Gula: The Oswald Witches

by Mathew Ortiz

  “Why didn’t father ever tell us about her?” Donovan questioned, earning him a growl from Dathan.

  “Your father was a racist, and I blame your grandfather for it.” Joy’s face grew stormy. “Grandpa Temple was created from a union of a witch and wolf shifter, but he despised his Wiccan half. I suppose Tilda’s family is partly to blame.”

  “Why is that?” Dathan’s curiosity overrode his anger.

  “Tilda’s family thought she had married down. They disapproved of her mating a shifter. Your grandfather said more than once her family treated them like poor relations. Perhaps that’s why he grew to hate them.”

  “This changes nothing,” Dathan stated, but his mother cut him off.

  “It changes everything!” Joy snapped at him, and he quailed a bit at his mother’s anger. He had not seen her that angry in a long time. “I have spent my life trying to undo the bigotry wrought by your father and grandfather. I went against my mate when he wanted to exile Donovan for being gay, even though it is common amongst our people. And listen to me, cub of mine.” She pointed her finger at Dathan. “Your father didn’t think you had the balls to be Alpha. He thought your cousin Fred would do better. I was livid. To think he would choose that snot nosed whelp, Fred, over one of my cubs sent me over the edge. I called your Grammy Moon, and she and I sat him down and had a long talk with him. The next day, he formally announced you to be his favored successor.”

  “I--I can’t believe he didn’t think I would be a good Alpha.” Stunned by the revelation, Dathan’s chest hurt from the realization that his father had had no faith in him.

  “You father was short-sighted on many things. You are a good man and a great Alpha.” Joy gentled the sting of the news. “Far better than him. I did love your father, but he lacked vision.”

  “Dathan, please,” Oliver said querulously as he wrapped his arms around Donovan. “Don’t punish Donovan. We both wanted this, equally. I told him to go with you and we would find a way to work it out.”

  “You did what?” Joy asked incredulously. “Why would you do that?”

  “I--I wasn’t going to be the cause of Donovan and Dathan falling out with each other.” Oliver said and shrugged sadly. “I would rather he be part of his pack and know we are still bonded than have him exiled.”

  “I won’t exile my brother, but he will come back to the pack,” Dathan stated firmly.

  Joy Temple rounded on her firstborn, and he steeled himself for her wrath. “You would separate a mated pair for your own selfish desires? Have I not taught you anything, Dathan?”

  “He’s my Beta.” His flippancy didn’t hold up. “His place is at my side.”

  “His place is with his mate!” Joy thundered, and all three men flinched.

  Joy surged toward him and he hated that he shrank back.

  “Oliver, Donovan…please leave us.” Joy’s voice was deathly calm. When the two men hesitated, she barked at them. “Now!”

  Excusing themselves, the two men hurried from the room, leaving Dathan and Joy alone. Dathan sucked in a deep breath.

  “I’ve already given my command. Donovan comes home—tonight.”

  “And what of Jaime Blackthorne?” Her voice was like a serpent. Dathan’s brain stumbled as tried to regain his composure.

  “I don’t know what you mean, Mother.” Hedging, he licked his suddenly dry lips.

  “Do not treat me like a fool. I saw and scented what was going on between you and young Ms. Blackthorne,” Joy scoffed at him. “She is your mate, isn’t she?”

  “Whether she is or isn’t doesn’t matter to me.” He huffed and started to pace the floor in front of the fireplace.

  “Bull. If she is your mate, you must make it known to her. She probably already feels the pull. No doubt her witch’s sense is already picking up on it.” Joy crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap.

  “I will not mate a witch!” he growled.

  “Then you are a fool, Dathan. Fate grants a wolf one true mate, and many spend their whole lives searching for the one. Yours is standing right in front of you. If you don’t accept it, you’re a fool,” Joy scolded.

  “I mate with whom I want.”

  “Fool! Bigoted, racist fool.” Joy stood abruptly. She strolled the area in front of the fireplace and perused the many family photos adorning it. Dathan caught sight of several of them. Rush and William laughing in each other’s arms. Jaime and Duncan in front of the Maze. Oliver and Duncan sharing a beer. A larger one of all the Blackthorne children with what must be their parents. Other pictures of staff and relatives mixed with family photos. Generations of Oswalds decorated the mantle.

