Then, realizing I was being rude, offered Darren a plate. “You want some?”
“Nah. I ate. What happened to you two last night? You look like death.”
I glanced over at Jackson, who was still doing his Alpha trick, growling and glaring. Darren didn’t seem to feel it as he continued to smile and look relaxed. Another advantage to having mixed blood, I supposed.
I decided to answer his question, since Jackson seemed incapable. “We drank too much last night.”
Darren stared at me and then at Jackson. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, why?” I asked, forcing the fried eggs into my mouth.
My stomach was beginning to settle and the coffee was helping my headache.
“Oh, nothing. I’m just surprised, I suppose. I thought you’d be celebrating finding our mate, not drowning your sorrows.”
I glanced across the table at Jackson who’d stopped glaring at us, and instead was now fiddling with the napkin in front of him, looking as uncomfortable as I felt. We should have been celebrating, shouldn’t we?
Finding Ruby was a good thing.
“Yeah… well,” I began, “both of us were a little shocked.”
Darren turned to look directly at me. “About which part? The Witch thing? Or the fact you have to share her?”
God, he’s blunt!
I just stared at him. Darren definitely had more balls than I’d ever given him credit for. Jackson growled softly in warning and Darren stared at the Alpha for a moment, then… laughed at him.
He laughed!
“Both, huh?” Darren said, taking Jackson’s non-verbal response as confirmation. Then he turned and smiled at the waitress as she walked past. “Toni, could you grab me a cappuccino, to go please?”
“Sure, hun,” she said with a smile and a wink that bordered on flirtatious.
Since when was Darren so popular with the ladies?
Darren turned to us, placing both hands on the table, palm down. “Look. I know you guys don’t want a Witch as a mate, and you certainly don’t want to share. No offense, but I don’t want to share either.” He stopped talking and shrugged. “The witch thing is a definite advantage as far as I’m concerned, so I suppose I’ve only got one thing to worry about, and not two.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. So, what are we going to do about it?”
Darren grinned at me. “What do you mean? What are we going to do? This is Fate’s choice. There’s no question here. There’s no fight to the death or asking her to choose.”
Jackson stared at him like he’d lost his mind and finally managed to find his tongue. “What are you talking about, Darren?”
Darren turned to accept his take-away cup from Toni and stood up, shaking his head. “You guys really don’t understand fated mates, do you?”
I glanced at Jackson, who looked annoyed at being told he didn’t know something that was at the core of wolf shifter society.
“Explain it to us, then,” I countered. “Since you’re the expert.”
Darren smiled. “We have all been, quite literally, designed for her. She won’t be happy with just one of us, and we will never find happiness without her. If you guys think you have a choice about all this, you’re wrong. So, I suggest you wrap your heads around it, because I’m going to see her tonight.”
“Where?” Jackson barked out.
Darren’s gaze slid over to the Alpha who was bristling at the challenge. “She’s a Witch. It’s Halloween. She’ll be out in all her full glory tonight and I intend to find out what she can do.”
With that, he walked off and Jackson and I were left wondering what had gone wrong.
Ruby
“Mom, do you really think this outfit is slimming on me? I’m not sure about the green.”
My mom had made me, magically, an olive-green dress for Halloween. It was meant to be ‘modern witchy’ with a pretty flare. It was low cut in the front and clung tight to my waist. But I wasn’t sure. Did my tummy look too big? Or did my ass stick out too much at the back?
My mother laughed at me from her place on my bed. “You look incredible, honey. The green suits your hair to perfection, and that dress was designed for that tiny little waist of yours.”
Hmmm… if you say so.
I turned once more and stared at the mirror with disappointment. The image I had of myself in my head was never quite what I ended up seeing in the mirror.
There was a pause then she said, “Why do you ask? You don’t usually care much about what you wear—especially on Halloween where most of your friends will either be in full gruesome getup, or not at all. Is there someone special you’re trying to impress tonight?”
My heart fluttered as I felt the pull of my mother’s words, the undercurrent of an enchantment I couldn’t fight. Since I was a child, it had been hard not to tell her the truth. The whole truth. And nothing but the truth.
Whether or not she actually put a spell over her words, or whether it ran deeper, more ingrained than that, I wasn’t sure. I’d never had the courage to ask and I’d never had the strength or true ‘need’ to fight against her.
“Yeah… I met someone yesterday at the florist, and he said he might pop by tonight.”
I turned to the left, then the right, inspecting myself in the mirror one more time. I looked okay, I supposed. But all I could see were the faults. The things I would remove if I had the choice.
Witches weren’t meant to use their magic to permanently change their bodies. It was one of the few rules we had. Transformational magic was meant to be for short term use, or only in a dire emergency.
Not because you thought your nose was too big.
My mother’s head popped up and her eyes widened. “Oh, really? What’s his name? Do I know him?”
I turned towards my mother who was sitting on my bed like any friend of mine would. I wanted her advice on the odd situation I found myself in, but I was unsure how much I should reveal all at once. We hadn’t told any of our mothers about the spell we cast last Halloween. And after my mother’s failed attempt at one relationship, my father, she’d given up on love. She’d never even hooked up with anyone else again.
