by Celeste Raye
“I didn't know that. It still does not change anything. This witch is nothing more than a woman now. She's human, and she's dying. Look at her. If she is as old as everybody says she is, she will just age out of existence. I don't think we should do anything. I think we should just let magic even out the balance.”
There was more of an uproar, but Dennis and Frank quickly had the bulk of the people calm down. “We need to take a vote.”
The shifters felt better, thinking that they had a say in it. The woman was going to die one way or another; they were just voting on how she was going out. Broch did not want to be a part of it. He said that he had made his intentions clear and walked away. “You put my vote wherever that lands.”
He had to see Cira. They had a lot to talk about, and the main thing that was on his mind at the moment was the potion. He had learned long ago that magic did not come without penalties. To be a shifter, there was longer life and more power and heightened senses, but there was also the curse that every time there was a full moon, he would turn into his beast form, whether he liked it or not. It was not something that he could stop, or he had not been able to find a way to.
The gift of eternal life was a gift that was unparalleled. He hated to imagine what he would have to sacrifice to earn such a gift. There was always a price to be paid. Broch had to find out what that price was.
When he walked over to find Cira, she was convened with her coven in the circle. They all had their eyes closed, and they were quietly chanting.
He didn't want to bother them, but he suddenly had a strange feeling when he looked back over at Marl. She was aging even more, and at this rate, she would be dust in minutes. Maybe the shifters did not have as much of a choice as they thought they did. It would appear that the witches were taking care of it.
When they were done chanting, there was a comment made that she was already dead. He smiled to himself. He had said that magic would balance things out, but he thought that it would be more natural. Apparently, it wasn't fast enough for the women in front of him.
He looked down at Cira when she finally opened her eyes and realized he was standing there.
“We need to talk.”
She nodded her head solemnly. “Yes, we do. I am just glad you’re here to talk with.”
Broch tried to get his thoughts in order. At first, he didn't know what to say. How was he supposed to even imagine such a thing was possible? He had not tested it. Should he? Should he go and test the potion before he asked her?
“Just tell me what is on your mind, Broch.”
“I've gotten a little information that is hard to believe, and since I didn't hear it from you, I wanted to make sure that it was real. That it was true.”
He watched her face fall, and that was all the answer that Broch needed. But he had to push himself forward and get it all out before it was stuck in his throat forever.
“Did you give me the potion?”
“Yes.”
The others were looking over at them, and Broch wondered what they were thinking. What was the curse that had befallen him because of this gift?
“What's the penalty?”
She looked down and finally back up at him. There was a bit of sadness in her eyes, and he worried that it was going to be something too horrible to even consider. Was he going to have to sacrifice life annually to stay alive? Was he going to have to eat children? There really was no telling with magic and witches. That's why he tried to stay away from that life as much as possible.
“It lets you live, but your legacy dies.”
He still didn't quite understand what she meant and asked her again what that meant.
“It means you won't be able to bring forth life. You can go on, but you will not have any heirs to carry on your name. You are essentially sterilized the moment you take the potion.”
Broch didn't know what to say. His mind had gone to so many other things, but not that. He could not imagine that it would mean he could not ever bear children and have a family.
Cira moved towards him and put an arm around his shoulders. “I am sorry, Broch. I didn't want to lose you. I know that you have talked about wanting children in the future, but that's not going to be possible anymore.”
“What about the one you're carrying now?”
She shook her head. “You can't possibly know that. It isn't even time for my cycle yet.”
Light filtered a ray of hope into a very dark place. If there was some way that he could still have his family, this was it. He knew for certain that she was carrying his child. Since the potion was not retroactive, maybe he could still have the family that he wanted. It would undoubtedly be a lot smaller, but he was okay with that. As long as he had Cira and the baby that they had made out of love. How could he need anything else?
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Don't you think that we're rushing this a little bit? I mean, it's not like we have to do this today.”
“I want us to be mated as quickly as possible. You are carrying my child, and I want him put under my protection immediately.”
Cira just shook her head. “What if I'm not pregnant? I’m not even sure if that is true or not. Do you really want to get married to me for that reason and then find out it's not even true?”
“I know that you don't understand this, Cira, but I just know. Even if you weren’t carrying my child, I would still want to marry you. We were meant to be together; we both know it. Everything we've been through together, it was all bringing us to this point. We got rid of the evil in our lives so that we could have a good future together. What was the point of it all if we continue to live in fear?”
“I don't live in fear, Broch; I just feel like we are rushing things. It wasn't even a week ago that we were in a very different place. You were dead, and I had killed you.”
