Ian and Clara came into the room. Carter and Clara sat on the full size bed, and Ian took the single wooden desk chair that the room held. Ian coughed uncomfortably a few times before beginning his questioning.
“So, we know you had quite an ordeal last night. We want to see how much you remember of Clara’s rescuing you. Do you recall anything strange or out of the ordinary happening?” Ian asked.
Understanding dawned on Carter. This was about the bear. Carter didn’t want to beat around the bush with them, and, besides, he wanted some explanations himself. He got directly to the point. “I saw Clara turn into a polar bear. I’d say that’s a little out of the ordinary.”
Ian did his best to school his features, but Carter saw the surprised, worried look crossing Ian’s face before he could completely stop it.
“Look,” Carter said. “I’m not sure what happened, but I’d like some answers. You both obviously already know about this phenomenon, or whatever you want to call it, that allows a human to become a bear. But it was quite a shock to me. I’m not going to try to get you guys in trouble, which seems to be the concern here. But I’m genuinely curious as to how in the world this happens.”
Ian’s face seemed to relax at Carter’s words. “Have you ever heard of shifters, Carter?”
“Shifters? Sure. Like the mythological werewolves and such?”
“Sort of. We’re bear shifters. All of the smokejumpers except Charlotte are black bear shifters. Charlotte, and the other women here except for Clara, are fully human. Clara is a polar bear shifter. We took her in because we try to take care of our fellow shifters.”
“Okay,” Carter said slowly. “I’m still not quite understanding what a shifter is, or how this all works.”
“Shifting is a genetic trait. It’s not some kind of disease that you get from being bitten by another shifter, which is probably what you’re thinking of when you think of werewolves. It’s just a genetic mutation. You’re either born with it or you’re not. There are several shifter clans scattered throughout the United States and Canada, representing all kinds of bears—black bears, polar bears, grizzly bears. I even heard there’s a clan of panda bears down in southern California.”
“So…there’s just a bunch of half bears roaming around?” Carter asked his eyes widening. “Is it just the U.S. and Canada?”
“No, of course not. They’re all over the world. I just wanted you to understand that there are many shifters walking among you, right here in the country you live in.”
“How many shifters are we talking about?” Carter asked.
“No one knows for sure,” Ian said. “We tend to keep our shifting abilities in the shadows. I can tell immediately when I meet another shifter that they are a shifter, but I don’t have an exhaustive list of how many shifters there are, or where they live, if that makes sense.”
“Yep, makes sense,” Carter said, still trying to process this information. Next to him, Clara fidgeted but still did not say anything.
“When Clara moved here, she was trying to get away from the aftermath of shifter clan wars in Alaska,” Ian said. “Zach recognized her as a shifter and we took her in. Life as a shifter gets tough sometimes, and it always helps if you have other shifters around. Being with other shifters is a safe place of sorts. When you’re around shifters or people who know about shifting and accept it, you don’t have to worry about accidentally doing or saying something that would tip someone off about your unique abilities.”
“I take it not everyone is accepting of shifting.”
Clara and Ian both laughed bitterly.
“No,” Ian said. “Many humans fear us, and start campaigns to destroy us if they find out we exist. Entire clans have been wiped out by senseless bear hunts. It’s frustrating, because we aren’t here to harm anyone. We just want to live peacefully with our friends and family.”
“So, basically, you want to make sure I’m not going to start a bear hunt,” Carter said.
Ian nodded, and looked expectantly at Carter, waiting for his reply.
Carter laughed. “I’m not going to start a bear hunt. I’ve known you guys for a while now, and you’ve been nothing but wonderful to me. I have to admit, my feelings were a little hurt that I never got invited to any of your barbecues, but now I understand why. You didn’t want full humans around.”
“Sorry about that,” Ian said. “Now that you know who we are, you’re more than welcome to join us for our next barbecue.”
“Really?” Carter asked, a bit surprised by the sudden invitation.
