Alpha Bear (4 page)

The idea of families passing down those kinds
of traditions was foreign to John. Sure, shifter cubs were born of
shifter parents, but free will dictated how each child would turn
out—much like with humans. There were good and bad shifters, though
most were taught respect and worship of the Goddess. But some chose
other paths, and John had learned to judge each shifter on his or
her own merits and actions.

“Thank you for speaking so freely with us,”
John said politely, meaning every word. He sensed a new alliance
might be in the works, and if Antoinetta’s dire predictions came
true, alliances of every shape and size would be needed in the days
to come. “If you ever travel to the States, I hope you’ll consider
paying a visit to Grizzly Cove.”

“I am honored by the invitation, Alpha,”
Antoinetta said with due respect. She probably knew what a big step
it was for him to invite her into his domain. “And if you ever find
yourself in Italy, I hope you will visit with me. I would love to
meet the man strong enough to earn Thomas’s loyalty.”

John could hear the true admiration in her
voice for Tom. That earned her a few brownie points as far as John
was concerned. He surrounded himself with strong bears on purpose.
His men made him a better leader. Their excellence kept him
striving to be better—to be worthy of being their leader.

They ended the call after exchanging a few
more pleasantries, and Tom shared his big news about finding his
mate, to suitable jubilation from his
strega
friend. Tom had
managed to surprise John with the connection to an
honest-to-goodness witch. John had thought he’d known everything
about his men and their pasts, but it seemed there were still a few
things to learn. In a way, John liked that. It would keep him on
his toes.

When Tom finally hit the
end
button on
his phone, he sat back and just looked at John, waiting for him to
speak. John let him wait while he thought everything through.

“What’s your current assessment of
Antoinetta’s trustworthiness?” John asked in a rapid-fire way that
he’d often used as the leader of his Spec Ops warriors. Old habits
died hard, it seemed.

“She’s true blue, John. She has never steered
me wrong, and I still owe her for saving my life. I’ve kept tabs on
her all these years, and she’s never done anything to make me
question what team she plays for. She’s on our side. No doubt in my
mind.”

The tone of Tom’s reply, even more than the
words, told John of the strength of Tom’s belief in his connection
with the foreign witch. It seemed John was going to have to trust
to Tom’s judgment once again. That wasn’t unusual, but after Tom’s
failure to discover the true nature of the Ricolettis
before
they moved in, it was a little hard to swallow.

“All right.” John had made his decision.
“We’ll follow Antoinetta’s advice for the moment. I’m going to ask
the Ricoletti sisters to add magical protections to the cove.
Depending on how they respond to that request, we’ll see where we
go from there.”

Tom stood, no doubt hearing the dismissal in
John’s voice. “If you need me to talk to them, I’d like a chance to
make up for my mistake. I’m going to add a new requirement to the
application process for new residents and business owners. We’re
going to have to find some way to test them for magic. I hadn’t
really considered it before, and that’s my bad. I’m sorry I failed
you, Alpha. It won’t happen again.”

John appreciated Tom’s contrition, but his
anger had dissipated during the call to Italy. “Don’t sweat it,
Tommy. None of us considered the idea that a magic user would
actually petition to live here. We all overlooked that, and now,
we’ve learned our lesson. Figure out the best way to unobtrusively
have new candidates screened for magic and present your plan at the
next council meeting. Nobody new is coming in until this is
settled.”

Tom agreed and took off, leaving John in his
office to think over his options.

There was nothing for it. He was going to
have to talk to the Ricoletti sisters again. The problem wouldn’t
get solved until he started the ball rolling. And if he found his
inner bear sitting up and taking interest in the idea that he’d
soon see Ursula again, John tried not to notice.

“You’ve done it now,” Urse said to her sister
once she’d calmed down. “They’re probably going to run us out of
town on a rail.”

“And you think it would have gone any better
if we’d gone to them on bended knee the way you wanted? Either way,
they were going to be pissed,” Mellie argued unapologetically.

