Moonlight Heart: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 4)

by K. R. Alexander

  Half a dozen approached on feet or claws or wings. They came together and moved back to reveal a beating heart before me. This heart was made of light and spirit and magic, just like themselves. Their hearts and the heart of the Earth and my own.

  I sank to my knees on stone and held my palms out to feel its warmth. Not only a symbol of life, but a metaphor for love. I thought again of the feelings I had just now holding onto Isaac. Then, in a flash, thought of the two strongest spells I’d ever done: both of them out of love to save my pack, first Isaac, then all of them, to escape the vampires’ labyrinth.

  The gift was stunning. My eyes flooded, overwhelmed by it as I looked into light of the heart. They were presenting me with life and love. The two things which were … everything.

  Thank you. Again and again, those words filled my soul, pressing out to them, giving in waves of gratitude. Yet I hadn’t the faintest idea what it was supposed to mean.

  When I’d done lower world journeys in the shamanic traditions, the gifts and guidance always seemed clear, even if not at once, it made sense. A moment’s reflection would bring clarity.

  But this … what was this? Why were they here for me, now, all of a sudden?

  I had just thought of them in the books in Zar’s room. Had this thinking attracted them, brought them to my spirit and called their attention to me?

  Why are you here? Can I do something for you? Can I give you something in return?

  Again they moved forward. As one, the glittering spirits pushed the heart to me until it was of me, part of my own life force, a light and power that dazzled my soul yet filled me with a fresh sort of ecstatic joy as if everything I had ever longed for had come to pass, all at the same time.

  Then they gazed up at me with those large, impossibly beautiful and deep eyes. And I realized with horror they were all crying.

  Tears streamed to the stone floor while they reached out to me, as if in desperation. The single word filled my vision and mind rather than my ears as light of their forms and teardrops faded: Help.

  Chapter 10

  While Kage was out with Peter to fetch Jason, I returned to find Zar at the workshop.

  “I’d like to speak to Atarah again. And Diana. Will you come with me?”

  Zar, who had been cutting out deerskin along a pencil line, jumped to his feet the instant he saw me.

  Beyond his work station, Jed also looked around. He was working on a pair of boots.

  “Hello, Jed. It’s good to see you.” I paused to offer him a smile.

  He only nodded, tense. Although, by Jed’s standards, this felt strangely polite.

  Zar took me back to Atarah’s and she call Diana.

  In the circular meeting room, I told them briefly about the first two scries, only that I had strong hopes to find both vampire and translator now, then moved quickly to the faie, telling of the visitation and the plea.

  As I’d expected, all were interested to hear there may be trouble among the kindred. However, none could offer anything.

  “One cannot easily go out looking for kindred, as you probably know,” Diana said. “We have no way to ask them in the flesh unless they come to us. However, Baruch of the Aspen Pack has good relations with kindred around the river by their home. Good as in having seen them and being aware of places they may be. If he summons, there is always a chance he may receive a visit. I’ll tell him we’re seeking them.”

  “I’ve seen them in the wood only at dawn,” Atarah said. “And only once in the years we’ve lived here. But I will ask if they would visit as well. If there is also trouble among the kindred just now it is disturbing indeed. We would all do well to heed any warnings and answer any requests they bring us.”

  “I’ll do anything I can for them,” I said. “It was a remarkable experience seeing them. I wish I knew what was wrong. This was…”

  Atarah smiled gently. “It is a spiritual experience to see them, is it not? You are blessed, Cassia. I’m sure there’s a reason they came to you.”

  I nodded. “It was.”

  “I’ll read up,” Zar said. “Perhaps I can find something more about ways to summon them, or just get their attention. We know they come to certain places, river banks, a quiet wood at dawn. We can surely do something to attract them.”

  “Thank you. I know this is one more thing on top of your own troubles, but it felt so urgent, so important, coming out of my looking for answers to the vampire questions, it almost made me think…”

  “That it could be related,” Diana said quietly.

  I nodded again.

