Gifted To The Bear: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Gifted Series Book 1) (19 page)

With his green eyes glinting gold in the sunlight, Jim smiled. “That is true.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Yes.”

Moving a hand to my head, he just smoothed my hair for a few moments, looking into my eyes, before speaking again. “I want to tell you something... something not about the events a few days ago, because I know you don’t want to talk about that, and that’s fine. The thing I want to tell you is more just a general thing.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“It’s that you don’t ever have to try to fight again, or serve as any kind of backup. I love you, Avery... very, very much, and I just want you to be at peace in your mind. I realize that considering the pain and grief I’m sure you’ve had to fight against since you were only eight years old, maybe you’ve done enough fighting to last you a lifetime. I’ll never ask you to do it again.”

I had to swallow a little lump in my throat before responding. “Thank you.”

Pulling me even closer to him, Jim brushed a tender kiss against my lips, and I kissed him back, so full of love and relief that my heart felt as if it might soar right out of my chest.

CHAPTER 17

Over the next week or so, I settled into a happy, peaceful, stress-free routine. It consisted of lots of painting, lots of tutoring Jen, and spending as much time as possible with Jim. I also worked several shifts at the bar, which I planned to do every week now that I was no longer attending training sessions. Even though Jim had said, specifically, that I didn’t have to try to fight or serve as backup for any fights, I’d taken that to mean that I also didn’t have to attend any training sessions, either, because of course, there was now absolutely zero point. So, I’d just stopped going, and he hadn’t said a word.

Honoring my request, not a single person in Timberline said anything about my failed attempt to serve as backup during the last fight with the Angels. I’d half-expected Jen to maybe bring it up just wanting to better understand what had happened, but she never did, to my great relief. Even Alexis just smiled and said hello when I saw her in the bar, just like nothing had ever happened, as if she hadn’t witnessed me running into the village in a state of near-hysteria.

At the beginning of the second week after that mortifying incident, I sat on my porch with a glass of iced tea, feeling as if everything ugly, and shameful, and embarrassing was all far behind me. So I’d unfortunately proven myself to be correct in my thinking that I wasn’t brave or strong. So what. Jim now seemed to be perfectly content with who I was, and as for myself, I was definitely settling into it. I wasn’t some kind of a superhero like all of the rest of the Gifteds seemed to be, but I was starting to think that was just fine. I was happy just to be a superhero in my own very small ways, working bar shifts that no one else wanted to, and helping a sweet teenage girl become a better reader.

But even still, as okay as I felt about things, I couldn’t deny that there was a tiny part of me that would always be disappointed that I’d proven myself correct in my thinking. However, I figured this was a small price to pay for never having to fight or serve as backup again. I had a feeling that I wouldn’t survive another bravery failure in my lifetime.

When I was nearly finished with my iced tea, Jen came strolling up to the porch and had a seat beside me, chattering about something cute Marbles had done the day before. But then, after she’d told me all about it, she fell silent briefly before speaking again. “So Annie made me an ice cream cake and gave it to me last night after dinner.”

I’d been
wondering
when Annie was going to do some kind gesture toward Jen, like we’d talked about. I’d almost started to think that she’d decided to not even try.

Slowly rocking in my wicker porch rocker with warm sunshine bathing my face, I smiled at Jen. “Well, that was really nice of Annie to do that.”

“Yeah, I guess so. But, honestly...”

“‘Honestly’ what?”

“Well, honestly... I felt scared.”

“Why?”

“Just because the whole thing seemed weird, and I didn’t know what was happening. Annie just busted out with the cake after dinner, and she said, ‘This is for you. I made it for you.’ And for a second, I wondered if it was Christmas, because my birthday is on Christmas, and for that second that I wondered that, I felt like I’d fallen into some weird time warp or something, or like I just wasn’t understanding something. But then I said to myself, ‘No, it’s not Christmas; it’s April.’ And then I said to Annie, ‘Why did you do this?’ because she just doesn’t do random nice things for me. But then, before she could even answer, I had an idea, because Aaron was over for dinner, and I asked him if
he
was really the one who’d made the cake.”

