by Tasha Black
She got in and he caught a whiff of her enticing scent.
God help me.
He was going to have to get through the drive somehow.
He turned on the radio, hoping the distraction would allow him to keep his mind on the road.
* * *
—unexpected thunderstorm last night directly north of Asheville. Traffic was brought to a standstill due to flash flooding, but the storm ended abruptly and no property damage or injuries were reported.
* * *
Max watched the blur of fall foliage go speeding silently past.
They would be back at his office soon. There was so little time for things to be patched up between them.
“I’ll probably stay the night here and leave in the morning,” Sarah said, breaking the silence as they pulled into the parking lot.
“Do you want to have breakfast with me?” he heard himself ask. “You could go back and change and I’d pick you up, take you someplace nice in Asheville to make up for the evening in the cave.”
She laughed, but shook her head.
“No, thanks. I think I just need to get some rest.”
He nodded, wishing he hadn’t asked.
“Thanks for the adventure, Max,” she said, sliding out of the car.
He gave her a little wave and watched her cross the lot to her own car.
The bear watched with him, sharing his emptiness.
16
Sarah
Sarah drove back to the bed and breakfast in a daze. She was anxious to talk to Mandy, and she missed Orson horribly.
She’d already decided to drop the rental car off at the airport and fly home. She couldn’t make it through another nine hour car trip alone with her thoughts. There weren’t enough audio books in the world to help her escape.
She parked and went inside. The cottage was as pretty as before, but somehow it failed to raise her spirits. Maybe she was just tired.
Sarah was used to the convenience of her coffee pod machine at home, a luxury the cottage lacked. But she put on a pot of honest-to-goodness coffee and enjoyed the way the smell of it filled the room as she opened her laptop to look into a flight back to Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, the schedule showed no flights until early evening. Still, it was better than driving. She booked one and closed the laptop, then picked up her phone.
Mandy picked up on the first ring.
“Hey,” she said quietly.
“Is he asleep?” Sarah asked.
“Yes, mid-morning nap on Aunt Mandy’s chest,” Mandy chuckled. “He’s regular as clockwork, isn’t he?”
“I’m a lucky mom,” Sarah admitted. She could practically feel the warm weight of Orson on her own chest. She was glad to be heading back to him soon.
“So, you didn’t call last night,” Mandy said. “That seems like a promising sign.”
“Well, if you consider getting stuck in the woods during a flash flood, having a confrontation with wild wolves and sleeping in a cave to be promising, then you nailed it,” Sarah said.
There was a pause.
“Wow,” Mandy said. “I mean I know you’re the outdoorsy type, but that’s intense even for you.”
They’d been sisters too long for Sarah to miss the note in Mandy’s voice that told her she was trying hard not to laugh.
“Anyway, it’s over now and I’m back at the carriage house,” she said.
“How did it go when you told him?”
It was Sarah’s turn to pause.
She hopped off the stool where she’d been perched and began to pace.
“It didn’t feel right,” she admitted. “We weren’t even in a relationship, Mandy. He didn’t ask for a child.”
“Neither did you,” Mandy retorted. “And I notice you haven’t dated anyone else since Max.”
“I was pregnant,” Sarah said.
“I’m not sure if that’s the only thing that stopped you,” Mandy replied carefully.
“It was different this time,” Sarah said. “And I just - I can’t risk it. I’ve got Kate. She’ll help me help Orson. That’s going to have to be enough.”
“Do you think it was different for you this time because you had something heavy to tell him?” Mandy asked. “Or different for him because you bailed last year and didn’t return his calls?”
“Look, I know you’re trying to help,” Sarah said. “But there’s no need to be sarcastic.”
“I’m not being sarcastic, honey,” Mandy said quickly. “I love you. I love Orson. I love that you two have a good life together. I just want you to think about whether or not it’s fair for Max not to be allowed to decide whether he wants to be a part of that.”
“He lost his temper,” Sarah said. “He stormed at me.”
“Why?”
“I went into the woods to pee in the morning and didn’t wake him up to tell him,” she admitted.
“Do you think he was worried about you? Didn’t you say there were floods? And wolves?”
Sarah sighed.
“Just think about it,” Mandy said. “Give it a couple of days. See him again and decide when you’ve both had a chance to get to know each other better.”
“I already booked a flight for tonight,” Sarah admitted. “I’ll be back really late. Can you pick me up in Philly?”
It was Mandy’s turn to sigh.
“I can get a cab,” Sarah said.
“It’s not that, and you know it,” Mandy said.
“Look, just trust me,” Sarah told her. “I’m doing the right thing. For him, for me and for Orson.”
“I trust you,” Mandy said. “Text me your flight info. I’ll pick you up.”
“Thanks for having my back,” Sarah said.
“Always.”
Sarah kept the phone in her hand long after her sister hung up.
