“The bee is collecting pollen to make honey. That’s why he goes into the flower. Then, when he has enough, he’ll fly back to the hive and it’ll eventually be made into honey.”
“Whoa,” Logan said. “That’s cool.”
“Did your mom tell you that I’m a beekeeper?”
“Yeah, but I’m afraid of bees.”
“You don’t have to be,” Beck said. “Once you understand them better, you’ll see they’re not scary. Maybe I’ll show you my hives sometime.”
The bee left the flower and Logan stepped back away from it to watch it. After it flew off, he relaxed and picked up the flower.
As they walked, Logan and Beck collected several more leaves and some flowers, too. They came to an area with a large patch of flowers on one side. Logan picked a small purple flower and handed it to Harmony.
“So pretty. Thank you,” she said.
“Oh! I see a better one.” Logan walked to the side of the trail and bent to pick up another flower. As he stood back up, his foot slipped.
That side of the trail went down at a steep angle, and several feet below was a drop off. The cliff went a long way down and ended with rocks and boulders at the bottom.
“Logan!” Harmony shouted and reached out to grab him. She gripped the edge of his shirt, but he was already falling. His shirt tore out her hand and he was sliding to the edge of the drop off.
“Hold onto something!” she shouted and went toward him as quickly as she could without falling herself.
“Harmony, no,” Beck said. “Get back. I’ll get him.”
Beck slid down the hill. Logan was ahead of him, still slipping toward the edge of the drop off. Logan screamed as his foot went over the edge.
Harmony watched in shocked terror as Beck leapt in the air and landed on the ground on four large paws. He was a huge black bear, running at her son, who was now hanging onto the edge of the cliff with two hands.
Logan’s hands slipped and Beck dove off the cliff after him. He wrapped his body around Logan and they tumbled together, rolling fast down the side of the cliff toward the rocks at the bottom.
They landed with a crash. Beck’s furry body was still wrapped protectively around Logan and when they landed, Logan jumped up and looked back up at his mother.
“Are you okay?” she shouted.
“Yes!”
But the bear didn’t seem to be moving.
“Is Beck hurt?” she called down.
Logan shook his shoulder. Beck uncurled his body and stretched his paws forward, then stood up on his hind legs. Logan looked back at her and shrugged.
Then, as they both watched, Beck got onto all fours and his black bear fur receded into his skin, leaving him human again. And naked.
Even from so far away, Harmony could see exactly how muscular his body was. Ripped was the only word she could think of. Every inch of him was muscle. And he had a good butt, too. He covered himself with one hand and held up the other to wave to her.
“Are you okay?” she called down.
“Yes,” he said.
“How will you get back up here?” she shouted. “And what will you wear?”
But Logan was already taking off his sweatshirt. He handed it to Beck, who tied it around his waist.
“Meet us at the car,” Beck called. Then, he picked up Logan and carried him out of sight, into the woods.
She hurried to the car as fast as she could, trying to process what had just happened.
Now that the immediate moment was over and Logan seemed to be out of danger, the adrenaline was fading, leaving her mind racing.
Had Beck just actually transformed into bear in front of her eyes? Was there anyway she could have imagined it or hallucinated it? Maybe this was all a dream and she’d actually passed out when Logan fell. That was a much more likely explanation than thinking he’d really become a bear.
Bear shifters were just fairy tales. Something parents told their kids to make them behave. Go to sleep or I’ll turn into a bear and eat you. Eat your vegetables or the bears will come after you and make you do it. But they weren’t real. People couldn’t actually turn into bears.
Harmony kept hurrying, avoiding branches and rocks on the path. All she needed was to get hurt herself.
She had to figure this thing out before she got to him. If she asked if he’d become a bear, she would sound insane. What would be the most logical explanation? That Beck had curled around Logan and the sight of them tumbling must have just looked like a bear. An optical illusion. And his clothes must have gotten torn in the fall. Yes. This made much more sense.
She finally saw the edge of the parking lot where her car was. To her right, she saw Beck, still carrying Logan, still wearing just the sweatshirt around his waist, just coming out of the woods.
