The Pack's Secret

by Casey Morgan

  I’ve always wanted to do something with my magic, my talent with it, instead of just doing a normal job. For as long as I can remember, I have had a way with telling people’s fortunes. When I touch someone and concentrate, I usually get flashes or glimpses of their future. It’s something I think I can use to help the community and myself.

  “It was hard to do,” I added, closing the front door behind me.

  “Did I hear right?”

  Leslie comes out of the kitchen. She’s covered in flour, sugar, and chocolate. She’s probably in the middle of baking sweetbread or cookies, more than any of us can eat — more than all of Love’s Hollow can eat, I’d bet. But I don’t blame her. If I suddenly lost my job at a bakery due to a fire, not my own choice, I’d be falling to pieces too.

  She pushes back a piece of her long, black hair behind her ear. “Did I hear you left your position with Gwen?”

  “Yeah.”

  Her golden eyes sparkle at me, but not nearly as much as her pearly-white teeth. Her beautiful, deadly edges, even out of wolf form.

  “So, you finally took me up on my advice, huh?”

  I shrug, remembering how long Leslie’s been after me about leaving the drudgery behind, and pursuing my natural talents. “Yeah, it was time.” Out of habit, I sweep back my long, wavy blonde hair. “You know what they say.”

  In my nose, I can smell the cookies beginning to rise. The dough is beginning to brown. With Leslie and her sensitive nose, you never have to worry about things being over or undercooked. It’s one of the high points about having a werewolf roommate.

  “I do,” says Leslie. “Why do you think I was bugging you about striking out on your own, girl? To cure my boredom?” We both laugh, but I see a serious glint in her eye. “It’s obviously why I’m baking. My boredom.” She checks the oven out of the corner of her eye, saying, “Searched for more jobs today. Applied for near everything I could, but I’m not sure if anything’s going to pan out.”

  “I’m sure it will. You just have to have faith and optimism,” I tell her.

  “No,” says Olivia, looking up from her computer and over at us. “What you gotta have is magic. Quit being so pedestrian. There are so many things I could solve with magic, but sadly”— she actually turns around, pushes her large, boxy glasses back on her beautiful face — “I don’t have magic. I have no ability to even learn to do a simple ritual.”

  “It’s not like magic solves everything, you know,” I say, actually tiring of her bitterness in this way. “Like me, for instance. I’d really like to open my own fortune-telling shop”— Olivia smiles knowingly, since she was the first to know what I really dreamed of doing, before I ever imagined I’d be strong enough to strike out on my own — “but it’s not like magic can solve my money problems.”

  In that moment, my brain shorts out.

  “Wait!”

  Well, that’s not necessarily true. There are wealth rituals and money spells. But they’re not instantaneous. They’re also not a completely lost cause, I think, leaving my roommates in the main room while I go search for a specific magic book of mine in my bedroom. One my mother made me promise never to use unless I really couldn’t avoid it. Might be worth a shot. If it works, money is not going to be an issue. Then it’s just retail space and setting up my client base. Under these thoughts, I find the book I’m looking for — a green and gold colored grimoire — grab the rest of the materials I need to work the magic (candles, herbs, sacred objects), and hurry back out to the living room.

  When I get there, Leslie and Olivia are both away from their stations, though the more surprising one is Olivia. Usually, nothing can pull her away from her precious writing.

  “I’ll help you where I can,” says Leslie as I lay out all of my gear for the spell, open the book to the right page, light the candles, and begin following the beginning of the ritual. “I’m not a witch like you, but I’ve got some power I could lend you.”

  She gives me a piece of her dark hair. As she plucks it off her head, it becomes Wolf in nature. Super powerful. I take it and weave it in with my own, so I can feel the natural transformative power she is lending me.

  “I’ll watch,” says Olivia, sounding green with envy. “Maybe I’ll find something useful for my book.”

  I nod at her, but I’m not really paying attention. I’m focusing on intoning the words of my spell; getting the inflection and pronunciation just right. This spell is not one I’ve ever done before, and with good reason. Summoning wealth and riches takes power, but also has a high chance of backfiring. You have to have a certain level of selfishness and ruthlessness to make it really work, and I don’t think I’m that kind of girl.

