Brave Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 2) (5 page)

She turned the key slowly and
pushed the door open a crack. The sound of her daughter's wrenching
sobs tore her heart to pieces. Ashley was lying facedown on the bed,
crying hard into a pillow.

“Oh sweetheart...”

Ashley raised her
tear-stained face and scrambled up as Serena closed the door behind
her.

“I'm sorry, Mummy!”
Ashley launched herself into Serena's arms. “I didn't mean to
set her hair on fire,” she cried. “I never wanted to
hurt her! What is wrong with me? Why? Why can't I be like everyone
else?”

CHAPTER
TWELVE

Jax helped Ne-ma up onto the
couch and went to the kitchen to get her a cup of tea. He pressed
the steaming mug into Ne-ma's hand and waited for her to take a few
sips.

Gramma was trying to comb out
Ne-ma's stiff, singed hair but Ne-ma swatted her hand away and tsked
irritably. “Stop fussing, Glynda!” she snapped.

“Fine, have it your
way.” Gramma put away her comb and huffed. “I'm not the
one with the crazy hair. Hmph! Anyway, it's high time you changed
your hairstyle. It's so...nineties!”

Everyone waited for Gramma
and Ne-ma to stop squabbling. When the two witches finally calmed
down, they stared at the circle of expectant faces in front of them.

“Fire,” Jax said.
“That's what she used to stop those two men who tried to rob
and rape her mother. What is she? Is she a fire fae? Or...a half
dragon, or some other rare paranormal?” Jax gestured wildly.

Gramma and Ne-ma shook their
heads. “No. Ashley has no fae blood or dragon blood in her.
We cast a spell to draw out her powers. She could see our auras
clearly. And you said she could see your animals. She has the
Sight,” Ne-ma said.

“And only angels and
demons have the Sight,” Gramma said.

“Angel?” Marcus
and Joshua spluttered. “Are you saying that Ashley is half
angel?”

Gramma and Ne-ma exchanged a
look. “No,” Ne-ma said at last. “Ashley is not
half angel. Her father—is a demon. A fire demon.”

Staci gasped. “The
child...is half demon?”

“Yes.”

Staci pressed shaking fingers
to her lips. “Does that mean...will the girl grow up to be—”
She swallowed and whispered, “—evil?”

“No, no, of course
not,” Gramma said. “What she is doesn't define who she
is. There are good witches, wicked witches, good shifters, rogue
shifters. And I'm sure you know that not all humans are good. By
the same token, not all demons are evil.”

“Ashley is a good
child,” Ne-ma said firmly. “She should not be shunned,
despised and feared simply because she is half demon.”

“Can she control her
powers?” Jax asked, staring at the disaster that was Ne-ma's
hair.

“She will learn.
Ashley is still very young. She's only five. Yet she knows how to
use her powers to protect her mother. Most demonlings only come into
their power when they hit puberty,” Gramma answered.

“What can I do to help
her? Serena told me that Ashley was shunned by the other kids at her
kindergarten. It seems that the other kids grew afraid of her all of
a sudden. The poor girl didn't have anyone to play with,” Jax
said angrily. It hurt his heart thinking of the little girl being
excluded by the other kids and being forced to sit alone during
playtime. She must have felt so sad and confused, thinking that she
had done something terribly wrong.

“The other paranormal
kids, and even the human ones, could probably sense that she's
different from them once her powers emerged. The shifter kids can
scent that she's half paranormal, but they can't identify her scent.
Most people fear what they don't understand. So they keep away from
her.” Ne-ma sighed.

“Why don't you try
letting Ashley go to school here in Shadow Point?” Gramma
suggested. “The teachers are pretty good here. They've been
trained to handle all the various paranormal children. Nothing can
faze them. I honestly think Ashley would enjoy going to school
here.”

Jax nodded. It was a good
idea. In fact, it was the best idea ever. Why hadn't he thought of
that himself? If Ashley loved going to school here, Serena would
definitely consider staying in Shadow Point.

