by P. Jameson
“How long have you been here?” he asked as an answer. He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek. “That’s how long I’ve known you were mine.”
“Before I took Nastia’s magic? Before the mating ritual was started?”
Theron nodded. “My bear knew you right away.”
She was going to tell him. She needed to. It was only fair.
“That night my sisters and I arrived. You were hiding in the woods and I felt you. Your power. Like a new magic. It was strong enough to stop me in my tracks. I didn’t know what it was, but when you emerged from the trees and I saw you in your bear form… I knew. It was you. Not the other shifters, the cats, your brother. I felt you. And you were… mine.”
Slowly his lips curved into a sweet smile. Another side to him no one saw but her. “Say it again.”
His grin brought hers out. He was meant to smile, her bear.
“You’re mine too,” she said.
His eyes roamed all over her face, naked with how happy he was. She’d never seen him this way. It made her giggle.
“One more time, Rena. Please. It’s like sex for my ears.”
“You’re mine, Theo.”
He sobered, dropping a soft kiss to her lips before pulling back just enough to speak.
“One day I’ll tell you why that means so much to me. But not now. That story’s too ugly to bring up right now when everything is so fucking perfect.”
A flicker of pain could be felt through their bond but then it was gone faster than she could blink. She kissed him to keep it away, and he rolled to his side, pulling her tight against his chest.
Time passed as they laid there, just breathing the same air and feeling out their new bond.
Mirena sighed. She was a virgin no longer. She wasn’t surprised at how quickly she’d abandoned the teachings of modesty from her youth. They’d raised her to be daring. To take risks. This was a huge one, but it paid off. Because in the time she’d been in his bed, Theo had taught her more about herself than the tutors ever had.
And this was only the beginning.
“Do you think it worked?” she asked quietly. “Do you think we made a baby.”
He found one of her hands and pressed his palm to hers, staring at their fingers as they intertwined.
“Nope.”
Mirena frowned. “You sound sure.”
Theo pressed his nose to her jaw and breathed deep. “I am. You don’t smell of heat. You aren’t fertile yet. Maybe a day or so.”
She pushed back to look him in the eye. “You can smell that?”
A guarded look flashed across his face, but he only replied, “Yes.”
“You knew you couldn’t get me pregnant yet.”
“Nothing’s for certain, I guess. You’re very close.”
“But you figured this wouldn’t make a baby.”
His eyes narrowed. “I didn’t plan on doing this tonight. I didn’t expect you to say yes. And then it became about something else. About showing you… myself.”
His expression was stone but the bond gave him away. His fear was right at the edge waiting to creep back in. What had happened to her brave bear to make him cover his true feelings with jokes and sarcasm? To make him so careful with relationships?
“Have you changed your mind?” he asked quietly. “About me? Us?”
“No. Never.”
Relief flooded their bond and it brought stupid tears to her eyes again. Why did everything with him make her cry. She’d had more tears tonight than all the years combined since her first years with the tutors.
“Never?” he murmured, nuzzling her cheek.
“Never.” She felt certain.
If she didn’t anchor to something, she only had a few weeks before the darkness pulled her under. She could guarantee those were his. If they found a way to keep her light, she could guarantee him forever. Because she wasn’t afraid to make that commitment. She wasn’t afraid of what forever meant for a mated shifter. Not after what they’d just shared in Theo’s bed.
“Good.” He kissed her in that soft way she was getting used to. Like she was precious.
“We should probably… you know… practice a lot.”
He moved to her neck, nuzzling and licking, and she knew his bear was close.
“Practice what?”
“Baby making. We should practice until I’m ready. Just so we get it right the first time.”
He pulled back to look at her, one corner of his mouth lifting in a sexy smirk. “Oh, fuck yes. We’ll practice all night. Sleep, eat, and practice some more. Practice with you on top. With you on your hands and knees.” His palm slid over her hip, squeezing her butt hard and drawing a groan from her.
