They pulled up to a huge log cabin-style house, which rose three stories high at the top of the hill, to look over the waves of the Pacific Ocean, as they crashed up against the shore. Even at night, the view was breathtaking, with the crescent moon shimmering brightly, gilding the ocean with its golden light. Warm yellow light spilled out from the open windows of the cabin, illuminating the yard with its patio chairs, and large stone fire pit, around which several people were already gathered, roasting marshmallows and talking amongst themselves. They all stood from their chairs, as he stopped the car in front of them, instinctively pushing their children behind them, and Cole immediately picked out a tall, broad shouldered man with russet hair and handsome features, similar to Angela’s. He was definitely the Clan Chieftain, and Angela’s father.
“I’ll wait here,” he said quietly.
“That’s probably a good idea,” she said, nodding. “You can turn off the car, you know,” she added as she opened the door.
I’d rather not, Cole thought, as she slammed the door behind her. Her assurances didn’t overrule centuries of hard-won experience and instinct, which told him to be on guard and ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Biting back a sigh, he watched, as she ran up to her father and embraced him. Immediately, the rest of the clan members relaxed, all gathering close to welcome their Chieftain’s daughter, though admittedly some of their expressions were reserved. He supposed that was the price she had to pay for choosing to serve the Order, rather than staying by her father’s side.
Hey, at least they still welcome her amongst them, a voice in his head pointed out.
His ears couldn’t pick up the conversation through the glass, but he surmised by the seriousness of the expression on her father’s face, that Angela was talking to him about Raina’s kidnapping. The shifter’s face tightened as she went on, and his eyes narrowed dangerously, as they shot over her shoulder to glare at Cole. Cole’s spine stiffened, his instincts urging him to challenge the man, but out of respect for his daughter, he lowered his eyes a fraction, using his body language to tell the Chieftain he meant him no harm.
A few moments later, Angela’s father came around the front of the car, clearly expecting Cole to get out of the car. Ignoring the – mostly – irrational fear clawing at his belly, Cole killed the engine, and got out of the car. He was going to meet Angela’s father with his head held high, not stinking of anxiety, with his tail tucked between his legs. He’d lived too long, and worked too hard for anything less.
“Good evening,” Angela’s father said gruffly, as Cole exited the car. He looked bigger up close, around Cole’s height, but without the strange coloring of his eyes, and he was dressed in a simple flannel shirt, jeans and boots – the type of clothing you’d expect from a man who lived in a cabin. “I am Saul Mason, Chieftain of the Redstone Clan.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Cole inclined his head, and held it there for a few seconds. “I’m Cole Avery, currently contracted by Commander Madison of the Order of Protection to retrieve Raina Madison. I’ve been working with your daughter, and she tells me you may be able to help us.”
“Well at least you’re straightforward.” Saul crossed his arms, as he studied Cole, his grey eyes still narrowed. “Angela tells me you’re a hybrid, which inclines me to throw you off my property as mage hybrids tend to be very unstable. But she also tells me that you’re trustworthy, and that you’ve lived for over two thousand years, so I’m inclined to believe that you’re safe enough to have around my people.” His steely gaze turned deadly. “Don’t make me regret it.”
“I won’t. Thank you, sir.”
“Good. Now come inside.”
He led them inside the house, past the now deserted fire pit – he must have told his clan mates to head home for the night, and into the living room. “You have a beautiful home,” Cole said quietly, as he admired the soaring log-beam ceilings and large windows. The furniture was all oak, but comfortably padded, and colorful rugs decorated the wooden floor. A brick fireplace crackled cheerfully in the corner, the kindling and logs’ nearby, telling Cole that it was the genuine article rather than a gas fireplace.
“Why, thank you.” A woman with long blonde hair, and Angela’s green eyes and heart-shaped face, bustled in with a tray laden with spiced cider and cookies. She smiled warmly at Cole, apparently not at all taken aback by his presence, and leaned in to kiss Angela on the cheek. “I do my best to keep things going around here.”
