Grayslake: More than Mated: Secrets to Bear (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page B

child. She is one of us. Magda would never have sent her otherwise."
    Nancy stood in front of Lira and smiled. And suddenly there was a sleek wolf standing there. Lira dropped her cup and scrambled backwards.
    "What the fuck. What the actual fuck?" The wolf padded slowly over to her and laid its head on her knee, nuzzling her.
    Grace said, "Okay, Nancy, enough."
    And the girl shifted back into existence while Lira just stared on. She looked back and forth between the old and young woman, her mouth gapping. "I think I need to lie down."
    "No, dear, there is so much more to tell you. I don't want you to dismiss this as a dream or anything silly like that."
    "I'm pretty sure I would like to do just that, then get and my car and dash home."
    "Magda already told me about your little issue back home."
    "She told you about Ethan?"
    "Said he was a real nasty piece of work and was ramping up. I'd hate for you to discover your nature because he put you in danger."
    "My nature?"
    "Well, yes. You have the potential to be a shifter. A bear shifter. And from what Magda said, Ethan would use that against you, and then we would have to act, not just to protect you, but to protect our secret."
    "You mean you would kill him."
    Grace looked insulted. "Well, not me personally."
    "So you pawn off your dirty work?"
    "If you care to put it that way, I am not in charge, so it would not be my choice or my responsibility to act. I do what my Alpha commands. And you will do what your Itan commands."
    "Uhm, yeah, I'm not one of you, so I'll pretty much do what I want." Alpha? Itan?
    "You say that now, but you'll see. We are veering off track. You may be a shifter. If you are, I want to make sure you are safe when you discover it. I owe Magda that. She thinks you can."
    "Do you?"
    Grace shifted uncomfortably, finally locking eyes on Nancy and pointed to the door. "Nancy, leave the house. Now." Lira shuddered as a chill raced down her spine. The jovial woman was immediately replaced by a commander who even irrepressible Nancy must obey.
    "Yes, ma'am. Dinner is in the warmer, whenever you want it." Nancy practically bolted and Grace kept her head tilted until they heard a car start.
    "I'm sorry for that, dear. She is a lovely child, but just that: a child. She will learn the harshness of the world soon enough, I'd rather she not see my place in it just yet."
    "So you have something ugly to share with me?"
    "It is my greatest shame. It wasn't an accident. The car was forced off the road by a very angry man who wanted control. The girls were leaving because I did not believe the humans they had chosen where fated mates. No one did. They were human."
    Grace stood up and walked to the window, looking out into dark woods.
    "I didn't believe my daughter, because I wanted her to marry an alpha. So when Magda said she was leaving, I told Deirdre’s Itan, because I knew he would stop your mother. But they were already on the road, and he sent a hothead bear after them. The Itan thought they would pull over, come home with their tails between their legs. But that didn't happen. Instead, the hothead rammed them, the car spun off the road and hit a tree. The shifters survived. The humans did not."
    "Hang on, your daughter?"
    "Magda. Magda is my daughter. She sent me updates about you, dry letters. But until she called me about your issue, she hasn't spoken to me since."
    "Magda is..." Lira trailed off. If Magda was Grace's daughter, and Grace was a shifter, then Magda was also a shifter.
    Grace continued, "But if your parents were fated mates, then you can shift. That's how it works."
    "This is kind of a lot to take in. And who are my mother's people? Do I have grandparents?"
    "I'm sorry, but you don't. Your mother, Deirdre, was an orphan cub, from Alaska. The hothead sent after her, he wanted her for his own. So when he thought they were getting away, he rammed the car. He never forgave himself. He wasn't bad, just young."
    "But he killed people." Lira was angry,