by V. Vaughn
A pan clatters on the stove, and bright light flashes from the fridge as René takes out food. I twist and cross my legs to strike a modeling pose. “Stare away. I’m enjoying my view too.” I scan his body with eyes. “Nice spatula.”
He grins as he cracks eggs into a bowl. He says, “I hear you want to be a Ouellette warrior.”
“I do. Does sleeping with the boss get me an in?”
A cutting board thuds on the counter next to me, and René begins chopping a tomato. “You’re already in because you’re a polar bear.” He glances up at me. “And because Izzy insisted on it. Think you can kick my ass?”
I grin. “I have other plans for that ass.” I grab a piece of tomato, and it’s sweet in my mouth as I chew. I think about how angry Isabelle used to be when we were in the Arctic. Growing up, everyone knew to stay away from the alpha’s daughter. She took mean girl to a whole new level, but she’s changed, and she’s been incredibly nice to me since I got here. I wonder if it has anything to do with finding her true mate.
I ask, “Have you always been a warrior?”
He nods. “I started training for it as soon as I could shift.”
Werebear don’t get the ability to shift until they hit puberty, and I picture a young René and think about how he’s been a warrior for a long time. I wonder if he’s been single all this time too. I ask, “Where you ever mated?”
“No. I’ve had girlfriends, but nothing serious.”
I glance around the kitchen at the sparse furnishings. The colors are various shades of black and silver, and I long to add something bright. I say, “I’m going to be an adjustment, aren’t I?”
A plate clatters on the counter, and René’s knife scrapes over the cutting board as he puts the vegetables into the omelet he’s making. “A good one.” He steps over to me and leans in for a kiss. He bites my lip gently before he pulls way. “A damn good one.” He glances around his kitchen. “You have my permission to change anything you want. I’ve been a bachelor for far too long.”
“Whoa. Am I moving in already?”
Eggs thump lightly on a plate and René says, “We’ve already jumped into this relationship head first. You might as well. As far I can tell, fate knows what she’s doing when she pairs true mates.”
The fork he hands me is firm in my grasp, and I break off a piece of the most incredible omelet I’ve ever seen as I say, “You are stuck with me. For better, or for worse.” I put the food in my mouth and salty cheese flavor coats my tongue.
René says, “For life.” He kisses me again, and my heart warms with the glow of a love I wasn’t sure I’d ever find.
5
Isabelle
Gooey cheese stretches as I remove another serving of lasagna from the casserole dish in the middle of the table. While Rachel has only pushed her food around, my body’s need to feed my babies supersedes my need to be polite. Grace found a picture of Caitlyn at the age of twelve, taken a few weeks before she disappeared, and the look on Rachel’s face confirmed that Caitlyn is most likely the twin Rachel thought had died. Rachel told us more about her pregnancy and what happened with Julie. It appears Julie lied to her so she could steal a baby and have a way to trap Henri into marriage.
Jean Luc says to Rachel, “I’m going to invite Henri over after dinner if that’s okay with you.” I can tell from her thoughts that she’s equally eager and afraid.
She says, “Yes. It’s time he heard the truth about what happened.” She closes her eyes for a second and shakes her head. “I feel so betrayed by Julie, I considered her my best friend. And now I discover she has my daughter. I can’t help but think that’s how Henri is going to feel when he finds out about Kelsey.”
The way Rachel talked about her feelings for Henri earlier makes me think they were true mates. My heart aches for Rachel and Henri as I imagine the pain their separation caused all these years. I ask, “When did you discover you were a half?”
Rachel wipes her mouth on her napkin and says, “Soon after I went home to my parents. I confessed to my mother I’d fallen in love with a werebear, and she told me she’d done the same.”
“Did you ever marry?”
She shakes her head. “Henri will always be my one and only.” She glances at Jean Luc. “You know how we were. Now that I know more, I think we may have been true mates.”