“And what did he say?”

“He said no, that it was really Annie who’d made the cake. So I asked her again why she’d done it, and her face got red, and she said, ‘Because I just wanted to show you I care.’ And then I got really scared, because Annie just doesn’t say things like that, and I said, ‘Annie, are you sick?’ And she said no, and then I said, ‘Are you dying or something, and you’re trying to tell me goodbye or something?’ And she said, ‘Oh my God, let’s just eat the cake.’ So, we did. And then after, Aaron said, ‘She’s really not sick or dying, Jen. She really just wanted to show you that she cares. She just has a hard time expressing her caring sometimes.’ And then Annie said, ‘Oh my God, do you have to tell her all my personal business?’ And Aaron said, ‘Well, she
is
your sister, and I don’t think that your way of being emotionally reserved at times is any huge secret.’ And then they started having a little fight, so I took the rest of the cake in my room. But then I couldn’t finish the whole thing, and when I came back out to put the rest in the freezer, Annie was sitting on Aaron’s lap, and they weren’t fighting anymore; they were kissing. They looked up at me, and I didn’t really know what to say, so I just told Annie thanks for the cake. She said sure. I put the cake away, and then I went back in my room and watched a movie to get something normal into my brain, because the whole thing was, well, I still kind of don’t get what happened. Do you think Aaron was telling the truth when he said Annie’s not dying?”

Amused, but fighting like heck not to let any hint of that amusement cross my features, lest Jen think I was making fun of her, I nodded. “I’m sure Aaron was telling the truth. I’m sure Annie is just fine. To me, it sounds like she really just wanted to show you that she cares about you.”

“By randomly making me a cake, though? With really awesome sprinkles on the top that were all different shades of purple and pink? Oh, and you know what else is funny? A couple days ago, I saw a shopping list that Annie had wrote on a notepaper on the fridge, for the next time she goes into Ridgewood. And I looked at all of the words on it, and I could read some of them, and that made me feel so proud of myself that it actually made me feel like I wanted to write some shopping list things of my own with my new spelling skills. So, I wrote on the list
candy
, and
pop
, and
dog snack bones
, for Marbles. And then when Annie got home, she saw the list, and I thought she was gonna say something like, ‘Don’t scribble all over my list!’ or something like that. But instead, she just gave me a little smile, and she said, ‘You did a good job writing your items on the list. I’ll be sure to get them at the store.’ Isn’t that just so funny?”

While a few birds flitted from branch to branch on a birch sapling in my small front yard, I smiled, looking from them to Jen. “I think Annie is starting to realize what a great sister she has. It may feel funny whenever she does or says something to show she cares, but just try to show her that caring right back, and after a while, I think having a more caring sister relationship will feel completely normal.”

“Okay. I’ll do some caring stuff for Annie right back if you just promise me one little thing.”

“And what’s that?”

“I just want to be a flower girl or bridesmaid or something at you and Jim’s wedding. Can I be? If you promise me that I can be,
I’ll
promise to be ultra-nice to Annie.”

“Well, who said anything about me and Jim getting married?”

With a dramatic eye roll, Jen stood up from her chair. “Come on. I’ve known from the day I put you and Jim’s hands together to make you guys hold hands. And then the past couple days, everyone in the village has been saying all these different things about how all in love you guys look. So, will you say yes? That I can be in your wedding? I just want to be able to say that I was the first one invited to be a part of it.”

I smiled, shielding my eyes from the sun in order to look up at her. “Tell you what. If and when Jim and I get married, I promise you’ll be a big part of it. You can be a flower girl or a bridesmaid, whatever you like.”

After giving me a big grin, a hug, and saying thank you multiple times, Jen leaped off the porch, completely bypassing the three stairs, and continued on up the lane, whistling. I drank the last sip of my iced tea, hoping with all my heart that Jim and I getting married was not an
if
, but a
when
.

That evening, when Jim got home from patrol, he said something that made me think that us getting married
was
leaning toward the
when
side.

