“Those winks will put you in last place, Maze. Keep winking like that, and I’ll be more likely to kiss Forest before you.” I said it before I realized it: a little weird to say, something I probably shouldn’t have said at all. I should’ve said Jack, or…literally anyone else.
Talk about awkward.
But luckily Maze didn’t find it too awkward, for he laughed. “Forest? Right. Like that would ever happen. Our alpha has walls around him taller than…whatever the tallest building is. Let’s be realistic here.” And then he went off on a long list of shifters who I was probably more willing to kiss than him.
I couldn’t believe it. What a stupid boy.
A ridiculous boy, a shifter who had somehow dug his way into my heart at a speed faster than light. I wanted to kiss him, but of course I wouldn’t tell him that. He’d only get giddy and act like a fool…although, it wasn’t much of a change from his normal personality.
These guys had my heart and, clearly, other parts of my body, too.
I was in more trouble than I realized.
Chapter Eight – Addie
Sarah wore a frown. Try as she might, and I knew she was trying pretty darn hard, she could not accept my choice. No matter what logic I threw at her, no matter how calm I was while trying to explain to my mom why I had to stay, why this was my fight, my mom wouldn’t hear it.
At least she’d stopped trying to drag me to the car. It’s the little victories, really.
Maze had lured me out of my room with the promise of food, which he was busy making in the kitchen like some kind of self-taught chef, and now I sat in the living room, once again with my mom.
“Addie,” Sarah spoke, “your father and I did not make our decisions lightly. Everything we did, we did to protect you. Putting yourself at risk for this pack, while noble, isn’t what your father would want you to do.”
Oh, how tired I grew of hearing that, like he had any right to have opinions about this. He wasn’t a part of our lives—for protection, or whatever—therefore he forfeited his right to think anything.
“I don’t care what he would think or what he would say. I’m staying, because it’s the right thing to do.” I was more than aware I had never been the hero type of girl, but there came a time in every girl’s life when she would be faced with a choice like this. Fight the death priest, or go home with her metaphorical tail tucked between her legs.
Maybe it was the wolf in me, but I was not the tail-tucking sort.
My mom shot a look to the archway that led to the kitchen, where Maze was busy listening to some classic nineties music. It took every ounce of inner willpower I had to not sway along and sing with the beat I Want It That Way, but Sarah had no problems ignoring the music entirely.
She said, “I hope you aren’t letting the others sway you, honey. They might be nice to look at, but do you really want to spend the rest of your life with them? Because that’s what it would be. Once they put their claim on you, there will be no running then. Anywhere you go, they’ll be right there with you.”
Honestly, it was a notion that would’ve made me think twice a month ago. Now, today? After joining with my wolf? Having three guys around me, wanting me in ways I should not be thinking about while my mom sat a few feet away, didn’t seem so bad. Yes, there might be some issues with dirty socks lying around, maybe some snoring, but all in all it didn’t seem too crazy.
Was I nuts for thinking like this? After all, having multiple partners, more than one mate? It wasn’t something I had ever thought of before coming here and learning about my shifter side.
Could I really have three mates? Not to mention the dicks attached to them…
I remembered the way Landon had been upstairs, how my heart had fluttered so wildly in my chest I thought it was just going to pop out and run away. How good it felt to have his thumbs grazing over my hips, his hands cupping my butt. It was clear I was attracted to him, even if he could be an ass.
Maze? There was no question with Maze. Sarcastic even in the most inappropriate of times, he was funny, endearing in the stupidest of ways. Just being around him made me feel all warm and tingly—not to sound too ridiculous, but it was true. And those dimples…God, those dimples got me every time. Those dimples could win wars.
And last but certainly not least, Dylan. The quiet one. The reader. The one who turned an adorable shade of pink when he was embarrassed, like when I caught him with a worn copy of Gone with the Wind. It wasn’t even a book I’d read, and I was the overachiever of overachievers, which made it all the funnier. When he’d held my hand, tentative and unsure, not to mention the surprise on his face when he learned the woman making such a huge scene with Henry was my mom…I loved it. Dylan might’ve been different than his twin, but he’d snuck up on me, too.
