by Linda Wisdom
Blair got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Agnes, you sound like you want to…” she gulped, “adopt them.”
“Oh, no!” she trilled. “But they do need to settle down and feel their own self worth. They can’t do that if Boggs keeps exploiting them.”
“Then call Dr. Phil. Agnes, these aren’t cute puppies or kittens or even a baby left on the doorstep,” she reminded her. “They’re supernatural creatures. Elves can be helpful, but then they can turn around and be as mischievous as Chaos.”
“I truly feel these elves are the helpful kind. They were receptive when I suggested they clean up their RV, and we talked about repainting it so it would look more respectable.”
“Brownies love to clean. Elves prefer taking things apart—or building something.” Blair winced when she heard boards hit the ground with a clatter and one of the elves shout “Sorry!” “Especially any elf Mickey sends.”
Agnes firmed her lips and shook her head. “I think you’re wrong, Blair. They were meant to come here, so they could find a new purpose in life.” She smiled and patted Blair’s hand. “Don’t worry, dear. Everything will be fine. You’ll see. I know last Halloween’s festivities didn’t go well, what with so many of us being ill and all, and our Christmas even seemed to lack something because none of us were still feeling up to snuff. But I know our winter carnival will make up for it all. Especially with Roan helping out.”
“I’m sure he’ll make all the difference.”
Blair’s sarcasm was lost on the woman, who turned at the sound of her name. “Mrs. Benedict promised to bring out hot drinks and snacks later this morning. Off to do my thing.” With a wave of her fingers, she was gone.
“So, Blair, are you going to stand there and look gorgeous, or are you going to do some actual work?” Jake called out.
“Coming.” She decided that hammering a few nails might not be such a bad idea for therapy after all.
Two hours later, Blair decided that form of therapy wasn’t right for her.
“No offense, but it wasn’t my fault!” she told the elf, Jericho, who was bouncing around, sucking his injured thumb.
“You almost broke it!” he wailed around his reddened digit, stuck in his mouth. “Hit the nail, not the thumb!”
“Go back to painting,” Jake suggested, walking up and taking the hammer out of Blair’s hand and replacing it with a paintbrush. “It’s less painful to anyone else.”
She stared at the bright blue paint that stained her jeans. “I painted myself more than I painted the boards. That’s why you put me back to hammering.”
“It’s safer than you breaking everyone’s fingers.” He dropped a kiss on top of her head and gave her a gentle push.
“You didn’t tell me this was fast drying paint.” She had chosen her oldest jeans so she wouldn’t worry if she ruined them. It appeared she’d made the right decision. She sighed and returned to the group of townspeople and elves brandishing paintbrushes on the booths already put up by Jake in record time.
They all took a break when Mrs. Benedict and Mr. Chalmers showed up with thermoses of coffee and hot cocoa and plates loaded down with cookies and brownies.
“You all know how to put on a good feed,” Alberic took a seat on the log Blair had appropriated. He sat back, his short legs swinging back and forth as he gripped a cup of coffee in one hand and several cookies in the other. Cookie crumbs decorated the front of his sweatshirt. “This helping out is nice. ’Course, if we were back at the RV we’d be downing beer and grog. Aggie doesn’t like us doing that. Most clients would rather we stay out of the way and just come out when it’s time for us to do our gig.”
“Did you ever stop to think it might have something to do with the way you looked and acted? If you were anything like you were when you first showed up here, I’m surprised the other clients didn’t run you out of town.”
“Oh, we’ve been run out of town.” He waved his cookies in the air. “More than once, even. They claim we’re bad for the children, but we’ve never harmed one child.” He grew pensive. ”We wouldn’t do that. Children are precious to us.”
“Do you have children?” Blair asked, feeling a surge of sympathy for the small creature.
“Hades no! Whiny rug rats with snotty noses, always needing their nappies changed. Not to mention a nagging wife. Just ask Barris over there. He’s got fifteen. Children, not wives. That’s why he’s on the road so much,” he confided. “Nice guy, but dumb as a stump. Never stopped to think that every time he visited his wife when we were in his hometown he’d have a new little one months down the line. It took us three days to fully explain it to him. And he still didn’t really get it.” He shook his head in wonderment.
