SHELLY LAURENSTON
Contents
From the day the first one stumbled into the middle of town, beaten, tortured, and branded, witches had been a part of Smithville County. The first one had escaped her captors, religious fanatics determined to find out the names of the females in her coven. The elders of that town sent their strongest men to find her, tracking her right into Smithville. They found her, too…and the seven hundred pound tiger cautiously sniffing her. They’d started to back away, praying the beast wouldn’t notice them. He didn’t, since he was too focused on the pretty little thing passed out in the middle of the street. But the pride of lions noticed the men. So did the clan of hyenas. And then there were the wolves…
None of them liking strangers in their territory. Liking full-humans even less.
Although that witch was the first, she would not be the last that came to Smithville. When each coven grew too old or too weak to continue protecting the town from the evil outside its borders, another stepped in to take the old coven’s place. Most came willingly, the powers they worshipped giving them the map to a place where they could feel free and protected. They’d show up one day, confused and lost, wondering how they got there and sensing that they’d never want to leave. They never did either. Most never bothered to try.
Each coven was unique, their particular strengths needed at that particular point in time. But they were also very similar. Good, simple women who wanted a safe place to worship their gods and raise their children. They’d chant happily in the early evenings and dance naked under the full moon.
It was all simple, beautiful, and very “We are one world, love everyone, save Mother Earth.” And for nearly four hundred years, none of that had changed.
Until now. Until the day the Coven of the Darkest Night came into town and changed absolutely everything.
If there was one thing Tully Smith, Alpha Male of the Smithville County Smith Pack and mayor of Smithville Township, could say about Jamie Meacham, it was that he loved the way she made an entrance.
To think he used to find these elder meetings pretty dang bor-ing. Mostly because there was a lot of talk, a lot of complaining, and lots of less-than-subtle threatening, but there was never any action. And then, ten months ago, a new coven had taken over from the old. The Coven of the Darkest Night was what they called themselves. All of them from up north or, as his stepbrother Kyle Treharne called it, “Yankee territory.”
Jamie—dressed in her well-worn jeans, ten-year-old T-shirt, and five-year-old running shoes—came into the room the same way every time, slamming the double doors for the junior high’s music room open and striding in. She seemed to stride everywhere. She was tall for a full-human. About five-eleven or so. But perfectly built with a strong body, a tight and exquisitely proportioned ass, and breasts that were definitely more than a handful, even for him. Even with all that to keep him entertained, he couldn’t look away from those eyes. If he didn’t know for a fact she was full-human, he’d swear she was one of them. It wouldn’t matter what breed either. It was her eyes. She had the eyes of a predator and, he’d bet, the soul of one, too.
“Afternoon, everyone,” she said cheerily, her grin wide. “How is everyone this beautiful day?”
Tully had to duck his head, rubbing his nose to stop the laughter. He could hear his stepdaddy, Jack Treharne, growling across from him, annoyed by Jamie’s obnoxiously perky cheeriness.
Behind Jamie came the rest of her coven. As a functioning unit, they weren’t half bad, although there seemed to be more infighting among five full-human females than there was among the nearly fifty-five members of the local Martoni Hyena Clan. But each coven member was so different, it amazed him the women had joined forces at all.
There was sweet Emma, whom Kyle had snagged as his own before the rest of them had even gotten a good look at her. Of course, she was such a cute and sweet little thing, Tully couldn’t blame his brother. He definitely would have tried if it had been anyone but Kyle who’d been sniffing around her. Then there was the “always friendly, dang-near loved everybody, couldn’t get enough of people, wanted everyone to be happy and show it!” Seneca. She’d somehow found her way among the bears, which only proved she was a sweetheart down to her toes because those easily startled, oversized bastards didn’t like anybody but themselves and fresh salmon. The one he had the least interest in was Kendall, also known as Kenny. She was a real Yankee. Not remotely friendly, suspicious, paranoid, and almost defiantly plain. They rarely saw her during the day, and when she did come out after the sun had gone down she would usually head over to the edge of town where some wild dogs had opened up a comic book and gaming store.
The one Tully found much more interesting was the extremely statuesque Mackenzie. Mac was about his height, a cool six-three, and a former firefighter. It had taken her time to warm up to the locals but she’d found her way merely by not being her cousin. By not being Jamie Meacham.
As head of the Coven of the Darkest Night, Jamie was nothing but gorgeous trouble rolled in brown sugar and dusted in arsenic.
Yeah. Jamie was the one he found the most entertaining. Why? Because if he didn’t know better, he’d swear that woman didn’t give a damn about anybody. She strutted through life tempting fates and whatever powers she or anyone else worshipped. She brought out the worst in the predators around her, insisted on calling his baby sister “Snaggle” because of the state of Katie’s fangs while in shifted form, and kept a sidearm on her at all times—last he checked it was a .380 auto—but was known to travel with a rifle at night. Both of which were illegal within Smithville County lines. Remind her of that, though, and she’d only laugh.
Bear McMahon, grizzly and sheriff of Smithville, had put it best one day when he said, “It’s when that woman is quiet that I get worried.”
Tully watched as she strode up to the big table they used for their meetings, walked around it to the small stage behind them, turned and lifted herself onto it. Once she settled in, she crossed her long legs and studied everyone. She smiled. And everyone but him leaned back from that smile.
She glanced over at Jack who’d ordered this meeting. He was second in charge next to Bear’s momma, Gwen, and Jack’s own momma had once been rumored to complain, “he came out of me snarling at the doctor who’d slapped him.” And it was that snarling feline that Jamie turned away from when Jack opened his mouth to speak, focused those beautiful dark eyes Tully’s way, and said, smooth as silk, “Tully Smith. You called?”
Why do you insist on doing the things you do?
It was the question her mother used to ask her constantly when they still spoke. But Jamie Meacham, former Nassau County Detective and High Priestess of the Coven of the Darkest Night, never had an answer to that question. All she knew was that she never colored within the lines, she didn’t like boundaries, and she hated rules and regulations except the most basic kind. Anything or anyone that purposely set out to hurt others was wrong. Rapists, murderers, thieves, she’d hunt them all down and see them convicted without a moment’s worry. That’s what made being a cop so easy for her.
But when it came to more metaphysical matters, when it came to power and the obtaining of it…well, Jamie was a little more flexible on that score. And it seemed everyone in town had figured that out.
She knew she made them nervous. She knew they didn’t like her. She knew that if a few of them had the chance to hunt her down and rip out her entrails, they’d do it in a heartbeat. For many people, this sort of realization of the danger they were in would worry them, but Jamie knew there were worse things in the universe than predators willing to feed on her. She’d been to hell and thrown back out again because, according to Satan himself, “You just don’t know how to act, do you?” She’d faced off against some of the purest evil and once had a screaming match with Archangel Gabriel in the middle of a Billy Joel concert at Jones Beach until the winged whiny pot fled in tears.
So facing some hyenas, lions, and tigers who wanted her dead? Not a big deal to her.
Yet out of all of the residents of Smithville, all the predators, the townies, the whatevers, the one who never seemed to be bothered by her was the Mayor of Smithville, Tully Smith. When she’d first met him, she thought he was awfully young to be mayor of anything but a fraternity, especially with that stupid one gold earring he wore like he was still trapped in 1985. In fact, she’d figured the role of mayor was nothing more than a figure head for locals with ready cash. Because really, what could be involved in running some little nowhere town that most Americans didn’t even know existed? It’s not like the Mayor of Smithville could eventually move into higher political arenas. The last thing any of the locals wanted around here were cameras shooting hometown footage for a CNN special on a governor or senator candidate. These people took their privacy very seriously and she had no doubts they’d made it clear to anyone who took the mayor position that the government fast track stopped right there. So what could some extremely attractive, kind of charming, thirty-something wolf shifter want with being the mayor? Then, after a few months of watching Tully Smith amble his slow-moving—but extremely fine—ass around town, it suddenly hit her…he was happy with what he had.
Which, to be honest, Jamie found kind of fascinating. How could anyone be okay with what they had? How did he not want more from his life? Not even close to thirty-five and he was happy with living in a small town, wandering around all day on two legs and all night on four? She didn’t get it, but then again, she didn’t have to. His life was his own and Jamie didn’t involve herself with other people’s lives. She had enough trouble managing the one she had. And although she didn’t really understand Tully Smith, she did find him entertaining.
Like now. Instead of bouncing this meeting over to his stepfather, Jack, Tully relaxed in his chair, one arm thrown over the back of it, smiled up at her and said, “Aww, beautiful. I call for you every night but you never show up.”
“And I thought you were just serenading me.”
They smiled at each other, Tully about to say something else, when Jack Treharne’s hand slammed down against the table. Everyone else jumped, except Tully, who was most likely used to the drama after being raised by the man, and Jamie who had a very low startle response. She stayed still a moment, allowing the tension to ratchet up a bit before she moved only her gaze over to Treharne.
“Something wrong…Jack?”
His eye twitched, annoyed that Jamie insisted on calling him by his first name rather than “Mr. Treharne.”
“Y’all are late…again.”
“True. But we are running a hotel. Had a whole Pride to check out before we could head this way. But that’s not why you demanded to see us.”
“You were seen out in the woods again. At night.”
“I didn’t realize there was a curfew.”
“There ain’t. But you weren’t out there wandering around. You were doing some ritual.”
“I’m a witch. That’s what I do.”
“Without your coven?”
Jamie could feel her cousin’s eyes on her, and knew she’d hear about this later from Mac. When Jamie had agreed to give up the life she had in New York and bring her coven down to Smithville, she hadn’t really thought about the dynamics of small town life compared to suburban life. Since she’d had her first athame, a lovely ritual knife given to her by her first mentor, Jamie had been doing her own rituals and spells. And since she did these in the privacy of her basement or her backyard, and she’d never been friendly with her Long Island neighbors, her coven had never been the wiser. Something she’d appreciated since the work she did with her coven brought her much satisfaction, but there was something about the power she obtained on her own that drove her to find more and more of it.
In the end, though, it was no one’s business what she did on her own. Unfortunately, those in Smithville didn’t seem to feel the same way, no matter what she was doing. Every time she turned around they were in her business.
These people knew when she got packages from her father, when her allergies were acting up, when she and Mac were arguing. And not only did they know, but they butted in. Having locals walk up to her and hand her their favorite allergy medication was, to say the least, off-putting. To have them chuckle about “you and that cousin of yours” as if they knew her and Mac so damn well was pissing her off. And to find out that every time she went into the woods to handle a little personal business with the gods, they pointed it out to the Elders made her feel like she was living in a town not filled with predators but rats. Big, constantly-in-her-business, never-knew-when-to-shut-it rats!
“I was told when I came here that we’d be left alone to worship in the way we chose.”
“It ain’t what you worship that’s the problem. It’s you.”
“You should have thought of that before you signed us up.”
“And you should have some consideration for those who were born and raised in this town. You already poisoned one of our lakes.”
“That was an accident and I cleaned it.”
“I mean, how are we supposed to deal with pure evil in one of our lakes? Aren’t you supposed to be keeping evil out?”
“I said I cleaned it. And you need to let it go.”
“What about when you set the woods on fire?”
Were they back here again? “I put it out.”
“What about the trees that were destroyed?”
“They’ll grow back.”
Treharne shook his head. “Do you care about anything but yourself?”
Done with this conversation, Jamie pushed off the stage and walked around the table. “You’ve all made it perfectly clear you don’t like me and don’t want me as part of your community. But even knowing this, my coven has been working its butt off to protect this town. If that’s still not enough for you, then buy us out of the hotel and send us on our way. But don’t think for a minute you can tell me how to live my life as a witch.”
Jamie headed toward the doors, her coven in step behind her, when Treharne said, “You know, missy, it’s real hard to be part of something that you think you’re better than.”
“I never said I was better than you,” Jamie shot back as she opened the doors and walked out into the hallway. “But, then again, you haven’t exactly proven that I’m not either.”
Tully watched that sexy witch slam the doors open by doing nothing more than raising her forefinger. After she stormed out, her coven right behind her, Tully sighed and said, “I sure do like her.”
That’s when his stepdaddy threw his notebook at him, hitting him in the face. “You are the biggest idiot!”
Laughing, Tully placed the book back on the table. “What did I do?”
“It’s what you’re not doing, boy! You ain’t taking care of what you should be.”
“I’m mayor, not an Elder. And last I heard coven issues fall under Elder management.”
“Well, ain’t you smart.”
“I ain’t dumb.”
“Then you’ll watch her.”
Tully blinked at his daddy before they both turned to Miss Gwen, who’d been the town’s sheriff for more than twenty-five years before she became an Elder. “Pardon?” he asked, positive he must have heard her wrong.
“Don’t ‘pardon’ me, Tully Ray Smith,” the sow said calmly. “You wander around this town like you’ve got nothing but time on your hands.”
“I’ll have you know I’m working. You know I don’t believe in sitting behind a dang desk all day signing papers. In order to find out what this town needs, I get out there and look.”
“Exactly my point. So you’re going to go look and find out what she’s up to. And then you’re going to put a stop to it.”
“Me? What makes you think she’ll listen to me anymore than she’ll listen to y’all?”
“Because we all know you’ll find a way to shut her down. That’s what you’re good at. And that’s what you’re going to do.” Miss Gwen banged her gavel on the table. “Meeting adjourned.”
No one said a word until they were on the quiet street of Cardinal Lane. That’s when Mac grabbed Jamie’s T-shirt and pulled her back.
“You’re making them nervous.”
“I make everybody nervous.”
Mac released her T-shirt. “You don’t have to look so proud about that.”
Jamie stared up at her much taller cousin. Except for them both being black in a predominantly white town, there were very few indicators that Jamie and Mac were first cousins on their mothers’ side.
“Not proud, sweetie. Just accepting. Nothing I do is going to make these people feel better about me.”
“You could stop traipsing off to the woods in the middle of the night.”
“I’ve got work to do.”
“What work?”
Might as well tell them now. “I’ve been called to be a champion.”
“For who?”
When Jamie only stared at her, Mac threw up her hands and paced away while the others simply looked worried.
“What is it with you and the Celtic gods anyway?” Kenny asked. “It’s not like they’re abundantly friendly.”
“She called. I answered.”
“She’s always liked you,” Sen said sweetly.
“Gods know why,” Mac muttered.
“Mac, you know what’s required for becoming a champion. So I’m not sure why the attitude about this.”
“Because you’re making them nervous.”
“So what?”
Emma frowned, her arms crossed over her chest. “Don’t you care about them at all?”
“I don’t not care.” They all stared and she added, “That’s actually pretty good for me.”
Mac stepped up to her. “One day you’re going to go too far.”
“I always go too far,” Jamie said simply before turning and walking away. “You’d think you’d be used to it by now.”
Tully sat on the boulder on top of Barrett Hill. He was still in human form since he’d headed this way straight from his last meeting. It amazed him how one simple, yearly event caused so much trouble. The Mayor’s Spring Dance. The entire town was invited and usually came. Every year it was held in the Crystal Palace where most big parties for the wealthier residents took place. Tully would probably enjoy it more if he weren’t in charge of it, but he was. Which meant lots of meetings with the Elders, the Mayor’s Office Association, and the vendors. Bor-ing.
Normally, after a particularly long meeting—and Lord love him, but that last meeting was long—he’d head home. But this time, he found himself ambling over to this hill, which had a wonderful view of Jamie Meacham’s cabin. She’d taken one of the cabins on the resort property. He didn’t blame her, they were all nice, but she was also losing money by not renting it out. Then again, from what he’d learned over the last few months about Jamie was that money was not that big a concern to her. Not like it was to most people. No. She wanted something else. She wanted power. It worried him. Power corrupted the best people sometimes and Jamie was already starting from a faulty base. How much would really be needed to send her deep into the ravine?
He saw her pull up to the garage by the cabin and get out of her SUV. Carrying a small bag from Chandler’s Grocery, she headed toward the building. But she stopped before she got to the first porch step, and spun around. Her eyes scanned the property and Tully wondered if she knew he was watching her. Yet she never looked in his direction.
She tossed her small backpack and grocery bag on her porch and lifted her hands, palms up. She raised them above her head, her eyes closing, her lips moving. He knew she chanted but he couldn’t make out the words. As she stood there, with her hands raised, energy from the ground crawled up her legs, her torso, her chest. It swirled around her like a snake, finally sliding into her cupped hands. She closed her hands into tight fists, raised them higher and screamed something he didn’t understand. The wind whipped up and she flung her arms down. Lightning shot from her palms and raced around the entire area of her house in one big circle, dissipating when it reached her again.
Tully didn’t know what she’d done exactly or why, but he knew it had drained her. She rested against the porch rail for a long moment, her breath rapid. Then she slowly made her way up the stairs, picking up her bag and backpack. She opened her front door and before closing it, he heard her say, “Hey, baby. I’m home.”
He didn’t know why his eyes narrowed or why he wanted to go down there and demand to know who the hell was living in her house with her, but he wouldn’t worry about why. He was more worried about what she was up to. If there was one thing he took seriously, it was protecting his town and his people. That’s all he ever cared about.
Deciding to come back later after some hunting, Tully slipped off the boulder and headed on home. He was halfway there when his cell phone rang.
“Yep?”
“Boy.”
He smiled. “Hey, Uncle Bub.” Bubba Ray Smith of the Smithtown Pack in Tennessee. He loved his uncle—although they were actually cousins—and always would. “What’s going on?”
When his uncle didn’t answer him right away, Tully stopped walking. “What is it?”
“I got a call from your Uncle Darryl…Buck’s heading to Smithville.”
Tully’s jaw tightened and his fangs eased out of his gums.
“All right,” he said carefully. “I’ll take care of it.”
“You need me, you call. But don’t do anything until you know you have to.”
“You mean until you can argue I had a right to the rest of the family.”
“Say what you want, Tully Ray, but this is how things are done. And the bottom line, Buck Smith is blood…and your daddy.”
“No, Uncle Bub. The last thing that man is, is my daddy.”
He disconnected the call and waited a moment before he speed dialed another number. When he heard the grumbling voice say, “It’s Bear,” Tully closed his eyes and answered, “Buck Smith’s heading this way. Make sure everybody’s ready.”
Up half the night worrying about his father, Tully finally decided to deal with the one thing he could actually manage at the moment…Jamie.
Okay. Maybe he couldn’t manage her, but she was definitely capable of keeping him distracted from what Buck Smith may be up to, and why he was coming back to the one town he’d been told never to return to. Although Tully didn’t know any man alive who didn’t have issues with his father, he knew his went deeper than most. After all these years the man still brought out Tully’s rage and fear. Rage because the bastard plucked his last nerve and fear because Tully worried he’d one day have to kill his own blood. It was the last thing he ever wanted to do, but there was something in Buck that never stopped. He pushed and he pushed. And unless something had changed about his father, Tully doubted any of that would be different.
But he’d done what he could. Bear and his deputies were notified. Tully had given his daddy a heads-up so he could find the best way to tell Tully’s momma, and the entire town was ready in case any attacks came. Other than sit around and uselessly worry, there was nothing more he could do.
Knowing that, he decided to track down Jamie. He found her, too. Having breakfast at the Smithville Diner. Considering the resort had a full breakfast menu, she’d be able to get her morning meal there for free. But he’d bet money she’d had another fight with her cousin. Rumor was the coven had stopped her over on Cardinal to talk after the Elder meeting. No one was sure what was said, but Jamie had left on her own.
If her own coven couldn’t get through to her, then Tully had no idea what the rest of them thought he could do. She was definitely a woman who didn’t let anyone get too close to her. Of course, the entire coven had been like that when they’d first arrived. Even Emma. But eventually, they’d begun finding their way, their own friends. Not Jamie, though. It was strange, too, because she was so friendly. She smiled, she chatted, but the walls were definitely there. She didn’t want anyone getting too close to her and they all knew it.
So, doing something he’d never done before in the ten months she’d been here, Tully sat down at the table with Jamie. She glanced up from the book she was reading, blinked at him, and went back to reading. He had to fight hard not to smile. What could he say? He admired her restraint to not even try and figure out why he was sitting down with her.
“Mornin’, Miss Jamie.”
“Hey.”
“How are you doing?”
Her eyes lifted from the book and focused on him. After a moment, she pushed the book away and relaxed back in her chair. “I’m doing fine. Would you like to join me for breakfast?”
“Why, that is mighty kind of you. I think I’ll do just that.” He motioned to the waitress and she came over. “Your morning special, darlin’. Easy on the grits, though.”
“Coffee?”
“Please. And juice.”
She smiled. “You’ve got it, Tully.”
The waitress walked off and Tully focused back on Jamie. She was still watching him, smirking.
Resting his arms on the table, he asked, “So what are you reading? Fiction or nonfiction?”
“Non. History.”
“About?”
Her smirk turned into a grin. “The Donner Party.”
“Those are the people who…”
“Ate each other. Yeah.”
“That’s what you read while you’re about to have breakfast?”
She shrugged. “I used to look at crime scene photos over a pastrami on rye at the diners back home. Doesn’t bother me.”
“All right then.”
The waitress returned and placed a mug next to Tully and poured him a cup of coffee before leaving the carafe.
“What else do you do when you’re not working?” he asked politely.
“Watch TV.”
Tully sipped his coffee after blowing on it. “I don’t even have a TV. Don’t see the purpose.” He placed his coffee down and for the first time since he’d met her, he saw a look of confusion and horror on her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“You don’t have a TV? How do you live without a TV?”
How do I live? “Easily. It’s never been a necessity to me.”
Jamie shook her head, her face conveying her disgust at his sentiment without her saying a word.
Tully laughed. “Of all the things that go on in this town, that’s the one that bothers you?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it does. That’s crazy talk.”
The waitress placed a plate of food down in front of Jamie. She immediately reached for the hot sauce and completely saturated her fried eggs with it.
“You know, I can’t help but notice you could be having this same breakfast at your hotel.”
“Yeah, but then I’d end up fighting with Mac rather than eating, and I really want to eat.”
“She’s fittin’ in nice,” Tully remarked as the waitress placed his food down in front of him. The special came on a platter and could easily feed two or three full-humans. But he wasn’t full-human and the elk he’d taken down last night had already worn off. “I see she’s coaching the girls’ softball league this season.”
“Yep.”
“While Seneca has become assistant coach for the junior and varsity cheerleading squads and Emma’s teaching that tax and accounting class over at the senior center.”
Jamie lifted her head, a piece of toast gripped in her hand. “Uh-huh.”
“And even Kenny has volunteered her time over at the library to help upgrade the computer systems and help the kids learn basic computing.”
“Your point?”
“I guess I was just noticing that you haven’t really involved yourself with the town.”
“Really?”
“Not that you have to, of course. Just sayin’ that sometimes it does a body good to know you’re helping others. And the more you help others, the more comfortable you’ll feel here.”
She raised her forefinger. “Hold that thought.” Then she leaned back in her chair, her arm reaching toward the table of males behind her. As soon as she moved toward them, they jerked back from her. They were cheetahs, used to bolting from bored lions and startled bears, so they moved really fast. Especially now.
Jamie pointed her finger. “Mind if I borrow the ketchup?”
The older male, watching her close the entire time, grabbed the ketchup from the table and carefully handed it over to her. Once she had her hand around the bottle’s neck, he snatched his hand back. They all waited until she’d turned back around before they settled back into their seats and went back to their conversation as if nothing had happened.
“So what were you saying about me feeling more comfortable around here?” she asked as she poured ketchup onto her hash browns.
Tully shook his head and went back to his meal. “Nothin’.”
Jamie walked down Main Street, her book tucked under her arm, which was actually the latest Stephen King novel but she’d held the faint hope her lie would make Smith go away—he didn’t.
What, exactly, is that dog up to?
For a good forty minutes, she’d watched him devour two platters of the diner’s special and go on and on about…she didn’t even know. People in the town. The town’s history. She had no idea why he was telling her all that nor did she care. She enjoyed not knowing these people’s business, shame they couldn’t seem to be the same way. But she did hope to lead by example.
Was he trying to get her to feel something specific? What did he think that would change? Would she make them less nervous if she were like Mac, helping their brats with their curveballs and chatting with the moms after practice? The thought made Jamie shiver in disgust. She loathed children. She’d loathed them when she was a child, and that feeling hadn’t changed in thirty-two years.
She was nearing her SUV when she walked right into someone. She immediately grabbed the person before they could hit the ground, but they lost control of their bags of groceries, apples rolling across the pavement.
“I’m sorry,” Jamie immediately apologized. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
“It’s just a little thing, sweetheart. Don’t worry.”
Jamie made sure the woman she had in her hands was not going to fall before she released her. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
Millie MacClancy smiled at her. “I’m fine, dear. Just fine. You’re such a little thing, I barely felt it.”
Okay. That was something she loved about this weird little town. Around here, Seneca and Emma were practically hobbits, Kenny was called “the short one,” Jamie was considered “petite,” and Mac was just average. It was definitely the best feeling, especially for the cousins who’d been called “big boned” enough times by their country cousins to have them only allowed to attend family reunions if they followed certain rules. The biggest one being, “No hitting.”
