by V. Vaughn
“A little roar and claw.” Will shrugged. “I figured I’d scare the living crap out of her, and then call the police. When she mentions seeing a lion, they’ll think she’s delusional.”
“Normally I’d think that was overkill. But you go have fun with it.” She kissed Will on the cheek. “Grab all the kids’ stuff. Don’t forget Philias. We’ll wait for you by the river.”
“I won’t be long.” He watched her walk away and then turned into his lion.
Jen watched from the edge of the forest as he leaped through the open window. Then a mighty roar filled the cabin, followed by an ear-piercing scream. Bangs and thuds filled the air, and then the front door was flung open and Sally-Ann, in her pajamas, ran into the night, with a lion snapping at her heels.
Turning away, Jen went to join the boys, who were asking all kinds of dragon questions. “Hey, he’s our ride home,” Jen told them. “If you keep asking how many people he’s eaten, he might decide to leave us stranded here, and it’s a long walk home.”
Cody took hold of Jen’s hand. “Are we really going to fly home on his back?”
“Yes, we are.” Jen placed her free hand on Thaddeus’s shoulder. “I can’t thank you enough for coming here.”
Thaddeus ruffled Jack’s hair as the young boy skimmed stones across the moonlit water. “We’re family. You and Will would do the same for our child when it’s born.”
“Yes, we would. Family sticks together.” Jen knelt on the ground and scooped her boys up in her arms. “I love you two.”
“We know, now can I go and skim stones?” Jack asked, wriggling out of her arms.
“Can I have a try, too?” Cody asked.
“They have no idea what Sally-Ann was up to,” Thaddeus said to her quietly.
“Good. I’d rather they never knew.” Jen watched them both until Will returned with the boys’ backpacks.
“Here we are. All your stuff. Now, let’s go for a dragon ride.” Will kissed Jen’s cheek and whispered, “All taken care of. We might have to report her missing.”
“You didn’t hurt her?” Jen asked quickly.
“Nope, but I scared the hell out of her. It was like a game of giant cat and mouse.” He grinned. “I had fun. I’m not so sure Sally-Ann feels the same way.”
“And your tracks?” Jen asked worriedly.
“I retraced my steps, there is no evidence a lion ran around this forest.”
“Okay, let’s go home. Please, Thaddeus.”
The dragon appeared out of the darkness, prowling toward the two small boys, who looked a mixture of terrified and overawed. When he lowered his snout for them to stroke, their eyes grew large, and their smiles wide.
“Best day ever,” Cody said as Will lifted him onto the dragon’s back.
Jen might have to agree. Despite her fears for the boys, having them back by her side was the best feeling in the world. And as Will wrapped his big strong arms around them all, and the dragon lifted off the ground, beating his wings to fly high into the air, she knew her shifter man would always keep her and her children safe.
They were his family. Blood or no blood. It didn’t matter to her lion shifter love.
11
Will
His family was safe, the boys tucked up in their own beds, while Jen took a shower and washed away the nightmare experience. While the memories would never completely go, they would fade.
“Here.” He passed her a glass of wine as she entered the bedroom, her damp hair around her shoulders and a towel wrapped around her body.
“Thank you.” Jen accepted the glass and sat down on the edge of the bed before taking a sip. “It’s good to be home.”
Will chuckled to himself. “Jack and Cody would have willingly flown on for another hour or two. They are going to be pestering Uncle Thaddeus for another dragon ride.”
“They sure did enjoy it.” Jen closed her eyes. “It was good to see them happy after everything that happened.”
“Hey.” Will encircled her in his arms. “They have no idea what was going on with Sally-Ann. To them it was an adventure.”
Jen blinked away her tears. “You don’t think we should tell them? So that they’re more aware of what is happening around them?”
Will shook his head. “No, the chances of Kelvin getting together with another mad-woman are slim. There’s no need to frighten them. We’ll just educate them on how to look for danger. Although telling them to avoid Sally-Ann, if ever they see her again, might be appropriate.”
“Have the police found her?” Jen asked.
“Not yet. But she has been sighted in the forest. It’s only a matter of time.” Will kissed his mate. “Enough of all the bad stuff. Let’s focus on the good.”
“Which is?” Jen asked, taking a gulp of her wine.
“You, me, the boys. A wedding.” He reached under the pillow and pulled out a gift-wrapped box. “A surprise.”
“I’d forgotten about my surprise,” Jen admitted as she accepted his gift. “Do I open it now?”
Will nodded and drank his wine while he watched her carefully unwrap the gift, her expression changing from anticipation to puzzlement as she pulled out the iPad he’d bought for her. “Do you like it?”
Confusion flashed across her face. “Is this so I can play with you boys?”
“Sort of.” He unpackaged it and switched it on. “I already have it set up for you.” He tapped the screen and then handed it back to her.
“What’s this?” she asked as she looked at the screen.
“That is a plot of land I bought a mile or two from here.” He watched her confusion deepen. “We’re going to build our own house.”
