by Bianca D'Arc
“I can see how that would present a problem,” she allowed.
Of course, with Clan Kinkaid’s resources, she could easily get the use of a private jet that would take him anywhere he wanted to go, with no record of his trip. She’d save telling him that for later…if he turned out to be telling the truth.
“So tell me, why are you persona non grata in the bakery?” she asked, hoping to feel out Seamus a bit more.
“When I first came to town, I was…well…as you just found me. Drunk. Stupid. It’s been a hell of a year.” He swiped his hand through his tousled curls and sighed. “I went into the bakery looking for food and thinking that the entire town was made up of shifters. I didn’t realize the ladies that owned the shop were human. Or that they didn’t know about shifters. I sort of…” He sighed again. “I’m not too proud of my behavior. I got a bit belligerent, and when Sheriff Brody got all up in my face, I shifted. Right there in the middle of the bakery. In front of the clueless human woman who ended up mating the sheriff.”
Moira shook her head. “Wow,” she said finally. “You really know how to pick your battles. He was protecting his mate, and you got into a dominance fight with him right there in the middle of his mate’s territory? Which one of you won?”
“If it’s up to me, I’d say neither. But Brody’s bigger. Hell, they’re all bigger than me. But I’ve got it where it counts, sweetheart.” He threw her a casual wink and that devastating half-smile. Damn.
The man had just admitted to being smaller than all the other bears, and yet somehow, she sensed he didn’t feel any the less for his stature. In fact, he seemed about as Alpha as any of the badass Alphas she knew. There was something strange going on here. She just couldn’t put her finger on what it was.
“So you can see why I don’t like to darken the ladies’ door if I can help it. It’s going to take a while for my entrance into town to be forgotten.”
They were nearing the more populated area at the apex of the cove. Main Street ran right past the edge of the water, and the infamous bakery was just across the street. There was little to no traffic.
“Will you get the order to go for me, Moira?” Seamus turned toward her, holding out the fifty again and giving her a hopeful expression that would’ve looked at home on a cocker spaniel.
She laughed and plucked the fifty from his hand. “What do you want, Seamus? And I warn you—I won’t buy you anything alcoholic. You’ve had more than enough of that for one day.”
He shook his head, chuckling. “Aye, you’re right on that score.” He then proceeded to describe the giant sandwiches they made in the bakery and the two he wanted for himself. He also instructed her to pick up a large black coffee for him and anything she wanted for herself. His treat.
Moira went across the street, still shaking her head at the crazy Aussie shifter she’d just encountered. She saw him sit on one of the picnic tables set far up the sand, just next to the road as she entered the bakery. Maybe she could get the story about him out of the ladies in the bakery, just to double check that his farfetched tale was true. She was new in town, after all, and she didn’t know these people. She had to keep her eyes open and her senses sharp.
Not only was she here to help with the sea monster problem, but she was also acting as Clan Kinkaid’s forward scout in this instance. Her report on this town would decide if the Kinkaids had any more to do with Grizzly Cove. They were on trial here, with her, and they probably didn’t even realize it.
The Kinkaid billions were quietly spread around to various shifter concerns all over the world. Samson Kinkaid, the lion Alpha, liked to help others where he could, and he’d sent Moira here with the instruction to discover what Grizzly Cove was all about. If it was as good in reality as it looked in theory, Kinkaid might just be ready to infuse some cash into the town. If not, then she’d go back home, and the bears would never be the wiser.
CHAPTER TWO
As luck would have it, all three of the sisters who owned and operated the bakery were on hand when Moira went in. She’d met Nell, the eldest, briefly when she’d arrived in town. Nell was mated to the town’s sheriff, Brody Chambers. She’d been seated with the witch, Ursula, mate to the Alpha bear, John Marshall, who’d been there to welcome Moira in her official capacity as Alpha female.
