by Tl Reeve
A dark scowl filled Zane’s features before he tossed her on the couch beside him and stood. His body pulsed with unchecked power as he glanced around the room. With each ticking second, he seemed to grow bigger, more imposing. Then the whole house went dark. A sudden coldness seeped into her body, freezing her in place. It chilled her to the bone, making her body heavy and lethargic.
“Zane! Cian!” Jamie cried.
“We're here,” Cian said, taking her hand. “Whoa, you’re freezing, babe.”
“I don’t get it,” she whispered.
“Someone's here. Outside. We're going to go check it out,” Zane said. “Stay here.”
“No!” Jamie fisted the front of Cian's shirt. “Don't leave me!”
“It's okay, babe. The other day when your Aunt was here, she placed her own protection spell on the house. You should be safe inside. We'll be back as soon as we check the property,” Cian murmured before kissing her forehead. “Get under a blanket, though, you’re seriously freezing cold.”
A spark of white light had Jamie turning her head to see a massive wolf standing by the door waiting to get out. Jamie had seen Cian's timber wolf the other day, but not Zane’s. He was massive, all black, with bright-blue eyes. So different then Cian's.
“Wait.” Jamie stood up. “What about you two? Are you safe?”
Zane growled at Cian, then pawed at the front door.
“No worries, babe. It's hard to kill a wolf.” Cian opened the door, then another explosion of white light filled the room.
When both wolves raced out the door, she slammed it shut. She should have locked it, but then if there was something outside, how would the guys get in? No, she’d leave it unlocked for them, just in case. Jamie then went to the kitchen and found a couple of candles. She lit them then placed them around the living room to give her light.
The longer the guys were gone, the more she worried. What the hell was going on? Had the Master finally found her? If he had, wouldn’t now be the perfect time to take her or kill her? She couldn’t believe Zane and Cian ran out of the house like leaving her behind was nothing. She stood then and began to pace. Why would they go out after she told them she was scared? Why wouldn’t they stay with her? For all her bluster about taking care of herself, she’d sure tapped out in a hurry.
Come on, Jamie, get it together. You’re not some witless girl. You have magic at your fingertips. Jamie strode back into the kitchen and grabbed another candle. Her aunt gave her a spell for everlasting light. It was pretty simple and would give her something to do to occupy her time while the guys checked the property. She repeated the incantation she learned earlier in the day three times, then grinned when the purple flame came to life. Success.
“Hello, Jamie,” a voice hissed behind and to the right of her.
“W-w-who’s there?” Jamie stood and faced where she thought the voice came from. It’d also been familiar, but she couldn't place it.
“You've forgotten me so quickly, my sweet.” The shadow swirled and dipped coming closer to her as fear raced down her spine.
Where are they? She silently pleaded for Zane and Cian to hurry up and get back. She feared if they didn’t, she’d be dead.
“You were mine!” The shadow stepped into the low light of the candles.
Jamie gasped. “Mat?” She narrowed her eyes. He was gaunt. The dark circles under his dull eyes set off the tight skin spread across his bone. Even his body was rail thin. No, this couldn’t be Mat. He’d been an athlete when she first met him. No way he’d allow himself to waste away.
“Yes. How could you let them touch you, Jamie?” Mat's lip curled in disgust. “You were mine. The Master promised.” Jamie shivered as he ran his fingers up and down her arm.
“Don't touch me!” She took a step back as the smell of Black Magic hit her nose.
“You were my gift.” He wrapped his hand around her wrist, undeterred. “For years of servitude to him, for carrying out his orders. Once he has what he needs from you, he'll wipe your mind, and you'll be mine again.”
“Mat... oh Mat. You didn't. Tell me you didn't kill those girls.” Fear made her voice wobble. Could she bind Mat with the protection spell even though she didn't have the Sage wand?
“For you, Jamie. It was all for you. So, we could be together,” Mat whined like a boy who’d had his favorite toy taken from him. “The Master said it would work. He’d have his powers restored, and I’d have you. But first, I had to get good at it.”
