House Of Bears 7 - Samantha Snow Page 0,7
dedicated to the maiden, we were.”
Holly studied the two people across from her. The woman, Savannah, sat still and bolt upright without relaxing in the slightest. She perched on the edge of the couch with her knees locked together. She held her laced fingers wrapped around them in what Holly could only characterize as a death grip.
The woman wore skin-tight leather clothing that hugged every bony angle. She kept her black leather boots pinned together at the ankle, and she held her square, stony shoulders straight without the slightest trace of relaxation.
She looked down her long white nose at everything, including her brother. She never once unlocked her hands to touch the food. Her heavy black eyeliner reminded Holly of the witch Phaedra Glint, but that didn’t mean anything.
Holly’s new shifter senses detected immediately that these two were both bear shifters, too. It seemed so obvious now, but there was something strange about the woman. Holly couldn’t put her finger on it. Then again, she hadn’t been a shifter very long. Maybe one of the guys would be able to explain it once she got these strangers out of the house. They must be able to see what Holly saw.
The man, Rolf, was diametrically opposed to his sister. He wore filthy denim pants and a jacket. Axel grease and grubby handprints marred what should have been a white t-shirt underneath, and his legs hung slack with dusty work boots flopped on the living room floor.
In front of Holly’s eyes, he inhaled the rest of his sandwich, brushed his blackened fingers on his jeans, and looked around for something else to eat. The moment he finished, Edwina, the heart witch, appeared from the kitchen. Her copper-red hair swept forward when she leaned over to set another plate in front of him. He didn’t notice anything unusual about one of the most powerful witches in the world serving him sandwiches like a waitress at a restaurant.
He grabbed a sandwich and wedged that one down his gullet, too. Neither he nor his sister made any further attempt at conversation.
Holly watched him eat, but she couldn’t for the life of her come up with one thing to say to either of these people. After seven months of fielding countless visitors from Silver Spruce, Golden Oak, and Gallant Green coming to offer her their well-wishes, she had almost gotten used to it—almost.
Even shifters from the dark clans—the former dark clans—came to make peace and bury the hatchet now that the child was about to be born. They offered to report on other clans who might not be coming to the table. They brought gifts and information about their relatives and neighbors. They pledged constant vigilance to ensure that the shifter clans never fell back into the dark ways.
Their sincerity won Holly’s respect and consideration. She couldn’t bear to turn them away, not after so much hostility and bad blood almost ripped their world apart.
They made no bones about regretting aligning themselves with Phaedra. Her manipulation and false promises almost destroyed all of the shifter kind, not to mention getting them enslaved to that bitch. The dark shifters fucked up big time, and they were the first to admit it. They would do anything to rectify their mistake.
In between their delegations and receiving gifts from all over the countryside, Holly reestablished communications with Elias Charmain, former leader of the dark shifter army. He informed her about which clans were truly changing and which might be a little slower on the uptake—not that she felt too enthusiastic about keeping score.
Still, it was nice to know change really was sweeping the population. They were making peace at last. Maybe the maiden prophecy really was coming true after all. She could only hope.
Looking at these two characters in front of her made her doubt it, though. She hated to think they might be lying to her face, but she just could not bring herself to take them seriously. She had never laid eyes on someone so overtly hostile and contemptuous as this Savannah Macauley. Holly had never in her life read such clear and undisguised hatred in someone’s face. Compared to someone like Phaedra, that was saying something.
As for Rolf, he didn’t seem to give a hoot about the maiden prophecy or the child or anything else as long as he got fed. Where could a clan leader like Neal Macauley have dug up these two? Why would he send them to make peace instead of coming himself? It