Chapter 1
Life had become aimless.
Samuel padded through the woods, disinterested in the small wildlife that moved about him. His bear form was agile, but right now he moved sluggishly. When had he become so bored with life?
Humans contemplated eternity with fascination.
They seemed to think that living with no end in sight was some sort of wondrous adventure. They could not be more disillusioned.
Samuel the Warrior.
Samuel the Wise.
Samuel the Scholar.
Names given to him that meant nothing now.
When was the last time he had fought for a cause? When was the last time he had surrounded himself with books? Life had become so empty. A branch scraped against his side, and he ignored the slash of pain. Sure enough, the wound healed within a heartbeat.
Death was a morbid subject, one with which he had become quite fascinated.
Sometimes, he assumed his younger form and wandered around the humans who loved death. But they were naïve, mere children who discussed forces that were out of their intellectual depth. Sometimes, he sat amongst the elderly, and became one of them.
Humans were lucky. Although, they feared death, it was the very incentive that led them to enjoy their life to the fullest. He had had children. He had seen them grow up and take mates of their own. And he had left when he had realized his time was near.
The love of a woman was not unknown to him. But Clara was dead and had been gone for centuries.
Sometimes, he tried to recall the sound of her voice when she had been angry at him, or her infectious laughter. But he failed. He couldn’t even remember what his youngest had looked like when he had last seen him.
Of course, Roy was buried now.
His children had lived full lives, and sometimes he went to check on his extended family. How long had it been since he had gone to the markers where his family was buried? Emily, his eldest daughter, had been furious when he had decided to leave.
Of course, he hadn’t known at that time that he would meet that damned vampire and outlive his entire family as a result.
A grunt.
He felt a twinge of pain when he thought of them, but four hundred years was a long time. He had met women; played with them for a while, but no one had ever caught his interest, not like Clara. Nobody was quite like his mate, so open with her emotions. He had spent half of his mortal life running after her, making sure she didn’t get herself killed with that honesty of hers. Clara had always been direct, no sugarcoating the truth.
Samuel stared at a spot on the ground. How long had he been standing there, lost in his thoughts? The sun danced on the ground, playing hide and seek with the foliage, thin beams peeking out from behind the leaves. Maybe he should lie down here and take a nap?
No, he didn’t quite like the shade. It was cold for early November. The fog that had settled in the woods was ominous to many a creature, but not to him.
He had no home anymore.
Changing his train of thought as quickly as it had come to him, he started moving. He should probably eat something as well. Since the sun was out, he should find a nice spot which would warm him up as he took a nap.
A lingering scent caught his attention, and his bear recognized it as something new.
Human, but not human.
As he moved further, he caught traces of that earthy scent. It almost felt like the entire place had been scent-marked by a predator claiming its land. This place was new to him. He didn’t like to stay in one place for too long, so moving about gave him an activity to do.
Samuel paused for a heartbeat and looked at the dense foliage ahead. Should he even bother?
The scholar in him sat up, revealing some interest. This was a scent that he had never come across. Not a witch, not a shifter. Every species had an underlying scent that gave away their kind. This was different.
He cast a look at the dying sunlight. It was going to become dark soon, and he had not bothered looking for a place to sleep. A cave would have been a suitable reprieve after so many nights of sleeping under the open sky.
His head turned to study the dense shrubbery. Every time he looked at it, it seemed that it had been placed there almost deliberately. It piqued his interest. After so many years of just going through the motions of living, anything that stirred his bear’s curiosity was worth checking out.
He nosed his way through the barrier and muscled his body out of it. The sound of something snapping back into place had him turning around.
The shrubbery looked like nothing had disturbed it. The broken twigs and leaves were back in place, having grown back immediately.
The bear cocked his head.
Sure smelled like the handiwork of a witch.
It was then that he got a proper view of where he stood – a large clearing that was surrounded by a circle of trees. A few steps ahead of him was a body of water, something akin to a pond. The sunlight reflected on the water, giving it a shimmering appearance.
A small, gardening patch was just a few feet away from the pond. As Samuel padded closer, he saw that it was a vegetable garden of sorts. He sniffed at a cabbage that protruded from the ground. It smelled fresh and raw.
He wouldn’t mind having cabbage stew at this very moment.
Turning his head, he looked at the small cottage that sat there. It wasn’t very new, meaning that either someone had been living here for quite a few decades, or had inhabited the stone building and built a life around it.
Fresh flowers in the window showed that whomever it was considered themselves well protected, enough to leave an access point into their home, open and unguarded. There was no sign of life in this place, and if it hadn’t been for the flowers and the lingering scent in the air, he wouldn’t have thought that anyone…
A soft humming.
Samuel watched, motionless, as a young woman emerged from the back of the cottage. Her skin was an earthy tone with freckles spread all over her dainty, little nose. Those cobalt eyes did not seem surprised to see him, neither was there a shift in her scent to reveal any fear.
She did not stop walking even when she saw him, and he could swear he saw some measure of annoyance in her gaze. She breezed past him to the vegetable patch. A woolen cap covered her head and ears, and the bear considered the two flaps that hung by the side of her ears with a considerable amount of interest.
He wondered what would happen if he were to tug on them.
The woman clearly did not see him as a threat as she turned her back on him and started pulling out some cabbages.
Samuel approached her warily and sniffed at her experimentally, waiting to see her reaction.
The woman did not turn around to pay him any attention.
The shifter wondered if he should feel insulted at that. He poked his nose at her and sniffed more vigorously, only to have her push at him with an annoyed look on her face.
