Free Chance: Mating Fever (Bears of Kodiak Book 1) by Selene Charles

Chance.”
    Thinking maybe it had just been the wind banging the door open, he started to stand up but stilled the moment he caught sight of the middle-aged, but very well-preserved crow shifter standing in the doorway.
    Her hair was thick and full and black with silvery veins of white throughout. Her eyes were the deepest black of twilight and studded with the same silvery dots as Bronwyn’s.
    Dressed in a sheath of ink-colored silk, she stepped inside his cabin with the grace and manners of nobility.
    The woman, who could only be Bronwyn’s mother Annalida, shut the door behind her, sealing in the heat.
    Like a flash, several thoughts rolled through Chance’s head at once. The crow had broken faith by standing on grizzly territory. She may have still wanted to steal his Bron from him. And last, but definitely not least, he was beyond relieved to see her. They needed help. Something was wrong with Bron, and if anyone could fix it, he prayed her mother could.
    “What have you done to my daughter?” she asked with a thread of violence shading her words.
    Bronwyn, who’d just suffered through another powerful contraction, tossed out her arm. “Mom, Mother, please. Help me. Something’s wrong with the cub.”
    The woman swallowed hard, and Chance couldn’t help but band his arms tightly around Bron’s shoulder. He knew this could only go two ways. Annalida would either leave her daughter to suffer in silence or set aside her anger and help. As though she wasn’t sure which path to take yet, she took a hesitant step forward.
    Bronwyn, who was coated in a fine sheet of sweat and blood, suddenly curled in on herself, screaming as her legs dropped wide onto the bed. “Chance!” She clawed at his hand.
    That’s when her mother finally found her wings. She raced for the bed, gripped Chance by his collar, and jerked him away from Bronwyn.
    He started to protest, ready to change into his bear and defy her to take his woman from him, but she shook her head hard. “If you wish for Bronwyn to survive this, then you must listen to me well,” she snapped, releasing him instantly and rolling her sleeves up. “She’s chosen to birth a cub, meaning the child will be far bigger than what our bodies typically can handle. She’ll need to ingest the root of the alderberry plant to strengthen her body for what’s to come.”
    He looked down at Bronwyn, his heart and brain moving in different directions. His heart said this was a trick. It had to be. After all this time, Bron’s mother suddenly found them. Until the child was born a cub, she could by right take his woman away.
    His brain however roared that Bron was not well at all. Her skin was even more pale, a ghastly bluish-gray hue. More blood than sweat covered her body. Clenching his molars, he was torn between duty and desire.
    “Go!” Annalida snapped at him. “Go now, Chance, before it’s too late.”
    Bron arched her spine, clutching onto the blanket with her claws as she kicked out in desperation.
    “Bron, relax, my heart,” Annalida crooned, rubbing her daughter’s forehead with the back of her hand.
    And that was what finally convinced him to go. No matter what they’d done, no matter that Bron had chosen to leave her nest for his den, Annalida clearly still loved her daughter.
    “Gods help you if you’re lying to me, crow,” he bit out, then turned on his heel, ran for the door, and set out to the stretch of forest that he knew held several alderberry plants.
    Chance made quick work of digging up the plant. As a bear, it was nothing to tear the thick roots up from the ground. Clutching his prize tightly in his mouth, he ran for home, praying to the Gods that his woman was all right.
    In mere minutes, he returned to her side. Annalida had gotten a pot of water to boil and was now wiping her daughter’s brows down.
    “You’ve the root?” she asked quickly.
    “Yes.” He stretched out his arm, handing it to her.
    No thank you’s were exchanged.