The Horned Mage: Books 1-5

by Hayden Harper

  I pulled myself out of my melancholy and found the alpha taking the three of us in with a contemplative look on his face. He focused his attention on Victoria—so nice to finally have a name for the hellion—and said “You mated to him?”

  Mated? Well, yeah, we’d fucked. Hadn’t we just said that?

  She swallowed and nodded with a solemnity that definitely didn’t seem warranted by a one night stand, not with this crowd, no matter how crazy it had been.

  I noticed Eleanor sitting up a little straighter in her chair. She’d deliberately positioned herself outside the little circle we’d unintentionally made when we sat down in her living room. It put her both outside our conflict and above it. I had no doubt that if any of us tried to act up she’d smack us down without hesitation.

  “I thought that werewolves mating to humans was uncommon,” she said.

  There was that word again.

  “It is,” said the alpha.

  I raised my hand. “Excuse me, could somebody fill me in. When you say mating, you don’t just mean sex do you?”

  Victoria’s brother fixed me with a death glare. “No.”

  Terrific. I glanced around the room. “Could somebody fill me in?”

  Neither of the male werewolves said anything.

  “Wait!” Lexus said, “I think of heard of this. It’s kind of like imprinting or something. Like with baby birds. Only it makes werewolves want to jump each other’s bones.”

  The werewolves all glared at her.

  She shrugged. “Am I right?”

  “You’re not entirely wrong,” Eleanor said when none of the werewolves appeared willing to answer. “Werewolves’ magic acts very much like a real wolf, only not quite. Real wolves mate for life, but they’ll take some time like any other species to adjust to each other before they actually commit. With werewolves it’s instantaneous and mutual.”

  I cleared my throat. “And when it doesn’t happen with another werewolf?”

  Victoria seemed to pull in on herself. Eleanor was taller and slimmer than her and the ill-fitting clothes coupled with the blanket wrapped around her gave her a child-like countenance.

  “Humans don’t mate,” said Eleanor. “It’s a one way devotion.” She looked from me to Victoria. “This young lady is madly in love with you and will be for the rest of her life.”

  Lexus made this sound, like she was trying to suck on her own teeth. “Damn. That sucks.” She gave Victoria a sympathetic look. “Better give up on him now, Hon, he’s totally hung up on my stepsister.”

  I nearly dropped me tea. “Damn, Lexus.”

  “My sister’s not good enough for you,” the brother demanded, once again making to get to his feet.

  Once again his alpha stopped him. He said to Victoria, “I don’t feel you in our pack anymore.”

  Victoria gave a slow nod and looked to Lexus, green eyes suddenly prominent. “I don’t want to rip your throat out anymore for smelling like him.”

  Lexus snorted. “Thanks for that, bitch.”

  But she smiled when she said it. A real smile, not a bearing of teeth and Victoria returned it.

  Eleanor cleared her throat. “Excuse me, but unless I was mistaken, and I could be because there was a lot going on, but did this young man not have you both transformed into Cu Sith?”

  Sith…wasn’t that a kind of fae? Mostly when I heard that word I thought of Star Wars and it blocked out anything useful.

  The three of us looked at each other and shrugged. “Um, I’ve been under a curse my entire life that’s cut me off from my magical affinities and gave me these.” I pointed at my antlers. “I broke it about a month ago and I’m still learning what I can do. It’s been…weird. The giant dog thing is completely new. What’s a cu sith?”

  Eleanor seemed to consider me. “A fae hound. Very powerful, very dangerous hunters.” She eyed both of the girls. “Were your eyes always green?”

  They both shook their heads.

  “You’ve worked some kind of magic over them,” Eleanor said. “Bound them to you in some way?”

  “Lexus yeah,” I said. “It was an accident. I guess so was Victoria. I mean, she turned into a cu sith when my fire hit her.”

  Eleanor shook her head. “Something a little bit more than a regular cu sith, I think. Victoria, did you bite these two?”

  The alpha sucked in his breath and Victoria gave an unsteady nod.

  Eleanor gave me an appraising look. “And you’ve felt no…?”

