Healing the Bear (13 page)

“What?”

“Have
you been sent here to find me?”

“I’ve
no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”

“You’re
not here to hurt me?”

“Shit,
whatever gave you that impression?”

“Your
friend Trent’s been checking up on me.”

Shit,
fuck. He’d told him to be discrete.

“I
was curious about the photos and the man with you in the wedding photo. I just
happened to mention it to Trent and he being a cop said he’d do some digging.”

She
pushed her hair back from her face. He put his hand on her arm. “What makes you
think I’d ever hurt you? That’s the last thing I’d ever do, Melanie.”

She
turned to face him again.

“We’re
being followed here by two agents from the Witness Protection Program.”

“
The what…
why…I don’t understand.”

“I
shouldn’t be telling you this, but I guess if you are out to get me you already
know my real identity so there’s no point hiding anymore. On the other hand, if
you’re the real deal and we’re going to continue with this relationship I think
I need to be honest with you.”

Honest
with him. He suddenly felt guilty about hiding a huge thing about himself from
her.

“I’m
not Melanie. My real name’s Chloe Reed and
I’m
from
Florida. I’m a school teacher who was married to a wonderful man.”

Dane
swallowed. Wow, he hadn’t expected quite this much information all in one go.
“My husband, Mike, was an accountant. One of his clients... Well, let’s just
say Mike figured out he was laundering money. Mike probably should have dropped
him as a client or looked the other way, but he wasn’t that sort of guy, so he
went to the authorities. They promised us he’d be safe. I’d be safe.” She
looked down at her hands. “One morning when he was starting the car…”

Her
head slumped down on her chest and her shoulders began heaving. Dane threw his
arms around her, running his fingers through her hair and touching her scalp.

“They’d
planted a bomb in his car and I suppose they thought we’d both be in it. I
should have been in it, but I was running late that morning.”

“Oh,
Melanie, it’s okay. Just let it out and have a good cry.”

“They
decided to put me in the Witness Protection Program until the time where they could
get more evidence on this man, but it looks like it’s never going to happen. They’ll
probably get me before the Feds get him.”

He
squeezed her tight. She was going to be safe. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.

“The
agent in charge of my case came to see me and said you were fishing around and
were probably working for this man.”

“No,
baby, no. I was just curious as to who the man was and why you didn’t have the
photo on display and hadn’t told me about him. I guess I was jealous.”

Yeah, he had
been. Stupid but that was who he was.

“I
hate the fact that I have this awful secret and that I had to keep it from
you.”

It
was time she knew about him and then nothing would be in their way ever again.

“Baby,
your secret’s nothing compared to the one I’ve been hiding.”

She
looked up at him. “You’re not a widower, you have a wife somewhere?”

He
shook his head. “No, my Lucinda is definitely gone. Have you ever wondered why
I like honey and salmon, and have a good sense of smell?”

“Lots
of people like salmon and honey and can smell things miles away.”

“Yeah,
but I bet not everyone can shift into a bear whenever they want.”

Melanie
burst out laughing. “You’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever met, coming up with
something as ridiculous as that just to make me feel better about my secret.”
She leaned over and kissed him.

Besides
transforming into a bear how else could he convince her it was true?

“And
like you I’m not originally from around here. None of us are. I mean no one at
the wedding. Well except for Emily, Lilly and her daughter and relatives, Charlotte,
who are all
human.
”

She
laughed some more. “Dane, you’ve made me feel better, really you have.”

“Melanie
I’m serious. We’re not from here, not from this planet. Our own one, Nereskila,
came crash landing to earth about twenty-five, well almost twenty-six,
years
ago. Talk about you keeping a secret, we’ve done it
for a quarter of a century.”

Her
mouth was now open and she was giving him the sort of look people do when
they’re sort of convinced you’re telling the truth but still not sure you’re
not messing with them.

“Another planet.
Have you
thought about writing books?”

Damn,
he thought he had her believing him.

“It’s
true and you can’t tell anyone, okay? You have your secret. I have mine.”

“Dane,
it’s okay. You’ve made me feel better and I know you can keep my secret.”

“Damn
it, you have to believe this is real because I don’t want anything else to come
between what we have, and what we’re going to have.”

He
got out of the car.

“What
are you doing?”

“I’m
going to shift into a bear, over in that wooded area there just in case the Fed
guys are spying on me.”

“Dane…”

He
walked away. She came running after him just as he began taking off his
clothes.

“You
don’t have to do this,” she said. Was she mocking him or what?

He
wasn’t going to argue with her any longer. He went on all fours and let every
muscle in his body relax. He closed his eyes feeling his hands change into
paws, then his feet. He arched up, being able to count each strand of fur as it
emerged from his back and belly. Dane glanced over at Melanie who had both her
hands over her mouth. She stepped back when he moved toward her and tumbled
back on a rock, which caused her to fall to the ground. He ran over to her. There
was fear on her face so he nuzzled against her leg like a dog would do to its
owner. She pulled away so he nuzzled her again, this time putting his paw on
her thigh. She was shaking which was understandable. She’d seen the guy she’d
been dating shift into a bear and here was a huge monster of one close to her,
touching her.

She
lifted her hand and stroked his back.

