“So, how are the living arrangements?” Aunt Maureen finally caught up with Emily at the house. It'd been almost a week since the girls went and stayed at the Lovell residence and this was the first that she and Emily had any face-to-face meeting. There’d been phone calls, texts, and messaging, but it seemed their paths hardly crossed anymore.
Emily followed her aunt into the kitchen. She seemed to be acting a little strange with this impromptu visit. “It’s going well. Just came over so I could give you the pass for graduation tonight.” She pulled out the envelope with the five admittance passes that each senior was given to hand out to family members.
“Hey, Mo, where'd you say that band was playing tomorrow?” Adam came into the kitchen but stopped in his tracks when he saw Emily standing at the counter. “Emily.” He greeted her in a very uncordial manner.
“Adam.” Emily returned the hostility
“You know...” Emily finally made it back to Zach’s house and was sitting around with him and the others of their group. All the seniors had the day off since it was the last day of school and a half-day at that, and they all had to prepare for graduation that night. “I think something is going on with my aunt and Adam.” The group stared at her like she announced some major catastrophe was occurring.“What do you mean?” Zach shifted on the sofa so he had a better visual of his mate. She seemed disturbed about something that had gone on over at her aunt’s house.“He’s just so rude. It’s like he can’t even look at me without getting all pissed off.”Zach softly brushed Emily’s cheek so that she would only focus on him. As soon as he touched her, he felt her anxiety level come down a notch. “Em, it’s not you. It’s just the whole idea of what he’s
“You mean we can’t even go out and party? It's our only graduation from high school.” Madison sat more upright on Jacob’s lap when the alpha had walked in. She wasn’t as timid to speak her mind with him as it seemed the rest of the group was.“Yes, Madison, you will come back here directly after the ceremony.” Derek’s tone was harsh and his glare was one not to be challenged. He was quite impressed with this young lady’s audacity to question an alpha’s direct order, but couldn’t let that be displayed in his demeanor. He needed them all to focus on what was needed to be done and not to question any order that was given to them. She nodded once at him and placed her focus on the floor. It was good to see she had learned her rank within the pack and didn’t continue the challenge when the alpha responded.“Can I ask why we have to come straight back here?” Zach stopped the alpha in
“Jacob, I have to get up and get ready for graduation.” Madison picked up his arm that was lying across her chest and slid out from under him, letting his arm thump back on the bed in the process. “You have to get up too.” She rushed around her room and grabbed everything she needed for the shower. “C’mon, Jacob, aren’t you getting up?” Madison yelled once more at her mate, who was still stretched out naked on the bed. Jacob groaned and rolled off the bed. He picked up his clothes from where he'd dropped them earlier. “Are you excited?” he came up behind Madison, who was looking through her closet for her graduation gown. His arms went instantly around her waist and he began to nibble on her neck. “We don’t have time for this again.” Madison tried to wiggle out of his embrace, but he had her too tightly wrapped. “Even though I would really like to crawl back into bed with you right now, I have to get ready so I ca
“What did you see?” Danny questioned Alex as soon as they got back to her room. As soon as she gave Madison a hug, he could tell she caught a vision of something just by the wave of changing emotions that came off of her.“Just blackness.” Alex was surprised that she hadn’t picked up on anything, especially since she made sure to touch the gown and Madison when they embraced. She shook her head and tried to clear her thoughts. “It was like someone had blocked the image of what really happened.” She glanced over at Danny, who still looked puzzled by the whole situation. “I don’t know, maybe someone’s able to control our powers or cover up everything that they’ve been doing.” She grabbed her own gown and pulled it over her head so that it flowed down to the floor. “I guess it’s time.” She picked up her tasseled cap and walked downstairs with her mate in tow.