“The way this came out made us look really
bad, Mel. It was really embarrassing.”

“Oh, get over it, Urse. Mr. Cutey Mayor was
going to find out either way. What difference does it make how it
happened? Or did you honestly think either of us stood half a
chance with a guy like that?” Mellie scoffed.

Her words hurt, striking a little too close
to truth for Urse’s peace of mind. She bit her tongue, not saying a
word, which in itself, spoke volumes.

“Oh, shit, Urse. The mayor? Really?” Mellie’s
tone was sympathetic, but Urse couldn’t stomach her pity right
now.

Urse hadn’t even really realized that she was
interested in John Marshall. Not until the shit had hit the fan,
and she’d been outed right in front of him. She’d wanted to dig a
hole and bury her head in the sand right then and there, but of
course, she couldn’t. She’d been stuck there, feeling like an idiot
and watching all her half-formed dreams crash around her.

Urse set down the books she’d been sorting
and walked out of the shop. She needed air, and she needed to get
away from her sister. Mellie had a way of grating on her nerves
every once in a while, and this was definitely one of those
times.

She heard Mellie call after her, but she
couldn’t deal with her right now. Urse ignored her as she walked
across the street and headed for the picnic area by the beach.

It was empty, of course. Everyone in town had
been told to stay away from the beach for some reason that wasn’t
too clear to Urse, but she didn’t care much for vague warnings at
the moment. She wanted a little peace, and maybe the wash of the
waves would help wash her worries away. At least for a little
while.

Urse walked parallel to the shore, listening
to the waves, feeling the tears that were a mixture of the action
of the wind in her face and, if she was being honest, more than a
little regret for those half-formed dreams that would now never
be.

She didn’t know how long she walked along the
beach before she sensed something…wrong. She stopped short and
found herself backing away from the shore. There was something
really
wrong
out there in the water.

Urse had no idea what it could be, but she
knew to trust her instincts, and she started backpedaling as fast
as she could, heading back the way she’d come as far up the beach
as she could get from the water’s edge. All the while, she called
on all the protective magics she knew that she could cast quickly
and while on the move.

It wasn’t the most effective defense in the
world, but when the water started churning about twenty feet out
into the cove and then stopped short about fifteen feet away, not
coming any closer, she was glad she’d thought to cast any wards at
all. She was running now, heading back to the picnic area at her
top speed, which wasn’t all that fast, since she wasn’t much of an
athlete.

She kept one eye on the water, watching the
churning spot follow her progress as she moved back toward the
center of town, where she could get off the beach entirely.
Unfortunately, she’d walked so far around the cove, she’d stumbled
near heavily wooded private property. She feared getting lost in
the woods and encountering one of the residents in bear form more
than the threat in the water at the moment, so she ran around to
where the trees cleared and the town brushed up against the apex of
the cove.

As soon as she could run off the beach and
into town, she would. Even if the closest route would take her
right past city hall…and the mayor’s office.

Then again, maybe she needed to stop there
and report what she sensed. Now that the cat was out of the bag, it
would be irresponsible of her not to report this event to someone.
Maybe she could talk to the sheriff. His office was in the same
building. She saw the break in the trees drawing closer just as her
ward failed, and she made a run for it.

Looking over her shoulder as she ran, she saw
massive tentacles reaching out of the water toward her, but with
any luck, she’d be out of range. A thundering crash behind her sent
up a cloud of sand and shook the ground beneath her as she
continued to run.

“Holy shit!” she cursed, even as she ran for
her life.

Thank the benevolent Goddess, she was just
out of range of that thing. Whatever the
hell
it was! She
had no choice but to tell somebody in charge about this incident.
She ran for city hall as if the hounds of hell—or at least their
giant freaking octopus
cousins—were on her tail.

“What the hell?” John felt the earth shake as
he sat at his desk, contemplating how he was going to approach the
Ricoletti sisters.

