Shifter Nation- East Coast Bears Collection

by Meg Ripley

  Conner squeezed my hand. “These people are my very best friends and they’ll become yours, too.”

  “Right. Unless they hate me.”

  “Not a chance.”

  Peyton had thrown off her seatbelt and was running toward James and Addie. We walked over and Addie came to greet us.

  “Hey! What is this?” she asked, taking the white bakery box from me.

  “Cupcakes. But not just any cupcakes! Gender reveal cupcakes.”

  Her face broke into a beaming grin. “Oh my god, how awesome! I can’t wait to find out!”

  She set the cupcakes down and came back to escort me around. Her own belly was quite round; she was due in just a few weeks and had already invited me to be there. It was apparently a shifter thing to have people around when you gave birth, like women used to do to help each other back in the day, but she’d assured me that no one would be offended if I decided to not do that. Most of them preferred giving birth in animal form because it was easier, so that limited the choice of venue a bit. Addie pointed to a grassy section and a tree at the edge of the yard and said that James had been born right there.

  It seemed very bizarre to me. I couldn’t imagine it, but I would get to see a birth before I had to decide. And Conner had told me many times that we could go to a hospital or do whatever I wanted to do.

  I was introduced to all the ladies of the clan, and even though I was a little overwhelmed, I tried my best to remember all their names: Britt, Hailey and Tori. Then Conner had me meet the men, Noah, Ezra and Owen. Mason was apparently missing. They were all really great, actually. They asked questions, told me stories, and I felt like I was already accepted as part of their group. The ladies talked about married life as shifters, how difficult it was to keep clothes stashed all over the place and to find deals because things got ruined so often.

  When I asked if Britt and Ezra had any kids, Britt coyly replied, “Not yet. But maybe we’ll think about having a little bundle of fur soon.” She’d glanced over at Ezra and made a roar face at him. He responded with a wink.

  “But, you’re a panther and he’s a bear, right?” I asked.

  “I know. Crazy, right? But we make it work somehow.”

  “So, would your baby be…?”

  “Definitely a shifter. Interspecies couples don’t happen all that often, but from what we can gather, it’s about a 50/50 shot: 50% it’ll be a Florida panther like me and 50% it’ll be bumbling bear like Ezra.”

  I nodded. Such a strange world. I didn’t know how I’d managed to accept it. It had taken me some time, but I finally had. Only recently had I stopped freaking out when Conner shifted in front of me. Once, Peyton had done it, sort of by accident, but she’d had a really bad day and then Conner had been a little short with her. When he’d first quit drinking, there had been a rough period when he’d been more than a little grumpy. Peyton had been upset and then she’d dropped a mug that her mother had given her, which shattered and cut her foot in the process. She’d howled in pain and misery and started to shake.

  I’d screamed for Conner. I thought she was having a seizure, but he knew what was going on. He’d talked her through it as she shifted, and then shifted back a few minutes later. I wasn’t sure which of us was in the worst shape that night. Conner had assured me it was rare for kids to shift until they hit puberty. He’d said it would be very unlikely that, if our baby were to be a shifter, he or she would spontaneously shift for at least the first few years of his or her life.

  “I was wondering one thing,” I asked them as we continued to discuss shifter life. “For us, if it’s only a 50/50 chance, will we just have to wait until it happens accidentally one day or until the child is closer to puberty to know?”

  They exchanged glances, seeming to decide on the answer. “It depends,” Hailey finally said.

  “Sorry, that’s a terrible answer,” Addie added.

  “With my brother,” Hailey continued, “his wife is human, and it wasn’t long after their baby was born that he could smell she was a shifter.”

  “You can smell it?”

  Addie nodded. “But with kids, it can be tricky. Not all of them give off the scent early. And it can be faint. Honestly, if I didn’t know for sure James was, I would guess he wasn’t.”

  “He hardly has the scent at all,” Britt agreed.

