It might’ve done me well to go out to the woods to get myself together, but I didn’t. Instead, I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, until I decided to go to sleep. I hadn’t heard Sam or Ben come back into the house, and not long after I closed my eyes, I heard their howls, along with a few others, fill the night air.
Despite my unsettled thoughts, I m
It was the feel of Sam’s lips on my skin that woke me in the morning. When I opened my eyes, the sunlight was streaming into my bedroom through the window, and his arms were still around me, his lips gently peppering soft kisses along my neck and shoulder. It felt so nice, I didn’t want him to know I was awake for fear he might stop.I couldn’t fool him,
For the next few weeks, I spent a lot of time in the forest, trying to figure out whether or not Sam’s concern that I had imprinted on Ben, and he on me, was true. While I felt more at peace when I was in the forest, more empowered, I didn’t feel like this was something the forest wanted me to be concerned with at the moment. She continued to steer me in the direction of enlarging the house, growing the pack, and forcing Verina out of the woods.
The two strangers in front of me, the same individuals I’d seen in California in their wolf forms in my back yard that had caused us to have to leave to come to Montana, looked just as menacing as humans as they did as wolves. The girl had short, dark hair, wild with curls, and narrow eyes. She was tall and muscular. She wore the same sort of outfit Raven had when she shifted, and honestly, they looked a little similar, though I wasn’t about to declare they were related. The male was even taller than her, with broad shoulders, though not as muscular as Sam, and shoulder-length, dirty blond hair that fell in uneven waves. He was scruffy even as a human.
After a dinner of stew, which Raven had put on hours ago, with plenty for all of us, including our visitors, When we were all done, and the dishes were clear, we gathered in the living room. I was hopeful Everly and Ronin would tell us about my dad. Over dinner, they’d chatted about how they spent most of their time traveling in their wolf forms from forest to forest, never staying in any one place very long. They said there were a few other members of their pack still out there, but not many, and most had given up on their wolves long ago, trying to blend into regular society. The other shifters at the table, my wolves, had made faces at that, and I got the impression it must b
“Both?” Everly asked me, her eyebrows raised. “You can’t have two Alphas, dear.”“No, I know that,” I assured them. “But I also don’t know how I’ll ever choose between them. They’ve told me that it’s possible for a Mage not to choose, that she could just have two or more… lovers.” It was h
Work on the house began a few days before school started. The extension was being added on near Ben and Joshua’s room. I told them they could stay in Grandma’s room for a while if they wanted to, but instead, they moved into the living room because they didn’t think I really meant it when I said they could have her room. I probably didn’t. I hoped the workers would at least get the part of the house that required the exterior wall of the dining room to be replaced by a sheet of plastic done soon because I wanted the guys to have their privacy back. Not that it was exactly private when they had to share a room anyway, but it was better than having them camped ou
My hope that I’d have at least one member of my pack in each of my classes faded pretty quickly. First period, I had History. Joshua was in that class, but so were a couple of the Parker pack members--Wayne Crawford and Billy Parker. I didn’t know Wayne, though he looked kind of slimy, the way he kept looking at me with a crooked smirk on his face. Billy was one of the two guys who’d been involved in the accident. I’d saved his life--after I’d found him lying on top of my sister in the back of a truck. He didn’t look at me at all.
Ben was in my third period English class, which was great. If there were any creeps in there, I hadn’t met them yet. Fourth period, I had choir. Raven was with me, but she is an alto, and I’m a soprano, so we couldn’t sit next to each other. One of the Parkers was in there, too. I have no idea which one, but I know he’s a Parker because he looks just like Brice and Billy, just not as old as them, and maybe not as angry at the world. The fact that he was laughing and carrying on with a couple of other guys makes me think they are probably dark wolves, too.
