by Michelle Fox
"My cats say she's back at the temple." The lion pride alpha see-sawed his weight on and off the balls of his feet, still ready to fight.
I sighed and then regretted it. My ribs didn't like deep breaths. So the High Priestess hadn't died. I'd kind of hoped she'd blown herself to bits. "Where did you guys come from?" I looked at the alphas crowding around my bed.
"I called them." Thorne had been leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, but straightened as he spoke.
"We come when the First Alpha calls." Kane, one of the werewolf alphas dipped his head in Thorne's direction.
"And we serve the First Witch." This came from a panther alpha, a broad man with a dark, brooding expression. His name was Zen. We hadn't worked together much, the panthers kept tight control of their people, but I remembered his name because it was weird.
"The High Priestess is the First Witch now. She has my soul." I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes.
"She stole your soul. That makes her a thief, not the First Witch. The magic doesn't work that way." Thorne's voice rumbled in his chest.
I kept my eyes closed and gave a slow shake of my head. "Well, you'd know about stealing, wouldn't you?"
Thorne growled at me. "She could steal everyone's souls and she'd still never be First Witch. It's a birthright. Not a thing to take."
"So if you knew that, why'd you steal my soul then?"
"Because shifters deserve more and I have demands for the First Witch."
"Good luck with that." I managed to stand. One foot felt like it was on a merry-go-round while the other had skipped a step in another dimension, but I didn't fall.
"You're not leaving." Thorne came to stand right in front of me.
"Yes, I am." I raised my chin and glared at him.
"Where are you going to go?"
"Home."
He raised his eyebrows. "The same home anyone can look up online? Are you sure about that?" He pulled out a phone and showed me the screen.
I groaned. Another wanted poster. This time dead or alive with a huge bounty on my head.
"Everyone who likes money is going to be after you."
"I'll manage." I made to move around him.
He put a hand to my shoulder and held me in place. "You're staying here. I'm not letting you go."
I gave a tired sigh. "I'm not the First Witch, Thorne."
"We're going to get your soul back." The other alphas growled in agreement.
My legs gave out, and I dropped back down on the bed. "And how will you manage that? Go to war with the witch that now has way more magic than anyone else?"
"I don't know." Frustration heated Thorne's voice.
A wave of fatigue crashed into me, reminding me I'd been lucky to stand, forget walking. Perhaps trying to leave had been too ambitious. I raised my hands in surrender. "Okay. Fine, whatever. Keep me prisoner. I don't care. For today, I quit." Maybe I quit for forever, but I didn't say that. Not yet. I laid back on the bed. "I'm tired. Everything hurts. And I'm hungry."
"I'll order some pizzas." The lion alpha pulled out his phone and jabbed at the screen with his large finger. "What do you think? Is five hundred enough?"
All of the alphas exchanged glances.
"I'd say a thousand pizzas. We fought hard." A shifter I didn't know gestured to everyone in the room. "The packs will be hungry."
"We can't stay here." Thorne gestured to the cabin and the alphas all nodded.
I yawned. Fatigue had thrown a billion anchors over me and was dragging me into the dark. "Why not?"
He gave me an impatient look. "They might come back."
I shrugged, too tired to speak anymore. Right. I probably shouldn't be seen alive. At least not until I could fight back. I sighed and fatigued dragged me into the black.
***
The shifters took charge while my body held me under. I'd wake up every so often and take in the bustle around me. Someone gave me pizza, which I gulped down before falling asleep again. I couldn't run or even walk all that well. I was Thorne's prisoner until I healed well enough to escape more than five feet.
The next time I woke up, they were in the process of carrying me on the mattress out to a white utility van. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. "Where are we going?"
"The Packlands," a young lion shifter said. That earned him a scary growl from Thorne.
I gave the lion a smile of apology and focused on not letting the process of shoving the mattress into the van shake my injuries. The Packlands were probably the safest place to hide. No witch was ever allowed there and no one would know the layout.
Although, I didn't really care where we went. I'd become fatalistic. If the High Priestess wanted me dead, I was going to die. She had nuclear arsenal level power, and I had a sliver of a soul and a farting dog. Granted, all of Shifterdom wanted me alive, but they hadn't done any better against the High Priestess than I had.
Once they loaded me up, a group of shifters went and set the cabin on fire. The flames punched through the roof as the van pulled away.
Thorne stayed with me in the back of the van. I touched his shoulder. "Is my mom okay? Blart?"
Thorne gave a nod. "Our people checked on her. She's under house arrest. The dog...we're not sure."
Worry flared in my gut. I hoped Blart was okay. I'd have to go look for him...just as soon as walking didn't seem impossible.
"And Tali?"
"Safe. I sent her to the Packlands ahead of us."
"Does she know she's having the First Shifter's baby?"
He gave a small shrug. "I don't know. She's probably heard by now."
"You didn't tell her?"
