Storm Bear

by Bianca D’Arc

  When the group broke up, she headed straight for him. She gave him a jubilant hug, bringing her light and joy to the deepest parts of his being.

  “Did you see me levitate?” she asked, her voice filled with excitement.

  “I did, indeed,” he confirmed as she pulled back from the quick hug. “Looked like you were flying to me.”

  “That’s what Nonna said,” Sabrina told him. “She said the elementals can actually fly that way and dared me to try it. I didn’t think it would work, but it did!” She grabbed his arm as they walked the short distance to his bike. “I still can’t quite believe it.”

  “Believe it,” he said, turning her to face him as they reached the side of his Harley. He bent down to kiss her, wanting to mark the moment and feel her warmth against him, even if only for just a moment. “You were magnificent, baby.”

  She smiled up at him, her eyes flaring with power as blue as the sky. That was new. And very, very sexy.

  He knew they didn’t have a lot of time before they were meant to be at dinner in Zak’s restaurant, but oh, how he wished he could take her to bed, right now. She put her hand on his chest, and the power was back in her eyes.

  “Tonight,” she promised in a sultry whisper that revved his engine like nothing else ever had.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” he agreed with a grin as he patted her bottom before letting her go.

  She mounted up behind him, and they headed back toward the center of town. They had just enough time to freshen up a bit before they had to be at the restaurant. The others waved and promised to see them later. Apparently, the whole town was going to show up, at one point or another, to get in on the freshly caught fish of the day. Of course, as Ace well knew, bears seldom needed much excuse to have a party, and fresh fish was as good a reason as any.

  Sig’s safe return was at the heart of it, but the guys wouldn’t get all mushy about it. They’d thank him for the fresh fish, give him a back-pounding hug, and then, the party would carry on. It was the way bears worked out their feelings. Gathering together and making merry when the occasion called for it. Ace was just glad Sabrina had been able to use her new powers to bring the fisherman home safe, or the mood would have been quite different.

  *

  Dinner was a raucous affair. Sabrina and Ace were shown to a giant table at the center of the restaurant’s main dining room and found themselves sitting with the magic circle folks she knew and their spouses. Big John among them. Sabrina was still a little afraid of him because he was the Alpha, though she’d started to realize that the title in a bear Clan held a different connotation than among a wolf Pack. Still, he was the big cheese, and she didn’t want to do anything that might turn him against her—like Tobias had turned on her up in Canada.

  The restaurant had outdoor seating, as well. Sabrina could see colorful umbrellas through glass doors at the back and side of the huge room they were in. She frowned, thinking about the storm she thought was headed toward the town. Toward her, in particular. After all, she had brought the enemy to the town’s doorstep, and only Urse’s incredibly powerful permanent wards were keeping them from infiltrating into the town itself.

  Thank the Goddess for Urse and her wards. Sabrina would never have forgiven herself if she’d brought chaos and evil into this beautiful little town. As it was, she feared the weather would get through and wreak havoc—unless she could stop it. Her stomach clenched in anxiety when she thought about it. She’d have to figure out a way to push the giant storm that she believed was brewing, away from the town.

  Any way she looked at it, it would probably have to pass overhead. Meaning some damage—from rainfall and high winds at the very least—was unavoidable. She could feel it gathering, but for some reason, it was stalled at the perimeter of the town. Probably due to Urse’s wards. Sabrina didn’t know enough about other kinds of magic to know if that would last, but Urse was right there at the table, sitting next to her. She couldn’t really enjoy the evening until she knew.

  “Can your wards hold against the storm?” she asked Urse as quietly as she could.

  The bear shifters seated all around could probably hear, but they were polite enough not to make a fuss—except for John. He seemed very interested in what his mate would say in reply to Sabrina’s question.

  “My wards hold against evil. Once the mages on the other side realize that, they’ll let the storm go without intent behind it, and it will probably drift across the ward, just like all weather does,” Urse told her, taking a casual sip of her wine. “But, at that point, you can do your thing and push it out to sea.”

