CHAPTER FIVE
Peter escorted Mellie back to town. Gus had opted to stay behind to observe the potion’s effects more closely. He was watching, in particular, to see if the effect dissipated and the smaller minions were able to return closer to the ward. For all they knew, the effect might’ve been just a temporary thing.
Peter hadn’t voiced that concern where Mellie could hear. She was down in the dumps enough already. He hated seeing her so miserable and wished there was something he could do to raise her spirits. He just didn’t know what.
When they arrived back at the bookstore, Urse was waiting for them. She instructed them to head directly over to the mayor’s office where her mate, John, was waiting for them along with Nansee, the leader of the mer pod that now lived in the cove. They’d received early reports from the scouts along the ward on the potion’s effect in the water, and John wanted to talk to Mellie about it.
Peter went with her. He wouldn’t be separated from her when she had to face the Alpha bear in his den. Office. Whatever. John’s inner sanctum at town hall might as well be his secondary den. He spent enough time there running the town.
Peter was glad he’d decided to stick with Mellie, because when they got to town hall, it wasn’t just John and Nansee waiting for her. No, there was a full-fledged council meeting happening in the big conference room. Peter would have been invited anyway, since he was part of the core group that had founded the town and therefore on the council, but even he had to admit, facing down a room full of bear shifters had to be a little intimidating for a petite human mage like Mellie.
She walked in, her spine straight, her chin lifted as if daring the bears to criticize her recent performance. He knew she wasn’t happy with the results. He knew she was having doubts about her own power, but she didn’t let it show to this room full of predators. Good girl. She was as smart and courageous as she was beautiful.
Peter stayed right at her side, growling at the bear shifter who was sitting next to the seat they’d left open for Mellie until the other man moved to Peter’s seat across the room. Peter was going to stand at Mellie’s side no matter what.
“First, let me thank you on behalf of the entire town for the work you’ve put in on this project, Amelia,” John said formally, opening the meeting. “Urse told me how conscientious you’ve been and how difficult your task.”
Peter was pleased with the way the Alpha bear talked to Mellie. John was a good leader and knew how to motivate people and make them feel their worth. It was why he’d followed John as his Alpha for so long.
“Now, let’s hear from the mer leader,” John proposed. “Then, perhaps Peter will be kind enough to provide observations from land.”
Peter nodded in accord with John’s plan for the meeting and deferred to Nansee, who sat next to John. The mer leader and the bear Alpha had developed what looked like a good working relationship, especially since Nansee and Urse had become close friends.
Peter wondered how Mellie got along with the mer leader. Urse had status as John’s mate. She was Alpha female, for lack of a better term, and Nansee and she were about equal in rank, though, of course, the land-based shifters took precedence in the town. Nansee was still in charge of her pod, even while they were on land, but they came under the Alpha bear’s protection here, and he was considered the higher power here in town, while Nansee still ruled under the water. So far, the arrangement had worked out well, mostly because the two leaders were willing to work together and Nansee was able to defer to the Alpha bear who had offered her and her pod sanctuary in the cove when the leviathan had threatened them.
Still, Mellie’s place in the hierarchy wasn’t entirely clear. She was sister to the Alpha female and supposedly a powerful witch in her own right, but there hadn’t been much evidence of her strength to date, and some of the men didn’t quite know what to make of her. The rules of dominance were clear, and it was important to shifters to know where everyone stood in the Clan. It made for greater harmony, and dominance battles were often used to settle things.
But nobody was going to challenge Mellie to a fight anytime soon. She had to do something to demonstrate her power or she would continue to make the shifters uncomfortable. They’d do their best to hide it, but it might cause folks to avoid her, which would hurt her feelings. Peter didn’t want that. Mellie was dealing with a lot of uncertainty already.
If only her potion would work. Then, her power would be proven, and everyone would know where she fit into the Clan dynamic.
“The magic working done today by Amelia was quite potent,” Nansee began her update. “The sentries reported feeling the potion wash over them in a mighty wave of intense magic that felt both benevolent and protective, in the extreme. One said it felt almost exactly like the ward magic, though of a slightly different nature. It seemed to reinforce the ward in some way, sliding along the length of the entire ward wall and creating a larger barrier outward. In other words, it pushed the creatures on the other side of the ward back a great distance, though some of the larger minions and the leviathan itself seemed able to brave the new no-go zone. However, all of the smaller creatures are now much farther away and seem unable to approach, which is a very good result. Sentries will continue to watch and report, but as of the last word, the new barrier is holding strong.”
