CHAPTER SIX
Mellie was walking on air the rest of the day. She had a date with Peter! Sure, his grandmother would be there as a very effective chaperone, but maybe, in a way, that might be better. Otherwise, she was liable to dive in head first and sleep with the man. Not that it wasn’t a good idea and something she’d been thinking about for months now, but she was still hesitant.
What if she tried to jump his bones, and he wasn’t really that interested? What if they did the deed, and then, he walked away, unmoved…uninvolved? What if she lost her heart to the man, and he didn’t want it? Mellie was very much afraid she’d already lost little pieces of her heart to him, and she just hoped he wouldn’t throw them away.
She tried on a few different outfits before going back to what she’d been wearing in the shop earlier, just a little jazzed up with a pretty scarf and some jewelry. She didn’t want to look as if she’d made a fuss, but she also wanted to make a good impression on Peter’s grandmother.
What did it mean that he was inviting her over to meet his grandmother? That thought hit her like lightning about midway through her indecisive primping. Had he invited her simply to meet his grandma so the older woman could tell Mellie what she knew about dragons? Or had there been more to his invitation? Had he specifically wanted her to meet his grandmother for some reason? The thought made her giddy.
Meeting a guy’s family was a serious step. Was that the step they were taking, or was it just circumstance making this happen and she was reading way too much into it? Mellie tried to scold herself that she had to be a grownup about this, but the giggly teenager that still lived inside her thought otherwise.
Pulling a bottle of red wine out of the rack, Mellie put it into one of the gift bags they sold in the bookshop. The least she could do was bring it along, even though Peter had told her she didn’t have to bring anything. It was a small enough token, and she was pretty sure whatever Peter served for dinner would include red meat of some kind, so red wine was a pretty sure bet.
When Peter walked into the shop at about closing time, Urse had—thankfully—already left. Her older sister was working abbreviated hours lately, but Mellie didn’t mind. Urse had taken a lot of time to recover from casting those permanent wards, and since then, she’d been enjoying a bit of a honeymoon with her mate. Mellie didn’t begrudge her sister that time with John. Not when John made her sister happier than Mellie had ever seen her.
At least one of them was getting laid on a regular basis. More than regular, if the sappy smile on Urse’s face meant anything. Just that morning, Urse had been a couple of hours late, and Mellie just knew why. Urse had that satisfied glow about her, and she’d smiled all morning at nothing. Yeah, that was the look of a satisfied woman, and Urse had been wearing that expression for a while now. Mellie was amused by it, even as she was a little bit jealous.
Mellie greeted Peter from behind the counter and called out that she was just going to lock up the back. She grabbed the bag with the bottle of wine from where she’d left it in the backroom and grabbed her coat. Turning back, she was surprised to find Peter had joined her, and he had a hungry look on his face. A hungry look that set her insides on fire.
“I’m sorry I left without doing this before,” he told her even as he swept his arms around her waist and tugged her close. Then, he bent her backward as his lips descended, taking hers in a devastatingly romantic gesture that made her want to swoon right there on the spot.
The kiss wasn’t bad either. Peter rocked her world off its axis and sent her senses to orbit before she even had a chance to catch her breath. When he finally let her up…slowly…she was dazed. Completely befuddled by the instantaneous passion only he had ever inspired in her.
“Wow,” she breathed, smiling when he did.
“Wow, indeed,” he agreed, standing her up and holding her until she was steadier on her feet. “Are you ready to go?” he asked in low tone that was more heavily accented than usual. “If we stay here much longer, we might not make it to my place, and Babushka is waiting for us.”
Brought back to her senses by the reminder of her duty, Mellie stepped away from him. “I’m ready,” she told him, trying to rein in her wayward libido.
This simply wasn’t the time or place for what she craved. She had to be patient…and cautious. She still wasn’t sure what endgame he had in mind, and much as she wanted to be with him, she was very much afraid that, after being with Peter, she would never be the same.
They walked in companionable silence out to the street where Peter had parked his truck. He drove a big pickup that was more comfortable than Mellie had expected.
“I’ve never ridden in a pickup truck before,” she said as he helped her into the passenger seat.
“Seriously?” Peter looked surprised.
“Not many of them in San Francisco, I guess. At least not among my circle of friends.” She shrugged, already looking around the cab of the truck.
There were so many knobs and buttons, not to mention what looked like a touchscreen, the cab looked more like a pilot’s cockpit than the cab of a simple pickup truck. Peter made sure she was in and her door closed before he made his way around to the driver’s side.
“What is all this?” Mellie asked, gesturing toward the complicated dashboard.
Peter looked a little sheepish. “I may have modified things a bit.”
“Please tell me you didn’t put in an ejection seat,” she joked, and he laughed with her.
“No. No ejection seat, though it was tempting,” he admitted.
He started the truck and drove toward his home. Mellie wasn’t too steady after that soul-shattering kiss, so small talk was hard. It didn’t matter, though. Peter was good company whether they were talking or not. He drove for a while in silence, seeming comfortable with it. It was only when they neared his property that he started telling her about some of the modifications he’d made to his vehicle.