  I shrugged. “I’m as human as I ever was, I guess.”

  She looked to Lexus. “And you?”

  “I…don’t want to rip Victoria’s throat out anymore either,” Lexus admitted with a shrug.

  “Fascinating,” Eleanor said. “Absolutely fascinating.”

  “I’m still a bit confused,” I said. “Why would Victoria mate with me? I mean, if I was like, some alpha billionaire shifter or a badass biker, sure. Y’all are all way tougher and meaner looking than me and I’m like, how many years younger than you?” I asked Victoria.

  “I’m twenty six,” she said, looking if possible, even more embarrassed than before.

  “And no offense, but what hot twenty six year old biker chick goes for a nineteen year old college freshmen?”

  She scoffed. “If I were a guy and you the girl you wouldn’t ask that.”

  Probably not. “I just wouldn’t think I’d be your type, is all.”

  “You’re not. I never go for younger guys.” She seemed to let something out of her in a sad wave, sinking into her chair and blanket. “You’re not what I wanted at all. You and Lexus and…this is not what I wanted.” Then she raised her head and her eyes had gone full wolf, filling with color and heat, except that instead of the gold they’d been before now they were solid emerald orbs in her face. It was haunting. “But I want you now. I’m…part of your pack.”

  Part of my pack? “You’re talking like I’m an alpha werewolf.”

  At this the alpha cleared his throat, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said he was embarrassed. “Caleb, was it? Name’s Herman.”

  I blinked. Herman? Wouldn’t have called that.

  “You remember the other night in the bar, what happened?” he asked.

  “Yeah, y’all were ganging up on my boss’s kid so I stepped in and made you back off.”

  Herman nodded. “Exactly. There’s not many alpha werewolves that could make me back down, let alone humans. Humans are just wired different. Society and all that shit. But you, you butted right in and stole my prey from me.” He jerked his head at Victoria. “Impressed the hell out of her inner wolf, I guess.”

  I glanced over and found Victoria squirming a little in her chair. I sensed a low level pulse of lust emanating from her. Apparently the thought of me making an alpha male back down was a turn on for her.

  “You stole her from us,” the alpha said. “I didn’t think that could happen with a human, or whatever the hell you are. Victoria just vanished. She disappeared from the pack. No sign of her. We thought you’d….”

  He wasn’t apologizing. He would never apologize for what had gone down. Maybe he couldn’t. It was all that alpha male leader bull shit. But an explanation…I understood the sentiment behind it. This was as close as I was going to get to hearing ‘I’m sorry’ from him.

  Victoria cringed at his words. “My bad. I just…needed some time to wrap my head around things. I thought I was pretty kinky and then I…with the two of you—”

  John clapped his hands over his ears. “No-no-no, hell no! I do not need to hear this.”

  Victoria sighed. “I just never would have thought that this could happen. Was even possible.”

  “You and me both,” I said, and let myself sink back into my chair. “You got me evicted by the way. Landlord didn’t appreciate us trashing the house.”

  Her eyes fell to the floor. “I’m sorry.”

  Eleanor’s grin caught my ey
e. It was broad and calculating and more than a little mischievous. “What are your plans for the future, Caleb?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lexus, Victoria, and I sat crammed on in a booth opposite Jadeite, who took us all in over a pair of crossed arms. Happy Burger smelled like happiness and cheeseburgers and everything would have been perfect if not for Jadeite’s scowl. Lexus had her own arms crossed and was looking off out the window, expression deliberately, and falsely, aloof. Victoria on the other hand, bedecked once more in biker leathers and looking like she might kill someone at a moment’s notice, was taking in Jadeite with unadulterated curiosity, nostrils flaring as she smelled her from across the table. How she could smell anything over the scent of burgers and fries was beyond me.

  “You’re cheating on my baby sister now?” Jadeite’s voice was a touch scathing.

  “No!” I said at the same time Lexus said “Stepsister.”

  “It’s more like a menage a troi,” Victoria offered helpfully. I wasn’t sure I trusted that helpful tone of hers. I didn’t know her that well yet, but beneath her no nonsense veneer was a streak of mischief a mile wide.

