Page 45 of Bearly Yours
“Maybe he went to get something to eat or drink, little cub. Let’s go check the kitchen.”
But the kitchen was empty.
“Okay, well, let’s go find Alpha Riggs. Maybe he’s still out by the fire.”
But the fire was bedded down for the night, the coals only very dim embers, and no one was in the chairs surrounding it. The night air was so cold it pierced me through to my center, and I shivered, wrapping the cub tighter in the blanket, and snuggling them closer to my body heat. The cold seemed different tonight. More painful, like little flecks of glass embedded in my skin.
“No one out here. Let’s check his suite upstairs.” The cub mewled and cooed at me and I kissed its downy, furry head. Bear shifter cubs could first change around six months. If I had to guess, I’d guess this one that I held in my arms was about that age. Maybe it had made its first change, and that had scared it into wakefullness? It was as good a guess as any.
I carefully made my way up the stairs to the second floor, using touch and sound to guide me. All I could think was that it was a good thing I was a bear shifter. The sound of silence was sostrong in the house, it was almost like magic. I doubted a human would even hear their feet pattering on the hardwood floors.
I talked to break the silence which was heavy like a shroud, and it also seemed to comfort the cub, so I spoke lightly, working to keep my worry and fear from my voice. “Alpha Riggs likes this room in the corner. For one, it’s the biggest room. Since he’s the biggest guy, other than Roarke, it makes sense, but it also has the view he likes of the forest and mountains in the distance, and the roomiest en-suite bathroom.
“I know this is hard to believe, but my alpha enjoys a good bubble bath. He tells the others it’s because they stress him out and he needs them, but I just think he enjoys a good bath. I don’t know if the bathtub in his bathroom actually counts as a bathtub, though. It’s more the size of a hot tub. He’s also got a fireplace in there. Can you believe it? I know he sounds spoiled, but he’s actually really not. He’s really gentle, but strong, you know, and powerful. Whoever is his mate will be one lucky supernatural. He’d do anything for his mate and child, probably spoil them like crazy.”
The cub cooed at me and patted my face with a furry paw. The fur was downy and soft.
I came to Alpha Riggs’ bedroom door and knocked. When no one came, I knocked harder. “Alpha Riggs, are you in there?”
“Oh, little cub, Ido notwant to open that door. But I need to check on him. Here’s hoping he doesn’t blast me with his alpha power in his sleep.”
I cracked the door open, and toed my way to the bed where I felt gently around. Nothing. The bed hadn’t even been slept in.
Okay, now I was seriously starting to freak out.
Where was everyone?
Roarke
I wokeup around my usual time, 5:30 am, before the sun was even rising distantly in the east. I grabbed a quick shower and changed into my jeans and a black long sleeve tee shirt. I was going byMeumtoday, and I didn’t want pasta sauce to stain this shirt like it had my last. It had only been a tiny speck, but it had driven me to distraction. So much so that I’d had to pull a clean shirt from my SUV and change. I figured with black, if I couldn’t see it, maybe it wouldn’t bother me as much.
I knew it wouldn’t work, but I was trying. Emrie was so patient when it came to my mental struggles and my grouchiness. I was trying to be better. For her. I was having no success trying to tame my OCD, and limited success in being less grouchy.
I knew there were a lot of humans in the world, and even some paranormals, that would scoff at me, and tell me in a relationship the other person had to accept you for who you were. And they would be right—to a point.
Emriedidaccept me, right as I was this very moment, for who I am. And even if I didn’t change a single thing, I knew that she would accept me for the rest of our lives and love me. But relationships, any good relationship at least, was all about work, compromise, support, and love. And that meant that those weaknesses I had, I had to work at them. To try to make them better. Didn’t Emrie deserve the best me I could be?
You would think a seven hundred or so year old dragon shifter would have worked through some of the mental struggles I had, but things like the OCD had only gotten worse over theyears. I was considering seeing the new apothecarist in town for some help, possibly even a counselor if that didn’t work.
I mean, OCD wasn’t really a weakness. It was more a diagnosable mental health condition. But my grouchiness was not. That was something I could work on. And the OCD was something I could check into, to see if there were things I could do to tame it a bit. Purely for me, because I drove myself crazy with it sometimes.
I shaved by burning the stubble from the root underneath my skin—dragon fire—and brushed my teeth. In the old days it wouldn’t have been unusual to find a little bit of goat fur stuck in my teeth, but these days the world was civilized and I limited my meals to socially acceptable things like spaghetti and meatballs.
I left my room to grab a cappuccino from the cappuccino maker set up in the coffee bar in the kitchen. I added caramel cream to it and a dash of real sugar. I didn’t like it so sweet that I was basically eating a pastry for breakfast, but I liked a little bit of sweetness.
Alpha Riggs came in for a refill, and nodded at me politely. I’d noticed in my time here in the lodge that the alpha was up early, like around four or so in the morning. He exercised for an hour or so, lifting weights and running, and then showered and had a coffee. Usually around the time I got up and found my way to the kitchen he was ready for a second cup.
I’d never expected to respect a bear shifter alpha the way I respected Riggs. He was a good man, and wiser beyond his limited one hundred and twenty five years. Bear shifters lived to about two hundred fifty for most healthy ones. By human standards, Riggs was barely entering his forties.
“Emrie up yet?”
I shook my head. “I haven’t seen her yet this morning.”
Riggs looked thoughtful. “She’s usually up by now,” he said, his gaze on the kitchen door, as though he was looking for her to walk in any moment.
“I’ll check on her before I leave forMeum.”I took a sip and sighed. Boiling hot, just like I liked it.
Riggs took a sip of his and his lips quirked at the corners. “You know, the Clan has been talking about raiding one of your restaurants one of these days.”
