The Horned Mage

Book 4

Everyday Evil

By Liam Lawson

Copyright © 2020 by Liam Lawson. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter One

My sister doesn’t cry. I mean that. She doesn’t. To borrow her words, she hates “bleeding on people.” Funny thing is, she never minds anyone else bleeding on her. She’s never been less than loving and supporting to me. So, when she called me sobbing and asked for my help, I dropped everything and got on the first bus home. Or rather, the house we had both grown up in. Her more than me.

Nicole was the Marshal’s biological child. She was four years older than me, intelligent, independent, and strong. I’d been in love with her when Albert and Caroline Marshal adopted me, their secondhand child. I was a constant disappointment to them, and in Nicole’s shadow how could I be anything else? I’ve got nothing but admiration and respect for my adopted sister. It’s not her fault I’m the next best thing to an aimless fuckup.

When Caroline passed away two years ago, Albert wanted Nicole to come back to Texas and go to college in state. She didn’t. He threatened to cut off her tuition money. She joined the Navy and let them pay for her tuition and spent her weekends learning to shoot guns or something. She said she’d always wanted to see the world and they were always in need of doctors, which was what she was going to medical school to be. Which was where she was supposed to be right now.

Not here. Not back in this house.

What to say about my adopted father? Going off his soft-spoken demeanor one would think he was a gentle, caring soul. I mean, he’s a freaking therapist. How much more caring can you get? He cares for Nicole, always has and always will, but none of that was directed at me. I don’t know how Caroline convinced him to adopt me and I think it irritated him how close Nicole and I became. When he cut off her tuition money, he cut mine off too, hence my scholarship and current financial situation.

Not that I was complaining. I didn’t want his money. I think that my attitude pissed him off as much as my decision to emulate Nicole and go to college anyway. If Nicole was badass enough to follow her dreams and make college work, then I could do the same. If I could ever figure out what my dreams were. Except that Nicole was here, in Texas, not pursuing her medical degree or her dreams. That was wrong. So very, very wrong.

I’d called an Uber when I got off the bus. This wasn’t Woodhurst. The Marshals lived in the suburbs of Dallas and there was no way I was walking that. I couldn’t really afford it but that didn’t stop me. I’d figure something else out.

I shook the driver’s hand and stepped out of his SUV onto the front lawn of the Marshal’s house. It was innocuous, blending in with the rest of the neighborhood with its pastel paintjob and brick chimney. I hadn’t ever wanted to come back. As far as I knew, neither had Nicole. What had changed?

At least Albert’s car wasn’t in the driveway. I’d left first thing in the morning and it was now nearing lunch time. He should be at his practice until later in the evening.

With an effort, I got my feet moving. The front door loomed before me, happy and clean and fake. I lifted my hand to knock when it opened of its own accord to reveal Nicole.

She was in lay-around clothes. A huge grey hoodie that hung off one shoulder and almost reached her knees, over a pair of yoga pants. Her pale skin was blotchy, her blonde hair in a frizzy ponytail, and her eyes were red from crying. I almost didn’t recognize her. Who was this person and what had they done with my always collected sister who never looked less than a 120%?

Those reddened eyes widened, giving me a good look at her icy blue irises as they filled with a baffling mixture of emotions I couldn’t begin to make sense of. “You weren’t actually supposed to come!”

I hadn’t expected that. “Hello to you, too, sis.”

She threw her arms around me and squeezed. Tight. Then shoved me away.

“Dumbass, what are you doing here?”

I didn’t bother hiding my exasperation. “You called and asked for my help. You thought I wouldn’t come?”

I still didn’t know what she needed my help for but dammit, whatever it was, I was here for her.

She sputtered for a good twenty seconds before finally managing to say, “I don’t—you—you are such a boy!”

“Nice of you to notice.”

Her laughter was too hysterical, high and sharp like a falling knife. If her less than perfect appearance hadn’t been an indication that something was wrong, that laugh definitely was. She got hold of herself a moment later and frowned, staring at my antlers. With one hand she reached up and rand a finger down the length of one.

“They’ve gotten darker.” She eyed the prongs. “And sharper. So have your teeth.”

She stepped back and indicated I should come inside, leading the way to her bedroom.

I shrugged and followed after her. “Yeah, that’s been happening. Got a DNA test back in Woodhurst that’s supposed to be able to tell me if I’m completely human or not and what my parents might have been.”

She spun around in front of her doorway. “And you didn’t look at it? What the hell is wrong with you? There’s no way I’d be able to put something like that off.”

“It hadn’t arrived when I left,” I said. “And you sounded….”

She swallowed and looked away, turning the knob to her bedroom and backing in to sit on her bed. The room was pink and frilly and while Nicole made it work it so wasn’t her. Not because pink princess stuff didn’t look good on her—everything looked good on her—but she was too strong and serious for this room. It looked like it belonged to a four-year-old.

Albert hadn’t wanted to let either of us paint or redecorate our rooms to reflect our growing up over the years. In her current state it made her seem small and fragile. It was as if the room did something to her, regressing her and sapping the strength and independence she’d built up over the years.

“You weren’t actually supposed to come,” she said without looking at me.

Absently, as if she didn’t realize she was doing it, she began twisting the delicate silver watch she wore on her left wrist. It had been Caroline’s, specifically left to Nicole in her will. If she’d left me anything I never knew. Albert had been the only one to see the lawyer or attend any of the legal things. Frankly I was kind of glad about that. Caroline had…she’d almost been like a real mother to me.

“I’m here though,” I said. “What’s going on, Nicole? How can I help?”

“There’s nothing you can do,” she snapped. She pulled her knees to her chest and hid her face between them. “There’s nothing anyone can do.”

“We won’t know unless we tr—”

“Dammit, Caleb there’s nothing you can do!” I don’t think she meant to scream because she seemed shocked afterword. As if she couldn’t believe that she’d just done what she’d done.

She bit her lower lip and, trembling, forced herself to meet my eyes. “I’m sorry. But really, you wasted your time coming.”

“So, everything’s fine then?” I asked.

“Yes. No. No it’s not, but there’s nothing anyone can do about it, okay.”

Slowly, I nodded. “Okay. What movies are out? I haven’t been to the movies since…damn, August.”

Going to the movies had been one of the first things we realized we liked doing together. Every time she came home from college, we made it a point to go see something.

“You want to go to the movies?” She scoffed.

“What I want is to spend some time with my sister,” I said. “I mean, I came all this way and apparently there’s nothing else I can do, so I’ll just be your little brother.” And get you the hell out of this house for a few hours. “How’s that sound?”

She brushed her eyes with the heel of her hand, though I hadn’t seen any tears there. “Give me a bit to get dressed. I’m not going out like this.”

#

I couldn’t tell you what we went to see. If it was fun or loud or action packed or the dumbest thing to ever hit the silver screen. I bought popcorn and soda and watched a transformation come over Nicole. Changing into jeans and a blouse, fixing up her hair and putting on makeup, had all done something to her. She stood straighter, walked with more surety. The further we got from the house, the more pronounced the difference became. By the time the movie was done, the weeping girl who’d been huddled in her bedroom was gone and in her place was the badass who was going to be a Naval Doctor and screw what her dad said.

We pulled out of the parking lot, laughing at something or another, when she suddenly got quiet. Her eyes were still a little red, but she looked better. Gorgeous, not just pretty. And a lot more like a person instead of a broken doll.

“Thank you, Caleb,” she said as she drove us. “Thank you, for coming all the way down here, for taking me out like this, for…for being you.”

I blushed like a little girl. “Think nothing of it.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know you’re hurting for money. This wasn’t nothing. And…and you’ve done more than you know to help me today.”

My smile faded at her next words.

“But I need you to leave when we get back. Go back to Woodhurst and don’t come back.”

What the hell? “Screw that.”

“Caleb, listen to me. I—”

“No, you listen. You are the strongest woman I know. You have always been there for me.”

“Caleb—”

“It’s my turn to be there for you, okay? So, whatever you need, it’s yours. And you’re not getting rid of me.”

“Caleb,” She shouted. “I’m pregnant.”

I froze. I think my mouth might have fallen open.

I blinked and shook myself back to life. My mouth was running before I could even process the words racing through my brain. “Um, congratulations. I mean, that’s terrifying and I support whatever decision you make, but, yeah, congrats. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”

She pulled up in front of the house, not looking at me. “I don’t.”

Okay, that couldn’t be good. “Damn.”

She sighed. “Yeah. Damn.”

We started to get out of the car and then froze again. The driveway wasn’t empty like it was supposed to be.

Albert was home early.

Chapter Two

I did not want to be there. I mean, I knew the asshole might put in an appearance, but I really wanted to keep our contact to a minimum. In hindsight I should have thought this out a bit more and mentally prepared myself for my adoptive father. In my defense, my mind had been solely on Nicole since she called for help. The possibility of seeing Albert hadn’t really registered with me. Maybe I could just drop Nicole off? I dismissed the thought as soon as I had it. I wasn’t going to be that kind of asshole. She needed support and there was no way her father, the man who kept her bedroom looking like it belonged to a girl who still played with Barbie, despite the fact that she was a grown ass woman, was reacting well to her pregnancy.

Her hand found mine and squeezed. Hard. Not a little affectionate squeeze but the next thing to a death grip. I could smell her fear, sour and sweet on the air, see it in the quiver of her taut neck. My mouth watered. I swallowed and shoved that horrible bit of uncomfortableness out of my head and focused on her. I shifted my hand in her grip and gave a gentle, hopefully reassuring, squeeze.

She took her eyes off the parked car and met my gaze. She looked like a sick deer that had stumbled into the road and suddenly had a truck come upon her. Her breathing was elevated but slowing as she held my eyes and hand.

I nodded toward the house. “Does he know?”

Her shoulders gave a spasmodic shake and she barked out a choked laugh. “Yeah, he knows.”

It must have been bad. We got out of the car and I stepped up beside her, taking Nicole’s hand once more. She blinked, then stared at the connection. I could tell that she took comfort from it but maybe she didn’t want to be comforted right then? While she was making up her mind about whether or not to remove her hand from mine, the front door open.

Albert Marshal was an unassuming man as pale as his daughter—porcelain skin, platinum hair, icy blue eyes, he was even kind of pretty. Looking between the two of them there could be no doubt that they were related, even with his delicate looking spectacles and necktie. Like his daughter, I knew that his apparent delicacy hid a considerable amount of strength. The man could swing a mean belt.

Those pale eyes settled over us, taking in Nicole’s conflicted expression and our held hands, and froze over. Albert was not one of those men who raged with fire when they were angry. He got cold and quiet and exercised his anger with furious speed and precision.

He didn’t acknowledge me other than that look as we approached, asking Nicole, “What’s he doing here?”

She looked into his face but didn’t meet his eyes. “I asked him to come.”

Albert made a face, as if his daughter had just farted. “I see. Where were you? I came home early to surprise you and you weren’t here.”

She shrugged. “Caleb took me to the movies.”

“You didn’t text or leave a note.”

I rolled my eyes. His gaze snapped to me. It was…he’d always been cold to me. I knew his wife had been the one that had wanted to adopt me, and I never really knew why he’d gone along with it. This expression though, it was hostile and completely disproportionate to a disrespectful eye roll.

I don’t consider myself a particularly irreverent person. I try to be respectful. Especially where Albert was concerned. Going to college without his support was the most rebellious thing I’d ever done. It had only been in the last few months—since I’d broken my curse, specifically—that I’d begun to throw my weight around.

I met Albert’s eyes and held them. I’d never been able to do that before. “She needed to get out for a bit.”

“And we thought that we’d be back before you got home,” Nicole said in a rush. “We didn’t want to bother you at work.”

Right. I’d been very concerned about bothering him at work. Not. Maybe I should have been. Albert had always been controlling, but he’d never been like this.

“I brought you Chinese food from Yang and Yin’s,” he said, looking away from me.

Yang and Yin’s had always been Nicole’s favorite. Her face didn’t light up though. Instead she squeezed my hand and blew out a relieved breath. “Oh good, I was worried there wouldn’t be enough for Caleb, but Yang and Yin’s portions are huge.”

She stepped inside, pulling me behind her. Albert moved aside reluctantly and followed us to the kitchen. Having him to my back made my spine tingle. It was like turning your back on a wolf—you just didn’t do it. Why the hell was I getting so many bad vibes from him all of a sudden? I’d lived in his house since I was thirteen and never got this from him. It was as if a thousand, miniscule things had been altered, and the collective result created an entirely new man.

The kitchen table was elaborately spread with dishes of Chinese food arranged around burning candles and a bouquet of flowers with baby paraphernalia scattered about. A little toddler swing sat off beside the seat that was clearly meant to be Nicole’s, along with bags of diapers and baby toys. Baby bottle shaped confetti had been spread everywhere.

“Did I walk into a baby shower?” I asked. Weren’t those usually strictly girl things? No, they were parties. That was it. But if this was a party, then where was everyone?

Nicole didn’t say anything. She couldn’t stop looking at the swing.

“I know it will be a while before the baby’s old enough to play with some of this,” Albert said. “But it never hurts to be prepared. I might have gone a little overboard.”

“A little,” I muttered.

That table set up almost looked like something out of a romantic comedy. Was he trying to create a daddy-daughter date? Seemed like he’d pushed a little too far for that. Maybe he was just panicking. After all, he’d never done well with change and his daughter was about to be a mother.

There were only two chairs, so I pulled up another from a different table. It didn’t match the rest.

We all took our seats.

“You don’t like it,” Albert said to Nicole.

She loaded up her plate with Chinese food. “It’s very nice.”

“I don’t like not knowing where you are,” he said.

She loaded more Chinese food.

“Nicole,” he leaned forward. “Do you have anything to say?”

“Pretty sure she already said it,” I said with a shrug.

Albert made a sharp turn to look at me. Once I would have withered under that look. That was before this semester. I’d faced down werewolves and vampires and a giant snake the size of this house. Albert’s domineering gaze simply didn’t hold so much weight by comparison. And maybe, just maybe, I’d grown a little since leaving this house.

“She already explained where she was and why she didn’t get in touch with you. Sounded pretty reasonable to me.” I shrugged and loaded up some sesame chicken.

“You know how I feel about disrespect, Caleb,” he said.

I set my plate down, squared my shoulders, and gave him my undivided attention. “No one is being disrespectful, sir. We’ve explained our actions. You seem to be fishing for the same information we’ve already given you. What would you like to hear, sir?”

Albert took off his spectacles, pulled out a handkerchief and cleaned the lenses. “I would like to hear, an apology and a promise that it won’t happen again, young man.”

“If Nicole was a child, I would agree with you,” I said with a shrug. “She’s an adult.”

“That may be,” said Albert, returning his not spotless spectacles to his face. “But she is still my child. And that is my grandchild in her belly.”

Nicole flinched. I started paying more attention to her. She was strung tight, like a guitar string ready to be plucked. Fear rolled off of her. Was our conversation upsetting her that much?

“As long as Nicole’s living under my roof, she will abide by my wishes. And you will both respect my authority.”

The cool way he delivered both of these statements brooked no argument. Or at least, that was the intent. Instead his words slithered under my skin and stoked my temper. I was my own authority now. Nicole and I were adults. We didn’t need his roof or his authority. Cue South Park joke.

“Then perhaps we should exercise more autonomy,” I said.

He froze. He’d never gone completely still like that before. Was he even breathing? I didn’t care.

“Neither of us are your dependents anymore,” I said. “If Nicole is hard up for housing while on maternity leave or whatever she is welcome to stay with me.”

How that would work with Absinthe and Scarlett I didn’t know but we could figure that out later. We would make it work.

“Caleb,” Nicole said, voice barely more than a whisper. “Stop it.”

I didn’t stop it.

“You seem to have forgotten what respect means,” Albert said. “You sit there eating my food and telling me how you’re going to live your lives?”

