CHAPTER 15
Mason was sitting by her side when she stirred in the bed. Setting down the book he’d been reading, he watched her for a moment, hoping this would be the time that her eyes opened and she woke up for good.
She grimaced in her sleep, something she’d been doing for most of the week when the pain meds were getting close to wearing off. He knew the nurses would be in shortly to refresh her lines. They seemed to have it down to a science, and Clara was rarely in pain for more than a few minutes before they showed up.
Her eyelids fluttered, and he held his breath, her limp hand wrapped in both of his. This was her second week of recovery, and while the bruises were nearly gone and her wounds had nearly healed, Clara had yet to open her eyes and keep them opened. He hoped that this would be the time, but they’d been down this road so many times over the past fifteen days that he didn’t want to get his hopes up.
She moaned, stretching her body from side to side and furrowing her brow.
“That’s new,” he whispered, still too afraid to hope.
But when she opened her eyes and their gazes locked, he knew that this time, she was finally with him.
“Hi there,” he said softly. “I’ve missed you.”
“Hi.”
“Are you hurting too much? I can call the nurse.”
“I’m alright,” she said. “How long was I out?”
“Fifteen days, twelve hours, and twenty-three minutes. Not that I was counting or anything.”
She laughed then winced.
“Who’s taking care of the horses?”
He smiled.
“You’re something else. Slammed into a wall by a damn bear and your first thought is of your horses. They’re fine. My friend is taking care of them.”
“It better not be that Bethany chick.”
“It’s not,” he said solemnly. “It’s my friend Amos. He’s going to help with the plans, so we can make sure that the colony can be accessed without interfering with your land and your property.”
“You mean… you’re not going to try to run me off the mountain so you can have it all?” she said without anger.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “I mean it. Look, there’s something I have to tell you. If you’ll hear me out, I think you’ll understand why I felt I had to do that. But I promise you, Clara, my love for you is real, and I left you at the lake that day to finish up the plans so that your corner of Bear Mountain could remain undisturbed and still serve the colony.”
“I’m listening.”
She tried to fold her hands, but the hand with the IV was secured to the bedrail. She scowled at it then settled herself to listen to what he had to say.
His mouth was dry, his mind muddled with all the words he wanted to say at once to explain who and what he was. He decided that blurting it out was the best course of action. He could explain the rest later.
“Clara, the thing is… I know that you found out about me. I don’t know how, but that doesn’t really matter. Anyway, my parents’ generation made a deal with a powerful witch so we could live amongst the humans without breaking their laws. But we gave up something huge to get what we wanted, and part of that was—”
There was a knock on the door, and Doctor Deacon poked her head into the room.
“I thought I saw some promising activity on your readouts. How are you feeling?”
She closed the door behind her, and Mason heard the telltale sound of a lock being pressed. He turned his attention to the doctor, wondering what was up.
“I feel a lot better. Just a little nauseous and really tired.”
“I’m afraid that’s going to linger for a while longer,” she said with a smile. She wheeled a small screen over to the bed and turned on the screen. “Can you lift your shirt a little?” she asked.
Mason watched Clara and the doctor, tension growing inside him. He didn’t have to be a doctor to know what was being done. It looked like Clara had secrets of her own.
A small, flickering heart showed up on the screen, the little being inside already making tiny motions on the screen.
“What?” Clara said, clearly shocked. “I can’t be pregnant.”
“Well, that doesn’t seem to be up for debate,” Doctor Deacon said.
“The only person I’ve slept with since my gran got sick two years ago is Mason. And that was just a few weeks ago.”
“You’re right, there’s no way this baby is a couple weeks old,” Doctor Deacon said, printing off a screen grab and handing it to Clara. “This baby is about a third of the way through gestation already, which would be about fourteen weeks unless…”
She trailed off, clicking a few places on the screen with her mouse until the approximate gestational age changed from three months to three weeks. Mason was surprised and more than a little confused.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Doctor Deacon smiled.
“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me, but I’ll have to give you a referral for a specialist who can keep their mouth shut.”
Mason had a bad feeling he knew where this was going, but he played it off. He couldn’t risk telling the doctor something she didn’t already know.
“The reason the baby looks so advanced is because it’s your baby,” she said, holding his gaze without wavering. “You’re a werebear, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said. “But we can’t mate with humans. That was part of the curse, which is why I found others like me from around the country. Our mating pool was getting thin, and our numbers were dwindling.”
“It says you can’t mate with humans, right?” the doctor asked.
“That’s right, why?”
She looked at Clara, and Mason followed suit.
“Are you going to tell him?”
“Tell me what?” Mason asked. “Are you a bear?”
Clara laughed softly.
“Not even close. Doctor Deacon, how did you know?”
“Things have been happening to the equipment since you came in. It’s common with your kind while your brain sorts itself out and your powers are restored after a catastrophic injury.”