  “Bullshit,” Jadeite said.

  I cringed. I’d done my best to explain everything, the Road Wolves coming after me, Victoria’s sudden mating, the way my magic was interacting with the werewolf virus, binding her to me and Lexus.

  “Bull. Fucking. Shit.” She said. “Are you a pimp? I mean it, Caleb, so help me if you’re selling my baby sister—”

  “Shit, Jadeite, no one’s selling me,” Lexus said, yanking her attention away from whatever was so fascinating out the window to glare at her stepsister. “It’s not like that. It’s…it feels right.”

  And wasn’t that the weirdest fucking bit.

  In my experience, guys could pummel each other bloody and then be drinking buddies the rest of their lives. Women? Women did not make friends with other women who hit them. And yet Lexus and Jadeite had been spending more and more time together, especially when I wasn’t around. They seemed to genuinely like each other. We hadn’t had another threesome in the few days since the big blowout with the Road Wolves, but I had been with both of them. And I’d caught them exchanging notes one morning, talking frankly enough to make my ears burn.

  “Where are you even staying?” Jadeite asked in exasperation. “You can’t even keep a place, how are you going to take care of my baby sister, let alone her and this woman?”

  I cleared my throat. “Actually, Eleanor’s letting me stay in the apartment over her garage. She, uh, she gave me a job too. I’m interning for her. Turns out she’s an arcanologist, or something, and is curious—“

  “Wait, Eleanor?” Jadeite interrupted. “Are you sleeping with her too?”

  “No! Good grief, Jadeite, I’m not some kind of sex fiend going around humping every female I come across.”

  “Could have fooled me.” She held up a hand. “Save it. But we are talking about the same Eleanor right, the Morrow’s neighbor?”

  “Yeah, that’s her.”

  “The world famous arcanologist?”

  World famous? Woodhurst didn’t have any famous people in it.

  “She’s an arcanologist,” I admitted. “I don’t know about world famous though. She just got back from a trip to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and is fixing to head out to Spain in a week or so. Something to do with conquistadors. Sounds pretty cool actually. I’m going to be house sitting for her when I’m not taking care of the lawn and interning for her while she’s here.”

  And letting her poke and prod at my magic. She’d promised to help me figure out what I was and control what I could do so that I didn’t have any more accidents like Lexus and Victoria. She was pretty sure I’d either been effected by fae magic or had some fae blood in me, but was also pretty sure that it wasn’t just that.

  Regardless of how sure she was about any of it, she was definitely a preferable option to Deirdre She. Just because I wasn’t going to live my life in fear of the giant people-eating snake lady didn’t mean putting myself in her path any more often than I had to was a good idea. Eleanor was more trustworthy and definitely safer.

  Jadeite shook her head, making some of her braids cascade over her shoulders. “Only you could end up house sitting for Eleanor Hardin and not know who the hell she is.”

  “And interning,” I reminded hurriedly. “I’ll be learning a lot under her, and the job actually sounds pretty…wait, Eleanor Hardin?”

  Jadeite raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, she’s Prof. Hardin’s sister.”

  Fuck me sideways with a cactus.

  Jadeite laughed, the first genuine laugh I’d heard from her since we all sat down together. “I wouldn’t worry too much. Word is she and her brother don’t get along.”

  I couldn’t actually imagine anyone getting along with Prof. Hardin so that wasn’t too hard to believe. Still, with my luck I’d end up caught up in some sibling rivalry bullshit by the end of the month.

  She turned her attention to Lexus. “Lex, you happy?”

  Lexus nodded. It occurred to me how much time Lexus had been spending at my new place. She’d even taken to spending the night. I hadn’t really noticed because I’d been adjusting to Victoria. She had moved in with me, naturally and without asking, when the Road Wolves had pulled out of town. I hadn’t complained. As Lexus had said, it felt right. It was an adjustment, two girls living with me almost full time, but not in a bad way. Not in a bad way at all.

  Except that I hadn’t realized how little time Lexus was spending with her family. Especially if Jadeite was having to ask that here, instead of in the privacy of their house. This really should have been a talk just between sisters.

