Chapter 47

My body wanted to stay in bed getting a little more sleep snuggling with my pack. Medusa was having panic attacks, and I had a feeling she would keep having them until Di got here. Whatever he was, it kept Athena away from her. Benji hadn’t gone into full-blown panic attacks, but he wasn’t dealing well with being back at a Coalition facility.

Benji hyper-focused on something when he didn’t want to deal with his memories. It was natural for him to fixate on Medusa now that we found her, but everything that happened at the Save Mart was Benji overcompensating to care for her instead of caring for himself.

There was also the matter of a young demon and my mate’s hybrid friend. I would have taken care of them even if they weren’t Kat’s mates. Kat had become a good friend to me. It wasn’t just that she helped us break out. She could read that traumatized kid Benji tried to hide and help him.

Pax had pulled things from the chest freezer and set them in the fridge to defrost when he was cooking for Medusa last night. We kept the freezer and the fridge layout exactly the same for him because we weren’t assholes.

Sirens and mermaids were two separate beasts, though they had been confused by humans over the years. Jezebel was half siren and sirens were marine birds. She needed fish, which I pretty much always had on hand because I did, too.

Pax hadn’t pulled any from the freezer, which was unlike him. And then I remembered. Supernaturals either stopped celebrating their birthday after a certain age or we went all out. There was a family of black bear shifters here with a twelve-year-old cub. She adored fish and her birthday was right around Benji’s.

I’d thrown a fish fry for the entire village for her birthday and I hadn’t gone swimming in the lake to catch more fish since then because I was worried about Benji and then Di happened. No wonder I felt unsettled and off my game. I couldn’t do anything about it now with this many people to care for.

I felt her before I heard her. I smiled, but I didn’t turn around.

“You should be resting, little monster.”

“Bossy.”

“Only when I need to be.”

“Who’s taking care of you when you’re taking care of everyone else?”

“Remember when I told you Benji’s thing is getting me books about stubborn bears?”

“I wouldn’t mind borrowing the kinky ones…for science.”

“If you want any random book about a very specific kink and you want the heroine to have purple hair and missing thumbs, Benji will have at least four recommendations he’s been waiting years for someone to ask about.”

“Well, you’re missing fish and both you and Jezebel need it after being in New Eden. I heard this place was built next to a waterfall where you could shift and catch some. You’d enjoy it, too.”

Yeah, I would. It would center my bear and get rid of all this uneasiness. I just didn’t think I should be playing in the water with this many Coalition victims here. There were other things I could cook Jezebel and myself.

Medusa was looking at me and it was like she could see right through me. She cocked an eyebrow at me.

“I was planning on checking you out your ass before you shifted and I wanted to meet your bear.”

Damn,

“Oh, so you don’t fight fair at all, do you?”

She knew exactly how to get me out there doing what my bear needed. He was preening at the idea of showing off and catching fish while she watched and I loved the idea of her peeking while I was naked.

“No, I don’t. At all. Help me out there so I can sit in nature and let my green witch soak it up. I’ll watch you do what your bear needs. And eventually, I’ll get my strength back and go swimming with you.”

Yeah, I liked that idea. Pax didn’t swim much because of his vision and Benji was terrified of water. It would be amazing to swim with her.

Medusa looked stronger than yesterday, but she was still painfully thin. I could have wrapped an arm around her and guided her out, but I just didn’t want to. I scooped her up and carried her. She sighed and nuzzled my chest with her cheek.

“You know, part of me wants to say I’m a strong woman capable of walking on her own two feet, but the rest of me acknowledges this is better and it feels fucking nice.”

“How much of a striptease are you wanting, little monster? That’s more of Benji’s domain and sometimes Pax if the lion shifters bring over moonshine.”

“Di runs a vineyard, but his wine has a much higher proof than any other available wine and it tastes better. He gets naked when he’s drunk, too.”

“Was that a clue to our mysterious pack member’s identity?”

Because I could feel he was pack in the basement of New Eden Asylum when he destroyed the statue of the woman who hurt Medusa. He was one of us and he orchestrated all of this to get her out. He might be playing some game with his identity, but I was finding myself less mad about it.

He could have left everyone at New Eden to fend for themselves to take care of Medusa. He was taking care of the people there while trusting us to take care of her. So, I found myself respecting him and even being a kind of willing participant in this little game of his.

“It was a pretty big one. You’re going to kick yourself when you guess. I’d tell you, but this brings him so much joy. A lot of the things that used to bring him joy are a lot harder now with social media and public indecency laws. That was another hint, by the way. Wow, this is gorgeous.”

I set her down on a rock. It really was gorgeous out here and mostly unspoiled because this was my backyard. A waterfall spilled down the mountain into a grotto that led out to the river that ran through our valley.

There was a cave behind the waterfall I used to hide in when I was a kid. My father had done this amazing thing with this village and the town at the bottom of the mountain, but the best thing he did for everyone was leave because he was bored with the women there.

He was a terrible father and an even worse husband. Supernaturals were naturally polyamorous. We gravitated to our packs, covens, hives, and all of that. Everyone was on the same page and it wasn’t cheating if it was in your pack.

My father wanted to fuck anything with a skirt and he blamed the fact that male wild bears were naturally promiscuous. His pack hated it and the villagers didn’t really want to help him cheat, even if he owned the village. Everyone told me he left, but it wouldn’t shock me if they ran him off and handed the reins to a twelve-year-old because they thought I’d bring less drama.

I could feel her eyes on me and I couldn’t control my erection. I wanted to because I wasn’t some horn dog like my father. This woman was my mate, and she’d been through a lot. Medusa didn’t really ask me out here to check me out naked. It was a ruse to get me to take care of myself. She didn’t deserve a bear boner this soon after meeting me.

I turned around, so she just saw my ass, but my mate had other ideas.

“I’m not shy, neither am I a prude, Cas. I was born during a time of public bathing and plenty of orgies. Spin and present.”

Oh, fuck, she did not. My bear was loving the shit out of this and frankly, so did I. I turned around and struck a little pose. I watched her eyes go to the size of saucers.

“Holy shit, do you have a license for that?”

Oh, yeah, me and my bear were preening. I shifted, so I didn’t do a damned thing to my malnourished mate that she wasn’t ready for and then I dove into the water because it was cool and the equivalent of a cold shower.