Arriving at the main lodge, she spotted Aurora standing in the entrance. “You look like you’ve been expecting me. Are you a part of this whole scam?”
“There is no scam. Come inside. We need to talk.”
“I’m not here for some New Age, hocus pocus, therapy session. I’m here to get that polar bear venom out of my blood. And then I am out of here,” she said, revealing the fresh bite mark on her shoulder.
“You shifted?”
“Yes. Unwillingly.” There was no way on the planet she would have ever opted to become a shifter on her own.
“Come inside and have a seat under the light,” Aurora instructed.
Joy stepped inside cautiously as if she was navigating a minefield, joining Aurora in the swirling light.
“Here, drink this,” Aurora said, handing her the same chalice that Adam had used earlier in the evening.
“Is this an antivenom?” Joy asked, really hoping all she needed to do was drink some weird witchy concoction.
“It’s bourbon. You look like you really need a drink,” Aurora said.
“You can say that again,” Joy said, downing a double shot. Once she felt the warm buzz of the alcohol hit her stomach, she had the nerve to ask Aurora about Adam. “Why did he do this to me? What the hell was he thinking? Did he really think I would ever be okay with this?”
“He didn’t do anything to you other than make love to you. This shifting and changing had nothing to do with him. It’s been in you all along. This is who you truly are. I wanted to tell you when you first arrived, but he shut that down instantly. He was worried that you wouldn’t be able to handle the truth,” Aurora explained.
“Okay, you’re just spouting the exact same garbage Adam was rambling on about. Only I wouldn’t listen to it. But go ahead, tell me more bullshit,” she said, rolling her eyes. If this was what it took to never shift again, then so be it. She would sit there and listen to any bullshit story she had to if that meant getting the bear venom sucked out of her.
“When you were kidnapped in Florida, did you ever wonder why you were targeted?” Aurora asked.
Joy thought long and hard about the question for a minute before answering. There were several questions she still had about her kidnapping that she just assumed she’d never learn the answers to. But how did Aurora know about her kidnapping? That was another question that was going to need an answer. The unanswered questions kept piling up. At this rate, she would never be able to keep track of all the answers she was due.
“I assumed it was because I knew Adam, and they were trying to get close to him. But then I found out my kidnapper, Donovan, was working for a man named Malcolm. And Donovan didn’t even know who Adam was. I still don’t know for sure. All I know is that Donovan is dead, and Adam saved me.”
“What I am about to tell you will likely be a shock,” Aurora said, retrieving an envelope from under her chair. She removed a handful of photographs and passed them to Joy.
Joy couldn’t hide the look of shock on her face. “This is my dad when he was much younger. And this woman? Who is she?” The woman looked so damn familiar to her, yet she had no idea who the hell she was.
“That is your birth mother, Laura. You look just like her.” Aurora smiled sadly at Joy.
Joy tilted the picture, squinted, and was suddenly shocked by what she realized. “The background. The snow-covered mountains. The coast. These were taken here in Alaska. But I was born in Florida. I don’t understand. Why would my mom have been here at North Slope?” The pictures were far too old to be fakes. She could tell by the grainy, faded images that they were authentic. Her heart fluttered. She had never seen a picture of her mom. Aurora was right. She looked just like her. She had her large eyes, nose, and smile.
“Long ago, your father was a surveyor for an oil company. He was working up here on the North Slope for a season. While here, he met a young woman who had been recently widowed. He found out that her husband had been murdered, and she was pregnant and in hiding from his killers. Being a kind and honorable man, he offered to take your mom back to Florida with him to give her and her child a new life. Unfortunately, the move to Florida left Laura too weak to survive childbirth.”
“I ... I don’t understand. I’ve never heard of any of this. And what are you getting at about her being weakened by the move?”
“Like Adam, moving away from her ancestral lands and the Northern Lights made her sick. For some of us, the sickness is drawn out, and many of our kind can live for years without succumbing to the weakness. For others, the sickness is instant and severe. You saw it yourself with Adam. He would have died if he had stayed in Florida for another day or two. We don’t understand why it affects each of us so differently.”
“Wait. Are you trying to tell me my mother was also a polar bear shifter?” The shock tore through her body. Surely, she had misheard Aurora or misunderstood what she had said.
“That is precisely what I am saying.”
“No. It can’t be. There is absolutely no way that my real mom was a shifter. Now, let’s cut the bullshit and fix this problem I have.” She didn’t want to hear another word about some fairy tale or bear tale out of this nutjob’s mouth.
“I can’t fix who you are, Joy. Your mother was a bear. Your biological father was murdered by our old alpha because he had a rightful claim to become the leader of the clan. You see, you are and have always been a North Slope bear, through and through. And the reason Malcolm hired Donovan to track you down is because he is the son of the old alpha, and he considers you a threat.”
Joy felt the truth in Aurora’s words. The woman truly believed everything she said. In her mind, it was the absolute truth, even if Joy didn’t believe a single word of it. There were just too many holes in Aurora’s story. Too many things that just didn’t add up.
“Okay, I’ll play along. Let’s say for an instant that I believe you. Why would I, a logistics manager from Florida, be a threat to some polar bear mafia family?”
“Because any of your male heirs would also have a claim to be the alpha of the North Slope Clan. And even though Malcolm has been banished for decades, he hopes to someday claim that throne for himself. So, you are a threat that he wants to eliminate.”