“So, brother. I hear that you missed playing war so much that you decided to get into one here,” Madison needled.
“I’ve just always wanted to be the charming prince who rescues the damsel in distress,” I answered. “In this case, I was able to be a hero twice.”
“A prince, I can see. Charming? I’m not so sure about it,” Madison teased.
Lanie stood in the background, watching. She was a sweet kid who had a thing for me. However, it never felt right to me, so I always treated her like a little sister.
“Hey, kiddo. You doing alright?” I asked her.
Lanie nodded. “I’m groovy.”
“Groovy? You’ve been watching thoseScooby-Doocartoons again, haven’t you?”
“They’re fun and relaxing,” she defended herself.
“I loveScooby-Doo,too,” Luka spoke up. “We’ll have to set aside a Scooby day and sit around watching the show all day in costume.”
“We could dress the men up as Shaggy and Fred,” Madison joked.
“Don’t drag us into your weird fantasy,” Jacob protested, and everyone laughed.
“But seriously,” Jacob said as the laughter died down. “Luka said that Jason wouldn’t be a problem. Do you think that he might get people worried about the dangers of bears since you clawed face?”
Luka answered the question addressed to me. “It’s possible, but not likely. There are two reasons why I say that. One is that if a pure grizzly has a person pinned to the ground, that grizzly is not likely to have a change of heart and let the person walk away. Even if the others were to agree there was a grizzly there, most grizzlies aren’t going to walk up to a person, go nose to nose with that person, and just watch them walk away.”
We all agreed that sounded reasonable.
Madison said, “What’s the second reason?”
Luka laughed. “Because his stupid, drunk self is going to be blabbing about how the bear magically turned into a human right in front of him. Everybody knows that shapeshifters don’t exist. Everyone knows that magic does not exist. They will think he just needs a trip to the mental hospital. Jason is also notorious for making people angry. It is more likely that he angered someone with a strange glove or long fingernails than for him to have come across a grizzly bear, especially one that turns into a man, and lived to tell about it.”
Everyone seemed to accept Luka’s answer.
Jacob turned to me and said, “I’ve heard that our dear brother had come to visit you as well. The way he makes it sound, you are on death’s door, and we had better hurry up an appoint him as the leader. He’s also trying to convince everyone that your judgment has been clouded because of your new woman and that you no longer have the best interests of the clan in your heart.”
I squirmed in the bed. Although I knew that he really wanted to be the leader, I was still angry that he would do something like this.
“How is everyone taking his rhetoric?” I asked.
Jacob answered, “Only his couple of friends are buying his story. Everyone else knows you too well. Even if Luka was not your wife and not your soulmate, you would still have protected her. That is just who you are. You wouldn’t allow an innocent person to be abused without jumping in and knocking heads.”
“I’m healing very rapidly. In the next couple of days, I should be able to get out of bed. I will call a meeting and introduce Luka to everyone, and we'll get business back on track. Once everything gets back to normal, anyone who has any doubts will forget about them.”
“I think that Amon should be encouraged to start his own clan if he wants to be a leader that badly,” Madison said.
“I did suggest that to him, but he wants our clan. It’s a matter of status,” I said.
“We’re going to be going,” Jacob says. “Don’t worry about anything. You focus on getting better. We will hold down the fort.”
Everyone hugged Luka and me and left.
“You seemed to have formed a good relationship with them,” I told Luka.
“I think so. I really like them. I think that Madison, Lanie, and I will be good friends. They said they would help me figure out my role in the clan as your wife, so I don’t make any mistakes and make you look bad.”
“You would never make me look bad. You are absolutely wonderful,” I told her.
“Are there any other secrets that you haven’t told me about?” she asked me. “I had to find out three the hard way. I’m not interested in going through any of that again. I am serious this time. You had better tell me if there is anything at all I need to know.”