Cancel your plans, witches and warlocks! You’re invited to tonight’s Firewick Festival.
Curvy earth witch Claire Brixton is in no mood for a party, especially one that’s supposed to match her up with two strange warlocks. Her history with one warlock was bad enough. Besides, she has responsibilities to think about. With her big sister away enjoying her own Triad Bond, Claire has to oversee the magic shop and try to keep their youngest Brixton sister from burning it down.
When Claire finally meets her two gorgeous Alpha Warlocks, she’s taken aback by the magical and sexual chemistry between them. It’s enough to both scare and excite her. One touch makes her crave more of them. However, memories of the past linger in the air, and insecurities and doubts from old hurts threaten to stop their bond before it even starts. The imperfect warlocks have their own issues too, and Claire isn’t sure that if she accepts them, they’ll accept her in return.
Axel and Jett are a newly formed Warlock Pair, but Jett is far from ready to accept a Perfect Triad Bond with a witch, even if it means a stronger, more stabilized power for them all. Axel, however, is more than ready to find their third. Even as friends, the two Alpha Warlocks are barely able to get along with each other, let alone merge their magic with another.
But when these powerful Alpha Warlocks save Claire from two over-zealous warlocks at the festival, history and the present merge into an encounter that fills them with intense desire for her, a longing that’s too hard to ignore. They can’t see the curvy witch joining with anyone else but them.
Is Claire strong enough to use her mystical connection with these alpha male warlocks to heal all of them so they can create a future together?
This 26,000+ word story is the second in the Alpha Warlocks of Kala West interlinked series. It has strong sexual situations and explicit content. Mature and brave readers who can handle magic and strong Alpha Males only.
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Chapter One
“It’s not fair!” Carmen shouted.
Claire could feel the walls tremble each time her sister vented her annoyance. Her little sis’ magic was coming off her in streams, and she hoped Carmen could calm down enough to keep the magic shop from crumbling on top of them during her emotional breakdown.
After all, their oldest sister, Charice, put them in charge while she adjusted to the new men in her life. More like put her in charge, but she wasn’t ready to anger Carmen beyond her current state of wrath.
Their big sister entrusted Claire to keep things in order, so Charice could have more bonding time with her men. Men. As in more than one. Warlocks were more like it.
Claire still couldn’t get over how quickly that’d happened. She shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all, they grew up in a Perfect Triad household with their mother, Seraphine, and two fathers, Callen and Cruz. They grew up calling Callen “Dad” and Cruz “Papa,” but the truth was they didn’t know which of their dad’s fathered them, but everyone was okay with that. They were all one big, happy, and magical family. One with three great parents no matter what their genes said.
Although Claire and her sisters grew up in a triad home, not every witch found her two warlocks, so the Brixton girls never grew up assuming they’d find a perfect pair of warlocks for themselves.
Well, at least Charice and Claire didn’t. Carmen was another story.
The start of the Firewick Festival, some thirty years ago, attempted to make triads more common to enhance the local magical community’s strength in numbers.
Claire, however, wasn’t sure if she could deal with two warlocks at one time. How the hell did their mother manage it? How would Charice handle her own triad?
Claire took a deep, relaxing breath, even though it failed to calm her down. She had to focus on the present instead of her future.
Charice would be pissed if they destroyed the business in one day. More like half a day, since they’d just seen their older sister in her new triad status that morning.
The books on the large built-in shelf jerked, while the glass display cases rattled even more.
Carmen’s unstable stunts had to end before she did some serious damage.
“Car,” Claire said, hoping her tone was calm, “would you please, for the love of the goddess, stop pacing. You’re making me nervous. You’re also one step away from bringing the walls down on us.”
“First Charice gets an invite, and now you?” Carmen whined. “I don’t get it. Is it because you’re both older? That’s it. Has to be it.”
Claire felt the heat circle the air before she saw it form into existence. It started with a slight change in temperature. The smell of smoke filled the air, and, within nanoseconds, the book in front of Claire caught fire.
“Fire, Carmen. Fire!” Claire yanked a table cloth off the nearby display stand, not worrying about the little elemental trinkets tumbling to the floor. That could wait. The fire couldn’t.
She quickly covered the book and snuffed the flames out. When she removed it, the book was charred to pieces.
Claire frowned at the mess, but she was grateful Carmen had only ignited a book this time. Next time, they may not be so favored.
Apparently, Claire was premature in thinking the shop would fall on top of them because Carmen was going to burn them to ashes instead.
Carmen stood there in shock and hadn’t moved since the fire started. She simply stared at the remnants that used to be a book.
“Gee,” Claire said, “thanks for the help, sis.”
“Sorry.” Carmen stared down at her hands, as if they’d offer up some explanation. “I’ve never burned something without focusing before”
“That means you’re getting stronger.”
“Because I destroyed a book?”
