by Tamsin Baker
Voodoo
and
Fate
By Tamsin Baker
Contents
Chapter 1.
Chapter 2.
Chapter 3.
Chapter 4.
Chapter 5.
Chapter 6.
Chapter 7.
Chapter 8.
Chapter 9.
Bonus Story. The Alpha in Her.
Voodoo and Fate
Copyright © 2017
Voodoo and Fate - Copyright © 2017 Tamsin Baker
The stories in this eBook are works of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and events portrayed in this work are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. No part of this eBook may be used or reproduced in any form whatsoever in any country whatsoever without the express written permission of Tamsin Baker except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
Chapter 1.
I really need some more red candles…
The chime of the bells that hung over her shop door made Chantelle Duboise turn around and look towards her customer.
“Tania!” Her friend moved towards her, and she stared a little harder. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
Tania’s hands were clinging to the edges of her cloak, wrapped tightly around her body and her skin was pale. Milk like.
“You have to help me Chanti. Please…” Tania’s lip quivered as silvery tears filled her eyes.
Worry coursed through her body, tingling in her fingertips. This wasn’t good.
“Of course I’ll help you. If I can. What’s happened?” She took Tania’s hand and led her to a couch she had on one side of the shop, dropping down into the comfortably worn cushions.
Tania was one of the strongest women she’d ever met, and from one of the most influential families in New Orleans. What could have happened to make her this upset?
“I’m pregnant.”
Woah. Now that’s news.
Tania’s parents were not going to be impressed. A sick feeling hit her gut as she realised why Tania was asking for her help.
“All right… are congratulations in order, or do you need something else?”
Chanti hated helping people get rid of unwanted babies. She understood their reasons, and often supported them, but when half her business was helping women conceive much wanted children, helping those to get rid of them felt like a waste. And worse. An unnatural waste of her talents.
“No. Please don’t congratulate me. This is terrible! The worst possible thing that could have happened to me.”
“I doubt it’s that bad. I know your parents will be unhappy, but…”
Tania’s eyes went wide, and wild. “Unhappy? They’ll be furious.”
Chanti frowned, noting again the paleness of Tania’s cheeks. The grim set of her jaw. She was determined to stick to this path, but she didn’t look well.
“Start at the beginning.”
Tania bit her lip then shook her head. “No, no, no. I don’t need any help deciding. I need to get rid of this, this… thing inside me. Please help me Chanti. You’re the most talented Voodoo priestess we have…” Tania’s lips thinned with a determined strength. “Or I’ll find someone who will.”
Chanti held up her hands and stood up. She didn’t need the threat. Of course, she’d help. Even if she didn’t like it. There were quite a few herbs in the recipe, but it wouldn’t be hard to concoct.
“Okay Tania. I’ll help you.” She began walking slowly around her shop, taking pinches of herbs and adding them to a hessian bag as she went.
Tania was a member of their Voodoo society. Her parents were strong, and powerful. Why would she come to Chantelle for a relatively simple poison?
“You know you could probably do this yourself, Tania. Why come to me?”
“Because I have to make sure it works!”
Such anger. What’s with that?
Chanti finished off the vile spelling potion and tied the bag with a string.
“You’ll need to seep this in water for a full day, then drink it. At night preferably. You’re going to be very sick for a few days, Tania. You know that?”
She held the bag out to the girl, who’s desperation was starting to become far too apparent for Chanti’s liking. Tania was practically salivating at the sight of the bag.
Something was wrong. Her intuition was telling her she wasn’t doing the right thing here.
And her intuition was never wrong.
As Tania went to grab the bag, Chanti’s hand pulled it back. She looked down at the poisonous potion clutched in her fingers. They had grabbed it back almost against her will. So strange. She hadn’t meant to do that. Maybe she needed to ask just one thing…
“Who’s the father, Tania?”
Tania’s lip trembled again and Chanti stretched up to her full height, staring down at the younger woman. “Tania!”
She put as much weight and strength into her voice as she could as Tania’s eyes darted from Chanti’s hands, to her face, and back again.
“His name is Marty.”
“And?”
She glared at the young girl who was starting to upset her. What could be so bad that she couldn’t explain this decision.
“I can’t tell you, Chanti. You’ll tell my parents, or you won’t help me… or…”
What could Tania be afraid of? Was the father such an undesirable? She couldn’t think of anyone in Louisiana who would strike such fear into the heart of a Voodoo woman.
Unless… No!
Lightning struck and her brain came up with a conclusion that was simply impossible.
“No… he isn’t… you didn’t…”
“I didn’t mean to! I just couldn’t help myself. Maybe he put some sort of curse on me?”
Horror slammed into Chanti with the force of a fist, making her whirl backwards, her spine slamming into the glass cabinet of voodoo dolls she sold to the tourists.
It couldn’t be…
“A werewolf.” She breathed the words she never thought to say.
