Love's a Witch (6 page)

I didn’t mean to stare at his ass. But when you have a white flag hanging from it, you have to surrender and admire the scenery. His jeans were well worn with a small hole at the corner of the pocket. Heaven help me. That was skin. The man was not wearing underwear. I was fixated on the little patch of peach covered with downy hairs. It looked soft and even when he began to turn I couldn’t look away. I caught the edge of a muscle flex. My eyes didn’t dart up in time, and I noticed the bulge against the zipper.

Oh momma. There was no way I wasn’t thinking about him being bare skin against those metal teeth.

Amber knocked into me from the side. “Roll up your tongue, Mary.”

“What? Huh?” I looked at the others and they were all watching me. Jake and Amber were trying not to laugh, though not nearly hard enough. Craig saw me too. Oh man.

I felt the heat of embarrassment start to work its way up my neck and wrap around my ears. Craig wasn’t laughing. His aura started showing hints of red, and that was even worse. I turned away before I saw any more. If I didn’t acknowledge it, I could pretend it wasn’t there.

I cleared my throat. “What’s for lunch?”

“Not what you want, apparently.” Leave it to Amber to bring awkward situations to the forefront.

“I found enough for a good soup. There’s still bread in the bread box. We should have enough until we hit up a restaurant on our way out of here.” Craig had turned away again.

I moved closer to the door. Getting out of here didn’t sound like a bad idea. I was going to check on our patient, but it turned out I didn’t have to go far. She was buttoning up a shirt and standing in the doorway to the dining room.

“How did you get down here without us hearing you?” Jake asked with curiosity. He must not have felt threatened, but Jake should have heard or smelled her. They all should have.

“You’re unnatural beings, and I have masking magic. I would have reapplied my shields and run, but you travel with a sister witch and treat her as an equal. So perhaps I need to be as open as she.”

I hate silences that stretch on. The silence we were rocking was a rubber band ready to snap. My right foot twisted back and forth on the floor causing an odd squeak and scuff marks. I would have felt bad about it, but the rest of the house was trashed anyway. Nobody else seemed to have antsy issues.

The woman moved from the doorway, and pressed in on the side of a cabinet. A click echoed over the sound of bubbling soup, and she pulled the cabinet open. Behind it was an altar. She touched a statue of a woman sitting cross-legged with the earth painted on her obviously pregnant belly. Gaia, if I remembered correctly. One of the women at the last coven had a smaller version she kept with her to increase fertility.

I really wish our much more pleasant smelling car accident victim would say something, but it was obvious by her rhythmic breathing and from the reverent way she touched the statues and her stance that she was centering herself. She didn’t turn to face us as she spoke.

“I knew you were coming to help. I was hoping you’d have come earlier. Half a day would have been enough. But if it’s what was meant to be…I must live with that. You know so little of who you are. I have to be patient, but it’s not one of my strong suits. So perhaps we are both meant to grow from this.”

The pieces fit together in my head, and I was glad to speak and break the silence. “You’re Kari, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” She still didn’t face me. “Welcome to my home. It usually looks much nicer than this.”

“What happened?”

She finally turned. “Werewolves.”

Good times.

Chapter Eight

Craig

Getting away from the disaster we had walked in on was exactly what I needed. Amber said we needed to let our wolves run and release some of the tension. I couldn’t agree more. We needed to run. And since the soup was still working, I needed to hunt too. I seemed to be burning through the calories almost as fast as Amber lately, and waiting for the food to finish cooking was not an option.

The bed and breakfast was backed against a wooded area, and seemed to stretch quite a ways in every direction. Huge maple trees and a variety of lush ferns would house enough wildlife to occupy a few wolves. A deer tickled the edge of my radar and my head wasn’t the only one that turned towards it. Did we all shift immediately and go hunt? Nope. Instead Jake dragged us along a slim foot-worn trail as humans. Want to know the worst part of human form? Talking.

