A Promise on White Wings (Wiccan-Were-Bear) Read Free

was raised in one after all — but she’d never been in one like this.  West of Cleveland, Ohio, by an hour, the den itself was situated deep underground in a cavern.  The entrance was hidden inside a large, red barn.  Stepping down from the surface into the den was like stepping back in time in some ways.
    The bear den in Northern Ohio, like all brown and black bear dens in the world, was of Native American descent.  Only polar bears and some nearly extinct clans in Europe were of different racial origins.  The interior of the Cleveland den was filled with communal cooking pits, hide tents, and lots of hunky Native American men.  That they were also were-bears made them even hotter in her mind, if that were possible.
    She flipped off the water, and her skin screamed in relief.  It had been an invigorating shower.  She squeezed the water from her shoulder-length blonde hair and wrapped the towel around her curvy body.  She felt positively dwarfed by the tall women in the den she lived in, where there wasn’t a woman shorter than 528” while she had stopped growing at 5’3”.  But here in this den was a healing nymph, a witch, and a vampire who were just barely taller than her.  Finally, she could look a woman in the eyes.
    “Danika?” the witch, Elizabeth, mate to twin were-bears, called from outside the bathroom.  Danika was staying in a miniscule guest tent, containing only a bed and loveseat in the main area and a tiny bathroom.
    “In here, Elizabeth,” she called.
    Elizabeth moved the curtain that separated the two areas and said, “I brought your skirt back.  Ash said that it should last through the party tonight but that the seams are shot and you should consider replacing it.”
    Ash, Elizabeth’s husband, was a master craftsman.  His clothing creations were highly sought after, not only in their own den, but also in other dens.  Danika took her beloved skirt from Elizabeth and smiled.  “It was my mom’s.  Or, rather, the woman who raised me.  I wear it for celebrations because it makes me feel connected to her.”  It felt like blasphemy to consider replacing it.
    “Oh, she’s gone to the great bear spirit?”
    “Yeah, she was human and mated to a male bear and became pregnant when she was nearly fifty.  She died in childbirth and so did the child.”
    Elizabeth was quiet for a moment, and Danika turned around to face the mirror, reaching for her hairbrush.  She felt cool fingers touch her shoulder blades and she jumped, spinning around with a short growl.
    “I’m sorry, but those marks on your back?  What are they?” Elizabeth asked, her head tilted in curiosity.
    “I don’t know.  Mama found me wandering naked in the woods near the den when I was a toddler.  They estimated my age at three.  The bears said I smelled like a shifter, but because I’m light skinned, they didn’t think I was a bear.  When I turned eighteen, I never shifted into anything and I still haven’t.”  That was almost six years ago.  Six long years wondering what she was.  She wasn’t aging.  She still looked eighteen.  So everyone believed she was a supernatural creature.  But just what, no one knew.
    “They never found out where you came from?”  Elizabeth looked both saddened and amazed.
    “No one ever claimed me or contacted the authorities.”  She sighed.  “But the marks?  I was found with them.  They thought my people had branded me.  Some of the primitive shifter groups will mark their people.  But none in the states had marks like these.”
    It hadn’t been pleasant growing up as a castaway.  Never knowing just why she’d been wandering around alone in the woods with no identification.  Mama named her Danika, which in the ancient language meant white winged woman.
    Danika could picture the marks easily in her mind — two skewed white wings over her shoulder blades.  They looked almost like birthmarks, not like tattoos or brands.
    “White wings...” Elizabeth