Miffed at the way she swatted at him the way one would a fly, Samuel sat on his haunches and studied her. He saw the way she shivered in the cold. She stuffed the cabbages in the basket that hung on her arm and stood up abruptly.
One glance at the sky had her repressing a shudder. She hurried toward the cottage and opened the door.
“Well?”
Was she talking to him?
She was certainly looking his way, wearing that same expression of annoyance on her face that was starting to become a trademark of hers.
“I’m not going to wait all day, you know?” She tapped her foot impatiently.
Samuel moved toward her slowly, and then when she frowned at him, he entered the stone cottage.
“It’s bloody cold outside.” the woman muttered as she took off the floppy hat and hung it on a stand next to the door. Her long, black hair tumbled down into a glorious mane, and Samuel wondered if it was as silky soft as it looked.
The heavy coat that she wore was next, and it was tossed over a chair.
The room was not that large. A small fire, that provided the warmth in the room, blazed happily. A small pot sat next to it with the top of a spoon poking out of it. A mattress, on which the blankets were piled, lay in the corner of the room. Although there were two chairs, there was no table or a toilet of any sorts.
The woman was quite untidy, Samuel noted.
“Sit next to the fire, before you catch a cold,” she called out to him as she washed the cabbage.
Samuel wandered over to her and watched in silence as she sliced the vegetables and starting preparing a stew. When he saw that all her attention was focused on the meal she was preparing, he started exploring the room, sniffing at the various scents.
Hers was the freshest, as if she had been living here for quite a while. But it was also odd that it was only her scent that he could find. Any faded scent he could locate was quite old.
A dead mouse in the corner caught his attention, and he glanced over his shoulder to see whether she was paying any attention. Her slim back was turned toward him, and Samuel batted at the dead mouse. It would have been more fun if it had been alive. The predator in him was sadistic and would have enjoyed the activity of chasing it down.
He was about to chomp down on it when he heard the cross voice from behind him, “If you want to eat that, you can do it outside. And stay there while you’re at it.”
Guiltily, Samuel dropped the mouse and heard a sniff as the woman turned back to what she was doing. He moved over to sit next to her and wondered why she wasn’t scared – or at least wary – of him. Had he lost his touch over the years? It had been a while since he had last been around humans.
He put his head on his paws, his eyes matching her every movement. But then again, this one wasn’t a human, was she?
As the stew cooked, she fetched two bowls and put them in front of the fire.
“Rather nasty for November,” the woman commented.
Was she talking to him?
She didn’t seem to expect a reply as she continued, “Lost a lot of my harvest due to the rain last week. I hope you like cabbage stew.” She stirred the mixture.
“I apologize for my crude manners. It’s been a while since I talked to someone other than the birds and the animals.”
So, she knew he was a shifter.
“I don’t have anything to offer you to wear, so I’d suggest you maintain that form until tomorrow.”
Samuel just blinked.
She didn’t seem to expect anything of him, and they sat in companionable silence. He found it quite agreeable to get out of the biting cold for a while. The cottage was cozy and warm, and when she poured out the stew in a bowl for him, he let it cool down a bit before lapping at it.
It tasted quite nice, and when he was done, she poured him some more.
As he downed the remains, she pulled the mattress closer to the fire. It didn’t escape Samuel’s notice that she didn’t bother putting away the dishes or washing anything. As soon as her meal was done, she climbed into bed.
He had always been a neat freak. It hadn’t bothered Clara much, as she hadn’t been much different from him. But right now, he found this mess intolerable. Had no one taught this woman to pick up after herself?
He wandered over to her and saw that she was fast asleep.
An odd woman.
He glanced at her. If she was asleep, she surely wouldn’t mind…
A shimmer of light, and he shifted.
The man that took the place of the bear was tall and lean. His brown hair and black eyes were a result of his heritage. His pale skin held marks from before his time as a Councilmember. Samuel usually preferred a younger form. He had been in his eighties when he had left his pack to wander. One of the gifts of being granted this privilege of immortality was that he was not restricted to his form.
Oberon was quite fond of this little trick, but then again, the ladies loved him in every form. The fairy king was an attractive man.
Samuel had never bothered with women much. He quite liked his books and scrolls. Of course, the need to be touched sometimes forced him to seek contact of the sexual nature.
He studied the sleeping woman. Her scent reminded him of Morrigan, but not quite.
Leaning down, he picked up the dish she had left. He cocked his head.
There was not an ounce of dust anywhere. And yet, it seemed as if she deliberately chose to be untidy.
As he moved about, clearing up the room, he saw the small table tucked to one side. It held a bowl of herbs and different dried powders.
He recognized some of them.
Morrigan used to carry them in a small bottle that hung around her neck. The witch had always been an oversexualized being. Her low-cut bodice had given away the secrets that she carried.
So, this young woman was a witch. But if she was, shouldn’t she have been warier of him, him being a shifter and all?
As he neared the window, his eyes detected something which made him still. Something watched the cottage.
He looked out and saw nothing. A heavy fog had covered the open area, but Samuel was not one to doubt his instincts.
Something was out there.
His eyes fell on the ring of strangely colored powder that lined the base of the walls of the room.
So, the witch was aware of it.
Feeling uneasy with how exposed the witch was, Samuel shifted and laid himself in front of the fire. He may not know her, but this woman had offered him a hot meal and a place to sleep.
He didn’t sleep that night, his eyes fixed on the door.