“Powers?” Mason asked. “I’m so confused. What’s going on?”
“Yes, Mason. I have powers. That’s why I could open a locked door and why animals don’t run away when they see me and why the mice stay out of the barn. I just found out when my gran died, so it’s not like I knew about it.”
“Knew about what?”
“Mason, I’m a witch.”
“Like an actual witch? Casting spells and…oh my gosh, that’s what happened to your hair!”
“It is.”
“You acted like you didn’t want your hair red.”
“I didn’t.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I said I was a witch, Mason. I didn’t say I was good at it.”
Mason couldn’t help but laugh.
“That explains so much. But you’re still human.”
“You are, too,” the doctor said. “Well, in part. It’s the parts of you both that are the same that came together to make this happen.” She shrugged. “Who knows, maybe all those fairy tales were right, and all it takes to break a curse is true love’s kiss.”
She patted Clara’s hand and smiled at her.
“You’ll be able to go home in a few days, and I’ll make sure my friend is expecting your call.”
“Any idea how long until the baby comes?” Clara asked.
“They average about eight to nine weeks.”
“Weeks!” Mason and Clara said in unison.
“Yeah. You’ve got five to six weeks before your little bundle shows up, so you probably want to worry about getting the nursery together in your house and whatnot. I’ll leave you two to talk. Push the button if the pain becomes too much, but I figure you’ll want to be all here for this.”
“Will the medicine hurt the baby?”
Doctor Deacon shook her head.
“I knew you were pregnant going into surgery. I always test first.”
“Thank goodness. Thank you, for everything.”
“No problem. Any woman who can survive what you did can handle anything that comes her way. You’ve got this.”
The doctor left, closing the door behind her again after delivering the mini pep talk.
“What are we going to do?” Clara asked.
“Whatever we need to do. If you want to move into my place, you can. Or if you want to live in your place together, we’ll figure it out.”
“Could you really live there without feeling cramped?”
He shrugged.
“It’s bigger than a tent, right?” he joked.
“And what about giving birth? How are we going to navigate that? What if we get caught?”
“We won’t get caught, and no one knows that you’re not a werebear. We’ll figure it out, but at least the baby is coming by the end of summer.”
She nodded her head in agreement, careful not to move too much.
“You’re right. I’m grateful for that. But I don’t want to have a newborn in that tiny cabin during the winter. What if the power goes out and the fireplace isn’t enough to warm the entire house?”
“Those are all good questions. Maybe we can use the cabin as a summer home.”
Clara laughed.
“What? Then we can get away from our home by traveling an entire mile away?”
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that you’re happy,” he said, leaning over the bedrail and putting his hand on her belly. “That you’re both happy. It’s up to you how that happens.”
“What about the horses?”
“I can have pastures fenced and a barn raised in a week. Moving all that hay will be the worst of it.”
Her face fell, her hand shaking as she reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear and out of her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I’m just shocked and a little overwhelmed. This isn’t at all what I planned, but I’m happy about it. It’s a lot to take in.”
“I didn’t plan on falling in love with a witch, but here we are, about to be a family whether we’re ready or not.”
He managed to pull a smile out of her then. He kissed her hand, knuckles first, then pressing his lips against her palm.
“Would it cheer you up if we started looking at baby furniture?”
She laughed, shaking her head.
“I think we should start with horse barns first, then we’ll figure out where the nursery is going to be before we start furnishing it.”
“Good plan as always.”
Clara’s expression went dark.
“Were you really going to try to run me off?”
“When you refused to sell, I didn’t think I had a choice. Clara, I’ve been working on this dream of mine for so long that I never considered what would happen if it didn’t go how I planned. You threw me for a loop, and I reacted in a way I’m not proud of. But the more I got to know you, the more in love I started to fall. Once I saw you as the amazing woman you are, I stopped thinking about you and your home as a failed prospect and considered different ways to finish Bear Mountain without interfering with the life you wanted to lead.”
“How were you going to do that?”
Excited to show her what he’d come up with, he pulled out his phone.
“The road would go this way, along the outer edge of my property, and we would access the lake here, leaving two-thirds of it untouched so the animals are free to live their normal lives.”
“I’m alright with you using my road. That’s why I fixed it, because I knew that it was going to get a lot of use.”
“We can do that if you want, but we have options. I just don’t want you to feel like we’re taking over what belongs to you. We’re willing to pay a fee for lake access if that’s what you want.”
“I don’t.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to live a quiet life among friends. Everything else is small stuff.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. But how are the others going to react to me knowing their secret?”
He shrugged.
“They’ll have to get over it. You’re not going anywhere.”
“You’ve got that right,” she said.
“What about you? When did you know, you know, about me?”
“Before I turned my hair strawberry blonde.”
“That early? How?”
“I was walking in the woods in the morning on my way to the lake, and I saw a bear running toward your house. Then that bear became a naked man, and I put two and two together.”