“He wants me dead, Mat. Dead! He won't give me to you!” Jamie recited the protection spell in her mind and hoped it would work. She needed to buy herself time because if Mat got her out of the house, she was dead, and Cian and Zane would go feral. She went through the spell once, then twice before Mat grabbed her.
“Bitch!” Mat squeezed her wrist, causing a whimper of pain to escape her lips. Then before she could brace herself, he backhanded her. “You think that pitiful protection spell will stop me! The Master's magic is stronger. He got through your precious Aunt Matilda's spell, and he'll get through yours, too.”
Pain exploded across the area where he hit her. Her ear rang, and she saw stars. Her world tilted then righted itself. She couldn’t black out. If she did, it was over. Mat would win. She sucked in air in small pants, trying to steady herself. Her cheek throbbed, and whatever blackness penetrated her birthmark before, tried again, this time to no avail. She sent up a silent thank you to her aunt for teaching her the protection spell first, then went limp in his arms. If he thought she’d passed out, she’d have the advantage.
Jamie sensed Zane before she saw him step through the open door. A flash of brilliant light illuminated the room, and he stood in the doorway naked, blood and mud splattered all over his body. His bright-blue gaze focused on her, and a feral grin pulled at his mouth. She stayed quiet. She wouldn’t be a distraction. Zane took a step into the house, his lumbering body puffed up by the strength of the Alpha wolf.
“Another step, and she dies,” Mat said, wrapping his hand around her neck.
“But that isn't what the Master wants, is it?” Zane stated. His gaze met and held Jamie’s as he held his hands up.
Mat squeezed her neck causing Jamie to reach up and claw at the arm keeping her in place. “She's mine!” Mat yelled.
“You're wrong.” Cian came up behind them, startling both of them.
Mat jerked around, his grip on her neck loosened enough as he faced Cian, giving his back to Zane. Jamie instinctively knew it would be Mat's last mistake.
“She's ours.” Cian lunged at him the minute Jamie tumbled away from Mat. She hit the floor with a solid thud, but didn’t care. She rolled to her feet and remembered the small binding spell Matilda gave her. It might not be able to keep Mat in check for long, however, the guy wouldn’t need much to get the upper hand.
Cian's naked chest slammed into her, pushing her out of the way. She ignored the mud and blood covering him as she clung to him. He eased her out of the way without a word then kept her tucked behind him as Zane and Mat circled each other.
“Zane...”
“I wouldn't worry about him.” Cian’s cold, deadly voice sent shivers down her spine. “He’s got this.”
The lights flickered back on as Zane and Mat fought in the living room. It was an uneven fight. Zane launched himself at the man, pummeling Mat with his fists. The asshole stumbled backward into the coffee table, smashing it when he fell. Still, Zane didn’t relent. He continued to advance. When he wasn’t hitting Mat, he kicked the bastard, turning him into a bloody pulp. This was the Alpha power. The strength imbued by his wolf. Jamie didn’t enjoy gratuitous violence, but on this one occasion, she’d been content to stand back and allow her mate to take out the garbage.
Zane wrapped one arm under Mat's neck while the other rested on Mat's head. Her mate looked up at her and held her gaze. He leveraged pressure on Mat’s neck before the distinctive snap of his neck echoed in the room.
Jamie wobbled for a second then righted herse
lf as Zane stepped over Mat's now lifeless body and strode toward them. He gathered her up in his massive arms and tucked her close to his body, breathing in her scent. His body trembled with unchecked adrenaline and power. “Did he hurt you?” He yanked Cian to him as well, holding him close.
“No, I was more scared then anything.” Jamie buried her face in Zane's chest. She relaxed marginally while listening to the beat of his heart. “Don’t ever leave me alone again.”
“It was the only way,” Zane whispered. “We had to lay the trap.”
She frowned. “I was the bait.”
Cian groaned. “Yeah, babe. You were the bait.”
“You guys are assholes,” she whispered, but she understood, too. In order to drag out whoever had been behind the attacks, they needed to leave a morsel out for the taking. “Matilda helped me use my magic to send out a beacon, didn’t she?”
