“Hey, baby, what’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” He sat down next to her.
She growled, deep and low, and turned to face him, her eyes wild and panicked. Now that she was coming down from the adrenaline surge, she looked more terrified than ever.
“You must have a lot of questions. I know I do.”
Her wolf lay down on her side and raised her belly to him, as if sensing and fearing the alpha in him.
“I would never hurt you, my sweet little mate. My job is to protect you, help you through your transition. The fight is over, and Liam’s safe. Are you ready to try shifting back?” He stroked her soft fur and felt the tension in her tight muscles. Her wolf shook and wheezed, short exhales, but no inhales expanding her chest. Shit. Could wolves hyperventilate? It seemed this one could. So vulnerable and soft and scared. But so much more.
“Show me your snout, little mate.” He didn’t use his alpha, not wanting to scare her further. She turned toward him, fear in her eyes, her chest heaving as she took in choppy fast breaths. He cupped his hands in front of her snout. He had no idea if it would work, but since most of this was psychological… “Take a deep breath in, Goldie. One, two, three.” He took one to show her how it was done. “Good girl. Okay, now let it out.” The slow exhale released from her snout, and she took a few more breaths, each one slower than before. She licked his hand, and he smiled. Her eyes were clearing. “You’re such a good girl. A good mama. So strong and brave. You fought for us and helped save the day. I’m so proud of you.”
She licked him again.
“Okay, are you ready to learn to shift back? Then we can teach Liam together.”
She gave a low bark. Liam was curled up in a loose ball, relaxing against Bo’s warm back. It felt amazing to have them both there with him. He gave a quick scritch to Liam’s furry little ears and then focused on Jane and her wolf.
“First thing you want to do is thank your wolf and thank the goddess for protecting you. For giving you this amazing gift.”
She whimpered and closed her eyes, drawing in deep, even breaths. A moment later, her tail, which had been straight out, relaxed and pointed down.
Good. “Can you see a light shining at the periphery of your vision?”
She cocked her head and nodded slowly.
“Focus on the light. Beckon it toward you. Is it getting closer? Good. See your gorgeous curves and bright smile? Your soft blonde hair that frames your face? See the kindness in your gorgeous blue eyes? That’s your human side. The one you want to bring to the front.” He stroked her lovingly. “Picture yourself running through the woods on all fours enjoying your time as a free wolf. Free to roam and hunt and play and enjoy your son, your pup. Now, picture the energy changing around you. It’s like tiny bolts of lightning—don’t worry, they don’t hurt. They tickle.”
She relaxed again.
“Those tiny bolts will bring your other form back to you. It won’t hurt. It feels kind of weird, like a deep tissue massage, but it won’t hurt. You have nothing to be afraid of. When you’re ready, visualize yourself in your human form. Smell it, taste it, see it, hear it. It might take a few tries, but we’ll get it together.
~.~
Jane relaxed her breathing and focused on the big beautiful woman in the distance. She was dressed in jeans and an emerald-colored tank top. Her blonde hair hung messily half in, half out of a ponytail. Bits of leaves and branches fell from the strands. She must have been playing with Bo and Liam. Climbing trees and chasing each other through the forest. It was the most wonderful feeling, and the warmth filled her soul. Her cheeks flushed, her eyes alight with joy. Her whole body glowed with excitement and love, and she appreciated every curve, every dimple. Even the scar along her shoulder looked perfect. Like every part of her was perfectly made for her unique body. And she was loved by her son, by Bo, and herself. She wept as the realization crept up into her. She was beautiful. She did deserve love.
She felt the tug and pull as her body shifted. Bo was right; it didn’t hurt. As the lights subsided, she collapsed into the strong arms of her mate. She shivered, naked, as the cool air touched every bit of her body. He pulled her closer to him, enveloping her in his warmth, and she felt, for the first time in her life, truly safe.
“There’s my good girl.” He kissed her on the forehead and pulled her tighter against him. Liam pounced and gave a happy lick to their faces.
Sam handed her a blanket, which she wrapped herself in. Ida was on the phone, dressed already. “We always keep backup clothes on hand. I have some extra jeans and a T-shirt in the back of the car. I’ll be right back.” She grinned and gave Jane a thumbs-up. “And then, girl, we have got to talk.”