“The truck came with three little buttons for garage door openers, but I needed more. Basically, they’re just little transmitters, and I have a lot of security equipment that can respond to such signals. For example, if I touch this button…” He reached over and pushed a small black button on the modified dash. “That disarms the motion sensors on the driveway as we approach.” He pushed a few more buttons but didn’t explain each and every function. If these buttons controlled aspects of his home alarm systems, she didn’t blame him for not sharing too much information.
Not that she could have used any of it anyway. None of the buttons were labelled. Only Peter would know which buttons to push and when. All in all, she was impressed with his ingenuity.
“I hope you like steak,” Peter said as he pulled up in the drive before a lovely log cabin that seemed to fit right into its surroundings. There was a calmness about the place. A gentleness that spoke to Mellie.
“Love it. And, Peter…” She looked all around, but especially at the house. “I love what you’ve done here. There’s something very special about this place.” Her magical senses reached out, and what she found was unexpected. “It’s as if the trees themselves welcome you,” she said, a bit of awe in her tone that she couldn’t hide.
“Truly?” he asked, getting out of the truck then coming around to her side to help her down. “That’s what I was going for, but I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, though I believe the redwoods have come to accept me.”
“You’re aware of the consciousness of trees?” she asked in a low voice, surprised in the extreme.
“It makes sense. It always has, to me at least.” He shrugged as she slid down to the ground from the high seat, then closed the door behind her.
“Very few people in my experience give credence to the living nature of all creation,” she told him.
“It’s all the same to me. I built this cabin out of deadfall. I didn’t kill any trees to make my home, and I don’t cut down trees for firewood. It just didn’t seem right,” he admitted.
“You must be especially sensitive to have felt that,” she said, looking again at the bear-man who was fast capturing every last corner of her heart.
Peter shrugged again. “I follow my instincts.”
He had parked so that the passenger door faced the front door of the cabin. Peter kept hold of her hand as they walked toward the front door.
When the door opened to reveal an older woman who was taller than Mellie and was unmistakably Peter’s relative, Mellie almost stopped short in surprise. She would have, if Peter hadn’t been holding her hand and kept moving forward. She had to keep up with him or tug her hand free—which was out of the question for many reasons, but mostly because she liked holding hands with him a little too much to let go easily.
“Peter,” the older woman said, speaking to him but looking with curious eyes at Mellie the whole time. “Who have you brought to meet me?”
“Babushka, this is Amelia Ricoletti. She is a witch. A strega.”
“Italiano?” the older woman asked Mellie.
“Italian-American,” Mellie replied with a self-conscious smile. “My nonna settled in San Francisco before my mother was born. She adopted this country as her own but never let go the ways of the old country. My sister and I were raised as strega from the moment it became known we shared her gift.”
“Sister?” Now, Peter’s grandmother looked to her grandson for clarification.
“John’s new mate, Ursula. She who cast the permanent wards to keep the town and cove safe,” Peter told her, as if he was repeating something he’d already told her.
“Ah, yes,” his grandmother said, turning back to Mellie with a welcoming smile. “I remember now. I am Ivana. Let’s see… You already have a nonna. You can call me granny.”
“Babushka!” Peter seemed shocked, but the older woman just waved him off.
“What?” Ivana looked askance at her grandson. “I don’t think she speaks Russian, does she? And I have always fancied the thought of being an American granny. Perhaps I will ask the whole town to call me that. I suspect I am the oldest bear here.”
Granny Ivana chuckled at her own idea, and Mellie found the sound contagious. “Honestly, sometimes, I think the boys could use a little adult supervision,” Mellie said to the older woman in a conspiratorial tone, which only made her laugh harder.
Mellie felt an instant kinship with the woman who had asked her to call her granny. This was a woman of quick humor who seemed to be welcoming. Mellie had been so scared to meet Peter’s grandmother, but Granny Ivana set her immediately at ease.
“Come, come,” Granny Ivana said, stepping aside to usher them through the doorway and into Peter’s home as if it was her own.
As Mellie entered, Granny Ivana enveloped her in a welcoming hug and kissed both cheeks. She was a lot taller than Mellie and more substantial. Her bear hug in human form brought a feeling of care and comfort Mellie had only ever felt before from her own nonna.
Mellie’s instincts about people were often spot on, and they were telling her that Granny Ivana was a very special, very caring lady. Mellie liked the older woman and hoped the feeling was mutual. With a granny like this, she wasn’t surprised Peter had grown up to be the sensitive fellow he was—who had gone so far as to harm no trees in the building of his home.
That alone told her there was much more to Peter than met the eye. The other bear shifters might be sensitive to magic and hold more magic of their own than almost any other kind of shifter, but Peter was something special. That he could feel the spirits of the trees—something on such a different wavelength than most people and animals… Well, maybe it was the dragon-blood influence showing up, after all.