Millie started to crouch down to retrieve her bags and Jamie caught her arms again. “Don’t you dare. I’ll never hear the end of it from your son.”
Just the mention of Tully had the older woman smiling. “That boy. What’s he been up to now?”
“I wish I knew.” Jamie gave a little laugh before crouching and picking up all the fruits and vegetables that had flown out of the bags.
“So how are things going with you, sweetheart?” Miss Millie asked.
“Fine.” Jamie dropped the last of the apples and potatoes into the brown paper bag.
“Is the hotel doing well?”
“Yes. We’ve been really busy.” Jamie stood, the bags in her arms. “We’ve had to hire some new staff.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear that.”
Millie reached for the bags but Jamie held on to them. “No. I’ll take them to your car.” Jamie frowned. “Miss Millie? Are you all right?” The older woman had some strain on her face that Jamie had never seen before. “Do you need a ride?”
“No, no. Just some things on my mind. Nothing to worry about. The shopping helped.” She motioned down the street. “My car’s right there.
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can help you with?”
“No, sweetheart. But thank you for asking.”
Together they headed down the street. “I don’t understand, Miss Millie. Here you have this nice car and yet your son…”
Millie laughed. “What can I say? He likes to walk. Feels he finds out more about what’s going on in the town when he’s on two feet or four rather than when he’s driving.”
Jamie didn’t know how much the man could learn from slowly ambling around the town but she wouldn’t argue with Millie. There was something about the older woman that wasn’t like the others. Something really sweet and just…innocent. Even though in her late fifties, Jamie could well imagine what had caught eternally cranky Jack’s eye, but Jamie still couldn’t believe that Tully Smith was her son. Slow-moving, not-always-the-brightest, studies-every-female-as-if-he-has-or-will-fuck-her Tully.
Talk about falling far from the tree. Then again, more than once she’d heard a family friend of her parents remark about Jamie, “She may look like you, Mary. But other than that…”
Jamie waited for Millie to unlock her trunk and then she placed the grocery bags inside. She slammed the trunk closed and, as she always did, shook her head at the car Tully’s mother drove.
“Something wrong?”
“Not at all.” Jamie sighed longingly. “I know people who’d kill for this car, though.”
Millie’s pretty brown eyes grew wide. “Really?” She leaned in and whispered, “I guess as a police officer you would know people like that.”
“Former police officer, but yes.” She gazed at the vehicle. “You just don’t see a lot of ‘66 Camaros in this condition.”
“Really?” Millie asked again, barely glancing at the car. “I try and take good care of it. To quote my daddy, ‘You gotta be ready ’cause you never know when the Revenuers are gonna come.’”
Jamie nodded slowly. “I see…and the Revenuers are a big problem for you, Miss Millie?”
“Not anymore.” She winked and walked around to her driver’s side. She’d only just unlocked the door when Katie walked up to them, her gaze bouncing back and forth between Millie and Jamie underneath her annoyingly too-large Sheriff’s Department cap. Jamie would think they could afford a cap that fit the poor girl’s head. Gods knew, it wasn’t like she had a small head.
“Everything all right, Momma?” Katie asked, eyes narrowing on Jamie in obvious accusation. Boy, you give a girl a little nickname and she was a total schmuck about it forever after.
“Of course,” Millie said. “Why?”
“Just checking.” Katie forced a smile. “Jamie.”
“Snaggle.” Jamie saw a flash of fang before she turned to smile and wave at Millie. “Bye, Miss Millie.”
“Goodbye, dear.”
Jamie headed back up the street but laughed when she heard Millie tell Katie, “Stop snarling, pup. I’m sure she meant Snaggle endearingly.”
Tully was sitting in his parents’ kitchen, eating the last of the key lime pie someone had buried far back in the pantry under a bunch of paper bags and behind several cases of Coors, when his daddy walked in.
“That was mine,” the cat snarled before he’d even gotten past the doorway.
“Really?” Tully kept eating. “Don’t think I saw your name on it.”
Jack’s hand swiped the back of Tully’s head and Tully winced. “You know, the claws were unnecessary, Daddy.”
Before Jack could attack him again, Millie walked in with Katie.
“What’s going on?” his momma asked.
“Daddy started it.”
The feline hissed before taking one of the bags Millie held. “Get off your ass and help, boy,” he snarled.
“I’m eating.”
Katie quickly grabbed the bag. “I’ve got it.”
“He ate my pie,” Jack accused before carrying the bag into the pantry.
“Why do you torture him so?” Millie whispered to Tully.
“ Because I can’ is just going to get me slapped in the head again, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed the top of his head. “How’s your morning been so far?”
“Fine.” He rubbed her arm. “And, Momma—”
“I don’t want you to fret about your father, pup.”
“I won’t let him come here and start anything. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“Sssh, pup.” She eased her palms across his shoulders. “It’s just a little thing.”
“Not really.”
“Don’t let Buck Smith do this to you. All you need to remember is that you’re my son. Understand?”
“Yes’m.”
“Good.” She kissed him again before stepping away while he poured himself another glass of milk.
“So I saw that sweet Jamie Meacham in town just a little while ago.”
“Sweet, my ass,” Jack growled from the pantry.
“I don’t know what you have against her, Jackie.”
“She’s the daughter of Satan. And when are we going to get a report back on her, Useless?”
Tully didn’t answer until a roll of foil slammed into the back of his head. “Ow!”
“I asked you a question, boy.”
“I’m working on it.”
Millie leaned against her kitchen counter. “What report?”
“Daddy wants me spying on Jamie.”
“Whatever for?”
“He thinks she’s up to something.”
“I’m sure she is,” Millie easily agreed. “But that don’t mean it’s not in the best interest of the town.”
“I doubt it,” Jack grumbled back.
“I had breakfast with her this morning,” Tully admitted. “She spent the whole time reading and ignoring my charm.”
“She must have better taste than that,” Millie said, winning a smile from her son.
“If I’m going to get any information on her, I guess I’ll have to follow her.”
“That’s one option,” Millie said. “Or you could try being friendly.”
“Why would he do that?” Jack walked out of the pantry and stared at her. “Aren’t you going to make me something to eat?”
“I just fed you.”
“That was hours ago!”
Shaking her head, she ignored her husband and stood next to her son. “Well?” she pushed.
“I don’t understand that word you used. Uh…frrrrrrrr…”
“Friendly,” she said while tugging his hair and laughing. “Unlike the rest of you people, I’ve actually talked to her. She’s ever so nice.”
“She calls me Snaggle,” Katie said.
Tully looked away from his sister and their daddy quickly went to the refrigerator to pull out the makings for a sandwich and hide his laughter all at the same time.
“She’s only teasing you, Katie.”
“Don’t sound like teasing to me.”
“Just try it, pup.” Millie gave Tully another hug. “If you want to get through to her…just be nice.”
Tully shrugged as he finished off the last of the milk. “I guess it’s worth a shot.”
Jamie’s eyes watered and she held up her hand. “I’m sorry. If you’ll just…I…” Shaking her head, she walked away from the front desk, through the dining room, and into the back kitchen where she found her coven.
“Someone needs to cover the front desk,” she announced to the entire room.
Mac didn’t even look up from her notes for that night’s menu. She’d taken over the Smithville Arms restaurant without even discussing it with the rest of them. Not that it really bothered Jamie, but she didn’t like when anyone was presumptuous. “I thought you were covering the front desk.”
“Hippie alert.”
Her cousin laughed. “What are they wearing? Rosewater or some obscure incense?”
“Patchouli oil.”
“Ohhhh!” her coven sisters said in unison.
“Not the kiss of death,” Kenny joked while she worked away on her extremely thin, extremely tiny laptop.
“You know I can’t tolerate that smell. You just know she’s into that whole earth mother crap with her hemp shoes and the too-long-for-her-age hair.”
“You are in rare form today.”
“I’m just saying. Ew.” She gave a pleading smile to Seneca. “Please?”
“All right, all right.” Seneca walked to the swinging door, took several deep breaths, then seemed to hold the last one. “I’m on it,” she said before charging off.
“Is she really going to hold her breath?” Mac asked.
“Maybe I should have told her the hippie was checking in a whole pack of people.”
“Don’t bother her with those little details,” Kenny suggested, probably hoping to find poor Sen passed out from lack of oxygen.
“Anyone we know?” Mac handed her menu over to her sous chef.
“Don’t think so.” Jamie walked to the back door. It was always open during the day, even in the winter because the kitchen would get so hot from the ovens. “Name she gave me was Wanda Pykes. After that I couldn’t stand around to hear anymore. Too funky. Besides, what coven would risk coming here?”
Jamie stepped out on the back porch and stared off. It still always amazed her. The pure beauty of this place.
“We’re going out tonight with Kyle and Emma. Wanna come?”
She shook her head at Mac’s question. “Can’t. Got a meeting.”
“Something else to freak out the populace?” Mac sat on the railing, her legs straddling the wood. “What else is going on with you?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“To be honest, you look…tired.”
“Thank you.”
“You sure being called a champion is worth all this?”
“It’s not. But it is worth the power it brings me.”
Mac took a breath, let it out. She only did that when she was around Jamie and trying not to get upset. “I don’t see why you need more than you have.”
“I know. That’s why having this conversation, yet again, is meaningless.”
“Can’t you just enjoy it here? I don’t know what more you want.”
“It’s that feeling you get, when untapped power flows through you for the first time. When you know, in that moment, you can do anything.”
“But how long before it’s too much?”
“It’s never too much.”
“Bullshit. We both know what happens to the ones who step over the line, Jamie.”
“That won’t be me.”
“What if you have no choice?”
“Nothing and no one can or will make me cross that line. Not now, not ever. And you should know that.”
Mac slid off the banister and headed back to the kitchen. “Yeah, right,” she tossed over her shoulder. “I should know that.”
It was nearing eleven when she left her house. She wore a simple slip of a dress but no shoes or jacket, even though it was a bit chilly being as they were so close to the ocean. Her hair was wet, smelling like she’d just washed it and the already-curling locks stretched down her back. Most days she wore it in a ponytail but not tonight.
The only thing she carried with her was a very small bag, which he refused to hazard a guess at what might be in it, and a leather shoulder holster with her .380 that she didn’t bother to put on properly but instead had hanging from her left shoulder like a purse.
Jamie trudged through the woods and Tully silently followed behind her. She made her way to the clearing she liked to use for this kind of thing after she’d “accidentally” burned down the last one. He stayed in the forest, moving up a small hill where he’d have an excellent view of what she was doing. She placed the holstered gun down on the ground. With the bag still clutched in her hand, she took several steps away from her weapon and kneeled in the grass. She unzipped the bag and pulled out a glass bottle that looked to be filled with water, and a knife with a jewel handle. She placed both items beside her and tossed the bag over by the gun.
Still resting on her knees, she closed her eyes and took in and let out several deep breaths. She did this at least five minutes before reaching down and grabbing the hem of her dress. She lifted the thin material up and off her body and Tully let out a soft growl. Dang, but she was gorgeous. Real curvy, bigger than what society ever approved of, but just his speed: Fast, mean, and a hell of a ride. At least that’s what he was guessing.
He shook his head, forcing himself to focus on what she was up to, instead of wondering how good her pussy tasted. He didn’t have time for that. Right?
Right?
She pulled the stop on the glass bottle and carefully poured out the contents around her in a large circle. While she did, she chanted softly. His wolf ears picked up her words but he didn’t understand them. They weren’t English or any of the other languages he knew. When she emptied the bottle, she placed it beside her and picked up the blade. It was a fancy looking thing and she used it anytime she worked alone. When she was working with her cousin, she had a different one.
Grasping the hilt of the blade in both hands, she raised her arms high over her head. Her chanting became louder, necessary with that wind suddenly whipping up all around her. He couldn’t feel it near him, but it was definitely near her, her long hair blowing around her. And while the wind blew, flames burst up around where she’d poured out the liquid, surrounding her in a ring of fire. He worried about another forest fire situation but after the initial rise, the flames quickly lowered and then puffed out. Now he could clearly see she was in a circle from the burn marks surrounding her on the ground.
She was screaming the words out now, calling out to those she worshipped. She pulled her arms back a bit more before slamming the blade into the ground, and then…
Lord.
And then she was gone.
“I’m not getting in the middle of this,” she said again in her soft Irish brogue. “I warned you not to anger him. You did. Now you’ll need to deal with the consequences.”
“I’ve tried everything.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Not everything.”
Jamie briefly closed her eyes. “Are you telling me to—”
“There’s no going back once you start down that path. Just remember that.”
Jamie did remember that. “That’s what he wants me to do, isn’t it?”
“Of course. It amuses him to watch you twist in a noose of your own making.”
Jamie threw up her hands. “Or you could help me.”
“I’m not getting between you and him. You started it, you can finish it. Or…it can finish you.”
“Thank you. That’s very nice.”
“I do try.” She nudged Jamie with her shoulder. “You’re up.”
“Can’t I do something other than this?”
“Do you want to earn the title of my champion or not?” Jamie did want that title—and the power that came with it—but these…these…performances were wearing on her last nerve.
“Fine.” Jamie stood, staring ahead at the silver and black hall of the Dark Mothers, only the goddesses’ chosen warriors and mages ever allowed through the gates. As soon as Jamie’s feet had touched the marble floors, her naked body was wrapped in the garments of those she aligned herself with.
For tonight, it was the leather and chainmail battle gear of the Celtic gods. She’d been trained by Boudica, the Queen of Iceni, herself and wore two swords strapped to her back. She could use them like she used her .380—at least here she could, on this metaphysical plane of existence. At home, she tended to hit herself in the head with those long mailing tubes they had in the hotel’s main office.
Jamie cracked her knuckles and watched as the opposing champion bowed before the goddesses. “Anything I should know about this one?” she asked the goddess beside her.
“He fights with fire.”
Jamie faced her. “Huh?”
“He fights with fire.” The Morrighan, the Celtic goddess of war, raised a brow. “That won’t be a problem for you, will it?”
“Again with the fire,” Jamie muttered to herself as she headed toward the battle pits. “I’m getting so tired of the fire.”
Tully wondered how long he would have to sit here. He wasn’t much for sitting when he’d rather keep moving. And although it had only been five minutes or so, he was already getting restless. Then, the earth beneath his feet moved, like a hard jerk, and the circle set into the middle of the clearing that was empty, now had Jamie Meacham in it once again. She was naked and on all fours, her body covered in bruises and cuts, and she was coughing up…uh…fire.
You know…it’s just not everyday ya get to see a woman cough up fire.
Terrified he was watching her die, Tully tore down the hill he’d been on, heading right toward her. She must have sensed him, too, because she reached outside her circle, and picked up the .380 she had with her. She jerked it so the holster flew off, and aimed it right at him.
He slid to a stop, his eyes locked on that weapon. Any other human, he wouldn’t be too worried. But her…?
She was still coughing, but no longer big balls of fire, instead just puffs of black smoke. He slowly sat back on his haunches, letting her know that she had nothing to fear from him. At least, not at the moment. She waited a beat, then two, until she finally began to lower her arm. But a roar from the surrounding woods had her raising the gun again, but aiming it away from him. That’s when they saw the first one. It came soaring at them, screaming in terror the entire way.
Jamie automatically fell back, the gun still raised, although he knew it wouldn’t do her a damn bit of good. He shot up and dived at her, shifting from wolf to human with no more than a thought, and landed on top of her, rolling them both out of the way.
The first one slammed into the space Jamie had just been kneeling in before it bounced up and away. Then another followed, and another. Tully quickly rose up on his knees, and grabbed hold of Jamie’s hand. But before he could pull her out of range, it came tearing out of the trees, running right at them on all fours. Rage making him froth at the mouth, fear making him completely irrational.
“Shit,” Tully muttered before he yanked Jamie to her feet and tossed her over his shoulder in one move. She’d never be able to outrun it, so he didn’t have much choice. He took off into the woods, knowing it was following right behind them. Desperate, he let out a short call and kept moving. It was gaining on him, getting closer. Taking a risk, he jumped up on the boulder and leaped onto the higher one next to it. He turned just as Bear McMahon tore out of the darkness and went after the outsider. Another grizzly. The bear roared, rising up on his rear legs as Bear did the same. They slammed into each other, their jaws opening wide, trying to get a grip on the other’s head or neck.
That’s when Tully’s Pack charged in, going after the outsider—some Yankee businessman from Delaware, if he remembered correctly—and forced the bear back and away from Bear and, more importantly, Tully. The outsider caught a few of the wolves that came too close, batting them away, but there were a lot more of the wolves than of him and Bear wasn’t backing off him either. He suddenly seemed to run out of fight, abruptly turning and charging back the way he’d come.
Tully’s Pack and Bear followed after the bear, while one little hybrid wandered on up to him. She had the muzzle of her feline daddy and the ears of her canine momma…and she had that dang snaggletooth. She trotted over to the boulder Tully stood on and shifted into his beautiful baby sister—thankfully without that snaggletooth. Those braces had worked on her human form if not her shifted one.
Katie smiled up at him. “You all right, Tully?”
“I’ve been better.” He let out a breath. “The hyenas must have startled that bear. He tossed them at me like hockey pucks.”
“I’m glad we were nearby to hear your call, but uh…” She bit her lip, and he knew she was trying not to laugh.
“But uh what?”
“Well, that’s a nice ass you’ve got there, big brother.” Which seemed like a really strange thing for his baby sister to say to him when they were standing around naked. There were certain shifter protocols between siblings and blood kin to avoid awkward moments just like this one. But then she laughed and added, “You plannin’ on keepin’ it?”
“Am I plannin’ on…” He cringed and glanced over at the ass resting on his shoulder. Something told him this wouldn’t go well, but he had to admit his baby sister was right—this was a damn fine ass he had here.
“Why don’t I leave you alone with your ass and we’ll make sure that tourist bear gets back on over to the bear side of the river so he can get some fresh salmon.” She winked at him, shifted, and headed off, leaving Tully alone with one probably very irritated witch.
As a former cop, there were quite a few humiliations Jamie had been forced to endure. Losing control of a perp in front of other cops, having a crazed meth head sic his pit bull on her, and having a man she was dating arrested on embezzlement charges during a family dinner with her mother.
This, however, was a new kind of humiliation and one she wasn’t particularly enjoying.
She didn’t say anything until Tully placed her safely on her feet. He stared down at her for several long moments before finally asking, “You all right?”
That’s when she grabbed him by that damn gold hoop earring he insisted on wearing, even when wolf, and twisted until he was nearly on his knees again. “When everyone talks about this”—and gods know they will all talk about this—“you just remember that I am as light as a feather and I’ll remember that you are a very brave and well-hung wolf who protected me. That’s the story, Marmaduke, and it better not change or by all that you hold dear, I will make your life one unholy nightmare after another. Understand me?”
Even with her dangerously close to ripping that earring right out of his head, the man still managed to grin at her. “I think I understand all that.”
“Good.” She released him and carefully made her way to the smaller boulder and then jumped off that to the ground.
“Are you going to finally tell me what you were doing up here?” Tully’s voice asked from above her.
“Nope,” Jamie easily replied as she turned and found the damn wolf right behind her. She instinctively raised her weapon that, she was proud to say, she still had a tight grip on, but he caught her hand and held it. She could feel the strength in that hand, knew he could break her fingers if he wanted to, but he didn’t.
Instead he said, “Don’t point that gun at me again, beautiful. I don’t like it.”
“Then you shouldn’t have followed me.”
“And if it hadn’t been for me, you’d have been bombarded with all those hyenas.”
Jamie paused a moment to think on that. “Those were flying hyenas I saw, weren’t they?”
“With a little help from an out-of-town bear…yep.”
“That’s something you simply don’t see every day,” she murmured, then shook her head. “Whatever. I need to get home.” She was tired, exhausted really, and running out of energy fast. She needed a carb-filled meal and she needed it in the next ten minutes.
But when she tried to pull her hand away from his grasp, Tully held on tight. Still not hurting her but not giving an inch either. After several tries, Jamie stopped and asked, “Why aren’t you letting me go?”
“Because you need to realize that until people around here start trusting you, someone is always going to be watching you.”
“That’s not my problem, Tully. You people brought me here to provide a skill you were lacking. I never said I’d change who I was to keep everyone calm. That’s not my business or my concern.”
His thumb brushed against her hand. “You still don’t see it, do you?”
“See what?”
“We’re not ‘you people,’ we’re your people.”
Jamie didn’t buy that for a second. “From what I understand from my Alabama cousins, if you’re not born in the South, you’re always an outsider and a Yankee. So let’s not play that game.”
“But something tells me, beautiful, that you don’t think you belong anywhere.”
“I’m going home,” she said rather than replying to that surprisingly accurate statement.
“Why?” he asked softly. “Because you don’t like where this conversation is going? Or because I look so dang good naked, you can’t kept those beautiful brown eyes off me?”
“As entertaining as I find your little fantasy world, I need to go home because I’m about to—”
And that was the last thing she remembered.
Jamie dropped like a sack of potatoes and Tully barely caught her in time, his arms wrapping around her and lifting her up before her head slammed into the ground.
“What did you do to her?”
Tully glared at Kyle over his shoulder, the scent of the overgrown alley cat warning him of his presence five minutes ago. “I didn’t do anything. She just dropped.”
Kyle stepped up beside him. “We can take Jamie to my place. Emma will take care of her.”
“Nah. I’ll take her home myself.”
Kyle studied him for a long moment. “I’m not sure I’m okay with that.”
“Why? What do you think I’ll do to her?”
“It’s not you I’m worried about, canine.”
Tully couldn’t help but smile. “Awww, Kyle. Does this mean you care about me?” Tully reared back with Jamie still in his arms. “Well, there’s no call to hiss at me, feline!”
Jamie woke up on her couch, a quilt wrapped around her. All the lights on and a fire blazing away in her fireplace. An open bottle of water rested on the coffee table in front of her couch, along with a bowl filled with grapes she’d brought that afternoon from the farmers’ market. Using what strength she had left, she pulled herself up until she had her back against the armrest. She grabbed the water first and swigged back half of it, her throat raw from the flames she’d been forced to eat before she figured out her opponent’s weakness and won the tournament. After hydrating, she placed the bowl of grapes in her lap and proceeded to devour them. She was so glad she’d gone for the seedless when she made the purchase since she’d never been a big fan of spitting, unless she was in a fight with her cousin.
As she was nearing the last few grapes and wondering what else she had in her refrigerator or freezer to eat, she heard a loud bang somewhere in the back of the house followed by extensive cursing.
She started to get up when Rico flew into the room followed by Tully Smith trying to catch her.
“Come here, you little bastard!” He made a wild grab for the gyrfalcon and the bird went up into the rafters. One of the reasons Jamie had picked this cabin for her new home was because of the deliciously extravagant high ceilings.
“Don’t think runnin’ up there’s gonna stop me,” Tully growled.
He’d put on clothes—tragically—and she wondered how long she’d been out for Tully to go to his place, change, and get back here without her knowing. Then, on the end table at the opposite end of her sectional couch, she noticed not only her gun but the dress and satchel she’d taken with her when she’d gone out to the clearing. Christ, what time is it anyway? Because if there was one thing she knew about the man, it was that he didn’t have a vehicle to get around quickly in. Every time she saw him he was either walking on two feet or four, but he was always walking slowly. If he wasn’t walking, someone else was driving. Yet she did have to admit…all that walking had done the man wonders. He had what could only be called an astounding body. The kind that the supermodels appeared to have in those giant billboards in Times Square but when Jamie had actually seen them in person—usually during drug busts—they were way too thin and narrow. But not Tully Smith. He was definitely a man who could handle her physically, which was a nice change of pace.
“What are you doing?” she finally asked when she saw the wolf bending at the knees so he could make a lateral jump to the bird. Although what the shifters could do—and withstand—physically did amaze Jamie, she also knew he’d never reach the bird. Then again, dogs could be kind of dumb sometimes.
Tully let out a breath before slowly turning to face her. “I’m trying to make you a fricassee.”
Jamie snorted, wincing a little when it made her raw throat and nasal passages burn. “You may want to stick with easier birds to catch than falcons.”
“Thought that was a hawk.”
“Nope. A gyrfalcon.”
“A what?”
“A jerr-falcon,” she said slowly so he could understand the pronunciation. “A bird of prey. I looked it up.”
“You got yourself a pet bird of prey?”
“I didn’t get myself anything. One day I opened my front door and there she was. I call her Rico, after the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.”
“Because Tweety was too obvious?” He walked toward her and Rico came down from the rafters and landed right on his head. The wolf stopped and let out a very long and very frustrated sigh. “It’s on my head.”
“Yes, she is on your head.”
“Why is it on my head?”
“Maybe because you keep calling her ‘it’ when she’s a ‘she.’”
“Her talons are digging into my skull.”