He chuckled. “A lot can happen in a week, Cira. I'm alive, and I love you. It's time. The moon is set, and it is time for you to accept me in my true form and be my queen.”
Cira tried to act like she wasn't affected by his words, but that would have been a lie. Everything he said just brought her closer to the end. She just didn't know what the end entailed.
“Do you not want to marry me, Cira?”
“Of course I do. I love you, Broch. I have loved you for a long time, remember?”
“Is it enough?”
She leaned up on her tiptoes, pulling him down at the same time to give him a kiss.
“I am not saying that it isn't enough. I am just saying that I want you to make sure that you're sure. We can wait some more time. Find a place for the clan before we get into all of this.”
Broch kissed her again and told her that this was how it was going to be. She knew that the only thing she could do was go along with it. It wasn't like it wasn't exactly what she wanted anyway. It was just a little bit sooner.
They had not even discussed the fact that he was going to live forever and Cira was not. He would have to watch her age while he would never age a bit. Maybe the curse was not the fact that he would not be able to have any more children, but the fact that he would watch everyone he loved die. Cira frowned at the thought, not willing to share her last idea with him.
“Yes, Broch, I will mate with you. But do we really have to do this naked?”
He grinned. “Yes, it’s tradition. I don’t want to think about it. I hate that they will see you as I have: perfect.”
He made her blush, and soon he was kissing her with a bit more purpose. “Aren’t we supposed to wait for the end of the ceremony?”
Broch agreed, but he was still pulling her down onto the ground on top of him. “We have already broken all of the rules, Cira; what is one more?”
The mating ceremony was a lot bigger because there were still so many visiting tribes. It was the first time that so many different clans had come together before, and there were a lot of meetings and talking amongst them. It was easy to see that they wanted to take advantage of the surrounding know
ledge. Problems arose, some that were unique to shifters, and Cira went to many meetings. Everyone was trying to get along, and it was a great thing to see.
Now though, with all of the people that she didn’t really know around, it was even harder to imagine getting married in front of all of them. She knew that it was for her and Broch, but all of those eyes on her were hard to live with. It wasn’t just her, though, that they were looking at. There was also a lot of attention on Broch. He was now immortal, and everyone wanted a glimpse of him.
They were together on either side of a fine piece of linen that was rolled out for them to walk on. Both of them were naked, though Broch would be changing into his true form very quickly. Most of the people in the room would be doing just that soon enough. The moon was poised to feed into the curse that they all shared.
“Are you ready?”
She wasn’t sure if she was or not. She knew that she loved Broch and all that came with it, but walking in front of everyone there, naked, that was something else altogether different. She was shy, and Cira was still trying to hide her body.
“You look beautiful, Cira; you know that, right?”
Cira liked to hear it, true enough, but that didn’t mean she was ready to show the world.
“It’s just one time, and then you never have to do it again. You have to accept me as I am, and I will accept you as you are. It’s the way it has to be if you want to be mated.”
Cira was trying to muster up the courage to do just that, but it was going to be harder than she imagined. She never once thought about not marrying him. All she thought about was being with him. Cira knew that he was who she was supposed to be with.
“I know. I am just nervous.”
He took her by the hand, kissed her one last time, and started to pull her down the makeshift aisle. The moon was just getting to the highest point in the sky, and his hand was pulled from hers. It was gone now, turned into a paw.
They had waited a bit too long, but Cira still felt good about Broch. She didn’t mind his true form. It was his bit of magic in the world, and it was easy to see the man she loved in the eyes of the bear in front of her.
The woman that was doing the ceremony was old and didn’t change like all the rest of them. She had a token or something that conquered the moon curse. The words that were spoken were ancient, and Cira didn’t understand any of it. She knew that she was mating with the man she loved. That was all she needed to know.
There were no rings or kissing of the bride. In Broch’s clan, the two would go off into the woods together, Cira riding him. They found a patch to lay down. She slept with her body snuggled up to a bear for the night. She’d never slept so good in all of her life.
When she woke up later, Broch was back to his old self.
“It’s official.”
“Not yet. We are still missing one thing.”
“Yeah, what’s that?”
“Consummation.”
She giggled. “Why did I think that you would want anything else?”
“I don’t know, wife. I want you. I want you from the moment I wake up till the moment I go to bed.”
Cira smiled. She couldn’t think of a better answer than that. “Good, because I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m yours, Broch, now and forever.”
Celeste Raye’s Popular Series
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