Fire Bear Shifters: The Complete Series

by Sloane Meyers

  “Did you see anything that looked kind of like a power surge? Maybe like a whoosh of wind or something?” Bailey asked.

  “Yes, actually. There was some sort of weird power surge. It happened twice. First, right before I came in here and saw the bear cub. And then again when the bear cub turned back into Sophia. How did you know that?” Mindy asked. She suddenly realized that she was shaking, and Bailey seemed to notice it, too.

  “Come on. Let’s go to the living room. I have a lot to tell you,” Bailey said.

  Feeling overwhelmed and confused, Mindy followed Bailey without a word. When they got to the living room, Mindy sat on the couch while Bailey went to Mindy’s kitchen and started boiling water for tea. When the tea was finished, Bailey poured two steaming mugs of it and came back to the living room, sitting on the couch next to Mindy. Mindy took the mug Bailey offered, and breathed in the strong peppermint aroma of the tea.

  Bailey took a sip of her tea, and then looked over at Mindy. “Did Sophia say anything to you that might indicate she was…different?”

  “Not really. Before I brought her home from the orphanage, she told me that she had caused trouble. She said she’d been warned not to tell anyone what kind of trouble, because if she did no one would want her. At the time, that didn’t really make sense to me. I just thought she was dealing with the normal negative comments that the kids in orphanages and foster homes tend to get. Last night, she also kept saying ‘bears bad’ over and over, but I didn’t know what she meant. Now, it makes more sense. But that’s it. She hasn’t said anything else about turning into a bear or why it happens.”

  Bailey nodded. “It sounds like you’ve got a little bear shifter on your hands.”

  “A what?”

  “A bear shifter,” Bailey said. “It’s a rare genetic mutation that causes humans to be able to shift back and forth between bear form and human form at will. But, sometimes, in very young shifters, the ability to control the shifting isn’t fully developed. This can cause them to shift forms without warning and against their will. I’m guessing that’s what’s going on with Sophia. You said her mom died, and no one knows anything about her dad, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  Bailey nodded again. “Well, one or both of her parents would have been a shifter and passed on the genes for it to her. Since they’re both out of the picture, she has no one to help her learn to control her shifting abilities. Combine that with the fact that she’s probably upset by all of the unfamiliar environments she’s been thrown into, and you have a recipe for an out of control little shifter cub.”

  When Bailey had said she’d come over, Mindy had been expecting Bailey to be the one thinking Mindy had lost her mind. But now, she found herself looking at Bailey with wide, unbelieving eyes.

  “How do you know so much about this? And how do you seem so calm?” Mindy asked. “More importantly, do think you know how to help me?”

  “I think I can help you. Well, to be more specific, I think I know someone who can help you.”

  “Who?” Mindy asked. She was getting frustrated with Bailey’s cryptic answers.

  “The smokejumpers. Every one of the guys is a bear shifter,” Bailey said, then paused to let this bit of information sink in.

  “This is getting weird,” Mindy said.

  “I know, it’s a lot to take in. I almost left Trevor for good when he first told me. But now I’m just used to it. The guys are part of a shifter clan, and they can all change back and forth between bear and human form at will. If one or more of them can spend some time with Sophia and get her to trust them, they can start teaching her how to control her shifting.”

  Mindy sat on the couch feeling shell-shocked. She had expected Sophia to have some emotional issues that would need to be dealt with, but she had never in her wildest imaginations thought one of those problems would be uncontrolled bear shifting.

  “I promise you, Mindy. The guys can help Sophia get this under control. It’s actually a gift, especially for a girl. No guy will ever be able to push her around or hurt her physically. She’ll always know she can easily stand up for herself.”

  Mindy just nodded, trying to process everything Bailey was telling her. Before she found her voice to say anything else, she heard little footsteps pounding down the hallway. Sophia came into the living room, dressed in her brand new mint green nightgown and clutching Frog. She approached Mindy and Bailey cautiously, then pointed at Bailey.

  “Who’s this?” she asked, her voice full of apprehension.

