The Paranormal Council: Complete Series

Chapter 15

ARI

Ari finished her final case report and sent it to her boss, knowing that it was another well-fought case. While she hadn’t seen anything in the notes that suggested there was a paranormal behind the crime, it had been clear to her that the man on trial had been wrongly accused. Unfortunately, her intuition, and ability to read people better than most, weren’t admissible court evidence. It had been a close call, but the jury had seen through the prosecutor’s case, and Ari had won again. Except that this time, it didn’t bring the same elated feeling as normal; probably because she was so distracted.

Her thoughts were all over the place and she just couldn’t seem to get them straight. When she thought of Bjorn, her heart raced and she almost wanted to break into song; not that that would have been pleasant for anyone around her. But her Mum’s reaction was still bothering her, and with good reason. She wasn’t going to leave Bjorn. In reality, she probably couldn’t leave Bjorn. She’d certainly never heard of mates breaking apart in the past, it just wasn’t like marriage. So, if her Mum wouldn’t come around, then Ari would face losing her family, and that wasn’t something that sat comfortably with her either.

She sighed, shutting down her computer and shrugging on her coat, hoping that the short walk home would help clear her head. She’d purposefully bought a flat near her office, but even so, she enjoyed walking, it was a chance to let the issues of the day slide away. Of course, before Bjorn had come along, all she’d done when she’d got home was work more, unless she had a Council meeting. Even after they’d started sleeping together, nine times out of ten she’d just ended up working. Mostly due to her misguided attempt to keep their s*x life separate from their actual lives. She’d known from early on that the two of them had been playing with fire, and she’d been even more certain when Kem had come back to the Council room and told them that he was already mated. It was voicing her knowledge that all mates had to do to start the mating process was meet, that made her realise there was no going back. Though even if they weren’t mates, Bjorn doing everything he could to have the rules changed would have been enough to convince her.

She smiled to herself, the stress of the case, and of her Mum’s biased opinions, slipping away and left her with only good thoughts of two nights ago. And of the night before, when Bjorn had held her as she slept; she didn’t think that she’d ever slept so soundly either. There was no doubt left that Bjorn was the one for her.

She climbed the stairs to her flat slowly, relishing the effects of the walk; it’d been a while since she’d shifted and a lot of the energy that shifting required had built up inside her. She idly wondered if Bjorn would mind her shifting in the flat. It was what she normally did, one of the advantages of being a smaller shifter. She’d change and run around, sometimes she even climbed on the furniture if she was feeling particularly mischievous. When she’d been growing up, her Mum had had a strict rule against being on the furniture in fox form, so even though she owned her own furniture now, it still felt like she was breaking the rules.

Thinking about shifting brought up thoughts of Bjorn, and she wondered how he dealt with the need to shift. It was fine for small shifters like her, they could shift inside and not be noticed by the human population, but shifters of Bjorn’s size didn’t have that luxury. Come to think of it, she didn’t even know how big Bjorn’s shifted form was. He was some kind of brown bear, whose animal cousin lived near Russia, but she didn’t know just how big they grew. Her curiosity piqued, and she started playing with the notion of asking him to shift for her. It seemed like that would be a big step, after all, she’d never shifted in front of anyone that wasn’t her family. Or at least, she hadn’t in front of anyone that realised she’d shifted; there’d probably been a handful of humans that had seen her in animal form and dismissed it as just another fox.

Her thoughts skidded to a halt as she approached her apartment and found her Mum leaning against the wall, a relieved look on her face when she saw Ari. They looked alike, but her Mum looked slightly older, with dark brown hair instead of auburn; Ari had got that colouring from her Dad.

“Mum.” She smiled nervously. She loved her Mum, and didn’t want to feel like they were at odds, but she also didn’t know what she was here for, which worried Ari slightly.

“Have you had a good day?” She could hear the strain in her Mum’s voice as she tried to act casual.

“It was alright thanks.” She fit her key into the door, gesturing for her Mum to go in first, selfishly hoping that Bjorn was already out, and they could avoid having whatever confrontation this was in front of him. He already knew that her Mum was judgemental about the whole situation, she didn’t want to make his opinion of her any worse. “Would you like a drink?” She dumped her work bag on the side and made her way over to the fridge to pull out the bottle of wine she had chilling in there; no way was she having this conversation without a glass.