I could not imagine leaving any of them. Not anymore. Not now. Now, I was in this, whether I—or, by extension—my mom liked it or not. I was in it to win it, and I would win it. Clay had to lose.
“I know, and surprisingly enough, I’m okay with it,” I said, downplaying the fact I was more than okay with it. If my brain hadn’t stopped my body, I would’ve already gone a lot farther with all of them. The reality was I hadn’t even been kissed yet. I’d come super close with Landon, but close was not the finish line.
Not like I wanted to cross the finish line, at least not yet, but I knew it was close.
Instead of arguing, like I thought she wanted to, Sarah nodded. “Okay. I trust you. As long as you visit me, and call me whenever you can. No more hiding life or death situations from me, and no more leaving your phone in your room.” Her eyebrows lifted.
Right. My phone was actually in my room. Maybe I should run up and get it, just to show my mom how serious I was about this.
“Your father will kill me when he finds out about this,” my mom whispered with a heavy sigh.
I had even less respect for the man than I started with, so it was easy for me to say, “Why does he have to find out? And why does he have the right to care? He’s not in our lives. He left you, left me. Screw him.”
“Addie!”
Oh. Was I supposed to continue acting like I did before? Never thinking about my father, because he was dead? At least when he was dead, I didn’t know he’d left us both. Heck, even before that—he’d been with my mom to start with, knowing the risks. From what it sounded like, becoming high warlock didn’t exactly come as a shock. He should’ve held back.
Plus, my mom had been sixteen when they met, and since she had me when she was seventeen…well, the math wasn’t hard. The writing was on the wall, as large and conspicuous as it could possibly be.
Yuck. It was not something I wanted to think about, but in a way, I was already doing better than my mom was at my age. I was, rounded up a bit, twenty. Nearly twenty with no official mates yet and no kids in the belly. I’d call that a win.
“Do not talk about your father that way. Regardless of what you may think of him now, I still love him, as should you. He is a part of our family, whether he’s here or not,” Sarah scolded me.
I rolled my eyes, wanting to paint a giant red X on the wall and label it bang head here.
“Before he left, whenever the heck it was,” I started, pointedly ignoring my mom’s scolding—because I did not give out respect simply because someone was genetically related to me, like Henry— “did Dad ever tell you anything about how this stuff works? The magic. The spells. Whatever they’re called. I need to level-up if I’m going to fight Clay.”
In the kitchen, over the music of a song that mainly asked what was going on, I heard Maze snort. Yeah, I’d probably get made fun of for saying that, but I didn’t care. Just because something sounded funny didn’t mean it wasn’t true. Clay was on a whole different level; I had to do my best to reach it before he showed his painted face again.
“I know a bit. I was around him a few times when he was casting. I suppose, since you’re being stubborn like me, I can stay for a while and try to help you—as l
ong as it’s okay with your alpha.”
I flinched at the way my mom spoke the last two words. Forest might be my alpha, but surely there was no need for such…animosity.
Besides, couldn’t my mom give me a teeny, tiny break? I’d learned a lot today—found out my father was a high warlock, found out I never should have been born and would be killed if the other high warlocks learned of me, not to mention the fact my father wasn’t dead.
Yeah, today was a doozy of a day.
I eventually nodded. “I’m sure it will be.”
“No, Addie. You never assume anything when it comes to your alpha. It’s always best to ask.” Sarah squeezed her eyes shut. “I suppose I can go with you, if I have to—”
Talk about awkward. Hey Forest, remember my mother? The one you were supposed to mate with? Yeah, this is her. Can she stay for a few days while you dig up and do whatever with those bodies?
It didn’t sound like a conversation I wanted to have.
I shook my head. “No. I can do it.” Besides, if I was going to stay here, I wouldn’t have my mom to lean on all the time. I had to put on my big girl pants and just do it.