While we sat at his kitchen table, enjoying after-dinner drinks, whiskey for him, and a glass of wine for me, he reached across the table and took my hand. “Will you move in with me? I want to wake up next to you every morning, and go to bed with you in my arms every night, without having to shuttle between cabins.”

As much as I’d grown attached to my own cabin, I didn’t even hesitate before saying yes to his request. I was beginning to think that my home was wherever Jim was.

Feeling profoundly happy and at peace, I fell asleep in his arms, in his bed that night, not knowing that my new-found peace and happiness was very soon going to be threatened.

THE FINAL
CHAPTER

It was about four in the afternoon the next day when several things happened, nearly at once. The first thing was that while Annie and I sat on my porch, having lemonade and cookies after spending several hours boxing up my things in preparation for my move to Jim’s, Jen came tearing up the lane, shrieking something about Marbles.

“Help! Someone!” Seeing Annie and me on the porch, she made a beeline for us. “My sweet boy! Guys, I lost my sweet boy!”

By the time she bounded up the porch steps, Annie and I were on our feet, and Annie asked her what was going on.

With her hands on her knees, Jen had to take in a few gulps of air before she was able to respond. “I lost my Marbles. I lost my Marbles, you guys!”

I prayed that Annie wouldn’t make some sort of a joke, probably something about Jen having “lost her marbles” a long time ago, but mercifully she didn’t. She just asked Jen to explain what had happened.

Straightening up, Jen took in a few more gasps of air. “He acted like he wanted to go out wandering by himself this morning, so I let him. You guys know he always comes back in a couple hours. But today, he wandered off around eight, and when he still wasn’t back around lunchtime, I went out looking for him, but he’s not anywhere in our favorite spots in all the different forest parts around here. He’s just gone. I’ve lost him. He must have just wandered off somewhere really far, and maybe he got hurt, or really mixed up in his directions or something, and now he can’t find his way back home.”

Knowing that Marbles sometimes liked to sit and beg for food from people eating outside on the porch at the bar, I started to ask Jen if she’d checked there, but before I even got a full word out, Annie gasped, her gaze on the lane. Jen and I whipped our faces toward the lane to look, and almost instantly, Jen wailed, a low, keening sound full of pure anguish.

Then, she sank to her knees, tears already streaming down her face. “No, God. No, no, no. God, please just make it so that my Marbles isn’t dead!”

Coming down the lane from the direction of the forest clearings, Aaron was striding fast, carrying something large, limp, and golden in his arms.

When he spotted us, he called out, his deep voice easily carrying across the distance. “Get Alexis! Hurry!”

Alexis had been a veterinary nurse before coming to live in Timberline.

Fast as lightning, Annie leapt off the porch and began running up the lane to get her. Fortunately, she and her husband lived just three cabins down from me. Also fortunately, Annie and I had just seen her heading to her house not ten minutes earlier.

Still on her knees, whimpering, Jen clutched at my arm. “Please help take me to my Marbles. My legs aren’t working right.”

Heart aching, I helped her up to her feet with an arm around her back, then helped her down to the lane, where we met Aaron.

Immediately, he told Jen that Marbles was alive and breathing. “He’s probably going to be just fine, but he somehow wound up on the north side of the fighting field, and he got zapped pretty good by an Angel. Knocked him out cold.”

I could see a quarter-sized patch of singed fur on the side of his head.

Jen was now sobbing hysterically, grabbing for Marbles and begging Aaron to let her hold him. “At least set him down in the grass or something, so I can hug him and tell him he’s gonna be okay!”

Aaron did as she’d asked, setting Marbles down in the grass on the side of the lane, and Jen sank down in the grass beside him and began sobbing into his golden fur. The scene was heartbreaking to say the least, but for some reason, the ache in my chest was quickly becoming replaced by some other feeling, something like a current of electricity flowing through my veins. Whatever it was, it was making me clench and unclench my fists, heart pounding.