“What the hell happened?” Jacob met the graduated group in the cafeteria after the class walked back up the aisles. He grabbed ahold of Madison and pulled her closer to him. He knew his mate needed this type of compassion to get through the confusion that had occurred over the last couple of hours.“I need to find the principal or one of the administrators to figure out why I didn’t get a diploma.” Madison sank further into Jacob’s side as it was the only place that brought comfort right now.“There they are.” Zach pointed to the faculty and superintendents that were making their way back toward the offices.Madison, along with Jacob rushed around the rest of the graduates and families to get to them before they got away and locked themselves up in the office. “Wait,” Madison yelled right before the door shut on the last person entering.“Yes.” The door was held open by senior advisor
“I just want to let everyone know that there’s probably going to be about fifty guys waiting for us,” Zach whispered to the group as they all headed up to the main entrance of the Lovell home. Jacob and Danny could also probably sense who and how many were here, but he didn’t want the girls to walk in clueless to the number of shifters that were awaiting their arrival.“Why is that? I thought it was only supposed to be the higher ranking guys from your pack.” Madison had finally recovered from the little incident between her and Brindle. It had been a shitty evening and the last thing she wanted to do was to spend all night being interrogated by a bunch of nosey old guys. She watched as the eyes of all three boys focused on the house and they seemed to be sensing something in the air. “What’s wrong?” Madison took a step backward just in case there was some type of danger.“Why is the south pack h
Alex clutched Danny’s hand a little tighter but refused to look away from the penetrating stares coming from the large gathering of shifters. “Before anyone asks, or postulates, or makes an educated reference, I don’t know if I am.” Alex knew the questions that they were going to ask, but she didn’t have the information they sought.“Well,” one rather large member from the front row stood up, “I think you’ve just answered one of the many questions that we all have.”Alex looked at him perplexed as to what he meant by his statement. “I don’t understand.”“I was the only one supposed to think about the question that we all were wondering about, but it seemed you were able to break through the wall that I had built up and foresee what the question pertained to.” A big smile crossed his face. “Well done, little seer.”Alex looked over at Danny. She was confus
“There’s someone at the front door. I sensed them coming up the driveway, but wasn’t getting a clear scent of who they were.” Zach pulled her closer so that she would feel safer.Derek held up his hand when members of his pack seemed they were ready to fight whatever was coming. None of them could get a clear scent and even the seer seemed to be thrown off by the approaching unknown identity. “Everyone stay seated.” He left the room and went in search of what was causing such a disturbance.“It’s not the vamps or anything that seems to want to cause trouble,” Jacob spoke to Madison but kept his eye on the door, waiting for the alpha’s return. He didn’t have to wait too long as his father walked back into the room about a minute later.“Aunt Cecilia, what are you doing here?” Madison was shocked to see her aunt coming in behind Jacob’s dad. Her long brown hair flowed behind her. &
The following morning, Lucas delayed opening the store as he took Cecelia home to get a set of her own clean clothes for the day. She’d put up a struggle having him follow her, but eventually caved in after he kept persistent about the matter for over twenty minutes.“Does everything look normal? Untouched?” Lucas glanced around at the sparsely furnished and decorated pile dwelling that Cecelia called home for the moment. The stilted home sat far back in the swamplands where alligators would be her nearest neighbor.“For the most part, yes. But we all know Rayne can put a glam spell on anything to make it seem untouched.” Cecelia rummaged through several drawers grabbing the necessities for a quick shower.“That is true. Rayne will do anything to cover her tracks. I’ll keep an eye and ear open while you take your shower.” Lucas stood by the front door and stared out into the vast land and water.“Alrig
Cecelia slightly waggled her head back and forth as she tried to figure out how to tell him what he wanted to know. “Are you connected to Rayne in any way?” She looked over at him so that she could interpret if he was telling the truth by his expression.“I was at one point in my life, but I learned that Rayne wasn’t the person who I thought she was.” Lucas didn’t want to divulge too much information until he found out what Cecelia’s association was to her.Cecelia nodded her head. It was a brief and basic answer. She wanted more as to how much he knew about their kind.Lucas saw the looks of conflicting emotions cross over Cecelia’s face. It seemed she was torn between telling him the truth or making up some outlandish lie. “I know all about the enchantresses of both black and white magic if that makes this all any better.” He hoped he just didn’t open up a whole new box if she had no clue what h
The electricity of their first kiss ripped through Cecelia. She had kissed men before, but this was one that no other could compare to. Lucas played with her by only allowing soft kisses until she wrapped her arms around his neck and forced them to be closer. His tongue lightly traced her lips asking for entrance, which she did without reservation. His hands that were once on her hips had moved around to fit perfectly on her ass. Cecelia softly moaned as his hips began to gently sway back and forth causing her to become wet in her panties.“Is this the type of business you are now offering, Lucas?”The sound of someone speaking halted both Cecelia and Lucas’s actions. They both knew who the voice belonged to, but neither knew that the other also knew Rayne.Lucas turned around keeping Cecelia behind him. “Rayne, it’s always a pleasure to see you.” He said this with as much sarcasm as he could put out right now. The past little
