Alexei had a moment’s temptation as he leaned over the side of the boat. He could lean just a little further and the sharks would probably be able to tear him to bits before Beka could stop them. Of course, that wouldn’t be fair to the sharks, since not only would Beka blast them to kingdom come for something that wasn’t their fault, but then she wouldn’t get the answers she needed. Still, getting gnawed to death by sharks might be preferable to seeing that stunned, appalled look in Bethany’s eyes again.
Of course, this wasn’t the first time a Human had figured out their secrets, or had to be told the truth for some reason. It was just the first time he’d ever cared about the response.
He growled under his breath at nothing in particular, which the shark below him apparently took as some kind of greeting.
“What? What you want?” it asked, jaws gaping open. “Who talks to sharks?”
Alexei repeated what it said for the benefit of Beka and their unplanned audience.
“Ah,” Beka said. “I’ve talked to sharks back home a few times, although I try to avoid it if I can, for obvious reasons. They’re not nearly as smart as dolphins, so you will want to keep your side of the conversation as simple as possible.”
“Ought to be easy for him,” Calum said with a snort. “Most mornings he only talks to me in grunts anyway.”
“Ha,” Alexei said, without taking his eyes off the shark. “Not everyone is a morning person. It’s not like you’re Mister Cheerful first thing in the day.” He cleared his throat. “My name is Alexei. I am a friend of the Baba Yaga.”
The shark swam in a circle, its powerful tail bringing it back around to where it started with seeming effortlessness. The whole time they talked, it never stopped moving.
“Baba Yaga here?”
Beka moved closer to the edge and bowed slightly. “I am the Baba Yaga,” she said. “Thank you for your help.”
Alexei translated for the shark, whose name, apparently, was White with Big Teeth. Alexei wondered if all his friends had the same name, or if there was one called Pale Gray with Big Teeth. He decided not to ask.
“What Baba Yaga need?” White asked.
“We are looking for the sharks who saw a ship like this one get destroyed recently.” Alexei also had no idea if sharks had any idea of time. “Near here. Lots of pieces. Three Humans died.”
The shark opened its mouth wide, showing multiple rows of very sharp teeth. Alexei had the uncomfortable feeling this was its equivalent of a smile.
“Boat in pieces. Dead Humans. Yes. We were there. We saw.”
“Ask him if he saw what caused the boat to go down,” Beka suggested. “An explosion, or something else?”
“Big boom make boat sink?” Alexei asked. “Large wave?”
The shark bumped its head against the side of the boat, making the whole thing shudder slightly. “No boom. No wave. Was Too Large to Be Prey thing. Very big, Too Large to Be Prey.”
Great. “He calls it ‘Too Large to Be Prey,’” Alexei reported. “Sounds like our friend the kraken all right.”
“Kraken?” Calum said, eyes wide.
“It’s a giant squid,” Bethany corrected. “Probably. Shush up and let him finish talking to the shark.” She bit her lip in a way Alexei always found particularly adorable. “Damn it. I can’t believe that sentence just came out of my mouth.”
“If you believe I can talk to sharks, maybe you should believe me when I say there is a kraken,” Alexei pointed out crossly before turning his attention back to White with Big Teeth.
“Do you know where Too Large to Be Prey is?” he asked.
The shark swam in another circle. “Followed Human boat because they followed fish. When Too Large to Be Prey took boat to very deep, it ate all fish. No fish, no stay.”
“Crap,” Alexei said. He’d brought along a cask of fish to use to bribe the sharks if necessary. Now he wished he’d given it to the scarred nose dolphin, since it didn’t seem as though they were going to get anything helpful here.
“Maybe Baba Yaga ask Humans in other ship,” White said.
“Wait, what? There was another ship out there that day?” Alexei and Beka exchanged startled glances.
“Ask it if the kraken attacked the second ship,” Beka said, gripping his forearm in an iron clasp worthy of one of his own.
He asked.
“No,” was the answer. “Too Large to Be Prey swim to other ship. Give something to Humans. Swim away toward place where sun sets.”
“Son of a bitch,” Alexei breathed. “Someone is controlling the kraken. How is that even possible?”
“It shouldn’t be,” Beka said. “Although I remember something…I can’t quite put my finger on it. I need to call Barbara and Bella when we get back to land. Maybe they can shed some light on this.”
“At least you know it headed west,” Calum added. “Maybe it has a cave or an underwater cavern in that direction it holes up in.”
“Even if this doesn’t help us find it, it does give us an important piece of new information,” Beka said. She suddenly looked a lot less like a cute California surfer girl and a whole lot more like a dangerously powerful legendary witch.
