CHAPTER SEVEN
Margo was favorably impressed by the little town the bears had built for themselves, which was a good thing because, as it turned out, Trevor had a bit of difficulty contacting his man in the field. Margo and Gabe were forced to cool their heels in town for a day and a half, getting rooms at the newly built hotel at one end of the town’s Main Street. The old man behind the desk was still fit, but it was clear he was an aging bear shifter turned innkeeper. He seemed to enjoy his new role and was happy to hand over keys to two rooms, right next to each other.
The rooms had a connecting door that could be opened between them, but Margo left it firmly locked. Having Gabe that close was a bit too much temptation, and she was very much afraid that, if she ever opened that door, she’d never want to close it again.
Then again, why would that be so bad? A little voice in the back of her mind kept asking that maddening question. Her wolf was wondering the same thing. While Gabe still confused the more primal part of her personality, the wolf was growing fond of him and had even begun to form a base of respect for the way he’d handled himself on this mission so far.
But was that enough? Margo knew she was a little too Alpha for most people to handle. She always had to temper her natural personality around others—even members of her own Pack. She hadn’t been doing that with Gabe, she suddenly realized. She’d been giving him the full treatment. She hadn’t pulled any punches and hadn’t once bitten back her thoughts or words.
And he was still here. Still looking at her with those molten blue eyes. Still lighting little fires in her blood that could easily grow into a conflagration, given the smallest bit of encouragement.
Wonder of wonders, he still seemed to like her.
That first day in Grizzly Cove was spent mostly waiting. After the meeting at the bakery, they’d been giving implicit permission to browse around the town. Margo had enjoyed going into the different art galleries and checking out what was on offer. She fell in love with a wood carving of a wolf, but the prices were out of her league.
Instead, she picked up a lower-cost print of a painting one of the bear shifters had done of the cove at sunset. The orangey hue of the image appealed to her, and she figured she would have something to take home with her to commemorate her trip. Since they were traveling light, she arranged to have the print shipped by the gallery to her home. It cost a little extra, but it would be worth it to have a memory of this special place when she got back to snowy Canada.
They went back to the bakery for lunch, enjoying thick sandwiches on freshly baked artisanal bread. Margo couldn’t get over the quality of the food the small shop produced and was sure to compliment the sisters who ran the place. It looked like a lot of the town got their lunch from the busy bakery because there was a steady stream of big bear shifters coming in to pick up their orders.
By late afternoon, Margo and Gabe were sitting on a park bench, facing the waters of the cove, just enjoying a quiet break from their walk around town when Zak came up to them. He was no longer wearing the deputy sheriff’s uniform he’d had on before. He was all smiles as he invited them both to his new restaurant, which had just opened up, for dinner. Apparently, the bear shifter—one of the smallest of the giants they’d so far encountered in the town—was of Cajun origin, and his restaurant specialized in the cuisine of his native area.
Margo suspected Zak might be some other kind of bear. Maybe a black bear, which were usually a bit smaller than grizzlies in the wild. Most of the other men in town were absolute giants, and she could easily picture them shifting into massive grizzly bears when the mood struck. Zak was a bit quicker and more wily. And his hair was a lot darker.
After he left them, Margo turned to Gabe to share her observations. “I bet he’s a black bear.”
“He is,” Gabe confirmed in a quiet tone.
Margo was so surprised by his certainty she turned to look at him. “How can you be so sure?”
“It’s the flavor of the magic emanating from him,” Gabe told her. “It’s different from the other guys we’ve met so far today. I can see the color of their beasts, and he’s definitely black-furred, therefore a black bear. The mayor and the other men we’ve met were brown bears. Grizzlies. And that cute little girl and her mother in the gallery? Black and white.”
Margo scrunched up her nose, thinking through her amazement. “Pandas?”
Gabe nodded, smiling gently as he watched the waves lap at the rocky shore. “That little guy with the Aussie accent who came into the bakery while we were having lunch was gray.”
“He smelled like cough drops,” Margo contributed. “I thought maybe he had a cold or something.”