  “This is your Auntie Bailey,” Mindy said, trying to keep her voice as happy and confident as possible. “She’s been looking forward to meeting you.”

  “She’s not here to take me away?” Sophia asked.

  “No, sweetie. She’s not here to take you away. She’s one of my good friends.”

  Sophia considered this information, and then her lower lip started quivering as she looked back at Mindy. “Are you going to send me away now? Because I was bad?”

  Mindy held out her arms, inviting Sophia to come get a hug. “No, Sophia. I’m not going to send you anywhere. You belong right here with me. And you weren’t bad. You’re a very special girl, and Auntie Bailey knows some people who can help you learn to keep your little bear under control.”

  Sophia looked visibly relieved, and she crossed the living room to hop onto the couch and into Mindy’s outstretched arms. After a few moments of snuggling up against Mindy, she tilted her head upward.

  “Are you my mom now?” Sophia asked.

  “I want to be,” Mindy said. “That’s why I’m trying to get an appointment with the judge to adopt you.”

  Sophia sat up and looked at Mindy, her face turning very serious. “Can I call you ‘Mom’?” she asked.

  Mindy bit her lip to control the flood of emotions that ran through her. “Of course. It would make me very happy if you did.”

  Sophia sat up and hopped off the couch. “Frog and I are going back to bed. Good night, Mom.”

  “Good night, Sophia,” Mindy said, unable to keep a single tear from escaping down her cheek.

  Sophia started back toward the hallway, then turned around at the last second. “Good night, Auntie Bay-ee.”

  Bailey smiled, “Good night, sweetie.”

  As soon as Sophia had disappeared down the hallway, Bailey turned and looked at Mindy with wide eyes.

  “Um, Mindy, did you notice anything strange about the way Sophia looks?”

  “No. Like I said she looked like a normal little girl to me. I had no idea she was a shifter, or whatever you call it.”

  “No, I’m not talking about whether she looks like a bear. I’m talking about the fact that she looks like a little carbon copy of Zach.”

  “Oh, yeah. I thought that too when I first saw her. Weird, isn’t it? Do you think they’re related or something?”

  “I’d be willing to bet money on it. Shifters are rare, and finding a shifter that looks exactly like Zach just seems to be too much of a coincidence.”

  Mindy felt her heart clench. For the first time since she saw Sophia, she allowed herself to consider the awful possibility that Sophia’s father might be out there and might come claim her before Mindy could adopt Sophia. And now, Mindy had to worry about whether Zach, a man who couldn’t seem to get his emotions together, was Sophia’s father. If that was the case, Zach would probably try to keep Sophia away from Mindy out of spite, since Mindy had refused to date him and probably insulted him with her rejection. Mindy suddenly realized that Bailey was speaking again, and forced herself to focus.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” Mindy asked.

  “I asked where Sophia lived before her mom died. It wasn’t Georgia by chance, was it?” Bailey said.

  “No, it was Idaho.”

  “Hmm,” Bailey said. “I don’t think anyone in the clan has ever lived in Idaho. But I also haven’t spent much time talking to Zach, so maybe he had some sort of brief stint there that I don’t
know about.”

  “Will he try to take Sophia away from me?” Mindy asked, her voice trembling.

  Bailey looked at Mindy and gave her a sympathetic look. “If Zach is her dad, he should be in her life. But, since she obviously views you as a mother figure, you should be, too. I think, if Zach does find out he has a kid, he’s going to be scared and want help knowing how to be a parent. I honestly don’t think he’ll try to take her away. I think he’ll beg you not to leave. He’ll want help.”

  “What do I do now?” Mindy asked. “Walk up to Zach and say, ‘Hey, I think I might have your kid’?”

  “Why don’t you let me talk to him? I can try to see if he knows anyone from Idaho, or has any other ties that might indicate how he’s connected to Sophia. The guys just got back from a fire mission last night, so they’re exhausted. I guess it ended up being longer than they thought it would be because the wildfire changed directions before the backfire they lit caught up with it and burned it out. But anyway, I don’t think any of them have any big plans for tomorrow, so I’ll talk to him first thing in the morning.”

