Alpha Bear (26 page)

The circle itself had a small diameter. It
was only a few yards across at its widest point, but the energy of
the place was powerful. Wild. Untamed. And intense.

Urse caught her breath the moment she walked
inside the small ring. John was right beside her. Steadying
her.

“Yeah, I was wondering how you were going to
take that. This place…” His words were low, not carrying out beyond
the circle. “I have a buddy who’s a shaman. He lives near here, and
he’s been keeping an eye on this circle. It’s not quite ready for
the uninitiated yet, he tells me. How is it for you?”

Urse breathed shallowly. “I’ll be okay. Just
let me get my bearings.”

She reached out for the nearest of the
standing stones, which was about at waist height. Touching the
rock, she felt its hum of power straight down to her toes. It was
unlike anything she’d ever felt before.

“Best way to do it.” She heard Cam’s comment
as if from far away.

He was standing beside John, watching her.
When had he arrived? She wasn’t sure. She’d been too overwhelmed by
the hum of magical energy contained in the ring to be aware of much
else.

She saw Cam frowning and realized he’d asked
her something.

“What?” She shook her head, but all she heard
was the hum of the ring in her mind.

She saw Cam reach out to touch the standing
stone nearest him. The hum increased, but then settled down. Words
came to her. Cam’s words, though she was looking right at him and
his mouth didn’t open once.

“Control it, lass. Do not get swept up in it.
Form it to your will.” He did something, manipulating the energy.
“Like this.”

He showed her the way, teaching her something
she never could have put into words. He taught by example, how to
take the power of the ring into herself and shape it to what she
needed, subduing it to do as she wished. It was truly amazing.

Within a few minutes, she had learned how to
control it, though she never could have imagined such a thing only
an hour ago. She hadn’t known such places held so much raw energy.
The only stone circles she’d ever been to had been well regulated
by use and time…which made her think.

“This is new, isn’t it?” she asked Cam as the
power dialed back to something she could handle.

“Aye. This ring cropped up probably about the
same time the bears moved in. Such things do still happen once in a
very long while. The concentration of shifter magic probably caused
this to form, a benevolent outcropping to concentrate power they
could use—if any were so gifted.”

They were speaking aloud now, and the
background noise filtered back in. Her senses were returning to
normal as she regulated the flow of raw energy back to something
she could handle.

“That’s why Gus, the shaman, chose to live
nearby,” John told them. “He’s heavily involved with the native
community to the south, and when this place is ready, he’ll act on
our behalf as well. He’s got a foot in both worlds. I wish he were
here for this, but he’s back east at the moment.”

“I think she’s got the hang of it now,” Cam
said, looking at Urse but speaking to John. “Judging by the sky,
and the sea, we should probably start getting ready.” Cam nodded
toward the disturbance in the ocean, clearly heading their way.

John whistled, and the men just outside the
stone circle stepped in. Tonight, everyone would be inside the ring
of protection afforded by the standing stones. Urse wouldn’t have
to cast a ring in salt. Not when a much more formidable circle,
formed of the earth itself, was already there to shield them.

Her full attention and energy could be
focused on forming the spell and wielding the power of their
combined magics at the enemy. This would be the most powerful spell
of all. Probably the most powerful she would ever be called upon to
make in her life. She vowed to make it a good one. It would be her
master work.

The men took up positions in a circle, just
inside the circle of stones. They faced the center of the ring,
where she, John and Cam were standing in a triangle, back to back,
shoulder to shoulder, facing outward. Urse faced the ocean. John
faced the cove. And Cam had the edge of the triangle facing the
land. He was their support, guarding the rear while she and John
faced the threat head on. As it should be.

Through the circle of men and stones, she
could see the ocean roiling with anger as the creatures within
it—the evil one and its minions—let loose their rage. It was a
mighty sight, designed, she believed, to strike terror into her
heart. But she wasn’t so easily scared. Not after her success with
the three spells that had gone before.