“Yes.” I glanced at my plate. “And not to put too fine a point on it but I haven’t actually eaten anything.”

Nicole made a little groan.

“Get out,” he said.

I cocked my head. That was unexpected but maybe it shouldn’t have been.

I stood and looked at Nicole, getting ready to let her know she could come back to Woodhurst with me, and froze. The confidence I’d felt during Albert and my confrontation fled at the sight of her. She’d pulled her knees up into her chest, curling into a ball on her chair, and refused to look at anyone.

Everything that had pulled the strong and capable woman I’d known out of her shell that afternoon had been undone and she was back to this, the state I’d first found her in. What on earth was going on? She hiccupped, then began to cry.

Albert stood up. “Get. Out.”

I did. But I didn’t leave once I was out. I walked and thought about what I’d seen. There was no way I was leaving Nicole here, alone with that man. Something was off. Maybe something always had been, but it was somehow more obvious to me now because of the situation. Woodhurst would have to wait. My phone was almost dead when I pulled it out to text the girls where I was and that I’d be staying another night. Almost as soon as the text went off, the screen went dark. Figured.

I had no charger, and no other means of charging it, and after all that I’d paid to get here and take care of Nicole, I really couldn’t afford a hotel or to buy a spare. That was alright, I had a place in mind that would solve my problems nicely.

Once dark had settled in, I snuck into the backyard and made my way to the shed in the back. It had started its life out as a storage shed and tornado shelter, but the shelter had been filled in and the shed renovated into a home office, complete with Wi-Fi and air conditioning.

Albert didn’t like anyone going in here. Too many of his client’s confidential files were here and he didn’t want anyone to see them. He didn’t know that I’d found the hiding spot for the key to the shed years ago. I didn’t like coming out here, but there was no way he’d be using his office-shed before heading into work in the morning. The shed was always an after work stop, not a before.

Key in hand, I slipped inside. The place hadn’t changed. A carpet to add warmth and bookshelves lining every wall except for the one where he’d set up a work desk with a computer and filing cabinets on either side. I checked the desk drawers and found a spare key to something, a pad of paper, a flash drive, more pens than I could count, and several notes that I ignored—no phone charger though, which was unfortunate, and the computer was passcode protected. I tried a few different things but eventually gave up.

The hard floor wasn’t exactly comfortable, but it was better than sleeping outside or under a bridge. I’d only done the latter once on a dare because some asshole had said my antlers made me a pussy. Something about deer being afraid of everything. I couldn’t even remember his name.

I glanced once more at my dead phone and hoped the girls were okay and wouldn’t panic too hard. Considering everything we’d been through together, not hearing from me would probably scare them. I’d have to find a way to get in touch in the morning.

I settled in and fell asleep.

Chapter Three

I awoke to the slight whisper-crush of grass—soft footsteps outside. I shouldn’t have been able to hear them. My ears were not nearly keen enough to register that kind of sound. I certainly shouldn’t have been able to tell that the footsteps were familiar. I had absolutely no basis for comparison! I didn’t lay around in fields listening to people walk around. I should not have been able to recognize Absinthe and Scarlett—but I did.

I sat upright, surging to the door in an awkward scramble, and threw it open.

Scarlett threw herself into me, knocking me off my precarious balance so that we toppled over onto the carpeted floor of the shed in a tangle of limbs.

Absinthe calmly stepped through the door and over us, closing the door behind her. She looked down and raised her eyebrow, a bemused expression on her face as Scarlett burrowed her face into my neck.

I hadn’t showered since before leaving Woodhurst so I couldn’t imagine I smelled all that good. Maybe it was a werewolf or cu sith thing. Or maybe it had to do with everything we’d been through over the last few weeks. Her stepfather had come to town with at least one, possibly two, poltergeists and a glowing African vampire called an adze that had raped her mother and forced the pair of us to have sex. I was still confused about how I felt about the whole thing. But Scarlett had become very clingy since. I didn’t blame her.

I offered Absinthe a “what are you going to do?” grin from my position and wrapped an arm securely around Scarlett. Her body melted, as if someone had been running a current of electricity through her and had just turned it off. She draped over me, melding to my form, and breathed out a contented sigh.

She lifted her head and gave me a grimace. “This is kind of pathetic, isn’t it?”

Absinthe nodded and held up her thumb and forefinger about an inch apart. “Just a little.”

Scarlett let out another sigh and pulled back but didn’t break contact with me. “I’m not apologizing for it.”

“I’m not asking you too,” I said, and kissed her forehead. When had I fallen in love with her? I admired the green of her eyes for a moment, a stupid look on my face, before turning my dopey gaze on Absinthe. I loved her too and felt a powerful kinship with her. And we both loved Scarlett, who loved both of us. So, that was our weird loving little triangle.

Absinthe was older than both of us by several years and had had a rough life. I didn’t know all the details, but when we’d met, she and her brother had been a part of a werewolf pack that doubled as a biker gang called The Road Wolves. Real cuddly types. Guys who crushed your ribs and pulped your innards when they hugged you and then used your skull for a beer stein. They’d nearly killed me when she’d mated to me for standing up to their alpha and then gotten bound to both Scarlett and me through my own weird magic.

My magic had transformed Scarlett, or enabled her to transform, into a cu sith, a type of badass fae hound. Absinthe had mated to me, attacked Scarlett and me in a fit of jealousy-fueled werewolf rage, infecting the two of us with the werewolf virus. I had not become a werewolf, for reasons unknown, but Scarlett had. Sort of. And then my magic had done the same thing to Absinthe that it had done to Scarlett. Now they were a sort of werewolf-cu sith hybrid and far more dangerous than they had been before encountering me.

Whether that was better for them or not was something I was torn up inside about. My magic bound them to me—which was probably how I’d recognized them as they’d drawn near—and maybe, just maybe, it was responsible for the feelings between us. I had no way to measure if it was real or if I had somehow manipulated them, deliberately or not, into our current scenario.

Not that I had any right to complain—and really, I wasn’t!—because any guy would be lucky to be with just one of these two beauties, but both of them? I worried though that I may have robbed them of some vital part of themselves, stolen their free will and independence. Neither seemed capable of leaving me or even expressing any desire to do so.

Lucky me, right? Maybe less lucky for them. But until I knew how to break my magical hold over them and offer them a choice, the only thing I could do was give them the best possible life I could. At the moment that really didn’t amount to much.

Absinthe crossed her arms. “Really? You’re going to turn that sappy expression on me?”

But she was smiling as she said it. She reached over and closed the door to the shed. I appreciated that. Texas mosquitos were nothing to mess around with and all the air conditioning had been blowing out. The shed didn’t exactly have the best insulation.

“Not that I’m not glad you’re here,” I said. “But why are you here?”

Absinthe shrugged and would have come across completely nonchalant if it weren’t for the shit eating grin on her face.

Scarlett giggled. “Can I tell him? Please can I tell him?”

I looked between them. “Tell me what?”

Absinthe rolled her eyes and gestured for Scarlett to go ahead.

Scarlett reached into her back pocket and pulled out a bent envelope. It was a little ripped at the top and Scarlett blushed when she saw it. “I stopped myself from opening it even though I want to know just as much as you do.”

I took a closer look at the envelope. It looked all kinds of official. Recognition dawned.

“The DNA test,” I said. It was here. It was finally here. I couldn’t believe it.

“Eleanor got it yesterday while you were on the way here,” Scarlett said. “She wanted to call and read you the results but that didn’t seem right. She’s dying to know what you are.”

Absinthe barked out a laugh. “Yeah, you were so much more patient.”

Scarlett stuck out her tongue at her.

Absinthe laughed again and settled down on the floor next to me. My eyes left the torn envelope and went to her own eyes. They were fiery emerald green. So were Scarlett’s. My magic had changed them.

“You’ve finally got your answers,” Scarlett said.

I looked back and forth between the girls. They had come all the way down from Woodhurst so that they could share this news in person. They didn’t even seem to care about how it affected them, just that it was important to me. Something inside my chest warmed and swelled, expanding beyond the confines of my ribcage.

“Are you about to cry?” Absinthe asked. “I swear, you are not—”

I cut her off by once again surging up and capturing her mouth in a kiss.

Scarlett had instinctively rolled off of me so that I could move, and I swear I could feel her grinning as she watched us kiss. Absinthe grabbed my head, clutching me to her as we kissed. Our tongues dueled and danced and wrestled until we broke apart, gasping for air. I didn’t stop though.

When the kiss broke, I rolled over and pinned Scarlett to the floor, smothering her sudden burst of giggles with another kiss. Her giggles quickly turned into moans and her hands slid over my back. This kiss was gentler. Normally kissing or making love with Scarlett was something hot and wild—not so today. Our kiss was gentle, a stark contrast to the experience I’d just shared with Absinthe. Our lips and tongues caressed one another in slow, sensual motions that sent little tingles through my mouth.

When we broke, she was breathing hard. She bit her lower lip, blushing, and trembling, held up the envelope with the DNA test results. “Don’t you want to know what it says?”

I shifted myself so that I was positioned over her, pinning her to the floor. “I want you two more.”

I turned to grin at Absinthe.

She shook her head with a smirk. “I’m not sure if I’m surprised by this or not. I swear you are some kind of sex monster.”

My grin widened. “Is that a complaint?”

“Hell no.” She leapt at me, rolling me from Scarlett until I was on my back.

We hit the bookshelf against the wall and knocked something over. I didn’t care. I was suddenly pinned down between to incredibly hot women. Absinthe engaged my mouth in another fiery kiss while Scarlett deft fingers found the buttons on my shirt. Unfortunately, with my antlers t-shirts or anything that has to be pulled over my head aren’t viable options.

As she undressed me, her fingers teased my skin, going low over my chest and down my belly until they caressed the skin just above the waistline of my pants. I moaned into Absinthe’s mouth. She pulled back, eyes brimming with mischief, and pulled Scarlett to her over me, locking their lips together in a kiss.

I grew hard as I watched. Both girls were athletic and physically impressive, but in very different ways. Scarlett was a runner, all lean corded muscle with tight breasts and a high bubble butt. She reminded me of a cheetah with her feline features and hint of freckles.

Absinthe was more curvaceous, though not abundantly so. Her body was less lean than Scarlett’s but more sturdy. Her breasts were slightly larger, her hips a little more prominent. She’d had her werewolf metabolism for a long time and her muscles had been built up by years of fighting and travelling.

Their bodies writhed together as they kissed, and I was really able to appreciate their contrasts. Especially as they began peeling off each other’s shirts and bras. I didn’t usually pay attention to the difference in their skin colors, but I did then as they pressed their torsos together, breasts mashing into each other in a picture of pillowy bliss. Scarlett was Latina with hazelnut and cream-colored skin, while Absinthe was one quarter Black Foot American Indian and a lifetime of outdoors had made her body seem like it was sculpted of honey.

They were gorgeous.

When their kiss ended, they stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before moving at the same time, each placing a hand on my chest and turning to look down at me, matching grins of pure girlish delight and mischief on their faces. They leaned down and we engaged in a three-way kiss.

It should have been awkward. It wasn’t.

Somehow our lips and tongues instinctively navigated each other, correcting for pace and distance reflexively. I’d never experienced a hotter kiss and couldn’t hold back a moan. My member throbbed, straining against my pants and boxers. I had to have them. Had to be inside of them.

Someone slipped their hand into my pants and caressed the length of my erection with soft fingers. Scarlett. Absinthe’s fingers were stronger and had slight callouses from so much time gripping her bike’s handles.

Another hand unsnapped my pants and began sliding them down. That had to be Absinthe. Or maybe both girls working together. With all of our mouths pressed together in the most intricate kiss I had ever participated in I couldn’t tell what was happening south of the border. I only knew that I liked it.

My own hands weren’t idle as the girls steadily undressed me. They roamed their bare backs, slid down to cup their butts, and pulled them tighter to me. I swallowed their moans and we came apart. A strand of saliva momentarily connected my tongue to Absinthe’s before snapping. We grinned and I was forced to catch my breath.

They took a moment to recover as well and that moment stretched on a little longer than mine. I went on the offensive. I rolled Absinthe over and yanked her pants and panties off, or at least down to her knees. At which point I realized that she still had on her motorcycle boots. It was actually kind of hot, her legs bound up by her stripped clothes. I grinned down at her and bent her in half, lifting her bound legs up over my shoulder.

Scarlett pressed up against me from behind, suddenly and completely naked, and freed my erection. She wrapped her soft fingers around it and rubbed the head up and down Absinthe’s entrance. Heat radiated from her sex and each little touch coated the head of my shaft with a little more of her fluids. Scarlett’s hand slipped from me to rub at Absinthe’s clit and I thrust inside of her.

The combination of clitoral stimulation and penetration made Absinthe’s entire body seize up. Her passage clamped down on me. If she hadn’t been so wet, pressing myself further into her would have been painful for both of us. Instead she let out a series of ecstatic whimpers, her entire body quivering as I buried my full length inside of her.

Scarlett pulled her hand away as I began thrusting in and out of Absinthe’s hot channel, repositioning herself but staying behind me. I could feel her doing something to Absinthe’s legs as we made love but couldn’t tell what until she made me stop moving, my erection buried to the root, so that she could slide Absinthe’s pants and panties the rest of the way off of her legs. She tossed them aside so that they fell atop the boots she’d undone and discarded. Now we were all naked.

Scarlett gently pulled on my shoulders, making me shuffle backward. My member slipped from Absinthe with a little pop to bob before me, glistening with her fluids. Absinthe let out an unhappy moan that quickly changed its tone when Scarlett crawled around me and on top of her. She bent down and kissed our girlfriend, then glanced back over her shoulder at me.

The way she was positioned lined her sex up just over Absinthe’s. She bit her lip and gave me a quick, encouraging nod.

That was all I needed. I surged forward, grabbing her lithe hips and planted myself inside of her. She let out a squeal as I went to town ploughing into her hot sex, my balls slapping against Absinthe’s entrance below. I don’t know how long I spent attacking her like this before I pulled out and thrust into Absinthe, earning contrasting moans from them almost simultaneously.

My hands roamed everywhere they could but mostly stayed on the girls’ hips so that I could hold them steady as I thrust into them. I switched back and forth, going harder and faster each time. My dick slid from Scarlett, coated in her fluids, and then plunged into Absinthe. Then the other way. It was as if we were sharing all of ourselves with each other, each girl just as involved in my intercourse with the other. They kissed, breaking occasionally to let out a gasp or moan.

Scarlett came first, which surprised me since she’d started a little bit later. Her entire body went rigid, clamping down on my length. I thrust into her over and over again, bottoming out each time, returning to the vigorous, passionate aggression we had always shared. She let out little squeaks that started in her throat as she came.

When she finished, she rolled over, letting me slip from her, but pulling Absinthe along with her so that she and the biker chick switched positions. I quit switching between the two and buried myself deep inside of Absinthe. Instead of the raw aggression that my lovemaking had become with Scarlett however, I slowed, my strokes becoming gentle and slow but strong.

Her back arched and she let out a little whimper as I withdrew until just the head remained inside of her and then slowly, excruciatingly, slid myself back inside of her, inch by inch until my hips pressed up against her golden ass. She gasped and buried her face in Scarlett’ shoulder. Scarlett met my eyes with a smoldering expression, as if I just as much inside of her as I was Absinthe and she loved it.

She opened her mouth and gave Absinthe a gentle bite on the neck.

Absinthe’s entire body spasmed as she was wracked by a massive orgasm. She screamed into Scarlett’ shoulder, her entire body shaking and quaking with pleasure. I tried to maintain my slow, thorough pace but couldn’t as her passage milked my shaft. I sped up until I was pistoning in and out of her as hard as my hips would let me. Each impact made her tight ass jiggle and summoned a fresh moan from her lips.