What would she say about the fact I had three men who wanted me? And even worse, who I wasn’t sure I wanted to choose between.
“Darren, and I don’t think so. He lives out of town.”
My mother stood up from her place on my bed and smiled. “Darren… that’s a nice name. Can’t wait to meet him!”
She was so beautiful, trying to play the ‘cool mom’, best friend type of role.
I laughed. “Yeah, maybe not yet, Mom. Let me spend more than five minutes with him first.”
And not before I worked out what I was going to do about the whole three men thing, and the wolf shifter issue. A lot of Witches and Warlocks didn’t like the wolf shifter packs. I wasn’t sure why, except for the fact that they were obviously different to us.
But I trusted the magic that had brought them to me and was fully prepared to find out everything about them.
Mom ignored my comment about not wanting her to meet Darren and changed the subject. “What are you party girls planning on doing tonight?”
On our twenty-second joint birthday? Not much.
I shrugged. “Not a lot. We said we’d dress up and walk around town. See what was going on. What are you doing tonight? Something with the Coven? Or just Rebecca and Kathy?”
Rebecca and Kathy were Tiffany and Bella’s moms, and the three of them were almost as close as we were.
“We’re going over to Kathy’s later, thought we’d cast a little magic,” my mother said, waggling her eyebrows as though it was such a dirty secret that they could throw a spell or two together.
Our mothers were all powerful witches, and probably could have trained to become healers or teachers. But instead, they’d raised us, putting their time and energy into our wellbeing and doing menial jobs to pay the bills.
It made me sad and guilty sometimes tha
t my mother had missed out on so many things. A good job. A husband. More kids.
But hopefully, my mom’s time would come where she would be free to be happy.
I grinned. “Enjoy.”
All Hallow’s Eve was the most powerful night of the year for Witches like us. If my mother or any of her friends wanted some special power for a spell, it would be tonight.
Mom walked out of the room and headed down the stairs.
I ran my hands through my hair, arranging the long red waves around my face, before giving up on making myself look any better and grabbing my bag.
I checked its contents. Cell phone. Keys. Lip gloss.
All good to go.
I bounced down the stairs and stepped towards the front door. “See ya later, Mom!”
“Have fun!” she called but didn’t come out to see me leave.
Normal for mothers of twenty-two-year-olds all over the world. Not so normal for mine.
I opened the door and hesitated as I lifted my leg to take a step outside. Was she hiding something? Should I go investigate?
My cell phone beeped in my bag and I rolled my eyes. That would be Bella. I was late. I had to go now. No more dawdling.
I went out the door and headed down the street. Tiffany lived one block away and Bella, about two.
We often joked that our mothers should have bought one large house and raised up together in some sort of single mother commune. But with all the strong personalities, it was probably a good idea to put a block or two between us.
I crossed the street and waved at our neighbors, heading out to trick or treat with their kids.
“You look awesome, Agnes!” I called out to the little girl who lived directly across the road from us. She had red hair tied up in pig tails and was dressed as some sort of zombie, with blood gashed over her face, horror makeup and some weird white sheet costume.
She grinned at me and waved back, her front teeth still missing and making her look like some sort of gummy shark.
I smiled to myself as I kept walking to Bella’s house. We lived in a normal community of humans, but there was a witch family on every street.
The Coven kept their dealings and meetings secret, and if we needed to perform a ritual of some sort, there was an old church grounds and school outside of town we used.
I liked it.
I didn’t want to be isolated like the wolf shifters. Setting up our own town seemed… un-natural, somehow.
When I turned to walk up the path to Bella’s house, I giggled to myself. She’d decorated the house as they always did. With cobwebs, and spiders, and skeletons and a large plastic witch out the front. Why they wanted to copy the humans that much, was beyond me.
The door swung open before I could even knock.
“You didn’t dress up,” Bella said, her accusatory tone as obvious as her narrowed gaze.
“You know that if you used some of your magic to decorate the house, it would look like, a thousand times better.” I motioned to the human crap around her front yard and grinned.
Bella rolled her eyes and pulled me inside. “You know we can’t do that.”
I laughed at seeing her purple wig and hat. “Are you seriously wearing that?”
“Yes. Why not? We said we’d dress up.”
“Yeah… but.” I whispered a few words of magic and conjured up a velvet black pointed witch hat and a broom for myself. They mimicked every witch’s outfit from every movie ever made about us. “You could make it look good.”
Bella huffed at me.
Tiffany walked into the room, her zombie-nurse outfit on display for another year. It was super short, white, and splashed with blood.
“Didn’t want to make another costume this year, Tiff?”
Tiffany shrugged. “Why would I? It’s not like I’m out to impress anyone… What’s with the new dress?”
I twirled around as Tiffany pointed her finger at me.
“Mom made it. What do you think?”
Tiffany nodded approvingly. “It’s nice. Your mom has a good eye for colors that suit you.”
I laughed. “Well, I look just like her, so she’s kinda cheating, don’t you think?”