There was no way Blair was going to pursue that subject. The last thing she wanted to know was the sexual practices of elves.
“But that doesn’t mean I don’t like the little rug rats. Just means I don’t want any of my own.” He finished his last cookie and eyed the butterscotch brownie in Blair’s hand. “Are you going to eat that?”
She obliged by handing it over.
“Aggie is a strange old bird, but not too bad,” he went on. “She and some of the other ladies are making us new costumes for the carnival. She took one look at what we’ve got and said washing them would only make them fall apart. Plus, she doesn’t want us wearing green or red. She thought we’d look good in blues and whites to go with the carnival’s color scheme.” He looked across the way and watched Agnes direct several men in placing the booth just the right way. “She’s a bossy thing too. Amazing her husband stays with her, but I think she’s good for him.”
“She is?” Blair wondered what the elf saw that she never had.
“Sure. Floyd’s not too assertive. He needs her to push him along. And she needs someone to push. You see? The perfect pair.”
Blair studied the couple and could see what Alberic meant. Agnes was speaking to Floyd, flailing her arms around, with the man nodding and doing her bidding. Her gaze shifted to the left where Jake was setting up boards. She watched the play of his muscles with feminine enthusiasm and enjoyed the sight of his tight ass under the snug denim as his legs flexed when he picked up boards. She silently vowed to have a better look first chance she got. When he straightened up he looked her way and grinned. But it was the lambent heat in his eyes she felt the most.
“Good thing you two hit the sheets. If you hadn’t worked off some of that sexual tension, you’d end up setting fire to the whole forest,” Alberic commented. “Hey!” He massaged the back of his head that Blair had just thumped. “He didn’t say a word. I figured it out.”
“And you were doing so well, too.” She finished the last of her coffee and took the empty cup over to the trash bag.
“Ms. Fitzgerald.”
Blair tamped down her inner bitch as she turned around to greet the owner of a melting chocolate voice she was sure had seduced many a woman into bed. Even if she wasn’t lusting after Jake, she wouldn’t even want to shake paws with this guy.
“Mr. Thorpe.” She was determined to be polite even if it killed her. Or him.
“Please, call me Roan.” He flashed her a toothy smile. “And if I can call you Blair?”
“Feel free. It’s protected.” She knew many creatures protected their names, with a name that was for public use and one for close friends and family only. She was only too happy to let people know her name wouldn’t give an enemy any advantage. She ran her eyes over Roan’s pressed designer jeans that held a perfect crease and a dark brown cashmere pullover. He showed no signs of feeling the chilly air, but then she didn’t expect him to unless he was trying to fit in around humans. “Come here to help out?” What she wouldn’t give to have a paintbrush in her hand right now. Or even that evil hammer that hit everything but the nails.
“I just came out to look things over.” He surveyed the lake and the surrounding land.
Blair tensed when his gaze paused at the rock that hung over on
e part of the lake, where she and the others stood once a month. She shouldn’t be worried; the rock held no magick of its own and they always made sure all traces of their presence were erased when they left. Although the lake held special value for the witches, not too many preternatural creatures would be interested, but you couldn’t be too careful.
“I’m surprised you didn’t fix this up as a tourist stop. Bring in some sand for a beach to use during the warm weather. You could clear out some of the trees and even build a small restaurant and rest area. Of course, you’d need a road to accommodate vehicles coming back here. I don’t think you’d want an RV park back here because you’d have to clear out too much land. And that’s never good. Still, it’s valuable land going to waste.”
She bristled at his words. “Land never goes to waste, Mr. Thorpe. It gives back when it’s well cared for. You, of all creatures, should know that. Weres need the forest for hunting, a place where you can run free. Some of us witches prefer to keep the land intact.”
He swung back to her. “I’m glad to see that you understand our need for plenty of space for our hunts.”