  “So much history and so much love,” Joy whispered. “They are their own pack, and I would hazard a guess that they would protect each other with the same ferocity as we would.”

  “My mind is resolute,” Dathan interrupted stubbornly. “Donovan comes home.”

  Joy sighed. “No, he won’t. Margaret called me because she was afraid you would forbid their mating. I had hoped you had grown as a man enough to see the joy those two have. I have to ask you this: if Donovan won’t come back to Cold Creek, what are you going to do?”

  Dathan’s lips thinned, and he stonily replied, “Exile.”

  Joy grimaced. “So be it, then. I can see he won’t leave his mate. And as his mother, I cannot leave my cub alone. I’m staying here with Donovan. Your Grammy Moon is also coming to stay with us in exile.”

  Dathan’s heart clenched. She wouldn’t! Would she?

  “Mother, I’m your Alpha, and I forbid you to stay.”

  “As a member of the pack, I am free to leave as I want per the laws of our people.” Joy looked around the sumptuous room. “I will not let him be alone. I told your father the same thing years ago when he threatened to exile Donovan for being gay. I repeat the same threat. You refuse to acknowledge their mating, and I stay with him here at Oswald House.”

  “How do you know they will let you?” he snarled, and his mother smiled.

  “I came with a contingency plan. I already talked with Margaret Oswald. She said Grammy Moon and I can come live with her.” Joy ran her fingers across the windowpane. The view of the bay was spectacular.

  “You wouldn’t dare!” Dathan balked and clenched his fists. “You would leave me, your Alpha?”

  “I would leave any Alpha who would put his wishes above a mating.” She walked to the door and gripped the handle. “I give you tonight to think this though, Dathan. You will lose Donovan, Grammy, and me if you persist in this foolishness. He is your brother, and he is loyal to you, but his mating is greater than his loyalty. I await your decision in the morning.”

  With that she left him alone. Dathan’s head swam. If he banished Donovan, his mother and Grammy would leave with him. He would have his pack but not his family. Dathan paced the room further. He was Alpha. If he bent to his mother’s will, what did that make him? His decision made, he strode out of the library to the guest wing.

  ***

  “Mother, you can’t leave the pack.” Donovan fretted. His mother had come to see him in Oliver’s room after speaking with Dathan. She gave him a blow by blow of her conversation, and the more she told him, the more shocked Donovan became. Oliver soothed him via their bond, but it was small comfort. He hurt for his brother and the position Donovan had put him in.

  “I can and will. I had prayed your brother had grown and learned, but I see old habits are hard to break.” Joy fluffed her hair and settled back in her overstuffed chair.

  “And I can’t believe you wanted me to go with him!” Donovan railed at Oliver, who only help up his hands in supplication.

  “I was trying to help.”

  “Never, ever say that to me again,” Donovan growled, and Oliver smiled seductively. Sweeping his mate into his arms, he kissed him hard and long. By the time Donovan let him down, they were both panting. A girlish giggle reminded them they had company and Donovan felt heat go up his neck. “Sorry, Mom.”
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  “Kind of reminded me of your father and I when we first bonded.”

  “Mother!” Donovan rolled his eyes, mortified.

  “Don’t be so childish. If I’m not mistaken, you and Dathan were conceived during a rather torrid, sweaty Saturday night. And—”

  “Lalalalala! I’m not hearing this!” Donovan clapped his hands over his ears. Next to him, Oliver laughed. He uncovered his ears and gazed hard at his mother. Many thought Joy Temple was the obedient wife of their former Alpha, and they couldn’t be more wrong. As his mother pointed out, you didn’t need to be loud or disrespectful to make a point.

  “Do you think Dathan will exile Donovan?” Oliver asked and worried his lower lip. Donovan squeezed him tighter and turned him until his back was to Donovan’s stomach. The contact soothed and aroused him all at one.