“I like the sound of that, bear.”
The phone rang from his bedside table causing Mirena to jump. When she realized what it was she let off a round of giggles. Theo kissed her smiling lips, undeterred but she pushed him back.
“Answer it. It might be important.”
He grumbled something, reaching around her to pull the phone from its cradle.
“What?”
She traced heart patterns on his chest while he listened to whoever was on the other end.
“Oh, um. Hi, Adira.” Theo sat up in the bed, and Mirena followed him up, pulling the sheet around her naked body. “She’s… yes, she’s here. She’s fine.” He frowned deep. “Yes, of course I’m sure.”
Sister was concerned.
Mirena held her hand out. “Let me speak to her.”
Theron seemed baffled as he passed the receiver over. She could hear Adira’s rattled voice before she even got the speaker to her ear.
“…Mason says you dragged her into the wood. That doesn’t sound good. Bear, if you dare hurt a hair on her head, I do fear I’ll wish to find you dead.”
Mirena rolled her eyes hard. The rhyming was in full force. Which meant Adira was fighting her emotions hard. Adira was the kindest of their coven. Gentle spoken. Saintly pleasant at times. Her light was bright. The fact that she’d just threatened Theron meant things were growing grim.
“Sister, stop.” She kept her voice calm.
“Mirena!” Adira cried, relieved. “I couldn’t find you anywhere. Not in a chair, not in a lair.”
“My god, Adira. Why is your vice so bad right now? A lair? Who in the clan has a lair? Has something happened?”
“I… I… I…”
Mirena frowned. Adira hadn’t stuttered since… since they were very young. Her vice had always gotten her through her speech problems.
“Breathe, sister. Is anyone with you now?”
“N-No. Mason, but he had to go.” The words exploded out, like she’d forced them through her lips.
Something was wrong with Adira. Her vice wasn’t working to calm her stutter. No matter how the sisters liked to tease Adira about her rhyming, they’d been just as relieved as she was when she’d learned how to use it, and could finally communicate with them. Speaking spells had been impossible until she’d honed her vice. But now…
Through the line, Mirena heard a pounding knock.
“Wait. Someone’s at the door.”
Mirena breathed a sigh of relief. No rhyme that time. No stutter. “Answer it.”
The line was quiet as Adira opened the door. Muffled voices could be heard and then she returned.
“It’s Mason.”
Still no rhyme.
Mirena’s mind rolled with information, sifting through what she knew to find a way to help her sister. A baby can be an Anchor. Adira needed a baby, just like she did. And Adira would make a terrific mother. She’d been mothering Mirena and Nastia ever since they’d formed their coven of three.
They were running out of time. Why wait until they’d proven the theory with Mirena. Why not tell Adira now so she could make a decision?
“Adira, listen to me,” Mirena took a deep breath. “Theo and I have been working on a solution to our darkness problem, and I think I’ve found a way, sister. I’ve
found a way to anchor us.”
The line was silent, so she kept going.
“Bring Mason and come to Theo’s cabin. I’ll explain everything when you get here.”
“Okay.”
No rhyme, no stutter.
“See you soon.”
Mirena passed the phone to Theron and jumped from the bed, gathering her clothes and rushing to the bathroom.
“Call your brother,” she tossed over her shoulder. “Tell him to bring Nastia and her books and meet us here.”
“Wait, mate,” he called after her.
She poked her head back around the door jamb to find him pulling his jeans over his fine, fine… frontside. Dear god, her bear was gorgeous.
“What are we doing?” he asked.
She gave him a determined smile. “Beating the odds.”
She wasn’t going to watch any of her coven go dark. Even one was unacceptable. Now with her mate’s help, she had a way to save both herself and Adira. And she was throwing down the gauntlet on her own.
Succeed, Mirena the Bravest. I dare you.
Chapter Nine
Theron leaned against the wall, watching the scene in front of him unfold. His quaint living room was full. With him, Thames, and Mason, the small space seemed even smaller. Add the three females, and it was a full house for sure.
