Jake Read online

  Jake wanted her to freeze, well, she was frozen. To the spot. Unable to move as the air crackled with static electricity and the image of Jake faded before her eyes. Little by little, the man she’d lost her heart to disappeared. For an instant there was nothing. Then something else appeared.

  At first, it was as if a large shadowy creature stood before her. Then it became clearer as if she were looking through a pair of binoculars and was slowly turning the dial to make the picture clearer.

  “Bear.” The word sounded absurd on her lips, but the bear was there all the same.

  Was this what he meant when he said to suspend her belief?

  This was about as crazy as things could get. Wasn’t it? The bear stared at her as if trying to make telepathic contact. Her forehead creased. Surely that wasn’t possible, too. But once you’d seen a man change into a bear, anything seemed possible.

  The bear took a step toward her while keeping his eyes locked with hers. He was scared she was going to make a run for it. But she’d promised she would suspend her belief. Although the sixty seconds had now passed, she could get to her car and make a run for it without breaking her promise.

  Lana was many things, but she wasn’t a coward. She was a journalist at heart, and this was one hell of a story, even though she suspected it would never ever get to print. If anyone found out about this, Jake’s life would be over. He would be taken to some warehouse and dissected.

  She could never do that to a person. To a bear.

  Her hands flew to her cheeks as a thought hit her. Ursula. That’s why they’d been so interested in her name. Little she-bear.

  The world spun around her and she staggered backward, the ground coming up to meet her as her legs gave way. In a blur of brown fur, tipped with silver, Jake’s bear rushed forward and cushioned her fall. Instead of hitting the ground, she collapsed onto the body of a grizzly bear.

  The world had just gotten crazier…

  “Lana.” Jake’s face…his human face…swam in front of her eyes. “Lana.”

  “What happened?” Lana put her hand behind her back and pushed herself to a sitting position. “Where am I?” she asked as her hand sank into a soft sofa cushion.

  “Inside Fiona’s house.” Concern drew deep wrinkles across Jake’s face. “You fainted.”

  “I did.” Lana put her hand to her head before her eyes widened. “You turned into a bear.” Her tone was more accusing than she’d anticipated.

  “I did.” Jake’s mouth turned up at one corner. “I didn’t think I was that scary.” He reached out to touch her cheek but then pulled back.

  “It wasn’t you.” The room swam before her eyes once more, but before she fainted again, someone else entered the room accompanied by the smell of strong aromatic coffee. The aroma filled her nostrils and awakened her senses, pulling her back from the brink of unconsciousness.

  “Coffee.” A strong female voice belonging to an equally strong female face appeared by her side.

  “Fiona?” Lana asked.

  “The devil herself,” Fiona said drily.

  “You told her?” Lana asked. A small shake of Jake’s head told her no.

  “Told me what?” Fiona asked as she handed Lana her coffee. As the silence stretched out between them, she sighed and put her hands on her hips. “I have not been surprised at what people have said about me for a very long time. So I doubt you will surprise me now.” She looked from Lana to Jake and then back again.

  “Is Harlan here?” Jake asked.

  “Are you changing the subject?” Fiona turned her gaze fully on to Jake. A lesser man would have quaked under it, but Jake locked eyes with her. Whatever passed between them was enough for Fiona. Her hands dropped to her sides and she left the room. “I’ll go get him.”

  “We’re telling her?” Lana asked.

  Jake put his fingers to his lips and came closer. “I owe you a full explanation.”

  “You think?” Lana asked as the room swam a little, but she kept it together. “You changed from a man to a bear right in front of my eyes.”

  “Yes.” He pressed his lips together into a thin line as he studied her. As he assessed her.

  “You’re trying to figure out how freaked out I am, aren’t you?” She lifted the cup of coffee to her lips and took a sip, unsure of the answer herself.

  “It’s a lot to process.” Jake glanced at the doorway before turning back to her. “We also have extremely good senses. I can hear things normal people can’t. My eyesight is better and I’m fast.”