“She’s just trying to protect me from the likes of you. She’s my familiar, so that’s her job.”
“I thought you said she was a falcon.”
Not in the mood to give a full explanation of the magickal connection between certain animals and witches, Jamie lifted her arm and Rico came to her immediately. She landed on her forearm, talons gently holding on to the skin. Jamie smiled at the majestic bird who’d chosen her. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I think I see much prettier things right here in this room.”
Jamie looked up to find the wolf staring right at her chest, exposed because the quilt was down to her waist and she wore nothing else. Surprisingly embarrassed since, to quote Mac, “Jamie’s all about being naked when she can manage it,” she started to reach for the quilt when Rico spread out her wings, covering Jamie up.
Tully glared at the bird. “Spoilsport.”
Tully heard the timer go off and went back in the kitchen to dump the pasta he’d made into the strainer. He didn’t go for anything fancy tonight, more concerned with getting Jamie fed rather than dazzling her with his cooking skills. He dumped a healthy amount of spaghetti in a bowl and poured bottled sauce on top of that. Then he grabbed a fork, grated cheese from the refrigerator, and some paper towels. He took it out to the living room and found Jamie sitting up, the quilt wrapped around her from chest to feet. Too bad since he’d enjoyed staring at her beautiful body in all this light.
For a full-human her body was strong and riddled with scars. No fang marks, like most of the Smithville females received after they hit puberty, but knife cuts, bullet holes—at least two—and a scar across her upper chest that had probably needed more stitches than he was in the mood to count. And yet she didn’t hide those scars from him or anyone else. Nor did she run around showing them off so that everyone could “ooh” and “aah” over her suffering. Like the beautiful brown color of her skin and those dimples in her cheeks, the scars were simply a part of her that she accepted and didn’t question.
“Here.” He placed the pasta in front of her. “Eat.”
“Thank you.” She dug into the meal and Tully went back to the kitchen to get her more water and some fresh bread she had lying on her counter. He took all that out to her and placed it on the coffee table.
“Anything else ya need?”
Busy eating, Jamie only managed to shake her head. So Tully dropped onto the other side of the big sectional, picked up the remote, and turned on the TV before putting his feet up on her coffee table and relaxing back. After five minutes of trying to find something decent to watch, he heard a delicate throat clear. He glanced over at Jamie and found her watching him.
“Comfortable?” she asked.
Tully grinned. “Mighty comfortable! Thank ya kindly.”
How could he not be, with a beautiful woman wrapped only in a quilt within groping distance, a big-screen TV for his viewing pleasure—proving he didn’t need his own TV when he had friends who already did—and a couch that his butt was taking quite a shine too? What more could he need?
Of course when that large splatter of bird shit hit him dead center of his head, he did realize that he could use a good rifle with a sight. Could this be the thing Jamie had been saying “Honey, I’m home” to the other day? Because Lord forbid the woman should do something normal.
Laughing so hard she fell back on the couch, Jamie couldn’t manage more than, “Oh, my God! She hates you!”
Yeah, he was sensing that. And he’d be lying if he said that the feeling wasn’t mutual.
Jamie watched Tully walk out of the bathroom with his hair freshly washed. He glared at the bird as he passed the bookcase she was perched on.
“I smell like damn honey,” he complained about her shampoo and conditioner. “Every bear in three counties will be following me around town.”
“I like all natural hair-care products. No sulfates or silicones for me.” When he glared at her like he’d glared at Rico, Jamie could only laugh.
Tully roughly towel dried his hair before dropping on the couch and using her favorite comb to get the shiny brown locks off his face. The entire time he watched her.
“What?” she finally asked.
“I need you to tell me what’s going on.”
Not quite sure what Tully was asking, Jamie only replied, “Nothing. Why?”
Tossing her comb down, he rested his elbows on his knees, leaned forward, clasped his hands together, and said, “There’s only a couple of ways we can do this, beautiful. You either tell me what happened tonight and you tell me right now. Or you get your shit and you go. You and your coven…including Emma.”
The panic eased when she realized he was asking about a few hours ago rather than what had been slowly building for the last few weeks.
“Kyle’s never letting that happen,” she said confidently.
“You’re right. He wouldn’t. But Kyle don’t run this town. For all the tigers, the lions, and the goddamn bears, only the Smith wolves have ever run Smithville County. And only Smith wolves ever will. That don’t mean to say that Kyle won’t go wherever little Emma goes. He will. But we both know that boy won’t be happy anywhere else but here.”
“But you’re going to run us out anyway?”
“I’m going to protect my town. That’s what I do. That’s what I’ll always do. And right now, beautiful, you are nothin’ but trouble. So unless you start talking right now, and unless I believe every word coming out of your mouth, I want you gone by sunup.” When she opened her mouth to respond, he added, “And stop trying to test me, it’s only pissing me off and we both know I’ll do what I say I will.”
“We both know that, do we?”
“I’m a Smith, beautiful. There ain’t nothin’ I won’t do.”
Tired but no longer exhausted, Jamie leaned back into the couch and studied the man sitting across from her. “I’m on a search for power. Undiluted. Untapped.”
“I thought you found that here.”
“I did. But it’s kind of like having a joint checking account. Every time I pull power from here, my coven knows.”
“And they ask questions.”
“Yep.”
“So that’s what tonight was? A search for more power?”
“Kind of. I’m trying to become the champion of one of my goddesses. It’s hard, dirty work, and often requires me to fight Greek giants who like to use fire as a weapon.”
“Sounds like a lot of risk for a Yankee from Staten Island.”
She glared at him through slits as her eyes narrowed. “I’m from Long Island, Marmaduke. There’s a difference.”
“And it still sounds like a lot of risk.”
“It is. But to become a god’s champion is to enhance your power tenfold. So it’s worth the risk.”
“I don’t understand you.”
“What don’t you understand?”
“You already have so much power. Everyone in town knows it, we can all feel it. But it’s natural. Part of you like the wolf is part of me. I don’t understand why you would want to enhance that.”
Annoyed by his statement—although she wasn’t sure why—Jamie lobbed back, “And I don’t understand how you can be happy wandering around this town every day. Don’t you get bored?”
“Nope. ’Round here there’s always something interesting going on.”
“I’ve been here ten months and I haven’t seen anything all that interesting. It’s a nice little town, don’t get me wrong. But…”
“But what? Go on, say it.”
“Don’t you crave more?”
“No.”
“So you’re happy to settle?”
“I guess we have a different opinion of settling, beautiful.”
She lifted her hands, palms up. She didn’t want to fight since the man had saved her from flying hyenas. “Hey, you know what? To each his or her own. If you’re happy here that’s all that matters.”
“Can you think of anything better than being happy where you are?”
“Yeah.” Jamie smiled. “Power.”
Lord. Like a dog with a bone.
“There’s nothing else you want? Nothing else that would make you happy?” And, Lord willing, content.
“I’ve tried the career thing. You know, moving up the Department’s ladder but…eh. Money can only do so much, although it’s always nice having it.”
“What about a man?”
“The answer to all women’s questions?”
He grinned. “For some.”
“Tried marriage and that was extremely unfulfilling.”
Tully felt his body go tight. “You were married?”
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
“Yeah. Seven years of my life I’ll never get back.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“It must have been something. Unless you’re still married.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” she said quickly. “So not still married.”
“Then what was it.”
“Like I said. Nothing. That was the problem. When we’d argue, I felt nothing. When he yelled at me over something ridiculous, I felt nothing. When he threatened to out me to the Department as a witch and a kook, still nothing. And when I found him fucking a pseudo-friend of mine in my bed…more than nothing. In fact, I felt bad for him, because God knew he was doing it all for me. And I felt nothing.”
“You never loved him.”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I really never did.”
“So why—”
“I went through this really weird phase where I wanted to be normal. Marriage is considered normal. My parents were happy. The people I pretended were my friends were happy. I was happy. Everyone was happy…but my coven. They were not happy.”
“They knew it was wrong for you.”
“Yeah. They did. And tried to tell me. Guess I should have listened.”
Although curious why anyone would be with someone they didn’t care about for seven long years, Tully decided to stick with their current topic of conversation.
“So, you get all that power,” he said. “You scoop it up like my momma’s key lime pie at the church social. Then what? What are you going to do with all that power once you have it?”
“Use it.”
“To do what? Destroy the world? Become the almighty empress of the universe?”
“No,” she said with an easy roll of her shoulders that told him she wasn’t lying. “Don’t want any of that.”
“Well, that’s the thing about power, beautiful. Once you have it, you’ve gotta do something with it.”
She smiled, showing all those perfectly aligned, “my daddy is an orthodontist” teeth. “And I’m sure I will.”
Jamie had no idea when she fell asleep, but she knew when Tully took her to bed. He easily lifted her off the couch and walked through the dark house to the back bedroom. He pulled off the quilt before covering her up with the sheet and comforter.
“You’re leaving?” she heard herself ask.
“In a bit.”
“Okay.” She rolled over to her other side and tucked her hands under her cheek. Lips brushed against her forehead and then he was gone. He didn’t make a sound, but she still knew he’d left the room and then the house from the amazing energy that went with him.
And with his energy gone, theirs returned. She could hear them scratching at the walls, the doors, the windows, trying to get in. Always trying to get in. It had been getting worse every night. At first, a simple spell could send them away, but now she had to use more than that. Even worse, it was getting to the point where she had to manage it constantly. One simple spell no longer covered her from moon to moon, or even day to day. Of course, they did have help, didn’t they? They had the one who’d sent them.
She grabbed another pillow and put it over her head in the hopes of blocking out the sounds while Rico settled on her headboard, watching over her for the night.
Yet there was only so much her familiar could do. Once they broke through the barriers she’d created, Jamie doubted anyone would be able to protect her.
Jamie was mid-yawn when she heard the knock on her office door. Once Tully had left, she’d gotten no sleep and had spent the rest of the night watching bad television until dawn when she had to get to work and whip out some pastries for a Daughters of the Confederate Bears meeting. Even worse, her cousin had been an annoying heifer since she’d rolled into work later that morning. If Jamie didn’t know better, she’d swear Mac was trying to pick a fight with her. Or maybe she was just being her usual nosey self. Whatever her damage was, Jamie had avoided her cousin by hiding in her office.
Hoping her cousin wasn’t back to push her, Jamie wiped her tired eyes and said, “Come in.”
Emma stuck her head in. “Hey.”
“Hey. What’s up?” When Emma hesitated Jamie motioned her in. “What’s going on?”
Emma closed the door and sat down in the leather office chair across from her. “I was going to ask you that.”
“Nothing.”
“Jamie.” Emma gave an exasperated laugh. “Look at you.”
“Hey. I was spitting up fire last night. I deserve to look this tired.”
“You don’t think we feel it? Every night? Them coming for you? And I’m not talking about what you’re doing to become Morrighan’s champion.”
Jamie relaxed back in her chair. Of course her coven felt it. Soon they might be able to hear it too. The demands for entry getting louder, more angry, more desperate. “Let it go, Em.”
“Let us help you.”
“There’s nothing to help.”
“You’re lying!”
Emma winced at the voice coming through the door. “Would you let me handle this?”
Mac pushed the door open. “You’re not handling it right.”
Exhausted, worn down, and just plain raw, Jamie warned her cousin, “You need to back off this, Mac, and you need to back off this now.”
Her cousin snorted. “No.”
Around early afternoon, Tully ambled on over to the Smithville Arms to check on Jamie. True, she wasn’t his responsibility but he’d felt a kinship to her after talking for so long the night before. She was a sweet thing, if a bit misguided. Misguided because he couldn’t understand how she didn’t see the beauty of this place. Smithville wasn’t just some town to him. He knew there was no place else in the world where he could go and be as happy and, more importantly, content as he was here. If she only bothered to open up her eyes and see what had been bestowed upon her, he knew she could find her place here. She could find something better than the hoarding of power.
And, as always, his mother had been right. Trying to force anything down Jamie’s throat or even trying to smooth talk her would never work. She was way too smart for her to buy that move from him. So being her friend would have to be the way to go and he couldn’t say that he minded. He liked her.
Hated her bird, though.
Tully ambled on up the great porch stairs of the hotel and opened the screen door, stopping right in the doorway. He watched Emma and Seneca, their arms wrapped around Jamie’s waist, trying to pull her back. Across from them was poor Kenny, her arms around Mac’s waist, trying to hold Mac back. The cousins had a healthy hold on each other’s hair and didn’t seem in the mood to let the other go while they yelled obscenities he was glad his momma wasn’t around to hear because she’d have dealt with that right quick.
Deciding Jamie seemed basically fine and figuring he could talk to her later while she was cleaning up those bruises her cousin would give her, Tully turned back around, headed down the stairs, and got back onto the road. He needed to make peace between one of the Prides and one of the Clans again anyway.
He’d walked about a half-mile when he stopped and lifted his head, his nostrils flaring as he cast for a scent. When he finally latched on to it, when he finally remembered it, he spun around, and stared down at the wolf watching him.
Bracing himself, Tully said the first thing that came to mind. “And all this time I was really hoping you were dead.”
Jamie finally had Mac on her back and was about to start spitting in her face when a strong hand grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her off.
She looked up expecting to see Kyle or Bear—they really hated when the witches fought—but instead she saw Tully.
“I need to talk to you,” he growled out as he yanked her to her feet.
“Hey,” Emma said, jumping forward and then scrambling right back again with the rest of the coven when Tully barked and snapped at them all. Besides being kind of disgusted at her easily startled coven, Jamie was also shocked at Tully. He never yelled at Emma. Or, as in this case, barked at her. He treated her like she was spun glass. “Sweet little Emma,” he always called her which, until this moment, never bothered Jamie before.
Although why that was going through her mind now as he manhandled her right through the dining room, through the kitchen, and out the back porch, she had no idea.
“Why is Buck Smith here?” he demanded once they were on the lawn behind the hotel.
Jamie stared up at him. “Who?”
It was fascinating to watch the way his expression completely changed. She’d never seen him look like that. So angry. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him miffed, much less homicidal. Even when she’d set the forest on fire and poisoned the lake, he’d never appeared this angry.
And, boy, did he look angry.
“You’re supposed to protect this town,” he bit out.
“Right. And I do…when I’m aware of a problem.”
“How could you not be aware? He’s staying at your goddamn hotel!”
Whoa. He was yelling at her. Normally, she’d bind his lips together with a Hoodoo spell she kept for just this type of situation, but this was Tully and this was not normal behavior for him. Something more than simply being a twat was in play here and, after last night, she felt she kind of owed it to him to find out what…before she bound his lips together.
“Tully, I don’t know who Buck Smith is. I mean, I’m assuming he’s family…”
For a split second, he looked like he might hit her. Or, in more canine terms, maul her. But instead he released her and began to pace.
“Momma’s gonna lose her mind when she finds out he’s actually here. We all thought he was just on his way, not here.”
“I don’t—”
“And Daddy…Lord.”
“Tully?”
“I need to let the Pack know. I need to let everybody know. He’s here.”
Getting frustrated but not wanting to show it, Jamie gently placed her hand on Tully’s shoulder, but he turned to face her so fast, she stumbled away from him, her feet catching, and she fell right on her ass.
Tully stared down at her with such horror that if she didn’t know better, she’d have thought he’d slammed her to the ground himself. In fact, she knew that he believed he had.
“Oh, my God. Jamie.” He reached for her. “I’m so sorry.” She caught hold of his hand and instead of letting him pull her up, she tugged until he’d knelt in front of her. “Jamie, I’m so sorry.” She went up on her knees and placed her hand against his cheek. Tully’s eyes closed, his brows pulling down in a phenomenal frown of pain. Whoever Buck Smith was, he could get under Tully’s skin as no one else could.
Jamie put her arms around Tully’s big shoulders and pulled him in close until his head rested against her neck. She looked up to see her cousin standing on the porch watching her, her face filled with concern. Jamie tilted her head and, after a brief nod, Mac went back inside.
“Why don’t we go for a walk?” Jamie softly suggested. “We’ll figure it out from there.”
Only his father could make him like this. Full of rage and uncontrollable fits of violence…like father, like son.
No. No. He was not like Buck Smith. He would never be like Buck Smith. Not if he could help it. And he would help it even if it took every ounce of willpower he possessed. Yet there was no denying that the one thing that could set him off, that could and would bring out the worst in Tully Smith was his father. Not his daddy. Jack Treharne with all his snarling and snapping and feline ways had earned that particular title, but he’d earned it and kept it with pride. Buck Smith hadn’t earned anything from his son but Tully’s distrust and paranoia.
“Buck Smith is my father,” he explained to the woman walking beside him.
“I thought your real father was dead.”
“No. I said I’d hoped he was dead.”
“I see.”
“He said he was staying at your hotel.”
“I guess he is, but the reason it never occurred to me to say anything was that he didn’t check in himself. If I’m thinking of the right Pack, a woman checked them in. Wanda something.”
“Pykes. I’d heard he’d hooked up with a full-human a few months back. Can’t believe he brought her here, though.”
“Why?”
“He hasn’t marked her as his own from what I’ve heard. We’re more likely to trust a full-human bonded to one of us than one who has no ties. One good argument and she’s running around, telling the world about shifters.”
“I can handle that if she becomes a problem. Tell me about Buck.”
Tully winced. He’d rather not, but after yelling at Jamie and knocking her on her ass for no other reason than him being a dang idiot, the least he could do was tell her everything.
“My direct kin come from Alabama. The MacClancys are my momma’s people and they’re part of the Alabama Smiths. My father had been forced out of town when he was sixteen but he came back four years later when his granddaddy died. My momma was barely fifteen then and he latched on to her like a tic on a dog. Things got bad, again, between my father and his, and Buck was forced out…again. Only this time he took my momma with him because she was well pregnant with me. By the time she was about to pop, they’d made it to Smithville. I was born here about a week after they arrived. Then it started again. My father crossing his uncle and cousins, trying to take control of the Pack and, eventually, the town. They ran him off again but this time Momma didn’t go with him.”
“Why?”
“There were lots of reasons she’ll give you. She had me. She wanted to give me something stable. She was tired of traveling all over the place. And there were lots of reasons everyone else in town had: That Buck fucked anything that moved even while she was pregnant with me; that after nearly two years of being together he had yet to mark her as his own; that he was cold to her, rude. And I’m sure all of that was true. Actually, I know it was. But what I figured out, what I know is the reason my momma stayed is that she never thought he’d leave. Not without us. She thought he loved her enough to simmer down and wait until he was really ready to take over. At the time, I don’t think it ever crossed her mind that he would leave her. And then I don’t think it crossed her mind that he wouldn’t come back.”
“I don’t know which is worse,” Jamie mused softly. “Being so confident in the power of love that you’re willing to risk your heart, or knowing that love is just a cruel joke from the gods and never risking anything.”
“I’d have to say that last one.”
“Even after what your mom went through?”
“Yeah. I won’t say it was easy on her. It wasn’t. For six long years she waited for him. Waited while I grew into the most terrifying devil child this side of the Mason-Dixon.”
Jamie laughed. “That bad, huh?”
“Yeah. That bad. So bad Miss Addie and her coven politely suggested that Buck was using astral projection to visit me at night in an attempt to turn me.”
“It must have gotten better.”
“I wouldn’t say it got better but nothing lasts forever. And it was a cold, dark day when my momma had to come down to the school to meet with my second grade teacher because there was the suggestion I tried to drown another student in the boys’ bathroom.”
“A suggestion?”
“I didn’t see any hard proof other than the little bastard’s word and the fact that he was drenched from his head to his shoulders.”
Jamie laughed, and Tully laughed with her. A shocking feeling since any mention of his father usually sent him into one of his rare funks for days at a time. But she was calming him down, easing him just by being herself, by being his friend. “I still say they misread the situation,” he went on. “Anyway, my momma was called and she had to leave her job to come down to the school. And while she was waiting, she met Daddy.”
“Love at first sight?”
“So they say. I still say the old bastard took advantage of her pure innocence.”
Jamie snorted but she choked on it when Tully teasingly glared at her.
“Anyway,” he went on, “Momma and Daddy met and, ignoring the grave indignities they were causing both me and Kyle, decided to get married. They didn’t have to, this is a town of shifters, after all, and if there is one thing very few of us care about one way or the other is marriage. But I kind of understand why they did it, being different species and all. They wanted to show everybody how serious they were about each other, plus they wanted to make sure their children grew up feeling like they were family.
“But it got back to Buck what was going on and if there’s one thing that man hates it’s felines. So ignoring the fact he hadn’t been back in more than six years, he sneaked into town with a Pack he’d created of forced-out Smiths and stray wolves he’d found along the way. The plan was simple: grab me, grab my momma. It might have worked, too, but Buck must have forgotten how loyal the Smiths are to their pups and the females who breed them. Although none of them were crazy about the idea of any wolf mating with, much less marrying, a cat, they still knew how much Momma loved Daddy and, more importantly, how badly Buck had treated her. They also knew what a bastard he was. Most of the Smiths were already here for the wedding when my father came into the territory. He found me first. Told me I was his son and that he’d come to take me home with him.” They stopped by a large boulder and Jamie leaned back against it, watching him closely.
“You know,” Tully relaxed back against an oak tree, his arms crossed over his chest, “it’s one of those things every eight-year-old kid is waiting for when he’s grown up without a father. For his daddy to come back for him. You daydream about, wish on it, pray for it. And here it was, standing right in front of me. I knew he wasn’t lying, I knew he was my father.”
“What did you do?”
He shrugged, not sure even today he understood what he’d done that day. “I screamed for Jack. I screamed for my daddy and he came runnin’. Not seven years later, but right then. The Smith Pack with him. I’d never seen so much blood as I saw that day. Momma got hurt, too, fightin’ by Daddy’s side. When it was all over no one was dead but Buck’s Pack had taken the worst of it, limpin’ off back where they came from. But I knew that day, when Jack had carried me back into town and I saw ol’ Buck watching us from the trees before he headed off for good that I was his enemy now. That I’d crossed a line with him that he would never forgive me for.”
It sounded like some old tale her great-grandfather—whom the entire family referred to as “Big Daddy” although the man was no more than five-two—would have told her during one of the family reunions when her mother and aunt would drive for two days from Long Island to Alabama with two arguing brats in the backseat. The only difference was that the people in Big Daddy’s stories were always full-human and Tully never ended every few sentences with, “ ’Cause you know how those rednecks are.”
It fascinated her even while her mind worked away at the problem.
“You think he’s back here for revenge?” she asked but Tully only shook his head.
“Buck Smith is never that simple.”
“He wants something.”
“He wants this.” He glanced around at the trees and up at the beautiful blue sky. “He wants this territory. Smithville is prime territory to our kind and the wolf who ran it before me was my Uncle Tyrus Ray.” Tyrus? “Six-foot-seven and three-hundred-and eighty-five pounds of dangerously unstable wolf, but he could be a big ol’ teddy bear when the mood struck him. He died sudden about five years back and one of his sons, Johnny Ray, took over, but that didn’t go well. He was pushy and testy and one day he just got on my nerves and I…”
“Beat the hell out of him?” she slipped in when he seemed to be searching for the right phrase.
“I prefer ‘slapped some sense into him.’ But whatever. Bottom line was when I woke up the next day I was Alpha Male and mayor.”
“That’s how you became mayor?”
“No. I was voted in as mayor of Smithville but Johnny Ray got on my nerves at my inauguration party.”
Fair enough.
Gazing off, Tully murmured, “I gotta tell Daddy that Buck’s back.”
“Then what?”
“I don’t know.” His gaze moved over to her. “What happened when they checked in?”
“Nothing. Other than I had to walk away and let Sen handle the check-in.”
“Why?”
“Wanda…she was wearing that”—Jamie shuddered—“patchouli oil.”
“Lord, woman, what is your thing about that?”
“I hate it! It’s my kryptonite. As are women like Wanda.”
“Women like Wanda?”
“Yeah. Those hippie, dippy, New Age females I always want to stab in the face. The truth is if I hadn’t met my coven in junior high, I would have been a solitary practitioner. So would Mac. I swear nothing gets on my nerves faster than those Artemis-worshipping, Patchouli-wearing, need-a-goddamn-haircut, shave-your-pits-once-in-a-while, still-driving-a-love-bus, insists-on-calling-me-sister, pains in the ass.”
Tully stared at her. “But not like you have any strong opinions on the subject or anything.”
“Maybe a little one. But it’s because of those types that my coven is banned for life from the Green Man Festival.”
“And I’m sure it had nothing to do with what you were probably up to at the time.”
“Maybe a little,” she shook her head, “but I still say they were being irrational. I mean they’re all so busy saying they’re drawing down the moon, but they get completely freaked out when someone actually does it.”
Tully blinked. “You moved the moon out of orbit?”
She snorted. “Of course not.”
“Oh.”
“I just moved the earth a little closer to it.”
Tully’s arms dropped to his side. “You did what?”
“Don’t get hysterical. I moved it back.”
