Alpha Bear (7 page)

No, she liked John a little too much to
tolerate his suspicion. She wanted it gone. And the only way she
thought she could accomplish that feat was to prove to him that she
meant no harm to anyone. She just wanted to coexist and make
friends. That’s all. Nothing sinister or covert.

There would be no more hiding what she was.
She was
strega,
and she was proud. And damn it all—she even
had a bit of bear shifter blood in her ancestry, which should count
for something among these people. It sure as heck had made her life
difficult among magic users, who saw it as a major flaw.

“I think we’ve got just about every angle
covered, right?” John said, breaking into her thoughts. “Unless you
have something else to tell me?”

And there it was. He totally didn’t trust
her.

“No, John.” She bit her lip and prayed for
patience. “I’ve told you everything you can expect tomorrow. The
only things I’ve left out are the things I can’t predict. Such as,
how the creature is going to react, and what effect my spells will
ultimately have.”

John met her gaze and leaned back in his
chair. They’d moved into his office to do their planning. It was
just them, with John using his phone a lot to contact various
people as the plan developed.

“One thing any old soldier will tell you is
that the mission plan seldom survives the first engagement. But
don’t worry. We’re experienced at this sort of thing. Well, maybe
not dealing with sea monsters, in particular, but with
unpredictable enemies and less-than-ideal circumstances. My men and
I know what to do, and more than that, we’ll have your back,
Ursula.”

She felt the impact of his statement down to
her bones. Just like that, she felt more solid about what they were
planning to do tomorrow. All the while they’d been talking about
it, she’d felt very exposed by the plan. She was going to be the
focal point, after all. The only magic user, surrounded by shifters
who may or may not care if she lived or died. At least, that’s what
she’d thought until about two seconds ago.

Urse saw the seriousness in his gaze, and she
felt the pull of his words and his intentions. He was going to
protect her to the best of his ability. Suddenly, she felt warm.
Like the sun had come out on a rainy Pacific Northwest winter
day.

“Thank you for that, John,” she replied
quietly, with the utmost sincerity. “It makes me feel a lot better
to know that I won’t be all alone, even if I am the only one
wielding magic tomorrow.” She thought about that for a moment.
“Well, besides the leviathan.”

And just like that, the nerves were back. She
forced them down. She wouldn’t show weakness. Not now. Not
ever.

“I’m still not clear on why your sister can’t
help,” John said, standing as she did the same.

“Because her kind of magic is quite different
and distinct from my own. Plus, Nonna said she was going to be busy
brewing potions to purify the water, when the time comes. I’m the
one who’s supposed to deal with the land.” She stretched a bit,
feeling a tiny bit of soreness from her headlong run earlier. “And
Nonna’s never wrong about who does what. We learned that early on
when we were learning our craft from her. Any time we switched up
tasks she had set for us, we screwed up royally. Nonna knows our
skills almost better than we do ourselves. Trust me, John. She’s
been at this for a very long time. Nobody argues with Nonna.” She
smiled as she turned toward the door to his office.

“She sounds like a formidable woman,” he said
kindly, which made her look up at his handsome face. He was smiling
that crooked grin of his that was fast becoming her favorite of his
many expressions. Probably because it was so rare.

“If she’d ever been in an army, she’d be a
four-star general,” Urse quipped.

“I bet…” his voice dropped to an intimate
level as they stood only a few feet apart by the door, “…you take
after her.”

Urse couldn’t hold back her laughter. “Oh,
man.” She continued to chuckle as she moved through the doorway
into the hall. “I have to admit, the older I get the more I see the
signs.” She went down the hall, toward the front reception area of
the new town hall building. “Mellie takes more after our mom,
whereas I greatly fear I’m turning into my grandmother.”

Urse found herself enjoying the light rumble
of his laughter as they entered the open reception area. She turned
slightly, expecting him to say goodbye and send her on her way, but
he surprised her by walking past her to open the door and gesture
for her to precede him.

