Bearliest Catch (4 page)

But how did he know the creature was coming?
That was something she couldn’t sense out of the water. While she
was in her mer form and in the ocean, she had instinct to guide her
away from danger, but in her skin, on the surface, she was at a
loss.

He’d said he could sense things. And shield
things…

“Can’t you shield the boat?” she asked in as
quiet a voice as she could manage. She knew sound carried over the
water, and she didn’t want to attract any unwanted attention.

“I’m already doing it. But that only shields
the magic. If we’re here when it passes, it might still see us and
decide to fuck with us just for fun. Who knows how this creature
thinks? Or if it actually thinks at all,” he muttered, stowing the
rod, its line now fully spooled and out of the water.

Jetty followed suit with the fishing rod on
her side of the boat. When it was stowed on deck, she tightened the
loose knot on her robe. No way was she going back in the water
until that monster had passed. Even she could feel the malevolence
approaching now. The air was thick with a sense of doom that made
her skin crawl.

She watched as Andrew started the engines and
moved them swiftly away from the magical miasma that had been
approaching their last position. He didn’t speed, but he moved the
boat with quick efficiency that earned her admiration.

“It won’t follow the noise of the motor?” she
asked, coming up beside him in the small wheelhouse.

“It might, but if it repeats the pattern of
our previous encounters, it’ll ignore us because of my shield. I
think it’s after magical targets, and right now, we don’t look
magical at all. Just another boat with uninteresting humans on it.
Nothing to see here.” He paid close attention to his instruments as
he guided the boat away from the threat.

The heaviness in the air began to recede. She
could feel the threat passing them by, off to the south.

“Almost there…” he said in a low, tense voice
as he guided his boat away from the path of the creature with an
expert hand.

Jetty couldn’t feel it anymore, but Andrew
seemed to stay tense until a few minutes later, when he reached
some point only he was aware of. They were within sight of the
coast now, which suited her purposes well, though she wouldn’t tell
him that, because she didn’t want him to know where her people were
gathering…just in case.

“Did you feel that?” He was talking a little
louder now, not quite as tense as he had been.

“Feel what?”

He cut the engine and let the boat drift.
They were within sight of the shore, but not in danger of running
aground any time soon.

“I told you about the permanent wards, right?
We just passed into the outer reaches of the ward. The leviathan
and its mini-me’s avoid this area.”

She was fascinated by the idea of a permanent
ward, but she hadn’t been able to feel anything specific. Then
again, sensing such things was not her talent. She had good
instincts, but that’s as far as it went. Andrew, though… He seemed
to really be able to sense things much more deeply than she would
have imagined.

No wonder her people had gravitated to a
nearby spot. It didn’t just
seem
safer to their instincts—if
Andrew was to be believed—it
was
safer. The bears of Grizzly
Cove had done that. They’d made a small safe zone that extended out
a short distance into the ocean. That went a long way toward
convincing Jetty that the bears were honest in their offer of safe
harbor. They seemed to care about the ocean beyond their land,
which meant a lot to her.

Even before they knew about the mer colony
that lived out here, they’d expelled the creature from their cove,
but also did something to protect the shore and the waters just
beyond. Sure, it made their settlement safer, but it also indicated
a certain amount of concern for the deeps. Most land-dwellers never
thought about sea life, unless they were fishermen or
environmentalists of some kind. These bear shifters were like any
other group, but they seemed to really care for Mother Earth—and
all of Her bounty.

“One of our new residents cast the wards, but
you should probably know that her sister is working on a better fix
for the waters. She’s been brewing potions of some kind for the
past few weeks, and when she’s ready, she’s going to attempt to
purify the waters and make it so that only creatures of good intent
can approach the cove from the ocean.”

Jetty wasn’t sure what to make of that.

“Do you intend to make it impossible for
anyone to swim into the cove without your knowledge?” If so, that
was a pretty rotten deal for the sea dwellers.

“No. From what I understand, it doesn’t work
like that. The magic she intends to cast will be to keep evil out.
Like I said, as long as the intentions are good and the person or
creature isn’t a servant of evil, they’ll be welcome in the cove. I
don’t think any of us have any interest in monitoring every single
creature in the ocean on their way into and out of the cove.
Nobody’s got time for that. We all have a wild side, and we know
what it means to be able to roam free.”

She heard the truth ringing in his words, but
she was still skeptical.

“But what if your Alpha or town council
decides otherwise?” she challenged, just to see what he’d say.

“Honey, I’m on the town council. And our
Alpha rules at our pleasure. Bears aren’t like other shifters in
that we follow the Alpha blindly. We
chose
John to be Alpha
because he’s our best strategist, but we don’t do every little
thing he says merely because he has the title. Bears are
independent thinkers. The core group that makes up the town council
is all ex-military too. We were all members of the same Spec Ops
unit, and John was our commanding officer. We’ve spent a lot of
years working together, and we’re like brothers. I know them like I
know myself, and none of us have any interest in shutting off sea
access to the cove. We’re more concerned about building a life here
and finding mates. We just want to live in peace and be happy.”

His words ran true in her ears, and she
realized the bears weren’t that much different from her people.

“Isn’t that what everybody wants? To live
free and be happy. It’s a worthy goal.” Her tone was contemplative
as she looked out over the water.

He’d given her a lot to think about, and she
definitely needed to go back to her people and tell them all the
news. Things were changing rapidly, and there were decisions to be
made.

“Well. I guess this is my stop.” She untied
the robe again and let it fall to the deck at her feet before
diving swiftly off the boat.

“Wait!”

She heard him call out even as she hit the
water. If she’d given him time to talk her into staying, she never
would have left. Better to do it fast. Make a clean break. The
bear-man was just too enticing.