  “I know. Weird, right?” Addie said. “So, it might be years.”

  “Or you might know right away,” Tori offered. “When my cousin had her baby, we all knew as soon as the baby was making his way out of her.” She laughed. “Of course, that boy is a handful and a half. And he shifts a lot.”

  I nodded, my worry increasing with each story.

  “It probably won’t be years and years,” Hailey said. “My friend said all four of her kids shifted when they were two, the first time they had a tantrum.”

  “I know someone who’s baby shifted when she was just a day old,” Tori added. “The poor thing had some kind of heart condition. I guess it was so much that the little thing just couldn’t hold it back. Turned out to be a good thing, though. It straightened something up in her little body and she was fine after that.”

  “A day old?” I repeated. Conner had assured me that wasn’t possible.

  “That’s very unusual,” Addie said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Peyton has the scent, and since she’s Conner’s brother’s child, maybe your baby will, too.”

  “Mason!” Someone shouted and I turned with the group to see a man approaching. He held up a hand to us and hurried over to Conner.

  They had an intense conversation, then Conner made his way over to us. “I found out where Mason’s been. Turns out that the croc who killed Logan and Alaina is dead. The shifter in the cell next to him didn’t like him much, either and clawed him to death. A wolf.”

  I searched his face to see how he was taking it. Justice had been served, but he hadn’t had a part in it.

  I turned him to me and hugged him. I whispered, “You okay with this?”

  “Yeah,” he said in my ear. “At least I don’t have to worry about him again.”

  By the time we left that night, our spirits were high. Peyton fell asleep in the car on the way home, having played so hard. I felt wholly accepted and thrilled to be joining the clan, and Conner had found some peace, knowing his brother and sister-in-law’s killer was finally dead. The question of why it was Logan and Alaina had been answered weeks ago, when the conclave interrogated the croc. The two of them had witnessed a crime: the croc had a truckload of poison and was about to contaminate the clan’s water supply. They’d been spotted, and later that day, turned up dead, conveniently before they could identify the croc who’d tried to wipe out the entire clan. Knowing that, and now having the killer gone for good, seemed to bring some sense of healing.

  As we lay in bed that night, Conner tracing circles over my little baby bump, I said, “I have a confession.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “I’m a little jealous that I’m not a shifter. I think, if it were an option, I’d want to become one. To be more like you.”

  He kissed me. “You are like me. More so than some of my clan.”

  “You know what I mean. Especially with that mind link. Could be handy.”

  “It can also be a pain.”

  “Even still. I hope the baby is a shifter.”

  He pulled back to look at me. “You do?”

  “I do. After meeting your clan, I know that it would be a good thing.” I saw something by his ear and turned his head. I broke into laughter.

  “What?”

  “When they smashed that cupcake in your face, they did a good job.” I swiped my finger just inside his ear and showed him the light blue frosting.

  He licked it off my finger. “Still yummy.”

  “I can think of better places to put that finger.”

  “Oh, can you now?” He wiggled his brow and tickled me.

  “Stop! Stop!” I laughed and tried to get away fr
om him. “Wait! I have a name idea!”

  “What?”

  I pulled my lip into my mouth. “You can say no, and it’s totally fine. But I thought it would be a nice tribute to name him Logan.”

  Tears rose in his eyes, and he kissed my stomach. “I can’t think of anything more perfect.”

  21

  Jessie

  Epilogue: Two Years Later

  “Logan William Griffin!” I shouted. “Put that down right now!”

  My toddler held a metal fork just a little too close to the electrical outlet. He was going to shove it in; I could see it in his eyes.

  He stared at me, and as I moved closer, he defiantly jammed the fork into the socket and I screamed. “Don’t!”

  Sparks flew and he shrieked. I heard Conner’s footsteps running closer and Peyton called from somewhere in the house. The lights didn’t flicker, so that must have been a good sign.