“Please,” her Mum answered, and Ari poured two glasses, handing the first one to her before taking a drink, relishing the taste as she swallowed it down.

“You okay?” Ari asked, feeling surprisingly calm given the circumstances.

“I’ve come to apologise.” Her Mum moved around to perch on one of the seats at the breakfast bar, fiddling with the bottom of her wine glass as she did. Ari waited patiently, not wanting to give her an easy out.

“If you love this man, whoever he is, then I can get past the fact he’s not a fox.” Ari grimaced despite herself, it wasn’t exactly the most glowing thing for her to say.

“Good.”

“Ari…”

“What? You want me to just accept your apology despite the fact that you more or less said you wouldn’t accept Bjorn? Just because he’s not a fox? You know that’s not how these things work, Mum. It’s not like I have a choice who my mate is,” she half-shouted, unable to stop herself.

“Ari, I said I’m sorry.” Her Mum looked hurt, but Ari’s anger was simmering too much to be ignored.

“I know Mum, but you need to understand that this wasn’t easy for me. It took me months to accept Bjorn was my mate as it is, and then another couple of months trying to hide it from everyone around us so we didn’t lose our Council seats. And then, that man went and had the rules changed so that I could keep mine, giving up his own in the process. He’s been patient and kind, and he’s strong and fair. Isn’t that the kind of man you want for me?” She was getting worked up, and it was all that she could do to keep the tears at bay, but everything she was saying was true. Bjorn had proved himself time and time again to her, but she was the only person that he should have to prove it to. Her Mum opened her mouth to speak, but Ari held her hand up to stop her. “I’m not done. I love him, and he loves me, but you probably don’t realise how much your judgement of him hurts me.”

“I’m sorry Ari.” Her Mum sighed, a pained look crossing her face. “It’s just that after your father and I, and Christine and Tyrone, I just kind of assumed that your mate would be a fox too, not a…”

“Bear,” Ari finished for her, conflicted. She could understand her Mum’s reasoning, but that didn’t stop her from feeling angry. She also dreaded to think how she would have reacted if she’d been like Kemnebi, and mated with a whole different type of paranormal. She let out a short laugh at the thought, before stopping herself.

“Will you tell me about him?” she asked hesitantly, almost as if she was worried about how Ari would respond. Feeling like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, Ari began to tell her about Bjorn, a smile spreading over her face as she talked about him. After what felt like an age, her Mum asked to see a picture, making Ari thankful that Bjorn had insisted they take one the other night.

“Here.” She handed her Mum her phone. The photo was of the two of them half looking at the camera, unable to completely take their eyes off one another.

“He’s handsome, Ari.” Her Mum gave her a knowing smile and Ari laughed slightly, the wine had helped to loosen the pair of them up, and they were now able to talk about Bjorn without the conflict of the past hour.

“He is, and sweet and charming.” She sounded so lovestruck that she almost hated herself for it. Almost, but not quite. It was definitely worth it.

“So, when can I meet him?” Her Mum nervously took a sip of her wine, watching Ari closely to make sure that she hadn’t crossed the line.

“I’m not sure, I’m surprised he’s not back by now. He’s out with Dad tonight.”

“He lives here?” She sounded surprised, but not as much as Ari was. They’d only been out in the open for a couple of days, she hadn’t even considered that he’d moved in. Yet he had a toothbrush in the bathroom, and shoes on the rack by the door. She didn’t mind the idea of him moving in, rather it filled her with a happy glowing feeling that she barely recognised, but they hadn’t actually talked about it yet.

“I don’t know, I guess so.” She shrugged and busied herself with topping up their wine glasses.

“Sounds like you need to talk about it.”

“Yes, I think we do. I’ve liked having him here, I want him to stay.” Her Mum smiled at her.

“You look like I did when I first met your father.” She covered Ari’s hand with her own, and the two of them exchanged looks that said everything they needed to; the past was now the past, and her Mum would work hard to accept Bjorn into the family.