Spirits 0f The Spring (Shifting Seasons Book 4)

by Sammie Joyce

  Slowly, my body fell forward, bringing Ruben down on top of me, until I no longer knew whose skin was whose. We were sticky with sweat and lust, the taste of salt still on my lips as he buried his face into my hair and inhaled deeply like he might never smell me again.

  For a long time, longer than I could even guess, we lay in each other’s arm, unspeaking.

  Ruben’s hands trailed along my hair, his fingertips trailing over my skin and I marveled at how easily we stayed together in silence. I mused that was the sign of a good mate—we didn’t need to fill the quiet with unnecessary words and pillow talk. We were inherently comfortable with one another and there was nothing wrong with that. I was at peace there, in his arms, and I knew that I’d never be alone again.

  And that was all I needed to fall into a deep sleep.

  * * *

  The moon was high when I woke up again, this time to the sound of water running and I sat up in confusion, wondering where Ruben had gone. A quick glance outside my window placed the moon at just past midnight.

  Is he taking a shower?

  I swung my legs over the side of the bed and padded into the hallway where I could see the bathroom door half closed, the flicker of candlelight inside making my brow furrow slightly.

  Suddenly, the door opened and Ruben gasped, a guilty look on his face when he saw me standing there.

  “Oh. You’re awake,” he sighed.

  “A-are you taking a shower?” I asked. He shook his head and looked away sheepishly, stepping aside so that I could see what he had gotten up to in the bathroom. To my shock, the room was alight with flickering candles that he’d found from various parts of the cottage, the smell of lavender wafting toward me as water ran in the tub.

  “I was running you a bath,” he explained. “I know you were trying to have one yesterday when you found me.”

  I gaped at him, unsure of what to say.

  “You’re running me a bath?”

  He nodded and shrugged with some embarrassment.

  “I was going to carry you in and get you a glass of wine but—”

  “You still can,” I said, spinning around to head back into the bedroom. “Pretend I saw nothing.”

  I heard Ruben laugh but he didn’t argue as I threw my naked body back onto the bed and pretended to fall asleep. A couple minutes later, he entered and scooped me up in his arms as if I weighed nothing.

  “Hm?” I purred, blinking sleepily. “What time is it?”

  Ruben laughed again.

  “You don’t have to go through all the motions,” he said. “I ruined the surprise.”

  “You didn’t,” I insisted, looping my arms around his neck as he strode into the washroom with me in his strong arms. He lowered me into the water and the temperature was perfect. I was finding it hard to overcome my amazement. I wouldn’t have expected that he had such a romantic streak. I certainly wouldn’t have anticipated it.

  He picked up a washcloth and began to wash my back, carefully piling my hair into a haphazard bun atop my head. I swallowed, feeling a rush of emotion flood through me. No one had ever treated me like this, not ever.

  “It’s the least I can do for using your house as a hotel and eating all your food,” he joked. I balked as I remembered that I hadn’t fed him.

  “Oh gods!” I muttered. “You haven’t eaten all day.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” he replied, sinking me back into the water to wash my front. “We’ll eat tomorrow. Tonight is for more important things.”

  I eyed him through my peripheral vision, a bemused smile touching my lips.

  “I don’t know, Ruben,” I giggled. “Eating has to be in the top five of most important things I can think of. What’s more important? Breathing.”

  He stopped what he was doing, lowering the cloth to cup my cheeks in his hands, his eye serious.

  “No,” he replied softly. “Not breathing.”

  His earnestness took my breath away and quickened my heart rate. I cocked my head to the side, sensing his next words even before he spoke them.

  “Tonight is for love.”

  Water spilled over the side of the tub as I yanked him toward me, pulling him fully on top of me inside the bath. Again our lips locked and I was consumed with that drunken feeling of euphoria.

  Not just tonight, I thought, closing my eyes to lose myself once more. Every night from here on out.

  * * *

  I’d never heard such a ruckus inside my house and with my heart in my throat; I almost hit the ceiling as I bolted away.

