BriI woke to a rapt at the door moving felt wrong as the men growled in slumber and I pulled away, throwing one of their shirts on to answer the door. Thankfully it was Zoey as I leaned against the door jam not bothering to button the shirt and she handed me our bags. Her eyes scanned me as Wyatt came up behind me growling but I pushed my ass out to block him before he realized he was naked. Typical male Alpha bullshit dealing with his possessive female.I just passed the bags to him before I gripped Zoey’s hand like a vice as my emotions rose. “Give us some time, don’t leave me yet.” I bit my lip, emotions coursing through me.“I'm not going anywhere ma ami,” Zoey said, her eyes sad as they met mine. She knew the toll weighing on my heart perhaps, but not the one tethered to my soul. I nodded to her before ducking back into the room. My face fell as I faced them.“This is it,” I said, as both men approached me, my back leaned against the door.“We are only a few hours away,” Beau s
WyattOn the ride to the truck, I found myself gripping my chest, Beau with his head leaning against the window did the same, the pain scorched and burned and though I knew the heartache would always be there this was more than my own. Beau’s eyes squeezed shut and a tear fell. I glanced at Zoey keeping quiet in the passenger seat leaning forward as she wound her way around narrow streets.“Promise me you will watch over her,” I asked. Zoey glanced at me as I gritted my teeth against the pain blooming in my chest.“You have my word,” Zoey answered quietly. I gazed out the window unseeing as the streets of New Orleans passed by.“I know she loves you both, very much,” Zoey said, swallowing hard. This had to be hard for her, knowing what Bri was sacrificing, what we all were, and being the only one who knew it all. A lump had grown in my throat as I gritted through the emotions of this “separation” and took a steading breath.“If she ever needs us, we will be there,” I let her know as Z
Prologue BriMy fingers brushed the smooth stone of the mausoleum. The tips traced the words of the machine-hewn inscription. Sabastian Piere La’ Blanc, Dutiful Husband, Leader, and Humanitarian. The symbol of the coven etched beneath it. A coven raised within New Orleans meshing the world of cajun hereditary witches with the deep roots of voodoo practitioners. My fingers traced the dates from his birth to the day life ended in 1994, ten achingly long years ago. He deserved to have a craftsman etching his stone crypt, not some effortless, heartless machine, chiseling out empty words void of empathy. The pads of my fingers caressed each chip in the stone,I felt he deserved. There was nothing in the inscription, to note the little girl he left behind after his death. The only soul who still visited his grave every weekend, placing flowers in the vases at the door. The only one who still mourned his insurmountable loss. There is nothing here
BriThose memories haunted my mind from the tender age of ten when my life had turned into a real-life nightmare. My mother was a whirlwind who only existed in my world if she expected something from me or had some unknown tick that I set off without even trying. I was often ducking as she heaved whatever was closest to her at my head using her tiny little gift of wind manipulation. Her real gift lay in whatever magic she had used on my father. Anytime she thought I stepped out of line, there was a special kind of torture waiting for me. She tried to coerce my abilities to the surface. Goading me to reveal all of what I was, yet I held it all back and in the safe place within me where no one could see. Holding onto my father’s warning I would lay in wait, for the moment I could get away. Her recruits into my father’s once harmonious coven were shady at best, seedy was more like it, giving me voyeur vibes and prickling my skin with unease. I constantly pushed the extent of my power’s
BriA few weeks laterI was in countdown mode as I walked through the halls towards my literature class. I was playing through the motions of starting the fall semester like any other student. I didn’t need the credits, all of my transcripts, important bank documents, a few of my father’s prized heirlooms I had managed to snatch out from under my mother’s nose, and estate files were in a safety deposit box under a fake name. To be protected. My brain was too preoccupied with timing and checking off lists to see Andrew swoop in front of me and pin me to the wall around the corner. Trent was with him acting like it was normal for his boyfriend to pin random girls to the wall while staring at a billboard pretending to read it. We were directly under a camera. Zoe and I had mapped this place out and I knew all the angles of escape from their overseeing eyes. This was purposeful.Andrew didn’t want the binding, he and Trent were a known item. Trent didn’t know the extent of anything just th
BriA few hours later I ducked into the backroom of the coffee shop where I worked. I didn’t need to work there, I had enough deposited into accounts to keep myself stable for years, but my mother and the group couldn’t say no as things had to appear normal. To be honest it was the most normal thing in my existence. The feel and vibe of the place kept my magic subdued and the pot was an added perk. It was for my sanity. Maggie, my boss, sat in a chic fringe chair, with her legs propped up on her messy desk, pulling a joint from her lips she smiled holding in the smoke, and held it out in offering. I walked across the room and took it gratefully. One inhale and it felt like melding closer to earth which I craved. Passing it back I held in the smoke until my lungs burned, letting it out a haggard cough escaped me that nearly choked me. “What's with you today?” She eyed me. I had taken that hit rather aggressively I supposed. I perched on her desk. I still kept my eyes cast down but I shr
