Page 2 of Shared by the Werebears (Hidden Hollow #5)

“You can customize it to exclude undesirable men,” Willow promised. “I’ll bring some over on my lunch break. Try it tonight before you trek all the way to the Human World.” She made a face. “Now that I’m settled in Hidden Hollow, I never want to go back there!”

“I wish I didn’t have to go back either,” I admitted. “It’s getting crazier there every time I go!”

“It really is—Goody Albright says that’s why Hidden Hollow is growing so much,” Willow agreed. “Everyone with any magic is desperate to get away from the craziness so they’re being drawn here.”

“Sounds about right,” I remarked. I looked up at Kael. “Anything for you, big guy?”

He nodded.

“Thank you—I’ll have some hot chocolate if you have some.”

I didn’t but it was easy to magic some up. As a kitchen witch, feeding and nourishing people is second nature to me. I poured some water into a to-go cup, muttering a ‘chocolate spell’ over it as I did.

“Warm and creamy

Sweet and dreamy.

Chocolate that is good to sip

Or into it, a donut dip,” I murmured as I poured.

The plain water changed in midair, turning into a stream of creamy, foamy, hot chocolate that filled the air with its magical fragrance.

“Mmm,” Willow inhaled deeply. “That’s amazing! I wish I had magic like yours.”

“Yes, but you can speak to people who have passed on,” I reminded her. “That’s a much bigger gift than turning water into hot chocolate. You want whipped cream or marshmallows?” I added, looking up at Kael.

“Whipped cream, please,” he rumbled.

“I don’t really use my ‘gift’ though,” Willow pointed out. “Well, except to talk to my grandfather once in a while,” she added. “It’s just not practical— yours is.”

“Being a kitchen witch is nice,” I admitted as I reached into the fridge for a can of whipped cream and sprayed a generous amount on top of the chocolate. “I like feeding people.” I passed the hot chocolate to Kael who took a sip and murmured in obvious delight.

In fact, my magical talent in the kitchen was the whole reason the Town Council of Hidden Hollow was willing to overlook my Succubus half and let me set up a diner here in the first place—provided I promised not to “feed” on any of the male residents of the town—which was why I was constantly having to go to the Human World when my lust meter ran low.

Which reminded me, if I used Willow’s tea, I’d have to be sure to exclude anyone from the town along with the weirdos, creeps, and mama’s boys.

“Let me try that,” Willow said and Kael obligingly handed her his cup. She took a sip and gave a little moan of pure ecstasy. “And I thought your coffee was good!”

“I’ll give you all the free coffee and hot chocolate you can handle if that tea of yours works,” I promised her.

Imagine having my lovers come to me instead of going out hunting for them!

How useful . I could stay in the Magical Realm and forget about the Human World entirely if it really did the job.

“I’ll bring it over on my lunch break,” Willow promised. She gave Kael back his cup. “We’d better get going if we’re going to get some bear claws before it’s time to open the shop.”

They paid and thanked me for the coffee and chocolate again before leaving the diner. But no sooner had the bell in the door quieted, than it started jingling again.

I looked up to see a burly Minotaur and a muscular centaur clip-clopping through the door.

I directed them to one of my standing booths—it’s much too difficult for Centaurs to get up and down, so they prefer to eat standing up—and took their orders.

Both of them wanted my hay pancakes—the extra, extra, extra-large Creature-sized ones which are about as big around as a hubcap—as well as a dozen eggs scrambled with plenty of hot peppers and a few handfuls of fresh grass.

I hustled back to the kitchen and had barely gotten my stove and griddle going, (both are magic and spelled to make the recipes I developed myself,) before I heard the door again.

From then on it was busy pretty much all the time. The breakfast rush had begun and it barely slacked off before the lunch crowd came in.

I don’t like to complain—having so many customers is a good thing—but I was getting run off my feet.

Even with my magical appliances that made all the food for me exactly to the specifications I wrote on my magic order pad, I was thinking that I really needed to hire more help.

I would definitely have to once the new section of the diner I was growing finished ripening.

Yes, I actually grew my diner from a special building seed. I had to go through a lot of trouble and travel to meet Baba Yaga, the most powerful witch in the world, to get it, but it was totally worth the hassle.

Because I grew the diner from my own seed, the building belongs to me—unlike the other buildings on Main Street, which are almost all town property held in trust by the Town Council. (The one exception is The Red Lion Inn, which is owned and operated by Goody Albright, our resident wise woman.)

