by Stella Night
“Afraid not,” she said. “There are a lot of things this forest doesn’t have.”
“Ehh, it’s not a bad place to settle down, all things considered. Besides, it’s got me. What else do you need?”
She turned to look at him. “You’d stay here with me?”
He sat up and leaned forward, his eyes serious. “Of course. I lost you once. I’m never letting you out of my sight again. That is, if you don’t mind me staying.”
She smiled, her eyes shining with emotion. “I don’t know. One person in this forest is fine, but two people? It’s gonna be awfully crowded.”
“I guess my wolf pack can keep you company when I’m gone,” he teased.
“Your wolf pack? I don’t think so. Those are my wolves.”
He rolled his eyes. “One day as a forest god and it’s already gone to your head.” He pitched his voice up a few octaves, pretending to be her. “‘Look at me, I own everything in this forest.’”
She slapped his arm. “I do not sound like that.”
“You totally do. And for the record, I am the Alpha of that pack. That makes the wolves mine. If you want them for yourself, you’re going to have to challenge me.”
“Oh, really?” she said, giggling. She raised her hands like the claws of a monster, poised to attack him. “You would dare to take on the mighty forest god?”
Amanda fell on him, tickling his sides. He writhed beneath her, choking with laughter. “Okay,” he said breathlessly. “I submit. You can be Alpha. As long as you give me a kiss.”
She leaned over him, her face just inches from his. “I’m not trading sexual favors for custody of the wolves. What kind of girl do you think I am?”
He turned his head away and shrugged. “Fine,” he muttered under his breath. “Then they’re still my wolves.”
“You know I can hear you? Super shifter hearing.”
“Right, I forgot. Can you hear this?”
Santiago muttered something else under his breath.
Her eyes lit up. “I love you, too,” she said in response. “You handsome fool.”
He grasped her head and rose up to kiss her, long and deep. “Good. Then I guess I’ll stay.”
“You don’t have to, you know.”
“I know. But I want to. I finally found a place to call home. Why would I ever leave?”
She kissed him this time, letting her lips linger over his. It felt good to be this close again. To be together after everything that had happened. She felt like she’d been holding her breath for a long time, and now she could finally breathe easy again.
Maybe things hadn’t turned out how she’d expected them to, but everything had worked out in the end.
Santiago pulled away, his face troubled.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing, it’s just, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”
“Go for it.”
“Well, shifters have this thing they do where they mark their true love as their mate.”
“I know,” she said, tapping a finger to her head. “Forest god, remember?”
“Right. But that’s the thing. I don’t know if I’m allowed to take a god as a mate.”
She looked at him seductively. “You can take me however you want.”
Epilogue
Several months had passed since the day Amanda had merged with the forest spirit. It turned out he preferred the word ‘spirit’ instead of ‘god.’ She had become accustomed to the little quirks of the spirit’s personality over time.
They’d even become friends.
The forest spirit was different than the animal spirit in most shifters. She had discovered this after discussing it with Santiago at length. The animal spirits were still animals. They relied on instinct, but they didn’t really have minds like a human.
Amanda’s spirit had a mind of its own. It wasn’t exactly like having two personalities in the same brain, but it was close. Everyone has that little voice inside their head that talks to them when they’re thinking. Now it was like Amanda had two of those voices.
It was kind of nice.
The second voice, the masculine one, was extremely excited this morning. He hummed a jaunty tune in Amanda’s head as she walked out of the house Santiago had built for them.
He’d built it around the existing stone walls of an old ruin. Whatever the forest couldn’t provide them, he was able to run back to the real world to grab. So the inside was surprisingly modern, as long as you didn’t miss electricity.
But the big event this morning had nothing to do with the modern world. In fact, it was the revival of something very old indeed.
Santiago stood in front of the pyramid, smiling at his approaching wife. “It’s about time you showed up. Everyone’s been waiting.”
“It’s not like you could start without me,” she said.
“I almost did. Come on.”
He clasped her hand in his, squeezing it gently as they walked toward a group of three people, gathered around the stump of an old oak tree. The group consisted of two girls and a man. All of them shifters. They wore flowing white robes that seemed to glow in the sun.
Amanda stopped as soon as she saw them. “Santiago, seriously?”
He grinned innocently. “What?”
“You know damn well, what. I told you not to make them wear the robes.”
“It’s better this way,” he said. “It makes it feel more official. It’s not everyday you get people showing up to worship you.”
“We’ve been over this. They’re not here to worship me. They’re here to learn.”
“Can’t it be both?”
“Absolutely not,” she said, laughing. “I swear, if one of them calls me ‘Great Forest Spirit,’ I’m going to send them all home.”
“Shit. I may have told them to address you that way.”
“You better not have.”
“It was supposed to be a funny surprise.” He spread his hands. “Surprise.”
She shook her head and started walking again. “I swear. I think you enjoy this whole thing much more than I do.”
“Well, yeah. I mean I’m married to a god.” She shot him a wicked look. “I mean spirit. Sorry. Either way, it’s still awesome.”
“At least one of us is having fun with it,” she said.
“You love it, and you know it,” he said. “Alright. Time to put our game faces on. Something befitting the Great Forest Spirit.”
“I’m gonna make you pay that later,” she said quietly.
“I’m counting on it.”
They approached the three shifters. Amanda spread her hands in welcome. “Thank you all for joining us out here. Believe me, I know it’s a bit of a hike.”
They laughed politely, but Santiago’s face broke out into a grin. She’d said it for him anyway.
