Chapter 28: Back in Silver

Silvana batted her lashes at Bruce, flattered that he would be so confident and supportive of her efforts to do the thing that drove her father into a deranged state where he had tried to come between them.

That was how she knew Brue was a true love, because he wanted to be there right beside her no matter how difficult the path forward was.

Silvana nodded and said, “Okay handsome, I agree to your deal.”

And she fell asleep seconds after, finally feeling happy once more as Bruce relaxed her and gently scratched the back of her head.

Despite all the complications in their lives, he too fell asleep with a smile on his face, understanding that he needed to appreciate such a wonderful moment while he still had it.

But Bruce tossed and turned all night, tearing at the bedsheets. His dreams were filled with the memories of being locked in the cellar, the only light emitting from the crimson binds that electrocuted his arms and legs. He woke up screaming in a warm sweat.

His phone buzzed with many missed calls, and Silvana wasn’t in the bed with him.

Bruce got up from bed and took a deep breath. Silvana’s car was still parked beside his truck, so he figured she must still be home.

He went downstairs and many strange scents struck him, though not as hard as the sight of Silvana making breakfast.

Every burner on the stove was filled with a pan cooking food, from hashbrowns to smoked sausages to vegetable omelets and biscuits with gravy. Except, the pans were all cooking themselves, and spatulas possessed with magic flipped the eggs and moved around the meats in the pans so they didn’t burn.

In the middle of the kitchen, Silvana paced back and forth in her black nightgown. With one hand, she held open an ancient spellbook, and with her other hand she twirled a finger surrounded with dazzling pink sparks. Her strawberry-blonde hair was tucked behind her shoulders in two long braids, and beads of sweat dripped from her forehead, and a trail of sweat lined the back of her nightgown.

She was completely focused, and Bruce found it to be incredibly sexy.

“Careful where you step, babe,” she said quickly, not looking up from her book.

Bruce looked down and saw beneath his raised foot a circle of candle wax on the floor burning bushels of plants.

“Good morning,” Bruce chuckled, moving around the spell.

The kitchen cabinet opened up by itself, and an empty ceramic mug surrounded by a purple aura floated down to the coffee pot. The coffee pot became surrounded by the same magical glow, and the pot raised from the coffee machine and poured itself into the mug.

Then the mug floated perfectly over to Bruce’s open hand.

He carefully grabbed it, blew steam off the top and said, “This is all pretty impressive.”

“Hmm?” Silvana mumbled, licking the tip of her finger and turning the page. A mop in the other room polished the floors, and squeegees washed the kitchen windows outside.

Bruce ducked as a feather duster flew overhead and patted down the cabinets and furniture.

“Oh,” Silvana said, her eyes glued to her spellbook. “That’s magnolia and petunias burning that you’re smelling.”

Bruce checked over his shoulder, sipped his coffee, and watched the flowers burn in a purple flame inside the wax circle on the floor.

“Magnolia awakens personal power, and petunias assist with domestic chores,” Silvana said, dabbing a wrist to her sweaty forehead.

“And bacon,” Bruce said, approaching the pans and reaching for a cooking slice, “assists with an empty stomach.”

Before he could grab the slice of bacon, the spatula gave him a loving tap on the back of his hand.

With her back turned to the whole scene and while reading Silvana said, “That’s not ready yet, boo.”

Bruce licked the bacon grease from the spatula off his hand, grinned at his girlfriend’s determination and knowledge, then said, “I see somebody is taking the deal very seriously.”

“The council elections for Guardian are coming up, Bruce,” she said assuredly. “I’ve got to be the best I can, and I need to practice magic as much as able.”

“And I’m with you every step of the way,” Bruce said, leaning against the kitchen drawers.

“Careful,” Silvana said again, and the drawers opened along with the cabinets, and silverware danced from the drawers and onto plates floating down from the cabinets.
“I’m afraid I’ve got to take mine to go,” Bruce said.

For the first time all morning, Silvana looked up at him.

Her eyes were glazed with disappointment.

“You’re leaving already?” she asked. “But we’ve hardly spent any time together!”

“I know, and I’ll be back soon!”

Bruce muted his phone as it buzzed and blipped.

“But I hadn’t expected to sleep so late,” he said. “I’ve got to smooth over my disappearance with the pack asap now that everybody is coming down from their full-moon-high.”

Silvana closed her book, and all the magically possessed objects tenderly set themselves down, and the burning magnolias and petunias doused out into ash.

“Also,” Bruce added, opening his arms as Silvana set her spellbook down and approached him. “I don’t exactly want to be here for when your father gets back.”

Silvana went into his arms and looked up at him with her big, beautiful green eyes.

“I get it,” she said, forcing the disappointment out of her voice since she knew Bruce had things to get done.

They kissed for a long minute, and Bruce set his coffee down so he could put his hands all over Silvana, tracing the back of her thighs with his fingers and wanting to lift up her nightgown.

She wedged herself closer to his crotch, and felt his firmness from under his gray sweats.

He exhaled, pulled himself back a few inches, and with a rushed breath said, “If we start this now, babe, we’ll be in your bed all day, and neither of us will get any work done.”

“We could be quick,” Silvana said, kissing his neck with wet lips. She slid a strap of her nightgown down her shoulder so he could see the top of her breast.

“Yeah,” Bruce laughed, “Us. Quick. Sure.”

Silvana laughed too. “Well, if you’ve got to dash, at least let me pack you a nice breakfast and give you some coffee to-go.”

She pulled herself away from him and bent sexily by the lower kitchen cabinets near the silverware drawer. Her tiny nightgown rode up her back, and Bruce saw her satin white panties against her smooth, long legs.

Bruce was going crazy, and there was no way he could hide it in sweatpants.

Silvana retrieved some tupperware and packed Bruce a hearty meal.

She bit her bottom lip, grabbed his stiffness as she handed him the tupperware, then kissed him on the lips and said, with an airy, sexy voice, “Tonight, then.”

“Oh, tonight for sure,” Bruce said, nodding repeatedly. He brought her in for more hot kisses.

“Thank you so much,” he said. “You’re the best. Next time, I’m cooking you breakfast though.”

Silvana grinned and said, “I can’t say no to that!”

They walked to the front door.

Bruce stepped outside, turned around, gave Silvana another kiss and said, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Silvana said with a cut of sadness in her voice.

“What’s wrong?” Bruce asked.

Silvana sighed and asked, “This is so nice, isn’t it?”

She nibbled on the inside of her cheek and said, “This morning just really felt right, you know? Saying ‘I love you’ before you go off to work, and waking up in the same house to make breakfast. I really enjoyed it, even if I had my nose in a book.”

“Silvana, I enjoy every second I’m with you.”

He kissed her again.

“And it did feel right, because we feel right.”

Silvana smiled brightly.

“Okay boo, don’t let me keep you any longer,” she said with a warm smile.

“I’ll see you tonight,” he said, setting his food in the passenger side of his truck and driving off.

When he got home, the Silverclaw pack was outside as expected. Front and center of the crowd was Kurt.

Bruce parked and got outside to many voices shouting all at once.

“Oh, now the Alpha is back!” said one werewolf sarcastically.

“Bruce isn’t dead!” another yelled happily.

“Where was he in the first place?” yet another voice asked.

Kurt and Bruce walked directly towards one another. They stood right in each other’s faces.

“Looks like you’re okay after all, bro,” Kurt said with a mischievous grin.

“That’s right,” Kurt said loudly so the entire pack could hear. “I’m back and we all have a lot to talk about.”