Bear Cuffs (Broken Hill Bears #3)(18)
"So we're going to speak to your mom. I think that's a good idea." Harper flashed him a smile.
"Good."
13
"Harper!" Amelia yelled, hurtling out of her cabin and running toward them as soon as the truck pulled up in the driveway. Harper jumped down from the driver's seat and hugged her mom tight, squeezing her eyes shut to hold back her emotions. Amelia pulled back and looked at her closely. "Are you okay, honey? This is a surprise."
"You're not happy to see me, mom?" Harper said with a grin.
"I meant a pleasant surprise. But aren't you meant to be in school today?"
"I called in sick. We drove over here because we have something important to ask you."
"Hey, Mrs Waverly," Rocco said, stepping forward, and Harper's mom hugged him too.
"Relax, mom. It's nothing bad."
"Okay. Okay. That's good to hear. Why don't you two take a seat on the porch and I'll bring some drinks and snacks out?"
Rocco and Harper wandered around the garden while Amelia disappeared into the house, happy to stretch their legs after the drive.
"Will she be upset when you ask her about this?" Rocco asked.
"I'm not sure," Harper said, kicking at a loose patch of turf. "My memory of that time is a bit of a blur, but I have the impression that her disappearance was really played down by other family members, so that I hardly knew she was gone, and that we were discouraged from talking about it when she came back." Rocco shrugged.
"A lot of time has passed now though. And she has a new mate. I'm sure it will have lost its impact."
"Let's hope so."
Amelia came out with a tray of homemade lemonade and carrot cake and they joined her on the porch.
"I feel like a homemaker from another era," she said with a laugh. "But I just had a strong craving for lemonade when I woke up today, so I decided to make a batch up."
"I loved how you used to make it for us when I was a kid," Harper replied, thinking it was striking that her mom was reminiscing about the past.
"So what do you want to ask me?" Amelia said, getting right to the point. Harper smiled, knowing exactly where her own impatience came from.
"Mom, do you remember that time when Rocco and I broke up?" she began. Her mom's eyes filled with pain.
"Of course I do, baby. You were so sad, and seeing you like that just about broke my heart as well." Harper swallowed hard. Seeing her mom in pain always had a knock-on effect on her.
"And do you remember the time just after, when you went away for a few days?" Amelia's face stiffened.
"That was a long time ago. It's water under the bridge now. I don't know why you'd want to know about that."
"Of course it was. But please, mom. I need to know what happened. It might be important." Amelia huffed out a long breath, thinking.
"I can't see why, dear, but okay. I'll tell you: I was kidnapped by the Black Paw Ridge Clan – " Harper gasped, and at the same moment, Rocco's bear let off a growl.
"Those disgusting half-breed mutts!" he exclaimed.
"Why?" Harper asked, her heart thudding double time.
"They wanted me to become the mate of someone in the ruling family. And they wanted to marry you off to his son." Harper's jaw dropped.
"What? That's so wrong!"
"I know. And I refused, of course. But they said they wouldn't let me go until I agreed to it."
"And then?"
"And then I waited. I hated the Black Paws and the way they did things. I was never going to agree to this union for either of us. So they kept putting more pressure on me. They said that they had people watching you, and that I was a bad mom for leaving you unprotected, and that I should give in to their demands so I could get back to you. It was clever and nasty." Harper shuddered.
"But you didn't give in?"
"I didn't have to. It so happened that Tarkus was visiting their territory on some business. They had me locked up in a filthy old shack. I didn't know him at all then, but when he passed by, I picked up his scent and knew that he wasn't from the clan. I just yelled out to him, hoping with all my heart that he'd be sympathetic to me. Luckily he hated the Black Paws too, and when I told him what they'd done, he was so mad that he and two of his clan mates tore them apart – the bear who wanted to mate me and the two who were after Harper. But it was strange. He wasn't even planning on visiting the clan that day. He'd actually been putting off meeting with them for a long time. He only came by because he woke up with a voice in his head telling him that he had to go see them that day. And then he turned up, like my knight in shining armor. He brought me right back home after that, and we were friends for years. Until things changed, and we became more than friends," she finished with a blush.
"That was it!" Harper exclaimed, clapping her hands together.
"That was what?"
"That was the Oracle's doing. Fate's side of the bargain."
"What do you mean, honey?" Rocco cleared his throat.
"Maybe I should explain, Mrs Waverly. As you know, Harper and I were together in our teens. I loved her very much, and was looking forward to the day when we'd officially become mates and, in time, build a home together and have cubs. But on my 18th birthday, and according to clan tradition, my father took me to see the Oracle, to find out about my future career and who my mate should be. Of course, I was expecting her to say that I should take Harper as my mate as soon as possible. But, to my horror, she told me that I had to break up with her, or something terrible would happen. She said she didn't know any more than this, but I had to do it immediately. It broke my heart, but I had to do it. And so I lost the most precious thing to me in the world."
"And all this time, he hasn't known what terrible event he averted," Harper cut in. "Until now. This has to be it, mom. What were the chances that Tarkus would stop by that day and you'd pick up his scent from where you were imprisoned? And that he'd turn out to be your mate?"
"Not good," Amelia agreed with a smile. I think you're right, dear. He was sent to me by fate. But, as a consequence, my beautiful daughter has had to suffer all these years." She held her hands out to Harper and Rocco and they each clasped them. "I'm so sorry, Harper. I know it was very hard on you. But when you told me that you hated Rocco and didn't want to think about him ever again, I took it as a sign that you were recovering." Harper nodded.
"I was. I did get over him. Which is why it was such a shock to discover that he was coming back into my life again. Permanently." She shot him an ironic glance.
"Well, my dears, I hope that this time you're finding a deep and lasting happiness as true mates, with your union blessed by the fates." Harper squirmed a little, but forced herself to keep smiling. "And I'm very glad that those filthy Black Paws have now had a positive role in bringing you together. What goes around certainly comes around, as they say." She impulsively pulled each of them into a hug, her elegant figure belying the bear strength that lay beneath. "Now, I hope you've brought some photos of Paris to show me?" Harper grinned, shaking her head, always amazed by her mom's passion for looking at photos. She'd had a bunch printed, as she knew her mom liked to have physical versions to look at, and the three of them huddled close and went through them. As one couply photo was succeeded by another, Harper's throat tightened. They'd taken selfies and had strangers snap their photos too, but she hadn't thought they'd looked particularly intimate. She was wrong. She and Rocco looked like the sweetest, most loved-up couple ever. The whole time they'd been in Paris – apart from that last night – she'd been thinking of them as friends. But it was as if the camera had seen something else. There was one, taken by a stranger on a famous bridge, where she was looking at the camera, but he was looking at her with such tenderness that it sent a shiver down her spine. As her mom kept flipping, exclaiming over this and that, she could hardly breathe.