by T. S. Joyce
“I’d say either a zombie bit her or Easton claimed her,” Willa said helpfully as she dug around in the crinkly package of M&M’s for more candy.
“Enough!” Creed yelled.
Willa didn’t even look cowed, but damn what the electricity in the alpha’s voice did to Aviana. With a grunt, she fell to her knees under the heaviness of the stomach-curdling anger Creed was throwing off in waves.
Easton looked down at her then back to Creed, eyes blazing as a low, menacing rumble rattled his throat. “Let her up.”
“You Turned her?” Creed bellowed. “After I forbid it, you Turned her?”
“She doesn’t smell like a bear,” Georgia whispered from near the table where she looked like she was struggling to stay upright, too.
“It took you all of what…a day? A day to disobey a direct order?” Creed said, hands on his hips. “What the fuck, man?”
“She’s mine.”
“You just met her!”
“Let her up!” Easton yelled, voice gone snarly.
“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Willa said, “Aviana, move your tail feathers, girl. Fuck Noggin’s about to Change.”
Creed hunched into himself just as Willa rushed Aviana. Easton’s silver bear exploded from him in the exact moment a huge black bruin grizzly ripped out of Creed.
“No! Don’t hurt him!” she cried as Willa dragged her by the waist over the gravel.
“Stay there,” Willa ordered, eyes hard. Two seconds later, a brown bear burst from her skin, and when Aviana looked up, Creed and Easton clashed so hard the earth under her feet shook. Jason was scrambling out of the way, and a light-colored grizzly was already hovering protectively between him and the battling bears. Georgia?
The sheer violence of the bear fight held Aviana stunned in place. Creed and Easton slashed each other with resounding, clawed slaps. Roaring, growling, biting. Bleeding. The white gravel was being painted with red.
Even with Willa trying to maneuver between them and Matt Changing into a red, scarred-up grizzly to help, Easton and Creed only had eyes for maiming each other.
She had to do something.
With a pop and flapping wings, Aviana Changed and dive-bombed Creed. She pecked his ear and few out of slapping range, then circled around.
“Creed, she isn’t a bear!” Gia screamed. “Creed, stop!”
Aviana tucked her wings and dove for the black grizzly again, but this time, she didn’t get to touch him. This time he turned at the last moment and swatted her out of the air. With a terrified caw in her throat, she hit the grass hard.
Gia was running for her now, round belly leading her. She fell to her knees beside Aviana and picked her up gently. “Oh no,” she whispered, pulling her carefully to her soft bosom. With a look of pure human fury, she stood and turned to the bears battling. “Creed Joseph Barnett! You’re hurting me!” she screamed.
Creed’s onyx colored bear immediately shrank into the dark-haired, silver-eyed man. With a pained grunt, he fell forward onto his hands and knees on the gravel road. Willa and Matt rushed Easton, trying to keep him from murdering the alpha in human form.
“What?” Creed asked as he struggled up and stared in confusion at his mate. “How am I hurting you?”
“Because look what you’re fighting over!” Gia shoved Aviana forward.
“Caw!” Aviana said helpfully. Translation: I’m a fucking crow! Not a Turned bear shifter.
Creed stared at her like he’d never seen a bird in his life. “I…I don’t understand.”
When Easton took a swipe too close to him, Creed ducked neatly out of the way and yelled, “Easton, Change back!”
Easton’s roar died in his throat as he fell to his knees and shrank into his human skin. A pained grimace was on his face, but it didn’t stop the death glare for Creed. “I didn’t Turn her. She wasn’t ever human. And if you would’ve fucking listened, I would’ve had time to explain that I’ve known her all my life. And I swear on my den, if you hurt her, I’m going to fucking bleed you, Gray Back.”
Jason stood to the side, arms crossed over his chest, looking grumpy. “That insult still doesn’t make any sense, Beaston. We’re all Gray Backs!”
Willa shrank back into her naked human skin and kicked the gravel. “God dammit, Creed!”
Matt was now a giant, naked human with scars all over his torso. “Did he hurt you?” he asked, worry in his deep voice.