“My wife, Genevieve,” Saul said, losing some of the gruffness in his tone, especially when his wife swooped in to plant a kiss on his own bearded cheek. “She makes the best cookies in town.”
Genevieve straightened with a laugh. “That’s not saying much, considering that hardly anyone lives around here.” She winked at Angela, who grinned back at her mother, and Cole was struck at just how similar they looked. Shifters aged slowly, so they could have been sisters – certainly no human would mistake this gentle woman for Angela’s mother, much less a shifter. It was clear to see that Angela was a perfect mix between the two – she had both her father’s toughness, and her mother’s kind and warm demeanor. The realization made him relax a little more – he doubted that Saul would do anything to hurt him, at least not unless he tried to bring harm to the clan, which he had no plans on doing.
“Well, I can tell you all have much to talk about, so I’ll leave you alone. I’ve got children to tend to upstairs.” She bustled off, the skirts of her dark green dress swishing in her wake.
Cole frowned down at Angela. “You have other siblings?”
Angela shook her head, sadness in her eyes. “They’re more foster cubs. My mother takes it upon herself to care for the young of clan mates who have passed away.”
“That’s a noble thing to do.” He should have known; that was how her brother had become part of her family.
“It’s our responsibility to make sure all of our clan members are cared for, regardless of age,” Saul said, but it was without heat, his grey eyes sad like Angela’s. He cleared his throat then, keen to change the subject. “Now, tell me, what it is I can do to help retrieve your partner?”
Angela took a breath. “I need you to find out where the Black Moon Clan is currently located.”
Saul stiffened. “You want to know where Garrison is? Why?”
“Because he’s the one who kidnapped Raina.”
“No.” Saul jumped to his feet, and started pacing the rug. The firelight played off the planes of his face, which were drawn into harsh lines. “That can’t be true.”
“Dad, believe me, it’s true.” Angela didn’t move from her spot, simply following her father around the room with a steady gaze, that Cole had to admire. She didn’t flinch, or back down, even though her father outranked her. “Garrison has been out for vengeance ever since he left us, and he’s clearly on the verge of getting it, now that he’s the Chieftain of a clan, who hates mages.”
Anger smoldered brightly in Saul’s eyes, as he turned his harsh glare on his daughter. “Maybe the mages are deserving of his hatred.”
“Dad,” she conceded, “You know that’s not true. If Garrison succeeds in his plan to destroy the Order of Protection, chaos will ensue, and it will be all out war. We can’t possibly survive, if we are so busy trying to wipe each other off the planet. This won’t just affect mages, Dad…it will destroy all of us.” Angela ran her fingers through her hair, clearly frustrated.
“Besides, I can’t let him do this to Raina. The fact that he would kidnap her, knowing that she’s my partner, tells me he’s gone far past the point of right and wrong. He needs to be stopped.”
Saul stared at her for a very, very long time. Finally, he sighed. “It’s going to take some time for me to locate him. I don’t think I’ll have anything for you, until at least tomorrow. Can you wait that long?”
“Oh, thank you Dad.” Cole watched as Angela launched herself into her father’s arms, and hugged him tightly. He returned her hug fiercely, burying hi
s bearded face into her shoulder, and Cole felt the stirrings of sympathy for the man, who was clearly caught between the love for two of his children, as well as the duty of doing what was right.
The shifter community would not necessarily look fondly on him for giving up the location of a clan that did not want to be found, even if it was for the greater good. But then, Saul was clearly a strong individual – he would deal with whatever flack came his way. “I know the position I’m putting you in, but I just couldn’t bear it, if anything happened to Raina, and – ”
“It’s alright.” Her father gently stroked her back. “Just promise me that you won’t kill Garrison.” He lifted his head to look at Cole.
Cole nodded. “I’ll do my best to bring him back to you safely, if I can.”
