Bearly Breathing (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (16 page)

The two of them laughed like frat boys for a second.

“Oh, here we are. Yes, well, she’ll be six foot six. Just a little shorter than her main squeeze here.”

“Very good,” Duggan said. “So, base permit, plus height. Right, total comes to eight sixty-five. And thirty eight cents.”

Jenga shook his head, beard jangling and clanking, as he wrote the check. “Highway robbery!” he said, though he was laughing a little.

“Yeah! Highway robbery!” He had set off the
other
crazy person in the room. Or rather, the other crazy person who had started talking out of nowhere. There were
plenty
of crazies around.

“You’re killing the woods, Danniken!” Celia started in. Jenga and Atlas, along with about half the audience, filed out the door in the back of the courthouse. Apparently after what happened last time, the townspeople who were normally fine with sitting around for four, five hours to have their complaints heard, they weren’t willing to listen to a pissed off beaver.

“Wait just a second,” Erik said. “This is the second time you’ve started yelling at me about this, and I don’t even know your name. Or if I did, I forgot it.” He flashed one of his easy smiles, but Celia wasn’t interested. He turned it to Izzy because he couldn’t let a grin go unappreciated, but she was nervously pulling at the cap on her pen.

“You don’t need to know my name, because when my plan comes together, you’ll remember it forever,” Celia hissed.

“Wait,” Erik said. “That doesn’t really... I mean if I don’t know it right now, then how will I—”

“I’m going to
ruin
this town, Danniken,” Celia said. “I’m going to dry up all the water, and then flood it all! Just wash the whole thing down the drain. You’ll be sorry for never listening, you’ll be sorry for promising to take all sorts of measures to preserve the forests and keep the water clean. You’ll be sorry,” she paused for a moment, “for crossing
Celia Maynard
.”

And with that, she spun on her heel, pushed between the few people remaining in the meeting hall, and swished out the door.

“Huh,” Ash Morgan intoned. “That was... different.”

“Right,” Erik said. “I remember now, her name’s Celia. But I’m still not sure what she’s so pissed off about. I mean, we put solar panels on some of the stoplights to keep them from needing electricity. What does she mean about my promises to do... whatever? I don’t remember any of that at all.”

Silence fell for a moment. The five of them sat in the quiet, each trying to puzzle out for themselves, what had just happened.

Finally, Jamie spoke up. “Don’t suppose she’s talking about this, do you?” She produced a very official looking manila envelope with two brads at the top.

“What’s that?” Erik asked.

“Energy report. You know, every so often we have to measure how much energy we’re using in all sorts of different ways. How much fossil fuel versus wind energy and all that. Anyway, if you look at it, it shows that we’re operating
way
over what we should be using. Also, if you look at the other side, it shows degradation in the forests all around Jamesburg. Logging, no controlled burns, it all adds up.”

“Jesus,” Erik said. “I guess I should pay more attention to this stuff. Well, let’s do something about it then. That beaver might be right. So, uh... let’s pass a new mandate!”

“A... mandate?” Izzy asked, clicking her uncapped pen against the desktop. “You want to mandate that the forest just get better?”

“Well, I meant more like a mandate that we had to cut back on all the bad stuff, and take better care of the forest. It’s either that, or let that crazy beaver hatch out whatever stupid, Joker-like plot she’s come up with. We don’t even have a Batman to fight her with.”

Ash chuckled. “We got a bat girl right here, does that count?”

“Ha-ha, calendar hunk. Very good,” Jamie said. “But back to the salient point, a mandate is good, but there are specifics, particulars. Like – where do we come up with all the energy? We can’t just slap solar panels all over the place and hope for the best.”

“There goes my first idea,” Erik said. “Why not?”

“Have you
seen
the budget?” Izzy piped up. “No, no, don’t answer, I’ll just get mad. Point is, there’s no money. And also? We live in the middle of a forest. Wind and solar are right out. At least in any kind of volume.”