“You were spying on me?” he teased.
“No. I was just out for a walk. But, speaking of naked men… how in the world did you get me to Little Hope without clothes?”
He laughed, the sound echoing off the ceiling tiles in the private hospital room.
“I didn’t get out at Little Hope, and I used a blanket you had in the car to cover up.”
“But your chest was bare.”
“It was. I’m pretty sure they assumed the bear happened upon us while we were getting frisky in the woods. I didn’t bother to correct them.”
“How did you get here? It’s not like you can just go to the store and buy clothes when you’re bare ass naked.”
“I bribed Bethany. I paid her a commission for your cabin even though she didn’t sell it to me, plus the final bonus so I could close my contract with her.”
“Was she upset you didn’t go through with your plan?”
“No. Despite her ruthlessness when business is concerned, Bethany has a good heart. She feels awful that her text precipitated all this, but I told her it was my fault. I shouldn’t have considered that an option in the first place, but I let my ambition and my dreams get in the way of my commonsense. I promise, once I got to know you, I changed my mind.”
“I believe you,” she said. “I was shocked at first because your love seemed genuine, then I wondered if I could read a bear like I can read people.”
“You can read minds?”
She laughed.
“Not quite. I can read emotions and intentions. I’ve always been able to do that, so I’m pretty good at it.”
“What about the thing with animals? Why didn’t that work with the bear?”
Probably because I thought it was you from the beginning, and instead of calling out to it, I just projected my rage and hurt over the text and everything it meant.”
“Oh Clara, when I saw you standing there with a stick in your hand, ready to face that bear, I thought I was going to lose you.”
“I’m sorry I dragged myself into the barn instead of helping you.”
“What?”
“When you were fighting the bear.”
“You didn’t make it into the barn, Clara. When I picked you up, you were still lying on the ground where you’d fallen.”
Clara wrinkled her nose.
“No. I remember it clearly.”
“You took quite a hit to the head. I’m sure there are a lot of things you remember that didn’t happen.”
“I remember seeing your clothes fall off in tattered strips when you shifted as you ran toward us.”
“That was true. And you woke up a few times between the cabin and the chopper. You said some weird things then passed out again.”
“Thank you for taking care of me.”
“Thank you for forgiving me for being an ass. You wouldn’t be here otherwise. I’m so sorry.”
She reached out and took his hand, smiling at him.
“Then I wouldn’t be in this bed, knowing that I’m pregnant and safe with you. We would have never met Doctor Deacon, and I would have gone to the ER with stomach pains and delivered a surprise baby. This is better.”
Mason shook his head.
“How you manage to look on the bright side of things in the face of so much darkness is beyond me. I can say that I’ve never met a woman who could turn nearly being mauled by a bear into a silver lining.”
He leaned over and kissed her forehead, smoothing away some of her hair that had fallen onto her face.
“Now all I have to do is figure out a way to make the next few days the silver lining so I don’t go stir crazy.”
“That, I can help with,” he said, pulling a tablet out of his bag and handing it to her after typing something in. “You said you wanted to shop for barns first. Pick one and I’ll have Amos get it taken care of ASAP.”
“Where are we going to put it?”
“Near the house.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, I am. If you want, I’ll even move your cabin to the house.”
She laughed.
“No, that’s a bit much.”
“I thought so, but it’s up to you.”
“Mason, these barns are expensive. One even has a chandelier in the middle of the barn.”
“Don’t worry about the price. Just pick what you want, though you probably want to go with a larger one. So far, everyone I’ve talked to wants to ditch their cars for horses and four-wheelers, so we’re probably going to need a few more stalls for everyone to winter their horses. The rest of the year, they can enjoy the pasture.”
“Wow. Okay,” she said, perusing the search results until she found the perfect one. “Here, this one.”
“That’s perfect.”
She nodded, sat back, and yawned.
“I need to rest,” she said. “Which seems silly since I’ve been asleep for two weeks.”
“I’ll be here when you wake up,” he said.
“You promise?”
“I do. I haven’t left your side in two weeks, and I’m not going to start now.”
“Thank you, for keeping me safe.”
He started to answer, but she was already drifting off, exhausted by all the excitement. He stood, leaning over to kiss her forehead, then pulling the blanket up to her chin to keep her warm in the cold room.
Quietly, he stepped out of the room, staying right by the door when he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed Amos’ number.
“Hey Amos, it’s me.”
“How is she?” Amos asked.
“She’s good. I’m going to send you an email. I need a barn put together by the end of next week, and I’ll send you plans to divide some of my land into pastures with the bear-proof fencing.”
“Okay, but that’s a lot to ask. I’ll have to hire more guys.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “Whatever it takes to make it happen and I’ll pay whatever you need. Just get this done as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality whatever the cost.”
“She must be something special.”
“She is, Amos. And I’m going to do everything I can to make sure she never doubts it again.”