Bearly Healed: Pacific Northwest Bears: (Shifter Romance) (3 page)

T
he two couples
were in the living room drinking coffee, or tea in Effie’s case. They’d been talking family things, baby things, avoiding the elephant in the room.

“So, this isn’t her normal personality?” Connie finally ventured in.

Effie snorted, and to her surprise so did Dax. They looked at each other and smiled.

“No, this is not our Cassie. Imagine a brightly colored, foul-mouthed, junk food eating tornado. That might come close to the normal Cassie. She’s funny, like sarcastic and shockingly funny. When she finally woke up from the coma, the doctors said it would take a while for her brain to start running smoothly again. So we waited. At first, it seemed like she was improving. Talking normally, able to understand her injuries.”

“Then one day when she was sick of her bed and wanted to use the restroom without an audience, we helped her to the bathroom. She was in there so long we started to worry. When she came out, well, that’s what you see now. I don’t know if it’s just the scar on her face or something deeper. Or maybe it’s both. I’ve tried to be normal around her. Banter like we used to, sometimes she tries, but it’s like she’s doing it, so she doesn’t hurt my feelings.” Effie looked at Dax, her sadness clear in her eyes.

“I thought when we got her home she’d cheer up,” Dax said looking at Connie. “I think she might have gotten worse. I’m a little concerned that she’s using her meds to escape a bit. I’m not blaming her. I don’t think she’s addicted. But she’s certainly using it as a crutch. Healing so fast as a shifter, I can’t imagine being in pain for months like she’s been,” Dax said sadly.

“I guess that’s a human condition that we are unaware of,” Edward said wisely.

“I have to imagine the painkillers are muting her some, but the rest is all in her head. The fact that her hair is blonde is crazy,” Effie scoffed.

Connie and Edward looked at Effie in confusion.

“I haven’t seen her real hair color since we were children. It’s usually every color of the rainbow. It changes with her moods. Now she says it doesn’t matter, that maybe it’s time she grew up. The Cassie I know never wanted to grow up. Or maybe that’s not true, maybe she was more afraid to grow up,” Effie said thoughtfully.

“Either way, we appreciate you taking on her care. She was just miserable at home. Effie was with her, but now Effie needs to rest and get ready for the baby,” Dax said.

“Of course, we’re family. We take care of our own. She will have lots of visitors, and we will include her in everything that doesn’t involve the babies. She doesn’t know right?” Connie confirmed.

“No, I didn’t think it was my place. I thought if she knew we were plunking her down in the middle of a clan of bears, she’d think we’d lost it. But you can always tell her the kids are too crazy, and you are afraid they’ll accidently bump her or something. She’ll believe that,” Dax offered.

The four sat quietly for a moment. Dax and Effie looked at each other worriedly. Connie and Edward looked at each other like they were hatching a plan.

“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Cassie has some, how shall we say, interesting family members. She has almost zero contact with them. But they’ve been popping up since the accident,” Dax explained.

“Do they want to see how she is doing?” Edward asked.

“No, they want to see if she’s getting an insurance payout,” Effie scoffed.

Connie and Edward looked shocked.

“Cassie’s family is big, confusing, and mostly all losers. She was put in foster care because basically they kept forgetting about her. They’d forget to feed her, bathe her, and she was always around unsavory people. Now they heard of her accident from the news and are sniffing around hoping that there will be some money coming her way,” Effie said angrily.

“Since it was Effie’s car, and someone else was driving it, there are no settlements. We are covering all her medical expenses. Effie’s car is replaced. But her family is a bunch of greedy leeches,” Dax growled.

“We’ve even told them that. One of her aunts stopped by and tried to convince her to sue
us
for the wreck since it was my car. Sick assholes,” Effie snapped.

“Cass kicked them out, but I don’t think they are done causing trouble. I have someone keeping an eye on them. But just so you know,” Dax said.

“We’ll keep an eye on your girl. She’s safe here,” Edward promised.

Effie smiled. “I know, that’s why this is the only place and the only people we’d trust her with.”

“Thank you, dear. That means a lot,” Connie said, patting her knee.

There was a knock at the door. Edward got up to answer it. Pulling open the door, he saw one of his favorite daughters-in-law. Well, they were all his favorites, but he told them they were all the only one.