I couldn’t hold back anymore and finally let myself go, spilling my seed deep inside of her, my hard shaft pulsing with ecstasy even as my entire body stiffened, muscles I didn’t know I had going taut. More cum spilled from me than I realized I could keep in my body until my orgasm ended and I fell back on my ass, spent member slipping from her sex in a mixture of our fluids.

My semen trickled from her and had just made contact with Scarlett’s own sex when she managed to roll herself off, flopping onto her back on the carpet beside our lover, who was grinning at us like the cat who ate the canary. It was a good expression for Scarlett, and I was glad to see that happy, mischievous light back in her eye.

Absinthe let out a groan, unfortunately not the pleased kind.

“Something’s digging into my back,” she muttered, forcing herself to sit up and patting at the carpet. Sure enough, there was a lump there that the pattern concealed. It was one of those things that was all but invisible until you noticed it but once you did you couldn’t stop seeing.

Scarlett cocked her head, still grinning. “What is that?”

I shrugged, then froze. “Did you guys hear that?”

Both girls scowled, faces screwing up in concentration. Their eyes shot open though I hadn’t heard anything. As one they began clawing at the carpet, yanking it out from under the nearest bookshelf and rolling it back to reveal a trap door with a padlock.

It was my turn to scowl. I thought the storm shelter had been filled in. Why would it need a padlock if it had been filled in? A soft thump sounded and the padlock shook ever so slightly.

All three of us jumped back, staring at each other wide eyed. I couldn’t understand the noises coming from below the trap door, but it sounded like a voice.

Someone or something was down there. And they wanted out.

We dressed quickly. No point in meeting whatever monster lay beneath us naked, right? There was never a question between us that we were going to find a way to open that door. I actually tapped on it several times in quick succession. Tap-tapatap-tap.

The answering tap-tap came almost immediately. Tap-tap. Whatever was down there was smart enough to know the pattern.

“Should we burn our way through?” Scarlett asked.

“No!” Absinthe said quickly. “We’d burn down everything in here, and maybe collapse this place. Then we’d never get that door open.”

A memory stirred in the back of my mind. I started combing through the work desk’s contents.

“What are you looking for?” Scarlett asked.

I turned around and revealed the key that I’d found in there last night when I’d been looking for a phone charger. “Might not go to that lock,” I said. “But it’s worth a shot.”

The girls stepped back and I crouched down to slide the key into the lock. It stuck. Guess that wasn’t it—a little jiggling and it turned. The padlock clicked open.

Quick movements of something pulling away quickly echoed up through the door and with a grunt of effort I heaved it open. It was surprisingly heavy and almost caught my fingers when I first pried it up. Then it swung open all the way, revealing a ladder going down into a dimly lit…room? It had dirty wooden floors and it stank. The sour smell of unwashed skin and body odor combined with urine and fecal waste.

Both girls gagged, their noses far more sensitive than my own. And I was nearly choking on the horrific stench.

I swallowed and tried to breathe through my mouth without tasting the air. “Hello?”

I sensed movement just beyond the edge of what the trapdoor hole would allow me to see. A woman shuffled into view. She was filthy, her hair hanging in greasy, tangled knots around an emaciated, grimy face. Her skin, beneath the dirt, was hyper pale from what had to have been years of sunlight deprivation. Her eyes were a familiar pale blue.

My first stupid thought when I saw those eyes was that she had taken them from Nicole. Then I realized that it was the other way around. I hadn’t seen this woman in years, but I knew exactly who she was.

“Caleb?” she asked in a hoarse voice.

“M-mom?”

Chapter Four

Caroline Marshal was dead. I’d been to her funeral two years ago. She had always insisted that I call her Mom, even when she was disappointed in me. She’d been the closest thing I’d ever had to one. And she was here. Disgusting but not dead. Alive.

“C-Caleb,” she said again, her entire body rocked by dry sobbing.

“Mom!”

I threw myself down the trap door and hit the dirty floor below hard. I didn’t care that it hurt my ankles and knees. I didn’t care that it stank worse than anything I’d ever smelled before. I threw my arms around her and she threw hers around me. She buried her face in my chest as her entire body shook. I was taller than her. I didn’t remember being taller than her. Guess I’d grown more than I’d realized since I was seventeen.

She kept saying my name over and over again, rubbing her hands over my back and eventually my face, pulling back so that she could look at me. “You’re here. You’re here and you got so big. Oh my God, you’re so big.” A hand with long, dirty fingernails reached up to touch one of my antlers.

“Those are darker than I remember.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’ve…I’ve changed a lot. You’re alive.”

I pulled her back into a hug again. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t process anything. The single thought that she wasn’t dead just kept playing on repeat in my head until I took a deep breath and my surroundings registered.

There was a cot in the corner with a single filthy sheet. At the foot of the cot was a bucket where the worst of the stink was coming from. Her toilet. A small coffee table was pressed into a corner with a battery powered lantern providing our light. Beside it stood a bouquet of flowers—fresh flowers whose bright colors and soft petals didn’t belong here. They certainly didn’t belong next to the shriveled red thing beside them set up on some kind of display stand.

My gorge nearly came up as the recognition began to stir. But it was too disgusting, too horrible to really process.

“What is that?” I asked not because I wanted to know but because I needed to be proved wrong.

Caroline Marshal pulled back from me and scooped the thing off the table, cradling it to her breast. She cooed at it, then smiled at me. “Caleb, I want you to meet your little brother.”

I became very still.

The red thing had a soft, bloated head that had clearly been stitched back onto the mostly skeletal body. Skeletal except for the equally bloated belly, from which a bit of umbilical cord was still attached. The eyelids had never fully developed so the reattached head stared at me through fleshy lenses that didn’t really conceal the dark spots beneath. It was covered in veins and should have been slimy. It wasn’t. For some reason that made seeing the taxidermied fetus even worse.

“His name is Colin,” she told me. “He-he’s a good boy. He’s kept me—he’s kept me from being alone.”

She fell to her knees, clutching the fetus tight to her chest as she shook. “He’s dead. He’s dead. He’s dead. He can’t be dead but he’s dead and you’re not really here. You’re not real. He’s not real. Colin’s dead. I’m dead.”

I dropped to my knees beside her and grabbed her shoulder. “Caroline Marshal! You’re alive. I’m real. I’m here. We’re going to take you out now. Okay? We’re going to get you to a doctor.”

She looked up at me, eyes watery with unshed tears. “We’re going to get Colin to a doctor?”

My mouth was so dry that it was an effort to swallow. “We’re going to get you and Colin to a doctor. You need to come with me now.”

Dammit, I had no idea what I was doing. She was clearly traumatized and there was no telling how badly she’d been wounded inside. For all I knew I could be making this a thousand times worse.

No. Leaving her here was the worst thing I could do. Getting her out was the first step to getting her the help she needed. That had to happen no matter what. She needed out and she needed to get to a hospital.

And we couldn’t stay here. This was Albert’s office. She was his wife. He had kept his wife locked up as a prisoner beneath his home office. He’d brought her flowers—the same kind that he’d given to his daughter last night—and had stuffed an aborted baby. Albert was a fucking psychopath. I couldn’t let him find out what was going on. Oh shit, I couldn’t leave Nicole here either.

God, if he’d been willing to do this to his wife, what the hell might he do to his daughter?

“Absinthe,” I called up. “Absinthe, I need you to check to see if Albert’s still here.”

“Who’s Albert?” she called down.

“My adoptive father,” I told her. “I don’t know what time it is. But we can’t leave if he’s still here. And we need to leave.”

I told her what kind of car he drove, and she took off. Slowly I coaxed Mom out of the hole. She stopped at the trapdoor, wincing at the sunlight gleaming in through the windows. Her lower lip quivered.

“It’s okay,” I urged in the kindest voice I could manage.

She came out slowly, still clutching Colin.

Scarlett stared at it. “Is that—”

I shook my head as hard as I could and made an abortive gesture with my hand.

“—uh, is this your mother?”

“Scarlett, this is Caroline Marshal,” I said, then gestured at Scarlett. “And this is my girlfriend Scarlett.”

“She’s Mexican,” Caroline said. “And she’s pretty. You did good, Caleb. Who was the other young lady?”

“That was Absinthe.” I debated on how much to tell her, then decided she’d been through enough without me lying to her. “My other girlfriend.”

Caroline scowled at me. “Caleb Marshal you had better not be two timing on this nice young girl.”

The nice young girl in question grinned at her. “I think I like your mom.”

“I’m not cheating on her, Mom. We’re both together with Absinthe. She’s both of our girlfriend.”

“Both?”

“Yes, she’s Scarlett’s girlfriend too.”

Caroline blinked at us both very slowly. “Is that what the kids are doing these days? I don’t know if I like that. You’d better not set a bad example for Colin.”

I did my best to smile. “I’ll try not to.”

Absinthe opened the door, making us all jump. Caroline actually took a step toward the trap door as if she meant to flee back into her prison.

“He’s not here,” she said. “But there’s another car in the driveway.”

Nicole. Right. This was going to be awkward as all hell.

“Okay, let’s get Nicole and get out of here. There’s no way we’re leaving either of them here with that fuckjob.”

Caroline smacked me upside the back of the head. “Watch your language.”

I stared at her for a moment and then grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”

Slowly, Caroline took her first tentative, barefoot steps outside into the morning sunlight. She winced, then took a moment and simply basked in the sun’s glow. How long had it been since she’d felt the touch of it on her skin? The full two years I’d thought she’d been dead or did that fucker take her out for walks? The image would have been beautiful, even with the grime coating her, if it weren’t for the fetus in her arms. Was it supposed to look bloody or was that just how they naturally looked?

I gently took her by the arm and guided her across the backyard. We made it all the way to the back door before Nicole threw open the door. She didn’t even look at Scarlett or Absinthe, just at the woman beside me.

“Mom?”

Caroline grinned. Her teeth were brown and crooked, but it was the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. It lit her up from within and made her eyes shine. “Nicole.”

Nicole reached out slowly, as if afraid she might be electrocuted at any moment, and touched her mother’s face just as Caroline had touched mine only moments before. Then they were hugging, silent tears streaming down Nicole’s face.

“Mom. Oh, God, Mom I’ve got so much to tell you.”

“Oh baby. Baby I missed you so much.”

I didn’t want to interrupt but we had to move. If Albert caught wind of what was going on…damn, I don’t know. I should fry the fucker. I could do that now. Oh, my Dear and Fluffy Lord I wanted to roast him.

No. Nicole and Caroline were the priority, not hurting him. I cleared my throat. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

Nicole pulled away from her mom, looking as if she hadn’t heard a word I’d said. “What? Why? How?”

Okay, I guess she hadn’t. In her defense, her mother had just come back from the dead.

“I found her beneath Albert’s office. The storm shelter had been made into a prison. We have to get out of here before he realizes she’s not there.”

Nicole stared at me for a moment and then took off at a sprint, tearing around Scarlett and Absinthe as she bolted for the shed. She vanished inside, the door swinging wildly on its hinges behind her. What was that about?

The girls and I exchanged glances. Did she think I was lying or something? I mean, this was pretty unbelievable, but I’d never lied to her before. Why would I make up something like this?

“Where’d she go?” Caroline asked. “She can’t go in there. She’ll get trapped in there. Caleb, go get her—bring her back. Bring her back!”

I was just starting to do that when the shed door burst open again and Nicole came bolting out, just as quickly as she’d gone, she was suddenly at our side. “We’re getting the hell out of here.”

Thank you!

Chapter Five

The adrenaline rush wore off after about an hour on the road. Nicole and Caroline rode in the back of Nicole’s car, which I drove, while Scarlett and Absinthe followed in Valencia’s car. Scarlett had gotten permission to borrow it from her mother to come pick me up. None of us had a car of our own, though Absinthe had her motorcycle, but fitting three people on that wasn’t a good idea, let alone for a longer trip.

Getting Caroline into the car had taken more effort than expected. She really hadn’t liked being outside, growing more and more agitated the longer we were beneath the open sky. I don’t think she was even aware of the change in her demeanor. Getting her into a small, confined space like the back of the vehicle though? That had been a challenge, but Nicole had eventually coaxed her in there and now sat with her mother leaning against her, her dead son, our dead brother, still cradled in her arms.

God, I hoped we didn’t get pulled over. That would be a hell of a thing to explain to the cops. What’s that officer? Oh, that’s just my mother’s dead baby. Illegal? You mean driving around with a dead baby is against the law? Are you sure? I had no idea! Yeah, that would go over real well.

But no sirens flashed. No cars chased after us. Nicole received no mysterious or threatening phone calls from Albert. We just drove with Scarlett and Absinthe following behind us, an awkward silence steadily growing heavier with every mile. Caroline didn’t seem bothered by it. She had a small smile at her mouth and kept caressing Colin’s bulbous head. I tried not to look at the thing or think about what Caroline had been through.

I failed horribly at both.

It made me nauseous. No sunlight or anything to do except wait for her captor to come back and…do whatever it was he did to her. Nobody to talk to except for her oppressor and her dead baby.

Her stench hung in the back of the car like a cloud, making everything that much worse. My knuckles whitened as I tightened my grip over and over again on the steering wheel. As soon as she was taken care of Albert was going to be seen to. I didn’t know the exact details yet, but it would be violent. Thinking of Albert gave me the anger and focus to finally keep my eyes from flitting back to the rearview mirror every few seconds to check on Nicole and Caroline.

There were plenty of woods around Woodhurst. Lots of wilderness. Hiding his body, especially after I’d burned away all of his flesh, wouldn’t be hard. I’d have to destroy his teeth. I’d seen enough detective shows to know that his dental records could identify him. How hard would it be to break up a charred skeleton and shatter the bones into smaller pieces? The more I could reduce his remains into broken bits the less likely anyone coming by would be to recognize them for what they were. Especially after the animals and exposure got to them.

Maybe I’d even break him apart before I burned away the flesh. What would hurt more, being burned alive or death by dismemberment?

The sound of snoring sounded from the backseat and I started. I’d been so caught up in my thoughts and planning that I had lost track of my surroundings. That was dangerous. I needed to keep my eyes on the road. And what the fuck was wrong with me thinking about all of this stuff in such detail? Anger surged through me again. Nothing. Not a damn thing was wrong with me. Albert was the sick fuck who’d done horrible things. He needed horrible things done to him and dammit I would be the one to do them.

I glanced back to see who was snoring and found that Caroline had finally nodded off, her head in Nicole’s lap, fetus tucked under her arm like the world’s most morbid teddy bear. I caught Nicole’s eyes and saw a mixture of emotions that I couldn’t identify, in part because they were hidden deep beneath something flat. If her eyes had been dark instead of pale, I’d have said that she reminded me of a shark. Only…were those the eyes of a predator, or of someone in the process of becoming one?

“Thank you,” she said.

I blinked. “For what?”

“For everything,” she said. “But mostly for not asking why I went back into the shed.”

That question really hadn’t been on my list of priorities, but I had thought about it. Eventually I came to the conclusion that she must have wanted to make sure that, one, the hole really was there and that, two, the office had been put back the way it had been before all of this. The longer that Albert went without realizing that his wife—ex-wife?—was gone, the better off we were.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said.

“No,” she said. “I should worry about it. I should—it’s my fault you’re caught up in this.”

“Hey, you knock that the hell off right now! You’re my sister. Of course, I was going to come when you needed help.”

Nicole shook her head and hid her face behind a curtain of pale hair. “Not that. That’s part of it, but this…it’s…God this is hard.”

“Nicole, none of this is your fault.”

She reached up and wiped at her eyes. There was something clutched in her hand, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

“It is my fault.” She swallowed. “Caleb. It’s his baby.”

My eyes glanced at the fetus. Oh wait, she was still pregnant. I’d forgotten in the chaos of discovering Caroline and getting away from Albert. “Whose baby?”

She pulled in on herself and stroked her mother’s dirty hair. “My baby. Dad…it’s….”

My stomach became ice.

Lights ahead caught my eye. Break lights. Oh shit!