“No! He spilled all my M&M’s!”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Creed said. “Someone explain to me what is going on.”
Willa stomped her foot. “Creed, meet Easton’s childhood friend who is a raven shifter, but only Easton didn’t know she was a raven shifter until yesterday when he gave her a claiming mark while they were boinking and she didn’t Turn. He got mad, he ran off, that’s why he wasn’t at work yesterday, and now you just B-slapped the bird he’s in love with. You deserve that scar,” she said, jamming a finger at the long claw mark across Creed’s chest that was dripping red.
“You,” the alpha said, pointing at Aviana. “Change back.”
“You can’t tell her what to do,” Easton snarled.
“I can so. She’s a Gray Back now.”
“Aaaw,” Willa said, clasping her hands in front of her chest and shrugging her shoulders with a mushy smile on her face. “The final Gray Back.”
Creed stared at her until she had the good sense to drop her gaze to her feet.
“Now please,” Creed gritted out, “Change back so I can properly apologize.”
In a flush of absolute mortification, Aviana flew out of Gia’s hands and landed on the ground, then shifted into her human form.
“Boobs,” Willa sang in a barely audible voice, only to be glared at by Creed again.
Jason snorted from behind the blond grizzly that was still standing protectively in front of him. He cleared his throat and apologized when Creed tossed him an annoyed glance.
With a sigh, Creed hooked his hands on his naked hips and said, “Aviana, I whole-heartedly apologize for my actions here today. I should’ve listened better before I punished Easton, and I’m sorry if you got hurt in that fight.” His shoulders lifted and fell in a heavy sigh. “Welcome to the most fucked up crew of shifters that ever walked these mountains.”
“C-team!” Willa said, shaking her hands like cheerleader pom-poms.
Most of the Gray Backs were naked and bleeding, and Georgia the Scary Bear was now licking the back of Jason’s smiling head until his dark hair stood up in all directions. Most of them were smiling despite the violence that had just occurred, and all were staring at Aviana who was hiding her tits behind her arm and doing her best to cover her honey pot with an oak leaf she’d hurriedly plucked from the ground.
Her mouth was hanging open, but she snapped it closed and swallowed hard. In a tiny voice, she said, “Thank you?”
“Uuuh, Willa?” Gia said in a strange tone beside her. “You were wrong. Aviana’s not the final Gray Back.”
“What do you mean?” Creed asked, worry slashing through his churning, silver eyes.
Gia looked at a damp stream that was trailing down the inside legs of her jeans. “I think my water just broke.”
Chapter Fifteen
Easton paced the small waiting room, biting the end of his nail as he checked the window for the eight-hundredth time in the direction of Gia’s hospital room.
Aviana understood. He’d watched helplessly as his mother had died during childbirth, and now Gia was having a baby.
His snarling and pacing had already scared off the humans in the waiting room, so now it was just Aviana and the rest of the Gray Backs, minus Creed and Gia, a vending machine that was now fresh out of M&Ms, and an old, scratchy cartoon playing on the small television in the corner.
“I should be in there,” Easton rumbled.
“No,” Aviana said. “Gia and Creed have to do this on their own. There are doctors and nurses who know exactly what they are doing. She’ll be all rig
ht.”
“But it’s taking so long.”
“It usually does for a first baby,” Willa said from the corner where she had her feet draped across Matt’s lap. “She’s tough. Gia will be okay.”
But even Willa looked worried. Easton’s pacing had everyone unsettled.
Easton skidded to a stop, threw the door open, and then bolted into the hallway. They all stood to see Creed coming toward them with a big grin on his face. Aviana drifted to the window to watch Easton talk to his alpha. Creed gripped his shoulder and talked through his smile, and little by little Easton relaxed. And when he finally looked back at Aviana, his bright green eyes held relief. Her heart stopped at how beautiful he was.
Easton jogged back to her and pulled her hand, leading her out of the waiting area and toward Gia’s room. “Hurry, Ana. Creed said I could see her first if we hurry.”
Aviana’s vision was blurring with tears because her Easton was happy. She could feel it coming off him in waves.
