by J. K Harper
As they walked, Jessie took in the holiday-filled scene of the little town, sighing with contentment. For the whole ten days she had been calling Deep Hollow her new home, she’d been utterly charmed by its mountain feel, the genuine friendliness of the residents, and something else she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Something that indeed felt like home. Even without Grant needing to grow up here, surrounded by his own bear shifter kind and taught by them, she would have loved this place. She felt more soothed here than anywhere she'd ever lived in her life. Like it had called to her.
Right now, covered in piles of billowy white snow that sparkled in the sunlight of the clear day, it was even more enticing. The old-fashioned lampposts on either side of the lone main drag as they turned down it were festooned with lights and holiday decorations. Pine trees and several of the homes on Main Street were equally decorated, along with the fronts of every single shop on the way.
Jessie hadn't known she was a mountain girl before she came here, but now she was in love with everything about it. Some of the funny town stories Livy had regaled her with let her in on some of the small, harmless secrets about the locals, making her feel even more like she belonged here. The people she was already beginning to know made her feel welcome. People like the gracious Clara who owned the post office, Lindsay the bartender/server at the local watering hole called The Tank, and Peregrine, the high school kid who was bagging groceries at the town's sole tiny grocery store full-time during his winter break to fund what he had told her with earnest excitement was a new pair of skis for his younger sister's Christmas present. Jessie knew he was a shifter. She'd yet to work up her nerve to ask how a bear shifter could be named after a bird, but she figured there was an interesting story there.
Then of course there was Maddy, Livy's sister and the owner of the bakery café where Livy had set Jessie up with a job. It didn't pay much, but it came with the apartment. Maddy was also perfectly happy for her to bring Grant to work since he was such a well-behaved baby, and everyone instantly fell in love with him.
As they strolled along Main Street, occasionally waving at people on the other side whom they knew, Jessie felt the familiar sense of amazement that just about everyone in town knew that bear shifters lived among them. Livy had told her, with a deadly earnestness that almost scared her, that in general, telling humankind about the existence of shifters just wasn't done. That was pretty obvious, since Jessie had never heard of them in her entire life. Shifters weren't nearly as common as humans in the world, Livy had confided in her. It was a given that if shifters were ever discovered, they'd be dissected to within an inch of their lives. Studied, examined, spirited away to god-awful labs where who knew what would be done to them.
Humans were pretty good at being scared of what they didn't know.
Jessie felt fierce protectiveness wash through her again at the thought of anyone ever daring to want to do such a thing to her son. Jessie had not yet witnessed him turning into a bear. But he definitely was going to. She had seen his tiny claws extending and retracting from his fingertips, dreams in which he growled in a low register that no human would naturally do. Once or twice he'd sleepily blinked his little eyes at her and she could see the shadow of his bear within them, romping around somewhere inside her son.
Seeing his little claws come out two weeks ago had been what finally sent her lunging for her phone to call Livy, almost desperately accepting her offer of a new place to live. A place where Grant could grow up among his own kind, mentored by them in how to be the bear shifter he was. True to her word, Livy and two strapping male friends of hers had hopped a plane from some local private airstrip and flown to Jessie's latest home in Minneapolis, part of her years-long hop, skip, and jump around the country trying to find a good place to settle herself. They gathered up the rather pitifully small amount of her worldly belongings, threw them all into a rental truck, which they had paid for over her strident protest, and driven everything back to Deep Hollow.
She felt a tiny shiver slip down her back as she recalled the small demonstration they'd given her right as they arrived in Deep Hollow. Just after they entered the town limits, they'd pulled over in the snowy woods off the winding little mountain road. One of the guys from the local bear clan, whom Livy had introduced as Beckett, cheerfully showed Jessie his ability to shift from his human form into an enormous grizzly bear. She'd been ready for it, since Livy had been prepping her since before Grant was even born. Even so, to see the guy be human one moment, then a giant creature the next, standing there with them as nonchalantly as any person would, had been a stunning experience.