  Mindy nodded solemnly. “Okay,” she said, although fears about losing Sophia to Zach still played across her mind.

  Bailey stood up and gave Mindy an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, this is all going to work out just fine. Do you have to work tomorrow?”

  Mindy nodded.

  “Can you bring Sophia to base instead of taking her to preschool? I can watch her. I know it’s out of the way, but it’s better not to have her around people who don’t know about shifters until she has her shifting ability under control. If she shifts in front of everyone at preschool, they’re going to call her caseworker and the cops. Trust me, you don’t want that.”

  “I’ll bring her by. In fact, I might just try to take tomorrow off. I’ve already taken several days off this month, but I think this qualifies as a family emergency.”

  Bailey nodded. “Okay, well just call me in the morning and let me know if you’re bringing her by. I’ll talk to Zach first thing and let you know if he can shed any light on the situation.”

  Mindy agreed, and Bailey left, shutting the door behind her and leaving Mindy alone with her now-cold mug of tea.

  Mindy put her face in her hands and took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

  When she first met Sophia, she felt like fate had brought them together. She had to believe that—no matter what happened tomorrow—fate would keep them together.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Zach woke up before dawn, and started quietly packing his bag to leave. The crew had arrived back to base late last night, and he’d been too tired to keep his eyes open. He’d figured that he should at least get a good night’s sleep before leaving the crew behind.

  But his sleep had been anything but good. He’d slept restlessly for several hours, and finally woken up for good at five a.m. Rather than toss and turn any longer, he got up to pack his bag. Maybe he could slip away before anyone saw him. He didn’t really want to say goodbye. The crew would try to convince him to stay, but he had already made up his mind to leave. He didn’t want them to make it harder than it already was.

  After packing his bag, Zach took a long shower, relishing the hot steaming water as it ran across his back. After spending much longer in the wilderness than the crew had originally planned on for this fire, creature comforts like a shower felt marvelous. When Zach finally stepped out of the shower and started toweling off, it was nearly seven o’clock. He groaned as he realized that the crew members would all be waking up soon, if they weren’t up already. He was quickly losing his window of time to sneak away from base unnoticed.

  Zach quickly threw on the jeans he’d brought to the showers with him, then hurried back to his bunk. He’d finish getting dressed, then throw the bag in his truck and be gone.

  But he stopped short when he reached his bunk. Bailey was sitting next to his bag, waiting for him. What the hell was she doing here? Had she somehow figured out what he was doing? And, if so, why did she care if he left? Out of all the clan members, he had probably been the rudest to her. He wouldn’t blame her if she hated him, and he honestly wasn’t too fond of her himself. He didn’t know her that well, but he hated how happy and peppy she always seemed. Right now, though, she had a serious look on her face.

  “Going somewhere?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the bag.

  “None of your business,” Zach growled. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m just wondering if you’ve ever spent any time in Idaho?” Bailey said, crossing her arms and looking at him carefully, as if she was expecting some sort of big reaction.

  Zach almost laughed. He had no idea what she was expecting, or what kind of dirt she seemed to think she had dug up on him, but she was clearly mistaken about whatever it was she thought she’d found.

  “I’ve never set foot in Idaho,” he said. “Any more trivia questions about my life, or was that all.”

  Bailey frowned. “Hmm,” she said, stroking her chin thoughtfully.

  Zach sighed. “You’re welcome to sit here as long as you want, but I’m going to get moving.” He grabbed his bag and started heading for the door, when Bailey said eight words that stopped him in his tracks and changed his life.

  “Do you know any little girls named Sophia?”

  Zach turned around slowly. “What did you say?” he managed to whisper. His heart started pounding. The night Traci had found out she was pregnant, and they had stayed up all night talking, he had mentioned his two top name choices—Myles for a boy, and Sophia for a girl. Over the past few years, when he’d imagined his cub, he’d always imagined him or her as Myles or Sophia, even though he doubted Traci would have used the names he’d picked.

