CHAPTER ELEVEN
Wess
Nightshade Bear Territory
Lero had just come from romping with his true-mate.
The words bounced around my head. That was impossible.
Lero wasn’t claimed. His scent hadn’t changed one bit from when I met him the day before.
He was freshly showered and wearing a sweater that had big snowflakes all over it, knitted right into the design.
My Preston had made that. Still, I knew he had come from romping with his true-mate.
I knew it just like I’d always known I’d meet mine here in the Nightshade Bear Territory.
I opened my mouth and shut it again when Mori walked into the kitchen.
Maybe it was a well-kept secret. Maybe Lero had only just met him and hadn’t gotten around to telling the rest of the family yet.
Maybe he needed to keep it a secret for now because his carrier was a lot to handle whenever someone new was around.
Maybe it wasn’t any of my business. It was strange knowing so much about Lero from his Mated for the Holidays file but not actually knowing him at all.
Mori shot me a strange look and stared at the open door as if I was the one who left it open and not Lero. I waved a hand and a cold gust of icy wind shut it. He was two feet from the door but if he wanted to see if I was going to be helpful, well, I’d be helpful.
“Mo!” Baby Andy waved over my shoulder with his eggy hand. Mori crossed the room and grabbed a clean dish towel to clean the giggling baby up with. I was in awe that he’d sat himself down right on my lap at all. He was this happy little piece of Preston who I’d die for now.
“Did you see something by the door?” Mori asked me.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Never mind. I think it started to snow again,” Mori shook his head and took the baby who wiped his nose on his shoulder.
I almost asked him if he noticed what I noticed about Lero but thought better of it.
Preston was my mate and I shouldn’t be thinking about who Lero is or isn’t romping with even if it was coming to me through my visions.
My polar bear cocked his head to the side and shifted my eyes to his.
Lero looked like he always did but the knowing was still there. Had my knowing broken somehow?
Preston rubbed the top of his head, and I knew we needed to go home for him to lie down.
My horns had properly grown in when I was around five.
They were there before that but not big and proper.
It ached like my skull was teething and I still had the soft squishy skull of a cub.
Preston was hardheaded. I could only imagine how much the horns hurt breaking through his skin.
We said goodbye to everyone and kissed the baby on the top of his head before leaving.
Andy was already distracted by trying to ‘pinch’ Mori’s morning tea into his mouth.
We spent most of the day in bed, napping off and on. I massage Preston’s head, encouraging his horns to finish popping out. If he blamed me for the pain, he didn’t say anything and once or twice I caught him making little snowflakes on his fingertips. All magic came at a price.
“Did you notice anything strange about Lero?” I asked while we waited for the pizzas we ordered for dinner and by ‘ordered’ I meant Preston called his sire and asked for pizza. There were a few local shops that made them but Preston was in the mood for home cooking.
“I don’t think he’s mad at us,” Preston said.
“He might be a bit wary now that he knows you can turn people into ice sculptures or maybe he’s making a list of people to ask you to turn into ice sculptures.
It’s hard to know what’s going on inside Lero’s head.
Mori looked at him strangely this morning too, though.
I didn’t notice anything. But – like Frost on a Glacier- did you see that annoying squirrel? ”
“I did but didn’t want to say anything because then they might figure out you see dead people too,” I shrugged. “It was hard not to just crack all the nuts for that damn squirrel.”
“It was but it’s not worth the headache. I have enough of those,” he rubbed his temples and then felt his way up to his little horns. They were mostly in now and any pain he experienced was just from growing accustomed to having horns sitting on the top of his head.
“I’m sorry your head hurts,” I said, leaning over to kiss his forehead as someone knocked on the door.
“Come in, Dad!” Preston called out.
“I’m not your dad!” Lero’s voice called back.
“Come in, Lero!” Preston said.
“Wanted to make sure everyone had their pants on,” Lero said, stepping inside a moment later with several sheet pan pizzas piled on top of each other. “I think grandpa went overboard but then again…” he shrugged.
Lero had taken a walk with his true-mate recently. I shook my head and told the knowing to shut up because it was obviously wrong. My bear rolled his eyes inside his inner sanctum because the knowing had never been wrong before.