  “We’ll do all we can. Thank you for telling us what you saw. As soon as we learn anything, we’ll let you know. Atarah says you will be staying here?”

  “Maybe not tonight. I hope we’re going into the city. Then I also hope that I have my bag back tomorrow and, yes, I will be here. You have a beautiful space,” I added to Atarah as we were standing. “I’d love to hear your views on astrology sometime. They told me in Germany that wolves consider moon signs as primary as sun signs.”

  “Sun is the light we cast,” Atarah said. “Moon is the deeper spirit of the wolf. Both together make us whole and, when used in harmony, make any wolf strong. You use both of yours, I can tell.” Smiling.

  “I’m a Libra sun, Aries moon.”

  “Virgo and Taurus.”

  “Earth,” I almost sighed the word. “That’s exactly what Martha, in Germany, told us we were missing.”

  She cocked her head a bit, eyes distant, and I knew she was considering my companions.

  “I suppose you are… Isaac has an earth Moon…”

  “He’s the only one.”

  “Your strengths will not be wanting for a lack of the structure offered by earth as long as you do use those strengths. Libra will guide you to balance.”

  When we left them, I had to once more disengage with Zar who, speaking of balance, seemed not in the least concerned by walking out on hours of work today. He was still telling me about the books he had that either referenced or went on in detail about the kindred when Kage, Jason, and Peter roared up the road on their two bikes.

  I thanked Zar and told him to meet us at the old barn, where they had a fire pit and several log seats, at seven.

  Chapter 11

  Meeting Kage and Jason and walking home with them, my blood still tingled with earlier visions. At the time, I’d found the clarity of the mansion satisfying: how the best scrying was supposed to be. Now, that part seemed a long time ago. It was the faie and that heart of light and spirit that they had pressed into my own chest, their gift and their plea, that filled my senses and distracted me from the conversation as Kage and Jason argued. Something about Peter.

  At home, I asked Kage if I could help with dinner. He waved me away.

  Jason stood just inside, looking as if he’d walked into a haunted house—eyes wide, rigid. I could tell why Kage wished he’d shower in the evening. He smelled like motor oil even to my nose, though only his hands, with some black around the nails, bore visible witness to his work. He must wear an overall there.

  “It’s okay,” I said, remembering how sensitive they were to new things. “I cleaned up this morning. Everything’s still here.”

  “Oh … thank you.” But he looked nervous as he crossed the room. He sniffed at the shelves as if to make sure that was really his stuff on them.

  His smile returned later after he emerged from the bathroom with much of the black scrubbed off his hands and he saw the bowl of bones centerpiece.

  “My bones,” he cooed, stroking them. “You found them all. They’re smashing there.” Beaming at them like a proud collector. “Sparky? Did you see?”

  Kage was walking past him for the door. He’d come in for tongs as he’d just thrown steaks and a whole, gutted trout onto a round grill out front beside the door. This was smoking with an intense heat he’d built in the coals before he loaded the grill.

  Jason hugged him as he called Kage’s attention to the bo
wl. “Didn’t Cassia arrange them nicely? Aren’t they smashing?”

  “Crown jewels,” Kage said dryly, moving on for the door. “Merab’s making broth this Saturday.”

  “I’ll queue for the unveiling.”

  “Unveiling?” I asked from the living room chair where I was sketching out the scenes from my scry in my notebook. This helped me remember details. All I could think of though, was that heart, the faie, and the emotions of the visions: the repulsion of Dieter, the relief at finding our translator, the love for Isaac, then the tapestry of feelings in that heart, those radiant spirits, and their tears.

  Related or not, I had to find them—help them any way I could. And, if they had contacted me once, maybe they could again. One clue even, one voice to show the way.

  “Merab makes a vat of bone broth once a week in summer, twice in winter,” Jason was explaining. “When she goes in to remove the lid and strain it out is the unveiling. If you’re there early to queue, she’ll give you a bone.”

  I thought about that as I sketched, this image now seeping into my mind. I looked up at Jason, again standing at the table to prod his bone collection into different positions in the bowl, admiring the effect like a flower arrangement.

