Her Enemy Protector Bear by Cynthia Wilde

Chapter 14

Nick waited for Rafe to call him into his office. It had been weeks since Zoe had moved into his house, and things were going well so far. There hadn’t been any developments with the cats, or the investigation of the attack on her. There was still a palpable tension among the team however. They knew they hadn’t seen the last of this particular problem. It was just a feeling they all shared. It was a Friday morning, and Nick knew there was a lot to do before the weekend, but he needed some advice. How do I move forward with Zoe without scaring her off?

In Nick's opinion, Rafe was the best person to ask, as he was a dragon shifter who fell in love with and married a human himself. Nick had claimed Zoe, heart and soul, but he still hadn’t told her the real truth, and he knew their relationship was in limbo until he did.

Her son had already grown on him unexpectedly. He had gotten over the initial shock and all her son reminded him of, but he had been unprepared for the calm sense of peace that being around and mentoring him had brought into his life. No one could replace what he had lost, but first time he felt deep in his heart that it is was all going to be okay. He just needed to tell her he could turn into a bear. That’s all.

"Nick," said Rafe, cutting into Nick's thoughts. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. Keira and the children wanted to show me a few of their new outfits for the faire. I think they bought them from your lady. She does excellent work."

"Yes, I know," said Nick proudly. "She does really amazing work, all hand stitched. She is mainly what I wanted to talk to you about, actually," Nick cleared his throat. "You see, we, uh" Nick's words were interrupted by a sharp knock on the office door.

"Enter," said Rafe, looking apologetically at Nick.

Red ducked into the room, followed by Aurora.

"We have a problem," said Red, looking around the room. "Oh, sorry, Nick," he said. "This can't wait. It seems, not only Chell is missing, but now, four of the witches we hired to help find her have gone missing as well. We didn’t even realize, because it was happening slowly, it just came together today, that four women have not returned…"

Aurora said, "We checked the traps, and it looks like someone may have moved them and reset them. We are still investigating."

"We need someone to go check the animal shelter downtown," said Red, eyeing Nick. "You know I can’t show up there, like this. It would be a big help if you could go for us, Nick. You went before, right?"

Nick sighed and stood up. Ten foot trolls just can’t be disguised. "I don’t know how they would have gotten caught. They aren’t dumb enough to go into any traps. But if you want me to check, I’ll check."

"We need to cover every angle." said Aurora. "But hopefully, they aren’t there. Or maybe it would be good if they are. One things for sure, if they are they will be none too pleased. But I suppose that would be best case scenario."

“Absolutely,” Nick replied. “Whatever the team needs, I’m on it.”

"I'm sorry, Nick," said Rafe, standing up. "We will reschedule this conversation for another time."

“Ok boss, I’d appreciate it.” He shook Rafe's hand, left the grand house, and headed out to his car. This is going to be a major waste of time. But it needed to be done.As he drove the short ride to the shelter he rehearsed the conversation he would have with Rafe as soon as he got the opportunity. Why is this so hard for me? Suddenly a whole new thought popped into his head. What if I don’t need to tell her? Devon said my shift was obvious in the Bear show. Maybe I could get her to see the show. Could that work? It was worth consideration. Maybe I don't need to ask Rafe after all, he thought.

* * *

As he pulledinto the shelter parking lot, he saw Zoe walking out with one of the traps in her hand.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he got out of his car. "I thought you only worked here on Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"I caught some of the feral cats you wanted gone," she said, looking very proud of herself. "I just dropped them off with Dr. Bently. I was gonna surprise you! I know you guys have been working overtime and wanted to help. He will take good care of them."

"Oh boy," said Nick, running his hands through his hair. "Okay, so they are inside? " he asked he practically ran right past her.

"Yeah, but aren’t you happy? This must be a help, right? And Dr. Bently will spay or neuter them and get them new homes. What is it?" she finally asked.

"Oh God!" exclaimed Nick as he started running toward the shelter. He paused for a moment to look back at her and said, "I'll talk to you about this later at the house, okay? It’s fine." He resumed his sprint into the shelter and rang the bell for the doctor to come out from the back.

"What is the matter?" asked Dr. Bently as he noted Nick’s flushed face. "Can I help you? And you know I heard the bell the first time."

"Those cats," said Nick, trying not to let the panic show in his voice. "The ones Zoe brought in; I would like to adopt all of them. Right now."

"That's a lot of cats," said the doctor, eyeing him. "They are pretty wild, sir, I don’t think they’d make great pets. Do you want me to check them out first?"

