by Dakota Brown
RECKONING
A Reverse Harem Tale
Mountain Magic
Book Three
by
Dakota Brown
RECKONING
A Reverse Harem Tale
Mountain Magic, book 3
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © 2020 by Dakota Brown
Cover Design © 2020 by Camila Marques
All rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination and or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by Untold Press LLC
114 NE Estia Lane
Port St Lucie, FL 34983
www.untoldpress.com
PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dedication
For Shoshanah
You make all my stories better.
Acknowledgements
I can't even begin to tell you all how excited I am about this series and how well it has been received. Thank you, readers for your kind reviews, for spreading the word, for helping this trilogy do so well.
I want to thank Jen and Sean at Untold for all their hard work helping me get these novels out quickly, their skillful edits, and everything else they do. They really do believe in me and what I'm writing, and I'm humbled and so grateful for everything they do to help make my stories the best they can be.
I also want to give a shout out to my readers group on Facebook. You guys are great! Thank you for your encouragement, support, and all the sexy pictures you post.
There are so many people that help when I need some inspiration, and I appreciate you all. A few stand out time and again for their dedication at helping me through the writing process, the ups and downs, the I can's and the I can't's. Lizzy, Justinn, Shoshanah, and again, Jen and Sean. Without all of you, I wouldn't be half the writer I am today. Thank you.
Chapter 1
Sofia
"Perhaps you should drive faster." Nikolai's voice pulled me out of a light doze. The half Russian-half Tatar mage leaned forward as far as the seatbelt would allow and put his hands on the dash of Doc's pickup.
I was cuddled between my two werewolves, Ed and Allan, in the back seat. Nikolai's alarmed voice woke both of them as well.
"Why?" Doc asked. The dim lights from the dash combined with my currently post-demon enhanced senses, lit up Doc's features enough for me to see him frown tiredly when he glanced over at the mage. His long hair was currently pulled back and I wanted to free it from its restraints and run my fingers through it. That was one of my top priorities when we got back to his cabin in Colorado.
We had left my parents' house in Nebraska the evening after Thanksgiving dinner partially because the longer we were around my parents, the more questions they were going to ask, and partially because now that I was free of the demon that had been forced to possess me, we all wanted to get home and simply spend time together.
It was late in the middle of the night. Nikolai had been keeping Doc company in the front while I slept in the back with Ed and Allan. I put my hand on Allan's arm and squeezed. Ed leaned forward and buried his nose in my hair, inhaling. He had done that at almost every opportunity since the demon had been freed. He liked that I smelled like me again. I did, too.
Allan took my hand and pressed it to his lips, also inhaling before giving me a gentle kiss.
Nikolai sighed and after a long pause, he shook his head. "Maybe it doesn't matter. Someone, probably Ash, is tearing down my wards. Violently."
"Which wards?" The weariness in Doc's voice tugged at my heart. He'd shouldered so much of the responsibility recently.
"The cabin wards."
Doc swore in both Navajo and Nikolai's dialect of Russian.
I understood the Russian, courtesy of Nikolai sharing languages with me when we had first met. Apparently, Doc was picking some of it up, too.
Doc's mother was a Navajo vampire hunter, his father a white preacher. They had traveled together saving souls with word and stake during the turn of the nineteenth century. Doc's mother had been attacked right before she'd given birth. She had not survived, but Doc had, though he wasn't completely human. Sometimes I actually wondered if he wasn't more than half vampire, like he claimed, but maybe no one actually knew for sure how it worked since he was unique.
Ash was sort of a friend of ours, but he was also under the control of our enemy, the Andersons. They were the ones that had forced the greater demon to possess me, hoping to get an even more powerful version of Ash, who was a lesser demon. Fortunately, I was able to avoid being forced out of my body, and Nikolai, who was actually from fourteen fifty or so, had been able to save me.
It looked like the Andersons had figured out we had released the greater demon. Maybe they were retaliating. My mom's words came back to me, about there being ways to hurt people that didn't involve physical violence. She was right.
"What are we going to do?" Ed whispered, but everyone in the car had excellent hearing and even over the diesel engine we could hear the fear in his voice. He and his brother Allan had been turned into werewolves on a family camping trip where they were also orphaned. They ran into Doc a few years later and begged him to get them out of the foster system before their wolfish nature was discovered. They'd already lost everything once. They didn't need to lose it all again.
"Nothing," Doc replied. "There isn't anything we can do. We're still an hour out, even if we drove as fast as I could we wouldn't get there in time to prevent them from doing whatever it is they're doing. All of the important things are here in this truck."
"And, you know, your truck is here, too," Allan added his tone worried but carrying a hint of amusement.
"Yes, everything but you four, is easier to replace than my truck," Doc agreed tightly.
"Why?" Nikolai asked. "Surely it only takes money?"
Doc shook his head. "They don't make diesels the way they used to. I could replace it, but it wouldn't be as good as this one is. Still, all of you are far more important than anything we left there. Whatever they've done, we'll survive it."
