He was passing through the living room on his way to the kitchen when the front door slammed open. Spinning around, he somehow managed to catch the golden blur that tried to dart past him.
Though he was holding her in place by her shoulders, and she was staring up at him, he might as well have been invisible. She wasn’t seeing him. Jack took in her labored breath, her ashen pallor, and her wide, glossy eyes. Apprehension gripped his chest.
“What happened?” he asked.
Blank stare.
He shook her gently. “Oriana, talk to me. What happened?”
She blinked, recognition dawning. Her lips quivered, but no sound came out.
Jack lowered so he could stare deep into her eyes. “I need you tell me what happened.”
Instantly, tears welled. “I—I don’t know,” she rasped. “I think… Oh, God. Jordan. No…” She gazed at the door, shaking her head. “No…”
“Look at me,” he commanded, cupping her cheek and forcing her to face him. “What about Jordan?”
Oriana’s face crinkled with raw grief. “He was eaten by a bear.”
He pulled her into his arms. Like a ruptured dam, she spilled her sorrow into chest while he held her tight and contemplated the consequences of fratricide.
Jack nudged her back so he could look at her, his heart wrenching at the tears streaming down her cheeks as she chocked on her sobs.
Yes, he was going to kill them.
“Oriana, listen to me. Jordan is fine.”
She shook her head. “N-no, Jack. He’s not. He’s dead. I—I’m so sorry.”
He inhaled a deep breath for fortitude, and expelled it hard, hoping it would lessen his rage. Rather than reiterate, he instead asked, “Tell me what you saw.”
Oriana shook her head again.
“Please.”
“I-I can’t,” she gasped. “I d-don’t remember.”
“Try. For me,” he replied softly.
“I was in shock—I’m in shock. My memories—they’re distorted.” She began to hyperventilate. “I…I just stood there, d-did nothing…let it kill—”
“I need you remain as calm as you can and answer this question: Was there any blood?”
“I don’t know,” she wailed. “I just don’t know.”
“Do you trust me?”
Moments passed, an eternity, and he stared down at her, capturing her gaze, willing her to calm, willing her answer. Finally, she nodded.
“No matter how wrong your memories might seem, I want you to share them.” He wouldn’t let her shake her head at him. “I’ll understand, and I won’t think you’re crazy.” She tried to protest again. “No, Oriana. You agreed, you promised me. Three days ago, in the kitchen. You promised you would always be forthcoming. Open and honest.”
“No blood,” she whispered.
“What did you see? What do you remember? Take a deep breath, then tell me.”
“There was a bear. It jumped out of the bushes and roared.” She swallowed hard. “It attacked Jordan and um…shredded his clothes. Then Jordan—A second bear appeared and Jordan was gone. The two bears fought for a second, then stopped. I dropped my basket and they both turned to me. I—I screamed and ran away.”
And just when he thought he couldn’t get any angrier. Jack wasn’t sure what pissed him off more: his brothers’ blatant foolishness or Oriana’s reluctance to tell him the whole truth.
“Did you see Jon?” he asked.
“No, he…he wasn’t with us. He went to search for his keys.”
Jack guided her to couch and urged her down. “Stay here.” He headed for the front door.
“Wait! Where’re you going?”
“I’m going to find my brothers, throttle them, then bring them back here so you can see that they’re okay.”
“You really think they’re okay? That Jordan is okay?”
He stopped and turned. “Once I resolve this, you and I are going to have a discussion about the meaning of ‘open and honest’.”
“Wh-why?”
“Tell me, Oriana. Did the first bear really pounce on Jordan and shred his clothes?”
She stared him, a new stream of tears springing from her eyes.
“I… I’m not sure… I think—”
Jack held up his hand. “You said there was no blood. You would have me believe that a bear attacked, used it claws to shred Jordan’s clothes, but never marked his skin?”