She knew exactly what he meant and she mentally tossed his words into a trashcan. But her stress level inched up a bit when she saw Roan’s attention wander toward Jake. She could tell that the Border Collie Were appeared to be ignoring them as he worked with a couple of men and elves, but she also sensed that he was aware of every movement Roan made and heard every word his brother spoke. She wanted to assure Jake she could take care of herself, but she liked the idea of readily available back up.
“You chose the wrong mountain to settle on, Roan,” she said softly, “There’s no additional land left for your Pack, unless you can persuade the government to give up what they own, and I doubt that will happen. I hope your Pack likes to ski and snowboard, because the resort is well known for the slopes there.”
This time his smile showed more teeth and a strong hint of wolf. “Too bad you’re a witch, Blair. You’d make an excellent Were.”
“Now that’s just being mean.”
Blair felt the change in the atmosphere the same time Jake did. Roan’s look of satisfaction as he looked toward one of the paths that displayed a new arrival didn’t give her any warm fuzzies, either.
The woman who walked toward them looked as well put together as Roan himself and was so beautiful Blair was certain all the men’s jaws had dropped. For once the elves didn’t utter any chauvinistic comments that would earn them a smack upside the head, probably because they were as much in awe as all the other males around. She had never been so aware of her grungy appearance, tousled hair, and the paint under her nails. She quickly jammed her hands in her jeans pockets to hide the smudges of paint on her fingers.
But then she noticed the expression on Jake’s face. He looked as if he’d just been struck with a two-by-four.
Now Blair didn’t just feel a tad overwhelmed, she felt sick to her stomach. Jake knew her.
“Jen, over here,” Roan called out.
The woman’s steps seemed to flow with animal grace as she moved toward them in her stiletto boots that weren’t made for the rough ground but didn’t seem to deter her steps a bit. Black hair with the sheen of a raven’s wing was swept back in loose curls that highlighted lavender eyes even Elizabeth Taylor would envy and full lips glossed in red.
Blair didn’t feel any better when the woman veered toward Jake instead of Roan.
“Jake!” The woman’s face warmed in a smile as she walked quickly his way and threw her arms around him.
Luckily for Blair’s state of mind, Jake didn’t look as happy to see her; stunned seemed more like it.
“Another Pack member?” Blair wondered how the beautiful Were would feel if her nasty little paws fell off—literally.
Roan’s all-seeing eyes took in her expression and appeared to be pleased with what he saw. “A little more than that—Jennifer was chosen to be Jake’s mate when they were pups. She comes from a bloodline as superior as our own and has no recessive genes. Our healer thought mating Jake and Jennifer would ensure he have quality cubs.”
For a second she thought seriously about throwing up on his highly polished boots. Or setting them on fire. “Yeah, you wouldn’t want puppies instead of cubs, would you?”
“Exactly.”
Blair always prided herself on having the last word, but this was one time when nothing came to mind—except maybe to shriek at that sexy Were to get her French manicured paws off Blair’s boyfriend or be prepared to lose a limb.
Chapter 11
“There’s steam coming out of your ears.” Luckily, Stasi had shown up ready to do her share of work and was quickly filled in on the morning’s events, including Roan and the mysterious Jennifer’s arrival that still had Blair seeing red. After Roan delivered the verbal blow to Blair, he sauntered over to where Jennifer still hung on to Jake’s arm. Even if Jake looked as if he would prefer to be anywhere else, Roan looked too smug for Blair’s peace of mind.
“Jealousy doesn’t become you,” Stasi murmured, nudging her friend. “While you look good in green, you don’t look good with green skin.”
Blair unconsciously touched her face. She was tempted to conjure up a mirror, but she really didn’t want to know if her jealousy had done that to her.
“So what’s with her?” Stasi looked over to where Jake and the female Were were talking. She was smiling and looking hopeful as she gazed up at Jake, while he just looked pained.
“It seems he has a fiancée.” Blair ground her teeth.
“A fiancée?” Stasi’s voice raised an octave. “That bastard.” She glared at Jake with enough force that he started shifting from one foot to the other.
