“A rabbit pie?” He asked in a timid voice befitting his stature.
“Sit and wait with a rabbit pie?” I glanced at him. “Sure. Waiting with a book, a game, and a pie doesn’t sound like waiting at all, does it? It sounds pretty fun.”
He nodded.
“I’ve never had rabbit pie.”
He gasped like I said I’d never seen the sky.
“Are they good?”
“This good.” He stretched his hands as far apart as he could. “Tabitha makes the best.”
“Too bad she’s not here waiting with us.”
“Yeah…” He smiled shyly as he watched me. “You’re the witch, aren’t you?”
“That’s right. I’m Cassia. Who are you?”
“Noah.”
“When’s your birthday, Noah?”
“September. That’s next month.”
“Is it really? My birthday’s in September also.” Then, “No, I mean it. I’m not just saying that. It’s on the twenty-sixth.”
He inched forward on his knees, all the way in sight around the footboard. “Can you make a pie appear out of nowhere?”
“I’m afraid not.”
“Can you turn yourself into a cat?”
“No.”
“Adam says witches have cats.”
“I don’t have a cat.”
“You don’t?”
“Nope.”
“What do you look like when you put on fur?”
“I don’t put on fur.”
He blinked. “Aren’t you old enough?”
“Witches aren’t shifters, Noah. We use energetic magics, while your magic is a purely physical, ancestral gift. A human who uses magic and a shifter with the inherited ability to change your shape are two different things. In fact, they’re two different species. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Are you a friend of Kage and Jason?”
He nodded.
“Me too. Should we wait for them with a book? Do you like motorbikes?”
Another nod as he moved closer across the floor.
But we didn’t have to wait at all. By the time we were about to make our way back to the living room, the voices of our hosts reached us as they walked up to the open door.
Noah ran past me. “Kage! Story!”
I got up to follow.
Noah bounced at them as they stepped into the kitchen. “I came over and everything was gone! I thought you’d gone.” Flapping his arms around the clean room. “But I sniffed like a good wolf and your things were here, only in new places. So I got our book and waited for you. Then—” With a dramatic pause, eyes huge, sucking in a breath. “The witch got here. Did she make all your things move? Did she do it with magic? Does she know where the bad guys are? She said we should have rabbit pie. She’s never had rabbit pie.” This last delivered with returned anxiety.
“No,” Kage, kneeling on the floor with Noah, gasped.
“That’s what she said. You smell like yeast.” Brightening again.
They both showed Noah their empty hands and mouths.
“We stopped by the kitchens, having a chat with Hannah,” Kage said. “That’s all.”
“You didn’t get bread?”
“No bread.”
“Or pie?”
“No pie.”
“Can we have a story?”
“Sure we can.”
“Where’s your story buddy, Noah?” Jason asked.
“She had to go home for dinner and she didn’t come back. I think her mum made her take a bath.”
“Life’s not fair,” Kage said. “She’ll find us later if she’s out.”
“Do you have biscuits?” Noah asked.
While I gathered my notebook and took one of the two living room chairs, Noah ran to get a blanket from the bedroom. He dragged it out like a body, it was so big for him. Kage grabbed the motorcycle book and joined him in setting up a spot with the blanket on the floor. Jason rummaged in the kitchen. Noah settled on Kage’s lap, a fold of the heavy blanket pulled up around himself, while Kage leaned against the free chair. Jason brought a tiny glass of goat milk for Noah and box of vanilla custard creams of the sort Rebecca had shared with me.
Noah devoured his cookie and milk before the reading even began.
Jason passed the cookies around and I also accepted one, along with his offer to make tea. Kage took four but gave one to Noah.
While Jason munched cookies and started the kettle, Kage opened the bulky motorcycle book to a place indicated by Noah.
It was not a story. Rather history, trivia, and specs on the bikes, including racing notes and recent changes in designs.
Kage put a lot of heart into it. You’d have thought he was reading about a bank heist the way he went through racing history while Noah was all attention, turning pages and interrupting with questions and pointing out features on the glossy, colorful specimens therein.
