by Susan Hayes
“My safety is not your job,” she shot back, yanking at her hand until he finally released it.
He growled and stepped in front of her, blocking her path back to the road. “You’re my mate, Fern. That makes your safety my responsibility.”
“I’m your what? Since when?”
“Oh Goddess. No, no, no. This is not happening. I’m going to hurl,” Shaz wailed.
“I knew since the moment you walked into my bar and dumped a bucket of ice water over my head.” Orion gave her a lopsided grin that was so damned sexy she almost lost her train of thought.
Damn it. He’s cheating! Then, what he said finally registered. “You’ve known since yesterday? Is that why you came back to my place last night?”
“Uh. Yes. Sort of.” He pushed his hair off his face and tried the smile again. And it almost worked, again. “But I was also worried about you.”
Part of her was aware they were attracting a crowd of onlookers, but she didn’t care. She’d reached her limit and then blown past it like a logging truck on a steep incline with no brakes. The emergency summons, the showdown, and now the discovery that she was mated and hadn’t even gotten the memo, never mind a ring. It was all too much.
She stepped back, and he followed her, a predatory gleam in his amber eyes.
“You’re mine, Fern Summers. Always.” He caught hold of her wrist and tried to pull her in for a kiss, but she pulled away.
“Stop.”
To her relief, he froze. “You don’t want me to kiss you?”
“I don’t want you to rush me!”
“I’ve been doing my best to avoid that. Why else do you think I didn’t tell you last night? You’ve been dealing with a tsunami of crazy since you walked into town, and I get that. But you put yourself in danger today, and that isn’t going to happen again. You’re my mate, the woman I will protect with my life, if needed. So, where you go, I go. And that means you need to let me know when there’s trouble so I can be there for you. It also means that when I tell you it’s time to leave, that’s it. We’re gone.”
Her next words came out edged in ice. “I’m sorry. I can’t have heard you right. I swear you just said that you expect me to obey you without question, and I have to get your permission before I can fulfill my role as one of this town’s protectors.”
There was a murmur of collective concern from their audience, and she heard someone say something like, “That’s it. I’m about to be an only child.”
Orion shook his head. “Well, no. I mean, yes. I mean, I nearly lost my mind when I saw you standing up to those bucktoothed bastards all by yourself. You need someone to watch your back, and I’m that him.”
“She wasn’t alone, wolf,” Shaz snarled. “Fern’s my witch, and I will never let anything happen to her.”
“She might be your witch, but she’s my Goddess-gifted mate. I win.”
The wolf and the cat stared at each other, both of them growling like a pair of alpha idiots.
Goddess grant her strength. Or a clue. Or maybe a nicely detailed set of instructions on how the fuck she was going to deal with a life that was getting more complicated by the moment. She looked around at everyone here—the people relying on her to protect them, a pushy wolf with delusions of mating fever, and a familiar with abandonment issues galore.
Rosemary picked her way across the churned-up clearing with tears in her eyes as she viewed the devastation. “Can you help us fix this?”
Fern nodded, but inside she was screaming in panic. She didn’t know the least thing about this kind of magic, or plants. Once she’d bought a silk ficus tree to add some greenery to her penthouse, and the fronds had caught fire because she’d left it too close to her gas fireplace.
She was going to need some serious help with this one. “Everyone, get clear!” she shouted.
The clearing emptied in a matter of seconds. Rosemary joined the others at the edge of the damaged area, leaving just Fern, Shaz, and Orion. She shot Orion an annoyed look. “You have to go, too.”
“Nope.” He folded his arms across his chest, which did great things to both his physique and her libido.
It was the best evidence she had that he was really her mate because if anyone else had tried that alpha crap, she’d have zapped him halfway to orbit by now. Instead, she imagined what he’d look like shirtless…or straight-up naked. Yeah, naked was good. She slammed the brakes on that train of thought before it derailed and she forgot she was mad at him.