He put Logan down when they reached the car.
“Mom!” Logan exclaimed, his voice full of awe. “Did you see what happened?! Beck turned into a bear!”
“Shh.” Beck looked around, then knelt down closer to Logan. “Hey, buddy, can we keep this just to ourselves? Not everyone is okay with the bear thing.”
“Okay.” Logan nodded, wide eyed. “Like a secret?”
“Yeah, a secret.”
“But I can’t have secrets from my mom.”
“No, no,” Beck said. “She’s part of it.”
“Okay.” Logan pulled opened his door and hopped into the seat.
Beck stood and slowly turned to face Harmony. He looked at her for a long while, waiting.
“Say something,” he said.
“Well…” She tried to take her eyes off his sexy body, but failed. She settled for staring at his chest. There was no way she could look him in the eyes yet. “I’m just trying to figure out what happened. Because it looked like you turned into a bear.” She laughed. “But people don’t actually do that, so there has to be some other explanation. I just don’t know what it is yet.”
He didn’t respond. She could feel his eyes on her and finally, she moved her gaze up to meet his.
“Harmony,” he said. “I know it’s shocking. There’s nothing to be afraid of, though. I won’t hurt you or Logan. All of my business partners are bear shifters, too. We’re actually a clan and that’s why we all live together.”
She nodded. “Oh okay. That makes perfect sense. You’re a group of bears living together.” She laughed again, feeling on the verge of hysteria. “That’s why you like honey so much, right? It all makes perfect sense.”
He stood there and watched her for a while until she stopped laughing.
“I’ll understand if you never want to see me again,” he said. “I know this is very strange and unbelievable. But I think we should take Logan to the hospital to have him looked at just to be safe. I broke the impact of his fall, but he still could be hurt internally or something.”
She nodded. “Right. The hospital. Because Logan fell. That makes sense. Let’s do that.”
She got into the car and so did he. He picked up the bag at his feet. Inside it were shorts that he pulled on and a t-shirt. Probably better that way. She shouldn’t be just sitting there checking him out. Not until she could make this all sink into her mind.
He wasn’t denying the bear thing. He was really a bear shifter. She kept telling herself this over and over. Eventually, maybe, it would sink in.
They got to the hospital and explained that Logan had slipped down a cliff and landed hard. They thought he was okay and he wasn’t complaining that anything hurt, but they wanted to be safe.
The three of them sat in the waiting room for a few minutes. Then, Logan’s name was called and Harmony stood and took Logan’s hand to lead him to the doctor. They went back to a small exam room.
“Mommy,” Logan said while the doctor checked his reflexes, “Can you get Beck?”
“Sure.”
She was a little surprised at this, but she went quickly back to the waiting room and found Beck sitting there, Logan’s green truck in his hands.
“Beck?”
He turned and looked at her.
“Logan is asking for you.”
He looked shocked, but got up and followed her back to the room.
“Hey!” Logan said, excited to see him.
“Look what I have,” Beck said, and handed over the truck.
“Nice!” Logan drove the truck over the crinkling paper on the exam table, making sound effects as he went.
Logan put his fingertips on the table and made a roaring sound like his hand had become a bear. He drove the truck to his bear hand and the hand attacked the truck.
He stopped and looked up at Beck. “Do you think a bear could pick up a truck and throw it?”
“Probably not. But maybe if he had help from his friends.”
“Bears are super strong, right?”
Beck nodded. “And fast.”
“They can outrun anything!”
“Maybe not anything. Tigers are pretty fast, too.”
“Tigers,” Logan said in awe. He looked to the doctor, who was now listening to his breathing and whispered to Beck, “Are there tigers?”
Beck nodded. “Lots of tigers live in the zoo and in jungles.”
Logan pulled his eyebrows together, not sure what to make of this info.
“I think he’s just fine,” the doctor said. “But keep an eye on him. If he starts to complain of any pain at all, bring him back in and we’ll do some x-rays.”
“Thank you,” Harmony said.