It made Alexei nostalgic for the old days. “So what do we do next?” he asked.
“First we give the sharks the barrel of fish we brought with us, and thank them politely,” she said. “Then we head back to port so I can make some calls. If the others can’t remember whatever it is I’m thinking of, I might have to take a trip to the Otherworld.”
She set her jaw. “After that, I am going to track down whoever thought it was a good idea to set a kraken loose off Cape Cod and stop him. Even if it means I have to feed him to his own creature.” For a moment, her eyes gleamed with an unearthly light. “Especially if it means I have to feed him to his own creature.”
“Hell,” Bethany said. “She’s pretty fierce when she gets riled.”
“Damned straight,” Alexei said. “Atta girl.”
* * *
Bethany sat at her kitchen table nursing a cup of cold coffee and ignoring the paperwork piled up in orderly stacks in front of her. It was late, and Calum had been in bed for hours. The house was silent and peaceful.
If only that could be said for the inside of her head.
A thousand aimless thoughts swam inside her skull like a school of minnows. She was still trying to wrap her brain around the fact that there really was such a thing as a Baba Yaga, even if the mythological witch was nothing like the stories. Okay, especially because the wicked witch was nothing like the stories. Oh, and there were dragons, and sprites, and yes, unfortunately, a kraken. But that was all right, because the witch was here to deal with the kraken.
Jeez Louise.
Oddly enough, the part Bethany found the least difficult to accept was that Alexei was something more than - or at least different than - Human. Maybe it was because he was such a huge presence, impossible to ignore once he walked into a room. Maybe it was because he’d affected her in ways that no other man ever had. She’d always thought there was something out of the ordinary about him. Silly her, she’d just figured it was charisma or something.
But no, the only man she’d been attracted to in years was…well, she didn’t know what he was. Except leaving, sooner rather than later, probably. And he was everything she despised in a man, from watching her father fight and drink his way through life. The universe clearly had a strange sense of humor, since neither of those things kept her from thinking about him constantly, even before she found out he was a mythological hero.
Once Alexei had picked up the heavy barrel of fish in a seemingly effortless movement and dumped its contents over the side of the ship, he and Calum had settled in together at the bow, leaving Bethany and Beka to head up to the cabin and get them under power and heading back to port.
Beka could have done it on her own, of course, but Bethany had some questions and she figured she was more likely to get answers from Beka than she was from Alexei, who had lapsed back into a sullen silence as soon as he stopped talking to sharks.
“Is he okay?” Bethany asked, once they were underway.
Beka sighed. “Define okay. If he were a Human being, I’d say he was suffering from post traumatic shock. He and his brothers went through something awful. It not only robbed them of their positions as The Riders, which was all any of them had ever known, but left them broken in ways I don’t think anyone can really comprehend. His brothers Mikhail and Gregori had their own struggles too, but they eventually found their way to new paths and to women who loved them. I’m not sure Alexei is even trying to find anything to replace the life he once had.” Her blue eyes looked immeasurably sad. “I’m not sure he ever will.”
“He does seem to be working rather hard at drinking and fighting,” Bethany said
Beka laughed, but it lacked her usual humor. “Well, you could say that used to be a hobby for the three of them when they were together. I hope he hasn’t decided to turn it into a full time career now that he’s alone.”
“I hope not too,” Bethany said. “I’ve only just started letting him back into the bar again since he wrecked it the last time. I’d hate to have to ban him for good.”
“What seemed like over-exuberant high spirits when it was the three of them just seems desperate and unhealthy when he is on his own.” Beka gazed out over the wide expanse of ocean in front of them as if it might hold some elusive answer. “I wish I knew what to do to help him.”
“He misses his brothers,” Bethany said. “Maybe you could figure out some way to get them back together?”
Beka’s head swiveled around. “He told you that?” She sounded stunned.
“He did. He doesn’t talk about himself much, but one day when I could tell he was feeling down, he told me he was missing his brothers. But when I asked him why he didn’t visit them, he told me they wouldn’t want to see him, because he’d done something terrible to them and wasn’t worthy of their company.”
“Huh. He probably said more to you than he has to anyone he knows since the incident,” Beka said, looking bemused. “None of us has seen him since he left the Otherworld, and the only communication we’ve had, if you could call it that, are the occasional postcards from across the country, usually smelling like beer. He didn’t do anything terrible, of course. Just didn’t do the impossible, which they all seem to have expected of themselves. I’m surprised he told you that much, though. He must really be comfortable with you.”
Bethany shrugged. “I don’t know why he would be. I’m usually bitching at him about something and I twisted his arm into taking care of the grumpiest, most uncooperative man in the world.”