  “We. So there are more...shifters?” she asked, trying to circle around to the question burning a hole in her head.

  “There are.” He nodded. “My brothers are bear shifters, too. It’s a genetic thing. If one of your parents is a shifter, then you would carry the gene and be a shifter, too. Fiona works hard to place shifter children with shifter parents, so they are prepared for when they shift for the first time. She’s good at what she does. It’s her passion to make sure every shifter child gets the best start in life. That’s why she wanted us to adopt Milly. So we will understand what she’s going through.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Lana placed both hands around her coffee cup to stop them from shaking. “Is Ursula a shifter? You said her name meant little she-bear.”

  If she was, and there was any truth in what Elliot had said, would Fiona try to take her granddaughter away from Lana and place her with a shifter family? Isn’t that what Jake had said? Fiona liked shifter children to be brought up by families who were also shifters. Would Ursula be better off with a family who understood what she was? They would be able to help her and advise her in ways Lana could not.

  A sob erupted from deep within her. Instantly, Jake was on his knees beside the sofa, his arms wrapped around her. “I don’t know. A name is just a name. But when we find Kiki, we can ask her.” He ran his hand down her back, soothing her, cradling her against him while she stared down into her coffee and wondered when exactly her world had flipped and gone crazy.

  “When will she... Can she shift now?” Lana’s voice cracked with emotion. “Does it hurt?”

  “No, it doesn’t hurt,” Jake reassured her. “It’s odd the first couple of times because it can be hard to control. But it’s easier when there is someone at your side to help explain the experience.”

  “So Fiona would want to take her from me?” Lana asked miserably. She would fight for her granddaughter. She would learn all she could about shifters so that she could be the one to stand by Ursula’s side when the time came. If the time came.

  “First of all, if Ursula is a shifter, and none of us have sensed that she is,” Jake told her reassuringly. “She won’t shift until she is in her teens. It’s triggered around puberty.” He smiled faintly. “Which is why you don’t walk around Bear Creek seeing lots of bear cubs in the street.”

  “Okay.” She wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “That’s a relief.”

  “And secondly, Fiona works hard to keep families together.” He glanced toward the door once more. “I want to tell you something I have never told anyone else.”

  “There’s more?” Lana asked weakly.

  “It’s not a bad thing. I promised Fiona I would never tell anyone. It will explain the bank accounts. Which I have no idea where Elliot got the statements from since they are decades old.” His arms tightened around her. “But you are my mate and I don’t want us to have any secrets.”

  Mate. What did that mean? Lana decided now was not the time to ask. Jake had a secret he wanted to share with her, and it was directly related to Fiona, the woman who might or might not sell babies. “Tell me. Whatever it is, I promise I won’t tell another soul.”

  “You know that my parents died.” His breath shuddered through his body. “Sorry, even after all this time it still gets to me.”

  “Hey, it’s okay. I know what it’s like to lose someone. Even if I don’t know if Kiki is dead or alive, the loss is the same. The not knowing is crippling.�
�� It was Lana’s turn to comfort Jake. Placing her coffee cup down on the small table next to the sofa, she wrapped her arms around him and held him. Being here, with Jake, locked together in an embrace felt so right. Whatever he had to tell her. she would deal with it.

  “My brothers look up to me as the person who saved them.” He glanced at the door again and then lowered his voice, so it was no more than a whisper. “What no one else knows is that Fiona stepped in and gave me enough money to start my first business. I paid her back,” he added hastily. “Even though she said she didn’t want it or need it.”

  “Which explains the bank statements.” Lana pulled away from him and sat up. “Why doesn’t she want anyone to know?”

  He gave a small smile. “She hated the idea of people thinking she was soft.” His forehead creased as he searched for words. “She’s a complicated creature.”

  “Creature?” Lana’s eyes widened. “She’s a shifter, too!” She covered her mouth with her hands. “She’s a shifter, too?” she asked quietly.

  “She is.” Jake nodded. “She’s also a very private person.”