“Or maybe he’s an Australian marsupial we commonly refer to as a bear,” Gabe said in a semi-teasing tone.
“A koala? No way.” Margo played along. She thought he was kidding, but now that she thought about it… “Really?”
“I think so,” Gabe confirmed, nodding. “It’s just a guess, of course, but my guesses about magic are usually pretty accurate. Shifter magic has differing flavors and colors. At least to me.”
“That’s kind of fascinating,” Margo admitted. “I mean, we shifters can usually tell when we encounter different species, but we aren’t always able to figure out what animal someone else carries within. Wolves usually recognize wolves, of course, and I assume the same goes for bears and the others, but if I met another shifter on the street, unless I was very familiar with their species’ human appearance and scent, I would be guessing.”
“Now, see? I find that really interesting,” Gabe told her, turning on the bench to face her. He draped one arm over the seat back between them and lifted the leg closest to her to rest on the bench between their two bodies. “I would have thought shifters would have a better shot at identifying the animal counterparts through scent.”
“Not always,” Margo told him, for some reason willing to expose shifter secrets—not that this was a big one—to the handsome mage. “When in human form, we really only can catch hints of fur or feathers. I can tell a land shifter from an air shifter, but the rest is a bit of a mystery unless there’s some sort of visual cue—or the person has really bad personal hygiene. Most of us are kind of fastidious because our noses are so much more sensitive than anyone else’s.”
“Ah,” Gabe said. “That explains a lot. Thank you.” He paused for a moment. “Seems only fair I should give you something in return. Is there anything you wanted to know about mages or magic? I’m at your disposal.”
“A tempting offer,” she told him, turning back to look at the ocean. Things were getting just a little too familiar for her comfort. There really were a lot of questions she would have liked to ask him, but she didn’t want to give him the wrong impression. She was still determined to keep our distance, no matter how charming he was. “I may take you up on that offer later, but not right now,” she said.
“A pity.” Gabe lowered his leg and arm back to a sitting position as he turned back to look out over the calm water. “But just know that I’m at your disposal, any time you want.”
Why did her mind go immediately into the gutter? Damn. Gabe was getting under her skin, and he didn’t even have to try too hard to have her thinking each of his words was some kind of sexual innuendo.
Was she going into heat or something? While that usually wasn’t a problem for wolves, she’d heard stories about some shifter species that had to deal with that kind of thing. What a drag that must be. As it was, she was more human in that respect. She was at the mercy of the regular human hormones and pheromones and whatever else was making her have impure thoughts about jumping Gabe’s bones. That was surely enough!
They had dinner at Zak’s Cajun restaurant, and the food lived up to Zak’s enthusiastic claims. He really was the top-notch chef, and she enjoyed the intimate table for two. The wine list featured only the best vintages from the famous Maxwell Winery. It was very impressive that a brand-new restaurant in a tiny town was able to secure such connections. From what she’d heard, Maxwell was very selective about how and where they distributed their products.
The mystery was explained near the end of the meal, when Zak came out of the kitchen wearing chef’s whites and stopped at their table for a quick chat. Gabe complimented the black bear shifter on his food and mentioned the superb wine. Zak surprised Margo by pulling up a chair and straddling it.
“Since you’ve met Hiram, I guess it’s okay to mention that he’s my silent partner in the restaurant. He has a connection with Maxwell. A very old connection, you might say.” Zak winked almost comically.
“He’s not…?” Margo blurted, but then stopped herself from speaking too plainly. She couldn’t be positive that someone might overhear any incautious words.
“Yeah, they’ve been friends for a very long time,” Zak said, winking again. “Which was lucky for me. Otherwise, it might have been impossible to secure the contract, and everyone knows Maxwell makes some of the best wine in the world. Of course, he’s had a lot of time to perfect his craft.”
Margo wondered at the revelation that one of the world’s best vineyards was run by a vampire while Gabe kept talking with Zak. Eventually, the Cajun chef took his leave and made the rounds of the other tables to make sure everyone was happy with the food he had prepared for them.
