by Liam Lawson
“Um, hi,” I said stupidly.
Scarlett gently pushed my head up and back so that my pronged antlers weren’t in danger of putting someone’s eye out. “Hey.”
“That was a damn long talk,” Absinthe said. “Get off of us and start talking. Soraya first, then what the hell happened with Nicole.”
I pushed myself off of them and stood. “Uh, so Soraya…she doesn’t want to be friends anymore.”
Only, that wasn’t quite what she’d said was it? I’d have to think over our conversation some more when I wasn’t so raw.
“What?” Scarlett demanded. “Seriously?”
I shrugged. “I can’t say I blame her.”
“And you’re okay with that?” she said, standing up so that Absinthe could follow suit.
“It doesn’t really matter if I am or not, it’s what she said she wants. I have to respect that.”
Absinthe and Scarlett exchanged one of those female-only looks that said that I, the man in the room, was being an idiot. Maybe I was.
“Anyways.” The weight of what I had to say came crushing back. Everything had felt so comfortable and normal and wonderful that I was tempted to just let that feeling continue. I shoved the temptation aside. I wasn’t hiding from this. It was my fault we were all bound together and I needed to own up to my part of things.
“I owe the both of you a huge apology.” I swallowed. “For cheating on you with Nicole.”
Both girls pursed their lips at that and exchanged another look. Dammit, I needed to get through to them. I needed to let them know….
“You two…you mean the world to me. I-I love you. Scarlett. Absinthe. I love you both. I love what we have. And I am so sorry that I jeopardized that.”
Scarlett scowled. “How?”
I blinked. “How what?”
“How did you jeopardize us?” she said, speaking slowly, as if I was either hard of hearing or stupid. Oh let’s be honest, like I was stupid.
“I…I had sex with her,” I said. “I—it just sort of happened. I didn’t plan it and she didn’t either it just…she was there and I was there and suddenly we were kissing and one thing led to another.”
“Yeah, I’ll want those details later,” Absinthe said with a smirk. “I’m more concerned that you bound her without even talking to us about it first.”
What? Okay that made some sense. Maybe. Sort of?
She rolled her eyes at my consternation. “You’re a man. Men think with their dicks. I don’t think beating you would teach you a lesson. I—I actually spent a lot of time coming to terms with the fact that you would never be loyal to me when I first mated to you.”
I didn’t know that.
She offered me a sad, almost sheepish smile. “Yeah, right after our first time together. When I went off on my own for a while. When a pair of werewolves mate it goes both ways. It’s for life. When a wolf mates with a human…only the wolf is in it for life. I figured I could either hurt you or your mistresses until you learned your lesson or I could get used to it. And then….” She looked at Scarlett and blushed. Absinthe, my tough as nails badass biker Valkyrie, blushed.
Scarlett’s entire face lit up and she walked over to Absinthe, throwing her arms around her shoulders, and laying a kiss on her mouth. “I’m not so bad, huh?”
Absinthe wrapped her own arms around Scarlett. “No, not so bad.”
She looked back to me. “Anyway, we both figured that your magic might bind others. We kind of hoped you could control yourself better when you didn’t bind Valencia—”
Scarlett shuddered at that.
“—but…well, here we are with a new girl that neither of us know, part of our pack.”
“And she’s your sister,” Scarlett said, giving Absinthe a squeeze. My magic sent a little spark into my brain. For some reason Scarlett liked that detail. I must have understood that wrong.
“Adopted sister,” I told her again. “No blood.”
Absinthe bent down, kissed Scarlett gently on the temple, and whispered, “Let it go, Sweetheart.”
Scarlett pouted.
“My point is,” Absinthe said. “We’re not traditional mates.”
No kidding.
“We’re…more like a pack of lovers. The pack is going to grow. One way or another, I think. And…if we’re going to add anyone else to the pack, I think…” she swallowed, as if nervous. “I think that I would like for us all to have some say in it. I mean…it’s not just you that the new person is bound to.”
Oh, damn. I hadn’t even thought of that.
“I won’t lie, I’m a little hurt but I’m more frustrated with you than hurt,” Absinthe said. “You’ve potentially bound Scarlett and I to someone we may not like and who might weaken the pack instead of strengthening us. I know now that Nicole is incredibly brave and strong, but neither of us really had a chance to get to know her first. You held off, binding Valencia, I would think that you would have done the same here.”
I opened my mouth to speak. Closed it. Then opened it again as something occurred to me. “I never felt the binding magic.”
Scarlett wrinkled her forehead as if thinking very hard about that. “What do you mean?”
“I mean…I didn’t really know what I was feeling before when it was with you two, but I’d done it enough by the time I was…with Valencia…to recognize what was happening. There was no moment of recognition, when I could feel my magic connecting us.”
So then when had that happened? The blood drained from my face.
“What is it?” Absinthe asked.
“I think…I think we may have already been bound,” I said quietly. “I think some of my magic managed to get through the curse and connected us years ago.”
It would explain so much. Our closeness despite everything we were each going through. Especially in spite of our age difference. It wasn’t such a huge factor now, but those years mattered a lot when you were a teenager. I know that as a senior in high school I had found freshmen to be among the most obnoxious creatures on the planet. Strong, beautiful Nicole had less than no business spending any time with me at all, let alone playing diary. Certainly not on top of protector.
“But, to bind someone you have to…” Scarlett trailed off. “Holy shit! How long have you two been doing it?”
“That’s sort of why this whole situation got out of hand,” I said. “Albert he…he was abusing her. He made her…with me. We haven’t, with each other since. Not until just now. But he recorded us. I was a minor and she technically wasn’t and he was using it to blackmail her.”
I’d have to scour all of his belongings and destroy any more records he might have of us as soon as I could.
“Then it might not have mattered anyway,” Absinthe said. “But I still think we need to set guidelines for next time something like this happens.”
I opened my mouth to protest but she forestalled me with an upraised hand.
“It is going to happen again, Caleb. That’s okay. You’re not running around trying to get with every woman you can,” she said. “What we’ve got here…it’s precious. It needs to be protected. And I think it’s going to grow. A pack needs to be able to protect and support itself. I think it’s time we sat down and had a long, deep talk about the future.”
Her serious expression softened into a grin. “Our future.”
I looked at her and Scarlett, thought of Nicole and Caroline. Everyone was depending on me. I had come to college for two reasons. To get away from the Marshal household and to break my curse. Both goals were more or less achieved and I had nothing left to aim for. I’d been totally reactionary and now I had these remarkable women bound to me, depending on me for leadership. I had to step up.
The thought was terrifying. But whereas once I would have shrunk away, I found myself mentally preparing myself. It was time to be a leader and take care of my family.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s get started.”
The Horned Mage’s adventures continue i
n Fel Heritage!
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