by Bianca D’Arc
Serious. Wow.
Yeah, that’s how it felt for her too. Good to know they were both on the same page—and it was amazing to hear such things from this man after such a short time. Could it be real? Or was the stress of the situation getting the better of her?
“I’m not normally an impulsive person…” she began, unsure how to express her feelings. It was all so complicated. “And I’m not sure if this is real, or something brought about by the strange circumstances we’re facing.”
He let her go, making her wish she could call her words back. Had she hurt his feelings? Damn. That’s not what she’d intended.
John ran one hand through his golden brown hair as he leaned back against the kitchen counter.
“So you think this is stress-induced?” he finally asked, his eyes shadowed and unreadable.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe?”
John let out a gusty sigh. “Honey, I know pressure and stress. I’ve lived with both for many years as the leader of my team. I know my reactions, and I know this one isn’t the least bit determined by the stress of the situation. But the same apparently doesn’t go for you, and I’m trying to be patient with that. You’re not a shifter, and from what I understand, it isn’t the same for humans. It’s probably not the same for strega either.” He sighed again, a little less energetically, and a small smile played around his lips. “Whatever happens, we’ll figure it out. I’ll just have to be patient. But don’t ask me to leave your side. Not now. Not while you’re in danger. For now, my place is with you when you’re working to protect this cove. Whether or not I’m there outside of those times is completely up to you. That’s all the room I can give you.”
Urse nodded slowly, realizing how much of a concession the dominant Alpha grizzly shifter had just made. He was toning down his protective instincts for her—at least a little. That had to mean something special. He was trying to accommodate the fact that she wasn’t a shifter.
“Okay. We can work with that,” she said. “For right now, let’s just play it cool in front of Mellie. Otherwise, she’ll tease me all night, and I’ll never get to sleep.”
“Looks like you two are on your own,” Mellie called as she breezed down the hallway, already shrugging into her jacket. “That was Tina on the phone. I called her earlier about some herbs I need, and she invited me to dinner over at the bakery so I can look at their roof garden and see if any of their plants are something I can use. They put in a little greenhouse section so they’ve even got some stuff that’s out of season, which could be an enormous help. If it works out, I’ll need to harvest at midnight, so I might just stay over there in their guest room. Tina said it was okay. Zak’s going to meet me at the front door and walk me over.” Mellie rolled her eyes as she headed for the door, her bag slung over her shoulder. “It’s all overkill, if you ask me, but he made me promise to wait for an escort, as he put it.” She shook her head, barely drawing a breath in her excited chatter. “Never thought I’d need a police escort to walk down Main Street.”
“It’s for your own protection,” John put in. Apparently, he was a miracle worker because Urse had never really been able to get a word in edgewise when Mel was all hyped up like this.
“Yeah, I get it. But Urse made this stretch of the beach safe this morning. It’ll be okay. You’ll see.” Mellie’s unwavering confidence in Urse’s abilities made her smile.
“Call and let me know if you’re going to stay overnight,” she managed to sneak in before Mel got going again.
“Okay. But I’ll probably end up staying. Their garden is to die for, and the new greenhouse sounds just about perfect. We should consider doing something similar up top.” Mellie finally slowed down, no doubt recalling the trouble they were in with John and the town. “If we stay, that is.”
“You’re staying,” John said in a firm voice, surprising Urse and Mellie alike. “If I have anything to say about it, you’re staying. And if the others decide you need to go, you won’t be going alone.”
“You mean…?” Urse looked at him, hardly daring to believe his words.
“I mean, if the rest of the guys can’t appreciate what you’re doing for this town, then they’re not the bears I thought they were. If that happens, I’m leaving too, and I’ll be certain to tell them exactly why before I go.”
“But John—” Urse protested just as a knock sounded from downstairs, followed by the chime of the doorbell from the shop’s front door. Zak, no doubt, had arrived.
“That’s my police escort,” Mellie said softly into the raging silence. She looked uncomfortable, but also still keyed up to see the Baker sisters’ greenhouse.
“Go, Mel,” Urse said softly. “We’ll talk about all of this later. And say hi to Zak and Tina for me.”
“Do me a favor and don’t mention what I’ve just said. I want to see how the guys react without the pressure of an ultimatum, okay?” John asked Mellie.
Mel nodded slowly. “That makes sense. Nobody will hear it from me. I promise.”
“Fair enough.” John nodded with seeming satisfaction. “Safe travels and good hunting, Amelia.”
Mellie said goodbye and rushed down the stairs.
Chapter Eight
“Alone at last.” John turned to Urse, waggling his eyebrows as he grinned. “This is an unexpected treat.”
“Is it?” Urse went to stir the pots on the stove, making sure everything was simmering and that nothing would burn while they talked about the bomb he’d just dropped. “Did you mean it? That you’d leave the town you created if the rest of the townsfolk forced us to leave?”
