by Emma Dean
The wards spelled into the house had managed to keep the frame intact, but strained against the curse. Centuries of Kavanaghs reinforcing those spells did its job.
If Edith had been making charms…
Kenzie headed for the stairs, taking them three at a time. She prayed her grandmother had been wearing her charms. She crossed her fingers too. Edith wasn’t surprised easily and she was a full-blooded witch.
Before Selene, she’d been the most powerful witch in the Kavanagh clan.
She better have fucking warded herself. Kenzie would never forgive Edith if she died.
Ash grabbed her and yanked her back just before burning debris fell, right where she’d been standing. She tried to keep going but he kept his arm around her, quiet but always so intense.
“Focus Kenzie,” he whispered. “We’ll get her out. Now pay attention.”
Then he released her and she was nearly there, keeping his words in mind. Getting herself killed because she was too busy freaking out wouldn’t help anyone. Kenzie grabbed the door handle and then yelped when it burned her.
Shit, it was bad too.
Then Ash was growling and he burst through the door.
It took only a moment to see her and the sparkling purple shield around her, but the air in there was running out. Edith had her hand over her mouth and caught sight of them. “Hurry! When the flames reach the charms…” her grandmother warned.
Ash moved so fast Kenzie blinked and it was like he’d teleported from one place to another. He snarled when Edith’s shield shocked him. “Lower the shield, Gram-Gram. I need to carry you out of here.”
Kenzie ran to a window and chucked one of the uglier knickknacks through it. Hooray for muscled boyfriends. Getting Edith out of there on her own would have been a nightmare.
Carefully she made sure the glass was removed. The fire had her skin slick with sweat, but at least the smoke had an outlet now. She climbed out onto the roof like she had a million times before as a kid, just to get a few moments of freedom from her family. Then she turned to help Edith through.
Ash cradled Edith and swung her through the window like a gentleman, making sure her feet touched the hot roof before releasing her.
Then the roof started to give and Kenzie slipped.
Her scream seemed to slice through the hot air. Kenzie grasped for purchase, scrabbling on the tiles and ignoring the burns as she fell. The sensation in her stomach was the worst part, but also knowing how pissed her foxes would be if she didn’t fucking get…there.
Dangling from one of the eaves she looked down and cursed her family for adding on so many stupid floors.
Kenzie was strong enough to pull herself up, but that part of the roof felt like it was going to fall at any moment if she moved even the littlest bit.
“Just let go,” Finnick called up. He was right underneath her. “I’ve got you.”
Her hands were burning and she couldn’t hold on much longer, but the idea of just letting go – Kenzie wasn’t sure she could do it.
“It’s okay, we’ll be right behind you,” Ash said, Edith over his shoulder. “I’ll get her down safely. Go, he’ll catch you.”
“I can’t!” she finally said, feeling dumb as rocks for being nervous about a few floors when she’d jumped out a damn skyscraper. But Kenzie didn’t have any charms or magic, she didn’t have her watch, her catsuit, or the added wings. She was just a helpless human who happened to be born in a witch family.
“Do you trust me?” Finnick asked. No matter how calm his voice was she could hear the note of panic.
Did she trust him enough to catch her from a three story fall?
“Kenzie get your ass down here right now!” Selene screeched, real terror in her sister’s voice.
“Babe?” Finnick asked, still somehow managing to keep his voice calm.
“I trust you,” Kenzie whispered, knowing only a shifter could hear her over all that noise.
And then she let go.
Chapter Two
Ash
Ash cradled Kenzie’s hands in his own, eyes closed as he took away some of her pain. The burns were bad, but nothing a little magic couldn’t fix. The witch who was also the Kavanagh family doctor had already been called.
Edith and Selene both had injuries as well, but they weren’t as awful as Kenzie’s and they were healing more quickly. Without magic in her blood, Kenzie healed like a normal human.
Getting Kenzie to sit down so he could fix her hands had been a challenge in itself. She’d wanted to take care of Edith and Selene, but they were both fine other than a bit of shock and a few cuts from debris. It took Gram-Gram ordering her to stop fussing and let him help her for Kenzie to finally relax.
When he opened his eyes he pulled the first aid kit closer. They always kept one fully stocked with something for every situation in the van. Ash hated how much they’d had to use it in the last two weeks.
The enchanted burn cream would only do so much, but it would help until the doctor got there. It wasn’t easy to keep his hands relaxed as he worked. Kenzie’s pain was a heady thing and Ash hadn’t taken anyone’s but hers in years.
Kenzie winced when the cream touched her palm and Ash hesitated for a moment before he continued. He could only take so much pain from her without losing control. But he wished he could do more. Somehow he felt like a failure.
She never should have gotten hurt.
“Thank you, Ash.”
“For what?” he asked, carefully wrapping her hands. Kenzie had already been checked out by the paramedics and his possessiveness came out when he’d least expected it. Ash had flashed his paramedic certification and taken over. He didn’t like other males touching his injured mate.
“For my grandmother. I don’t know what I would do without her.”