Tully didn’t think it would be possible. Didn’t think anyone was capable of doing it. But Jamie Meacham had managed the impossible. She’d gotten him to think about something other than his father.
“You’re crazy,” he accused, which was something he didn’t toss around lightly considering his own family history.
“Not crazy. Just a bit of a show-off. I get so tired of them talking, talking, talking, but not doing. Don’t talk about drawing down the moon. Fucking do it. If that doesn’t work, move the earth closer. Not brain surgery, people.”
“Did it ever occur to you that moving any planet out of its orbit could cause huge ramifications globally?”
“I was never really into science,” she said dismissively.
“Oh. Well then…”
“Besides, I moved everything back and stopped most of the tsunamis, tornados, and spouting volcanoes before I lost consciousness.”
Lord, now she had him laughing. Laughing so hard he couldn’t even stand up straight. He didn’t think it was possible. Not until his father was long gone and all was right in the town he loved. But somehow one full-human witch had managed to do the impossible yet again.
“Yeah, sure…laugh. But let me tell ya, all those hippie-dippy witches with their ‘love solves all’ platitudes and their ‘make love not war’ philosophies are at their very core—totally Stalin.”
And ten minutes later, when the Elders had finally tracked them down, desperately concerned about what they’d heard through the town rumor mill and wanting some answers from Tully and Jamie on what they were planning—they seemed really concerned when they found Tully rolling around on his back laughing and Jamie snarling at him, “It’s not funny. They were really mean to me!”
“Tell me again,” Jamie murmured softly near his ear, her gaze examining the County Hall boardroom with its fine cherry-wood furniture and board table, “why the Elders insist on meeting at the junior high when you have boardrooms like this one?”
“Because if they use it too often, it won’t still look so shiny and pretty,” he whispered back. “Duh.”
They both chuckled, their gazes briefly locking, and Tully couldn’t explain what passed between them, but he’d felt it as surely as if she’d touched him with her hand.
“Are you two done?” Jack Treharne snarled. Of course, he snarled most things but until this was all settled, until his mate and the town he loved was safe from Buck Smith, the man would be damn intolerable. But Tully didn’t mind because they both felt the same way about the town and about his momma. “Because that bastard wolf is a problem that needs to be dealt with.”
“I understand that,” Jamie told him calmly, “but I’m not sure what you expect us to do.”
Jack pushed away from the wall he’d been leaning on and came up to Jamie. “Why the hell not? What’s your purpose here if you can’t do what we tell you to?”
“I don’t work for you, Jack. I’m more like…free-range protection.”
“Can’t you set up those wards or whatever you call ’em?”
“We already have those in place,” Mac cut in from her place across the room. “And we renew them each full moon, but it still doesn’t help with your particular problem.”
“Why not?”
“Because the boundaries we’ve created are to keep full-humans away and pure evil out.” Jamie shrugged. “They won’t keep out or harm animals and that pretty much includes you.”
“We’re still human. Mostly.”
“True. But shifters are protected by the same gods who’ve empowered us to create those boundaries. That includes Buck Smith.”
“So there’s nothing you can do?”
“I didn’t say that. We can do lots of things. Some of which will leave nothing but charred remains and fond memories. But if he hasn’t done anything to warrant such an attack from me or my coven, I’m only putting our powers at risk.” And Tully knew she’d never do that.
“Which is what I told you, Daddy,” Tully reminded him.
“You want him here, don’t you?” And if it sounded like Jack was accusing Tully…he was. “So you can talk through all your bullshit like you’re in a goddarn therapy session.”
“Old man, I can think of a thousand tortures I’d rather endure than dealing with Buck Smith, but it doesn’t change the fact that we can’t stop him from coming here with his Pack for a vacation.” Which was what Wanda Pykes had told Seneca at check-in but Tully would never be stupid enough to believe it.
“And if they decide to stay?” Gwen McMahon asked.
“That I won’t allow,” Tully said simply.
“And how are you going to stop him?” Jack demanded.
And Tully answered his daddy the only way he knew how. “Any way I have to.”
“I could talk to him,” Jamie offered and it amazed her how quiet the entire room became. So quiet she could hear the crows and jaybirds outside the window get into a vicious fight over tree territory.
“Talk to him about what, exactly?” And what insulted Jamie was the question came from her own damn cousin. Where was the loyalty?
“Sweetie, I was a cop for years. I know how to do this. I’ll go and check him out, talk to him, figure out what he’s up to.”
Mac stood beside her now, her arms folded over her nonexistent tits. “Or you can start shit.”
Insulted, because her loyalty to Tully had grown leaps and bounds in less than twenty-four hours and she’d never put him at risk, Jamie snapped, “I will not start shit.”
“You don’t know how not to start shit.”
Jamie turned so she stood toe-to-toe with her cousin. “And maybe you need to back up off me, cuz.”
“And maybe you need to make me.”
Jamie raised her hand. Not to hit her cousin but to toss her out of the room with one well-placed spell when Tully reached over and firmly gripped her fingers with his and pulled her in to his side. “I’d love for you to talk to Buck.”
“Now, see,” Jamie complained, “that sounds like sarcasm.”
“It’s not sarcasm,” Jack said, watching his stepson. “The idiot actually wants you to do it.”
“I value her opinion, Daddy.”
“Like I said,” the older man muttered, turning away. “Idiot.”
Tully caught a ride with Kyle back to the hotel and Bear met them out front. The witches were climbing out of Jamie’s SUV when Tully asked Bear, “Where are they?”
The grizzly, capable of catching a scent up to twenty miles away, lifted his head. He sniffed. Once. Twice. After the third, he nodded toward the west part of the resort. “Racquetball court.”
Tully and Kyle stared at Bear. Buck playing racquetball?
“Seriously?” Kyle finally asked.
“Yeah. Seriously.”
“Okay.” Tully turned in time to see Jamie walking off in that direction. In several long strides he was beside her. “Are you sure about this?”
“I thought you trusted my judgment.”
“I said I trusted your opinion. And we’re not talking about either here.”
“Well, you’re going to have to trust me, Marmaduke.”
“You make it impossible when you call me that.”
She grinned up at him and winked as she trudged forward. Tully was keeping up with her when he felt someone grab him from behind and pull him back. He turned and came eye to eye with Mac. “Why do you want to hurt me?” she asked.
“I didn’t know I was, darlin’.”
“This can’t go well.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know my cousin.”
“Was she a good cop?”
“She was an excellent cop. One of the best.”
“Then what’s there to worry about?”
“This isn’t about her helping strangers.”
“It isn’t?”
“Of course not. She’s doing this for you guys, which can only spell disaster.”
“Really? Because it doesn’t seem like your cousin has warmed too much to everybody ’round here.”
“Actually this is the friendliest I’ve ever seen her.”
Tully blinked a few times before he asked again, “Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
He shrugged. “All right then.”
Letting out a rather overly dramatic sigh, Mac pushed past him. Tully followed and they quickly caught up to the rest seconds before they made it to the courts.
Buck was nowhere in sight but his sons were. Buck had at least three sons—that everyone was aware of—and not one of them worth a damn. Of course, they felt the same way about Tully.
Not surprisingly, they didn’t find Buck’s boys by the racquetball court, but the archery range right next to it. The thought of his idiot half-brother Luther playing with a bow and arrow did nothing but deeply concern Tully.
Jamie walked up to Luther, smiled. “Is Buck around?”
“Nope.” Luther already had his bow loaded, the arrow nocked.
“Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“Nope.”
Tully rolled his eyes. Thank the Lord for his momma because obviously his ability to think, reason, and communicate clearly came from her.
“Is there someone else I can talk to?” Jamie asked. “Because you’re not fulfilling my needs.”
Tully heard a chuckle and was shocked to realize it came from Bear. The man didn’t laugh about much. It wasn’t in his nature.
Luther studied Jamie close, then his big, dumb gaze examined the rest of them. There was only Luther and Tully’s two other half-brothers, so maybe he wasn’t in the mood to fight because he politely told her, “Daddy will be back in an hour. You can talk to him then.”
“Great.” Jamie turned to head back when Luther suddenly raised his bow. Not at her, or even at the target, but straight up. Tully heard that telling cry and quickly said, “Luther. Don’t.”
The dumb junkyard dog looked right at him—a smile on his face that looked so much like Buck’s—and released the arrow.
Tully cringed when he heard the arrow hit its target, another cry echoing out as it fell to the ground.
Jamie stopped in her tracks and turned around, her eyes locking on the large bird no more than five feet from Luther.
When she only stood there, staring, Tully assumed she was in shock. Until she moved. No. She didn’t go after Luther, although Tully would have loved to have seen that. Instead Jamie went after Seneca—who was going after Luther.
Jamie reached for her friend, but the little witch dashed around Jamie’s arms and ran right up to Luther. She didn’t say anything, but she did punch him. Right in the chin since she couldn’t reach his face. Luther growled, his hand wrapping around Sen’s throat, lifting her off the ground.
Mac, Kenny, and Emma moved to each other’s side and Mac raised her hands, flames and lightning dancing at her fingertips. But before she could unleash anything, before she could wipe Luther out where he stood, Jamie made her move. Yet it wasn’t the one Tully expected.
Because he really hadn’t expected her to press her .380 to the back of Luther’s head. The safety off, her finger firm on the trigger.
“We’re all going to calm down now,” she said softly, her gun to Luther’s head but her eyes on her coven. “We’re all going to take a deep breath and we’re all going to calm down.”
Mac’s fingers curled into fists and the flames and lightning disappeared into her hands.
“You’re going to put my friend down now,” she said to Luther. And he did, releasing Seneca immediately. She stumbled a bit when her feet hit the ground, but she quickly turned toward Jamie’s falcon, kneeling beside it.
Luther was a hell of a shot, Tully would give him that. The arrow had gone right through that bird.
Keeping his voice even and controlled, Tully said to Luther, “Targets are real specific in Smithville, Luther Ray. Arrows aren’t supposed to be used on anything but the bull’s-eyes down at the other end of this range. You wanna hunt, then you shift and do it proper.”
“Just wanted to test my skill out, big brother,” Luther said with more than a little bit of sneering to his words. “Nothin’ personal about it.”
“Good,” a small, tear-filled voice said and Seneca looked over at Luther. “And this isn’t personal either.”
The petite woman drew her arms back then shoved them forward, a roar to rival any lioness bellowing out of her lungs, and Luther’s body went airborn, flipping back and into the concrete wall of one of the storage units. The other two idiots made a move toward Seneca and Jamie aimed her weapon at the closest one. “Don’t even…” she warned simply. They didn’t, stopping in their tracks, their eyes on her gun.
Seneca, growling like the most adorable kitten, stood and advanced on Luther.
Without turning her gaze away from Tully’s kin, Jamie barked, “Kenny.”
“Got her.” The dark-haired female grabbed hold of Seneca by wrapping her arms around the witch’s waist and lifting her off her feet. Kenny carried her friend back to the hotel, Seneca cussing the whole way.
Jamie briefly glanced at Tully and motioned to the bird lying on the ground. “Tully?”
He knelt down and looked at it. He’d be the first to admit he didn’t know anything about birds except which tasted good with barbeque sauce and which tasted better with lemon and butter, but he did know when something was alive and when it was dead.
“She’s still breathing, but we need to get her to a vet.”
Jamie nodded before glancing over at Bear.
“Y’all go,” the grizzly said. “I’ll take care of things here.”
“You need my gun?”
And Tully didn’t even have to look to know that Bear was smiling. “Darlin’…that’s the last thing I need.
“That didn’t go as well as I’d hoped,” Tully finally said to her after an hour of sitting in silence in the Colton City Veterinary Clinic waiting room, about forty-five minutes or so away from Smithville. He’d seemed surprised the bird had lasted the trip but Jamie wasn’t.
“I’m sorry about that,” she said.
“Sorry about what? Y’all didn’t do anything wrong. It was them.”
“It’s not like they knew or could even comprehend the relationship I have with Rico. You can’t really blame them. They thought they were just shootin’ a bird.”
“Exactly. That’s the problem. We have a cooperative relationship with birds. Mostly crows but they’re real loyal to their own. If we start shootin’ them out of the sky, they will turn on us in a heartbeat.”
“I didn’t realize.”
“Your bird shit on my head and lived to squawk about it. That wasn’t a clue?”
“Now see? I thought you let that go because you liked me so much.”
He leaned in until his shoulder pressed against hers. “She shit on my head.”
Laughing for the first time in a while, Jamie nodded. “I got it. I’m clear.”
“All right then.”
The vet walked out of the back, smiling at them. “Well, much to my surprise, it looks as if your bird is going to make it.”
Jamie widened her eyes and opened her mouth a little to give the impression this information really shocked her. “Are you sure?”
“I am!” the vet said. “Now, she is going to need a lot of care over the next few days.”
“Of course.”
“And I really should check, but do you have a falconers’ license?”
Jamie didn’t even know there was such a thing. “Well,” she decided to go with at least a partial truth, “she showed up one day and didn’t really leave. I didn’t know I needed a license.”
“Actually, one of you should have it. But I’m not going to make a big deal out of it. Just something to think about if you take her to another vet. They may ask a lot more questions.”
“No problem.”
“Okay.” The vet smiled. “We’ll have her ready for you in a bit and we’ll give you the medications you’ll need to care for her.”
“That’s great! Thank you!” Once the doctor walked out of the waiting room, Jamie let that painful fake smile drop. “I can’t believe I have to pay all that money for crap that bird doesn’t even need.”
“And why doesn’t she need it?”
“Seneca. She’s our resident healer. As soon as that arrow hit Rico, she unleashed a spell to heal her. Which also explains why she went off on…what’s his name?”
“Luther.”
“Yeah. Luther. There are side effects when you use all that magick, that fast, with no prep. For her it’s rage.” Jamie shook her head. “I need a falconer’s license. Are they kidding?”
Tully laughed but it died away as Jamie heard the tinkle sound of the bell at the front when the door opened and hit it. She looked up and watched the large, hulking man walk across the room toward them. He stopped in front of them and nodded at Tully before focusing on Jamie.
“Miss Jamie,” he said, holding his hand out. “The name’s Buck Smith, and I wanted to apologize about what happened earlier today.”
Tully didn’t know what his father was doing there but as he watched Jamie slip her hand into his grip, all he wanted to do was break the old wolf’s arm off at the shoulder.
“I’ll be dealing with my boys when I get back but I wanted you to know right up front that what happened wasn’t okay in my book.”
It wasn’t? Since when?
“I appreciate you coming here to tell me that yourself,” Jamie said. “It makes me feel a whole lot better about everything.”
She cannot be buying this.
“And I appreciate you giving me my say. I also expect you to add whatever you pay here to my bill.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“It is to me. You promise me that you’ll do that.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you.” He still held her hand, studying it before he released her, nodded at them both, and walked out.
Tully followed right behind him. As they neared the old coot’s truck, Tully asked, “What the hell are you up to, old man?”
Buck stopped and faced him. “I’m not up to anything. And watch how you talk to me, boy. I ain’t that feline you grew up with.”
And there he was. There was Buck Smith.
“You ain’t foolin’ me for a second.”
Buck smiled. “Don’t know what you mean…son.”
Tully growled while Buck walked around to the driver’s side of his pickup. He got inside and slammed the door shut, his arm resting on the frame of the open window. “You know, I’ve been thinkin’, maybe it’s time we put the past behind us.”
“Is that right?”
“It would make my Wanda real happy. She don’t like all this discourse.”
“Can you even spell discourse?”
“Funny. You were always real funny.” Buck started up his truck. “All I’m asking for is a chance. A chance to make it all right. You think on it.”
Tully stood in the parking lot for he didn’t know how long after his father had driven away. Other patients came in, the dogs snarling and snapping at him or cowering on their leashes, the cats hissing at him from their crates. A stallion horse, brought in for treatment in the back where they took the farm animals, busted out of his trailer before his owner could even get out of her truck and took off running down the street, half the vet staff running after him. And the whole time Tully didn’t move a muscle until Jamie came outside with a bandaged Rico in a makeshift crate and a bag of medicine hanging from her fist. She stopped beside him, studying him without saying a word.
“He says he wants to put the past behind us.”
Jamie shrugged. “Well—”
“Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear, Jamie,” he cut in, desperate to hear truth. Absolute truth. “Tell me what you feel.”
“What I feel?” She let out a breath. “I feel like I want a chocolate shake from the McDonald’s down the street. I feel that Rico is going to really milk the sympathy as long as she can. And I feel if your father had half a chance, he’d cut your throat and leave you bleeding out by the lake I accidentally poisoned. But what’s in your favor is that he wants something. And he’s not going to make a move until he gets it. But if you push him out now, he’ll only be back later. Maybe at a real bad time. I’m a big fan of waiting to see what people will do rather than simply reacting. Just make sure you’re ready for him. Anyway…that’s my opinion.” She tugged on his T-shirt. “Come on. Let’s get that shake.” Then suddenly, she surprised him and, he was guessing, herself, by going on her toes and kissing his cheek. Her brown eyes blinked wide and then she tossed out, trying to sound casual, “That’s for coming with me today. And for last night.”
And for the first time since his father had driven off, Tully suddenly saw everything around him in crystal perfection. The blue sky above, the dusty dirt at his feet, the stallion charging back up the opposite side of the street, the vet techs and owner still trying to catch him, and the amazing ass hanging out from the back passenger side of the SUV as Jamie placed the crate with her bird inside the vehicle. After a few minutes of outright rude ogling by him, he heard Jamie let out an annoyed sigh and she turned to face him. “Mind giving me a hand, Tully?”
He refused to move because he didn’t know what she wanted a hand with.
“She won’t settle down back here. I think you may have to hold her.”
The bird. She’s talking about the bird. Which was a good thing, because if she was talking about something else, they wouldn’t be leaving this parking lot for hours and Colton City was a family-friendly town. In the end it wouldn’t be right. It would be fun…but not right.
At least not yet.
Jamie parked her SUV and stepped out. She’d already taken Rico back home and left her walking on the furniture, pretending she was too weak to fly. Now Jamie was back at the hotel to check in with her coven. Especially Sen.
She walked up the porch stairs and was reaching for the door when she heard, “I talked to my boys. They’re real sorry ’bout what happened.”
She stopped and slowly faced Buck Smith. He sat in one of the rocking chairs that littered the wraparound porch. He watched her with eyes like his son’s. But he was bulkier than Tully, dangerously large. The kind of guy she’d never want to be caught alone in an alley with.
“It was just a misunderstanding.” She gave him the same smile she used to give perps she was sure had killed someone, but didn’t have the proof yet to prove it.
“You ain’t like the other covens.”
She walked over to him but didn’t get too close. There were just some people in the world she didn’t get too close to. Buck Smith was definitely one of them. “You could say that.”
“Y’all are definitely a lot prettier. Those Midwestern ones they had the last few years looked like they belonged behind a plow.”
Jamie’s laugh was real.
“So you and my boy together?”
That seemed an odd question coming from an uncaring father. “No. Just good friends.”
“Something tells me you don’t have a lot of friends.”
“And something tells me you don’t have any. But hey,” she said before he could reply, “that’s not why you’re here. You’re here to see your son. To mend that bridge. That’s what you told Tully, right?”
“Yeah. Right.”
He studied her and Jamie didn’t flinch, nor did she look away. She didn’t know what he was looking at or looking for but she’d be damned if she backed off of anyone. It was something she learned as a cop. Show any weakness and the scumbags would wipe you out before you took your next breath.
“There you are.” Wanda waved from the path leading to the hotel. The woman hadn’t even gotten ten feet when Jamie’s eyes watered. Does she bathe in that scent?
Maybe Jamie wouldn’t back off in a firefight or facing down Tully’s sperm donor, but she’d be damned if she’d stay around for that smell. By the time Wanda made it to the porch, Jamie was walking inside the hotel, closing the door firmly behind her. She sneezed twice and Emma grinned at her from the front desk.
“Wanda?” she asked.
“We’re totally going to have to fumigate her room when they leave.”
Tully relaxed back in the half-circle booth at his favorite bar. It wasn’t the fanciest one in town, but it was the most comfortable, had his favorite beer, and the best live reggae music anywhere on the East Coast.
As it turned out, soothing Caribbean sounds were just what he needed right now. He needed to be soothed. He needed to relax. Not easy when all he felt was uptight and stressed out because his father was up to something.
Tully sipped his beer, listened to the music, and let his mind turn until Kyle sat down on one side of him and Katie sat on the other.
“So how’s that bird?” Kyle asked before taking the beer out of Tully’s hand.
“Probably dive-bombing squirrels.”
Katie rested her head on Tully’s shoulder. “I think it’s so sweet, you going with Jamie to take care of her bird.”
“And, yep,” Kyle muttered, “said out loud it does sound stupid.”
Tully kissed the top of his baby sister’s head. “It was the right thing to do.”
“Why?” Kyle asked, placing the now-empty beer bottle back in Tully’s hand. “It’s not your fault. Seems to me if anyone went with her it should have been Luther.”
“Luther Ray Smith in the same car with Jamie Meacham?”
“Why not? Set up a camera in the car for that trip and we could have sold that mess to pay-per-view.”
The brothers laughed while Katie tugged on Tully’s long-sleeved T-shirt. “What’s going on with you and Jamie?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you sure? ’Cause if you’re going to get serious, she’s going to have to stop calling me Snaggle.”
“I’ll talk to her about that,” Tully said quickly and loudly to cover up Kyle’s laugh.
Jamie walked in to the bar and immediately stopped. “A reggae bar in the middle of Nowhere, North Carolina,” she said to her coven. “I find this a little frightening.”
Sen pushed past her, once again all smiles and cheer. Her rage from that afternoon already forgotten. “You’ve missed some bands! I told you to come with me before, but no. You never listen!” She stepped farther into the bar and a table full of enormous men called out her name.
“See you guys later!” She ran off and launched herself at the biggest male there.
“Bears,” Mac said next to Jamie.
“Polar, to be specific,” Kenny added.
“Where was I when this happened?”
“We’ve been asking ourselves that a lot lately.”
Jamie let out a breath, way too tired for this conversation. “Don’t start, Mac.”
“I wasn’t. You asked a question, I answered it.”
“Is it love?” Jamie asked.
“For now,” Emma said, looking around the bar until she caught sight of Kyle and walked off.
“I hope it lasts until next winter,” Kenny sighed out and both cousins turned to look at her.
“You want Sen to be happy and in love?” Jamie asked.
“Until winter time.”
Mac shrugged. “Why?”
“Because…I wanna be there when she finds her polar-bear sweetheart splayed out on one of the frozen man-made saltwater lakes, patiently waiting for one of those baby seals we’ll have flown in just for this reason to pop its head up so the polar can snatch it out of the ice cold water, tear it open, and devour it like a Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie.”
“She really drives you crazy doesn’t she?”
“Yes! Because no one should be that fucking perky and mean it!” She let out a breath, once again relaxed. “And on that note, I’m going home.” When Jamie frowned, she added, “Gaming.” As if that should explain everything and for Jamie and Mac…it did.
“You staying?” Jamie asked Mac.
“I could go for a drink.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” Jamie handed over the SUV keys to Kenny. “Take the car, we’ll walk back.”
“You sure?”
“Yep.”
Together Mac and Jamie headed toward the bar but Emma was motioning them over. When they ignored her, she yelled out, “Hey!”
Jamie sighed as the pair changed course. “Remember when she was the painfully shy, insecure one?”
“Heady days.”
“Now that she’s getting regular cock, she’s extremely pushy and demanding.”
“Magick cat cock,” her cousin whispered in her ear, which sounded so funny to Jamie she was still laughing when they arrived at the booth. And when Kyle said “Hey, y’all,” the laughing only got worse.
“What’s so funny?” Emma asked.
“Don’t mind her,” Mac said, pushing Jamie toward a chair.
“Wait,” Katie said, sliding out of the booth. “I want that seat.”
Mac stared at the chair. “Why?”
“Don’t argue.” Katie took Jamie’s arm and shoved her into the booth. Jamie had finally stopped laughing until she looked at who she was sitting next to. Tully winked at her and gave her the biggest, cheesiest grin—which made her start laughing all over again, this time Tully laughing with her.
“What?” Emma demanded.
“I can’t believe you actually ordered Long Island Iced Tea,” Tully said to Jamie as she sipped her drink. “That’s so cliché.”
Jamie reached over and picked up his beer bottle. She held it up with the Coors label showing and Tully shrugged. “If it’s good enough for NASCAR…”
“I don’t even know what that sentence means.”
“Yankee.”
“Hillbilly.”
Tully glared at her. “Do you know how wrong it is to call me that?”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I don’t even live in the hills.”
Rolling her eyes, Jamie handed him his beer and relaxed back into the booth.
“You look tired,” he told her.
“Gee, thanks.”
He leaned back until their shoulders were touching. “I don’t mean you look tired and old and it’s time to put you in a nice old folks’ home.”
“Is this your idea of a pep talk?”
