Wild and Untamed
Netherworld Book 4
Olivia Hutchinson
Wild and Untamed
Copyright © 2019 Olivia Hutchinson
Cover design by Sweet ‘N Spicy Designs
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
About the Author
Also by Olivia Hutchinson
Lotan
For my Betsy-boo-thang.
Also, my husband.
Thanks for being my backbone when I feel weak, for being my biggest cheerleader, and for calling me on my crap. You’re my best friend and I love you to hell and back.
Prologue
On her one day off that week, Beth found herself at her friend’s house for a few drinks and a good time along with five other women. She sat at Lila’s kitchen table, across from her friend Natalie who was shaking her head as they all listened and participated in the nonstop jabbering.
“Oh my God!” Heidi exclaimed from the floor where she sat. “That accent turns me into melted butter every time he speaks.” She rolled her eyes back into her head and fell back on the cushion where she sat, painting her toenails.
She supposed Gerard Butler, the celebrity of whom they’d been speaking, was good looking enough to inspire all sorts of giggles but she didn’t have the same accent obsession as Heidi seemed to.
“An accent?” Beth asked with a laugh. “Is that all it takes to get into your pants?”
“Absolutely. A sexy accent is the only excuse I need to lose my panties and pop my legs open.” With a giggle, Heidi climbed to her feet and padded into the kitchen.
She was struggling with a bag of unopened chips when Andrea took the bag from her and opened it without any problem. “Skank,” Andrea said with a laugh, flicking a chip at Heidi.
“Oh, come on. Just because you’re Saint Andrea the virgin doesn’t mean everyone else is.”
Andrea frowned. “I’m not a virgin.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Jeez,” Natalie interrupted, “leave the girl alone.” She grabbed the almost empty bottle of wine from the center of the table and drained it with a single swig.
“She knows I’m only messing with her,” Heidi said.
“You better hope she knows that or you’ll wake up in the morning with a frozen bra and a Sharpie mustache.”
Beth laughed at the thought, knowing Andrea well enough to see her doing something like that. Heidi would be the one to deserve it, too. Well, they probably all deserved it at some point or another.
“I’m so happy I’m more mature than the lot of you,” Carey said, holding her glass out for Natalie to fill as she walked back to the table from the kitchen where she’d gone to retrieve another bottle of wine.
Beth snorted. “Mature? You? Are you not the same woman who told the entire nursing staff that Dr. Sallis enjoyed getting enemas as part of his sexual play?”
Carey didn’t bat an eyelash. “He stole my pen.”
“Wait a minute,” Beth said in disbelief with a small shake of her head, “You never even slept with him?”
“He stole my pen.”
Lila, who was a nurse at the same hospital, was gaping at Carey. “You embarrassed that man because he stole a pen? Was it made of solid gold?”
“No,” Carey said defensively, “it was the one I borrowed from the bank.”
“It was a pen you had stolen yourself?”
“I didn’t steal it, I borrowed it.”
“You had no intention of giving it back!” Lila yelled, laughing.
Carey rolled her eyes. “I was going to give it back when it ran out of ink. Besides, it wasn’t the only pen he ever stole from me. Every single day he steals my pen. He had it coming.”
Beth leaned across the table and grabbed the bottle of Jack. She needed another drink after hearing that mess. “I work in the lab and I heard that rumor,” she said. “You don’t think that was just a bit—oh, I don’t know—uncalled for?”
Carey folded her arms across her chest and glared at them. “I’ve worked with that man for over two years and in all that time he’s never once said hello to me. And every single day he’s there, he steals my pen. He doesn’t steal Lila’s pens or anyone else’s. Just mine. Do you know how many pens that is?”
“Um, no.”
“Three hundred and forty-six!”
The silence in the room was deafening until Andrea spoke. “You counted?”
“What?” Carey asked. “Is that weird?”
Maggie was sitting against the wall, observing the conversation with an incredulous look on her face. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, that’s weird. That’s practically the definition of weird.”
Carey shrugged. “Then I guess I’m weird.”
Heidi’s mouth was still full of chips when she said, “We’re all weird.”
Natalie groaned, laying her head on the table. “And that’s why we’ll forever be single.”
“It is what it is,” Lila said.
Beth didn’t care if she was single. Who needed a man? She had her friends and she had a decent job that she liked. She was saving to buy a house and didn’t need any man to make her happy. Of course, she wouldn’t turn a good one away. It just wasn’t a necessity in her life.
Carey chewed her lip before saying, “We don’t have to stay single, you know. We could meet some men. Some good ones, too.”
“Right,” Natalie said in disbelief.
“I’m being serious.”
“And just how do you suggest we do that?” Maggie asked.
Carey sat up a little straighter in her chair. “We can do a spell.”