She knows. My darn pregnancy hormones make tears fill my eyes, and when I glance at Grace, I see she’s reacting the same way. I say, “You still are.”
Grace sniffs and looks at Jean Luc. “I’m not sure what you plan to do with Julie, but I have a sharp knife and would love to use it.” She stands, and plates clatter as she begins to clear the table.
He says, “It’s not that simple. She’s still the mother of Henri’s other children.”
I think my husband needs time to figure out how he plans to handle the situation, and I suspect he’d like to talk to Rachel alone, so I get up to help Grace and ask, “Who’d like coffee or tea? I’m going to see about dessert for when Henri gets here.”
After I take their orders I leave Rachel and Jean Luc to talk. When I get in the kitchen Grace whispers to me, “I was serious about the knife. To think, Henri had a true mate all this time and Julie finagled her way into his life to keep him from her.”
The dishwasher rattles loudly as she yanks it open. I whisper back, “I know. My bear wants to tear Julie apart, but Jean Luc is right. There’s more to consider. You know how Henri is, he’s all about his kids, and he won’t want anything to happen that could hurt them.”
Grace glances at me. “You’re right. I’m sure they love their mother, and Henri would never compromise that.”
My mother-in-law was the prima of the clan as the previous alpha’s wife and as Jean Luc’s mother before I came along, and I know she has experience with many difficult clan situations. I ask, “What do you think Jean Luc is going to do?”
As alpha of the clan, Jean Luc can speak to every member in their head and he says, “Ladies, you’ll be the first to know what I decide to do. Now stop whispering like gossips. Henri will be here soon.”
Grace and I exchange guilty looks before we get back to cleaning the kitchen. When Henri arrives, I greet him at the door. We exchange cheek kisses, and he places his hand on my stomach. He winks, “Those babies are warriors. I’m sure of it.”
I put my palm on his chest, and his heart thuds beneath it as I say, “You have the heart of one, Henri.”
He forces a smile for me, and I say, “Go talk to Rachel.”
I follow him as he walks toward the woman he hasn’t seen in over twenty years. She stands and begins to tremble as she watches him approach. She speaks softly, “Henri.”
He grabs her arms and pulls her into a hug. His voice wavers a bit as he says, “Rachel.” Her hands clutch at his back as he says, “Mon Dieu, it’s really my Rachel.”
They pull apart and stare into each other’s eyes as if no one in the world exists beyond them. The love they both feel is the overwhelming kind I have for Jean Luc, and I shut my ability down to give them privacy.
“I missed you so much, Henri. There were days I could barely take it.” Rachel has tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I never stopped thinking about you, wondering if you were okay. I---” Henri’s voice cracks, and he pulls her back into an embrace that’s so tight I think neither of them dares to let each other go.
I realize tears are falling for me too when I need to sniff, and a tissue is soft in my fingers when Grace hands it to me. Jean Luc comes into the kitchen and says, “You two, come with me.” He takes us by our hands and leads us down the hall to his study.
When we get there, my throat is thick with the need to cry more, and I shake my head at Jean Luc’s cool demeanor. “Aren’t you the least bit affected by true mates being reunited after so long?”
He sighs, and his grip is gentle as he pulls me into an embrace. “Of course I am, ma chérie. But this is a private matter between Henri and Rac
hel.”
I gaze up at my true mate and try to imagine what it would be like to be separated. “Do you think Henri will be angry?”
He asks, “Would you be angry with me if I had kept a child from you?”
I step away. I would be furious, but I also know true mate love is strong, and it overpowers all other emotions. “Yes,” I say. “But I wouldn’t be able to let it take over.”
Grace says, “Henri won’t be able to either. I think the person who’s going to feel the brunt of his rage will be Julie.”
I ask, “What’s going to happen here? Do you think Henri would divorce Julie to be with Rachel?”