“I just mean you look worn out.”
She sipped her drink. “Maybe I am. A little. Nothing to worry about.”
But he wasn’t sure he believed her.
“Are you getting enough sleep?”
“Are you seriously asking me about my sleep habits while we’re listening to pretty good reggae, enjoying our favorite alcoholic beverages, and have so many people around us to make fun of?”
“Yes. I am. You know I like to take care of you. Wipe your nose when you’ve got the sniffles. Feed you when you’re hungry…burp you when you’re gassy.”
“I don’t even have a response for that.”
His phone rang and while he pulled it out of his back pocket he said, “If you could excuse me a moment, beautiful. My adoring constituency is calling.”
“It’s your mother.”
Without looking at the caller ID, Tully said into the phone, “Momma?”
“Hi, sweetheart. Do you have a minute?”
“Yeah, Momma. Hold on.” He covered up the mouthpiece. “You freak me out.”
“You and so many others.”
Shaking his head, he went back to his call. “What’s up, Momma?”
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“It wasn’t me,” he responded automatically. Just like he’d been doing for the last twenty-five years. “It was Kyle. He’s evil, you know? He’s a cat.”
“What are you going on about?”
“I’m pawning the blame off on my idiot brother. That’s what I do.” Tully grinned at the cat who was glaring at him while the cute little witch sat in his lap.
“You just leave your brother alone, Tully Smith,” she laughed. “And nothing is wrong. But I did want to talk to you before I talk to your daddy.”
“Talk to me about what?”
“The call I got a little while ago. From your father.”
All the humor flooded out of him and he asked, “What did he want?”
“Now, pup, before you go gettin’ all upset, let me say he was ever so nice.” Tully knew it for fact. Knew his momma was the nicest woman on the planet. It was the Southern belle in her. The charming sweetness of her made more than one predatory female wonder how Millie MacClancy managed to live in a house with Tully, Kyle, and Jack without killing any of them. But that was her way and, on most, her innate kindness brought out the kindness in others. Even Jack Treharne. But Jack had proved himself to Tully a hundred times over. Buck had not. And Tully didn’t want that old bastard hanging around his momma until he did.
“I’m sure he was, Momma, but I still want to know why he was calling you at all.”
“He wants dinner.” Tully didn’t know he was snarling until he realized the witches at the table were all staring at him. Mac and Emma looked ready to bolt. Jamie just smirked. “Now calm down,” his mother went on. “He wants dinner with all of us. You, me, Jack, Kyle, Katie, Buck’s boys and Wanda.”
“Momma, I’ve got a lot going on right now. The Mayor’s Spring Dance is taking up a lot of my time and—”
“Tully, I know you don’t want to do this. I know and understand that. Really I do. But…I just…I just want…”
Hearing her struggle for words, Tully felt his heart break a little. “You don’t want it to seem like you tried to get between us.”
She let out a grateful breath. “Yes. Exactly. I understand if you don’t want to get too close to Buck. And in the end that’s going to be your decision. But one dinner to make sure that’s what you want…?”
Anyone else he’d turn them down flat. Anyone else, he’d laugh at them and tell them to go chase their tail. But this wasn’t just anyone. This was his momma. The woman who’d done everything to protect him. She loved him unconditionally and for that she deserved whatever she wanted. Especially when she rarely asked for anything except that high-powered vacuum for last Christmas and a half a pound of chocolates for Valentine’s Day because, to quote her, “I can’t eat a whole pound of chocolates! I have to watch my girlish figure.”
Yeah. For Millie MacClancy Treharne, she deserved whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it. “Of course, Momma. It’s just a little thing,” he said, using one of her favorite phrases. “I’ll definitely go have dinner with Buck. And so will Kyle and Katie. They can’t wait.”
His siblings glared at him from across the table and he smiled and winked.
He heard his mother let out a soft, relieved sigh. “Thank you, pup.”
“Anything for you, Momma. You know that.”
“And I appreciate that. But now I gotta get your daddy to agree.”
“You’re on your own with that, darlin’.”
“When it comes to Jack Treharne, I usually am.”
They said their good-byes and Tully disconnected the call. He carefully returned his phone to his back pocket, moved his beer and the bowl of chips out of his way, and then slammed his head onto the table.
The pain helped but not as much as he wanted it to.
Jamie put her arm around Tully’s shoulders as she wondered how the wood table had survived being attacked by such a remarkably hard head. “Buck up, little—” Tully turned his head so he could glare at her. “Okay. Wrong word to use. How about ‘chin up’?”
“Or I can kill him while he sleeps and avoid this dinner all together.”
“You should have told Momma no,” Katie chastised.
“Can you tell Momma no?” Kyle asked.
She crossed her eyes and grudgingly admitted, “No.”
“You should have the dinner at the hotel restaurant.” Jamie suggested.
“Why?” Kyle asked.
“If you guys meet Buck at the hotel he’s already staying at, you can leave whenever you want. If it’s going well, you can stay and enjoy Mac’s tolerable food.”
“Tolerable?” Mac snapped.
“If it’s going really well, you can enjoy my superb desserts.”
“I hate you more and more every day,” Mac muttered.
“But if it goes badly, you’re not stranding Buck anywhere. He and his sons are already there. You don’t have to worry about who’s carpooling with who or who needs directions back to the highway, yada yada. You wanna go, you go.”
Tully sat up, his pained expression gone. “You know…that’s a really good idea.”
She sipped her drink before admitting, “What can I say? I’ve had years of practice getting out of bad family dinners.”
Tully walked Jamie and Mac home, swinging by Mac’s place first and then heading into the woods toward the coast. Less than a mile from her house, Jamie stopped. When Tully faced her, she smiled and for some crazy reason, he thought she was about to kiss him. And he really wanted her to. He wanted her to kiss him so bad, he could actually taste her on his lips.
But instead she said, “Thanks for walking me.”
“I can take you all the way home.”
“That’s okay.”
He stepped in closer. “You afraid to take me to your house, Jamie? Afraid I won’t leave until morning?”
“The way this town works?” she laughed. “I know you won’t leave.
“Wow. You are cocky.”
“Not cocky. I just know how it works in Shifterville, USA. One night leads into another and into another until one day I look up and all your shit will be in my house and you’ll be wondering where your breakfast is.”
“Oh, come on.”
“I have seen this dance played out again and again for the last ten months I’ve been here, with couples who I wouldn’t in a million years imagine together. Sorry, handsome, but that won’t be me. I’ve done my time, paid my dues…” She patted his shoulder. “But thanks for thinking of me.”
She stepped away from him and was several feet away when she stopped and looked over her shoulder at him. “And don’t follow me to make sure I get home. That’s just creepy.”
He hated that she knew him so well.
Before walking the last stretch that led to her house, Jamie waited. She wanted to make sure Tully hadn’t followed her. She knew he’d do it just to protect her and while she appreciated it, she simply didn’t want to deal with the fallout from something like that. And the gods knew there’d be all sorts of fall out.
Confident the wolf had headed on home, Jamie took a breath and raised her hands. She held them palms up, her fingers spread out. She began to chant as she slowly moved the last bit to her home. By the time she was fifty or sixty feet away, they all turned toward her. The power she’d raised between her palms flashed hot and bright and she unleashed it. It flew from her and ripped around the perimeter of her house. When it was done, all was quiet but she knew they’d be back. Knew she’d get no rest tonight, as she’d gotten very little rest in the last few weeks.
Letting out an exhausted sigh, she walked into her house. Rico greeted her at the door, the gyrfalcon back to her old self.
“Hi, honey. I’m home.”
The bird squawked at her and Jamie turned in time to see that the spell she’d used—one of her most powerful—had only worked long enough to get her from the road to her house. What she’d sent away had not only returned, but there were more of them now.
One ran at her, charging up the porch stairs. Jamie stepped inside and slammed the door, sealing it shut with a word. But they were banging at the walls now. At the doors and windows. They wanted in, and they wouldn’t stop until they got in.
Swallowing down a bolt of panic, Jamie backed into her house and looked around. She was still safe inside although with all that racket, she’d never get any sleep. But if she couldn’t sleep, she could research. She went to the bookshelf where she kept her Grimoire and spell books. She pulled off her jacket while her gaze moved through the titles. One book stuck out from the rest but she ignored it. She knew what it would tell her to do to stop the onslaught happening outside her house. It would work too. It would stop all this once and for all.
But she’d made a promise to her cousin. Hell, she’d made a promise to herself. She wouldn’t break that promise now.
Still desperate, though, she grabbed other books, a handful of them and went into her living room. She turned her TV on loud and went to work, doing all she could to block out what was happening right outside her house.
For the next two days, Tully spent a bit of time between his Momma’s house and the hotel. He couldn’t believe he was spending more time arranging this stupid dinner rather than the Mayor’s Spring Dance that was coming up.
If nothing else, he got to spend a lot more time with Jamie. Unfortunately, it made him realize he’d been right. She was hiding something. And whatever she was hiding was exhausting her. That great sense of humor and natural sex appeal that drove him to distraction on most days was practically gone. Their discussions about the dinner were straightforward and businesslike, but nothing about Jamie was straightforward and businesslike. That’s why they always got along—because he was the same way.
Even when he’d teasingly mentioned her being his date for the dance—whether he was joking or not, he still didn’t know—Jamie didn’t react in any of the ways he’d expected. Instead of completely blowing him off or, even better, teasing him right back, which was what she’d normally do, she—in a very businesslike way—politely said “No, thank you.”
No, thank you? Who was this boring woman? Not the tart-tongue viper he’d found himself fantasizing about on more than one occasion, that was for sure. And he wanted his viper back. Now! He had enough going on with his father that the last thing he needed was Jamie acting like she’d been invaded by pod people.
He stopped in the middle of the dirt road that would lead him back to his house. Normally he’d go home, shift, and call his Pack to him for a hunt. But no. He needed to go see Jamie. He looked up at the sky. The sun was still up, so he’d wait until it was dark. No use in pissing her off unnecessarily since that was absolutely no fun.
Jamie used her own blood to reinforce the protections around her home. After that, she moved the furniture in her living room against the wall and set up a sacred space on the hardwood floor. Another reason she’d picked this house—the ginormous living room floor. Perfect for this sort of thing.
The circle made with sea salt took up most of the floor and a giant pentacle drawn inside that made up what she liked to call her “safe zone.” She left a small window in the bathroom open so that Rico could get in and out if she wanted to or, if things went horribly wrong, really needed to. After building a fire in the fireplace, Jamie ate a protein-and-carb-rich meal, took a shower, and slipped her favorite NY Islanders hockey jersey on over her naked body. By the time she sat in the middle of the pentacle, the sun was going down.
Wiping her mind clean and focusing on the energy and power within her body, Jamie called on the forces that could protect her. She felt those forces coming toward her, moving from the land, sea, air, and fire in and of this place. She would not call to those powers that could not be contained.
But as those she called neared and the darkness settled in, powerful energies rushed her home, sending those protective forces dashing off and leaving Jamie to once again fight for herself.
The front door was thrown open and without moving from her place on the floor, Jamie slammed it shut again. She felt hands touching her and she swung her arms out, a short but powerful spell on her lips. The energy around her dissipated but the banging started again. Powerful, tortuous banging against the walls, windows, and doors. She covered her ears, trying to block the sounds out, and the front door was thrown open again. She swung it closed by swiping her middle and forefinger through the air.
Then the banging began again.
It had only just begun, but she was already wondering how much more she could take.
Tully knew as soon as he arrived at Jamie’s territory. Like any good predator, her markings were clear and concise, even if they were magickal rather than something excreted from her glands. But as soon as he stepped onto her property, he knew something was wrong. When he could see her house, he stopped for a moment and stared. Then he trotted closer. There was a long single line of them, mostly male, a few female. He moved in closer to the one at the very end. He sniffed him. He could smell the energy. A little like live electricity. The man looked down at him.
“Piss off,” he snipped. “Shoo.”
Shoo?
On a whim, Tully tried to bite him. His jaws went straight through the man’s leg, the edges looking gauzy and luminous before closing up again. The man laughed. “Dumb dog.”
Snarling at the insult, Tully walked straight through the line toward Jamie’s house. As he did, the entities yelled at him and tried to swat him, and although he caused some discomfort from what he could tell, they couldn’t touch him. Even though they tried. As he made it to the front of the line, he saw a man shove Jamie’s front door open, ethereal muscles bulging as he cried out like he’d just done a dead lift of a thousand-pound weight. But as soon as the door swung open, it slammed closed again, sending the man flipping back until he hit a tree and vanished in a blast of sparks.
Yep. That was definitely an interesting sight. Kind of made the whole flying-hyenas thing a little less…shocking.
Another man headed up the stairs but Tully walked right through him—earning a snarled, “Flea-riddled bastard!”—and up to the porch. He pawed at the door a few times, nudged it with his nose, until he finally wrapped his mouth around the knob and turned while walking forward. The door wasn’t locked and opened easily for him. He wandered inside and when he saw a female trying to run in behind him, he kicked the door closed with his back legs.
Once inside, Tully walked into the living room. There was a large circle on the floor and inside that a large star. He sat outside the circle and studied Jamie closely. She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the star, her head down, her face drawn and tired. How long, exactly, was she expected to fight those outside? All night? He wasn’t sure she’d last another five minutes, much less the rest of the night.
Lifting his paw, he carefully pressed at the energy surrounding Jamie. He couldn’t see the energy, but he knew it was there. Could feel it. His paw, however, easily slipped in while causing no disruption to what she’d created. Satisfied, he walked toward her. He was only a foot or two from her when she looked up, her eyes blinking wide. He tilted his head to the side and she let out a shaky laugh. “That damn earring.”
Tully moved in closer, nuzzled her cheek with his snout, and eased around her. By the time he settled in behind her, he’d shifted back to human.
Powerful legs bracketed her legs, and muscular arms rested against her raised knees. He’d entered her circle and shifted to human. She had no idea why.
He grabbed hold of the chalice she’d brought with her into the circle and held the cup to her lips. “Drink up, beautiful.”
She did. She’d been so busy defending her territory she’d forgotten to keep hydrated.
“Better?”
She nodded. “You shouldn’t be here,” she told him.
“Why not?”
“Because when they get in here, there won’t be anything you can do, and I don’t want you to see what happens next.”
“You so sure they’ll get in here?”
“What is it? Ten o’clock? Maybe eleven? I can’t last until sunrise at this rate.”
He sighed. Big and heavy. “There has to be something you can do, because I’m not leaving.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not even eight yet, darlin’. So we need to find you some way out of this.”
If Jamie were a crier, she’d cry. With no shame she’d cry. Not even eight? Shit.
“What exactly is going on?” he asked against her ear. “And no more bullshit. Tell me straight.”
Not seeing the point in denying him the entire truth, Jamie thought for a moment, trying to find the best way to describe it to him. “Ever know a guy in high school who got shut down by some girl he liked? You know, he tried to ask her out and she turned him down flat.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“And maybe that guy, because he was so pissed off and wanted to get even, wrote on the boy’s bathroom wall, ‘Jenny gives great head’ and then put her number. And for a week, Jenny’s getting a bunch of calls on her parents’ phone asking for her to meet to have sex?”
Tully frowned. “Yeah.”
“Well, that’s kind of the situation I’m in.”
“I’m not sure I understand. You turned someone down?”
“I didn’t turn him down. I merely argued a point with him.”
“With who?”
“Aengus. He’s the Celtic god of love and youth.”
“And you argued a point with a god?”
“Just a little one.”
“Which was?”
“That love is nothing more than a psychotic reaction to really good sex.”
“You argue just to argue, don’t you?”
Jamie shrugged. “Sometimes.”
“And those…people outside who are trying to get to you want to…uh…”
“Fuck me? Maybe some of them. But what they really want is my power.” And what Aengus wanted from Jamie was to see her punished for daring to question him. He couldn’t touch her himself. Not while The Morrighan protected her, so he’d merely given out information to every mage, witch, and shaman in a thirty-billion radius. Like placing a target on her back for every seeker of power to hone in on and come after. “Aengus wants to push me. To get me to cross a line that will destroy me.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“To be honest, Tully…I have no fuckin’ clue.”
Seriously. Who else got into fights with love gods? Most women daydreamed about finding one, tried to turn their spouses and boyfriends into one, or wrote fictional accounts of meeting, seducing, and living happily ever after with one. But not Jamie Meacham. Nope. She started fights with them just…because.
And Tully didn’t think he’d have her any other way. If nothing else, she was damn entertaining.
“So the short of it is…you’re in a heap of trouble.”
“Pretty much.”
“Can’t your coven help?”
“Not without Aengus coming after them next.” Did she realize she’d relaxed back against him? Did she have any idea how good she felt? “Aengus wants me going through this all on my own. Without any help from them and without any help from you.”
Tully shrugged, trying hard to look innocent. “But…he doesn’t even know me.”
How the man managed to annoy and soothe her all at the same time, she had no idea. She just knew she was glad he was here with her while at the same time she wished he would leave. She’d prefer he not be here when it all went to hell. She had enough of an audience, thanks.
“We both know I’m not leaving you to face those things alone, beautiful. Might as well face it.”
“You can’t stay, Tully.”
“Why not?”
“Because once they get in…”
“It sounds like you’ve already given up.”
“Maybe I have,” she sighed.
“Well, don’t. Come on, beautiful. That devious mind of yours must have something left. Something we can use.”
“Yeah. Sure. Sacrifices,” she spit out. “An offering to Aengus in blood from an innocent victim. Certain animals are good, humans are even better.” She rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. “But I’m not doing that.” Because she knew that’s what Aengus wanted. She wouldn’t give him that. She wouldn’t hand him her soul just to protect her body.
“Well, I don’t want you to do that either.”
The banging started again and she covered her ears, not sure that Tully could hear anything. For all he knew she was just a psychotic having an “episode.”
“But there has to be something, Jamie. Anything,” he pushed, giving her a little shake, trying hard to help her, but she was so tired and the banging…
Jamie heard the distinctive cry of Rico and looked up to see her circling over their heads.
“What’s that bird holding?”
Before Jamie could answer, she ducked as Rico released a thick book right onto Tully’s head.
“Ow! That damn bird!”
She cringed even as she tried not to laugh. “I’m sorry.” Rico really hated him, and Jamie had no idea why.
Rubbing where the book had hit him with one hand, Tully reached for the tome with the other. Jamie glanced at the book, saw the title and, feeling a sudden surge of energy, made a mad grab for it. Tully caught hold of her, his arm tight around her waist, and held the book out of her reach with that long arm.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, eyeing her close.
“Nothing. Just give me the book.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m telling you to give me the book.”
Not surprisingly, he didn’t. He had to be the most contrary canine she’d ever dealt with. He did not take orders well. Instead he flipped the book over and looked at the cover.
“Sex Magick,” he read out loud. “Now, beautiful,” and she didn’t have to look at him to know the trifling bastard was grinning from ear to ear, “you know I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help you out. As many times as necessary.”
Tully would admit that the stupid bird was starting to grow on him. And he wouldn’t worry too much about whether it could read or not for the damn thing to grab this book from Jamie’s extensive library.
He held up the book and asked Jamie straight out, “Can this work or not?”
“Yeah,” she said on a sigh. “Yeah, it can work.”
“Then why haven’t you done it before now?”
“I need a partner.”
“Well, I’ve got that covered. What else?”
“Tully—”
“What else?”
“The gods are natural voyeurs but they’re not easy to please. We would need to be”—she cleared her throat—“entertaining.”
“Nothing to worry about. I can make anyone entertaining.”
She looked at him over her shoulder, one brow up. “I was worried about me making you entertaining.”
“You don’t have to throw down a gauntlet to get me to play along.”
Jamie laughed but shook her head. “It’s a very sweet offer, Tully, but I’m still going to say no.”
“Why?”
“Because this is still magick, Tully. And you’re a nice Christian…man-wolf thing.”
“Gee. Thanks.”
“I can’t get you involved in this,” she went on. “I won’t get you involved in this.”
“Seems you ain’t got much choice since I’m not going to leave you here by yourself to deal with whatever is outside that door.” He hated having to ask, but he did anyway. “If there’s someone else in town you’re more interested in and they’re not mated, I can call ’em and see if they’ll—owwww!”
Jamie jumped. “I didn’t say anything yet!”
“Not you. It’s that damn bird. Damn near pulled the hair from my head.” He glared up at the winged bastard now glaring at him from the top of Jamie’s bookcases. “What is her problem anyway?”
Jamie briefly closed her eyes, knowing exactly what was going on. When she spoke, it was to Rico. “Forget it.”
The bird’s feathers bristled and Tully said, “Maybe you shouldn’t piss her off. I like my eyes to stay in my head, thank you very much. Besides,” he added, leaning in close, “I like how her mind works. She knows this is the right thing to do. And so do you.”
“Look, most sex magick rituals involve couples who’ve been together for a bit.” Hell, was that the best argument she could come up with? And it would really help if he moved his lips away from the tip of her ear, the sensation made her want to squirm.
“Is that required?”
“No. But couples that aren’t so well acquainted get…tests done. You know? To make sure that—”
“Yeah. I know. Well, are you adverse to condoms?”
“Not on a daily basis, but latex in my power circle? Why don’t you bring in some acid rain too?”
Tully didn’t answer and for a brief, surprisingly sad moment, she thought she’d won the fight. Until he said, “Look, do you trust your bird or not?”
Slowly, Jamie turned her head to look at Tully and asked, “Did you just ask me that out loud?”
“Yes. And I enjoyed it so much, I’m asking it again. Do you trust your bird?”
Jamie lifted her hands and let them drop. She’d completely run out of fight at this point. It had all gotten too weird—and her nipples were hard. “Yes, Tully. I…trust my bird.”
“Do you think she’d do anything to hurt you? That she’d put you at risk?”
And, for one brief moment, she kind of hated the big, dumb hick. Because he’d found the perfect counterpoint to any argument she could come up with. Her connection to Rico was beyond owner and pet. The falcon had chosen Jamie, had guided her, aided her, and did what she could to protect her in all things magickal. Jamie knew, in her gut, that Rico would never harm her, never put her in a situation that would harm her.
And clearly, based on the way Rico’s feathers kept bristling, this was what Rico wanted for Jamie. Knew that it was the safest choice she could make at the moment. Perhaps the only choice at the moment that would protect her soul and…well…the rest of her.
The front door swung open and, with a healthy snarl, Jamie slammed it closed again with a swipe of her fingers.
She looked back at him and he noticed that she no longer appeared as weak, much less drawn. If arguing with him was already helping, he could just imagine what a good fuck between them could do.
“Fine,” she finally snapped, “let’s just get this over—owwww!” Jamie covered the side of her neck with her fingers.
“Lord, are you all—owwww!”
Pain shot through his neck and Tully glared at that damn bird again! What the hell did she think she was doing anyway? He wiped the spot she’d nipped with her beak and his fingers came away with blood.
“Your bird has lost its damn mind!”
The falcon dropped in front of them, outside of the pentacle, but still inside the circle. She spit a glob of blood on the floor—their blood mixed together, Tully was guessing—and using her talons, Rico dragged a line of blood around the pentacle until she’d created another circle. When she was done, she looked up at them and gave what Tully could only call a nod.
“You know,” Jamie said to the bird, “there was a much less painful way to do—”
The bird let out a high-pitched screech before its wings unfurled and it flew at them, talons first.
“Okay! Okay!” Jamie said when those talons moved a little too close to her eyes, her head buried against Tully’s chest. “Don’t yell at me!”
“It was more a squawk,” Tully observed.
“Shut up.”
“No call to get nasty.”
The bird went back to its perch on the bookshelves and watched them.
“So is that it?” he asked.
“Except for the main event…pretty much. She created a circle of protection all on her own, so I don’t have to bother. How kind,” she sneered at Rico.
“Don’t get that bird angry, woman. She’s psychotic. And can she create birth control? You know, magickally?”
“What?”
“I like ya, Jamie, but…”
“I’m on the Pill, chief.”
He reached around her and clapped his hands together. “Then let’s get this thing started!”
“First off, feel free to curb your abundant enthusiasm. You’re making me nervous.”
“Sorry.”
“And second, I don’t want any regrets from you come morning.”
“Regrets?”
“Whining. Complaining. Don’t act like I took advantage of you and do not get attached. Understand?”
“Will I have horns?” he asked.
Jamie rubbed her temples with the tips of her fingers. “What?”
“When we’re done…will I have horns?” A completely legitimate question in his estimation.
“No.”
“Will I be alive to relive this in my fantasies? Or will my mind be wiped clean, so all that’s left is an exquisite but useless shell of my former self? Wandering around town all day…drooling?”
“How’s that different from what you do now?”
Grateful to hear the cruel teasing of Jamie Meacham, he grabbed her waist to tickle her, but she begged, “No tickling!”
“And,” he went on, “will I still have all my important bits and pieces? Especially the one currently pressing into your back, since I am so fond of it.”