I have a lot of Beta qualities. I am able to work with most people. I can smooth over arguments, under normal circumstances, and I can rock a supporting role for leaders. There are a lot of things I can do. That doesn’t mean I enjoy them. My cowboy boots held up great against the detritus of the forest floor, but I would much rather have fur between my toes.

“We need to leave this place. The sooner the better.” One problem with being a Beta was not being able to say we
are
leaving. I really wanted to tell them to get their hybrid asses in the van of smells and go. If there was a Pack in the area, we didn’t have the numbers to fight them off.

“Mary wants to stay and talk with this chick. The two of them had some bonding moment in the bathtub.” Amber’s nose tipped up as she scented the area for wildlife.

The erection was not my fault. She was discussing Mary in the bathtub. Despite what my brain knew was probably a very innocent chat, I had the image of steamy frothy water lapping at the tips of her nipples, while her hands stroked that soft skin of hers.

“Craig. Seriously. I am trying to sniff out some prey, and the stench of your sexual frustration is getting in the way.” Amber trudged ahead. “And maybe if you quit with that little bottle in your pocket you would get the balls to do something about it.”

I would have argued, or denied the presence of the dragon’s blood vial, but I heard the sound of clothes falling and bones cracking and turned away from my Alpha female as she transformed. There was no talking to her now. There was a rabbit in the area. She was gone.

“She seems off lately, Jake. Is she okay?” I was grumpy and frustrated, but so connected to these two that I had to ask.

“Amber is her own woman. Being mated has not changed that. I sense something different about her, but she will not talk about it. It is the one part of her taking the lead in this Clan that I regret. She has the power as the Alpha to decide how much of her emotions to push across the connection we have. Not only is she not talking about it, but she is blocking her emotions.” Jake grinned. “On the bright side, for you at least, it also means she does not have as much control over her subordinates.”

“Did you tell her that?” If Amber knew she could take control as the head of the Clan, who knew how long before she would just command me to do things. I had a sinking suspicion it would take a decade or more for her to tire of that parlor trick.

“A man with the miasma on his side has to keep some secrets.” Jake’s grin faded fast this time. “But if telling her could get her to open up about what is in her head right now, I would do it in a heartbeat. I do not want her to feel any more overwhelmed than she already does. Blocking your emotions is an act of self-preservation. Is it not?”

“Why are you looking at me like that? How should I know?”

Jake didn’t answer me. He just shook his head and took off his clothes. When his black wolf escaped the confines of human skin, my own beast pressed for a taste of the fresh air. It also wanted a taste of venison.

All this talking was making me itch, and both my wolf and I were thrilled when I kicked off my cowboy boots and stripped. I organized the three piles of clothes on the ground to give us the best chance of avoiding insects. Ants in the pants is not the fun game Hasbro makes it out to be. Then I shifted.

My wolf was nearly the opposite of Jake’s. My blond hair translated into a similar tone peppered with shades of white and grey. I also had a longer coat than Jake and Amber. It was why I kept my hair long. Ever see a long-coated animal with a lion cut? Not attractive.

My paws hit the ground, and I was grateful for my wolf taking over. I was also grateful for the lack of Mary’s presence, because my wolf would not run in search of food right now if she was available. My wolf wanted the witch. He pushed so hard whenever she was near, I didn’t know if I could control him much longer. I should have taken her when I thought she was a regular human. I could have sated his hunger for her, had some much needed release after all the times she read to me and smelled so good.

But now…now I wondered if I could handle what had built up around us. I wasn’t in full control with her. I wanted her. I had to admit it at this point, but I wouldn’t put her in harm’s way for an hour of enjoyment. I thought about that for a second. Nope…it would be way longer than an hour.

Thank the gods for my wolf. The buck I’d smelled ran by and was way too good to pass up. Jake was already on its tail, and no way I was missing out. Hunger for food pushed to the front. Instinct took over and I was glad to lose myself to the wolf for a bit.