When Mandy laid everything out, it seemed so sensible. But Sarah couldn’t stop replaying those moments at his office, how cold he had been. And the fury in his eyes this morning.
He couldn’t have felt that worried about her, they barely knew each other.
No, he was probably just a control freak, and she’d had enough of that growing up with overprotective parents. It was the last thing she wanted in Orson’s life. Or hers.
Besides, she’d slept with him.
Well, kind of.
Didn’t tell Mandy that part, did you?
No, she hadn’t. It had been unfair for her to let him… do those things to her without telling him everything.
And now the whole thing was just awkward.
She probably should have taken him up on the breakfast thing.
But it was too much.
She had the rest of the day now. She might as well take a walk and clear her head.
She grabbed a muffin out of the basket on the counter.
A brochure fell out with it.
* * *
Things to do in Asheville
* * *
The brochure pictured a happy couple with a small child exploring a quaint village, likely the Antler Hill Village on the Biltmore Estate.
Sarah felt a twinge of regret and closed her eyes against it. She’d hoped to explore the historic Vanderbilt estate one day. She’d even gone so far as to picture herself with Orson in his carrier around her neck and Max holding her hand, taking in the beauty of the gardens together.
She looked down at the brochure in her hand again.
Day tickets were available, and the estate was open well past the time she had to leave to catch her flight.
Images of vast gardens and a reflecting pond shimmered up at her from the glossy page.
Maybe this was exactly what she needed. She had hours to kill. A day in all that beauty would help her relax and get her head back in the game. Deciding not to involve Max was only one small facet of what she had ahead of her with Orson’s newfound… ability. She needed to come back to him calm and strong.
Sarah showered and packed up quickly. She headed for
the car with her bags, giving one last longing look to the stack of books next to the chair by the fire before heading resolutely out the door.
The sun shone bright overhead, and she felt immediately what a good decision this was. Much better than hanging out around the cottage, mooning over Max.
She plugged the address into her GPS and enjoyed the scenery and a little music on the way.
Biltmore wasn’t overly crowded. It was a weekday and the estate was enormous. By the time she’d driven from the gate to the entrance, she was feeling more like herself.
She decided to forgo the guided tour and just wander. The air was fragrant and the lawn a verdant green after last night’s storm.
Every step calmed her soul. The ancient and expansive beauty of her surroundings made her pain feel smaller somehow, and more temporary.
When she had only half an hour before she needed to leave, she dutifully wandered inside to see some of the architecture. But she found herself drawn once more to the sunlight. From a room filled with antique tapestries she spotted a doorway open to a veranda overlooking the trees.
Sarah wandered out, taking in the arches and columns, but most of all the view of the Blue Ridge Mountains spread out like a Technicolor quilt below.
She felt a twinge of sadness and then a surge of frustration.
It reminded her of the view from the damned cave.
Will I never stop longing for him?
As if in answer, she heard familiar male laughter nearby.
She turned, incredulous.
At the other end of the veranda, Max sat on a lounge chair.
He was facing away from her, but she would know that big physique and too-long hair anywhere.
Across from him was a woman. Her face was blocked by Max, but Sarah could see her high heels and primly crossed ankles.
Jealousy blossomed in her chest and she spun back around so fast her bag smacked a pillar. The sound rang out like a gunshot.
“Sarah?” Max called out.
But she was already running away, her shoes slapping the stone floor.
She ducked into one of the doors to the tapestry room, dashed back down the main hall, and out the front of the building.
By the time she reached her car she was panting, but he wasn’t behind her, so she counted herself lucky.
She tried to keep her mind on the road as she drove.
And once she was through security and safely seated on her flight, she forced herself to think of everything she was grateful for.
* * *
Orson.
Mandy.
Kate Harkness.
A healthy body.
A good job.
Money enough to be able to make choices…
* * *
But Max Reynolds kept sneaking into her thoughts anyway.
17
Max
Max sat in the rocker on his front porch.
The night was getting cold, but he hoped the brisk air would help him clear his head.
The moon was so bright that the stars were hardly visible in the sky.
The bear sizzled just under his skin, nosing around for a way out. Max suspected he only wanted to escape to find the one he considered to be his mate.
Sorry, buddy. She’s gone.
It huffed and clawed at his mind anyway, determined.
“Nice night for a sit,” a familiar voice called from the parking lot below.
“Hey, dad,” Max said. “This is a surprise.”
“A father can’t share a six pack with his son for no reason?”
“Nice.”
Hugh Reynolds jogged up onto the porch, placed the six-pack on the table between the two rockers and sat in the empty one.
“I heard your afternoon with your mom got cut short,” Hugh said carefully.
“Yeah,” Max said. He couldn’t exactly deny it.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not particularly,” Max said. He knew his dad would continue the conversation without him, but it was worth a try.
