“Your sister,” he said, his jaw setting with new determination. “I believe I need to take you to her. That might be the only way to explain what’s really going on here in Bear Mountain. So how about it, Holly?”
To my utter shock, the animatronic Mountie, who’d been trying to send me away since the moment I arrived in his strange mountain town… held out his hand to me.
“Will you come with me to see your sister?”
12/
thank your big sister
holly
Message to all the younger siblings of big sisters in the world: If you’ve ever doubted the lengths your sis would take to find you, consider this your sign to call her and thank her for being one of the most dedicated and crazy loyal people in your village.
Case in point: Me
Less than ten minutes after taking the Mountie’s hand, my dogged and harrowing search for my sister ended with me standing in what I could only describe as a high-end cave home—like a designer reboot ofThe Flintstones.
The walls were a mix of smooth, polished stone and natural rock formations. Huge windows let in loads of sun, casting the entire front room in warm light. And the one-of-a-kind furniture screamedhandmade by someone who actually knows what they’re doing.There was even a chef’s kitchen carved into theback wall, with copper pans hanging from the stove’s hood and a gorgeous island made out of logs and slate.
But none of that fascinated me as much as the home’s four inhabitants.
One male slept in full bear form in front of what looked less like a bed and more like a fur-lined nest, ringed with smooth stones instead of metal rails like the sad IKEA bed that barely fit into the Vancouver studio I’d moved into after Corey got our suburban two-bedroom in the divorce.
And in that nest, I finally found my sister. She was sleeping soundly between two men with ink-black hair. One was lean and the same light umber color as the Mountie. But strangely, the other lighter one looked like a bearded, burlier version of the man who’d brought me here. Because he was his brother, Mak.
My sister was married to the officially not animatronic Mounties brother. And a doctor named Ash. And also, Cody, the huge Kodiak bear sleeping at the foot of her bed nest. Until spring.
They werehibernating.
That’s what the Mountie had called it when he led me, hand in his, through the Ayaska village—what turned out to be a neighborhood of totem-carved mountainside homes.
Now I stood inside one of those carved-out homes, staring at my sister. Except she wasn’t just my sister anymore. She was… a bear shifter.
Living with not one but three mates.
And even though two of those mates were in such a deep sleep that they hadn’t stirred since we entered, their bodiestold a different story. Despite their hibernation, they clearly still desired her.
My gaze caught on the crescent-shaped bites on Noelle’s wrist and shoulders. The marks matched the ones I now carried on my body.
“We should go.”
The Mountie’s voice startled me. He’d appeared beside me, now dressed in a t-shirt that readBear Mountain Constructionand a pair of sweatpants. The hazelnut warmth of his scent was still there, but it was laced with marshmallows—a cloying sweetness that didn’t suit him.
Not his! Make him take it off!
The growling voice inside my head—my bear—rose in protest. Because I was a bear shifter now, too. Just like Noelle and her mates.
The Mountie had been right to bring me here. Seeing my sister like this made everything he’d told me on the walk up click into place. The bites. The bond. The instincts that had started to take over. It all made sense now.
But that didn’t mean I didn’t still have questions. Like, so many questions.
“Since you grabbed new clothes for yourself, can I grab something else to wear from my sister?”
His jaw clenched. Then: “No.”
He grabbed my hand again, cutting off any further debate.
And that’s when I realized:We should gowasn’t a suggestion. It was a command.
