Marked (Primal Obsessions #2) - Cara Wylde Page 0,35

yours, huh?”

Nancy looked at the little girl, beaming with pride. “My youngest, Roxy. I also take responsibility for those three daredevils,” she raised her chin, pointing at three teenagers playing a sort of wrestling game. “They have too much energy, I just can’t keep up. So their father’s in charge of tiring them down for me, and he also gave me this little diamond, because I missed being a mom again. They don’t want to be as affectionate with you when they grow up, you know? Whereas this one,” she said and tickled Roxy, “can’t get enough of me.”

“I guess,” I said.

“No children of your own?”

“No, not yet.”

“Ah, there’s time. You seem young. You just need to pester your husband to breed. I mean… help you with that.”

I smiled and said nothing. She was prying, and I didn’t particularly like that.

“Is it okay for me to be here? Seeing how I’m… not one of you?”

“I know you’re being gawked at. But you have nothing to worry about.”

“No one approached me.”

“Out of fear.”

“Of me? What could I possibly do?”

“Spill our secret. I know Brooks said you can be trusted. And yes, bears and humans have mingled in the past and given birth to halflings. But nowadays? We keep to ourselves. The trailer park is remote, and while most of the people here have been here for generations upon generations, the town doubled its size in the last twenty years, and an influx of new humans came, forcing us to hide better. We only shift in the woods now, and only after we make sure there are no intruders around.”

I frowned. “Why fear? You’re so much stronger than us.”

She laughed a little. “That might be Brooks and his crew. Some other men, too. But most of us aren’t all that different from you. Shoot us down, we bleed and can even die. All we want is to live in peace, raise our cubs, and just be ourselves. Humans wouldn’t understand.”

“But you said…”

“A few exceptions, just enough to validate the general rule. Brooks bringing you here was and still is a big deal.”

I considered that for a moment. I’d never stopped to think about how things must have been like for him and the risks he was taking with me. Well… community risks. If bears were as isolated and fearful as Nancy claimed to be, then he’d probably had to fight and argue to be able to keep me here.

“What’s wrong?” Nancy asked. “I lost you there for a second.”

“Ah, nothing. I was supposed to do some shopping. Do you know where I can find a supermarket close?”

“There’s a handful of supermarkets. I can take you, if you want. I need some things, too.”

That suited me just fine since I didn’t have a car. And even if I had one, after that horrible accident, I wouldn’t have been able to drive. Seeing how numerous her family was, Nancy had a minivan. The supermarket proved to be barely ten minutes by car from the trailer park. We both took a cart, Nancy leaving it to her boys to fill it according to her list, while we kept chatting about the community – who to ignore, who to befriend, who was gossip central. I could feel a friendship forming, and we even made plans to bring the kids together for play dates.

I was reaching for some cereal when I saw a familiar military buzz-cut. “Can’t be him,” I thought.

“Something wrong?”

“No,” I replied in a hush.

Nancy followed my gaze to the other end of the aisle. “You know him?”

My breath left me in a whoosh when the man turned and looked right at me. How could he be here? Why? Why was my luck so terrible? I just stood there, frozen, while he sauntered over, confident and cocky.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Jack said, studying Nancy briefly.

Fear overtook me. What if he did something to her? I looked at them both, and it was then that it finally hit me – that she really was a she-bear. She easily towered over my already tall husband. She was big and burly, though still feminine in her cheerful clothes. I was so used to being around bears and feeling like a dwarf among them that it had stopped registering that humans were different.

“What are you doing here, Jack?”

“Same as you,” he said, eyeing Milo, who was trying his best to hide behind me, while nestled on my hips. “Yours?”

“I work as a nanny now,” I replied, then embraced Milo