“You need to move because I have no idea how this next spell will work and I don’t want you getting caught in the middle of it. Right now, you’re not helping me or being supportive. You’re being a broody boss-hole.”
He scowled. “I’m just…”
“Just start the spell, Fern. You warned him. If he gets turned into mulch, that’s his problem,” Shaz said. “Plus, you won’t need to worry about this mate nonsense anymore. Poof, problem solved.”
She ignored her cat and looked at her…mate? Goddess, she was not ready for that word. “Ri, please? We don’t have time for this right now.”
He turned and stalked off, giving her a perfect view of his denim-clad derriere as he went to join the others. She didn’t realize she was staring until Shaz nudged her leg. “Please, tell me he’s wrong.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s not.”
Shaz made a gagging noise. “If he moves in with us, I’m going to require therapy…and daily desserts.”
“Noted. But we’re not talking about that right now. First thing I need to do is fix this mess.”
She tapped into her magic and gathered it around her as she started her spell, trying to envision the woods the way they were before the beavers had wreaked havoc on the place.
“Goddess of all things living and green,
The beavers are banished, but they left quite a scene,
of ruin and wreckage—it’s a terrible mess,
I can’t fix this alone, so save the dryads some stress,
And help me heal this place with your usual finesse.”
It wasn’t the best of incantations. If she were back at school, it would have been a C+ at best, but the Goddess must have been in a forgiving mood. Green and gold sparks took flight, filling the area with shimmering ribbons of magic so bright she had to shield her eyes.
The sparks brushed against her skin like butterfly wings, and wherever they touched, life returned. The trees righted themselves, the scarred earth smoothed over and healed, and plants grew back so quickly she could hear it happening. More than that, she could hear…singing?
She lowered her hand and tried to find the source of the sound. The dryads had gathered together at the far side of the clearing. They were holding hands and singing a joyful, wordless tune that washed over her like sunshine and spring water.
The song and her magic faded away almost at the same time, and there was no sign that the beavers had ever been there at all.
“Thank you,” she murmured, slightly dazed by what she’d managed.
“Nicely done,” Shaz said approvingly. “Pity you didn’t plant the wolf under a tree, but I suppose committing Shifter-cide in front of all these witnesses wouldn’t be smart. You can always try again later.”
She zapped the cat into a feline-style gimp mask and zipped his mouth shut. “You’re not helping.”
Fern looked up from her now-frenzied feline’s attempts to curse and claw at the mask to see that everyone else was closing in on her, led by Orion. They were all looking at her with so much hope and eagerness it made her stomach twist and her lungs lock up mid-breath. She couldn’t do this. Not now. Maybe not ever. She didn’t want to be here. I just want to go home.
She was gone before the thought had fully formed, which was not a recommended way to teleport. She had to take a deep breath before she looked down to make sure she still had all her limbs and hadn’t melded herself into a random object. She’d seen those episodes of Star Trek where the transporter malfunctioned, thank you. I
t was not how she wanted to go out.
Everything was how she remembered it, except the floor. There were no herringbone parquet floors in her parents’ house. Well, fuck. She looked around the empty suite that had been her residence until recently. She’d zapped herself to the wrong home.
“Or the right one,” she mused aloud. No one could find her here. She could take a moment to regroup without anyone barging in and adding more fuel to the bonfire of bedlam that was already blazing. The only flaw with that plan was she’d made a promise to Shaz that she wouldn’t leave him behind ever again.
She flicked her fingers and zapped him to her side. The leather mask was in tatters and he was howling like a banshee in heat as he rabbit-kicked and thrashed across the floor.
“Oops. Sorry, Shazzy.” Another flick of her wrist and the mask vanished.
“Fern? Oh Goddess, I thought you’d left me again!”
She felt a stab of guilt. She had left him. Only for a few seconds, but still. “I panicked. I didn’t even know what I was going to do until poof, I landed here.”
