Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection

by Rebecca Royce

“I don’t have much time. They’re on to me,” he says and takes something out of his pocket. My necklace. “Take this.”

  Mom shakes her head. “No, what about you.”

  “You are mine and I protect you first. It’s the way of the wolves. Wear this and think of me. Come to me in Estaria if you’re in trouble. You will always be able to find me with this. If he’s ever set free come to me. Take Larissa and come,” the man says and places a hand on Mom’s stomach. “Take care of our child.”

  My lips tremble. The image sinks into my mind and as soon as it does it fades and shifts into another image. This one is terrifying.

  My father, the warlock is there. I watch him with the man Mom was talking to. They’re fighting. He drives a sword through his heart and Mom screams.

  There’s an explosion and then more blue light. It ripples and there’s memories, scenes of me with my mother. Her giving me the necklace many years ago, then me earlier saying help me.

  Then nothingness.

  The blue light disappears like it was never there.

  The men look at me, all at the same time.

  I don’t know what to say, or do, or what any of it really means.

  The guy with the brown hair comes up to me, holds his hand up and suddenly I can’t move. I can’t blink, I can’t move my lips or anything.

  “You are safe here, but I need you to sleep. We will not harm you,” he promises and with the wave of his hand, I fall asleep.

  Lucian

  I stare at the beauty on the bed, asleep.

  Caleb pulls the covers over her tiny frame and like before my eyes are drawn to her fully rounded breasts.

  I’m glad no one can hear my thoughts. Not the way I can with everyone else.

  That’s one of my gifts. Sometimes I hear too much. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve met a being who is powerful enough to block me out.

  The strange thing about her though is usually I can sense when I’m being restricted. With her, there was nothing like that, she was doing it naturally. I’m guessing that’s something linked to her powers, which seem more similar to that of a mage as opposed to a witch. Or, something else. if she is the unborn child in the vision the necklace revealed then that could explain more.

  When I’m with Caleb and Marcus I switch off the ability so I don’t invade their privacy. We only use it when we hunt, or in emergencies like earlier when the beauty fell from the sky.

  As I look at her I don’t know what to make of her, and that enclosed memory from the past.

  I turn to Caleb and Marcus and see they’re just as confused as I am about what powers she holds, and what she is.

  “Well clearly the necklace is from here,” Marcus intones, cutting into our silent observation of the beauty. “It answered and revealed itself.”

  The necklace did exactly that and I give him credit for casting the revelation spell. The question on my mind is the threat Laila poses to Estaria. I’m alpha wolf so it’s my job to protect the pack.

  “The necklace revealed itself and its past, but it didn’t exactly tell us who she was,” I point out. There was nothing vague about that vision. It was clear. “The vision suggests the possible existence of a being that is half witch, half lycan. That is rare to come by. It’s even rarer to find a being like that who doesn’t seem to know what she is.”

  Assuming it’s her, Laila. From the look on her face as she watched it, she was as confused as we were. She doesn’t know.

  I’ve never met anybody like that. The old laws forbid beings to mix. Lycan and witches in particular didn’t mix because of the mating process. It didn’t stop them from doing it, but the vast majority followed the rules.

  I sense this witch has to be from the coven of shadows if I can’t read her mind.

  Why did this happen now?

  And the warlock she spoke of… who is he? There’s all types of different warlocks. She said she saw him in a vision and he wants to steal powers. Estaria is home to all sorts of magical beings. We can’t allow him to come here. Or, for her to use some type of trickery to sway us into letting down our guard.

  “Her name is Laila. But…she could be anybody. This could be a trick,” I say.

  “You think so?” Marcus asks.

  “We have to be careful.”

  I contradict myself. That’s me being the objective leader, in complete defiance of following the guidance of my heart. I don’t do that anymore. The last time I followed my heart, I trusted too much and I lost my family. My father who was the alpha, my brothers, my sister and my mother. All of them gone just like that, taken to the darkest corner of hell, disintegrated like they never existed.

  I will not make the same mistake again. Not even if I feel a strong magnetic attraction to this woman. However, I know myself. Deep down if I thought she was any sort of threat I wouldn’t have saved her, and I wouldn’t have her in my home either.

  We all look at her still form. She looks peaceful and at ease. It’s best that she sleeps while we try to figure things out.

  “What the hell does this all mean?” Caleb asks.

  “I don’t know, but we need to keep her here until we figure it out,” I answer and they both look at me.

  “Really?” Marcus asks. “Keep her here? Don’t you think we should just try to send her back?”

  I look at him and I know he is curious too. He would have felt it too. That strange spark of something. Undiluted attraction to her. He narrows his eyes at me and lifts his chin.

  “No, not yet. I want more information. That was Cornelius in the vision,” I state.

  Cornelius was part of our pack. We know he was killed by a warlock, but we never knew why. I always thought the oracle did, but she only tells you what she thinks you need to know.

  “Can we be certain?”

  “I don’t know.” I feel no malice in this woman, but I need to be careful. I need to be sure that what I’m doing is right at all times. “We should speak to the Oracle.”