With a groan Lila dropped her head onto the table. “Not the witchy stuff again. Please, Carey.”
“Why not?” Carey asked. “It isn’t going to hurt anything.”
For as long as Beth had known Carey, she’d declared herself a witch. It wasn’t anything new to Beth, it was just how life was. Every Halloween since they were children, Carey would dress up in black robes, paint her face green, and then lecture Beth on how her costume wasn’t technically correct but she thought it was fun to dress up that way.
This wouldn’t be the first time she’d been roped into one of Carey’s spells either, although it had been many years since Carey had pulled her into the woods so she could have “emotional support” while calling down the moon, as she’d termed the bizarre dance she did. While the moon didn’t fall, a moose had trampled into their area and scared the crap out of both of them.
“Famous last words,” Beth said with a laugh, remembering the shock of the moose that night as he barged into the clearing to face two pajama-clad girls and a roaring campfire. He’d run in the other direction as soon as they’d both started screaming.
“I’m game,” Andrea said, surprising just about every person in the room.
“Ha!” Carey exclaimed, bouncing around in her chair. “Thank you, Andrea. Who else?”
With a sigh, Lila said, “I’m in, I guess.”
Beth ass
umed this wouldn’t be the last time she was involved with one of Carey’s spells. “Fine.”
“Yes!” Carey clapped her hands.
Maggie piped in from where she sat, “Yeah, okay.”
“Me too,” Heidi said.
The only person who hadn’t given their answer was Natalie. Beth looked at her expectantly as Natalie looked from one woman to another as if wondering why everyone was now looking at her. “Oh, I thought it was a given,” she said. “Of course, I’m in. At least this is easier than speed dating. And it doesn’t require waxing.”
Carey immediately began rattling off her supply list before disappearing into the bathroom for a few quiet moments, so she could prepare mentally. No surprise there since she’d meditated first the last time she’d done this.
Maggie and Lila were talking in the living room while Natalie and Heidi lit the tea lights on the kitchen counter. Beth open the kitchen cabinet door and began pilfering through the contents when Andrea came up beside her.
“Are you looking for the salt?” she asked.
“Yup. And it can’t be just any salt either. It has to be sea salt.”
Andrea laughed. “This isn’t the first time she’s pulled you into this, is it?”
“Nope and I’m sure it won’t be the last.”
“Has Carey always been like this?” Andrea asked as she opened Lila’s knife drawer.
“Like what? Crazy?”
Andrea shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d call her crazy.”
“No, maybe not crazy,” Beth said, “but to answer your question, yes. She’s always been like this. Are you saying that she hasn’t tried casting a protection spell on you yet?”
Andrea’s brows shot up. “Um, no.”
“Hmm. Give it some time then.”
“She did sprinkle rosemary and lavender over my head once. I thought that was a little odd.”
“That was for purification,” Beth said before mentally slapping herself. “Don’t ask me how I know that.”
“Okay, I won’t,” Andrea said with a chuckle as she set a paring knife on the counter. “Hey, what does she want the knife for?”
“It’s probably just symbolic. A lot of this crap is symbolic,” Beth explained, “but then again, who knows.”
A few minutes later, when everything was set up, the six women stood around the table, waiting for the seventh to find her way out of the bathroom.
The room was dark, only illuminated by the glow of the candles and the blaze in the fireplace. The lights, as well as the low playing music, had been turned off in preparation. Silence radiated through the room as the women stared at each other, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next and, without their leader, it was impossible.
“Did she fall in?” Andrea asked, looking to Lila who stood at her side.
Lila shrugged before yelling, “Any time now Carey! Before we fall asleep out here.”
There was no immediate response from Carey, but after a minute the bathroom door opened, and she stepped out into darkness. She seemed to be in her zone, Beth noted. Her eyes were dark and focused, looking from one woman to the other as she took her place at the table.
“Finally,” Beth grumbled, her hands on her hips.
“Friends, it is time to assemble,” Carey said, ignoring Beth. Her voice was soft and airy as she looked down at the salt and knife ready where she had asked them to be placed.
“Don’t piss off the witch,” Lila said when Heidi smirked.
Carey’s black eyes narrowed. “I need everyone’s equal participation and silence for this to work.”
When no one said anything else, she lifted the container of sea salt from the table and began to walk around them, pouring the salt on the floor. Beth was going to have to help Lila clean up before going home, especially with salt being poured all over her hardwoods. Lila was cringing as Carey moved.
Stopping at the same place where she began, Carey put the salt back on the table. Lifting her arms into the air, she called forth the elements. Beth repeated the nonsensical words Carey spoke, along with everyone else. Eventually she switched to English and Beth took a break from stumbling over the pronunciation.
