Alpha Bear

by Bianca D’Arc

  “I’m really sorry.” Her sister tried looking pathetic, but Urse wasn’t buying it.

  The way she saw it, they had a really slim chance of the town council being willing to let them stay, now that the cat was out of the bag. Why that disappointed her so very much, Urse wasn’t exactly sure, but she suspected it had a lot to do with the Alpha male who had just walked out the door…and possibly out of her life, for good.

  Damn. That was a really shitty thought.

  John fumed as he stalked down Main Street toward his office. Of all the things the Ricoletti sisters could have been, mages was right there at the top of the list of no-no’s. Shifters didn’t mix with other magical races. They barely cooperated among other shifter groups.

  John figured he’d been asking a lot of his people to work with the vampire master out of Seattle, but that long-distance relationship seemed to be going well for both sides. They were all still wary, though. He might have established a working rapport with the bloodsucker, but that didn’t mean his people trusted the guy.

  And the master vampire stayed on his own turf, in Seattle. He didn’t come out to Grizzly Cove without specific invitation to view progress on the restaurant in which he was now—rather ironically, since he couldn’t ingest food—a silent partner.

  But witches…living in town? Part of the community? He didn’t think his people would go for it. It was one thing to let the odd human in. The three sisters they’d allowed to open a bakery several months before had all ended up mated to bears, so that had worked out really well. With that success under their belts, they’d decided to allow more humans in.

  The key word there was humans. Nowhere on their business application had the Ricoletti sisters indicated that they were magic users. Of course, that wasn’t the kind of thing one just bandied about. Mages were still as secretive as shifters and vamps about their existence. The human world just rolled along…mostly unaware of the magical beings coexisting alongside them.

  John liked it that way. Sure, allowing humans to settle in the cove had its risks, but that was why each applicant was so carefully vetted.

  How in the world had the witch sisters gotten past the background checks? John didn’t know, but he was definitely going to find out. He punched a few numbers into his cell phone as he stalked along Main Street.

  The guy in charge of the background checks was also the town’s lawyer, Tom. He’d mated recently, to the middle Baker sister, who was also an attorney. She picked up the phone, and John had to school himself not to growl out his frustrations to her. It wasn’t Ashley’s fault that her mate had been fooled by two Italian-American witches.

  “Is Tom there?” John asked, his temper running close to the surface.

  “He’s at your office, John,” Ashley answered promptly. “He had some candidates he wanted to run past you.”

  John really wanted to growl, but he bit it back. Again.

  “Thanks, Ashley. I’ll catch him there.”

  He rang off as politely as he could manage under the circumstances and took the steps into City Hall two at a time. He stomped into his office at the back of the building, and sure enough, there he was. Tom. Asshole of the hour.

  “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” John said without preamble as Tom stood by the visitor’s chair in front of John’s desk.

  “What’s wrong?” Tom asked.

  He was one of John’s go-to men for a reason. Tom was a problem solver, which was normally something John respected, but Tom had fucked up royally, and John was pissed.

  “How about two witches opening a bookstore in the middle of town? And, oh yeah, they recognized all of us as shifters without even breaking a sweat.” John paced behind his desk, unable to sit still as his anger peaked.

  “What?” Tom looked dumbfounded, then concerned, followed swiftly by anger and a flush of embarrassment.

  It wasn’t often Tom was caught flatfooted, but John saw all the signs of it now. Damn. He wanted to be angry with his friend and lieutenant, but he knew Tom was a straight shooter. He’d messed up, but he was just as troubled as he ought to be by the situation. Maybe even more so—since it was his fault the strega sisters had gotten this far.

  “Those nice Ricoletti girls just informed me that they’re both magic users. Apparently, they come from a long line of Italian strega.”

  “Strega, huh?” Tom looked thoughtful as he obviously recognized the word.

  “You know about strega?” John countered quickly. He needed reliable information, and he needed it yesterday.