“Yes, really. We’re not trying to be exclusive. We’re just trying to stay safe.”
Carter nodded. “I understand. And I still have a lot of questions about shifting, but mostly just curiosities. Like, does it hurt? Do you have complete control over it? Do you have to shift every so often to keep your shifting abilities sharp?”
Ian laughed. “It doesn’t hurt. It feels mostly like a lot of pressure building up, so it’s a little uncomfortable. But not painful. Yes, we have complete control over it. And usually we try to shift at least once a month, although a little less isn’t a big deal. Once a shifter cub learns to control their shifting, it’s kind of like riding a bike. It just comes back to you.”
Clara fidgeted again, and Carter looked over at her. “Well, I’m not going to freak out about shifters hiding among me. I’m very thankful that Clara had the ability to save me. I’m not sure how that would have turned out, otherwise. How did you know where to find me, or even that I was in trouble?”
Clara smiled. “It’s a really long story,” she said. “How about I tell you on the drive back to get your truck?”
“Sounds good,” Carter said. He couldn’t hold back a smile at the thought of spending all that time in a car, talking to Clara. He knew she was worried now that he thought she was strange, or something to be feared. But he felt quite the opposite, in fact. He felt intrigued. Curious. Desperate to know more about the beautiful bear he had fallen in love with.
“I’ll leave you two to sort out logistics of getting his truck back, then,” Ian said. “I just needed to make sure, as clan leader, that you weren’t going to cause trouble for my bears. Hopefully you can understand that and aren’t offended by my concern. It’s just a precaution.”
“I understand,” Carter said. “Although, now that I know about your secret, I hope you really will allow me to hang out here with everyone. I could use some friends, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know everyone on the crew during my time here working on the bunkhouse.”
Ian smiled kindly as he stood and clapped Carter on the shoulder. “You’re welcome here anytime, man. Thanks for being understanding.”
Ian waved to Carter and Clara, then left the room, leaving them to several moments of awkward silence.
“What time is it?” Carter finally asked.
“Early. About seven a.m.”
“Damn. You guys don’t mess around with getting the day started, do you?”
Clara laughed. “No, I guess we don’t We should probably get going, though. I was supposed to be at the pie shop at five a.m. this morning, so I’m already way behind schedule,” she said.
“I’m really sorry for the inconvenience,” Carter said. And he meant it. He did feel really badly about the trouble he’d caused. “I could probably get one of the guys to take me back to the cabin.”
Clara shook her head no. “I’ll take you. I already told Riley I was going to be several hours late. And I think we have a few things to talk about.”
Carter felt his heart beating faster at her words. He had to admit that he was relieved she hadn’t passed off the job of getting him back to the cabin. And he knew they needed to talk. But he was suddenly nervous at all the possibilities of what she might say. He didn’t have much time to prepare himself for the car ride, though. Clara was already standing to leave, saying something about transferring their coffee into travel mugs for the drive.
Chapter Sixteen
&n
bsp; Ten minutes later, Carter climbed into the passenger seat next to Clara. Another extended silence fell over them as Clara turned the car in the direction of the cabin. Carter noticed a clanking sound coming from under the hood, which he didn’t remember noticing the night before.
“Did your car just start making that noise?” he asked.
“That clanking? No, it’s been doing that for a month now. I have no idea what it is, and I don’t really have money to take it to a shop.”
“You know that just ignoring it isn’t going to make it go away, right?” Carter said.
Clara sighed, not looking at him. “I know.”
“I can take a look at it, if you want,” Carter said.
“Really? That would be awesome.”
“Sure. I can’t promise I can find the problem, but I can try. I know a little bit about cars, and I have a few ideas about what might be causing that.”
Clara looked immensely relieved, and Carter realized that she had probably been trying and failing to push the worry of the car noise out of her mind. He had a feeling that any of the smokejumpers could have helped her with it, but that she was too proud to ask. Clara seemed like the kind of girl who preferred not to admit it when she needed help.
