Coffee consumed and cup and cereal bowl perched to dry on the dish pad, I headed to the trails to walk for the next two hours.
But while immersed in the nature of the woods behind my house, something happened for the first time since I had been walking in them that precipitated a life changing event.
The biggest bonus of my move to Quincy and selecting my little Craftsman bungalow, were the trailheads right behind my house. The Forest Service maintained the trails leading off in several directions to meander through the pines and granite outcroppings of the Plumas National Forest.
I only had to step off my back porch to be on my way along whichever one I chose for the day.
Always carrying the essentials, a noisemaker, my walking stick, my knife, and a pepper spray dispenser in my pocket, I had felt relatively safe so far.
The stick theoretically would be of use by making myself look larger, and that combined with a loud noise should discourage aggression and cause the predator to look elsewhere for its meal. That’s what they said anyway. I had watched enough YouTube to feel confident that I was taking all the precautions.
After reaching about a mile deep into the woods, I was turning a bend when I felt prickling on the back of my neck. The sudden quiet of my surroundings caused me to grip my stick in a more defensive hold and pull my pepper spray from my pocket.
Hearing a deep chuff to my right I turned to find a mountain lion perched on a rock, its tail swishing, readying itself to pounce. On me. Shit. How was I to make myself look larger when the cat was up on a rock? A huge cat.
Gripping the stick defensively, and slowly replacing the pepper spray with my knife, I was aware of the loud pounding of my heart and worked to still my breathing and control the urge to flee. That would not be a good thing to do.
Then to my utter shock and disbelief, a tiger, yes, a tiger right here in the backwoods of California, launched itself on the cougar just as it was about to pounce. What the hell? The two beasts disappeared from my view, and I heard violent thrashing in the trees, then silence.
Still trying to process what I had just witnessed, a man walked out from the trees from the direction the cats had gone and came towards me. He was a striking man. The most exotic looking person I had ever seen in fact.
His skin was a rich medium hue, like molasses, nearly glowing with a visible aura. He was of average height, but his muscles were sinuous, and he moved with power and grace.
A dark head of hair flowed straight past his shoulders in silky strands, the top strands plaited intricately and pulled back at the crown. His prominent aquiline nose bisected his face like an image on a stone carving I had once seen at a Sumerian exhibit that had travelled through San Francisco.
He was clothed only with some sort of wrap around his waist. His arms were sleeved in intricate glyphs, the designs on the right arm traveling up to cover completely over his right peck and around his shoulder, then up the side of his neck. But these were not the usual black ink of tattoos that I was familiar with. These symbols, whorls and arcs glowed in a bright, golden light.
I let my subconscious mind absorb the details as there was so much about him to observe all at once. Using this technique let me capture what I was seeing in a drawing later.
Staring at him intently, I noticed he stopped moving to look at me just as closely, mesmerizing me with his dark mysterious eyes. His attention on me felt almost reverent, and I blinked to break the intensity.
Those nearly black eyes warmed, and a beautiful smile broke across his face, and I could not resist smiling back. Why was I no longer afraid? The strangest feeling of having seen him before overtook me. Finding my voice, I asked nearly in a whisper, “Do I know you?”
“In a way, my precious one.” I blinked again at his familiar tone.
He continued in an accent that was unfamiliar to anything in my frame of reference, “Our paths have crossed before in ways you will understand soon. As my soul bonded, we have much ahead of us to face together. I know what you saw just now seems unbelievable. You did see it. Trust your instincts and stay alert.”
His smile lingered a moment longer, then it disappeared along with him, in a swirling grey mist.
I found myself unable to move, gaping at the place he had stood, and wondering if he had been real. Well, that was not fair. I frowned now at the questions crowding my head. But I took comfort in my assurance that he would be back, even as that assurance baffled me.
With his portentous words reverberating in my head, part of me wanted to freak out at this disruption to my reality, but part of me knew this encounter was important. The feeling that my life’s purpose had expanded in some way suddenly weighed on me. Then I got my legs working again.
Back home in my chair by the fireplace, I quickly sketched an image of the tiger then the man, trying to capture every detail of the designs my subconscious mind had cataloged.
When I looked at my finished drawings, the sense of familiarity and the overpowering significance of the encounter grew. Again, I felt the assurance that I would see him again. Soul bonded he had said. We had much to do together. What did that mean?
A memory began to surface, playing out more vividly as I cast my mind back. I was about fourteen and walking home from middle school, daydreaming as I often did, when four older boys stepped into my path. They began to taunt me and moved towards me threateningly. Looking around frantically for help, I became really frightened by what these boys intended, having realized that I was completely alone with them.
The only option I could come up with was to flee. As I turned to run, a man appeared seemingly from nowhere. An exotic man dressed in dark nondescript clothes, but I had noticed an odd light that played around him. I shivered in my recollections knowing it was the same man from today. Our paths have crossed before in ways you will understand soon, my soul bonded.
He had told me then in his richly accented voice to run. Nearly as alarmed by his sudden appearance as I had been by the threat of the boys, I obeyed, never looking back, but hearing loud grunts and thuds in quick succession behind me. That incident was part of what later drew me to Thomas’ Krav Maga studio. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten about it till now.
