A Twitch of Tail (Wiccan-Were-Bear)

by Butler, R. E.

  She rushed through lunch even though she had nothing to go home to except her empty place. She had no idea why she felt the urge to eat quickly and get home, but she didn’t ignore the instinct. Anxiety spiked through her as she paid the bill and walked quickly out to her car. All she could think of was getting home.

  She parked in the garage that was just big enough for her ruby red Lincoln MKZ. Once inside her condo, she kicked off her shoes and stood in the center of the family room, taking in a deep breath and trying to calm the staccato beating of her heart. What the hell is wrong with me?

  Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she lifted it, staring at the screen. Mari Cruz, one of the unnatural witches of the coven, was calling. Mari was mated to Manny, a were-tiger who was part of the ambush located in Whispering Creek, a small town south of Cleveland. Tera wasn’t close to Mari, but she did know her from the two full moon celebrations they had celebrated together.

  “Are you busy right now, Tera?” Mari asked when Tera answered the phone.

  “Not really. I’m working a shift at the hospital later, though. What’s up?”

  She blew out a breath of relief. “Oh, that’s wonderful! One of the cubs in the ambush was injured, and Lorene and the other Corners are tied up with coven business. Can you come and do a healing?”

  Tera’s heart clenched so tightly that she couldn’t get a breath for several moments. Finally, she was able to choke out, “Wouldn’t it be better to take him to the supernatural hospital?”

  “Tigers don’t like hospitals. The cleanser screws with their scenting abilities, and that makes them feel vulnerable. Vulnerable tigers get pissed off pretty quick. It’s just easier to have a trained person come here.”

  Tera had some training in healing, but her powers lay with manipulating water. “Is it something serious?”

  “It’s a bad burn, and it’s out of the scope of my abilities. Please, Tera? It would mean the world to me, and it would really be a good thing to do, because of the alliance.”

  After a moment of consideration, Tera decided that going out to do something was better than sitting around alone and wondering why she was feeling twitchy all of a sudden. Mari gave her directions to the ambush territory and ended the call.

  Tera ran a brush through her long, dark brown hair, brushed her teeth, and changed her top, which had gotten a smudge of gravy from the shepherd’s pie she’d had for lunch. She gathered a small bag of healing supplies and sent a quick text to Lorene to let her know she was going to handle things.

  It took almost a half hour to get to the tiger territory, and she followed Mari’s directions from the entrance through the winding dirt road that passed modest homes nestled in the wooded area. The tiger king, Midas, had purchased two hundred acres of land for his ambush when he moved into the area thirty years earlier. The ambush was small, only forty tigers including cubs and adults, and Mari was the only human mated to a tiger. Her marriage to her mate Manny had solidified the alliance between the coven and the ambush.

  Tera parked on the road in front of what Mari said was Midas’ home. It was a large two-story colonial, with a sprawling front porch and carefully manicured front yard. Tera grabbed the bag of supplies and walked up the slate sidewalk to the front porch. Before she could knock, the door opened. A tall, lean man with long, black hair stood in the doorway.

  “You the witch?” he said, narrowing his eyes at Tera.

  Someone shoved at the man, and he looked down as Mari slid past him. “Manny, it’s disrespectful to say witch. It’s Wiccan.” She frowned up at him and turned to Tera with a smile. “Sorry about him. He’s suspicious of everyone. Come on in, Tera. Did you have any trouble finding the place?”

  “Not at all.”

  “Good. When we’re done here, maybe you can come by our home for a cup of coffee and we can chat.”

  “Sure,” Tera said as she followed Mari and her mate through the foyer and into the family room. As they walked into the room, Tera’s heart started to pound. A faint scent tickled her nose, something dark and wild that she couldn’t place. Whatever it was smelled delicious. She stopped walking for a moment, pressing her hand to her chest and rubbing lightly. She glanced around the room. A quick look told her that there were mostly men standing around. Besides herself and Mari, the only other woman in the room was standing by the couch, a worried look on her face.