So much pain in her words, but it was spiked with love and affection for the woman who had tried to keep her from most of that hurt. Ash had seen their affection, but he hadn’t realized how large a part the witch had played in Kenzie’s life.
His mate…every time he thought he had her figured out, he learned something new.
Ash looked up and watched Edith talking with the coven leader, Matriarch Takahashi. The witch enforcers had taken Peter away for questioning and another set of witches were dealing with the Kavanagh family, helping them with the human authorities.
What they did to make them look the other way, he didn’t want to know. Witch business was sketchy on the best of days. The fact that they were the neutral force in the paranormal community said a lot about paranormals in general, in his opinion.
“There’s no reason to thank me,” Ash told her quietly. “I’d do anything for you without question.”
And that scared him almost as much as watching her fall had—knowing there was nothing he could do to help her. Ash had nearly chucked her grandmother at Finnick so he could grab his mate, but Kenzie was so much stronger than everyone gave her credit for, including him.
How she’d caught the edge of the roof – how she’d endured the pain in her already injured hand as the tiles burned her even further – he would never know. All Ash knew was he couldn’t take all of her pain, there was too much of it.
But Hunter and Finnick would be by soon to help carry some of the load as they always did.
Even though he trusted his brothers in arms, there had been a moment of doubt when Kenzie had let go. Ash had wondered for a split second if Finnick would drop her…for a minute he’d been weak and stupid.
This girl was making him stupid.
Ash clenched his teeth in irritation and tied off her bandages. There had to be a way to love someone and still…be himself. There had to be a way for him to prioritize her without giving up the trust and closeness he had with Hunter and Finnick – without giving up what gave him that edge.
Then there was the way she’d clung to Finnick after he’d caught her. The kiss she’d given the other fox that’d simultaneously turned Ash on, and pissed him off.
He wanted that kiss. But at the same time he didn’t want to take it from Finnick.
He just wanted his own.
But Ash had doubts. Would she connect to him the way she had with Finnick?
It was pretty obvious to anyone with a set of eyes that Kenzie and Finnick were cut from the same cloth. Both were loyal to a fault but reckless, wild, sarcastic with this fucked up sense of humor – and they both had shitty families.
Ash didn’t have family so it was hard to relate. He wondered if he had anything in common with her other than the mate bond. Would he have even pursued her if she wasn’t his mate?
“It’ll be okay,” Kenzie murmured, taking his hands in her damaged ones.
Something about the sight had emotion swelling from where he’d buried it deep down long ago. Ash didn’t like it. At all.
“You keep getting injured. I’ll talk with Hunter about releasing you from the deal,” he said. Then she could do whatever she wanted and get the hell out of his life so he could stop feeling everything he’d ignored for the past twenty-something years.
At the tone in his words she pulled her hands from his and he knew he’d somehow made a mistake by the look on her face. “I made a deal. I’m not going to back out. That’s not who I am.”
Of course it wasn’t.
Ash snarled. “I don’t like you getting hurt.”
Her eyes narrowed at the tone in his voice. The second he said the words he’d known it was a mistake. Kenzie wouldn’t be one to let others boss her around, even with the best of intentions. It didn’t matter that Ash wanted to take care of her, or protect her. She was going to do what she thought was best regardless.
And through their slight bond he could feel her rage at him – at his possession of her. Ash would never be able to possess her, and he should have known better. Kenzie wasn’t some damsel in distress. She was a fighter – an equal.
“I’m not a toy to be placed on a shelf and taken out only for playtime,” she hissed. “I make my own decisions. If you don’t like watching me get hurt, then maybe do a better job sniffing shit out. Isn’t that what shifters are so good at?”
He recoiled as if she’d physically slapped him – that would have hurt less than her words. But she wasn’t wrong. All three of them had been too distracted by Peter to notice anything else amiss. The possessive anger he’d felt had been echoed by Finnick and Hunter, amplifying each other and making it all worse.
They’d been too focused on the wrong threat. It was such a novice mistake and he was furious with himself.
Do a better job.
Those words echoed strangely in his memories, and even though he couldn’t remember where he came from or who his family was, or even if he had a family at all – Ash knew someone had thrown those very same words in his face before.
He stood so fast she looked surprised and then apologetic. “Look, I’m sorry. I just can’t sense the stuff you guys do. Especially without all my charms,” Kenzie said. She shrugged a shoulder and he knew this wasn’t her fault, but a byproduct of this stupid mate bond none of them understood. “I didn’t mean to imply you’d failed…” she trailed off.
But he had. They both knew it.
It was all too much – her guilt and whatever shitstorm her words had stirred up.
Ash strode over to Hunter. “Kenzie needs some help.” He went into the van without explaining himself further and hopped into the driver’s seat to wait for them.
Finnick and Kenzie were two sides of the same coin whereas Ash and she were oil and water.
When oil caught fire, water only made it burn hotter rather than putting it out.
How the fuck was he going to survive that?
Chapter Three
Kenzie
Kenzie sat on the bed that was now hers and stared at all the boxes. Every year she went through her shit and got rid of anything she hadn’t used. And yet, somehow she still had too much stuff.
