“Sugar, pain meds. Does the same thing in my book!”
“What does Pepper say about your sweet tooth?”
Everett grinned wickedly and wiggled his brow and she nearly choked on her own sip of warm chocolate milk from the innuendo.
“You’re bad. Please tell me the rest of the Wylde men have a bit more of a filter.”
“Nope. We’re all rugged badasses that don’t know any better than a mountain goat about how to behave in public.”
“Badasses! Ha.”
Sabine jumped at the loud bark of laughter. “You still shiver when your mama calls you by your full name, boy.” A door to the side of the bar swung open and the Elder graced the doorway with a smirk hinged high and a beefy hand closing the door behind him. “You boys give your mama wicked heartburn five times a week.”
“Now that is the truth. Never piss off Mama Bear.”
She believed him.
Sabine kept quiet, sipping her warm milk around a big smile.
The Elder placed his warm hand on her shoulder and it encompassed the entire width of her smaller frame with a soft chuckle that lit the soft amber of his eyes. “Sorry, girlie.” He winked.
Dressed in black jeans and a blue and black flannel shirt, she got the fast impression the Wylde men shared more than a facial expression. Their fashion choices were right up there with Paul Bunyan. The only thing they were missing were the suspenders and wasn’t that a shame. Well and the blue bull, but who knew what was hiding in these mountains really. But the suspenders, she took a second and imagined what the accessory would look like on Rone.
“Didn’t mean to startle you.” An easy grin played on his lips and she didn’t miss the mischievous spark in his eyes either.
She waved him off. “No worries. I didn’t realize you were in the back.”
“Mrs. Wylde likes to kick me out every once in a while so I come here and help out with the books from time to time.”
Everett laughed. “You got into her pecan pies again, didn’t you, Pop?”
“Well, damn, boy, she didn’t say they were for dinner.” The Wylde Elder gave her a couple more pats on the back before greeting his son with a hug and then joined them at the bar.
“Speaking of siblings,” Everett broke in. “You see Rone anywhere today?”
“This morning with a young bear in the back alley and then again about an hour ago. He got into the truck with the white-haired man from last night.”
Both of their brows pinched in confusion.
Okaaaay. “He’s this tall.” She reached above her head about a foot and a half. “White hair and whiter eyes. He has an oddly cold yet easy smile and speaks slow and with intent.”
“Reaper.” Again they reacted in unison.
“What the hell is he doing with the ice bear?” Everett asked his dad.
She looked between them both. “I take it that’s not a common occurrence?”
“About as common as spotting Santa’s eight tiny reindeer.” Everett quipped, turning on his stool.
Oh. Well when put that way. “So what was Rone doing in the back alley this morning? Does that have anything to do with the ice bear?” Though she tended to some shifters when they didn’t have anywhere else to turn, she didn’t have any experience dealing with how shifters lived their lives compared to humans. Fighting in the back alley for fun kind of looked weird from one point of view, but when she considered it and what humans did in back alleys, maybe sparring wasn’t as strange after all.
Everett reached over the bar and snagged the coffee and poured his old man a cup before helping himself to a fresh cup. “I was up in the backlands this morning after the guys took off for the ridges and avalanche country.”
“Yeah? It’s been quiet lately with how the ice bears have fixed their shit.” The Elder dipped his head her way. “Pardon, Sabine.”
“Ice bears? Cherry said you guys had a real go at it back in late summer.”
Everett nodded. “Ugly stuff—got shot and Pepper ended up saving my ass. Then they came back for round numero dos and all hell broke loose. It got real and well, you guys know how that turned out. But what I found today kind of piqued my interest. Rone would find it interesting too.”
“Find what interesting?” Rone strode through the front door with a soft ring of a bell the only sound.
Seconds before the door swung open Sabine’s face heated and her eyes lifted to the front door. As if on cue the wooden door with an oval-shaped stain glass depiction of a bear –the man loved his colored glass—swung open to reveal red plaid clinging to miles of muscles, low-slung jeans and snow-crusted boots partially unlaced. Another recurring fashion statement in shifters.
