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 we’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.