* * *
“I think my father actually likes you,” Angela replied with a grin, sitting back down next to Cole. Saul had left the room, presumably to go be with his wife, but not before insisting they stay the night. She smiled a little, leaning her head against Cole’s shoulder.
Cole put an arm around her, and drew her in close, feeling oddly at ease with the role of being a comforter, even though he’d never done it very often. “Well, he hasn’t tried to kill me yet, so that’s got to be a plus.” He reached over, and caught a tear glimmering at the corner of her eye. “Are you okay?”
Angela sighed. “Yeah. It’s just… I guess it just didn’t hit me how scared I was, until I was faced with the possibility that my dad would refuse to help, and that we might not ever be able to find her.” She swallowed. “I don’t know how they’re treating Raina right now, and the idea of my brother inflicting any kind of pain or torture on her… it tears me apart.”
“I’m sorry.” Cole pressed a kiss to the top of her head, and just held her there against his chest for a long while. In a way, part of him was glad that he’d never had any siblings or partners, or anyone particularly close to him. He’d always had to keep everyone at arm’s length, for fear of them finding out who, and what he was, when he was growing up. In turn, he had never created a bond with anyone, not really…which meant that he had never felt what Angela was feeling now, terrified at the idea of losing a dear friend.
I get the feeling you would finally understand that level of pain, if anything happened to Angela, a voice whispered in his head, a voice that scared the hell out of him. He pushed it away, not willing to listen to it, not willing to examine just how deep his growing feelings for Angela went.
“Hey Cole?” Angela mumbled into his chest.
“Yeah?”
“What do you say we go outside and wrestle?”
He arched a brow. “Is that some code way of telling me you want to have sex in the dark outside?”
Angela let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh, and a snort. “No, silly. It means I want you to come outside with me, and roll around in the dirt. As bears.”
Chapter Ten
Angela had never seen Cole so uncomfortable in the short time that she’d known him. She’d have thought she’d dragged him over to the edge of a pit, filled with fire-breathing dragons, instead of a clearing in the woods nearby, where the most dangerous creatures were themselves.
“Well, are you going to shift? Or not?”
Cole shifted – as in, he moved the weight off one foot, and onto the other, rather than changing forms as Angela wanted him to. “I’ve never really had to stand up in front of anyone, and do this before,” he said uneasily. “I mean, when I shifted the other day, it was in the middle of a battle. That’s quite different.”
Angela reached up, and pinched his cheek, gratified at the surprise in his eyes and the knowledge that, probably, no one had ever done that to him before in his two-thousand years of existence. “It’s not show-and-tell, sweetheart. It’s just me. I’ve already seen you in bear-form, and you were stunning. Now shift, already. We don’t have all night.”
Cole glared at her for a moment, then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He lifted his face to the moon, drawing on the power that was there, and his form rippled briefly. One moment, he was a tall, broad shouldered man with chestnut hair, and the next, he was a towering black bear, his fur dark as midnight, as he loomed over her. His eyes glowed that same strange violet they usually did when he used his magic, rather than the fiery orange of their kind, and a shiver of awe and fear rippled through her just like it had back in the battle with the vamps.
“Well,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. “You don’t really blend in.”
You think? His voice, half-amused and half-irritated, echoed in her head. That’s why I don’t do this too often.
Rather than responding, Angela shifted into her bear form, and then pounced on him gleefully. He went down hard on his back, anger flaring in his eyes, as instinct took over, but Angela quickly nipped him on the shoulder, just lightly, to let him know that she meant no harm, and remind him that they were just playing.
He relaxed, his tongue lolling out adorably, and then next thing she knew, she was flat on her back and he was gnawing at the fur on her arm. Growling, they wrestled for the next hour, rolling around in the dirt and biting and scratching at each other, in a similar manner to what kittens did, when they played with each other. Angela couldn’t remember the last time she’d had so much fun – it had been forever since she’d rolled around in the dirt, and played with a fellow shifter. She’d wanted Cole to experience this while she had the chance to show him, but she didn’t realize how much she’d needed it herself. It humbled her; the knowledge of just how much she’d missed having a kindred spirit around.
