Two weeks later
Niall wasn’t in cougar form, yet he could swear he was purring in pure contentment anyway. Hands in his pockets, he moseyed down the trail after Sky and Heather.
It’d been an amazing two weeks since lifemating the most beautiful, amazing female in all the worlds.
They’d moved her into the mate room that very night—and had thoroughly enjoyed the massive bed.
He hadn’t been sure how life with a female would work, but somehow, she made time for each of them. All of them ended up in her bed more often than not, even if just to sleep. He’d never realized, but he slept better with his brothers close. Maybe his subconscious knew nothing could get past Madoc and André.
It’d been rewarding to see Heather drop the last of her defenses and come to believe they truly did love her.
It had been almost as amazing to see Madoc’s contentment.
The OtherFolk must have felt their happiness. Last week, a family of brownies had moved in. As owner of the kitchen, Madoc had made a special trip to town for cream, then baked a cake. No one would miss not having to clean the kitchen.
And it left more time for being in the forest.
Up in front of him on the trail, Sky was bouncing around like he’d had a gallon of coffee for breakfast rather than milk.
Teenaged cubs. Niall grinned. He’d heard parents use a certain I-survived-I’m-not-sure-how tone when speaking of their younglings’ adolescences.
After last week, he was beginning to understand why. Cooped up for several days of heavy rain and blustery winds, the cubs had grown as fidgety as nervous coyotes with a flea infestation.
Thank fuck the sun had finally come out today.
Even better, André had declared this a “check the trails” day—mostly to get the cubs out of the house.
But the irritable cublings had gotten into a brawl the first few minutes of the hike. So they’d split into two parties at a fork in the trail. André and Madoc had taken Talam.
Niall and Heather had Sky.
“Don’t get too far ahead,” Heather called as the cub disappeared around a corner.
Yeah, they needed to keep him in sight. Niall’s mouth tightened. A couple of days ago, Talam and Sky said they’d started to see the door to the wild in their minds.
They were getting close to First Shift.
As a youngling, he’d been a cocky little git, not believing the rumors telling of cubs who didn’t survive First Shift.
Unfortunately, the rumors were true. Cubs did die. Overwhelmed at finding himself in fur, a youngling might run himself to death or tumble off a cliff, or worse, not be able to find the doorway back to human.
On the trail ahead, Sky reappeared, running back to Heather to show her a rock he’d found. Having a home, being safe and loved, Sky was flourishing. He was much like Heather—and Niall too—happy to bury himself in books and computers. The way he took to numbers delighted Heather, and she’d been teaching him to play the stock market with virtual money.
But… Niall’s gut tightened. Being so sensitive and possessing a vivid imagination weren’t good traits for surviving First Shift. Sky was the type of cub who might well lose himself in the wild—and not be able to come back.
By Herne, they needed more time with the younglings. Needed to establish the kind of trust where the mentor’s mere presence could make a cub feel safe. Could ensure they’d listen.
As the worries kept poking at his nerves, Niall growled under his breath until Heather looked over her shoulder in worry.
“Sorry. I’m having foxtail thoughts.”
“Barbed seeds—a demon must have invented that kind of grass. I had to see a healer once when one burrowed into my paw.” She wrinkled her nose. “So what painful thoughts are embedded in your brain?”
“Tell you later.” And wasn’t it a comfort he had her and his brothers to share worries with?
Up ahead, Sky had gone to work, trying to drag a small fallen tree off the trail.
“Good lad,” Niall called and grabbed Heather for a quick kiss. Mmmhmm, she felt so good in his arms, he lost track of everything except her lips, her scent, her arms around his neck, her breasts pressed against…
Uh-oh. “I love you, pretty wolf,” he grumbled and released her, “but you should come with a warning label.”
As he strode up the trail to help the cub, she laughed.
“You’re so gone over her.” Sky shot him an impudent grin. “You’re gonna be even worse with babies.”