“Yes, you’ll have all your bits and pieces.” And he knew she wanted to add, “You asshole.”
“Then I think we’re ready to roll.”
“This isn’t a road trip, Tully,” and she sounded just like a chastising mother. “This is sex magick. That means all I need from you is a hard cock, a decent amount of stamina, and enough skill to get me off at least once.” Well…that last part didn’t sound too motherly.
“Hmm…” he said thoughtfully, trying hard not to laugh, “I think I can manage that.”
Jamie focused across the room and blew out a breath. “Great.”
Jamie didn’t know what was happening. How everything had gotten so out of control in such a short amount of time. And now it seemed as if there was only one way to get herself out of it. She glanced at the man sitting behind her.
Well, things could definitely be worse.
At least he was gorgeous and the steel pipe currently pressing into her back suggested he could handle the basics of the act. She’d have to run the show, of course, because entertaining gods was not an easy task for any mortal. After traversing the earth for millennia after millennia, they’d seen everything and seen it more than once. It wasn’t that they always needed porn-quality entertainment. Long-term couples often received the gods’ blessings because of the emotion behind the act, because of the love the partners held for each other. Since there was none of that here at the moment, Jamie and Tully would have to go with skill.
It had been at least a decade, maybe more, since Jamie had done this sort of thing but she had little choice at this point. Especially since even the bird was now in on it.
Already feeling a bit of her energy returning, Jamie decided to get this thing moving. She tried to sit up so she could face Tully, but the arm he had around her waist held her in place. His free arm came around and the tips of his fingers brushed along her cheek, her jaw. He gripped her chin and turned her face toward him. He studied her a long moment before his head lowered and his lips touched hers.
It was a sweet kiss, taking Jamie by surprise. But it also made her uncomfortable. She didn’t want to confuse the issue. They had one goal here and she was determined to see it through as quickly and efficiently as possible. She dragged her tongue along his lips and when his mouth opened, she dived in, boldly stroking the inside of his mouth.
He groaned and Jamie again tried to pull herself up and away so she could push him to his back and take over, but the arm around her only tightened. He was fighting her and she didn’t know why. She would have asked him, too, if their kiss hadn’t turned from sweet to urgent, Tully’s tongue pushing past hers and invading her mouth.
He began to move, going to his knees and bringing her up with him. His free hand slid down her chest, briefly stopping to stroke her breasts before continuing down past her stomach and sliding between her legs. Jamie let out a whimper as his fingers caressed her. She gripped his arm but didn’t try to stop him. She didn’t want to stop him. It felt really good.
If he was trying to get her wet, she was there, but again, he didn’t seem to be in any rush. One of his fingers dipped inside her, followed by another. She groaned, her hips pushing down on his hand. He pulled his mouth away from her and the hand around her waist released her long enough to move up to her hair. He took firm hold and tugged her head back. He kissed her again, then said, “I am dying to see you come.”
The grip at the nape of her neck tightened and his gaze traveled down the length of her body.
“Pull your shirt up a bit, beautiful. I wanna see everything.”
Following his direction, she grabbed the hem of her jersey and pulled it up until it was under her breasts.
“You are damn luscious, Jamie Meacham.” She might have had a response if she wasn’t so busy panting, her body rolling with each thrust of his fingers. He tugged again on her hair and she bent farther back. “Pull your shirt up higher. Over your breasts.”
Again, following his directions without wondering why, she did what he asked. “Thank you,” he murmured before his warm mouth wrapped around her nipple and began to suck.
With her hands holding her shirt and her body bent back in such an awkward position, Jamie realized she couldn’t do anything at the moment except feel what he was doing to her.
And, uh…what he was doing to her felt really good.
Even with his mouth on her breast, Tully couldn’t look away from the sight of his hand stroking in and out of Jamie’s pussy. He’d never felt anything so hot and wet before. So damn tight. The way she squeezed his fingers was making him absolutely insane. He wanted to make her come like this. He wanted to stand here and watch her writhe all over his hand. But it wasn’t the right time yet. She needed more.
Before he pulled out of her, he used his thumb to slowly caress her clit until he felt her legs begin to shake. That’s when he stopped.
She let out a strained moan and he felt her tense in his arms. Before she could pull away—something she’d been trying to do since they’d started down this road—he lifted her shirt up and off and chucked it outside the circle. He then spread her out on the floor before lifting up her legs and placing them on his shoulders. Rather than going down on her, he pulled her up until she rested on her shoulders. He nuzzled his nose against her clit, heard her whimper and knew she was still too close. He brought his mouth down and slid his tongue inside her. She gasped, her hands slapping down against the hardwood floor, her back arching as he fucked her pussy with his mouth and tongue. She wiggled her hips and he gripped her legs tight, not wanting her to move until he let her. He liked having her like this—trapped and wet and at his mercy.
He licked and nipped until she was clawing at the floor, then he sucked her clit into his mouth and nursed it between his lips until her body tightened again—and that’s when he stopped.
Jamie slammed her fists down on the floor. The sound seemed magnified, rolling through the room and right out of the house. He thought he heard screams from outside, but he wasn’t sure and he was too desperate to really care.
He knew when they started this they were doing it for some reason, but damn if he could remember what that was now. In fact, he couldn’t think past the woman in his arms.
Tully placed her legs on the floor and leaned over her, his hand cupping her cheek. He gazed down at her and she shook her head. “Don’t, Tully.” But he couldn’t stop himself. And he didn’t really want to. He lowered himself down, stretching out. He didn’t lay on top of her, but to the side, his right leg pressed between her thighs, his hand caressing her face.
“Damn, you’re beautiful.”
“This”—she swallowed, took a breath—“this isn’t going to help anything.”
“Help what?” Then he was kissing her, slow and easy like he had all the time in the world. She tried to turn away, but his hand against her cheek kept her right where she was and the knee pressing against her pussy, kept her right on edge. He kissed her until she kissed him back and that’s when he felt confident enough to move his hand from her cheek and slide it down her body. He teased her nipples, stroked her belly while he continued to kiss her mouth. He languished in the beauty of her, reveling in everything about her.
When he knew he needed more, that he could no longer wait, she had her hands dug in his hair and her hips rocking back and forth, her pussy working on his knee. He had no idea how long they were like that, simply enjoying each other. But he knew when it was time to move, rolling her onto her stomach, sliding his arms under her, he lifted her up until she was on her knees. She braced herself with her hands but he wanted control of her pleasure so he caught hold of her hands and pulled her arms around until he had them at the small of her back. He gripped both wrists in one hand while he took his cock and led it to her pussy. Tully had never been inside a woman without a condom, not even as a teen popping his cherry for the first time, and the thought he was about to do it now and do it with Jamie had him so hard it was painful.
Placing the head of his cock against the mouth of her pussy, he pressed in far enough so he could move his hand away. Once done, he straightened up, his free hand siding across her back. Her pussy clenched hard and Tully’s eyes crossed at the sensation. He took a breath, gave himself a moment, and then shoved his hips forward, his cock powering into her.
They both gasped out, Jamie whimpering after as Tully held himself for a long moment inside her. His head thrown back, his breath coming out hard, he had to admit, he didn’t know if he would ever experience anything more astounding than being inside this woman. Then again, maybe that was just his cock talking, because it was so damn happy.
Jamie’s fingers wiggled in his grasp and he understood she was more than ready. Tully tightened his grip on her wrists and gripped her right shoulder with his free hand, holding her steady for him. He pulled his hips back and then slammed them forward.
Jamie cried out. And she did it again each time he pushed into her, each time he took her. When it sounded like she was about to come, he stopped pushing and instead slowly ground his hips against her. After the third time, she panted out, “Tully, come on. Please!”
Unable to wait any longer, he released his grip on her shoulder and brought his hand down between her thighs. He brushed his fingers against her clit and Jamie’s body immediately began to shake. He pounded into her while his fingers drew the orgasm from her.
When it came, it was as powerful as a hurricane, her entire body tightening before she exploded around him, her pussy clamping down on his cock like an industrial-strength vise. He let go a shout and, with his fingers keeping Jamie’s orgasm going, he came hard inside her, his toes curling, his body shuddering over hers. When he was completely spent, he crashed on top of her and, assuming it was his mind playing tricks on him, as soon as their skin touched light exploded all around them, blasting from their joined bodies and bursting through the room and out of the house.
It was the last thing he remembered, too, before everything went black.
Jamie heard the banging at the door but she was relieved to realize it was merely a human being at her door rather than something…else.
A bit confused—for instance, why was she naked in her living room?—she glanced around but the brightness coming from outside the windows made it impossible for her morning gaze to take in any details. Although she did realize one thing—she wasn’t alone.
She glanced over and saw Tully Smith sleeping next to her. He was turned away, his arms around him like he was cold. Then again…she was cold. Freezing cold. Maybe the AC kicked on during the night. She didn’t know and she didn’t really care at the moment because the banging started up again.
“Yeah, yeah. Hold on.” She stood and was about to open the circle she’d created the night before…but it was gone. The blood, the salt, the raw power. All of it gone. That was strange. Most times the power of her circles lasted for twenty-four hours unless it was taken down by someone else. And the items she used to visually create the circle lasted until she cleaned them up. She examined the room and didn’t see anything that suggested those who’d wanted in had gotten in. She even took a moment to go inside herself and she was pretty confident there was no one else in there.
She got to her feet and walked over to the couch, grabbing a blanket. She wrapped it around her naked body and walked to the front door. It was slow going, though, with her body feeling sore as if she’d run a marathon the day before.
Arriving at the door, Jamie cleared her throat and opened it. She looked at the huge expanse of chest taking up her doorway and raised her gaze up to what had to be nearly seven feet of cranky male.
“Hi, Sheriff.”
“Miss Jamie,” he said with that unbelievably low voice and with a tip of his head, his fingers touching the brim of his Sheriff’s Department baseball cap. She had to admit, no matter how cranky the man ever got, he was always so damn polite. The perfect Southern gentleman.
She blew out a breath which tossed the hair covering her face out of the way. “What can I do for you?”
“Explain something to me.”
“If I can.”
“Why’s there snow? And cold?”
Jamie frowned. “Sorry?”
“Snow, Miss Jamie. In the middle of May.”
Jamie shrugged. “Freak storm?”
“I’d believe that except”—he moved his shoulder so she could see over it—“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many flowers blossom during a freak snow storm.”
Jamie stepped into the doorway and looked at either end of her porch since Bear didn’t seem to be in a mood to move out of her way more than he already had. She was wide awake now. Wide awake and shocked. Especially since she didn’t have flowers in her garden. She hadn’t been in the mood to try, so she hadn’t bothered. Now she had a fucking garden covering the front and sides of her house, down the path and into the woods.
“It’s all over town,” the cranky male went on. “Flowers and snow damn near everywhere. I was hoping you could explain that to me.”
“Uh…” Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
“What’s going on?” that voice said behind her and Jamie cringed, wondering why the damn wolf couldn’t stay put until she’d gotten rid of McMahon.
The sheriff eyed Tully, then eyed Jamie. Then he eyed Tully being naked except for one of her blankets around his hips. Then he eyed Jamie being naked except for the blanket she wore.
“I’m hoping this isn’t some kind of trouble I need to worry about, Miss Jamie,” Bear finally said.
“Uh, no. The snow will melt and, uh, the flowers can always be removed. Or kept, if someone wants to. Should bring them years of enjoyment.”
He grunted—no, really, he grunted—and turned away from her. She watched him walk down her porch steps and, as he moved lower and lower, she saw what had been behind him the entire time…her coven.
Their gazes moved back and forth between her and Tully, even while their expressions remained frustratingly blank. They were all dressed in thick winter clothing and sipping Starbucks coffee from those paper cups except Kenny who had her own steel travel mug since she had what could only be called a serious addiction to overpriced coffee beans from foreign countries.
Bear, with a nod to the coven, walked around his inhumanly and not-very-PC SUV, got in, and drove away.
Tully stepped into the doorway beside her. “I guess it worked then, huh?”
“Seems so.”
“Good. Will they be back?”
“Doubt it.”
“All right.”
They turned at the same time and faced each other.
“Jamie—” he began.
“Thanks,” she said softly.
Then she shoved him out onto the porch, closed and locked her door, and headed off to the shower.
Tully slid to a stop on the front porch, a few splinters digging into the bottom of his left foot. The door slammed behind him and he spun around in time to hear locks turned. His mouth open, he stared at that closed door. She’d just thrown him out of her house. No breakfast, no morning fuckin’, no nothing! He’d been treated better by she-lions the morning after too much tequila and barbeque at the Fourth of July Smithville Annual Picnic.
Not only that—but there was snow on the ground! She’d thrown him out in the snow!
Tully glared at the door again, debating whether he wanted to simply pick the locks or kick the dang door in. But before he could do either, Mac was beside him, pulling out her own keys and opening the door. She stepped inside, holding the door open as the rest of the coven walked in. They all looked at him as they walked by but no one, not even little Emma, said a word to him. And when Kenny, the last, finally made it inside, Mac stared at him for a long moment before she shook her head and quietly closed the door in his face.
He’d just been dismissed. By witches! Tossed out like yesterday’s trash. And to be quite honest, he didn’t like the feeling at all.
But it wasn’t that simple, was it? It was Jamie that had him frowning, something he prided himself on not doing much of since most of the men in his family—blood and family by marriage—seemed to have been born frowning. It was the High Priestess who had him wanting to kick that door back open, toss those other witches out, before slamming Jamie up against the wall and fucking her blind. Making her come until she screamed his name so that everyone in town heard it and knew…knew…
Lord.
And knew who she belonged to.
The one thing she said she didn’t want to happen. The one thing she said she had absolutely no interest in. She didn’t want to be “attached,” was her word. And she’d said the word the same way he said “taxes” in April.
Tully shook his head. Good Lord, what was he doing? It was one night. One time.
Deciding the last thing he needed to do was go back in that house, Tully raised his foot and pulled out the splinters before shifting to wolf and heading off the witch’s territory.
Jamie stepped out of her shower. She’d scrubbed every bit of Tully Smith off her but she could still feel him everywhere. Inside and out. And she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it because once she was done, she was done. Even with her ex-husband, she didn’t sit around feeling him after they’d gone a round or two. She’d forget him as soon as she turned over—and she liked things that way. She considered it a skill actually, and appreciated it as such. So where was her skill now?
Wrapping a towel around her, she walked into her bedroom and found her coven sprawled on her bed, floor, and witch’s chest. Sen held up a cup of coffee for her and Jamie gratefully took it. They all watched her as she sipped her coffee and she watched them back.
She wasn’t exactly sure how long that went on for but finally Jamie said, “Well?”
Mac, sitting on the old witch’s chest that held all of Jamie’s most-used witch items, raised her leg until the heel of her boot rested at the edge of the chest, her arm around her knee. “Well…I have to say we’re damn proud of you right now.”
Jamie didn’t think anything could have surprised her more as that one sentence, especially coming from her cousin. But she hadn’t counted on the sentence that followed.
“Because I had money on you sacrificing a human to get out of this thing with Aengus. It never occurred to me you’d go with sex magick.”
“We’re so relieved we didn’t have to kill you first!” Sen said with a happy clap of her hands. And all Jamie could do as she looked into those beaming faces was stare.
Tully was stretched out on a large boulder when he saw his parents. They were both bundled up in their winter clothes and his mother clutched a bunch of flowers in one hand while she held his daddy’s hand with the other. They were laughing and chatting, simply enjoying the day as was the rest of the town. As Tully had headed over here, he’d seen his neighbors building snowmen, having snowball fights, sledding down hills, and hunting down elk until snow in some of the prime hunting spots was drenched in blood. If anyone was concerned about the fact that there’d been a sudden snow storm combined with a burst of seasonal and unseasonal bloomings it didn’t show at all.
His momma spotted him first, grinning and waving at him as Jack walked her over.
“Mornin’, my pup.” She kissed his forehead and scratched his neck until his back leg tore at the boulder he was on, leaving marks. “Wonderful day, isn’t it?”
Tully barked in reply and she kissed him again. “I’m going over there to get some of those blue flowers. They’re so pretty!”
“Careful now,” Jack cautioned her before he leaned back against the boulder, his arms crossed over his chest. “This is all just weird. Your momma loves it, but the snow and the flowers…I think it’s weird.”
Tully laughed, the sound coming out as a soft bark.
“I’ve never liked any of this witch stuff. Doesn’t seem natural, if you ask me.”
But shifting from human to a four-legged puma…completely natural.
“But they have a purpose here, so I won’t bother complaining.”
You complain when you breathe.
“Anyway, when I saw all this when I woke up, I called up the other Elders and Miss Gwen had Bear look into it. Kind of surprised to hear you were at that woman’s house. Naked.”
I’ve never been a fan of fucking while clothed.
Jack stared down at him. “You going to answer me or you going to sit there looking like a big, dumb dog?”
Tully shifted. “Not sure what you want me to say.”
“You had something to do with all this?”
“I was there to offer a helpful—”
“Cock?”
“I was going to say hand.”
“I’m sure either word will do.” Jack shook his head. “I don’t know what you were thinking. Involving yourself with that woman.”
“I’m not involved with anything, Daddy. She threw me out after Bear left.”
“That surprises you?”
“A little.”
“She’s a cold girl, no matter how much she smiles. You’re just lucky she didn’t shoot you in the back of the head when she was done with you.”
“She’s not that bad.”
“I’m bettin’ you’re the only one who thinks so.”
“You’ve never liked her.”
He shrugged. “Don’t need to. It ain’t my job to like anybody.” Jack glanced at him. “And you’re a fool if you think you’ll be the one to break her.”
“Who says I’m trying to break her?”
“It’s the only way you’ll hold on to someone like her. She’s like a wild mustang who only lets you get right up to her so she can kick you in the head.”
“Thanks. You’ve made me feel so much better.”
“That ain’t my job either.”
“Come on, Jackie!” Millie called out, her cheeks bright red from the cold. “Let’s go into town and get hot chocolate before it warms up again.” She frowned at her son. “Lord, Tully! Put some clothes on before you catch your death!”
“Yes’m.”
Jack stood straight, watching Tully’s momma in a way that her son still wasn’t comfortable with. The feline could at least hide that sort of thing from her only boy!
“You sure about that dinner with Buck?” Jack asked.
“No. But we’ll all be there. I’ll make sure Momma’s safe.”
“That man’s here for a reason, but I don’t think it’s your momma. Not this time.”
“He says he wants to mend bridges or some such horseshit.”
“Do you believe him?”
“Let’s just say I’m watching my back.”
Jack nodded and followed after Tully’s momma. “I’m glad you’re doing something.”
“Thanks for the support, Daddy.”
“Whatever.”
Jamie, bundled up in her jeans, NY Knicks sweatshirt, boots, and fur-lined parka, stomped through the snow-covered forest, her coven behind her.
“I didn’t think you’d take this so personally,” Mac called after her.
“You’re right,” she snapped back. “Why should I take it personally that those closest to me think I’m a murdering sociopath?”
“We don’t think that,” Emma said.
“It’s not a big deal,” Jamie lied. “It actually allows me to unleash my true homicidal tendencies. I think I’ll wipe the town clean and then move on to the world!”
“Jamie!” Mac grabbed her jacket and swung her around. “Would you stop?”
“I don’t wanna stop. I wanna walk.”
“Can’t we just talk?” Sen begged. “For a minute. Please?”
“What’s there to say?”
Mac threw up her hands. “Look, I didn’t mean to say—”
“That my own cousin thinks I’d kill those of innocent blood? ’Cause that’s kind of what you said.”
“I didn’t mean it like—”
“And you knew!” she accused. “You knew what Aengus was doing. But you were so busy testing me—”
“I needed to know what you’d do. How far you’d go.”
“Aaah!” Jamie yelled, startling the four women as her hands waved around as if to ward her coven off. “Get out of my face! All of you!”
“Jamie—”
“Rico!” The falcon dropped down between Jamie and her coven. “Don’t let ’em follow me.”
Rico lifted her talons and flew at the four women. Ignoring their screams of panic, and the sounds of running, Jamie spun on her heel and stormed off, her boots stomping through the snow.
She didn’t know why she was so angry, but wow. Wow! How could she not see it? How could she not see that her coven thought so little of her? Well now she knew, didn’t she? And she was glad she did. Because this opened up doorways for her, didn’t it? She didn’t have to worry about them anymore. She didn’t have to worry she’d disappoint them or put them in danger or anything else. Now she knew she should have been a solitary all along. They’d been holding her back! Well, no more!
From now on she was going to be the witch they thought she was. She was going to be cruel and thoughtless and bloodthirsty and destroy any and everything in her way!
Nothing would stop her! Absolutely nothing!
And to prove it…
Jamie stopped walking, spotting a young deer quietly munching on tall grass shooting up through the snow. A worthy blood sacrifice. First she’d take its soul and then she’d take its blood.
She moved closer and the animal didn’t scamper away. Good. It was a foolish animal to trust her, but so what? She’d been just as foolish to trust her coven. But she wouldn’t be making that mistake again either.
Once Jamie stood over it, she raised her hands and silently called to the powers inside her. That was all she’d need to destroy it. The power inside her and the will to use it. And she had the will. She did. Just watch her.
Yep. She was going to do this.
Right now.
Any second.
Just watch her.
The deer stepped away from the grass and over to Jamie. It pushed up against her legs and waited.
Her shoulders slumped and Jamie reached down, brushing her hand over the deer’s head. Stretching its neck up, it licked her hand before walking off.
“I’m so useless,” she muttered, turning to watch it walk off but instead seeing it tackled from the side and slammed to the ground.
“No!” she screamed out. “No, no, no!”
The wolf stopped, its muzzle wrapped around the back of the deer’s neck, its amber-colored eyes wide in surprise, and its simple gold earring hanging from the tip of its ear.
“Let it go,” she said and Tully’s wide eyes narrowed. “Please.”
It was strange to hear a wolf sigh in clear annoyance and see it roll its eyes. No. It wasn’t strange…it was weird.
Tully released the deer and it took off running, blood streaming down its neck.
When she knew the deer was gone, Jamie said, “Thanks,” and started off again. But she only got a few feet when she stopped and stood there. She had no idea where she had been going earlier and no idea where she wanted to go now.
Back to New York?
Of course, she’d never be able to afford to buy back her condo or any real estate property in that overpriced state, and living with her parents or siblings, even temporarily, was equivalent to the short time she’d spent in hell. So where would she go? What would she do?
And then it hit her…that for the first time in Jamie’s life she felt lonely. She’d always been alone, the nature of her personality and innate power making it almost a necessity, so she was quite used to it. But she’d never been lonely. Yet standing in the middle of a town with people she wasn’t close to, a coven that thought the worst of her, and nothing to distract her, like books or TV, Jamie felt nothing but painfully lonely. And she hated it.
She blinked in surprise when she felt teeth—fangs really—grip her hand. She glanced down and was relieved to see that Tully wasn’t about to rip her arm off. Instead he gave a tug, which she initially ignored. But Tully was like her and not easily dissuaded, so he tugged a few more times until she started walking.
“Is there a reason you won’t shift back to human? Have you grown shy?” He snorted, finally releasing her hand when he seemed confident she would walk with him wherever he led.
She glanced around at the snow and couldn’t help but smile a little. “Worried the cold will make you less of a man to me?”
He nipped at her leg and then pushed his large wolf body into her hip, making her laugh a little.
Jamie didn’t know how long they walked but she knew she was getting tired, proving it was time to get back on the treadmill. Since leaving her job in law enforcement and spending the majority of her time on metaphysical planes where her mind had way more control than her body, she’d not kept up her physical strength training at all. And for the first time…she felt it.
Eventually, they made it to a dirt road. It was barely big enough for a vehicle and Jamie guessed it was the road Tully took everyday from his house to wherever he ambled to. After ten months, she realized she’d never seen where Tully lived. She imagined his place looked a lot like Kyle’s, which was an extremely large wood cabin that Emma absolutely adored. It was rustic but with all the necessary equipment like working toilets and electricity. Then again, maybe Tully wanted something a little less permanent. There were two Packs of wild dogs that called Smithville home. One Pack lived in an enormous plantation-type place near the edge of town, but the other lived in RVs and trailers. Every nine months or so, they’d pack up and ship out…for about ten or twenty miles, then settle down again. It was weird but to be blunt…the wild dogs were always weird. Cute, but weird.
Of course, the way Tully seemed always to be roaming around town, she could easily imagine him having an RV as his…
Jamie stopped as they came around the last bend, her gaze moving up, her mouth hanging open.
Tully kept going, right to the front glass doors. He slapped at the stainless steel door handle with his paw. The door opened and he walked inside. But Jamie didn’t move. She couldn’t. Not with her gaze still fastened to what was in front of her. Three stories of glass, metal, and wood combined into what had to be the most amazing piece of modern architecture she’d ever seen.