“Our own house!” Jen’s eyes widened. “Will, that’s…”
“Incredible? In a good way.” Will wasn’t sure what to make of her reaction. “I figured since you wanted to live locally to be near the school and your family, we could build our ideal house.” He pointed at the picture of the two-acre plot of land.
“But why the iPad?” Jen asked.
“I want you to design it.”
“Me, design a house?” Jen’s shock was replaced by uncertainty. “I don’t know how.”
“Sure, you do. And I’ll help you. We pick the rooms we want, and their sizes, and fit it all together.” Will gave her a sheepish grin. “We could always make the house on Minecraft, to see how it feels to walk around in it.”
“I knew there was an ulterior motive!” Jen exclaimed, nudging him in the ribs.
“You know me too well,” Will laughed and took her glass from her hands, placed it on the nightstand, and then set the iPad down next to it. “I want us to have a new start together. A new house, and new life. Filled with happiness.”
Jen shook her damp hair out around her shoulders. “I am filled with happiness.”
Will slid down the bed to lie beside her. “I’d like to fill you with something else.”
Jen burst out laughing, covering her mouth with her hand. “You know how to set a romantic scene, don’t you?”
Will shrugged. “It’s a gift.” Then he laughed with her. “You make me feel light and fluffy, like a cloud on a warm summer’s day.”
“Well, Mr. Light and Fluffy, why don’t you show me what you’re made of?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” Will jumped up from the bed and stripped his clothes off, while Jen cast aside the towel. He paused, drinking in her luscious body, and his cock hardened at the sight. Jen was all woman.
“Are you going to stand there and stare?” she teased as she slid under the covers, holding them up so he could join her.
“No.” Will slipped into bed next to her and pulled her close. “I want to taste and touch.”
“Do you?” She kissed his mouth, her hands stroking his chest, skimming across his skin, moving lower until her hand curled around his cock.
Will mirrored her movements, sliding his hand down over her soft flesh, to stroke her inner thighs, before drawing his hand higher, to
touch the center of her need. Jen opened her thighs wider, and he stroked her mound, touching her clit, his thumb gentle but firm. She gasped and he claimed her mouth, kissing her fiercely, claiming her as his.
Jen’s hand tightened around his cock and he tensed, close to coming. But he wanted to come inside her, to feel her tight muscles around him. Will moved, easing himself between her thighs, and Jen guided the head of his cock toward her sex. As one, in a perfectly choreographed movement, they joined together.
Will thrust into Jen, and she kissed his chest and neck, featherlight yet incredibly stimulating. The hairs on his skin rose up and goosebumps covered his flesh. As they made love, it was as if they had entered another dimension, where their souls were in perfect synchronicity.
Afterwards, they lay together in each other’s arms. Their future together would be filled with love, and children, and a knowledge that no matter what happened, they would stand side by side and face it. Mates forever.
Did you enjoy Bil-Lion-Aire Protector? Love second chance romance? Why not try Cursed Bear (Silverbacks and Second Chances). http://www.harmonyraines.com/cursed-bear/ Only 99cents or FREE to borrow in Kindle Unlimited (price correct at time of publication).
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Schooling the Wolf - Jacqueline Sweet
a Penrose School of Magic story
Dearest Reader,
Welcome to the Penrose School of Magical Learning, a university for the study and preservation of magic in these trying times.
This story you hold in your hands is a prequel, a brief moment of romance and respite before the storm hits and consumes the school first in tragedy, and then in triumph.
If you enjoy this glimpse of Penrose and want to read more of our heroes and their friends and of the terrible secret that lies in the heart of the school, please sign up for the Penrose newsletter.
Warmest Regards,
Jacqueline Sweet & Devon March,
your humble narrators
TUTORING THE WOLF © Jacqueline Sweet & Devon March 2016
When she’s forced to tutor a bad boy werewolf, witch Cassie doesn’t realize how much she’ll learn, or how much fun she’ll have doing it.
For Hogwarts, Brakebills, East Quad, Narnia, Middle Earth and every other home away from home
1
Cassie looked around the classroom and smiled at the worried faces of her fellow students. Every single witch and wizard tremble with anxiety. Even her friend Madrigal, who usually had a bad case of Resting Witch Face, was gnawing her lips raw in anticipation of their mid-term grades.
But Cassie wasn’t worried. As the hardest-working witch at the Penrose Academy for Magical Excellence she knew she’d ace the test. And then she’d ace the final exams. And then she’d graduate and marry Anoxamander Bluefelt and her life would be perfect. It’d been her plan—well, her parents’ plan—since as long as she could remember. They actually had the contract framed on the wall in the dining hall at the main house on their estate, if you can believe it. They loved showing it off at parties and gesturing to it over dinner whenever Cassie brought home another medal or plaque or perfect report card.
“Our families will finally be joined,” they’d say in unison, talking while hardly openly their teeth in that way they did. “We put all of our eggs in one basket with this one, but what a basket it turned out to be.” Then they’d smile at Cassie and change the topic to something else and ignore her the rest of the evening, which was fine. Really.
