“Until the message is received loud and clear by every male that ever parted your thighs, Elizabeth,” Axe growled at me, “there is no such thing as overreaction.” It seemed like they only called me by my real name when they were very serious.

  Before I could argue the ludicrous statement, my grandmother appeared with Gwen and Bitty in the doorway and walked into the office. I tried to get up, but Ash wouldn’t let me until I pierced him with a dark look and he relented. Hugging my grandmother I said, “You wouldn’t fucking believe my weekend.”

  Laughing, she said, “Filene called Saturday night and told us what happened. Please introduce me to your husbands.”

  She smiled at them warmly, hugged them, and then apologized for whoever let Melo into my office. “Before you head home, darling, you should call the men who were planning to come to guard you. We can’t have any fighting on the Solstice, too much rides on the reading. Discord could throw us all off.”

  “I know. I will.” I sure as hell didn’t want a repeat of what had just happened times three.

  Left alone with my men, I sat down at the desk while they hovered around me and I made three phone calls. Adam was most receptive, wishing me well and personally bowing out of showing up for the solstice and future coven gatherings unless he was needed. Tosh was very quiet when I told him the news but eventually conceded that he could not change a mating bond and would not wish to. It was Jes that surprised me, or maybe not. Like Melo, Jes had often acted as if he had an extra claim to me. His jealousy was palpable, even over the phone.

  I waited for what seemed like several minutes before he simply said, “I see,” and hung up. I stared at the phone as if it could tell me what had just happened. Ash took it from my hand and placed it in the cradle and then leaned over and kissed my cheek. I expected one or both of them to say ‘I told you so’, but they didn’t.

  Loose ends tied up for now, I tried to stand up and felt a hand on my shoulder. “Isn’t there another call you need to make?”

  I looked up at Axe. “I can’t call the vampires, they’re dead for day. It would be rude.”

  “Vampires? More than the master of the coven?” Ash questioned.

  Damn my big mouth! “Mishka, yes, and also Brone.”

  “I don’t see why you can’t just leave a message.” Axe said.

  “Because it’s not like they were my guards, Axe. They were a separate alliance, just to me. Mishka and I have been together for a year now, I couldn’t be that cruel.”

  “I don’t understand. You were just fucking him, right?” Ash asked.

  I took a breath and let it out slowly. “Mishka fed from me weekly, and mostly I slept with him afterwards. Brone fed from me whenever he felt like it, he never, you know asked me or anything, he would just show up. All of the guards that were intimate with me tried to date me or be with me in a different way than the others. Mishka offered to step in with the coven for protection in place of the bears if I didn’t want to go through with the collaring.” I shrugged. I wasn’t feeling guilty, but I was feeling some shame. Especially when Axe’s next question hung heavy on the air.

  “Just how many men were you fucking regularly?”

  I swallowed my retort of define regularly, and instead ground my teeth together before saying, “You said you didn’t care that I liked to have sex.”

  “How. Many.”

  I straightened from the chair and turned to face them, lifting my chin in defiance. “Seven.”

  Ash’s eyes widened in surprise and Axe’s face shadowed darkly. “And you were under the master vampire’s fang?” He spat the words out.

  “Yes.”

  “This is more complicated than we expected.” Ash said finally.

  “Complicated?”

  “Yeah, I mean, we knew the rumors about you in the den because Griegs has got a fucking big mouth, but we didn’t know the extent of your intimacy or that you were actually feeding two vampires regularly.”

  “I wasn’t feeding Brone regularly, just Mishka. Not that it matters now. I won’t feed either of them again, or sleep with anyone else, but I have a standing alliance with the vampire coven and I can’t just leave him a message like some teenage girl trying to avoid confrontation. I’ll call him tonight when we get to your apartment. He never came to the solstice, so it’s not like you’ll have to see him or anything. But please, just, don’t look at me like that anymore.” I chewed on my lip to hide that it quivered.

  “Like what?” Axe asked.

  “Like you married a whore.”

  Axe’s face softened in surprise and he jerked me into his chest and squeezed his arms around me. “I’m sorry, aleni, I never meant for you to feel that way. I was calculating in my mind how many men Ash and I would have to fight off to keep you to ourselves. It’s not your past that bothers me, it’s just…” he let the sentence drop like he couldn’t think of the right words.

  Ash supplied it, touching his closed mouth to my neck in a chaste kiss, “We’re both new to this. These feelings for you, the way our beasts want to claim you, it’s all very primal but it’s not like what you thought. You’re not a whore, you’re a beautiful, sensual woman and we wouldn’t let you go without a fight.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I offered again, muffled into Axe’s shirt and while neither of them answered, I had the feeling that they wanted to believe me, but wouldn’t until they saw how the solstice would play out. I didn’t think there would be any fighting over me. Were-animals by and large are honorable, especially their leaders. Melo wasn’t thrilled, and neither was Jes, but I didn’t expect any complications from them. At least that’s what I told myself.