“No, because you did it without thinking.” Her sister’s clueless expression made Claire continue. “Remember when we were teenagers and those purple violets grew out of nowhere? Mom nearly had a breakdown when they ruined her garden.”
“Are you kidding? No forgetting that. All she’d talk about for months was how she missed her Brazilian Red Hots.”
Claire rocked back and forth on her heels. She remembered their mother’s obsession with her red flowers well enough. Too well.
She looked down at the charred book, one on local Kala West folklore and mythology, a book made from earthly material. Claire closed her eyes, focused on her power’s energy, and chanted her words:
Spirits of gentle earth who oversee the trees,
Make whole this vessel for knowledge’s needs.
For information within, others may come to see
Earth power forever strengthened, blessed be.
Claire opened her eyes and watched as the burnt parts melted away into nothing and the book opened to show freshly made pages. New words replaced the old as if written by an unseen hand. The book closed itself.
Claire’s magic retracted back into her body as she inhaled it in.
“Wait,” Carmen said. “As an earth witch, trees are in your domain. So are flowers.” Carmen’s eyes widened. “Holy, goddess! The violet thi
ng? That was you?”
Claire figured fixing the book would do the trick. Her sister was annoying as a worker bee but smart to her very core.
“Yep,” Claire said as she replaced the book back in its rightful place on the bookshelf behind the counter. Everything had an order, and she wasn’t about to break it now. “One night, I dreamt of running around in a field of wild violets. Next morning, our backyard was covered in them. All thanks to my earth element.”
“I knew it was magic! Mom said Dad and Papa just wanted a change, so they bought all those violets and planted them while we were asleep. I so knew she was full of it.”
“I thought you believed her,” Claire said. She remembered the story her mom told Carmen about their two dads being responsible for the overrun of flowers. She felt guilty that they took the false blame, but their mother had her reasons.
“Hell, no,” Carmen said, putting her hands on her hips. “I’m pretty sure I would have heard them digging up our yard with my light sleeping issues, and I’m also certain no garden stores sell violets in warehouse club quantities.”
“She only told you that so you’d stick to her ‘no solo magic before sixteen’ rule,” Claire said. “If I made a violet forest, no telling what you’d do with fire.”
Carmen leaned over the glass counter. “I get mom’s paranoia. I mean, she had three witches to look after. Still, what you did was kind of awesome.”
“Awesome or not, it could have been something worse, something dangerous if Mama and Charice hadn’t taught me how to stabilize my magic. You’re going to have to control your emotions better now, especially if you’re that strong.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“I mean, what if you’d set this whole place up in flames? We both know Charice would blame me.”
“Geez, save the lecture. I said I was sorry.” Carmen began pacing again. “If I’m so strong, then why haven’t I received a festival summons yet?”
“Would you put a stopper in it already? It’s not like we asked for invitations to the damn thing.”
“That’s the worst part. Both of my sisters despise the Firewick Festival, yet both of you get invitations right behind each other. Not. Fair.”
Claire took a deep breath before responding. “I don’t despise it, Car. I just think it’s a little old-fashioned. I mean this is modern-day America. I’m positive we could find warlocks on our own if we wanted to.”
“Like you’d willingly date another warlock.”
“Don’t you dare start,” Claire warned.
Carmen put her hands up in mock surrender.
Claire had to admit to herself that she somewhat agreed with her sister. Carmen was a powerful witch. Her accidental fire proved that. Maybe even more powerful than Claire or Charice. Not that she’d admit that to anyone, especially to Carmen. She didn’t want her sister to get an even bigger head.
The entire shop was reacting to all the power Carmen held within her. The only thing stopping her little sis from spontaneously combusting was focus.
When Carmen got angry or sad, they all felt it. Physically. Things got tossed around rooms, walls vibrated with urgency, and stuff sometimes broke or burst into flames. She could destroy a small city, all without lifting her pinky. If anyone should receive an invite based on how powerful they were as a witch, it would be Carmen.
Claire looked down at the email on her phone. Maybe El-Board weren’t completely old-fashioned, since they were emailing witch and warlock potentials these days. That was the new thing. Send it electronically so it’d be delivered fast, and they knew most people checked their inboxes frequently.
The trick was sending it the day of the festival to catch you off guard. Then you were forced into going that night. At least, that’s the only explanation Claire had for both her and their older sister getting an invite on such short notice one day after each other.
The single Wiccan community of Kala West got used to freeing their schedule for the semi-annual Firewick Festival, in case they were summoned. As a town with a lot of single and eligible men, the warlocks seemed to look forward to the gathering more than witches.
Claire saw it more as coerced speed dating. She also never needed to remember the date because Carmen was all too happy to remind her of it every six months, when it took place.