Bri“Hey, Mags?” I said with a heavy heart, as I wiped down a table after closing. She scowled at my tone, holding a finger up. She disappeared into the office coming back with a pipe. I sighed. Was I going to risk going home high? I was never sure who may be there or when someone would show up at the house, my family home, I had to maintain absolute control, but tonight I wouldn’t care. I plopped my ass in a chair and motioned for her to sit. She handed me the lighter and bowl, which I took from her. “You know how I've told you we are the same but different?” I said in a whisper of a tone, placing my finger over my lips and pointing to my ear, looking around in hopes she understood I meant to be vague. “I'm aware at this point Bri,” Maggie admitted. I sighed taking a hit. I exhaled and looked at her, the magic languidly rose within me, resting at the surface, which I chose to allow her to see. She deserved for me to be honest. Her eyes widened but she simply nodded before letting out
When I hit the call pad at the gate, my mother’s voice came across instead of the butler's. “Brianna come to the dining hall, we have to have a discussion.” Goddess! Couldn’t I at least eat a damn sandwich before having a conversation with her. No doubt it was about what Andrew did which he made sure Draven saw. “Fine Lorraine,” I said, I hadn’t called her mother in years. She tisked as usual, but pressed the button to allow me in. I walked up the long drive enjoying the plush gardens, taking the long way around the back through the kitchen, and grabbing an apple and slice of bread. I moved my way through the house to the dining hall and paused, all 4 of them were there, plus Trent. What in the actual fuck was this about. Boy was I glad I was high right now, I may get through the night without murdering someone. I’d have to remember to thank Mags later. I studied the seating choices. My mother, wearing a precocious red suit jacket with lips to match watched me like the Snake she was,
WyattOn the ride to the truck, I found myself gripping my chest, Beau with his head leaning against the window did the same, the pain scorched and burned and though I knew the heartache would always be there this was more than my own. Beau’s eyes squeezed shut and a tear fell. I glanced at Zoey keeping quiet in the passenger seat leaning forward as she wound her way around narrow streets.“Promise me you will watch over her,” I asked. Zoey glanced at me as I gritted my teeth against the pain blooming in my chest.“You have my word,” Zoey answered quietly. I gazed out the window unseeing as the streets of New Orleans passed by.“I know she loves you both, very much,” Zoey said, swallowing hard. This had to be hard for her, knowing what Bri was sacrificing, what we all were, and being the only one who knew it all. A lump had grown in my throat as I gritted through the emotions of this “separation” and took a steading breath.“If she ever needs us, we will be there,” I let her know as Z
BriI woke to a rapt at the door moving felt wrong as the men growled in slumber and I pulled away, throwing one of their shirts on to answer the door. Thankfully it was Zoey as I leaned against the door jam not bothering to button the shirt and she handed me our bags. Her eyes scanned me as Wyatt came up behind me growling but I pushed my ass out to block him before he realized he was naked. Typical male Alpha bullshit dealing with his possessive female.I just passed the bags to him before I gripped Zoey’s hand like a vice as my emotions rose. “Give us some time, don’t leave me yet.” I bit my lip, emotions coursing through me.“I'm not going anywhere ma ami,” Zoey said, her eyes sad as they met mine. She knew the toll weighing on my heart perhaps, but not the one tethered to my soul. I nodded to her before ducking back into the room. My face fell as I faced them.“This is it,” I said, as both men approached me, my back leaned against the door.“We are only a few hours away,” Beau s
BriBeau placed slow-moving molten kisses down my back when he came to the dip in my backside where the dress covered my ass his fingers deftly began unclasping it when the skirt finally fell open, Wyatt undid the clasp at my neck and the entire thing slid into a glimmering pool of glittering fabric at my feet. Beau collected it and I stepped over it in my heels before he laid it out over a chair in the corner.Wyatt growled, “You went into that room without any underwear?”“Did you not see the dress?” he looked about to go feral on me and I was glad for it. Beau returned only to sink to his knees behind me as Wyatt's large calloused hands began to work my breasts as his tongue warred with mine. Beau’s lips pressed against the small of my back and descended. When he reached the seam of my ass Wyatt yanked one leg up high on his hip, steading me with an arm around my waist. The air hit my damp core and caused me to shiver. The next thing I knew Beau's mouth had found a mission. My dr