After a few minutes, Tully stuck his head out the door. When he saw her still standing there, he trotted back outside and around her. His head pushed into her butt, making Jamie squeak in surprise before the continued pressure had her walking forward into the house. The door closed behind her and now-human Tully walked around her.
“Make yourself at home, beautiful. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
He disappeared up a set of stairs and Jamie decided to follow Tully’s example and amble around. All the floors were made of hardwood and there were big, glass windows in every room. The kitchen made her drool with all that hard, shiny chrome and marble counters while the first-floor half-bath was nothing short of exquisite.
Okay, she’d be the first to admit it…Tully’s house was amazing. Not just nice or pretty or even fancy. It was beyond that. Yet, and this was what she found most shocking, it looked lived in. Her desire to stretch out on his shockingly oversized, light-colored couch nearly overwhelmed her and she instinctively knew he’d let her put her feet up on his tempered glass coffee table.
Done with the first floor, she went to the second. There were several elegant bedrooms, each with its own bath, and at the end of the hall was a really large office. It looked out over the ocean and Jamie could only let out a breath at the view. Shaking her head, she started out and then caught sight of the framed documents Tully had on his wall. She walked over and examined them closely before quickly heading out of the room and up to the third floor. There were only two rooms up here. One a bedroom and the other a bathroom. It was the bathroom she went to, walking in and all the way across the room to get to the shower. It was not a short trip.
She snatched the glass door open and stared at Tully.
Covered in soap and grinning, he asked, “Coming to join me, beautiful?”
“You went to Dartmouth? College?”
He blinked in surprise. “Only for undergrad.”
She took a small step back. “And then Cornell?”
“To get my master’s.”
“In…”
“In architecture.” His smile came back. “How’d you figure that out?”
Jamie sized up the wolf before her. “Are you T. R. Smith? Of the T.R. Smith Design Group?”
His smile became a little bashful and she wanted to punch his face in. “Yeah. I am.”
Shocked and disgusted, Jamie slammed the shower door in his face and stormed off.
Tully had no idea what happened but he’d be damned if he’d let her storm off after all that.
She was already outside and stomping down his dirt road when he ran out in front of her. He’d shifted back, in no mood to deal with the cold. His fur was wet and he was damn unhappy about it all.
Jamie stopped when he skidded to a halt in front of her but tried to step around him. He snarled, bared his fangs. She snorted and rolled her eyes, which seemed a very Yankee kind of thing to do.
“Just move,” she ordered and again tried to walk around him. He stayed in front of her and then shook out his wet fur. Jamie squealed, her hands covering her face. “Stop that!”
He did but took the moment to grab the back of her jacket and yank her to the ground. Then, with his grip tight, he dragged her back to his house.
She kicked and screamed and he knew she wanted to hex him or something but he also knew she wouldn’t dare with him as wolf and since he hadn’t drawn blood yet. See? That’s what he tried to teach his daddy. It was always good to know a little something about “all that witch stuff” because you never knew when you’d need the information.
Once he had her back in the house, he decided there was only one way to keep her here until they were done talking. He had to get her naked. Which he did by shredding off her clothes with his paws and fangs. When he finished, her rude curses still ringing in his head, she sat on his floor with her knees raised and the palms of her hands flat on the floor. He liked how she didn’t cover herself up, how she didn’t try and hide her body from him. And yet…
Lord, if looks could kill.
He shifted once more and, on his hands and knees in front of her, asked, “Now isn’t that better?”
Her hand shot out and she caught hold of his earring, twisting until she had him flat on his back. “I am ripping this thing off!” she snarled.
He caught hold of her around the waist, gripping her body to him and rolling them over. “Let go,” he ordered now that he had her on her back.
“In hell!”
He knew if he loosened his hold to get a grip of her hands, she’d only follow through on her promise and rip the gold earring from his head. Desperate, he gripped the side of her breast with his mouth and unleashed his fangs until they rested just against her flesh.
Jamie gasped. “Don’t even think it!”
He growled. A good, healthy wolf growl, making sure to show all those lovely fangs he flossed twice a day for good dental hygiene.
“Okay. Okay.” She opened her hand, releasing his ear.
“Thank you,” he said before he pressed his lips against the spot on her breast where he’d taken hold.
“I don’t think so.”
He smiled and moved his lips closer to her nipple. “You don’t think so…what?”
“We’re not doing this again.”
Tully kissed the tip of her nipple. “You sure?” He swirled his tongue around it, enjoying how her breath caught. “I’m free until late this afternoon.”
“I don’t care if you’re free until the end of—” Her back arched as he took her nipple into his mouth and gently sucked.
“There’s no reason,” she panted out, “for us to do this again.”
“Who needs a reason”—he blew on the wet tip—“besides just wanting to?”
“I…I’ve had a bad morning.”
“Mine hasn’t been much better.” He kissed his way across her chest to her other breast. “You tossed me out like a five-dollar hooker.”
“So you’ve got something to prove?”
“No.” Using his lips he tugged and pulled her nipple. “I’ve got something to get.”
She needed to get out of here. She needed to get out of his arms and out of the immaculate architectural wet dream he called “his house” and get as far away from this man as she could manage without appearing as if she were running. She did have her dignity after all.
Reality was, Jamie had no delusions about who she was and what she wanted. Her coven may not know her, but she knew herself. Wielding the kind of power she held and not knowing your true self was simply a recipe for disaster. And in the end, what she understood about herself was that she couldn’t get all tangled up with this man. She couldn’t permanently attach herself to this town or this life, not when there was so much more out there for her. Waiting.
Yet even knowing all that, she still couldn’t bring herself to pull away. Couldn’t manage to drag her body out from under him and stomp off into the snow and out of this insane town for good. She could start over anywhere. She didn’t have to go back to New York. Hell, she didn’t have to stay in the States for that matter. There were power sources all over the world, waiting for her to pluck them up. The problem was, absorbed power never felt this good.
Tully moved down her body until he could take hold of her legs. He bent them back, her knees pressed into her chest, and then pushed them wide apart, his strong hands pinning her body to the ground. His mouth pressed against her, his tongue licking up the wetness he’d already caused from their scuffle while his fingers dug into her thighs.
Groaning, Jamie slammed her hands against his shoulders, trying to push him off, but he wouldn’t budge. Instead he burrowed deeper with his tongue, stroking the inside of her pussy until she writhed from the pleasure of it. At that point she stopped trying to push him away and gripped the back of his head, the damp strands of his hair tight between her fingers as she pulled him closer.
Tully sucked Jamie’s clit into his mouth and felt her body nearly shoot off the floor. Grinning, he nursed the tight bundle of nerves with his lips and let the sound of her rough screams sweep over him. By the time she begged him to stop, he was hard as steel and couldn’t think past his need to be inside her.
He moved up her body, kissing her skin as he did until he pressed his mouth to hers and slipped his tongue between her lips while he pressed his cock inside her pussy. She let out a choked sob, her body shaking as he took her hard. Her hands came up and without thought, the wolf inside him instinctively grabbed hold of her wrists and pinned them to the floor beside her head. That one move had more warm wetness spreading over his cock, drenching it. Her reaction spurred his and he used the weight of his body to hold her down as he pounded into her, taking what she reluctantly offered and giving back whatever she may need.
His balls tightened, his back tensed, but he knew he could hold on longer. That is until Jamie came. Her head thrown back, she cried out, her arms still trying to struggle out of his grip, her legs tight around his waist, the heels digging into his ass. He had no hope then. No hope for control as he buried his head in the curve of her neck and snarled out his orgasm, his cock pouring his come inside her over and over until there was nothing left and he crashed on top of her. His entire body trembled the way it did after his first full shift, when he was only thirteen and had no idea what to do next.
Of course, he didn’t know what to do next now either.
She didn’t know what she’d expected, but being pampered by anyone other than herself was definitely not it. And yet, here she was being carried up two flights of stairs to Tully’s bathroom. As they moved, Jamie absorbed the light feeding into the house from outside. She’d never been anywhere that had so much brightness from natural light only. She never knew she’d like it so much. The power of it recharged her, made the drama from earlier with her coven seem so very long ago it didn’t really matter.
Once in the bathroom—another blindingly bright room, especially with the white marble countertops, white Italian floor tile, and bright chrome fixtures—Tully took her to his shower and washed her. Two showers in one morning and she didn’t really care. He wouldn’t let her do anything and she didn’t ask him why, instead she allowed herself to relax and enjoy. And although he stroked and fondled her body enough to make her reach for him again, he held her back.
“You made me give up my deer,” he murmured against her neck while his soap-covered hands dragged down her back.
“I had to. She’d only been easy for you to pick off because of me.”
“That’s fine. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’m hungry.”
“You need more delivery places around here.”
“Why?” His lips brushed against her jaw, her cheek. “I’ve got a chef standing right here.”
“You’ve got a girl who learned to make great desserts from her grandmother. That doesn’t make me a chef.”
“If you feed me, I’ll make it worth your while.”
Because she liked the sound of that—and she was flippin’ hungry, too—she agreed.
Thankfully the man had a lot of pasta. Combined with some steak, oil, garlic, and Romano cheese, they were eating before noon. They sat at the table tucked into the corner of his kitchen. If Jamie looked to her right, she looked at Tully. If she looked to her left, she could stare at his amazing view of the Atlantic Ocean. To be honest, she was having a hard time figuring out which she wanted to see more of.
“So,” Tully said, his gaze on her face, his bare foot brushing against her leg under the table, “what’s your problem with Dartmouth?”
“Nothing.” She’d forgotten all about that, which was strange because she never forgot anything. “I just can’t believe you went to Dartmouth.”
“Just ’cause I’m from the South, beautiful, doesn’t make me stupid.”
“I know,” she answered honestly. “You’re stupid because you went to Dartmouth…but you still ended up trapped here.”
Trapped? Tully wasn’t trapped anywhere. It was the one thing he prided himself on.
“What makes you say that?”
“Come on.” He shrugged and she said, “You went to Dartmouth, then Cornell. You have your master’s in architecture. I know nothing about architecture but I know your company because my ex desperately wanted it to design and build his house—gotta impress the neighbors, you know—until he realized we couldn’t afford it, which made me laugh and, according to my mother, completely explains why we’re divorced now.” She shook her head. “I guess I don’t get why you’d give all that up to live here.”
“I didn’t give up anything. I cherry-pick the jobs I want, do them from here, and still get paid for jobs I never touch but that my company handles.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Everything I want is here, Jamie.” And he didn’t realize how right he was until he looked into those brown eyes.
She stared at him as if he’d suddenly started speaking German. “You’re serious?”
“Most of the time.”
Jamie looked around and it suddenly dawned on him how anxious she suddenly was. As if the thought of staying in Smithville was the most horrifying idea she’d ever heard before.
“You know,” he said carefully, pushing what was left of his delicious food around the bowl, “you’ve committed yourself to staying in Smithville as part of our deal. Is that about to change?”
“No. But would I have made the same choice if I had the kind of options you have? That I can’t tell ya.”
Tully released his fork and sat back in his chair. “I’d hate to think you were only here because you settled.”
“I don’t feel like I settled. But I have no idea what I would have done if I had other options.”
“It’s the ‘ifs’ that’ll get ya, beautiful. If my parents were full-human, maybe I would be working myself into an early grave, pushing myself to accomplish all the things I was told I need to. But, thank the Lord, they’re not and I’m not. So I do what makes me happy and don’t worry about anything beyond that. And, not surprisingly, I have amazing blood pressure.”
“I thought you came back here because your grandfather died.”
“Not grandfather. Great-uncle. Everybody just called him Granddaddy. And I did come back because he passed. Wouldn’t be right not to come to the funeral.”
“And that’s when you took over.”
Tully laughed. “Lord, no. I just ended up staying ’cause I remembered what I loved about it.”
“Which is?”
He looked out the kitchen windows to the beach not more than a few hundred feet away and shrugged. “Everything.”
Jamie couldn’t help but envy Tully a little. He didn’t seem so ridiculously happy that she was convinced he was on some type of medication, and yet he didn’t seem on the neverending quest for more. She was on that quest, although most outside her coven never knew it. To the world, even her ex, Jamie was the most laid back, uncaring female on the planet. She didn’t need the latest and greatest and most expensive to be happy. At the time, it had been the biggest problem between her and her ex. His whole goal was to move up and out. He wanted the bigger house, the fancier car, the best of everything. Jamie, however, was more than happy with what she had when it came to material things. Jamie would buy a known reliable car and keep it anywhere from ten to fifteen years. Her ex would lease the hottest car out there and change it up every two to three years. Was it nice to ride around in new cars constantly? Sure, but for her the bottom line was getting from point A to point B as quickly and inexpensively as possible.
And, yet, while her ex was calling her “cheap” for not wanting more things in her life, Jamie was busy searching for more power. Because who needed a big screen TV when, with a little practice, one could levitate off the ground? Who needed the newest, hottest car when objects could be moved around, from the simple paperclip across the desk to moving the house of your enemies a hundred feet into a river?
Since she could remember, the only thing Jamie really craved was power.
Tully reached across the table and took her hand, laying her arm flat. He dragged his fingers across the inside of her forearm, moving slowly back and forth while his gaze stayed locked on her face.
The simplest of gestures and yet…and yet it felt like he was inside her again. He tugged her forward and she willingly went, her body in his lap, her arms around his neck, when his phone rang.
“Dang.”
Keeping her in place with one arm, he reached over to the counter behind him and grabbed hold of the cordless phone. “Hello?”
She watched his expression change, felt the tightness of his body, and immediately knew something was wrong.
“Yep,” he said. “We’ll be right there. No. Jamie’s with me. I’ll bring her.”
When he ended the call, she asked, “Why don’t you just use a megaphone to announce to the universe we’re fucking.”
“It’s a small town. They already know.” He lifted her off his lap and placed her on her feet. He patted her ass and stood. “There’s a problem.”
“I figured.”
“We need to get to—”
“That won’t be easy,” she cut in. “Since you tore up my clothes.”
He had the decency to grimace and even blush a little. “I did, didn’t I?”
Jamie nodded.
He took her hand and headed back to the bedroom. “We’ll come up with something.”
Although the Elders were kept fully informed of what was going on, for something like this they weren’t brought in. Being able to move and react quickly without worrying about permission was so important. And so far, it was sounding like this was a “situation.”
Kyle, his arms folded over his chest and his legs braced apart, quietly explained what he’d seen. “There were about thirty, maybe forty more vehicles. Mostly RVs.”
“How far out of town?” Bear asked.
“No more than forty miles. But so close to Everettville, none of us would have stumbled across it.”
“Why?” Jamie asked. She was bundled up in one of Tully’s black seaman sweaters, his sweatpants that were embarrassingly too long, and one of his leather jackets. The boots were hers and she looked so fuckable in those oversized clothes, he was having a hard time concentrating on a very serious situation.
“Because we don’t go to Everettville,” Bear said.
“Why?”
“It’s not a good idea,” Kyle told her.
“Why?”
Bear snarled a little, but Jamie only shrugged her shoulders and stated, “If you’d answer my question, I’d stop asking ‘why.’”
Tully snorted and now he was being glared at by a cat and a bear.
“What’cha all glarin’ at me for?”
“Can’t you control her?” Kyle snapped.
Tully and Jamie looked at each other and then they burst out laughing, leaning into each other until Tully abruptly stopped and said, “No.” Which only made Jamie laugh harder.
Kyle’s eyes narrowed and Jamie cleared her throat, brushed off her clothes, and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. Then she said, “So why don’t you go to Everettville?”
“It’s horse country,” Kyle snapped. “Okay?”
“Ohhhh. You mean like centaurs!”
Tully was bent over at the waist he was laughing so hard as his brother’s rage exploded around them. “No! I don’t mean like centaurs!”
“What the hell’s a centaur?” Bear grumbled, which only made Tully laugh even harder.
“They’re half man, half horse,” Jamie explained sweetly, so sweetly Tully knew she was fucking with Kyle something awful.
“Which half?” Bear asked.
“Would you shut up?” Kyle yelled, but when the grizzly slowly turned his head to glare at him from under the brim of his Sheriff’s Department baseball cap, the cat cleared his throat and added, “Boss.”
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Tully explained, “Nearly everyone in Everettville either owns a horse farm or they work on one. You’ll probably find more horses there than you’ll find cars. One of us gets too close to town limits and all hell breaks loose. So we stopped going over there.”
“But wouldn’t the same thing happen if—”
“If Buck Smith’s Pack was holed up over there? Absolutely.” And based on what Kyle had told them, that’s exactly what was happening. Buck’s entire Pack wasn’t having vacation at Smithville Arms, it turned out. Instead, a majority of them were hanging out on unused territory near Everettville. Anyone else, the Smithville locals would just keep an eye on them. But when it came to Buck Smith…nothing was ever as it seemed. “The difference is, that old bastard don’t care what happens with those horses.”
Kyle relaxed back against a tree. “Chances are they’ve snuck on to farms and chased a few of the horses down for food.”
“Or because they were bored,” Bear added.
“Which will only be more trouble for us,” Tully said. “Because those people love their horses more than they like each other, and most of them have the money necessary to get the government involved to look into it.”
“And the last thing we need is the government involved.” Kyle took off his cap and scratched his head. “It always gets a little messy when that happens.”
“Right now, they’re probably going to blame the red wolves that got introduced back into the population a while back, but the reds are definitely smaller than we are. About eighty pounds soaking wet while even my momma is a good one-fifty when she shifts.”
“Does Buck know all this about Everettville?”
Tully could only chuckle. “Trust me…he knows. That man don’t do nothin’ without knowing exactly what he’s getting into. He stationed his Pack there for a reason.”
“An attack.”
“He takes out Tully and a few of his stronger cousins and Buck will get control of this town.” Kyle pulled his cap back on his head. “And trust me when I say that the other Smiths aren’t going to stand for that. Not for a second.”
“And that would mean civil war among the Smiths. Knowing my father, he’s hoping to get it all sorted before the other Packs move in, but I think he’s being unrealistic in his old age.”
“Why?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time there’s been some infighting among the Smiths, beautiful. One time it got so bad that the Van Holtz Pack moved in—”
“And that’s when it got out of control.”
Tully nodded at Kyle’s words. “We lost half our members, including pups. Same with the Van Holtz.”
“They ain’t brawny, but they’re wily.”
“Yep. But when the pups start ending up as collateral damage…” Tully let out a breath. “They knew the war had to end or we risked losing Smith and Van Holtz territories on the East and West coasts to the Magnus Pack who were slavering to get in once the smoke had cleared. So a decision was made.”
“What decision?”
“That there would be a truce between the two Packs, no territories given up, no retaliation for the lost Packmates. All we had to do was take out our Alphas at the time. And that’s exactly what my ancestors did.”
It reminded Jamie of the New York mob wars that happened before she was born. One “family” against another, with lots of bodies around when everything finally settled down. She’d prefer not going through that. The few mob hits she’d seen over the years had meant little to her because she didn’t personally know the scumbags who’d bought it. If anything, she knew their business dealings, which usually involved drugs, gambling, and human trafficking, which was a very nice way of saying “slavery.”
But none of the people she’d met so far were like that. The worst she’d seen was an insane fight between the Smith Pack and the Sahara Pride over a rotting elk carcass. It had happened not far from her house and Jamie kept having to turn the sound up on her TV in an attempt to shut out the noise. The next day when she went into town…it was like it never happened. Why? Because at their core they were hungry predators looking for food, not lowlifes looking for a quick buck.
Still, no matter how much she wanted to help, there was only so much she could do given the confines of her coven.
“My coven can’t get in the middle of this as long as you guys are covered in fur when you go at it.”
“We know that.” Tully smiled at her and…wow. How unfair was that to her? “But my father’s set himself in the middle of his enemies for a reason. He’s playing this game for a reason. I need to know what.”
“The dinner with you, your parents, and Buck is tonight, right?” Tully nodded. “Good. The coven will be there anyway to make sure it all runs smoothly. I’ll have Sen spend some time with him.”
“Sen?”
“It’s a gift she has. She can talk to nearly anybody and get a good idea of what they’re up to. That’s one of the reasons she loves it here. You guys are rarely up to much of anything outside of sleeping, feeding, mating, and more sleeping.”
“Are you trying to say we’re lazy, beautiful?”
Jamie snorted. “I’m not trying to say anything. I’m just sayin’ it.”
It was Seneca, dressed in a tight, floor-length dress, who met them at the door of the hotel and led them to the large table in the middle of the dining room. It kind of fascinated Tully how Seneca had such a sweet, almost angelic face, with that sexy, smokin’ hot body. It didn’t seem right, actually. Sort of misleading.
The party wasn’t large. Just Tully, Kyle, Katie, Momma, Daddy, Buck, Wanda, and Buck’s three sons. Okay, the party wasn’t large for a Southerner.
Seneca sat them all down, gave them menus, and introduced them to the two waiters who would be taking care of them for the night. The entire time she stood by Buck’s chair, her hand resting on the back of it until she moved it to his shoulder, the other hand on her hip. She smiled and laughed the entire time and, when she finally walked away, she had the largest smile on her face.
To say it confused him was kind of an understatement. Maybe they had nothing to worry about with Buck after all…
Jamie looked up from the dark chocolate ganache she was mixing as Sen pushed through the kitchen double doors.
“They’re all set,” she said cheerily before slipping onto a stool by the main workstation and nibbling on a plate of cheese and crackers Mac had set out for her.
“And?” Emma asked, when Sen said nothing else.
“Patchouli alert on Buck’s date. I know how you get, Jamie, and didn’t want you to start World War III when you smell that stuff.”
“Hippies and their damn patchouli oil,” Jamie jokingly snarled.
“What about Buck?” Emma snarled with none of the joking.
“Oh.” Sen studied the ceiling and nibbled on a cracker, carefully thinking over her answer. “Well, based on what I saw he’s a real asshole and he’d kill each and every one of us if it got him what he wanted.” She was silent for a moment, smiled and nodded her head, and said, “Yep! That’s what I saw when I looked inside him.”
“Could you look…perkier?” Kenny asked.
“There’s no use in getting upset. Besides, Jamie will handle it.”
“Yeah,” Jamie tossed back casually, “I already have a young virgin male trussed up and ready to be sacrificed, so we’re ready to go.”
“Oh, my God!” Mac burst out. “Would you let that go already?”
“No! I won’t let that go, heifer!”
Cooking utensils in hand, the cousins moved toward each other but Emma jumped between them. “Stop it! Both of you!” Emma motioned Mac back to her workstation and then Jamie. “We don’t have time for this.”
“Personally,” Jamie said as she began mixing again, “I don’t think Buck will make a move during one of Mac’s overwrought courses.”
“Overwrought?”
Ignoring her cousin’s screech, “I think he’ll wait until early morning, around dawn, when he knows that almost everyone in town is asleep.”
“You know this because…?”
“You keep using that tone with me, cousin, and I’ll show you exactly what I know.”
Tully, Jack, and Kyle stood when Bear walked into the restaurant with his momma. Unfortunately, Buck only eyed her, smirked and said, “Well, hey there, Gwenie. Still lookin’ damn good.”
If Miss Gwen had a reply, they’d never find out what it was as she had to quickly grab her son’s arm, insisting she needed his help to the table the hostess, not Seneca, was trying to lead them to.
Snarling and keeping a firm hold on his momma’s arm, Bear followed after the hostess, but stopped when Mac was tossed out of the kitchen. The tall female landing at his feet.
Kyle leaned over to Tully and whispered, “How long ya think he’s been waiting on that?”
“His whole life?”
“Miss Mackenzie?” Bear said softly.
“Hi, Sheriff.” She ignored the hand he held out to her and got to her feet. “If you’ll excuse me.” She stormed back into the kitchen and came flying back out three seconds later, this time right into Bear’s arms.
By now, the rest of them had returned to their seats and were fully entertained by the activity going on in and around the kitchen.
“That bitch,” Mac snarled under her breath. She pulled away from Bear, cracked her neck and her knuckles, before marching back toward the swinging door. She was only a few inches away when the door swung out, slamming right into her face, shoving her right back at Bear.
At that point, Bear looked back at Tully and Kyle as if they could somehow tell him what to do.
Mac was busy trying to staunch the flow of blood from her nose when Jamie walked out. Unlike her cousin, she wasn’t decked out like a chef. No chef coat or hat. She did have her mass of brown hair in a loose ponytail and a bandana tied around her head, but nothing else that suggested she was part of the staff. Just loose blue jeans and a black v-neck sweater that was doing wonders for that beautiful chest of hers.
“Oh, honey,” she said sweetly to her cousin. “Was that you on the other side of the door? I’m so sorry! Here. Let me help you.” She grabbed Mac from Bear and moved her forward, slamming her into the wall by the door.
“Ooopsie! My bad.” Jamie yanked her back by the neck and shoved her forward again. This time she aimed correctly and got her into the swinging door but she did it so hard that Tully knew Mac would be feeling the pain for days. Poor full-humans. How they handled the pain from those minor wounds lasting days—sometimes a full week!—he’d never know.