"Damn the Andersons," I growled.
Ed pulled me into a tight hug, his light blond hair tickling my cheek. It was getting a little shaggy. He usually kept it reasonably short. Now that I had noticed Ed's longer hair, I noticed that Allan's sandy blond hair was also getting a little shaggy, as if they hadn't gotten a haircut since I'd been possessed. Maybe they hadn't? Another piece of their lives I had disrupted. They swore they wouldn't have it any other way, but I still felt bad about it.
"At least there isn't any traffic?" Allan forced a laugh.
Doc snorted. "It is the middle of the night on a holiday, not to mention most of the roads are actually still closed. And covered in ice. Or snow. Or both."
I leaned forward and massaged his shoulders, trying to ease some of the tension, though I suspected it had been there longer than just the last few hours of what had to be a stressful drive.
Nikolai had provided us with traction spells for the truck and a measure of invisibility so we wouldn't attract the attention of any law enforcement that might be out on the treacherous roads. The whole area had been hit with a couple of massive snowstorms over the last few days and not much was actually open. Nikolai had made it from Colorado to Nebraska with Ed and Allan in a stolen Mustang. Alex Anderson's Mustang,
in fact. Fortunately, Nikolai had been able to practice all of his spells on the Mustang, so we and the truck were fairly safe. The Mustang had not fared so well.
I doubted the Andersons were that upset about Alex's car. They were probably upset about losing their demon. One of the mages who had cast the spells to bind the demon to me had probably felt the spell break, much like Nikolai was feeling his wards come crashing down even though we weren't home yet.
Thanking whatever gods and goddesses were listening that I hadn't actually ended up dating Alex, I reflected that I probably wouldn't have survived if I had. The chance meeting with Ed and Allan had saved my life. And while it had turned theirs upside down, they seemed pretty happy about it.
Doc groaned as my fingers dug into his shoulders and neck.
"I'm sorry," I said as I continued to try and ease his tension.
"For what, Sofia?" Doc said.
"This is all my fault."
"No, it's not," Allan insisted. "We didn't have to try and date you. We didn't have to protect you."
"Yes, we did," Ed interrupted, laughing. "I was gone the moment I laid eyes on you. But, what Allan really means is, it was our choice, too. It's not any of our faults. It's the Andersons' fault. They're the ones that tried to enslave you. They're the ones who work for this magic black market. They're completely the bad guys here. And as we've said many times, the truce we worked out with them would only have lasted so long anyway."
"I am grateful that the Andersons were interested in Sofia," Nikolai added. "Otherwise, I might still be trapped in that magical prison."
I had accidently rescued Nikolai from a magical trap his student had locked him in many centuries prior. Though it sucked for Nikolai, I was quietly grateful to Roza. Without her actions, I wouldn't have Nikolai in my life, and I'd be effectively dead. We had saved each other.
Doc took his hand from the steering wheel and put it over mine, gently taking it in his and pulling me forward so he could kiss my wrist, right over my magical pack tattoo. Five pawprints that represented each of us. It was the physical manifestation of the bond we had formed between all five of us. The bond that, along with Nikolai's magic and Doc's vampiric ability to transfer the demon's power to Nikolai, had saved my life.
"I'll stop apologizing, but I still feel bad." All I had wanted was a quiet college experience in a beautiful mountain setting. I hadn't even decided what I was going to major in, or what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Now I really didn't know, though I did hope it would continue to include my four boyfriends. I had only known them for a few months, but already I couldn't imagine my life without them.
"Hmm, maybe we need to distract Sofia," Allan said, pulling me back into his arms and nibbling on my neck.
I moaned. "Not fair. Doc's driving and Nikolai is making sure we don't die."
Ed groaned in mock distress. He and Allan hadn't been sure they would survive the trip from Colorado to Nebraska with Nikolai, who didn't know how to drive at all, behind the wheel. Even being werewolves and virtually indestructible by conventional standards, they had feared for their lives.
"Did not die," Nikolai said hotly.
I laughed, though it ended in a gurgle as Allan bit down on my neck.
"Cheater," I groaned.
"Works every time," Allan replied.
Doc sighed softly, just barely loud enough for me to hear, and Allan muttered an apology before releasing me.
Despite his assurances, Doc had to be worried about whatever was going on back at his cabin. As the Andersons were involved, it couldn't be good. I wondered what we'd find when we got back. I was starting to think of Doc's cabin as home, and I didn't want anything bad to happen to it. None of us did. The guys were right, none of this was our fault. We hadn't done anything wrong. We were just trying to live our lives.
Fucking Andersons.
∞ ∞ ∞
We could tell something was seriously wrong as soon as we crested the pass to drop down into Sunnyglade valley. Emergency lights like the kind you might find on a fire truck or an ambulance flashed on the far mountainside approximately where Doc's cabin was located.
"Fuck," Doc growled.
"What do you think they did?" Allan whispered.