“True enough.” His heart would probably crack right into pieces. “And you won’t?”
Sky hesitated, then gave a teen shrug. “Yeah.” A tiny smile appeared. “We’re looking forward to being big brothers.”
“They’ll be lucky cubs to have you.” Niall ruffled the soft hair, then started pulling the tree farther off the trail. “Can you get the branches?”
“On it.” Sky filled his arms head-high with broken boughs. Trotting after Niall, he stumbled over an exposed root—and fell. “Ack!”
Suddenly, there was a small bear half-buried in fir branches and fighting its clothing. It let out a terrified bawl.
Oh fuck.
“Hold on there, Sky.” Heart racing in panic, Niall bent and tried to disentangle the cub from his shirt. Stay calm. But what if the lad remembered how Wendell went feral—as a bear. What if he—
“Whoa, you’re a bear, Sky.” Heather’s husky voice was quiet and…delighted. She took a knee beside the furry cub to free his legs from the pants. “How fun. Madoc will be so happy to have another bear to play with.”
The cub shivered as he picked up a fat paw and gave it an appalled stare.
Get a grip, cahir. Niall knelt beside Heather. “Good paws there, youngling. You’ll have to get Madoc to show you how he fishes.” Gently, he rubbed his hand over the upright ears and studied the nose and spine. Looked like Sky was a black bear, not a grizzly.
Sky’s panting slowed, and the cub started to look around.
“You’ll notice everything’s louder, and there are more smells, and it’s just plain weird to be lower to the ground.” Heather stroked a hand down the black fur. “Okay, Sky. Your first job is to find the door in your head. Open it and walk through.”
The little head lowered. And nothing happened. Nothing.
Niall’s hand clenched as he tried to keep the worry from his face. “Mine usually glows around the edges. Can you see it?”
A second later, with a shimmer of magic, the bear turned into a skinny naked boy.
As she might with a baby’s first steps, Heather cheered. “Perfect job, Sky. Congratulations on your first shift!”
The cub’s big blue eyes looked to Niall for confirmation.
And Niall’s heart was simply gone. He cleared the thickness from his throat. “You’re a shifter now, Sky, congratulations.”
“I’m a bear.” Grinning huge, Sky picked up his pants to dress.
Head buzzing with relief, Niall laughed. “Nah, we’ll all shift and go find the others to celebrate.” And in cougar form, he might stop shaking.
By the Gods, why had no one mentioned how terrifying being a parent was?
“Stupid rain. Look what it did.” Talam scowled at the cliff where a slide had dumped a ton of rocks and boulders all over the trail. Cat-scat, they’d be clearing it forever, and he was already hungry.
“It appears we have our task set out for us.” André started tossing rocks into the underbrush. He probably heard Talam’s stomach rumble cuz he laughed. “We’ll work for a while and then break out the food.”
“Here, lad.” Madoc tossed Talam a granola bar, then braced his feet and started rocking a huge boulder. When it started to roll, he pushed it right off the trail.
Halfway through the bar, Talam stared in pure envy. “I wish I was as big as you are.”
“You have some growing to do, then.” Madoc clapped Talam’s shoulder and bent to the next boulder.
“You might well get to be his size.” André chuckled. “At twelve, Madoc was Sky’s size.”
“Really?”
“Sure was.” Madoc shoved the second boulder after the first. “The faster-growing wolves and cats picked on me, and then I wound up a foot taller than some of them.”
Talam swallowed the last of the bar and grinned. I could be as big as Madoc. Yes.
With more enthusiasm, he started flinging the smaller rocks into the underbrush, then moved to bigger ones. Gotta grow some muscles, right?
Straining to carry one, he took a step, and his boot skidded off the loose stones. Trying to catch his balance, he dropped the rock. On his foot.
“Ow!” At the blast of pain, his world spun around and around. Falling, he landed on his hands and knees. Only…
He blinked at the fat, furry paws under his nose. And something kept blocking his vision when he looked down. What…? It was a really long, black nose.
