Clara breathed a sigh of relief. Riley had taken Clara’s revelation in stride, and even seemed excited about it. As Clara and Riley baked the last few pies, Clara told Riley her story, starting at the beginning, when she used to live in peace in Alaska with her clan of polar bear shifters. She explained how her alpha had started the clan wars, and how most of her clan had been wiped out in an attack by a rival clan. Then she talked about how she had spent the last few years living in constant fear of a shifter discovering her and killing her as vengeance for the bloodshed her old alpha had caused. She finished up the story by talking about how she had been on her way to Los Angeles when her car broke down and she had been forced to end her trip in Red Valley.
“You pretty much know the rest from there,” Clara said. “I was planning to just lay low in Red Valley for a while, but then I discovered that there’s a whole clan of shifters just outside of town.”
Riley was shaking her head again. “Wow, what a story. I can’t believe your alpha was crazy like that. The alpha of the Burning Claws Crew is nothing like that. He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet.”
Clara shrugged. “Yeah, it was a bad time for all of the shifter clans in Alaska. There have been skirmishes between clans up there in the past—fights over land or hunting grounds or little things like that. But they were usually just between a few clans and were settled pretty quickly. No one up there had ever seen anything like the all-out war my alpha started. It was hard on everyone. I’m glad the war was finally stopped, but it left me without any real possibility of having a life up there. Honestly, I was even worried that Zach might have heard of the Blizzards and try to attack me, too. But he seemed oblivious.”
“Naw, Zach has had his own share of heartache, but he’s usually fine with shifters. It’s full humans that he hates. Or at least, he used to. He’s made quite the turnaround in the last several months, mostly due to his daughter Sophia. He has his own human lifemate now, and they’re getting married in December. And he’s even adopting a fully human child with her.”
“Wow, he sounds like a really great guy.”
Riley laughed. “Yeah, I guess he is. It’s still hard for me to believe how much he’s changed. He used to be awful. But he seems to have truly turned over a new leaf. I’ll be baking pies for his wedding, by the way. So if you stick around, you can help with that.”
Clara smiled. “It’s looking more and more like sticking around is going to be a possibility. Zach mentioned that his alpha might be willing to let me stay with the clan, which would be awesome because I’m still looking for a place to live.”
Riley’s face lit up. “Oh my gosh, that would be amazing! You have to stay with us. The clan lives in a bunkhouse next to a big airplane hangar, and we have so much fun. We’re always doing cookouts and bonfires and things like that.”
“Why an airplane hangar?” Clara asked.
“Didn’t Zach tell you? His clan works as a team of smokejumpers. They parachute into wildfires to help put them out. Work’s been slow right now, though, thanks to all the rain.”
Clara’s eyes widened. “A clan of smokejumpers? I’d be scared out of my mind to jump out of a plane.”
“Right?” Riley said, slapping her knee in agreement. “Hunter keeps telling me that you just get used to it, but I think he’s out of his mind. I would pee my pants if someone told me to jump from the door of an airplane.”
Clara laughed. “Well, I hope joining the clan as a shifter doesn’t involve any sort of initiation jump.”
“I’m sure it won’t,” Riley said with a smile. “Hey, why don’t you come meet everyone tonight? We’re having a big barbecue and it will be a great chance to get to know the clan. Plus, there will be a lot of beer and wine. And pie. Lots of pie, if you aren’t sick of it by now.”
“I think it’s going to take a long, long time for me to get sick of these pies. Your recipes are so good. But do you really think it’s okay if I come? Maybe I should get permission from your alpha first.”
“Ian won’t care,” Riley said. “I’m not kidding when I say that he’s pretty much the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. The only thing he really worries about is exposing the clan as shifters to the humans in Red Valley. But, since you’re a shifter yourself, that’s obviously not a concern.”
“Okay,” Clara said, nodding her head. “If you’re sure it’s okay, I’d love to come out. I have to admit, living in a motel room by myself has started to get to me. It’s a pretty lonely existence.”