Good news. Peter felt his chest swell with pride on Mellie’s behalf. She’d accomplished something with the potion they’d brewed together. He might not be dragon enough to fulfill the letter of the recipe from that old book, but they had managed to accomplish something good together. He liked that idea a lot.
Nansee went on a bit longer, but for the most part, the observations had been very positive. The potion had worked to push the smaller creatures away, which was at least more than they had yesterday. Nansee even thanked Mellie for her work and was very gracious about it, which Peter thought was very decent of the mer leader.
Nansee turned the floor back over to John, who looked at Peter with expectation. Summarizing what they had seen, Peter reported what Gus had said and what Peter, himself, had observed and let the council know that Gus continued the watch from on shore. John arranged to have someone relieve Gus and decided they would share out the observation post among several bears for the next day or two until they knew exactly what effects the potion would have long term.
Peter was about to bring up a new topic when Urse burst into the conference room. She was out of breath as if she’d run all the way from the bookshop.
“There’s an absolutely giant bear on the beach,” Urse said, meeting her mate’s gaze. “She’s in full view of the street, and I don’t recognize her.”
“A female?” John asked quickly, his brows drawing together. There weren’t a whole lot of female bear shifters in town yet. “Are you sure she’s a shifter?”
Urse squinted in thought. “She’s so huge, I doubt she could be anything else.”
“What does she look like?” Brody, the sheriff, asked from his seat next to John.
“She’s gorgeous. Huge. And her fur is sort of…burgundy-colored,” Urse told them.
Peter shot to his feet, and every eye turned to him. “It’s all right, my friends. Unless I’m mistaken, my babushka has arrived in town. I’ll go tell her the rules, but it’s anybody’s guess as to whether she’ll obey them. My grandmother is a law unto herself.”
Peter’s smile was wide as he trotted out of the conference room, heading straight for the beach. It wasn’t hard to spot the giant bear he hadn’t seen is far too long. Peter broke into a jog, then a run.
The bear’s head turned and spotted him, and then, she began walking in her stately way, away from the shore and toward her grandson. Time was when his grandmother would have run him down, but she was very old now and moved a little more slowly than she used to.
He was so happy to see her, he ran right up to her, then stopped short.
“Babushka?”
The bear stood on its hind legs and grabbed him in the furriest, most comforting, powerful embrace. Just like he remembered. Peter hugged her back, so happy to have his grandmother near once more.
Mellie squeaked when the massive bear rose on its hind legs and enveloped Peter in enormous paws. Peter was a huge man, but the giant bear made him look small by comparison.
“It’s okay. She’s just hugging him, not crushing him,” John said from Mellie’s side.
He’d come outside with the rest of the town council to see what the big Russian female bear looked like. Bears were curious creatures, Mellie had learned. And, when it came to females—even really old ones—they were even more inquisitive.
“She’s huge,” Mellie whispered, perhaps not all that politely, but she was astounded by the sheer size of the female bear and Peter’s ease with her. Mellie could see the affection between them, now that she understood the large bear hadn’t been attacking, but welcoming.
“She and Peter are Kamchatka brown bears. The wild ones are nearly as big as Kodiak’s, but the coloring is unique. They have that almost violet tint to their fur,” John observed. “Of course, Kodiaks are huge in the wild, and the shifter equivalent is even larger. Same goes with Peter’s people. But, even among their Clan, his babushka and all her descendants are something special.”
“Have you met Peter’s family before?” Urse asked her husband.
“A few of them, but never his granny. He’s told us all stories about her for years, of course. She’s quite a character and very protective of her territory and kin.” John looked on in approval as the bear and man broke apart and started walking together down the beach toward the far end of the cove where Peter’s den was located. Everybody turned back toward the town hall, now that the show was over, and Mellie followed along with her sister and John.
“Peter told us about how, a decade or so ago, some humans wanted to set up a platinum mine on the edge of her territory. Not sure what they did, but it was something really bad, and two of the human guards ended up dead. Then, the Clan—about thirty bears strong—besieged the compound and wouldn’t let the humans out for weeks.” Brody chuckled, as did the others within hearing.