After pulling me aside a short distance, Aaron began speaking rapidly. “The Angels are attacking en masse at the field right now. Seems like it’s every last one of them, including Maxwell Bliss himself, who’s not only their leader, but the most powerful sorcerer on the planet right now. Most of us shifters are already on the field, and Tasha is just to the south, calling all our Gifteds in a phone chain system that we worked out for an emergency such as this. I need to get back right away, so if you could please stay with Jen until Annie and Alexis—”

“No, I’m going back to the field with you. I’m going to fight.”

The surprise apparent in Aaron’s expression mirrored how I myself felt. I hadn’t even planned to say what I had. It had just come out.

“Avery, this is going to be a much larger fight than the last, and if the last one upset you, this one is certainly-”

“I don’t care. They hurt Marbles, and they made Jen cry. I’m going to be a part of helping to take them out.”

“But you’ve never fought in even a small battle, let alone—”

“But we’ll all be watching each other’s backs, right? I’m doing this, Aaron. I’m not going to let the Angels do what they did without being a part of destroying them.”

“But—”

“Jim told me once that love is what makes him fight, and I get that now, because that’s what I’m going to be doing. I’m going to fight out of love for Jen, and Marbles, and this whole community that’s now my home. My mind’s made up. I’m going. I’m fighting.”

My words sounded strange to my own ears, as if I was hearing someone else speaking
through
me. Though at the same time, I knew what I was doing, and what I was getting into. And I knew I couldn’t
not
do it. Before Aaron had come striding down the lane with Marbles, I’d been content to just continue on with the cowardly course of my life, as long as I could be happy with Jim, but I knew now that I couldn’t go that way anymore. Not if I ever wanted to look Jen and Marbles in their eyes ever again.

“The second Annie and Alexis get here, Aaron, we’ll leave. I know we need to hurry.”

Seeming a bit hesitant to do so, he finally said okay, and just then, a bark made us both turn our heads. Somehow, Marbles was up, actually licking Jen’s face. Sitting in the grass, she was laughing and crying, trying to hold him to her chest.

“You’re a miracle dog, Marbles! You’re a miracle dog!”

It seemed like he really was. Now wagging his tail vigorously, he actually looked completely fine. Relieved beyond words, I said a silent prayer of thanks. Aaron asked me if I was still sure I wanted to fight now, and I nodded.

“Yes. Just because Marbles is okay, it doesn’t change anything. I still need to do this. I’m still fighting.”

Within seconds, Annie came sprinting down the sunlit lane with Alexis, and then everything happened fast. Alexis began leading Jen and Marbles away to her house; Aaron shifted into bear form; and after I’d told Annie that I was going to fight, the two of us got on Aaron’s back, and he began speeding us toward the northernmost field.

At first, my worry of falling off his back kept me pretty preoccupied, but soon I realized that even as fast as he was charging up the forest path, Aaron wasn’t going to let Annie and me fall. His sense of balance seemed incredible, and also, I was holding big hunks of his thick black fur in my fists, just like Annie was doing.

Once I felt secure, my thoughts turned to the fight ahead, and I began to question whether I was doing the right thing. I knew I really wouldn’t survive turning tail and running for the third time in my life, at least not emotionally. But at the same time, I felt confident that I wouldn’t emotionally survive not helping in this fight, either.

I really didn’t have much time to think things over, which was probably good. Within a minute or two, we were at the fighting field, dismounting from Aaron’s back. He charged into the fray, and Annie grabbed my hand and began leading me into it as well.

“Let’s just jump in before you have a chance to change your mind. I’ll stick close to you. Just do what we do at practice.”

Before I knew it, I was doing just that, levitating Angels into the air with lightning-fast speed, moving them out of the way before they could zap any of my fellow Timberline fighters. I was shaking from head to toe, my hand visibly moving from side to side each time I extended my palm to levitate, but I was doing it. I was fighting, and I wasn’t running. For the first-time in my life, other than my knee-jerk reaction with the little boy and the car, I was rescuing. I was being a protector.