“Definitely come out, then. You won’t be lonely with the Burning Claws Clan around, I promise. They’re a great group. I can give you a ride, since I know you don’t have a car right now.”
Clara grinned. “Alright, I’ll come,” she said as she handed the last pie to Riley to put in the oven.
And I hope Carter is still working there when I get there,” she silently added to herself.
Chapter Five
Carter was still working when Clara arrived, but he didn’t seem to notice her presence. She was disappointed, although she wasn’t sure why. He had barely noticed her in the pie shop earlier, so what made her think he would suddenly be excited to see her when he was in the middle of hammering away at a wall? Clara did her best to push him out of her mind. Sure, he was drop dead gorgeous, but other than that, she barely knew him. There was no sense in pining over someone just because he was good-looking. For all she knew, he had a wife or girlfriend waiting for him at home. She felt foolish for even thinking that someone as handsome as Carter would be available.
Clara focused her attention on meeting the Burning Claws Crew. As Riley had promised, everyone treated her like a long-lost friend. Riley had already called ahead and given Ian a quick overview of Clara’s story, and he welcomed Clara warmly, telling her that she had nothing to worry about here: none of his clan had ever heard of the Blizzards or the clan wars, and he wasn’t interested in harming a female shifter who had taken no part in the bloodshed, anyway.
Ian’s lifemate, Charlotte, offered Clara a glass of wine in a red Solo cup, and then took over the task of introducing her to everyone.
“You’ve already met Riley. This is her lifemate, Hunter. Luke is standing next to Hunter with his lifemate, River, and behind them are Trevor and Bailey. Zach is at the grill, but you’ve already met him. His lifemate, Mindy, is across the grass over there, kicking a soccer ball with their little girl, Sophia.”
Clara felt her head spinning as she tried to remember all of the names. “I hope there’s not going to be a pop quiz on who’s who at the end of the evening,” she said.
Christine laughed. “Don’t worry, there’s no quiz. But you’ll catch on quickly, anyway. It’s a lot all at once, but everyone is such a character and has such a unique personality that you’ll have them sorted out in no time.”
Clara took a seat at one of several picnic tables near the grill, and was soon joined by the other women of the clan, who were all interested in meeting a female shifter. They were even more intrigued when they discovered she was a polar bear shifter. They asked her to shift her hand so they could see, and Clara glanced nervously in the direction of where Carter had been fifteen minutes earlier. She didn’t want him to see that she was a shifter, and she doubted anyone else in the clan wanted that, either. Ian noticed her gaze, and reassured her that Carter was gone.
“He was just wrapping up for the day when you got here,” Ian said. “He can’t do much in the dark, anyway, and the sun sets so early these days. Don’t worry. We don’t talk much about shifting when he’s around. I don’t think he’s the type of human to freak out about it, but you never know.”
Clara nodded, then turned her attention back to the women at the picnic table. River was practically bouncing in her seat. “I love polar bears!” she exclaimed. “Show us your polar paw.”
Clara blushed. She wasn’t used to being the center of attention, and she didn’t exactly enjoy being in the spotlight. But it did feel good to find a group of peop
le excited about getting to know her better. She raised her right hand, let out a low growl, and shifted the hand from human flesh into the white, furry paw of a polar bear. Long claws extended from the end of the paw, and the women oohed and ahhed over how fearsome her hand now appeared.
Clara blushed deeper, and shifted her hand back to human form with a shrug. “I don’t really think of myself as fearsome,” she said. “I guess I’m just used to my bear form. Besides, I’m actually pretty small for a polar bear. Pretty much all of the shifters in Alaska were larger than me.”
“Still,” River said, “It’s pretty badass to know a woman who can shift.”
“Oh, great, guys,” Luke called out from behind the grill, where he had joined Zach. “Looks like we’re all gonna be old news. Who cares about guys shifting when there’s a badass girl around shifting at will.”
“Uh-oh,” Ian shot back, “Looks like someone’s feeling a little threatened by a woman. Maybe you should do a few more pushups and actually get some muscles on those arms, if you want your woman to pay attention to you.”