"No, thank you," said Nick, "I need a specific four. Can I come look?"

“Of course, this way,” he said leading him back toward the cages. As he approached the left wall, where the cats were he gestured to one area in particular. “Are these the cats you had in mind?”

If he didn’t know how serious the threat they were facing was, it would have been comical. Even if it weren’t for his shifter senses he would have been able to pick the four witches out. Somehow, even in cat form they were able to display to extreme displeasure he knew he was about to hear all about. He still couldn’t figure out how they had gotten trapped in the first place. “Yup, those are they.”

"There will be some paperwork then. Let’s get that handled and then you can take them. Are you sure you can handle all four?” he asked.

“I have a feeling it will be a little challenging, but yes I’m sure,” he said as he winked at the four cats who were all watching him intently.

Dr. Bently pulled out some papers from an old filing cabinet. "Here you go." He handed it to Nick with a clipboard and pen. "If you change your mind, you are welcome to bring them back for the spaying procedure."

"I don't think they'd like that very much," said Nick, filling out the papers one by one.

"I should at least give them their shots," he said chidingly. “They shouldn't be placed back into the wild without them.”

"Nope, no shots," said Nick. "I will have it all taken care of later on."

Dr. Bently looked at him curiously. , "Very well," he said, then looked carefully at Nick. Nick thought he saw a change in his face as he spoke again. "These cats," he said, pausing. "They're different, aren't they?"

Nick nodded and confirmed what the vet obviously already knew. "I've seen a lot in my day," said the doctor to Nick as he cleaned his glasses on his lab coat. "This is only the second time I've come across cats that were not cats. About twenty years ago, someone brought in a beautiful angora cat. She was the most beautiful cat I'd ever seen to tell you the truth. Just imagine my surprise when she shifted in her cage. Thank goodness I'd placed her in one of the larger dog kennels for one reason or another. She was even more beautiful in human form. She was also naked. That was a little awkward to say the least.” The doctor seemed lost in his reminiscence for a moment.

Somehow Nick sensed the man was not a threat to their kind. He simply asked him, "Well, what did you do?"

"Well, I married her, of course. Not right away. It is a love story. I can't tell many people, but twenty years later, we are still delighted. Our girls are in college now, and just like her."

Nick smiled. "So, she shifted right in front of you, and it didn't scare you?" he asked considering.

"Oh it scared me, all right," he said. "But after that initial shock we just started connecting. It was effortless and I forgot all about how she could turn into a cat. I realized that it was part of who she was, and everything else about her was pretty normal. And I fell in love with who she was, cat and all. I’m not gonna lie either. I thought it was kinda hot. Later it became a bonus that the house was always mouse free. Anyway, I digress; let me free your ladies for you."

* * *

The drive homewas certainly awkward. Nick covered the four ladies in blankets as they shifted back to their human forms, all naked and fuming. Generally speaking, the witches rarely used the Fairy-made cothing charms that many shifters carried. Witches seemed to consider anything that interfered in their shape-changing to be “unnatural” even if all it did was let them shift with their clothing on. Unnatural. He laughed to himself. The irony.

"I've never been so humiliated in all my life," said the blonde who shifted from a Manx. "To be caught in a trap like a common stray."

"It was those treats," said the brunette. She'd shifted from a fat calico to her human form. "I don’t know what it was but I couldn't stop myself."

"Salmon with a little bit of salt. It was so good, but I feel so stupid," said the redhead, who was a fluffy brown Selkirk Rex. "If I didn’t know better, I would say they were enchanted. Had to be."

The fourth one was the oldest of the four, with silver hair and light blue eyes. She was a Siamese. She looked at Nick from the rear-view mirror. "In all my years, I've never been caged, not once, but the girls are right. Whoever made those treats must have been a witch herself. I am unamused."

For the rest of the car ride back to the faire site, the women talked about the allure of the treats, and how even now, they wanted more. They made a mental list of known witches who might’ve had a hand in it. Nick could feel his embarrassment make its way up to his neck; he hoped the witches didn't notice his skin burning red under his collar. He knew those treats were Zoe's, but he wasn’t gonna tell them that. At least not now. Maybe after they had calmed down a bit. I should have seen this coming. He sighed to himself.

He was not looking forward to the talk he needed to have with Zoe. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings, but she needed to stop it with the treats. And what were they saying about a witch? That part was a bit farfetched though. He had smelled those treats. Of course they were salmon and he was a bear. He wished he had been able to talk to Rafe. He needed to just tell her what was going on.

