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Chapter Seven
Espie was so proud of the way that Angel Fire kept itself alive and financially thriving throughout the whole year. Even though winter was when the cash readily flowed and the tourists flocked to the little town, there were plenty of local attractions to boost sales for small businesses throughout the year.
On the fourth Friday of every month, the people of Angel Fire liked to host an event to honor their businesses, and this time, the theme was centered around the local arts and culinary scene. Main Street was decked out with food trucks, tents, and booths with vendors selling their wares. Tanith Ravenna, the eccentric owner of the local art gallery, had been responsible for rustling up talent, and as Espie munched on a buttery cob of corn while strolling through the perfectly organized chaos, she thought the purple-haired woman had done a great job.
Painters, sculptors, live performance pieces…Espie hadn’t realized there were so many artsy folks in her little town, but after grabbing business cards and purchasing a few items as a show of support, she realized many were from the surrounding small communities, and they were eager to participate and showcase their talents at such a well-attended festival.
Even Ivo’s mate Alani had purchased a table to sell her pottery. Recently returned from Hawaii, although without her girls for the meantime, the olive-skinned beauty had an array of new pieces for residents to discover. While Espie oohed and awed at the intricate designs, she’d noted Ivo hovering in the background, wearing the proudest smile she had ever seen. Not once did he try to make Alani’s display about him, which was a pretty big accomplishment for someone Espie considered innately self-absorbed.
Most of the bear clan had shown up for the event, allowing Espie to pass from group to group, finding friendly faces everywhere she looked. A Cup of Beans had a small table outside their brick and mortar, handing out free cups of coffee which helped to warm visitors on a crisp fall afternoon.
Seeing that her own cup of coffee was just about empty, Espie turned around and made her way back to Maida’s stand. She planned to offer up her services if Maida needed a break to go and study. She had a huge quiz on Monday that she’d been stressing over since the start of the week, so Espie knew she would have rather spent the day studying than serving free coffee to hoards of people..
Unfortunately, it seemed that Maida was going to require more than a replacement. She was going to need a buffer between her coffee stand and Willard fucking Vesper. Espie’s eyes narrowed the second she spotted the obnoxious creep standing in front of Maida’s table, his cronies shoving neon flyers into the hands of the gathering crowd.
As she approached, Espie saw Copper and Taymond standing there among the small audience, their arms crossed and scowls etched on their faces. They had always been protective of Maida, to the point where Espie sometimes wondered if either of them had a thing for her. But neither of them had made any sort of move to help her now.
“You two just gonna stand there and glare?” she hissed as she pushed past them, shoving her empty coffee cup into Taymond’s hand. “Or are you gonna stop him from berating her?”
Because that was precisely what Willard was doing. After learning about what kind of man Willard was from all the internet articles she’d researched the other day, Espie would have been highly affronted if he’d taken a free cup of coffee from her friend. He didn’t. But what he did do was a hundred times worse.
“It’s bad enough that you serve the miners who are raping this beautiful mountain range,” he spewed, spit flying everywhere as his voice drowned out the nearby music emanating from a portable radio. “And you support a chain resort that intends to turn the local beauty into glittering lights and a trashy tourist hotspot. But now you are giving away Styrofoam cups so people can drop them on the ground and further pollute our Mother Earth! Have you no sense of common decency?”
“Hey, back off, Vesper,” Espie barked as she pushed through the last of the people blocking her way towards Maida’s table. Hands clenched into fists, she situated herself between him and the table and raised up to her full height as she mustered up her fiercest glare. No one screamed at her best friend like that. At least, no one who planned to escape unscathed from Espie’s wrath.
Behind her, Maida looked to be on the verge of tears—but not sad tears. Not frightened ones, either. Her best friend’s expression was the kind she had when she was ready to rip someone a new asshole: her cheeks burnt bright red and her lips were trembling, while her eyes pooled with an angry glimmer that she was quite self-conscious about. If Espie didn’t do something, Maida might explode – and then get charged by the local cops for assaulting a customer.
“Don’t you see what she’s doing?” Willard demanded, some of the spit-spray landing on Espie’s cheeks this time. She flinched on impact, then made a show of wiping her face. “This girl and her people are ravaging the Earth with their carelessness and greed—”
“First of all,” Espie snapped, poking him as hard as she could in the chest, “giving away free coffee to good people on a cool day isn’t greed.” He opened his mouth to spew more vitriol, but she cut him off swiftly, her glare intensifying. “Second, this girl is just following orders. If you want to scream at anyone, scream at her boss. You think a minimum wage barista makes any of the real decisions? No. She’s just doing her fucking job.”
“Everyone has a choice,” Willard sneered. Espie managed to dodge his shower of spit this time, and as he raved, she wondered if he was doing it on purpose. “Everyone has a say in how they impact the environment!”
He turned to the audience, probably loving the fact that he could pour out his hatred to a larger number of people. “Angel Fire’s sustainable beauty is at risk, people! Don’t you see? Every day the mining corporations strip us raw, tearing the coverings from Mother Earth and leaving her exposed! Would you like your own mother stripped by the dirty, calloused hands of miners and then used for profit like some whore—”
Just as Espie was about to clamp a hand down over his disgusting mouth, someone spoke up from the crowd.
“Okay, pal, that’s enough.”
The deep, yet strikingly clear baritone sent a chill down Espie’s spine, the timbre immediately recognizable. Luther. Her breath caught in her throat for a moment as her inner grizzly stirred away from her hardened anger to a much softer emotion. Apparently, just the sound of him could melt both their hearts.
Sure enough, it didn’t take long for Luther to push his way through to the front of the crowd, those gorgeous curls catching in the soft breeze. He wore a light grey sweater rolled up to his elbows, the v-neckline cut just right to draw one’s attention up to his handsome face.
Espie tried not to stare as he made his way over, but she couldn’t help it. Thankfully, not every single sense in her body was on overdrive again; but she still felt a little wobbly, like her legs could give out at any second. Taking a steadying breath, she pressed a hand back on Maida’s table, then forced all thoughts of how exciting it was to be so close to her fated mate out of her head.
After all, there was an asshole to deal with.
“Don’t you care about your Mother Earth?” Willard demanded. He could stand toe-to-toe with Luther for height, but Luther had him beat by breadth, his body noticeably toned and muscular even beneath the sweater. “Don’t you want to save her?”
“Hey, I do my part,” Luther insisted. “You want to tell people that the miners are all bad but it’s not true. I go out of my way to make sure of that myself.”
As he spoke, he lifted his hands up in a display of non-aggression as he sidled around to stand beside Espie. His scent was intoxicating, and it took every ounce of self-restraint for Espie not to just bury her face in his chest and never resurface.
No wonder all the males she knew acted like total morons the second their fated mate waltzed into their lives. Fighting all her body’s natural instincts was almost impossible. On top of it all, her inner grizzly wouldn’t stop moaning, desperate to get out and nuzzle Luther herself, the vibrations making Espie’s hands tremble. She clasped them into tight fists and focused all that pent-up energy in Willard’s direction instead.
“If you’re a miner, then surely you know those fuckers at the mining corporation—”
“Hey now, I’m no different than Maida here, just following orders,” Luther fired back, his tone remaining calm and steady, while he was clearly trying to de-escalate the situation. “Miners are just there to do the job they’ve been assigned. Nobody wants to rape Mother Earth. We do site surveys and conduct environmental impact studies to ensure we leave everything in the best condition possible. We care very much about Angel Fire and the residents in it—”