Professor Schtrumpf, a sleepy man who wore robes like he thought he taught at Hogwarts and not Penrose, entered the classroom. His over-stuffed valise hovered behind him, always exactly eighteen inches away. In it was the key to Cassie’s future. Her heart beat so fast she thought it might burst out of her chest and fly away.
Behind her, Victor Lee banged his head slowly and heavily into his desk. “I am so boned,” he said. “So boned. So boned.” He was a meathead from Sherman House whose every question in Applied Thaumaturgy could be boiled down to, “But how will this make me better at sports?”
“Shush!” Cassie said to him out of the side of her mouth.
“So boned,” Victor said, thunking his head down again.
“Be quiet!” Cassie whispered. If he didn’t shut up, she wouldn’t be able to properly enjoy the moment of her victory. After the midterm, the only grade left was the final and she had a killer idea for the project. Of course Victor would fail the test. Why was he even in Applied Thaumaturgy? It wasn’t a class known for easy As, or even easy Cs. Wouldn’t he have been much happier in one of those setting-things-on-fire-with-your-mind classes?
“So boned.” Thunk. Thunk.
Cassie’s fingers went to her wand. She had it slid into her knee socks for ease of reach. No one would care if she just cursed Victor a little bit. Penrose had a very liberal policy about students using magic on each other. They felt it built character to get hexed a bit here and there, not that Cassie had ever been the target of a curse, at least not since her first year. It just wasn’t the sort of thing they did over in Theresa Keep, aka The Keep, the all-girls house where she lived and breathed.
Across the classroom, Cassie caught Madrigal’s eye. Her bestie had tears welling up in her eyes. Maddie didn’t have an arranged marriage contract waiting for her post-graduation. She had to find a guy the old-fashioned way, by dating, like a savage. Maddie was dressed to impress that day, in a curve-hugging little black dress, with calfskin ankle boots, crimson leggings, and a belt made of silver roses. She’d been practicing new enchantments on her hair and it looked just amazing. But it had to. With so many of the most eligible wizarding bachelors promised off, there were few men of good breeding with desirable reputations left. Maddie had to be on point at all times, at least outside of The Keep. Inside The Keep, where no man ever went, it was all sweat pants and hoodies and big soft slippers.
Professor Schtrumpf sighed as he reached out for his valise, only to have it swing around behind him. He turned again, reaching for it while keeping his eyes forward, but it always stayed eighteen inches directly behind him. He was a rounded man, with a great bearded head that hung heavy between his shoulders, as if all the magical knowledge he’d crammed into it had weighed it down.
“Professor,” Cassie asked. “May I ask a question?”
“Yes, Miss Blake?” He didn’t look up as he spoke. Was there a note of disappointment in his voice? The class must have done exceedingly poorly on the exam. Oh well, it would only make Cassie’s A all the more impressive.
“Sir, why don’t you just scrub the enchantment on your satchel and do it over? You’ve done more impressive feats in the classroom already.”
“Brown-nosing won’t change your grade now, Miss Blake. I don’t fix this silly bag because my wife gave it to me as an anniversary present. She purchased it from a very well-meaning man who must have studied at an inferior school, perhaps Duncairn University, knowing their penchant for grim humor. Or it could have been one of those deluded hedge wizards from Our Lady of the Labyrinth, goddess knows they do some sloppy work in the desert.”
Cassie’s toes tightened in her boots. Her jaw began to throb. What had he meant by that changing her grade comment? Why would she need to change her grade?
“Class will be brief today, students. The next lesson is only for those of you who adequately passed our midterm. The rest of you have two weeks to try and remember that you’re wizards and witches, and that this is Applied Thaumaturgy. The point is to create something
new, people, not to slavishly recreate the mistakes of past generations.”
Only two students! That was the worst record yet. A bead of cold sweat ran down Cassie’s back.
“The only reason I am even offering a make-up test is because if I failed all of you who deserved it, the Dean would be up my nose again. She thinks this class is too difficult.” His face contorted like he’d just eaten the world’s sourest lemon. “I think the rest of Penrose is too easy on you children. When I attended this school back in—let’s just say in times past—poor grades were met with whippings in the college square. You paid for failure with blood and too much failure saw your magic locked away forever. Not like these modern day ideas of grade inflation, students are our customers, are we providing a pleasant experience. Nonsense!”
Only male wizards invoked “the good old days” as if they were good or even that old. Every witch at Penrose knew just how bad those days had been. They hadn’t even let women attend the school until World War II, and they’d kept them bottled up in The Keep until 1978. When a wizard went on about “the good old days,” he was talking about a time when they didn’t have to share campus with woman, mortal-born wizards, or the Afflicted. Back when only pure-bred mages wandered the halls and the only rule was don’t get caught.
“I’m going to read two names now. I’d like you all to take note of these names, as you’ll undoubtedly hear great things from this witch and wizard in the years to come. Those who graduate Applied Thaumaturgy with honors have gone on to do amazing things. Virgil Dixon, the first wizard to successfully visit the moon and return, was a graduate of mine. Lysisandra Port, who revolutionized wizarding economics with her theories sat in this very desk,” he said, tapping the seat where Madrigal sat.