"Probably burned it down," Doc muttered. "It's not like we haven't taken a couple of shots at their mansion."
I couldn't even think of a response. Tears moistened my cheeks and I buried my face in Ed's chest when he pulled me close. Fuck was an understatement.
"What do we tell the cops? Many of the roads we were driving on were closed," Allan asked.
"Check your phone and see if backroads are closed. If not, we took backroads. If we really need alibis, we want to be able to use Sofia's parents."
Allan studied his phone, the light from the screen illuminating his steel gray eyes and making them look blue. "You're in luck. I think there's a way we could have done it. Timing is problematic if we go home now since it would have taken a couple extra hours."
"Sofia, text your parents, tell them something happened at the cabin while we were gone and let them know that if they're asked, we left several hours earlier than we actually did," Doc instructed.
"Okay."
My hands shook while I typed out the text, but before long I hit send.
It didn't take long for my phone to ring. I almost didn't answer, but my mom deserved to know what was going on. Not that I had many answers.
"Honey, what's wrong?"
"Don't know for sure yet, Mom, but the Andersons are being shits again. We're all fine, but the cabin may not be. Knowing the Andersons, we'll have to prove we were out of state when whatever it is they did happened. We found a route of backroads that are open, but it would have taken longer to get home."
"Okay, we'll let everyone know, but be careful, and text me when you find out what's going on."
"I will. Thank you, Mom."
"It's the least we can do. Without your friends..." She didn't need to finish the statement. My dad may not like my friends, but Mom sure was grateful to them. I even think Nikolai had charmed her completely.
"I know. I love you."
"Love you, too, honey."
I hung up, grateful the phone call hadn't been more stressful. I was running on empty as far as dealing with hard stuff right now.
We fell silent as the truck wound its way down into the valley, through the main roundabout in town, and back up the other side of the mountain. Tension filled all of us, thick in the air, and filtering through our pack bond. Ed and Allan held me while Doc slowed and turned off onto the narrow dirt road that led to the cabin. The truck bounced down the track as Doc drove a little faster than normal. Flashing emergency lights reflected off the deep snow.
The disconnect between my last clear memory of this place being clear of snow and in the midst of fall splendor, and the deep snow that covered everything now, wrenched my heart. I had missed a lot, but it could have been so much worse.
Of course, when we broke out of the trees into the clearing around Doc's cabin, we could see that his prediction was correct. Two fire trucks sprayed water onto what was left of the cabin. One wall stood in the back, and the rest was rubble.
"Fuck," Doc growled as he slowed and pulled off to the side so he wasn't blocking any of emergency vehicles or the police car. We sat there for a minute, letting the truck run, trying to process what had happened, while a deputy sheriff shined a bright flashlight at us and then came over. Doc shut off the truck and rolled his window down.
"Mr. Cassidy?" The deputy asked after shining his light in our faces.
Doc nodded. "That's me. What happened? I mean, besides the obvious?" He managed to sound upset and exhausted at the same time, and buried the anger we all felt deep.
"We're not sure yet. Faulty wiring? Arson? Know anyone who would want to hurt you?"
Doc shrugged before he shook his head, sighing. "Mind if we get out?"
"No, not at all, just stay back."
We all climbed out of the warm truck to stretch our legs. Ed kept his arm around me and I leaned into the werewolf's heat for the warmth and comfort. Allan pushed up against my other side and I cuddled into his heat, as well. Between the two of them I stopped shivering and stared at the wreckage of their home.
Nikolai stood close to Doc while they talked with the deputy. It wouldn't take much effort to overhear the conversation, but I really didn't want to know right now. While I had known that this wouldn't be over once we saved me from the demon, I had hoped we would get a reprieve. Instead, they were escalating. What would we do? What could we do? In Nikolai's time, it would be relatively simple. Nuke them from orbit, as it were. Now? Well...maybe that was still the answer, but it was a lot more complicated.
After Ed, Allan, and I had stretched our legs, we climbed back into the truck and squished together in the back seat for warmth.
I had dozed off again when Doc opened the door, letting in a blast of cold air. "Deputy Morrison wants to talk to you three real quick."
Yawning, I climbed out along with Ed and Allan and looked east. The sky had lightened considerably, and I wondered what time it was.
Deputy Morrison had reached an indeterminate age, where I couldn't really guess how old he was. He smiled at me.
"You just got back from Nebraska?" he asked.
"Yeah, Thanksgiving with my folks."
"You all went?" He sounded surprised.
I shrugged. "My parents like big gatherings. I would have brought my roommate too but she had plans with her family."
"And you just left and drove home even with the weather?"
"We thought there was more snow coming, and wanted to make sure we got back before it hit." That was true enough. I could feel the storm building. Somehow. I wondered if that was left over from the demon. She had left me with quite a bit of knowledge and power. So much so that I wasn't even aware of everything I knew at this point. I had been free from her for maybe 24 hours, and it was already starting to become obvious that she had changed me.