But…did I have to do it now? A yummy smell had started to waft in from the kitchen, and from the loud taps on the counter, Maze was acting like he was playing the drums, thumping along with the song about being someone’s crying shoulder.
That song, I liked.
“I’ll do it in a bit,” I added quickly, receiving a harsh look from Sarah.
What was I supposed to say? I wasn’t only staying for the food that was nearly ready. I didn’t want to go back to Forest so soon, not after seeing him cradle that corpse. There was a backstory there I didn’t want to know, so I’d give him some time to do whatever it was he was going to do with the bodies.
“Addie,” Sarah started, shaking her head. Ah, there was the familiar motherly tone. I had missed it so much these last few days, so much I’d started to feel hollow without it.
“Mom,” I took on the same tone. “He’s busy digging up the shifters Clay took over the years. I don’t want to interrupt him.” Again, but that part I would keep to myself. My mom did not need to know I’d already bonded a bit with the alpha.
Finally, Sarah’s expression softened. “Of course. He’ll be busy, then. There’ll be a fire, soon.”
“A fire?”
“Shifters don’t bury their dead. They burn them. Funerals in the human world are usually sad, but a shifter pyre? It’s different. Everyone will be drinking and laughing, telling stories about the dead. At least, that’s how it was when a shifter passed when I was here. Since there’s so many, since they were kidnapped and murdered, I don’t know if it’ll be any different—”
Maze came in from the kitchen, carrying two plates of steaming pizza. He set them down before my mother and I, doing a mock bow. “Don’t mean to interrupt, but perfection is here in the form of pizza. Eat it, and tell me what you think.” He crossed his arms, watching, waiting, refusing to move.
As my mom sniffed the air and said, “Smells good,” I studied the pizza. Homemade, he said? It looked like any other generic, toss-in-the-oven pizza I’d seen at the grocery store. Of course it smelled good, because it was pizza, and what kind of monster didn’t like pizza?
Probably Clay.
But still. Homemade? I wasn’t so sure I’d go that far.
“So, you made this from scratch, huh?” I asked. “And you baked it? All in about twenty minutes?” Seemed quite the feat, if it was true. I knew better, though.
“I don’t know what you’re used to, princess, but around here, that is homemade. Just because it came in a box doesn’t mean it’s not homemade,” Maze spoke, an expert on the subject of homemade pizza in this shifter town, apparently.
Beside me, Sarah smiled, and I felt one growing too, even though I fought like hell to keep it from forming. “You know,” I spoke, “I don’t think you and I have the same definitions of what a homemade pizza is.”
Maze had no qualms about grinning, his dimples deepening in his cheeks, causing my stomach to do a flip. Or two. “Maybe one of these days you can show me.” A cough came from Sarah, telling him that he’d gone a bit too far in front of her, even though he probably didn’t mean anything by it. The boy probably did mean it about pizza.
Oh, God. Did my mom think he meant it sexually?
Embarrassment flew through me at the speed of light, and I knew I would not be able to handle having my mom here for long. A few days, tops. And of course, the longer Sarah stayed here, the more clients she’d have to reschedule.
Maybe we could fit our magic training into a one-hour session…
Maze must’ve sensed the awkwardness too, for he quickly went on, “You know, I can go find Forest and ask him. Let you two get down to business.” He didn’t wait for either of us to respond; he simply hurried out the front door, probably grateful to be out of there and off the hot seat.
Although it wasn’t like Sarah put him on the hot seat. He got off easy, considering.
Sarah watched him leave, leaning around me to do so. I ignored him as he went, not even glancing to his backside—which his jeans hugged spectacularly—hyper-aware my mom would notice and comment on it.
I did not need to be lectured about the birds and the bees—or in this case, the wolves and the wolves. No sex talks, now or ever. Thankfully, it was something I’d avoided in my life.
“That one is…weird,” Sarah muttered, picking up her plate. “Funny, sometimes, but mostly weird.”
I was glad that was what my mom chose to say, and not something else. “I think you intimidate him.”
