Page 21 of Bear Your Fate

“Carrick! You’re back!” Selene jumped out of the recliner and raced towards me. She had Nyssa cradled in her right arm, all swaddled up in a pink blanket. But that didn’t stop her from giving me a hug. “Here, you take this one since her brother is bound to wake up any second and Camden ran out to get more diapers. I swear, it’s like Nixon has a radar and knows whenever his daddy or any of his uncles are in the house. I’m sure it won’t be any different when it comes to his grandfather.”

As though he’d been waiting for his mom to finish, Nixon let out a wail as soon as she was done. She hurried over to the bassinet and lifted him into her arms. He was also swaddled like his sister, but in a blue blanket.

“My mom called about thirty minutes ago to let me know she landed okay. She also said that she’d try to move things along as quickly as she could so she’d be home again sooner rather than later.”

Home. I loved how Audra had already started calling Bear Creek that. But I didn’t enjoy the fact that I couldn’t share how much I was looking forward to her return without causing all sorts of questions I wasn’t supposed to answer until she was here too. “That’s good. Hopefully everything will go as smoothly with the witches as it did with the shifters today.”

“I really hope so because there’s something I could use my mom’s help with, and I don’t want to put it off too long.”

I tugged on her free hand and led her over to the recliner so she could sit down while we talked. “Is it something I can help with instead?”

“Well,” she drawled. “I’m going to need your help too, but in a totally different way.”

I sat on the corner of the couch closest to her and lifted Nyssa up to rest her against my shoulder as she drifted back to sleep. “Why don’t you tell me about it? Then we’ll see what we can do to take care of it before your mom comes home.”

“We can’t do it before then. It just can’t be done without her assistance with the spell. But I also shouldn’t do it without your agreement so maybe we can get that part of it over with now. Then you’ll have enough time to wrap your head around it all before it happens.”

“Spell? Agreement? Wrap my head around what?”

Selene reached out and patted my hand with her free one. It was a gesture that very much reminded me of her mom. It was comforting, but it in no way prepared me for what she was about to suggest.

“I’ve been tinkering with a spell, and I think I might have finally figured out how to make it work. But even with my increased powers, this love spell is too complicated for me to work on my own.”

“A love spell?” I’d assumed those were something made up for movies and television and completely fictional. “Why would you need me to agree to something crazy like that?”

“Because I think I’ve figured out a way to give you a second chance at a fated mate.”

A little more than a year ago, if someone had told me there was a way for them to get me a new fated mate, I would have been skeptical. Even though I had no knowledge of magic and no trust for witches back then, I still would have leapt at the chance. But that was before I’d met my sweet little witch. Before I’d fallen in love with a woman for the first time in my long life. Before Audra wiped away all the bitterness I’d felt for years and replaced it with joy.

So even though I was no longer skeptical about magic and my distrust of witches had been replaced by love, my answer was easy. “No. I don’t want you to do a spell like that for me.”

Because I had no need for a fated mate, not when I had something better—the mate I’d chosen for myself. I had Audra, and I wouldn’t trade her for anything or anyone else.

“I know it’ll take quite a bit of power, but I wouldn’t have said anything to you if I didn’t think I could pull it off,” she swore.

“I know, honey.” I patted her hand before getting up to pace the floor with Nyssa, who’d begun to fuss. “But it’s not necessary. I have everything I need to be happy right here in Bear Creek. I don’t want you to do any more tinkering with love spells. Not for me.”

14

Audra

It took me longer to wrap everything up with the witch council than I had expected. They’d made the announcement the day after Damien and I had arrived in town, but then they’d invited each coven to meet with the four witches who served on the council plus Damien. Most of the covens had taken them up on the offer, and it took five long days for all those meetings to take place. So it was almost an entire week later when the plane touched down in Bear Creek.

I’d texted Carrick before we took off, and he’d replied back to let me know that he and Alasdair had taken a road trip to check in on a few of their clubs since I was still out of town. He’d wanted to get as much business stuff out of the way so he could give me his undivided attention when I was back.

I told him I’d head over to visit with Selene and the babies, and he agreed to meet me there. When Carrick had mentioned that he was going to cancel their last appointment so they could get back sooner, I’d convinced him to keep it so he didn’t have to take another trip anytime soon. It meant waiting another six or seven hours until I saw him again, but it would be well worth it since their final destination was the furthest away from home.

I knew Carrick had been irritated by how long it’d taken me to come back, but he hadn’t let that interfere with any of our conversations each night. We spent hours on the phone with each other, sharing stories from our childhood. Talking about the challenges we’d faced as single parents. We tossed a little phone sex in there a time or two towards the end, too. But I refused to reminisce about that while Damien was in the car next to me. I’d come to know the dragon shifter fairly well over the past week, and I was almost convinced he had the ability to read people’s minds because he always seemed to know everyone’s secrets.

“Thanks for the ride,” I told him when he pulled up in front of Camden and Selene’s house.

“There’s no need to thank me. I owe you a hell of a lot more than a ride from the airport after all the time you gave up on my behalf.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” I reminded him for about the thousandth time.

“Doesn’t matter. I still benefited from it, which means I owe you.”

“Considering how much you’ve done for our family, I’m not sure the scale you’re using to measure that is accurate. But I’m not going to argue with a dragon shifter if he insists on owing me a debt of gratitude.” Not after Carrick had filled me in on all the ways something like that could come in handy.

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