“The way your mother describes it,” Hugh went on, “you were having tea on the loggia one minute, and the next you were chasing some poor girl across the whole estate.”
“Poor girl, huh?”
“Your mother said she looked just like Cinderella running past all those marble columns,” Hugh chuckled.
“Guess that makes me the prince with the shoe,” Max said with a smile.
“The girl is none of my business,” Hugh said generously. “But your mother had a reason for wanting to talk with you today.”
Max sat up straighter and began to pray internally. Not the cancer again, please not the cancer.
“It’s not the cancer,” Hugh said quickly. “It’s something else, something to do with you.”
Max sighed in relief.
“Okay,” Max said.
“Your mom and I are shifters too, as you know,” Hugh began. “We both shifted at the normal time, in our teens.”
“Your teens?” Max asked. That was weird. They’d always made it sound like he wouldn’t shift until he was in his late twenties.
“Yeah,” Hugh nodded. “When you were born, we hoped you’d be a shifter too. Of course we knew we’d have to wait a while to really know. It’s not a sure thing.”
Max thought about the letter he’d received, but kept his mouth shut and listened.
“We were so surprised when you shifted for the first time as a toddler. That’s special, Max, very few shifters can transform before puberty.” Hugh ran a hand through his hair. “We were proud of you, but also afraid of what could happen to you. You understand it would have been unthinkable for you to shift in a public place?”
“Yeah, I can see how that would be problematic,” Max said.
“We did some research in our circles, and we learned that there was a woman running a farm in the suburbs of Philadelphia. She fostered early bloomers there. Of course we weren’t willing to give you up, but we hoped maybe she could help,” Hugh explained. “We got there and she was so kind to us, helped us with all the information we could ever need. And she made us an offer.”
Hugh paused.
“What was the offer?” Max asked.
“She offered to have her friend sing over you - a special song. A magical song. She told us it would help to suppress your bear until you were older,” he said. “Your mother and I thought it was most likely nonsense, but we agreed. And it worked. You didn’t shift after that day. The spell was supposed to work for three hundred moons.”
“I see,” Max said.
“And tomorrow night is the three hundredth full moon since we visited Harkness Farms,” Hugh told him.
“Harkness Farms,” Max echoed. “So it was real.”
“You remember it?” Hugh sounded amazed.
“No,” Max said, although that wasn’t entirely true. He didn’t remember the looks of the place, but the thought of it struck him with a strong, peaceful feeling – a felling of coming home. “I got a letter from a woman by the name of Kate Harkness. I didn’t know whether to believe it or not. She said she wanted to warn me about my three hundredth moon.”
“Warn you?” Hugh’s voice went reedy with worry.
“Turns out that part was for no reason,” Max said. “I, um, shifted last night.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I did,” Max grinned.
“Did you enjoy it?”
“Don’t try to change the subject,” Max said. “The letter said something else too. It said that you and mom gave up your life in the city and moved out here to protect me, is that true?”
“We love it out here, Max,” his father said.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yes. We came out here to raise you. In case the spell didn’t work.”
Max thought about what it would be like to completely abandon his life, and swallowed over the lump in his throat.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t
mention it,” Hugh said with a big grin. “It’s a good place to be a bear.”
Max grinned back.
“So, we could crack open a beer,” Hugh said, “or…”
“Or?”
“Or we could go for a run,” Hugh said.
Max’s father wasn’t a jogger.
Oh.
“Definitely let’s go for a run,” Max said.
His father’s eyes were dancing as they strode down the steps, across the gravel drive, and into the trees.
“I like to hide my clothes in the bushes,” Hugh said, stripping down.
“What if you can’t find them again?” Max asked.
“Oh, you’ll be able to find them,” Hugh said.
When their clothes were bundled neatly in the thicket, Max stood and waited for his dad’s signal.
He’d seen his father’s naked form as he helped to bathe and dress him during that terrible year of treatments. It was good to see him looking himself again, filled out and strong. He wondered if being a shifter had helped him to heal.
Hugh winked at Max and bowed.
Except that he wasn’t bowing, he had dropped into a huge bear.
Max called to his own inner bear.
The animal surfaced eagerly and Max sank into the background, as if he’d done it all his life.
The soil felt damp and satisfying under his paws.
Hugh scrambled up the hillside ahead of him, his large, lumbering form suddenly graceful.
Max followed, tasting the moonlight on the air, scenting the fish in the creek below with his sensitive nose.
The simple magic of the world was easier to spot from this form - family, fish and fresh mountain air all filled him with peace.
The only thing missing was his mate.
But from the bear’s perspective that was a simple matter too.
Max loved Sarah. Sarah loved Max, but something was bothering her. It was only a matter of finding out what, fixing it, and claiming his mate forever.
Simple.
So he crashed through the underbrush with a glad heart.