  “Yeah, I crossed paths with a strega once. A long time ago.” Tom’s tone turned contemplative. “She saved my life, actually.”

  That took a bit of the wind out of John’s sails. He found enough calm to sit.

  “Tell me all,” he invited, though it was more like an order.

  “It was before I hooked up with your unit, John,” Tom began. “Me and two other guys were detached to protect the U.S. ambassador on a trip to Rome. Remember the terrorist attack? I was in the middle of it and took five bullets to the abdomen before we could save the ambassador’s bacon and get him out of there. The team assumed I was wearing a vest, but you know how I hate the way those things chafe. I was bleeding, but I told them it was only a graze, and in the confusion of the scene, I got away with it. Until I couldn’t anymore. I collapsed in a back alley near the Vatican while pursuing the perps. Our radios were shit with all the chaos and crossed signals, so nobody missed me.”

  “I knew you were in the thick of that action, but I didn’t know you’d been injured,” John said, encouraging his friend to go on.

  It was clear that Tom was reluctant to talk about whatever had happened. He was probably embarrassed, but he’d have to get over that. John needed to know what he knew about strega.

  “A priest found me and somehow recognized what I was. He contacted a woman he knew, and she took me into her home. She was a strega. I was pretty far gone. One of the bullets had hit something important, and even with our natural healing abilities, I was close to death. I thought, at the time, that I’d just asked too much of my body, but the lady—the witch—set me straight. One of those bullets had been cursed, she claimed later, and I was in no position to argue. She did some magic, and I woke up in the middle of it. There was a really intense golden light. I could see the woman and the priest through this sheen of the most beautiful light I’ve ever been exposed to. It felt like the sun—the most intense sun you’ve ever felt—on a warm summer day. Good and golden and pure.”

  Tom’s eyes had lost their focus on the here and now, and John listened with great interest to the story. He hadn’t had a lot of experience with Catholic priests, but John had long held the belief that most people who dedicated their lives to serving their chosen deity in a non-violent way, and helping others, were probably on the right side of things.

  It sounded like the priest who had found Tom knew things about the unseen world, if he’d realized Tom was a shifter. The thought intrigued him, but it was for later consideration. What he needed to know about right now was the woman. The strega.

  “She healed me with her magic. I could feel the bullets popping out of my body and hear them clattering on the floor. I’d counted five hits, but there were more pieces than that coming out of me. Some of those bullets had fragged, which helped explain why I was so badly injured, but even that shouldn’t have put me down. I mean, I fell like a rock. Hard. I’ve never been so out of it before, or since.” Tom seemed to reflect for a moment, and John didn’t rush him.

  He seemed to be remembering things as he spoke about them, and John could see how difficult it was for him to speak of the events. No shifter—especially not one as strong or capable as Tom—wanted to admit to moments of weakness.

  “The lady healed me, and I had to leave as soon as I could walk,” Tom went on. “The terrorists were still out there, and my team was hunting them. I had to get back to the fight, which was ongoing. I realized as I came out of it comple
tely that only about forty minutes had passed. The priest gave me a quick briefing of what he knew, and I listened in on the confused comms that were coming through my radio. The scene was still chaos, and I needed to get back out there. The priest blessed me, if you can believe it, and the woman added her own little sparkle of magic as I took off and helped track down the bad guys.”

  “Is that it?” John asked when Tom trailed off again. “Is that all you know about strega?”

  Tom shook himself and focused on John. “No, sorry. As you know, we caught the terrorists. After that, I went back to the lady’s house to thank her. She invited me in for coffee, and we talked. She told me a little bit about her calling. She said that strega, like all people, can be good or bad, but that because of where she lived, so close to the Vatican, pretty much every strega in the area was working on the side of Light. In fact, they’d congregated there to take advantage of the good juju coming off the concentration of spiritual thought and prayer coming out of that area. A few special priests were aware of the strega and their magic. The one who had brought me to her was one of them. She clearly had great respect for the man, and she told me where to find him. After I left her, I went straight to the little church where she told me I’d find the priest, to thank him. He invited me into his home for another cup of coffee, and I was intrigued enough to accept his invitation.”