  But Lexus grinned. “I am.”

  Jadeite leaned back in her chair, appearing to relax a moment before her eyes cut to Victoria. “And you? What’s your deal?”

  Victoria raised an eyebrow. “Deal?”

  “I told you,” I said. “It was a werewolf mating thing and the magic got all mingled—”

  Jadeite cut me off with a raised hand. “Yeah, I got that. But wolves don’t share mates, do they?”

  Victoria shrugged.

  We’d actually had this talk. She’d haltingly admitted to me that she wasn’t sure that she was a werewolf anymore. At least, not just a werewolf. Something in her magic had fundamentally changed. For better or worse. But she wasn’t about to admit that to someone she barely knew.

  “What works for us works for us,” she finally said.

  “Sounds like something you’d read on a fortune cookie,” Jadeite said.

  “Or maybe one of those dating advice blogs,” Lexus followed up.

  The stepsister exchanged a look, the burst out laughing.

  Jadeite pointed at me when she calmed down. “Caleb, you are some kind of fucked up. I’m trying real hard not to judge here, but…yeah, give me some time to get my head around this.”

  She stood up and asked Lexus, “You going to be home for dinner tonight?”

  Lexus gave a jerky nod. “I’ll be there.”

  She left, and a few moments later, we did to.

  Victoria shook her head as we walked down the sidewalk, making our way toward the neighborhoods where I our new home was.

  “What?” I asked her.

  “She’s right. You are some kind of fucked up.” She blew out a breath. “You’ve got it bad for her.”

  I didn’t know what to say. She was, according to all accounts, in love with me, because of some kind of werewolf magic—and didn’t that raise all kinds of questions about how real her feelings were?—and I, I liked her plenty. A part of me, the same primal part that had made me stand up to Herman, was proud that she was mine and claimed her thusly. I was more than a little possessive and understood completely what a hypocrite that made me.

  “I think some of your emotions are bleeding over into me,” she glanced at Lexus, “to us. I don’t know whether or not
I want to rip out her braids or kiss her.”

  I choked on the breath I’d just taken. Then looked at Lexus. Usually I had a hard time telling when she was blushing but there was absolutely no denying the heat beneath her cheeks.

  When I’d recovered and cleared my throat. “You guys, can um, feel what I’m feeling?”

  Lexus shrugged. “Somewhat. I know what you want. I’ve always got a bit of a sense of where you are. That’s how I was able to find you the other night.”

  Victoria nodded. “Same here.”

  I stopped walking and took a deep breath. The girls stopped after a few more steps and turned around to face me.

  “I’ve got no idea what I’m doing,” I said to them. “Not a clue. I don’t know what my magic is doing to you and it’s not fair to you. I—I will do everything I can to do right by you. I promise.”

  The girls exchanged a glance. Lexus shrugged and looked away but a small smile graced Victoria’s face. “Good enough for now.”

  The Horned Mage

  Book Three: Defiled Bonds

  Chapter One

  Stepping into a backyard with a swimming pool and a pair of gorgeous girls in bikinis should have been enough to lift my mood. It lifted something all right, but just because they got me horny didn’t mean I wasn’t still nervous. I took a deep breath. I didn’t have anything to be nervous about. Changes were an inevitable part of life. And some, such as the two bikini-clad girls before me, were definitely changes for the better.

  Lexus and Victoria looked up the second I stepped out into the backyard, already unbuttoning my shirt so I could join them by the pool. They’d been hovering over our neighbor Thomas Morrow and his tablet, looking at what I couldn’t tell. It looked like he had a whole duffel bag full of gadgets and stuff set out beside his lounger. He’d started coming over when we’d started using the pool. At first just to look at the girls, and they were worth looking at, but slowly he’d become our friend.

  Lexus reminded me of a cheetah with a lean, athletic body and tight figure with a feline face dotted with a few freckles. Her yellow bikini, which offset her dark skin wonderfully, only helped with the comparison. She’d been the most reluctant to get in the water at first, something about her hair that I didn’t understand. Now I could count on finding her with Victoria in the pool at least once a day.