Grayslake: More than Mated: Bears Do It Better (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Free Page B

prepared with the newspaper article she had found in her aunt’s attic. But first, she needed to explain how she came to find the article.
    Misha felt Arina come to stand next to her, silently giving her strength and support. She knew how hard it was for Misha to talk about the family she could not remember but desperately wanted to know. Taking a deep breath, Misha told him what she knew.
    “I don’t remember much from before I came to be with the Vasiliev tigers. What I do remember is truly horrific. It’s only brief flashes of memory, but I can recall clowns, living in a cage in my bear form, and being very, very hungry. There was also a man who would shout at me and hit me with a rod when I didn’t do as he commanded me. I remember being scared and sad.” Misha waved a hand at Arina. “Then they rescued me. Apparently, they found me in a human circus stuck in my bear form. Looking back now, I guess my bear was trying to protect my fragile human, so she stayed in control.”
    “Do you remember what happened to your parents?” Ty bluntly asked her.
    She shook her head sadly. “I don’t remember them at all, to be honest. In fact, I don’t remember one single thing before the circus flashbacks.”
    The Itan looked at Arina. “How old was she when you found her?”
    “At the time, guessed we did that she was around three years of age. Hard it was for us to tell because, used to dealing with bear shifters, we are not.”
    Ty turned his attention back to Misha. “Continue.”
    She shrugged. “There’s not much to tell you after that, other than the tigers raised me with love. They accepted me as one of their own and, from that moment on, I had a very happy life. I just couldn’t remember who I was before them or the circus. Then I found this …” Approaching slowly, she gently pulled the aged newspaper page from her back pocket. Unfolding it, she placed the paper on the granite then slid it in front of the Itan.
    Stepping back to stand by her aunt, she watched as the Itan and the other man silently looked at the article. It was written in Russian, so they probably couldn’t read it, but both men stared at the picture of little Misha and her parents before looking back to her.
    “Tell us what it says,” the Itan ordered.
    “Basically, it says that a local Polish couple, Ludwig and Hanna Wisniewski, along with their toddler, Anna, disappeared without a trace. Nothing was missing from their home; they just disappeared. After finding me, the Vasilievs assumed the circus had something to do with me not being with my parents. After Aunt Arina found that article, they knew then that the circus must have come across us while in our shifted bear forms. Bodies were never found, so we know they must be dead.”
    The Itan cocked his head to the side. “I’m very sorry to hear about your loss, but what does this have to do with my clan?”
    Misha folded her hands in front of her to hide her trembling. “After finding that article, my tiger family and I did some investigating. We were able to uncover a possible relative to Ludwig and Hanna Wisniewski. Borys Anderson. From what we were able to learn, his mother was a relative who moved from Poland to the United States for an arranged mating to an American bear. We later learned that she sought asylum with her son Borys here with you. So, I am here to ask you if you have a clan member named Borys Anderson, and if you do, will you help arrange for me to meet him?”
    The Itan watched Misha for a few silent moments, and then sat back on his stool and crossed his arms. “If you find Borys, what are your intentions? Are you going to leave your tiger family to come live near him or something?”
    Her aunt growled at the question while Misha answered it honestly. “I do not know yet, but I doubt it. Whoever I once was, whether or not Borys is my cousin or not, the Vasilievs will always be my family. That does not mean I would not like to know any bear family I might have,