The smell, lights, music, and ambiance of the chosen restaurant caught Cecelia’s attention as soon as Lucas pulled the car into the parking lot. “How did you know I liked Cajun food?” She looked at the many people that were seated at the outside patio tables and then back to the long line forming by the front door. “Looks like we’ll have a long wait.”Lucas chuckled. “I doubt that. I have good connections that will probably allow us to bypass that line.” He took hold of Cecelia’s hand and led her in the opposite direction of the front entrance.“Where are we going?” As soon as Lucas led her back into the darkness behind the restaurant and away from the hustle and bustle that was going on in the front, Cecelia started to get a little anxious.“Right here.” Lucas knocked on the back door and waited for someone to open it.The back door swung open and a petite, beautiful woma
It had been two days since Cecelia went to the small store along the main street. She’d kept her presence in the Bayou hidden since venturing out the last time, never knowing when Rayne and her coven of black magic witches were going to poke their ugly heads up. Not that they were really ugly, quite opposite in fact. They were the most beautiful coven of enchantresses that she’d or anyone had ever seen, it was just their practices that were ugly.Cecelia’s cell phone buzzed to life with an incoming call. Only one person had the number and she’d given it to him as a gamble, which could have been deadly if he’d been a pawn of Rayne’s.“Hello,” Cecelia answered the call cautiously.“May I speak with Ms. Towne?” Lucas knew it was her as the sound of her voice had been floating in his thoughts for the past two days and nights. But he wanted this call to sound formal so she wasn’t so easily scared off b
Cecelia opened the back door of the small, wooden shack that was hidden amongst the cypress trees and swamp grass of the deep south. The heat, humidity, and musky smell rising up from the Bayou filled her senses as she walked across the pier that linked her small home on stilts to the mainland. She’d been in hiding since leaving West Lakes and knew this place would serve as a great cover. She'd left her home, her sister, and most importantly her niece, Madison, all alone at a time when she needed the protection of everyone in the coven.The dark ones, the enchantresses of black magic, would find her no matter where she took refuge. But, the seclusion and shadows of the Bayou would serve as protection for the time being. Cecelia had encountered those who practiced black magic when she was sixteen years old. Being of a rebellious nature and not wanting to follow in the steps of her older sister, she experimented in the dark, mystical essence that always seem
Madison opened her eyes. Wherever she was it was still pitch black and she couldn’t see anything in front of her. She still had some kind of rope binding her hands together and her ankles were crisscrossed and wrapped with some sort of material. Her whole body ached and she felt like she’d been in this prone position for years. She heard a door unlock and soft footsteps coming closer to her. She closed her eyes and pretended to be back asleep. The darkness that was once in front of her now had a soft hint of light. Whoever had come in obviously was lighting some sort of candles as she smelled a hint of burning wax in the air. Madison kept her eyes closed, but opened them enough that she could somewhat see. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust, then she could make out several details of where she was at. The walls were bare and seemed as if they were made of dirt. There were three candles in a smallholder that was placed to the side of her. A couple of empty IV fluid
“I’m here.” Zach burst through the door, still pulling the shirt over his head. Danny, Adam, Derek, Dr. Scott, and Jacob followed close behind. He rushed over to Emily’s bedside and picked up her other hand. “It’s going to be okay.” He saw the pain she was in as her face scrunched up as another wave of discomfort took over. “Just breathe and try to calm down.” He stroked her hand with his.“Fuck you,” Emily hissed out as the pain kept getting stronger. She let out a loud piercing scream that made everyone hold their ears.“I don’t think we have enough time to make it to the clinic.” Dr. Scott was observing the scene and then motioned for both Zach and Maureen to step away from the bed. “Can you all give us a minute or two? I need to check how Emily is progressing.” Derek motioned for the group to follow him out into the hallway. Once they were alone, Dr. Scott addressed Emil
“Has anyone talked to Jacob lately?” It had been over a week since they all had last seen Madison and Jacob. Alex hadn’t had any more visions, even with concentrating and focusing as the elder had suggested, she just couldn’t get any read on what was happening with either of the two.“He’s still looking for Brindle, who has also gone AWOL since all of this went down.” Danny had picked up Jacob on a few of their tracking runs, but he still hadn’t come back home yet. “Have you talked to him?” He looked over at Zach, who seemed completely exhausted with all that had been going on.“Um, I saw him once like two days ago, but he wouldn’t or couldn’t shift back to talk. It looked like this whole Madison being missing is making him go insane.” Zach had only had the chance to track both Madison and Jacob twice this week. Emily, who was now confined to bed rest, had him up day and night.&