“He really has a big personality,” Gabe mused to Margo as the Cajun left. “He’d do very well as a celebrity chef, if that’s the path he wanted to follow.”
“Most of us try to stay out of the spotlight,” Margo reminded him. “It’s easier to keep our secrets if we’re not being watched all the time.”
“Yeah, there is that,” Gabe allowed, sipping his wine.
He seemed to be in a mellow mood after the fantastic meal, but his gaze still intensified whenever his eyes met hers. She could almost feel him undressing her with his eyes, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling. If any other man had looked at her that way, she probably would have wiped the floor with his face, but from Gabe? Mmm. Yeah. She liked the way he was looking at her. Perhaps a bit too much.
They left the restaurant together and walked slowly back down Main Street to the hotel, which was situated at one end of town. The moon was out, and the chilly night air felt good against her skin as the heat of the wine in her system dissipated.
Starlight sparkled off the gentle ripples on the waters of the cove. She thought she saw the flash of a large tail breaching the water far out in the cove, but it was gone in a flash of scales. Still, it brought to mind the fact that a pod of merfolk was supposedly living in the cove now. She’d never seen a mer in shifted form, though she suspected more than one of the diners in the restaurant with them had been mer in human form.
She figured a few of the people staying in the hotel were mer, as well. She’d noticed the scent of salt water on them as they passed in the hall. Not fur. Not feathers. She was familiar with those telltale traces. This was something else. Barely detectable and confusing—unless you knew there were mythical merpeople around.
“There’s so much magic here,” Gabe said out of the blue as they walked along. He was staring out over the water, his gaze swirling with energy.
“It’s all the shifters. Bears are supposed to be the most magical of us,” Margo replied.
“It’s more than that,” Gabe muttered, still looking out to sea. “There are powerful wards here. As if…”
“What?” she prompted him when he trailed off.
Gabe turned to look into her eyes. His gaze was powerful and intense. “I don’t think I’m the first mage in town—or the most powerful. Far from it. Someone here is casting permanent wards. The number of mages who can do that are less than one per century. And there are signs of something very potent in the water itself. A potion or something very like it.”
“How can you tell?” Margo was truly curious.
Gabe chuckled and looked away. “In my family, we have all kinds of mages. My dad is a potions master, and Uncle Geoff teaches spell casting, including wards. I, myself, am more inclined toward the spells, but I can recognize potion work when I see it. There’s a potion mage here in town—or maybe one owed the bears a favor. It would have to have been a really big favor because the magic in that water is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
They had stopped walking while they talked, but they were close enough to the hotel now that there were other people visible in the light coming from the hotel entrance. A few paused to look at them, and Margo got the distinct impression that they might’ve caught the tail end of what Gabe had said.
Margo took his arm and tugged him toward the hotel entrance. They weren’t going to be caught out in the open if the townsfolk took exception to Gabe’s gift of perception.
Gabe was startled when Margo took his arm. She’d been keeping him—literally—at arm’s length. Her sudden change alerted him to his surroundings, and he realized he might’ve been a little indiscreet with his words. In his defense, he wasn’t used to being around so many shifters with super-sensitive hearing.
He thought back to what he’d said and realized he had nothing to regret. Let the bears know he wasn’t just some bumpkin. They had already known he was a mage. That he hadn’t been questioned too closely about his abilities had surprised him a bit, but he’d written it off to the strength of the introduction Master Hiram had given them. Hiram’s name seemed to be made of gold around here—at least with the bears that they’d met who seemed to be running the show.
“I hope they don’t have any pitchforks in this town,” Margo muttered as they walked down the empty hallway to their rooms.
She still clung to his arm, so Gabe wasn’t about to say anything that might make her let go. If she felt protective, that meant something, and he tried hard to hide his inner glee. She seemed to really care about whether or not he’d be safe from the shifters in this town. His heart was leaping for joy, even as he tried to present a calm front so she wouldn’t suspect the turn of his thoughts.