I swerved into the next lane over, narrowly avoiding a collision with the car that had pulled in front of me and then braked. A car horn screamed behind us and I jumped, jerking the wheel so that we swerved.

A moment later I got the car under control. It took a little bit longer for my heartrate to slow.

Caroline gave a huge snore and burrowed her face deeper into Nicole’s lap. Nicole had a death grip on the oh-shit-handle above the door and was glaring at me. “What the hell, Caleb?”

“Sorry!” I said. “I was…I wasn’t paying attention to the road.”

“No shit.”

I took a deep breath. “Albert is your baby’s father?”

Her mouth went flat and she swallowed. Then nodded.

“Fuck.”

She looked away.

My mouth opened and closed several times as I struggled to find words. Albert had always been a domineering bastard and seriously overprotective of Nicole…not overprotective, over-controlling. Someone who was overprotective didn’t rape you. Assuming that it had been…of course it had. I couldn’t ask that. Dammit, what the hell could I say that would help? ‘Are you okay’ was so not enough.

“That…did he hurt you?” Fuck that dinner I’d intruded on suddenly held a whole lot of new meaning. He’d intended it to be romantic and celebrate his baby, not his grandchild. Oh God that man was…I was going to hurt him so bad.

Green fire flickered over my knuckles. I paid it no mind.

Nicole let out a little bark of laughter. “Sort of. No. Yes. It’s complicated. He’s never liked hurting me.”

Was she defending him?

“I was so stupid, Caleb. I went to see him for Christmas Break. I swore I was never going back and then he called and….” She held something up. I slowed down and looked in the rearview mirror. In her fingers was the flash drive I’d seen in the office drawer when I’d been looking for a phone charger. Considering that same drawer had held the key to Caroline’s prison I could only imagine that it contained something just as horrible.

“He’s got photos of me. Videos.”

She didn’t need to say what kind they were.

“He threatened to put them on the Internet. I could deal with those getting out. It would suck but I’d deal. I told him that before I left. I told him I wasn’t going to be his…I wasn’t doing it anymore.”

No wonder she’d been so keen to make it work. And military service…she didn’t just want to fund her education, she wanted to defend herself.

“Then over Christmas…he told me that it wasn’t just me on the drive.”

I didn’t bother masking my confusion. What the hell could he have used to control her? Blackmail was only good if you cared about the secret getting out and Nicole had thrown away whatever hold he’d had on her with his recordings. My God, I found a sudden new respect for my adoptive sister.

To know that that stuff could have been released at any day and still gone forward toward her goals. My God she was strong. She’d overcome so much. It made me realize just how pathetic I was. In a way, it was as if I hadn’t really started living until a few months ago when I’d broken my curse. 

Nicole glanced down at her sleeping mother. Whatever she was about to say, she clearly didn’t want Caroline to hear it. “You remember that thing we promised we’d never talk about?”

There was only one thing we had promised to never talk about. That promise had been a part of a larger promise that we could talk to each other about anything else. And we had. Nicole had been my sounding board, mentor, and in an embarrassing way, my diary ever since.

“Yeah.”

She swallowed. “He put me up to it. He said…he promised to hurt you if I didn’t do what he said back then.” Tears slid down her cheeks. “Caleb, he recorded us.”

I had been fourteen when the Marshals adopted me. I had only been there a few months when Nicole visited me late at night in my room. I’d had a huge crush on her and had been trying to hide it. I’d thought I was the luckiest guy in the world. She came to me three nights in a row and then stopped.

For a week we didn’t speak. We didn’t even look at each other. It was the most awkward thing in the world. And then we’d talked about it and things had gotten better.

“I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t know,” she said. “And...it’s…I was eighteen, Caleb. It was statutory rape. The video doesn’t have sound and it…you can’t tell he’s behind it all. If these recordings get out, I could go to jail. I’d lose my college funding and military career at the very least.”

I’d always wondered how on earth those nights had happened. I’d put them from my mind after the first year. Weird things happened in foster care and I really hadn’t expected to stay with the Marshals. Not until right before Caroline had supposedly passed away had I really felt a sense of permanency. After that, not so much.

“Okay,” I said. “That explains a lot.”

She nodded. “I still fought with him. I promise I did. I went back to school anyway after the Winter Break. Only….”

“Only now you had a little passenger.”

She nodded. “He switched out my birth control pills with something else. I didn’t realize that I was pregnant until…and then I had to go back to him. He-he has all the power. Had it, I guess.” A feeble grin fought for purchase on her face, but her eyes turned absolutely feral. “Not anymore. Caleb, you beat him.”

“We beat him,” I corrected. And we, especially Nicole and Caroline, had the scars to show for it. If I had my way the fucker would never see the inside of a jail cell.

We pulled into Woodhurst and navigated through the neighborhoods to Valencia’s house. We’d talked about bringing Caroline to Eleanor’s place but that really wasn’t something that we could do. I mean, we housesat for her and I could tap into the power in her land, but it wasn’t really ours. Even if Scarlett, Absinthe and I all lived there. We couldn’t keep Caroline in our little loft above the garage. But Scarlett had moved in pretty much full time with Absinthe and me, so Valencia had a spare bedroom now. After what she and I had just been through, maybe she and Caroline could help each other.

There were two police cruisers waiting in front of her house when we pulled up and when I parked a pair of uniforms approached the car. Scarlett or Valencia must have called them. It wouldn’t have been Absinthe. She really didn’t care for the police and I wasn’t sure I blamed her. I sighed. So long as they didn’t look too closely at Colin, we should be alright. Oh, please oh please oh please don’t look at the dead baby in the back seat.

I got out of the car and was addressed before I could speak.

“Caleb Marshal?” said the larger of the two.

I nodded. “That’s me. The antlers kind of give it away.”

“Please turn around and place your hands behind your back. You are under arrest for the kidnapping of Nicole Marshal.”

Chapter Six

The police station was cramped and smelled like sweat. Woodhurst really didn’t have much in the way of a police force so it made since that the station was small. I really didn’t get a chance to see much of it before I was brought to an interrogation room. Which was also cramped and smelled like sweat.

It really didn’t bear more than a passing resemblance to anything from the movies. For one thing, there wasn’t a mirrored wall for the Woodhurst PD to stare at me through. Just off-white walls on all sides, one with peeling paint, and a dull brown door with a narrow, rectangular window over the knob. I’d been sitting at a small, empty table that looked like it had been purchased at a yard sale after being left out for way, way, way too long.

They’d taken all my belongings when they’d arrested me, emptying out my pockets and confiscating my phone. I really couldn’t have said how long I’d been waiting but it was really beginning to get to me. I mean, come on! The sheer boredom had me getting up to try and pace the diminutive room. When that didn’t work, I’d tried doing pushups. Someone had come at that point and told me to stop. They’d vanished back out the door, which locked behind them, before I could get a word in edgewise. This was fucking ridiculous.

You’d think that having Nicole explain that she’d run away with me, not been kidnapped, would have counted for something. And that was before you even factored in Caroline. The cops had not been happy about Colin when they’d realized what she’d been carrying but I hadn’t been able to see much. I’d been hustled into a police cruiser and hauled off. No phone call.

Wasn’t I supposed to have a lawyer? Or be provided with one since I sure as hell didn’t know any. I certainly couldn’t afford to pay for one.

The door opened.

Thank God.

I stood up as a thickset cop in a tan uniform walked in. He gestured at the chair I’d just risen from, set a paper cup of water on the table, and slid it over to me.

“What the hell?” I said, ignoring his offer. “How long have I been in here?”

“A few hours,” the cop said. “My name is Officer Jenkins. You mind answering a few questions for me?”

A few hours? Good grief, what couldn’t they have already figured out by now? I resisted the urge to cuss. “What do you want to know?”

“Please, sit,” the man said. “Have a drink. You’ve got to be thirsty.”

I sat and downed the water. I was parched and I wanted this over with. “Don’t I get a lawyer or something?”

“Or something,” he said with a small grin. “Can you bring me up to speed? Why on earth did Mr. Marshal file a kidnapping report?”

Because he’s a sadistic, rapist fuckwad. “Maybe you should ask him. Or Nicole. Or Caroline Marshal, who’s back from the dead. Isn’t that exciting?”

Wow, isolation had made me a little punchy. I was ready to run laps around the building. Maybe singing the national anthem while I was at it. My eyes actually felt fuzzy with a weird mixture of fatigue and adrenaline.

“You mean the woman with the,” he visibly resisted the urge to make a face, “stuffed baby who was in the back of your car?”

“Yup. Her. She’s his wife, my adopted mother, and she supposedly died two years ago.”

“The rumors of her death were greatly exaggerated?” Officer Jenkins said with a grimace.

“Or fabricated entirely. That sick bastard had her locked up in a hole under his office-shed.”

The officer shook his head. “Why would he do that?”

“Fuck if I know!” Dammit, I hadn’t meant to cuss. “Sorry. It’s just…damn what a fucking day.”

I buried my face in my hands and took a few deep, steadying breaths. They didn’t really help but I managed to get myself somewhat put back together. God, how were the girls?

“Yeah, yeah how crazy is all of this, right?” Officer Jenkins said. “I can’t even imagine what you’re going through right now. Look, why don’t you start at the beginning and we’ll go from there, yeah?”

What was the beginning? When I first found Caroline? When Nicole called me? When the Marshals first adopted me? I shook my head. How much of this did I even have a right to talk about? Could I bring charges against Albert for what he’d done to Nicole or was that something that she needed to do? Maybe she didn’t want anyone to know what had been done to her or that she was carrying her rapist father’s baby.

Oh God. She said he’d last raped her during the winter break. So that was what, December or January? It was almost summer. If she wanted an abortion was it too late? Was that even something I could bring up to her? Dammit. I used to be able to talk to her about anything and now it was all crumbling. I didn’t know what I could touch without breaking it.

“Look,” I said. “Officer Jenkins. Albert Marshal is a horrible human being and has been doing terrible things. Go talk to him.”

Officer Jenkins nodded his head slowly. “Is that why you took Nicole with you when you left?”

“I had to get the girls out of there,” I said.

“By whatever means possible,” he said.

“Yeah.” Wait? What?

“Did they need any convincing?”

“Nope,” I said. “They were pretty eager to get the hell away from him. Poor Caroline was a little scared of being outside but…No. No convincing. Once Nicole saw her mom, we were pretty much out of there.”

Officer Jenkins scowled. I hadn’t given him the answer he’d expected. Oh, that mother fucker! He wasn’t interested in Albert. He was trying to get me to confess to kidnapping.

“No prodding at all? I find that hard to believe,” he said with a small laugh. “You know how women can be.”

“Not really, Officer Jenkins,” I said, more coolly than I’d intended. “Why don’t you tell me how women can be?”

Officer Jenkins put his hands up. “Whoa, I’m sensing some hostility here, Caleb. You often have trouble controlling your temper?”

I clenched my fist under the table but forced myself to remain calm. It didn’t really work. My entire body was tight and taut. I felt brittle. “Do I seem out of control, sir?”

“You seem right on the edge,” Jenkins said. “Right. On. The edge.”

“Wonder why that could be.” I glared at him, crossing my arms over my chest.

Whatever rapport he’d been building between us vanished.

Jenkins leaned back in his chair and reached into his pocket and dropped a torn envelope on the table. “Honestly I’m surprised you were able to hold back this long. Normally someone like you’s got a rap sheet long as my arm before they’re out of their teens. Guess you’re a late bloomer, huh?”

I looked at the envelope for a moment, judging his words before realizing what it was. They’d taken my DNA test results when they’d taken my phone and other things. This bastard now knew what I was. He’d stolen that information from me, read the results before I had.

My hand shot forward and I snatched the envelope up. “This wasn’t open when I arrived.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “It was open when I got it.”

Liar. “Guess it’s just something else to talk about with my lawyer.”

The door behind him swung open as I spoke revealing a narrow man with a surprisingly thick neck in a black suit and tie. “I’d rather you didn’t discuss what you should or shouldn’t be disclosing to your legal counsel while you’re being interrogated, Mr. Marshal.”

Jenkins scowled at the newcomer. “Who the hell are you?”

“Bob Avery, Mr. Marshal’s attorney. Has my client been charged with anything?”

Client? I sure as hell hadn’t paid anyone. I damn sure couldn’t pay this man what he was worth. I knew jack about clothes, but even I could tell that that suit was some high class tailored job and the watch on his arm probably cost several months of my old rent, at least. Bob Avery looked like he belonged in New York City or Boston, not this grubby little police station here in tiny Woodhurst.

“He’s been accused of kidnapping a young woman and had a dead baby in the back of his car,” Officer Jenkins said.

“Odd, the young woman in question is right outside and claims that she went with him willingly. Eagerly, by all accounts. And the dead baby belonged to one Caroline Marshal, who the hospital just positively identified. How odd, since she supposedly died two years ago. Did you know it was her widower—thankfully she’s legally rid of him—who filed the kidnapping report?”

“The dead baby—”

“Tragic,” Bob interrupted. “The hospital is fairly certain the baby belongs to Mrs. Marshal’s abusive ex-husband. Again, the man who filed the report. A report that is clearly missing a few details, wouldn’t you agree, sir?”

Officer Jenkins stood up. “This young man—”

“Has clearly been through an ordeal and should be with his friends and family right now. It’s not every day you learn you’re related to a monster. Caleb Marshal didn’t kidnap Mrs. and Ms. Marshal, he liberated them, and their account of events, as well as the evidence gathered by the forensics team now scouring the Marshal residence, will disprove any accusation against him.”

Bob stepped back and pushed the door wider open. “Are you coming Mr. Marshal?”

I started for the door, but Jenkins once again started to talk. “I am not done questioning him!”

“Yes, you are,” Bob said. “Especially without my being present. If you have any further questions for Mr. Marshal you will contact my office, not him. Is that understood?”

And we were out.

I stayed with Mr. Avery as we moved through the police station as if at any moment the police officers might turn on us. “Um, not to look a gift horse in the mouth—

Bob interrupted me. Apparently, this was a habit of his not limited to flustered police officers.

“So don’t, young man. And instead thank her,” he pushed open the doors to the police station, revealing the parking lot and a whole host of people standing there.

Absinthe and Scarlett ran at me, taking me in a double embrace. I held them for a moment, ignoring Bob and whoever he was pointing at as I let their presence wash through me. Their touch loosened things inside my body and settled the agitation that had been building ever since I’d been locked in the interrogation room.

I looked up with a sigh to find Nicole watching us with pensive expression on her face. Beside her stood Valencia. I hadn’t expected Scarlett’s mother to show up let alone look so relieved, but she did. The smile on her face was strained but more genuine than anything I’d seen there in the past week.

And beside them both stood Eleanor Hardin. It was her Bob Avery was pointing to.

She strolled over, a woman of ageless beauty who could have been anywhere between twenty-five and fifty-five. Her blond hair was done up and she wore an elegant sundress over cowboy boots. She leaned on a cane in her left hand. I wasn’t sure if she actually needed it or not but I was almost completely sure it was magical, serving her like some kind of magic wand or wizard’s staff.

“Bob,” she said as she glided up, the cane not hindering her grace in the slightest. “Thank you for coming.”

“Of course, Dr. Hardin,” Bob said. “Avery, Franklin, and Ross is, as always, at your service.”

“What’s that?” Nicole asked, gesturing at my hand. I glanced down at the envelope. I’d crinkled it up in my fist without meaning to.

“My DNA results,” I said. Then added, “The cops took a look when they took my things.”

Scarlett scowled. “Did you open it in the car without us?”

I shook my head. “No, they opened it.”

“I’ll have charges brought against them before five o’clock,” Bob said with a self-satisfied grin. “Can’t have anyone pushing around our newest client.”

“Uh…” Yeah, I was a real model of eloquence.

My hand with the envelope shook and my mind went back to what Jenkins had said. Something about most like me having a rap sheet? He’d been so sure I’d kidnapped Nicole.