“That mining company lost a lot of money when the workers couldn’t leave their homes to work for weeks on end,” John elaborated. “Finally, they relented and stuck to their original agreement with Peter’s grandmother. She’d signed a contract with them in human form as the land owner, but the mine bosses had taken shortcuts that were detrimental to the land. When Granny had no luck making the miners stick to the contract terms, she went bear on their asses until they gave in. Very effective negotiating strategy.”
“It’s funny in light of the fact that the Kamchatkas are usually seen as teddy bears. They rarely attack humans—probably because most of those that interact with humans are shifters. The true bears are more elusive because of hunting. They’ve learned to evade humans,” Brody said conversationally. “The shifters could evade the hunters, too, of course, but they run interference, trying to protect the wild bears.”
Mellie felt for the helpless bears, even if they weren’t shifters. It sounded like they just wanted to live their lives in peace and weren’t a threat to humans, so the idea that humans hunted the bears for sport really irked her. Some people were just cruel.
Mellie went home with Urse and John after the meeting broke up, joining her sister and the Alpha bear for dinner. The afternoon had slipped away from them, and the bookstore had been closed since Urse came running to town hall. It could stay closed for the rest of the day. It wasn’t like Grizzly Cove was bustling with tourists yet. They would come…eventually. When the town—and the bear shifter population—was ready for them.
*
The next morning, Peter was feeling eager. He wasn’t sure how the day was going to go, but he had a plan, and he was going to put it into motion. Babushka had settled into the guest room in his den he had prepared with her in mind, and they had spent the evening catching up on news from the family and the Clan back in the old country.
She’d also told him all about her trip here. She’d come to the States in the company of three of his cousins. They had wanted to see her all the way to Grizzly Cove, but she had demurred. She hadn’t wanted to descend on the American bears en masse. It wasn’t polite, she’d insisted, so she’d had them drop her off in Seattle, and she’d made her way here by herself. That included renting a four-wheel drive vehicle, that she’d parked on Main Street when she’d felt the need to go furry.
Peter had retrieved the rental car and parked it in his drive. He’d also retrieved all her luggage and carried it into his den. He couldn’t explain the feeling of home his grandmother had brought with her, but with her in his house, it truly felt like a home for the first time. Only one thing was missing…and he hoped to settle that to some extent tonight.
He left his grandmother at the den. She was sleeping late after her travels and had all she needed in the house for when she rose. Bears were independent by nature, and he knew she wouldn’t appreciate him hovering over her. Giving her some space and time on her own was probably the best thing he could do at this point.
That in mind, Peter headed for Main Street, stopping off at the bakery to get some treats on his way to the bookstore. He had to open the butcher shop later. He’d been letting the guys in town take stuff on the honor system for the past few days—as he often did—but every once in a while, he had to do paperwork and place orders from some of his suppliers.
First, though, he had to complete his self-appointed mission. He headed for the bookshop, bakery box in hand. When he walked in the door, the little bell above it tinkled his arrival, and Mellie looked up from her seated position at the desk in the back of the shop. She’d been working on the computer, and the soft glow of the screen lit her face in an ethereal light. The smile she sent him warmed him from the inside out.
“Good morning,” she said, rising from her seat and moving toward him.
“These are for you,” Peter said somewhat awkwardly, raising the box in his hand to bring her attention to it.
Mellie’s eyes widened. “What did you do? Clean out the bakery?”
He looked at the large box and wondered if he’d overestimated on the number of pastries to order. “Is it too much? This is the size I usually get.”
Mellie chuckled. “Bear size,” she told him, but didn’t seem upset by his mistake. “There’s plenty to share, if you can spare a few minutes. Or have you eaten already?”
No way was he going to admit to having eaten anything this morning, even if he’d been up since dawn. “I would be happy to join you,” he said, following her toward the countertop where she usually rang up purchases.
Mellie took charge, placing the box on the counter and using scissors she had near the cash register to clip the strings holding the box closed. She opened it and carefully unlatched the side flaps to make it sit flat on the countertop. The aromas of sugar, honey and various sorts of toppings and fillings came to him at once, making his nose twitch. The trio of sisters who ran the bakery really did know how to cook. Peter’s mouth watered, even as Mellie pulled out paper plates and napkins from behind the counter.