“It’s one of those bonds chosen at birth.”
Stasi shook her head. “I thought mate bonds didn’t happen until Weres reached maturity.”
“They probably don’t, but this is more like selective breeding on their part.” Blair focused on relaxing her jaw. “Something about her bloodlines, not having any recessive genes, and hopefully insuring no puppies in the litters.”
Stasi took the paintbrush out of her hand, while Blair actually fought to retrieve the brush that seemed to be aiming itself at the female Were. “Go home, change your clothes, and take over the shops,” Stasi said softly. “I’ll keep an eye on things here. Believe me, if anything happens I will take care of her… uh, it.”
Blair heaved a big sigh. “You’re so good to me.”
“Oh, girls!” Agnes was heading their way.
Blair muttered a soft curse but forced herself to smile. “I’m heading back to the shops. Stasi’s taking over for me, Agnes.”
“I thought we’d do a potluck dinner tonight at the town hall to thank everyone for their help today,” she said.
Blair’s first words were intended to be no thank you, but Stasi cut her off at the pass.
“What a wonderful idea! We’ll bring a main dish. And for now, Blair needs to get back and play shopkeeper.” She gave Blair a less than gentle shove that rocked her back on her feet.
“More like going through my super duper book of revenge spells,” she muttered, walking off without another look in Jake’s direction. She doubted his fiancée would be helping with setting up booths. She didn’t look as if she did anything more physical than maybe bring down a rabbit when she turned furry and even then she’d be careful not to break a claw. “Mange. Mange is good. Six months’ case of fleas.” She walked back toward her home. “Rashes. Oozing sores.” Her mood lightened as her ideas turned more creative and downright gross. She was even smiling by the time she reached the building with a shower and a change of clothes in mind.
But her smile didn’t last long, because one question sounded loud and clear in her mind.
Jake had finally opened up about himself and his Pack. Yet he had managed to forget to mention he also had a fiancée, who, judging by her reaction to Jake out by the lake, didn’t seem to have any trouble with his ha
ving been away from the Pack for so long.
Or was this some kind of plan to bring him back? And if so, why?
***
Jake watched Blair leave and judging by the red and black sparks flying around her head, she wasn’t in a good mood. Since her skills ran to revenge spells, he feared she was planning something pretty nasty and he could end up the unlucky victim.
“We need to talk, Jake,” Jennifer said, keeping her hand on his arm. “It’s been so long.”
He didn’t view her touch as anything more than the Were’s need for physical contact. They couldn’t go a day without hugging or stroking each other. Well, except for his mother. She didn’t like having her fur mussed. He was amazed she’d bothered with sex to have him and his brother. He’d never looked up the moon phase when he and his brother would have been conceived. A Were’s sexual hunger grew ravenous during the full moon. Even Jake’s urges were stronger then, although he insisted on controlling it. Jake refused to be out of control. He’d accepted that he was different, and he was happy with the life he’d created.
And now here was Jennifer, acting as if their bond was still to be finalized. “Jake, aren’t you going to introduce us?”
The lesser of the two evils and if I can get her on my side, I’ll live to see the next full moon.
“Stasi Romanov, this is Jennifer Santiago, a member of Roan’s Pack,” he said before turning to Jennifer. “Stasi owns Isn’t It Romantic, the lingerie boutique and bookstore in town.”
“Lingerie and books?” Jennifer’s laughter was musical to go with her perfect features. “What a curious combination.”
“Romance novels,” Stasi explained. “Most of my lingerie stock comes from Europe, and I like to match the books to the lingerie. Many of the tourists staying at the resort patronize the shop. Hopefully, that will continue.”
“I’ll have to stop by and take a look.” She smiled at Jake. “A woman never has enough sexy lingerie.”
Stasi smiled sweetly. “Do that. I’ll take anyone’s money.” She turned to Jake. “Do you want to show me what you need done?” She held up her paintbrush. Jake automatically stepped back as if he feared the brush would land on his chest, but then he remembered he wasn’t facing Blair.