“Sophie, what are you doing here?” Edward asked, giving her a hug.

“Sorry, sorry, I know you wanted to let our new guest settle in. I just thought I’d bring over some treats. Well, not treats, more like dinner,” she said walking into the room.

Dax stood up and came over to give Sophie a side hug. “Hey, Sophie, good to see you.”

“Hey guys, hey Effie. Just wanted to pop this over,” she said holding a large box in her arms. Dax grabbed the box from her.

“Wow, heavy,” he said.

“Sorry, got a little carried away. There is a chicken pot pie, a garden salad and some peach cobbler for dessert. I just figured you’d all be knackered from your trip,” she said with a blush.

“Thank you, dear. That will make our evening very relaxing,” Connie said coming over to give her a hug too. “I wasn’t sure what Cassie would like so we were going to keep it simple tonight. This will be so much more satisfying. You are a dear to think of it,” she said, giving her daughter–in-law a hug.

Dax took the box to the kitchen and bent over to smell the amazing aromas coming from the pie.

“Sophie makes the best chicken pot pie you’ve ever tasted. And thank goodness she learned to make that because I don’t think I could have stomached another kidney pie. Who in their right mind would put organs in a pie?” Edward asked the room looking for back up.

“It’s traditional English fare. Just because your unrefined American palate can’t appreciate a classic is not my fault,” Sophie sniffed but winked at Effie.

“All right, I’ll get out of your way. Whenever Cassie is ready for visitors, we’ll come visit. Micah hasn’t shifted in weeks, so I think he’s safe to bring over,” Sophie explained. Micah was over two now and had essentially stopped shifting into a tiny bear cub. He wouldn’t shift again until puberty. For a human like Sophie, it was a sad concept. To shifters, it was just normal life.

Connie came around the counter of the kitchen to give her hug. “He’s gonna be just fine. You’ll have enough on your hands with a preschooler. The last thing you need is an adolescent bear in your house,” she said wisely.

“Thanks, mom,” she said returning the hug.

Sophie waved as she left, and the group was left back at their conversation before. How do you solve a problem like Cassie?

C
assie woke
up feeling groggy and needing to use the restroom. The meds she took often gave her such a numbing effect she’d forget to use the bathroom. Then it would become an urgent situation. Flipping the blanket off that clearly someone had snuck in and put on her, she got to a sitting position.

Seeing her crutches propped next to the nightstand, she slid her hands into the sleeves of the crutch. Putting her weight on her non broken leg, she slowly pushed up to see if her knee would hold her. Even with the leg brace, it could awkwardly collapse on her.

Finding her balance, she set her booted foot down. Oddly her broken ankle felt almost healed. Her knee was frustratingly still an issue. Taking her first hesitant step, she got one foot down, and the door opened.

“Why didn’t you call out? You do know you have a bell right? I mean how many people would love to have a bell to ring to summon people to their beck and call?” Dax was staring at her, an annoyed expression on his face, both hands on his hips. Cassie took a split second to appreciate her bestie’s man. He was wearing a pair of black slacks and teal silk long sleeve shirt. Some guys couldn’t pull that off, but Dax could.

She once told Effie when she got caught looking that just because she was on a diet, didn’t mean she couldn’t look at the menu. Effie being a secure, beautiful woman just laughed and agreed with her. She did tell her not touching, though. Cassie could appreciate that rule.

“I don’t need adult assistance to go to the bathroom. Unless you want to watch, didn’t know you were into that, Dax,” Cassie huffed. Often now her funny sarcasm turned mean. She even knew she was being an asshole, but that mean little part of her that was still angry at being hurt would lash out.

“Sorry, princess, water sports is not my thing. But I will be happy to help you to the bathroom,” Dax offered. His feelings weren’t hurt by her surly attitude. When it came to Cass, his patience was well-developed.

“I’ve got it,” Cassie grumbled. She was slow, but she could get where she needed to go. She started her turtle pace to the door. Dax stood back and let her by, then followed closely behind. Once in the bathroom, Cassie shut the door in his face. She knew he wouldn’t be leaning on the door listening to her, but a little privacy would be appreciated.