Shaz looked around, his fur still askew and his tail twitching faster than a rattlesnake with palsy. “And where, exactly, is here?”
She lifted him into her arms and carried him over to the windows so he could see for himself. The sun beat down on the traffic-clogged streets of Toronto, and the CN Tower was just visible through the afternoon haze.
“Home,” she told him. “Or at least, it was before this week.”
Shazzy stared out the window and then around the interior of her former home. “Ah,” he said after a moment of thoughtful silence. “I believe I’m beginning to ascertain the problem.”
“Which one?” she asked, only half-joking.
“All this time, I was waiting for the wrong fucking witch.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell everyone! I might have Fern Summers’ name and memories, but I’m not her.”
“You are Fern Summers.” Shaz put a paw on her shoulder. “You’re just not who we’d thought you’d be. The girl who loved kales smoothies and running barefoot through the garden grew into a woman who lives in an opulent sky palace.”
Shaz spoke gently, but his words hit her like gold-plated bricks, shiny truths that left dents in her heart. “And sky-palace Fern is not the witch you all need right now.”
He nosed the locket at her throat. “I don’t think that’s true. Fate spoke to your parents about what was to come. They wouldn’t let me listen in, and when I tried to eavesdrop, Fate caught me and tossed me out. Fucking prescient beings are a pain in the tail. Have I mentioned that?”
She shook her head.
“Anyway, after Fate left, they wrote those cockamamie verses for you. It took most of the night and several bottles of your mother’s blackberry wine. Which, I should warn you, is toxic to most life forms and does unthinkable damage to both brain cells and stomach lining.”
“Well, that would explain the bad poetry.”
“Indeed, it does. What I’m trying to say, Fern, is that Fate could see a future where you rose to the occasion and kicked ass in the most glorious of fucking ways.”
His words gave her a glimmer of hope. “How?”
“I don’t know. But those verses mention your strengths. Right? Since you came back, I’ve been mourning the loss of the girl I knew and not really trying to know the woman you’ve become. I didn’t understand that you have been, and always shall be, my witch. So, tell me what your strengths are. Then we’ll figure out how to beat the beavers, fuck up Frellshingle, and… if there are enough desserts involved, maybe I’ll even accept that wolf-boy is your mate.”
Goddess in a G-string and combat boots, she’d managed to forget about that little detail. “I know I said I thought he was right, but…do you think it’s really possible?”
“I think your life has been choreographed by Baba Yaga, Fate, and the Goddess herself. Anything is possible, and Orion may be an arrogant ass with a love for black leather and death-wishes on wheels, but he’s not a liar. If he says you’re his mate, I, regrettably, have to fucking believe him.”
“So do I.” She just didn’t know what the hell to do about it. Any of it. She conjured up a love seat and a couple of bowls of Moose Tracks ice cream and sat down near the window.
“I can’t say I approve of their choice for you, but…” Shaz sighed as if the mere thought of it pained him. “At least he can cook.”
“Believe me, that’s not his only talent,” she said.
“Ack! No. No details. This arrangement will only work if you leave me to blissful ignorance in all aspects of your love life.”
She grinned a little, feeling better by the second, and she hadn’t even started on the ice cream yet. “Agreed.”
“Excellent. Then we shall consume this repast while you tell me the story of your life.”
“And then?”
Her cat purred. “And then, my beloved witch, we go home to kick ass and save the day.”
It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all they had for now. It would just have to be enough.
Chapter Fourteen
She’d left him.
His mate had vanished and left him standing there. Alone. Worse, she’d taken Shaz with her. The cat was worthy, and apparently, he wasn’t. Fuck.
He pushed through the crowd of concerned and somewhat confused Shifters as he headed for his bike. He needed to get out of here and drive…somewhere. Anywhere.
It was a good plan, only there was a massive seagull Shifter leaning against his ride, doing a remarkable impression of a stone statue.
“Move,” he growled at his brother’s mate.