  Which means we need to find her first. That could prove to be a task in itself. She doesn’t just come when summoned.

  “That might take a while,” Caleb says.

  “It doesn’t matter. We need to know more. It’s safer to speak to the Oracle first. We don’t know who she and the warlock are. We definitely can’t risk him coming to Estaria.”

  “No, we can’t do that. The last thing we need is another apocalypse of shit that leaves us trying to rebuild again,” Marcus agrees.

  That’s what happened last time. Ten years ago, but to me it will always feel like yesterday.

  We were betrayed by one of our own. My uncle, Claudius. He wanted all the power, not just the power of the pack but everything. He made a deal with demons too and screwed with us. Our losses were great.

  “Caleb, prepare the spell to contact the oracle,” I instruct and he nods. “Marcus, fix this room up for our guest. Make sure she’s comfortable.”

  Marcus smiles at me. “You devil,” he says with a smirk. “Don’t tell me you want to keep her here to play with her.”

  I don’t answer. I can’t, but he’s just as bad as me. That spark was real. We all felt it and I know beyond doubt that we all like her, and she likes us too. Rare, and interesting just like her.

  “We will find out what we can, and decide from there. Until then she stays here, in this house, on this premises and we allow nature to take its course.”

  They look at each other and back to me.

  “What about her sister?” Marcus asks.

  “If she’s harmless, I’ll allow you to reverse time and send her back,” I say.

  They nod, satisfied with my answer.

  Laila

  I come to again and sit up in the bed.

  At least this time I can see who’s watching me.

  It’s the brown haired guy who worked that whammy on me. That’s who I wake to.

  He’s wearing a white t-shirt and black jeans. He’s sitting on the wooden chair over by the fir
eplace with his feet up on the stone wall.

  It’s dark outside so I’m guessing I was out cold for the day.

  “Good rest?” he asks and a dimple appears in his left cheek. His bright green eyes sparkle when he looks at me.

  “You knocked me out for the whole day?” I rasp.

  He straightens. “Needs must.”

  My blood heats and I fist my hands at my sides. “My sister is in danger and I’ve been here sleeping. How can you say needs must?”

  “Relax. Time works differently here, or rather certain beings have more control over the time. If we decide you’re harmless we’ll send you back to help your sister.”

  My eyes snap wide. They think I’m a threat. I’m the one who was chased by a warlock.

  “I’m not a threat. I just happened to come here. If I could just get back to my coven I’d be out of your hair,” I try.

  He laughs, rich and deep and fixes his gaze to mine. “If we took everybody’s word on who they say they are we’d all be dead.”

  “I am who I say I am. I don’t mean anybody any harm,” I declare, slipping off the bed.

  I stand firm, standing my ground with courage but it seems to amuse him in some way.

  The corners of his lips lift into a sensual smile and his eyes roam over my body. He starts with a slow perusal of my bare feet and travels up my legs, up to the flat of my stomach, my breasts and then finally my eyes.

  I’m used to men looking at me like that. With raw sexual admiration. What I’m not used to is gorgeous men who seem to have this charm about them that beckons to me even when I’m terrified and enraged at the situation.

  There’s too much going on. The fact that I’m here is one thing, but what did that vision from the necklace all mean? When I think of what I saw from the past it makes me question who I am.

  That man… who was he? Clearly he was involved with Mom. He was the one who gave her the necklace. I guess that answers the question of how I got here if you can only find this realm if you have something from here.

  Mom was pregnant. He mentioned Larissa and told Mom to take care of our child. The child in her stomach. Was he talking about me?

  If that’s true then everything I know was a lie. It would mean he was my real father.

  If so, where is he? Who was he? Why didn’t I know about him?

  But what if Mom was pregnant with another child before me? That’s a possibility.

  I don’t know.

  “We’ll let you know when we believe that, Laila,” he answers and I hate that I like the way he says my name. “Until then you just have to wait.”

  “Wait?” I sigh with exasperation.

  “I promise you, your time spent with us won’t affect you or your sister in any way. It will be like it never happened. A pocket outside of time that you’ll remember but will bear no significance to you one way or another. Think of it as vacation time.” He laughs.

  I roll my eyes and draw in a breath. It doesn’t seem like I’ll win here. Not with him or the other guys.

  “You promise. Can I trust that promise? I can’t lose my sister. I lost my mother and the way that I lost her shouldn’t have happened with the powers I have.”

  His face softens and I seem to hit a nerve.

  “Powers are not always there to save others,” he points out.

  “Mine is, if I can see the future I should have known she would be in danger.”

  “Why didn’t you use it?” He inclines his head to the side and intensifies his gaze on me.

  “I’m not very good,” I confess.

  “There’s no truth to that. If you have an ability it comes to you. It flows from you. You can’t stop it. All you can do is control it.”

  As he speaks, he raises his hands and fire suddenly blazes on the opposite side of the room, different to the fire going in the fireplace.