  As I bring up the last phrases of the spell, I can already feel something going wrong. The candles blew out first, too soon, signaling to me that the power is about to radically change. The herbs and liquids in the cauldron immediately take on that energy. They begin to bubble and froth, and before I can stop the power — close the circle — it’s bubbling over. When I asked for abundance, I got it all right.

  I grab the cauldron and rush it too the sink before more of the spell spills over on to the carpet. The bubbly contents run down the drain and out of my life forever.

  “Looks like that was a bit too much to ask for,” I say, as I help clean up my own mess. “I don’t even know why I bothered.” I have a shy, embarrassed smile on my face.

  “Anything’s worth a shot. You always tell me that,” says Leslie. She’s quiet a moment. Then, “You know, you could always get a loan.” She leaves me to tend to the oven.

  I follow her, curious. “A loan?”

  “Yeah. This werewolf — Ryder Strongpaw, he’s been known to loan money to people who really need it. Magical creature and human alike. He has his own business helping other business get started.”

  I know of the Strongpaw brothers: Ryder and his brother Gray. Nearly everyone does in Love’s Hollow. They are both successful businessman, who are vying for the Alpha position of the Love’s Hollow werewolf pack. Gray is a hunting and tour guide for the rich humans who like to come to our little town.

  “You should go pay Ryder a visit,” Leslie continues. “I think he might really like your idea of opening a fortune-telling shop. By a real, bona fide witch, no less.”

  I laughed at the way she hammed it up while taking out her baked goods. “Sure.”

  “I’m serious, girl,” she says. “That kind of thing could be good for his business, so who knows? He might back you like that.” She snaps her fingers.

  “I guess I’ll go get ready to see him,” I say, already running through some clothing options in my mind and the makeup I’m going to put on when I go ask for a loan. I head toward my room, taking my magic-working supplies with me.

  It really can’t hurt, I tell myself, going into my room, stowing my sacred objects, and beginning to undress, if I play my cards right, if I sell him on the good points, I might get lucky. As I moved to my dresser and closet to find my finest dress, I see the obliterated spell ingredients. Anything’s going to bring me more like than that spell.

  “And then I guess I’ll see what all the fuss is about,” I murmur to myself, beginning to put on my fresh pair of underwear, nylons and matching frilly bra. “Everyone always says how dreamy Ryder and Gray are, but everybody thinks werewolves are big hunks of beefcake.” I pull my slinky, formfitting dress over myself, admiring the way it makes my breasts and hips show, but without being slutty. “I usually like witchy boys though. They are hotter than werewolves any day, but who knows? These Strongpaw brothers might change my mind.”

  Get Sold to the Wolves here!

  She needs me. I want her virginity.

  But my brother wants her too, and I have no intention of sharing.

  Love's Hollow is in flux. The old alpha of our wolf shifter pack is too old to be alpha.

  Either my brother or I is next in line, but we can't figure out who is more dominant.

  Because both of us
are alpha AF.

  Our fighting just gets worse, and then Tina comes to us for help and money.

  A talented, sexy witch, Tina is all that I want in a woman.

  I have to have her and when I learn that she's a virgin, it's even better.

  Unfortunately, my brother is equally smitten, and he won't back down.

  As she dates us both, our aggressive natures just intensify till she can't take anymore.

  Our competitiveness causes our true love to make a dangerous choice.

  And it may take all our money to save her.

  Will we both lose the love of our lives forever?

  Or will my brother and I learn to share?

  This paranormal menage wolf shifter auction romance is a full length novel, part of the Love's Hollow Auctions series. It has no cheating and a guaranteed happy ever after. It is high heat and for adults only.

  Get Sold to the Wolves here!

  Thank you for reading!

  I write super steamy shifter paranormal romance and urban fantasy reverse harem romance. My goal is to fulfill all your fantasies at once!

  Click here to see the rest of my books! Love, Casey.

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