Golden eyes pinned her against the bar immediately. Fingers of anticipation stroked along her core, and she lit up like a Christmas tree the second she sensed the mere presence of the man in the same room as her. The man made her weak in the knees.
Every. Damn. Time.
Watching from across the bar top, she flicked her tongue out to wet her dry lips. The Elder turned his direction and filled Rone in, all of them unaware of the war bombing her insides. “Everett is telling us what he found in the backlands.”
“What? You didn’t find polar bear ghosts, did you?”
“I scented magick.”
Both men turned to Everett, their faces stone cold.
“You mean like sage and cinnamon?” That drew their attention her way like their heads were on swivels. She shrugged and clapped her hands on her thighs. “What? What exactly does magick smell like to you guys then?”
The Elder stroked his beard a couple of times, considering his answer, and lifted his shoulder in a small shrug. “Depends. “If it’s white magick—clean—it’s like fresh fruit with lavender and a vibe of goodness. Sometimes you’ll actually see tendrils of it like ribbons in the air as it mingles with the power of ley lines.”
“Other times it’s like death himself rose from the grave and tossed a blanket of decay over the area.”
“Now that’s black magick,” the Elder explained Rone’s description. “You don’t wanna be within a mile of that or the warlock or witch practicing it. They lay into you with their spells and incantations and there’s not much you can do about saving your hide.”
Sabine swiped a loose strand of hair from her cheek and fidgeted with the ends of her braid. Everett picked up on this? How close were the backlands? Her heart skipped a beat. That didn’t make her nervous at all. “But there’s nothing to worry about, right? Here in town?”
Rone quickly took her hand. “You’re safe here. Promise.”
Instinct told her to pull back and retract her hand, but she had no desire to listen to the small voice of reason. It hadn’t gotten her anywhere lately, to be honest with herself. She stayed close, looking up into his eyes. “Don’t you have magick? Shifters, I mean. How can you tell that what you smelled out there today just wasn’t the magick of another shifter’s... shift?”
Rone bent over and felt around under the bar. When he stood, he brought with him a thick book that looked older than she was and her inner geek sat up with interest immediately. What else did he have under there?
“Each form of magick has a scent. A telltale sign. Every shifter, every breed of shifter and even every witch. It all dates back to the Draeonians. Our ancestors who discovered the power within the ley lines that cross the earth. They were the first of us all.” He flipped through several pages and slowed to a stop when he came to the page of beautiful illustration of a man that looked like a Druid. She posed to ask but let him finish instead.
“The Draeonians found a way to harness the magick held within the ley lines, the energy crisscrossing the world. How, who knows. Maybe the Draegonstones as they are direct descendants, Royals among the peasants, but maybe now they don’t even know. I mean we’re talking more than millennia of passed time. Ancient history.”
There was so much to digest. “So what? Did your triple great grandfather just deci
de the bear was his calling?”
Everett shot her a perplexed look. “Ummm. Not exactly. Some harnessed the wilder side of the magick and took on the beast of their calling, but ultimately it was the magick that decided. Those that are human are only because magick did not see fit to touch them.”
“So I’m unfit?”
Rone laughed beside her softly. “No, Angel. Magick saw you as perfect the way you are. All humans who do not possess a shifter trait or the ability to cast spells are seen as perfect. So magick skipped you.”
“Oh.” She guessed that made sense. She never thought of herself as perfect though. Not even close.
“But in our ancestors’ time, the magick gifted our family the power of the bear.”
“And for others, different animals and for some the power to control magick itself like witches and warlocks?”
“Bingo.” Rone nodded turning to the men. “I think we need to keep our ears to the ground. Rumblings are making its rounds about witches having a problem with the High Council. They’re taking shifters and dropping bodies.”
“Is that what the ice bear said?”
Sabine’s hair stood up on the back of her neck at Everett’s question. “Murdering?”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” the Elder offered, shooting his son a shut-the-hell-up look that had Rone bowing his head in respect for his father.