  It took four hours to get to their apartment in Indianapolis. They took me straight to bed after I called Mishka and Brone. Mishka, first, wished me well and promised the alliance would remain intact until such time as I decided to end it. Implied but not said out loud was that he would come to my rescue at any time, no matter who claimed me. I had to leave a message for Brone, whether because Mishka had already told him and now he refused to answer his phone or because he didn’t have it with him, but I made it clear what the situation was now and that I wished him happiness. As I hung up, it seemed like an odd thing to say. The two vampires would have all eternity to think about me and the could-haves and should-haves. I wasn’t really sure how I felt about that.

  Chapter Ten

  March 22 came with a blistering chill that I knew would be worse on the bluffs. Cloaked under magic, our coven’s holy meeting place was invisible to the human eye. I mentioned my lack of going naked to my grandmother as we sat at her kitchen table for dinner before the gathering and to give her time to get to know her grandsons-in-law. She just shrugged and said into her herbal tea, “If your mates don’t want you naked, then there’s little that I can do about it. You should wear something ceremonial under the cloak, something that’s been blessed.”

  I conceded that, because I really didn’t want to know how on edge the boys would be if I had to be naked; they were growing more tense by the minute as it was. They followed me closely as I walked back to the room where my grandmother kept her wicca supplies and I flipped through the clothes in a large armoire in the corner and tried to hide my annoyance. She couldn’t just bless my jeans and sweater?

  “So is it bad form to say witch?” Axe asked, looking over my shoulder into the deep cabinet.

  “Not really. Some of the younger ones think that witch isn’t proper, but I think that’s more of how they perceive themselves than anything else. And there’s no actual difference and it’s not an insult.”

  “Are there men in the coven?”

  “No. We’re a strictly female wiccan coven. There are covens on the west coast that have male wicca, and then of course there are the wizard covens, but those are a whole different animal.”

  “Why is that? What is the difference between a male wicca and a wizard?”

  Pulling a long black linen dress from the back of the armoire, I examined it for the telltale scent of a blessing, and when I found it – a cross between cinnamon and honeysuckle – I smiled. At least I had found something that wouldn’t make me look ridiculous.

  I began to strip, and Ash eagerly took over while I explained that male wicca were born and wizards were created through a desire for dark power. It’s normally a human male who would find a conjuring spell and ask a demon to grant him power. It was dark power, where wicca was light. The difference between night and day.

  “But that one wizard that kidnapped you last winter, how could he have used you if he was dark and you’re naturally light?” Ash paused with my bra in his hand.

  “Because I’m powerful. I come from a long line of witches. And anyone can be turned dark. The dark powers are seductive and full of promises without explaining the consequences to them. And it’s an addictive thing. Once you’re under the thrall of the wizard power, it’s nearly impossible to break free of it. A female wizard that was once a natural witch would be a force to be reckoned with. I don’t know exactly what his plans were, but he would have tried to seduce me into joining with him and unless I would have been rescued quickly, I would have given in eventually I’m sure. He had immense power.” And he was smoking hot in that very bad boy sort of way, but I kept that to myself.

  “It was Brone that rescued you?” Axe asked, drawing his fingertips down the curve of my jaw.

  I nodded. “He is an assassin by trade and a thousand years old and he happened to be out with some of the coven guards hunting a rogue vampire and pretty much just stumbled onto us.” Shivering I straightened and tugged on my bra hanging from Ash’s fingers. “Can we change the subject now and so I can get dressed? It’s chilly in here.”

  As if he forgot that I was standing there in only panties, Ash shook himself awake and grinned an apology. Feeding the dress over my head, he secured the tie at the waist. Fluffing my hair and running his fingers through it, he said, “It’s a little old fashioned but it suits you somehow.” The black dyed dress buttoned up the front, cut low and lined with black lace. The tie at the waist made it look almost corseted since the skirt was full and had three layers underneath it. In the mirror hanging on the door of the armoire I groaned at my reflection. I looked like I was going to a colonial funeral.

  At their request, I pinned my hair up so that my mating marks were clearly visible. On either side of my neck, I had four puncture marks, scarred white, and they were especially sensitive to naughty tongues.

  We followed my grandmother’s old town car to the bluffs. Ash and Axe had both balked at my Escalade and so we were in their truck again. I knew that in a short amount of time, I’d have to sell both that and the Viper. They knew that Adam had given me the truck and Mishka the car, and that warred with their desire to provide for me. In less than a week, I’d fallen completely under their caveman way of thinking about our relationship, but in truth I liked it. My men cared more about me than they did their own needs. They wanted to be the ones to provide all my basic needs and every little desire. It was a sweet knowledge.

  The bluffs shimmered into view under the magic and Ash and Axe held my hands as we walked up the path to the top. Overlooking Lake Erie, the bluffs had belonged to our coven for centuries. When I was younger, one of my favorite things to do was come early enough to watch the sunset on the water. It was like the lake swallowed up the glowing orb while the dark sky helped push it down.