Jean Luc says, “Before I found you, I would have said no. He’s a family man first and wouldn’t do anything to hurt his children. But now I understand how Rachel makes him feel, and I honestly don’t know what he’ll do.” The desk creaks as he leans against it and crosses his arms. “But more importantly, Henri’s daughter is a hunter. I need to figure out what we’re going to do about that, especially since it will devastate him in a different way.”
“Wow. So we have a mother who just found out one of her twin babies didn’t die and grew up with the father. A father who found out he has another daughter who grew up with her mother. Twins who are halves and don’t know about each other. One is a hunter and one is in love with a werebear. A pair of true mates who are reuniting in the living room. And there is an evil wife in the mix. Did I leave anything out?”
“That about covers it,” says Jean Luc as he bursts into laughter that makes his eyes twinkle.
I reach for my husband’s hand, and he squeezes my fingers tight as I say, “Fortunately they have a wise alpha to sort it all out.”
He shakes his head. “Fortunately I have a wise prima,” he glances at Grace, “and the wisdom of a former one to help.”
A knock sounds on the door, and Henri says, “It’s me.”
Grace is closest and opens up to him. His gaze is on Jean Luc, and he looks as if he’s aged ten years in the last hour. I think the men speak to each other in their heads, because Jean Luc glances at me and asks, “Could you give Rachel a ride back to the apartments? We’re going for a run.”
My heart aches for Henri, and I’m sure he needs his best friend right now, so I nod in reply. My husband and Henri leave through the garage where we go when we shift, and Grace and I return to the living room to find Rachel.
Her eyes are swollen and her face is blotchy. She takes a shaky breath when she sees us, and dabs at her eyes with a tissue. I don’t want to pry so I say, “I’ll take you back to Kelsey’s.”
“Thanks.”
When we get outside, Rachel takes a moment to gaze up at the sky. The rush of waves crashing on our beach is methodic as she gulps loudly. She says, “When Henri and I were together I knew he was my soul mate. I had no idea then we were actually true mates.” She whimpers before she manages to get out. “God I’ve made a mess of things.”
The leather seat of my Hummer is cold under my thighs when I climb in, and once I start the engine, Rachel swipes at her cheeks with her sleeve. “I almost came here to find Henri once when Kelsey was a newborn. Before I told my parents about her.” She lets out a dry chuckle. “I got to the Canadian border, but didn’t have a birth certificate to get my daughter across. I took it as a sign that I should leave things alone.”
Lights of an oncoming car flash as it goes by us, and Rachel says, “I imagine life would have gone differently if I had.”
“What would have happened, though?” I ask. “You didn’t know you were a half. And once Henri found out you had his child he would have lived among humans and hide what he was.”
“I know. And you guys need to shift every once in a while, don’t you?”
“We do. I understand why you didn’t tell him, Rachel.” I reach over and touch her arm. “I might have done the same thing.”
“Thank you. But what I did was still wrong.”
“What happens with you and Henri now?”
“I’m not sure. I told Henri that Kelsey wants to meet him and he agreed, but I didn’t push him to make any decisions about anything else.”
I let out a low growl. “I imagine he’s got to deal with Julie first.” Rachel flinches. “Sorry,” I say. “I’m imagining what her betrayal must feel like for both you and Henri.”
“It’s okay.” She sits up taller and her voice is strong when she adds, “I’d growl if I could too.”
If Rachel and Henri do find their way back together, Rachel could turn into a werebear with the bond of a bite. A rush of romantic notions fills me as I paint a fantasy of Rachel and Henri reuniting after all this time. I pull into the parking lot of the apartments and put the car in park before I turn to Rachel and say, “Maybe someday you will.”
6
Kelsey
Val and I decided to heat up leftovers for dinner. My stomach is in knots over my ordeal of being held as a suspected hunter, and with worry for my mother. She wasn’t telling me everything earlier, and I wonder what she’s keeping from me. I hop up on the counter as the microwave whirls while it heats up pasta. Val says, “I’m sure your mother’s fine. I bet Jean Luc fed her a nice dinner and they’re catching up.”