Chapter Nine

Mary

I was trying my hardest not to spit the tea Kari had given me back into the cup. After all, this woman was supposed to be teaching me. I gulped what I could while breathing through my nose. It was only a matter of time before I burned something, and I wanted to make sure she didn’t hate me when it happened. Why couldn’t the werewolves have used fire? At least then I could have blamed some of the collateral damage on them.

Kari knew a lot more than Jake could have even guessed. Despite the fact that I would inevitably piss Kari off with my inexperience, at least I could enjoy some camaraderie with her for a bit. I just wish this camaraderie didn’t come with such nasty tea. I filled my mouth with one of the crackers to absorb the stank.

“You are traveling with them?” Kari put her drink down as she talked. I was happy to follow suit.

“Yeah. Turns out my best friend’s a werewolf. Except now she’s a vampire too.”

Kari watched me as she asked, “Does she feed from you?” Then she picked the cup back up.

“Oh she’d like to. Apparently I taste freaking awesome. I only let her feed off of me during her transition, but she can’t seem to forget about it.” I tried not to grimace as I took another sip to mirror hers.

Kari’s brow wrinkled. “Does she compel you? I can protect you from that. Teach you some herb work that will help. If this is not where you need to be I can help you get free.”

“No offense, Kari, but if your protection includes whatever was in your hair I am really not interested. You did not smell good.” I put the cup down. If any more went in my mouth no amount of snack cracker would stop the gag reflex.

We were on her back porch while Jake, Amber and Craig got in some wolfy time. According to Amber, whenever an adrenaline rush hit, it was good for them to go running to release some of the tension. Otherwise they tended to be extra grumpy. When they got grumpy they sometimes grew claws. I had duct taped up more than one piece of upholstery when they were in one of their moods.

So Kari and I sat watching the spot where they disappeared into the woods behind her B&B. It seemed to make her feel better talking to me out here and I felt like she just wanted to get me away from the group and feel me out. Why not? It wasn’t like I had anything to hide. There wasn’t much to me. You can only dig so deep into a person before you hit honesty. I was in the shallow end of the deception pool.

“You care for them. And you aren’t dazzled. I’ve never seen that before.” Kari didn’t ask a question, but it was obvious she wanted an explanation. The woman wasn’t prone to trust the supernatural. After feeling like she needed whatever it was I washed out of her hair for protection, I couldn’t blame her. I would be mad about that too.

“I’m not under anybody’s control. Amber is the closest thing to family I’ve ever had. I’m not going to just throw that away because she gets furry on occasion. And she can’t dazzle people yet. She has been working on it, but it looks like she won’t obtain the advantage any time soon.”

This tea we were drinking tasted awful. Seriously funky. I never drank tea, but I think my new buddy might have some serious lack of tea making ability. Essence of wet dog feet would have been more palatable. I didn’t want to be rude though. Maybe she was still having issues after her attack.

“You don’t even recognize what you are drinking, do you?” Kari said this phrase without the least bit of psycho in her voice.

I put the cup down on the small teak table in front of me. I could probably yell really loud if I needed to. Amber said they had really good hearing. But I had never asked if they understood speech when they were in wolf form.
Crap.

“If you are some creepy chick who wants to eat my intestines, just know that I have been eating a lot of fast food, and I probably wouldn’t taste very good. I can scream loud.” Thoughts of Amber commenting on my blood drifted towards my brain, but I pushed those back. Did everyone want to chomp on me? I was going to get a complex.

Kari leaned back in her chair with an eruption of honest laughter. “Oh, I am so glad you came here, Mary. I haven’t laughed this much in years. You are drinking Angelica Root tea. It’s particularly empowering to women. It can break a jinx or spell over the drinker. It tastes like feet, but when you need to break a compulsion from a vampire, nothing works better. Your story hasn’t changed one bit and you choked down quite a bit of this stuff. You’re a trooper.”