It’s not every day you learn you’re related to a monster.

I swallowed and suddenly wanted to be alone. I had absolutely no right to want that. Not after everyone had shown up to support me and not after spending hours locked inside the interrogation room. But being around so many people was all of a sudden overwhelming. I needed to know what was in the envelope and I wanted to find out by myself.

“Thank you all so much,” I said. We piled into cars and headed for Eleanor’s. When we got there, I excused myself and went for a walk. A long walk. It was time to finally find out what I was.

Chapter Seven

Woodhurst was aptly named. There was a lot of forest around the town. I didn’t spend a lot of time in them but there were parks that weren’t too hard to reach on foot and the movement felt good after so long locked up in that tiny room. The air between the boughs was gold with the light that trickled through, thick and living. The trails smelled of pine and were cheerfully at odds with my own morose mood.

I walked the trails deep into the park until I found a small clearing with a pair of picnic tables. One of them was dilapidated and caved in on itself but the other was still in decent condition. This place must have been meant as a destination spot in the trails and hadn’t worked out. Clearly nobody had been here in a long time.

A gentle breeze swept through the clearing, brushing over my sweat soaked shirt and skin. If I’d been in my right mind, I would have said it was way too hot to be out here, which was probably why the trails had been deserted. The breeze felt good.

I sat at the still functioning table and pulled out the envelope. I stared at it. The torn paper seemed to stare back at me. I should have been the one to open it. My hands shook. My mouth went dry. Whatever was in here had been enough to convince Officer Jenkins to believe I would kidnap my own sister. I tried to swallow and couldn’t. My mouth was too dry.

Fuck it. I’d wanted to know this for so long. One asshole’s opinion wouldn’t change anything. I yanked out the report and read it. A big portion was given over to a table of allele sizes, whatever the fuck an allele was. The table correlated with a number of terms that were both scientific and arcane and meant next to jack to me. The real meat of it, the part that I could understand, was written in a section titled “Interpretation” at the bottom beneath the table.

I don’t know how long I stared at it before I sensed Scarlett and Absinthe approaching.

“We’ve gotten better at locating you,” Scarlett said. “It was actually easier to find you here than when you were camping out in that shed.”

The shed. It was hard to believe that just that morning I’d lived the dream most guys never got to fulfil with these two gorgeous women. I looked from them to the paper and then back. If what was on it was true, then there was no way that anything I’d done to them was in some way good. The memory of our lovemaking was tainted. I had poisoned their minds with my magic and bound them to me, stealing their free will. This was not a new debate for me, I’d argued with myself about it ever since I’d first bound Scarlett. Now I knew the source of my magic and knew for a certainty where it fell on the morality spectrum.

“I don’t want to be with anyone right now,” I said. Just their being there made me feel better. I didn’t want to feel better. I wanted to suffer for what I’d done to them. What I’d stolen. I had no right to take comfort from my victims.

Scarlett made a strained face. “Whatever is on that paper we’ll take care of it together.”

“No.”

“Get your head out of your ass,” Absinthe snapped.

I stiffened.

“You think I’m with you only because of your magic? Is that what you think?”

Yeah, I kind of had.

My thoughts must have shown on my face because her eyes narrowed. “Un-fucking believable. Did you even do a Google search on werewolf mates?”

No. No, I had not.

“My wolf recognized you for you before your magic bound us together. I was already going to be with you, dumbass.”

“But if it weren’t for my magic, I wouldn’t…you don’t understand. It’s changing me. I can feel it.” I reached up and touched my antlers. They’d darkened several shades since my curse had broken. Before long they’d be black if this didn’t stop. And my teeth were sharper now as well. And…and I was meaner. Tougher. More aggressive. I didn’t back down and I tended to act without thinking, on impulse, if the last few months were anything to go by. I was not a good person to be around. Bad things kept happening to and around me and now I knew why.

“Bullshit,” she said.

“Yeah, bullshit,” Scarlett agreed. She looked between us, then offered me an almost apologetic smile. “You…you’re more confident than before. Back when I first met you, you were kind of a loser. Not because you couldn’t do magic but…you didn’t really do anything.”

She thought I was a loser before my curse had been broken? Thanks, Scarlett, thanks a lot. Because that curse breaking had not been an improvement. It hadn’t. And Absinthe…werewolves were attracted to power, alpha males and all that shit. And look at her role models. Biker gang criminals. Violence on wheels.

“I want to be alone right now,” I said. “Go away.”

They didn’t move. As one they started to come toward me, slowly, as if struggling. My magic surged and I let it pour into my voice, commanding them. “Go home.”

They both winced and averted their green eyes. Then they were gone.

So, I could command them. That wasn’t horrifying in the slightest. Dammit, what was I going to do?

I stared at the paper some more until the golden light turned orange. New footsteps approached, soft and familiar. I recognized them as easily as I did Scarlett and Absinthe’s, though I had no reason to. I hadn’t spent a lot of time around Nicole lately. I should probably stay the hell away from her, truth be told. Maybe I could send Scarlett and Absinthe away as well? They loved each other, so they could have one another without me fucking things up for them.

“Shouldn’t you be in the hospital with your mom?” I asked as she closed the distance between us.

“She’s on drugs and passed out,” Nicole said. “Probably having her first real rest since…you know.”

I nodded. “Still, you shouldn’t be here.”

“Caleb Marshal, believe it or not you don’t actually get to decide where I’m supposed to go or what I’m supposed to do. I’ve had enough of that to last me a lifetime, thank you.”

I cringed. “Guess you can have this table then. I’ll go find somewhere else to—”

She snatched the paper from my hands.

“Hey!”

She glared at me, pale blue eyes narrowed. “Is this what’s bothering you so much?”

I wanted to look away, to break her gaze. I couldn’t. I couldn’t back down from the challenge she was offering me. A wave of aggression surged through me and I stood up, towering over her. “Yes. It’s bothering me. Give it back.”

She blinked. “No. But…I think I like this side of you.”

It was my turn to blink in stupid surprise. “Huh?”

She used my confusion to skim the paper, her eyes coming to rest on the same block of text that had arrested my own attention. Then they went back up, reading over the chart. Occasionally she would make little noises in her mouth.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this, this is fascinating,” she said when she finally tore her eyes away. “This might explain Dr. Hardin’s interest in you at least.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never mind that right now,” she said. “Caleb. This…do you realize what this says about you?” She was so earnest. To her, this was just another medical science puzzle to figure out. She had always wanted to be a doctor.

“That I’m a lot less human than I’d thought,” I said. “I mean, I don’t fully understand it all, but it says that…I’m both a cambion and a changeling. How does that even happen?”

“On purpose, I would think. The effort that had to have gone into conceiving you…Caleb, you do know what those are, don’t you?”

Not in intense depth, but basically yes. A changeling was a half fae-half human child, usually left abandoned by the fae parent on a doorstep or in place of a kidnap victim. A cambion was the result of incubi and succubi trading human sperm and impregnating a human woman with a human man’s semen, tainting it with infernal magic along the way.

Both changelings and cambions were prone to…misbehavior. They didn’t tend to live long lives. If you had asked me, I wouldn’t have thought that an incubus or succubus could rape a fae. And it was rape—those creatures were not the hot little sex-bombs videogames made them out to be. They were fucking evil. And I had their blood in me. Along with the blood of an unknown type of fae. 

“I researched them both,” I said. “They still don’t know what kind of fae blood I’ve got but they want to run more tests on the samples we sent.”

“Caleb, you’re still half human. Demons don’t actually have genetic material. They influenced your magic, not your DNA. Or…at least that’s always been the theory. I don’t know how their magic interacts with fae magic.” She was actually getting excited.

That was good, wasn’t it? I liked seeing her face light up like this. I wish it was about something other than this though. Being part fae wasn’t all that surprising really. Most magic that tied things to the land, at least in the west, tended to be fae-related and my magic liked whatever was going on at Eleanor’s house. I had thought though that maybe I was only a quarter or something, like maybe one of my parents had been a changeling. Not that one of my parent’s was a fae who had been either been raped or been party to a rape by demonic entities while my other parent was raped outright. It was…disturbing.

“Nicole,” I said slowly. “I’m a monster.”

The cheerful expression on her face died. “Don’t you dare talk to me about monsters. I know monsters much better than you do.”

I guess that was fair. “But—”

“No buts! Caleb,” she reached up and put a hand on my shoulder and took a deep breath. “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You…you made that house so much better. You made things bearable.”

My face cracked. “I’m so sorry. I had—I was right there and I had no idea what was going on. I should have—“

Her hand went from my shoulder to gently place the fingers over my lips. “That right there is why you are a good man, Caleb. This paper doesn’t change that. We understand your magic and maybe your impulses a little bit better now, but that’s all. You’re still you. And I wanted to protect that. I didn’t want…Caleb, I didn’t want you to know what was happening to me.”

Her fingers dropped away and she broke my gaze to stare down at the bench.

“Why?” If she had told me I could have helped her. I would have helped her. God, I hated that I had been so blind.

“Because then it would all be over,” she said. “Not the…not what he was doing. But you would have gone away. They would have taken you, and you’d have known that…that I wasn’t worth…”

I lifted her chin up and met her teary eyes. I meant to pull her to my chest in an embrace.

Instead, our lips came together and we kissed.

Chapter Eight

The kiss should have been short. A chaste and accidental thing that we could brush off.

But when our lips began to part, I pushed forward, capturing her mouth with mine, my fingers reaching around to tangle in her pale hair and pull her to me. I wanted her. I had wanted her since the first day I’d been brought to the Marshal household and told she was going to be my new sister. I’d wanted her even more since she’d snuck into my room all those years ago, but I’d pushed those desires down and aside. That wasn’t our relationship and was never going to be our relationship.

And now here we were.

She kissed me back, throwing her arms around me and pulling me into her. The bench and picnic table didn’t make for a comfortable position and when we tried to adjust ourselves we fell. I tucked myself under her and hit the ground at the same time she fell on top of me with a little shriek.

She was on top of me. She was in control.

I didn’t want to hurt her or ruin the relationship we’d built. This wasn’t the right time to do this. If there ever could be a right time it wouldn’t be now, not when I’d just learned she was pregnant with her rapist father’s baby and we’d both learned that her mother was both alive and had been his victim for the last two years. The last few days must have been traumatic for her. I should put a stop to this right now. My erection screamed at me as it strained against my jeans, informing me that I was an absolute dumbass.

I started to say something and the look of dazed lust in her eyes suddenly became both hard and fiery. “Don’t you dare stop now, Caleb. Don’t you dare.”

Her voice broke a little on the last word.

I rolled her over, flipping her into leaves and pine needles, and once again claimed her mouth with mine. Desire exploded between us. My magic rose and I didn’t care. All I could think about was the woman in my arms, her tongue sliding against mine and her breasts pressing into my chest. Only a few layers of cloth separated our bodies and I wanted them gone.

I held back. I didn’t want to hurt or frighten her. She’d been through enough. She…she needed me. Needed me to need her and to not hold anything back. I had a sudden insight into her life, not unlike what I’d shared with Scarlett the first time we’d had sex. Apart from our brief encounters, Nicole had only ever been with Albert. And Albert had been…he’d made gentle sex something that made her skin crawl. She needed something different.

It had taken me a little while to learn the preferences of my girls. Scarlett liked gentle kisses and hard sex. Absinthe liked to make love but appreciated rough foreplay and dirty kissing. What Nicole liked came to me in a hard rush, whether because we’d had sex so long ago or because I was adapting to my own magic, I couldn’t have said and in that moment didn’t really care.

I kissed her, crushing her mouth with mine, grabbing her hands and shoving them over her head. Her back arched off the ground and I ripped her shirt up, over her bra, over her head, and used it to help bind her hands together. Her body was softer, more lush than either of my other lovers, her skin paler and her breasts more bountiful, straining against the boring beige bra that held them against her chest.

Green fire sprang to life between my fingers and I burned the bit of cloth in the center hooking the two cups together and the garment spilled away, revealing her naked breasts to the air. Her nipples were shockingly pink and hard, begging to be pinched and kissed. I pressed my mouth into the side of her neck, letting her feel my teeth against the sensitive skin while the hand not holding her hands above her head slid down to cup one of her full breasts.

She made little moaning noises that set my blood on fire. My hands were not gentle with her. She didn’t want them to be. I could feel her pleasure at my roughness, igniting a passion in her that she’d feared she’d never feel.

I was in her head, then I was her and it was a little over a year ago. Another student, a man also on a Navy medical track, had propositioned her. He was attractive and she wanted him. She wanted him more when he’d told her that he lived a rather eccentric lifestyle. The kind that featured floggers and ball gags. She hadn’t wanted to turn him down but she had, ashamed of her excitement. She had just escaped an abusive relationship, why on earth would the idea of a pretend abusive one turn her on so much?

She’d thought she’d pushed the memory away and forgotten it. It resurfaced now and with it, a surge of lust mingled with…hope. My remaining doubts about hurting her vanished.

I yanked down her pants, forcing them over her tennis shoes, and ripped her panties off before freeing my erection. I fell upon her, slamming our mouths together once again as I slammed our hips together. My shaft found a home between her lightly haired nether lips and pushed in. She was only a little wet and she gasped in a mixture of pain and pleasure as I forced myself inside her body. She shook and gasped, shuddering as I bottomed out, and suddenly her passage was flooded.

“Oh God, yes,” she cried. Fluids gushed over my cock and down our thighs. “It hurts so good. Do more. More.”

I slammed into her. Over and over. I mauled her breasts, pinching her nipples between my teeth as my hands held her down and roughly explored her body at the same time. She was so soft and pliant and delicate and she wanted me to break her. I happily obliged, becoming everything she wanted and thought forbidden to her. I let out every ounce of pent up anger and fear and years of longing and slammed my body into hers over and over again with bruising force. Her legs fell wide apart around me. Her whole being shuddered with every impact, tennis shoed feet bobbing wildly on either side of us in the air.

Mini-orgasms rippled through her sex, spreading through her core and into her limbs. They weren’t enough. She needed more. We needed more. We needed to fuck away everything that had been done to and denied us.

I pulled out and she groaned, only to turn that sound into a panicked little scream as I grabbed her hips and flipped her over in a spill of leaves and nettles. I positioned her before me on her hands and knees, her pert ass up and ready for me. I grabbed her hips and slid home inside of her and she moaned.

It was a moan of both pleasure and disappointment. Pleasure because she wanted my shaft inside of her. Disappointment because it didn’t hurt as much anymore. She needed more pain. Craved it. I gave her ass a quick spank and she let out a delighted shriek, her body clenching down on me.

I knew what I had do to.

I slid out of her, ignoring her moan of disappointment as I left her empty, and repositioned myself. She went very still as the head, coated liberally with her fluids, pressed into her rosebud.

She audibly swallowed. “Caleb…do it. Hurt me. God I’m a horrible freak, hurt me.”

I pressed into her, a gentle but constant pressure. Her sphincter slowly gave way and she moaned. She was tight. So, so tight. I had to put more pressure or I wouldn’t go all the way—suddenly I was through and the increased pressure slid my length all the way inside of her until my hips slapped into her ass. She screamed. I grabbed her hips and held her still.

“It hurts,” she hissed. “It’s like a hot knife.”

I began to pull out.

She slammed her hips backward, forcing me to stay bottomed out. “No!”

She took a deep breath. “No, don’t stop. Don’t…just…just take me, Caleb. Take me!”

I withdrew myself and slowly pressed back in. Then again, a little harder. And then harder. She whimpered and moaned and her entire body shuddered. Her arms gave out on the fifth stroke and she fell to the ground, impaled ass up in the air still taking my length. I pistoned in and out of her several times, gripping her hips to deliver each thrust harder than before.