Another fun side effect of having one leg wrapped in a brace from mid-thigh to mid-calf was you had to do a controlled fall to the toilet seat. One that Cassie admittedly had gotten pretty good at it. After using the facilities, she had to perform another acrobatic maneuver to get herself back up. She washed her hands and took a moment to examine her reflection.

Her face was drawn. Being a petite person meant she’d always had small features. Now they were fragile looking. She had circles under her eyes. Her skin was almost translucent; she should probably start taking vitamins or something.

Cass spotted her travel bag on an open shelf by the sink. Effie had probably put it there. And since she knew that Effie had packed it for her, it meant her vitamin E and scar cream was inside it.

Examining the line down her face, she didn’t even flinch at it anymore. She did in the beginning. It was ugly and red, and it was the only thing she could see. After she’d woken up from her coma, Dax had paid for a top notch plastic surgeon to fly out and do a revision on her scar.

The ER staff had patched her up, but they were more concerned with stopping the bleeding and keeping her alive than keeping her pretty. The surgeon had done an amazing job really. The line was narrow now. Before it had spots that had puckered during healing. The skin was pulled in places that made the scar look more graphic and painful.

Now she wasn’t afraid to admit she was vain enough to try and minimize the scar as much as she could. Applying the vitamin E and her ointment, she caked it on figuring the more the merrier.

Her inner meanie was telling her to go out the door, pretend to accidently put her crutch on Dax’s foot, then go back to bed. She knew that Effie would be worrying about her, she didn’t want Effie stressed. She figured she would put on a happy face for the night so Effie could go home tomorrow unworried. Which was bullshit, since Effie was going to worry regardless, but they all had their little parts to play.

Bracing herself she opened the door and found Dax leaning on the opposite wall. His arms were crossed, and his legs crossed at the ankles. He was casual cool, damn her bestie for finding such a hottie.

“That do something for you?” she snapped but didn’t put a lot of heat behind it.

“Oh yeah, turned my crank big time. Do you want to go back to your room or join the land of the living?” Dax asked. He figured fight sarcasm with sarcasm.

“Living room,” Cass reluctantly agreed.

“Can I help you?”

“No,” she said, already moving in the other direction.

The great room was lit up with soft lamps, and overhead lighting gave the room a bright but not harsh glow. She saw Effie on the couch and made her way that direction.

“There’s my little spaz, thought you were going to sleep the day away,” Effie said, opening her arms. Cassie made it to the couch, knowing Dax was behind her the whole time. She did a controlled fall next to Effie and let her friend wrap her up in her arms.

“Beauty sleep, I need more of it nowadays,” Cassie said, taking the moment to enjoy her friend. She reached up a hand and ran it over Effie’s belly.

“Hey, parasite,” she said affectionately. The baby kicked back, and her hand jumped. It was surreal to know a little creature was residing inside her friend.

“You hungry?” Effie asked.

“Yeah, actually. What are we having? Squirrel? Tree nuts?” she asked this quietly enough so only Effie would hear. She didn’t know that besides Dax there were two other shifters in the room.

Before Effie could answer, Edward beat her to it.

“No squirrel tonight, although I’ve eaten squirrel. Way too much effort for so little meat,” he said thoughtfully.

Cassie had the good grace to blush. “Erm, sorry, was just joking.”

“Oh don’t worry about it, honey. When Edward and I moved out here originally, it was rough living. I’m talking outhouses and generators. It was rough,” Connie said with a laugh.

“Outhouses?” Effie said shocked.

“I won’t even get into using that thing in the winter,” Connie said giving a delicate shiver.

“But no young lady, no squirrel. Our oldest son’s wife brought over chicken pot pie for dinner. She is the main cook out at our logging base camp. She’s a Cordon Bleu trained chef that came out to the woods to start a new life. She got a husband and a baby for her troubles,” Edward said with a laugh.

Cassie figured she was forgiven for being a tacky houseguest and settled into Effie. There was a fire in the hearth, and she let her mind wander as she watched the dancing flames.

“How do we all feel about eating casual tonight?” Connie asked from the kitchen.

“I’m good, don’t want to move,” Cass murmured. Effie had started petting her head, and she was lulled into a stupor better than her meds.