  “Logan!” I screeched. “Are you okay?” I turned him over, frantically scanning his body for burns. He cried loudly, and when I took the fork from his hand, he threw himself down on the ground and pounded his fists on the floor.

  Conner reached us and bent over him with his stern daddy face on. “Logan, stop this right now.”

  “Fork! Fork!” he yelled.

  As he twitched and cried, I saw his tiny body start to shake. It reminded me of when Peyton had spontaneously shifted.

  “Conner…” I said. “Is he…?”

  “I think so. Just give him room.”

  With a hideous shriek, black fur emerged from Logan’s delicate skin. His mouth stretched wide and his teeth grew into fangs. His little hands, still sticky with jelly from breakfast, lengthened and sprouted claws.

  He stood there, a tiny bear cub, looking shocked and scared. Conner pulled off his clothes and shifted, then he grabbed him in a hug and held him as I watched in awe.

  My son was a shifter. We hadn’t been sure. For all the talk of the scent, there hadn’t been much of anything either way. Some of the clan said he definitely was, some said there was no way. There’d been a pool going since he was born two years earlier, and in that moment, I laughed to myself, wondering who had won.

  Peyton came to see what was going on and sat with me, petting Logan and nuzzling into Conner. After some time, Logan shifted back and fell asleep and I took him from Conner, who shifted back himself.

  “Well, now we know,” Conner said. “Logan takes after his namesake in more than just looks.”

  I smiled at my husband. “I wonder what this one will turn out to be.”

  Conner put a hand to my swollen belly. “I guess we’ll know soon...or at least in a few years.”

  “I’m glad it’s a girl this time,” Peyton said. “Since I already have a brother.”

  I patted my belly, and the baby moved. “She’s glad, too.”

  “Can we name her Alaina?” Peyton asked.

  I met Conner’s eyes and we smiled at each other. We’d had this conversation already and thought it would be a fine choice for a name. We’d use my mom’s, Michelle, for a middle name since we’d used Conner’s dad’s, William, for Logan’s middle name.

  “I think that’s a great idea,” I said, pulling Peyton in close to join our hug.

  With a loving, devoted husband, two amazing kids and another on the way, my family was complete. My heart swelled at the thought; I could ask for nothing more.

  * * *

  Relentless Mates

  Shifter Nation: Werebears Of The Everglades

  1

  Grace

  I walked into my family’s dining room and plopped down in my seat at the table. “I’m starving!”

  My dad and brother, Tyler, were already sitting there, waiting.

  “Got some good steaks tonight.” Dad rubbed his hands together.

  A few minutes later, my mom placed our meal on the table. For the first few minutes of dinner, we ate so hungrily that we didn’t talk. But, as we slowed down, conversation crept in.

  “I think I found a law school,” I said after my brother mentioned that he’d applied at Miami University.

  I’d been looking at schools for a little while, deciding where would be the best place to take my degree in biology to the next level to become an environmental lawyer. Living in the Everglades, I saw a lot of conservation efforts going on at all times. Not all were successful, though, and I wanted a hand in helping to make sure the ‘Glades were preserved.

  I thought they would be happy that I’d decided; my mom especially had been asking me about it. But I noticed my parents exchange a look.

  My dad set down his fork. “Grace, we’ve been talking.”

  Something in his tone made me nervous. “Okay…”

  “What if you went over to the park and became a Ranger?”

  “Well, that’s not exactly what I want to do. Being a lawyer is much different.”

  “But isn’t it kind of the same thing?” my brother asked.

  I gave him an incredulous look. “No. A Ranger does the conserving and runs the park, taking care of issues that happen only there. I would be a lawyer, going to court to help clients with issues dealing with conservation. Like how the local paper plant keeps polluting the water. They just pay the fine and go on polluting. I would represent the state or the county or whoever wanted to stop them and help them to win so that the water stops being polluted.”

  Tyler rolled his eyes. “I know that. I’m not an idiot.”

