The Right Bear's Arms BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance(12)
“Good lord, Kathleen Marie, what are you doing in my kitchen then? Go get him!” Gran got up and started clearing the table, muttering something about youth being wasted on the young.
“But—Gran, if he’s an alpha, you know what means. Babies every year until I’m worn out and done for. I don’t want to be a second-class citizen again. There’s too much I want to do with my life!” Tears stung her eyes and she opened them wide to keep the tears from falling.
Gran shut off the water and turned around, leaning against the sink. “Katie, I have done my best to stay quiet about how my daughter raised you, out of respect for her and your dad, wherever he is. I can’t do it anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I never should have let her go off to live in that little backwater, backwards shithole of a town, is what I mean.”
Katie’s eyes widened. Gran never said anything stronger than “damn.”
“I’m sorry,” Gran said. “I love Sarah, but she made a lot of bad choices, and dragged you right along with them.” She came over and sat down. “Remember when you were little, you used to ask me about your granddad?”
Katie nodded. “Mom yelled at me once about it, she said you didn’t want to talk about him.” She’d stopped asking, but had always wondered. There was just one thing she knew, that her mom had told her “All she said was that he was an alpha.”
“They didn’t get along so well, Sarah and Henry. Made the same stubborn stock, I suppose.” Gran sighed. “Your mom thought I didn’t want to talk about him because I was angry, but she was wrong. I didn’t talk about him because it hurt too much. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“I’m sorry, you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.” Katie reached out and covered Gran’s hands with hers.
“No, I do. You need to know the truth.” Gran turned her hands over and clasped Katie’s. “Your granddad was an alpha bear, and I was his mate, you know that much. Your mom never understood what it really meant, though. We were a fated match, do you know what that means?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think you do,” Gran said. “We were a part of each other, right from the start. I wasn’t a full shifter then, Katie. I was kinfolk, just like you and your mom.”
“But I thought—but you’re—”
“I am now. Henry loved the bear part of him, of his life, and it like to broke his heart that I couldn’t share it with him. So when he asked if I wanted to join him, I said yes. Never looked back, never regretted it, but I think it made Sarah feel shut out. That much, I do regret.
“Thing is, Katie, he didn’t turn me because he thought I was something less than he was. I know that’s what your mom thought, and I know that’s what that trashy den full of scavengers in Boone think too.” Gran squeezed her hands then let go. “I should never have let you grow up thinking that. I should have interfered. I’m sorry.”
Katie tried to wrap her brain around everything she’d heard. “I don’t understand.”
“You and your mom both oughta be treated like princesses. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Deep down your mom knows that. I suppose that’s why she figured getting you mated off to an alpha—since she couldn’t do it herself—was the best way to manage that. But she picked the worst town in Colorado to try it.” Gran’s lip curled up.
“Jake thinks—” Katie swallowed and stared at her hands. “That’s his name, Jake. He thinks we’re destined to be mates.”
“What do you think?” Gran asked.
“I don’t know! What does it mean, if we are?”
“I loved your granddad more than anything in the world. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done for him, and I know he felt the same about me. You’ll know. There’ll be a voice inside of you that says, ‘Him. That one.’ Some of the stories say you’re two halves of the same soul, maybe that’s true. I just know it’s as deep a love as there is, and nothing can stop it.” Gran stopped, her eyes overbright before she looked away. She cleared her throat and shook off Katie’s concerned hand. “If this Jake is meant to be with you, then you’ll work it out. Whatever you want to do with your life, that’s what he’ll want, traditions be damned.”
Katie couldn’t help but smile a little at Gran’s boundless optimism, but was she right?
***
It was like he’d been living in a dim twilight and someone reached inside and switched on a light.
Everything in Jake’s world was bigger, brighter than it had been before. His senses, already keen, were so amped up he thought he was going mad at first. He had a faint awareness of all of the shifters and kinfolk in his vicinity, like fireflies in his consciousness. And if he tried, really focused, he could tell what direction Katie had taken: west. And a far distance, given how weak his perception of her was.
Still, it was enough to start.
Rafe knew that Jake’s family sent him money sometime for rent, but Jake hadn’t told him everything. There was a bank account in his name and his parents had been depositing money in it regularly. Jake had refused to touch it except in the direst of emergencies. This counted, as far as he was concerned. Besides, he hadn’t taken the money then because he knew he’d disappointed them. Now—well. Now he was what they’d wanted, and he was going after his mate.