This would be the most demanding yet, but she
also had the best setup she’d ever had. Powerful shifters all
around her, willing to guard her and lend her some of their magic.
Plus the wild magic of the newly-formed ring of standing stones,
pushed up from Mother Earth in response to the magical creatures
living nearby, probably for just such a purpose.

If she understood her early lessons on such
things correctly, the ancient rings were formed to help the magical
races focus their power and give them ceremonial places. Places to
marry. Places to celebrate life and death. Places to seek shelter
and understanding. Places to increase their own power to use for
good works.

Well, this had to be the biggest good work
Urse would ever attempt. The three spells that had gone before had
been powerful, but with the light of the full moon and the input of
the shifters, the fey and the presence of the stones… She figured
this final spell was going to be a doozy.

She just hoped she lived through it.

Either way though, she would see it set. If
she had to give up her life to protect the people of this place and
deny the sea monster any further incursion on this land, then so be
it. Her only regret was leaving John. And her sister. Both would be
crushed if she left them, but they would also understand why she
did what she was about to do.

Because unbeknownst to either of them, the
ward she was going to cast tonight was going to take all her
power…and then some.

Cam knew. She had seen the knowledge in his
eyes as they were making their plans. If she was reading him right,
even he wasn’t sure the combined powers that were being lent to her
tonight would be enough to keep her from flaming out. She had no
idea, but they were about to find out.

The moon had been up for a while, raining its
powerful light down on the stones. It was so bright there was no
need for additional lights. Everything was lit by the moon’s
reflected light for miles and miles all around. It was beautiful,
but it was also a thrumming beat in Urse’s blood.

The moon was an aspect of the Goddess
worshiped the world over in centuries past. And for good reason.
Her Light was powerful when the moon showed her full face.

“Now, lass,” Cam whispered behind her. “The
moon nears its peak.”

All this time, Urse had been quietly
gathering her power…and her courage. She felt the build-up, pulsing
through the earth at the center of the circle, just below her feet.
The power was frightening, but she wasn’t scared. She felt a calm
come over her as she invoked the Goddess, starting her chant that
would form the ward she’d spent a lifetime learning how to
cast.

This was the greatest spell she knew. The
greatest spell she would ever cast, if she was lucky. It would take
everything within and without to make this work.

But she wasn’t alone. The Goddess was with
her. And her mate was with her too. And Cam. Quiet, blessed,
supportive Cam. A new friend who went back with her family, almost
to its beginning.

She saw it all in those brief moments when
the power coalesced in her. She felt the individual magics of the
shifters gathered all around. Many bears, but also the great horned
owl spirit of Joe Nightwing and the golden jackal of Seth. The
mighty cougar that shared Steve Redstone’s soul blinked at her from
Steve’s eyes where he faced her in the protective inner ring.

She glanced at all the men and saw the shadow
of their beast halves. If she looked close enough, she could see
their souls.

That was a knowledge she didn’t necessarily
want to have, but was bestowed on her by the Mother of All in the
timeless moments between one word of her chanted prayer and the
next. Time had slowed. The angry flailing of the evil creatures in
the ocean went into slow motion as Urse spun out her spell, each
word dragging a new aspect of her magic, and the ward she wanted to
build, out of her being, with the support and power of those
gathered around.

She could feel it. The ward was taking shape,
but her power was failing. She’d bit off more than she could chew.
Panic gripped her for a split second…

And then, John was there. He’d reached behind
him to take her hand, and his calm strength flowed into her.

Then Cam followed suit on her other side,
taking her other hand. The power that flowed into her was the
golden Light of the Goddess Herself, nearly overwhelming in its
intensity.

Then she knew. It was time.

She raised her hands—John and Cam’s hands
too—toward the sky, and the power poured forth, racing up to the
moon and ricocheting back down to the cove and the surrounding
waters.