I released her hips and leaned over her, pressing my chest into her back and tossing her platinum blonde hair clear of her neck. She was gasping, moaning with miniature orgasms. Nicole didn’t come like any other girl I’d been with. I grinned at her flushed face, so different from her usual composed expression. She was utterly wanton and I adored her for it.

I kissed her neck, then bit her. Her entire body stiffened as a new orgasm struck her. Her ass clenched down on me and I lost control. Nothing had ever squeezed me so tight. Pulse after pulse of my semen spurted into her, coating her bowels until I finally had nothing left to give and collapsed atop her, panting.

We lay there in a tangle of limbs for several moments until my member slipped out of her. I rolled over and glanced down. My flesh had been smeared in a fine reddish orange coating and smelled of iron. I’d made her bleed.

I rolled onto my side to make sure she was okay but she rolled over at the same time. Fiery green eyes met mine.

She smiled. “That was…unexpected.”

Her blue eyes were gone. I’d never see them again. “Nicole, I—“

She silenced me with a kiss. “I’ve been wanting to do that for years, Caleb. Don’t ruin it by apologizing.”

Slowly, I nodded. This was going to complicate things.

A phone rang, making us both jump. Night had fallen while we’d been fucking and we were both suddenly and keenly aware that we were naked, outside, in a very public place. We hurried to get dressed and in the process found Nicole’s phone going off. The call went to voicemail before she could answer it.

She frowned at me as she held up her ruined bra and underwear, then slapped me with them. “Really? You couldn’t just take them off like a normal person?”

I grinned at her, sheepishly at first, then wolfishly as she melted under my gaze. “You loved it.”

She blushed. “I kind of did. Now hush.”

She put the phone to her ear and listened to the voicemail. The pleased expression on her face fell, replaced by a shocked look of utter dread.

“We have to go,” she said, hurrying out of the clearing and back to the trails.

“What happened?” I asked, jogging to keep up.

“It’s Dad,” she said. “He showed up at the hospital and…he’s got Mom.”

Chapter Nine

It felt like someone had hit a giant reset button. Nicole had taken her car to the park and drove us back to the police station where we were reunited with everyone who’d been there before. The Woodhurst PD had called Nicole and asked her to come in. Since I was with her I was along for the ride and we let everyone else know where we were going. Them showing up hadn’t really been part of the plan but here they were.

Scarlett and Absinthe weren’t really a surprise—damn I owed them both a huge apology—nor was Bob Avery or Eleanor. He was her lawyer, not mine. He just happened to be representing me. But Valencia was there again as well. I didn’t know what to make of that. Or any of it really.

I’d never had a support system like this. Since being adopted by the Marshals my only real support had come from Nicole, and she had been limited in what she could do. Now here I was, surrounded by people who wanted to make sure I was okay. Even after I’d basically ditched them all to go have a pity party in the middle of a crisis. God I was such an asshole.

“Feels kind of like we were all just here, doesn’t it?” I said as we all converged on the doors to the police department. It was the best I could come up with. There were so many words I needed to say. Apologies to make and gratitude to express. Nothing I could do would be sufficient.

Scarlett snorted. She and Absinthe didn’t stop moving, they walked straight into me and pulled me into a three way hug. A shuddering gasp escaped me and a relief swept through all of us. I needed them. Fuck my heritage. Fuck whatever the binding that held us together. It was there and we were here and we needed each other now and I wasn’t letting them go. I’d been a complete and utter idiot.

And I couldn’t think about any of that now because there was a very real crisis at hand. I started to pull back when both girls froze, then gave me a deliberate sniff. They had fae-hound and werewolf noses. Which meant they probably not only smelled the forest on me from the park but the smell of sex still on me. Oh. Oh damn, I hadn’t even thought.

Both of them turned to look at Nicole, who blushed but held their gaze.

It was actually Valencia who spoke first, addressing Nicole. “Your eyes. Weren’t they blue before? They look just like….”

She trailed off, looking from Nicole’s eyes to the matching set in her daughter and our girlfriend’s face. Her mouth made a little O.

“She’s hot,” Scarlett said. “Your eyes look good on her.”

Bob Avery cleared his throat. “Would somebody please explain to me what’s going on?”

Eleanor patted the lawyer’s arm. “Later, Mr. Avery. Over tea when there are less pressing concerns.”

The door to the police station opened and Officer Jenkin strode out. He froze when he saw us. “Guess that makes this easy,” he muttered, though not so quietly that we couldn’t hear. “Mr. Marshal, I’d like to ask you a few questions inside if you don’t mind.”

Nicole rushed forward to meet him. “Do you know where Dad’s taken Mom?”

Officer Jenkins cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. He glanced down at Nicole’s chest. I remembered that I’d ruined her bra earlier and her breasts did absolutely fascinating things to her t-shirt without one, her plump nipples making little tents in the fabric.

“We are looking into every possible lead,” Jenkins said, making a visible effort to look at Nicole’s face and not her unrestrained breasts. “Which is why I’d like to talk to your brother. Find out where he’s been all afternoon.”

“With me,” Nicole said. “We just spent the last few hours together.”

Jenkins grimaced. “And before that?”

“He was with us,” Absinthe and Scarlett said at the same time.

Scarlett kept going. “We went for a walk in the National Park right after leaving here.”

Officer Jenkins clenched his jaw and said nothing.

Bob Avery stepped up beside me and place a hand on my shoulder. “Surely you weren’t about to suggest that my client might have had something to do with his mother’s kidnaping?”

“Just trying to get all that facts,” Jenkins said.

Nicole’s phone rang with the Imperial March. She froze like a startled rabbit.

“That’s Albert’s ring tone isn’t it?” I asked.

Slowly, she nodded.

“Everyone be quiet,” Jenkins barked. “Please answer it and put it on speaker, Ms. Marshal.”

Nicole lifted the phone, but didn’t answer it. She only stared at the screen. She hadn’t assigned Albert a photo so the screen was all black except for the word DAD at the top.

I put a hand on her upper arm. “You don’t have to answer it. I can if you want.”

“No,” Jenkins said. “He’s calling her. We don’t want to throw anything unexpected at him if he kidnapped her.”

If? I glared at him, not only for that comment but for pushing Nicole to talk to the creep. She shouldn’t ever have to think about him again, let alone talk to him.

“It’s okay, Caleb,” Nicole said. She took my hand, squeezing my fingers tight in hers, and answered the phone with her other, holding it face up for all of us to listen in on.

“Nicole Bear,” Albert said. “Where are you?”

She glanced at Jenkins who shook his head.

“Where’s Mom,” she asked.

Albert sighed. “Nicole. Mom died two years ago. You know that. What has that hooligan told you?”

She swallowed. “Dad. Where is Mom?”

“I don’t understand why you’re asking me this, Nicole. Mom is dead. Where are you? Did Caleb hurt you?”

Nicole bit her lower lip and her eyes flashed. I couldn’t tell if she wanted to scream in rage or fear or both.

“I think he actually stole some things from me when he kidnapped you,” he went on. “Some video files. Nothing too important since I have backups, but still, it shows a profound lack of character. You need to get away from him and come home.”

Nicole closed her eyes. Tears spilled out of their corners. When they opened, the fear was still there, but now they also shone with determination. Without thinking she spun away from the group, marching as she spoke into the speaker. “I am safer with him than I ever was with you. I know what you are. I know what you’ve done. And you’re not getting away with it any more. Where have you taken Mom?”

The phone was quiet for moment after that.

“You’re his creature now,” he said. The concerned, fatherly tone he’d been using was gone. He sounded cold and hollow. “I can see it in you.”

He hung up.

“What the hell was that?” Jenkins said, striding up to Nicole. “If he had her—”

I stepped between her and the police officer. I didn’t say a word, just glared at him.

“Son, you do not want to get on my bad side tonight,” he said, squaring off with me.

I wanted to say something. Everything in my surged forward, hungry to address his challenge. I pushed the urge down. He was a police officer. He could arrest me. He was fucking useless but he could get in my way. Especially if I understood Albert’s threat about backup files correctly.

I stepped away, putting an arm around Nicole and pulled her back to Scarlett and Absinthe. Jenkins made to follow but was intercepted by Bob Avery, who began doing his “I can always find a way to interrupt you and make you look stupid” trick.

“We have find her ourselves,” I said. “Damn, if I’d been smart I’d have asked you to drop me off at the hospital and the pair of you to meet us there.”

Nicole frowned. “What do you mean you can find her?”

“It’s part of my magic,” I explained, speaking quietly so that Officer Jumps-to-Conclusions wouldn’t overhear. “Or, our magic really. If we can get hold of something that smells like…like Mom…you all can transform and my magic will help you track her down. We’ll move fast and catch him completely off guard.”

“You all…wait.” She dug into her purse and pulled out a little compact makeup thingy. She flipped it open and looked in the mirror, gasping when she saw her eyes. A hand reached up, touching her face all around them.

“You told me about this, but I—I didn’t think,” Nicole said, then she smiled. “I hated that I had his eyes, you know.”

I’d always thought of them as Caroline’s eyes but both she and Albert had blue eyes now that I thought of it. “You’re not mad at me?”

She rolled her newly green eyes. “Caleb, if what you’ve done to me will help us find Mom, then what you did to me in that park is only just the beginning.”

Absinthe smirked. “You might have to make a performance of it.”

Nicole’s face started to light up with heat and then went pale, her expression becoming horrified. “Performance. Caleb he has—”

“I know,” I said, cutting her off before she could say anything about his recordings of us that Jensen might overhear. “We’ll take care of them after we’ve get Mom back.”

She gave a little nod. “Thank you.”

Scarlett looked back and forth between us. “Okay, we’ll work through all the details—and I mean all of them—as soon as we handle this crisis. Right after, you hear?”

It was my turn to nod. So did Nicole.

“Good enough,” Absinthe said. “For now.”

We rushed for Nicole’s car before anyone could try to stop us. Jenkin’s began shouting at us from the parking lot, but the four of us piled into her car and took off. First stop, Woodhurst Hospital. Next stop, Caroline Marshal. And when we found her, I’d do everything to Albert Marshal that I’d fantasized about on the trip back to Woodhurst.

Chapter Ten

Getting something of Caroline’s proved to be more difficult than we’d first expected. What I’d originally hoped for was to get to the hospital, go find the room Caroline had been in, and then use her sheets to get her scent for the girls. Nicole knew exactly which room she’d been staying in, and though we got more than a few odd looks walking through the sterile halls, nobody stopped us until we actually got where we’d been meaning to go.

Then we ran into a problem.

Four police officers loitered around the room like bored gargoyles in uniform, which was four more than I’d expected. Okay, maybe I should have expected at least one token guard to be there, but four? My best guess was that someone higher up on the food chain had taken an interest and let the Woodhurst PD know it. I mean, it wasn’t like Albert was just going to waltz in here and put Caroline back or something, and none of them were doing anything other than standing around looking bored. Then again, what else was there for them to do around Woodhurst?

Sure there were meth dealers and let’s not forget that human traffickers occasionally passed through town, but if my experience was any indication, the setups for those tended to be outside of the town proper, hidden on or around private property and kept out of sight. If you didn’t know they were there and nobody told you, you’d go right past them. Which was kind of the point and it kept the cops trolling students for traffic tickets and guarding empty hospital rooms because they had nothing better to do. Easy cushy job for them, problematic for us.

One of them appeared to be sharing a mildly amusing anecdote, but their expressions were more glazed than animated. There had to be a donut joke in there somewhere.

“Does anyone have a Plan B?” I whispered.

Absinthe pulled me back and stepped up to the front, pulling Nicole with her. “Be upset,” she whispered at her, then glanced at Scarlett and me. “We’ll distract them. You get in there, grab what you need, and run.”

Without another word she marched herself and Nicole out into full view of the cops and made a b-line for them. Nicole caught on quick and burst into tears.

“Where’s my mom?” she wailed.

I actually stood there for a full three heartbeats in stunned appreciation. I’d really thought we were screwed there. We still could be. There were, after all, four pairs of eyes and we weren’t exactly inconspicuous. The hospital didn’t exactly bustle with activity. We were on the third floor and most of what I’d seen of patients and visitors had been on the floors below us.

The hospital hallways on this floor basically made a giant square. Scarlett and I would need to double back to come down the hall from the other side while the cops were distracted by Nicole and Absinthe. Risky as all hell but I guess that’s why she picked Scarlett and me for it. We were easily the fastest in the group, especially Scarlett, who ran track competitively.

I wish she’d given us more heads up though. Damn. Wait, was she mad at me? Initiative or anger…double damn. I needed my head in the game—not be distracted by how I may or may not have fucked up the best things in my life. Wow…the girls were the best things in my life. I loved them. And I might have seriously hurt them by doing what I’d done with Nicole. I might have just destroyed my relationship with my sister and confidante.

Fuck. I couldn’t spare the focus to pick at this problem and bury myself in morose indecision again. I had to act. One problem at a time. Or in my case one crisis at a time.

Scarlett and I moved as quickly and unobtrusively as we could around the hospital floor, circling around behind the officers. We were in synch, predators on the hunt. I felt like a ninja or super spy. This wasn’t so impossible. About halfway around the building, when we were on the opposite side of the building from the cops, Scarlett threw me a look.

“So, your sister, huh?”

And so much for one thing at a time.

“Adopted sister,” I clarified. “No blood between us.”

She made a sound that could have meant anything. “You’re both taking it well.”

I swallowed. “Yeah, well, we’re kind of in crisis mode. I don’t think it’s really hit either of us yet.” And maybe, maybe despite all my confiding in her, Nicole didn’t fully believe or understand what had happened between us and how she had changed. How we were now bound together.

“Are,” I took a deep breath and swallowed down my nervousness. “Are you okay with it?”

She visibly choked down a laugh. “Kind of late to be asking now, isn’t it?”

Fair enough.

Further conversation became impossible if we wanted to avoid being caught. And if it put off that particular conversation I owed Scarlett and Absinthe then all the better. Was I being an emotional coward? Absolutely. Frankly it was a miracle that my girls hadn’t ripped me to pieces the second they saw Nicole’s new eyes.

Or maybe they couldn’t? My power might not let them have an opinion on the subject. No, that wasn’t right. They definitely had opinions about what had happened. But how much of their reaction was them and how much was my magic? Dammit not all this again. Why did I have affinities that entered such a fucking grey area? Oh, right, because I was a fucking fae-demon-human hybrid. Maybe in a week I’d get another letter from the scientists at the lab saying they’d found an evil kitchen sink somewhere in my lineage too.

We poked our head around the corner to the hallway with the cops. Nicole was balling in the middle of the floor a few yards down from the room Caroline had been staying in. She screamed and wailed and clung to two officers simultaneously while Absinthe harangued the other two for not doing a better job. And for being cops. And for being incompetent. And insensitive. And…damn, she was really letting them have it. One of the cops’ ears had turned such a bright shade of red they looked in danger of catching fire. God, I hoped that wasn’t what was waiting for me after we got Caroline back.

The two of them did such a good job distracting the cops that it took little more than a casual, if quiet, stroll to get to the room unnoticed and slip inside. A window opposite the door had been slid open so that a breeze could carry through a protective screen, erected as much to keep patients in as the bugs out. It overlooked the parking lot and the woods behind it. There were worse views to be had.

The room itself was completely sterile, smelling faintly of ammonia, old people, and that special hospital cold smell that couldn’t be found anywhere else. I’d expected the room to be empty. I hadn’t expected it to be this clean. There was no sign of the clothes she’d been brought to the hospital in, either because she’d been wearing them when Albert kidnapped her or because the hospital staff had thrown them away. This…this had been done since Caroline had been taken. Didn’t that go against some kind of crime scene procedure? Dammit. There was nothing of hers left. They had even changed the sheets.

I didn’t have a werewolf or cu sith’s nose, but I could tell that there was nothing left in the room that could give us Caroline’s scent. The only sign that anyone had even been in here was a cheap vase of flowers from the gift shop at the front of the hospital that looked like every other generic bouquet they had on display.

