“Is Charlie going to be okay?” Chuck asked.
Hildy chuckled as she nodded. “Yes, he’s going to be fine. I’m going to take a bathroom break and walk off my adrenaline rush. Talk to your brother before I turn him into a toad,” she warned before walking away from both males.
She was starting to completely understand why the Jezibaba always resented her attraction to Professor Smoke. Sexy males were trouble. And the ones you cared about were just big old distractions.
11
“I honestly don’t know what happened. One day a few months ago I just woke up like this. I’ve been trying to fix it ever since. I can’t figure out what’s happening to me but it makes me afraid to shift. The last thing I want is to become a giant pig, especially since pig shifters don’t even exist. Nothing I’ve discovered in my research has helped. This isn’t a virus. It’s mysterious.”
After delivering a mug of hot soup to Chuck, Hildy held out a second one to Charlie. She was stalling. She always cooked when she stalled. Like now, when she avoided looking directly at Charlie’s face. “Not to bash your current talents or intellect, but your tests might have yielded better results if you’d completed your studies.”
Charlie nodded. “I know. I’ve been thinking that myself. Maybe I’ll go back to school.”
“That’s a great idea.” Hildy lifted her chin and looked at Charlie. “Tell us what you did learn from your research.”
“Nothing from testing my physical makeup, but I have a different kind of theory. I think there’s something contagious in the air that blocks the right shifting signals from getting through. People focus on their animal form but their bodies don’t seem to get the whole message. Instead, they seem to get part of theirs and part of someone else’s. I snuck into town and everyone seems to be suffering.”
“Except your brother,” Hildy said, lifting her mug of soup to sip.
Charlie laughed. “That’s not all that surprising. Chuck hasn’t gotten sick since before he hit puberty. I think something happened at the school he attended. His bear doesn’t even get fleas. Boy, would I like to know how that works. I get them every time I shift.”
Hildy laughed at the flea story. “Chuck saved my life when he was six. Maybe our link has something to do with his immunity. I was always a healer even before I made it my life’s goal.”
Charlie looked at his brother in awe. “You never told me you saved anyone’s life.”
“Because I can’t remember it,” Chuck said. “I only remember having this incredible urge to hug Hildy when I saw her—like all the time. It never went away, bro. Why do you think I was so depressed when I had to come home? Puberty was hell without her.”
“And now you’re mates?”
“Yes,” Chuck answered. “No,” Hildy said at the same time.
She bit her lip when Chuck glared over her answer. “Well, we are probably mates,” she admitted, “but it’s complicated.”
“What complicated about it? Mates are mates,” Charlie said flatly. “Not that I would know. I screwed up with the only female I’ve ever been with.”
“Speaking of that,” Hildy began seeing her segue, “show me your tattoo of the infamous girlfriend Chuck told me about.”
Charlie sighed and reluctantly pulled off his shirt to reveal his massive chest full of eight-pack abs and stacked muscles. Tattoo forgotten in the visual overload, Hildy’s gaze admired Charlie’s chest… then her gaze went to Chuck. He was covered now but seeing Chuck’s muscled human form had elicited a very different reaction from her—very, very different—like riding him for hours different.
Even dressed in Charlie’s clothes and carrying some of his brother’s scent, her body knew exactly who he was. Was sexual selection of your one perfect partner really part of the mating deal? Nearly all shifters believed it was true.
“Because it is true,” Chuck said, grinning at her.
Hildy blinked. “Sorry. Did I just say what I was thinking?”
“Yes, but not to anyone but me,” Chuck informed her, tapping the side of his forehead.
“Oh,” Hildy said, her face turning pink. What else was her incredibly sexy but nosy bear reading in her thoughts?”
“Nothing that makes me want to kill my brother yet. But I am wondering about his pig snout. Aren’t you?”
Hildy nodded reluctantly. “Yes, I’m wondering about that too.” She bit her lip. Her theory came charging back to be addressed. “I think you need to tell your brother about the other shifters we know with pig snouts. We’re beyond sparing anyone the truth.”