He'd opened his giant maw and yawned with an impressive show of gleaming sharp teeth—for which he got his shoulder smacked by Livy, who scolded him that he was going to scare Jessie.
"Wow," was all Jessie's stumbling brain had been able to come up with.
After a moment, Livy had gone to the moving truck, took Grant out of his car seat, and walked him over to the giant, humpbacked bruin. Despite herself, Jessie had stiffened and automatically reached for him, a protest rising in her throat. But before she could do or say anything, Grant stared at the giant bear, then chortled with glee and excitement as he reached out his chubby little hands. Beckett the grizzly bear had extended his nose forward very delicately, allowing Grant to feel and slap and tickle him without even moving, though he blinked his furry eyelids several times when Grant landed a fairly good one on his snout.
"Grant knows what he is, Jessie," Livy had said, throwing an understanding smile her way. "Even though he's half human, trust me. He's going to shift, and it's gonna happen really soon. It's a very good thing that he'll be around his own kind full-time," she'd quietly added.
They were safe here. Jessie again inhaled the scent of the wild, snow-covered woods as they turned down another street and up the walkway of a large Victorian style house nestled back in the trees. "Livy, this is absolutely the best gift I ever got in my life." She smiled happily as they went up the cleared walkway to the large, ornate door of Maddy's house. "I finally feel like I can relax."
Livy smiled. "I'm so glad, Jessie." She gently chucked Grant under his chin, the dopey smile that everyone in town seemed to get every time they looked at him coming across her face as he uttered his usual cute little baby coos and gurgles at her. "You deserve some stability and quiet after everything you've been through."
"I sure do." Jessie sighed with contentment as Livy knocked on the door.
Almost instantly, it opened, sending out a whoosh of warmth, the happy chatter and laughter of many voices inside, the delicious scents of baking cookies.
And a deeper, darker, far more intense something else beneath it all.
A something that swept through Jessie like a delicious, icy wind of alertness and clarity. A touch musky, yet crisp like snow, wild and rough, the scent slammed through her with an intensity she'd never before experienced.
"Hey, Shane," Livy said in oblivious cheer as she pulled off her scarf and hat, stepping toward the door. "I thought you were still out of town. Did the big ole manly grizzly bear come back just for our girly cookie exchange?" she teased. Then she gestured at Jessie. “This is Jessie, she's new here. Jessie, meet Shane, another one of our resident hulking shifters.”
Jessie stood rooted in front of the door, staring at the enormous guy filling the entire frame. Her jaw dropped as her eyes slowly traveled upward to find his. The guy was massive. Just like all the other male bear shifters she'd met so far, but he seemed even bigger. He must be 6'5”, she thought to herself in a daze. A half-wild tousle of golden brown hair on top of his head was at odds with the darker, neatly trimmed beard and mustache that bristled out from his granite hard, drop-dead gorgeous face. Light whiskey eyes that seemed familiar looked back at Jessie with as much startlement, his strong lips somewhat parted and sending the bizarre image of absolutely ravaging her with kisses as Jessie stared back at him, completely frozen.
Whoa, she though
t, still dazed, he's a freaking sexy as hell bear shifter lumberjack god of the woods.
Except lumberjacks had never looked this sexy, she was pretty sure. Especially—
Especially ones she recognized.
Wait a minute.
Holy.
Freaking.
Nuh-uh.
He looked like—
"Maverick?" Jessie's voice was strangled as the name she had often thought about for the past two years managed to shove its way out of her mouth. She sensed more than saw Livy's smile falter as her head suddenly swiveled back and forth between Jessie and Mr. sexy lumberjack bear shifter dude. “You have a beard now,” she whispered stupidly.
His own voice rumbling out so deeply it vibrated through her body, he replied in an equally shocked tone, "Jessie? What—what the hell are you doing here?"
Grant chose that moment to emit one of the screeching little kid cries of those not quite into toddlerhood, demanding the attention come back to him. Obligingly, three sets of eyes clamped on him, though all Jessie could see was the corner of his face since he was still ensconced in the backpack carrier. He waved his snow-suited arms around, almost seeming to reach forward to Mav.