  The light outside my window told me that it was just after dawn.

  “What the hell is that?” Ruben growled, his head raised and I pressed my index finger to my lips as I hurried out of bed to slip a robe around my lithe figure.

  “Stay here. It’s probably Flint,” I told him but even as I said it, I knew it couldn’t be. Flint would never pound on the door like that and certainly not at six o’clock in the morning.

  Unless it’s an emergency?

  Even so, I found it hard to believe, but Flint had been known to overreact in the past.

  I flew out of the bedroom, my bare feet pounding against the floor. Ruben’s grumbling was not lost on my ears but I had a job to do and he was going to have to wait. Not that I was overly impressed at being dragged awake after such an incredible night. We’d only just fallen asleep, maybe two hours earlier after endless lovemaking. I didn’t fault him for being grumpy. I was grumpy too.

  I wrenched open the door and reeled back as a woman I’d never seen before staring at me with wide eyes.

  “Are you Larissa Pine?” she demanded, her voice quivering slightly. She wasn’t a shifter, I was sure, but there was a desperation about her that didn’t make me slam the door in her face, something elusive.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ruben amble into the living room, his arms folded over his chest as he watched the scene with wary eyes.

  “Yes,” I answered slowly, wondering if I’d responded wrong.

  Am I going to regret this?

  I had my own answer in less than a second when the woman threw herself at my feet, grabbing my ankles to bury her face in my knees. Dread swept through my gut as I stared down at her dark crown of hair and then at Ruben who seemed just as perplexed by what was happening as I was.

  “W-what are you doing?” I sputtered, leaning down to pull the woman off my legs. “Stand up.”

  She threw her head back and met my gaze steadily, shaking her head as she remained in place. The dread suddenly became a living organism in my gut and like a slap in the face. I knew exactly who I was looking at, even before she spoke again.

  Oh gods. I let my guard down. I forgot about Flint’s warning. How could I have been so stupid?

  Again, my eyes shot toward Ruben, whom the stranger had not yet seen. His face was turning stony as if he could sense that something was terribly wrong. I shot my attention back down to the groveling woman, my mouth falling into a frown as she uttered my worst fear into words.

  “I’m Kealani Mahelona. Larissa, I need you to help me become a shifter.”

  9

  Ruben

  At first, I thought I’d missed something, that the blubbering woman at Larissa’s feet was a madwoman or that I’d heard her request wrong, but as I took in the scene, I saw a glimmer of understanding in Larissa’s eyes.

  What the hell is this now?

  The idyllic moments that Larissa and I had shared were quickly evaporating as a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. It was only then that I stepped from the shadows and Kealani saw me for the first time. She gasped and fell backward, off her haunches and onto her butt.

  “Oh my God!” she rasped. “I-I-I’m so sorry! I-I didn’t realize you lived here with someone.”

  Larissa looked at me and I thought I saw her blush, but our living situation was hardly the issue at hand here.

  “This is Ruben,” Larissa sighed, sounding reluctant to introduce me. I wasn’t sure I wanted
to be introduced to this crazy-sounding woman, but my name was out of the bag now.

  Kealani continued to stare at me with wide eyes like she was trying to determine what to do. I silently willed her to turn around and go back to wherever her home was, never to return again. Only then would I be able to regain some semblance of breath in her absence. But something told me that Kealani was just getting started.

  “Kealani,” Larissa muttered, finally managing to get the woman to her feet. “I don’t know what you think I can do here, but I don’t change humans into shifters. I’m a shaman; a healer, not a god.”

  I smirked, feeling slightly relieved by her response, although I wasn’t sure why.

  Even if she could, she wouldn’t be so irresponsible. As it is, the overpopulation of shifters is out of control.

  “You can help me find another artifact!” Kealani insisted. Any relief I felt suddenly dissipated and I looked at the women, trying to make sense of what was happening there. Larissa had balked, her complexion almost translucent. I could feel her eyes darting toward me as if she was either looking to me for help or hinting at me to leave. I couldn’t quite tell which.