Chuck sighed as he nodded. “Okay. I guess it’s time.”
Charlie’s gaze went back and forth between them. “Wait—hold the fort. Are you telling me there are other shifters with pig snouts?”
Chuck cleared his throat. “Yes… well… it’s like this.” He drew in a breath. “I have cubs—three of them. They’re triplets just like us. And they have pig snouts. Like you, they just woke up one day with them.”
“Cubs? You have cubs?” Charlie asked in shock. He scratched his head. “Did you have some sort of Ejaculate Misconception thing happen? Bro, you’ve been celibate all our lives.”
Hildy’s eyes nearly crossed. Apparently, a random misunderstanding was a family affliction, even among genius bears.
Chuck frowned. “Well, I thought I’d been celibate, but I must have been wrong. A courier brought a basket full of cubs to Hildy just before she left for training two years ago. She brought the cubs to my house because there was a note with them addressed to me. A woman named Issy signed it.”
“Issy?” Charlie stood up and roared. It echoed through the whole house. He glared at his brother. “Why didn’t you tell me about the cubs?”
Chuck huffed. “Because you were depressed and living in Mom’s basement, Charlie. I didn’t want to add to your pain. Why are you so mad at me? Even though I don’t remember making them, they smelled like our family so I took them in to raise.”
Charlie ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not that, Bro. Holy bear shit, this is completely unreal.”
“I know,” Chuck said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I was truly trying to spare you.”
“Spare me?” Charlie’s face crumpled at the news. He fell back to his seat a defeated bear.
“Show us your tattoo, Charlie. Show it to your brother first. Make sure he sees the whole thing this time—including her name,” Hildy commanded softly.
Charlie looked at Chuck and then at her. There was pleading in his gaze. “I hate this.”
“I know. I hate it for both of you, but it has to be done,” Hildy said, the healer in her positive about that fact.
Charlie held out his arm to his brother. “Don’t just look at the image. Read her name.”
“Isobelle,” Chuck read. He shrugged. “Pretty name for a woman, I suppose—not as nice as Hildy though.”
“What?! Isobelle!” Hildy repeated, jumping up. Did Chuck read it wrong? She leaned over to look at Charlie’s arm.
“What did I say now?” Chuck demanded, looking between Hildy and his brother.
“Her name was Isobelle, but it was so much to remember that I called her Issy. She said she hated the name Charlie. She insisted on calling me Chuck. She kept talking about having known we were meant for each other and once she even apologized for chaining me to a tree. ”
“She called you Chuck? She didn’t know…” Chuck’s voice drifted off in a whisper, reality sinking in. “Wait… a woman named Isobelle once chained me to a tree.”
“Issy chained you to a tree?” Charlie roared again and punched a hole through a couch seat.
“If Isobelle thought you were me the whole time, then that means the cubs are…”
Hildy’s heart sank. She saw Chuck swallow hard as he figured it out. Charlie’s expression hid none of his pain either. She felt both their hurt as if it was happening to her.
The truth was something no magic in the world could change.
&n
bsp; “They’re mine, bro. I’m so sorry. I think the cubs are actually mine,” Charlie said.
“They probably are,” Chuck agreed sadly. He nodded once more and rose from his seat.
Hildy sadly watched as Chuck walked to the door and out of it without a word of goodbye to her or his brother.
“Chuck! Bro, wait. Don’t leave like this,” Charlie called out, frowning as his brother walked away. He rose and started to go after him.
Hildy stopped Charlie from following with a hand on his arm. “It’s alright. There was no way to make that any easier for Chuck to hear. He’s going to need some time for it to sink completely in. He’s not fast, but he’ll get there.”
Charlie fell back to the couch for a second time. “If only he’d told me when the cubs got dropped off, I’d have figured it out then. He’s been raising my cubs for nearly two years, Hildy. I never meant for that to happen. Hell, I never meant to create them. I didn’t know I had. What have I done to my family?”