Nell had invited her over to the bakery for coffee, after the official meeting in town hall, and Moira had been introduced to Ashley, the middle sister, who was mated to the town’s only lawyer, Tom Masdan. Moira had dossiers on all the players and knew that Ashley was also an attorney, though there’d been some trouble at her last job in the human world that had caused her to leave under a cloud.
Moira wouldn’t betray her knowledge of things that were probably meant to be kept private, but it helped to know the backgrounds of the people she was dealing with in cases like this. These folks had no idea the Kinkaid Alpha was thinking of investing in their town, so they would behave in their normal manner, not trying to butter up the Kinkaid rep with special treatment. That’s exactly what Moira wanted. It would make her two-fold job a lot easier. The main purpose of her visit was to help in whatever way she could with the leviathan problem, of course, but her Alpha wasn’t one to let an opportunity go to waste.
Moira greeted the two sisters she’d already met with smiles and was introduced to the third sister, Tina, who was mated to a Cajun black bear named Zak Flambeau. Zak, Kinkaid had learned, was in partnership with the vampire Master of Seattle, Hiram Abernathy, to build a new restaurant in Grizzly Cove. Some might think it odd that a vampire would invest as a silent partner in a restaurant, but it really was a good way to maintain his façade of humanity.
It was the restaurant deal—which was by no means a secret—that had piqued Kinkaid’s interest in the town. That, and the influx of mer into the cove, had indicated to the lion Alpha that something—possibly something extraordinary—was happening in the new town.
Kinkaid knew Hiram to be an upstanding Master of the bloodletters in his area, and all reports about him said that he was just and fair to those under him. If he was interested in Grizzly Cove, then it was worth Kinkaid’s time to send someone to take a first-hand look. The request for selkie help on their sea monster problem that had come directly from the Alpha bear, John Marshall, had been an opportunity the Kinkaid Alpha could not pass up. So he’d sent Moira, who also happened to be one of his top executives.
Nobody in Grizzly Cove knew that, of course. In fact, Moira could count on one hand the number of people in the world who knew her true position in her Clan. Her brothers were all highly placed, of course, but she was seen as a small, weak female of her kind, and she was often underestimated. Which was fine with her. It served her purposes and let her fly under the radar, even within her own Clan sometimes.
What she’d seen of Grizzly Cove so far impressed her. All except for drunken Seamus, waiting for her at the picnic table across the street while Ashley and Tina made his sandwiches. Nell saw the direction of Moira’s gaze as she checked on him and nudged her elbow.
“Seamus is kind of a mess,” Nell said, opening the conversation. “Have you met him yet?”
Moira saw no reason to withhold information. “I found him passed out on the beach not twenty minutes ago. I’m getting sandwiches for him, because he said he tries to avoid coming in here if he can. Apparently, you don’t like him?” Moira turned her questioning gaze on Nell, waiting to see what the bakery owner would say to that.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” Nell seemed genuinely frustrated. “I’ll admit he scared the bejeezus out of me when he first came to town, but he’s welcome in the bakery. There aren’t a lot of places to buy food here yet, and I wouldn’t turn anyone away.” Now Nell looked concerned as she gazed across the street at the disheveled shifter. “Was he drunk again?”
“Yeah,” Moira admitted. “The tide was coming in, and his legs got soaked, but it woke him up. He seems to be sobering fast now that he’s awake.”
“Poor
devil. He really is a wreck. Brody told me a little bit about what happened to him, because of the way he frightened me, but I’m not sure if even John knows the full story.” Nell bit her lower lip as if worried about Seamus’s welfare.
“Did he really shift right in front of you?” Moira dared to ask.
Nell looked at her in surprise. “He told you about that?” When Moira nodded, Nell shook her head and sighed. “I was clueless about shifters. Turns out my sisters had known for weeks, but they didn’t let me in on their little discovery for fear I’d make us all move.” Nell smiled ruefully at that memory. “But when Seamus went furry, and then Brody did the same… I was shocked, I can tell you. It all turned out okay, and Seamus apologized. In fact, he’s apologized just about every time I’ve seen him since then. I can tell he still feels bad about the fright he gave me. I just wish he wouldn’t drink so much. At the rate he’s going, he’s going to pickle himself before too much longer.”