“Now, I’ve never done this before so bear with me. As you all know, this is sacred shifter ground. It was here that we discovered the forest spirit and rediscovered a lot of things our ancestors used to know. Powerful abilities that go beyond just shifting. Abilities that can be taught. Abilities that can be learned.”
She gestured at Santiago.
He twisted his hands in arcane gestures, before spreading them about a foot apart. In the space between his palms, a glowing blue ball of energy appeared. The three white-robed figures gasped in appreciation.
“And this is why you’re here. To learn and bring the old ways back into the world. Classes begin right now.”
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Rachel
“Excuse me?” I said, unable to believe the way he’d just spoken to me.
“You heard me,” he said. “Who the fuck are you?”
His eyes gazed into mine, unashamed and undaunted. I stared back at those icy blue eyes, unwilling to be the first to back down. The man intimidated me, but I didn’t want him to know that. He seemed to stare into me, like he could see all the secret parts of me. I felt small and weak under that stare.
I flinched and looked away.
“My name is Rachel Holmes,” I said.
He grunted. “Rachel,” he said softly, almost like he was tasting my name on his lips.
The sound of his deep baritone voice sent a shiver through me. I liked the way he said my name. Now that he was looking at me, really looking at me, I realized how good looking he was.
Shadows painted the contours of his face, accentuating his strong jaw and sharp cheekbones. His eyes had a dangerous, feral look. A slight smile curved his sexy lips, lips that seemed like they were made for kissing. Liquid heat rushed through my veins at the thought.
He ran a hand through his dark, shaggy hair. “Well, Rachel, you’re a long way from home.”
A shiver ran up my spine. “How do you know that?”
He smiled and stalked towards me like an animal closing in on its prey. “I know everything about you, Rachel,” he said, drawing uncomfortably close to me. “I know you’re from New York. I knew you’d be out here tonight. I know we were destined to meet.”
My breath caught in my throat. He stood directly in front of me now, leaning down so that his face was mere inches from mine. So close I thought he was going to kiss me. My mouth had gone dry and my legs trembled.
“How could you possibly know all that?” I asked breathlessly.
“Maybe I’m psychic,” he said. “Or maybe I just read your license plate and made the rest up.” He jabbed a finger towards my car. My New York plates were clearly visible in the glare of my tail lights.
He laughed and turned away from me suddenly. “You’re so easy,” he said, still chuckling.
Now that he wasn’t so close to me, I felt like I could breathe again. Uneasiness drained from me, replaced by anger.
“You’re an asshole,” I said, hoping he couldn’t hear the trembling in my voice.
“And you hit me with your fucking car.”
“Whatever. You seem fine to me. Stop whining, you big baby.”
He turned to glare at me, his mouth hanging open in surprise. I ignored the look.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Noah Sinclair,” he said. “Are all the women from New York as rude as you?”
I planted my hands on my hips. “Only when we’re being bullied by country bumpkins.”
His eyes widened. “Bumpkin? I am not now, nor have I ever been a bumpkin.”
I grinned. “Oh, so you don’t like it when people judge you based on where you’re from? Well, I don’t like it either.”
He blinked at me for a moment. Then he snorted a laugh. “Alright, lady, fair enough. And I’m not a bully. I just get a little salty after I get run over.”
It was my turn to concede. “Point taken,” I said. “How about we start again?” I extended my hand to him.
He looked at me, his expression an unreadable mask. Still, he took my hand and shook it.
His palm was rough against my soft skin. He had strong hands. A real man’s hands. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to feel those hands on other parts of my body. I quickly thrust those thoughts aside.
“So Noah, what were you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” I asked.
“The middle of nowhere?” he protested. “What a shitty thing to say. This is where I live.”
“You live in the woods?”
He glared at me like he wasn’t sure if I was an idiot. “No, I don’t live in the goddamn woods. I have a house. It’s got electricity, running water, even one of those fancy boxes with the talking pictures.”
I shook my head. Everything kept coming out wrong with him. I couldn’t tell if I was still shaken up from the crash or whether he was having this effect on me.
“I didn’t mean to suggest anything about the way you live.”
He looked like he didn’t believe me. “Like I said, you’re a long way from home, New York. You might want to think before you speak.”
I bristled at the suggestion. “Maybe you shouldn’t try to find something wrong with everything I say.”
He crossed his brawny arms over his chest. I suddenly felt very small standing in front of him. Noah didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would hurt a woman, but I’d been wrong about that before. And out here in the middle of nowhere, just the two of us, things could get really bad, really fast.
“Anyway,” he said. “Where you headed? This isn’t exactly a place people come visit.”
“A friend of mine has a place out here. She’s letting me borrow it.”
Noah narrowed his eyes at me. “A friend? Folks are pretty private up here. And no one told me about any visitors.”
“What are you, the pope of Bear Haven?” I asked. “You know everything that’s going on?”
I knew I shouldn’t be so rude, but now that the adrenaline was wearing off, my nerves were frayed and exhaustion weighed heavily on me.
“No, I’m not the goddamned pope. Bear Haven’s a pretty sheltered community. At least out in this area. You must be looking for the town proper. That’s a lot further down the road.”
I shook my head. “I’m in the right place.”
“I don’t think so. There’s only one empty house out here, and that belongs to Nina.”
“Yes,” I exclaimed. “You know Nina, too?”
He shook his head ruefully. “All too well.”
“Great. So I’m staying at her place.”
Noah started laughing. It was a great big booming laugh that echoed in the still night.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, still chuckling and wiping tears from his eyes. “I can take you over to Nina’s place, but you might not be thrilled about the location.”
“Oh yeah, and why is that?”
“Nina’s house is right next to mine. You and I are gonna be neighbors.”
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