Bear Love by Belinda Meyers Page A

where the magic that makes shifters comes from. I’m not sure.
But now you see why it’s so important that goodly shifters control this
mountain.”
    She thought about it. “You don’t
want humans to find the gateway?”
    “Or shifters with evil motives. As
for humans, they can’t see it directly, but they can notice its effects: the
lack of snow, the ‘fireflies’ and other things. Before we shifters came out of
the den, they probably would have dismissed it, thought it was some random
phenomenon. But now they would study it, probe it, maybe even find a way
across. And the Fae wouldn’t like that.”
    “What would happen?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe war between
this world and the other. Or maybe the Fae would seal access from one realm to
the other. Cut off the flow of magic to this world.” He grimaced. “If that
happened, it might affect shifters everywhere. Might even make us unable to Shift.”
    “Damn.”
    “Yeah.”
    Again she looked around in
amazement, and maybe even a little fear. War ,
she thought. Still, she could feel a charge in the air, like little crackles of
electricity all along her skin, filling her up with an ethereal glow. Magic , she thought. I’m feeling magic. It made her so giddy she wanted to throw her
head back and laugh.
    Sudden movement ahead made her
pause. She saw something large moving through the forest ahead. Strangely,
though, it didn’t fill her with fear. Curious, she moved forward, Mike at her
side.
    Ahead a shaft of sunlight shone
down through the trees and illuminated the animal, if that’s what it was, in
the brightest white. It entered a glade, and the sunbeams stroked white fur
over long clean limbs and muscular shoulders. It was huge, and its fur was
thicker and downier than Jess would have imagined. And the horn … it gleamed
like lightning …
    Jess gasped and clutched a hand
over her mouth.
    “Is that … is that … ?”
    The unicorn, if that’s what it was,
paused in the forest and turned to glance back at her and Mike. Their eyes
locked, just for a moment, hers and the creature’s, and she felt something wash
across her soul like the purest crest of sea foam. The creature dipped its
head, as if acknowledging their presence, then turned and continued on,
vanishing back into the forest.
    Jess wheeled in astonishment to
Mike. He looked as awed as she felt.
    “That was a unicorn!” she said.
    He passed a hand across his face.
“There are plenty of strange things here. I think … I think we just saw the
Guardian. I’ve heard legends of the being that guards the gateway. I’ve never
seen it, but I think that was it.”
    “Amazing …” She stepped forward
cautiously, entering the treeless glade where the unicorn had just been
standing. The air felt even more charged here, even more electric. The unicorn
had been a being of power.
    Mike came with her, moving like one
in a dream.
    She took a few deep breaths,
letting her heartbeat slow. Softly, more under control now, she said, “So … just
why did you bring me out here?”
    One of his eyebrows half-rose, and
the corner of his lip twisted up wryly. “Why do you think?”
    “I asked you .”
    He met her gaze firmly. “You wanted
to know.”
    “Is that all?”
    “I …” His brows drew together, and
he glanced away, then back to her, but when he looked back his eyes were sober.
“I thought maybe …”
    A shiver of nervousness ran through
her. He was so serious. “Yes?”
    “I thought maybe it was the secrets
holding you back. Maybe if I shared them, opened my world to you, maybe it
would, you know, break whatever barrier was reining you in.”
    Now it was her turn to look away.
She ran a hand over the top of her other arm in a nervous habit of hers. “It
wasn’t the secrets, Mike. It was ... well, you know.”
    “Andrew.”
    “Yeah.” She craned her head again,
looking up into his ruggedly handsome face with those piercing blue eyes that
seemed to penetrate right to her core. She wanted to