“Grab that stool,” she told Peter, pointing toward a cushioned stool off to one side as Mellie grabbed a matching one from behind the counter. “Urse and I do this all the time since we don’t have a lot of foot traffic in the store yet,” she told him. “Rather than close up the shop when we want to nosh, we just decided to put a stash of the necessary utensils and accoutrements under here.” She gave him a conspiratorial smile as she handed him a paper plate and napkin.
“Very efficient,” he complimented her. “But, if John’s plans for the town come to fruition, there will be more foot traffic come tourist season.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m not entirely sure whether or not to be happy about that. I’ve sort of grown used to the town the way it is, and I like the slower pace,” she admitted.
“But you’ll make more money if you have more customers, no?”
“Sure, but there’s more to life than making money,” she replied, touching a chord in his own heart, though she probably didn’t realize it. “You guys have got a pretty sweet thing going here. A town where shifters can be shifters and your grandmother can waltz down the beach in bear form without ten guys with tranquilizer rifles being called out to shoot her.”
Peter barked a laugh at the image she painted with her words. “You’re right,” he told her, between chuckles. “We all know that it can’t go on forever, though. Eventually, humans will start showing up in greater numbers. At the moment, we only get the occasional tourist, but word is already spreading about our sweet little artists’ colony here. Brody’s chainsaw masterpieces aside, Lyn Ling’s bamboo art gallery has drawn attention from Northern Californian art critics, and she’s even got a brisk mail order business beginning to take off. I helped her a bit with the website.”
“I’ve seen it,” Mellie told him excitedly. “Love the graphics.”
“That’s all Lyn. I just helped with the menu scripts and the shopping cart,” he replied modestly. He’d done quite a bit more than that, but he wasn’t a braggart.
“Well, maybe when we have time to breathe again, you can help out a bit with the bookstore’s site,” she said with a trace of humor. “We had this idea of featuring postcards, notecards, stationary—heck, even T-shirts—with some of the best art from cove residents and selling it online and in the store to supplement our book income.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Peter told her, glad to hear the sisters were putting thought into their business in addition to their magical work for the town. “I bet John will like this plan.”
“He does. Urse talked it over with him already, though it’s only in the planning stages. He thought it might attract more tourists, which is the eventual plan, of course. But the timing… Urse may have completed her task, but there’s still a lot to do on my part. And the town itself isn’t quite ready yet for throngs of the general public. With any luck, we’ll be ready about the same time the town is, so it’s an idea we’re deferring for a few months, at least.”
“I will help with the website whenever you want to start setting it up,” he told her, glad to be able to help her in any way she needed.
“Thanks, that’s really nice of you.” The smile she favored him with warmed his heart. “Now, which of these do you want?” She pointed to the selection of a dozen different pastries.
“You go first,” he said graciously. “I like them all.”
“Well, in that case…” Mellie made a small production out of choosing just the right pastry, lifting it in her fingers and taking it directly to her mouth for as big a bite as she could manage. Peter watched her every move, wishing that little pink tongue would lick out at him sometime, just the way she licked the stray icing off her own plump lips.
Could a guy get a boner just from watching a woman eat a honey bun? Apparently, he could. Peter shifted his position on the stool, hoping to ease the sudden tightness of his jeans. Mellie didn’t appear to notice his discomfort. She was too busy making love to the pastry he’d brought for her.
Sweet Goddess in heaven! He might come just from watching her eat, which was an entirely new experience for him. Never before had he known a woman to be so innocently sensual. Her every move made his lust rise higher.
Whoa, boy. He had to get better control over his responses, or this hunt might be over before it even truly began.
Realizing he’d been staring, Peter picked a pastry at random and crammed half of it in his face so she wouldn’t catch him staring at her like some sort of pervert. Raspberry. Not his absolute favorite, but not bad. Peter chewed, enjoying the burst of flavor, which only seemed to heighten his arousal. Damn.
“How is your grandmother settling in?” Mellie asked between bites. “I bet she’s happy to see you again.”
