Page 5 of Cupcake

“What happened to Levi?” Tristan demanded.

They were about to have one pissed-off demon. Logan shifted back. Yeah, he would just be a brave boy in his lion form. Nate could tell the demon what was going on. Logan was just going to wait right there.

Chapter Two

Dean

He pushed through the swinging door that separated the front of his business from the back kitchen area. Where the baking happened and the place that Dean was most comfortable in the world.

Glancing up from the counter, Noah smirked at him. “You finally got him inside,” Noah said. “Bravo!” The sarcastic clap was over-the-top.

Dean scowled. “Shut up!” He did not want to hear Noah’s opinion once again.

“That was at least ten minutes you got to spend with him,” Noah pointed out. “Next thing you know he’ll be falling at your feet, declaring his undying love.”

Why? Why had he been saddled with this sassy, smart-mouthed, know-it-all? “Did you finish the last of the danishes?” he inquired.

Noah crossed his arms over his chest while leaning back against one of the stainless steel working tables. Since Dean didn’t see any pastries out in the open and the kitchen was clean, it had been a stupid question. The slim well-groomed brow that Noah lifted at him was a sign that Dean knew he had irritated him.

Dean groaned. Noah was barely five foot two, maybe a hundred and twenty pounds, but he knew how to push Dean’s buttons. They stared at each other for no less than five minutes. Dean was not going to give in first. He was not—

“Damn it!” Dean huffed. “You know why I can’t get close to him.”

Noah snorted. “That boy stands out front every fucking morning. Every. Single. One. He longs to get close to you,” Noah said. “It doesn’t matter how much magic you use to try to hide the mate bond. He’s drawn to you. How can you allow him to go on so miserable?”

Dean worked every day on pushing down the guilt from denying the mate bond. He wasn’t an idiot. Dean wanted to claim his mate. He’d always wanted a mate. It just wasn’t possible. Not until he figured out how to keep Logan safe. “I’m doing what’s best.”

“You can keep lying to yourself,” Noah told him. “But I know your true heart’s desire. The fates do not like being ignored.” With that last statement, Noah shifted.

“Noah!” Dean hurried around the worktable and snagged the black cat by the back of the neck. Sometimes Dean really felt like shaking his damn familiar. “You know you can’t shift in here! You are going to get cat hair all over the place.”

Noah meowed before showing off two very sharp teeth. A threat.

Fuck! Noah really wasn’t wrong, and Dean loved his best friend. Noah called him on his shit when Dean needed it. This wasn’t easy for either of them. Tucking his familiar under his chin and against his chest, Dean closed his eyes. The magic they shared pulsed between them. Dean opened the bond. Noah was worried about him. He also feared that Logan wouldn’t understand why Dean was hiding the mating bond. As his familiar, Noah wanted Dean to be happy, healthy, and loved.It wasn’t only Dean who would benefit from Dean mating. Any boost to Dean’s magic would affect Noah as well.

“What am I going to do?” Dean mumbled into his familiar’s soft fur.

‘Mer.’

Dean chuckled. He just knew that Noah was calling him an idiot. Again.

Arriving in town, Dean hadn’t known that the territory had already been claimed by a strong dragon shifter and his unusual family. Dean had almost run but hadn’t been able to shake the throb of knowledge that he was home.

He’d put off committing until the lease for his bakery had been signed. The longer he was in town, the stronger the feeling of belonging.

Meeting the alpha and the rest of the paranormal community had sealed his fate. The quiet and very handsome lion shifter was Dean’s mate. Even though Dean shielded his full magic power and disrupted his scent, he still felt the connection with Logan deep inside him. In his heart and soul.

Due to his mate living in the big house that boarded the state park, Dean was only too happy to add his magic to the protection around the paranormal family's home. For his own benefit, Dean added an advanced warning spell that would signal him if any witch, mage, or magic wielder stepped over the boundary.

His magic probed the territory often, even as Dean tried to keep his power hidden. There were times when it was almost as if the magic inside him had a mind of its own. It didn’t. Dean could admit that his magic reacted just as strongly to hissubconscious as his will. Too often Dean’s magic would test the boundary around the big house where his unclaimed mate lived.

Distance was nothing for Dean. It barely affected Dean to reach out and connect to the barrier he’d powered in the woods outside Logan’s home. He would know if anyone in his coven crossed over the barrier, getting close to Logan. Dean wanted to offer more, do more, but he couldn’t use too much magic or it would make it easier for his old coven to find him.

Regret ate at him.

Instead of running and hiding, Dean should have taken out his coven. Not everyone involved was evil though. Dean’s brother and sister, for example. They had just been misled teenagers when he’d left. Dean had been young, inexperienced, and without direction. All he had known was that he didn’t belong in the coven. His magic hadn’t liked the coven leaders or the magic around him.

If Dean hadn’t been planning his escape, he never would have found the coven’s Grimoire. The oily black magic that had surrounded that dark spell book had shocked Dean. The coven had never been welcoming or loving but Dean hadn’t once felt any of them using black magic.

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