Protected by the Bear

by Vanessa Devereaux

  “So are you going to tell me everything?” asked Ash.

  Not saved by the bell.

  “And yes, everything,” added Ash, putting his arm around her.

  ****

  He hadn’t been sure if putting his arm around her was a good thing or not. He wanted her to feel safe and secure because he needed to know why she’d run like that. She seemed sensible, but that had been downright dumb—endangering both her and Sophie. He took a piece of the meatloaf and popped it into his mouth as she continued to eat.

  “You’re hiding something big aren’t you?”

  She hadn’t responded and he was determined he wouldn’t leave the room until he got to the truth.

  “I am, and by telling you, you’ll have to keep a secret that you might not be able to.”

  “I think we told you that we’re great at keeping them.”

  She swirled her fork through the mashed potatoes. “I turned on the TV and saw the news report. They mentioned me. Not by name, but a female passenger was unaccounted for.”

  “And we have you safe and sound here. Is that why you ran, because you thought they’d come here looking for you?”

  Chloe nodded as a tear fell from her cheek and splashed onto her lap.

  “Aren’t your parents going to be worried when they hear about the plane accident?”

  “I didn’t tell them what flight I was taking or where I was going.”

  “Is there someone at home who’s been hurting you, boyfriend maybe, Sophie’s dad? Is that who you’re running from?”

  If that was the case, he’d hunt him down and beat the shit out of him.

  “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “So, Sophie’s the result of a one-night-stand or what?”

  “Sophie isn’t my baby.”

  Chapter Seven

  She’d almost pulled the IV out of her arm when she’d rushed to get out of bed. The realization of what she’d just admitted had struck her like she’d driven into a brick wall.

  Sophie wasn’t hers and she never would be. She leaned over the toilet and retched. Ash held her hair back off her face as she did so.

  If she wanted to keep Sophie and wanted to keep her safe, Chloe would have to be on the run for the rest of her life. She’d always need to be looking over her shoulder.

  Ash turned on the tap and then soaked a washcloth and dabbed it around her lips. “You feeling better?”

  She nodded.

  “Okay, let’s get you back into bed.”

  Her legs shook and she leaned her body into Ash’s as she walked slowly out of the bathroom and over to the bed.

  Chloe suddenly felt cold and hot at the same time. Telling someone else all this had made her realize what she’d done and the raw facts of the situation she found herself in.

  Ash sat on the bed with her again and put his arm around her.

  “You’re a surrogate mother?” he asked.

  “I thought I’d be helping a couple have a child.”

  “And you changed your mind?”

  “No, they changed it for me. They don’t want anything less than the perfect child.”

  Ash squeezed her hand.

  “When they found out she’d be born with Down syndrome, they and the doctor began discussing their options. Terminating the pregnancy was one of them. Oh I could keep the money, but they didn’t want Sophie. She’s a human being, a baby, and I felt like I had to save her. With the help of my parents, I left town and I’ve been moving around every month or so. I came here thinking it was the middle of nowhere and I could give birth and…”

  She burst into tears.

  “Hey, no crying because it’s going to be okay. Really, it is.”

  “Last time I spoke to my parents, they said a PI had been to see them. They interviewed my parents for over an hour telling them I’d taken the couple’s money and, as I’d run away, I was a criminal. I’m not. That’s when I decided to take a flight to Montana.”

  Ash stroked her hair and, suddenly, she wasn’t so scared.

  “I think those people are the criminals,” he said. “No one’s going to find you here with us.”

  “But I have to leave this hospital one day. I can’t live here for the rest of my life.”

  “No, but you can live with us. We’re the perfect crowd to hide out with.”

  He was just saying that to make her feel better, right?