They left the hospital and drove back to Harmony’s house. When they got there, Beck bent down to Logan.
“Be safe, okay dude?” Beck ruffled his hair and held up a fist.
Logan tapped it with his own, then handed him the truck. “Take this. I know it’s your favorite.”
Beck took the truck and smiled at Logan. “Thanks.”
“Go on inside,” Harmony said. “I’ll be inside in a minute.”
Logan ran through the garage to the door. “Bye Beck!” He waved, then went inside.
Beck handed the truck back to Harmony. “I’m sure I’ll never see him again, and he’ll want his truck back eventually.”
She took the truck and held it in one hand, then crossed her arms. “So, you’re still not into the kid thing, then, is that it?”
He faced her and mirrored her pose. “No, that’s not it. You seem really freaked out about the shifter thing. I figured you wouldn’t want me around.”
“Well.” She sucked in a breath and blew it out. “I figure since I didn’t tell you about Logan right away and you didn’t tell me about this, and since both of us have something that people tend to kinda freak out about, that maybe we’re even.”
“Even?”
“If you’re willing to try dating someone who has a kid, then I’m willing to date someone who turns into a… a bear.” It felt so weird to actually say it out loud. But that was the truth. They both had their secret “thing” to deal with. She couldn’t turn away from him after making such a huge deal that he needed to try things with her.
“You’re sure?”
“If you’re sure that you can handle a kid.”
He took a step closer to her. “And the bear thing doesn’t freak you out?”
“No.” She dropped her arms to her sides. “It totally freaks me out. But doesn’t being around Logan freak you out still?”
“Yes. Especially after he almost died today.”
When he said it like that, it brought reality into sharp focus. No matter what happened with them, he still had saved Logan’s life today. Tears came to her eyes as she thought about it.
“I can’t thank you enough for that.” She wiped her eyes.
“No need.” He stepped closer again and wrapped his arms around her.
“I want to date you and spend time with you and Logan both. If you’re okay with the bear thing, I’m okay with the kid thing.”
“Okay.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then pressed his lips to hers. She melted into him, letting his warmth flood over her. She pictured his hard muscles as she moved her mouth against his and felt his tongue slip between her lips. She wanted him and her whole body wanted him, too.
Beck’s phone ringing broke their kiss. He’d ignored it the first time, then the second, but on the third, he pulled back from her and sighed.
“Sorry,” he said. “I guess I should see what’s going on if they’ve called three times.” He looked at his phone. “It’s my brother.”
He answered, but held her close as he listened. “Are you kidding me?” He shook his head and said, “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Everything okay?” she asked when he hung up.
“Remember that arsonist I told you about? And the ladies that attacked our hive?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, first of all, I can tell you now that they’re a rival bear clan. All women like my clan is all men. Knox just told me that they got off on some technicality. So, it looks like no justice will be served after all.”
He narrowed his eyes in disgust.
“I’m sorry. That’s really awful.”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “I should get home and talk to them. We have to figure out what we’re going to do. How we’re going to protect ourselves from them.”
She nodded. “Sure. I understand.”
“I’ll call you later. And I really will this time. I want to make sure Logan is still okay anyway. And maybe we’ll go out this week?”
“I’d love to.”
He kissed her again, more briefly this time, then got in his car and drove off.
Harmony turned into Rachel’s driveway and stopped the car, then got Logan out.
“But I want to see Beck, too,” he whined. “It’s not fair!”
“Logan, you got to play with Beck all weekend, and several times the week before. You’ll see him soon, okay? But we need to have some time alone tonight. Some grown up time.”
Logan stuck his lip out. “Fine.”
“You’ll get to play with Rachel all night. You love sleepovers.”
“Will I get to stay up late?”
“I’m sure Rachel will let you stay up a little late.”
His frown faded. “Okay!” He ran toward the house.
“Hey guys,” Rachel said, opening the door.
“Thank you so much, Rach.” Harmony gave her a quick hug and set Logan’s bag down in the hall. “I owe you big time.”
Winston (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 3) Page 39