  An unexpected laugh bubbled out of Sabrina’s mouth, surprising her—as much as Urse’s calm expectations about what Sabrina could do surprised her. Was she serious? How could the Alpha female be so nonchalant about something so important to the safety and wellbeing of the entire town?

  “I wish I had your confidence,” Sabrina finally choked out after working her jaw several times in an attempt to reply.

  Urse reached out and put one hand on Sabrina’s shoulder. “I saw what you can do. I have faith that you are here to provide yet another avenue of protection for our people and our town. I think that’s why the Mother of All sent you to us.” Urse removed her hand, but the tingle of her intense power remained, as if she had tried to transfer some of her confidence to Sabrina. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been under siege here, for a while now. From the land. From the sea. Your arrival helped identify another vulnerability that I hadn’t quite thought of until now—the sky. Evil couldn’t get through my ward, but it was only a matter of time before our enemies thought of this new ploy. At least, this way, you’re here already to help us deal with it.” Urse shrugged and sipped her wine.

  Sabrina was dumbfounded by the very idea, but as she thought through Urse’s words, they started to make a perverse sort of sense. Though Sabrina had originally been meant to go to Montana and the Lords, she’d been diverted at every turn and wound up here. Almost as if her path had been guided by some higher power, showing her the place she needed to be.

  By all accounts, they didn’t particularly need her kind of magic in Montana. They didn’t have the same kind of critical situation as the cove. The people of Grizzly Cove needed all the help they could get, it seemed—even a trainee wind power was better than nothing in this case, Sabrina supposed.

  She blinked a few times and let that thought settle into her mind. She was getting stronger with each passing hour, and she had learned so much about control and how to cast her weather magic with a lot more precision than she’d ever known. She could probably handle almost anything they could send across the barrier of Urse’s ward.

  In one way, that ward helped a lot. It wasn’t like the evil intent could pass through, so nobody would be wielding the storm after they let it loose. All Sabrina would have to do was push it out to sea. One way or another, she should at least be able to do that much. It might get a little scary, for a while, as the storm passed overhead, but she would do all she could to limit the time it lingered over land. Timing was going to be critical.

  “Will you know if it crosses the ward?” she asked Urse, but the other woman was shaking her head.

  “You’ll probably feel it before I would notice anything. If there’s no evil intent pushing it, the ward won’t be triggered. It’ll just drift in. Wouldn’t your weather sense tell you when that’s about to happen?”

  Sabrina thought about it, for a moment, then nodded. “I think you’re right. I’ll keep my senses turned toward the direction of the storm, and I’ll let you all know the moment I sense they’ve released it to head this way.”

  “Good plan,” Urse told her. “In the meantime, let’s just enjoy our dinner. If things change, let us know, and we’ll spring into action.” Urse chuckled and raised her glass. Sabrina toasted with her and then sipped the most delicious vintage she’d ever had the good fortune to sample.

  She liked the occasional glass of wine, but her bu
dget didn’t usually extend to such fine bottles. She surreptitiously glanced at the bottle on the table and was impressed to see she’d been served one of Maxwell Vineyards’ wines. Any bottle from that well-known winery was reputed to be of fine quality and now she understood the truth of that reputation.

  “One of Maxwell’s oldest friends is the silent partner in this restaurant,” John said when he noticed the direction of Sabrina’s gaze. “We’re lucky to have an in with the vineyard. Zak gets all the best vintages.”

  “It’s really good,” Sabrina said quietly in return.

  She was shy of the Alpha and relieved he hadn’t pursued her nascent plans on how to deal with the incoming weather. She wasn’t sure what she would have told him other than she’d deal with whatever came when she saw what it was. Not much of a plan, but she didn’t know how to make it better. Not now. Not with so little information and so little experience on her part.

