Lana
Thanksgiving morning, I’m up at four a.m. Teddy’s a slumbering mountain under the thick quilt when I slip out of our bedroom. First stop is our private bathroom. After my shower and full body moisturizing routine, I head to the makeup counter. I use a wine-colored palette for my eyeshadow and brush on a berry-colored blush and contour with bronzer and highlighting powder.
I had my braids redone with a burgundy ombre for fall, along with a matching manicure that has red, orange, and gold glitter on the tips. I have a dress for the family dinner, but I’m wearing a soft lounge set in pumpkin orange from GoddessWear’s autumn line.
By the time I head out to the deck to snap a picture of my “Fabulous Fall” look, the sun’s peeking over the horizon.
Next stop is the kitchen. Teddy programmed the coffee pot to start brewing at dawn. I caffeine up and then pull out my matching pink serving dishes and all my pots and pans. The Bad Boy Brothers promised me they’d take care of the turkey and the pies. But I want to make the rolls, mashed potatoes, mac ’n cheese, cranberry sauce, and sweet potato sides. I have all my grandma’s recipes. How hard can it be?
Two hours later, I’m sitting on the floor in the middle of a pile of flour. One of the bags exploded when I was wrestling it out of the pantry. My outfit and makeup are ruined. There’s flour powdering my face and hair. I look like the ghost of Thanksgiving past.
The smell of smoke hangs on the air because the cranberry sauce boiled over onto the stove. Same with the pot of peeled potatoes.
The microwave is beeping with a timer I set. So is the oven. Something, somewhere, is done. I wish I knew what.
The industrial-sized mixer, which didn’t work when I first tried to turn it on, roars to life. It shakes so hard it flings dough everywhere. I rise with a cry to contain it, but with a whir and a zombie-like lurch, it shakes itself right off the counter and crashes to the floor. It keeps traveling towards the door. It’s halfway there before it until it unplugs itself.
I sink back down to the flour-covered floor. The kitchen is ruined.
“I just want everything to be perfect,” I whisper.
A shadow falls over me, and I look up at Teddy’s sleep-rumpled form.
#
Teddy
Lana looks up at me, tears in her big brown eyes. Her lower lip trembles. She’s covered in flour, head to toe. The air is acrid with smoke, and the oven is bleeding some sort of red sauce. It looks like someone murdered our kitchen and tried to set it on fire.
I hustle around the marble island, turning off the buzzing timers, the bright red burners, and the stove. I put on the fan and open the windows to clear the smoke.
Once I’m sure nothing will trigger the fire alarm, I crouch down to take Lana into my arms. “Baby girl, what is all this?”
“I got up early to start cooking. I said I’d do the rolls and the sides. Now everything’s ruined!”
There’s a brownish-gray goop dripping down from the ceiling. That must be what’s left of the dough for the rolls. I don’t know how it got up there, but we’ll have doughy stalactites if we don’t wipe it off soon.
“Nothing’s ruined. We’ll clean this up and make some calls. What’s the point of having seven brothers if I don’t delegate?”
“No, don’t tell them…”
“Baby girl, you don’t have to work this hard to impress my family.”
Her lower lip quivers again, and I realize the source of her angst. I pull her into my lap. “Don’t worry.” I stroke a smear of cranberry sauce off her cheek. “Ma’s going to love you.”
“I just want today to go well. She’s important to you, and it’s been so long since you’ve seen her. Today will be the first time in years.”
“That’s because Matthias told us all to give Ma space to recover from hibernation. Mostly because he didn’t want the triplets tromping into her cabin, disturbing her peace.” My brother even used his Alpha voice on us. He rarely does it. I think he doesn’t like that his bear is more dominant than all of ours.
“And she’s never seen me. You and I met when she was hibernating.” Her voice drops to a whisper. “What if she doesn’t approve of me?”
“Impossible. You are perfect.” I kiss her flour-dusted nose. She is gorgeous, even covered in the detritus of an uncooked meal. “You’re smart, beautiful, successful. Your company is valued in the billions.”
“Yeah,” she sighs. “But I can’t cook.”
“You’re cooking three babies for me right now.” I rest a hand over her rounded belly. My bear can sense the life inside her. She even smells like a bear.
I lean in for a kiss, and she relaxes.
“You’re right. And I’m probably hormonal.”
“You’re perfect just as you are.” I nuzzle her and rise to scoop her up in my arms. She’s gloriously curvy and round with my baby bears in her belly, but with my bear strength, she’s not heavy at all. “Now come on. We’re going to leave all this until we have help.”
She bites her lip, looking around at the mess. “But–”
“No buts, baby girl.”
“Yes, Poppa bear.” She rests her head on my shoulder.
“Let’s get you cleaned up. We’re going to shower together. And I’m going to take my time.”
#
Paloma
The sky is a blazing blue over Bad Bear Mountain by the time the dinner hour rolls around.
After an emergency clean-up session at Lana’s, Darius and Teddy peel potatoes and sweet potatoes under Lana’s supervision while Wren and I trek to a meadow to pick fresh wildflowers for the bouquets. After the horrible holidays at Lockepoint, having the freedom to wander around and spend the day together is a luxury.
Once again, we’re eating outside because Everest refuses to change into human form. Darius hasn’t said much about it, but I know he, Teddy, and Matthias are worried about their younger brother staying in bear form so much. I guess there’s an issue about shifters turning feral and losing the ability to shift back to human form.