Mirena paced a three step path from the end table to the kitchen and back, finger tapping her chin as she mouthed unheard words. She wore the same clothes he’d given her earlier, but she’d washed off his scent in the shower before the others arrived.
Theo smirked. It didn’t matter. What they’d done still clung to the air. The Sorcera were oblivious, but Thames had been staring a hole through him since he walked in.
Mason too.
Theron glanced across the room at the cougar shifter. He leaned against the opposite wall, arms crossed, seeming casual. But his stare didn’t feel competitive and he hadn’t looked at Mirena even once. In fact, he stood weirdly close to Adira’s side of the couch where she and Nastia sat, watching their sister gather her thoughts.
Theo marveled at how normal Nastia looked. He expected her new blood-drinker status to change her a little. Daybreaker is the name Adira had given her. Because she came out of the darkness, and was made of the light. But she was still proper, in her long sleeved dress, red hair done up high on her head. Her knowing eyes still looked at things critically, like everything was something to be learned.
Most of her changes were on the inside. She needed sunlight now. Like a battery, it kept her from weakening physically, kept her heart pumping, while the blood she consumed nourished her. And her body temp ran warmer now, so these remaining summer months were a challenge. She spent the hottest hours of the day deep in her and Thames’s cave on the mountain, only coming out in the evening to capture the remaining rays of sun. But she didn’t seem to mind the new challenges. She seemed happy. Fulfilled. As a mate should be.
Theo glanced at Thames.
His brother bear was doing good by her. And if Thames could overcome the Mother Bear’s reading and be a good mate, then he could do it too. He could make Mirena happy. Had done it already. He was determined to keep it up.
“Mirena, my dear. Please, why are we here?” Adira asked, doing her Dr. Seuss thing again. She frowned hard, shaking her head at the phrasing.
Nastia turned to stare at her. “I thought the rhyming wasn’t troubling you anymore,” she whispered, even though they could all hear.
“It started up again yesterday.” Adira shifted her gaze to Mason and then quickly away. But he was staring at the floor, the toe of his boot working at a scuff on the hardwood. “The reason why, I cannot say.”
Theo felt Mirena staring at him, and when he turned to look at her, she gave him a little determined nod. Like she was gearing up for one of her challenges.
“She’s worsening,” she said, her gaze swinging to her sisters. “Just like I am. Just like you were until the Daybreaker spell. This afternoon, I jumped off a cliff to satisfy my vice. Hours ago, I did something even more daring.”
Her eyes flickered to Theo, and his bear chuffed happily at the memory of having her in his bed. And she’d considered it risky. He did too. It meant what they did was heavy. Substantial. Important.
“Now, I’ve challenged myself to another dare. It won’t stop until we anchor. Or until our magic transitions to darkness. I’ll keep taking risks, Adira will keep rhyming until she doesn’t even make sense anymore. Her stutter is back,” she added, her gaze going to Nastia. The sister’s frown told Theo there was something significant to that information, but Mirena charged on. “So we have to make it stop. Understand? We have to force it to. And I know how. Or… I think I know how. Nastia, you know your tomes better than anyone. You can tell me if this will work.”
Nastia scooted to the edge of the couch looking eager. “Tell me, sister. I’ll help however I can, you know that.”
Theron knew she still harbored guilt for hurting Mirena. Even though she’d done her best to heal her. Even sacrificed what was left of her light to do it. Some things were hard to fully take back.
Mirena nodded, her eyes roaming to Adira and then to… Mason? She stared at him, brow furrowed while he frowned and tried to look casual.
“You have to put a baby in her.”
Mirena’s words had barely left her mouth when the room erupted in a rainbow of reactions. Mason choked and sputtered, coughing so hard he doubled over. Nastia snorted, confused, her eyes going from each sister to Mason and back again. Adira turned ten shades of crimson, her hand fluttering to her throat. Thames cursed and tried to pace the room but could only go two steps in any direction before running into something.
