Baby For The Bear

So, there were some pretty ones who made Ken’s di*k threaten to take over the selection process. He fidgeted in his comfy leather chair, resisting the strain of his ere*tion, making himself concentrate on other matters, difficult as it was to ignore his man-bear libido. And there were some especially well-educated ones, even some PhD’s and some doctoral candidates, and some with a business background. And he had not been specific about race, so he found among the human and Ursine females a few who were black and Hispanic. Ken was indifferent to the matter of ethnicity. Circulating in the metamorph world, he had grown up with werewolves and weredragons and were-felines. The differences in human skin and hair were negligible compared with differences in form, and he had slept with a few females of different races. It hardly seemed to matter.

There was every possibility that the one he was looking for would not be in this set of candidates. There would be any number of others in the time that the ad that he placed was in circulation. If he didn’t find her now, he would find her eventually…

The next folder on the list was named “Samantha Vance.” Ken clicked on it and let its contents display themselves. Okay, Ms. Vance, let’s find out about you now…

To give his di*k a rest, he decided to look first at her resume. He skimmed to her most recent employment—and felt something happen in his mind like that of the tires of his Chevy Corvette screeching loudly to a sudden, hard stop.

He locked his eyes on the place where this Samantha Vance had last worked. Metro Foods, Assistant Office Manager.

Oh, sh*t, Ken realized, she used to work for the people that we just bought out.

He gulped at the thought of it, for he realized what must have brought Samantha Vance to apply to carry his cub: the urgent and perhaps even desperate need to replace the lost income of being laid off when Brecker American acquired Metro Foods and replaced three-quarters of its workforce with self-checkout kiosks. In all likelihood, Ms. Vance was a victim of his family’s downsizing its new business.

Ken almost fell back against the back of his seat. This, he was not expecting. As a member of a billionaire business family, he had been part of his share of acquisitions, buyouts, mergers, corporate raids, and business breakups and sell-offs. He of course paid attention to the news and was aware of things that were going on in the country. He knew about individuals, families, sometimes even whole communities adversely affected by the decisions of people like him and his family. And like all business people he had chalked it all up to being “just business.” The intent was never to do harm; it was only to make and maximize profits. There was nothing personal or malicious about it.

Creasing his lips, Ken closed Samantha’s resume and opened the Zip file of her pictures. He felt craven and shallow as he heard himself think, Goddamnit, don’t let her be one of the beautiful ones.

The photos that opened up in his Preview app dashed his hopes. The 24-year-old blonde who had been hit by his layoffs was a vision. Had he met her in person, Ken would not have wanted to lay her off, but “lay” on her. All night.

Damn, he cursed to himself. Now, the impersonal decisions of business—and their consequences—suddenly had a face. And it was sheer loveliness. And Ken heard himself ask in his head, What the hell have we done to this girl?

He stared at the face on his computer, shook his head and exhaled, and made a decision.

Samantha Vance…you’re getting an interview.