  ****

  Ash paced up and down. Poor Chloe was scared senseless and what he was about to do… Well, the other shifters might never forgive him. They didn’t know Chloe or whether she could be trusted to keep a secret like Charlotte, Lilly, Lucy, Ava, Hannah, Melanie, and Emily all had. It was different for them because they’d married or were about to marry a shifter. Most of them were having babies with shifters. It was in their own best interests to keep things private. But Chloe didn’t belong to any shifter. She was an outsider they hadn’t known long. Sure, she had her own reason to keep hidden, but what if…

  He paced again. He should call a meeting and discuss this, but he had to put her mind at ease until he could do that. He didn’t want her running away and never seeing her and Sophie again. Something had to be done right now.

  Ash went back into the room. Chloe was eating the Black Forest cake. A dab of whipped cream clung to her upper lip. He couldn’t resist. He walked over to her and wiped it away with his finger.

  “This is super good,” she said. She offered him some on the fork. He leaned over and took it.

  “Chloe, there’s something I have to tell you and you have to promise me you will not tell another person.” He sat on the side of the bed. “I’m part of a group that can keep you safe and keep your identity hidden.”

  “You can?”

  Ash nodded. He pointed to his tattoos. “My liking bears isn’t the only reason I got these. I can turn into a bear whenever I want. Bear can, too.”

  “Bear can turn into a bear?”

  “Okay, that didn’t sound quite the way I’d planned to explain it. This hospital is for the Kalispell Shifters.”

  “Shifters like I read about in the romance novel I got from the estate sale where I was hiding out last month?”

  “Yeah, those sort of shifters,” said Ash. He’d seen a few of his patients at the medical school he trained at reading them, too. He’d often thought, if they only knew what they were reading was real and not fiction.

  “But that’s just fantasy,” she said.

  “Well, not exactly. We came here when there was an explosion on our planet and we crashed down to earth. They thought it was an asteroid that had landed near Glacier National Park, but actually, it was us.”

  “You’re from outer space?” asked Chloe. “That’s bizarre.”

  Now that he was telling someone their story, he had to admit it did sound strange. “I guess that’s what you’d call it. No one knows about us. We’ve kept basically to ourselves, although most of us have jobs and families.”

  “Are you bullshitting me? I mean so I don’t run, because I promise I won’t. I’ve learned my lesson.”

  Ash shook his head. He put his hand on his heart. “I’m telling you the truth. I wouldn’t make up stuff like this.”

  “Bear is from outer space and he delivered Sophie—wow, that’s a story…sorry, I know you said I can’t tell anyone.”

  “You’ll be able to tell her when she’s older. If you want someplace to hide and if you can keep a secret, we’re it.”

  “Am I on some sort of medication or dreaming? I can’t believe all this.”

  “It’s true, ask Charlotte or Ava.”

  “They’re bears?”

  “Married to shifters. Charlotte’s husband is a bear, Ava’s is a wolf.”

  “A wolf?”

  Ash nodded. “We also have cougars, polar bears, tigers, and lions, although some of them went to other areas and we’re not sure if some went to other countries when we crashed.”

  “Are you dangerous?”

  �
��No one would ever hurt you. In fact, if you didn’t want to, you wouldn’t have to see us as our animal halves.”

  Chloe took a deep breath. “Can you assure me that you’d keep me and Sophie safe and hidden?”

  Ash took her hand. “If you promise to keep our secret, I promise you no one’s ever going to take Sophie from you. No one’s ever going to hurt or take you away.”

  Chapter Eight

  “You did what?” asked Bear.

  “Honey, calm down,” said Hannah, grabbing his arm.

  “I’ll calm down when my cousin tells me he’s joking about telling Chloe who we really are. She seems like a nice person, but we know nothing about her.”

  “She’s made a promise to me and I’ve made a promise to her. That means something to me,” said Ash, getting up from the table. “And what about you telling Hannah, Liam telling Lucy, Charlotte learning from Aiden what we are? I could go one.”

  “These women are our spouses. Chloe’s a stranger,” said Bear.

  “But she won’t be. She has just as much to lose as we do.”

