by Bianca D'Arc
“What about the flame? Did you all see it?” she asked.
“We saw it,” Granny Ivana confirmed, “but apparently, it was invisible to non-magical folk. Otherwise, there might have been quite a commotion.”
“And the tremors? The earth was shaking, wasn’t it?” Mellie asked, trying to piece together the disjointed recollections in her mind. The potion had taken the vast majority of her attention, but she’d been aware of what was going on around her in a peripheral way.
“It wasn’t an earthquake. Using the stone circle contained the power of the potion nicely,” Peter told her. “The shaking you felt as you dashed for the water came from the leviathan pounding its tentacles on the ocean floor. That’s also what caused the big waves. John and your sister didn’t feel any tremors in town, and no earthquakes were reported for that time anywhere in the ring of fire.”
“That’s a relief,” Mellie said, sighing. “I was afraid I might have caused earthquakes with that potion. I’ve never handled anything so powerful before.”
“Well, you did it masterfully,” Peter told her, leaning in to place a kiss on her temple. “Finish your sandwich,” he scolded with a happy grin. “I’ll call your sister to tell her you’re awake. She made me promise to call.”
“Sounds like Urse.” Mellie laughed and picked up the second half of her sandwich and began to eat it.
She felt truly happy and filled with relief for the first time since the task of brewing a protective potion for Grizzly Cove had been given to her. She had accomplished her task. Finally. It hadn’t been easy, and it hadn’t been quick, but she’d done it. Thank the Mother of All.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Peter kept a watchful eye on Mellie for the next few hours as her sister arrived to check on her. John had come with his mate, and the men gave the sisters space to hug and discuss magical stuff. At one point, the sisters called their grandmother, using the teleconferencing setup in Peter’s study while John, Peter and his Babushka—or Granny Ivana as she was becoming known in Grizzly Cove—sat in the living room.
“I’m so glad you’ve decided to stay for a while,” John told Peter’s grandmother.
“Your town intrigues me,” she replied. “Frankly, I didn’t see how it could work when Peter described it to me, but now that I’m here, I’m very impressed. And you know, I make dolls.”
John seemed a little stymied by what seemed to be a rather odd observation, but Peter knew what his babushka was getting at. He tried not to laugh at John’s attempts to hide his confusion.
“Nesting dolls,” Peter added, trying to help…but not too much. John still looked confused, but doing his best to hide it, and Peter burst out laughing. “Russian nesting dolls are a work of art,” Peter said and watched the light bulb go off.
“Oh! Art.” John seemed to have finally comprehended what she was trying to say. The cover for the town was that they were an artists’ colony, after all. “What do you need for a studio, Granny Ivana?”
“I was thinking maybe Peter could help me build a little space next to his shop. I don’t want a full-fledged gallery, but a little workshop with a space in front for display and sales would work nicely and wouldn’t take too long to construct.”
Peter wasn’t surprised his babushka had it all planned out. The woman was born making plans, and everyone just followed along. It was easier that way. And her plans were good.
“I already have your cousin sending out some of my finished pieces that haven’t sold yet,” she went on to tell Peter. She turned back to John. “I’ll be sending some of the money home,” she told the Alpha bear. “I’ve helped support the Clan with my dolls for a long time, but I’ve taught my craft to several others, and they can pick up production to keep the Clan running. It’ll just take a little time for them to catch up. Until they do, I’m going to send part of my sales from here to them since I’m taking my reserved stock from them.”
“I have no objection,” John was quick to say. “The profits from any sales of art are yours to do with as you please. Most of our core group donates a portion of their sales to the town fund, but that’s purely optional, and, as I said, it’s something my old unit did on their own, not a requirement.”
“Good.” She nodded in that regal way she had. “I will give ten percent to the town fund and twenty to my home Clan for the first six months. After that, I will reassess.”
Six months? Peter was overjoyed at the length of time his grandmother was contemplating. He had no idea she wanted to stay half a year or more. This was great news, and he felt his heart expand with joy.
“Can they spare you that long?” Peter asked in a low tone, touched that she’d want to stay with him for any length of time.
She sighed heavily. “To be honest, the Clan needs a shake up. For too long, they’ve followed my lead without thinking for themselves. This will be good for them. And it makes way for the younger generation to take charge,” she admitted, then smiled a soft smile, her old eyes sparkling. “You may have noticed, but I have a rather commanding personality.”
Both men chuckled at her statement. “I think that’s why we get along so well,” Peter told her. “But I think I understand.”
John was all smiles. “You are very welcome here,” he told her formally. “You may have noticed that we have a lack of female influence. We have a lot of very strong personalities, but we’ve built up mutual respect in the years we’ve worked together. I think, in another situation, having this many bears with Alpha personalities in one place could easily be a recipe for disaster, but our core group worked out our dominance issues long ago, and we’re all working toward the same goal here. We want to make happy lives for ourselves among friends. We want to stop traveling the world like vagabonds fighting other peoples’ wars. We want peace and serenity, joy and laughter. We want mates. Some of us have been blessed to find them here. The rest have hope that their mates will be found soon. In the meantime, we want to create as normal a place as we can together, where we can be bears in the wild, when we need to, and have a safe place to walk among humans and make a living without having to kill people or put our own lives on the line.” John paused, his expression earnest. “I think you’d fit in here very well, Mrs. Zilakov. We need female bears here to help balance us out. You might find that you fit into the role of granny to the whole town, if you give my guys the least indication that you’re willing to give them advice or an ear to listen.”