  “Is everything alright, Tera?” Mari asked, coming to stand in front of her.

  “Hmm? Oh, yes, sorry. I haven’t been feeling well the last few days.”

  “Nothing serious, I hope?”

  “I don’t think so. I probably just need a vacation.” She smiled as reassuringly as she could, even though she didn’t think a vacation would solve her lack of sleep, sexy dreams, or suddenly twitchy feelings. No, the only thing that would fix her problem was finding the two men from her dreams.

  “This is Kaya and her mate, Ren. This is their son, Teague,” Mari said as Tera followed her around the couch. The young boy was lying on the couch cradling his right arm that had been wrapped in bandages. His eyes were wide with pain, his face taut and his lips pressed together.

  Tera introduced herself to the boy and his parents, opened the bag she’d set next to herself, and lifted a small tin to Mari. “Triple strength, lukewarm water, honey, no milk.”

  While Mari went to make tea, Tera said to Teague, “How did you burn yourself, kiddo?”

  He glanced up at his father, and then returned his pale green eyes to her. “We were having a bonfire earlier, and one of the logs rolled into the grass. It wasn’t on fire, so I didn’t think it was hot, but it was really hot.” His eyes filled with tears, and he stopped talking, struggling with his emotions.

  She laid her hand gently on his shoulder, willing him to find peace and calm, and he settled quickly. Mari came in with a coffee mug and turned the handle towards Tera.

  “Wait, what is that?” Ren asked, his voice a barely contained snarl.

  “It’s made from specially sown chamomile seeds that have healing properties. It’ll help Teague to relax, like a drug induced twilight sleep without the drugs. It’s perfectly safe for were-animals and young cubs.”

  Mari said, “Tera knows what she’s doing. She’s a natural witch from a long line of witches.”

  At Tera’s urging, and after casting a glance up at his father and getting a non-committal grunt, Teague drained the cup. With a loud sigh, he laid back on the pillow. Tera set a small, clean towel down on the coffee table behind her and laid out her supplies, giving the drink time to work. When she was ready, she turned to the boy and felt for his pulse, which was slow and even.

  “Hi, Teague. Do you know what my name is?”

  His eyes fluttered a bit, but he didn’t open them. “Purple. Purple eyes lady,” he said with a slurred voice and then began to breathe deeply in sleep.

  She smiled and began to remove the bandages. Someone had covered his wounds with burn ointment, and his own natural healing abilities had already started to work. But the burns were bad and that meant he might not be able to heal them entirely.

  With a mortar and pestle, she ground up many different herbs to promote healing. The herbs would act as a conduit that she could use to settle her power into the affected area and heal the wounds. When the herbs were ground into powder, she mixed them with lavender oil until they formed a thick paste. She turned Teague’s arm over gently and inspected the wounds. The worst burns were on his palm and fingers, where he had picked up the log, but he also had minor burns down the outer side of his forearm.

  She began applying the paste to the burns, careful to cover every blister and angry red mark on his young skin. Then she wrapped his forearm, palm, thumb, and individual fingers in blessed cloth strips before wiping her hands on a clean towel. Settling her fingertips on Teague’s palm, she closed her eyes and opened herself to the healing part of her nature. All natural witches could heal, some better than others. It took training to develop and grow the healing
abilities. Her grandmother was a great healer, and Tera had learned many things at her feet as a child. Although it wasn’t her strength, she could heal the burn wounds because they were only flesh deep, and those kinds of wounds were easy enough to heal.

  In her mind’s eye, she saw the wounds on Teague’s arm, the thick blisters and raw, open wounds and burnt skin. And underneath that, she saw the healthy skin. She worked slowly, carefully, to rebuild the worst of the damage, watching as her power flowed through the herbs and into Teague’s arm, finding and repairing the burns. Her hands hovered over his wounds as she thought about what Teague’s life would have been like without the healing. He may never have been able to use his hand, or he may have had pain for his whole life. But through the healing, anything was possible for him and that filled her with great hope.

