by Meg Ripley
“It’s convenient having a clan near you,” Addie said, pulling the clothing over her human form.
I had so many questions. So much to say. “Addie.” I reached up to take her hand. “I love you.”
She smiled and got to her feet. “I’ll be right back.”
I sat naked in the dark for a long time, alone with my thoughts and feelings. I’d lost track of how long she was gone for, but when I heard rustling and smelled her—that scent that was more real to me now than my own—a smile took over my face and my heart flooded with joy.
14
Addie
Julie and Emma were in a state when I found them. They’d seen animals all around and couldn’t find me. They knew I’d gone out into the night to see what was out there.
“We thought you were eaten by a bear!” Emma exclaimed.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry you were worried.”
“You could have at least said you were going to find someone,” Julie said.
“I thought you were still sleeping. I wasn’t going to wake you up just to tell you I was going to call the Ranger.”
“Well, leave a note next time!” Emma snapped.
“Or at least take your phone.” Julie held my cell out to me. “Why didn’t you just call the Ranger?”
I shrugged. “I was half asleep and saw a croc. I didn’t think much about it and just ran. I guess I thought it would come at me?”
I tried to get them settled as quickly as possible. All I could think about was Owen alone in the woods, naked, waiting for me. Finally, I decided to play the one card they wouldn’t argue with.
“The thing is,” I said. “I wanted an excuse to find Owen. And I found him. He wants to talk.”
They looked at me with surprise.
“Where is he?” Julie asked.
“Back at the station. He had to make some calls or something. But he asked me to come back to talk to him.”
“You sure that’s a good idea after the last talk you had?” Julie arched an eyebrow.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Maybe it was because of that that he wants to talk.”
“Well, give me the full report in the morning.” Emma slid down into her sleeping bag. “I’m not waiting up.”
Julie slid back into her bag, too. “Take your phone this time. Please. Call if anything happens. I don’t want to wake up and find you dead because you got mauled in the night by bears or crocs or any other animal out there.”
“I will.” I made a show of putting my phone in one pocket and my knife in another. “I’ll be with a Ranger. There’s not much better protection than that.”
A Ranger who also happened to be a bear shifter.
As I exited the tent, I pulled my blanket out with me; better than sitting on the cold ground naked. If I had any clothes that would fit him, I’d bring them, but he was far too muscular for my shirts or close-fitting sweatpants.
I walked back to where I’d left him in the dark, spread out the blanket, then sat. He crawled onto it to join me.
“Sorry about this.” He gestured to his nakedness.
“That’s something you should never apologize for.”
He chuckled. “It’s just awkward. I feel exposed.”
I picked up the end of the blanket and covered him as much as possible. He pulled me back into his lap. Now I felt a little awkward. I was dressed, though not in my clothes, and he had only the blanket.
“So, Owen,” I said in a forced conversational tone. “I may not have told you, since I’m bound by secret and all—but I’m a shifter. I can turn into a bear at will or in the full moonlight. What hobbies and interests do you have?”
We both laughed and he shook his head. “How is this possible?”
“I’ve been asking myself that question since the first time I shifted.”
“When? How? I mean…I had no idea. And that’s absurd. I’m an Alpha, for god’s sake. I’m such an idiot.”
“Ha,” I said. “You think you’re an idiot? I was a shifter for twenty years and didn’t even know it!”
“What do you mean?”
“My parents? They’re not actually my parents.”
He sucked in a breath.
“You remember how I’d always say I felt like I didn’t belong in my family? There was a reason for that. I was adopted. My parents are actually distant relatives of mine. My real parents died when I was just a baby, and they were both shifters. But my second cousin, who raised me as her daughter, was not a shifter and knew nothing about it. I was obviously a late bloomer, and I was in college the first time it happened. There was a party, kind of like the one Aiden invited us to. Outside, you know? And it was the night of the full moon.”
“Ohh,” Owen said.
“Yeah.” I laughed. “So, we were at this party and it was in the woods. It would have been fine if I’d known I was a shifter at the time since there was lots of cover, but I didn’t; it was the first change since my birth shift. When I stepped into the moonlight, I felt the pull. And let me just say that from what I’ve heard from others, shifting for the first time under full moonlight is not the best way to go about it.”
“I’d say not.”
“Now, I’ve shifted enough that it doesn’t hurt me. But you remember those first shifts?”
“I was just a kid when I began to change. It was hard the whole first year, but when I started shifting regularly, yeah, it wasn’t so bad anymore. I’m surprised you didn’t shift by accident while you were growing up, though. That happens fairly often during times of extreme emotional distress.”