  “Go sit down,” Larissa ordered her, a stern note filling her voice. “I’ll put on some tea.”

  I couldn’t believe she wasn’t throwing the human girl right out in the damp spring morning where she belonged. Kealani gave me a wary look and I glowered at her, hoping my stare was enough to send her packing but clearly, she wasn’t so easily swayed. She moved her gaze away and almost tiptoed to the kitchen table where Larissa and I had had our meal. I was insulted to see Kealani sitting there, like she was perverting the memory somehow.

  Larissa started a fire and in minutes, she had water boiling on the fire as she prepared three cups. I didn’t have the stomach to put anything in my gullet at the moment and I remained in my place like a marble statue, glaring at Kealani. The truth was, I was annoyed with Larissa too for indulging this nonsense, whatever it was. But I was also mildly intrigued to know why this woman thought she could be changed into a shifter, a story I wouldn’t need to wait long to hear because Kealani seemed eager to share her tale with anyone who would listen.

  “You must know about Emmett,” Kealani said, reaching out for her steaming cup of tea with trembling hands. She was deliberately avoiding my eyes but I was staring holes into her.

  “I know that he’s apparently a polar bear shifter who was accidentally turned somehow,” Larissa agreed. My eyes widened.

  I’d never seen a polar bear shifter before, let alone one who was accidentally turned. I didn’t realize I’d scoffed aloud. I hadn’t even realized I’d been that skeptical until Larissa gave me a warning look.

  “No, it’s true!” Kealani rushed on, finally meeting my gaze. Whether she was crazy or not, I could see she believed everything she was saying.

  And she did know about the artifacts.

  Of course, someone could have told her about them.

  “Emmett—my boyfriend, Emmett Sable—he’s an archeologist and he found the bear totem. Something happened and he went from being just like me to being one of you. I want to find an artifact too, Larissa.”

  By now, she was looking back at my mate as I tried to swallow what she was putting out there. Larissa’s face looked like she’d swallowed a lemon and she exhaled in annoyance.

  “Who told you where my house was?” she asked flatly. Kea looked away, embarrassment written on her face.

  “I-I followed Flint here last week,” she confessed, her breath barely a squeak and Larissa’s scowl deepened. Kealani held up her hands and shook her head.

  “I’m not usually that sneaky,” she insisted. “I’ve been trying desperately to get answers from him, from the other shifters, especially Davis but no one will tell me anything. I’m even being kept out of the loop by Emmett. I know he knows more than he’s telling me but I feel so completely alone.”

  I couldn’t stand the whining pitch to her voice and I snorted at her.

  “Maybe that’s because you have no business getting involved in matters you don’t understand,” I snapped, striding toward the table and plopping down at the table with an unceremonious thud. Larissa barely looked up at my brash arrival but Kealani looked pained.

  “I’m trying to understand,” she whispered. “Are you a shifter too?”

  She didn’t wait for me to respond before adding, “Of course you are. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t. You have a life here, a community. I’ve come to Alaska without anyone but Emmett and every day, I feel more and more isolated.”

  “Why won’t Emmett tell you anything?” Larissa asked and I could read her resolve slipping away as she listened to Kealani’s sob story.

  Oh don’t tell me you feel sorry for her, I thought, shaking my head even though I didn’t speak the words aloud. I didn’t want to undermine her in front of a human, but I would certainly have to talk to her about thickening her skin later. No mate of mine was going to be taken in by a conning human.

  See, this was precisely the problem. There were just too many of us now, our secret was falling into the hands of the irrational like Kealani. She was only the tip of the iceberg.

  Kealani didn’t answer Larissa’s question but I saw the shadow falling over her face.

  “Maybe because he doesn’t think that you should be meddling where you don’t belong either?” I suggested cruelly, driving home the fact that she needed to leave well enough alone.