“Well that was… something else…” Cole panted, as they lay on the forest floor, back in human form. “Usually when that kind of thing happens, someone’s trying to kill me.”
“Who says that I wasn’t?” Angela stuck her tongue out at him.
Cole chuckled. “I might be bigger than you, but you’re clearly a better fighter than me in bear form.”
She smiled at him. “Don’t you worry. I’ll get you up to snuff in no time.”
But as they shuffled off back to her father’s house to turn in for the night, she wondered just how long she would have with him. Would he leave, once Raina had been found, off on his next job, selling his skills out to the highest bidder? It wasn’t as if she could blame him – he had to make a living, and it was the only respectable way that he could. But a tiny hole opened up in her chest every time she thought about him leaving, a hole that got bigger as more time passed, and her affection for him grew.
There’s nothing you can do to stop him if he decides to leave, she reminded herself. The best thing you can do, is enjoy the time you have together as best as you can, and hope that he enjoys it so much he decides to stay.
“Is this your old room?” Cole asked, as she led him into the bedroom, looking around. It was a simple enough room, with dark oak furniture, and a four-poster bed with dark red bedding taking up most of the space in the room. There was a large closet, with a full-length mirror on the wall, and a bench-seat nestled into the corner, next to a small bay window, that gave them a great view of the ocean.
“It is. How can you tell?” There was nothing of hers that remained here, not even the bedding that she’d slept in.
He smiled at her a little. “Your scent still lingers here. I imagine this is where you stay whenever you come to visit?”
She nodded, then grabbed his hands and drew him toward the bed. “This is the first time I’ve ever brought somebody with me, though.”
“Oh yeah?” His eyes darkened with desire, as she gently pushed him onto the bed. Rather than laying him down, she nudged his knees apart so she could stand between his legs, then laced her fingers in his curls and kissed him gently, savoring him.
“Angela…” his brow furrowed when her hands began to drift lower, unfastening the button at his jeans. “What are you doing?”
“You.” She sank down to her knees, as she freed his cock, and admir
ed it in the moonlight streaming through the window. “You’re so big,” she whispered, stroking his satiny length. She traced the tip of her finger along one of his veins, then drew a circle around the base of his mushroom tip before flicking her tongue across it.
He shuddered. “Oh, Angela…”
She took more of him into her mouth, and not caring in the least that he cried out loud enough that her parents could surely hear him. She wanted them to know that he was hers, if he would have her, and that she had no qualms about loving him with her body. His fingers sank into her hair, drawing her closer, and she felt needed and cherished all at once, something she never thought she’d feel while going down on a guy. Usually it was just a kind of chore, something done as reciprocation, but with Cole it was a fierce desire, a need to show him how much his satisfaction, and pleasure meant to her.
“Angela,” he gasped, as she massaged his balls, stroking and sucking him at the same time with a slow, but sweet tenderness that pushed him closer and closer to the edge. His powerful thighs caged her in, taut with strain like the rest of him, and then he suddenly gave a full body shudder and came, right there, in her greedy mouth. She took it all, in no hurry at all, and just continued to lick and stroke him until he rested his forehead atop her head, completely spent.
“Oh my God, woman… that was amazing.”
She grinned at him. “You’re welcome.”
He stripped off the rest of their clothes, then scooped her up in his arms, and cuddled her against his chest. “Your turn…” he growled into her hair.
“Not tonight.” Smiling, she closed her eyes and sank into him, enjoying the feel of his hard body cradling hers. “I just want to feel you sleeping against me. Is that okay?”
“Of course,” he replied, curling his body around hers. She felt protected, safe, and loved. And with his breath gently tickling her ear, she fell into a deep, and satisfied slumber.
* * *
“Breakfast is ready!”
Bearly Magic: (Bear Meets Girl: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Werebear Romance) Page 9