I looked again at my drawing. There were many motifs in those glowing tattoos. Peering at them carefully, I noted an exotic striped tiger…a tiger, and there was a symbol that seemed to represent wind, and multiple stars either single or in clusters. Other images emerged of an island, a strange sprawling building by a sea, a small single-sailed boat, again with that wind symbol.
I pulled out some of the images into separate drawings so I could work on the details more clearly. There also appeared to be cuneiform writing interspersed among the motifs. My mind had captured several symbols specifically that must have stood out to me that I was able to reproduce clearly enough.
Deciding to see if any of these images or the texts would come up in Google, I fired up my laptop in my studio, and was surprised when the symbols of the writing did in fact appear on two sites that contained the history of Mesopotamia.
One of the cuneiform symbols translated to the word Zigan, which meant rudder or oar in Sumerian, and another translated to Enkara, which meant weapon. A third was Nirgal meaning noble, and one more had captured my attention, which was the word Meshara meaning duty or oath.
Sitting back stunned, I tried to come up with why I was looking at ancient Sumerian cuneiform symbols seen on a man who appeared on the trail at the back of my house today. My thirty-inch monitor did not allow me to deny what I was seeing. Nothing I found provided a lot of information. But it was enough to fire up my imagination.
Shutting off my computer and closing my journal, I made myself a cup of strong tea and spent the next hour mindfully engaged, listening to one of my favorite podcasts while I knitted on a baby blanket that I was making for another new friend and cafe owner Jean Ash. She and her husband Randy were expecting their third child, a baby boy, in the fall.
The stitc
hes grounded me as they increased one at a time through the rhythmic clicking of my rosewood needles, adding rows of soft fabric beneath my hands. When I was satisfied with the progress on the blanket, I put it back in my basket.
Taking a warmed-up burrito, tortilla chips and salsa to my studio after fetching my art journal again, I spent the next hour working on adding color to my images, capturing the skin tone and the glow of the man’s glyphs and the stripes of the beautiful tiger.
Eventually, I settled my mind sufficiently so that I was ready to face Andras Johns tonight across my table for the first time.
Taking care with my appearance, I dressed in a casual but chic style of white linen slacks that hung low on my hips topped by my favorite honey color sleeveless shift with a scooped neckline, the upper half ending above my belly button. The bottom half was a sheer lace panel embroidered with amber Swarovski crystal beads. I slipped on a pair of brown leather mules with a low heel.
My hair was swept back to flow loose over my shoulders, my makeup applied lightly to bring out my eyes and I had dabbed a bit of color on my cheeks and lips. The face that looked back at me in the mirror had a bit of a haunted look and I wondered what other bizarre things the night might bring.
Now what made me think spending time with Andras could fall into the bizarre category?
I smiled, and told myself, “You can handle bizarre, Selena, and you can handle Andras Johns.”
Chapter 9
Andras
“Do you agree, Andras?” Collin’s voice finally penetrated my hearing as my thoughts about Selena would not let me go.
It seemed every time I had resolved to leave her alone, she did something that blew me the fuck away, making my need to be with her nearly unbearable. It became more evident each encounter that she was many fascinating things packed into a small, beautiful package.
Last night without overthinking it yet again, I let my primal half take over. It had felt like the right thing to do, not to mention being a great relief.
“I don’t blame you one bit,” Collin said in response to my wandering attention. “I hope you don’t mind that she shows up as the heroine in a few of my dreams as well. She was fantastic. Mad Mulligan. Shit, Andras. She and her friends reminded me again why I like humans.”
I looked around the table. Sam sat back with his arms crossed over his chest, eyes gleaming, and Ross and Ramsay shared satisfied smiles. Yes, Selena had impressed us all, as had her friends. I was pleased at how well they had each other’s backs last night.
“I was saying…right around the time we lost you…” Collin drawled, “that Kenny was impressive last night not hesitating to put himself between his friends and an obviously dangerous lunatic, standing with us when we took the problem outside. We might want to find a way to thank him.”
Sitting back with my arms crossed, now fully engaged with my council and letting Collin have his say, I nodded in agreement, “I had that same thought. I believe he needs a sponsor for his competition next winter. Let’s take care of that for him.”
Turning to my enforcer now, I said, “Make sure you keep tabs on Mulligan and that he has indeed left our territory. And please send him a message for us, one of your special messages. Now that he has taken notice of Selena, he might get some ideas. We need to be proactive. I’d like eyes on all three friends for a while.”
Sam said in a deadly voice, “I will be happy to take care of the message.” And it was clear he would not only do so for me, but for Selena. Selena did not know it, but she had earned herself a fierce protector and made a formidable friend.
Nodding and looking around in satisfaction at my council, I knew each of them would be looking out for her as she was as good as Pack now.
Colin continued with updates on the Anurashin. “I’d like your approval to deploy Cal Spencer’s task force to Modoc County to scan for signs.”
I said, “Approved.”