  Tom reached for his cell phone, hitting a few buttons before he went on. “I have his number, and the lady’s. I could call either of them—or both—and ask about the Ricolettis. I have a feeling the strega working on the side of Light all know each other, or at least know of each other.”

  “You keep in touch with them still?” John was impressed by that. Clearly, those two people had made a larger impression on Tom than John had realized.

  “We talk occasionally. Mostly around the holidays. Just friendly greetings. Antoinetta calls me once in a while, if she has a shifter question, and she’s invited me to do the same if I have a magic problem. So far, I haven’t taken her up on it, though I’ve been meaning to call and tell her I found my mate and maybe ask what she might know about sea monsters.” Tom looked at John questioningly, as if seeking his input.

  John thought about it for a few seconds. “Are you sure you’re comfortable with these people knowing about your mate?” Mates had to be protected at all costs. The fact that Tom had found his was too precious to take lightly.

  “I trust them both with my life. They saved me once. I doubt they would do anything to me or anyone I claimed as mine. In fact, I see them both as allies. They would help me and mine, if they could.”

  “You’re that sure about them?” John was surprised by Tom’s vehemence.

  Tom nodded. “Sure as I can be.” He paused before continuing. “You didn’t experience that golden light, John. There was no way either of them could ever be evil, in any way. What I felt that day as they saved my life was a truly spiritual experience. Oh, and most strega follow the Goddess, though Antoinetta hides her devotion behind Catholic traditions. She has a beautiful shrine in her garden with a statue of a woman at its center.”

  “All right. Make the call. Do you think she would mind if you conferenced me in?” John asked. This was Tom’s contact. John would let Tom decide how best to handle the connection.

  “I think she’d enjoy it,” Tom said, smiling as he dialed the number. “Luckily, it’s not too late to call where she is.” Tom put the call on speaker, and John heard the phone start to ring on the other end.

  What followed was one of the strangest conversations John had ever had. Tom greeted the lady in Italian, then switched to English as he introduced John. Antoinetta’s English was excellent, though heavily accented. She seemed a warm person, the kind whose friendliness reached right through the phone lines and into the room. Magic? John wasn’t sure, but his instincts told him she was all right.

  She explained what she could about Italian strega in general, but wouldn’t say too much until she knew why John was asking. John could respect that. She didn’t know him, and even with Tom vouching for him, she was right to be cautious. With the strange goings on in the world today, the magical races had to be on alert.

  “I understand your hesitancy,” John said patiently, hoping to convince the woman to speak more candidly. “We know the world is becoming even more dangerous than it was. We’ve been warned that the Venifucus are on the loose, running around, trying to bring back their former leader.” John threw that out there to see what the woman might say.

  “If what I believe is true, they already have,” Antoinetta intoned rather ominously.

  “What?” Tom jumped on the statement. “Do you know this for certain?”

  “No, my friend. I’m sorry. It is a vision by one of my sisters. She sometimes sees things, but I have no concrete evidence as yet. She saw fire and smoke. Lightning and ash. And a woman, the Destroyer, come through in the heart of flame.”

  “We know for a fact that they were trying to siphon the power from at least two volcanoes and the San Andreas fault to open the rift between worlds,” Tom told her. “In each of those cases, shifters stopped the Venifucus agents before they could do too much damage.”

  “Let me guess.” Antoinetta’s voice sounded a bit mischievous. “Iceland. That had to be the white tiger, right? And maybe that mountain up near where you live, in the Pacific Northwest? Did you have something to do with that, my friend?”

  “Not me,” Tom explained. “But definitely folks like us.”