This time there was actual amusement in Beka’s chuckle. “I suspect that makes him feel right at home. You should meet Barbara, the eldest of the Baba Yagas. She’s turned cranky into an art form, although less so since she met and married Liam, a Human sheriff.”
Bethany’s heart stuttered for no obvious reason. “Oh?” she said in a casual tone. “So you magical folks can marry Humans?”
“I did,” Beka said, flashing a fond smile as she thought of her husband. “Marcus is a fisherman and a former Marine. He’s as Human as they get. For that matter, so did my sister Bella, and both of Alexei’s brothers. But it isn’t exactly the usual thing.”
She gave Bethany’s face an intense perusal. “Not that it is any of my business, but you’re not falling for Alexei, are you? I mean, I wouldn’t blame you if you did, he’s a terrific guy. And I can tell he is attracted to you too. But this is the longest he has stayed in one place since he came across the portal from the Otherworld in California and started drinking his way across the county. I’m not sure he’s ever going to settle down anywhere. He’s too busy trying to outrun the ghosts of his past.”
“Oh, I realize that,” Bethany had said in a breezy manner, as if she’d never even considered the possibility of anything else. “I’m not looking for a man. Believe me. I had my share of going-nowhere small town boys and big city guys who think they’re god’s gift to women. I haven’t met one yet who treated me like I was his equal. Besides, I’ve more than got my hands full looking after my dad and running his damned tavern.”
But now she sat at her kitchen table and realized that somewhere in the back of her mind, some small sneaky part of her subconscious had been visualizing a future that still had Alexei in it; helping her with her dad, hanging around each night at the bar, spoiling Lulu, and…well, being around. Preferably with his shirt off. But none of that was going to happen.
One of these days he was going to pack up his few belongings, climb onto that huge Harley of his, and drive off to somewhere else. He’d probably never even think of her, of them, again. Besides, she’d seen enough of her parents’ relationship growing up to know what happened to women who tried to build a life with a man whose idea of coping with difficulty was fighting and drinking instead of actually trying to make anything better.
She shook her head, trying to clear it of such maudlin and unproductive thoughts. She needed to either work on the damned accounting papers or go to bed. Morning would come soon enough, whether or not she sat up brooding over things she couldn’t change. The last six months should have taught her that, if nothing else.
A knock sounded at the kitchen door, and Bethany glanced at the clock on the wall, startled. Who the hell would be knocking on the door at midnight?
It opened on creaky hinges and Alexei stuck his head inside, as if her thinking of him had summoned him.
“Hey there,” he said. “I saw the light on and figured I’d come tell you.”
Shit. “You’re leaving, aren’t you?” A part of her brain wondered if he would stay if she threw herself at him. Naked.
His dark eyebrows shot up. “Why would you say that? No, Lulu is having her puppies. I thought you might want to come watch.”
Bethany practically fell over getting out of the chair. “What? Now? Is she okay? Should I call the vet?”
The corner of Alexei’s mouth twitched but he considerately didn’t laugh at her. “She’s fine. Dogs have puppies all the time and there’s no reason to think she’s going to have a problem. You don’t need a vet, but you do need to hurry up if you don’t want to miss it.”
“Holy crap, we’re having puppies!” she said, following him out the door. And he’s not leaving. Thank god, he’s not leaving.
* * *
Alexei had seen baby animals born before, of course. Hard to avoid when you live as long a life as he had, much of it spent in rural Russia. But never to an animal he’d been as close to as he was to Lulu. To be honest, although he would never have admitted it out loud, he was a little worried. There were so many things that could go wrong. Lulu seemed calmer now that Bethany was here, and he kind of felt that way himself.
He had made a nest of sorts on the floor for the dog, figuring that Bethany wouldn’t be thrilled if a Great Dane gave birth on the couch in the guest house. Still, it was as cozy and comfortable as he could manage, and he was quite pleased with himself when he guided Bethany into the corner he’d set up in the small bedroom.
“Are those the sheets and blanket off your bed?” Bethany asked in a choked voice. “I had a stack of old towels set aside in the closet.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I don’t mind going without them for the night. I brought in the bedroll from my bike.”
“Terrific,” Bethany said. “I hope you like doing laundry.” But she knelt down by Lulu and stroked her on the head. “Aw, honey, you’re going to be fine.”
The dog whimpered, and Alexei translated. “She says she just wants to have these babies now. She is tired of feeling like a big sausage.” He laughed. “I think sausage is the word she means. What she actually said was ‘silly fancy hot dog.’”