"She's not my mate." His gaze held a weight I didn't understand. "She'll be okay, though. I'll make sure of it."
"What about Penny?"
Thorne frowned at me.
"You were at her house? Penny Haughmund. The High Priestess admitted to killing her...or did she send you to kill her?"
He shook his head. "No. It wasn't like that. She had the first relic to begin with. I was hired to steal it. Anything beyond that, I had nothing to do with."
"Why'd you go back then?"
"I figured it would be safe for a night. I needed to disappear and I knew it was a closed crime scene. No one would think to look for me there." His eyes flashed yellow again. "Except you."
"Tracker charm. I got some of your hair at that house, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember."
The van hit a bump. I pressed a hand to my shoulder and bit back a gasp. I needed to be carefully wrapped in bubble wrap and put away for a week. This thing where even small bumps or movements hurt sucked.
"Did you know she asked me to make the baby a lion shifter?"
Thorne stiffened.
"So he would be safe."
He thumped his hand on his chest. "I will keep him safe."
"She didn't know that. You disappeared." I touched his shoulder again. "You should talk to her. Maybe she's not your mate, but she is the mother of your child." A part of me wondered why I was being so nice to him. Maybe it was because I lacked the strength to kick him in the balls. Maybe I was a sucker for kids. Maybe I was plotting something and just hadn't told myself the plan yet.
He swallowed hard and his eyes glowed a warning yellow, but he nodded.
"What about Vitor?" I bit my lip as the moment when he'd turned to dust replayed in my mind.
"He's gone." Thorne held his hands out, palms up. He sounded mystified.
I closed my eyes, hiding from the truth. Vitor and I hadn't been friends, but we'd been... something. It hurt to think we'd never figure that out. "He was the only one who knew what was going on."
Thorne shook his head. "He wanted everything the same."
"Well, nothing's the same now, is it? Was this what you had in mind when you stole my soul?" I tried to punch his arm, but was too weak to give it any force. "You ruined everything, you know. Everything." I bit back a sob and my eyes burned hot. I missed Vitor. I worried a
bout my mom and Blart. I was afraid for myself.
A soft growl rolled up from his throat. "Don't underestimate me, Sylvie Orion. I'm a First, too, and unlike you, I have all my power. I have a plan. You'll see."
I doubted it, but I didn't have the energy to argue. I laid back on the mattress, swimming in a high tide of emotions. Life as I knew it was over. Nothing would ever be the same.
***
The Packlands were ringed by thick forest in a rural area about an hour outside of Cleveland. In the midst of the forest stood tall stone walls that formed a solid perimeter around the land. I was in the van, but in front and behind us stretched a line of pristine classic cars and newer models of modern muscle wheels.
Once we rolled past the stone walls, the Packlands looked like any other suburb. The homes were newer construction, although I did spot a few made of the same stone as the walls. Those struck me as older.
They put me in the community building, which was a large, rambling farmhouse set apart from the other homes. Different shifters took turns guarding me. They didn't need to worry though. My body gave me no choice but to rest, heal, bide my time. I'd kept my promise to Vitor, for all the good it did me. All I had now was hope that the wheel turned in my favor on the next spin.
Hope that somehow I'd end up doing more than just surviving.
THE END
MOTHERDUCKERS
Okay, it's not the end end. There's more. I won't leave you hanging for long! Book 3, Motherducking Witches is available now. Come find out what happens next!
And please please please don't hate me for the cliffhanger...I am an organic writer. I don't plot these things out, the stories come to me as they come to me. I normally don't have cliffhangers. However, I promise, if you love Sylvie, you'll enjoy the next installment of her story. This witch never says die and leads the craziest life. You'll never guess what trouble finds her!
And if you ever wondered what authors did with their royalties, I can tell you exactly what your purchase of this book supports...
My chocolate lab.
My cocoa puff Goober ate a rock in February. A huge rock that required expensive surgery to save his life. We don't know why he ate a rock, he's a rescue and didn't get a good start in life. Our best guess is that no one ever taught him not to put anything he found on the ground in his mouth.
We'd noticed his tendency to hoover up anything in his path, but he never got anything serious and we never anticipated he would ever choke down something big enough to be a major threat.
And welp, we were wrong!
We've had multiple labs the last 25+ years and never had an issue. We've always been super careful because we know labs can eat all the wrong things. We still have a baby gate on our kitchen, for example, to prevent countersurfing. All our garbage cans have lids. Like, we take this super seriously and...he still ate a rock.
Sigh.
My Goober's a goober y'all.
All royalties go to the vet who saved his life because rocks in a dog's stomach have nothing on the engagement ring industry.
So, you not only bought a book, you helped save my Goobie, and for that, I thank you.
If you'd like to help, please leave a review and spread the word. Sylvie needs more friends and the vet needs more of my royalties.
For pics of Goober, and my sassy black lab Comet check out my Instagram.