There’s a comfy chair right next to the fireplace in the main living area of Brookstone. It has become my favorite place to sit. I can sit there for hours and do absolutely nothing but stare out the window at the beautiful forest and sparkling lake. It’s amazing to me to think how far I’ve come in just a year and a few months. I don’t just sit around and do nothing, though. I haven’t had to use my magic to fight off any other mages or shifters since we destroyed Grimly Grouse and his evil minions, but I do use my magic sometimes for other things, like producing presents for my friends or making mythical creatures to entertain us. Brookstone is as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside. Part of that is the fact that we modernized it and redecorated a lot of the rooms. We wanted all of the modern conveniences we were used to, but we didn’t ruin the amb
My plan had been pretty simple. I’d bust into Brookstone, make the other mages and any shifters that were there think that the house was on fire, and I’d run them out to where my pack mates were waiting to take them down.I had no idea one of my pack members had her own idea of what should happen then. I guess I should have. It isn’t as if she hasn’t shocked me enough times in the past for me to expect Fionna to do something… unexpected.The mages in Grimley’s pack came streaming out of the house. Most of them went out the front door because I’d started the alleged fire in the kitchen, which was in the back of the house, on the east side. Fionna, being the tricky mage that she is, had opened a portal right on the other side of the front door so that every single one of the mages who ran out that exit sprinted right int
I didn’t bother to get a ride back to Brookstone the next day. It was clear that no one wanted to drive out there anyway, and it wasn’t as if it was a necessity. We had other ways of getting there, after all.I volunteered to change my wolves into birds so they could fly with us, but all of them passed on that. They said they weren’t used to flying and were afraid they’d fall out of the sky or something. Like I’d let that happen. I’d rolled my eyes, but since most of the area around where we’d stayed the night before was woodsy and rural, we decided it would be okay for them to walk out into the woods and shift there. The rest of us would fly over.My wolves weren’t going to be entering the property until after I knew the situation in the house. Once I knew whether we were on the defensive or the offensive, I woul
It was difficult to get rooms with enough beds for all of us, but my wolves decided they could always shift into their wolf forms and sleep on the floor, and since most of them didn’t sleep much anyway, we went with that. I was definitely going to be sleeping that night, though. I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open to discuss the plan for the next day. Fighting mages is hard work--apparently.“So what is our plan for tomorrow?” Kaylee asked. We were gathered in the room she and I were sharing, all of us sitting on the beds, the floor, and the small sitting area. “I take it we’re going right back there since you wanted to stay so close, Harlow.”“Yeah, we need to go right back over there and take care of things once and for all,” I said. “We just need a plan that will get rid of Grimly Grouse as s
With the ground shaking beneath our feet, the mages lifted themselves up into the air. I pulled up my wolves, too, but that didn’t help save my house. The thought of Grimly Grouse destroying my family home was enough to make me want to set his hair on fire.The ground was cracking beneath us now, some of them were at least a foot across. The idea of one of my people dropping inside of one of them was enough to make me want to fly everyone out of there and back to our rental right away.“Kaylee,” I shouted, wanting to try to fix the problem beneath us and keep my wolves out of danger. “Can you take over for me?”“You mean… float them?” she asked. “All of them?”“We can all help,” Liam said from the o
Looking around at my mages, I tried to determine who I needed to help and who was okay on their own. Liam was taking on a large male mage with a nose ring and the appearance of horns coming out of his bald head. I assumed those were placed there by magic, and he didn’t really have horns growing out of his head, but it was difficult to know for sure. “Give it up, Harlow!” I heard Grimly shout from far behind the line of advance. “I have more reserves. You cannot win.” It was difficult for me to keep my eye on this brute that was about to knock Liam out and respond to the maniac in the back. I decided to ignore Grouse and concentrate on Liam’s predicament. I was fairly far away from the fight, and there were other engagements going on between me and Liam, but I couldn’t let that stop me. The devil guy with the horn
The mages from Brookstone were slowly walking toward us, their long cloaks in a rainbow of colors not even moving from the wind they made, their steps were so even and slow. I stared at them for a long moment, trying to determine what the best thing to do was. A quick estimate told me that there were probably about thirty of them, which meant my team was outnumbered about five to one as mages went. The wolves would be able to help a little, but not much. They were mostly there to fight off any wolves that came our way, and Grimly Grouse had stopped using those, pulling out the big guns instead.We really only had two choices. We could stand there and fight and probably get annihilated because we were outnumbered so badly, or we could run away, regroup, and figure out when and how we should come back. I was really starting to lean toward Plan B, but when I looked at the faces of my packmates, I could tell t
I took advantage of the fearful flicker I’d seen in Grimley Grouse’s eyes and hit him with a bolt of power before he had much time to expect it. He got his hands up, but it wasn’t enough to completely deflect it. I ended up hitting him hard enough to knock him backward almost to the edge of the stream. The other mages around him took a few seconds to stare in shock before they remembered they had powers and could possibly do something to help him.They weren’t going to be able to help him, though. My mages were all ready, so before any of the red cloaked mages could hit me with their powers, mine had their hands up, shooting rays of light to counteract the ones directed at me. I watched the magic around me bend and shift, redirecting back the way it was coming. A few of the red mages were knocked off balance, but none of them went flying the way that Grouse did, probably because mos
I heard the first sounds of battle coming from my left, to the southwest of the house, but I couldn’t tell who it was that was caught up first by the wolves coming from Brookstone. I thought that Raven and Tony had been the furthest to the south, but I wasn’t certain. I decided I should fly over there and have a look. Of course, by the time I got over there, there was a good chance the rest of my wolves would be under attack as well since we’d seen the wolves shooting through the forest at an incredible rate spread out in a line. As I landed, I heard the sounds of battle echoing across the forest as Grimly Grouse’s wolves collided with mine. This wasn’t going to be pretty. I changed back into my mage form as soon as my feet touched the ground and immediately fired a