by R. E. Butler
Gretel lowered the woman to the ground and released her hold on her neck. “I believe Louise was the ringleader, but there are others who helped her. I felt Lucy’s guilt, and she knows the identity of the others.”
Charisma cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. “She will talk or she will die. Eventually.”
Valerie’s cat growled softly and she tilted her head, listening carefully. Outside of the room, she heard a scraping sound. It was so soft that she almost dismissed it. As Charisma moved to the cowering woman, Valerie turned to face the open door. Opening her senses to her cat, she let her beast through enough so that her already heightened senses would be even more so. Before she even realized that she was moving, she had shifted into her beast and raced from the room. Her clothes had torn, but clung to her body as she ran.
She had scented the same strange bitter odor she’d smelled on Louise, and she knew that an accomplice was trying to get away. Charisma shouted her name, but Valerie didn’t stop, catching a glimpse of a woman with inky black hair as she fled from the cottage.
As her paws crossed the threshold, Valerie saw the woman throw a blue orb at the ground and shout in a strange language. The woman changed into a huge black raven, wings flapping as she furiously beat them in an effort to get away. Valerie leaped in the air, stretching out her paws and flexing her claws. The soft body of the raven was no match for the razor sharp tips, and she brought the bird to the ground, landing with her entire weight on it. The bird’s bones crunched and it squawked loudly, the sound slipping to the shrill wail of a woman as she attempted to shift to human form.
Before the woman could return to her full form, Valerie lifted her from the ground with her paws and brought her back to the ground again. More bones cracked, and the odd patches of human skin showing through the feathers turned gray. Listening intently, she could hear nothing from the bird. No heartbeat, no sound of breath.
Charisma chuckled as he joined her. “I thought it would take you years to master your shift and your hunting abilities. I think you could teach me a thing or two.” He pressed his head to hers and whispered, “You scared the shit out of me when you ran out of the room. How about we don’t do that anymore.”
She licked his cheek with a gruff purr, her way of promising that she’d try to not do it again.
“Bring the bird, sweetheart. We’ve got some wiccans to torment.”
Fitting the bird between her jaws, she carried her like a prized catch as she padded next to her soulmate. Pride made her whiskers twitch. She’d followed her instincts and taken out someone who had been part of Louise’s plot, a person who had thought nothing of turning Valerie to stone so that Charisma’s cat would die from grief.
The others would talk. However many of them there were, they would spill their guts, figuratively.
Or literally.
Chapter 10
The woman that Charisma had been threatening had clammed up tightly when Valerie raced from the room. He was so proud of her for protecting them both. When she came into the room with the dead wiccan, killed mid-shift like a macabre sideshow attraction, two more wiccans from the group fell to their knees and begged for mercy.
“Don’t let her kill us!” one said.
“Louise’s family was ripped apart by shifters. She asked us to stand by her as her sisters,” said the other.
Gretel moved to one of the shelves and removed a leather pouch tied with red ribbon. She returned to the women and opened the pouch, shoving her hand inside and removing what looked like sand. Sprinkling it over the women, she intoned, “Selies bismar, selies bismay.”
The wiccans shuddered as the sand hit their heads and cascaded down their bodies. Then all three lifted their heads. Their eyes had become entirely black. As one, they opened their mouths and spoke in an eerie, high-pitched voice. “We would destroy all shifters. Their kind are an abomination, both man and beast. The two together should not mix. Preventing the soulmate from bonding with the tiger would have made him feral and he would have been killed. That was the way it was supposed to happen.”
“Why did Louise help me with the spell if she wanted me to go feral?”
The wiccans turned their heads to the side to look at him and he fought the urge to shudder. They looked like robots. “It would have looked suspicious. Louise attempted to visit your chosen female as soon as she arrived on All Hallows’ Eve, but the wolf pack was hunting and she feared being caught in the woods.”
Gretel looked at Valerie and said, “Bring the dead here, please.”
She padded forward and dropped the bird at Gretel’s feet.
“This is dark magic. Who brought dark magic to the coven?”
The three wiccans said, “Louise. She found a tome in the archives and tapped into the dark arts.”
“Why does she hate shifters?” Solomon asked. “Why kill innocents because we’re dual-natured? So are wiccans – you’re human and witch.”
Gretel exhaled with a groan. “Her brother was killed during his change. He had mated with a she-wolf. She was young, and didn’t know how to spread out the process so that his body would adjust with time. She forced the change on him, and he died. He was Louise’s twin, and they were inseparable. Louise was told the she-wolf would be punished by her alpha and unable to mate with another for the span of her life, but a few months later Louise went to her parents’ home to visit and saw the she-wolf, and she was mated and pregnant.
“I knew she was upset by it, but she promised me she held no ill will toward shifters. If she was looking for dark magic spells, then she was also able to hide her true feelings from me.”
Charisma said, “I thought something was off about her when we first met, but I only cared about getting the spell.”
“I’m embarrassed that I didn’t see what was going on. I’m sorry, truly sorry, that you both suffered because of my failure. I would bind the wiccans and send them to our high council for punishment. Our kind have a pact with all shifters to never cause harm. Their powers will be stripped, and they will be imprisoned for the remainder of their days.”
