Page 22 of Taken Home By the Grizzly

“That’s why you were naked in the snow just now?” I say, once I’ve picked my jaw up off the floor.

“I’m real sorry about that. I wasn’t planning for it to happen. I was just running in the woods and, well, their eyesight was a lot sharper than I expected. And then you came running over with that big old branch, and I was worried you were gonna take me out with it.” A smile pulls at his lips.

“Stop,” I say.

“I didn’t want you to be scared. That’s why I had to shift back. And I know this is a lot to hear.”

“That’s an understatement,” I say.

“Had you heard of shape shifters before?”

“Yeah,” I say slowly. I’d though they were a myth though.

Relief sweeps his handsome features. “I thought maybe you’d guessed that I was one.”

I close my eyes for a beat. Had I? I think I knew, deep down, that he was too strong and wild and big-hearted to just be a human man. Without thinking, I raise my hand and lay it on my chest, where my heart is. I’m thinking of that pull between us. That weird electricity. When I open my eyes again, his stare is more intense than ever. I know deep in my heart that he’s speaking the truth. “I-I think I sensed it, subconsciously.”

A sound escapes his lips. Like a purr, but a deep, growly one. He takes a half-step closer, then his attention flickers to the kids.

“But how does Todd know you’re a bear?” I say.

“Because these three kids are shifters, too. That’s why they’re so curious about me. How they were able to climb over the fence so easily.”

I nod sagely. After what I’ve just heard, not much can shock me. “And their parents?”

“They’re not our real mom and dad,” Mari pipes up.

“What?” My head snaps toward her.

“The guy you met yesterday is human,” Lock says. “So, I knew he wasn’t their father.”

I go over to Mari and crouch down in front of her. She stares at me with big earnest eyes. There’s a weariness in her that shouldn’t be there in a child that young.

“Where are your real mom and dad?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I don’t know.”

I glance at the twins.

“They don’t know either,” she says real quietly.

A burst of alarm goes through me. I get up and beckon to Lock. He follows me out of the room and shuts the door. We go to the living room.

“We need to whisper. Shifter hearing is real sensitive,” he says.

“Something’s not right here, is it?”

He shakes his head. “I was just thinking the same thing. Shifters don’t just give their kids away to humans. They are fiercely protective of their young. Unless, maybe, their real parents died and they’ve been adopted by these two.”

“And then just abandoned? It doesn’t add up. Should I call child services or something?”

He shakes his head. “No. They’re shifter kids. The usual rules don’t apply.”

“But what am I going to do? I’m just the hired help. What if their parents never come back?”

“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. I’m the same species as them. I’ll be able to watch out for them. Maybe even find out who they belong to.”

“But for how long?”

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