The boys hadn’t let her touch anything even after the doctor had healed her hands, griping about how much the witch had had to patch Kenzie up over the last few weeks.
Ash had been distant and aloof after she’d snapped at him. Kenzie hadn’t meant to lash out like that but she’d been hurting and still jittery after nearly losing the two people she cared about most in the world.
She didn’t like when people tried to tell her what to do. After everything she’d been through over the years?
Kenzie never let anyone boss her around anymore.
Compromising with the foxes was still a work in progress. She didn’t even really compromise with Selene…their relationship was a give and take. There were rules in the witch community that had to be followed and they both did what they excelled at, deferring to the other when necessary. It wasn’t quite the same thing as giving something up.
Moving in with the foxes felt like losing some of her autonomy somehow.
Kenzie had known exactly what she was getting into when she’d made the deal, but now that she was here with all her stuff still in boxes in a large unfamiliar room…how was she going to make space in her life for them?
It wasn’t like they were just dating so she could see them when she felt like it and ignore them the rest of the time. No, she had the next six months with them in the same house. They’d be sharing food, the living spaces, and…toilet paper.
Wrinkling her nose she stood and crossed to the connecting bathroom. At least the house was big and roomy. She wouldn’t have to share a bathroom with boys. Kenzie had always heard how awful that was from people, but the Kavanaghs didn’t have many male witches born into the family.
Her mother was always so proud of that elitist fact. ‘Witch blood so pure it only produced females at the height of their power.’
Until her.
That’s what her mom got for talking so much shit over the years. The universe was probably sick of her gloating and so gave her a big fat fuck you in the form of Kenzie.
The idea made her snicker as she checked to see what kind of toilet paper foxes bought.
Oh, it was the nice soft kind. Had someone anticipated this problem, or did they splurge like this all the time?
Why had she even said that shit to Ash? Kenzie didn’t rely on anyone. She didn’t need him to do a better job; she just needed him to pick up the slack. As foxes they should have sensed something, right? Why hadn’t anyone figured it out, even with Peter acting all squirrely?
Kenzie slammed the cupboard closed and eyed the massive Jacuzzi bathtub. She was not starting to rely on them. She wasn’t. All these years she’d done just fine on her own. This was her fault and no one else’s.
Who was she kidding?
The three of them were making her weak. They were always around, making themselves available, and offering to do things for her. Kenzie felt pampered and special like she never had before in her life, but she was wondering now if she’d gotten a little spoiled.
They owed her nothing.
Kenzie started with her clothes first.
She wasn’t sure if the shelves had been added to the room before or after they’d assigned it to her, but either way she liked the way they were floor to ceiling and had that ‘built-in’ look. They would be perfect for all her graphic novels, books, and manga.
There was a knock at the door and she looked up to see Finnick standing in the doorway.
Instantly her hands started to shake again. Fuck, that three story drop had been one of the most terrifying moments in her entire life. Right up there with getting runes carved into her skin. Kenzie shoved the fear back down where it belonged.
Finnick was suddenly there, hands in her hair, forehead pressed to hers…but she pushed him away. “I’m fine,” she managed.
His snort was insulting. “Sure you are. What’s going on?”
Kenzie didn’t meet his gaze as she took out more of her clothes. Finnick grabbed a pair of underwear and flopped onto her bed, twirling the red lace around his finger. “I have literally all day,”
he told her.
“I don’t need you guys doing things for me,” she finally snapped. “I can manage well enough on my own.”
The red panties hit her in the face and she whipped around to scowl at Finnick.
“Look babe, you need to calm the fuck down. You got Ash all angsty and you’re kind of being a bitch right now.”
Kenzie felt her mouth drop open in shock. “I am not.”
Finnick propped his head up on his hand. It reminded her of when they’d first met. “You are a bit. What’s crawled up your ass other than me lately?”
She didn’t laugh, but her lips twitched despite how annoyed she was. “I just…don’t like relying on people.”
Finnick crooked his finger.
Kenzie crawled up on the bed with him and let Finnick wrap his arms around her waist, yanking her closer until her back was pressed up against his front. It was comforting and exactly what she needed even if she would never admit it out loud.
“We’re not just regular people,” Finnick murmured against the back of her neck. “We’re really sexy people.”
She couldn’t hold in her laugh this time. “Anyone can have a pretty face.”
“Yeah, but isn’t it extremely convenient your mates do too?”
Running her fingertip over the knuckles of his hand she tried not to sigh. That was the thing though. Kenzie still didn’t really want them as mates. Hot dudes she got to go out with? Sure. That was amazing.
Finnick was exactly what she’d needed all her life. Ash was always there, ready when she was. And Hunter…well, she was still figuring him out. But accepting that bond was pretty fucking permanent and Kenzie wasn’t ready to commit to that at the moment.
Not that she had much planned in her life other than irritating her family into an early grave.
His hand slid lower, over her belly and down to the waistband of her pants. “You should talk to Ash; get him to open up a bit. He doesn’t want anything to do with the rest of us right now,” Finnick said, his lips brushing against her skin and making her shiver. Then his thumb dipped under the fabric and skimmed across, from one hip to the other.
