The word spell sat in the back of his mind, but he did as told. He hadn't felt at home until he'd come here, he trusted them. "Sure. For now."
Annie reached up on tiptoes, and he still needed to bend down as she gave him a peck on the cheek.
"You're a good boy, Caleb. Alright, I'm off for now."
His bear sat on its rump mirroring the confusion of what happened. What the hell was going on in this town? He'd been here only a few short years. A lifetime had seemed to pass since he'd left the shifter special forces. A lifetime since he'd gone through the delusion that somehow embracing that side of him would help him protect the humans that he'd grown up around. Instead, he'd found himself stuck not fitting into either world - until he'd come here.
Even the last foster home he'd been a part of had never been home, not really. They hadn't understood shifters well, but they at least realized what he wasn't. The human boy there had become his home in a way, his best friend growing up, that let him be. The two had become inseparable. And then his world had ended.
He'd come here for quiet and now... now this. What spell was she talking about?
"I. I'll be back to check on you Marci. I need to go."
He ran so fast that he didn't wait for Marci to respond.
He didn't want someone. He didn't want attachments. He didn't want pain.
5
Why couldn't she push away the lingering traces of his touch? Her body seemed to have a memory. She bit her lip trying to stop a moan creeping up. She pressed her thighs together, the tingle of pleasure shot through her core. Her body had never wanted someone more than she wanted her next breath. Now, away from him, the pull of her magic grew stronger and harder to ignore.
Annie's words came to mind again; spells were never predictable. What kind of spell? Marci hadn't cast one; she sucked at them. Annie was a witch too though, what had she wanted?
"You okay?"
His voice, rich like chocolate and just the right pitch, spoke to her soul. One word had her shaking with need, and yet feeling safe and satisfied.
What the hell did I do?
"Marci?"
She turned around. "I didn't expect you back here."
He nodded. She watched him tuck his hands in his pockets and wondered if it was to keep them off of her.
"I realized that you probably needed help unloading everything."
"Right. Yes, thanks. And, sorry. I'm fine. Just thinking about life."
Her magic swirled around him, calmer than before. It seemed to be content with where she and it were in their search. Her power knew where he was at all times, ever since she and Caleb - well, did more than kiss.
A chill in the air had her rubbing her arms.
"You're cold? Do you know where your coat is?"
"Well, yes and no." She tilted her head towards the truck.
"The boxes are labeled, and I can tell you from doing a bit of cheating exactly where it is. The issue is, the location of said boxes are behind the mattress and this table up front. I guess I didn't think when I packed."
Marci licked her lips. If he'd kiss her as he'd just done, she wouldn't need a coat. She wouldn't need clothes if a damn blizzard were around.
She opened her mouth, then closed it. How long would they not talk about the elephant in the room - or well, his huge asset beneath those jeans?
Marci glanced over to Hazel clucking happily up the walkway to the house.
"I'm worried about what to do with her, too. In the city, I used a dog crate, but that's not a permanent solution. I've only had her a week; I barely know how to feed her."
Marci yanked on the mattress, but it didn't move. Stepping up into the truck, she hauled her ass over the upside-down table, piled high, and forced herself through a thin space between the boxes.
"Do you want help?"
She ignored him. She was amazing at helping others and shitty at accepting it. As she rounded the end of the mattress, she pushed a few boxes, an inch here and an inch there making space for her to get it. Getting the bed out would make a world of difference - it didn't budge.
She grunted and rested her face against the plastic wrap encasing the bed. Frustrations of being alone again started to push in against her. Was it a thing to be reverse-claustrophobic, where there was more than enough space here, but the world still felt alone.
"Marci? Do you want help."
Leaning against the mattress, she breathed in and out. Slowly. All she had to do was say yes. If she admitted needing help though, she'd lose her control. She needed control of something, and that was not going to be Caleb, anymore than it was going to be her previous life. And then there was something about the spell niggling at the back of her mind.
All she had to do was tell him she needed help. He hadn't asked her to marry him. He hadn't said she would be giving up her freedom or signing away her soul.
Her magic threaded out from her, seeking him around the boxes at the end of the truck. If she said yes, it felt more like she would be saying what she feared her magic was telling her. That she was here for him, and not because he needed her, but because she needed him.
Marci hadn't cried in the weeks following the announcement that the wedding was off, or that she was leaving, or when the family said they didn't want Hazel after they realized what their grandmother had left them wasn't a treasure chest of jewels.
She hadn't broken down when she'd placed the last box in the truck. She hadn't cried when her mother stood in her bare living room cursing her - and sadly she wasn't entirely sure they weren't real curses. To be safe, Marci had taken several baths trying to wash off any curse her mother might have actually or accidentally placed on her.
She sure as damn well wasn't going to cry over whatever this was. She wasn't - but, the small warm trail down her cheek disagreed.
Everything was quiet now, and reality hit that she'd just made out with a man that was hot as hell and so far above her league on looks. The strange encounter with a witch who seemed to believe Marci was here because of her and not from Marci's own choices. It all was too much and she started to cry at the idea that maybe even now, she wasn't actually in control of anything in her life.