Hildy returned to her seat. “The only good thing I can say about this mess-up is that your brother has been an excellent father to the cubs.”
Charlie nodded. “I’m sure of that. Chuck’s got the best heart of the three of us. What are they like?”
“Smart. Handsome. Charming. All three are growing up super fast which was my first big clue that something wasn’t normal with them.”
“Rapid cell mutation sometimes happens in cross-species mating. I wrote a paper on it in college. That might explain their growth but not the pig snout.” Charlie ran a hand over his own. “I’m a father of three cubs. It’s so hard to believe.”
“Yes, but you’re also a father whose entire family is in trouble,” Hildy said. “I need your help to fix the shifter problem, Charlie. I think I now know who started it now, but I have to be sure.”
Charlie’s determined gaze shifted to her. He looked so much like his brother when his mind was made up. Hildy realized she was now looking forward to meeting Chas as well—but all in good time. Right now she had a disillusioned bear to worry about and the unresolved shifting problem to deal with.
She looked at Charlie. “Start from the beginning and tell me everything you can about the week you spent with Isobelle. Leave nothing out, Charlie. I’m trying to figure out if she’s the same Isobelle that I once knew.”
“Wait… you knew my girlfriend?”
Hildy stared at the blurry image on Chuck’s arm. His tattoo artist hadn’t used very good ink.
“I’m not a hundred percent sure yet, but if your Isobelle is the same person, all the shifters in Assley are in a lot of trouble. The Isobelle I knew was a powerful but evil witch who once tried to kill the Baba Yaga and me.”
Charlie stared at the wall while he thought. “My Isobelle could go from being nice to being vicious in a matter of seconds. That meanness was hard to overlook, but she had me convinced we were mates. True mates are supposed to work things out. That’s what Mom taught us. So I tried to overlook her flaws.”
Hildy had no doubt Charlie had been as good as he knew to be. “Isobelle has deals with demons and calls up dark power. My friend Carol became the Baba Yaga that day. I became a healer. Isobelle got away before she could be taken into magical custody. We looked for her afterward but never found her. I think you may have found her many years later… or rather she found you.”
“What you’re trying to say is that Isobelle was with me because she thought I was Chuck. No wonder she insisted on using his name. It all makes sense to me now. She was using me to get even with you for stopping her before.”
“You’re sure a lot faster to catch on than your brother is,” Hildy said in surprise.
Charlie huffed. “Only because Chuck would never think the worst of anyone. After Isobelle, some might call me cynical.”
“Well, don’t give up on love,” Hildy advised. “Some people are meant to pass out of your life like Isobelle passed out of yours. I once dated a dragon who was awful but I got over him. One day your real mate will show up. I’m sure of that.”
“Thanks, Hildy. I hope you’re right,” Charlie said with a sad smile. “So what about the kids? If their mother is evil, are they evil too?”
“Good question,” Hildy said, thinking of her one interaction with them. “For now, I’m going with a resounding no. However, I think they do have some traits that make them far more than normal bear shifters.”
“I’d like to see them.”
Hildy rubbed her stomach and the knot of pain there. “I know… and I’m sure you will. Your brother will make sure that happens eventually. Just give Chuck some time to get there in his thinking. For two years, he’s believed those cubs were his. I believed it too. Plus, as far as the kids know, Chuck is their father. None of you can change what’s happened up to now. You can only adapt and deal with the future.”
“I love my brother. We’ll work this out. I’m happy Chuck found a caring mate like you. He deserves someone to have his back,” Charlie said.
Hildy smiled sadly and stood. “It was good to meet you, Charlie. I wish the circumstances had been better. I need to return to my house quickly, and that means using magic. Hang in there.”
As Charlie smiled in gratitude, Hildy waved her hand and went home.
12
Hildy smiled at George. “Thanks for staying to help. It was quite the shock to see all those cages full when I got here. How do I put out a shifting ban until further notice?”