She would put her daughter's
happiness first. Serena would uproot herself and move to Shadow
Point if she thought Ashley would be happy here.

“Go talk to them.
Serena and Ashley need you now. Go on,” Ne-ma made a shooing
motion at Jax.

“I'll drive you back to
Broomstick Inn,” Joshua offered.

Ne-ma waved a hand. “Don't
worry, we'll take our own car. We drove here. And—I'm not
going back to the inn. Not looking like this.” Ne-ma pointed
at her hair. “The guests at the inn will die of fright!”
She turned to Gramma and said, “Glynda, can you call ahead to
make an appointment for me? I'm going to Hair Razers right now!”

“Oh, I'll make an
appointment for us both.” Gramma grinned and pulled out her
phone. “I was thinking of changing my hair color.”

Jax walked them to the door,
thanking them profusely. “Thank you, Gramma and Ne-ma. Thank
you so much for your help. You...”

“We didn't do much.”
They shrugged. “Ashley has a long road ahead of her, but I
think she'll do just fine. She's an amazing kid, and...she has an
amazing family behind her,” Ne-ma said, smiling at Jax and his
brothers.

After Gramma and Ne-ma drove
off, Marcus shook his head and whistled. “A demon. Wow.
That's kind of...”

“Awesome,” Staci
finished for him. She shot her mate a meaningful look.

“Yeah.” Marcus
chuckled and hugged Staci to him. “It is.”

Jax shot his big brother and
sister-in-law a grateful smile as he took the stairs three at a time.
“I'll go see how they're doing.”

Hesitating outside his
bedroom door, Jax rapped on the door and called out, “Serena?
Ashley? It's me, Jax. Can I come in?”

He heard sniffles and
Serena's low, comforting voice. The door opened and Serena beckoned
him in. She went back quickly to Ashley's side. The little girl was
sitting up in bed, hugging a pillow tightly. Her eyes were red and
puffy, and when Jax came in, she buried her face in the pillow and
turned away.

“Hey Ashley.”
Jax pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed.

“Is she okay?”
Ashley's voice was muffled by the pillow.

“You mean Ne-ma? Yes,
she's fine,” Jax answered. “She thinks you're amazing.”

“She's not angry with
me?” Ashley peeked up at him and sniffed. “But...I
ruined her hair...”

“No, you didn't ruin
anything. In fact, Ne-ma's really excited that she'll be able to get
a new hairstyle. She's going to her hairdresser's now and I just
know that she'll look fantastic!”

Ashley dried her eyes and put
down the pillow. “I like them,” she said finally.

“They like you too!”
Jax said sincerely. “We all do.”

That earned him a big, watery
smile and Jax felt a sharp pang in his heart.

In that instant, Jax knew
that he would do anything and everything to protect this beautiful,
amazing little girl and her mother. They were already part of his
heart, his life.

My mate, my cub
, his
bear growled possessively.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

After spending a couple more
minutes telling Ashley and Serena a few jokes about himself, Jax
leaned forward and dropped his voice to a dramatic whisper, “Do
you want to know what you are, Ashley? I'm a bear shifter, and bear
shifters are pretty awesome. But you are something waaayyy more
awesome than a bear shifter.”

“More awesome than
you?” Ashley sounded dubious but Jax saw the excitement and
hope in her eyes.

“Uh-huh. You—are
a very, very special kid, Ashley. In fact, I think you're the
coolest kid in Shadow Point.”

Ashley crawled forward on the
bed and stared at him. “What am I?” she asked
breathlessly.

Jax glanced at Serena who was
sitting at the edge of the bed and looking worriedly at him. He gave
her a reassuring smile and turned to Ashley, “Are you ready for
this?”

“Yes!” Ashley
shouted, bouncing on the bed.

“You—are half
human, half fire demon.”

Ashley's eyes widened and she
turned to her mother. “What is that? Is that good or bad,
Mummy? I heard some of the kids say that demons are evil. I...I
don't want to be a demon.”