With Annie flanking me, zapping any Angels I couldn’t levitate fast enough, I slowly started moving to the center of the battle, where the fighting was the thickest. Along the way, I spotted Jim, and he spotted me. If a bear could look absolutely astonished, he did, his furry face taking on an almost human expression with eyes wide and jaw dropped. However, he seemed to get over his shock quickly, because the fight required him to. The Angels seemed drawn to him like a magnet, probably having been told by Maxwell Bliss to try to kill Jim first. Too bad for Bliss and his Angels, Jim was an incredibly strong and fast fighter, catching, biting, and decapitating two Angels within the span of five minutes. The kills were exceedingly gory, without a doubt, but I knew I’d better get used to all the blood and guts, because the battle was heating up.

For maybe a half an hour, the fighting was intense, but it was clear that we Timberliners were more than holding our own. While Jim periodically issued roared signals to all of us shifters and Gifteds, the body count of Angels on the field grew and grew until there was maybe a dozen headless Angel carcasses strewn around the grass. However, when Maxwell Bliss made his appearance on the field, murderous-looking with eyes that were somehow glowing red, things sort of began to unravel. Shooting flame-red bolts of electricity from his palms, he hit a few shifters, making them roar in pain, falling to the ground.

Beside me, Annie spoke in a near-shout to be heard above the din of the fight. “It’s okay. Don’t lose your focus. We might have some injuries, but it takes many zaps to kill a shifter, or a human, for that matter. They’ll be just fine.”

I continued on levitating while Annie zapped, but I couldn’t help but become a bit distracted when Maxwell hit a few more shifters, including Jim.

Once again, Annie spoke to me in a near-shout. “Don’t look at him. Just keep your focus. He’ll be up in a few seconds.”

He was, but at the same time, at least a half-dozen of his men went down, having all been zapped in some sort of an Angel blitz attack that none of us Gifteds had been able to prevent.

A few minutes later, I realized that fully half of our shifters were now down, and meanwhile, new waves of Angels were pouring out from the trees on the northern edge of the field about every minute. For the first time, I began to see traces of fear in Annie’s eyes.

“Just remember, Avery, no matter what happens, we stay on the field and we try to hold our ground. No matter what. We Timberliners don’t run. Okay?”

My full-body trembling had lessened a bit, but now it was back full-force.

However, I managed a nod at Annie while levitating an Angel at the same time. “Okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

About a minute later, even more shifters were down, and so were at least a dozen Gifteds who’d been zapped. I noticed that Jim and a bear I was fairly sure was Aaron were kind of trying to fight their way over to Annie and me, a sight that for some reason scared me even more than the sight of yet another wave of Angels emerging from the woods behind them. It was as if Jim and Aaron were thinking that they might soon be the only ones left to defend Annie and me.

I could hardly believe it. For the first time in my life, I was truly, deeply in love with an amazing man who loved me, too. Also for the first time in my life, I was showing real guts, real bravery. But now it seemed that there was a real possibility I could die, or at the very least be seriously injured, even though I knew that Jim would fight like hell to keep that from happening.

After another minute, though, the battle seemed to take a slight turn for the better. Roaring, Jim charged a tight cluster of Angels, sending them all flying like bowling pins. Then, without missing a beat, he attacked and killed two of them in rapid succession, while Aaron and another bear were making kills of their own.

When a sudden noise something like a sonic boom sounded, I just about jumped out of my skin, along with Annie and most everyone else, including Angels. The battle field quickly went quiet as everyone looked around, trying to identify the source of the boom. By the simultaneous gasps we both made, it was clear that Annie saw it at the same time.

Standing on the south side of the field stood a tiny figure that appeared to be a little girl. She had red hair pulled into a high ponytail, and she was holding her hands in front of her a short distance apart. Just then, she clapped them together like cymbals, causing a burst of silvery light between them, and causing another sonic-sounding boom. I’d never seen another Gifted do this strange trick, ever.

Now every single shifter, Gifted, and Angel on the field seemed to be frozen solid, not making even the slightest noise. Which is why when the tiny, redheaded figure walked out on the field, shouting, everyone could hear her with crystal-clear clarity.

“Who hurt my dog?”

Annie made a noise between a whimper and a groan, then spoke in an anguished near-whisper. “No, Jen. Go back. Go back home.”