“I told you my memories were unreliable,” she whispered brokenly, wiping her cheeks. “It happened so fast. The clothes, I’m not quite…”
Jack folded his arms across his chest and studied her. Since she seemed genuinely confused, he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt—for that one. Jon had obviously been on top of Jordan at the time, so it could have possibly appeared, in her eyes, like the clothing was being ‘shredded’ off.
“Then answer me this,” he said. “Did the second bear just ‘appear’ and, like that, Jordan was suddenly ‘gone’? Or did you
see
Jordan shape-shift into the second bear?”
Her mouth dropped open, and Jack shook his head in disappointment—he really wished she’d proved him wrong. But the astonished “how did you know that” expression on her face told him everything he needed to know.
Oriana stared at Jack, her mind trying to grasp the illogical words that somehow made her feel better—and little less insane.
How did he know what I saw?
A soft voice within whispered the answer, and she accepted it with a mixture of emotions. Relief, since that would mean Jordan was alive and well. Disbelief, since it still seemed somehow impossible. Awe, because Jack confirmed what she had seen, so it had to be real. And apprehension, because Jack now seemed totally pissed—at both her and his brothers.
However, before she could think more on it. Jordan and Jonathan ran in, wearing nothing but towels. Elation didn’t have a chance to take hold. In the span of a blink, Jack swung, Jonathan tumbled into the wall and slid down to the floor, another blink, and Jordan was pinned to the doorframe, Jack’s large hand pressing flat against his chest.
“You will fix this,” Jack growled. “Now.”
Jordan nodded.
“I’m going to take a walk and cool off,” he continued. “Oriana had better be in my room, her nose in a corner, by the time I return. Got it?”
Jordan nodded again.
“It’s not her fault, Jack,” Jonathan said, rubbing his jaw. “It’s mine.”
Jack looked over his shoulder and down to where the youngest still sat. “Oh, I know. I’ll deal with you later.”
“It was an accident,” Jordan interjected. “Jon didn’t mean—”
“Didn’t mean to what?” Jack shifted his attention back to Jordan. “Didn’t mean to terrify Oriana? To confuse her to the point that she thought you devoured by a bear? Or he didn’t mean to break her heart because she thought you were dead?”
“Then I’ll take the blame as well,” Jordan stated solemnly. “I agreed to the plan. If Jon’s at fault because it accidentally went awry, then so am I.”
“A plan.” The muscle in Jack’s jaw ticked, and he took a step back, releasing his hold on Jordan. “I’m going to leave, and pretend I misheard you. Because if I acknowledge that you two purposely revealed something like this without first consulting me, I might feel compelled to take it as a direct challenge to my authority as head of this family.”
The room grew eerily quiet, heavy.
“It’s not a challenge,” Jordan said, his tone low. “Just a mistake.”
“I’m not challenging, either,” Jonathan added.
Jack glared at Jordan. “I expect the last instructions I gave you to be followed.” He then stormed out the front door.
Oriana stared at the spot Jack had vacated, finding herself numb and too overwhelmed by what had transpired. Everything felt surreal, but she knew it was real, but couldn’t seem to elude the odd sensation. It was like she was trapped in a vacuum of some sort, an alternate reality where time and space was slow and muted.
“What did you do, Ori?” she heard Jordan ask, his voice far away to her ears
“Do?”
“To earn a punishment.”
Blinking rapidly, she shook off some of her stupor. “I, um, lied I guess.”
“About what?”
She shifted her gaze to Jordan, who appeared to be just as stunned as she felt. “Not a lie. An omission.”
“That’s carries the same weight as an untruth around here,” Jonathan muttered, climbing to his feet. “What did you get caught
not
divulging?”
She opened her mouth to answer, and suddenly, the world shifted back into place with vivid clarity.
Shift. Shifter. Jordan. Alive.
Oriana launched herself into Jordan’s arms. “I thought you were killed by a bear and that I couldn’t come to terms with your death and lost my mind and that’s why I couldn’t remember you being killed and—and—” She began to cry. “I’m just so glad you’re okay.”