“She is. But she likes her space, too. She is reserving judgment about this town, but she’s very intrigued about how it all works. Where we come from, we have a more dense arrangement of bears than is usual in the rest of the world. Our Clan is pretty tight, and we like living closer to each other than most other bear shifters. But this… So many different bears in such close proximity. Babushka is skeptical, but she said the idea appeals to her in these times of trouble. There is safety in numbers, she says.”
“A wise woman,” Mellie agreed. “So, that’s why you’re here? You’re giving Grandma some space?”
“Yes,” he affirmed. “That, and I really have to open the shop today and catch up on paperwork. Plus, I wanted to invite you to dinner at my home tonight.” Here it was. The real reason he’d come to the bookstore and gathered his courage. “Grandmother might be able to help you with your quest,” he offered, hoping to sweeten the invitation. “She knew the dragon in our family line when she was a young girl. She might be able to tell you a bit more about him or, at least, about dragons in general.” He shrugged. The idea was thin, but it was the best he could come up with to try to convince her to eat dinner with him and his grandmother.
The real reasons behind his invitation would probably scare her off. He wanted the first contact between his babushka and his potential mate to be in private. That way, if there was a problem, he could try to contain it and not let the entire cove know that his grandmother had a problem with strega.
“Oh, that sounds great,” Mellie enthused. “I’d love to join you for dinner. Can I bring anything?”
“Just your beautiful self,” he told her in a moment of unguarded candor. He held his breath. She didn’t seem to mind his compliment. In fact, she seemed to glow at his words, her smile turning a shade self-conscious, perhaps, but overall, she looked very pleased.
He ate another three pastries before one of the loner bear shifters who lived way back in the woods entered the store. Mellie saw that she had a customer and jumped guiltily from her seat.
“Mr. Bender! I have your special order in back. Let me just go get your books.” Mellie rushed into the backroom, and Peter stood uncomfortably, putting his stool back where he’d found it. He nodded to the newcomer.
“Samuel.”
“Peter.” The newcomer acknowledged the greeting with a nod of his head then looked around the bookshop in an unconvincing show of nonchalance. “So… You and Mel?”
Peter’s eyes narrowed. Was Samuel interested in Mellie? If that was the case, Peter would make the other man bleed.
“What if it is?” Peter challenged, but Samuel held up his hands, palms outward.
“No skin off my nose,” he said quickly. “I like the sisters, but I doubt I’ll ever find a mate. I’m too ornery for my own good.” Samuel smiled crookedly, and Peter relaxed marginally. “Mel gets me the books I want and never asks too many probing questions about why a bear shifter is so interested in theoretical physics, or what have you.”
“Well, do me a favor and keep it to yourself for now,” Peter requested in a friendlier tone. “I’m not entirely sure this is going to work out.”
“I heard your granny caused a stir when she arrived yesterday,” Samuel observed, his eyes gleaming with humor. “Is she why you’re not so sure about you and Mel?”
“Could be. Could be I’m not sure Mellie will have me with all my faults. I’m not really sure if humans—even mages—can feel the same way we do,” Peter revealed, saying more to Samuel than he’d expected to reveal.
“Try not to overthink it too much,” Samuel advised. “I have no doubt the older sister is devoted to Big John.”
Peter had to admit Samuel had a good point. He would have said so, but at that moment, Mellie returned carrying a large stack of books. Peter didn’t even try to read the titles. He was sure the esoteric nature of Samuel’s reading choices would be noteworthy, but Peter was more interested in the woman holding the books than in the books themselves.
Peter had hoped to leave Mellie with a kiss to remember him by, but Samuel’s presence had ruined his plans. It didn’t look like the man was going to leave anytime soon, either. He had produced a handwritten list of books he wanted Mellie to order for him, and she was asking him to clarify the chicken scratch Samuel called handwriting. That could take a while.
“I’ll see you later,” Peter interjected during a brief pause in the conversation while Mellie was looking up a title on her computer.
Mellie looked up and smiled at him. “What should I wear?”
“Come as you are,” he told her. “In fact, I’ll swing by after work and pick you up.”
“Sounds good,” she told him. “See you then.”
Peter strutted out the door, feeling ten feet tall. She hadn’t minded Samuel knowing that they were seeing each other later. That was a good sign. At least, he took it as one.