WyattBri had been magnificent, the amount of power that had poured through her, that she had siphoned into us for our wolves to take shape outside of ourselves had been immense. I could have said it shocked me, but that would be a lie. Our Moonbeam was more than a common witch. She hadn’t hesitated, barely batted an eye as she became judge, jury, and executioner to the Vipers who had done such unspeakable wrongs against her. She wore her scars for all to see and I loved her more for overcoming it all. It hit me then, this was our last night. Her very power marked her as the rightful head of this seat on the council. When she had claimed it, no one had dared to oppose her.When the doors had unlatched a few cowards took off. I watched her note them. Analyzing who they were and how she would have to manage the aftermath, those who would oppose this spectacle. I stood prone and mute as did Beau. Her father's supporters and those brave enough walked before her and bowed low expressing th
beau182He had a cocky smirk on his weathered face, his silver beard mirroring his hair. He looked too strong for his age as he filled out the light grey tuxedo, a plaid handkerchief tucked ornately into his pocket. He nodded looking around at the now vacant dias.“Seems like it’s ma turn Little Bird,” he said, his accent thick and not any I recognized. Bri scowled at him. “You can try tae kill meh, lass but it wulny work. Yae urny ready for aw the answers yae seek. It’s still tae be seen if yae earn them.“What the fuck is that supposed to mean,” Bri spat. “You were always a strange one, I could never quite figure you out,” Bri admitted. “That you weren’t the worst of them, doesn’t get you out of this Silas, you will be judged.” Bri pointed out.“Judge me aw yae wish, I care not. I did wit I needed tae dae, by you and I’ll stand by it. I never molested yae, I didny beat ye. In fact, if it wisny fur me, they wid hiv taken ye years ago. I stopped that, just like I stopped them from s
Beau“Fucking disgusting pedophile freak, and a necro to boot,” Brianna tutted, she looked at her fingernails and shook her head, “I wonder if I took more than your ability to walk when you came looking for me. Do you know how hard it was to not kill you on the spot every time you touched me? To endure it so I could get out? Just so I could gain my full strength to come back and seek retribution for everything? She smiled towards her mother, “You don’t get to go to hell for killing my father. You wanted purgatory and I have someone here that can send you somewhere better. And you won't have any power there, will she?” She turned casually to Wyatt in question. “No,” he growled out, his canines showing his face shadowed in the angles that marked him as a predator, as he sat precariously in the lane between shifting and humanity. I wasn’t any better off as I struggled to keep my claws in. Brianna set loose her mother.“You little bitch you ruined everything! From the day Pierre brought y
BeauWithin Bri lay the power of the moon, pure and clean and good. Their cruelty had created something far darker and more sinister within her. They didn’t anticipate how that darkness would protect the light. How Bri’s mind would find a way to survive everything they put her through, and how the mysterious girl would fuel the light with hope.Andrew smirked as the crowd gasped in awe. He bowed low. “I, Andrew Carlson, offer you my allegiance and my loyalty. I bid for your place as high priestess of the North American Council of Witches. I am a son of both the eastern house and the western, may they see the strength you have borne in your oppression, and the vengeance I know you will cast as a testament to the tides of change. ” He stood and his eyes locked on Sug’s, she held that stare. “Brianna has shown me the world of witches her father sought to join together. I for one share that dream, that all sects of our kind and humans can preside alongside each other in a natural harmo
Bri“So we have established that a rite was intended to take place, that my mother ordered my familiar killed, and Beckham dealt that blow. Andrew.” Andrew took a tentative step forward. “I ask that you speak only the truth, Andrew here is a victim too, he didn’t have a choice in this either, he was forced to follow his father’s wishes.” Andrew’s gaze looked over the crowd of fearful faces before looking straight at Bri.“I always knew you’d never walk away without justice being served, I am sorry for my part in this and how I treated you over the years. You were once my friend and I hope you can forgive the things I did and overlooked while under the same roof as you.” His eyes raised to the crowd, “I wasn’t much older than Brianna when my father started acting strange and fell under the seductive spell of Lorrain’s promises. Power and dominion. She wants this seat on the council so that she can worm her way into the highest position possible. She’s a compeller and weaves that into h
Bri“On the contrary Lorraine, I am very present,” I said, striding before the dais. “I have come to see to it that you do not steal my father’s legacy and poison New Orleans as you did my Papa.” My voice was cold, hard, resolute. In this moment I let the warmth my heart had grown accustomed to leach into the men at my sides. Let her try to get out of this farce she made for herself.“Daughter, you are well,” Lorraine hid her surprise and I laughed darkly.“You do not get to call me daughter, after what you did to me. Allowed to be done to me. The abuse you exposed me to, in hopes you could wield the power I bear.” Beckham stepped forward gritting his teeth, eyes livid.“Child, enough of this nonsense,” Lorraine tried to reason.“You girl, owe us all a debt,” Beckham growled out. “I owe you nothing, if you ever thought I did that's on you.” I seethed. “Your little den of snakes stole everything from me,” I shot back. “You don’t get to pin a scared 14-year-old girl down and force her