She nodded. “It would be my honor,” she replied, her tone respectful. “I am babushka to my Clan, but they don’t really need me. They are stable and content. In fact, by staying in Kamchatka, I’m probably hindering the younger generation from developing fully. But here… I could do some good here.” Her smile reappeared.
*
After talking to her sister, and having a long conference with Nonna, Mellie was feeling more grounded. By all accounts, she’d managed an incredible feat with the potion and had protected more innocents with a single magical work than had been done in recent history. She’d also unearthed what could be the last dragon shifter in existence, but that news wasn’t really for public consumption. Urse had told her the boys in town had called a meeting yesterday with Paul and given solemn oaths that word of his existence would go no farther.
Paul had, in turn, asked for permission to stay in the area, shocking the bears. They’d quickly conferred and given him the rundown on the purpose of the town and the local code of behavior. He’d agreed not to run amok in his dragon form across the countryside—only half joking, it seemed, or so a few of the bears had thought—and rented a room at the hotel at the end of the strip, pending further developments.
After her sandwich, Mellie had felt a lot better, though an hour later, she was hungry again. Urse and John urged her, Peter and his granny to come into town. Zak was holding a shindig at his restaurant to celebrate the momentous events and would be serving up a Cajun feast the likes of which hadn’t been seen in Grizzly Cove before. Everyone was atten
ding, from the new dragon to the youngest mer child… Or so they claimed.
Mellie didn’t feel like a raucous party, but then again, it would be churlish of her to not attend. Plus, she was really hungry, and she loved Zak’s cooking. She agreed to at least show her face and have a little food.
That turned into a four-hour appearance, during which time, multiple mer came up to her and thanked her for cleansing the ocean to such a magnificent extent. She hadn’t really realized how trapped the mer had felt, confined to just the waters of the cove these past few months, but she thought she understood them better now.
The party wasn’t all that raucous as she’d feared. Mostly, it was just big groups of friends sharing a meal with humorous conversation and good cheer. She enjoyed herself immensely and put away more of Zak’s famous Cajun cooking than she would have believed. Then again, she was making up for a lost day, and food was fuel to many magical folk.
Nobody raised an eyebrow, and she felt more welcome in Grizzly Cove than she ever had before. They were celebrating her successful completion of the potion, but they were also rejoicing in her mating with Peter. When Peter announced that Granny Ivana would be staying and opening a workshop, there was a big cheer as well. Granny Ivana had impressed the fighting men of Grizzly Cove, and Mellie suspected she would definitely wind up being granny to the entire town.
As the evening wore down, Mellie started to feel fatigued again. That potion had taken a lot out of her, and she’d require a bit more sleep before she would fully recover. In fact, she might be weak for a while—as had happened to her sister after casting those permanent wards over the town and cove. But it was okay. Peter would take care of her.
“Why don’t we stay in my apartment tonight?” she suggested, very much afraid that she would fall asleep before they made it back to Peter’s den.
“If that’s what you want,” he answered easily, then, seeing how tired she was, he made their goodbyes and ushered her the short distance to the bookshop, carrying her up the stairs and putting her in bed.
She was unconscious before he joined her after locking up.
The next morning, Mellie woke feeling a lot better. The camaraderie and excellent food last night, in addition to a comfortable sleep, had helped restore her a bit more. Peter was in the apartment. She just knew it somehow. Maybe her senses were more attuned to him now that they were an acknowledged couple, or something.
Or maybe it was all the noise he was making. Was he trying to wake her up? She considered that thought a moment and wondered if that wasn’t so far from the truth. Getting out of bed, she got clothes out of her dresser and headed for the bathroom. On the way, she saw Peter looking somewhat sheepish as he hustled down the hallway with a broom.
“What’s going on?” she called after him, but he didn’t stop.
“Nothing,” he called back and disappeared into the kitchen. “Take your shower. I’m making breakfast. It’ll be ready by the time you’re done.”
Shaking her head, she figured he’d looked okay to her. He probably hadn’t gotten into anything dangerous in her cupboards. She’d give him the nickel tour of her potion cabinet later. If they were going to live together, he’d need to learn about the hazards of living with a potion witch.
As the sound of breaking glass and cursing in Russian and several other languages came from the other end of the hallway, she just moved on toward the bathroom. She’d deal with it when she was dressed—and had shoes on to protect her bare feet from the glass.
Looked like Peter was taking a crash course this morning, she thought, snickering to herself as she went into the bathroom.
Once everything had been cleaned up, and Peter had been given the grand tour of what to touch and what to leave alone in the kitchen, they ate a sumptuous breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes. Apparently, it had been the search for the mini chips that had predicated Peter’s somewhat disastrous acquaintance with the contents of two special cupboards Mellie reserved just for her potions.