* * *

Nick droveup to his house. Zoe's truck was in the driveway, but the lights were off as far as he could see. He hoped to have the conversation about the treats with Zoe before tomorrow, but it wasn't looking good. Her door was closed, and the light was off. He went downstairs to check on Devon and saw that his door was cracked open slightly. The glow of the television lit his young face with a bluish light. Nick walked in to turn off the TV and then noticed all the finished costumes hanging in the open wardrobe.

Even in the dim light of the small television, he could see the workmanship and care she'd taken to repair everything. He was so proud of her.

Nick ran his hands over a charming green and blue-trimmed pair of pants. They didn't even look like something he sold, and he worried briefly that his other items would look shabby if compared. The stitches were so delicate and even, it was apparent Zoe took her time. In less than a few weeks, she'd repaired a sizable portion of his inventory. Nick wondered if she'd even taken any time to make her own things this week or if she'd simply given all her time to him.

Nick had been worried about her at the faire as well. He couldn’t be there every minute of every day and had thought about hiring a bodyguard just to make sure nothing else happened to her. Thankfully, so far everything hade been fine. He had arranged it so that if he couldn’t check in, Aurora or Red would stop by often. The strays had also apparently moved on. All in all the faire was beginning to feel safe again. Still he didn’t want her alone, especially not after hours. He already talked to Red about adding a little extra security for Zoe this weekend. He just didn't want to get complacent.

Nick also gave Devon a walkie-talkie with strict instructions to tell him if anything odd happened during the weekends and to report it immediately to him, or to Red or Alec, if Nick wasn't available. Nick continued to be impressed by the kid. It was too easy to treat him like he was much older than he was. He was taking on almost adult responsibilities, and Nick wasn’t sure how Zoe would feel about that.

He ran his hands through his hair. Between telling Zoe he was a shifter and getting her to somehow back off with the traps, he had a few delicate conversations in his future to say the least. And there was plenty else he had to do; just the thought of it all made him feel exhausted and overwhelmed.

Turning off the TV, he heard a voice. He turned around to see Devon sitting straight up in his bed; his eyes abnormally black, staring at Nick. The voice that was coming out of his mouth was harsh, and it sounded ancient, as if straight from the grave, or worse, from the Void. Nick immediately was reminded of the sinister phone call he had received some time ago.

"You can't stop me," it rasped from the boy's mouth. "I have her. She is now my minion."

Nick stood there, unable to move, his feet glued to the floor. "Who are you?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm. The thing made a shrieking, laughing noise. Nick feared it would tear out Devon's vocal cords. Again he got a sense it derived pleasure from his distress.

"You know where we came from. Who we are doesn't matter, but this time, you will not stop us. We have her, and we will use her…" as the demonic voice emphasized the word 'her', Nick realized Chell was in the grasps of the powers of the this thing, whatever it was. It might already be too late to save her.

"What do you want?" Nick asked.

The voice cackled again before answering. "What do we always want?" it said, malice oozing out with every word. "Your death. The end of all your kind. The end of humanity and the beginning of our world. The world your kind have denied us."

Nick chose his words carefully. He had to protect Devon. "Your quarrel is not with the boy. Let him go." Nick painstakingly moved one foot in front of the other as he inched closer to Devon. It felt like his feet were made of lead, but he persisted until he was within arm's length. Placing his hands on the boy's shoulders, he shook him. "Devon!" he shouted. "Come back!" The malevolent voice screamed, but Nick could tell it was losing its grip on the boy as he woke and the scream started to fade. "Devon!" Nick shouted again. "Follow my voice! Come back!" Devon blinked, and then his eyes went back to normal. He sat there now looking dazed.

"What happened?" asked Devon as he looked around. "Where's Furdinand?"

"What do you mean? What about him?" asked Nick.

"He was right here on my lap. I was petting him and watching TV, and then he bumped my face with his nose; he's so funny like that," Devon said, sounding confused. "Where did he go?"

Nick shook his head. "I don't know. Did he say anything to you?" asked Nick, checking the boy's face.

"He said he needed me for something, so I said I'd help him," the boy answered. "He said after I helped him that everything would be fine."

"Devon," said Nick. "I don't think Furdinand is what he appears to me. In fact, I don’t think he’s safe anymore, not since he got here maybe. If you see him again, would you mind telling me? I mean, you’ve got to tell me, okay?"

"Okay," said Devon. "There’s no way he wouldn’t be safe with me, Nick. What’s going on? Am I in trouble?"

"No, not at all," said Nick hugging the boy. “You could never really be ‘in trouble’ with me buddy.