Healing the Bear
Authors: Vanessa Devereaux
Evernight
Publishing ®
Copyright© 2014 Vanessa
Devereaux
ISBN: 978-1-77233-124-0
Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs
Editor: Melissa
Hosack
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All
names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
For my
grandfather, Edgar D.
HEALING THE BEAR
Kalispell
Shifters, 4
Vanessa
Devereaux
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
Dane
walked to the top of the hill. He stopped and leaned over. He was out of
breath. He coughed twice and held his chest. He was out of shape because he
hadn’t run in over a year. If a man was forbidden to run as his bear half,
there wasn’t any point in doing it. He stood upright, looking down onto the
road below him. Coming back to this spot was stupid. He knew it. Knew that he
was torturing himself but nevertheless, here he was.
Now
that he’d been allowed to come back to Kalispell, he wanted to see the spot
again. A year away hadn’t done anything to take away his hate and resentment of
the human that had taken the life of his wife and unborn baby. Dane had done a
bad thing to him, he knew that, but still to this day he didn’t feel any
remorse for his actions.
He
focused in on one particular spot on the road below him. He needed to go and
see it again, punish himself some more. Two cars passed him by setting up some
dust that he brushed off his jacket. Many of the trees in the area had been hit
by lightning while he’d been gone. Maybe even a similar storm to the one that
had brought them to this planet in the first place. They had, in fact, crash
landed close to this wilderness area west of Kalispell and that was the reason
why he and Lucinda liked to run there.
The
tree in question was still standing untouched as if it knew it held a special
place in this bear’s heart. Dane reached out for it, extending his arm so his
hand could touch the bark. Lucinda had taken her last breath slumped against
this tree.
He
knelt down, putting his forehead against it, picturing in his mind’s eye his
beautiful wife and how she’d looked that day. Her round face, her glowing skin,
and her beautiful growing belly. A child residing within it, one that they’d
tried so hard to conceive and finally been granted their wish. Dane spread his
fingers out, allowing his large hands to grab the bark and feel its roughness
against his palms.
It
had been his idea to shift into their bear form so they could run in the woods,
enter areas that would be unmanageable in human form.
They’d run along here close to the edge of
the woods, then out of nowhere… Dane flinched as he had that day.
The crack of a rifle sounded throughout the
area. He was about to tell his wife to take cover but when he turned to look at
her she was already on the ground with blood pouring from her side. He’d
shifted back into his human form, ran over to her not scared about being shot
himself. He’d pulled her behind the tree and she’d been too weak to shift back
from her bear half. Tears flooded his eyes, still seeing her lying there dying.
He looked up at the tree and saw some of the blood still etched deep within its
bark.
She
hadn’t died quickly but slowly and when he’d seen the hunter looking for them
he’d had mixed emotions about what he should do. Come out of hiding, take his
gun, and kill him or hide her body and stay with her and hold her until she’d passed.
He’d
chosen the latter, but the hunter had still hung around. If only he hadn’t. A
grizzly had to do what one of the most unpredictable animals had to do. He had
to take revenge.
Dane
hardly remembered shifting back into his bear form, but he did still recall
tracking the man, knocking him to the ground, using his claws and strength to
take away every inch of the man’s life.
When he’d finished, he’d been totally ashamed of what he’d done.
He
hadn’t put up a fight when Aiden told him they’d report it as a bear attack but
that he was banished from Kalispell and the group until the Council gave the
okay for him to come back.
He
was back and so much had changed while he’d been out in Washington State.
Aiden
had found himself a human, Trent had found one too, and now Aiden’s brother,
Christopher had found one as well. He pulled out the wedding invitation he’d
received two weeks ago along with his permission to return to the area.
Ms. Lilly Banks
and her daughter Kaitlin request the pleasure of your company at her marriage
to Mr. Christopher Renner at 3 p.m. Saturday October 4
th
, 2014 at
The Lodge in Evergreen, Montana.
A
wedding was the last thing he wanted to attend, but he was on probation. One
more strike and he’d be banished forever. Aiden was a no nonsense leader. Dane
had to be on his best behavior because he needed to be back where he and
Lucinda had fallen in love, conceived their child, the place where he said his
goodbye to her.
He
took a deep breath. They’d also forbidden him from shifting while he’d been
gone. That had been the hardest thing for this grizzly to do. He was free again
and while he was out here in the middle of nowhere he was going to shift and
run and let the wind fly through his fur.
****
Melanie
put the three trays of cupcakes into the oven and checked the temperature on
the dial. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, realizing when it
was too late that she’d just put flour all over her face. She glanced at her
watch. Lilly and Christopher would be here soon to go over last minute
preparations for their wedding ceremony this coming weekend.
She
heard the bell ring over the door. That was probably them arriving early. She
wiped her face and headed to the back of building where the bride and groom to
be stood on the step.
“Hi Lilly, Christopher.”
She opened the
screen door and let them in. “Please excuse how I look, but I’ve just finished
the last batch of cupcakes for a sweet sixteen birthday bash going on here
tomorrow.”
“If
you’d prefer we come back later that’s fine with us,” said Lilly.
“No, absolutely not.
Come on. Let’s go
through here and we can give everything a final check.”
“The
weather forecast says sunny all day on Saturday, so let’s go with our initial
plan and have both the ceremony and reception outside,” said Christopher.
Lilly
lifted her hands in the air and crossed her fingers. “You know how unreliable
the weatherman can be these days.”
“We’ll
hope for the best,” said Melanie as she showed them into her office. She pulled
out the book containing all their notes and the requests.
“Let’s
see we have 120 guests who have said they’ll be attending and you want the
chairs divided evenly on both sides of the aisle.”
Lilly
nodded. “Most of the guests know Christopher, but I guess I’m inheriting them
as my friends too now.”
She
smiled at Christopher and he leaned over and kissed her. Melanie knew love when
she saw it and these two personified it. She should have been happy for them,
but it was making her depressed.
“The
family members will be in the first two rows, here,” said Melanie putting at
the seating chart. “Your mother, step-dad and step-brother, aunt, and uncle
will be right here. On other the other side, you’ll have Christopher’s
sister-in-law, his aunts and uncles, and behind them his cousins.”
“How
about the flowers, did you speak with your friend?” asked Lilly.
Melanie
nodded. “They can deliver them a few hours before the ceremony and they’ll set
them up at the front here, and then on each table for the reception,” she said
pointing to the layout.
They
held hands and Lilly leaned on Christopher’s shoulder. Yes, they were making
her downright depressed.
“And
the cakes?” asked Christopher.
“You
still want the large wedding cake and then the small bridesmaid’s cake in the
shape of a bear?”
“Oh
yeah, we wouldn’t hear the last of it if we didn’t,” said Lilly. “I guess
you’ve guessed by now we have a thing for bears.”
“And
the food for the dog?” asked Christopher.
“Yep,
I have someone who owns a dog bakery in Big Fork and they’ll put something
together just for Barney,” she said, double checking she’d got the pooch’s name
right.
“Great
and how about valet parking for our guests?” asked Christopher.
“I
have a couple of guys who work on special events here and they said they can do
that. And you’re still going with the chilled cucumber and dill soup, blackened
salmon, rice pilaf, roasted green beans, and for dessert, the huckleberry ice
cream?”