Erik waved his hand. “This is Jamesburg, we’ll come up with something. It might not make any sense, but we’ll come up with something. The most important thing right now is keeping that psychopathic set of buckteeth from actually managing to flood the city. Or take away all the water. Or... actually I’m not quite sure what her threat was, but it sounded serious this time.”

“Tell you what,” Ash said, pushing away from the table and standing up. “I don’t really know what she was on about, but I
do
know that it’s against the law to bust into a public meeting and make terroristic threats. At least, I’m pretty sure it is, even here. Can I get a law check, professor Duggan?”

Looking very serious, Duggan flipped through whatever he kept looking at on his actual Palm Pilot from, like, the late nineties, and then looked up. “It is,” he said in the gravest, sternest voice ever. If the whole situation weren’t halfway between ridiculous and terrifying, everyone would have laughed.

As it was, the tension had settled in deeply, like an ache in the muscles right between the shoulder blades that you can’t quiet knead out, this rogue beaver had – against all odds – actually made a point.

“Right,” Ash said. “I’ll go try to find this Maynard person and ask her a few questions.”

“Where are you going to look?” Jamie asked.

“I’ll start with the rivers. Seems like a good place to find a beaver.”

A snide look crossed Erik’s face. He had a joke. It was right on the end of his tongue.

Somehow, he managed to keep his mouth shut.

“You know what I’m thankful for?” Izzy asked as soon as the room quieted.

“My dashing good looks and suave demeanor?” Erik shot back, giving her a wickedly naughty gaze.

She snickered, and shook her head. “No, even though those things are true.
I
am thankful that you finally quit wearing those damn yoga pants.”

––––––––

“I
’m... not so sure about this,” Orion said, as he swept his massive leg over the saddle on his motorcycle and took a slow, almost tentative step toward my front door.

I’d been waiting for him since he sent me a text that he was on the way. Oh, and by the way, a half-wild bear first buying a no-contract cell phone and then learning to text? I’m not gonna say it’s the cutest thing ever, but... it was real close. I sat on the front step just before dawn sipping my dark Italian roast and fiddling with a crossword puzzle that I ended up filling out with lovey-dovey words instead of bothering with the actual clues.

“What are you talking about?” I asked him. “You have to give it a shot. The girls have been asking about you, so if nothing else they’d like to see you. You
did
save Millie’s life, you know.”

He ran his hand through his long, golden hair, and a little swoon crept through me. Somehow I kept it together, but when he reached out to help me to my feet and those rough, warm hands wrapped around mine, I was in another world for a second. When I came back to earth with nothing but a little twinge in my stomach to remind me of the flight I just took, Orion was holding me close.

He inhaled deeply, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “Every day I’m away from you I just want to be
with
you,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t stop thinking about you, I can’t get you out of my head. You did something to me, Clea, something I’ve never felt before.”

Welp, if there was any hope of Orion’s first day at The Cubby Hole being normal, it went right out the window then and there.

“I’m not sure what to say,” I said. As I opened my mouth to speak again, he silenced me with a kiss.

At first soft and gentle, the harder he gripped me against his muscled body with those huge hands, the hungrier and deeper his kisses grew. I opened my mouth to accept another of them, and he slid his tongue inside, exploring my lips before swirling it against mine in a desperate dance.

My breath escaped in a soft whimper of pleasure. My knees buckled slightly and my clothes – my shorts, and the overly sensible, totally not sexy at all cotton panties I always wear to work – bunched around my sex, tugging at me even as Orion’s grasping fingers curled against the small of my back.

Sliding up my back just a bit, my shirt allowed his hands to brush against my bare skin, at least until he ran them high enough that the calluses on his palms rasped against my bra strap.

“I didn’t expect this,” I said with a little laugh. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Orion’s eyes melted into me, turned me into a puddle of wiggly Jell-O in his hands. He didn’t speak; he didn’t need to. Everything he could have possibly spoken he said with the gentle curling of his fingertips, the hot breath sliding along my prickling neck. “How do you—”

Again he silenced me with a kiss, but this one was deeper and stronger than the one before. He pushed me back against the scratchy brick beside the door to my house and ran his hands up into my hair.