  “And this is why you believe she doesn’t sell babies to the highest bidder?” Lana asked, thinking about what she’d just learned. “She couldn’t have been very old when she loaned you the money. Was she born into a wealthy family? Did she have an inheritance?”

  “Something like that.” Jake took hold of her hand and pressed his lips to the back of it, sending shivers of desire along her spine. Lana tried to put the spike in emotions rushing through her down to shock, but she was only lying to herself. She found Jake incredibly attractive.

  If someone had told her that she would come to Bear Creek and meet a man who turned into a bear, she would have called them crazy, but not as crazy as if they’d told her she would come to Bear Creek and find true love. If that’s what she was experiencing.

  Which it was. Lana knew it was, no matter how crazy that sounded.

  “If you trust her, then I trust her. But that doesn’t help us answer any of the questions my meeting with Elliot raised.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “You brought us here because you thought Fiona could help. So let’s see if she can help us. She might have crossed paths with Elliot before. If not, why would he try to implicate her?”

  As the door opened, Lana looked up guiltily as Fiona and a man who she presumed was Harlan walked in. A shiver passed through Lana. Why did she feel as if she were in the presence of a predator? Or two.

  Fiona might be responsible for keeping the Harrison boys together, but she was strong and determined. With just a hint of scary sprinkled in for good measure.

  Lana sure hoped Fiona was innocent of the accusations Elliot leveled at her because it would be great to have her on their side.

  Chapter Sixteen – Jake

  “Fiona.” Jake got up from where he was kneeling on the floor next to Lana and inserted himself between his mate and the two dragon shifters who probably heard most of his conversation with Lana.

  If bear shifters had good heightened senses, then dragon shifters had greatly heightened senses. Jake and his brothers were certain if Fiona’s dragon turned its head and focused in a certain direction, she could hear what every person in Bear Creek was saying or doing. Of course, tuning in to one conversation was a difficult thing and one they doubted even Fiona had mastered during her long, long life.

  “Jake.” Harlan nodded at Jake before casting a sweeping gaze over Lana. “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine now, thank you.” Lana straightened her clothing and sat up straight. Jake was very aware of her movements, as if they were attuned to each other. “I appreciate the coffee. It’s good.”

  “I’ve spent years traveling the world finding the best coffee.” Harlan crossed the room and sat down in a chair to Lana’s right. Jake liked Harlan a lot. He was rich and successful but easygoing. He’d somehow managed to back away from his own business interests when he and Fiona had a child and had settled down into home life so naturally, Jake was a little jealous. “I think I’ve succeeded.”

  “You have,” Lana agreed as she watched Jake and Fiona stare at each other for a fraction of a second too long. The hairs on Jake’s neck stood on end and the air around them rose a couple of degrees before Fiona broke eye contact. If this was a test, he hoped he’d passed.

  “Sit, Jake.” Fiona relaxed and went to sit in a chair to Lana’s left, while Jake came back to the sofa and sat down next to his mate.

  “Is someone going to tell us what this is all about?” Harlan asked. “Sapphi and Ruby are out with their brother, but they’ll be back soon. I’d rather discuss why you are here before they get home.”

  Jake nodded and rested his elbows on his knees before making a steeple with his fingers as if he were about to pray. “Lana is my mate.”

  “We’d guessed as much,” Harlan answered. “Congratulations. To both of you.”

  “Wait.” Lana held up her hand. “I don’t even know what that means. You keep using the word mate, Jake, but you haven’t explained why.”

  “Jake.” Fiona’s eyes danced with amusement as he stumbled for words.

  “Lana has only just found out about shifters,” Jake began. “I shifted into my bear before we came into the house.”

  “I am aware,” Fiona said sagely.

  “I can only imagine how surprising and confusing it is to see someone shift for the first time if you have no idea shifters even exist,” Harlan said calmly. “No wonder you fainted.”

  “Oh, that’s not why I fainted,” Lana said quickly.

  “It’s not?” Jake asked with concern. “Are you ill?”