They’d just gotten well settled to the motorcycle narrative, Jason having brought my tea and joined them on the floor, when someone else came for a visit.
“Noah? Noah! Is Noah in there?”
“Helah’s out of her bath,” Kage said.
Noah smirked—surely because he wasn’t the unfortunate bather. “She’ll be mad.”
“Sounds mad.” Jason scrambled back up to get the door. “We should be nice to her, don’t you think? She’s had a rough evening.”
“She’ll want a different story. She always does.”
“That’s fine,” Kage told him. “There are always more bike stories. Jay’s right. When your best friend is in trouble you’ve got to let her choose the story.”
“Evening, Helah.” Jason opened the door.
“Is Noah here?”
“We’re having a story. Come on in.”
“I want a story.” Though she had indeed sounded angry, her voice dissolved to tears at the realization of how much she’d been missing. “Mum gave me a bath!”
“Oh, birdie, come on.” Jason knelt and she fell tearfully into his arms.
A tiny specimen, just like Noah, I’d seen her close up on the day we’d returned from Cornwall. Then Kage had been tossing her in the air while she laughed and gave him family secrets. Shoulder-length hair with a tanned, wiry, wild look about her—even in clean shorts and top with sandals on her feet.
Now, she was howling while Jason held onto her and stroked her wet, smooth hair.
“Scrubbed and scrubbed! Fingers and toes! And we’d worked for hours on my hair! Me and Noah found the bird nest. I said I was going to have one and Noah helped to put up all the sticks and grass and bits of fur to make a nest so the birds would come to my head. I even found a feather. And Noah got a bunch of black fur rubbed off in the hedge where Jed’s always under there. Then Dad called me for dinner and I went and he thought it was funny! It wasn’t funny! It was pretty! It was beautiful! He laughed and laughed and Mum said no! Said I would have a bath and it would all come out and she took it all out! Every bit! All the twigs! All the fur! We did such a good job and we worked so hard and she was so mean!”
The exertion of her wailing story and tears left her speechless as she pounded on Jason’s chest, him holding on and telling her how sorry he was that she lost her nest.
Noah watched her anxiously. “Sorry she had a bath,” he murmured.
“Why don’t you tell her?” Kage said. “Could be you’d make her feel better.”
Noah looked around, then scrambled from the blanket and Kage to run past his friend for the kitchen. He’d spotted the box of custard creams and grabbed this to bring Helah while the storm died down.
After a minute, she sniffled and looked at him, turning sideways against Jason.
“Sorry, Helah.” He offered the box and she took it instead of reaching in. “Want a story with us?”
Helah wiped her wet face with an arm and plunged her tiny hand into the box—with Jason gently trying to rest it from her grip. She nodded, managing to extract two cookies before Jason had the
box away. She gobbled one down and had just about polished off the second—Jason setting the box up with the dinner plates in the cabinet—when she remembered herself and gave the last bit to Noah.
“We’re going to have a racing story,” Noah said happily, but his friend was distracted by the room, blinking, wiping her nose, looking around.
She spotted me in the chair and jumped back. “Noah—that’s the witch!”
Noah raised his little chin to a jaunty angle. “We’re going to have rabbit pie.”
“You are? With the witch? Did she make everything go away?”
“It’s here on the shelves.” He pointed them out while Helah, giving me a wide berth, crept over to Kage for a second reassuring hug.
She seemed to have gotten over her tears as quickly as they’d come on. Jason followed with a damp dish towel to wipe her face while she gave another sniff.
“What’s she turn into?” she whispered in Kage’s ear.
“I’m afraid I don’t—” I started.
“Stars,” Kage said.
Both pups stared at him. So did I.
“That’s right,” Kage said. “Star light filling up the night, chasing Moon across the sky. It’s the prettiest thing you ever saw.”
Wide eyes shifted from Kage to me and back.
“When does she do it?” Helah still whispered.