Valerie looked up at Charisma and rubbed her cheek on his knee. He rubbed her head thoughtfully and looked at Solomon. “I killed the ringleader and Valerie killed the one who escaped. My cat feels as if we’ve gotten our revenge, as long as the offending wiccans are truly dealt with and will cause no further harm to our kind.”
Solomon nodded. “Some of my wolves will come along on the trip to take them to the high council, and report back.”
Gretel didn’t object. Charisma suspected she knew that protesting would do her no good.
“I’m going to take my mate home,” Charisma said.
“I’m truly sorry for what happened. I’ve been the head of this coven for forty years. I got complacent, and because of that the two of you almost died. I can never make up for what happened, but I swear on my life and the lives of my coven that no harm will ever come to you, your mate, or any members of your family for as long as the sun and moon shine.” She scratched a long fingernail down her wrist, and a drop of blood welled to the surface. The remaining wiccans, who were still cowering together in fright at what had occurred, scratched themselves too. As their blood dripped to the floor, Gretel said, “This is our blood vow. Unbreakable for all time.”
He nodded and turned, leaving the room with Valerie at his side, stopping to pick up her shredded clothes along the way. After he had opened the passenger door for her and she’d jumped up onto the seat, Solomon joined them.
“I’ll let you know how things go with the council. A blood vow is a serious thing for wiccans, and I believe that Gretel would rather go to her grave than betray a shifter.”
“Thank you for your help,” Charisma said.
“You hardly needed us. You have a very fierce mate.” Solomon paused, looked at Valerie for a long moment and then said, “I’d like to invite you to join us on the November full moon for a hunt. I think it’s well past time our two groups get tog
ether. It shouldn’t have taken a near-tragedy for us to be in contact.”
“We’ll be there,” he promised. They shook hands, and Charisma shut the door and walked around to his side, pulling open the creaking door and sitting behind the wheel. As the engine roared to life, he rubbed Valerie’s sleek, furry neck. “Ready to go home, love?”
She purred, her lips parting into the tiger’s version of a smile. Although things had gone horribly sideways in a way he had never anticipated, he had his soulmate, she was a fully changed shifter, and their future was wide open.
He couldn’t wait to get her home to show her how thankful he was that she was in his life. For a tiger who’d been the last of his kind, things were looking up.
Chapter 11
Wednesday afternoon, Valerie lifted a stack of packing boxes from the back of Charisma’s truck and carried them into her apartment. Her sexy mate was already boxing up the kitchen, carefully tucking bubble wrap around the dishes that had been a gift from her grandma and placing them in a large box.
“I like this pattern,” he said as she joined him in the kitchen. The plates were pale blue, with tiny white flowers around the edge.
“When I moved out of my mom’s house at eighteen, I called my grandma and asked if she had any old dishes for me. She gave me this whole set, which is older than I am. So far, I’ve only broken one bowl, and I cried when it happened because the company that makes the dishes discontinued the pattern about ten years ago.”
He wrapped the plate and set it inside the box. “Where is your grandma?”
“She died two years later. I miss her, but I have very fond memories of sitting in her kitchen and watching her cook her big Sunday dinners for the family.”
He set another plate in the box and said, “Why did your parents split up? I don’t understand divorce.”
She thought it was an amazing thing that shifters didn’t have divorce. Soulmates were perfect for each other, and that meant that they would fight for their relationship and never give in. Living without each other wasn’t an option, when their lives were tied together so tightly through the soulmate connection. She knew in her heart that her cat would claw her from the inside out if she had any plans to leave Charisma.
“I don’t really know what happened, and my mom never really said. But I think that because she got pregnant with me while they were dating, my dad felt obligated to marry her and resented her; and me, to an extent. It would be hard to be in a relationship when one person feels like they’re trapped.”
“It would be easier if humans had true soulmates.”
“I might not have been born in that case,” she pointed out. “If my parents knew when they met that they weren’t soulmates, then little old me might never have come to be.”
He huffed out a snarl. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“It’s okay. Humans have their issues, but shifters do too. Neither of our kind are perfect, and that’s not a terrible thing.”
He threaded his finger through the belt loop of her jeans and tugged her close. “I think you’re perfect.” He kissed her neck, inhaling slowly against her skin. “You smell perfect, and you feel perfect.” He touched the space over his heart, and she could hear the purr that rumbled in his chest. Lifting from her neck, he gazed down at her. “You feel perfect in my heart, like I wasn’t whole until you came into my life. I think I was only half living before you were brought to me through the seeking spell.”
There was a significant pause, and she stared up at him, watching as the blue of his eyes swirled slowly with gold. She’d never believed in soulmates before, but the strong connection she felt to Charisma was undeniable. No one had ever touched her the way that he did. No one had ever made her feel so special or so cherished.
“I love you, Valerie,” he said reverently, his voice thick with emotion.
Her eyes stung with tears, and she blinked them away. “I love you too.”
He pulled her closer with a soft purr and kissed her. She felt like she always melted when he touched her. Her cat purred, rubbing around in her mind, wanting to take him to bed right now.