The whole group burst into laughter at Ian’s comments. Clara even smiled, despite still feeling tense about being the center of attention. This group clearly liked to cut up and have a good time. And despite Ian’s comments about Luke’s arms not having muscles, there wasn’t a single shifter in the group that didn’t look like he could tear down a house using nothing more than his own brute strength. The men of this clan had impressive physiques. And they had all chosen beautiful women for their lifemates. Clara felt like her own face was a little on the plain side, but no one seemed concerned with how she looked. And everyone acted so friendly. This group didn’t seem like the type to judge people based on how they looked.
Zach and Luke started piling burgers and hot dogs from the grill onto a big platter, and within seconds, the clan was surrounding the platter, piling paper plates high with food.
“Hey, hey,” Ian yelled out. “I’m sure you all are literally starving to death, but how about having some manners? Let our guest of honor get her food first.”
Clara blushed again as she realized that Ian was referring to her. “Oh, it’s okay, really. I don’t need to go first,” she said.
“Nonsense,” Charlotte said. “You’re our guest tonight. You get first dibs on the food. Take advantage while you can, because you’re only a guest once. From here on out, you’re family.”
Clara felt her heart stirring with hope as Charlotte gave her a friendly wink. It had been years since anyone had referred to her as “family.” Was it possible she had found a new family in the middle of a random town in northern California? Clara gave her new friends a shy smile, and quickly filled her plate. Charlotte poured a refill of wine into Clara’s plastic cup, and soon all of the clan members were sitting around, happily munching on the best meal Clara had enjoyed since leaving Alaska.
Soon, everyone was pressing Clara to tell her story. Most of the clan had caught bits and pieces of it from Ian or Riley, and they wanted to hear the whole tale from Clara herself. Clara ran through her history again, telling the whole Burning Claws Clan about her struggles in Alaska, and how she had been unfairly persecuted for the actions of a crazed alpha. Each of her new friends gave her sympathetic glances as they heard about the anguish through which she had lived. The more Clara talked, the more at peace she felt. She had a good feeling about this clan. They were welcoming and nonjudgmental, and, as Clara spent the evening with them, she started to actually believe that she might be able to truly start over fresh here.
And Charlotte had been right—it didn’t take long to start sorting out the names of the clan members. By the time the pies came out for dessert, Clara had figured out who was who. More importantly, by the time the pies were sliced, Ian had offered Clara a place to stay.
“We have plenty of room in the bunkhouse,” he said. “And once the expansion and remodel is done, it’ll be even better, with more private rooms and spaces. I think everyone here agrees that you’re a strong person, and my clan doesn’t like to look the other way when a fellow shifter needs help. The door is open for you to stay here for as long as you’d like.”
Clara had managed to maintain her composure for most of the evening, but Ian’s generous offer pushed her over the edge. Two tears of gratitude escaped from her eyelids, spilling down her cheeks as she smiled over at the kindest alpha she had ever met.
“I’d love that. Thank you.”
Life in Red Valley was treating her pretty well, it seemed.
Chapter Six
Carter opened his fridge and pulled out a beer can, then popped the tab open. He wasn’t fond of drinking alone, but it seemed to be his only option these days. He downed his first can of PBR while he heated up a microwave dinner, then grabbed a second can to take to the couch along with his food. He flipped mindlessly through the channels and sipped his second beer, slower this time. He couldn’t understand what he was doing so wrong.
He’d been working hard for Zach and the crew of smokejumpers, pushing the limits of how fast he could build to get the expansion done on the bunkhouse. But, despite the fact that the crew had a barbecue every night, and Carter was almost always wrapping up his work to leave as they fired up the grill, he had never been invited to join them. Not once. Sure, Zach invited him to go for pie or to grab a coffee in town now and then. But he had never invited him to stay for a beer and a burger. Carter had thought it was a little strange, since he was on a first name basis with the whole group by now. Most of the time, when he found himself on a long job where he was around a group of people all day, he ended up eating lots of dinners and drinking lots of beers with them. He had thought that maybe the smokejumping crew just wasn’t the outgoing type, and didn’t like to invite strangers to their gatherings. He’d made his peace with that theory, until tonight.