“Well, I wasn’t old enough to remember losing my parents. So, that night, I obviously didn’t know what was happening. I thought I was sick or had been drugged; at a party like that, it wasn’t the craziest thought. Being drugged seemed much more feasible than the fact that I was turning into a freaking bear. So, I kinda flipped out. I thought I was hallucinating. I started running, and I ran far. Luckily, another bear had witnessed the whole thing go down and followed me. When he realized what was happening, he stayed with me and got me calmed enough to shift back when the morning came.
“He was an Alpha. I joined his pack and he and his wife looked out for me. They were like my shifter adopted parents, teaching me everything. It was a hard time. Luckily, the guy I was dating had broken up with me just days before that, so I used heartbreak as an excuse to be hiding out all the time. I was lonely, but my new pack helped a lot. Only problem was, they all lived about an hour and a half away, on the western side of the state.”
“You don’t live near your clan?”
I shook my head.
“Addie, we’re not meant to be lone bears. We’re meant to live with our clans. In some areas, they live together in a big compound or a shared house, if it’s a smaller clan.”
“I don’t know of any near me. And I like my clan. They were there for me when I needed them.”
“I’m glad for that,” he said. “I really am, but you’re making things harder on yourself than they should be.”
I shrugged. “It’s okay. I don’t go out when it’s a full moon and I don’t shift often. It’s better for me to just pretend like that part of me doesn’t exist. With the whole secret thing, it makes it easier, too. Sometimes, like tonight, it comes in handy. It did feel good to shift. I think it’s been about six months since I have.”
“You haven’t shifted in six months?”
“Nope.”
He blinked at me in shock. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“Really?”
“The instinct is so strong.”
“I guess mine isn’t.”
“That might explain some things. Like why I didn’t pick up on your shifter scent. Why you didn’t pick up on mine.”
I covered my face with my hand. “I thought you changed colognes.”
“You have a good excuse—you’re new and mostly alone. But I don’t. I thought it was just lust. The best I can come up with is that we
’d already been together so long when I came of age that I was too accustomed to your scent. And if you didn’t know you were a shifter and had never shifted, I guess that’s why my parents didn’t pick up on it, either.”
“We’re a lot less rare than I thought,” I joked.
“You’re telling me.” He nuzzled his nose into my neck, taking in a long inhale. “How could I have missed it? I’m such an idiot. God! I’m such an idiot!”
“It’s okay. I mean, yeah it would have been better if you’d been the one to tell me and had been there in the beginning, but it’s okay. I figured it out. I’m okay now. I know how to handle it better.”
“No, Addie, you don’t get it.” He put his fist to his forehead and growled. “I can’t believe this!”
“What’s wrong? It’s not that big of a deal, is it? I mean, I can see you being freaked out if I were a shifter and you knew nothing of this life, but you are, too. I don’t see how—”
“Adeline.”
I closed my mouth and looked at him expectantly.
“Our clan believes that Alphas should only marry shifters. They want to keep the leadership pure to preserve our lineage. No second will be promoted if he’s married to a non-shifter and Alphas are forced to step down if they take a non-shifter wife.”
I scrunched up my face in confusion.
“Addie.” He put a hand on either side of my face. “My dad was the Alpha; that means I’ve always been in line to be Alpha. I took over for him when I finished college, and I’ve always believed that I had to fulfill my duty as his son. I hated the rule. I nearly left my family and my clan because of it. Addie, the only reason I ended things with you was because you weren’t a shifter, and I had to marry a shifter if I was going to fulfill my duty.”
His words sunk into my mind slowly. I didn’t want to get excited. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I’d just done that and it had ended terribly.
“So… you’re saying…”
He let out a laugh and kissed me hard. “I’m saying, I love you. Marry me?”
“What?” I laughed, too. I clearly hadn’t heard him right.
“Marry me. Please. Please marry me. Be my wife. I can’t live another day without you.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re… this isn’t right.”
“What?” His face fell. “What do you mean?”
“You can’t be proposing to me. You just ended things again. You just broke my heart again.”
“It was only because of the shifter thing. That was it. I’ve wanted you so badly this whole time. I’ve missed you. Ask my clan how much of a wreck I was after you came by to see me and I had to send you off. I thought about leaving again. I was ready to give up everything for you.”
I spoke slowly to make sure I didn’t miss anything. “So, let me get this straight. You’re telling me that the only reason you broke up with me in high school is because you thought I wasn’t a shifter?”
“No. It’s because I thought you weren’t a shifter, and I knew I had to marry a shifter. I could have kept dating you, I guess, but I could never marry you, and I didn’t want you to go through that. We talked about marriage. I even had a ring picked out. I knew how I was going to propose and everything.”
“And the other day when I came to see you?”
“Same thing. There was no way I could see you and never marry you. Or be with you for any length of time and not tell you my secret. I had no choice but to send you away again.”
“That’s the only reason?”
“That’s the only reason.” He stood and I was reminded of his nakedness. “Come for a run with me.”