  “Wait ‘til you see what Zak does with the fish,” John said in a friendly tone. “He’s kind of a genius in the kitchen, as long as you like spicy food. He’s a Cajun bear, you know.”

  John’s prediction came true a few minutes later when Zak and the folks who were helping serve everybody brought out the first platters. As promised, a special fillet had been set aside for Sabrina, and Sig brought it over himself, offering it to her with great ceremony and another round of thanks.

  They spent more than an hour enjoying the fish and great conversation. The bear shifters were widely traveled and well-rounded men who impressed Sabrina with the wide array of topics and sophistication of their humor. They talked about some of the more elaborate practical jokes they’d played on each other over the years, and Sabrina thought she’d never laughed so much at a dinner party.

  Of course, she’d never been to that many parties, and never one like this. The entire community had turned out, it seemed, everyone slapping Sig on the back and saying a few words to him about his adventure that morning. They thanked him and Zak, when he appeared from the kitchen, for the feast. Many stopped by the table to thank Sabrina, as well, having heard through the grapevine about how she’d sent the winds to blow the leviathan and its minions back, so Sig’s boat could make it to safety.

  Sabrina felt a bit conspicuous and was quite embarrassed by the praise, but Ace was nonchalant, so she tried to take her cues from him. Of course, he wasn’t the one everybody insisted on thanking. No, they tended to ask him technical questions about engines and machinery they were having trouble with, and she’d heard him promise to go out to their places to have a look more than once. Seemed like he was building up a list of clients and a pretty full schedule of house calls for the next day or two.

  She wondered if there’d be enough work here to keep him in Grizzly Cove for a while—or, perhaps, permanently. Would he want to settle down here? She knew she was thinking more and more about staying, if they’d let her. The town was amazing and the people even more so.

  After dinner, Sig and Zak came over and sat with them at the big table as others left. The place was clearing out a bit, but many stayed behind to enjoy coffee or something stronger and the fellowship of their neighbors. Sabrina had talked to Sig a few times, now, but as he started to regale the group with the story of his adventure that morning, she started to learn more about his personality. He wasn’t reticent like the other bear shifters she’d met so far. He was very outgoing and not quite as emo as she’d feared, but still, he was a man unafraid to talk about how he’d felt when faced with what looked like certain death by sea monster.

  He made it funny, too. Sig was big, like all the other bear shifters, but he was fairer than most of the others, with pale blond hair and weathered skin. He’d mentioned his Norwegian roots a time or two, and when he relaxed, his words took on a slight accent that might very well have been Scandinavian in origin. Sabrina didn’t know, for sure. She’d never met anyone from Norway before.

  “I regret taking the boat so far out, now, but I have to admit, it was kind of exhilarating. I don’t often get to cheat death like that, nowadays. Not like we used to in the unit.” Sig smiled fondly as he contemplated his beer, sitting on the table in front of him. He had one hand on the bottle, playing with the torn edge of the paper label.

  Sabrina saw nods of agreement from quite a few of the ex-military bears around the large table. The mood of the table changed slightly. Sig heaved a sigh and lifted his gaze to Big John.

  “We’ve got to do something about this, John. It’s hell being trapped here in the cove with all this amazing seafood out there that I can’t get to.” Frustration and amusement warred in his tone, but he said it with a smile that softened the words a bit.

  John shook his head. “I agree, but we’ve done all we can, for the moment. We’re waiting on those specialists to come take a look, but they’re out in the real world, right now, and we have to wait until their mission is complete.”

  Grumbles of agreement sounded around the table. Ace had clued Sabrina in that, when these guys talked about the real world, they usually meant the battlefield, or some foreign country where they’d been sent to do something for the military. So, she reasoned, whatever experts they were waiting for were active military and on assignment. Hence, the wait.

  “It’s a hell of a thing,” Sig went on. “We all spent a good portion of our lives serving, and now, we have to wait for help because the only folks we know that can do the job are doing the same.”