  She felt the last of the wounds heal completely, and eased her power away from his flesh. She felt herself weaken through the use of the healing powers. It was one of the reasons that a witch couldn’t walk into a hospital and heal everyone. Each healing took something from the witch, an essence in a way, that took time and rest to replenish. Too much healing, too fast, and a witch could die from it.

  She shook off the dizziness and opened her eyes. Reaching for Teague’s hand, she began to unwind the bandage. She heard the collective gasps from the tigers as the bandage revealed the healed flesh of his arm. She ran her fingers lightly down his skin, checking for any places that she had missed and found none.

  “How the hell did you do that?” Ren asked, his voice a choked whisper.

  Tera began to gather her things into the bag as she spoke, “It’s part of my power as a natural Wiccan. Healing is one of the elements of my being. I’m not a healer by trade, but I can heal wounds like this.” She closed the bag and stood, her knees buckling slightly. Ren grabbed her elbow and steadied her.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I’m just a little weak from the healing. I’ll be fine in a few minutes,” she promised.

  Midas, who hadn’t said anything, stood from the chair he’d been seated in. “Come sit in the kitchen, and I’ll make you some coffee, Tera.”

  He offered Tera his arm, and she took it, smiling up into his handsome face. Midas had a reputation as a ladies’ man. She hadn’t met him before, but she’d seen him at a full moon celebration. He was well built, with chocolate eyes surrounded by thick lashes, and dark blond hair that dusted his collar.

  He pulled out a bar stool for her and placed her bag on the counter. After asking Tera how she took her coffee, he filled a mug and brought it over.

  “That was very impressive, Tera.”

  “Thanks. It’s a gift.”

  He hummed in his throat. “It costs you to heal, doesn’t it? That’s why you’re weak right now.”

  She nodded.

  Silence settled between them for several moments. She had the distinct feeling that Midas was going to ask her something, but he mumbled thank you and walked out of the kitchen quickly.

  She took a sip of coffee, thinking it would be ironic if he asked her out, considering she didn’t think he was either of the men in her dreams. How does one go about turning down the tiger king? Probably very, very carefully and from a great distance.

  Making a face because he didn’t put enough creamer into the coffee, she stood and went to the large stainless steel refrigerator and pulled the door open. The shelves were stuffed full of containers and jars, and she bent over, trying to figure out where a tiger king puts his creamer. She heard a door open and shut somewhere behind her, but she was too preoccupied pushing containers around to see who it was.

  “Success!” she said, grinning triumphantly as she pulled the small container of creamer from the fridge and shut the door.

  She heard twin growls, low and deep, and turned quickly to see two large men stalk into the kitchen towards her. Despite their size, their bulky bodies moved gracefully towards her, and she straightened against the fridge door. One man had long, curly blond hair, and the other had the same color hair but cut short. They were without shirts and shoes, wearing only jeans that showcased muscular legs. Her mouth went dry as her eyes roamed over them quickly. Part of her thought she was gathering details to give to a police sketch artist, and the other part of her felt like she already knew who they were.

  They closed in on her, towering over her with just feet between them, and she looked up, up, up their bodies to their handsome faces. She tried to calm her flying pulse and take in slower breaths, but her body had a mind of its own. Her heart insisted on pounding in her chest like a trapped bird, and she couldn’t stop panting for air that smelled suddenly wild and sweet.

  They reached their hands out to her at the same time, and the moment their hands wrapped around her upper arms, everything clicked into place in her mind and her heart. Overwhelmed with sensations, her eyes rolled back in her head and everything went dark, as one word rolled through her mind: mates.

  Chapter 3

  Tahlon leaned on the railing of the back porch of Melo’s house and looked into the backyard. The neatly manicured lawn spread back for two hundred feet before reaching the woods that edged the property. The whole territory belonged to the tiger ambush Melo belonged to, but Melo had built the house himself, with the help of his ambush. Jealousy poked at Tahlon, and not for the first time.