“Honey, you're not
evil,” Serena said at once. “And it doesn't matter what
you are. It's who you are that's important. You have some very
special powers, Ashley. You used your powers to save me, remember?
You are my hero!” Serena kissed the top of her head. “I'm
so proud of you.”

Ashley bit her lip and said,
“I don't want the other kids to stop playing with me. I just
want to be normal.”

“Why would you want to
be normal, when you can be awesome!” Jax said, slapping both
hands over his heart and staring at Ashley with an awestruck, adoring
expression.

Serena's smile broadened.
“Uncle Jax is right. You are awesome!”

“The other kids don't
think so,” Ashley said, looking down.

Jax held Ashley's shoulder
and looked her in the eye. “Listen, Ashley. Would you
consider coming to the Shadow Point kindergarten? Shadow Point has a
great kindergarten. All kinds of kids go there. There are human
kids, shifter kids, fae kids...”

“Do they have demon
kids?” Ashley asked.

Jax took a deep breath. “Not
yet.”

“So they won't like
me,” Ashley mumbled.

“No. That's not true.
That's not true at all,” Jax said fervently. “Hey,
Ashley. I'm going to tell you something about myself. It's not a
big secret or anything, but it's just something that used to bother
me a lot as a kid.”

Ashley and Serena both looked
up at him.

“I can't hear at all
out of this ear,” Jax said, tapping his right ear. “When
I was six, a bad man hit me so hard he damaged my ear permanently.
He was a bear tamer, and he captured Joshua and me after killing our
mother. He trapped us in a cage and forced us to perform in a
circus. He was cruel and brutal, and he tortured and starved us.
Joshua and I would have died but Marcus saved us. Marcus was working
in the circus then and he saw us being beaten savagely. So he freed
us and the three of us ran away.”

“So Uncle Marcus isn't
really your big brother.” Ashley frowned.

“Oh he is. He's our
big brother all right. We're family. We care for one another, and
we love and support one another. And you and your mom, you're family
too,” Jax said.

“We are?” Ashley
said, looking surprised and delighted.

“Yes.”

“What happened after
you ran away from the circus?” Ashley asked curiously.

“Well, we came to
Shadow Point, and Joshua and I went to school here. At first, we
were suspicious of everyone and we were unfriendly and surly. The
other kids made fun of me because I couldn't hear very well. I
didn't tell anyone that I was deaf in one ear so they thought I was
either slow and stupid or ignoring them on purpose. Uncle Joshua got
mad and I cried a lot. That didn't help, so we decided to stop being
mad and stop crying.”

“What did you do then?”
Ashley prompted.

“We decided to stop
being so suspicious and hostile. And I decided to tell the other
kids and the teachers that I was deaf in one ear. Finally they
understood and some of the kids actually came up to me to apologize
for being mean. I shouldn't have been ashamed of my disability. If
I had just told them the truth, they would have understood and helped
me instead of hurting me.”

“So—if I tell my
teachers the truth...” Ashley began tentatively.

“They'll help you, and
they'll explain to the other kids what you are,” Jax said.

Serena and Ashley were silent
for a long while. Finally, Ashley spoke up, “I want to do what
Uncle Jax did. I think he's very brave. I want to be like him,
Mummy.”

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Serena knelt down and tucked
Ashley's hair behind her ear. She adjusted her daughter's coat again
and kissed her twice. “Are you sure you're okay with this?
Mummy won't be coming with you,” Serena said.

“Mummy! You've asked
me this like a million times. I'm not a baby,” Ashley
protested, squirming.

“You're my baby,”
she said just as the doorbell rang.

“They're here, they're
here!” Ashley squealed, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Jax went to open the door,
and Gramma and Ne-ma bounded into the house. There was a lion cub
perched on Gramma's shoulder.

“Are you ready to go,
Ashley?” Gramma asked excitedly.

When the lion cub growled at
Ashley, Ne-ma glared at him and scolded, “Jeremy! Behave
yourself!”