When he saw Clara walking up to the barbecue, and joining in like a longtime friend, he had felt his heart sink. He knew that Zach had just met Clara today, and, yet, here she was—invited to join in on the fun even though they barely knew her. Meanwhile, he packed up his tools and went home without so much as a goodbye wave from anyone.
Maybe it was time for Carter to face the truth: the problem was obviously him. Something was wrong with him that made people not want to hang out with him. He had no idea what it was, because he thought he was a pretty decent guy. But since his ex-girlfriend had broken up with him two years ago, his group of friends had dwindled to zero. He had blamed it on his busy work schedule, but, now, he had finally landed a big job where he thought he would have a chance to meet some new buddies. Instead, he was shunned. Had he just become a miserable person to be around since the breakup? He had tried to stay positive, but maybe he hadn’t been positive enough.
Carter frowned as he spooned the last few bites of his microwave dinner into his mouth. He would do the only thing he felt he could do under these circumstances: he would work from sunup to sundown without stopping. He would finish the expansion for the smokejumpers as fast as humanly possible. No more breaks for pie or coffee, no more getting to the worksite at six-thirty a.m. instead of six a.m. He was going to get this project done, and get out of there. At least then he wouldn’t have to face watching everyone enjoy a barbecue without him every evening.
Getting away from the smokejumpers wouldn’t solve his loneliness problem, but it would keep him from having his lack of friends rubbed in his face every evening. That was the best he could do for now.
* * *
Despite his determination to work harder than ever, Carter’s plans continued to be thwarted by the rain. He managed to stay on schedule, at least, but he couldn’t get ahead. He was trying his best to get all of the outside work done, so that he could finish up the interior work without worrying about the weather. The smokejumpers hung around the hangar and bunkhouse quite a bit. The fire season was all but over, and with the unusual amount of rain, it didn’t look like there would be any more fires to fight this year. Zach
frequently came by to chat with Carter, confusing Carter even further as to why he was never invited to join in on the barbecues. If Zach enjoyed talking to him so much, then why didn’t he ask him to grab a beer after the day’s work was done? The only bright spot for Carter was that he occasionally saw a glimpse of Clara. Even though she didn’t show any interest in him, he loved to watch her beauty from afar. He loved hearing her laugh drifting across the grassy space in front of the hangar, making it all the way to the bunkhouse where he was working to tickle his ears with its melody.
Carter found himself unable to get Clara out of his head. He got into the habit of heading to the pie shop whenever the rain kept him from working. He joked about how the pies were so good that he couldn’t stay away. But the truth was that Clara was so beautiful that he couldn’t stay away. Carter tried to build up a friendship with her, chatting as much as he could every time she was the one behind the counter taking his order. She was obviously busy, so he could never talk for very long. But over the course of the month of October and November, he managed to learn a good deal about her. She had moved here from Alaska to start over, although she was persistently vague about the details of why she needed to start over. The most he could get out of her was that there hadn’t been much of a life left for her in Alaska. She had intended to move to Los Angeles, but she was enjoying Red Valley so much that she planned to stay here for the foreseeable future. This news made Carter happy. It didn’t take long to figure out that she definitely wasn’t in a relationship, and Carter started plotting how to ask her out.
He didn’t just want to walk up to her and ask for her number, or say they should go to dinner sometime. He wanted to do something special. Something romantic. He gave himself a deadline of the twenty-second of November. It was a Sunday, and it was the beginning of what would surely be his last week of work on the smokejumpers base. He was putting the finishing touches on the interior remodels at the moment. Once this job was finished, he would have some free time to actually spend with a girl. He had a few jobs lined up for December, but nothing that would take over all of his time like the bunkhouse job had. Carter dared to let himself hope that he might not spend the holidays alone this year.
Beary And Bright (Fire Bear Shifters 6) Page 3