Chapter One – Elizabeth

“Mom, this is amazing.” Elizabeth smiled with pride at her daughter’s words. They were stood side by side in the garden where Suzie would be marrying her bear shifter fiancé in three days’ time. Three days. Elizabeth’s smile faltered on her lips, to be replaced by apprehension that she hid from Suzie. Crowds, and any amount of attention, made Elizabeth want to hide away. But for Suzie, she was determined to dig deep and support her daughter through her special day.

“It’s all come together so well.” Elizabeth had been helping to redesign for a couple of weeks. Planning, digging, and planting. The garden now looked amazing, even if she did say so herself. Not that she hadn’t had help; every day Elizabeth had come here to work, one or two other members of the Bear Creek community, friends of Suzie’s and Kit’s, had come along to lend a hand.

Now all the work had paid off, it was like one of those shows on TV where there is a big reveal. Suzie’s face was a picture of happiness, and Elizabeth couldn’t be more pleased.

“Your mom has worked so hard,” Karen, the owner of the garden and Suzie’s soon-to-be mother-in-law, said.

“It’s not as if I’ve done all the work,” Elizabeth said modestly. “There have been so many people offering to help, and bringing plants, and muscle.”

“If there is one thing there is no shortage of in Bear Creek, it’s muscle,” Karen agreed with a giggle.

Elizabeth smiled. Karen had a warmth about her that had made this venture more enjoyable than Elizabeth could imagine. “I won’t tell Scott you said that.” It was Elizabeth’s attempt at a joke, but she wasn’t sure if it sounded as though she was threatening to tell on Karen. Which she would never do.

“Our secret,” Karen winked, and Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief. “And since Suzie and I are spoken for, all the single men are yours, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “No man for me.” Her hand twitched, she wanted to lift it up to her face and cover the red birthmark on her left cheek, but she resisted. Ever since she noticed Suzie often had the same social twitch, despite her skin being perfectly smooth and clear, Elizabeth had sworn to herself she would stop. But even after all these years, she had to force herself to keep her hand by her side.

“Mom.” Suzie took hold of Elizabeth’s hand as if reading her awkwardness. “Don’t be afraid to open your heart.”

“Especially if a shifter man comes a-knocking,” Karen added. She placed her hand on Elizabeth’s arm. It was a simple touch, meant to comfort, yet only a couple of months ago, if anyone except Suzie had touched her in such a way, Elizabeth would have broken the contact. “They are a special breed.”

“I will bear that in mind,” Elizabeth said. “If ever one does come a-knocking.”

“Oh, and there he is,” Karen joked as a knock sounded on the gate leading into the garden from the driveway out front.

The three women laughed, and Karen went to see who it was while Suzie and Elizabeth surveyed the garden. Suzie squeezed her mom’s hand and turned to her, her voice catching in her throat. “I want to tell you how proud I am of you.”

Elizabeth’s eyes pricked with tears, which she fought to control. “Isn’t that what a mother is supposed to say to her daughter?”

“You have, for my entire life. And I don’t say it back to you enough.” Suzie hugged Elizabeth tightly. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, Suzie. I want you to know how happy I am for you, and how blessed you are to have a man like Kit by your side.” Elizabeth meant every word. She had raised Suzie alone and knew how difficult it was to be both mom and dad to a child. Suzie would never have to worry about that. Kit was a shifter, and only death would part him from his soon-to-be-wife, and the children they planned to have.

Suzie straightened up, a smile breaking out over her face. “Hi, Dean. Good to see you.”

Suzie pulled out of Elizabeth’s arms, her hand clutching her mom’s as they both turned to look at the new visitor. Elizabeth took a deep breath. She still got nervous when she met someone new, and she had not met Dean before, although Suzie had told her plenty about him.

If Suzie could have chosen a father, Dean was it, although she never actually said that to Elizabeth. A mom could tell these things.

“Hi, Suzie.” Dean’s eyes slid from Suzie to Elizabeth, and there they remained.

Elizabeth felt the color rush to her cheeks, and her hand instinctively tried to follow. Elizabeth pinched the denim of her jeans between her finger and thumb to anchor her hand. Whenever she blushed, her birthmark stood out in a more pronounced way and she longed to shield it, to hide away. Suzie had said Dean was a good man, accepting of everyone, a man who took in older foster kids and turned their lives around. So why was he staring?

“I’m going to go and get a glass of water,” Elizabeth said, pulling away from Suzie. She made her feet stick to a walk, even though she wanted to run and run fast, to get away from Dean.

“No!” Dean ordered, making the three women freeze.

