Bearly a Chance: A Second Chances Romance Read Free Page B

you. I’m so sorry we didn’t.”
    “We?”
    “Me, your mom and dad. Hell, the only one who fought for your right to know was gramps.” Aria felt her eyes widen. Gramps had fought for her? She’d always loved him, but never felt as close to him as she did to Gran. It was good to know the old man had loved her enough to argue with Gran. Nobody argued with her normally.
    “So everybody in my family is a shifter but me?” How the hell could I have missed something like that? Aria knew her observational skills weren’t the best, but she wasn’t a damn brick either when it came to things that just didn’t seem right.
    Gran’s vehement head shake transferred itself to the glass she held. Iced tea rose up the sides of the cup before Gran froze for a second, only to gently place the cup on the end table that sat between their chairs. “No, babe. We hoped, how Grandpa and I hoped that would be the case.”
    “Okay. So who, then? Someone must be a shifter for you to recognize the signs and know how to help Faith.”
    Gran shrugged, then gestured towards her own chest with an outstretched thumb.
    “You? You shift? Into what? Have you been shifting since you were Faith’s age?” Of course Gran knows the signs if she’s a shifter, too. Part of Aria wanted to jump for joy, because there was no way Gran would let kin of hers face trouble without being right there beside them, come hell or high water. The bigger part of her just felt betrayed and lonely. This wasn’t the Gran she knew, was it?
    “No, Faith is unusual. Shifters–normal shifters– don’t shift until their human side is fully mature. That includes the brain.” Gran tapped gently on her forehead.
    “The brain?”
    “Shifter genes make the human brain ‘grow up’ a bit faster, but not that much faster.” Gran’s glance toward the staircase convinced Aria she was right to be concerned for Faith’s health.
    “So, when then? Fifteen, sixteen?”
    “Honey, the human brain isn’t fully mature until around twenty five years old. Before then, the decision making process is a bit faulty to say the least. Imagine a human with a no impulse control running around as a full grown bear. You want to meet him in the dark one night?”
    “Oh, that would be bad. So you’ve been shifting since your mid-twenties?”
    Gran shook her head then sighed deeply. “I shifted right on time, as far as things like that go. My twenty-first birthday.”
    Aria froze, stunned . Twenty-first birthday? But that’s the day Ben vanished. She couldn’t voice the question that raced through her mind, but her mouth moved silently, savoring the feel of her first love’s name, the name she didn’t dare give voice to.
    “So Benjamin Torben really is her daddy.” Gran’s voice was soft, but she sounded pretty certain of herself considering Aria hadn’t ever mentioned who fathered her child.
    Aria nodded sadly.
    “Wonder how we missed him?” Gran muttered to herself. Her lithe hands tapped lightly on the end table and her gaze went distant for a moment, as though she was looking into the past.
    Aria recognized Gran’s thinking look from her childhood visits. It took a brave soul and a hell of an emergency to interrupt her when she wore that look. Aria contented herself with another few sips of tea and gently rocked her chair while she waited for Gran to come back to the here and now. It was hard not to ask the question that was haunting her.
    Finally Gran’s gaze sharpened. Aria pounced, unable to contain herself any longer.
    “Is something wrong with Faith?” Her heart pounded with worry. She dreaded Gran’s answer, but she had to know.
    Gran’s serious look didn’t ease her fears. Neither did her measured answer. “I honestly don’t know. On one hand, it’s very rare for shifter kits, and cubs, to change before their human half is mature. On the other hand, our Faith has stunning control of her shifter abilities for someone with only six months practice. Never mind