Xander_Winchester Brothers_Erotic Paranormal Wolf Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “You’d be doing that, sir, or I’d not be here with you. You must believe, a little at least.” Dominic nodded. “You’re remembering, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. When I was a little boy, no more than about two, I remember seeing one of the people like you. I was in my playpen, a fenced off area, while my mom hung out the wash. And suddenly this little man, a wee little man no bigger than me, came into my area because the cat was chasing him.”

  “Aye. And you saved me, didn’t you, young Dominic? Scared that cat off and let me run away. I’ve never forgotten you. Never will, either.” Dominic shook his head again and stared at the man. “You’ll be fine as rain in the morning now. You go on to your home, and in the morning, we’ll talk again.”

  Dominic found himself sitting on his couch at his home. Sitting there, he thought about his dream and wondered what the hell he’d eaten today. Getting up, he stretched and heard his back pop. It had been doing that a lot lately, so he knew that he’d fallen asleep again where he shouldn’t have.

  Just as he was headed up to his bed, he reached into his pocket to place his keys on the table. When he tossed them there, he nearly screamed.

  There it was. A gold coin. And on the face of it was the very same little leprechaun that had been talking to him. On the flip side was his Uncle O’Reilly. Christ, he needed to find Gabe and have his head examined. And he would, first thing in the morning.

  ~*~

  “Aye, and you talked to him? Gave him the message?” Sham said that he had and that Dom had touched the pot. “Did he ask?”

  “Nay, he didn’t.” They had had a bet, the two of them. King O’Reilly had said that he’d not use the money for nary a thing but the school. Sham had thought he’d buy himself a trinket. He hadn’t done either, but made his way home. Might have been his magic too, but now that he’d met the young man, he knew him to be as honest as the day was long.

  The question that they all thought he might ask, with the exception of King O’Reilly, was what the money would bring him. They had nothing for him if he did that. But like his true king, he didn’t ask. And Sham was glad that he’d been wrong.

  “When do you speak to him again? Soon? You think I should go too, to have a word or two with him?” Sham asked him what he’d say that he couldn’t. “Nothing. But I have a need for him, Sham. Him and his mate. She’s not here yet, thankfully. She’s a temper on her. But when she comes, there will be hell to pay. We know it.”

  “Yes, she’s a fine temper, that girl. But we made a promise. We’re to keep it.” O’Reilly said that he’d do it, but he hated to be in pain. “She’ll do it too, that girl. I’m a scared of her, if you want the truth.”

  “Yes, me too. She’s as fiery as her hair, that one is.” Charlotte O’Farrell—just the mention of her name made him shiver in his boots. “When are you going to tell her?”

  “Me? I’m not telling her a blessed thing about this. You do it.” Sham nearly fell over his big feet trying to back away from his king. “You go ahead and tell her the plan when she comes along. I’ll pay you.”

  “Nay, you will not pay me, and you want to know why you won’t be parting with your own gold? Because I’ll not do it. She’ll hurt me. Cut me to ribbons with her tongue, that one will. You cannot even...I cannot be believing that you’d ask me such a thing. Me being your own brother and all.”

  “But you like her.” He told him that he didn’t like her enough to be murdered by her. “Leave her a note.”

  “You leave her a note. But you’d best be signing your death warrant too. She’s going to blister you with her words, see if she doesn’t.”

  There wasn’t a person in their clan that didn’t have a fear, a good fear, of Charlie. Charlie was a good woman, full of humor when she wasn’t angry. Which by his estimation was most of the time, but she could cook and bake. Her gardens always looked the neatest, and there wasn’t a child that didn’t love her with all their hearts, until they got old enough to piss the darling off. Which really wasn’t that easy.

  She cared not for stupid people. Sadly, she thought all people over the age of about two hundred, his age and then some, were stupid. She didn’t suffer fools either, and made sure that she was around when they fell upon their faces after she told them this or that wouldn’t work. Not to tell them she told them so, but to pick them up, dust them off, and make them do it right. Her way. Also, Charlie had no troubles telling you that you were wrong. Not once in all the times that he’d been subject to her tongue lashing had she ever hurt him with a club. Her voice and words were bad enough. He would almost pity the young man to be her mate but for the fact that Charlie could and did love with all her heart. And that was as big as any pot of gold that he’d ever had.

  “You think of what I must say to her.” Sham said he wasn’t going to be party to it. “That’s what we’ll do. Have a party.”

  The man was daft. His fear of talking to the young lass was making his head addled. And when he started planning this party, Sham started to walk away, making his way backwards without taking his eyes off the sad king who’d lost his mind.

  “I’ve done no such thing.” He’d forgotten that his brother could read his mind. “You’ll help me plan this party, and while she’s having herself a fine spirit or two, we’ll tell her. From a distance. While our bags are packed, and the ship is pulling away.”

  “She’ll find us. It won’t matter.”

  He thought about young Charlie. She wasn’t a terrible person, not like they were talking about her, not really. She did have a fine temper, and that red hair that was as natural to them as grass being green. Charlie was a magical as her mother had been, and a good leprechaun she’d been too. But she was also beautiful beyond compare.

  A real beauty. Long red hair that curled up like someone had curled it for her. Ringlets, he thought them called. Lips as rosy as the flowers that bloomed year-round for them. A face that looked like she’d been soaking it in the creamiest milk for years, it was so soft and white. Eyes the color of the darkest of emeralds, and as hard too when she wanted them to be. He loved the girl, as most did, but she could turn on you in a moment and you’d wish that you didn’t know her at all.