“Ori, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me,” he murmured, squeezing her tight.
“Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
“I promise, I’ll never shift in front of you—”
“No,” she exasperated, pulling back enough to look at him. “Don’t ever die on me again. I love you too much to lose you. My heart just can’t take it. Promise me.”
Jordan wiped her cheeks then placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “I love you, too.”
She awarded him a disgruntled look, but instead of taking him to task for not promising her the impossible, she said, “So you’re a shape-shifter, huh?”
“Yes, as are Jon and Jack. We can take on the form of Kodiak bears.”
“Oh. Werebears. That’s, um…nice to know.”
She wasn’t sure how to react, or what to say. It was one of those weird, awkward, revelations—like when a gorgeous woman tells you she used to be a man, or some happily married couple lets on that they’re also cousins.
“Does knowing this change how you feel about us?”
Werebears.
They were humans that could shift into bears. All logic still said it wasn’t possible, that such transformations were the stuff of fairy tales—and horror movies. Yet, she’d seen it with her own eyes. There was no denying that. And they confirmed what she saw, so she definitely hadn’t imagined it.
So the question was… Did it change anything? Could she love the men as well as the animals?
Ha! Funny. Wasn’t that why she had become a vet? Because she loved animals?
Loved animals, not
loved
animals. She definitely wasn’t into fornicating with mankind’s furry friends. But these guys were human first, right? They just had an ability—a special talent. It was like being able to perform a really cool magic trick, except this one was a little more real than illusionary. Okay, it was
a lot
more real than illusionary, but no big deal. It didn’t change anything. These were the same men she’d come to know and love, men that just happened to be gifted with an unusual but extraordinary skill.
“No,” she finally answered. “All you’ve done is shared another aspect of yourself, one I’m sure I’ll grow to— Wait, it’s not a dangerous aspect, right? I mean, you two didn’t run me down and maul me like normal wild bears would have. Is it safe to assume you maintain some level of human consciousness when you’re in an animal form?”
“We do. It’s only a physical change. Our psychological nature remains the same. We’re humans trapped in bear bodies. Well, not trapped. We control the shifting. We have to make the conscious decision to do so.”
“How can you do that? What were you, bitten by a radioactive bear or something?”
Jordan smiled, seemingly amused by the reference. “No, were born this way. It is an inherited trait. Supposedly, back in the late 1800’s, our great-great-grandfather acquired the ability to shift while visiting the island. No one knows for sure the exact circumstances surrounding the incident; he supposedly refused to talk about it.
“Kodiak has a long history, dating back over seven thousand years. The Alutiiq people, indigenous to the island, believed the Kodiak bear is associated with the spirit world, and have many myths and legends involving men turning into the sacred creature.”
“Obviously not all the stories are myths,” she whispered.
There were so many other questions she yearned to ask—
what was it like to shift? Did they interact with other bears? Was this the real secret they were trying to protect when they made the decision to only have one woman in their lives?
—but she refrained from doing so, not wanting to come off like some ill-mannered patron at a carnival freak show.
“We were searching for a way to tell you,” Jordan was saying, “but it didn’t… We’re very sorry for scaring you.”
“I know you wouldn’t scare me on purpose.” She looked over to Jonathan. “You were the other bear?”
“I’m sorry. Please forgive me, too.”
Replaying everything they’d said, the explanations Jack refused to hear, she pulled out of Jordan’s embrace and approached his brother.
“He hit you,” she whispered, cupping his jaw.
“Nah, not really. That was just a warning tap.”
Raising her eyebrows, she stared at him skeptically. “Just a warning tap? It was hard enough that you fell into the wall.”
Jonathan placed his hand over hers, moving it to his lips and kissing her palm before resting it on his bare chest. “Trust me, it won’t even leave mark. I think you punched me harder the other night.”