John stepped closer to her, his hands going to her waist. “I meant every word. I had a long time to think this afternoon, and that was one of the things I decided. If the guys can’t see how good you are and how much you’re giving of yourself to help protect them, then they’re not people I want to be around anymore. This entire social experiment will just have to go on without me.”
“But you’re the heart of this town, John. Even I can see that. You’re the star around which all the others revolve. You’re their sun. Their leader. Their…Alpha. What you’ve built here is special. Almost sacred. I wouldn’t want you to give all this up because of me and my sister.”
John tucked her against his chest, holding her loosely, but letting her feel his reassuring warmth.
“It’s early days yet. I have no idea how this is all going to work out—with the town, with the leviathan, with you and me…” He kissed the crown of her head, offering comfort, and perhaps taking a little for himself at the same time. “Let’s just see where it goes. If the guys are half the men I think they are, then there won’t be any question about forcing you to leave town, and the issue will never come up. I just wanted it to be clear that if you go, I go.”
“Does that mean we go…like…together?” she dared to ask in a small voice.
“I don’t know the answer to that one either, just yet, but it’s sure starting to feel that way, isn’t it?” He leaned back, seeking her gaze with his.
She was caught by his gaze. Captured. Willingly. Happily.
“Yeah,” she said slowly, as time spun out. “It’s beginning to feel that way.”
John smiled, his expression holding more than a hint of relief. “I’m glad to hear you say that. This is all uncharted territory for me. I don’t know how it is for humans or magic users, but shifters tend to know pretty quickly…and permanently.”
“Permanently?” she squeaked on that last syllable, but who could blame her? They hadn’t even gone on a real date yet and he was talking permanent. Like forever. Whoa.
Just at that moment, the timer dinged. Dinner was ready. Saved by the bell.
John backed off, and she hated the disappointment on his face, but she was powerless to do anything about it. Not yet. He’d blindsided her a bit with his talk of forever. Her brain had to catch up with her heart.
Was that bad?
She wasn’t sure. Actually,
she wasn’t sure about anything right now. She needed time—and a little space—to think.
“I have to check the roast,” she said softly. “The timer…”
John stepped away, giving her the room she needed to move toward the oven, from which delicious aromas were wafting. Urse checked, and luckily, everything was ready. She began pulling pans from the oven and getting things ready to serve. John moved silently at her side, helping, which surprised her at first, but he turned out to be very useful in the kitchen.
It didn’t take long to get everything on the table. They sat down together and began eating, making only small talk about the food by some unspoken agreement. Things had gotten a little too heavy, too fast for Urse’s groggy brain to keep up with. She had to chew on John’s revelations and figure out what she thought besides a breathless, really?
Something purely emotional inside her was jumping up and down like a two year old on a sugar high. Her adult brain was flabbergasted and unable to keep up with the emo chattering.
About halfway through the meal, John brought up the spell she was going to perform tomorrow at noon. Glad for the change of topic, Urse told him about her plans as best she could.
“The noon ceremony is a little different,” she said. “For one thing, the sun will already be overhead, at its highest point, so I won’t have to turn my back on the cove for any length of time.” She paused, thinking about it for a moment. “Actually, it could be a little more confrontational than what we did this morning because I’ll be out in the open the whole time.”
“We’ll be there too,” John promised. “I’ll be right at your side, and the rest of the guys will be backing you up. They can run interference, if needed.”
She thought about that for a moment. “A distraction might be helpful if the creature gets too rambunctious. I don’t know what it has in store for me tomorrow. It probably didn’t expect what we were able to do against it this morning. Tomorrow, it will be better prepared.” She frowned. “But I don’t want anyone getting too close and putting themselves in too much danger. Is there anything your guys can do from afar that might serve as a distraction?”
John grinned, and it held a tinge of sinister satisfaction. “Zak’s an artist with almost any sort of gun. He can take a shot from a mile out and hit what he aims at.”
“A sniper?” she asked, surprised.
She knew now that the core group that made up the town council had all been in the military with John, but she hadn’t quite realized that some of them had such specialties. She probably should have, she realized. Any shifter soldier would pretty much automatically be one of the best among the best. They couldn’t help but stand out with all their shifter advantages when it came to the five senses.
“Do you think bullets will distract the creature?” she asked, wondering out loud.
“Zak tried to shoot one of the smaller ones once before. Regular bullets didn’t stop it, but it did notice. It did bleed. I’ll ask Zak to try hollow points or explosive rounds. Tracer rounds, maybe. I’m not sure what would work best, but Zak will know, and he can try a few different things, all from a safe distance. It might be enough to distract the creature at a crucial moment. What we need to do is work out a system to communicate with Zak outside the circle. You are going to cast another circle, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It’s safest to be inside wards when battling something so magical. The first thing I’ll do is cast the circle, but it’ll be a little smaller this time so I can cast it fast. The leviathan will probably be watching me the entire time. I’ll need to put up the ward quick, before it can interfere.”
“Once that circle is up, it’s hard to communicate with anyone outside, right? Does that hold for radio communications?” he asked.
“Probably. I wouldn’t want to chance it.”