The gesture touched her more than it should and shined a whole new light on how she perceived him. Only a man that was comfortable in his own skin would take such a posture. Then again. The Elder looked like he’d hand out a can of whoop-ass for Christmas to anyone that failed to show respect.
Rone let out a heavy sigh. “I can tell what you’re thinking, Sabine. We don’t condone any of the High Council’s actions and have sent reinforcements to our friends in Sweet Briar Hollow following Adam’s visit there. But worrying about it now won’t do anything but upset a lot of folks.”
“And the guy you were with this morning in the back alley? Is that what you’re preparing for? War?” The word left a bitter taste on her tongue.
“Ah. No. You witnessed the training of an enforcer. The future of our—or rather Alaska’s—next and brightest PD shifter class of 2020.”
She arched a brow in question. “Like a big brother thing but for cops?”
“Not exactly.” Everett shifted positions as the front bell hanging over the door tinkled and a mass of Wyldes flooded into the bar. It seemed Saturdays were family reunion days.
“Sabine!” Cherry, flanked on either side by her new family, shot an arm up and greeted her with a wide smile. “You remember Pepper from last night?”
Grateful for the bar dividing her from the outpouring of all the hugs going around, Sabine locked away the conversation with everything else she still needed to digest and busied herself with flipping over several cups. With them lined up on the edge of the bar, she made quick work with serving up her special dose of chocolate.
Flurries of snow chased everyone inside, and a gust of heavy wind to tangle with the strands of hair escaping her less than artfully styled side braid she couldn’t quite manage to wrangle into place this morning.
“Oh my God!” Pepper and Cherry peeled off two layers of coats each and scooted around the men to join her at the end of the bar, but she knew enough about shifters to know they could hear every last word they uttered.
“I knew you were cool the second I saw you with your sister and Rone yesterday. Sorry, I couldn’t peel away and give you a proper welcome.”
Sabine smiled when Pepper tapped her black-framed glasses that looked identical to her own. “Love the look!”
“Yeah, I don’t get around much without them or my contacts, but in this cold, contacts feel like sheets of ice on the eyeballs.”
“Ouch! Tell me about it. I’m just glad to know we share similar tastes, sista.”
Cherry leaned over the bar with a raised brow, signaling she had something juicy to share as everyone else chatted and ribbed each other. “From the news traveling the grapevine, we share more than just blood. I hear you share the same taste in men. Wylde men to be exact.”
Pepper gave an audible gasp. “Do tell!”
Sabine’s mouth fell open. What the heck did the grapevine know that she didn’t? And she mentally tried to recall who could have seen them in the bakery this morning.
“Mave!”
“Called me the second he left you two leaned over the cupcakes and Christmas cookies.”
“Sounds like you two had a different kind of treat in mind.”
Sabine groaned and the flush up the back of her neck seeped into her cheeks with a fury. “Is it time for the doctors yet? Please say yes!”
Cherry’s eyes glittered with amusement and a little bit of I-told-you-so just like any big sister.
When she got her hands on Mave for ratting her out, that boy would see stars and the four knuckles coming right at him. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“Hmm-hmm, when a man offers you a place to stay...” Pepper gave her a sidelong look. “But when he offers you breakfast, now that’s another thing entirely.”
Sabine blushed from head to toe. And fumbled with the pages of her guidebook, running her hand over the soft edges and then back again. “He was just being nice, guys,” Sabine countered and left it at that.
Lucky for her they dropped the subject too because just then the talk died down on the other side of the bar.
“By the way, Cherry didn’t say how long you were staying. Any luck we’ll have your company through New Year’s?” Everett asked, walking over.
“Nope,” Her sister cut in before she could offer and answer. “Our Sabine here has to run back to her school books and patients. Only a few more months and we’ll have a full-fledged doctor on our hands.”
Sabine nibbled at her lower lip, mulling over her predicament. Pride beamed from Cherry the size of Texas, and the lump of coal in Sabine’s gut grew three sizes until her nerves jittered like live wires in her limbs.