Jane snuggled against Bo and pulled her happy little wolf cub against her. “Come on, big boy. Time to get you shifted back so we can go home.”
The pup gave her a strange look, jumped off them, and ran over to Seth’s discarded shirt. He lifted his leg and peed on it. Then he gave a quick growl at the body, and loped back to them. As he jumped, he shifted mid-air and landed in Bo’s outstretched arms.
“Hey, little man. You’re a natural.”
Liam beamed at the praise and poked his nose. “I told you I had a secret.”
Bo laughed and took the blanket from Jane as Sam handed her a bag of clothes. “Yes, you did. I also remember you telling me you preferred dogs to cats the first time we met.”
The little boy giggled and hugged him. “Mama’s a wolf. I’m a wolf. Surprise!”
Jane’s eyes filled with tears as the two males she loved more than anything in the world hugged each other tightly.
“Thank you, Bo.” Liam hugged him even tighter.
“Anything for you and your mama, little man.”
Liam’s nose wrinkled, and he cocked his head. “I think you finally deserve boops.”
Bo’s eyes widened, and he leaned forward so her son could touch his nose with his finger.
“Boop.”
Bo’s eyes misted, and he didn’t even bother to hide the tears as he booped him back and hugged him again.
Bo picked Liam up and walked over to pull Jane into their hug.
“Miss Sam, Miss Ida, come be the lettuce and tomato!” Liam called, pulling the blanket tightly around him as the other women came and joined in the hug. “It’s a Liam sandwich.”
Jane sobbed. Her special Liam was happy and safe, tightly hugged by the shifters who had been willing to die to protect him. Shifters weren’t bad. Alphas weren’t evil. And, somehow, she was one of them. She’d finally found her home.
The siren sounded from a few miles away. The shrill pitches made her wince. She would need to get used to having these extra abilities, like better hearing. Yet, her body had still chilled when she transformed back into her human side. Maybe it would take some time to get used to everything.
“The sheriff is on his way. He’ll take care of the bodies.”
“He’s a shifter, too?”
“No, J-Bomb. But he’s a good man who’s willing to help us keep our secret,” Ida told her with a smile.
“You all head on back to town in Sam’s car,” Bo told them as he set Liam on the floor. “I’m going to stay and make sure everything is taken care of here.”
Her mate was a good and responsible alpha. She gave him one last hug and took Liam’s hand from under his blanket. “Come on, baby boy. I think someone needs a bath.” She wrinkled her nose. This new ability was going to take some getting used to.
As they all walked out, Bo’s cell phone rang. He grabbed it and answered. “Hey, Zach, you missed a hell of a night.”
The other man’s voice sounded as clear as if he was in the same room with them. “You’re not going to believe this, but I know where my missing female wolf is—”
“Let me guess. Bear Paw. Female, blonde hair, blue eyes, has a six-year-old. Her name is Jane and she’s been on the run for almost seven years.”
“How’d you guess?”
Bo la
ughed and gave her a wink. “It’s all good,” he whispered.
She turned and continued out the door. Bo would fill her in later. Right now, she just wanted to get home.
“Like I said, you missed a hell of a night…”
Chapter Twelve
“I still don’t understand.” Jane’s shoulders had tightened to the point of aching, but Bo was sitting next to her on the big couch, and he started massaging the ache out, kneading and rubbing the tension away. Liam was on the floor by her feet, watching over their chat in Ida’s living room. Even though it had been two and a half days since the attack, and she and Liam had gotten clean bills of health from Ida, Bo wasn’t letting either of them out of his sight. And he had almost gone grizzly when the older men sitting across from them had rushed to Bear Paw to meet them. Ida had suggested a neutral place, so here they sat in the comfy living room, feeling anything but comfortable.
“Your mother, my youngest daughter, married a human male without my consent, and there were...words.” The older man, Rand, gazed at her, regret and sadness etched in his features. “It was my biggest mistake.”
“You kicked your daughter out of your family for falling in love?” Jane pushed down her rising anger. She surveyed the pitiful man in front of her. The years had worn him down, and what had once obviously been a proud, strong male was now a withered old man filled with regret for his actions. Jane couldn’t stay angry at him. Softening her heart, she leaned forward and gazed into his haunted eyes. “Did you ever reconcile?”
