Page 48 of Bear Facts

“Hey, yourself.” Freya’s anxiety briefly evaporated, and she leaned to brush a kiss to his lips. The spark that leapt inside her was raw. “Your mom was just in here. I’m going to talk to her.”

She expected Shane to grow alarmed or argue her out of it, but he lay back, lacing his hands behind his head. His large T-shirt hugged his delectable body. “Good idea.”

Freya longed to snuggle down against his side again and sigh happily. Equally, she wanted to go out into the kitchen and have a massively large breakfast. Running around in the woods, being reunited with Graham and his wolves and then unexpectedly mate-claimed made a woman hungry.

Shane didn’t elaborate on why it was a good idea to talk to Nell. He only watched without comment as she tugged on the clothes and left the room. She glanced back before she closed the door, and he sent her an encouraging smile.

Freya stopped in the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth with the toothbrush Nell had set out for her. She tried to get her hair in some kind of order. Giving up on that last, she went in search of Nell.

Shane’s mom wasn’t in the kitchen. That room was empty when she entered it, and there were unfortunately no signs of cooking.

A movement in the backyard took Freya outside to spot Nell, dressed in a thick coat, jeans, and hiking boots, wandering from the house down the common area. Wind rumpled her grizzly-bear hair, but the rain had gone, the sun shining brightly in a sharp blue sky.

“Don’t worry,” Nell said as Freya approached her. “I’m not going to haul you over the coals for sleeping with my son.”

“Nothing happened,” Freya said quickly. She fell into step with Nell who seemed in no hurry to get anywhere. “We talked.” And kissed. Kisses that had unlocked the closed-off spaces inside her.

“I know. I said sleeping. Walls are thin in a Shifter house, honey. At least some of them are.” Without explaining that cryptic statement, Nell continued her walk.

“Did you want to speak with me?” Freya asked when Nell said nothing more.

“I did. Thought we could have a chat without so many Shifters around.” Nell rolled her eyes. “I love my family, and even like my neighbors, but it can get a bit much.”

“I understand, growing up with a twin-brother wolf-Shifter.” Who had to still be alive. Hadn’t he? “You’re pretty dominant, though.”

“Yep. I’m third in dominance in this town. Eric and Graham are about equal as first, Cassidy is second, along with Iona—though Iona’s status is a little different as leader’s mate—and then me. I was fourth, after Eric’s son, Jace, but he found his mate in Austin and lives there now.”

Freya had heard about the Austin Shiftertown, run by a family of lion Shifters. She knew where all the Shiftertowns were located—in North Carolina, Montana, New Mexico, across Texas, up into North Dakota. Anywhere remote had Shiftertowns, though the Austin one was smack in the middle of a city, as was this Shiftertown.

Shifters in the cities had been given neighborhoods nobody wanted, but with new developments springing up, like the one Freya had seen in the distance yesterday, encroachment was becoming a problem.

Freya knew Nell had explained the hierarchy to Freya as a kindness. Shifters finding themselves in strange groups usually had to learn the hard way where they fit in. Nell hadn’t mentioned Shane, but as son of the top bear in town, he’d be well-respected. Didn’t mean he’d be high up himself, because dominance was individual, but being in a strong family didn’t hurt.

Freya had no idea where she’d be in the hierarchy here. She’d been barely past her Transition when she’d fled Graham’s pack, before her place had been determined. She remembered her flash of knowledge that she now far outranked Leo, but other than that, she didn’t know where she belonged.

“I didn’t only bring you out here to explain who’s who in Shiftertown,” Nell said. “If you stick around, you’ll learn it. I wanted to tell you about Shane.”

To explain to Freya what a great mate he’d be? Or to tell her to stay away from him?

“I had to raise him and Brody on my own after their father died,” Nell began. “Two little cubs, and me with no idea what to do with them.”

Freya could picture it vividly, Nell young and heartbroken, with Brody and Shane cute but unruly bear cubs. Her own mother had faced the same thing and had chosen to give up her cubs to the strongest man she knew.

“But they were good kids and helped you out?” Freya asked with optimism.

“No, they were little shits.” Nell chuckled. “They kept me hopping, I can tell you. I did whatever was necessary for them to be safe. Moving to Shiftertown was one of those things I had to do. Don’t think that was an easy decision.”

“You didn’t make the decision,” Freya said, her outrage stirring. “Shifter Bureau told you to go, and you had to.”

“This is what you don’t understand, Freya.” Nell’s tone was patient. “You ran, which was understandable, and I know Graham made sure you got away to safety. He must have had to stand on his head to do that, but he did it. But even he realized that banding together in Shiftertowns, combining our strengths while pretending to comply with Shifter Bureau’s rules, was our best way to survive.”

Freya regarded her with some surprise. Graham and his Lupines had been furious about the new regulations for Shifters, and many had said they’d resist them, using force if necessary.

“How did Shane feel about moving to Shiftertown?” Freya asked.

“He hated it. He and Brody both. They wanted to fight, to go back to the woods and eke out an existence. But I knew our future was living in the human world. This is the beginning.”

Some humans really liked Shifters, Freya had learned by living among them. Not only Shifter groupies with their almost fanatic fascination with them, but those who believed humans and Shifters should live together in harmony. Freya thought they were dreamers, but maybe one day …

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