“So, what’s your deal?” he asked her, before he could think better of it. “You move from Alaska to California by yourself, and just randomly settle down in Red Valley?”
“It wasn’t random, exactly,” she said. “I needed to get out of Alaska, because clan wars there had destroyed my chance of a peaceful life. I was planning to go to Los Angeles, but my car broke down in Red Valley. Not this car. A different one. Repairing it would have cost a fortune, which I didn’t have at the time. Still don’t actually. But, anyway, I decided to stay here and work until I had enough money to keep heading on toward Los Angeles. Then I scrapped my plans for Los Angeles when I met the smokejumping crew, and became friends with them. I have no reason to leave at this point.”
“Must be nice to have such a big group of friends,” Carter said, wistfully.
“It is,” Clara agreed, then glanced over at Carter. “You say that like you don’t have that.”
Carter snorted. “No, I definitely don’t. I lost all of my friends years ago to a bad breakup. They all took her side, for the most part. And I lost touch with the few friends I had left when my construction business started taking off. I just got too busy. My fault, I guess.”
Carter glanced over at Clara and saw her frowning.
“Well, there’s no reason you can’t be friends with the smokejumpers. Now that you know about shifting, and are accepting of it, they’ll be happy to have you around.”
“And what about you?” Carter asked, his voice turning serious. “Will you be happy to have me around?”
“Yes,” Clara said, staring straight ahead at the road in front of her. “Do you think I would have rescued you if I didn’t want you around?”
Carter shrugged and tried to look nonchalant, although his heart started racing again at her words. He felt like the pounding in his chest was so loud and fast that Clara must be able to hear it, but she continued to stare straight ahead. If she did notice anything out of the ordinary about Carter’s demeanor, she didn’t acknowledge it.
“How did you know where I was?” Carter asked. “And more importantly, how did you know I was in trouble.”
Clara sighed, although she still didn’t glance at him. Carter didn’t necessarily blame her. She was reaching the point where the road narrowed and became curvy, so keeping an eye on her driving was probably the prudent thing to do.
“I knew something was wrong when I didn’t get a bouquet of flowers yesterday. So I went to the flower shop and found out who you were.”
Carter’s felt his cheeks turning red with embarrassment. “Oh, yeah, surprise, by the way. I’m your secret admirer.”
Clara laughed. “I guess that wasn’t quite how you envisioned your secret being revealed.”
“No, not exactly. I’m glad you discovered it was me, since it helped you find me. But I can’t believe the flower shop told you who I was. I gave them strict orders not to tell you if you asked. It was my secret.”
“I’m not sure ‘asked’ is the correct way to describe it. More like insisted and threatened. But let’s not waste time on the petty details,” Clara said, waving her hands as if to wave away a minor fact.
Carter laughed. “Okay, okay. So what happened next?”
“I looked your house up online. Stalkerish, I know, but I didn’t know how else to find you. When I got to your house, a neighbor of yours told me where you had gone to work. An old lady, with a really loud toy poodle.”
Carter couldn’t help but chuckle. “That’d be Miss Edna. She’s a trip.”
“So, long story short, I drove out to find you, was forced to turn into a bear to get the beam off of your leg, and here we are. Now I know your secret and you know mine. The end.”
Carter laughed. “It’s not that simple, though. You’re leaving details out. How did you know, just from a missing bouquet, that something was wrong? I would’ve expected you to just chalk it up to the guy getting tired of his little game, and leaving it at that.”
Clara didn’t speak for a long time, and Carter held his tongue, sensing that she had something important to say but wasn’t quite sure how to say it. When she finally did speak, she didn’t answer his question. Instead, she asked a question of her own.
“Do you still feel all of those things you wrote in the notes you sent with the bouquets? I would understand if you didn’t, now that you know that I’m a bear shifter.”