He stood and rushed out front to the
reception area. The sheriff, Brody, was already there, talking on
his radio to Zak, his deputy. From the sound of the transmissions,
neither of them knew what was going on.

“Earthquake?” Brody offered as he finished
speaking with Zak.

“Too short. That was something hitting the
ground,” John replied as he headed to the window. What he saw when
he looked out had his jaw dropping, and then, he sprang into
action.

He leapt toward the door and opened it just
as Ursula Ricoletti reached it. She ran through without stopping,
and he slammed it behind her, looking out at the mess in the water
some distance away. No doubt about it, she’d riled something up out
there, and it wasn’t happy.

But first things first.

“Are you okay?” John snapped out. Ursula was
leaning heavily against the front desk, breathing hard. She was
definitely winded but looked otherwise whole. “Did it touch
you?”

She shook her head, still unable to form
words as she tried to recover. John breathed a small sigh of
relief, quickly replaced by anger that she’d come so close to being
hurt.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from the
water? Dammit, Ursula, that thing would have loved to snack on you.
It’s attracted to magic!”

She glared up at him, bent over and breathing
hard.

“Nobody said there was a fucking sea monster
in the cove!” she rasped out between heavy breaths.

The profanity washed over him and made him
step back. She must be really riled to use such language, and that
fact apparently wasn’t lost on Brody either. John met the sheriff’s
raised eyebrows and jerked his head, ordering him silently to
vamoose.

Brody took the hint and headed outside. “Just
going to check the perimeter,” he said needlessly as he left.

“Sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t mean to berate
you,” John said gently as he calmed down. She was safe. He had to
keep reminding his inner bear, she was safe.

“Well, it would have been nice to know why we
were being warned off,” she added, starting to catch her breath.
“I’m sorry. I was upset with my sister, and I just wanted to take a
walk. I didn’t think it would be dangerous. Not like that.” She
straightened and wiped the light sheen of sweat on her forehead
with one hand. She smelled of fear and delicate exertion.

While John didn’t like the scent of fear on
her, his inner bear wanted to bask in the warm scent of her sweat.
She smelled like honey and spice to his wilder side, and that kind
of thing could easily get addictive.

“It’s okay,” he said, walking closer to her
as they both calmed a bit more. “We argued about what to tell you
and your sister when we thought you were human. Now that we know
you know about magic…” he trailed off.

“Yeah, now we really need to know about the
really pissed off magic sea monster in the cove. In fact, it would
have been good to know about this about an hour ago,” she quipped,
regaining a bit of the humor he’d come to expect from her in their
brief encounters.

“I’m sorrier than I can say,” John said
softly, coming to stand right in front of her. “And I’m glad you’re
okay. Are you sure it didn’t hurt you?”

She chuckled. “You probably should ask if I
hurt it,” she surprised him by saying, some of her spirit
returning. “Give me another crack at that bastard when I’m
prepared, and I’ll do my best to kick its ass.”

John had to chuckle with her. She looked so
ladylike, it was kind of nice to learn she had a temper. With the
long, wavy black hair, deep brown eyes and a light complexion, she
had a sort of Snow White thing going on. She looked very regal and
delicate, and absolutely stunning. In fact, John thought she might
just be the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen in real life.

Finding out that she cussed when she was
scared was amusing. It also made her seem a little more
approachable. As did, perversely, her temper. John liked a woman to
have fire, and Ursula was showing not just fire but white-hot
incendiary flames burned within her, just waiting for an occasion
to let loose.

He liked it. And his bear wanted to rub up
against her silky long hair and drown in her luscious scent.
Down, boy
.

“You may get your wish,” John said, doing his
best to focus. He was relieved that she’d brought up the subject
he’d been contemplating before her abrupt, and rather dramatic,
arrival. “In fact, I was sitting in my office, trying to figure out
how to talk to you about this very thing.”

She looked up at him, her expression droll.
“You’re kidding, right?”