The leviathan screamed an inhuman sound,
unable to withstand the searing magic. It fought against the
goodness of Urse’s spell with its own evil magic. The smell of
ozone filled the air as energy clashed in the air all around
them.

Urse felt her hair lifting, forming a halo
around her head as the magic battle generated a massive static
electricity charge. The stones of the circle glowed as the evil
tried to overcome the Goddess’s ring of protection.

Urse poured on the power, calling on the men
all around, Cam’s seemingly limitless strength, and finally, the
earth itself. Giving all she had of her own energy, Urse screamed
the final words of her chant, sealing the spell with the last of
her strength.

The moon glowed brighter for a moment, and
then, the lightning was released. The static charge reversed and
went from the land to the sea, lighting up the leviathan and
hundreds and hundreds of smaller evil creatures that flanked it in
an army of tentacles and menace.

But it was an army that was on the run.

Urse gasped as she got a good look at what
was in the water. Lightning danced over and inside the waves,
lighting the water from below, giving everyone a good look at the
sheer magnitude of the enemy.

She was glad she hadn’t known how many were
out there before she’d started setting her wards. Even now, she
couldn’t quite believe the sheer numbers of unearthly creatures the
leviathan had managed to rouse for its water-bound army of
darkness.

With her last conscious thought, Urse smiled.
She could see the boundaries of her ward. They extended even
farther than she had hoped. The leviathan and its minions were
fleeing as fast as they could move, and the odor of burnt seaweed
and ozone filled the air.

“Honey?” John’s voice came to her as she
started to sink, letting go of his and Cam’s hands. Her strength
was gone. Given gladly in service to the Light, in setting a
permanent ward that would protect this land and coast for
generations to come.

“Love you,” she whispered, even as John’s
arms came around her. He held her tight against his chest, and she
was glad. She wanted her last thought to be of him. Her last
moments to be with him.

John felt the breath leave Urse’s body, and
his bear roared in his skull. John was hit with a jolt of pain as
he’d never felt before. His mate was dying?

No way would he allow that.

John turned angry, glowing eyes on the
fey.

“Cam?”

“Put her down on the ground and stand back,”
Cam instructed, looking weary but determined. “Your lass gave her
all for this place, but if I have anything to say, she will not
leave it this easily.” Cam looked up at the circle of shifters who
were all gazing at them with concern. “Hold your positions and join
hands. Pray as you have never prayed before for this selfless woman
who was willing to give her life so that you all could be safe.”
Cam’s impassioned words were fast and filled with emotion, which
John saw repeated on every face of every man around the circle.

John dropped to his knees, placing Urse’s
near-lifeless body on the ground in the center of the circle. He
lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it, beseeching the Mother of
All to take him instead. If someone had to leave this realm, he
prayed, let it be him, so that Urse might live. She was too good to
let pass this way. Too loved. Too kind.

Cam stood on the other side and began to
whisper words of high magic. John couldn’t hear exactly what the
elf said, nor did he really care. All that mattered to him in the
world was lying before him on the ground, pale and growing
cold.

He felt the tears falling down his face and
knew he was crying for perhaps the first time since childhood, but
he didn’t care. His mate—his
mate
—wasn’t in her body where
she was supposed to be. He wanted her back. He
needed
her
back!

He lifted his face to the sky and allowed the
bear to roar its agony out of his mouth. Both halves of his soul
were in mortal pain.

And then, the earth moved.

John felt the earth beneath his knees tremble
and heard it groan, and then, the hand he was holding—Urse’s
hand—rose in his grip. He looked down again to try to figure out
what was going on. Was she getting up? Was she alive?

But it wasn’t her moving. It was the ground
itself.

A slab of rock was rising. An
altar
was rising. In the center of the sacred stone circle, an alter of
living rock rose to their call, answering their prayers. John knelt
on one side, Cam stood on the other, his hands outstretched, his
body glowing with the magical armor of his calling.