“Who—what—no, no, no. That's Shane,” Livy stuttered, eyes about popping out of her head. “He's the handyman up at the lodge. You said the guy's name was Maverick. And that he was some sort of fighter dude on the underground rings.” Her wide eyes darted between them. “No way.”
Seeing Jessie's expression, then that of the sexy guy Jessie knew as Maverick, Livy's face slackened. "Oh, my god," she breathed. She looked from Grant to Jessie, then back to Grant. Then she gestured at the huge, gorgeous man taking up all the space in the doorway. "No freaking way. This is him? For real? He's your baby daddy? Shane Walker from Deep Hollow is Grant's father?" Her voice dropped to a stunned whisper.
Jessie shook her head, completely lost as she stared into the achingly familiar face of the man she'd been looking for ever since she found out she was pregnant.
The man with whom she'd spent the most erotic, blissful, exciting three days of her entire life.
The man who was the father of her bear shifter son.
Chapter 2
Shane stared at the woman who'd uttered his former name in such a completely dumbfounded tone, it would've been almost comical. Except, of course, that he was just as dumbfounded.
Memories of a sex-filled, sensual, wild weekend of amazing physical union and the most bizarre joy he'd ever felt in his life crashed over him with a clarity that made him catch his breath. He'd never expected to see sweet, sexy, curvy Jessie again. He never saw any of the women again. That was the point.
But something about her had left him unable to shake her from his thoughts for the past two years. Her sweet lips, smiling up at him with languorous satisfaction after yet another delicious romp in the hotel bed they had shared for three nights. The luscious decadence of her body, which had called to him to sink into her and claim her during every second he spent with her. The beautiful gray-blue eyes, which he'd caught glancing at him several times that weekend when she hadn't expected him to turn so quickly to look back at her. She'd been watching him, with a funny, almost awestruck little smile on her face, when he woke up from sleep in the mornings.
It was that look in her eyes that had told him he was doing the right thing by jetting as usual without any contact information. Sweet, sexy Jessie had known the score. She wasn't looking for anything more than some casual fun herself. When they parted ways, they hadn't even known each other's last names. She hadn't even known his full name.
Then again, almost no one had.
Back then, he lived a wandering life that was disconnected from others except to fight them, and he liked it that way. Besides, he'd been passing through Denver with his old brawling crew at the time. Something pretty ugly had gone down at the underground shifter fight rings that had meant he and the other guys needed to jam out of town early. But if he were really honest with himself, he had to admit that the abrupt need to leave so quickly had irritated him for reasons more than the fact that the crew of guys he'd been hanging out with had been proving to be assholes and idiots.
It also had to do with the fact that his bear had just not wanted to leave Jessie. Something about her had drawn him, with the sweetness that masked a deeply sensual woman who had utterly blossomed beneath his touch during the three days they got to know one another's bodies so well. They'd actually gotten to know one another fairly well, too. They talked an awful lot during those seventy-two hours.
He never talked to women like that. Ever.
The little baby strapped to her back now chortled again, reaching toward him. Livy said in a low gasp, "No way." Shane's gaze snapped over to the kid. Amber eyes looked back at him, filled with an innocence and gentleness he sensed the kid had gotten from his mother. Something else was going on back in there, too. Something that he knew was—
What the hell.
“He's a shifter,” Shane muttered, so shocked now he almost felt numb.
The baby also looked just like Jessie. Shane dragged his gaze back up to her. She still stared at him with an open mouth.
Livy's voice sliced through again in a shaking whisper. "Grant is obviously Jessie's son. He looks just like her. But his eyes—his eyes are yours, Shane. They're exactly yours. I would never have noticed unless I saw you both together. Holy smoked mackerel on a cracker," she breathed.
Shane felt his entire world shake, rattle, and roll.