There was a knock at the door and Bella rushed off to deal with the trick or treaters.
Tiffany came closer, her arms outstretched. “Happy birthday, Ruby.”
I laughed as I hugged her tightly. “Happy birthday, Tiff.”
We’d messaged each other from the moment we’d woken up this morning, but now we could eat, and chat, and hug and laugh. All the things I loved doing with my best friends.
When she pulled back, she had a thoughtful look on her face.
“What’s going on?” I asked, a little concerned. Tiffany wasn’t one to have great, deep thoughts generally.
She bit her glossy pink lip. “Nothing, really. I just… was thinking about your guy problem.”
“Guy problem?” I repeated with a chuckle. “Which part? The number of them or the wolf thing?”
Tiffany grinned at me. “I kinda like the idea of you having three guys fighting over you.”
I pushed her in the side. “Shut up. I’ve never even had one guy interested in me. This will be insane.”
She smiled as Bella came back to join our circle.
“What did I miss?” Bella asked, still holding the massive bowl of candy her mom had bought for the kids in the neighborhood.
“Tiff was just telling me she’s worried about my guy problem, but hasn’t elaborated yet.”
We turned back to Tiff and she rolled her eyes.
“Way to put the pressure on,” she said.
I shrugged. “Just tell me. It’s okay.”
“Well, I was talking to my mom about the wolf shifters that live outside town…” She hesitated and my heart skipped a beat.
“Yeah?” Not that I’d wanted her to do that, but Tiff was terrible at keeping secrets.
“I didn’t tell her about you, don’t worry,” she added. “Just mentioned some had come into town and asked what she knew about them.”
“What did she say?” I certainly hadn’t had the guts to ask my mom anything like that.
“She said, well… they don’t like us.”
I stared at her. “What do you mean?”
“I mean… they’re anti-witch. She said, they have a hierarchy of people they think are acceptable. Obviously, wolf shifters are the best, then they’ll tolerate a human, but witches… nope.”
I put both hands up to stop her from talking, annoyed she was even saying such things. “Hang on a second. You’re telling me they just don’t like us. That there’s no reason behind it? No explanation? We’re just the bottom of the totem pole as far as they’re concerned?”
Tiffany nodded. “Yep. Pretty much.”
Anger tightened my gut. “Then why did Darren have warlock in him? I could sense it. Not a parent, but definitely a grandparent.”
Tiffany shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re gonna have to ask him.”
Yes. I will.
Bella’s mom, Rebecca, walked into the room, dressed in purple and orange and other god-awful colored spots. She was a mixed bag, this one.
“Hello, girls! Happy birthday.”
Tiff and I smiled and thanked Bella’s mom. She was the oddest of the group but had always been lovely to us.
“I’m heading over to Kathy’s house,” she said. ‘If you girls decide to go into town, can you leave the bowl of candy out the front, Bella?”
Bella nodded. “Of course. Hey, mom?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know much about the wolf shifters who live outside town?”
I almost smacked her. Instead, I plastered a smile on my face and concentrated on what she was about to tell us.
Rebecca picked up her woven, hippy bag and turned to frown at us. “Why would you be asking about them?”
“Ruby met some of them the other day, coming into town to see their grandmother or something. Do you know much
about them?” Bella asked, keeping her tone relatively normal considering she, like all three of us, were terrible at keeping things from our mothers.
Rebecca slid her bag onto her shoulder and moved towards the door. “I don’t know much about them, I’m sorry.” She said, but there was something strange about her tones when she spoke. Then she laughed nervously and swallowed.
I glanced towards Courtney. Did she see that.
Rebecca continued. “They don’t like Witches very much, and we were always told not to have anything to do with them.”
I had to step forward and ask. “Do you mean we’ve fought with them in the past? Is there a war going on we don’t know about?”
Rebecca chuckled. “Oh, goodness no. There’s no war. No fight. It’s just that…” She sighed. “The elders of the wolf pack think we’re beneath them, and the old High Warlock that died last year, didn’t like them either. But that’s in the past.”
She shrugged, kissed Bella on the forehead, and headed out the door a little too fast for my liking.
As soon as she was gone, I turned to my ‘sisters’ with a furious stare. “I don’t think we go the whole story there, but this just got even more complicated!”
Jackson
Going into town on Halloween was like walking into a nightmare and not being able to escape. Humans and witches and warlocks, all intermingled, and unless I was close enough to smell them, I couldn’t tell which was which.
Or which witch, was a witch.
“Fuck. I hate Halloween,” I said to no-one in particular.
Billy chuckled from the passenger seat, and Darren said from the back, “You and me both.”
I frowned, surprised he felt the same way we did. “Huh? I thought you’d like all these… shenanigans.”
I slowed my truck as we passed through the town looking for a parking spot. There were people everywhere: children in elaborate costumes, shops decorated with ghastly black and orange.
A skeleton here, a hundred carved pumpkins there. Uck.
Darren chuckled. “God, no. Why would I? There’s nothing respectful here about the power of witches and magic. I can’t believe the witches in town condone it.”
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