He tried to scramble away from it, and something grabbed his legs, and he fell again. His yell came out high and squally, like a little kid.
Panicking, he let out another squeal.
A hand gripped his chin. “Talam, look at me.” That was the Cosantir’s voice. André. He’d make everything okay.
Panting, Talam looked up.
The dark eyes were calm. Yeah, André wasn’t scared.
Okay. Okay.
“Look at you, youngling.” Madoc knelt on the ground. Slowly, he reached out and stroked Talam’s head. “You’re a bear like me.”
A bear? I’m a bear?
André was smiling.
Talam looked down again. Those were his paws? Oh wow. He tried to pick one up and almost fell again.
“Let me help you there, little buddy,” Madoc pulled the T-shirt off one paw, then what must’ve been jeans from his legs. Back legs. Cat-scat, he had, like, four legs. How did they all work?
Talam studied his paws. Furry and black. And he could smell everything. He lifted his for-real long nose and sniffed.
Madoc let out a bellow of laughter. “Yo, the smells are great, aren’t they? But first, get your ass back through the door in your head.”
No way. This was too—
“Talam.” André used the voice no one ignored, “the door, please.”
Fine. With a huge huff of annoyance, Talam looked for the door in the back of his mind. Yeah, there, glowing around the edges. So cool. Opening it, he stepped through and felt total disappointment at having fingers and hands and arms.
“I was having fun,” he grumbled.
“And you will again,” André said. “Congratulations on your First Shift, Talam.”
Talam looked up quick, but the Cosantir wasn’t mad at his grumbling. His dark eyes were laughing.
“Good job, cub.” Madoc held his hand up for a high-five. “Congratulations.”
When André set his hand on Talam’s shoulder, the last trembles disappeared. “How about we stow our clothes off the trail? We’ll all shift and go find the others for your First Shift run.”
“Yes!” Talam jumped to his feet.
Wouldn’t Sky be surprised?
Heather led the way down the trail, her paws happy, her tail waving. What a wonderful day.
Behind her, Niall padded beside Sky, who was doing fine if he didn’t think about having four legs.
She could still remember those days after her first shift when her paws would tangle, and she’d land snout first in the dirt. So embarrassing.
Daniel and Tanner had been even clumsier—and she’d taken total advantage. Bears were so nicely trippable.
Reaching the fork in the trail where they’d split into two work groups, Heather lifted her nose and sniffed at the scents coming down on the breeze. Cougar and bear and…bear?
She looked over her shoulder, wondering if she’d caught a whiff of Sky.
The sounds from upslope preceded the sight of a massive bear, a cougar, and…a juvenile bear.
Talam was also a bear?
Shifting without thought, she put her hands on her hips. “Nooo, I refuse to accept a family with three bears and two cougars. I’m so outnumbered!”
Sky raced past her, and then there were two bear cubs rolling and bumbling about.
Was anything more adorable?
André shifted and joined her. Putting a warm arm around her waist, he kissed her, long and slow before smiling down at her. “We appear to be infested with bears.”
Madoc settled down next to the cubs, so obviously delighted she had to laugh. “It’ll get worse. My brothers will descend on us for bear outings.”
“At least we all know how to deal with having bears in the family.” Niall bent for a quick kiss. “We also know how to annoy them.”
Tossing his blond hair back over his shoulders, the cahir sauntered up the hill. “Hey, what do you call a bear with no teeth?”
All three bears looked up at his approach.
Trying to keep her face straight, Heather took up the cause. “I don’t know. What do you call a bear with no teeth?”
Niall grinned. “A gummy bear.” Seconds later, he was buried beneath a giant bear and two little ones.
Laughing her head off, Heather leaned back against André.
Arms around her, he laid his palms over her belly. As they watched the rest of their family playing, her heart simply overflowed with love.
Sometimes dreams really did come true.