Read Online Gifted To The Bear: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Gifted Series Book 1) by Amira Rain - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Amira Rain
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us all if you want to stay to eat. Jen lost a few of her eggs on floor on her way in, but I’ve got another carton in the fridge.”
I gave Annie a little smile, but she just winced.
“I’m really so sorry about all this. Sorry and deeply embarrassed.”
“Please don’t be. I have to admit that when I first heard someone in the cabin, I was a bit alarmed about a possible intruder, but honestly, I think it was very sweet that Jen just wanted to surprise me with breakfast. It’s actually been kind of fun to have my own ‘welcoming committee.’ Or, ‘breakfast patrol,’ as the case has been.”
Again, I gave Annie a little smile, but also again, she didn’t return it.
Instead, she just leaned against the counter, rubbing her temples. “Well, I’m relieved to hear you say so, but I’m still a bit embarrassed. Jen is really difficult to contain sometimes, and it’s been even worse in the six months since we’ve been here in Timberline. See, despite the fact that we share a cabin, I just can’t keep my eyes on her at all times. Sometimes I wish that I’d been the only one to become a Gifted; that way, Jen could have gone to live with some distant relative, and I could have had some semblance of a normal life here, specifically, a life free from babysitting duties. The past eighteen years of babysitting have just about been plenty for me.”
I suddenly had a few questions. “So you said ‘distant relative.’ If you don’t mind my asking, don’t you and Jen have parents? And also, isn’t she a little young to be a Gifted? I heard most of us Gifteds are young women in our twenties.”
“Well, we are. Jen just seems to be some weird anomaly. From what I’ve heard, she’s actually the youngest Gifted in the nation, and by a full four years. Just my luck. And as far as our parents, no, unfortunately, we don’t have any. It was always just Mom, and she passed away a year or so before The Takeover. That’s when I got Jen full-time, though to be honest, I’d kind of been raising her long before then.”
Mirroring Annie’s pose, I leaned against the counter. “I’m really sorry to hear about your mom, and I kind of have a similar family situation. I still have some very distant relatives, my dad was never in the picture, and my mom passed away. But at least you have Jen, though. I get that like most little sisters, she can probably be a handful sometimes, but it must be nice to have a sister, at least on some level.”
Annie sighed, giving her head a single shake. “Well, you’d think it would be, but, well, look. You seem to like Jen, and that’s great, but I’m just going to be blunt. She has some really severe problems. And after a certain length of time, they really start to wear on you.”
“Well, what kind of ‘problems,’ specifically? I mean I can see that she... she maybe acts a little young for her age, but...”
“Yeah. And that’s a very kind understatement. Jen is profoundly immature. Profoundly . And that’s just the half of it.”
“Well, what’s the other half?”
With her gaze darting to the side for a moment, Annie shifted her feet, as if uncomfortable. “Well that’s the thing. The ‘other half’ is kind of hard to quantify, or explain. In our life before we became Gifteds, I took Jen to dozens of doctors and psychologists—literally dozens. Our mom took her to at least a dozen as well. And yet, not a single one of them could ever pinpoint anything specifically ‘wrong’ with her. Other than profound immaturity, obviously. A few of the doctors suspected attention deficit disorder, but they weren’t really sure. She was always in ‘special’ classes at school, however, before dropping out when we became Gifteds; but even that was because she consistently refused to do schoolwork, instead preferring to just have ‘fun.’ And even though she could barely read by the start of her senior year, and still is near-illiterate, no teaching professional was ever
I gave Annie a little smile, but she just winced.
“I’m really so sorry about all this. Sorry and deeply embarrassed.”
“Please don’t be. I have to admit that when I first heard someone in the cabin, I was a bit alarmed about a possible intruder, but honestly, I think it was very sweet that Jen just wanted to surprise me with breakfast. It’s actually been kind of fun to have my own ‘welcoming committee.’ Or, ‘breakfast patrol,’ as the case has been.”
Again, I gave Annie a little smile, but also again, she didn’t return it.
Instead, she just leaned against the counter, rubbing her temples. “Well, I’m relieved to hear you say so, but I’m still a bit embarrassed. Jen is really difficult to contain sometimes, and it’s been even worse in the six months since we’ve been here in Timberline. See, despite the fact that we share a cabin, I just can’t keep my eyes on her at all times. Sometimes I wish that I’d been the only one to become a Gifted; that way, Jen could have gone to live with some distant relative, and I could have had some semblance of a normal life here, specifically, a life free from babysitting duties. The past eighteen years of babysitting have just about been plenty for me.”
I suddenly had a few questions. “So you said ‘distant relative.’ If you don’t mind my asking, don’t you and Jen have parents? And also, isn’t she a little young to be a Gifted? I heard most of us Gifteds are young women in our twenties.”
“Well, we are. Jen just seems to be some weird anomaly. From what I’ve heard, she’s actually the youngest Gifted in the nation, and by a full four years. Just my luck. And as far as our parents, no, unfortunately, we don’t have any. It was always just Mom, and she passed away a year or so before The Takeover. That’s when I got Jen full-time, though to be honest, I’d kind of been raising her long before then.”
Mirroring Annie’s pose, I leaned against the counter. “I’m really sorry to hear about your mom, and I kind of have a similar family situation. I still have some very distant relatives, my dad was never in the picture, and my mom passed away. But at least you have Jen, though. I get that like most little sisters, she can probably be a handful sometimes, but it must be nice to have a sister, at least on some level.”
Annie sighed, giving her head a single shake. “Well, you’d think it would be, but, well, look. You seem to like Jen, and that’s great, but I’m just going to be blunt. She has some really severe problems. And after a certain length of time, they really start to wear on you.”
“Well, what kind of ‘problems,’ specifically? I mean I can see that she... she maybe acts a little young for her age, but...”
“Yeah. And that’s a very kind understatement. Jen is profoundly immature. Profoundly . And that’s just the half of it.”
“Well, what’s the other half?”
With her gaze darting to the side for a moment, Annie shifted her feet, as if uncomfortable. “Well that’s the thing. The ‘other half’ is kind of hard to quantify, or explain. In our life before we became Gifteds, I took Jen to dozens of doctors and psychologists—literally dozens. Our mom took her to at least a dozen as well. And yet, not a single one of them could ever pinpoint anything specifically ‘wrong’ with her. Other than profound immaturity, obviously. A few of the doctors suspected attention deficit disorder, but they weren’t really sure. She was always in ‘special’ classes at school, however, before dropping out when we became Gifteds; but even that was because she consistently refused to do schoolwork, instead preferring to just have ‘fun.’ And even though she could barely read by the start of her senior year, and still is near-illiterate, no teaching professional was ever
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