  “NO!” Kealani shouted, startling me slightly. I frowned. She quickly lowered her voice and gave me an apologetic look. “No, it’s not that. It’s…”

  She trailed off and I could see that whatever she had to say pained her more than Larissa’s refusal to help.

  “Well?” I barked. “What is it then?”

  “He doesn’t want me to become a shifter. He doesn’t mind if I learn about them but he doesn’t think I should become one.”

  I laughed shortly. That was rich. A self-made shifter forbidding another human from being one too. Not that I disagreed, but the irony was not lost on me.

  Again, I didn’t realize I’d made noise.

  “What’s rich?” Kealani demanded, her plaintive expression taking on a tinge of annoyance now.

  “What Ruben means,” Larissa interjected smoothly, her glare at me unmistakable. “Is maybe Emmett regrets that he was ever turned into a shifter. I can’t imagine that it’s easy for an adult male to have his life turned completely upside-down like that. It’s difficult enough for us born this way to adjust and adapt to the human world. Maybe Emmett is simply trying to save you his pain?”

  “I know he thinks he’s protecting me,” Kealani agreed, nodding eagerly at Larissa’s assessment. “But he’s wrong. I’m ready. I know I am. I’ve been researching and studying. I’ve been on this for almost a year now and I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

  “Oh good gods,” I bit. “It’s not a matter of wanting it and making it happen. It’s not possible. Get your head out of the clouds.”

  “It is possible!” Kealani insisted and now she was glaring at me. “It happened to Emmett.”

  “And Emmett is advising you against it,” Larissa sighed.

  “He’ll change his mind when we’re both in our animal forms, running side by side through the woods. He’ll be happy when we have our own line of shifter children, the first of our kind.”

  I gaped at her.

  “Are you out of your mind?” I hissed, rising to slap my hands against the table. “There are too many shifters as it is. What you’re proposing is both selfish and irresponsible—again, even if it were possible.”

  “Stop saying that!” Kealani retorted, also rising, her dark eyes flashing to meet mine. “It is possible and I’m going to make it happen—with Larissa’s help.”

  Her head swiveled to look at Larissa who was watching us like a tennis match, her eyes narrowed slightly. Her eyes rested for a moment on my face but she seemed to decid
e that Kealani demanded her attention first. Still, I could see there was something she wanted to ask me.

  “Kealani, I don’t know what you want me to do.”

  “Help me find an artifact so I can be like you.”

  “Oh, this is too much,” I muttered, beginning to pace the room but both women ignored me.

  “Where did Emmett find his?” Larissa asked. “Maybe there are more there.”

  “There aren’t,” Kealani said flatly. “Trust me.”

  “Where did he find it?” Larissa pressed but oddly, for someone as loose-lipped as she’d been, suddenly Kealani clammed up.

  “Kea,” Larissa sighed. “Honestly, even if you were to get your hands on an artifact, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I have no idea how artifact magic works. It’s a legend, nothing more.”

  I could feel Kealani’s disappointment like waves coming at me and for a fleeting moment, I thought the issue was resolved, but of course nothing was ever that simple.

  “If I could at least get a totem,” she muttered, more to herself than us. “Maybe I could…I just want to…”

  Her heartbreak almost affected me this time. I thought I saw tears well up in her eyes but I coldly turned my head away. I didn’t care about a human who had a ridiculous fantasy. I cared about my mission. And about my mate.

  “Listen,” Larissa said and I felt a tingle of apprehension. “I know of a couple places rumored to have artifacts still. I have no idea if they exist—”

  “WHERE?!” Kealani almost screamed.

  “NO!” I thundered, furious that Larissa was falling for the bait. Again, I was dismissed by the women, Larissa’s attention fully on Kealani.

  “The closest one is hundreds of miles from here,” she offered, a pensive look crossing over her face like she was dredging up old memories. “I mean, it’s not a pleasant journey.”

  “I’ll go! Just draw me a map or put it in my GPS or—”

  Larissa laughed, not to be cruel, but because even I knew if there were such totems anywhere, they wouldn’t be accessible via the interstate.