Read Alpha Bear for Free Online Page B

get any angrier at you. Depending on what she tells
me, I may have to make preparations for the spellwork required. The
sooner we start this, the sooner we let loose the spells of
war.”
    “I thought that quote was supposed to be let loose the dogs of war .” He thawed out enough to quirk
one side of his mouth into a tiny grin.
    “Dogs. Spells. Whatever. It works for me. My
spells have teeth when I want them to.” She smiled a false smile.
“Just you remember that, Mr. Mayor.”
    That wiped the small grin from his face. One
part of her was sad to see it go. Another part wanted to slap him
for being such a beast to her. So they hadn’t told the complete
truth, but then again, neither had the residents of Grizzly Cove.
They were pretending to be a group of human artists, for goodness’
sake. Although, the art she’d seen in the galleries in town was
very pretty. Maybe they really were artists, but John definitely
had warrior stamped all over his impatient, very fit, handsome
bod.
    Urse had always figured there would be a few
shifters in a place as wild as this. That was to be expected.
Shifters lived among humans all over the world. She’d thought
nothing of the few townsfolk she’d met on her one and only scouting
trip to the area. They’d been shifters. Big deal. She figured the
rest of the town was human, and that was good enough for her.
    Only upon moving up here lock, stock and
barrel had they realized that there were only
three— THREE —humans in town. The three Baker sisters, and
they were all in the process of marrying shifters, so they had to
be in on the secret already.
    There really was no solution to the problem.
The shifters probably couldn’t tell they were strega , and
therefore weren’t obliged to tell people they thought were clueless
humans about their true nature. By the same token, the Ricoletti
sisters had thought this was a normal town, with just a
higher-than-average number of shifters because of the ruggedness of
the locale. That was a logical conclusion to have drawn on such
short acquaintance with the place, so they’d done nothing wrong in
not telling anyone about their powers.
    Only after they’d gotten here and realized
where they’d ended up…well…that was when Urse should have overruled
Mellie and sought out the mayor to come clean. But she’d been
enjoying being in Grizzly Cove. The place was beautiful. The cove
was so peaceful… Except for the little sea monster problem that had
cropped up today.
    Which she was going to do something
about.
    Steeling her resolve, she reached for the
phone. “I’m calling Nonna. You already have her number down as our
emergency contact, so I don’t mind inputting it into your phone
system. Nonna is a better witch than me and Mellie put together, so
if any of you go after her, you’re going to regret it,” she warned
as she dialed.
    John looked affronted. “What in the world do
you take me for? I don’t go after grannies with intent to kill. Not
unless they’re grannies who work for the Venifucus . Yours
doesn’t, does she?” He was almost shouting at her.
    Urse made the sign of the cross when he said
the V word. It was an old habit from growing up with a very
Catholic Nonna. “Don’t you dare say that about my Nonna!”
    “I didn’t say she was one of them,” he
insisted. “I said she only had to worry about us if she was.”
    “Well, she’s not!” Say anything you like
about Urse herself, but don’t attack her Nonna. That’s when the
claws came out.
    She punched in the final number, and the
phone started to ring. She was shaking, she was so worked up.
    “How do you put this thing on speaker?” she
grudgingly asked John, practically slamming the phone back onto the
desk. He came over and punched a button, and then, the electronic
ring tone sounded through the office.
    She glared at him while it rang, and then
finally, on the fifth ring, the line was picked up.
    “Hello?” Nonna’s heavily accented voice came
over