CHAPTER SIX
Evie realized Ray was awake and looking from her to Fred and back again.
“It’s okay. Fred is a friend. He’s the local shaman. He just came over to check on us and offered to take a look at you. I was worried.” She reached out to cup Ray’s stubbled cheek.
Fred let his magic fade and lowered his hands. He had a slight smile on his face that spoke of fondness. He was a good friend, and he seemed to have decided Ray was okay in the time it took for him to assess Ray’s magical power levels.
“Your mate is more than you led me to believe, Evie,” Fred told her with a playful wink. “Your son and his mate did good work freeing another servant of the Great Spirit from evil. I look forward to working with you, if you stay in the area, Ray.” Fred held out his hand in a friendly gesture. Ray sat up, leaning on one elbow and grasped the shaman’s hand. “I’ve known Evie and Josh since he was just a little pup. I’m glad they have you back now.”
“It’s good to be back,” Ray agreed, trying to get up, but Fred stilled him with one hand on his shoulder.
“Whoa, there, friend. You need to rest a bit more and get used to being in our realm for a bit, I think. Your magical energy is at a low point. I gave you a little boost, but it’s best if these things come back in a more natural way.”
Ray subsided, giving up his attempt to rise. He really did still look tired to Evie’s eyes.
“It’s going to blizzard out there in an hour or two. I’m just doing my final checks on a few folks who live out in the wilderness, like you, before it hits. Is there anything you need?” Frank addressed his question to Ray and Evie equally.
“Josh restocked a few months ago. We’ve got plenty of food and fuel. We should be fine for a while,” Evie reported. “Is there anyone we should keep an eye out for?”
When Evie and Josh had lived here full-time, they’d often kept a silent watch over far-off neighbors who might need a helping hand. There had been one old woman, in particular, who’d lived way out at the edge of the res, all on her own. Her name had been Martha, and she’d been an artist of some renown. She’d been too stubborn to move closer to the rest of her tribe, but everyone had looked in on her from time to time, including Evie and Josh, nosing around her place after dark in wolf form, to scare off other predators and make sure she was okay.
“Martha’s daughter is living out at her place now. She reported the sound of dirt bikes last night, but she couldn’t tell where they were exactly. I took a look around but haven’t spotted any tracks yet.” Fred frowned.
“Kids, you think?” Evie asked, fearing Fred’s answer going by the look on his face.
“No. There was a gathering last night to celebrate a marriage, and pretty much everyone who’s supposed to be in these parts was accounted for one way or another. If someone was out this way riding dirt bikes, it wasn’t anyone we know. The tribe is on alert, but it’s a big, empty territory. As you well know.”
“We’ll be vigilant,” Ray said. “I’ll try to cast a ward or two before the storm hits.
Fred looked skeptical. “Uh…maybe I can help you with that,” he said, no doubt trying to be gentle with his doubts about Ray’s magical strength.
Ray smiled and shook his head. “I promise not to draw on my own energy. I can cast it the old-fashioned way, like human mages do. It just takes more prep and a bit more chanting.” Now, Ray was grinning. “It won’t deplete me. I promise.”
“Well…if you’re sure.”
“Thanks, Fred,” Evie told him as she walked with him toward the door. “Now that I’ve got the generator running, I’ll keep my phone charged. Call me if you need me. You know I’m willing to help if you need it.”
Fred leaned down to place a chaste kiss on her forehead. “You’re a good woman, Evie. I wish you all the happiness in the world with your mate returned to you. And the same goes. You call me if you need anything. We’re all hunkering down, but you know I can be here in a half hour if you need anything, even in a blizzard. Bears are tough.”
“So are wolves,” she argued playfully.
She felt so much joy in her heart with Ray here. Being able to share him with her closest friends was a treat she’d never expected to enjoy again. The fact that Fred recognized Ray’s innate goodness meant a lot to her. She had hoped they would be friends, and all the signs, so far, were positive.
Fred left, and Evie returned the fleece robe to the hook on the back of the bathroom door, where Josh had left it months ago. They didn’t throw away cast off clothing in Evie’s household. Shifters could go through clothes like nobody’s business, especially when they were young and learning how to control the shift. Josh had burst so many seams on heavy denim jeans that she’d started buying him stretchy sweat pants during his teen years. Those, at least, were a little harder to burst when a change happened too swiftly.
