“And you expected me to be a pacifist or something?” he asked. “I’m more practical than that. I’ve seen what people do to each other and at the end of the day, shaman or not, I’m a bear and Preston is my cub. Andy is my cub by proxy. I have posted a bounty for Sharon’s head on several well-known boards. If she’s out there and hits the wrong place, our problems are over but we’re not the naïve type, are we?”
“To be honest, I sort of feel like you’re trying to shape this situation. I’m not sure what you mean by naïve but if you need my help, you gotta be straight forward because your magic is dancing on my skin but it’s not getting through. So, it’s like you’re lying or testing me or trying to magically make me see things your way and it doesn’t work on me. I know you handle people. That’s part of running a territory but I’m not here to be handled.”
Xenos let out a long, slow sigh and finished his apple cider. Then he grinned at me.
“Not having a solid plan is probably the best plan,” he said a few moments later. “Having a solid plan makes you less likely to improvise and battles are won and lost on split second choices. I know I come across as pushy, but I think everyone underestimates her even now.”
“She’s a bear too. So what went wrong there?” I asked him.
“I’m supposed to say she wasn’t loved enough as a kid but that’s probably not it. She wants power and anyone who wants power for the sake of power is dangerous. She sent her own kid here, knowing he’d probably die in the process. She wanted to see what our defenses were.”
“So, I shouldn’t have frozen him? Then she wouldn’t know about me?” I blinked.
“No, you did the right thing. Now she won’t know what to expect. If she comes looking for him, we’ll get her. One way or another, we’ll get her. But enough about Sharon. I’m glad Preston and Andy found you. He’s been lonelier than he lets on. Even if all this stuff wasn’t going on, he’d need someone.”
“Can I ask you another question without being interrogated?” I asked.
“I know people badger you a lot but I’m not one of them. Unless it’s vital to someone’s safety, I won’t bug you.”
“Okay. Is Lero acting weird or is that just him?” I asked.
“Lero?” Xenos chuckled. “That’s not my mystery to solve. Not yours either.”
“What? Is it Mori’s?” I laughed.
“He’ll butt in, of course, but as far as I can tell he’s not in any real danger,” Xenos shrugged. “It’s like with your visions. Sometimes you have to let folks figure out their own stuff. One more Sharon thing and I’ll let you go back to the party. If you see her, don’t wait for her to do something. Just freeze her ass. I’llput her on display on the front porch to let every asshole know that we are not the bears to be messed with.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Mori
Nightshade Bear Territory
Lero had always been my weird nephew. I usually brushed off most of his quirks as having grown up around folks who didn’t all shift. Not just vampires either. They were like non-magical people or something. If I were totally honest, I never quite understood the set up there. Though, New Hope Mountain Village had attracted more shifters as time went on. Still, Lero was strange sometimes. Only these days he’d been stranger than ever. When he first ducked out of every gathering and feasts several times I thought either he’d taken up smoking or had a long-distance love interest. Only, he never smelled like smoke and signing up for Mated for the Holidays seemed counterintuitive to having a secret love affair. Now, I was catching glimpses of a tall, dark-haired guy following him around. Only anyone with a third eye knew that the guy wasn’t living. He wasn’t solid at all, but he was good at hiding from me. Hell, at hiding from everyone. Not even Wess spotted him that morning at breakfast when he stood in the doorway waiting for Lero to be ready to leave. I had promised myself I wouldn’t get caught up in magical mayhem this holiday season, but Lero was family and Bolt’s recent bout of overprotectiveness felt like morethan a sign of early pregnancy to me. He hadn’t always been like that.
While everyone else was busy decorating the tree and debating if there were too many ornaments on the left side, Lero slipped out through the kitchen again. I gave him a few seconds before I followed, telling Preston I was going to grab another slice of peanut butter fudge. That would buy me a good ten minutes. Maybe longer now that he had Andy and Wess to distract him.
“This doesn’t end well. We’re supposed to be on a break,”my wolf sighed but I couldn’t listen to him. Everything inside me tugged me outside. I had to follow Lero. He needed my help even if he wasn’t ready to admit that he needed it.
Outside the snow was falling again in those bigger than life fluffy, white flakes. It stole my breath for a minute, the way it always did. Winter was just as beautiful as the other seasons, if not more so, in its own icy way. I rounded the house following Lero’s footprints in the snow. His shoes had little bunnies all through the treads, making him one of the easiest people in history to follow around if the ground was anything except bone dry.
I peeked around the corner to find him leaning back against the house with his arm resting midair. His mouth was open and his tongue was…. What was he… Was he kissing the air? Was this why his carrier was so worried? Was he hallucinating?
“Um…. Furless wonder,”my wolf broke into my thoughts again.“Remember big and dark-haired? It’s probably him.”
“Lero!” I snapped as soon as the thought of an incubus entered my thoughts.
He startled and his arm dropped but he didn’t move. For a long moment, my little nephew was frozen like a deer in headlights. His eyes grew to the size of saucers.
“Mori!” he gasped my name as if I’d walked in on him in the bathroom.
“Are you okay?” I asked, unsure of how to ask which invisible person he as making out with and if he was sure they were real or if this was a good idea at all.
“Yeah. I’m fine. Just needed some fresh air,” he nodded too fast.
“You feeling alright?” I tried again.
“Mori, you’re starting to sound like my carrier and that’s not a good look. You’re not old enough for all that. Go back inside and eat fudge and hang all the ornaments on the wrong side of the tree like you always do,” he grinned.