He chuckled as he lifted from her mouth. “I love kissing you. I love when you purr.”
She grinned. “I kind of can’t help it. My cat is smitten, and so am I.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners, the gold disappearing slowly. “My smitten kitten.”
She slapped his shoulder with a laugh. “You’re too adorable for your own good. Let’s finish the kitchen so we can go meet my mom for lunch.”
He kissed her briefly and released his hold on her with an exaggerated sigh. “I’m a little nervous.”
“You shouldn’t be. She’ll love you because I do.”
He glanced at her before turning back to the dishes and wrapping another plate. “I don’t like lying to her.”
“Me either, but what choice do we have?”
Originally, Valerie had thought she’d go to her mom’s alone and tell her that she was taking a break from work for a vacation, and then, later, she’d tell her that she met Charisma and had fallen in love. But after her near-death experience and being forced to change into a shifter so quickly, she knew that being away from him even for a few hours wasn’t going to work. She wanted to be by his side all the time, and he felt the same way. Even though it would’ve been hard for him, he’d been willing to stay home while she visited her mom. She hadn’t wanted him to be tortured by her absence, or to worry for her safety, so he was coming along.
“It’ll be fine. My mom respects my decisions, plus I already told her this morning that you were coming with me and she’s looking forward to meeting you.”
“So I shouldn’t worry?” He asked, raising a brow.
“Nope. You should only worry that all I can think about right now is pulling off your clothes and hiding them so you’re naked all the time.” She waggled her brows at him, and he laughed.
“Now that’s an idea I can wholeheartedly endorse.”
* * *
“Yes, of course, I understand,” Valerie said into her phone as she stared out the bedroom window that overlooked the parking lot. She’d called her boss to follow up on the voicemail she’d left. Claiming a family emergency was the simplest explanation she’d been able to come up with.
“I’ll have your desk packed up, and I’ll have someone take it to the cell phone company’s offices so your friend can bring it to you. Unless you need anything right away?” her boss said.
The only things on her desk were a few framed photos and a bottom drawer full of romance paperbacks. “Nothing I can’t live without until she comes back from her honeymoon. I’m sorry for the short notice. Thank you for being so understanding.”
“Well, life gets in the way of the best laid plans. I hope your mom is okay, and please do let me know if I can do anything to help.”
Ending the call, she curled her fingers around the phone and rested it against her chin. The parking lot had never been a pretty view. She’d always wanted to look out her bedroom window and see something lovely, like green grass, and flowers in the spring. Not birds picking through the trash that lay scattered between the vehicles.
“I won’t miss this,” she said as Charisma came into the room and stood behind her, his presence a soothing balm to her soul.
“It’s a nice place.”
“Not as nice as yours, though.” She leaned against him as he threaded his arms around her waist and rested his cheek on the top of her head.
“It makes me happy to know that our kids will be raised in the home I grew up in.”
“They’ll also never know about divorce.”
He kissed her ear with a chuckle. “As if I’d let you go.”
“A pack of grizzlies couldn’t drag me away from you.”
“I’m that irresistible?” he teased.
“You bet.” She turned in his arms and rested her ear over his heart.
“Are you ready to go to your mom’s?”
&nbs
p; “Definitely. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get home.”
He cupped her cheek and smiled. “I love that when you say home you mean the cabin.”
“Home is wherever you are.”
Since Charisma’s truck was packed with all her clothes, toiletries, and kitchen items, they opted to take Valerie’s car. As she navigated the familiar route, she said, “My mom lives in the house I grew up in. The house was paid for, and my mom didn’t want to move somewhere else even though it was pretty big for just the two of us.”
“Has she ever dated?”
“If she did, she never told me.”
“Why do you suppose she didn’t date?”
“I don’t know. She’s happy with her life the way it is. I thought that after I moved out she might get out there in the dating world again, but as far as I know she didn’t. She has friends she plays gin with once a week, and she goes to every flea market and garage sale within a fifty-mile radius. She recently started volunteering at a women’s homeless shelter and looks for furniture and clothing for the shelter and women.”
“She sounds like her life is pretty fulfilling. Maybe she doesn’t need to date because she’s so busy?”
She shrugged as she parked in her mom’s driveway. “Maybe she just never met her soulmate. If she knew how wonderful it was, I think she’d be looking for medallions and strange old ladies at flea markets from now on.”
He laughed and kissed her. “I thank my lucky stars every day that you bought my necklace.”
“I’m glad I did, too.”
“What do you want to do about your car?”
“It’s paid off. I think I’ll take it to a car broker and have them sell it for me. Might be good for a little bit of money.” Her car couldn’t handle the rough, bumpy road up to the cabin, so it was better to just get rid of it.
Charisma didn’t have a traditional job, but he was a talented hunter and craftsman. He used his skills to hunt for game like rabbit and fox, and then he treated the hides and meat in the storage shed behind the cabin. She didn’t really want to see him skin a dead animal, but she loved what he could do with his hands. At the moment, there was a deer hide being tanned behind the shed, and the meat had been sliced and dried for jerky, which he sold to the local market.