  “Poor girl,” said Hannah. “I think she’s a hero. She’s probably saved that baby from living a life in the foster care system or something worse. And taking on a special needs child. I know how hard Sam was to look after all by myself. I’m with Ash on this one.”

  Bear looked at Hannah.

  Yay, go Hannah. At least he’d found an ally with his cousin-in-law.

  “We’re going to have to call an emergency meeting to discuss this,” said Bear, reaching for his cell phone. “You know things of this nature have to go to a vote. You could even get ousted from the Kalispell group for this.”

  ****

  Chloe put her hands on the outside of the incubator as she looked in at Sophie. In the last three days, Chloe’s life had taken a bizarre turn. The crash, giving birth, and now being offered the opportunity of hiding out forever with a group of people who could shift into animals.

  Maybe she’d died on that plane and this was the afterlife.

  Sophie moved her feet. They were so tiny. Chloe smiled in at her. She looked a better color than she had when Chloe had tried to comfort her in the car. Yeah, the stolen car. The car belonging to a woman who was married to a wolf.

  “It’s going to be okay, Sophie. We’re safe. No one’s going to come look for us now.”

  She heard the door opening and saw one of the nurses standing there.

  “She’s doing great,” she said to Chloe. “You need anything before I go off duty?”

  Chloe shook her head. “I think I’ll go back to bed and try to get a good night’s sleep.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do. My husband and son have gone to the movies, so I’m going to soak in the tub and enjoy a glass of wine before I turn in for the night.”

  That sounded so good. She was about to ask the nurse what sort of animal she was, but decided she’d better not. “See you tomorrow,” she said.

  “Yes, see you tomorrow.”

  ****

  “Can I just say that I think my cousin acted not out of stupidity, but because he’s a good man and he wanted to help this young woman,” said Bear.

  Ash tapped his foot on the ground. He didn’t want to upset anyone. He didn’t really want to leave if they banished him. He loved Kalispell, being with Bear again, but if they didn’t let Chloe stay, then he’d already decided he’d take her with him. But oh how he wanted to stay with the shifters.

  Aiden stood. “Ash, you say that Chloe’s a surrogate mother and the couple is definitely looking for her?”

  Ash stood, seeing Dane and Liam look at him. After the trouble Liam had caused about not enough shifters being allowed to vote on matters dealing with humans, they’d formed a new committee. “I think you’ll agree with me that humans aren’t always the most decent creatures.” He looked directly at Liam, knowing that it was a view he’d shared since his brother had been killed by a drunk driver who just happened to be human. Also the asshole of a trucker who’d left Lucy, Liam’s soon-to-be wife, crawling along the road after an attempted rape. Or the human who took Dane’s first wife, Lucinda’s, life.

  Liam nodded in agreement. Ash knew he could win him over.

  “She loves Sophie like her own. The baby has Down syndrome and she’s going to need an extended family like ours to look after her.”

  “I commend for her bravery,” said Dane. “She sounds like a decent person and an honest one who will keep her word about keeping our secret.”

  “However, she has no partner, no spouse to ensure that she won’t go outside the group. Maybe not intentionally, but she could let it slip,” said Aiden.

  “She won’t. I will make sure of that,” said Ash.

  “And is there any chance that perhaps you’ll take her as your mate?” asked Liam.

  This was putting him on the spot. He found her attractive, but he was just starting out in his career and a ready-made family wasn’t what he had planned. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I never thought of marrying a human…not that I’m saying you guys have done anything wrong.” Shit, he was digging himself into a hole here.

  “You know what you did was wrong?” asked Aiden.

  “I do, but I wanted to put her mind at ease.”

  “We should have voted on this before you told her about us, but I guess we’re going to have to take a vote now,” said Aiden.

  Bear indicted for Ash to follow him outside while they did so. “If you make it through this, I hope it’s taught you a valuable lesson,” said Bear. “If you have to leave, I’m going to miss you like crazy. We’ve only just reconnected and you do something stupid like this.”