Jim just shook his head. “Can’t do that.”
“Why the fuck not?”
“Because Hunter said not to let you leave until he talked to you.”
He was going to kill his brother. Only a little, mind you, because he still needed the pain in the ass puppy to manage the restaurant. “He can talk to me later. Anyone speaking to me right now is risking bodily harm and a permanent ban on ordering off the dessert menu.”
“You can’t ban us, asshole. I own half the business, and Jim’s my mate, which means what’s mine is his,” Hunter said as he walked into view and came to stand beside Jim.
Orion stared in sullen silence. He was aware he was acting like a jerk, but he was too pissed to care. He wanted to get on the road and drive for a bit to clear his head.
Hunter quirked a brow. “So we’re going with broody silence? Great, that means you won’t interrupt until I’m done.”
“Don’t bet on it.”
His brother smirked at him. “Oh, so we’re talking now? I figured it would take longer.”
“The universe is not ready for us both to be assholes at the same time. I was here first, so pick another lane.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Hunter waved a lazy hand. “Grr. Grr. Alpha male chest thump. Etcetera. Can we skip this bit?”
He laughed despite his best efforts and some of his frustration faded. “You are ruining a perfectly good bad mood.”
“Which was entirely self-inflicted. What the fuck was that about?”
“A showdown against a bunch of beavers. Weren’t you paying attention?”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. I meant you and Fern and the whole mate thing. That was…”
“A spectacular failure?” Jim offered helpfully.
“Yeah. That’s a nice way to put it. I thought you were going to tell her last night? What happened?”
“The timing was wrong. She was crying when I arrived and well…” Orion flicked his hair out of his eyes and grunted. “I got distracted.”
“That’s one word for it.” Hunter glanced at Jim, who winked at him. “But I can understand how it happened. And then today?”
“When I got here, she was out there all alone. Alone, Hunter. No Breeze. No backup except for her damned cat. She’s supposed to be saving us, but none of us were even there to watch her ba
ck!”
“So you lost your shit and started channelling dad?”
“I didn’t! I was just trying to…” He trailed off as he ran through the events of the day from a different perspective. It was not a flattering one. Hunter was right. He’d turned into the kind of bossy asshole their old man had been when things weren’t going his way. “Fuck.”
“Yup. And not in any of the fun ways.”
Jim slid an arm around Hunter’s waist and grinned. “I like the fun ways, myself.”
“Is this what I have to look forward to? A lifetime of nauseatingly cute flirtation?”
Hunter snorted. “You should be so lucky. Given how things are going so far, I’d say you’re in for a lot of grovelling.”
“But that comes with makeup sex, so, you know, not a total loss,” Jim said.
This is my life, now. I’m getting relationship advice from my baby brother after my wonderfully witchy mate zapped off with her cat instead of me. Awesome.
He gritted his teeth and braced for the pain that would undoubtedly accompany his next words. “So, got any suggestions on how I fix this?”
“Apologize,” Jim suggested.
“And then bake like you have never baked before. Any idea what her favourite desserts are? I hope so because you are going to have to make them all.”
“That assumes she’s coming back so I can apologize.”
“Well, yeah. Of course she will. She’s your mate,” Hunter said.
“Plus, she’s got a destiny. She’s gotta save this town so my momma has a safe place to live.”
“Exactly. She’ll be back.”
Yeah. Like a magically enhanced terminator. Fangs and fury, he really did need to get back to his kitchen and start baking. Then, he looked around at the glum, confused expressions of everyone else. Whipping up desserts wasn’t all he needed to do.
“Those buck-toothed bastards will return, and if I heard them right, they’ve got magical backup. We’re going to need a plan. And Breeze.”
“Where are they, anyway? I thought they’d be here for this.”
“Apparently, Fern said something about them going off to deal with the feral tribe of fairies. They’re on the road into town, protecting our delivery. Go find them and tell them what happened.”