CHAPTER TWO
Vallis
The Nightshade Bear Territory
I woke up with my mate sleeping on top of me.
His comforting weight was so unlike the wooden box that pressed in on me from all sides.
He was solid and real but softer, made of flesh instead of the splintering carcasses of dead trees.
His breathing was easy and his sleep appeared restful unlike my waking thoughts.
So many conflicting notions bounced around my skull that for a moment I thought I had a solid skull in my current ethereal form.
Could I get a headache if my head was light years away on another planet? Knowing my luck? Probably.
Still Lero dozed lightly on top of me and that left something deep inside me content. My bear, of course, who was still curled in upon himself inside his inner sanctum. If not for him, claustrophobia would’ve been my undoing many months ago.
I couldn’t see Lero’s face because it was buried in my chest. One of his arms was wrapped around one of mine and the other cradled up and around my head as if he thought it might fall off.
I had spent what I guessed to be the last two years knocking sporadically.
At least that’s what Pami had said the last time she came to gloat.
She came on the first anniversary of the curse and then the second one too.
I’d barely learned to astral project by the first time she stood above me and gloated about how well her magic held and how much air might be left for me.
The second time, I’d been knocking for a while.
Though, knocking while trying to preserve an unknown amount of air isn’t easy.
I never really thought I’d get lucky enough to knock at the right time with all three knocks falling within the perfect moment and not adding on any extras that would ruin the spell.
Hell, I wasn’t sure I believed in the spell at all until the door opened and I saw Lero standing there smelling like sex and satisfaction.
He was tall-ish for a bear omega, and the width of his shoulders told me that he’d grown up in a well-fed area.
His ears weren’t pointed but someone in the village was an elf of some sort.
I smelled them while standing on his doorstep.
That didn’t matter, though. I wasn’t sure anyone would actually see me.
I was a bit surprised that Lero could see me at all.
I only remembered the spell from an old nursery rhyme my grandad used to say all the time when I was but a cub.
No one in living memory had ever gotten it to work.
Now, I couldn’t even remember all the words.
Only the gist of the rhyme had etched itself into my brain.
I held tight to Lero, knowing that at any moment I could fade and have to come back to him after my spirit rested.
Of course, there was another possibility.
My body could run out of oxygen and die while I was here with him.
I couldn’t tell him that yet. I couldn’t tell him that until I had a way to fix it.
I hated that my only possibility of escape was to bring all my troubles to my mate’s doorstep.
It was selfish, but dying here under him was a much preferred fate than to dying alone of suffocation inside that buried prison.
Somewhere nearby a phone rang. How long had it been since I heard a phone ring?
It wasn’t my phone. I didn’t think I had a phone anymore.
Pami had probably smashed it into pieces or tossed it off a cliff onto the rocky shore below.
She was evil like that and always put her nose where it didn’t belong.
“Should’ve eaten her face when we had the chance,” my bear grumbled into my thoughts still not fully awake.
“Gotta get that. If it’s my parents, they’ll show up if I don’t answer it” Lero said, his face still nuzzled against my chest, muffling his words. “Don’t disappear while I’m gone.”
“I don’t plan on it, mate,” I said and kissed him on top of his head just in case.
He crawled off me and grabbed his phone from the hardwood coffee table and went into the kitchen to take the call.
For a moment, I strained my ears trying to catch a whisper of his conversation.
Who had called him? Why had they called him?
It was probably some mere mundane call but after being utterly on my own for two years everything was much more interesting.
Someone knocked on the front door and I swore under my breath.
Who dared to interrupt my first morning alone with my true-mate so thoroughly?
I’d never manage a workable plan if all this ringing and knocking continued.
I glanced toward the hallway Lero had disappeared down.
He was nowhere in sight. If he heard the rapping on the door he was choosing to ignore it.
“Lucky he answered for us then, huh?” my bear grumbled again.
We were.
Whoever it was knocked again. They weren’t giving up.
Sighing, I got to my feet and crossed through the end table again.
I had forgotten it was there. It wasn’t as solid as the other things inside the house.
I unlocked the four locks that Lero had on the door as if he feared someone would break in.
They still vaguely smelled of older bears – those who must’ve lived here before him.
Were they the ones who thought they needed so much security?
I peeped out the tiny hole and found a teenager bouncing from foot to foot like he was about to piss his pants.
Whatever had the kid all worked up and put springs in his feet must’ve been good news because he was grinning like the weasel who got into the coop.
Unsure if he’d see or hear me, I opened the door.
Only when I was face to face with him did I see the red envelope in his hands.
Was it time for school acceptance letters here?
He looked a bit young for university but then again I wasn’t sure how round ears aged up.
“Hello?” the teenager called out. “Lero? You home? Your door just opened up? Did you install a Magi system? Do you have a ghost? A ghost once opened the door to Xenos’s magic house for me!
Lero?! LERO!?” the teenager bellowed at me without looking at me.
I stepped closer and waved my hand in front of him.
He really didn’t see me. I sniffed his shoulder.
Dragon and wolf. Interesting combo. There was some elf in there somewhere too. Well, hell.
“Grain?” Lero sprinted into the living room. He looked from the kid to me and back to the kid. It took him a second too long to realize that Grain didn’t see me and the kid’s smile fell flat.
“I didn’t open it! I don’t know what happened,” he said.
“One minute I was knocking and the next the thing just opened! I was helping to sort the mail and saw this --- the Mated for Holiday people sent you another letter. It’s not bulky but I bet they found you a match!
Xenos said you had someone coming for it!
” His belief that he was chastised faded quickly as he handed off the red envelope to my mate, happy to be the bearer of good news.
Grain and Lero sat down on the sofa and forgetting myself, I shut and locked the door.
“See!” Grain pointed at the now closed door and I shot my mate a sheepish grin. Some habits died hard. Especially when I half-expected Pami to show up at any minute and drag me back.
“I hope if there is a ghost in my house that he’s friendly,” Lero shrugged and tore open the red envelope from this weird holiday company. He read it once and then again before looking at Grain.
“They’ve found me another match except Grandpa was right. He’s coming here. They want me to host a Snow Demon for the holidays as my match!”
“Out of the question!” I shook my head and Lero flinched.
“Are you okay?” Grain asked Lero.
“Yeah. Got a ringing in my ear,” Lero said, rubbing his left ear.
“Are you going to do it? I know you wanted to get away for a while but it would be cool to have someone new come here, huh?”
“Aren’t you going home for Yule?” Lero asked the teenager.
“Maybe,” he shrugged. “I get along better with the kids here. We all like to eat. Plus, my Dads have more eggs in the nest and I don’t want to be put on rotating or polishing duty. Besides, what do you think a Snow Demon would be like?”
“Apparently, he wants to live a peaceful life,” Lero said.
I opened my mouth and shut it again. My mate wasn’t about to tell the cub that I was here and there was no use in arguing with an omega who could so easily ignore me.
I paced the floor, ruffling the carpet, hoping the young one would notice but it seemed my luck had run out.
The two of them talked on while looking at the photo of the horned man.
I didn’t care that he was a demon of whatever sort.
All I cared about was that my mate didn’t need a matchmaker.
He was mine. All mine and I wasn’t about to share.