“I hope you don’t mind if I walk you home.
With everything that’s happened today, I want to make sure you get
there safely,” he said, but she immediately became suspicious.

“Is this just a friendly gesture, or is it
because you want me watched at all times?” Her resentment came
through her tone, and she didn’t really care if he noticed.

“For now, just call it a friendly protective
action. Honey, you almost bought it earlier today. I don’t want
anything else happening to you before we do the deed tomorrow
morning.”

Okay. First, he’d called her honey. After
that little endearment slapped her upside the head with an
unexpectedly erotic velvet caress, he’d said the words
do the
deed
, and her mind had gone straight to the sex place. With
him. The mayor of freaking Bear City, USA.

Okay, it wasn’t called that. Only in her
mind, maybe. But it was definitely the shifter-iest place she’d
ever been in her life. And every single one of them she’d seen had
tasted of bear to her magical senses.

Most mages couldn’t differentiate between
animals, but she had shifter blood, so she had a little edge. And
her shifter blood was bear, so she recognized her own even better
than the others.

And bears loved honey. And he’d just called
her honey. Something he loved…

Oh, get a grip, Urse!

“Well, uh…” Much to her chagrin, she had to
clear her throat before she could actually speak. “That’s mighty
neighborly of you.”

Dull, Urse. Way to go.

But he hadn’t been talking about having sex
with her. No matter where her wayward thoughts had taken her. He’d
been talking about her doing magic while he did his best—with his
team of bear shifter commandos around him—to protect her from a
giant freaking sea monster that wanted her blood…and her magic.

So dull was good. She was fairly certain he
wasn’t thinking about sex and her in the same universe. Why such
thoughts were suddenly popping into her mind was beyond her. Except
maybe it was that kind of thing where when you have a near-death
experience, suddenly you want to celebrate life by grabbing the
nearest hot guy and boinking like bunnies? Maybe?

Although…Urse had been in some pretty tight
spots from time to time as she learned her craft. She’d come closer
to dying than she was comfortable admitting a time or two. And she
hadn’t felt like jumping the nearest stranger and doing him ‘til
the sun rose.

So what had changed? Why now? Why
him
?

They walked down Main Street side by side. It
was only a short distance from the town hall, which was on one end
of the small strip that was considered the center of town, to the
bookstore, which was just past the bakery, which was at the
mid-point.

“Do you have enough provisions in your
apartment or do you want to stop at the bakery and get something
for dinner?” he asked solicitously as they walked along.

“I set up a pan of lasagna this morning.
Mellie’s probably cooked it by now. There’s plenty, if you want to
join us.”

Holy crap. Did she just invite John to
dinner? Where the hell had that come from?

Probably from the same instinct that had sent
her mind straight to the sex place at the least provocation.

“Real Italian lasagna?” John actually smiled
at her, and her heart went pitter-pat without her permission. “How
could I refuse?”

Sweet Mother in heaven, he’s going to come
to dinner.
Her inner teenager stood up and cheered, then
squealed with excitement.
Yeah, right. Real mature,
Urse.

They made it to the bookstore without mishap,
only to find that Mellie had already invited the guy John had sent
over to keep her company to join them for lasagna too. Seemed like
little sis wanted to get to know more about the big Russian named
Peter Zilakov.

Urse was glad she’d made the big pan full of
lasagna. They’d intended to freeze what they didn’t eat, but with
two big strapping bear shifters joining them, there weren’t going
to be any leftovers. That was okay. Urse liked cooking. She could
always make more.

Peter owned the butcher shop. It was an
old-fashioned establishment that catered to eclectic tastes. Urse
had been able to get veal and mutton in addition to bison, regular
pork, beef, and poultry. He also had some more specialized meats
always in stock, such as alligator, ostrich and even rattlesnake.
He apparently ordered some of the more exotic meats in, but he was
also a hunter who would sell the wild things he and some of the
others in town hunted.