Sarah laughed. “Me? Intimidate him? Don’t be silly. I am the least intimidating person I know.” With her tie-dye bandana and hippie clothes, I was inclined to agree, but I knew my mom’s looks were deceiving.
“How many people do you know, Mom?” I asked.
Sarah thought about this. “Hmm. Point taken.”
We finished the allegedly homemade pizza, and then got to work. If only Sarah knew everything there was to know about spells and magic; it would make my life much easier to have a walking, talking encyclopedia of magic with me. Alas, my life would not be easy, and the only encyclopedia of magic I sort of knew would probably be my father.
Too bad the son of a bitch had abandoned us.
“First thing’s first,” Sarah started, but the front door opened again. Too soon for Maze; Dylan was guarding Jack; and Landon, well. He probably wouldn’t show his face to me for a while. Which only left the asshole who’d been sitting on the porch, eavesdropping until now.
Because now, apparently, he felt like butting in.
“You will not teach her any more magic!” Henry’s voice thundered through the living room, practically shaking the walls. Stern, tough, no-nonsense. He was everything I imagined a grandfather would be, plus a whole lot of extra ass. “I forbid it.”
I bit back the childish urge to say you can’t forbid shit, old man, but my mom held no such qualms. Sarah said, “She is my daughter, and this is what she wants. I am not a part of this pack. You cannot tell me what to do, just like you could not tell me twenty years ago.”
“Don’t you want to defeat Clay?” I asked, trying to sound as nice as I could. It was hard, when all I wanted to do was bite his head off in a way that was most unladylike and wolfish.
“I do, but it seems to me that he is gone. If he never comes back, you will taint yourself further with this magic pointlessly,” Henry said, shaking his head.
Taint myself further? Well, the old man had another thing coming. While my mom looked like she was trying to keep her cool, I shot back, “How can I be tainted with something that’s already a part of me? Magic is in my blood. No one here can change it. And if it can be used to fight Clay—because a crazy man like that doesn’t just run and leave things unfinished—why not?”
“You are a wolf, Adeline,” Henry said. “You are not a warlock—”
“Females
are witches,” Sarah cut in, “males are warlocks.”
“Er, yes, but that doesn’t change my opinion on this matter. If you continue to do this, I will have no choice but to call a meeting and discuss it with Forest. Unlike you, he listens to his elders.”
That Caitlin chick had said Forest respected me, so I wasn’t sure whether or not he would agree with Henry. And he was a little busy dealing with the bodies, so I didn’t think he’d have the patience to deal with Henry right now, anyway.
Then again, who ever had enough patience to handle Henry? No one I knew.
Henry did not wait for any response. He spun on his feet, agile for an old man, and left, having never moved from the door in the first place. The door unceremoniously slammed behind him, echoing through the house, so loud I could feel it in my bones.
“Well,” Sarah muttered, “at least he’s gone. Hopefully we don’t have any more interruptions for a while.”
I strained a smile. With my luck, we’d be interrupted again in five seconds.
Chapter Nine – Addie
I did my best to listen to my mom drone on and on about magic, because it was interesting. I’d only recently discovered magic’s existence in the world, so it held that shiny and new property all shiny and new things did. But, even though magic was cool and I might’ve daydreamed about being Harry Potter or Sabrina, I could only listen to my mom talk about its history for a little while before becoming bored out of my mind.
I didn’t need a history lesson. I wasn’t reading from the textbooks. What I needed were more like…guidelines. A how-to magic book. Magic for dummies.
Suddenly my mom trailed off, changing topics, “Addie, are you even listening? Your eyes glazed over. I can tell you’re not.”
I blinked, suddenly back in the conversation. We sat in the living room, my mom situated on the couch, while I had moved to sprawl out on the floor. The carpet was shag, and so freaking soft. I was running my hands through it, wondering why it ever went out of style—and then back in style. Style was weird. Things always had a habit of making the rounds…
Crystal Lake Pack: The Complete Series: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance Page 24