“He told me he was held prisoner. Is that true?” Moira was beginning to think the drunk shifter was on the level, but she would have to back up his story with other sources. She’d learned to be cautious in her profession.
“Sadly, yes,” Nell confirmed. “Our town doctor, Sven Olafsson, treated him when he first got here. Sven told Brody the condition Seamus was in at that time tended to support his story. Brody’s been trying to track down the culprit who held him, and any other shifters who might have escaped and need help, but so far, he hasn’t had much luck. Of course, we’ve been a little distracted with all the mer moving in and the leviathan problem.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Moira agreed. “You’ve got your hands full here.”
“John said that he never envisioned the town becoming a haven for refugee shifters, but he’s glad it’s here to help those who need it. Maybe once we get the sea monster thing under control, we can go back to being a normal town… Well, normal for a town full of shifters pretending to be an artists’ colony. I still shake my head at that. How Big John ever came up with an idea like that… And my husband keeps right on with his chainsaws, carving bears out of hunks of tree trunks. And people still keep buying them. It boggles the mind.”
“They’re all self-portraits,” Tina piped in, placing the to-go order on top of the counter. “At least that’s what Zak says.” She smiled at her older sister and turned to accept the fifty-dollar bill Moira held out. “The guys all tease Brody about how he only ever does one bear—himself. They want to know when he’ll branch out and do portraits of the other guys in town. This Seamus’s money?” Tina looked speculatively from the bag to the picnic table across the street and back again to Moira.
“Yeah. He sent me to get the sandwiches for him,” Moira admitted.
“I wish he wouldn’t do that,” Ashley said, looking across the street, her brows drawn together in concern. “He’s welcome here. I hate that he thinks we don’t like him.”
Tina handed the fifty-dollar bill back to Moira, then added a bag of dessert pastries to the bag with the sandwiches. “It’s on the house today,” Tina said. “Tell him, next time, he should come in himself, and I’ll fix him one of Zak’s special off-menu platters. We don’t make those for just anybody.”
Moira knew Zak was, from all accounts, an accomplished chef, and it wouldn’t be long before his restaurant opened. It was going to be in the new building going up right next to the bakery, in fact.
“I’ll tell him. Just…” Moira paused, hoping the other ladies would catch on and spill more information about Seamus. “Is there anything I should know about him? I mean, he’s safe, right?” She was small for a shifter, which worked in her favor most of the time. Even among these human women, her smaller stature seemed to bring out their protective instincts.
“Oh, he’s okay,” Nell said quickly. “Just messed up about what happened to him, but he’s not dangerous or anything. He wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
“Except maybe himself,” Tina added, her tone sad.
“But he’s a bear, and all,” Moira added, hoping to elicit more information.
Her words didn’t get the reaction she’d expected. All three women looked at her with varying expressions of surprise.
“He’s not—” Tina began, but Nell cut her off.
“He’s not like the others,” Nell stated with quiet dignity. “But it’s up to him to disclose how and why. I can say that he’s safe enough for you to be around in either of his forms. You’re a shifter, right? And from what Brody said, you’re a swimmer. You can handle Seamus.”
“I still can’t really get used to being in a town where everyone knows about shifters,” Moira marveled. It was unique in her experience to be talking so openly about her other half in the middle of a bakery. With regular humans, no less.
Of course, all three sisters were now shifter mates, so that was the big difference. They weren’t just regular humans anymore. They’d been adopted into the bear Clan.
The town probably wouldn’t always be this way. If they got more human tourists coming through—which was bound to happen sooner or later with all the art the town was starting to produce—they’d have to be more circumspect. But for now, it was pretty darn cool to be able to talk freely, out in the open.
“I’m still not used to all this either, to tell you the truth, but Brody says, in a few years, I won’t jump every time he goes furry.” Nell laughed, and the others joined her.