  A few years ago, Melo had gotten fed up with how life in their Florida ambush had been run. Genevieve, the tiger queen, had what was commonly known as a harem, which she used for her annual heat-spell. Tiger queens were unique in the were-tiger world, because their bodies would slip into a sexual frenzy for seven days in the fall. The queen would go with little sleep during her heat, in a constant state of arousal. One male couldn’t hope to keep up with a queen during her heat, so the queen was allowed to create a harem of unmated males who would mate with her once the king had taken her first and then once each day to ensure that his seed would take in her belly. The males in the harem were supposed to use condoms to ensure that any cub born belonged only to the king.

  It was four years ago when the queen went into her heat and called for her harem after she had sex with the king. As it had been in the past, the harem joined her in her room, and she chose the order in which the males would service her. When Tahlon was a young man, he’d thought it was an honor to be chosen for the harem. He remembered how proud he’d been and how he’d wanted to be the best lover she’d ever had. But as time went by, it became less of an honor and more of a chore. There were nine males in the harem, including Melo. The queen, tall and lithe, with long, golden hair and ice blue eyes, lay on the bed in her private chambers, her bare body spread out on red satin sheets like a goddess. She called for a male named Jorah to join her on the bed. Jorah stripped from the white cotton pants they all wore during the heat-spell and opened the small drawer of a side table where mating supplies were kept.

  Jorah raised his head. “My Queen? There are no condoms in the supply drawer.”

  One of the other males offered to get some from his own home, but the queen shushed them all with a snarl. “No more condoms. My mate has been unable to plant his seed and give me a child. This heat I will bear a cub.” She arched her back, spreading her legs wide. “It will be our harem secret, and the king will never know.”

  Tahlon remembered how Melo had looked at him, with worry in his eyes. And when the queen had called for Melo to join her several hours later, when he got up from the bed, Tahlon could not help but notice that Melo’s cock was still hard. He hadn’t come, and the queen had been so lost to her own pleasure that she hadn’t noticed that Melo had merely acted as if he had.

  Tahlon was called next, and as they passed by, Melo had shaken his head at him, just slightly, and Tahlon knew that Melo was trying to warn him. Unease settled in his stomach as he mounted the queen, and he strove to control his body and managed to hold off his own orgasm. When he was called into her bed again and again during the heat, he never came inside her, fol
lowing Melo’s lead. They only spoke of it once after the heat, when Melo said that he didn’t think anything good could come from keeping a secret from the king.

  The queen became pregnant during her heat, and when the cub was born seven months later, it wasn’t a fair-haired cub like the king and queen, but a dark-skinned child with coal black hair and brown eyes. The king slaughtered the child as soon as he laid eyes on it, and sought out Rafael, the only dark-skinned male in the ambush, killing him as well. The queen had pretended to be surprised by the color of the cub’s skin and had claimed that she was tricked by Rafael. Melo had been shaken to the core by what happened; all the males had been. Melo decided to leave then, to join up with the tiger ambush in Whispering Creek. He’d begged Tahlon to come, but the queen had convinced him to stay. Instead of taking a risk of fathering a cub with the queen and watching it potentially be killed by the king, he took measures to ensure that during the next heat, he would not bear a cub on her. He’d taken a form of birth control that worked on male tigers, made up of herbs and minerals. And it had worked. He wasn’t the only one who took it. All the males in the harem did, unwilling to take the risk.

  Melo joined him on the porch and they stood in the afternoon silence, both of them staring into the woods. Melo had opened his home to Tahlon without question. Tahlon knew that Melo wondered what had happened to change his mind, but Tahlon wasn’t ready to tell that story yet.

  “I feel weird,” Melo said, leaning heavily against the porch railing.

  “Yeah?” Tahlon glanced at his older brother. “I haven’t slept for shit since I got here. I figured it was because it’s so damn quiet here.”

  Melo looked at him. “I haven’t slept right since you got here. I thought it was because I wasn’t used to having anyone in the house. Maybe…” His voice trailed off.