Just outside the hospital room, Creed turned to the others and murmured, “Give us a minute.” Then he pushed open the door and ushered Easton and Aviana inside.
Gia sat on the bed, comfortable looking and eyes only for the tiny bundle in her arms. She smiled emotionally when she looked up, and Easton sat gently on her bed and tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear.
“Oh, mighty little human, look what you’ve done,” Easton said, his eyes dipping to the sweet baby. He pulled Aviana closer and moved the blanket farther away from the sleeping babe’s face. “Look at her,” he said on a breath. “Perfect in every way. Gia, Gia, Gia, good mommy.”
Gia’s shoulders were shaking now, and she was sniffling as she rested her head against Easton’s shoulder. Creed stood on her other side, leaning over the baby with the proudest look in his dark eyes.
“Do you want to hold her?” she whispered thickly to Easton.
His eyes went wide, but he nodded and held his arms out. Gia set the tiny baby gently in the cradle of his arms.
Behind them, the rest of the crew filed in and surrounded Gia’s bed with oohs and aahs at the tiny, blanketed girl in Easton’s arms.
Slowly, Easton leaned down and smelled the baby’s breath. “What do you call her?”
“Rowan,” Creed said proudly.
“A right proper name for a little grizzly,” Willa said, leaning over Easton’s shoulder.
Easton looked up at Creed with a curious, knowing smile spreading across his lips. “She’s not a grizzly.”
“What?” Gia asked, eyebrows furrowed. “She’s Creed’s.”
“Oh, one look at the creature she’s harboring, and no one will ever question it. She’ll be a true Gray Back. A fire-breather with silver scales, descended from the last mortal dragon, Creed’s grandfather.”
“Can’t be,” Creed said on a breath. “She has too much grizzly and not enough dragon blood in her.”
Easton smiled at the baby as he rocked her in his arms. “I had a dream about her. Silver eyes and silver scales.”
“A dream,” Matt said, sounding unconvinced.
Aviana grinned slow, knowing Easton was right. Her mate was more sensitive to things beyond this world, just like his mother had been.
“Don’t believe me?” Easton asked softly. Back and forth, back and forth he rocked the sleeping newborn. “Then smell the dragon’s fire on her breath.”
Chapter Sixteen
Last night was the last time she would sleep in this old house. Aviana zipped up her suitcase and pulled it off the rickety bed she’d slept in as a child. Inhaling deeply, she took one last look at the tiny cabin she’d shared with her parents all those years ago. As a child, this place had seemed huge, but that’s what childhood memories did. They warped reality, making everything seem bigger and grander from such a small point of view.
Tonight, she would be moving into an old singlewide trailer in the Grayland Mobile Park that the girls called “ten-ten” and swore was magic. She didn’t know what she was going to do there yet. Maybe she would teach shifter school when Rowan and the Ashe Crew kids were older. Or perhaps she would help Easton sell his knives and firewood. Or maybe she would reinvent herself completely and start a new adventure. She didn’t know. All she knew was that whatever happened next, it would be beside Easton.
Aviana set her suitcase by the door and pulled her cell out of her purse. She’d charged it in the car until the batteries were full because this call couldn’t get cut off. It was too important.
The floorboards of the porch creaked as she settled onto the top stair, and looked over the overgrown front yard. She kicked a rusted, bent nail with her flip-flop, thinking about what she would say to the people whose opinion meant the world to her.
How did she tell her parents she’d turned her back on her people?
Licking her lips, she scrolled through her contacts and found the number labeled Home. She made the call and bit her thumbnail as she listened to it ring and watched a trio of birds flit across the tall grass.
“Hello?” Dad answered.
“Dad?”
“Oooh, baby. What have you done?” Static blasted across the line, and Dad called in a muffled voice, “Marta, it’s her. Pick up the other line.”
The line clicked. “Aviana?” Mom asked.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Honey, are you okay?”
“Yes, yes, I’m fine. More than fine. I just… I have to tell you both something important.”
The line went quiet. Aviana’s pulse pounded hard thinking about how thoroughly she was about to break their hearts. Their only child, denouncing her people for a crew of bears.
