Gray Back Broken Bear(37)

“Do you want to hold her?” she whispered thickly to Easton.

His eyes went wide, but he nodded and held his arms out. Gia set the tiny baby gently in the cradle of his arms.

Behind them, the rest of the crew filed in and surrounded Gia’s bed with oohs and aahs at the tiny, blanketed girl in Easton’s arms.

Slowly, Easton leaned down and smelled the baby’s breath. “What do you call her?”

“Rowan,” Creed said proudly.

“A right proper name for a little grizzly,” Willa said, leaning over Easton’s shoulder.

Easton looked up at Creed with a curious, knowing smile spreading across his lips. “She’s not a grizzly.”

“What?” Gia asked, eyebrows furrowed. “She’s Creed’s.”

“Oh, one look at the creature she’s harboring, and no one will ever question it. She’ll be a true Gray Back. A fire-breather with silver scales, descended from the last mortal dragon, Creed’s grandfather.”

“Can’t be,” Creed said on a breath. “She has too much grizzly and not enough dragon blood in her.”

Easton smiled at the baby as he rocked her in his arms. “I had a dream about her. Silver eyes and silver scales.”

“A dream,” Matt said, sounding unconvinced.

Aviana grinned slow, knowing Easton was right. Her mate was more sensitive to things beyond this world, just like his mother had been.

“Don’t believe me?” Easton asked softly. Back and forth, back and forth he rocked the sleeping newborn. “Then smell the dragon’s fire on her breath.”





Chapter Sixteen




Last night was the last time she would sleep in this old house. Aviana zipped up her suitcase and pulled it off the rickety bed she’d slept in as a child. Inhaling deeply, she took one last look at the tiny cabin she’d shared with her parents all those years ago. As a child, this place had seemed huge, but that’s what childhood memories did. They warped reality, making everything seem bigger and grander from such a small point of view.

Tonight, she would be moving into an old singlewide trailer in the Grayland Mobile Park that the girls called “ten-ten” and swore was magic. She didn’t know what she was going to do there yet. Maybe she would teach shifter school when Rowan and the Ashe Crew kids were older. Or perhaps she would help Easton sell his knives and firewood. Or maybe she would reinvent herself completely and start a new adventure. She didn’t know. All she knew was that whatever happened next, it would be beside Easton.

Aviana set her suitcase by the door and pulled her cell out of her purse. She’d charged it in the car until the batteries were full because this call couldn’t get cut off. It was too important.

The floorboards of the porch creaked as she settled onto the top stair, and looked over the overgrown front yard. She kicked a rusted, bent nail with her flip-flop, thinking about what she would say to the people whose opinion meant the world to her.

How did she tell her parents she’d turned her back on her people?

Licking her lips, she scrolled through her contacts and found the number labeled Home. She made the call and bit her thumbnail as she listened to it ring and watched a trio of birds flit across the tall grass.

“Hello?” Dad answered.

“Dad?”

“Oooh, baby. What have you done?” Static blasted across the line, and Dad called in a muffled voice, “Marta, it’s her. Pick up the other line.”

The line clicked. “Aviana?” Mom asked.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Honey, are you okay?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. More than fine. I just… I have to tell you both something important.”

The line went quiet. Aviana’s pulse pounded hard thinking about how thoroughly she was about to break their hearts. Their only child, denouncing her people for a crew of bears.

“Go ahead,” Dad said low.

Aviana swallowed hard and blew out a long, shaky breath. “Mom, Dad, I found Easton. I told Caden no on the courtship because the cub I knew all those years ago has grown into a good man. A man who will make me happy and give me a life full of love. I belong with him.” Her throat tightened over the words. “I belong with Easton and his people.”

“Oh, honey,” Mom said, “we know.”

Perhaps Aviana had heard her wrong. “I’m sorry…what?”

“Caden sent some of his people to watch you. He forwarded us a picture of you sitting in a bar with a man with green eyes. Your father recognized him right away.”

“You knew?”

“We just wanted to give you a chance to tell us when you were ready,” Mom said.

Dad was so quiet though, he must be angry. That’s how he got when he was really mad. He holed up into himself where no one could reach him.