She had to admit, the new communication methods were conniving and genius at the same time, living up to the Elemental Board’s reputation. El-Board was a group of old men and women who made decisions on behalf of the Kala West magic community. It was ridiculous they had so much control but necessary. Otherwise stupid people would be using magic to do whatever they wanted and without consequences.
While Charice busied herself with the shop to keep from thinking of the event, Claire always kept it in the back of her mind. She thought about her past relationships. More like the one for two years of her life. Two years she could never get back with all the magic in the world.
She’d only dated Matthew, her college boyfriend, when they both studied at Kala West University. Claire loved him, or at least, she thought she did. She even thought that he loved her too, although he never said the words.
He was a warlock, which made it even better. They would practice their craft together, and sex with him was definitely spark-inducing. Literally, since whenever they made love their magic would create green and red sparks from their respective elements. Nothing nearly as powerful as Carmen’s solo magic, but it still felt surreal to Claire.
Matt was a fire witch, and every time they got hot and heavy, she’d feel their magic mingling. The only weird part was that she always smelled burning flowers after. Not really the best scent to linger around after lovemaking.
Whenever she asked Matt about it, he claimed he didn’t feel or smell magic. He made her think she was losing it.
It never bothered her that she didn’t have spectacular orgasms with him because they had something special, something real, the good moments she was assured many people craved and envied.
Until Matt dumped her for a skinny witch. He’d said he was breaking up with Claire because his powers were stronger than hers. He claimed he needed to find his equal.
She’d seen them together around campus, and his replacement stick girlfriend only added to her insecurities. Claire was far from skinny, with thighs and arms that had some jiggle and a rounded belly, but she had accepted those parts of her. Mostly. Okay, partially.
The breakup made her doubt her body and her magic. He’d been the first and last guy she allowed to get that close to her.
He had his times of goodness, like holding her until she fell asleep when she was restless, but she also felt her most insecure when she was with him. Never once had the guy told her she was beautiful.
Not once in two damned years.
Claire’s magic was either too weak or she was “putting on some weight” as he liked to call it.
Her sisters were there for her though, and it scared her to think what she would have done without them. They were even sweet enough to offer the gift of turning Matt into a sewage rat. Sometimes she regretted not taking them up on their suggestion.
But someone else came to mind as she thought about her college days. Axel, Matt’s best friend. It was weird that she thought about him because the guy had barely spoken a few words to her the entire time she knew him. He wasn’t rude, just quiet.
For such a tall and strong man, he said very little, but his silent presence always dominated a room. He was handsome too, but that so wasn’t a boundary she was crossing while she was with Matt.
Still, there were times she’d catch Axel staring at her, and she couldn’t help wondering what he was thinking. The strange part was that she always felt sexy when she knew he was watching her. It empowered her when Matt only brought her down. She envisioned Axel undressing her with his eyes and enjoying everything he saw underneath. That was her fantasy, but it was just that, a fantasy and nothing more. She was certain of it.
Axel didn’t see her that way. Maybe he thought she wasn’t good enough for Matt. Maybe she was too big or too dark-skinned.
Recently, she thought she saw Axel walking nearby the shop, but she quickly dismissed it. Even if he was still in Kala West, he had no reason to be around Ethereal Delusions. Maybe it was just his look alike or something. After all, she hadn’t seen him since college. There was no telling what he looked like now.
When Matt broke up with her, it only confirmed her worst fears and insecurities.
Claire shook herself out of her reminiscing. That was all pointless now. Six years had passed since she’d even seen Matt or Axel. It was forgotten history.
Yeah. Right. The more she tried to convince herself, the harder it was for even her to believe it.
She read the invite on her phone for the umpteenth time. Yep. It was real all right. She’d been summoned to the second night of Firewick by the Elemental Board. It wasn’t some cosmic joke.
Her past fear reared its dysfunctional head. What if the warlocks she met thought she was weak or too fat just like Matt did? She wasn’t sure if she could handle more rejection.
No matter what apprehension she had about going, it wasn’t optional. They didn’t say that in writing, but it was true. They realized that when their older sister, Charice, tried to get out of it.
Charice had just been invited yesterday, if you could call it an invite. Their older sister had seen it as more of a death sentence and even tried to magic her way out of it. Avoiding it didn’t help.
If you were late to the event, El-Board transported you there to face them directly. Claire and Carmen both saw it happen to Charice. They didn’t know why she’d vanished at the time or where she’d disappeared to, so they thought the worse. Okay, so Claire thought the worse. Carmen just acted like there was nothing to worry about.
It had freaked Claire out. For all she knew, El-Board had their sister chained somewhere in a dark dungeon as retaliation for her defiance. She wasn’t even positive they had access to dungeons, since they were in Florida and basements didn’t even exist because of structural issues.
The Alpha Warlocks' Desire: An Alpha Warlocks of Kala West Story #2 (A BWWM and BBW Paranormal Erotic Ménage Romance) Page 1