  We were the first to arrive, planned on purpose so that Ash and Axe could explore the area and get their bearings. In the center of the bluffs was our sacred circle where a large fire pit lined with stones sank deep into the earth, edged with sacred rocks. Further out, another circle of large rocks would enclose the corners within an invisible wall of protection as we drew our power with the call of stars. The coven would surround that outer rock circle in two rows, each circle of women holding hands and concentrating. Outside that second row of women, the guards for the coven would stand with their backs to us, watching for anything that might try to attack us while we were concentrating and vulnerable.

  Normally, I would have arrived with my regular guards. Jes, Adam, Melo, Tosh and Griegs would have been in my Escalade with me and would be watching over the preparations. The guards for each natural witch would be escorting them as well, and then last to arrive would be the guards for the coven. The guards added thirty to our numbers, but it maintained a balance within the community so that no one group was more sought after for protection than the others.

  Slowly the witches and their guards appeared, and Ash and Axe were already standing point by me. Axe stood slightly in front of me, his arms folded and his piercing gaze sweeping back and forth over the groups as they arrived. Ash kept one hand on my waist as he stood slightly behind me.

  I watched the faces of the guards and the only ones that weren’t happy to see the bears were the tigers and the falcons. The wolves and the serpents nodded at us but said nothing. Tosh did not show up because he was not needed, and neither did Adam or Melo. It was strange after seeing the same faces for three years to suddenly not see them any longer. At least the guards were there, though, and they hadn’t abandoned the coven because of the collaring.

  I rubbed at the place over my heart. “Are you alright, aleni?” Ash whispered into my ear, sliding his arms around my waist and hugging me against him.

  “I can feel what you’re feeling kind of, it’s just taking some getting used to.” I could feel the nagging worry that they both had. Not necessarily for my safety, that was there too, but because they did not know what to expect.

  I rubbed my cheek against Axe’s shoulder and put my arm around his waist. “You know I couldn’t have chosen any of them because I never loved them. If I loved one of them, then I wouldn’t have collared you.”

  Axe dropped his searing gaze to mine for a moment. “I hear your words, Alisiquete, but that does not change this situation. Powerful males expected things from you to remain as they were. We are simply protecting what is ours.”

  Silently I thought, please don’t kill my friends. I let a small smile touch my lips to reassure him, and then focused on the sound of a lot of feet walking up the path. Ash and Axe snapped to attention as Jes and his army of falcons crested the top of the bluffs and stopped. Normally, Jes was in his completely human form, but unlike other were-animals, falcons could half-shift and remain in human form sprouting black silken wings only.

  He stood with dozens of his men, their upper bodies bared to the moonlight, their wings like shields behind their shoulders, and the unmistakable glint of swords hanging from their leather trouser covered hips.

  My grandmother walked towards him swiftly. “You cannot bring war to the bluffs, Prince Jesuit. You know our laws.”

  “I came to see for myself what the South Witch so callously spoke to me over the phone.” He glared at me pointedly and I winced. Damn he was pissed off.

  My grandmother’s fury was evident in her tone. “By what right do you come here, Jesuit, making demands? This is sacred ground and you are honor bound to respect it and us.”

  “Promises were made,” he snarled, “and your coven forced her hand. The falcons would have gladly taken the bears’ place in the alliance and filled in the gaps of protection. We should have been given the opportunity. I should have been given a chance.”

  “It was my choice to make, Jes. Don’t do this. Don’t belittle the choice I made.” I spoke loudly, clinging tightly to Axe and Ash. Real fear gripped me and didn’t let go. There were enough falcons standing ready to follow Jes’ orders to cause real trouble for the coven. Although the other were-animal guards were strong, most of them were not more than street fighters, not trained the way that Jes’ people were. He recruited military men for his army.

  “There was regret in your voice, Elizabeth, when you called me. I heard it.”

  “I regret hurting you, Jes. I don’t regret my bear mates. Stand down, please. Don’t ruin the alliance between our groups.”

  “The alliance is useless without you by my side.” The truth of his words sat heavily on my shoulders. Just how much damage had I done by being so casual with so many men?

  I opened my mouth to say something but I couldn’t think of anything that would fix the situation. As Jes stared angrily at our group across the bluffs, I felt a tickling of power and knew that the coven was starting to lose control in their fear. A few dozen women couldn’t hope to avoid collateral damage if an army of were-falcons and the guards went to battle.

  Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. “Wait!” All eyes turned to me. “Let us cast Jes’ future. Show him the consequences of this path.”

  I willed my grandmother to do what I said. Future-readings under distress often skewed wrong or did not work at all, but we could try. We had to.

  She met my eyes and two hundred years of wiccan knowledge flared between us. In the quiet of the bluffs, she agreed.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11