“Yup, that’s probably a sausage. She always sniffs at them and makes a face before she takes a bite, when we offer her one. I think she is a hot dog snob.” Bethany sat between the bed and the window, next to Lulu’s pile of bedding. “Is she okay? She’s panting a lot.”
“That’s normal,” Alexei said. “It means she’s in labor. The first pup should make an appearance pretty soon.”
“Oh my god, this is so exciting,” Bethany said. “I’ve never seen anything born before. When I offered to foster her, I didn’t really think about this part of it.”
Alexei chuckled. “Pregnancy does usually lead to babies,” he said. “I can tell you this fact based on my years of experience.”
“Thank goodness I have you to explain these things to me,” Bethany said. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes bright, and Alexei tried to remember it was nothing to do with him and everything to do with a pregnant dog. No one should be that attractive at a time like this. It was damned distracting.
Lulu barked at him and he laughed.
“What did she say?” Bethany asked. Then, “I still can’t believe you can talk to dogs.”
“Better than I can talk to women, sometimes,” he muttered under his breath. “She said, wait, let me make sure I get this right, okay, she said… OW.”
“Oh, poor baby.” Bethany stroked Lulu’s ears, just the way the dog liked it. “I wish there was something we could do.”
Alexei watched the dog’s sides heave. “I think you can say hello to the first puppy,” he said, as a slippery mass slid out onto the sheets.
Bethany peered at it doubtfully. “That’s a puppy?”
Lulu twisted around and licked the sack off and then started to eat the afterbirth.
“Ugh,” Bethany said. Then leaning in to get a closer look at the baby, “Oh. Oh, Alexei, look at it. It’s so tiny.”
The small, squirming creature made its way unerringly to one of Lulu’s teats and started sucking. Bethany turned away to blow her nose and Alexei pretended not to be affected, although he leaned in to give Lulu a big kiss.
“Nice job, mama. Now only another six or seven to go.”
“Six or seven more?” Bethany said. She looked down as another puppy came into view. “Oh, good.” But she sounded a little faint.
* * *
By two AM, it was all over. Lulu was resting as comfortably as possible, given that she’d just given birth to eight puppies. The puppies themselves were snuggled up against Lulu’s side, their little bellies distended with milk. Alexei had cleaned up the area as much as he could without disturbing the new family and he and Bethany had retreated to the living area to give mama her well-earned rest. Bethany had a large box she’d been saving that they’d move the puppies and Lulu into in the morning.
“That was amazing,” Bethany said, beaming at him happily over a small glass of whiskey as they sat on opposite ends of the couch. “Thanks so much for coming to get me. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”
Alexei gazed at her. Fatigue from a long day showed in the tiny lines around her eyes and the slump of her shoulders, but she still seemed to fizz with pleasure over the birth of the puppies. He didn’t know how she did it. Despite everything she dealt with, most of the time she remained upbeat and positive. And beautiful, but never mind that.
“Lulu was glad to have you there,” he said. He grinned at her. “You’re her foster mother so I guess that makes you a foster grandmother to her puppies, right?”
“Shut. Up.” Bethany threw a pillow at him. “I am so not a grandmother.”
He threw it back, avoiding the glass in her hand. It wouldn’t do to spill good whiskey. “Puppy Grandma. You look pretty good, all things considered.”
Bethany narrowed her eyes at him and put the glass carefully down on the table. Then she whipped the pillow back at him, followed by the other two that had been sitting next to it. “I wouldn’t provoke me, if I were you. I’ll have you know that I was the Greater Cape Cod All State Pillow Fight Champion three years running. I seriously considered majoring in it in college.”
Alexei roared with laughter, suddenly feeling freer than he had in months. Something about the light-hearted banter reminded him of hanging out with his brothers, but instead of making him sad, the way it usually did, it just made him remember how good it had felt to goof around with them. And they weren’t nearly as cute as Bethany was.
“Don’t be so cocky,” he said. “I’ve had a lot more years to practice than you have.”
She winked at him. “Yes, but I know something you don’t know.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“I cheat,” she said, and whacked him over the head with the pillow she’d had hidden behind her back.
“Hey!” he yelled. “Who keeps extra pillows under the couch?” He threw two of them back at her.
“Former Pillow Fight Champions, obviously,” Bethany said, ducking. “You never know when you’re going to need extra ammunition.”
The next few minutes were a blur of laughter and pillows, until somehow they both ended up on the floor, with Bethany kneeling over Alexei’s prone body as he pretended to cower away from the dangerous paisley bolster she held in one hand.