“Dammit,” I swore under my breath.

Scarlett scowled and lifted the clean sheets from the bed, pulling them up to her nose. She took a deep breath, then sagged. Lowering the sheet she shook her head. No scent.

 A surge of red hot rage surged up inside of me, burning my eyes and flinging green sparks from my shaking fists. I spun, aiming a sparking fist toward the cheap bouquet of flowers, the need to break something overpowering my common sense—and I froze, only a few inches away from smashing the vase into the wall. There was something behind the vase. A reddish brown something that looked sickeningly familiar.

I moved the vase aside and came face to face with the eyeless Colin. The fetus stared up at me from the bedside table, its bulbous face impassive bordering on nonplussed. Slowly I picked the macabre thing up and held it out to Scarlett.

Her entire face wrinkled in revulsion and she shook her head, refusing to get close.

Oh for fuck’s sake. In three steps I crossed the room and was in front of her, holding the fetus up for her to smell. She backed away. I followed, still holding up the dead baby.

“Get that thing away from me,” she said in a hiss. “That is fucking disgusting, Caleb.”

“I don’t care if it’s disgusting,” I said. “Can you get her scent off of it? She was clutching it to her the entire car ride up here.”

For a moment I thought she might be about to puke. “I don’t—”

“Hey! What are you kids doing in there?” One of the cops allegedly on guard duty had poked his head in through the door.

“What the hell is that?” he demanded, catching sight of Colin. He stepped into the room. From the movement behind him I could tell the others were about to follow suit. We had only an instant to act and three options to choose between.

Option one; we freeze and play nice with the officers. We weren’t technically doing anything wrong. Unfortunately we’d be delayed for who knew how long and they might try to take Colin from us. We needed the taxidermied fetus to find Caroline and we needed to find her and Albert before the cops. There was too much at stake.

Option two; we play hardball and force our way past the cops. Who all had firearms. And if we weren’t in trouble before, we sure as hell would be after a stunt like that. There was no way we wouldn’t be recognized. My antlers were kind of distinctive. None of us needed to be charged with assaulting an officer. Even if we succeeded in rescuing Caroline, we couldn’t care for her if we were all in prison or fined into poverty.

That left us with option three. I didn’t like option three. I really, really didn’t like option three. But I took it, exchanging a glance with Scarlett. Something past between us and my intent carried over to her like a warm caress.

We moved at the same time, breaking into an all-out sprint. We reached the window at almost the same time, Scarlett a half-second ahead of me. Which was perfect. She leapt through the window, hurling her athletic body with all of her considerable strength through the screen. It gave way with a clang, popping free of the window as she passed through. I followed after her, one hand grabbing her shoulder.

I had an instant to regret my actions as we fell and I was struck by the sensation of leaving my stomach behind in the hospital. The parking lot rushed up at us. We screamed.

Green fire flowed out of Scarlett’s mouth and enveloped the both of us. The shoulder I was holding onto grew, muscles expanding and reshaping as fur sprouted beneath my grip, brought on by the magical flames. A second later, Scarlett was in her massive cu sith-werewolf form, all whitish-green and shaggy with an emerald light glowing from inside her body and I was clinging to her back.

We hit the pavement.

And didn’t die!

The breath was knocked out of me, but somehow I didn’t lose my grip on her fur. For her part, Scarlett barely seemed to notice. She crouched low, absorbing the impact as if the fall was nothing, and then launched herself into a sprint with me holding on for dear life.

A second later we were followed by the sound of more shouting and two figures came flying out the window after us. Absinthe was grinning like a maniac as the wind whipped her dark hair and leather jacket behind her. Green fire spread from her mouth, engulfing her body and transforming her.

Nicole wasn’t grinning. She looked terrified. Did she not know how to transform? Of course she didn’t! None of us had told her anything about her new abilities. Her new magic might not even be developed enough yet for her to transform at all.

A second later she screamed as the ground rushed up at her…still in human form.

Chapter Eleven

She wasn’t transforming. She wasn’t transforming!

Green fire erupted from her mouth as she screamed, engulfing her only feet from the ground. She hit the parking lot asphalt still burning, emerald flames roaring up in a torrent. And then they were gone, leaving a horse-sized canine standing in a crouch where the flames had been. Nicole was covered in pale fur, lit from within with a greenish light. Unlike Scarlett, whose fur was a solid coat of that paleness, or Absinthe who had a darkened mask and saddle pattern, Nicole’s ears and tail were tipped with darker fur, as were her legs, giving her the appearance of socks.

The new wolf-hound shook her head and staggered, clearly disoriented. Absinthe, who had landed gracefully and, like Scarlett, launched herself into a run, circled back and nipped at Nicole’s flank. Nicole yelped, then ran. Awkward and gangly at first, then with speed and grace. I almost didn’t hear the swearing of the officers at the window overhead. So much for discretion.

Scarlett slowed when we reached the woods, allowing the others to catch up with us. Miraculously, I hadn’t dropped Colin during the near-suicidal leap out the window. The fetus was tucked under my arm like a football and, sadly, with about as much regard. We came to a clearing and I signaled for us to come to a stop.

I didn’t realize how much I was hurting until my feet hit the ground. There had been so much going on that it was easy to forget all that I’d been through just before all of this happened. That massive jolt when we hit the ground had seemed like nothing more than a speedbump at the time. Now, it was telling my body that I’d been through a wood chipper. Injuries from our tangle with Angelo Cabal and his undead creatures were flaring up and I was suddenly sore in my legs and lower back.

We’d discovered that I healed faster with sex, and I’d had some awesome bouts of that, but I was definitely going to need more after this. I grimaced away the pain and shoved those thoughts down with it. Focus. I needed to focus on the problem at hand. I held up Colin.

“It’s not bedsheets,” I told the girls as they circled around me. It occurred to me that if they wanted to rip me to pieces, there really wasn’t anything I could do about it. They were enormous in this form, equipped with lethal teeth and my spellfire only healed them faster than their werewolf regeneration.

“But it was down in that prison with Caroline for who knows how long and she carried it on her the whole ride up here. Think it’ll work?”

Absinthe was the first to come forward and sniff the fetus. Flicking her ears in agitation and somehow conveying a look of complete canine disgust, Scarlett followed suit. Nicole looked back and forth between the two, then stepped forward to follow their example. It was clear she had no idea what she was doing or taking part in. We really hadn’t don’t a good job explaining how everything worked. She had to be processing a whole lot right now.

I reached for my magic and it leapt to my command, eager to set us once more on the hunt. I swear it felt giddy. Magic wasn’t supposed to have feelings. At least, human magic wasn’t. Now that I knew my heritage and considered my affinities, they made sense. Sex, fire, and…hunting. My fae parent was some kind of hunter. Trixie, Soraya’s contracted pixie companion, liked calling me hunter. And fae magic was supposed to be different than human magic.

The magic burst from me, twisting itself into a spell, and lashing all of us to it. As one, the girls raised their heads and let out three long howls. Once, hearing that sound would have frozen the blood in my veins and sent me scurrying for a place to hide. Now it made my heart pound with excitement and my body grow hot. I grew hard, excited in more ways than one. A grin had spread across my face, bearing my fangs. I could feel that they’d grown even sharper than my last check in the mirror.

As the last howl left the girls they took off and so did I. We knew where our quarry was and the world narrowed down to us and them, creating a path that urged us along it. It was as if the ground itself pushed at our feet, springing us forward with each and every step. Obstacles simply melted and flowed around us, either because the magic made us that fast or because it was warping the world around us to create the fastest possible route. We ran and I ran with them, somehow keeping pace with creatures built for speed and endurance. No matter how fast I pumped my legs, I should not have been able to stay with them and yet I did.

A thrill settled over me and I tasted iron. The spell was taking us to Caroline but we knew Caroline was with Albert. Our real prey. No longer a victimizer but a victim. He just didn’t know it yet.

The woods gave way to familiar territory and soon we were rushing across a street in a neighborhood I knew. We passed the house I’d been staying in only a few weeks ago and entered the park Scarlett and I had taken to running in back when it had just been the two of us. Trees, streams, picnic tables, and a gazebo passed by us in a rush as we headed deeper in.

My phone rang.

  The noise was so unexpected I nearly stumbled. For a moment the magic faltered. Then it reasserted itself, righting me and refocusing me on my prey. Albert. He was waiting for us at the end of this hunt. We would rend him limb from limb and feast…no. There would be no feasting. That was messed up. The thought was jarring enough that the ringtone of my phone was able to once more penetrate the haze. The magic latched onto it and somehow I knew who was calling.

Still running and caught up in the spell, I answered the phone. “Hello, Albert.”

“That’s Dad to you,” said Albert.

“Yeah, no.”

“You took her from me,” he said. “Both of them. Nicole doesn’t have my eyes anymore.”

I grinned. No, she had my eyes now.

My grin died. How did he know her eyes had changed? Nicole hadn’t seen him since the morning we’d discovered Caroline. Her eyes had still been pale blue then. Hell, her eyes had only changed a few hours ago at the park. Which meant that he had to have seen us since then.

He’d called Nicole exactly when we’d arrived at the police station. Had he somehow been watching us?

“She was never yours,” I said, stalling for time. If he’d seen us, he’d been in town for a while. He’d had time to plan something. What was his endgame?

We ran, leaping a log that had fallen over the path. The magic holding us together vibrated with savage joy. We were almost there.

“You were never mine,” Albert snapped. “They were, but you weren’t. I thought I could make you a part of what Nicole and I shared, and then I saw how you looked at each other. I shared her with you and you tried to take her away completely.”

Nicole had told me he’d orchestrated what had happened between us when I’d first joined the Marshal household, but hearing it confirmed by him made me feel slimy. It tainted a beautiful memory. One that I’d had to keep secret but it was no less beautiful for it. And now…my magic screamed at me that we were upon him.

“I have Caroline,” Albert was saying. “And I have—“

“Hey Albert,” I interrupted. “Fuck you.”

We rounded a bend and there he was. The path led up an incline that then became a large wooden bridge passing over a stream in a rocky ravine. Albert was on the bridge and he wasn’t alone. Caroline, as expected, was with him.

So was Soraya.

Each of the women was standing on the railing of the bridge, each opposite from each other. Their hands were bound behind their backs and each had a noose around their necks. It took me a moment to realize that each noose was actually only a single rope. It looped down beneath the bridge, binding Caroline and Soraya together. If one was taken down it would yank the other off the bridge. There was a very real chance of strangling them or breaking both of their necks.

Albert stood between them in the middle of the bridge, a gun in one hand, cell phone in the other. He was saying something into the phone but I didn’t know what it was. I’d dropped my phone and the remains of the fetus he’d forced his wife to abort and live with for months in the dark somewhere on the path behind us. I didn’t care. My prey was before me and it was time for him to die.

Albert caught sight of the wolfhounds coming for him and screamed. Whatever he’d been planning, he’d expected a boy, not a hunter leading a pack of monsters. The gun came up roaring. It fired loud and fast, drowning the sound of the wolf-hound’s snarls. He turned the gun on Soraya.

I screamed and let fly a torrent of green fire from my hand. It struck his hand in a steady stream, driving it back and throwing off his aim. His scream turned from panicked to pained as he stumbled back and the gun went off again. Soraya and Caroline both started screaming as well. 

I wanted to kill Albert. He was my prey. He’d wronged me and mine and needed to be made to suffer for it. But Caroline and Soraya were terrified for their lives. 

I wrenched myself out of the hold of my spell, staggering as my momentum suddenly shifted. I’d jumped off the back of a slow moving truck once and the sensation wasn’t dissimilar. The girls pulled away with alacrity, almost blurring in front of me. I only had a second to get the help I needed.

“Nicole! Help—” I almost said, help Caroline. If she was as caught up in my spell as I had been, hearing her mother’s name wouldn’t be enough. She needed to hear, “Mom!”

The sock-patterned wolf-hound dropped back from the other two as they hit the bridge, diverting towards Caroline. Green flame spilled from her mouth and a moment later Nicole stood before Caroline. I sprinted for Soraya, calling fire to my hand. I had to burn through that rope before anything yanked one of the two women from the bridge.

Scarlett crashed into Albert a moment before Absinthe, ripping his gun arm from his torso in a spray of blood. Absinthe went low, hamstringing him. Both kept running, Scarlett with the arm dangling in her mouth like a puppy playing fetch. They circled back, green flames licking their fangs.

Soraya was saying something, talking fast in Spanish. I couldn’t understand her. My ears were still rang from the gunshot. I took her in my arms and burned through the rope dropping down from her neck. As soon as she was free I pulled her from the railing and burned through the ropes holding her hands.

She threw herself into me, pulling me into a hug.

I wrapped an arm around her and spun to check on Nicole and Caroline. My sister was back in human form and had her mother off the ledge with her arms around her. The ropes still bound Caroline’s hands and neck, but at least there wasn’t anything that was going to pull her over the edge now.

Absinthe and Scarlett struck Albert again, ripping out chunks of his body as they ran over him, sending him bouncing across the ground in great splats of blood. I kissed Soraya’s forehead and extricated myself.

I stalked toward Albert, calling fire to my hands. He was, somehow, still alive after the girls had torn into him and I needed to correct that. I stood over his body, looking down at the meat he’d become. My hearing was slowly returning and I could make out his gasping. His blue eyes, the eyes Nicole had once had, glared at me. I’d expected them to be clouded over with pain, and pain was there, but more than anything else they burned with fiery hate. This man hated me in a way nobody ever had.

That was okay. I hated him too.

I raised my hand, the fire in my palm growing brighter and hotter, bathing the bridge in green light. Sirens screamed, cutting off the wet noises coming from his mouth, blue and red light battling my green. I spun around, fire still in hand. Two Woodhurst PD SUVs had pulled up the bridge and cops were piling out, guns up and ready. All of them were screaming. I couldn’t make out their words but I didn’t need to. Everyone knows what a cop says when they’ve got their gun pulled.

I bared my teeth. No. No-no-no! I couldn’t not finish him now!

I turned back to Albert. I had to finish him…but the light was already gone from his eyes.

A gunshot rang out.

I spun around, raising my flames automatically as Scarlett staggered back, pawing her face. Another gunshot rang out and I felt the wind as the bullet passed by me.

The real monster was dead and all the cops saw now was a rogue mage with horns and a bunch of giant fire breathing wolves standing over a shredded corpse.

“Get out of here,” I ordered. “Go! Run and transform!”

I let my fire die down and raised my hands. Soraya, Caroline, and Nicole were already on the ground, sobbing from the look of things. Absinthe and Scarlett threw me looks. Those bullets probably wouldn’t kill them, but I didn’t know for sure. I didn’t know if they could only killed by silver or if their regeneration extended to human form. But they sure as hell could be hurt by those bullets, as evidenced by Scarlett’s bleeding muzzle. If they transformed, the fire might scare the cops into putting more bullets into them and they’d be smaller as humans, more vulnerable.

“Go!” I ordered. I couldn’t stand to see them hurt anymore because of me. “Go!”

They took off, running past me and vanishing into the woods.

I lowered to my knees and then was driven to the ground by cops, my hands forced behind my back as they put me in handcuffs. I stared at Albert’s corpse as they read me my rights, wishing I’d been the one to kill him. I could still take credit for it—probably would to keep the girls out of trouble—but I’d missed out on the satisfaction of being an active participant.

As they pulled me to my feet and marched me to the SUV however I spotted Soraya, Nicole, and Caroline with a pair of female officers. Nicole was completely preoccupied with taking care of her absolutely hysteric mother, but Soraya watched me. She looked like she was about to cry. Her lower lip trembled but no tears spilled from her eyes. She was alive. They all were.

I’d made the right call. With that, a sense of peace settled over me as I was shoved unceremoniously into the back of the cop car.

Chapter Twelve

Prison was boring.