The werewolves had been their mortal enemies for generations, but they had long stopped coming to New Orleans. They hid in small country towns, unable to compete with the power of the Voodoo Queens and the people who followed them.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.”
Tania collapsed onto the couch in a shower of sobbing tears.
Chanti stared at her. Unable to approach, yet she couldn’t walk away either.
A half voodoo, half werewolf child could be anything.
An abomination.
“Here. Take it.”
Chanti tried to push the bag out of her hand. But her arm would not extend.
Ridiculous thing. Stop it!
“Take it Tania. Take it. And go.”
Her breathing laboured as she inhaled and exhaled. Heat filled her lungs. Then something occurred to her.
Dear Goddess…. No.
“Did he force you? Is that why you must get rid of it?”
Tania’s gaze clashed with her own and Tania’s gaze softened, a pleasant memory filling her eyes as she almost smiled.
“No. No, he didn’t.”
Chanti forced herself to relax a little. That was a good thing. Perhaps this was just a one off event. A good girl from the right side of the tracks, and a bad boy from the wrong side, sort of thing?
Improbable… but still. She could hope.
Her hand wasn’t unclenching, and as Tania edged closer Chanti had to will herself not to push the young woman away as her instincts dictate she did.
What was with her body? Why wouldn’t she want to help this girl get rid of a beast?
“Quick, Tania. Just grab it from me. I can’t let go.”
Chanti closed her eyes and told herself to comply with her words.
Let go. Let go.
She swallowed the scream that rose as Tania’s hand touched her own and tugged the bag from her grip.
Her eyes sprung open as she watched Tania run from the shop.
The tinkle of the bells sounded again and Chanti collapsed onto the leather couch once more.
A couch she had counseled so many people upon. As a Voodoo practitioner, and a descendent of the High Priestess, she was a natural healer. People came to her seeking remedies of all sorts of things. Physical ailments, heart break, infertility, and curses.
She didn’t like the punishing and evil side of Voodoo, but she knew the craft. Had learnt the art from her grandmother before she died.
If there was a werewolf plague coming for their town, she would be ready.
As she was putting away the last of the werewolf poison she’d made throughout the day, the bells to her shop chimed with a harsh clang she hadn’t heard before.
Someone was in a hurry.
She called out, “Can I help you? I was just about to close.”
The person didn’t speak and she couldn’t see them. A tourist maybe?
The man who’d stepped into the shop was behind a rack of scarves, his huge shoulders peeking out from either side of the brightly coloured fabrics.
“Hello?”
She stepped around the counter and the smell hit her like she’d run into a wall.
Sex and male, sweat and muscle.
Her knees weakened, her body throbbed. What sort of magic was this?
The man stepped out from behind the rack, his silver eyes causing a shiver of a long forgotten memory to pass through her mind.
“Hi.”
“Who are you?”
He had long dark hair to his shoulders, and cat like almond shaped eyes. The colour was liquid moonlight, and reached out for her very soul.
“I’m Kody.”
He was familiar, too familiar. Like a dream she’d had forever.
“Why do I know you?”
She forced her legs to straighten and her hand lifted towards him. Stretching out to touch the olive skin, the silky hair.
Why was she feeling this way?
He stepped forward, his lips thin and tight.
“Did the girl, Tania, come to see you?”
Chanti’s arm dropped and cold slithered down her spine. Was this the father of Tania’s baby?
No…
Was this man a werewolf? Possibly. He looked strong, and the chemistry between them was animal.
“How do you know Tania?”
She forced herself to keep her voice calm as she headed back around the counter. Reaching for a protection charm she’d made for herself as a child and wrapped the leather strip around her wrist.
Whatever this man was, werewolf or human, he was going to be something very special to her.
She knew it in her bones, the way she knew that she was a direct descendant of a Voodoo High Priestess. But that didn’t mean he was safe.
Kody’s face twisted and Chanti could practically see the fight he was having in his head, trying to decide what he was going to say to her.
“Did you give her what she came here for?”
Chanti narrowed her eyes. “Of course, I did.”
The man’s grim façade broke. “Fuck! Chanti, how could you?”
She cocked her head to one side and stared at him. “Do I know you?”
Kody growled and shook his head, pacing the store and weaving around her many display cases. Her pulse kicked up a notch, making swallowing hard. Should she be running for the safety of her back room? Did she need to?
“Why would you do that? She can’t kill off the baby. It’s the start of the new…”
“New what?” She swallowed hard. She needed to ask the question. “Are you a…”
She looked harder. The silver eyes. The square jaw. The huge shoulders and coiled strength.
“You are. Oh. Goddess.”
Panic slammed into her. She knew so little about these creatures. They hadn’t proved a threat in her lifetime, and they’d all become quite complacent about the werewolves living out of town.