“Do you want some pizza?” Preston asked as we followed Lero into the kitchen.
“No, grandpa has a ham in the oven for dinner and I’m ready to eat a whole pig if it doesn’t hurry up and bake!” he laughed.
“Thanks for bringing these by,” Preston said and gave his nephew a one-armed hug.
“Any time,” he said.
“How are you feeling?” Preston asked him. “I mean, about everything.”
“We got the money back we put into Mated for the Holidays. Dad wants me to try again next year. My carrier has all but forbidden it. I don’t think I want to do it again.
I think this was my sign that waiting it out until my true-mate arrives is probably the best thing to do,” Lero said, glancing out the window.
I squinted at the window too expecting to see someone watching us. The bears of the Nightshade territory weren’t the most covert when they were spying or being nosy about someone new. My appearance didn’t help matters either.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Preston asked, noticing his odd glances too.
“Yeah. I’m just tired. Was up late last night online,” he shrugged.
“Be careful with Pheromone Swap. They don’t have a box to check if your parents are crazy,” Preston teased.
“Anyone crazy shows up, I’m running over here for you two to ice them,” Lero laughed and I nodded, taking his joke more seriously than he had. He was Preston’s family and that made him my family.
“It was a joke. I’m not going to have you freeze my carrier,” Lero laughed and started toward the door. “Hope you two enjoy the pizza!”
Over the next few days, the Lero weirdness mostly faded from my mind.
We didn’t leave the house and the only guests we had weren’t guests at all.
Mori dropped by with Baby Andy every day for lunch.
It might’ve been our matingmoon but no baby should be without their carrier for days on end when it could be helped.
I didn’t want Baby Andy to grow up thinking of me as the guy who got between him and his dad.
I hadn’t said it aloud but I’d much prefer for him to grow up and think of me as just ‘Dad.’ Maybe that was a bit evil.
I had frozen out the ‘competition’ and all, but Venal had left me little choice and I wasn’t going anywhere.
Even if Venal was sire of the year, I’d still be as invested in the baby’s happiness and wellbeing as I was now.
As days passed Preston and I adjusted to mated life and the snow kept falling.
Every morning after we had our coffee out on the back porch we padded over to check on him in bear form.
So far, he hadn’t wiggled away or been dug up by a wild animal.
I wasn’t sure if someone could be thawed out but he wasn’t the guy I was going to try it out on. Some problems were best put on ice.
One of the wolves from the pack who lived down the mountain from me used to put her brother’s name in the creek before it froze whenever he was annoying.
She claimed that a witch once told her that was a spell to get someone to chill out.
From the little I observed it seemed to work.
My spell was just that magic on steroids.
Venal had no choice but to chill his balls out now.
After checking on Venal, each day we’d come back to the house and make love.
We romped in the kitchen and the bathroom.
We romped in every room in the house except the nursery while we had it all to ourselves.
After our lunches with Baby Andy and Mori we did online shopping for Yule for things that would be delivered via drone and spent hours talking about our pasts and our futures.
We wove our dreams of having a big family one little conversation at a time.
One afternoon, we went over and visited Mori’s shop, Mori’s Mementos.
It was a bid morbid and taken from the old human language latin.
Memento Mori. Remember that you too shall die but it fit the shop’s vibes with all its enchanted and cursed things.
So many antique things that were once touched by true-mates who loved each other very much.
Usually, Preston ran the shop when Mori wasn’t home, but it wasn’t officially reopened after closing for their trip to Europe a while back.
That was the day that I decided to reach out to Rune about gathering up my important stuff and bringing it out for me.
I wasn’t so crunchy about him ‘outing’ my existence anymore.
How could I be now that I had Preston and Baby Andy?
The next afternoon before the tree decorating party over at Preston’s parents’ house, we had a video call with Rune while he packed everything up and got it ready for the drone.
There wasn’t much I missed but having the rest of my stuff here would make it feel official.
If I needed more ice, I’d have to travel back myself but that was a problem for future me.
Present me was as content as a bear could be.