They both chuckled.
“Cool ride,” Lainey commented.
“I know, right? That thing’s a beast, but it’s the best thing for off-roading around here.”
Off-roading? Finn didn’t mention anything about that.
“Aren’t you taking Henry to the research center?”
“Yes. This is just in case Henry wants to check out some of their field stations while we’re out there too.”
Henry’s eyes widened. “Field stations?”
“Oh, yeah. I don’t know if you’re aware, but this area is home to some species that aren’t found anywhere else in the world. The center has collection and observation sites at strategic locations in all of the important ecosystems.”
Henry turned to Lainey, his face glowing. “Best Christmas present ever.”
Lainey laughed at Henry’s barely contained excitement. His genuine smile went a long way in alleviating some of the guilt she’d been feeling for ensuring Henry was occupied while she met with Finn.
“Have fun and don’t hurry back. We’ll order in later, and you can tell me all about it.”
“Will do.”
Henry and Beau climbed into the machine; Lainey waved and then went back inside to wait for Finn.
“First you and now your brother,” said a cold voice to her right. “What makes you so special?”
Lainey turned to find Mae watching her with undisguised dislike. “I beg your pardon?”
“Individual-guided tours. Personalized attention. I’m just wondering exactly what you did to warrant that kind of royal treatment.”
Before Lainey could respond, Mae turned on her heel and walked away.
“I’m not supposed to say so, but I’ll be glad when that one goes,” Mo said, appearing by Lainey’s side. “She’s been trying to cause trouble since she got here.”
“I thought it was just me,” Lainey confessed.
“Hardly. Which reminds me, I’m supposed to tell you that Finn’s waiting for you out back.”
Lainey thanked Mo and exited toward the rear of the lodge, where the equipment rentals were, her pulse picking up with every step.
She spotted Finn before he saw her. He was leaning over one of the machines, tinkering with something or other. A tingling sensation sparked behind her ribs, and she felt a familiar fluttering deep in her belly. When he looked up and smiled, her heart began to pound.
My polar bear.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.”
Her nerves must have been evident.
“Relax, Lainey. It’s just me, okay? The same guy you’ve been hanging out with all week.”
She nodded, biting her lip and resisting the urge to tell him that it wasn’t him she was afraid of. Rather, it was how she felt whenever she was around him.
“Where are we going?”
“I’d like to take you to my place, if that’s okay with you.” When she hesitated, he added, “Just to talk, I promise. I know you have lots of questions, and I’m going to answer them all, but some topics are better discussed in private. If it really bothers you though, we can go somewhere else.”
The topic did warrant a private discussion, and strange as it was, she did trust Finn.
“No, it’s okay.”
He flashed another smile, this one of relief, and straddled the machine. She climbed on behind him, quietly appreciating the pleasure that came from being that close to Finn.
They started off on the same path they’d taken to his parents’ place, but once they got farther along, they veered off in a different direction.
Finn’s house was a modest, rustic structure along the shoreline, set apart from similar-looking homes by a line of evergreens and a fair amount of space, a charming bungalow that blended well with the landscape.
Inside, the place was comfortably warm and furnished with pieces that looked bigger and sturdier than the standard chairs and couches she was used to, with lots of space to move around. His parents’ house had been the same way. She supposed that made sense if they alternated between their human and animal forms.
When they sat down in front of the television at night, did they prefer to do so as people or bears? Was one form more comfortable than another? Those were just two of a thousand things she didn’t know about shifters.
He escorted her to his living room and offered her something to drink. She agreed to a cup of herbal tea, more to keep her hands busy than anything else.
While she waited, she looked around. Except for the extra space and supersize furnishings, it could have been any single man’s home. Family pictures sat on the mantel. Hockey trophies adorned the bookshelf, and a framed, signed jersey hung on the wall.
Finn returned shortly with her tea, surprising her with a plate of cookies as well.
“You baked?”
“Me? Not a chance. My mom did. She thought it might make things seem more normal for you.”
It was a thoughtful gesture. Lainey said as much.
“They understand. It’s a lot to process.” He sat down adjacent to Lainey and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure where to begin. I’ve never actually had to explain this to anyone.”
“How about we start with the basics?”
He nodded. “Yeah, okay. The ability to shift is genetic, like skin color or bone structure. No one knows for sure where or how it came to be, but it was probably an evolutionary thing. We think our ancestors might have come from Scandinavia, but it’s not like we can do those genetic profiles to find out, you know? It would raise too many questions.”
It was too bad she couldn’t ask Henry. Evolutionary genetics was his specialty.
“Can a human become a shifter?”
He shook his head and frowned. “No. Years ago, some scientists got wind of us and tried, but it didn’t end well.”
Lainey wondered exactly what had happened but decided to leave that question for another time. “Is everyone in your family a shifter then?”
“Everyone in my family is, but there are mixed households as well—one parent human and one parent shifter.”
“How does that work?”
He grinned. “Exactly like you’d think it does. Except in our case, the mother’s genetic makeup is always dominant. If the mom’s a shifter, the kid will be a shifter. If she’s human, then the kid will be too.”
It made sense from a purely biological point of view. “When that happens, are the full-human kids treated differently?”
“Yes, and no. Obviously, there are going to be some things a shifter can do that humans can’t, and vice versa, but in terms of being accepted and cared for? No, not in the slightest, especially now that we’ve established a permanent home here.”
Finn went on to tell her about the dwindling number of polar bear shifters and their shrinking habitat and how that had led to an alliance with the people of Aurora Falls.
“Aurora Falls lies directly in the path of the migratory route of polar bears making their way on and off sea ice to hunt,” he explained, corroborating what she’d read when planning her trip. “And every year, it became a battle between man and bear. It was either adapt with the human world or face extinction.”
He revealed that most of the bears she’d seen around the lodge were local teens earning some extra cash. Her favorite part was when he told her how those who put in a good effort would get airlifted out to the floes by Beau at the end of each vacation group. He even showed her pictures of happy bears mugging for the camera and waving as the familiar helicopter lifted them into the air.