  “No,” Lana brushed off the idea. “I suppose it was because I’d just found out about shifters, but it was out of concern for my granddaughter, Ursula.”

  “You are afraid she is a shifter.” Fiona’s tone was sympathetic.

  “Not afraid, no. Just...” Lana didn’t finish the sentence.

  “Lana’s daughter, Ursula’s mom, is missing, and she doesn’t know who Ursula’s father is,” Jake explained. “So she has no idea if Ursula is a shifter.”

  “I see. Not knowing is hard,” Harlan said gently.

  “Lana has been looking for her daughter. At the same time, her editor’s daughter is missing...”

  “Editor? Which implies you work for a newspaper or magazine.” Fiona leaned forward in her chair, and Jake swore steam rose from her.

  “I do. Revealed.” Lana edged a little closer to Jake as Fiona’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into her hairline.

  “Don’t worry,” Jake said quickly. “Lana only took the job because she needed to use their resources to look for her daughter.”

  “And that makes it okay?” Fiona asked, her eyes glowing a fiery red as her temper flared.

  “Whatever is said here will never make it into a story,” Lana told Fiona. “I swear.”

  “Lana came to Bear Creek to meet a man who had contacted her editor saying he had news about his daughter, Amber,” Jake began slowly.

  “I met him today.” Lana glanced sideways at Jake, as if seeking reassurance she should disclose the details of the conversation.

  Jake nodded and said, “You won’t like what he said.”

  “It involves me?” Fiona asked in surprise. “Of course, it does, or else you would not be here.”

  “He made several accusations. Some of them involving me and some about Milly...” Jake raked his hand through his hair. His stomach churned at the thought of losing Milly. But if these accusations became public, that might happen, even if only temporarily while the case was investigated.

  Harlan, who had been quietly listening while the rest of the people in the room spoke, suddenly got up and went to his wife. Standing behind her, he placed a hand on her shoulder to give Fiona comfort and reassurance. “Go on, whatever the person you met told you, it is doubtless a pack of lies, but we can only deal with lies if they are exposed to the light.”

  “He said that Mi
lly wasn’t Sally’s child, that she was his child. A child he fathered. And that Amber was, in fact, the mother.” Jake spewed the words out as if they were poisonous on his tongue.

  “That’s a total lie. I was called to Sally’s apartment by the police. They can testify Milly was there in the same apartment as her dead mother. I have a copy of the birth certificate. And if this person wants proof, we can have a paternity test done. He must realize his case will fall apart.” Fiona’s face paled as she studied Jake. “That isn’t all he said.”

  “No, he said that he has proof you...” Jake couldn’t repeat the accusations. They weren’t true.

  This guy, Elliot, needs some sense shaken into him. His bear gritted his teeth and shook his head from side to side.

  “Proof of what?” Harlan asked quietly. Dangerously quietly. Jake had known Harlan a few years now, ever since he and Fiona had met. He was easygoing and kind. Generous with his time and his money, if someone needed help, he was there for them. But if anyone threatened his family, he would tear them limb from limb.

  Of course, he would, his bear agreed. No one should ever forget that Harlan is a dragon shifter. And they do not play nice if their family is threatened.

  “Proof that Fiona is rewarded for placing children with...certain parents.” Lana tried to be as tactful as possible, but that didn’t stop Harlan exploding on the spot.

  “That she is rewarded for placing children...” His eyes glowed amber, before turning to a deep fiery red. “You mean she’s paid by couples who want to adopt?”

  “Yes.” Lana gave Fiona an apologetic look. “I’m sorry you got dragged into this.”

  Harlan paced the room, his fists clenched at his sides as Fiona sat still, frozen to the spot. Jake shook his head and rubbed his hand over his chin. “This guy, Elliot, wants Milly. He thinks she is his child. I have no idea where he got that idea from. For all we know, he is a crazy man. Perhaps he thinks if he stirs up enough trouble, we’ll hand Milly to him.”

  No hope in hell! his bear roared.