After a few minutes, a plate with a fresh looking salad and a steaming serving of creamy chicken and vegetables covered in a brown flaky crust was handed to her. She pushed upright to accept the plate. Connie had delivered the plate, and Dax was behind her with a huge plastic tumbler full of ice to the top with a straw and fizzy orange soda.

“You had orange soda?” Cass asked.

“No, but I had your staples delivered,” Dax said, giving her a wink.

Good thing she didn’t need to worry about being deprived of her junk food in the woods.

The savory aroma of dinner made her stomach growl. She waited until someone else took a bite first. Growing up the way she did, she had never really learned any social niceties. When there was food in the house growing up, it was every man for himself. If you didn’t eat it fast, there wouldn’t be anything left.

While living with Dax, she’d been watching him and trying to pick up on those skills she was lacking. Who knew you were supposed to put a napkin in your lap? Who knew you were supposed to always have a napkin for that matter. Effie seemed to pick up on things easier than her. Effie wasn’t raised in such a void of culture like she was.

There was a napkin under the plate she was handed, so she put it on her lap and then tried to maneuver her leg with the brace to balance the plate on her lap.

Edward, who had been sitting in a large worn leather recliner the whole time, reached over and grabbed the edge of the heavy wood coffee table. With a tug that belied how heavy the table was, he pulled it towards Cassie.

Dax was there and helped lift her leg on the table. Cassie looked at him bug-eyed. The furniture in the Rochon home was nice, clearly still lived in, but nice.

“Oh honey, you haven’t met our boys yet. If their legs weren’t so damn long, we’d have a permanent scuff mark on the floor from them pulling it close to put their feet up on it.” Connie laughed. “We don’t stand on ceremony around here, honey. You make yourself comfortable. You’re not just our guest, you’re family, so if you aren’t sure just ask. I guarantee the answer will always be yes.”

Edward was already shoveling food into his mouth, when he gave a muffled, “Hmm hmm.”

Cass looked at Effie for confirmation. “They wouldn’t say it if they didn’t mean it, dork,” she said affectionately.

Cassie gave a shrug and took a bite of delicious herby chicken. She’d had pot pies before. The kind you microwaved or baked in the toaster oven then burned the shit out of your tongue because you couldn’t wait to take a bite. This was nothing like those. This tasted like real vegetables; the sauce was peppery and the chicken, well you could see it was chicken. Not some processed meat cube.

“Mmm, seriously?” Cassie asked, her mouth full of food.

“Hah, we hooked her.” Edward laughed.

“Just wait until dessert, honey. We’ll get you fattened up in no time,” Connie said.

Cassie looked down at her body that was hidden under Dax’s huge shirt. She couldn’t deny she needed some meat on her bones. Heck, it probably would make her feel better and heal faster. But it was like a little kid refusing to eat their veggies. It felt like a little bit of control she could hold onto.

Deciding that denying herself this yummy dinner was not in her best interest, she tucked in. Everyone around her was chatting. Connie and Edward gave updates on their four grandchildren even though it had only been a few months since Effie and Dax had seen them. They talked about their plans for the summer, for their logging cuts, and general business updates.

Cassie was only half listening, concentrating on her food instead. She’d heard the sons were taking a step back to focus on their families. Still working the business but finally letting some others help. Apparently Edward Rochon was the youngest of six boys, so there was plenty of help to be had. She heard names bandied about Conner, Wyatt, Cage, Cash, she knew. Conner was married to Dax’s sister Kenzi. She’d never met Wyatt or Cage. She was sure since they lived in the cabins on the same property as their parents it was only a matter of time.

Cash she knew helped out when Effie had been kidnapped by her asshole ex-boyfriend. What a douche. But other than what Effie told her, she only knew he was big, bearded, and willing to help. Soon as they were done with the cops, he’d hightailed it out of town.

Other names she hadn’t recognized. Tanner and Edison, which she assumed were more family members.

Finishing her plate, she sat back against the couch and stared at the flames again. She’d found most people didn’t expect her to be involved in conversations now. Granted after the accident her pain med fog made that nearly impossible anyway. Now they had just stopped trying to force her to engage. It was fine with her.