  Ash took a deep breath. Bear had never been one to mince his words and he’d brought the whole thing into reality.

  “Hope she’s worth it. And yes, I saw you with your arm around her. The little glances you’ve given her. Humans make great mates.”

  The door opened before Ash could respond.

  “We’ve made a decision,” said Dane.

  Bear put his arm on Ash’s back and they went back inside.

  “Ash, we’ve decided to let you stay.”

  Ash wanted to raise his fists into the air.

  “However you’ve put us into a corner with Chloe. We have to allow her to stay because sending her away, and should the authorities catch up with her, well, I’m assuming she’d tell them where she’s been and, she might not do it intentionally, but under pressure, she might say something and we’ll have authorities sniffing around us again. So she is now one of the shifters, but you are responsible for her twenty-four-seven. You think you can handle that?” asked Aiden.

  “I think that’s very doable,” said Ash.

  ****

  Chloe woke to see Ash standing by her bed with a teddy bear in his hands. Seeing the bear tattoos on his arms and the one in his hand reminded her about what he’d told her. It hadn’t been a dream.

  “You’re officially one of us now,” he said. “So is Sophie, so I thought I’d bring her this teddy bear to welcome her to the family.”

  Chloe took it from him. The label telling all about it still hung from its ear.

  “It’s a special material for special needs babies. I read about it online and a local store carries them.”

  “That’s so nice of you.”

  “In fact, there’s a local support group that you might want to join once you and Sophie are out of here and get settled in.”

  Chloe held the bear in her hands. She’d made a deal about living with people who spent some of their time as animals. Had she done the right thing for Sophie? She’d grow up thinking that was normal. Had she made the correct choice for a little girl who wasn’t even her own flesh and blood?

  And what if Chloe one day fell in love with a guy who was from outside the group? Would they allow her to do that? What would she tell him?

  “Everything okay?” asked Ash.

  It was almost as if he could read
her mind. “Yes, it’s fine.”

  “Aiden, Charlotte’s husband, will be along later and he’ll get all the information we need to make you a driver’s license and all the documents you’ll need.”

  “And what about Sophie? She’ll need a birth certificate.”

  “We can get one of those for her. You’ll have to decide who you want to list as her father.”

  “Maybe it should be left blank,” she said.

  “Whatever you want. I’ve sent an e-mail to the group telling them about you, so expect lots of visitors.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, we’re a tight knit group, so I hope you’ll join us for some of the things we do, like star gazing once a month.”

  “Star gazing. That sounds interesting. I did take an astronomy class in high school.”

  “You’ll love it. During the summer, we barbecue, and in winter, we usually light a fire and toast marshmallows.”

  “I love toasted marshmallows.” It was the first time in forever that she’d found some hope. That she and Sophie could be happy together.

  “Is it okay if I go put the teddy bear next to Sophie’s crib in the nursery?” Ash asked her.

  “Sure, and thank you again for everything,” she said.

  Ash wasn’t gone long before a young girl knocked on the door. “Hi, I’m Maisey. Ash said you’d joined us and I thought, while I was here, I’d stop by, say hello, and give you this.” She walked over to the bed and handed her a free pass to a health club called Downward Facing Wolf. “I co-own it with Nick Pearson.”

  “Is he married to Ava?”

  “Yes, that’s Nick.”

  The woman whose car I stole.

  “We have a prenatal and now a post-natal yoga class you might like to try.”

  “I’ve never tried yoga before.”

  “Then I’ll teach you. You’ll love it.”

  There was another knock on the door and two women came in carrying bags.

  “Hi, Maisey, and you must be Chloe. I’m Sandra and this is Jilly. Ash said you’ll probably need some baby clothes, so we gathered some up from everyone.”

  They set the bag down and Chloe saw the most adorable pink dress on the top. She couldn’t wait to put Sophie in it, and she’d even add a pink bow to her hair.