“Go ahead,” Dad said low.
Aviana swallowed hard and blew out a long, shaky breath. “Mom, Dad, I found Easton. I told Caden no on the courtship because the cub I knew all those years ago has grown into a good man. A man who will make me happy and give me a life full of love. I belong with him.” Her throat tightened over the words. “I belong with Easton and his people.”
“Oh, honey,” Mom said, “we know.”
Perhaps Aviana had heard her wrong. “I’m sorry…what?”
“Caden sent some of his people to watch you. He forwarded us a picture of you sitting in a bar with a man with green eyes. Your father recognized him right away.”
“You knew?”
“We just wanted to give you a chance to tell us when you were ready,” Mom said.
Dad was so quiet though, he must be angry. That’s how he got when he was really mad. He holed up into himself where no one could reach him.
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
“No, baby,” Dad said, his words broken. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I pulled you away from that boy when I knew you’d bonded with him. Even as young as you were, you cared deeply for him, and I didn’t listen. I watched you wither for years. I watched you never connect with any of our people. I watched your face when we got the news that Caden wanted to court you. I hoped you would be happy, but you had this doomed look in your eyes. It’s something a parent never wants to see in their child. I was wrong to separate you from Easton. And I hope…” Dad cleared his throat. More softly, he said, “I hope that someday you can forgive me.”
Aviana bit her lip so hard she tasted iron. She couldn’t fall apart now. “Dad, there’s nothing to forgive. I love you both so much. I know you’ll have to stop talking to me after I’m shunned—”
“Oh, no we won’t,” Mom said defiantly. “Honey, we’ve already been shunned.”
“What?”
“We told Caden where he could shove his threats, and it was where the sun don’t shine. It was a decision we both made solely based on that picture.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because,” Dad said, “in the picture you were smiling like we haven’t seen you do since you were a kid. If our people want to banish us for supporting our daughter’s happiness, so be it. Living an empty life with Caden isn’t what we want for you. We want that
smile you had in the picture. The one you get with Easton.”
All choked up by her parents’ sacrifice, Aviana asked, “Will you visit me? I want you to meet all of the Gray Backs. They’re lovely, and so nice. Scary, but protective and fierce, and the women are so important in this crew. I feel stronger. And my alpha and his mate have a brand new baby. Oh, she’s so tiny and cute. And I want you to meet the man I’ve fallen in love with. Easton is wild and powerful, but he’s also sweet and takes care of me. He makes me happy. I want you to see how he’s turned out, and then you won’t have to worry about me living with bears anymore. He protects me. Always.”
She could hear the smile in Mom’s voice when she said, “Of course. We can’t wait to meet Easton and all of your new crew.”
“Yes,” Dad murmured. “We’re looking forward to seeing the old cabin again and seeing you with your…mate. Bear pairs are called mates, right?”
Aviana laughed thickly and hugged the phone tighter to her ear. “Yes.” It still made her giddy to hear that word.
“We’re happy you’ve found your place, Aviana,” Mom said, sounding proud. “Our brave little raven. We love you.”
“I love you both, too. So much.”
“Okay, honey. We’ll talk soon. Let us know when you settle enough for visitors.”
“I will.”
“Bye-bye now,” Dad said.
“Bye,” Aviana said on a happy sigh before she hung up.
She smiled down at the screen of her phone for a long time, looking at her reflection. It was there. Dad was right. It was a smile she didn’t remember seeing before. A toothy one, given freely and easily. One conjured by the joy Easton had put back into her heart. Her parents had been shunned because of her decision to chase love, yet they hadn’t made her feel guilty over it. Instead, they’d been happy that she’d found what she’d been searching for.
Excited, Aviana ran back inside and grabbed the handle of her suitcase. After one last look around the cabin, she closed the door and dragged her luggage to her car.
The Gray Back Crew was cooking a big meal tonight. Hot wings with beer to celebrate her moving into 1010. Now she didn’t have to go with a heavy heart that she’d hurt her parents. She could her life with her new crew and the man she loved.