"Marci?" The deep tenor of Caleb's voice filtered into the truck. "Marci? Are you okay?"
She pulled her face away with a sticky ripping like a fruit roll-up stuck to its wrapper.
She wiped the heels of her hands against her face. "Yeah. I'm here. I Uh. Yes. Help. I need it."
She was a hot mess.
Fanning her face, she willed away the red, blotchy ugly she knew her face would be.
She stumbled forward as the mattress slipped away and out of the truck.
"Careful."
Caleb caught her before she fell from the truck. Righting herself, the completeness of being in his arms made her want to fold into him and let it all be. He let go abruptly, the rush of empty, cold around her.
"Stay right here. I'll help unload everything, but I need to let Frank out."
She sat down on the tailgate. Moments passed. Her magic jumped here and there, searching for something that wasn't there - anything to find another reason to be here, outside of this man.
A deep bark echoed around the neighborhood. Marci looked up as a massive, brown blur charged Hazel, followed by Caleb's voice. "No, Frank."
Squawking and barking turned the quiet dull of the town into an uproar.
Her heart jumped to her throat as she took a step forward, only stopping because Caleb's blur beat her to the brawl.
The squawking slowed, and the barking stopped. She laughed as Caleb fell to the ground, Frank sat on his lap, and Hazel perched on his head.
Hands on hips, she gawked.
"There are no words right now."
Hazel hopped off of his head and hopped onto Frank who laid down panting.
Caleb stood up and met her questioning surprise. "I guess they like each other?"
"Right. Okay ..." Marci assessed the situation. "Guess I'll k
eep moving then. I have no idea what I am doing. Is this normal?"
He shrugged.
Marci stared down at the mattress. Fine. Whatever. She'd start with the boxes.
"Hey? Let me help."
She nodded and smiled. "Sure. I'm sure your muscles will be more helpful than my self-pity."
His cheeks flushed rosy. Interesting. A shifter that can't take a compliment.
"I'm not, or well. Okay. Let's get everything in."
"Caleb, you do realize you don't look like a big fluffy bunny, right?" She rolled her eyes and grabbed the box with a grunt.
The edge of the box bit into her stomach, but damn it if she wasn't going to prove her own usefulness.
He sputtered. "A bunny?"
"Yeah. Sorry, to burst your bubble. Annie said you were a bear; I assume that was more than just a poke at your rough exterior."
His lip curled for a split second. "Fine. Yeah. Whatever. Let's go."
Marci had zero ideas about why he looked put out, but she did like poking at him. Underneath this giant appeared to be a teddy bear to the wild grizzly he most likely was.
She watched as he lifted the queen size mattress as if it weighed next to nothing. The floppy rectangle flopped over his head. She grabbed her box and hurried behind.
"This bunny could use some help getting this thing up the stairs. All you need to do it guide it and I will do the lifting, but I can't carry it above my head with the narrow stairs."
She put the box down and stepped next to him, rubbing against him as she passed to the stairs. She wanted him to reach out for her, fuck the bed, or instead maybe they could do that on it. He didn't though, and mentally she tried to scold herself. She didn't need or want a man. This was her time to be herself. She needed to know she wasn't here because of some witch. Conscious thoughts still didn't stop the burning in her as she caught his musky scent when he was close enough to touch.
"Thanks for your help. And just so you know, I don't think you are built like a bunny. I figured you'd get the joke since I was pretty sure you knew your effect on ... uh well, I figured you knew your massive size."
He grunted. "It's fine. Just trying to get you moved in before dark. The northern winds are coming in. The sooner we get you settled, the better."
A pang of regret made her wince. She shouldn't feel this way. She shouldn't care. Slowly moving up the stairs to the top of the mattress she started to pull as he pushed. He was right; all she had to do was guide him. He'd barely even broken a sweat.
As they neared the top, he finally spoke.
"Take the room over there." He jerked his head to the left.
"Okay, sure. Why?"
She angled the mattress, and he took it from there.
"One, it's the only one that Annie cleaned when she heard someone was coming. Two, I cleaned the chimney and know the flue works, so you won't get too cold."
She followed behind him as he shoved the mattress in.
"Oh, okay. Thanks, for going through all this trouble."
He laid out the mattress. "You'll need to thank Annie. I just did what she suggested. Be careful though. That door sticks. At some point, I'll shave it down. This place needs some help. Maybe for once we could try and bring in some new blood to the town, actually have a real tourist season."
"I'll go grab some more boxes."
"Yeah. Sure. Be right down."
Marci walked around the room. It was large enough for her queen size bed and her small couch. It had more room for furniture she didn't even own.
Natural light from the late afternoon sun filtered through large picturesque windows.
"I think I see why she insisted on this room." She walked to the windows. The mountains and forest lay out beyond a small break in the yard. Laying her hand on the window, she peered out. "This is amazing."
Her magic jumped suddenly. A jolt of power radiated out from the forest. Strange. Turning back to the forest she could sense something raw and new to her. She jumped at the thump of a box behind her.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" he asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, it is. What is it? I can feel the magic, but it's not what I'm used to."