Zane nodded. “Yes.”
“You’re both in the doghouse,” she said. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me.”
“It had to look real. If we told you, do you think your reaction would have stayed the same?” Cian had a point.
“Whatever,” she muttered.
“You knew him?” Zane drew her attention back to Mat.
“Yes. I knew him. He was a boyfriend at one time.”
Zane stiffen at her words.
“Son of a bitch,” Cian cursed.
“It wasn’t an intimate relationship. He gave me the willies,” she said. “When I came home from classes, he was always in my room. He didn’t have a key. He kept pressuring me to do more—sex—and I didn’t want to. I went to the police. I got a restraining order, and he was put in jail for stalking me after breaking the order several times.”
“Before or after Mary died,” Zane asked.
“Before,” she admitted. “Mary never liked him. She said he gave her the creeps, too. I agreed. After he went to jail, I didn’t see Mat ever again.”
“Then Mary died?”
Jamie wrapped her arms around herself. Had the temperature in the room dropped? “Yeah, then Mary died.”
“That was the missing link.”
Cian and Zane enveloped her in their warmth. The icy fingers of dread filling her when Zane began questioning her, dissipated. “I-I should have told you, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with this. I mean... when Mary died, our apartment” —she sighed and shook her head— “I grabbed what I could and left. A few days later, I got a call from the detective, our apartment got ransacked.”
“I just wish it would have been the Master here,” Cian muttered.
“No, you don’t,” Zane said. “We both know what would have happened if he’d been here.”
“So, what do we do now?” she asked, not sure she liked where this conversation was heading.
“Now you practice, and we prepare,” Zane stated. “And this time, when that fucking warlock bastard shows his face, we take the mother fucker down.”
Jamie sat in the very crowded Mass Hysteria, while Carrie Underwood’s voice blared through the speakers as she sang a song about taking a bat to her lover’s headlights before he cheated. Jamie couldn’t help the smile that crossed her lips. She'd do the exact same thing if she were in that position.
It had been a pretty calm three weeks since Mat attempted to take her away from her mates. He hadn't succeeded and, in the end, paid with his life. She thought she’d feel some kind of guilt or remorse for what happened, but all she felt was peace. By no means did she believe it was over, though. The Master was still out there, plotting and scheming. Mat confirmed what they already knew—he wanted her power.
Her abilities were an untapped resource, according to Matilda. What she could or couldn’t do would be revealed over time, and in the end, like Harry Potter, she figured she’d have to fight the Master on her own. The girl who lived...
In the end, the total amount of women and witches, along with her best friend Mary, Mat killed, were into the double digits. A few shallow graves had been found in Rosewood and a few more outside the borders of Salem. As far as everyone could tell, they were all practice runs for what he’d do to Jamie. There was a special place in hell for Mat, she was sure of it. She hoped every day he experienced an ounce of the pain he caused those victims before they died.
Female laughter drew her attention to where her brothers were currently taking orders behind the bar. They flirted with all of the women who sat on stools waiting for their drinks. Gideon, Cody, and she had spent several nights over the last couple of weeks reforming their brother/sister bonds. The photo albums helped. She also relayed everything she could remember about their parents to them.
Last weekend, they had gone through the storage room Matilda used to store her parents’ most precious things. Each of them took a trinket or two. She grabbed her mother’s star necklace, while Gideon grabbed a set of cuff links, and Cody took a tie from their father. Afterwards, Gideon took them to meet his adopted parents. The Sellers were amazing people and loved Gideon as their own. Mrs. Seller had made a photo album of her baby brother’s life, and she had pored over every single pictures while snuggled between Zane and Cian that night.
Cody, on the other hand, was a bit reluctant to share his adoptive parents with her just yet. He was the baby. He didn’t know her, or their parents, and she couldn’t blame him. When he was ready, he’d share, and she’d be right there for him.
“James!” Ava shouted over the blaring music. “Is this seat taken?” Ava rested her hand on the back of the open chair.
