Read Southern Shifters: Inked By The Bear (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Series Book 2) for Free Online Page A

wolf. Even Bex didn’t like him and he hadn’t done anything to her. Was it because…?
    “Before this goes any further,” she started to say, figuring now was better than later to ask her question. “Am I really like all of you? A shifter? A bear? I mean, y’all say I look just like Mary here and that her son looked just like her, too, and she said down by the lake that it’s possible I am one, I just… Am I?”
    “Yes,” Gus answered. Bex looked up him. His smile was soft and apologetic. “You’re like us. You are a shifter.”
    Mary stepped up and cupped her cheek. Bex’s mother used to do the same thing when she needed to tell Bex something difficult, when she wanted to reassure Bex that she loved her, even if Bex had been bad and misbehaved. It was the first gesture she’d made when she told Bex about the cancer, and the last gesture she made when she told Bex that it was time to let her go.
    Bex swallowed back tears and leaned against Gus for support. She wished her mother were there. She wished none of it was true. She wished so many damn things and none of them had anything to do with being part bear.
    “You’re my granddaughter. You’re Martin’s niece, and Michael’s cousin. You’re Gus’s mate, too. You’re part of our family. And yes, as Gus said, you’re a bear shifter just as we are.”
    “But how do you know? I have seen Gus change from a bear back to a man. I don’t change forms like that.”
    “No,” Gus agreed, and went on to explain. “Your bear has likely lain dormant all these years. Different things trigger when it comes out, when it starts to take over. High stress can induce it. So can fear, the need to protect.”
    “Blood sensing its mate can, too,” Mary added.
    “How does blood sense anything? That doesn’t make sense to me.”
    “I know it doesn’t, pretty girl. I know it doesn’t.”
    “I understand it,” Luke added. “All of your new found relatives understand it. Shifter blood is different. It contains properties that regular human blood doesn’t. Humans have their guts, their hearts, their brains that they can listen to. They also have stronger doubts about other humans and good and bad and evil. Shifter blood has a separate strain of DNA and the instinct is primal. We know when a mate is close, when we’ve tasted the enemy, when we’re making a bargain with the devil. You’ve lived as a human all your life. Our environment can change who we were meant to become.”
    “What are you trying to say, Wolf?” Michael ground out.
    “That the damn bear found a human who was strong enough to carry a shifter baby. That it is possible. That he didn’t do it the right way, the honorable way, the love and roses way, notwithstanding, he did find a human woman. Maybe she can’t shift. Maybe the DNA isn’t as strong as all that, but I don’t doubt and none of you do either, that she is one. It might take a generation or two of shifter blood to build up in her strain of DNA before offspring will be able to shift, but damn… It’s possible.”
    Luke was almost giddy, nearly bouncing in his seat and had Bex not seen it with her own eyes, she’d have never believed it.
    “How does that help you?” Martin asked, drawing Luke’s attention back to him.
    “Directly? It doesn’t. Indirectly, it gives me hope that my pack will be able to do the same with humans, that we’ll find one’s strong enough to carry pups.”
    “I’m going to assume you mean without resorting to violence.”
    “That goes without saying.”
    “Just checking. Your pack’s reputation precedes you.”
    “I’m not saying we’re angels. Hell, we’re not even on the right side of the law sometimes. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
    “I’m still not sure what this has to do with all of us. We’re grateful that you stumbled onto this young lady being our kin, but I’m not sure what you get out of it.”
    “Do you know what happened to Rex? That’s his name, right?