Their eyes met and something shifted. Suddenly the air was heavy with potential. Alexei felt as though he couldn’t catch his breath. In the dim light from the lamp on the wall, Bethany seemed like some ethereal creature, her red hair floating around her fair-skinned pixie face, flannel shirt riding up to reveal a smooth midriff.
“I think you win,” he said. “I should have known better than to take on the champion.”
“Yes, you should have,” she said, putting down the bolster. But she sounded a little breathless too, and her eyes darkened. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to pay the penalty now.”
“And what would that be?” he asked, wondering if he should end this now, and knowing he really didn’t want to.
“A kiss, of course,” she said, as if it was nothing. But when he rose up to meet her and their lips touched, it was something. It was everything. It was as if the past year just dropped away, leaving him weightless, his heart near to bursting with some emotion he didn’t want to put a label on.
“Bethany,” he said, whispering her name as if it were some magical word that could unlock the mysteries of the universe. He ran one hand up under her shirt in the back, reveling in the feel of her smooth soft skin, pulling her closer to him. “This probably isn’t a good idea.”
“Probably not,” she whispered back. “We’re doing it anyway though, right?”
He kissed her again, harder. Hell yes.
Suddenly he wanted, no, needed to have next to him. All of her. Next to all of him.
“Are you sure?” he asked. He didn’t want to risk regrets later. Not on his part, because he couldn’t imagine any universe in which he could regret being intimate with Bethany. But he wanted to give her the chance to change her mind.
“Oh, hell yes,” she said, unconsciously mimicking his thoughts. She pulled her shirt off over her head without unbuttoning it, revealing a silky camisole, which quickly followed.
Alexei cupped her breasts in his large hands, losing what little rational thought he’d managed to hang on to. Her creamy flesh felt like silk, the pink tips inviting him to nibble and suck and lick until Bethany gasped and collapsed on top of him.
He rolled her over and quickly pulled off his own shirt and jeans before sliding hers off too. Now, their positions reversed, he reveled in the feel of skin on skin, while carefully holding the mass of his body up so he wouldn’t crush her smaller form.
She writhed underneath him as he teased her with lips and hands until she bit his shoulder and said, “I want to feel you, Alexei. All of you. Now.” And grasped him with greedy fingers, in case he had any doubt of her meaning, guiding him to her center.
Then there was only heat and pleasure, low moans that turned to cries of ecstasy, and a rush of joy so heady he thought that everything that had come before was merely a faint shadow of the reality of this moment.
* * *
Alexei woke in the morning feeling more cheerful than he had in a long time, and it took him a minute to remember why. He stretched out in the too-small bed, peering over the edge to check on Lulu and her babies. Bethany was gone, but there was a stack of pillows where she had ended up, and a piece of paper with a note on it that said, “Still the champion.” So apparently she was okay about what had happened between them the night before.
That was good, since they had to spend a lot of time together. On the other hand, he hoped she wasn’t thinking it meant something it didn’t. He was still leaving as soon as they’d found and vanquished the kraken. He wasn’t the settling down type, and he wasn’t going to risk letting someone else important to him down the way he had his brothers. Not that Bethany was all that important. Nope. They’d practically just met. Just because he could actually breathe when she was around, that didn’t mean she was important. Just really, really amazing.
“Outside,” Lulu whined, bringing him back to reality. He let her out, then moved her and the babies into the box (lined with old towels, as promised) that Bethany must have put in the living room at some point after she left his bed. Then he wandered over to the house, his need for coffee overwhelming his desire to put off seeing Bethany.
The dazzling smile that greeted him almost made him forget his resolve, his wanderlust, and everything else that wasn’t her.
“Morning,” she said, handing him a mug. “How are Lulu and the puppies doing?”
“Great,” he said, gulping the coffee too fast and burning his tongue. “I put them all in the box you brought over.”
“Great,” Bethany repeated. “Can you get my dad up on your own? I want to peek in on the babies, then run a few errands and then get to the bar early so I can catch up with some paperwork.”
“Uh, sure,” Alexei said. “Um, are we okay? I mean, you’re not upset with me, are you?” He didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but this calm, normal, cheerful attitude wasn’t it. Not that he was disappointed. He was happy not to have to deal with a fuss or clear up a misunderstanding. But Bethany was acting like nothing had happened at all. He hadn’t actually dreamt the whole thing, had he?
“Why would I be?” she asked, grabbing some folders off the table and sticking them in a tote bag, not even looking at him. “We were both emotional after the puppies were born and got a little carried away. It was fun, but it’s not like it changed anything, right?”
“Right,” Alexei said as she walked out the door. He wasn’t sure which one of them was lying. Or if they both were.