to show the others first, to see if we had a consensus. It was likely April had no idea anyway, since her mother hadn’t been around most of her life. There was also a strong chance that the woman had been dead for at least the past three years.
“She no doubt had her reasons. But it’s all yours now. Want to take it for a spin? I heated the furnace and the glory hole up a few hours ago.”
April was wandering through the forge side of the studio, touching everything, taking ownership. Her eyes glinted with intention, and at the front of her mind, I could easily read her desire to create.
Stuart appeared at her side with a blowpipe and steered her to the furnace. Then it was as if her muse took over. Within seconds, she was directing us like she was born to it, and we were all at her beck and call. Less than an hour later, I had the honor of setting a glass sculpture in the shape of a dragon inside the hot annealer.
April was already at the furnace again, gathering more glass on the end of her pipe. Through the second project, I watched her aura fluctuate with the pale green of her creative energy. Sweat clung to her brow, and her wild curls drifted around her face. She blew them off in frustration and shook her head.
Murdoc took the pipe to the glory hole to heat the glass up once more while I stepped in close and blew a wisp of smoke around the crown of her head. With the tiniest effort of will, I commanded my magic into a bandana and threaded magic ribbons through her hair, tightening it into a braid.
When Murdoc returned with her half-finished glass sculpture, she was focused and ready, but paused just long enough to pull me into a quick kiss.
“Thank you. Thank all of you for this.”
Through most of it, the ursa merely watched, stepping in and opening furnace doors or handing tools to April when she needed them. But their auras betrayed their interest in her and their excitement to be part of a team again. During our kiss, I’d tasted some of the constantly bleeding earth energy she produced thanks to her estrous, and it had grown less concentrated than before. The pieces she was creating were infused with the magic. She was channeling her excess magic into the glass.
“How do you feel?” Tate asked when he closed the annealer door on the chunky glass bear sculpture she’d crafted.
She grinned up at him. “Like I could go all night. You up for it?” She bit her lip coquettishly and teased a finger at his top button as if she’d just propositioned him for sex.
Tate’s cheeks reddened, and he cleared his throat, his aura flaring. The other two ursa had similar hungry expressions, but despite their desires, they would never act on them unless April explicitly requested them to.
“I’m at your service for as long as you’ll have me,” Tate said, keeping his gaze fixed on April’s face.
“Same here,” Chayton said. Eddie rumbled in agreement.
April shifted her gaze between each ursa, studying them as if taking their measure, but she was still crap at shielding her thoughts. I exchanged a covert glance with Stuart and Murdoc to see whether they were picking up on it too.
April wasn’t just sizing the men up for assisting her with a project. She’d seen enough evidence of their competence in a hot shop. No, she was thinking about loopholes to allow her to fuck all three of them, and it was all I could do not to steer our group back to the house and up to the bedroom to get down to business.
Thankfully, Stuart intervened before I could impulsively toss April over my shoulder and run. “You have something specific in mind to work on? I caught a glimpse of some drawings at the gallery we visited before we were attacked. A tree of life.”
April’s face lit up. “Yes! Oh my god, I can work on my show! At least I think so…” She disappeared into the supply room, leaving the six of us staring after her.
“You knew about this?” Stuart asked, slipping up to my side to watch the closed door. It was quiet inside, but enough of April’s thoughts reached me to understand she was taking inventory to make sure she had all the materials she would need. The place was well-stocked, so I hoped it