These days, though, Josh was a master of control. He only shifted in his clothes when absolutely necessary. When attacked out of the blue, for example. That was how she’d first discovered he was having problems with evil people tracking him. After a while, he couldn’t hide the destroyed clothing from her, since she did all the laundry in the household.
Regardless, old clothes—what few survived—ended up at the cabin. This way, there was always something clean available if they arrived unexpectedly. Plus, there wasn’t a washer or dryer in the cabin, and the nearest one was miles away in the little town near the res. More clean clothes meant less trips to the laundromat, which was always a plus—especially now, when she’d arrived with no car.
“If I didn’t know better, I might just be jealous,” Ray said, sitting up against the headboard and looking all sexy to her Ray-starved eyes.
“Of Fred?” Evie laughed. “He’s sweet and all, but he’s a bear.” At Ray’s blank look, she went on. “Bears are way too laid back. Wolves are more high-strung, in case you haven’t noticed. We’re all about action. Bears are all about ease—until you piss one off. Then, watch out. He’s a good friend, but we’d never work as a couple. Our animals really don’t understand one another.” She made a face that she hoped conveyed her dismay at even the idea of a wolf and a bear getting together romantically.
She supposed it might work for others. Weird others, to be sure. But not for her.
“And he’s a shaman?” Ray asked as she sat on the side of the bed, facing him.
She loved being near her mate, now that she finally had the chance again. She might not ever let him out of her sight again. At least not for long.
Evie nodded. “Shaman—with all that innate bear magic of his—and M.D. He looks after folks around here in both the mundane and the magical sense. Few know he’s a bear shifter, except maybe the elders in his tribe and a couple of others.”
“You’re one of the privileged few, then,” Ray observed.
Evie shrugged. “Shifters can always spot other shifters, and we were technically in his territory, since Fred was here long before us. It took him a while because…you know…bears. Laid back and all, you see? But he finally got around to checking me and Josh out when Josh was just a few weeks old. Until then, I’d been dealing with one of the elders, but after Josh was born, Fred took over checking on us every month or so. He knew what we were right off, and he welcomed us, which was a relief. Once a bear accepts you, he’ll go to the ends of the Earth for you. They’re loyal creatures.”
“As are wolves, if I remember correctly,” Ray said, reaching forward to drag her into his arms. She went willingly, resting her cheek against his shoulder.
“Oh, yeah. I’m loyal to you, lover. Just try and shake me loose. I dare ya.” She laughed, looking up at his beloved face. It was so amazing to be able to tease him like this again.
“Never,” he spoke it like a vow. “You’ll never be rid of me again, Evie. Not as long as I have anything to say about it.” He kissed her, then. A kiss of promise and oath. A serious kiss for a serious declaration. When he let her go, he looked deep into her eyes for a long moment. Then, he seemed to remember something. “Speaking of which…” He tried to sit up straighter, jostling her a bit. “Do you have any candles? And salt? And I’ll need a knife and some water, as well. Oh, and matches.” His brow wrinkled a bit as he seemed to be thinking aloud. “I haven’t done this in quite some time. I hope I’m not forgetting anything.”
Evie thought she knew what he was driving at. It sounded like he was looking for items he’d need to do magic and cast the ward he and Fred had mentioned. Evie didn’t know a lot about spell casting, but she attended rituals when she could and believed strongly in the Mother of All. She would help Ray gather the implements and assist in whatever way she could.
About forty-five minutes later, they had both showered and dressed in clean clothes. Ray fit into his son’s cast offs as if they were his own, which wasn’t too surprising since both father and son were built on the tall and muscular side. The items Ray needed were gathered in a basket, and they stepped outside the cabin to begin. Ray explained things as he went along, much to Evie’s surprise, but she found he was doing things that even she could manage. Little acts of ordinary magic, as he called it, that were both simple and potent.
She followed him around the cabin as he drew a thin line in the snow-covered ground with salt. Luckily, she had a large supply of it to use as ice melt, and Ray claimed the bigger pellets would work just as well as the fine crystals for what he intended.