She didn’t mind. He was okay, and she could easily replace the common potions he’d disturbed. He wasn’t to know that some of her concoctions wouldn’t take kindly to being moved without her approval, but he was learning fast. She was sure there were probably things about living with a shifter that she’d have to get used to, but she looked forward to it. She had a future, now, that was quite different from her past, and she couldn’t wait to embark on the life she and Peter would live together.
Urse came up from the shop to visit for a bit and make sure Mellie was all right. She refused to let Mellie work in the shop at all that day, insisting that she continue to rest.
“Sis, I know what casting those wards took out of me. Your potion was the equivalent of that and more,” Urse told her in a no-nonsense tone. “Your main job now is to rest and recover. Relax for a bit with your mate. Let him take care of you and just concentrate on getting your energy back. It won’t happen overnight, but the more you take it easy, the faster it will happen.”
“I don’t like it, but you’ve talked me into being a couch potato,” Mellie told her older sister.
Urse bent down to kiss her sister on the forehead before she headed out of the apartment and back to the shop. “Rest up. Pete…” Urse addressed Peter, who was hovering in the kitchen, cleaning up again. “Keep an eye on this one. No working at all today. Don’t even let her think about setting foot in her potion room.”
“I’ll make it my top priority,” Peter promised, his expression overly serious.
Mellie threw a decorative pillow off the couch at him. He fielded it easily and hung on to it as he came out of the kitchen area. He had an intent look in his eyes.
“On that note…” Urse left them, heading back down the stairs with a big grin on her face.
Mellie saw that her sister had closed and locked the door behind herself.
As Peter advanced on the couch on which Mellie was sitting, he tossed the pillow aside, his gaze never leaving hers. Mellie knew that look now. It started a little fire of delight inside her, knowing the pleasure it portended.
“You want to play, my little mate? I’ll give you something to play with,” he told her, his voice dropping low. He really was the sexiest man on Earth. Hands down.
“Promises, promises,” she retorted, loving the little growl that escaped him as he lowered himself to the couch, taking her to a prone position in one smooth move.
Then, his lips were on hers, and she didn’t come to her senses again for some time. Peter lay over her, warm and inviting. She ran her hands over his muscular body as he undressed them both. He was so perfect for her, so strong and caring. How had she gotten so lucky, or so blessed, to get a man like this in her life?
She wasn’t sure how it had happened, but she was clear on one point. She would keep him in her life, and in her bed, for the rest of her days. There was no uncertainty about that. No thought that things might not work out or that the flame of desire they felt now might some day diminish. No. What they had was real, and lasting. It would stand the test of time. That, she knew, deep in her heart.
This was forever.
Peter joined his body to hers, pausing once he was deep inside to look down into her eyes. Time stood still as the day went on around them, oblivious to the two lovers locked in each other’s embrace.
“I love you, my zvyozdochka. Now and forever,” Peter told her, stealing her heart all over again.
“I love you, too, Peter, but if you don’t start moving in the next three seconds, I may have to zap you,” she teased.
“Zap?” His brow quirked, even as he chuckled.
Mellie called a little wisp of magical energy into existence, cradling it in her hand. She brought it between them to make sure he saw it. When his eyes widened, she flicked it at him, and he jumped as the tiny zap of magic hit him on the shoulder. It didn’t hurt. At least, she hadn’t intended it to hurt. He looked more surprised than anything else.
“That tickled,” he accused in a tone f
ull of wonder. “I didn’t know you could manifest magical energy that way.”
“A woman likes to have a few secrets, you know,” she told him, smiling up at him, even as she squirmed, squeezing him with her internal muscles.
He growled, and she did it again. “I think I’m going to enjoy living with a witch. You’ve definitely put a spell on me that I never want to break.”
“Goes both ways,” Mellie gasped as Peter began a hard, thrusting rhythm. Oh, yeah. That’s just what she’d wanted.
She came almost immediately, but Peter wasn’t letting her off that easy. He lifted her in his arms, still riding his cock, and walked them down the hall to her bedroom. The walking motion and the resulting stimulation roused her once again, and when he lay back on her bed, she took the top position.
She came twice more before he joined her in ecstasy. Then, they showered together and made love once more against the tiles of her shower, then again with her butt perched on the bathroom vanity. It was as if they were making up for lost time, or something.
Mellie wasn’t exactly sure what prompted the sexual frenzy, but she wasn’t going to question it too closely. This time was for enjoying her new mate, not deep thinking about causation.
Although… It might’ve been the danger, or the fact that she’d been unconscious for so long. Perhaps, he’d been worried about her. Maybe that’s why he was so eager to please her—and himself—right now. Or maybe it was just the normal thing that happened to bear shifters when the found their mates. Whatever had caused the marathon of ecstasy, Mellie wasn’t going to complain. Not at all.
Then, a thought occurred to her. What if it was just Peter? What if she was truly the luckiest woman in the world and her mate was the most gifted lover she would ever know?
What if the perfection of their union was something reserved for them alone? Perhaps it was this way for every shifter who found their true mate. That would explain why they were so keen to find the one partner meant only for them.