Holding me still as he pulled away, Orion sucked a ragged breath into his lungs. “Your scent,” he whispered. “The way you move, the way you smile. You’ve made me yours, Clea,” he said.

It was all so sudden, so incredible, and honestly so overwhelming that I wasn’t really sure what was going on inside my own head. I was being pulled in about fourteen thousand different directions at once, or at least that’s how it felt. It was like no matter how much I wanted what he was doing, how much I needed the love that he obviously had on offer, I kinda didn’t believe what was happening could be real.

“Stop,” I whispered, with a hand on his powerful, muscled chest. “I’m... I’m sorry, I just—”

When he tilted his head to the side, the rising sun caught one of his eyes and reflected. The sparkling color reminded me of holding a tiger’s eye stone up to a candle and turning it around in my fingers. Still he stayed silent, but the storm behind his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

“Something... something in my mind is making me think you’re not for real. I mean,” I paused, to shake my head. “That’s not what I mean. Shit, I’m not even sure that
I
know what I mean. Chew on that for a second.”

“It all happened fast,” he said. “Finding you in the first place, then finding you again. I don’t mean to frighten you. That’s... that’s my curse.”

The tattoos around his eyes, and the giant one peeking up out of his shirt caught my attention. His skin was hot to the touch when I laid my hand on his arm, squeezing it to prove to myself that he was real.

“I’m easy to scare,” I said. “I act like I’m not, but I had a real hell of a run before.”

Orion narrowed his eyes. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to tell me. I promised I’d help with the kids, and I’m not one to go back on my word. Did someone hurt you?”

His jaw went tight. “If someone hurt you, I’ll—”

“Whoa there, cowboy,” I laughed softly. “He’s long gone. And he didn’t hurt me, not physically. He was... well I was married before, got hitched young and it went the way that sort of thing usually goes. We turned into very different people, I resented him, I thought he trapped me in something I hated. I don’t blame him for any of that, though, not after looking back. But Liam – that was his name – he did make me doubt myself. Kind of a lot.”

“You have so much love in your heart,” Orion said. “So much courage. How could anyone look down on you?”

At that, I had to laugh a little louder. “I haven’t always been like this. Actually I kinda think Liam’s bullshit helped make me who I am now.”

Orion grunted. I could tell he didn’t really believe me, or at least I thought that’s what I saw when he looked at me. He turned the left corner of his mouth into a slight smile. “I wish there was something I could do,” he said. “To make you realize that I’m not him, that I won’t do that to you.”

I shook my head. “I know you won’t. Or I mean, I know you don’t think you will. But—”

“That’s not the kind of man I am. And you’re not the woman you were back then, either. If you don’t want me,” he said, trailing off. “No. I’ve seen the way you look at me. I felt you arching against me and sucking at my kisses. I heard your voice waiver when I touched you. I
know
you want me, even if you won’t admit it to yourself.”

I couldn’t say anything at all. Somehow, he figured me out exactly in the few moments we’d been together that morning. His words brought comfort, and at the same time, the clarity with which he saw through me was startling. I’m used to hiding, used to being able to pretend to be someone I’m not and get away with it.

“I can smile when I want to cry,” I said. “When I’m hurting, I can act like I’m invincible.”

Saying those words made them real. That’s when I realized that I’d never said them before. I’d never laid myself open, laid myself bare, like I just did.

“My father wants me dead, because I left the gang. I wouldn’t kill on order. I refused to hurt people who didn’t deserve his cruelty, so I ran.”

I felt a tear run down my cheek, although I wasn’t all that sure where it came from or why that was my reaction to what he’d said. “Why did you just admit that to me?”

Orion pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and dragged his teeth along the stubble. “Because you let me in. You trusted me enough to be vulnerable. And I’ve never admitted what I am. My past is something I’m not proud of. For a long time, I convinced myself it wasn’t my fault – I was just a,” he shook his head. “That I was just an unwitting victim. But it isn’t true. Just taking orders isn’t an excuse for some of the things I’ve done, but I’d never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it, and that got me in trouble.”