It took the diner almost six months to grow—you can’t just grow a building overnight, even with magic—but I had never regretted waiting to have a place of my own.

Also, I can encourage it to grow some more—which was what I was currently doing.

With so many people moving in to Hidden Hollow lately, I had been actively urging the diner to grow a new room and some new booths in the back to accommodate more customers at a time.

Of course, I could have just used an expansion spell like I did the night I hosted Celia’s birthday party, but those only last a few hours—a day at most. Slow and steady is the rule in magical building growth. So I was taking my time.

I had the new space curtained off with a sheet of plastic for now—the new floor and ceiling and walls were fully developed but the booths I had encouraged the diner to grow were still too soft to sit in and the tables weren’t quite firm enough to hold plates of food yet.

But they would be ready soon—every night before I went to bed in my private living quarters, I spent some time channeling nourishing magic and talking to that section of the diner, urging it to grow and finish ripening.

It was working wonderfully and the new section would be open for business before I knew it.

By which time I needed to hire some help, I reminded myself again as a new crowd of people and Creatures came in.

Willow came a little after one o’clock and dropped off the sachet of tea along with instructions and the cantrip I was supposed to recite when I brewed it.

I put it to one side because I was too busy to deal with it.

I didn’t have a chance to look at it again until long after seven that night and by then I was nearly dead on my feet and feeling completely drained.

Most people would drink some coffee to wake up but I knew what I needed and it wasn’t caffeine.

“I need sex!” I muttered to myself as I slipped into the kitchen to catch a breather. My nipples were tight and my pussy was wet and needy—I was starving for some good loving, though with my luck, mediocre sex was probably what I’d get instead.

See, that’s another problem with human men—none of them are into foreplay anymore.

Most of them just want to roll on top, pump a few times, and roll back off again.

That kind of quick, selfish sex doesn’t really satisfy my cravings because it doesn’t give me time to build sexual energy or draw sensual power from my partner.

It leaves me feeling barely satisfied—like eating a few olives and a slice of toast when what you’re craving is a three-course steak dinner with all the trimmings.

Luckily, everyone seemed to be taking an early night—and I decided I would take one too. I promised myself that as soon as the last customer—Liam, the town’s resident Kraken, who was dawdling over his fish and chips—left, I was going to put out the “closed” sign and lock up for the night.

Then I would try that tea Willow had sent me. In fact, I decided, I would go ahead and get it steeping right now.

I put the little triangular sachet she’d given me, which was full of dried herbs, into a mug and poured some hot water over it. Then I left it sitting on the counter and went out to see if Liam was almost finished.

He was in full human form tonight and he looked like a tall man with thick, dark blonde hair and eyes the color of a stormy sea.

No one would know he was a Creature to look at him as he was now—though they might think he was uncommonly big and muscular.

He was seven feet tall at least and really ripped.

I knew better than to judge a book by its cover. Not many in town have seen his half Kraken form where the bottom half of him is all tentacles, like an octopus—or his full Kraken form where his top half grows tentacles too and he looks like Cthulhu.

But for now there wasn’t a tentacle in sight, just a big guy with a melancholy look on his face.

“Hey, you all right?” I asked, poking him in one broad shoulder. Some people are afraid of Liam because of the way he can transform into a huge tentacle monster, and because he’s often pretty grumpy, but I don’t scare easy.

“Fine. Can I eat in peace?” he demanded, glaring at me .

“You’ve been ‘eating in peace’ for the past hour,” I pointed out. “Everyone else is gone and I’m going to close up early. You want a box to take that home?”

Liam huffed but finally nodded.

“I’ll take a to-go box if you’ve got places to be,” he growled.

“Where I mainly want to be is off my feet,” I told him. Preferably on my back with some willing man between my thighs servicing me, but I chose not to say that out loud.

Liam knows I’m half Succubus—most everyone in town does, it’s not like I try to hide it.

But that doesn’t mean I flaunt it either.

If I started flirting and sleeping with the men and male Creatures in Hidden Hollow, I wouldn’t be welcome here for long.

(That’s because most of the members of the Town Council are well past ninety and absolute prudes.)

So I got Liam a to-go box and saw him on his way. It wasn’t until I turned the sign over to “closed” and pulled down the shade, that I remembered the Lust Tea that was still steeping on the counter and decided it was time to take it.

I just hoped that it worked!