“I know. But I get the sense there’s more to what happened than we were told.” A fork slaps lightly on my thigh as I tap it with nervous energy.
Val’s hands press against the inside of my knees as he spreads my legs to step in between them. He cradles my head and kisses me. “I can think of a way we could pass the time until she gets home.”
My utensil clatters on the counter when I set it down. I close my eyes to enjoy him, but an abrupt flash back to when Val burst through the door to save me makes me begin to shake. I pull away and gaze at his face. “What is it?” he asks.
“I’m remembering what happened. I don’t want to be afraid of something I plan to become, but I can’t seem to help it.” His hair is soft in my fingers as I comb it back from his forehead and ask, “Can you show me your bear teeth and claws again?”
“Sure.” Val steps back from me and scowls as if he’s focusing, and I gasp when his jaw gets bigger and he opens his mouth. His fangs gleam in the light, and I imagine the damage they could do to me.
He begins to morph back, and I say, “No.” I reach for his paw. It’s bigger than both of my hands, and he could kill me with one quick swipe. But I trust that Val wouldn’t let me touch him if he didn’t have complete control. The pads are much rougher than a dog’s would feel when I drag my finger over them. He squirms, and I ask, “Ticklish?” He nods and maybe it’s the crazy situation, or the release of my emotions from today, but I break into uncontrollable laughter.
Val shifts back to human and chuckles until I regain control. I say, “I’m sorry. I have no idea why that was so funny to me. I guess I never expected a bear to be ticklish.”
He gives me a stern look. “I know what happened with the warriors was terrifying for you, but it’s not a usual occurrence. I’ve never had a run in with one until today.”
I slide my hands over his strong shoulders, and the cotton of his shirt is soft in my fingers as I recall how sexy Val was when he was trying to protect me. My heart beats against my chest as I say, “You were going to help me pass the time until my mother gets back.” The muscles of his back flex beneath my palms as I slide my hands down to his waist and whisper. “Distract me.”
Val scoops me up off the counter and I wrap my legs around him as he walks me to his room to do just that. It’s well after dinner before I hear the footsteps of my mother as she climbs up the steps to my apartment, and I leave the warmth of Val’s bed to go be with her. The stairs shake as I jog up behind her. “Hey, how did it go?”
My mom turns to me, and the light over my door reveals her red-rimmed eyes. She offers me a weak smile. “It was interesting.”
The door snicks shut softly behind me when I close it and ask, “Should I make us some tea so we can talk?”
; “Yes.” She walks over to the sofa and falls on it as if she’s exhausted.
Once I put the kettle on I join her, and she sighs. “I saw your father.”
My heart feels as if someone is squeezing it in their fist. “It didn’t go well?”
“It did, and it didn’t.” She shuts her eyes for a moment and rubs the bridge of her nose. “It’s complicated.”
I wonder if my father has a family, and I ask, “Is he married?”
She nods. “But that’s not all.” She takes a deep breath and stares at me with intensity. “Your twin is alive.”
“Whoa.” My chest tightens as if the air was just sucked out of my lungs. “What? I thought--”
“I thought she died too, but it turns out my friend Julie stole her and convinced Henri, your father, the baby was theirs so she could marry him.”
“Oh my god.” My stomach clenches, and I reach out and touch my mother’s arm as the teapot begins to hiss. I get up to turn it off, but forget about making tea as I quickly return to the couch and ask, “So your friend who helped you deliver me stole my sister to get Henri? Why would she want to be with a man who wasn’t her true mate?”
“Henri has a lot of power in the clan, and judging from what she was like in college, I think she wanted the lifestyle.”
I shake my head as I try to fathom what kind of person steals a child just to marry for power. I have a sister. And this woman made my mother think my twin was dead. I ask, “What will the clan do to her?”
“I don’t know.” Mom leans back on the couch and clutches a pillow to her chest. “Henri and Julie have other children.”