Jaime gestured to the four empty chairs around the table. “Feel free. If memory serves, you invited me here again, then left me by myself. Again”
“Where are your mates?” Ave took a sip of her fruity concoction.
“Your guess is as good as mine. Wait, why would you ask about my mates?”
Ava shrugged her shoulders. “Just curious.
“Curious gets you into trouble,” she said.
“It’s nothing,” Ava said. “Figured they’d be with you is all.”
“I suspect they are at home, maybe enjoying each other’s company.” Jamie hated the bitter tone of her voice. She wasn’t jealous of them, they were way past that. No, she hated the fact they stayed home while she was there, without them.
“They not treating you right?” Ava laid her hand on the table, her thumb keeping beat to the music.
“Of course!” Jamie assured Ava.
She quirked a brow at Jamie.
Zane and Cian treated her amazingly, the sex was mind-blowing, and they’d been right. There was no jealously. Plenty of nights she spent wrapped in Zane's arms without Cian, and the same went with Cian without Zane. She also knew Zane pleasured Cian in ways she couldn’t, and in one way or another, they always involved her in their play. Her mates have given her everything her heart desired and needed, except their love. Neither one of her mates had whispered those three little words to her. But then again, neither had she.
Ava leaned forward, laying a comforting hand on her forearm. “You could tell them first, you know.”
“What the hell!” Jamie swore. “Are you wolves able to read minds, too?”
“No, we're just very perceptive.” Ava gave her a knowing smile. “You understand they both love you, James.”
“But they haven't said it.” Jamie whispered.
“Neither have you.” Ava twirled the straw in her glass.
A thought popped into her head, totally off subject of her mates and love. “Do you have mates, Ava?”
“Yup. Sure do.” Her gaze flicked to the bar then back to her.
“Why haven't—”
“Mated yet?”
Jamie nodded.
“Lots of reasons. My other wolf is a dominant ass. Believe it or not, he's worse than Zane.” Ava shrugged. “But at least with Zane, I know where I stand. I'm not so sure with Peyton.”
“So, who’s your third? Zane mentioned that there aren't really a lot of warlocks ar
ound,” Jamie hedged.
Ava laughed. “Oh, James. You poor innocent soul. Our third isn't a warlock, but a witch.”
A witch? Jamie's eyes widen in realization, and a flush burned cheeks. “I'm so stupid. I didn't even think.”
Ava shrugged. “You're not stupid, you just didn't know.”
“So, are there other reasons you haven't completed your Trinity?”
“Yes, but those reasons are shrinking as each day goes forward.” Ava pushed her chair back before she stood up. “Listen, Cian is upstairs in his office doing work, and I saw Zane sneak in the back door, so they aren't home together. They’re here, because you are, and they want you safe and protected. Why don't you march your ass up to Cian’s and tell them how you feel?” She pointed in the direction of the darkened hallway. “Down the hallway, take the steps on the left, and it is the first door on the right.”
Jamie didn’t hesitate. If she gave herself too much time, she’d chicken out. She grabbed her beer then followed Ava's directions. The moment she arrived in front of Cian's office, a wave of fear stopped her from knocking. What if they didn't feel the same way? Sure, they were mates, sure they had amazing sex, but who said love went along with it? Could she live a life without their love day in and day out? Did she even want to? She wanted what her parents had, had, for sure, and she wanted to have babies. Zane and Cian's babies, to be exact. She’d make sure all of them were protected and safe no matter what. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly then raised her hand to knock, only to have the door swing open.
“You going to stand out there all damn night or what?” Zane growled, pulling her roughly into the office, kicking the door close behind her.
“I wasn’t sure if I should knock. Neither of you told me you were going to be here tonight,” she accused them. “What type of mates do that?”
“It wasn't intentional, babe.” Cian pushed back from his desk and walked over to them. “Zane and I knew you would be here, and Zane needed to talk to me, without worry about you overhearing us. We were heading out in five to surprise you downstairs.” Cian cupped her face before he leaned down to kiss her silly. “No biggie.” Cian’s voice rumbled against her lips.