I mean, I was only in a cell for one night, but damn. It was a good thing I was exhausted or it would have seriously sucked. They tried interrogating me again without a lawyer, but I closed my eyes and ignored them. I actually fell asleep sitting in the interrogation room. They tried to play nice cop with someone other than Jenkins this time. I was tired and not having it. When that didn’t work somebody decided to try and play bad cop.

I said I wanted my lawyer over and over until the interrogations stopped. I was put into a cell with nothing to do but stare at the wall and let my body remind me how much it fucking hurt. If the bed had been comfortable this actually wouldn’t have been too awful. I got used to the stench pretty quick and was able to fall into a coma-like sleep.

The next morning I was told someone had posted bail and met Bob Avery outside the department. He had a sheen of perspiration on his forehead despite the early hour. Texas was letting us know in no uncertain terms that it was ready for summer. The heat and humidity were horrific and I loved stepping out into them.

“You posted my bail?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said. “You’re our client now.”

I grimaced. “And Eleanor is...?” She had done so much for me already. I couldn’t let he continue to pay my legal fees too. Not for a law firm like the one Mr. Avery worked for.

“Oh, Dr. Hardin only brought you to our attention,” Bob Avery said. “Avery, Franklin, and Ross has decided that representing you is in our firm’s best long term interest. This case is pro bono and we hope that you will come to us for future services as well. I understand you are launching an online modelling company. You will certainly want us to make sure your contracts are in order.”

“Uh…” It actually took me a minute to remember what he was talking about. The girls had been working with our neighbor Thomas to build some sort of website that they could model on and they’d named it after me. The Horned Mage. The whole thing sounded kind of dumb to me, but I wasn’t really a part of it.  

“There are going to be a multitude of opportunities and opportunists coming your way in the future, Mr. Marshal,” he said. “We would like to ensure that you are equipped to handle them in a mutually profitable relationship.”

I blinked at him. How the hell did he figure all this? Then again, ‘Avery’ was on the name of the firm. Who knew what kind of resources at his disposal. And I needed help. The fact was I was getting into trouble regularly and dabbling in legal grey areas, and maybe some black ones, more and more often.

Slowly I nodded and we shook hands.

“You’ll receive an email shortly with all of our contact information,” Bob Avery said. “Please don’t hesitate to get in touch, day or night.”

We walked over to his car, a four door pickup truck that looked like it could haul freight. I glanced over at Bob in his tailored suit then at the truck. I wasn’t sure if they went together perfectly or not at all. Weren’t lawyers supposed to drive BMWs or luxury cars?

Once we were in the truck and pulling out onto the road he said, “Now that there is no chance of us being overheard, bring me up to speed. Please start with why on earth you felt it was necessary to go after Albert Marshal yourself and jump out of the window of a hospital to avoid the police?”

I took him in. Bob was a solid, older man. What Texans referred to as a Good ol’ Boy. He probably conducted most of his business on a golf course and held secret prejudices. Maybe he had a ranc somewhere with a few cows for fun. Not at all the sort I associated with or had ever found myself inclined to trust. And yet…

“You’re my legal counsel, right?”

He nodded. “I am.”

“So everything I say to you is in confidence?”

“Absolutely. Though I have to warn you, I cannot know about any crimes you are about to commit before you commit them or I am obligated by law to report them. Also, I cannot help you plead innocent if you tell me that you are guilty.”

I hadn’t known that. I thought lawyers were supposed to be slimy guys who helped those who could afford it get away with whatever they wanted.

“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Albert had…blackmail material. Photos and videos of Nicole. He’d been…abusing her for years.”

“I see,” Bob said. His face was a stony mask. “And you do not want this evidence to surface?”

“No,” I said. “Neither of us do.”

“Then is there any other evidence of abuse?” Because it would be hard as hell to prove without it and that would be my best defense in the case of his murder.

It wasn’t mine to say. But I had to say it anyway because it could protect all of us. I wasn’t worried so much for myself as for Nicole, Scarlett, and Absinthe. If Nicole’s secret could protect them all and keep them safe, I’d give it.

“She’s carrying his child.”

At that, Bob Avery’s mask cracked. Only for a second. “I see.”

There was so much weight to those words. It felt like for a moment I got to see the real man. And he empathized with us.

“And your relationship with her now?”

“Is complicated,” I said.

He chuckled. “I have a feeling I’m going to be hearing that a lot from you. Thank you for trusting me with this. It might just be enough to keep you both out of prison.”

He pulled into a parking lot and I suddenly recognized where we were. I’d been so caught up in the effort of telling him about Nicole and Albert that I hadn’t paid attention. The word’s creepiest hamburger faced mascot stared down at us from above Happy Burger. Through the window, I could see Soraya sitting at our usual booth. I hadn’t realized that they opened this early.

“Your support system let it be known that this was where you would need to be after you were let out,” he said with a grin. “You have some very special women in your life, Mr. Marshal.”

I grinned at him. “Yes, I do.”

#

When I slid into the booth opposite Soraya her expression didn’t change. She didn’t say anything.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hey,” she said back. “I wasn’t sure if you’d come in or not.”

“You’re my best friend,” I told her. “Of course I was coming in.”

She blushed and looked away, one of her wavy locks sliding over her shoulder to dangle over her breasts. She was hiding her figure under an enormous football jersey today instead of a hoodie. Considering the heat I couldn’t blame her. It was a shame though that she hid her gorgeous figure. I stopped myself from continuing that line of thought. She was my best friend. I was sleeping with her stepsister. My adopted father had just kidnapped her and threatened her life. I really, REALLY, shouldn’t be thinking about her breasts. Her big, glorious breasts. Stop it!

“I’m sorry,” we both said at the same time.

She held up her hand. “Let me go first.”

I had so much I want to say but forced my mouth closed and gave a nod. I owed her…a lot.

“Thank you,” she said. “For saving me. That man…he was your…adopted dad. He said he was going to force you to pick between us, that—that I was going to die.

“In the months since you’ve broken your curse, I barely recognize you anymore, Caleb. But…I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I asked for space and you gave it to me. I’ve tried to be cool with what you’ve got with Scarlett, I really have been and…I’m still trying to be. It’s just, a lot, you know?

“And you’re spending more time with your girlfriends now than with me and I missed you. I miss hanging out with you. I’m not sure if we can go back to that though.

I leaned forward, unable to hold back anymore. “Why not? I miss spending time with you, too. We can still be friends, Soraya.”

She slowly shook her head. “I don’t think…I don’t know if I can do that. I used to think that there was more between us. I thought…but then you ended up with Scarlett. Then with Absinthe. And now…now there’s also Nicole.”

“Yeah but—”

She held up a hand. “But nothing. You’re making it work with them. Maybe you even love them. But that’s the point. I don’t want to be with someone who has to make it work with me. I don’t want to be another accident, Caleb.”

Now she did tear up. “If you really wanted what I thought you wanted between us, you would have made it happen. I’ve seen what you can do, Caleb, and I’m not talking about your magic.”

Wait. Was she saying what I thought she was saying?

“Maybe I gave you mixed signals and that’s on me,” she said. “But…I’m not waiting anymore, Caleb. Not when being close to you hurts so much and puts me in danger. I know that’s not your fault, but you’ve had how many close calls since breaking your curse?”

I stared at her. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying…it hurts too much to just be your friend. I’m saying that…since you don’t want more…that I need to step away from you. This, whatever is or might be between us, it can’t stay like it is, and we can’t go back to how things used to be. You’ve got three girls in your life now, not including your mother who’s going to need all kinds of help. We can’t keep doing this. It’s not fair to either of us and it isn’t fair to Scarlett.”

She stood up from the booth. “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize it.”

I stood up too. “Wait. The only reason I didn’t—I didn’t want to…we’re best friends. And then—”

She gently put a hand on my arm, cutting me off. “’And then,’ ‘and then,’ ‘and then,’ Caleb. There’s always going to be an ‘and then.’ And I wasn’t worth overcoming them for.”

She stepped around me and made her way to the door. “I’ll see you in class.”

I didn’t watch her go. I sat back down in the booth and let the tears come because I’d lost her. They came all the harder because she was right. And because I had no right to cry over her and that somehow made it worse.

Chapter Thirteen

I stayed in that booth for another hour and a half. I got myself under control and then had a burger. There’s a reason it’s called comfort food, after all, and no one made them better than Happy Burger. After I’d eaten and regained my composure, pulling together what dignity I had left, I walked home.

Between the time in the booth, the walk, and the time spent in the prison cell, I had a lot of time to think. Normally I’m pretty stupid about making good use of my time but this time I used it, thinking about what I needed to say to the most important people in my life. It hadn’t gone so well with Soraya, but I still had words for Scarlett and Absinthe.

Even so I found myself frozen on the driveway leading up to Eleanor Hardin’s house and our loft over her garage. I would have to talk to her next and thank her for everything. The same with Valencia. It was sweet of her to come out to support her daughter’s boyfriend after what we’d been through together.

Eventually the heat drove me forward. If I stayed outside any longer the summer heat and humidity would melt me and then I’d never get the chance to say what I needed to say to my girls. Assuming they’d still have me. My feet had never felt so heavy as I made my way up the stairs to our place.

The door flew open and Scarlett threw herself into me. I teetered backward on the edge of the stairs and nearly fell over backward. Scarlett grabbed us and yanked us upright but I stumbled into the loft and fell on top of both of them.

“Um, hi,” I said stupidly.

Scarlett gently pushed my head up and back so that my pronged antlers weren’t in danger of putting someone’s eye out. “Hey.”

“That was a damn long talk,” Absinthe said. “Get off of us and start talking. Soraya first, then what the hell happened with Nicole.”

I pushed myself off of them and stood. “Uh, so Soraya…she doesn’t want to be friends anymore.”

Only, that wasn’t quite what she’d said was it? I’d have to think over our conversation some more when I wasn’t so raw.

“What?” Scarlett demanded. “Seriously?”

I shrugged. “I can’t say I blame her.”

“And you’re okay with that?” she said, standing up so that Absinthe could follow suit.

“It doesn’t really matter if I am or not, it’s what she said she wants. I have to respect that.”

Absinthe and Scarlett exchanged one of those female-only looks that said that I, the man in the room, was being an idiot. Maybe I was.

“Anyways.” The weight of what I had to say came crushing back. Everything had felt so comfortable and normal and wonderful that I was tempted to just let that feeling continue. I shoved the temptation aside. I wasn’t hiding from this. It was my fault we were all bound together and I needed to own up to my part of things.

“I owe the both of you a huge apology.” I swallowed. “For cheating on you with Nicole.”

Both girls pursed their lips at that and exchanged another look. Dammit, I needed to get through to them. I needed to let them know….

“You two…you mean the world to me. I-I love you. Scarlett. Absinthe. I love you both. I love what we have. And I am so sorry that I jeopardized that.”

Scarlett scowled. “How?”

I blinked. “How what?”

“How did you jeopardize us?” she said, speaking slowly, as if I was either hard of hearing or stupid. Oh let’s be honest, like I was stupid.

“I…I had sex with her,” I said. “I—it just sort of happened. I didn’t plan it and she didn’t either it just…she was there and I was there and suddenly we were kissing and one thing led to another.”

“Yeah, I’ll want those details later,” Absinthe said with a smirk. “I’m more concerned that you bound her without even talking to us about it first.”

What? Okay that made some sense. Maybe. Sort of?

She rolled her eyes at my consternation. “You’re a man. Men think with their dicks. I don’t think beating you would teach you a lesson. I—I actually spent a lot of time coming to terms with the fact that you would never be loyal to me when I first mated to you.”

I didn’t know that.

She offered me a sad, almost sheepish smile. “Yeah, right after our first time together. When I went off on my own for a while. When a pair of werewolves mate it goes both ways. It’s for life. When a wolf mates with a human…only the wolf is in it for life. I figured I could either hurt you or your mistresses until you learned your lesson or I could get used to it. And then….” She looked at Scarlett and blushed. Absinthe, my tough as nails badass biker Valkyrie, blushed.

Scarlett’s entire face lit up and she walked over to Absinthe, throwing her arms around her shoulders, and laying a kiss on her mouth. “I’m not so bad, huh?”

Absinthe wrapped her own arms around Scarlett. “No, not so bad.”

She looked back to me. “Anyway, we both figured that your magic might bind others. We kind of hoped you could control yourself better when you didn’t bind Valencia—”

Scarlett shuddered at that.

“—but…well, here we are with a new girl that neither of us know, part of our pack.”

“And she’s your sister,” Scarlett said, giving Absinthe a squeeze. My magic sent a little spark into my brain. For some reason Scarlett liked that detail. I must have understood that wrong.

“Adopted sister,” I told her again. “No blood.” 

Absinthe bent down, kissed Scarlett gently on the temple, and whispered, “Let it go, Sweetheart.”

Scarlett pouted.

“My point is,” Absinthe said. “We’re not traditional mates.”

No kidding.

“We’re…more like a pack of lovers. The pack is going to grow. One way or another, I think. And…if we’re going to add anyone else to the pack, I think…” she swallowed, as if nervous. “I think that I would like for us all to have some say in it. I mean…it’s not just you that the new person is bound to.”

Oh, damn. I hadn’t even thought of that.

“I won’t lie, I’m a little hurt but I’m more frustrated with you than hurt,” Absinthe said. “You’ve potentially bound Scarlett and I to someone we may not like and who might weaken the pack instead of strengthening us. I know now that Nicole is incredibly brave and strong, but neither of us really had a chance to get to know her first. You held off, binding Valencia, I would think that you would have done the same here.”

I opened my mouth to speak. Closed it. Then opened it again as something occurred to me. “I never felt the binding magic.”

Scarlett wrinkled her forehead as if thinking very hard about that. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…I didn’t really know what I was feeling before when it was with you two, but I’d done it enough by the time I was…with Valencia…to recognize what was happening. There was no moment of recognition, when I could feel my magic connecting us.”

So then when had that happened? The blood drained from my face.

“What is it?” Absinthe asked.

“I think…I think we may have already been bound,” I said quietly. “I think some of my magic managed to get through the curse and connected us years ago.”

It would explain so much. Our closeness despite everything we were each going through. Especially in spite of our age difference. It wasn’t such a huge factor now, but those years mattered a lot when you were a teenager. I know that as a senior in high school I had found freshmen to be among the most obnoxious creatures on the planet. Strong, beautiful Nicole had less than no business spending any time with me at all, let alone playing diary. Certainly not on top of protector.

“But, to bind someone you have to…” Scarlett trailed off. “Holy shit! How long have you two been doing it?”

“That’s sort of why this whole situation got out of hand,” I said. “Albert he…he was abusing her. He made her…with me. We haven’t, with each other since. Not until just now. But he recorded us. I was a minor and she technically wasn’t and he was using it to blackmail her.”

I’d have to scour all of his belongings and destroy any more records he might have of us as soon as I could.

“Then it might not have mattered anyway,” Absinthe said. “But I still think we need to set guidelines for next time something like this happens.”

I opened my mouth to protest but she forestalled me with an upraised hand.

“It is going to happen again, Caleb. That’s okay. You’re not running around trying to get with every woman you can,” she said. “What we’ve got here…it’s precious. It needs to be protected. And I think it’s going to grow. A pack needs to be able to protect and support itself. I think it’s time we sat down and had a long, deep talk about the future.”

Her serious expression softened into a grin. “Our future.”

I looked at her and Scarlett, thought of Nicole and Caroline. Everyone was depending on me. I had come to college for two reasons. To get away from the Marshal household and to break my curse. Both goals were more or less achieved and I had nothing left to aim for. I’d been totally reactionary and now I had these remarkable women bound to me, depending on me for leadership. I had to step up.

The thought was terrifying. But whereas once I would have shrunk away, I found myself mentally preparing myself. It was time to be a leader and take care of my family.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s get started.”

The Horned Mage’s adventures continue in Fel Heritage!

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