“She might do it if we asked her nice.”
“Do you really change into starlight?” Helah eased around him, putting Kage between herself and me in the far chair.
Noah joined him while Jason remained in the kitchen.
“Kage?” I gave him a look, cocking my head.
“Go on.” He smiled at me.
“I don’t know…”
“Sure you do.” He held out a hand as if for me to take his, though not reaching over to me.
I hesitated. Then set my notebook in my lap with the tea mug on it, drew up the magic, and channeled a cool, blueish white glow into the palms of my hands.
Noah and Helah gasped, crouching behind Kage as if I might spring at them.
There was a second when Kage leaned back as well, pupils dilating. Then he reached, himself a child, longing to touch that haunted house.
I offered one glowing palm, fingers pointed to the floor, and Kage very slowly, as if reaching into a fire and seeing how far he could go, touched his fingertips to my palm. While the pups stared in horror, mouths wide, Kage also looked into the light surrounding his own hand, seeping off mine to spread up his skin and disperse.
“It burns,” Helah gasped.
“It freezes,” Noah said.
“What is it, Kage?” Helah asked. “What’s it feel like?”
Kage lifted his gaze from my fingers to eyes, his touch warm and light and sending tiny ripples up my arm like the shiver of a first kiss.
After a minute, he murmured, “Like lightning on a clear day.”
Light reflected in his eyes as he looked into mine, unblinking. Afraid? Yes. But was that one of the reasons he liked it? Adrenaline junky? Risk-taker? He would never go for just any old worm. He didn’t approve. But a scary worm? That might be worth the fall.
I looked back while the pups waited breathlessly, and Jason—from the corner of my eye—seemed equally tense. I had to be the one to break the hold: closing my fingers around his so light vanished, then sitting back, both hands going to my mug.
The hush was broken by a, “You put it out!” scream from Helah and Noah.
“Kage is magic now!”
“It burned like lightning!”
“Story, story! Tell us a magic story!”
“About a magic motorbike!”
“About a magic princess!”
“A magic wolf!”
“Kage, change!” Helah yanked at his arm.
Both seemed to have forgotten me in the thrill of Kage’s daring deed.
“He can’t change. He’s going to tell a story.”
“Jason, change!” She ran to him instead. “Change! Change! You be the wolf. I’ll be the princess and Noah will be the bad magic and Kage will tell the story.”
So they did. Though I tried to catch his eye and remind Jason that he had to travel to London in skin in a few hours, then maybe change back into fur for us, Jason retired to the bedroom to strip off and change while Helah and Noah climbed on Kage, setting the scene.
“There’s a princess, right?” Helah asked.
“Right. A beautiful, golden-haired princess,” Kage said. “Glowing with starlight.”
“And there’s a wolf,” Noah said.
“There’s a huge, strong wolf,” Kage agreed. “And this princess is so beautiful and powerful and canny she can pick out any wolf in the pack to be her personal guard and companion. She watches over others, doesn’t like fighting, and makes lists of things to keep order.”
“What if she puts a spell on them?” Noah sounded concerned.
“She doesn’t need to. The biggest, strongest, baddest wolf in the pack goes to her of his own free will because he cannot bear another Moon without her to share his songs. She agrees because she can’t bear another Moon without him at her side.”
As Kage talked, Helah darted to the bedroom in response to the sound of claws and panting.
“You’re the wolf,” she prompted Jason as she trotted back to the living room, leading him by the ear.
The long-legged, jet black wolf had his head tipped sideways into her very firm grip as she marched him along.
“You’re the biggest, strongest, baddest wolf. Your name’s Lightning. I’m—”
“His name’s Black Magic because he’s a magic wolf,” Noah said.
“Your name’s Black Magic,” Helah corrected herself. “I’m Star Princess. We’re going to stop the…”
“Vampires,” Kage said.
“No!” Helah shrieked, leaping against Jason and throwing her tiny arms around his thick ruff as he stood with his head lowered for her, slowly wagging his tail. “Save us, Black Magic! Take us to the stars so we can find more star power!”