He shook his head. “She was as stubborn as her old man, unfortunately. I was able to get a few pictures from your father when you were a baby and a toddler. I let them live their own lives outside the pack. I should have visited, apologized, but by the time I worked up the courage, they were both dead.”
“My foster parents told me they’d died in a car crash.”
He nodded his head sadly. “Even shifters can’t come back from that kind of injury. Since you were only two and a half, you hadn’t shifted yet. The authorities put you in the foster system before we could find you to take custody. And I didn’t understand human law. Since you still hadn’t shifted, I thought you’d be better off with the humans. Then they moved you, and we lost you all over again. I’m so sorry.”
“Liam has been close to shifting since he was three.” Heat burned her cheeks. “I had to medicate him.”
Bo’s strong grip tightened on her shoulders, and Liam leaned his back against her legs. They both comforted her.
“You did what you had to do to protect yourself and your son,” Rand said softly.
“Why did I never start shifting like he has?”
Rand—she wasn’t ready to call him Grandfather yet— cocked his head. “We’re not sure, but we think you repressed it to keep the different families happy with you.”
“Four sets of parents before I met the people that became my mom and dad.” She speculated, “I’ve always been a bit of a people pleaser. I’m afraid of them getting angry and leaving, I guess.”
Bo hugged her tight into his chest, and she basked in the warmth.
“And you couldn’t scent me since I was in human form my whole life.”
Rand nodded. “We only had a few pictures of you. And the foster system moved you around so quickly, we lost you.” Tears filled his eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. I had amazing parents who raised me and taught me about love and respect and kindness and how to accept others for their hearts instead of their backgrounds.”
He winced.
“No offense meant. I think I can forgive you for making a mistake. You were trying to protect your pack, your family, right?”
“I didn’t know she would leave us for him. I always thought she’d return, and I’d have my little girl back. The feisty female with fire in her eyes who wouldn’t back down from a single fight. You remind me so much of her.”
“Me?” She shook her head and laughed. “You really have the wrong girl.”
“No, I don’t think so.” He smiled.
“I agree on this matter,” Bo said. “I said you were tougher than you gave yourself credit for.”
“I still can’t help but wonder, if she had stayed in the pack, maybe my new parents wouldn’t have died.” Tears pricked the back of her eyelids, and she forced herself not to release them. “It’s my fault they’re dead. No offense to you and my birth parents, but I don’t remember them. And if I hadn’t gone out with Seth, my parents would still be…” The tears started then, and Bo pulled her onto his lap with a growl, telling everyone to give her some space.
Liam surged into his tiny wolf form and bared his teeth at the other men, and Jane couldn’t help but smile. Her two knights in shining armor.
“I’m okay, guys. Thanks.”
Liam tried unsuccessfully to shift back, and ended up half shifted with a little boy form still in droopy jammie bottoms and a furry face. She laughed.
She still felt overwhelming guilt for the savage deaths of both her human parents and the old couple who had given them a place to stay while running from Seth.
“Seth was a monster,” she whispered.
“Not all shifters are like that, Ondrea,” Rand said, using her given name. “It means strong and courageous.”
“It’s beautiful, but if you don’t mind, I prefer to use my middle name, thanks.”
“Of course. I’m sorry. Jane.” He smiled at her compassionately, like a real grandfather would, and she melted, just a little bit. “I wish no one had been hurt, but you can’t blame yourself. You were young.”
“And foolish,” she muttered.
“No more foolish than an old man trying to keep a daughter from love.”
“What happens now?” She looked back and forth between Ida, Bo, Liam, her grandfather, and Zach, the wolf who had helped find her.
“We’d like to invite you to our home in Florida.”
Bo’s loud roar deafened her, and she almost shut down, until she realized the roar was being echoed by a tiny, howling wolf. And they weren’t directed at her. Both grizzly and wolf pup stood in front of her, blocking her from the older wolf.
“Hey, guys, he’s not threatening to steal her from you.” Zach stepped in smoothly and held his hands up in a placating gesture. “He’s offering a safe place, a home if she wants it. That’s all.”
The pup barked and snarled as her large grizzly knight in furry armor half-shifted back, his fangs still out. “She’s already in a safe place and home.” It sounded garbled and wonky, but she knew what Bo meant.