  “That’s about the size of it,” John agreed. “The irony isn’t lost on me.”

  “It doesn’t sit well, John,” Sig said, shaking his head, “being the ones sitting around, waiting for rescue rather than the ones performing the rescue.”

  “I hear you, brother.” John’s tone was solemn. “But, in this case, we have to admit that this particular problem requires special skills. Like Sabrina’s. And Urse’s and Mellie’s. They’ve all contributed, but it’s going to take an even more specialized skill set to finalize the situation.”

  “You need some kind of water elemental,” Sabrina blurted out, unaware until she said it that she’d been thinking about how to solve the problem since the moment she’d heard of it.

  It got quiet as all eyes turned to her. Sabrina tried not to squirm, but she felt confident in her words. It made sense, after all. She tried to explain her reasoning.

  “Look,” she began, her voice softer than she’d expected. She cleared her throat and tried, again. “If I’m some kind of partial air elemental power and I can control the winds, then you need someone that can control the waters. I bet someone like that could lock the monsters in place, at the very least.”

  Everyone was silent, for a moment, looking at her and thinking about her statement. Slowly, heads began to nod around the large table, but John’s regard stayed steady. Finally, he sat back and sighed.

  “That’s exactly the conclusion we came to,” John admitted. “The men we’re waiting for have that kind of power. I talked to their commanding officer, who also happens to be their father, and he agreed. The moment they’re free to come here, they’ll be on their way. The admiral was willing to come up here himself, but he couldn’t get away in a way that wouldn’t be highly conspicuous to the mortals who work with him and those he works for. He’s too high-profile in the human world and its military,” he explained to Sabrina and Ace. “He does good work there, protecting shifters like us, who want to serve. He uses our skills and puts us in special units—like the one we were all part of—that allow shifters to use our natural gifts on the battlefield in the service of the Light. He picks and chooses our missions so that we’re never fighting on the questionable side of the line. He’s a good man, and we all respect the fact that, right now, maintaining his position is more important for all shifters than breaking cover to come help us with our little problem.”

  Nods all around as the men agreed with Big John’s words. Sig sat forward.

  “I didn’t know the admiral was involved,” he said, his tone apolog
etic. “That changes things, of course.”

  John chuckled. “Well, if you’d come to more council meetings, you’d have already known this.”

  Duly chastised, Sig hung his head dramatically, but everyone was smiling. “I hear and obey, mighty Alpha,” he joked, then raised his head, smiling broadly. “I promise, I’ll show up at the next one. Sorry.”

  “It’s not like we have them that often, anyway,” Zak scoffed, throwing his dinner roll at Sig’s head.

  The fisherman caught it and took a huge bite out of it with an exaggerated nod of thanks while Zak kept eating. He’d cooked for everyone else, so his own dinner had been delayed, but they’d welcomed him to their big table in the center of the room and kept him company while he finally got to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

  Sabrina was laughing along with everyone else when a tingle of awareness blew down her spine. The storm was on the move and heading this way. She stood without realizing she’d done so, and everyone at the table looked at her.

  “What is it?” Ace asked immediately, standing at her side. She loved the way he was there for her, even when he didn’t know what was happening, yet.

  “We should get everyone inside,” she said, looking through the glass doors that showed a substantial crowd still gathered in the outside areas of the restaurant.

  “The storm?” Urse asked in an urgent tone.

  “It’s coming,” Sabrina confirmed, meeting the Alpha female’s gaze. “Fast.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “What’s going on?” Sig asked as everyone stood from the table.

  “You wanted some action,” John said. “We’re about to get some.”

  “What?” Sig looked around at everyone else.

  Zak was on his way around the table, heading for the glass doors, but he paused by Sig’s side to slap his friend on the shoulder. Zak was somewhat smaller than the other guys, but Ace knew that was because Zak was a black bear. They were smaller in relation to the other grizzlies that made up the largest population of the town. But Zak was no less fierce than any of the other bears.