Page 26 of Harvest Magic

“What’s the matter?”

“Hot flash.”

“Was it... did I…?”

“No,” she laughed. “It just happens. It’ll pass in a few minutes.”

“Is it painful?”

“No, it just feels like I’m boiling from the inside out. How about you tell me about your time in the military,” Nora asked, redirecting me. “Not anything horrible or anything you don’t feel comfortable talking about. I’m just curious about how you ended up enlisting, what you did in the military, and how you ended up here.”

“We moved around quite a bit when I was a kid,” I said. “My father worked for a company that transferred him every few years. He got an assignment outside of Denver right before I started my sophomore year of high school, so we moved to Greysden. Dad had a brother here, Ben’s father, and he wanted to be closer to family when he had the chance.”

“That must have been nice.”

“It was. We stayed here until my high school graduation, which I was grateful for. As a teen I felt aimless and restless, the way a lot of teenaged boys do at that age. I wasn’t interested in college, so my grandfather suggested I try the military,” I explained. “He’d done a long stint in the Army and always said it made him into the man he was. I enlisted right after graduation and was assigned to a shifter unit.”

“I didn’t know they had special units for shifters.”

Nora must have been feeling better because she stopped fanning her face.

“Most shifters are put in with the general population, but if you show an aptitude in certain areas, they funnel you to the specialized units.”

“What did you show an aptitude for?” she asked.

“Computers and hand-to-hand combat.”

“Those seem like very different things.” I could hear the smile in her voice.

“They really are.”

“Did you like it?” she asked. “Being in the military?”

“I did. I was good at what I did, and I felt like I was making a difference. But I always struggled with living so close to other people. Bears by nature are solitary creatures. That’s why I moved to the mountains when I retired from the military.”

“So your dream is to live alone?”

I shook my head. “No, my dream is to live with my mate.”

“Well, if that ever happens you’re going to need to put on an addition. There’s no way I can spend the rest of my life going up and down a ladder every time I have to pee in the middle of the night. I’m too old for that shit.”

Nora

The next six weeks flew by. The Samhain holiday came and went, and I had my first formal introduction to the coven. I’d expected it to be weird, singing and chanting and talking about magical things in the woods, but I loved it. It left me energized and the power of the coven gave a boost to my magic.

Meanwhile, Ollie and I had fallen into a dating routine that worked for us, and I had to say things were going great. During the week I stayed at Rosewater Manor, working and exploring my new hobbies. Whenever we both had time I continued my magic lessons with Sage. My powers were getting stronger by the day and as I learned the difference between controlling and allowing the magic, my connection to the mystical world increased.

Ollie and I texted and talked a few times a day, and we usually had a date night in Greysden midweek. We’d have dinner or go to one of the town events, or sometimes he’d come to my place to have dinner with me and my family. Sage had hinted multiple times that she didn’t mind if Ollie stayed over in my suite, but I didn’t feel quite right about it.

On Friday nights as soon as I finished work I’d drive up the mountain and spend the weekend at Ollie’s, although as we moved closer to winter I had to adjust my working hours to get off early enough to drive while there was still some daylight. After years of living in Indiana I was perfectly comfortable driving in the snow that had already blanketed the mountains, but darkness was a formidable enemy for my aging eyes. The joys of being middle-aged.

I didn’t feel middle-aged when I was with Ollie though. When we were together we had frequent, energetic sex at least once or twice a night. I knew it was hard for him to resist marking me though. Sometimes during sex I’d see his fangs descending or feel him struggling against his bear, who he explained was very unhappy with our decision to take things slow. But to his credit, Ollie never pressured me. I knew he wouldn’t mark me without my consent.

When we weren’t having sex or making out on the couch like a couple of horny teenagers we did couple things. Cook dinner together – or breakfast. Watch a movie or read side by side until one of us got sleepy. Go for a walk. And talk. We could talk for hours.

I just wished the matchmakers in town would stop treating me and Ollie like a project and let our relationship progress in its own time. The longer we were together, the more some people pressed me about our relationship.

About a month after our decision to date I had a minor freak-out. I was helping Cami at the Rosewater Emporium one Saturday when she was short-handed. An older woman named Angie came in and shared the story about how she and her fated mate were separated for thirty years.