“Can you use some witchy magic healer stuff to keep people from changing?”
“I suppose I could conjure a restriction bubble over the whole town,” Hildy mused aloud, thinking about it.
Back in her school days, Professor Smoke—their headmaster—had banned dragons from shifting on campus which had left the school defenseless when it got attacked.
No, better not stop them all from shifting.
Who knew when the person who started this might show up to gloat over their work?
“Sometimes magic makes things worse instead of better, George. I think I’ll keep dealing for now.”
“Okey dokey, Ms. Shifter Whisperer, ma’am.”
Hildy chuckled. “The Baba Yaga calls me the Shifter Ass-Kisser and she may be right. I feel like the Shifter Ass-Kisser today. I still haven’t solved the mystery.”
“Now you know I gotta leave if you’re goin’ to start talkin’ all that sexy stuff. You’re super hot and all, but Chuck’s my buddy. I can’t be breakin’ the shifter bro code.”
Hildy rubbed her forehead and laughed. She could see why George and Chuck got along so well. “It was a joke, George—a bad one obviously. Thanks for your help today. If you’re not busy tomorrow, I could use your help again.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be back. Nothin’ is more important than solving the shiftin’ problem,” George said firmly.
Hildy nodded. She waved when George saluted her and jogged up the ramp that now served as the way to the basement exit. George had built a sturdy ramp over the short flight of stairs when so many shifters had clumsily fallen down them on bizarre legs and feet they couldn’t control. The mixed-up shifting issues were escalating.
Hildy was wiping down the exam table with disinfectant when a giant blond bear walked through the basement door. She glanced up but continued to rub the table until she was done.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly.
“Sorry for what?” Chuck asked, tilting his head as he looked at her.
Hildy shrugged at his cluelessness. Maybe she should be grateful Chuck wasn’t madder than ever at her. “I’m sorry for making you tell Charlie about the cubs. Even though my instincts were singing that they were his, it was the first time since I became a healer that I honestly wanted to be wrong about something.”
Chuck leaned against the exam table. “The truth isn’t right or wrong—it’s just the truth, babe. It was going to come out sooner or later. I came to that conclusion before I got home.”
Hildy nodded as she walked around
and closed all the cage doors. She’d made the shifters she’d treated clean up their own messes inside the cages. That seemed only fair to her. Long term, she was going to need some bedding for the cages that absorbed animal odors.
She turned to Chuck and asked what had to be asked. “So where are the cubs now?”
“Getting to know their biological father. It was the right thing to do. The four of them hit it off pretty well. I wish you could have seen Charlie’s face when he saw them. We decided to wait and tell them the truth together. Tonight he just wanted to get to know them without the pressure.”
Hildy let his words sink in. She bit her lip to keep it from quivering. She hurt for him—for all the love he’d given those cubs. And she grieved the part she’d played in it all.
“Taking the cubs to see Charlie was the right thing to do, but Chuck, you’re always going to be their father. Love is way more important than biology. Carol’s mother couldn’t care less about her. My mother wasn’t much better. The Jezibaba is who we both think of as our mother. When I need mothering, I still go to her. The cubs may learn to love Charlie, but he’ll never replace you. I know for a fact that’s how it works.”
Chuck’s mouth twisted. “You know, I knew they weren’t mine in the way children are supposed to be yours. I loved them because I knew they were family but there was always something missing from our connection. I just never thought about them belonging to Charlie or Chas. There aren’t a whole lot of differences between the three of us. The irony is that if Isobelle had found me instead of Charlie, the cubs wouldn’t exist at all because she could never, ever be you, and I would have refused her. But it also hurts to think about them not existing if Charlie hadn’t gone through all the awful stuff he did with her.”
Hildy nodded in understanding. “It’s funny how life seems to always work out in just the way it’s meant to. Gaia teaches that lesson all the time but it’s hard to believe it when you’re dealing with the everyday chaos.”
Whole Lot of Shiftin' Going On Page 8
