders, her fingers tugged gently at his thick fur and Timothy heard the quietest whimper from the female whose face was drifting gradually farther from his. His thick paw pads were more than large enough to cover and hold Samantha's hands, but for the sake of warmth, he moved her arms into his embrace of her body, placing them folded at her sides so that she was still reaching up, but his own arms were able to hold her more tightly against his warmth. As he looked down, he was gratified to see her begin to disappear into the longer fur of his underside. She would certainly be warmer now.

Samantha's legs still straddled his sides, but instead of touching the floor like before, she was now high enough off the ground that her knees were able to unfold significantly. Carefully scooting his lower back away from the wall, Timothy gingerly took hold of one leg and wrapped it around his body, being careful not to land her feet on his short but sensitive tail. As he switched arms to warm Samantha's other leg, he felt her stir. Not wanting to wake her, he brought his paw to her hair and gently caressed her head and neck, using his claws to carefully comfort her into a sounder sleep. Once he was assured by Samantha's occasional snore that she was sound asleep again, he moved her other leg and placed both arms in a tight and comforting embrace around the female who had unexpectedly captured his interest and his heart. Timothy focused his attention on the areas where his body touched Samantha's and was relieved to find her body temperature rising to meet his own. He looked down at her from his own unnatural bear posture and could almost feel his heart expanding to make more room for her in it. Her sweet, steady inhales and exhales led him to hope that she was becoming as familiar with his scent as he was with hers, and he began to take more careful notice of the way he was gripping her soft and pliant body. If he wasn't careful, his body would begin to react to hers in a way that perhaps neither of them could ignore. And he wanted to be careful, because this female didn't seem to be as open to mating as others, regardless of his status as a triple-striped beastman.

He figured the right word to use here was irony, because he never thought he would find a female he wanted to mate with. He was the last of his litter to start a family despite being the strongest and oldest of the three males, and his brothers never let him forget it. His youngest brother, Terry, was now the only one of them still living in the Bear Tribe because he was lucky enough to have had two litters of cubs with his mate, so he couldn't just tear off looking for an errant nephew whose odds of survival hadn't been exactly great. Honestly, the longer his own search for the cub had gone on, the less he had expected to find him alive, much less living in the lap of luxury with a strange female from nobody-knows-where and then miraculously reunited with his family. Timothy himself hadn't even needed to lift a finger to rescue that kid, and he figured that his sister-in-law would try to get the little brat a mate out of the whole deal, to boot. As if he would ever let that happen; after weeks of trekking through the woods and sniffing every damn tree between the tribe and Beast City, Timothy figured it was time something good came his way. And for once, he knew what he wanted. Family came first, that was his motto; but for once, he wanted to apply that motto to the family he would start himself as well as the family he had been born into. He had known at first sight how he felt about Samantha, and that was the way of things for most beastmen. Maybe his Ma had been right about him when she said that even if something wasn't right with his head, he was a late bloomer and would catch up with his siblings when it was his time to do so.

And if this was 'catching up', then his time had certainly come. He wanted nothing more than to make this moment his life; to be able to press this gorgeous female against his body day after day; to make her safety and comfort his first priority; to finally have someone let their guard down around him so that he could finally do the same. And then... and then was almost too much to think about. He wanted to see where on her body his mark would appear, should she allow him to leave one. He wanted to see what their cubs would look like, if they were lucky enough to have any. He wanted to follow her everywhere she went and devote his life to her alone. He had been told many times that his own life was worthless, and the world he lived in reinforced those words time and again, but if Samantha would accept his worthless life in exchange for a place at her side, he could never think about his life the same way again. A hum accompanied by vibrations against his skin snapped Timothy out of his runaway thoughts; he had been so lost in them that he had missed Samantha's initial stirrings and hadn't lulled her back to sleep. But this hum was one of satisfaction; she was still on the cusp of waking up, though it was too late for her to fall back asleep now. She nuzzled her face further into his shaggy fur and cleared her throat. He felt her eyelashes move his stomach fur aside as she opened her eyes and sharply inhaled. Timothy was surprised by the loss he felt as Samantha groggily pulled her head away from the warmth they had created together, and the worry that filled him as she looked around in confusion. Finally, she looked up and into his eyes, blinking a few times to bring her eyes into focus. "Timothy?" she asked, her voice still breathy from slumber. He felt his heart beating in his throat as he nodded slowly, unsure what to do next.

Author's Note: HOLY MOLY, y'all. Thank you so much for the support; your views, votes, and comments have sustained me through more than I thought I could take. I'm sorry this update has been such a long time coming, but for those of you who don't follow me or missed my announcement and comments, I've gotten an unofficial diagnosis of endometriosis and I need laparoscopic surgery to confirm this (the only way to get an official diagnosis where I live) and my consult isn't scheduled until next week. In the meantime, I've been so extremely sick that most days, I can't get out of bed and only have access to my phone. I'm absolutely not going to abandon this story, but updates can only happen when I'm able to write, and most days I'm barely able to make it from one room to another. I hope that you can be patient with me as I work toward managing my pain (endo has no cure, unfortunately) and learning how I can maximize my writing time while dealing with all the not-so-fun side effects of endometrosis. I'm hoping that whatever is going on for me right now can last a few more days so I can work on getting another update out soon, but please keep your fingers crossed for me because I'll need all the luck I can get. I love reading and responding to your comments, and each vote that every one of you gives me truly touches my aching heart. It also really helps with my motivation to put this story into words instead of just daydreams! Until next time!