“I put your sandwich in there too, and here are the drinks,” Ashley said, handing over a cup carrier with two large to-go cups in it. “Napkins and plastic cutlery are in the bag too.”
“Thanks,” Moira said. “Can I at least pay you for my share?” she asked, feeling a bit strange about taking all this away and not paying for it.
“Consider it a welcome-to-town gift,” Nell said as she headed back around the counter. “I hope we’ll see more of you while you’re here.”
“That’s very kind of you. Thanks,” Moira said, meaning it. “I’m meeting Urse and Mel here tomorrow morning, as a matter of fact, so I’ll see you then.”
Seamus wondered what he’d gotten himself into as he watched the women in the bakery as furtively as he could. He tried so hard to keep a low profile around the three human sisters. He was embarrassed beyond belief by what he’d done when he’d first come to town. It was unforgivable, the way he’d frightened that poor sheila. His mum had taught him better than that. She’d be appalled if she knew what her baby boy had done to terrorize that poor woman.
Thankfully, it had all worked out, but if Nell hadn’t turned out to be a shifter’s mate, Seamus would’ve been in even more serious trouble. Betraying the existence of shifters to regular humans was a big no-no. It was something he’d been raised to avoid since he was a child.
He’d learned first-hand how dangerous humans could be when they found out about shifters. He’d been kept prisoner in that menagerie by humans, frozen in his animal form for months, forced to live as the animal that shared his soul, but in a terrible confinement that had nearly smothered his spirit.
They’d taunted him day and night, trying to get him to shift so they could catch it on film. And he wasn’t the only one. There’d been others in that dark hole with him. All kinds of others. Some were just animals, but a precious few had been shifters. There had been a lioness and a seal youngster, and a few more besides. But Seamus had seen those two on more than one occasion, and they’d each given him the nod—after a first startled glance—that meant they were standing strong and staying in animal form to deny their captors the satisfaction of getting what they wanted.
What had ultimately become of the lioness, Seamus didn’t know, but the boy…
Seamus cringed when he thought about the boy.
“Here we go.” Moira’s bright voice intruded on his reverie. Thank the Goddess.
Seamus didn’t need to go down memory lane again. He’d only just sobered up. Thinking about the boy made Seamus want the oblivion of drink…so he could forget.
<
br /> He looked up to find Moira sitting across from him at the picnic table, already setting out the sandwiches and drinks like a good little hostess. She really was cute as a button and sexy as hell. A strange contradiction, but somehow, for her, it worked.
“The ladies in the bakery said today’s feast was on the house.” She slid the fifty-dollar bill he’d given her earlier across the table, tucking it under his sandwich.
He didn’t want it back, but he’d probably need every last penny he’d been able to secure to stay under the radar for as long as possible. Still, he didn’t like the idea of accepting charity, or taking from the three human women who ran the bakery where he’d messed up so badly. He looked across the street, pursing his lips. He’d have to make this up to them somehow. Seamus O’Leary always paid his way.
“They shouldn’t have done that,” he said finally, focusing back on the table and pocketing the fifty as calmly as he could. He didn’t like it, but he’d learned over the past months that, sometimes, you had to endure things you didn’t like in order to keep existing.
“They feel badly that you won’t go in there. They said you’re welcome in the bakery and that you should come in whenever you like. All’s forgiven, apparently.”
Seamus looked at his companion, trying to gauge her expression, but she was busy taking a bite out of a sandwich that was almost too large for her. It would have been comical except for the fact that watching her eat was turning him on.
Shite! Seamus hadn’t even looked at a woman with desire in months. It had been a long dry spell speckled with trauma and emotional turmoil. The last thing he’d been thinking of was women or sex. But now, faced with this small, oddly enchanting shifter female, he felt a strong attraction smack him right between the eyes.
And damned if she wasn’t familiar to him. Oh, he’d never met her before, but she smelled of sea and fur, just like…just like the boy had done, back in the menagerie. She was a seal shifter—a selkie, like the legends out of the old country.