“What she means is…” Theo never expected Mirena to try the same tactic he’d used. In fact, his tactic wasn’t thought out at all. He’d blurted his plan like idea vomit and hoped for the best. “What she means is a baby can serve to anchor a Sorcera to their light,” he explained between Mason’s sputtering.
Nastia’s eyes went wide, her mind clearly catching on the memory of Mirena finding the information in one of her books. She’d yelled at her that night, telling her she was stupid. Theron tried to put it past them. Nastia wasn’t herself back then. But when he remembered, it made him angry.
His mate wasn’t stupid. Far from it. And the way Nastia had ridiculed her in front of everybody brought back ugly memories of his childhood.
Mate has forgiven her, his bear reminded with an annoyed grumble.
Nastia reached for one of the heavy tomes, setting the old book on her lap and quickly flicking through the pages.
“Show me where, sister, I can’t remember.”
Mirena crouched beside her, fingering through to the right spot. “Right here, see? What do you think, Nas? Is it possible? Could this fix us?”
Nastia’s eyes moved left to right as she read the passage silently, then aloud.
“When a magic user fails to find a being or object that inspires strong enough devotion to anchor them, they will transition in their twenty-fifth year to be given back to the dark mystics from which they came. They shall use darkness with as much skill as they have light. Many will be lost to this darkness. It is their fate. Natural selection of our kind.”
Natural selection. Theron knew a thing or two about that. It was the rule of any species. Only the strongest survive.
“However,” she continued reading, “some believe a life born of love can anchor a magic user to their light when a true Anchor can’t be found. A bond of life, shared with another, where love is the thread that binds. Historically there is no recorded instance of this type of Anchor.”
She was quiet for a long time, the tension in the room growing with each second she took to think about it. She lifted her gaze to Thames, still not answering, and then swung to Mirena.
“Wait a second.” Nastia frowned. “Are you… did you… have you…”
Mirena shot a nervous glance at Theo.
“If you mean am I trying for a baby, the answer is yes. I’m Theo’s mate. I chose him when I took your magic so he’d be spared. I think this can save me, sister, but more than that… he’s mine and we want a family.”
Her words smacked Theron hard in the sternum. She’d just claimed him before the people closest to her. Before his brother. She’d said it with her own mouth for four others to hear. There was no taking it back now. She was his. There was only the mark of his claw left to finish their mating.
With her public declaration, his heart was whole again, all the chipped and broken pieces fitting together like new. He wanted to run over and scoop her up and tell her how much her words meant, and promise he’d never abandon her, and tell her everything from his past so there was nothing hidden between them. But he stuck to his spot on the wall, communicating through their bond instead, pushing all his love through that connection until she looked over at him.
Her gaze went soft, and he soaked in all those happy feelings from her eyes again.
When she looked back to her sisters, he found Thames staring at him. His brother’s eyes had gone shiny with unshed tears, and he cleared his throat before looking away. But Theo didn’t miss the proud look Thames gave him. His brother bear had always believed in him, even when Theo didn’t believe in himself.
Nastia nodded, her fingers brushing over the page in her book. “It’s… possible. It might work. If the ancestors thought it important enough to record in the books, then they must have believed there was something to it. We can’t say for sure, of course, since we weren’t born ourselves. A pregnancy could be complicated, but…”
“Wait a minute, what?” Theo interrupted. “You weren’t born?”
He looked at his mate, questioning, and she shook her head. “Not in the normal sense. Not the way you were.”
Thames let off a quiet laugh. “Oh, this part’s good, brother.”
“We were born of the mystics. Of the darkness but by the light, not of a body. It’s why we have no parents,” Nastia explained. “The darkness and the light, the night and the stars, we are formed from them, made human by their magic and given to the earth to do good. Or… to provide balance if we are forced to transition and take on dark magic.”