  Before I could respond, my mom jumped in. “I think he just meant that both positions are focused on preserving the environment.”

  With a full mouth, Tyler said, “Yeah, that.”

  “I guess they are similar, but they’re two very different jobs,” I insisted.

  “Here’s the thing, Grace.” My dad sat forward with his serious face on. “I’ll just get right to it. We need you. The clan needs you. You’re the only one of us crocs who’s qualified to work in the park as a Ranger. We need a presence in that park if we’re going to survive.”

  I blew out a hard breath. So it was more than just simple conversation, then. It was planned, and they were trying to coerce me. “Dad, I know that’s important, but I can do a lot of good for our clan and all shifters by being a lawyer.”

  “I don’t doubt it,” he said. “You’ll be good at whatever you do. But this can’t wait. Tyler is just starting school this year. It’ll be at least four years until he graduates, maybe longer.”

  “Hey!” Tyler protested.

  My dad raised an eyebrow at him. “What year were you supposed to finish high school?”

  “I only flunked one year, and I’ve changed since then!”

  My mother held up her hands. “Okay. This isn’t about that right now. The point is, Grace, you’re the only who can get in there now or anytime in the near future. And we need information on things that are happening.”

  “Things?” I asked. “What things?”

  “There’ve been some rumors,” my dad continued.

  My mom got up and started clearing the table. I collected plates and took a stack over to the sink to help, and Dad followed, carrying an empty platter.

  “The clan is saying they’ve heard of a bear attack coming. Against us crocs.”

  “Why would they do that?” I asked him. Sure, bears and crocs hadn’t gotten along over the years, especially in the Everglades. That didn’t mean they would just attack us unprovoked.

  “That’s what we need to find out. If we had someone in there who might easily overhear conversations, who might pick up on who is where at what times, who is friendly with whom, that sort of thing...”

  “So, you want me to work in the park to spy on the bears.” I gave him a flat look.

  “You can think of it like that, or you can see it as a way to fulfill your desire for preservation in a more…direct way, while also helping to preserve your clan and very species. The more we know, the better we can protect ourselves.”

  “You can always
go to law school later,” my mother added. “Once we get this thing with the bears settled once and for all.”

  “And what does that even look like?” I asked. “Is it possible to settle anything with them if they’re always so against us?”

  “That’s exactly what you’d be helping to do,” my dad said. “You would get to know them and then use your future lawyer knowledge to help us all come to an agreement. Your award-winning debate skills would come in mighty handy in that case.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Laying it on a bit thick.”

  “But he has a point,” my mom added. “You want to be a lawyer for a reason, and doing so well on the debate team in high school and college proves that you’re good at winning debates and talking to people. You’re perfect for this task, and what more important case would you have to win than one that will keep your people alive and bring the clans and the entire Everglades peace?”

  “Yeah, no pressure, though,” I snickered.

  Could I do that? Could I really give up my dream of becoming a lawyer—or least postpone it for a few years—to become a park Ranger?

  “I’ll have to think about this.”

  A few minutes later, while I was helping my mom with the dishes, there was a knock on the door. My dad got up from the living room to answer it.

  From the kitchen I heard him exclaim, “Well, look who it is!”

  Two sets of footsteps made their way toward us.

  “Adam’s stopped by to see us,” my dad announced.

  “Hello,” my mom said and wiped her hands on her apron.

  I nodded at Adam and kept at my task of scrubbing the pan.

  “We were just talking about the rumor of the bear attack,” my dad said. “Grace here is thinking about becoming a park Ranger so that we can get some inside information and stop the attack before it happens.”

  Adam’s eyes grew wide. “Wow, Grace. I can’t tell you how much that means to the clan and to me, personally. I mean, it would give us so much information and really help us get to the bottom of this situation once and for all. You might be saving many lives doing this. I always knew you’d end up doing something grand and selfless. That’s just the kind of croc you are.”