Should she tell her now? That would be unfair. In front of everyone she’d probably be embarrassed and after all her sister had done for her? No, she deserved a better explanation than a sudden oh, by the way I’m dropping out of school off the shoulder kind of explanation. Sabine swallowed and worked the lie choking her out. “She’s right. I’m actually leaving the day after tomorrow.”
She mentally counted the hours left to drop the bomb and hightail it out of Dodge.
Pepper’s brow furrowed with disbelief. “But you just got here.” A full-on pout with the lower lip rounded out the sad panda effect. “I thought we could do cool sister-in-law stuff and check out neat nursery things for Cherry while you’re here.”
Family stuff, in other words.
Her nose scrunched up. Ugh.
Sabine didn’t do family. Just the thought gave her the hives. Family reunions, family talks and she sure didn’t do girl’s day out. She liked girl’s night out, though. But here in Claw Ridge that wasn’t about to happen when the only bar was Rone’s. What you did on girl’s night out stayed that way. In a town this size if she even glanced at Rone sideways with as much lust as she had in her veins for that man, the gossip mills would be running full force with the news she’d already slept with him. That would get back to her sister and she didn’t want to hurt any relationships she’d worked hard to form. Cherry liked it here, so Sabine needed to make sure she behaved as a good little sister. As much as she hated to admit it, maybe having this morning’s make out session interrupted was a good thing.
Not that she did one-night stands, except no one knew that about her. Especially Rone after what happened that morning.
Her eyes slid closed on a groan. Every time the man came near her she turned into a salivating teenager. He probably looked at her and saw the easiest piece of meat in the upper forty-eight. In her defense who could resist his sex appeal when it rolled off him thicker than cupcake icing and richer than any aphrodisiac she�
��d ever tasted?
Which brought her back to why she’d come here in the first place. To tell the truth. One thing she shared with her sister was the truth. Always. Solid resolve took root. She’d tell her today while they were at the doctor. Ever since the lies their parents told them left them homeless and in an orphanage from the ages of ten and twelve, they had vowed to always tell the truth and she owed her sister that much, and more, honestly.
“You ready to go, sis?”
Cherry walked up behind Pepper. “Yup.”
Although a secret part of her wished the whole big happy family thing could be hers with someone someday, Sabine didn’t like to live outside of reality. The chances of that striking her and her sister were close to zilch.
“Lemme grab my coat real quick and we’ll be on our way.”
Five minutes later they untangled from the gaggle of hugs and goodbyes long enough to squeeze out the door into the bitter cold.
Seated in the Doctor’s room Cherry tugged on her stretchy pants that encompassed her overly round belly and shimmied into her top as they both waited for the doctor to come in with the results of the ultrasound.
Now that the moment arrived to spill the beans, Sabine didn't quite know where to start. Dive in? Work up to it? Band-Aid effect tended to hurt while...
“What is taking them so long?” Cherry cut into her thoughts as she worried her lower lip.
As the younger sister she recognized that worried look and knew her sibling well enough to know her inner mother bear was coming out in spades. At six months along in her pregnancy, Sabine had enough hands-on experience to also have a solid idea of what the doctor was about to tell her sister.
This ought to be interesting. She wished it were her mates here instead of her, though.
As soon as they had arrived the employee ushered her and Cherry into the s office and had Cherry on the table for her ultrasound, leaving Sabine scrambling for a second alone with her.
“The doctor will be with you ladies is just a few minutes.”
The nurse slipped out the side door. Perfect.
“Stop working yourself into a frenzy. Everything is fine. Come sit down and we’ll call your mates in just a few minutes. It won’t take much longer.” Small as the gesture was, Sabine cradled her sister’s hand in hers like she used to do for her when she got in trouble with the dean at the orphanage for playing in the nurse’s sick bay ‘helping’ the other kids or when she skinned a knee.
Snowbound With Her Christmas Bear: Wylde Den #4 (Alaskan Den Men Book 16) Page 9