He shrugged. "The beauty is nice, and my bear loves the forest, but not that part of it." He came up next to her, an inch that might as well have been a canyon separating him from her. "That part there, it's full of pixies. Stay away. That's all I know. It's not a place for you. Stay away."
"Okay. I'm not sure how to take that. A place for me?"
An ember of anger ignited, she stepped aside.
"I meant it could be dangerous."
"Right. Oh. Okay. God, forbid poor little Marci could actually protect herself. Or poor little me, that I wouldn't be smart enough to not go into some crappy forest. For once I thought fate might be on my side, but I was wrong. My family couldn't trust me to make a good, choice and set up my whole marriage. They couldn't handle, that as they climbed social ladders, I did my own thing." She fisted her hands. Marci guessed the one thing she'd been searching for was a good reason to not want him. She'd found it and hadn't needed magic for it.
6
He stormed down the stairs. Stupid, meddlesome witches. He'd been pretty damn happy over the last two years. He'd found peace here, a boring one, but it was a sense of peace. The town had felt like a bunch of misfits, a coming together of anyone that wanted to hide in plain sight.
That was all until the damn old women got bored and decided they needed to screw with his complacent existence.
The shit part was, he wanted Marci, and he didn't want to want her and then the witch admitted that somehow the town had done this, and now he was pissed off.
"Caleb? Wait for me."
He stopped at the door without turning. He'd never have thought he'd be battling with himself, restraining his need to grab Marci and take her where they stood. Son of a bitch. Even her voice had his body coiling up like a firecracker ready to explode.
"Why?"
"Why? Because you said you'd help."
He ground his molars. "Yeah, and you just bit my head off." But damn if he didn't like the fire. Fucking hell. Life was fucked up. Maybe it was the fact he hadn't been with a woman in far too long. He doubted it though.
"Well, you basically said I was helpless."
"I did not fucking say you were helpless. I was relaying the information I was told to. Just don't go where the trees turn blue. So there. Fine. Don't go to the pretty trees. Why you're mad is beyond me."
He took a step; he just needed to get away from this woman. The closer she came, the stronger her scent was. Damn Annie and her meddling. He didn't want a woman. Change that. He would be okay with a woman, but not one that he seemed to want. Caring meant that you had something to lose and he'd already lost a best friend. Nothing else had ever been worth caring about, and he didn't want to start now.
"Didn't you mention that you were excited about bringing tourists here? Can you help me get my stuff, and then you can walk away?"
"I don't, what? Seriously. What is your deal? That's not what I said." He tensed his hands and snarled his nose. "God, woman." Heading to the truck, he just needed to keep it together for a little longer.
"Caleb, wait. The forest. Isn't it a problem with the whole tourist thing?"
He ran his hand through his hair. "You're going to be full of questions, aren't you? The town is full of witches and shifters for a reason. You should feel lucky to be here. I didn't know it when I stopped here, but the same generations have been here to watch over that gate. Humans can't sense the gate. The wards around the forest keep gate well out of human sight. But you know as well as I do that the paranormal see things, feel things, and know things, even if they aren't meant to be found. That being said, it's sort of the like the town's job to ensure the safety of the gate. God only knows what comes out of portals."
He stopped, and she ran into his back.
"Oof."
He turned on his heel. "All I know is I'm part of i
t all. For fuck's sake..."
He stopped. Marci was probably somehow brought here to be a part of it. Shit. Maybe coming here wasn't a choice for him any more than it had been for her.
"Damn it all. I don't know anything anymore."
A heat burned deep within his structured resolve.
"So - gate. You mean like a portal? I've heard about those, but I never actually thought I'd see one."
The slow burn of anger bubbled under the surface as he fought frustration and need. His bear paced with no solution to their plight inside.
"It's a portal to Faerie I guess, and nothing good ever comes from there. Just stay away. I'll get your boxes upstairs; then I need to go."
"Alright," her voice quieted. "Thanks."
He turned and walked away to the truck. He tried to erase the blond hair he wanted to see sprawled over a pillow as he drilled into her. He tried to forget her full pink lips that tasted like sweet sin. The feel of his hands wrapped around her hips, and that ass of hers. Yeah. That, he tried to erase all that. His bear growled.
We are not shifting. You are not in charge here.
She looked in the truck, and he watched her.
"So will that work?"
Shit. Was Marci talking?
"Uh."
She glared at him. "About the top six boxes going in tonight? I can do the rest tomorrow. This way you can leave sooner." She put her hands on her hips.
"Oh. Sure. Fine. I can help with whatever you want."
He loved watching her shirt pull up a little as she reached up for a box too high for her. He wanted to run his fingers over the soft skin.
"I can't reach ..." she said.
He shook off his urges. The bear within him, not so much. The exhaustion of fighting himself was getting a bit old. They were going to have some arguments if they didn't get on the same page. His bear was pawing at his soul, trying to push his way out. This was not how humans found mates, not how he would find a mate as a shifter, when the object of his current obsession was a witch who apparently despised him. Her arousal contradicted everything.
Snowy With A Chance 0f Mating (Move Over Fate Book 3) Page 4