“Guys, it’s okay. Um, thank you for your offer. I appreciate you spending so much time and money to find me. Liam and I are safe now, thanks to all of you.” She smiled at Bo, whose features smoothed out and became more human-like then addressed her grandfather again. It felt weird. Knowing where she was from and who she was, yet still not feeling like she belonged there. But with the folks of Bear Paw, with Bo at her side, chasing Liam up trees. Wait, could grizzly bears climb trees? And what was their little clan, pack called? She’d read up on bears last night while Bo and Liam fell asleep during The Emoji Movie. Animal bears seemed to be isolated, and when they did come together, it was called a sloth. Did she really want to join something called a sloth? And what about shifter pregnancies. Were they the same gestation? And what happened if you crossed a half wolf and a bear shifter? Which came first, chicken or fried egg on one of Rory’s burnt toast sandwiches?
Bo cleared his throat with a low rumble that kind of sounded like a laugh and beamed at her. “You’ve got a lot of talk going on in that pretty head of yours again. Want to share a bit?”
She wasn’t sure what she wanted or where her life was meant to lead her and Liam, but one thing she did know was that it involved Bear Paw and Bo and Sam and Ida. She loved their little whatever it was called. Family sounded good. “Family.” All eyes were on her as she nervously pulled a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. “I can appreciate and accept that w
e’re family, and I’ll bring Liam to visit. Soon. But, first, I want to explore a bit more here, and see if this is the place I want to be, now that I’m not hiding anymore. Are you okay with that?” She hoped she wasn’t hurting the old man’s feelings. For an alpha of a wolf pack, he seemed to wear his emotions on his face a lot. Or maybe it was just with her.
“I understand. Your grandmother would love to meet you both. Maybe, for the time being, you could try calling her. We have one of those video camera things to talk on the computer with.”
“Skype!” The voice called happily as her son streaked through the room, naked and finally human again. “Be right back. I’m getting my pj’s and a Minecraft friend for you to give my new maw maw.”
“I’d love to talk with both.” Jane laughed. “And Liam’s offering one of his prized possessions as a gift, so I guess we’re good. I promise I’ll keep in touch. Just give me a bit of time to process everything. It’s not every day you find out you’re a wolf.” And in love with a grizzly.
They exchanged numbers. Liam gave her grandfather a Minecraft wolf, and Rand had given Jane and Liam each a special sterling silver pendant shaped like a wolf—their pack symbol—with jewels for the eyes. After Bo shook her grandfather’s hand, he led her and Liam out the door so Zach could finish their business. She hoped they paid him the full amount he was owed—if not for Zach and Nissa, she and Liam may have been found or killed the week prior. She wasn’t happy that Bo had kept that information from her, but it was over. She was ready to start the next stage of her life. Settling down with her wolf pup son, and maybe even saying yes to having a mate. If Bo still wanted her now that he knew what she was.
Chapter Thirteen
“You’re sure you’re okay with Liam escaping your watch for a few hours?” Bo’s bear was dying to make Jane his mate, but he wanted to make sure she wasn’t too afraid of Liam being away from her. The last three days had been a bit stressful on all of them. Finding out she and Liam were wolves from the same pack that had tasked Zach to find their missing wolf. Meeting her grandparents. Watching Liam shift repeatedly in the living room of Ida’s house. The first night after the attack, Bo had insisted on sleeping in Jane’s home. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight for anything, and she had readily agreed. Bo’d been on his best behavior, even worn clothes to bed, and though his bear had ached to claim her, he’d given her the rest she’d needed, while watching her like a hawk—or rather, like a grizzly. Now that he’d accepted the alpha position fully, it was like everything in him was super-charged, the power coursing through him, demanding he protect them. He felt stronger, faster, hell, maybe even at peace, like all was good. And it was because he was in bed with his mate, watching over her, protecting her, loving her. He couldn’t believe he’d held off for so long in accepting the position, but he’d been afraid accepting it would mean Caleb was never coming back. But now he knew better. Caleb would come back—with his mate—he’d seen it in a dream last night that wasn’t quite a dream. And Caleb didn’t want the power Bo had accepted. Bo rested well, his heart finally at peace about his older brother, his clan, and being alpha.
Bear With Me: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (Mates of Bear Paw River Book 2) Page 10
