Finally, Mimi shoved the bowl away and finished off the juice. She looked much better now that she’d at least gotten fluids.
“How do you feel, Mom?” Joyce asked.
“Right as rain.” Mimi’s smile spread wide, but it didn’t reach her eyes. She wasn’t being completely honest.
“Tell us about the bears, Mimi,” Melinda requested.
Sharon gasped alongside Joyce and Laurie. “Bears?” She had known she was in for a shock but wasn’t expecting Melinda to declare she had met bear shifters. The Arthur brothers?
Melinda nodded, keeping her gaze on Mimi.
Mimi closed her eyes and breathed deeply. When she opened them again, they sparkled. “I assume you met some of them?”
“Two. Wyatt and Isaiah Arthur.”
“Ahh, the Arthurs. I knew their father years ago. Huge man. Even bigger personality. I’m surprised they still live in the area. It’s not safe for grizzlies this far south. Humans get too interested when a local species is endangered. There are only about fifteen hundred grizzly bears left in the continental United States, over half of them in this area, western Montana.
“It’s difficult for shifters to live in an area where they’re a spectacle. Risky. Dangerous. Do they still live in Tolecula, north of here?”
Melinda nodded. “That’s what they claimed.”
“And why did they come this far south? And why did they reveal themselves?”
“I suspect for the same reason we’ve been snooping around, seismic activity.”
Mimi chuckled. “They would do that. They’re sharper than us, more evolved. They can take their clothes when they shift and sense things out of our range.”
“Some of the spirits are theirs,” Melinda added.
Mimi smiled again. “You figured that out, did you?”
“No. They told me. Now I can see the difference. Why do you think the bear spirits are hanging around with the wolf spirits?”
“For the same reason the bears are hanging around with the wolves. Warning of impending danger.”
Melinda nodded. “Did you know Wyatt and Isaiah?”
Mimi shook her head. “No. I haven’t seen their father in half a century. He too is a powerful leader of his people. We met seemingly by chance one day high in the mountains.” She stared up and to the right as if recalling the day vividly. “There was great unrest that year.”
Mimi glanced at Joyce. “You were just a toddler. I left you with your father for several days, feeling an intense urge to spend time with nature, closer to the sun.”
“And you met Wyatt and Isaiah’s father on the mountain?” Joyce asked.
Mimi continued as if no one had spoken. She seemed to be in her own world, traveling back in time. “He was so gigantic. At first I was shocked and frightened.”
Sharon leaned closer, putting her elbows on Mimi’s kitchen table. If the two men’s father was anywhere near their size, he would have been daunting to Mimi.
She smiled. “For about a second. And then I felt a sense of peace. We stared at each other for a while in our animal form, both knowing the other was a shifter. After stepping around each other in a sort of dance, we paused, nodded, and shifted.
“I was shocked when Bernard shifted fully clothed. I had to drop my pack first and tug a sweatshirt over my head.”
Laurie reached for her grandmother’s hand and held it. “What happened?”
Mimi lowered her gaze and smiled at each of them. “Nothing. We sat in companionable silence for a while and then shared a few details of our species. Or rather Bernard shared. Surprisingly, he knew nearly everything about wolf shifters.”
“And you never told anyone?” Melinda asked.
Mimi shook her head. “Not until today. Not even my mate.”
Sharon was dumbfounded. All she could do was listen. She glanced around the room and decided she needed to leave these four women alone. She was intruding on a family event. These women were powerful shaman and Native Americans. This was not her place. “I should get back to Cambridge.” She stood from the table and smiled at everyone. “You all have a lot to discuss, and I’ve been gone too long.”
Joyce stood and gave her a hug. “Thank you so much for coming today and letting us all rest.”
Laurie hugged her next. “I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
Melinda dangled a set of keys from her fingers. “I drove you here. Take my car. I’ll pick it up later or have one of the guys from the sheriff’s office bring it back.”
“Right. I forgot I didn’t drive here.” She took the keys. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”