“Won’t it matter that the salt is melting into the snow as soon as you lay it down?” Evie asked, watching him work and following along behind, holding the ten-pound bag of coarse salt.
“Actually, this is better than the dry salt ring. No gaps. And even though you can’t see the salt, when it combines with the snow, it’s still there. It sinks into the ground this way, providing even stronger protection. It’s ideal, really,” he went on as they walked the circumference of the circle, making a wide disc with the cabin at its center. “This’ll be our first line of defense. I’ll know if anything crosses this ring, once I speak the words and key it to myself.”
“Is this something anyone can do?” Evie asked, though he’d said it was before they’d started their trek.
“Anyone with even a little bit of magic in their soul,” he agreed. “Oh, I see.” He looked at her, his eyes widening in recognition. “I’ll teach you the words, and you’ll be keyed into it too. How’s that?” He smiled at her, and she was glad she had such a perceptive mate. “It’s good for you to know these things. They can help protect you in strange situations like the one we now find ourselves in.”
“Knowledge is never wasted,” Evie agreed. “My gran used to say that all the time.”
“A wise woman,” Ray said with respect.
“She was. I mean, she really was a wise woman. She was a priestess,” she clarified.
Ray seemed impressed. “Human?” he asked.
“Yeah, but she played with us kids like she was a wolf at heart. Grandpa James loved her spirit. You could see it in his eyes when he looked at her. And vice versa. They were a great couple.”
“It’s clear they had a good influence on you,” Ray said softly as he continued to spread the salt in a thin line. They were about three quarters of the way around the cabin now.
“They were the best,” she agreed. “I miss them still and regret Josh never got to meet them.”
“What happened to them?” Ray asked quietly, still working steadily on the salt line as she kept him stocked with fresh handfuls of salt from the bag she carried.
“Territorial dispute. It wiped out a large chunk of my old Pack. They were in disarray, which was why I was the next best thing to a lone wolf when we met.”
“Still, I know it was hard for you to break with your Pack to mate with me.” Ray’s voice was soft with remembered sorrow. “You know I felt terrible about coming between you and your folks.”
“They made their choice,” Evie told him. “And I’ve never regretted mine. You are the mate of my heart, Ray. They should have understood that I had to follow my heart.”
“I still say there was something wrong with your Pack,” Ray insisted, his expression darkening. “They shouldn’t have been so against us. I wanted to look into it at the time—”
“I told you to just leave it,” she interrupted him. “Better to just let it go and be together. I stand by that decision.”
Ray was silent a moment then sighed. “If you really feel that way, you know I’ll continue to respect your wishes.”
“Good.” She handed him another cup of salt from which he was taking handfuls to lay the salt line. “Now, how do we do this spell?”
He let the subject of their shared past go and spent the next few minutes teaching her the rudiments of casting a simple ward. They spoke the words he taught her together, and she felt immense satisfaction when she could actually feel the magical ring snap into place around the cabin. They were firmly inside the ring, as was the cabin, the generator and even the wellhead. So far, so good.
It felt so perfect to have Evie at his side, Ray thought as he spent the better part of an hour teaching her about spell casting. He hadn’t done this kind of magic in a long time, but it felt good and right to be using it now, back in the mortal realm, where it was strongest. It also felt important to teach his mate—his sweet, submissive wolf mate—how to protect herself from magical intrusion.
While it was true that shifters had a natural layer of magical protection that was just part of what made them able to shapeshift, it never hurt to learn new things, as Evie had pointed out. Evie’s inner wolf, though considered submissive to many of the other wolves of higher dominance in her old Pack, was still fierce and would defend her well in most situations. Still, it was important to Ray that she have other means of protecting herself and her den. The early warning that wards provided were a key part of that.
In the old days when they’d been newly mated, Ray had just set wards without even thinking about it. It felt disgraceful to him now that he’d never even thought of showing Evie how it was done. All the years he’d been gone and she hadn’t been able to do the simplest forms of magic to keep her home safe. That was on him. He should’ve been a better mate. He should’ve shown her this stuff long ago.
They cast three wards in all, each a little closer to the cabin. The final protections would be placed on the cabin itself, from the inside. It was just starting to snow when they went back inside.