  “Well, there’s no hope for it, I guess. We’ll have to send her away.” Sham thought he’d missed something, had missed where they were sending her to and why. But O’Reilly spoke again, and he nearly sagged with relief. “We’ll send her into the world of the big people and see that she falls for our young Dominic. We all know that without him being born and his children being born, then none of us would be able to survive.”

  “Now don’t be going all dramatic, O’Reilly. He saved my life and in turn yours, but the rest—well, that’s just a bunch of malarkey and you know it. He’ll be what we need. Or not. But whatever happens when he helps us, it’s the way it should have been.” Nodding, O’Reilly told him he was right. “Of course I am. And to show you how right I am, I’ll tell Charlie when she gets here that you need to talk to her.”

  He was nearly home before he no longer heard his brother screaming at him. It had been a good joke, telling him that last part before leaving. Taking a turn at the little road he was on, he walked by Dominic’s home, to see that he’d made it to bed all right.

  Dominic had saved him that day. Not only that, but he’d in turn saved his children. That wasn’t a joke. Had he been killed that day, his children would not have come to pass. His wife would have not borne him any sons. The boys that he had now, all eighteen of them, would not have been able to have him grandchildren, one of which was in the big people world.

  “Aye, my Donnie is out there now, making us money and investing in our future. But it’s the one we have right now that needs the work most. And Dominic will make that come to pass.” He looked at the big book, the one that he’d been in charge of since he’d been old enough to carry it. The Book of Leprechaun. And someday, Dominic would take care of it for them. For not just this clan, but all of them.

  Ope
ning the pages at random, he saw the names there. The dates of their births, their children’s births too. And deaths. More and more they were dying off. And for the simple reason that no one believed in them.

  There were funny jokes about them. People would talk about the pretty rainbow that would lead them right to them, but no one bothered to look anymore. No one cared that the leprechauns were dying because no one believed in their magic.

  It was happenstance that had him touch one of the wee ones at Dominic’s camp. They gave him such energy that he’d touched all the wee ones that came around. He felt younger than he had in decades. Better too, no more aches and moans. All because of a wee one seeing him.

  “Harley, my man, you have given us more than you can ever be repaid for.” He laughed when he thought of the antics of the wee one. Such a name for them, but that’s what they all called them. Wee ones were going to be able to save the leprechauns, if only they could get Dominic to talk others into believing in them.

  As he made his way home, he could smell the bread baking from his oven. His lady wife would have him a sup that would be better than any large people ever ate. He’d have a fried potato, a green bean cut just so. There would be a beet sliced for the two of them, and a glass of the juice that she’d squeeze with her very hands. Mildred was the best of wives—the best cook too, so far as he could tell. Except for Charlie.

  Charlie had been born on a stormy night. The walls around her parents’ home were so close to falling in that everyone worried that the wee babe would be swept away. But she was in her little crib when they found her the next morning. She and her blanket, the one that she wore upon her head even now, were all that was left of her home. Both of her parents had died that night, never to be found by man nor beast.

  She’d grown up right before their eyes, the child, to become a woman. Never asking for help when she could do it on her own. Learning to cook and to sew gave her coin enough until she was old enough to gather her own. Then she bought not just a house in the clan, but one in the large people world as well. Becoming a cook there too, so that she could support herself and those around her. Her goodness was as legendary as her temper.

  There was little about the girl that he didn’t respect or love. Charlie was smart too. Smarter than a large person about so many things. She could also guide a slip of a boat, fish with the best of them, and again, cook her own meals like she’d done it all her life.

  Charlie was also able to bring newborns into the world. Her job, this one, was slowing, and it was her that had first come to him about it—that there weren’t as many babes being born as there had been. So, O’Reilly sent her to the other clans, to see what they were doing. If they were having a slowdown of children as well. So far, the news hadn’t been good.

  Babes born in the cities were the worst numbers. Babes in the country were better, but not by a big margin. They needed believers. And short of showing themselves and getting caught, there was little they could do. Until they saw Dominic and the blue glow of kindness around him.

  The wee ones were his children. It mattered little, Sham thought, that some were older than him in years and some younger by only months. He loved them all, like they were his own children. When they found out that he’d spent his own money on gifts this year for them all, they knew that they’d found the right man for the job—the job of marrying their Charlie and having children.

  “Do you think she’ll be all right with him? She’ll not kill him? She’s a powerful temper, that Charlie.” Sham agreed with Mildred, but told her that he’d seen it. “Aye, you told me that first night. But I can worry for him, can’t I? When you spoke to him tonight, I could tell that he wasn’t believing. He thought himself asleep.”

  “He did, but he’ll be all right when I speak to him again.” He’d told the young man that he’d speak to him on the morrow, but it would be later, much later. “When Charlie returns, we’ll have a sit down and tell her what’s what.”

  Mildred huffed and asked him if he had her enough coin to live on when he was gone. Sham had to laugh. They all loved Charlie, to be sure, but there wasn’t a one of them that wasn’t terrified that she’d turn her temper onto them.

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  Kathi Barton , winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement award as well as a best-selling author on Amazon and All Romance books, lives in Nashport, Ohio with her husband Paul. When not creating new worlds and romance, Kathi and her husband enjoy camping and going to auctions. She can also be seen at county fairs with her husband who is an artist and potter.

  Her muse, a cross between Jimmy Stewart and Hugh Jackman, brings her stories to life for her readers in a way that has them coming back time and again for more. Her favorite genre is paranormal romance with a great deal of spice. You can visit Kathi online and drop her an email if you’d like. She loves hearing from her fans. aaronskiss@gmail.com.

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