When they got to his door, he intended to walk past to escort her all the way to her door, but she stopped and turned to him expectantly.
“Open your door,” she told him, not bothering to mince words.
He complied, somewhat confused as to why she was so intent on getting into his room, but he wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth…or a pretty werewolf, as the case may be. He knew there was something wrong with the metaphor, but who cared when the luscious Margo was leading the way into his room?
He shut the door behind them and watched, bemused, as she opened the closet and bathroom doors and even looked under the bed. Was she doing a security check? Gabe tried to hide his grin.
“No one’s been in here. At least, nobody that I can smell,” she told him after she seemed to have satisfied her own senses. She had her hands on her hips and a frown on her face, and he’d never seen anything lovelier.
“Nobody passed my ward either,” he reported quietly, moving away from the door and toward the pretty woman standing in the middle of his hotel room. “Tell me, Margo, are you concerned for my safety?”
He couldn’t help the teasing tone in his voice, and she scowled at him as she marched over to the connecting door that led to her room. She unlocked and opened it, exposing the second door that would have to be unlocked from her room. What exactly did she have in mind?
“I’m going next door,” she informed him as she marched back past him. “Keep this open.”
“Your wish is my command, but if you’re really worried, you’re not going next door without me,” he said, catching up to her.
He closed the self-locking door behind them and followed her the few feet down the hall to her doorway. She didn’t say anything, but he thought he heard a sexy low-level growl coming from her throat as she unlocked her door. She didn’t know it, but he’d placed a ward across her threshold and window, as well, and he already knew nobody had been in her room.
He didn’t ruin her fun, though. He watched as she went through the same routine in her room as she had in his, checking every nook and cranny where someone or something might be secreted away. When she was done, she opened the second locked connecting door from her side then went into his room from hers. He stepped to the threshold to watch her do another once over in his room, just in case someone had snuck in during the five minutes it had taken to check out her room.
“So, what’s the plan?” Gabe asked her, leaning against the doorjamb to watch her as she came out of his bathroom for a second time in less than ten minutes.
“That door stays open,” she said, as if giving him orders. “I’m not sure how friendly this town is toward mages. I mean, they all seem like big fluffy teddy bears, but you were getting some odd looks just now that made my fur stand on end.”
“And what? You’re going to protect me tonight?” He tried so hard to keep the amusement out of his voice.
“If I must,” she answered evenly, not finding any amusement at all in his words.
Gabe tried hard to sober up. He pushed himself up from his leaning position and walked slowly toward her. He deliberately caught her gaze and held it.
“You care,” he accused in a low voice, smiling the whole time. “You care if someone tries to attack me.”
Her chin came up, and her eyes narrowed. “You’re my partner for this mission. Like it or not, both my family and yours might object if I failed to protect you in a town full of shifters.”
That stopped him short as he considered her words. Only a few feet separated them now.
“Are you sure that’s all it is?” he went on, unable to stop himself from pushing her into an admission.
Maybe it was too soon. Hell, he was damned near certain it was too soon, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to mean more to her, and he needed her to acknowledge it.
“What else could it be?” Her words were nonchalant, but her manner was anything but.
She seemed nervous all of a sudden, and the way she lowered her eyes—a totally submissive move for a woman who was otherwise all Alpha all the time—made him take action. Gabe closed the distance between them, getting right up in her face. She didn’t back down, but neither did she look up to meet his gaze.
She was driving him crazy with the submissive move. Didn’t she know that was like waving a red flag in front of a bull? He wanted the regular Margo back, not this shy girl who couldn’t meet his eyes. What was that all about?
“Margo…” He whispered her name, raising his hand to touch her jaw. Using only a little bit of effort, he turned her face to his, and she finally raised her eyes. “It could be something very special. If you let it.”
His words were soft motes of sound riding the thickening air currents between them. As the very air vibrated with desire, he knew she was feeling it, too. No way was this attraction all one-sided.
Gabe couldn’t take it anymore. He had to kiss her.