  “That leaves South America,” Antoinetta said, a bit of solemnity returning to her voice. “Or here, in my homeland. I will have to look into this further, but if what my sister saw is true—and I have no reason to doubt her—then we are in for a rough ride as soon as the Destroyer recovers from her journey. It is no easy thing to travel between realms. Even for one of her power, it will have weakened her. She will not want to show herself to the world until she has regained her strength. And then…”

  “And then, all hell breaks loose,” Tom completed the thought.

  Silence reigned for a moment before John got back into the conversation.

  “With your permission, I’m going to tell the Lords of our kind here in the States about this,” John said politely. Truthfully, he’d pass on the woman’s words with or without her okay, but he preferred that she knew he was going to tell them.

  “Thank you,” Antoinetta surprised him by saying. “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but we should all be wary until we know for certain.” John sat back in his chair, pleased with the way the conversation was going. “Now, as for your strega,” she went on. “What are their family names? Perhaps I know their people.”

  “They’re sisters. Their family name is Ricoletti,” John said, surprised by his own hesitancy. He didn’t want to cause trouble for the sisters, and somehow, he felt protective of their privacy—which made no sense.

  “Ricoletti! Why didn’t you say so?” Antoinetta made some tsking sounds in the background. “They come from a long line of well-respected strega and ones like you.” She trailed off for a moment, then returned triumphantly. “Maria Ricoletti was a friend of my grandmother. She married an American and moved to San Francisco after the great war. Her daughter was not blessed with the family gifts, but Maria said her granddaughters were carrying on the Ricoletti name and heritage. They were born with their father’s last name, but took the Ricoletti name when they took their place as strega. It’s how we all keep track of each other. Women with the gift take on the name of the family line that trains them. It was easier in the old days when we all had so many names and no computers to keep track of every little detail,” she groused.

  “So they were telling the truth about being descended from a bear named Francisco?” John asked.

  “Oh yes. Francisco was a great hero. He and his mate, Violetta, stood against the Destroyer, successfully defending a great swath of Italy from the Venifucus and their leader. They were secret allies of the Holy See, and betwee
n the two, Italy fared as well as any land could during that dark time. It was much worse for our northern neighbors. Without Francisco and Violetta, we would have been as ravaged as the rest of Europe.”

  Chapter Two

  John was surprised by what he was hearing, but it was a pleasant sort of surprise. Maybe…just maybe…they had found new allies in the unexpected arrival of the witchy sisters, instead of more problems.

  “I’m glad to hear this,” he told the Italian lady honestly. “I didn’t expect we would have magic users in our community, but if they’re here, it’s important that they be on the right side of things. We’re sworn to serve the Lady and her Light,” he admitted, showing Antoinetta a modicum of trust.

  “And I am pleased to hear that as well. If my sister’s vision is true, all of us who are on the side of Light will have to work together in the coming times,” she said, echoing the words of the Lords of all werecreatures.

  “So our leaders have told us,” John agreed. “And so I believe. Though I didn’t expect it to happen quite so fast, or just this way. Which brings me to my final question.” He needed to know if this woman knew anything about sea monsters—strange at that sounded, even in the privacy of his own mind. Nevertheless, he launched into the story of Master Hiram’s yacht being chomped on by some giant sea creature a few weeks ago, and the subsequent tentacle-attack on one of the Baker sisters while she was walking near the water. He asked what Antoinetta knew of such things.

  “I have heard tales of the leviathan,” she said quietly, surprising him yet again. “Such creatures as that which attacked the woman in your town were known in ancient days, and they are not of this realm. They are evil and ruled by the one known as the leviathan. That is the largest of them all, and if it is banished, so are all its minions. It sounds like the big one attacked the yacht. A minion tried to kill the woman on the beach. Sadly, I have heard stories like this from our own coasts earlier this year, though the activity has died down a bit now. The leviathan is a magical creature and can cross vast oceans quickly. It is attracted to magic. It probably sensed the concentration of your people in the area and came to see if it could feed. Whatever you do, keep your people out of the water. It will attack any tasty magical target, though the leviathan goes after only the most powerful. Its minions will try for smaller prey.”