  The door and windows all stood open and odors of grilling meat were starting to make my mouth water. I was not a big meat-eater at home, and glad now that I’d had the salad earlier.

  “You go in fur?” I asked. “With others?”

  “If you want it fresh,” Jason said happily, not looking up from his bones. “You could pick at it in skin, I suppose, but that wouldn’t be the same. You wouldn’t get the broth aroma and the feeling of it.”

  “So you go to the kitchen … in one of the central buildings? With others in fur? And you sit there and all wait for her to give you bones?”

  “Yep. Sometimes I get two. I love Merab.” Voice dreamy as he smiled.

  I rubbed my chin with the back of my pen. “I’d like to get a photograph of that.”

  “We don’t go in much for pictures. The silvers don’t like there to be records, you know? In case we have mundanes around. But you can come with me on Saturday morning if she’s going to unveil a pot. It’s a lovely smell.”

  “Any fighting?”

  “Oh, no. Merab wouldn’t give us a bone then. She’s strict about the kitchen.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “Do you want one?” He looked around at me.

  “A bone?”

  “I’ll get you one.”

  “No, thank you, Jason. That’s thoughtful of you. I’ll try her broth sometime.”

  “She’ll give you that too.”

  “Jay? Your fish is ready.” Kage called from outside.

  Jason scrambled out the door as if to catch the fish before it got away.

  “It’s hot,” Kage snapped.

  In a flash, Jason was back at the table. He sat down with a dinner plate draped with the trout. After a couple attempts to hold and bite it, he sat back, hands up as if at gunpoint, mouth open while he panted with what must have been a badly burnt tongue on the fish grease.

  “Told you it was hot,” Kage said from outside. I could hear he was flipping the steaks, or adding one now that the long fish was gone. “Cassia? How about you and I?”

  Now? Really?

  I couldn’t even see him, but looked around at the doorway outside in some exasperation anyway. “Kage, please—”

  “I is Neä. Pretty easy to remember. Think ‘nay,’ even though it’s not spelt like that.”

  I hesitated. There was a definite note of amusement in his voice. He knew what I’d been thinking he meant.

  Jason lifted the plate to his face, elbows on the table, to chew off the thin, crunchy tail.

  I’d never seen anyone other than a cat eat a fish tail and I stared, distracted from my own work.

  “You is Vinu,” Kage continued from the grill. “But that one’s a whisker more tricky. Vinu is for intimates like us. You’d use it for friends, family, pack, and so on. Strangers, anyone you wanted to show deference or formality to, and also plural groups of people like ‘you all,’ would be Vinua.”

  Jason crunched it down to the meaty area, noticed me watching him, and held out the plate. “Want some?”

  “That’s okay.”

  “Some fillet?” He pronounced the T in “fillet”—one of those British things like “maths” that always threw me.

  “No, that’s your fish. Go ahead. Thanks.”

  “Learning Lucannis? They’re also capitalized.” Jason tried again to pick it up and, this time, though it clearly still burned from the way he shifted his fingers, he ate the whole fish. Tail to nose—gills, eyes, bones, everything. Just like that.

  “Yeah,” Kage said. “I and you are capitalized in Lucannis. We’re not so selfish—equal footing, you and I.”

  “Is that so? Could you please tell me them again?”

  Kage did and I repeated several times, “Neä, Vinu, Vinua.” On my way to being able to tell someone they had a cool hand. Maybe we would play poker one day.

  “Thanks, Kage.”

  Grinning, Jason licked the grease off his plate, set it down, then fastidiously washed his hands at the sink, having another go at scrubbing his nails.

  “Thank you for tidying up,” he said as he did this.

  I suppose he was getting used to the idea because he almost sounded like he meant it now, rather than shocked and stressed.

  “Must have taken half your day,” he added. “Did you get to scry? Learn anything new?”