  I gasp in surprise. The fire grows bigger, brighter and it’s hot. Surprise fills me when he waves his hands again, similar to the way a musical conductor would and the fire breaks apart into little balls of energy. They float around each other in a dance of orange glows, forming a spiral. Then he beckons it towards him and it comes right back to his hands, disappearing into his skin.

  He laughs at my shocked expression.

  “How do you do that?” I ask.

  “I can conjure anything I want. It will be me who moves the time for you. I’ll simply call the hour you wish and you will be there. So I promise to send you back to where you need to be.”

  “Can you do that for any time?” I ask. My poor brain is working overtime, my sad heart still yearning for my mother.

  Grams died of natural causes. I can accept that. But I will always blame myself for not being able to stop my father from killing my mother.

  “I can, but the rules change in regards to what I can do with the past if it’s too far apart. If the powers that be want a certain outcome. It won’t matter what I do, the person will still die.” He seems to know what I’m asking, even though I haven’t asked the question. “So… I tend not to mess with death. It’s not something anyone should trifle with.”

  I’ve never met anybody who spoke of magic in that way. “Powers seem different here. In the human realm no one can move time.”

  “It is different here just by being a different realm. Magic is watered in the human realm because of humans. In the human realm you always have to keep magic a secret. That does something to magic and powers. There’s no one in Estaria that isn’t magical.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  That must be nice. I thought Salem would be similar. I always believed we would just practice magic out in the open because there were so many witches. We didn’t though.

  “What’s your name?” I ask.

  “Marcus. The guy who was with you first is Lucian. He’s the alpha wolf, our leader.” He explains and I’m not surprised to hear that. Lucian acted like he was in charge. “Blondie is Caleb. He was the first one to see you falling from the sky.”

  My heart squeezes at the memory of what happened. “I touched the necklace and it brought me here.”

  “It’s from here. Objects like that are designed to protect. So that’s what it did.”

  “That man gave it to my mother,” I say recalling the vision. “My mother gave it to me on my birthday.”

  “Come,” he says with a little smile. “Come for a little walk outside with me. Maybe some fresh air would be good.”

  I dip my head and nod, getting the feeling that he can’t talk about the vision with me.

  Maybe Lucian told him not to.

  They think I’m a threat. Maybe I am just for being here.

  Marcus

  I take the curve of the mountain deeper than I should, riding my bike hard and dangerous.

  People are always saying shit to me about my motorcycles. Why would I need a vehicle when I can walk through time and space and be anywhere I want to be?

  I’m always, always being asked that. The answer I give is the need for speed.

  The speed in my hands and my body as I ride is unlike anything I’ve ever felt.

  Things work pretty much the same here in Estaria as in the human realm, but like I said to the beauty, everyone is magical.

  We still have cars, homes, wealth and prestige but we don’t suppress magic.

  I’d hate to live in the human realm where I’d need to be careful all the time. This life is me and nothing gets me going like the taste of adventure, or the wild sexual energy I felt when I was around Laila last night.

  Fuck, I haven’t been able to stop myself from thinking about her. I would have at least kissed her, no questions asked if I didn’t know Lucian was into her. Because he’s our leader, he gets the first taste of a woman we’re interested in.

  The last thing I want to do is upset the alpha who on this occasion I think has a stick shoved up his ass.

  He likes her and so does Caleb. It’s been a while since we shared a woman and that
was just for fun. We’ve only been with women from the pack.

  We do that sometimes. Share. Wolves don’t tend to like to share anything. They tend to be possessive. However, we’re different and she felt different too.

  Caleb and I are betas to Lucian. His right hand men who back him up. We have a close connection that helps us to watch over the pack, more importantly, we trust each other. That’s why we live with him at his house.

  That trust goes deeper than what most people are used to. I’ve always thought that’s why we can be different when it comes to women too.

  I can already sense it. Sure, Lucian might have his suspicion over the little witch. But that whole aspect of her staying is him trying to test her out too. He would have known that we knew he liked her and he would have known that we liked her too. He would have also known that this was one woman that we wouldn’t have minded sharing.

  That’s why I waited. Lucian can have the first kiss. I’ll make up for what I don’t get later.

  Right now it’s business. I have to concentrate. This part is entirely on me for the powers that I have.

  I slow my bike when I see my destination ahead. The edge of the cliff where the water meets the sky. That’s where the mages are.

  The oracle is a mage and because of my power to conjure, I can conjure their realm.

  I only slow the bike to concentrate. I just need to locate the water realm.

  When I do I speed up again. Faster, faster, faster.

  I ride right off the cliff and into the water.

  Laughing, I rev the engine and brace myself when the bike connects with the hard surface of the path beyond the water.

  I’m here.

  Anybody else would have died trying to get here. It looked like I just rode off the cliff but what I did was shift realms and slice through the veil.

  Before me is the path that leads to the mage’s forest. On either side of that path is a sea of pink and purple, sparkling against the two suns in the sky. One for energy, the other for light.

  One yellow and similar to what most are used to, the other is larger and a bright purple. That’s why the water is that color. I speed along the path and head to the forest. It doesn’t take long for me to reach.