She felt her change come over her, legs
fusing into a tail, scales rippling over her skin. She worked her
way to the surface again, just to get one last look at him, unable
to help herself.

He was leaning over the rail, a look of
dismay on his handsome face. His expression changed to relief when
he caught sight of her again, which warmed her heart.

“Will I see you again?” he asked, warming her
further.

She smiled, knowing he’d see the sharper
teeth, the alien side of her being that she seldom put on display
to outsiders. Sure, he was a shifter too. He had a beast half. But
his beast was something humans were used to seeing. In her case,
she was something mythological—and the mer had worked hard over the
eons to keep it that way.

“I believe our paths will cross again,
Andrew,” she told him, her words only slightly affected by the
changes in her mouth brought on by the shift.

“How will I find you?” he wanted to know.

She couldn’t tell him. It was one of the most
important rules of being mer. Mystery was their friend. It kept
them safe. She could never reveal the secrets about where the mer
lived or how to find them. Not to anyone.

“I’ll find you, my new friend. Your boat
isn’t hard to spot.”

As she swam away beneath the waves, she
couldn’t get him out of her mind. They would meet again, but she
had a lot of things to do first. Briefing the others was the first
task. Then, she’d have to do a little reconnaissance of her own. If
all went well, she’d be seeking out the handsome bear shifter
sooner than he might think.

Even her cold fish side warmed to the idea of
getting close to him again. He kissed like a dream, and she had
been unable to find any fault with his words or manner. If
everything he’d told her checked out the way she thought it would,
she would feel free to let loose a little more with him. It had
been far too long since she’d been with a man, and she’d never been
with a shifter.

She wondered what it would be like to be with
someone from whom she didn’t have to constantly hide her dual
nature. Would it be as freeing an experience as she thought? Or
would such a relationship carry its own unique problems?

There really was only one way to find out.
The next time she saw him, she was going to do all she could to
seduce the man and see where it led. If she’d been a land dweller,
she would have growled at the thought of getting him naked and
seeing if his performance lived up to the potential advertised by
his good looks.

If she’d been a shier creature, she would
have blushed at her own thoughts, but Jetty was known for being one
of the bolder of her people. She’d put that bold nature to good use
the very next time she saw her bear, and she vowed, he wouldn’t
know what hit him.

Jetty swam into the cove, enjoying the
splendor of the place. It really was a nice little inlet, protected
from the ferocity of the ocean. The waters were calm, and even
though the sky was overcast, as it often was in this part of the
world, enough light filtered through to make the vista below the
surface a lovely blue-green teeming with life and beauty.

She was a woman on a mission. She intended to
spy on the land dwellers of Grizzly Cove to see if she could
determine how truthful Andrew had been with her the day before.
Telling the rest of her hunting party everything he’d told her
about the ongoing battle with the evil creature in the sea that
they’d all been hiding from for the past several weeks didn’t take
long. Opinions were mixed on whether or not they could trust the
bear shifters and their offer of safe harbor. Which was why Jetty
had volunteered to swim into the cove and see what she could
discover.

She had been told to use her best judgment on
whether or not to make further contact with the bear fisherman.
Since she was a proven scout, the elders left the decision up to
her. Jetty was honored by their trust in her abilities, which made
it all the more important to get this right.

She spent the entire day spying on the
various residents on land, as best she could. She had better luck
when she hid beneath the pier behind the small bait shop and
listened in on the conversations between the proprietor and his
customers. They were all shifters, as far she could tell, and they
spoke freely among themselves about many topics.

The most interesting to her, of course, were
the few mentions made about the new permanent wards and how much
safer it was in the cove since they had been cast. Jetty discovered
that the witch who had done the work was now mated to the Alpha
bear. Andrew hadn’t told her that—probably wanting to keep the
identity of such a powerful witch secret until he was sure of Jetty
and her people.

She didn’t begrudge him that. They all had
secrets to keep and judgments to make. And they both had
responsibilities to their people, to keep them all safe.

From the way the shifters talked, it was
clear the Alpha’s new mate had earned their respect. Jetty knew
that shifters and magic folk rarely worked together in this day and
age. That they had welcomed a witch into their town said something
about this group’s tolerance and willingness to work together to
defeat evil.

If they had forged an alliance with two
powerful witches, then maybe they were serious about wanting to
offer safe haven to the mer. And perhaps, the mer could work with
these shifters to help fix the big problem in the ocean—what they
had named the leviathan.

Jetty had kept an eye out all day for signs
of Grace, but her friend hadn’t come near the water. If she really
was newly mated, Jetty supposed Grace was probably spending a lot
of time with her mate, on land…most likely in a bed. Jetty almost
envied her old friend. Grace deserved a little joy in her life, and
if she really had found her mate, Jetty was happy for her.

The jury was still out, though. Jetty would
have to see Grace first, to believe it. So far, she’d been able to
confirm a lot of what Andrew had told her. The town seemed exactly
as he had said it was, and she was almost ready to take her
reconnaissance to the next level. But first, she had to find
Andrew’s boat.

Drew couldn’t sleep. Again. So what else was
new?

He levered himself out of bed, knowing this
would be one of those days he spent out on the water, away from
everyone, seeking solace in the peace of the ocean. He didn’t know
why, but the water soothed him, even when the weather wasn’t ideal.
Which looked to be the case today. He could smell fog in the air
and moisture that meant rain later. Great.

But it wouldn’t deter him from going out. On
days—scratch that—nights like these, he had to get out on the
water.

He dressed haphazardly, grabbing a bag filled
with sandwiches out of the fridge on his way out the door. The gals
at the bakery kept him stocked. When he stopped in there each
night, he walked out with a bag of sandwiches for the next day. It
was just easier that way.