Wren and I return to decorate the table on the lawn. We’re almost done when a thunk-thunk-thunk sound makes us turn. A helicopter is headed our way. It’s carrying something–a basket of some sort.
It gets closer and closer, hovering over the house. The rotors blow gusts of wind over us.
“No,” Lana gasps. Teddy and Darius run out of the house, waving their arms.
Wren and I grab an extra tablecloth and cover the place settings, leaning over everything to keep it from blowing away.
Hutch and Canyon shimmy down two ropes. They’re both wearing their kilts. Together they unhook the basket, oblivious to the noise and rising dust from the chopper.
“What are you doing?” Darius shouts. “Get out of here.”
“How else were we supposed to get the food here?” Canyon shouts back.
“Drive it over like a sane person,” Teddy waves at the road where Axel has parked his motorcycle. How Axel got his turkey up the mountain on the back of the bike, I will never know.
Matthias stalks out onto the big deck. “Go,” he points. He doesn’t raise his voice, but his voice seems to boom and echo off the side of the mountain. In the helicopter pilot seat, Bern salutes him and flies off. Matthias points at Hutch and Canyon. “You and you, clean this up. And apologize to Lana for blowing dust over everything.”
“Sorry, Lana,” they chorus and head over to help us clean up. Fortunately, we kept the worst of the dust off the table with our tablecloth. And the oversized basket is full of platters of turkey and pies, enough to feed an army. Or eight male werebears–plus one lady bear, because their mom Winnie is coming.
“This family,” Lana sighs with a smile.
Wren and I clean up inside, and everyone’s getting seated when we return to the table. Matthias is at the head of the table, and to his right is a white woman with a wild head of red and gray curls.
I stop in my tracks. That’s Winnie, the Bad Bear Brothers’ mother. She’s so small compared to them. But from everything I’ve heard about her, her size doesn’t matter, because she’s got a big heart.
Darius comes to take my hand and leads me to her. “Ma,” he says, “this is Paloma. My mate.”
“Oh, look at you.” Winnie rises, with Matthias hovering in the background. I heard him telling Darius that Winnie was doing well after such a long hibernation, healthy but weak. She’s got a solid, compact build, but her face is thin in a way that tells me she recently lost weight. But she hugs me with all her strength.
“Well done, Darius,” I hear her say over my shoulder, and then she pulls back to look at me. “Both of you, well done.”
She greets Wren the same way, pulling my sister in like a long-lost child. Teddy gets a fierce hug and Lana a gentle one. “Is it true?” Winnie waves at her own belly while looking at Lana.
“It’s true, ma’am. We’re having triplets.”
“Oh, call me Winnie. Or Ma.”
Lana tears up–I think the baby hormones make her cry at the drop of a hat. “It’s so nice to meet you, Winnie.”
And then Axel and the triplets come whooping out of the house, rushing to greet their mother. “Ma! Ma!”
She opens her arms wide. “Oh, my boys! My boys!” They crowd in to get a hug and a smacking kiss on each cheek.
“You’ve gotten so big.” She pinches Hutch’s cheek. “Are you behaving?”
“Yes. We’re special ops now. Like Teddy.”
Winnie’s eyes grow wide, and her hand comes to her chest. “Oh my.”
Darius growls at Hutch. “Don’t tell her that. You’ll send her back into hibernation.”
Winnie laughs. “No, it’s all right,” she says weakly. “I just have to adjust to the fact that the triplets are all grown up.” She blinks back tears. “I missed some of it, and that kills me.”
“We’re still here, Ma,” Bern says.
“So you didn’t go into hibernation because you were worried about Teddy dying?” Canyon asks.
Darius growls again, and I wrap both my arms around his tree-trunk-sized torso and squeeze.
“Because Teddy…?” Winnie looks from Darius’ face to Teddy’s with bewilderment. “Of course not! Is that what you thought? Oh, my boys!” She throws open her arms again and engulfs each of the twins in a hug.
“That wasn’t it at all. I was just bone tired after raising eight perfect, amazing boys. Boys who lit my life up with joy every single day.” She takes the time to meet each of her son’s gazes with her warm one. “I don’t know why I slept so long. I think it was some kind of bear menopause hit me, and I just had to lie down.”
I see relief in the set of both Darius and Teddy’s shoulders. I hadn’t realized, but it fits that they might have each blamed themselves for her hibernation.
“Once I went to bed, I couldn’t get up again. But no, my sweet, beautiful boys. It was never about you. I’m sorry if you thought that.”
I notice Lana wiping another tear from her eyes. Mine burn, too.
A shadow falls over us all. Everest stands on the edge of the forest on his hind legs. A black bird clings to his massive shoulder. It caws once and flies off.
“Come here, Everest.” Winnie pushes the chair next to her aside to make room for the grolar (grizzly-polar) bear’s head. “By me.”
“Well.” Lana takes her place at the other end of the table with me, Darius, and Teddy. “I think we’re ready to eat. Matthias, will you give us a toast?”
“A toast to Lana for hosting this feast. And to Ma, our guest of honor.”
Winnie waves him off. “To being together.”
“Yes,” I agree. Darius settles his arm over my shoulder and Wren gives me a grin.
“To family, then,” Matthias says. “We may be a little strange, we may be crazy, we may be bad bears, but we’re family.”
“To family!”