Before he could say anything else, Jessie blurted out in a voice as stunned as he felt, "I've been looking for you. You said you lived on the road. That you didn't live anywhere in particular.” Her voice wavered. “You told me your name was Maverick. You didn't—you weren't telling me the truth?" She sounded utterly crushed.
Livy rounded a suddenly ferocious glare at Shane. He narrowed his eyes back at her. Though she was human, she had grown up knowing about bear shifters, as did most of the humans who called Deep Hollow their home. Naturally, she didn't back down an inch.
"Well, apparently he didn't. Holy shit, Shane. Did you lie to her? You knocked her up, then lied to her?" Livy was in full-on outraged mode, poking her finger into Shane's chest. “What the fuck is this Maverick bullshit?”
That was too much.
“What the hell, Livy?!” He took a deep breath to calm the angry bear he felt slamming around inside him. “I may have done some shady things in my past, but I'm not a fucking liar.” He ground out his words. “You don't know my life story, anyway." He pinned her with a darker glare before taking another deep breath so he could continue more calmly.
"I never once lied to you,” he said, looking back at Jessie. Damn, her eyes were beautiful. Even more stunning than he'd remembered. "My full name is Shane Maverick Walker. Everyone just called me Maverick or Mav when I was growing up. It stuck. That was my name, back when I met you. But when I moved here to Deep Hollow earlier this year, I'd decided to cut all ties with my old life. So I introduced myself as Shane, and that's the name everyone knows me by now. It is my actual legal name,” he added, tossing a dark frown at Livy before looking back at beautiful Jessie. “I don't use Maverick anymore. That guy is dead as far as I'm concerned.”
Under Jessie's astonished gaze, his heart beat so hard it felt like it might pound its way right out of his chest. Livy started to say something, but he plowed on.
“And yeah, when you and I met, Jessie”—whoa, just saying her name did crazy things to his insides—“I didn't have a place I called home. The road was my home. But things changed. They had to. So I ended up here. Deep Hollow is my home now.”
She just stared, still open-mouthed, with the sweet, gorgeous face that had haunted his dreams ever since he'd left her in that hotel room they'd filled with sex and secrets and a closeness he'd never before experienced. Just looking at her made his heart jump. What the hell was that about? He felt his bear rising hard. Agitated. Unruly. Like his out-of-control
bear of old.
He channeled the surging feelings into his words, hoping to calm his bear. “If that little kid is actually mine"—ah, damn, just saying that sent the craziest jolt through his entire body, making his head rattle and his thoughts jumble even more—"then this a private matter between me and Jessie. So you can march your ass into that house and leave us alone, Livy."
Jessie finally spoke again, the husky sweetness of her voice scraping over Shane's nerves in a sexy, rough little rasp that managed to inflame them even more. "Hey, she's my friend. Don't talk to her like that. Shane," she said with emphasis, now looking somewhat more rankled than crushed. Those gorgeous eyes of hers squinched up into a fierce scowl at him as she took a step back, her shoulders straightening.
As if she was trying to protect the cub from him.
At that show of motherly bravado, he snorted and threw his hands up in the air, still struggling against his bear. "Trust me, if he's part shifter, he'll be more than able to hold his own. Especially," and abruptly, the shock of the entire situation thundered down onto him again, making his voice even more dark than usual, "a cub that's my son."
Complete silence held all of them, even the little boy, as Shane's growled words hung in the chill early afternoon air, punctuating the enormity of the situation. Yeah, he had to admit it. He was shocked as shit. But there was no question about it. The kid's eyes looked exactly like his. And he clearly was a shifter.
He, Shane Walker, had a son.
And he knew somehow, he'd manage to fuck it up.
As if she could read his thoughts, Livy said in a firm voice, “Jessie is one of my best friends in the world. So even if you are a big, bad grizzly bear shifter, I'll shoot you, mount your head on my wall, and use your fuzzy skin for a rug if you even think about hurting her or Grant."
Shane barely noticed her threats. “Grant,” he said, briefly distracted from his agitated thoughts. "Grant Walker. That's a good name."