Suzie recovered first. “Dean, are you OK?” Suzie asked, and went to him, her face full of concern. “Dean?”

Dean dragged his eyes away from Elizabeth, who had spun around, ready to defend her daughter from this man if necessary. But he simply looked at Suzie apologetically. “Sorry. A bit of a shock.”

Karen and Suzie exchanged glances, and then they too turned to look at Elizabeth, and then back to Dean. Elizabeth might just as well have been naked in a crowd; she was mortified at the attention, and her face grew redder, hotter until she thought she would ignite. Worse, Suzie was staring too. Suzie, who had never taken any notice of her mother’s disfigurement, and who was always her staunchest supporter.

Elizabeth moved, one slow stride after another as tears ran down her cheeks. This whole thing had been a mistake. She should have stayed in her comfort zone, where she knew everyone and she was safe.

“Mom.” Suzie caught up with her and took hold of her hand. “Mom, don’t go.”

“I think it’s best.” Elizabeth made it into the house. She was going to grab her car keys and her purse and get out of there.

“Mom, you don’t understand,” Suzie pleaded.

“I understand that man thinks I’m a freak,” Elizabeth said, her voice filled with shame.

“No, no, he doesn’t.” Suzie took a deep shuddering breath. “Dean thinks you’re his mate.”

The world stopped, the blood hammered in her ears, and Elizabeth had to reach out to grab hold of the back of a chair to stop herself from dropping to the floor in shock. “I don’t want to be his mate,” she managed to whisper.

“Tough,” Suzie replied, holding onto her mom tightly. “It’s fate.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head. Would fate have given a child a red birthmark and a family who resented her? Would fate have thrown her into the path of a man who had pretended to care for her, and then cast her aside for being ugly when she told him she was carrying their child?

“Well, it believes in you,” Suzie answered. Her smile was joyful and full of hope.

“I’m not ready,” Elizabeth stated firmly.

“Do you think that I was ready?” Suzie asked, pulling back from her mom, and looking her in the eyes, filled with passion and love. “I thought I’d be older, and definitely wiser. Because I didn’t want to be with the wrong man.”

“You mean you didn’t want to be like me?” Elizabeth asked with a sob, remembering the man who had been more than happy to sleep with her, but not be with her, even when she got pregnant. She’d been so young, so naive. So desperate.

“No, I didn’t mean that,” Suzie insisted. “Mom, I have seen the same scenario played out time and time again. The young woman I placed with Dean, Louise, she had the exact same thing happen to her. But she found love with another man. You can too.”

“I can’t tell you how happy it made me when you told me you met Kit. And for him to be a shifter.” Elizabeth had taken a while to get her head around shifters. But now she accepted them: how could she not when she knew that her daughter’s happiness was practically guaranteed? Kit would never leave her.

“You have that same chance, Mom!” Suzie took her hand and pulled Elizabeth back toward the door. “Dean is one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met.” She paused, and then confided, “I’ve never told you this, but if I could choose a dad, it would have been Dean. Not just for me. I choose him to be your husband. He’s kind and generous…”

“He sounds too good.”

“Not for you, Mom. Not for you.” Suzie smiled through her tears. “Please, for me. Do this one thing. I promise not to ask you for anything that takes you outside of your comfort zone ever again.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “You don’t have to make me promises.”

“Do it for yourself, then. Do it because there is a chance of happiness waiting out there. And do it now, because if Dean is anything like Kit, he will be terrified he’s messed this up,” Suzie implored. She was desperate for this to work out, desperate to see her mom happy. So how could Elizabeth refuse?

“OK. Lead the way.” Elizabeth followed her daughter, trying not to grip her hand too tightly. Suzie was her rock, her guiding light, as she left the sanctuary of Karen’s house and entered the garden to meet her mate.

Maybe she should pinch herself. Perhaps she had hit her head or something, and this was all a dream. Yet as she saw Dean, looking pale and concerned, she knew it was real. And she wanted to embrace the possibilities being the mate of a shifter promised.

Could Elizabeth, after all these years, shake off the person she had always been—a woman who wanted to hide from the world—and become a new person, one with the chance of a happy ever after with a man?

When Dean’s face broke into an unsure smile, Elizabeth felt a fluttering in her stomach, as thousands of butterflies took off. She’d felt them so many times before when she was nervous. Yet this time they were different.

This time the wings fluttered with a different beat. She wasn’t nervous, she was excited. The world once more held promise, the promise of love, a thing she had not experienced since the day she held Suzie in her arms for the first time.

But this love would be different, this bond would be different. Not between mother and child, but between a man and a woman. A shifter and his mate.