  “I love my son, but at times too much of his father rears its ugly head in him. I hope he sees his folly.” Joy shrugged. “If not, my life will go on here.”

  Donovan let go of Oliver and padded over, kneeling beside his mother. He and Dathan were a perfect blend of their parents. His father had been Caucasian with green-gray eyes and a tall, lanky body. Their mother’s milk chocolate skin was unlined and belied her years. Her dark brown curly hair was pulled into a tight bun, accentuating her high cheekbones, large eyes and full lips. Her beauty was not only on the surface. His mother’s kindness and gentle ways were in stark contrast to his father and had tempered their relationship. He took more after her in personality and temperament.

  Donovan reached over and took his mother’s hands in his. “You have been my cheerleader, my confidant, and the one person who, until I met Oliver, truly cared about me. I haven’t told you enough over the years but you are the best, most wonderful, supportive parent a man could ask for. If not for you, I would have been lost and alone.” Donovan swallowed hard and sniffed. “I love you.”

  Joy sniffled and touched his cheek. “You are my sun and moon. I praise the fates for having you.” She looked up at Oliver and smiled. “I’m just so happy I lived to see you find your one true mate.”

  Donovan sat back and his legs and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Will Grammy Moon really move here with you?”

  “Of course.” She leaned toward him and whispered, “She always liked me more than her own son anyway.”

  Donovan snuffled and then grinned. “I know.” Joy started and then burst out laughing, Oliver and Donovan joining in. No matter what may come, their little family would survive.

  ***

  The large, bricked archway barred their progress. The Creature hummed its satisfaction nonetheless. They were so close and in mere moments they would spill out in the lower chambers of the Oswald House. The clamoring of bodies as the ghouls continued digging added to the snarling and snapping of the fetid things. The Creature strode through the long wide hall as more earth was moved around it.

  A ghoul bumped it, and it hissed in pain. It swung is arm wide and slapped the offending ghoul away, slamming it into the rock wall. The crunch of his breaking bones signaled its death, and as soon as its body slid to the floor, its compatriots fell on it, devouring its pale, smelly flesh.

  The Creature looked at its side and scowled at the puckered, burnt flesh. It was still healing from its encounter at The River Styx. The combined might of the Oswald family had been too much for it, and it wasn’t able to defuse the last wave of their attack. It was healing, but slowly, and it was why it chose the ghouls to do its dirty work this time. It would not be in on the attack. In fact, it spun on his cloven hooves and marched out of the tunnel toward the exit of the catacombs. The Creature did not have to be here for the attack, and it was in no shape to fight the witches.

  Stopping at the entrance to the catacombs, it sent one last mental push to its minions, whipping them into a frenzy. The ghouls howled and hooted as they boiled over each other.

  Attack. Devour. Destroy!

  Chapter 13

  William sat in his bed, reading his email on his pad, and Rush lay on his back between his legs, flipping through his phone. The confrontation with Dathan Temple had exhausted him mentally, and he had retreated to their rooms for some solace. The thought that Dathan would be so stupid and stubborn and refuse to see how much Ollie and Donovan were in love baffled him. He had been so fortunate that his family had embraced Rush and their bonding.

  You’re upset, Blondie. What gives?

  Dathan Temple. I can’t believe how he’s treating his brother.

  We can’t change how he feels. Some people don’t want to understand.

  Like your father?

  Rush rolled over onto his stomach and lifted his face to look directly at William.

  “Yeah, like him.” Rush admitted sadly. It still hurt him that his father had rejected his relationship with William. “I’ve tried, and so have my mother and sister, but he won’t come around. He probably never will.”

  William carded his fingers into the Rush’s dark hair. “I’m sorry, Harrington.”

  Rush sighed and lay his head on William’s lap. “Me, too. I mean, I’m so happy. I wish he could share it with me.”

  “I--what was that?” William sat up and looked around the room.

  “What was what?”

  “I--I heard—no, I felt something.” William eased away from Rush and off the bed. He closed his eyes and pushed his witch’s sense outward and Rush, via their bonding, felt his guy scanning the home.

  Nothing… nothing… nothing… noth-evil!