Cal employed shifters in the rodent variety and could literally send a swarm through a large area like nanobots through a computer system gathering epic amounts of information.
Colin added, “They leave little sign that they have passed through, and I believe they can pick up whatever clues might be out there without being detected. It will be costly, as we really need them to start at Tule Lake and sweep all the way to the eastern border of Modoc County.”
His plan was sound, and I said, “That would be the most effective use. Have you reached Elliott yet? I’m getting concerned that he is not responding to us. He needs to be made aware of the ramifications of the Anurashin gaining access to those mines.”
My patrol on the California-Oregon border had just reported spotting drones at the mines around Tule Lake, and there was no other explanation for high-tech drones invading the mines other than the Anurashin.
Colin huffed out a sigh of frustration and reported on his attempts to contact Elliot. “I was not able to speak with him directly. He’s proving hard to get a hold of. I did talk to Devin, his second in command. He kept the conversation short and indicated that Elliott was dealing with some family crisis that appears to have taken him out of cell service.”
I asked, “What have you got for me from the USGS team?”
Colin flipped his notepad. “They are sending three people, a surveyor and two geologists who will meet you in Doris Monday at noon.”
“Excellent. I am eager to analyze what we’ve got that is so attractive to the Anurashin in those caverns. At least now we know where to focus our attention.”
There was a punching bag with Mulligan’s face on it waiting for me in the training room, so I headed there next, needing badly to let off steam. I wanted to be in a good place for my dinner tonight with Selena, a woman who never seemed to leave my mind, and I was starting to suspect why.
There was only one explanation for why I felt the strong pull to her, the fierce need to keep her safe, and the growing feeling that she belonged to me and no one else. I suspected that Selena Aires might be my mate.
Now at a time when we face our biggest crisis, I find my life becoming entwined with a woman I could no longer resist. The timing was terrible, but I would have to figure out how to make it work. We were not meant to resist our mates and having settled on the fact that Selena was that for me, a huge weight had been lifted.
Twice now, she had been involved with dangerous shifters. I needed to face the fact that she was in my world whether I wanted her to be or not. She might as well be at my side. She would be safer as part of the Pack even if she didn’t know it yet.
Still, I would move cautiously, assessing how she might react to learning about my true nature. Humans had quite different ideas about relationships and commitment. Shifters? We simply claimed what was ours.
Never, after all these years of going without, had I expected that my mate would turn up at the Starlight, that she would be human.
Running my hand through my hair, I thought I was in for a ride, and I felt a grin taking over my face. She was so fucking worth it.
Chapter 10
Selena
Shawn James singing his cover of Ain’t No Sunshine was making me mellow and I was grateful, as it allowed me once again to focus on my sketching, which was currently my take on Red hovering around one of our saucier barmaids, Olivia.
He had been teasing her about something, and she glibly waved him off as she headed away from him, her tray laden with drinks. Red’s obvious admiration as he watched her walk away, was the subject of my drawing.
Striving to act like I would any other night sitting here in my comfortable booth sketching faces, I have been battling a case of the nerves. After weeks of speculation and ogling the mysterious Andras Johns more than I should have done, the man would soon be sitting across from me.
I was also experiencing a delicious anticipation, the kind I had not experienced since I was a kid. That excitement when you know something special is going to rock your world. Like that kiss last night. The man had set me on fire.
Gemma had come to check on me, and we made plans for our next lunch at Jean’s. She had been dropping by my table to distract me from my nerves. Then the air in the place changed slightly and Gemma turned to look at the door. “Well, sweetie, here’s your guy. I’ll be back in a flash.” She winked at me and headed to a nearby table.
Though it was expected, I was still amazed when Andras headed my direction instead of merely passing by as usual with only a brief nod. Trying not to lick my lips, I watched him approach, his long legs encased in black leather pants, his impressive form molded by a black cotton shirt worn loose over his trousers, making him look impossibly tall. His were sleeves rolled up showcasing powerful tattooed arms.
A hint of his lethal looking bear claw tattoo was visible at his open collar, the stars rising from behind it and winding a path up his neck, a neck that was increasingly drawing my lustful attention. A six-and-a-half-foot bad boy now walked my way, charm wholly engaged. What had I gotten myself into?
His thick honey-blonde hair and beard were in marked contrast to his dark clothes. Even after wearing a helmet, his hair toppled over his brow in a perfectly messed look. My fingers were itching to trace those stars and dig into that hair.
He was quickly at my table, his laser focus beaming at me as he flashed a sexy grin, drinking in my appearance like he had been waiting all day to see it, and obviously detecting my own admiring appraisal. Heat rushed up my cheeks.
Now he was folding his long legs under the table, making himself comfortable across the booth from me, and said in that voice that sent vibrations down to my toes. “Well, Selena, here we are at last. You look fantastic.”
And the man seemed to keep filling my vision, blocking out everything else in the room, leaving me a little speechless with his proclamation.
Gemma, in her perfect timing, appeared at the table to take our orders with her usual sunny smile, an order pad perched in her hand, pen poised, grounding me instantly. I threw her a grateful look.
Ursus Borealis: Book One Page 6