“I don’t have my sneakers or running—”
“Not as a human.”
“Oh.” I stood up and took off Hailey’s clothes, setting them in the center of the blanket.
We both shifted and took a moment to rub against each other before taking off on the run. I followed him, partly because I had no idea where we were going, and also, because he was much faster than me. We ran until we came to a long, wooden bridge.
He shifted back and took my hand, leading me to the center of the bridge. “This isn’t exactly how I pictured it. I mean, I thought we’d at least be wearing clothing. And I planned to have a ring.”
He turned toward the water and stretched out his arm. “This bridge looks out over two bodies of water. If you look to one side, it’s like our past, stretched out long behind us. But on the other side is our future. Wide open. Full of possibilities. Going on and on forever, into eternity.”
He got down on one knee and took my hands.
“I should have said this to you long ago, Addie. I love you. I’ve had to live without you for too many years now, and I don’t want to spend another day without you. Will you marry me? Be my mate in every way, for the rest of our lives?”
I blinked in shock, then sputtered, “Yes!”
15
Addie
Owen laid me down on the blanket and slid into place beside me. He’d carried me for what had to be over a mile, back to this place. He said he didn’t want to waste one moment in bear form not seeing my face.
I didn’t care if he was a bear or human, it just felt good to be close to him. As the hour grew later and the adrenaline faded, I felt tired. I curled into him, enjoying his warmth. Now that things had settled, another thought plagued my mind.
I hadn’t let myself really think much about it, but now it’s all I could think of. “What will happen to me?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I killed someone. I killed Aiden. Won’t I go to jail?”
“Don’t worry about that.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and rubbed my arm.
“How can I not worry about it?”
“The rules are different for us. I don’t know how it is in your clan’s area, but here, animal on animal violence is a way of life. If you’d killed him as a human, you’d have to face the police. But you were in bear form. You’ll talk to the conclave. They’ll investigate, but with so many witnesses, not one of them would say you were in the wrong. You defended yourself. You defended a fellow bear. If we were in the same clan, it would be even more explainable. I think our history, though, will accomplish the same thing when it comes down to it.”
“Accomplish what?”
“We have the conclave for a reason. It’s a group of shifters who understand what it’s like to be a shifter. When we’re in animal form, our instincts are different. The instinct to protect and defend rises higher than when we’re in human form. We’re still responsible for our actions, but even if we’d all been human in that situation, you still acted in self defense. You’ll be fine, I promise. And if the police come knocking, we’ll bear up and never change back.”
“Really?”
“Yes, but that won’t happen. Besides, we have shifters on the police force and in other government agencies who make sure shifter law is carried out in questionable situations.”
“We do?” I asked.
“If you lived close enough to be with your clan all the time, you’d know these things.”
“I never thought it was that big of a deal.”
“So, changing clans won’t be difficult, Addie?”
“Changing clans?”
“When we get married, your human form will take my last name, but your bear form will take my clan.”
“Oh.” There was so much of this world I still didn’t understand.
“Sometimes it’s a very difficult transition for females. Clan loyalty is very intense, and when someone grows up in one clan, it can be very difficult to leave them.”
“I’m not happy to be leaving them. They were there for me when no one else was. But I’m happy to be joining your clan, if that’s how it works. They helped us. They fought with us and protected me and my friends. I don’t take that lightly. And if this is part of shifter life, then my clan will understand.”
“Good.” He kissed my forehead. “I don’t
want anything else to come between us or get in our way.”
“There’s really only one thing standing between us now.”
“What?” He pulled back, looking worried.
“This blanket.”
He’d covered me up to keep me warm, but now the blanket acted as a barrier between our naked bodies. He gave me a seductive smile and slid the blanket out of the way, his hot body pressing down on mine.
“That’s much better,” I smiled.
“Care to pick up where we left off the other night, fiancée?”
“As long as this time doesn’t end with you sending me away.”
He shook his head slowly. “Never again. You are mine. My mate and true love, who is soon to be my wife. I will never let you out of my sight again.”
“Unless I’m going to work or something,” I laughed.
“Oh no. Not even then.” He planted kisses all over my face, making me giggle. “You’ll just have to get a job here in the park so I can have you by my side all day.”
“Actually, I would love that.”
He pulled back to look in my eyes. “Really?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life and my degree. You’re here; I want to be with you. I want to protect the land and its animals and do the things you do. I think I want to train to be a park Ranger.”
He gave me a half smile. “Well, there’s one way you’ll be guaranteed to get that job.”
“What’s that?”
“Sleep with the manager.”
“Hmm.” My words became a moan as he kissed down my jaw to my breasts.
He moved his hand between my legs. I was wet just from kissing him and he slid his fingers around and inside me. I dragged my nails along his back, barely able to take the sensation.
“Owen,” I begged. It’d been far too long since I felt him.