  “Get up, Rush. We’re under attack.” William dashed to the bedroom door, and Rush hurried behind him.

  “What? Where?” Rush stopped and retrieved both his guns from the dresser by the door. He pulled out his new artificial leg with the honed blade. Slipping off his prosthesis from his left leg, he snugged the new one in place. Margaret had given him the artificial limb months ago as a birthday gift. It looked like a typical running blade for an amputee and allowed him to walk with ease, but the main difference was the edges of the blade were sharpened and could cut through anything when Rush did a roundhouse kick. It was also enchanted and could kill a supernatural or disrupt a spell. It gleamed in the light, and he bounced on it to test its fit.

  “Rush!” William bellowed, panic in his voice.

  “Coming!” Rush raced after him as they burst onto the mezzanine.

  William’s mental call rattled Rush’s skull.

  Everyone! It’s William. Something is in the house. I sensed it.

  What? Duncan thought back.

  Is this a joke? Jaime quipped.

  No, this is no joke! I sensed something odd, too, Oliver asserted.

  Me, too, Aunt Mags added.

  Find a partner, spread out, and keep in touch. William sought out his cousin.

  Fan out! William commanded, and he and Rush descended the stairs.

  ***

  “What’s happening?” Donovan demanded to know as he and Oliver ran through the annex to the main house.

  “We’re under attack.”

  “By whom?”

  “I don’t know. William said to partner up, keep linked, and keep frosty.” Oliver telekinetically opened the door to the main house and waited an instant. Donovan pushed past him, sniffing the air. He stopped and jerked his head in the direction of the kitchen.

  “I smell rot,” Donovan whispered. “What’s down in the basement?”

  “Cold and dry good storage. The gym and the pool.” Oliver recited. “Storage.”

  “A pool?”

  “Why, yes.” Oliver said.

  “Wow.” Donovan sucked in another noseful. “Could you have anything spoiling down there? The smell is getting stronger.”

  Even as he said it, William, Rush, Margaret, Nakajima, and Dathan appeared in the kitchen.

  Reeka, Jaime, and Joy Temple came through the dining room entrance, followed by Singh, Carmichael, Ming, and Saul. The smell of fear permeated the little group, and Oliver clasped Donovan’s hand tight
ly, earning him a scowl from Dathan.

  “Dathan, you and your pack stay outside. I sent a shadow messenger to Mills to come teleport you to safety,” William said, and Duncan and Mags nodded in agreement.

  “Fine by me. This isn’t my pack’s business anyway,” Dathan muttered.

  His mother spun on him and snarled. “You want an alliance, yet as soon as they are in danger you tuck tail and run?”

  Dathan bristled but held his ground. He voice was cold as steel as he spoke. “This is their fight. I’m your Alpha, Mother. My word is law. Let’s go.” He motioned to Nakajima and Donovan to follow. Nakajima and Joy did as they were told; however, Donovan stood still, hand firmly in his mate’s.

  “Donovan. Let’s go!” Dathan snapped, but Donovan shook his head no.

  “My place is with my mate,” he replied and locked his knees, anticipating the fallout.

  Dathan marched over to him and grabbed a handful of his shirt and snarled. “Your place is by my side.” The tension in the room ratcheted up, and all eyes were on the two wolf shifters.

  Donovan shook his head sadly and looked his angry brother straight in the eye. “No, it’s not anymore. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I’m officially resigning my place in my pack. I do not wish to be Beta any longer, and I give up my place in Cold Creek. This is my new pack. More importantly, my place is with my mate, as it should be.” His mind made up, Donovan glared at his brother.

  Dathan’s mouth fell open in surprise. Then anger filled his features, and his lips curled over his bared teeth. He shoved Donovan back and yelled. “Fine. You are exiled from the pack. You are never to return to Cold Creek and never to contact any of its members.”

  There were a few gasps around the room, especially from their mother, but Donovan’s face remained set. This was his home now.

  “Let’s go!” Dathan stormed out of the room, followed by a stunned Nakajima. Their mother stood, unsure, gazing imploringly at him.