  Bailey seemed to realize that she had struck some sort of chord with Zach, so she kept talking.

  “Mindy is fostering a little girl named Sophia. She’s in the process of trying to adopt her actually. Last night, we discovered that the girl is a shifter. She looks just like you, Zach. Just. Like. You.”

  “How old?” Zach growled.

  “Four. Almost five.”

  Zach felt the world stop spinning. Was it possible? This couldn’t be real, could it? Mindy, his fated lifemate who didn’t want to give him a chance, had somehow ended up fostering his long-lost cub. But as the pieces fell into place in Zach’s mind, he realized it made perfect sense. Fate was drawing them all together, confirming that they were meant to be a family.

  “Sophia,” Zach said softly, his voice barely audible. So the cub had been a girl. He had a daughter.

  Bailey was talking again, saying something about how the girl was having trouble controlling her shifting and thought no one would keep her because of that. She was going on about how no one knew anything about the girl’s father, but Zach couldn’t focus on what Bailey was saying.

  “Where?” he asked, his voice cracking as he interrupted Bailey’s monologue.

  “What?” Bailey asked, startled by Zach’s sudden interjection.

  “Where is she? Where’s my daughter?” My daughter, he repeated to himself silently. I have a daughter.

  “She’s at Mindy’s. They might come by here later but I wanted to talk to you first because—”

  “Where is Mindy’s place?” Zach interrupted, his heart starting to beat wildly.

  “She has a townhome on First and Elm, at Sequoia Place Townhomes, but, Zach—”

  Zach didn’t hear anything else Bailey said. He grabbed his keys and ran, still barefoot and shirtless, to his truck. He hopped behind the wheel and cranked up the engine, then pealed out of the parking lot, leaving a very frustrated Bailey in a cloud of dust behind him.

  “Sophia, Sophia, Sophia,” he said over and over, letting her name roll over his tongue. He drove way too fast the whole way to Red Valley, not caring if he got a ticket. All he could think about was that this couldn’t possibly be happening, but that he couldn’t handle the heartache if it wasn’t.
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  When he saw a sign for Sequoia Place Townhomes, he skidded into the parking lot and threw the truck into park. Hopping out of the truck, he ran wildly around for a minute, trying to figure out which door might be Mindy’s. An old woman gave him a strange look, and he realized he must look like an insane person, running around with a crazed look in his eye and no shirt or shoes. But he couldn’t worry about anything right now except how to find Mindy’s door. When he saw her old red Camry parked in front of one of the townhomes, he figured that one must be hers. He ran up to the door and knocked, crossing his fingers and pleading with the universe that he was about to find the child for whom he’d spent the last five years searching.

  When the door opened, Mindy stood in front of him with a guarded, wary look in her eyes.

  “Zach,” she said, her voice strained.

  “Where is she?” he asked, his voice breaking. “Where’s my girl?”

  A little face peeked out from behind Mindy’s legs and looked up at him curiously. The girl had Traci’s nose, but everything else looked exactly like him. There was no doubt that this was his child.

  “Sophia,” he said softly, unable to believe that this moment was really happening.

  “Daddy?” she asked, scrunching her little nose up in confusion as she looked up at him.

  Zach looked at Mindy in surprise. “Did you tell her I was her daddy?” he asked.

  Mindy shook her head no. “I didn’t want to say anything until we figured this all out for sure. I have no idea how she knows who you are.”

  Zach knelt down in front of the girl. “Sophia, who told you I was your daddy?”

  “Mommy did. I mean, my old mommy. Not my new mommy,” Sophia said, looking at Mindy as if trying to sort out all of the pieces of her complicated life. “The day before she died, she gave me a picture of you and said you were my daddy. She said she was sorry she had to leave me, but that she had made too many mistakes. She said you were my daddy and that I should try to find you, but I didn’t know how to look. So I kept the picture hidden. All of the adults that I’ve stayed with have been scary and mean. Except my new mommy.”