And thinking of dragons made her think of her task. Maybe Granny Ivana could help. Now, having met the woman, Mellie was pretty much convinced that, if she knew anything, Granny Ivana would at least try to help.
Peter went right to work, setting up to grill a number of different exotic meats from his shop while Mellie offered to help Granny Ivana with the salad and side dishes. Granny set her right to work, setting the table while they talked of life in the cove and Granny’s trip to the States.
It had, apparently, been quite an adventure, in the company of three of Peter’s cousins. Granny had left the cousins behind at some point and come the rest of the way on her own over the younger generation’s objections.
“I suspect they tried to follow me for a time,” Granny Ivana admitted with a twinkle in her eye. “But I was learning stealth and diversion long before Peter and his cousins were born. I wonder which one of them was able to track me longest?”
“I bet on Xander. He has skills,” Peter put in from his place at the fancy indoor grill.
“Really? I was thinking Yuri, but I suppose I could be wrong,” Granny Ivana said in a contemplative tone. “The last I saw any of them, they’d all bought big motorcycles and had planned to hit the open road, as they called it. I encouraged them to explore. I’m hoping they’ll find mates and settle down. Lady knows, they’ve been through almost every girl in Russia, Europe and the Middle East,” Granny Ivana griped with a laugh.
“You think they’ll find mates here?” Peter asked, clearly curious.
Granny shrugged. “If Nikita is right, they all will,” she replied to Peter, then looked at Mellie. “Nikita is a family friend. She is like you. Ved’ma. A witch. We were girls together in Kamchatka.”
Mellie was relieved to hear directly from Peter’s grandmother that she didn’t have a problem with witches. Regardless of what he’d said about his granny and the witchy ved’ma she’d consulted from time to time in the old country, Mellie had been wary. Magic users weren’t always welcome—in fact, they usually weren’t welcome—among shifters. Grizzly Cove was a little different, thankfully. Though the town council hadn’t expected the Ricoletti sisters to be witches when they’d approved the plans for the bookstore, Urse had managed to smooth things over. The fact that she was the Alpha bear’s true mate went a long way toward gaining acceptance for both Urse and Mellie in the town.
There was some bustling as Peter finished with the grill and served up a heaping platter of seared meats. Mellie’s little steak was cooked well-done, but the others were another matter. Seemed both Peter and his granny liked their meats on the rare side. Mellie supposed that was the bear influence, and she tried not to stare as he loaded giant plates for both himself and his granny with three or four cuts of various kinds of meat, each.
Mellie’s single steak looked paltry by comparison, though she loaded the empty part of her plate with broiled potatoes and salad. They all ate for a while, Peter pointing out various varieties of meat he’d served his grandmother. They discussed the finer points of taste and texture like connoisseurs while Mellie worked on her own meal. She shouldn’t have been surprised at how much the bear shifters could eat. She’d seen her new brother-in-law pack it away many times now. But, somehow, she’d expected Granny Ivana to eat less. Instead, she ate more than Peter!
Then again, her bear was massive, and the woman herself wasn’t petite in her human form. She wasn’t quite six feet tall, but she was definitely way taller than Mellie, and bigger boned, as well, though Granny Ivana was in no way fat or even overweight. Shifters generally weren’t, to Mellie’s knowledge. All that activity while they were in their animal forms, and the huge amount of energy it must take just to shift in the first place, kept them lean and muscular. Lucky shifters.
“So,” Granny Ivana said after she’d finished most of her meal. She sat back and looked at Mellie with piercing dark eyes as she lingered over the last bits on her plate. “Peter tells me you are in need of a dragon.”
Mellie almost choked at the older woman’s directness but managed to keep a straight face. “I am. Though, I didn’t even realize dragon shifters existed—or once existed—before talking with Peter.”
Granny Ivana nodded sagely. “He told me of your experiment with his blood.” She smiled with satisfaction. “While I am pleased with the results of the potion you two brewed together, it seems clear you all need something…different than bear blood in your next attempt. While I would be willing to give you my own blood, I believe it was Peter’s personal investment in the fate of this place that allowed for the success of your previous attempt. My grandfather was a dragon, but I am fully bear, as you may have seen.”
Mellie’s spirits rose and fell with Granny Ivana’s words. What was she saying? Would she help or wouldn’t she?
“While I may not be the best to help directly, I may be able to help you locate a dragon shifter,” Granny Ivana went on.
Mellie sat straight up in her chair. “There’s a dragon? Alive? Now?”
“There might be,” Granny Ivana said with a slight frown. “At least, I knew of one once, but we’ll have to track him down. If he still exists.”
“Shifter grapevine?” Peter asked at once, but Granny Ivana shook her head.
“If he lives, other shifters will not know of his animal. Dragons were hunted by everyone—other shifters included. They are too powerful, and many fear them,” Granny told him. “No, for this, we need to consult the magical grapevine, so to speak. We’ll start with Nikita and see where she sends us. I hope you get a good rate for long-distance calls,” she added with a wink.