Carey’s voice was loud and clear as she spoke when she finally switched back to English. Her voice filled the large room. “We call forth our soul mates. Men of honor and integrity, both loyal and kind—”
“With cocks of steel,” Heidi interrupted, and it took Beth everything she had not to bust out laughing.
Carey cleared her throat. “Loyal and kind,” she re-emphasized. “We seek to bind with these men and create lasting relationships full of love and compassion.”
Picking up the sharp paring knife from the table, she held it out and made a small cut in the middle of her right palm and then the left. Blood welled on her skin as she tried to pass the knife to Maggie, who was staring at her as if she had finally gone over the edge. Perhaps the knife wasn’t symbolic after all.
“You’re kidding. There’s no way I’m cutting myself with that.”
“I don’t have any diseases,” Carey said, again thrusting the handle of the knife in her direction.
“That’s not the point.”
“Oh, come on and just do it so we can get this over with,” Natalie groaned.
Sighing, Maggie took the knife from Carey and made the smallest cuts she could before passing it along to Heidi. Heidi sliced through her palm like she did it every day, before handing it to Lila.
Lila dragged the small knife across her palm the same way the others had before passing it to Andrea, who took a deep breath and did the same before passing it to Beth. This sucks, she thought as she dragged the tip of the blade across her palm. It stung for a moment before the blood began to pool. She handed the knife to Natalie next.
When the knife finally got back to Carey, she set it on the table in front of her and grasped Maggie’s and Natalie’s hands. The seven women held hands, blood sticky between their palms. Carey raised their clasped hands in the air, looked up at Lila’s ceiling fan and began chanting something no one except Carey could understand.
The flames from the candles and the fire dimmed as Carey spoke in the same way the fire had dimmed that night in the woods all those years ago. Although, unlike before, an icy chill curled up her spine, goosebumps raised on her arms, and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.
A shiver went through her body when she felt a light cold breeze float around her. It seemed to have come from nowhere. Beth closed her eyes, blocking out the ominous tone in the room for a split second before she was compelled to open them again when a blast of cool air hit her body.
The jokes had stopped and so had the laughter. Beth wanted this to end. This wasn’t like before, but instead she was left clutching Natalie and Andrea’s hands, her heart hammering in her chest.
As Carey’s voice rose in intensity, the candles and the fire suddenly roared to life, fully illuminating the room and making the six women jump. Carey didn’t appear phased in the slightest, her eyes lifted toward the ceiling and her feet planted firmly on the floor. Beth’s ears were humming as the energy seemed to build in the room, creating its own pulse in the air surrounding them.
The candles extinguished suddenly, save for the one Carey had left inside their circle on the table and someone gasped.
A second later, Beth realized it was over when Carey let go of the hands she had been holding and slowly walked around the table, opening the circle again.
Carey flipped on the light and smiled, not seeing anything odd in what just happened. Beth wasn’t sure what happened herself, but at that moment, she didn’t want to dwell on the strange sensation shooting up and down her spine. Or ominous foreboding she felt in the pit of her stomach.
The room was quiet. Too quiet.
“Fuck this. I need another drink,” Beth declared, determined to drown the sense of apprehension in her gut.
Miles and miles away, a lone figure walked through the darkness
shrouded in a black cloak. His body still hummed from the power stolen from the little witch bitch. He could feel her strength pulsing through his veins, still hear the pleading screams she had let loose from her heart shaped lips.
She had begged for her life before he had stripped her of her power. His knife had found that tender spot below her breast and he had buried the blade to the hilt, one slow inch at a time. He had kept her power firmly locked within him as he extinguished the light from her warm brown eyes.
He had wanted her body in the haze of raping the power from her. His cock was still stiff thinking about it, but he had known he couldn’t risk spoiling her. She had what was left of the coven’s power within her and he couldn’t risk tainting it, no matter how much his body demanded it of him. He wished now that he hadn’t saved her for last. He could have at least played with her a little bit then.
Only a handful more, he thought, then he would have enough power and strength so he could continue with his plan. Of course now that so many had already been killed and drained, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find more of them, but he didn’t let that slow him down. The world would be a better place without their naiveté. Magic was a powerful gift they could never master or comprehend like he could.
This is what Fate had showed him. This was his destiny. He would take his place as leader when the time was right. He would have enough power to truly be a force to be reckoned with. He would be the one to bring the world to its knees.
He debated where to look next as he walked back to the manor house from the crypt. It was nearly impossible to wipe out the witches without bringing attention to himself, but so far he had been successful. The most powerful covens of Louisiana and Virginia were gone. Unfortunately, he couldn’t touch the most powerful coven in Massachusetts without the notice of the Netherworld council, but one day that would change. For now he needed somewhere else to search.
Wild and Untamed (Netherworld Series Book 4) Page 1
