Page 34 of Dawn Unearthed

I smiled, looking at everything and everyone around me.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end suddenly, and I looked over to the doorway, wondering why I had been waiting all this time for someone else to walk through that door. Rowen gave me a knowing smile, but I didn’t focus on that. Instead, I tuned into the man in the doorway. The one I shouldn’t focus on.

“That’s interesting,” Laurel said as Trace tugged her away. Rowen merely grinned before walking towards a group of older women as they all spoke about my bread and sweets.

Rome moved forward, his gaze on mine as if he were afraid of what I might do. I didn’t know what I would do, so I didn’t blame him.

He came to stand in front of me and stuck his hands into his pockets. “Looks like the place is doing well.” He studied the area, a small smile on his face.

“Maybe. I mean, yes, everyone’s been so amazing. I’m almost out of bread.”

“That would be horrible,” he said. “I hear you have honey buns.”

I smiled and gestured towards the stack. “I do. And I also have honey bread.”

Trace’s head shot up. “Honey bread?”

He let out anoofas Laurel elbowed him in the stomach. “Come on. You have enough honey.”

“One can never have enough honey,” he grumbled before he let Laurel pull him away.

I blushed and shook my head. “I made this honey white loaf, mostly because Rowen and Laurel said that I needed to make a lot of honey things for the bears in town.” I still couldn’t quite believe that I was saying these things aloud and that they made sense, but I was doing my best to roll with it.

“Yeah, we bears like honey. Not all bears, though. When the polars come in, they would most likely go for your salmon and lox.”

“Seriously?” I asked, my gaze wide.

“Yes. And if you have any blubber, they’d like that more.”

I shuddered. “I don’t think I’m going to be serving that at a bakery.”

“I thought not. But honey? Show me. Although I could probably follow my nose.”

I smiled, not knowing what to say or do. I wasn’t good at this. I didn’t know what he had meant before about mates or what this pull between us meant. However, I planned to do my best to ignore most of it and simply focus on what I could do and what I did know.

“Can you follow your nose to the honey and the bread?” I asked, wanting to know more about this world around me, even if I was a little worried about what it would mean for me to get to know this man better.

“I can. My nose is best in bear form, but I have a better sense of smell than humans do while I’m in this form.”

I shook my head, amazed that he could talk about this so openly. Rome seemed to know where my thoughts had gone because he smiled.

“That’s the good thing about Ravenwood. We feel safe to speak freely because of the people around us. Everyone in this room is connected to magic or packs or some other form of the supernatural. And everyone feels safe. Well, as safe as we can be with revenants and darkness coming out of nowhere,” he added dryly.

I winced. “We still don’t know anything about that?”

Rome shook his head. “No, but we know that everyone who needs to be looking is working on it. It’s the best we can do for now. But today’s not about that. Today’s about your new bakery.”

I smiled and looked around at the place I was now beginning to call home. “It is, isn’t it?” I asked. “This is mine. And the town’s mine now, too.”

“You’re a major part of the town. Welcome home, Sage,” he said softly, and my cheeks warmed.

“Thank you, Rome.”

“You’re welcome. Now, can I have an entire loaf of bread? Or would that be too much?”

“You’re welcome to anything you’d like. Today, we’re doing a sale.”

“She’s not offering her wares at the right prices,” the older woman from earlier said. “She needs to raise them.”

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