Urse enjoyed his dinner conversation and the
camaraderie between him and John. It was clear Peter respected
John, but they were easy in each other’s presence in a way Urse
hadn’t expected. She figured the Alpha of the Clan would be the
grand poobah or something, but John didn’t really stand on ceremony
with his men from what Urse had seen.

Peter was telling them about how he was going
to have to expand his business a bit when the new restaurant
finally opened. Construction had just started next to the bakery,
and the restaurant was going to be run by the current deputy, Zak,
who was going to work part-time for the sheriff after his business
opened. Which meant there might be an opening for another deputy
when the time came.

“So who are you looking at to help the
sheriff?” Urse asked John. “The town council must have some
ideas.”

“Really, anybody could do it,” Peter put in,
his faint Russian accent charming. “Most of the core group is
ex-military. We all have the right kind of experience.”

“Yeah, but who wants it?” John asked
rhetorically. “A lot of us are sick of peacekeeping. Done too much
of it in every crappy corner of the world.”

“I could help out at night, maybe,” Peter
offered. “I close the shop at three in the afternoon. After that,
I’m mostly free.”

“That could work,” John said, considering.
“Talk to Brody about it. I think Zak is going to work mornings for
the town, then spend his nights at the restaurant.”

“When will it be finished?” Mellie asked.

“Depends on the weather, really,” John
answered. “We get a mild winter, it could be done quicker than we
think, but if we keep having other troubles—magical ones—then it
might never get finished.”

That caused a bit of a lull, and Urse
figured, since he brought it up, they might as well talk about it.
John wouldn’t have mentioned it in front of Peter if he didn’t
trust the man.

“Mel, I didn’t really get a chance to tell
you about talking to Nonna today,” Urse began, but her sister waved
her down.

“She called me right after she hung up with
you,” Mellie said. Urse probably shouldn’t have been surprised.
Nonna was always thorough, and she probably had a few words of
advice she’d wanted to give directly to Mel. “She wants you to do
your thing first, then I’m going to follow up with some pretty
intricate potion work that could take a while. I might be ready by
next month’s full moon, but that’d be pushing it. More likely,
it’ll be a bit after that.”

“So you time to prepare, and I have to jump
in head-first tomorrow? Damn.” Urse sipped the red wine they’d
served with the dinner as they sat around, finishing the last of
their meal.

Mellie laughed at her. Urse stuck her tongue
out at her sister. Childish, but they loved each other. They just
had a funny way of showing it sometimes.

“Nonna doesn’t even want me to be your backup
tomorrow. She made me promise to stay home.” Mellie looked upset by
that. “I’m sorry, Urse.”

“It is what it is. Don’t worry. John here is
going to be my backup.” Urse gestured toward the mayor with her
glass.

“I won’t let anything happen to her,” he said
solemnly, directly to Mellie.

“See that you don’t,” Mellie replied,
uncharacteristically fierce.

John nodded, uninsulted.

Urse turned to Peter, wanting to change the
subject. “So, Peter, you don’t seem too upset by the whole
strega
thing. What gives?”

Peter shrugged. “I’m Russian. Things are
different in the old country. The countries that have been around
more than a piddling two hundred years have seen magic before. My
own
babushka
used to seek out the
ved’ma
in the small
village near where we lived when she needed potions and advice on
magical issues.” Peter seemed to think back, clearly touched by
thoughts of his past. “My
babushka
—you know this word,
right? It means grandmother. She was the best.”

“To grandmothers,” Mellie said, raising her
glass, proposing a toast. “What would we have become without
them?”

Peter smiled and they drank the toast. “I
shudder to think what would have become of me without my
babushka
.”

“Is she still around?” Mellie asked
quietly.

“Yes,” Peter replied with a wide smile. “In
fact, she is coming to visit. If she likes the town, she may stay.
There is little keeping her in Russia now, and I would like to have
her closer, but I gave up the motherland and will not go back for
many years, if ever.”

Urse sensed a story there, but it was clear
Peter didn’t want to go into detail.

“I wonder what your
babushka
will make
of all us American bears?” John said, grinning.