  “I hope so.” I tapped my pen on the notebook. “I think we’ll soon find our translator. And I’m sure Dieter is still in London. I was worried for a minute there that he may have been hunted down himself. Atarah says there are still vampire hunters in the mundane world, though I’d never heard that. Also, I had a vision about the faie—the kindred—I’m concerned they’re in trouble and I’m looking into that.”

  “What’s wrong with the kindred?” Kage called inside.

  Jason looked startled. “The kindred are nature herself.”

  “I know… That’s why it’s so concerning.”

  “Is this related to us?” Kage asked.

  “No idea. But it doesn’t really matter.”

  Jason shook his head. “If there’s something wrong there, it’s a problem no matter what.”

  “Not about to find any kindred in London,” Kage said.

  “One step at a time,” I said.

  “Jay, get out the bread and cheese. Cassia, you can sit at the table.”

  Jason pulled out one of the two chairs for me, beckoning, and set out the bread, cheese wheel, and a knife for me.

  “Bring us two more plates,” Kage instructed.

  Again, Jason dashed out.

  While I was helping myself to the cheese, he returned with his plate now filled with a vast T-bone, two inches thick. He set this in his spot but did not sit. He prodded it gingerly with a finger this time, jerking the finger back.

  I offered him a bread and cheese roll like Kage had been eating and he smiled.

  “Cheers. Did Merab give us extra?”

  “Special for guests, I suppose.”

  “I was glad you were here anyway, but this is getting dreamy.” He swallowed the slice in a couple bites.

  “I’ll ask her for a second bone.”

  “You would do that?” Gulping, startled.

  “Sure I would. It’s the least I can do for your hosting me.”

  Jason was still beaming as Kage stepped in with two plates. One with two steaks like Jason’s and the other with one.

  “Merab said one was plenty for a human,” he said as he set it beside the bread and cheese in front of me. “Even with no fish.”

  The mountain of meat must be cut by the butcher for them. I’d never seen anything like it in a mundane grocery store. Rather like having a whole casserole. Only beef. No sauce, no side, no salt. Just beef which, at that thickness, and for the amoun
t of time he’d had it cooking, had to be raw on the inside. The char must just be for flavor and to warm it up.

  I grabbed a knife and fork from the drawer—not the sink.

  They were having to wait until they could touch theirs, Jason standing at the table, Kage with his on the counter.

  “Don’t you want to sit?” I asked Jason.

  “That just makes a mess.”

  I didn’t know what he meant, but nodded and carved off more cheese to give each another roll.

  While they swallowed these, I cut into my steak. I ate around the edges and corners, the most cooked, while blood seeped onto my plate, threatening to overflow. I’ve eaten rare steaks. That sucker, though, was raw.

  Still, it didn’t really matter. Eating only choice, grilled bits, was plenty for me. While I sawed and nibbled and paused to have a slice of bread and cheese, wondering if they had vegetables at the stores, Kage and Jason watched me, enthralled.

  It wasn’t until they started to eat that I understood Jason’s comment about the mess. Had they been sitting, the blood would have streamed down to their elbows and into their laps. This way, as they held the steaks with both hands, they could bend a little over their plates and the juices run down the meat and back to the plates.

  I soon finished finding cooked edge bits and felt satisfied with the accompaniment.

  Jason was already done, tipping his plate to drink the blood off, while Kage was halfway down his second. I carved off most of the strip loin, then speared the tenderloin on my fork and passed this with the bone over to Jason’s plate when he set it back down.

  Even once I’d given Kage the strip loin, it took a minute to convince them I honestly didn’t want more.

  “Bloody hell,” Jason murmured at last. “We get afters. Like Lunaenott around here. Cassia? Food is ruos.”

  In moments, these were also gone and nothing remained but four bones. Jason put these in the refrigerator for later.

  I had a final slice of cheese for my “afters” and Jason put on the kettle. Should I offer Kage a magical theory lesson? Or did he mean that as a private thing between us?

  Kage had just said he’d do the washing up when a pup, seven or eight years old, came running to the door, shouting his name.