Mmm
, that felt pretty good. He
nuzzled against her
body,
letting her run her hands
down the thickest fur on his back. He felt like a good run followed by a back
rub on a tree to let everyone know this was his mate and his alone.

However,
he needed to talk to her. They needed to discuss what she’d just seen. Dane
walked away and relaxed again, feeling his claws retreat and fingers reappear,
the fur sliding back into his body and then his human
self emerged
again. He pulled on his pants and turned around to see her standing behind him.

“You
weren’t joking with me. I don’t understand it. I’m lost for words.”

She
rested her butt against a tree as he walked over to her and pulled her close to
him.

“See
it’s not just you who’s got a secret to hide.”

“I
have so many questions I want to ask you.”

“I’ll
do my best. Let’s get to the boat because I’m starving.”

“Wait,
I think I need to tell the agent that he needs to call off his guys.”

“You
can’t tell him anything about this.”

“I’m
not going to, but I’m going to let him know that you’re one hundred percent the
real deal.”

The real deal
.
He liked the
sound of that.

Chapter Sixteen

Melanie
still believed she was dreaming. Fast asleep in the safety of her bed, imaging
everything that had happened to her was being played out in her mind. Mike
dying, her being placed in the Witness Protection Program, meeting Dane, him
being a bear shifter from outer space.

She
punched herself on the arm, hoping that Dane didn’t see her do it. It hurt like
hell and proved she wasn’t asleep. Wasn’t even in bed, but on the boat he’d so
nicely arranged for them to borrow for the afternoon. She’d told the agents she
didn’t need them, but they’d said they’d stick around the area and were just a
phone call away should she need them.

Don’t think so.
She’d seen Dane
as a big strong grizzly bear, felt his muscles underneath his fur.
Noted the size of his paws and those claws.
Well she
wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of them. She passed him a slice of
salmon mousse that she put on a paper plate along with some crackers. He took
it from her.

“You
mind if I ask you more about your group of people,” she asked him.

“No
problem with that.”

“Are
you all bears?”

He
shook his head, a shower of cracker crumbs falling onto his t-shirt as he took
a bite.

“Some
are cougars, some are wolves. We even have some polar bears, tigers, lions, but
our local shifters are mostly bears, cougars, and wolves.”

“So
it’s just by chance that you’re born one or the other?”

“Depends
on your ancestry and where you were born on our planet.”

“Tell
me about it?”

She
still couldn’t believe she was asking him to describe someplace other than earth.

“It
was beautiful.
Crystal clear blue lakes, mountains, fields,
no pollution, hardly any crime.”

“What
happened to it?”

“I
can’t remember much because I was a young kid but there was this huge explosion
and next thing we knew it was like a ball of fire had hit us and we were hurtling
through darkness and then we crashed landed here.”

“All
of you?”

“Nope,
we all went to different places and just so happened a whole bunch of us landed
near Kalispell.”

“Did
you ever check if anyone here saw anything?”

“Sure,
they said solar flares had been reported. Some forest fires too.” He pulled the
bottle of wine out of the water and poured her a glass.

“And
the planet was destroyed?”

“We
couldn’t see it anymore. Not that we’d ever figure out how to go home.” He poured
her a glass of wine.

“How
did you get on with things like jobs, school?”

“We
had to survive and adjust. And yes, we learned to fake birth certificates,
driver’s licenses, and anything else humans need.”

“You
have lived a lot like I’ve been forced to.”

“Yeah,
and it stinks having to keep a secret, but if people were to ever find out
about us, can you imagine what they’d do?”

She
could. Probably lock them up, experiment on them. Her stomach turned just
thinking about that happening to Dane.

She
lay back on his thigh and looked up at the sky. “Tonight when it gets dark I’ll
show you where our planet used to be. Well, that’s if you’re interested.”

“I
am. And you are one cute, sexy bear.”

He
tickled the end of her nose. “Only one person’s ever said that to me and that
was Lucinda. I told you the two of you are a lot alike. You and your husband
didn’t have any kids?”

She
shook her head “It was next thing on our list of things to do before we turned
thirty.”

“I’m
so sorry.”

“I
forget to ask you…I mean I know you have a job now and everything but that
men’s retreat that’s coming up, well we can’t find a wilderness guide for their
day and night out hiking and fishing. You think you’d like to take them?”

“As
Dane human, or has Dane bear guide?”

“I
can just see their faces.”

They
both burst out laughing.

“Yeah,
I’ll do it, but just for you.
Might be fun too.”

She
turned around and looked up at him.

“I
know this sounds weird, but I feel a whole lot better knowing you can change
into a bear whenever you want. You could protect me. Not that you’d hurt
anyone.”

He
suddenly went quiet.

“There’s
one more secret I have to tell you.”

Chapter Seventeen

This
might be the deal breaker. Dane topped up his glass of wine and drank the whole
thing in two gulps.

“I
didn’t go away to do some traveling like I first told you. Aiden and Trent
banished me.”

She
knitted her eyebrows together and didn’t blink.

“I
told you my wife was shot. We were running as bears. It wasn’t bear season. I
guess grizzlies scare some folk and he took a shot. It was meant for me but he
got Lucinda instead.”