As she yelled, Noah ran at them, forming claws with his hands, hissing like a cat.
Screaming in terror, making Jason wince and drowning Kage’s next words about the story, Helah scrambled for Jason’s shoulders. He sank into a play bow, she climbed onto his withers, and he trotted around the small room. He made a circle, then headed for the kitchen, all while she yelled and Noah hissed and slashed at them.
Helah clung to his fur with both little fists. “Up! Up to the tips of the highest mountains! Catch the stars!”
“All night the mighty wolf and the lovely princess galloped through the forests and up through the mountains,” Kage said as the others stumbled around. “Vampires on their heels all the time. Never a safe place to turn. At last, they climbed to the top of the tallest mountain where Star Princess could catch her star.”
Jason reared up into the empty chair and Helah scrambled to the back like a monkey. Noah held onto his tail, hissing, trying to pull him away.
“The vampires!” Helah shrieked. “Stop them! I’ll get the star power!” She snatched franticly for stars.
Jason turned to Noah, showing his teeth. Noah sprang for him, hissing, slashing with his claws. Jason yelped and tumbled over beside Kage.
“No!” That pup really put a lot into her yells.
“The vicious vampire army strikes a mortal blow to the brave wolf,” Kage said. “Now it’s up to the princess to save him.”
“Starlight!” She waved her hands franticly at Noah, who was starting to climb, hissing, up her chair. “Magic light! Make the magic light!”
I was a bit slow on the uptake. Finally, though, as the vampire tried to sink his fangs into the screaming princess’s bare foot, I tossed out a puff of light from my hands in their direction.
Both pups screamed bloody murder, Noah falling out of the chair, Helah clinging to its back. She was quick to recover herself, however.
“The princess got her star powe
r back! Did you see? Did you see me, Black Magic? Star Princess blew them away!” She leapt from her chair, crashed into Kage, scrambled over Jason, and heaved his head to her lap as she came to rest on her knees.
“Our star soup will make you better.” She pried open his jaws with both hands and tipped a vial of star soup down his throat.
Jason gulped and licked her face.
She hugged his neck. “You got us up the mountain. I got the star magic to save us. You come home with me now because we’re a pack.”
“So the wolf and the princess journeyed home,” Kage said. “They grew old together, into wise silvers. They had eight pups and always good hunting.”
“They had rabbit pies,” Noah said.
Jason struggled to his feet to lick Helah’s face again, then Noah’s.
“Rabbit pies every dinner.” Kage nodded.
“That was a good story.” Helah sighed, leaning into Jason and stroking his cheek.
“I want to be the wolf this time,” Noah said, one arm vanishing into the thick fur of Jason’s back as he also held onto him.
“Jason’s the wolf,” Helah said.
“No, Jason’s the dragon.”
“Story!” Helah shouted at Kage. “Tell us a story!”
“Well,” Kage said. “There was a big, smoky black dragon that lived in a cave on the top of a glacier.”
“And he ate wolves!”
“He flew down at night from his cave to gobble up wolves in fur if they didn’t stay together in a pack,” Kage added.
Helah and Noah yelped, sprang in the air, and raced into the bedroom with Jason padding after them, growling.
Well … I never did take any notes. I didn’t work on the sketches. I didn’t finish cleaning in the bathroom.
The only reason I even remembered we needed to watch the clock to meet the others later was Kage calling the room to order around 9:30 p.m., saying it was time for pups to find their beds.
Jason lay sprawled across the linoleum floor, his ribs heaving, having just been slain—yet again—this time after putting in a performance as a herd of bison that the total wolves were hunting across the Great Plains. I sat on the floor in the kitchen, having been playing the part of a flash flood—making little sprays of water burst from my fingers into the total wolves’ faces while they tried to swim to safety. Kage also lay on the floor, still by the chairs, also a part of the hapless bison herd.
Moonlight Heart: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 4) Page 10