What could she do to stop him, if he wanted to hurt her? She had a gun in the back, hidden amongst the extra skirts. If he wouldn’t leave… she’d have to make him.
She inched towards the door when Kody raced around the counter and grabbed her. His arms came around her body, squeezing tight.
Adrenaline zinged along her veins, pooling between her thighs and making her knees give out from beneath her. She sunk lower and he held her up, staring down at her as magic wove around them.
Kody pressed his lips to hers and she melted into him. All thoughts disappeared as her body turned into a puddle of screaming rapture.
Orgasmic tingles pulsed in her pussy as he her nipples tightened and her spine arched up into Kody’s body.
He pushed her away and the cold drove in like a steam train, pushing the fog from her mind and the heat from her body.
“What the hell was that?”
Her knees folded and she let herself go down, falling gracefully into a folded leg sit on the ground.
She stared up at the man mountain who had just reduced her to the weakest woman she’d ever been.
If that was what one kiss, imagine what his touch might do?
He answered her, “Destiny.”
He stared at her a moment longer and then turned and fled like the wind.
Chanti sat on the floor and pondered her life. What on earth had just happened?
****
Kody’s wolf snapped and growled inside his mind.
Settle the fuck down. Now.
He’d met his mate.
The one and only woman he was meant to be with.
And she was a fucking Voodoo doctor.
Of all the rotten luck.
He pounded the pavements as he stormed through the town looking for his brother. Their pack’s leader and Alpha. Marty.
Marty had come across a beautiful young girl at a pub a few weeks ago. They’d hit it off like nothing else, according to his brother, had the wildest sex imaginable, and then she’d disappeared.
Marty had found her again, through some of their townie friends, but she was running scared supposedly and wouldn’t respond to any of Marty’s messages.
According to their sources who had been listening at the doorways, and watching her, the chick was pregnant.
Half werewolf, half voodoo royalty. How was is it even possible?
They’d been told they couldn’t breed outside their own pack. Kody had thought it to be impossible. A lie told by the little human to get his brother back perhaps?
That was until he’d met Chanti. Now he knew something he’d never known. Matings between the humans and the werewolves were possible.
He’d been following Tania, only to see her go into a Voodoo shop. He’d listened at the door and heard her ask for something to get rid of the babe.
Anger and pain had slammed into him. If it really was true, and his brother had conceived a child, Tania couldn’t kill it!
This baby could be the only way to fulfil the prophesy, and re-bond their communities.
It had long been said by the elders that the werewolves were meant to live in peace and harmony with the townspeople.
That was only achievable with the blending of their blood and of course, negotiating with the people in power in New Orleans. No one he knew of had ever tried such a thing.
He saw his brother ahead, hiding in the alleyway next to a triple story house.
He sidled up next to Marty, and his brother spoke to him. “Did you find her?”
“I found more than just her.”
“What do you mean?”
Kody inhaled sharply. This was such a hard thing to say. Would his brother hate him? Be embarrassed to call him family?
“I met my mate.”
His brother swung around to face him. “What? Where?”
“In the Voodoo shop Tania went into. She’s the owner, or whatever.”
“A Voodoo doctor? Are you kidding me?”
I wish.
“Ah… no. And she’s more than that. I can feel the power in her, the strength. I heard someone talking about her outside, and heard what Tania said to her. She’s one of the most powerful priestesses they have, and ah… Tania’s no slouch in the Voodoo arts either.”
His brother’s eyes bulged. “What? My mate’s a Voodoo priestess, too?”
Excuse me?
“Your what? You said she was just a one night stand. A good…”
His brother growled, low and menacing. “Don’t say it Kody, or I’ll rip your fucking head off.”
Kody bit his own tongue, swallowing the disbelief and surprise he could feel in his heart.
His brother’s mate?
Why hadn’t he told him?
“Why didn’t you say anything before, Marty?”
He’d thought it was a little strange that his brother was chasing down this girl after only one night. And that she’d conceived so readily. It was unheard of.
His brother turned away, his jaw set and tight.
“I was ashamed. What sort of Alpha doesn’t have a werewolf mate?”
Marty was looking at this wrong way.
“One who is destined to be our saviour! Come on brother, you know the legends! This could reunite our families, bring us back to New Orleans!”
Excitement was beginning to bubble in his veins. For so many generations they had been outcasts. Not welcome in the human world.
That could change. Forever.
“So, brother, did your mate come back here?”
“Yeah, I saw her go in the front door. This is her home I think.”
Marty pointed at the three story mansion.
Shit…
“Do you know anything else about her, Marty?”
His brother shook his head.
Damn... I have to tell him.
“Well, from what I heard, she’s from a real wealthy family.”
His brother rolled his eyes. “Obviously, look at the house. Smartass…”
His brother looked back towards the mansion as though he couldn’t keep his eyes off one of the top windows.