“So we’re going to need some sort of visual cue that Zak can see. And we should probably do a test after the excitement is over to see if radio comms work.”
She could tell he was making a mental checklist. She liked the way his mind worked. He seemed to see everything in orderly little segments. That had to be at least part of the reason why he’d been so successful in his career, and now in building this amazing town. He attacked a project from many sides at once. She liked that about him…and so much more.
In fact, since she’d been spending more time with him, there was very little she didn’t like about the sexy mayor. She’d noticed right away that he was attractive, but now, she knew so much more about him. He drew her, like a moth to a flame—and probably just as dangerous too. But she was powerless to resist his allure.
He also confused the hell out of her. Things had been moving way too fast for the past two days. She felt like she was on a roller-coaster—both exhilarated and scared to death at different points along the way. With any luck, the ride would end well.
Tomorrow, they would do the noon ceremony, and then, the next day, the sunset ceremony. Then all they’d have to do was the all-important full moon ritual, and things might just start to get back to normal for her—or as close as possible with Mellie preparing to do her part after that.
Maybe then, she could take stock rationally of where this thing with John was heading. If it lasted that long. Frankly, she was afraid that, after her part in protecting the cove was over, he would no longer be interested. Stress had a way of making people react differently than they otherwise would.
She hoped that wasn’t the case with John, but how well did she really know him? She knew she could trust him to protect her. In essence, she could trust him with her life, but what about her heart?
Urse was very much afraid that if she gave her heart to the Alpha bear, she would never be the same.
Dinner was amazing, and John realized the Ricoletti sisters, in addition to being powerful witches, were also great cooks. He hadn’t had a roast that good since his mother’s, and that was saying something.
As they lingered over coffee, the phone rang, and Amelia confirmed that she’d be staying overnight at the bakery tonight. When Ursula hung up the phone, her entire demeanor had changed.
John felt it too. There was something in the air between them. Just knowing they would be alone for the rest of the night—if they chose to spend it together—was creating invisible, but palpable, sparks in the air.
John joined her by the couch in the living room part of the open-concept main area of the apartment. He’d placed his jacket on the arm of the couch and he sat next to it now, knowing he would need to consult some of the papers he’d brought with him but had left in his coat pocket while they enjoyed dinner.
“So where do you want to work from tomorrow?” John asked as she joined him on the couch.
“Well, we’d already settled on the north side of town. I’m just not sure exactly where to set the circle.” She seemed to ponder the problem, her gaze turning slightly inward in thought.
John reached into the deep inner pocket of his coat and pulled out the rolled map he’d been working on all day in his office. It was a depiction of the cove and the estimated boundaries of the ward Ursula had put in place earlier that morning, along with other geographic features and the coverage points he’d been toying with most of the afternoon.
“I think our best bet is to work in this area.” He pointed to a roughly circular area on the north side of town. “If we manage the same radius as this morning, there should be a little overlap and the apex of the cove will be covered.”
“That’ll protect the town and all of Main Street where it’s closest to the water,” she observed, looking closely at the map. “I like it.” She turned the map for a better look. “I can work with this.” Her voice was low, contemplative, as she studied the map. Suddenly, she looked up to meet his gaze. “Did you do all this?”
“I collated the data. My guys did the actual measurements.” He felt his bear preening under her scrutiny.
“This is really great,” she said, still holding his gaze. “I’ve always h
ad to just guess before, or go on my own observations. This is really helpful. Thanks for putting it together.”
The moment spun out between them until John edged forward, capturing her lips with his. It started out tentatively. He wasn’t sure if she’d welcome his kiss or if she would turn him away. He’d willingly follow her lead, whichever way she chose to go.
Much to his joy, she not only accepted his kiss, she deepened it, moving closer to him on the couch and into his arms. John held her tenderly, his bear tempering its strength so as not to frighten or hurt her in any way.
When he leaned back, she followed him, unwilling to let him end their kiss. Well, he was okay with that. John just tucked her closer in his arms, supporting her as she kissed him like her life depended on it. That’s when he realized there was a sort of desperation in her kiss that made him wary.
This time, he held her at arms’ length, not letting her luscious lips seduce him into allowing the kiss to continue. Not until he knew what was motivating her.
He wanted her kiss almost as much as he wanted his next breath, but only if it came freely, from her heart. He didn’t want her to be with him from a place of fear or desperation.
“Wait a sec,” he crooned, trying not to break the mood too much.
“Why?” The single word came out on almost a whine.
“Because I want to make sure you’re really with me. That you really want this,” he all but growled, his inner bear liking the way she felt against his human form.
“I’m with you, John, and I do want this.” Her hand rested over his heart, stroking lightly. “I want you.”
His heart skipped a beat. Did she really mean that the way it sounded? Sweet Goddess, he hoped so.
“Are you sure?” he made himself ask. “I’m not an easy man.”
“I don’t want easy. I want you.”
Holy moly. She’d said it again. John counted himself a lucky bastard and pulled her closer into his arms.