Carter reached over and put his hand on Clara’s thigh. “I still feel all of those things. I would venture to say I feel them even deeper now, that I’ve been privileged enough to see a deeper part of you. I will admit that it’s a lot to take in and understand. But knowing how unique and special you are only deepens my affection for you.”
Clara fell silent again, but Carter had a feeling that it was because she was fighting to keep her emotions in check. After several moments, he saw a single tear escape from her right eye and roll down her cheek.
“Hey, don’t cry,” he said softly, reaching up to brush away the tear.
“Sorry, it’s just that I had begun to think that no one would ever want me again. The clan wars I mentioned were pretty rough on the soul. That’s another long story for another day, but suffice it to say that it was hard for me to even find friends in Alaska, let alone a man to care about me.
“I may not understand what it’s like to go through clan wars,” Carter said. “But I understand what it’s like to be lonely and not have friends, or love. The holidays are the hardest time of year for me. I feel like everyone around me is so full of joy, and is having such a great time with their family and friends. And then here I am, by myself, with no one in my life to celebrate. Honestly, it’s why I wanted to do the bouquets for you in December. I was hoping to sweep you off your feet just in time for us to enjoy Christmas together.”
Clara had reached the cabin at this point. She pulled up next to Carter’s truck and put her car in park.
“I hate spending Christmas alone, too. But I thought I would never find a man brave enough to be with a woman who is half bear. You asked how I knew you were in danger. Well, shifters believe that we are all fated to be with one person. That person is our lifemate, and our souls are tied together. A shifter can feel the energy of his or her lifemate when that person is within a certain geographic proximity. When I didn’t get the bouquet, it set off warning bells in my soul. The feeling kept getting stronger, and I recognized it as the pull of a lifemate. I could feel that my lifemate was out there, and in trouble. The missing bouquet was just the first clue, but my heart told me the rest. I knew I had to find you, even though I didn’t know it was you at the time.”
Carter stared at Clara with wide eyes, unsure of what to say. “Wow,” he finally managed to get out. “So you feel like you’re fated to
be with me?”
Clara finally looked back at him. “Yes. I know you are my lifemate. I’ve been attracted to you since the day I met you, but I pushed away the feeling because I thought you weren’t interested in me. Then, at Zach and Mindy’s wedding, I realized you were interested in me, but I thought you would never be okay with my bear side. It wasn’t until I realized you were in danger that I finally let myself experience the depths of my feelings for you.”
Carter leaned back and ran his fingers through his hair. He couldn’t deny that everything he had learned in the last twelve hours or so was a lot to process. But none of it made him change his mind about wanting to be with Clara. If anything, it made him want her more. Instead of trying to explain all of this to Clara with words, he took her face in his hands and leaned in toward her. He kissed her, with passion and urgency. He let his lips meet hers, saying with his touch the things that words could never adequately express. He wanted her. He needed her. He may have only heard the term “lifemate” a few minutes ago, but he already knew that she was his lifemate, and he was hers. They were fated to be together.
He felt himself growing hard from the heady sensation of his mouth touching hers, and he started to pull back from the kiss. He didn’t want the excitement in his groin to become too obvious. She deserved a romantic first time with him, complete with candlelight and soft music and rose petals. He would never let his passion make him forget his gentlemanly manners enough to ask her to consummate their relationship in a car in the middle of the woods.
But if he had thought Clara was one to let things like a lack of candlelight stop her from getting what she wanted, then he was about to be surprised again.
“Get in my backseat. Now,” she ordered.
“Clara, are you sure? We can pick this up when I’m back in Red Valley tonight.”
“I said, now,” Clara repeated, crossing her arms in feigned anger.
“Okay, okay,” he said, raising his arms in surrender. He climbed over the seats and into the backseat, and Clara followed him. As soon as they were both back there, he began kissing her again, slipping his tongue deep into her mouth. She had made it clear what she wanted, and he was going to give it to her. No more holding back.
Fire Bear Shifters: The Complete Series Page 58