After the cousins disappeared into the kitchen, there was some screaming, slamming, and what sounded like the throwing of metal utensils coming from behind the swinging door but only Bear seemed deeply concerned about it. He was still standing there, looking as confused as only a grizzly could sometimes, when Seneca walked out. She gave him that big, blinding grin, and said, “Sheriff! What are you doing standing here?”
The grizzly pointed at the door and Seneca gave a little laugh as she took his arm and led him to the table where his mother was already sitting. “Don’t worry about that blood on the wall and door. Our staff will clean that up in no time.”
“But—”
“You just enjoy your meal and night out with your mother. Hi, Miss Gwen.”
“Hello, Seneca.”
“I recommend the salmon!” she said happily before rousing her staff to clean off the wall and doors.
Kyle grabbed a piece of bread from one of three platters in the middle of the table. “Did she just recommend salmon to bears?”
The dinner was going better than Tully thought it would. He wouldn’t say anyone was friendly but everyone was at least polite. Then again, conversational lines were pretty safe. Jack was chatting with Millie; Kyle, Katie, and Tully were chatting with each other; Wanda was chatting and Buck was grunting in response; and Buck’s sons were staring at Katie, which meant they were about to get their asses kicked if they didn’t quit it.
Yep. It could be worse.
Tully was almost finished with his steak when, laughing at something Kyle had muttered, he heard the bickering between Buck and Wanda. He did his best to ignore it—Lord knew it was none of his business what his father and his unmarked woman were up to—but couldn’t once his father leaned back in his chair and said, “I’m moving my Pack back here. It’s a good place for us to get settled.”
Tully continued to chew the piece of steak he had in his mouth, staring at his father while he did. He knew everyone was waiting for his response, waiting to see what he’d do. Especially Buck.
Wanda gave the most forced smile Tully had seen in a long time. “Now, Buck, I thought we talked about waiting—”
“Quiet.”
He didn’t yell at her, he didn’t need to. But the way Millie flinched, Tully knew what that tone was leading up to if Wanda didn’t back off. She did, but it was a struggle, her hands curling into fists where they lay on the table.
Tully swallowed his food and simply said, “No.”
His father smiled, probably hoping for that. “You think you can stop me?”
“I know he can,” Jack growled from across the table.
“I haven’t seen anything that tells me that. My Pack is stronger and—”
“Right outside town.” Tully used a slice of French bread to sop up what was left of the amazing sauce Mac made to go with the steak. “At least they were. The fine law enforcement officials of Everettville were kind enough to send them on their way. They didn’t like a band of rovers being that close to their precious horses.” Tully popped the piece of bread in his mouth and winked at his father. “The rest of your Pack has been shuffled out of town too. I swear, the bears love making wolves leave. It gives them almost a perverse joy.”
“You always play it so nice, don’t ya, boy?”
“I haven’t had to get nasty. And if you leave after this wonderful, thrilling dinner, I won’t have to. But that’s up to you. At the very least do it for your woman.”
“She can handle anything. She may be full-human, but she ain’t weak.” And Buck’s eyes slid over to Millie. “I never could find a use for a weak female in my life or my bed.”
Katie slammed her fist down on the table, cutting off anything Tully, Jack, or Kyle were about to say. “You watch your mouth, old man.”
Seneca suddenly appeared, sliding to a stop by their table and clapping her hands together, her smile way too wide and bright. “How are we doing? Are we ready for dessert?”
Jamie would never admit it out loud but her cousin had a hell of a right cross.
And although trying to plate the desserts for Tully and his family would be easier with both eyes open, she was going to show her inner tenacity and ignore the swelling of her left eye.
Once she finished, Jamie grabbed two plates, Mac grabbed two, and the waiters took care of the rest. They slipped out the swinging door and over to the large table in the middle of the room. From what she could tell, all seemed to be going well—until she actually saw everyone. They looked…tense. Dangerously tense. It looked as if things had moved along a lot faster than she’d thought they would.
Time to get this over with.
Moving around the table to stay downwind of the patchouli funk Wanda had brought in with her—Christ! She hated that smell!—she carefully placed her specially prepared dessert in front of Jack and Kyle while the waiters and Mac took care of everyone else.
“Nice eye,” Tully mouthed at her and she gave him a little sneer that made him laugh.
Sen, always the one with the charm, clapped her hands together and said, “This is Jamie’s Dark Chocolate Path of Destruction cake”—which made Tully chuckle, Buck Smith glaring at him from across the table—“but we all call it Chocolate Overload for short. We hope you all enjoy it and that you enjoyed your meal and we wanted to thank you for coming tonight.”
“It was lovely, sweetheart,” Millie said as she gave them all a brave, if rather desperate smile.
Jamie grinned and gave her a wink. “The dessert’s killer, Miss Millie, but I think you’ll love it.” Then Jamie slapped her hands down on Buck’s shoulders. “You, too, Buck. You’ll just love it.” She walked off behind her coven.
But Jamie slowed to a stop, her head swimming. It must be that goddamn patchouli crap! Then pain tore through her brain and everything around her spun out of control…
Tully was moments from having an orgasm over Jamie’s cake—had she put anything else in here but chocolate and some nuts? Heroin, maybe? Crack? Damn!—when he saw Jamie suddenly stumble to a stop. She rubbed her forehead with one hand and slowly turned toward the table.
“Jamie?”
She shook her head before slowly walking forward. Her coven, about to push through the swinging door and head back into the kitchen, stopped and watched her closely. Even little Seneca seemed concerned.
“Is everything all right, sweetheart?” his momma asked. “You need a glass of water or somethin’?”
Jamie shook her head again and said, “No, ma’am. I just…” She blinked hard as if trying to focus her eyes. “I just…”
She stood by the table now and, after a moment, looked at Tully.
“Beautiful?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so, so sorry.”
And before he could ask her what she might be sorry for, she grabbed Wanda by the back of the head, a handful of her hair wrapped around her fingers, and flung the woman out of the chair and across the room. Bear pulled his momma out of the way and over to Tully’s table where they were all now standing, watching as Jamie swiped up a steak knife from one of the tables and stalked over to Wanda. But her coven cut her off, Mac catching her around the waist.
“Jamie, don’t.”
“She doesn’t smell that bad!” Seneca argued. But it was Emma that had Tully’s attention. She was watching Wanda close as the woman slowly got to her feet. He wasn’t sure what she saw, what clued her in, but Emma got out a squeaked, “Jamie!”
Jamie shoved her cousin aside, raising her hand and blocking the power suddenly flowing from Wanda in a huge wave.
“Get out!” Jamie yelled at them over the roar of sound, but they didn’t move fast enough and Tully watched as Jamie was forced several feet back.
Growling, Jamie pushed and the power lashed back at Wanda. The other woman stumbled, snarled, and flew at Jamie. And he meant that literally. She flew.
Wanda slammed into Jamie, hands tight around her throat, and that funky scent clogging up Jamie’s delicate senses. She wouldn’t stand for it! But she didn’t have a chance to do anything as Wanda’s strength and power shoved Jamie back into the kitchen, through the kitchen, and out the back door, with Wanda still holding on tight.
Once outside, Wanda flew them up until Jamie’s back collided with a tree. The air surrounding them kept the pair aloft, and Jamie knew that Wanda’s goddess had imbued the witch with serious power although Jamie wondered what Wanda had to give up to get it.
The witch chanted at her and Jamie could only smile. “You’ll have to do better than that, hippie,” she taunted, releasing her desperate grip on the hands Wanda had around her throat and digging her thumbs into Wanda’s eyes, forcing her back.
Once she had Wanda completely arched over, the hippie screaming from the pain in her eyes, Jamie ripped the power out of Wanda, and made it her own. Then she slammed Wanda’s stinky ass into the ground.
They all ran out the back door in time to see Jamie and Wanda fly into the top of one of the older trees. There was rustling and then screaming but, to be honest, Tully was too confused to know who was screaming or why.
Leave it to Buck. He’d come here to test the new coven. To see if they were as strong as the ones before them. If not, he planned to try and push his oldest son out. As if Tully would ever let that happen. He may be different from the rest of his Smith kin, he was definitely nicer than most of them, but that didn’t make him weak. No matter what Buck Smith thought.
Tully heard a roar come from the tree Jamie and Wanda had crashed into, dark light exploding around the leaves. He knew that “dark light” didn’t actually make sense, but there was no other way for him to describe it. But if he could harness it and turn it into one of his home designs…he was pretty sure that only someone with a really dark sense of humor could live there.
A body flew out of the tree and crashed into the land beneath, dirt and earth exploding out as it settled into a crevice.
Tully stepped forward, needing to know if it was Jamie, but Jack caught his arm, held him back.
“Don’t get in the middle of this, son.”
And before he could argue, before he could tell his daddy he couldn’t leave her alone, Jamie landed beside the now-moving body. She landed with the sure-footedness of a cat, cracking her neck and shoulders like a boxer. He briefly wondered why, until she grabbed Wanda by the front of her sweater with one hand, lifting her up, and punched her in the face with the other. She did it three times. Short, powerful rabbit punches.
“You’re gonna tell me where your coven is, hippie.” And her voice was so calm, Tully could only think of death. “Because we both know you didn’t come here alone. You didn’t hide who you are alone. Not from me.”
As she spoke, Jamie’s own coven moved in behind and around her. Mac standing the closest. Their faces were hard, their eyes cold. Even sweet Seneca and little Emma. It seemed all of them were as territorial as any predator he knew.
Jamie drew her fist back again. “You’re gonna tell me. When I’m done, you’ll tell me everything.”
But she didn’t have a chance to follow through on that as Buck’s gravely voice cut in and said, “Let her go.”
They all looked up at the same moment, and if Bear hadn’t grabbed Tully and Kyle hadn’t grabbed their daddy, all hell would have broken loose in that moment.
Buck had Millie by the throat. They were both still human but his claws were right against her jugular. And there was nothing in those eyes that said he’d have a moment’s hesitation about killing her while they all watched. Behind him stood his sons, ready to back him up like always. Ready to enjoy whatever their father would do to Tully’s momma.
Jamie, still crouching, spun Wanda around until her back was to Jamie’s front and Jamie’s arm was around the woman’s neck. She locked eyes with Buck, and Tully wondered what the old bastard saw because he was watching her real strange.
“You’re going to let Miss Millie go,” Jamie said, softly. “You’re gonna let her go now.”
Buck didn’t say anything, just kept watching Jamie. Waiting.
“You don’t think I’ll kill her?” Jamie asked. “You’re kinda right. I may not kill her because I don’t have to.”
She raised her arm and her cousin brushed her hand across Jamie’s palm. An essence, like pure crystals, passed between them and Jamie flexed her fingers before placing her hand against Wanda’s stomach.
“So the question you need to ask yourself, Buck…is what will I do?” That’s when Jamie plunged her hand inside the woman, her fingers moving past cotton and skin and flesh until she was in up to her wrist. Wanda screamed. As he’d never heard another living being scream before. “ ’Cause you see,” Jamie went on, “I can spend all day hurtin’ her.” She moved her hand around inside Wanda. “I can hurt her again and again and I won’t care.” The hand inside Wanda moved up while Jamie’s other arm held the other witch in place. “And once I reach her heart, I’ll squeeze it”—Jamie jerked her hand up again—“and squeeze until it bursts in my hand like a ripe tomato. Wanda knows I’ll do it. Wanda knows my reputation. She knows I’ll crush her heart, and I’ll take her soul as mine. I’ll keep it on a leash…like a puppy. Now you maybe thinking, ‘so?’ And that’s completely valid. I mean, how you tolerated the funk for this long, I have no idea.” She moved her arm back and forth and Wanda’s scream echoed through the trees and night-filled sky. “But then everyone will know, won’t they? They’ll know that you were too weak to protect your woman. That you let another full-human torture and kill her and there was nothing you could do. So let Millie go. Let her go before I get really angry.”
Tully watched Buck close, watched what he’d do next. If the old bastard did anything to his momma, it would be the last thing he ever did.
Jamie was still staring into Buck’s eyes, her gaze never moving from his. When he didn’t release Millie, Jamie jerked her arm up one more time, Wanda’s scream as painful as her first, and like that, Buck pushed Millie away.
Tully’s momma jerked away from him, her hand rubbing her throat. Then she spun on her heel and slapped at Buck’s jaw, knocking his face to one side. When he turned back, her claw marks ran down his cheek and blood down his neck.
Seneca stepped forward and held her hand out. Millie took it, letting the witch lead her back to Jack, gripping him tight when his arms wrapped around her.
Buck stepped forward and Jamie said, “Now, now. We ain’t done. She still needs to answer my question. Don’t you, Wanda?” Wanda nodded desperately even while her eyes begged Buck to do something—anything—to help her. “Where is your coven? Tell me or your pain is just beginning.”
“Out…outside of town about ten miles,” she gasped. “On Perkins Road.”
“Emma. Kenny. Go. Kyle, Katie, go with ’em.”
Pulling her arm slowly out of Wanda’s gut, smiling at Buck as Wanda panted and writhed and tried not to scream in excruciating pain, Jamie stood, taking Wanda with her. The others were gone by the time she got to her full height. But she didn’t release Wanda right away.
“Are we done, cousin?” she asked Mac.
“No. We’re not.”
Jamie held out her hand and Mac reached under her chef’s coat, pulling out an eight-inch cooking knife from where she’d tucked it between the thick black leather belt she had around her jeans. She laid it into Jamie’s palm, her eyes never leaving Buck’s as she did. The cousins may fight like two pitbulls chained together in a junkyard, but once there was a common enemy in front of them…
Jamie’s hand closed around the knife handle and she flipped it around until she held it blade down. That was when she dragged it across Wanda’s collar bone. Wanda screamed again, her arms reaching out for Buck.
“Now I’ve got your blood,” Jamie told Wanda even while she continued to stare at Buck. And with her hand still holding Wanda’s hair, she lifted her leg and kicked the woman toward him. Wanda landed in Buck’s arms and Jamie held up her fist, a handful of strands wrapped tight around her fingers. “And your hair.” Her head tilted to the side. “We both know what I can do with this, hippie. If you lied to me, or you try anything…”
She let the threat hang out there as she grinned and turned away from Buck and the others, Mac walking backward for a bit before she followed after Jamie, Seneca falling into step beside them.
“Thank you so much for your patronage at Smithville Arms,” Jamie said while she walked up the steps, sounding more like an airline ad than the deadly witch that she was. “I do hope you had a lovely time and that you’ll remember us the next time you’re planning a business trip, a family vacation, or just a quick weekend getaway with friends.”
Then she was back inside the kitchen, the busted screen door awkwardly slamming closed behind her.
Tully looked back at his father but the old man, his sons, and his tricky mate were already gone.
“He’ll be back,” his momma said from the safety of his daddy’s arms. “You know he’ll be back, pup.”
“I know, Momma.” He smiled at her and kissed her forehead before locking eyes with his daddy. “But it’s just a little thing.”
Jamie sat on her couch with her feet up on the coffee table, Rico asleep on the bookcase with all her reference books, a good episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on her TV, and a nice, large bowl of pasta to help her mood.
If nothing else, it was a quiet night. There’d been nothing waiting for her when she got home. No screams, bangs, or door slamming. And that was all because of Tully.
Tully. She wondered how far and fast that wolf would run, now that he’d seen how far she’d go. She should feel guilt. She should feel something. But other than mild annoyance that she had to shower, wash her hair, and do a load of laundry to get that damn patchouli funk out, she didn’t. That was why she was in a mood, because she didn’t feel any remorse about what she’d done and she knew she should.
Shouldn’t she?
But she’d worry about all that tomorrow. Not tonight. Tonight she was going to eat her delicious pasta, watch one of her favorite shows, and relax all by her—
Jamie sat up when she heard her front door open and close. Her locked front door. After a few moments, the wolf walked in to her living room. She knew it was Tully from the earring, but she had the feeling that she’d know it was Tully without it, too. He wandered into the living room, his bushy tail twitching behind him, and came right up and onto the couch. He moved in close to her, pushing up against her side. And that’s when he shifted.
She didn’t know why he was here. While she was standing in the hotel kitchen, bagging the blood and hair from Wanda for future use—only if necessary, of course—their shifter guests had walked in and right back out through the swinging door without saying a word to her or Mac. She and her cousin had passed quick glances, both of them thinking the same thing, How long before they ask us to leave? but neither had said it. Why bother?
But here Tully was, eyeing her pasta in a most territorial way. “Can I help you with something?” she asked.
“I smelled food.” He leaned over her bowl of sautéed pasta. “Dang that smells good.”
“Sorry. I only made enough for one bowl.”
“No problem.” He took her fork out of her hand and the bowl out of her lap. “We can share.” And then he began to eat.
“Shouldn’t you be outside with your Pack…killing something?”
“They can hunt on their own,” he said around his food. “Or just go to McDonald’s. We don’t need fresh deer every night.”
“I see.”
After what should have taken a lot longer, the fork he held scraped the bottom of the bowl, and those strange-colored eyes peered up at her through long lashes. “I finished your pasta.”
“Yeah, ya did.”
“Sure there’s no more?”
“Are you asking for you or me?”
“Both. I’m still hungry.”
“Too bad for you. That was it.”
He placed the bowl on the coffee table and settled in next to Jamie. “Buck’s gone.”
“For now. He’ll be back.”
She saw him smile from the corner of her eye. “We know.”
“He’ll be back for you.” She wanted him to understand how bad this was. She needed him to understand it. The thought of something happening to him…
“And you,” he said casually. “I reckon he hates both of us now.”
She took in a breath, let it out slowly. “Should I have done things differently?”
He shook his head. “No. We needed to find out how far he’d go. Now we know.”
“And you know how far I’ll go.”
“Is it supposed to bother me?”
“Does it?”
“You protected my momma, this town, and your coven. That’s all I want.”
He suddenly moved away from her and stood. He didn’t walk out, though. He held his hand out. “I’m tired, beautiful. Let’s get some sleep. We can discuss the moral ins and outs of gut molesting tomorrow. Not tonight.”
Jamie took his hand and let him lead her to her bedroom. He crawled under the covers and tugged her in with him, wrapping his arms around her, tucking his bent leg between her thighs, and resting her head against his chest. She fell asleep moments later, understanding that everything had changed…for her.
Tully slipped out of bed before Jamie woke up, went home, showered, and then headed to his parents’ house. His momma was out, having gone shopping bright and early but his daddy was there.
“What’s wrong with you?” Jack asked.
“I love her.”
Jack sighed, rolled his eyes. “I knew it. As soon as she stuck her arm in that woman and twisted her organs around like she was squeezing melons to see if they were ripe, I knew you’d be keeping her. ’Cause God forbid you should get a nice gal, like your momma.”
“Momma likes her.”
“ ’Cause your momma’s nice. She’d find a reason to like anybody.”
“Jamie says she doesn’t want to be attached. That she doesn’t want to go through that again.”
He saw Jack smile. “Your momma gave me the same speech the night I asked her out.”
“And you got her, despite my earnest attempts to ensure that you didn’t.”
“You were such a little bastard, too,” Jack muttered, shaking his head, but Tully knew it was a compliment.
“So tell me what to do, Daddy. Tell me how I can get Jamie and keep her?”
“Well…Lord knows you don’t have my charm.”
“Or your disturbing cat-stare.”
His daddy gave a little snarl and flashed a fang before he finished with, “But I’ll help ya. ’Cause any woman crazy enough and strong enough to stand up against Buck Smith and live to tell about it is definitely a keeper.”
She was grabbed off the street and dragged in to the local salon that she never used because she knew they could never handle her or her cousin’s hair. And there, waiting for her, were her coven, Katie, Miss Millie, and the sow who’d grabbed her, Miss Gwen.
“Could you really be that stupid?” Miss Gwen snapped at her. A lovely woman unless you startled her or made annoying sounds.
“It’s possible since I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
That’s when Katie suddenly lunged for her and Miss Millie had to snatch her back. “Sweet girl,” Millie said to Jamie, “we understand you’re a little…confused.”
“I am?”
“It’s all right. Gwenie and I have been there. Emma’s been there. Now it’s your turn.”
Needing help, she looked to her coven—who were so busy snickering at her, they turned out to be no help at all.
“Maybe you could tell me clearly what you’re talking about.”
“If we tell you,” Miss Millie explained, exasperated, “then it’s like we’re telling you what to do. We won’t know if it’s what you want.”
Taking a breath, Jamie said, “But if I’m not clear on what you’re asking me about—”
“What is wrong with you?” Katie demanded from behind Millie.
Jamie stared at Tully’s sister for a moment and then said, “Snaggle.”
“Oh!” Katie stormed around her mother. “Let me just slap her around a little, Momma. Then she’ll get it!”
Miss Gwen caught Katie by her ponytail and yanked her back. “Beatin’ her up is not gonna help if she’s this dumb.”
Then they all stared at her, waiting. And she still didn’t know what they were talking about. Jamie would be the first to admit it. She didn’t get women talk. Movies with a bunch of broads sitting around, talking about life and men, never made sense to her and she ended up rolling her eyes or sleeping until the credits rolled. So sure, some other female may know what they were all going on about, but Jamie wasn’t some other female.
She was about to simply walk out when she saw Bear walking by the wide store window. She opened the door, grabbed his humongous forearm, and pulled him in.
Okay. She was lying about that part. She actually tried to pull him in to the store. What she ended up doing was leaning so far back, it looked like she was in the middle of a hurricane. Bear only stared at her, too. That permanent frown etched into his face somehow growing more frown-y.
“What are you doing?”
“Need your help. In here.” So he started walking inside and then grabbed her before she could hit the floor.
Once he got her back on her feet, she pushed the hair off her face and said, “They’re yelling at me and I don’t know why. They won’t tell me. I don’t know why. I’m beginning to panic…but I know it’s because of them.”
Bear glanced around the salon, his eyes briefly lingering on Mac for two seconds longer than he gave to anyone else before he returned to Jamie and said, “Probably ’bout Tully.”
“What about him?” she asked with all sincerity and Katie lunged at her again. This time Bear stopped the psychotic hybrid, the palm of his hand pressing against her forehead as she swung at Jamie wildly. If Jamie weren’t the focus of the insane stray’s attacks, she’d find the whole thing pretty damn humorous. “What did I say now?”
Bear sighed. “Y’all make this so complicated,” he muttered to everyone before saying to Jamie, “How do you feel about Tully?”
“Tully?”
“Yeah. Tully. The canine who’s been sleeping at your house every night the past week.”
“All up in my business,” Jamie sneered.
“Unless you want me to let this one off leash”—he gestured to Katie with a tilt of his big grizzly head—“you’ll answer my question.”
“Fine. I love him. Okay?” And then she felt bad when Miss Millie and Miss Gwen looked so happy, that she quickly added, “But I don’t think he feels the same way about me.”
This time Bear had to catch Katie around the waist and take her over to the other side of the room.
“Lord, you are dumb!” Katie snarled. “The dumbest Yankee this side of the Mason-Dixon!”
“Katie, please!” Miss Millie snapped before she focused back on Jamie. “Now, sweetheart, what makes you think Tully’s not interested?”
Was Jamie really supposed to tell the man’s mother that he hadn’t fucked her in more than a week? That he’d treated her like a good friend since the face-off with Buck? She’d thought maybe seeing her torture a woman had turned off any sexual feelings Tully’d had for her, but saving his mother had made him feel a sense of loyalty. She figured he was easing his way out of her life and since she’d insisted on no attachments, she didn’t think it was right to argue. Yet Jamie was pretty sure that saying any of that to Tully’s mother would be considered inappropriate.
And to solidify that feeling, Kenny leaned forward and said, “Awkward moment, Scene one, Take one. Action!” Jamie glared at the geek and watched as she jumped behind Mac.
After clearing her throat, “Look, Miss Millie, I appreciate—”
Miss Gwen patted Millie’s arm. “I bet he stopped fucking her.”
Bear jerked tall, his head nearly colliding with the salon ceiling. “Momma!”
“Hush now, Bear,” Gwen chided. “Is that it, sweetie? Has he been giving you ‘space’?” And she used air quotes.
Horrified where this conversation had led them, Jamie said, “I didn’t really ask—”
“Bet he got that from Jack,” Miss Gwen singsonged to Millie.
Millie rolled her eyes. “Lord, tell me that boy isn’t taking love advice from that man. Don’t get me wrong,” she said to Jamie, “I love Jack more than I knew was possible but I wasn’t ready to have another male in my life after I’d finally gotten Buck out of it.”
“Which Jack thankfully had enough brains to figure out on his own.”
“Tricky felines,” Millie joked and the two women giggled like schoolgirls. “Now, dearest girl, this is what you’re going to do. You’re going to go to Tully’s place and you’re going to make him dinner. Something hearty that’ll stick to his ribs. Pretend like you need to talk about something, and he’ll think this is his moment to get it all out in the open, which trust me, you don’t wanna do. Too much talking just ruins a relationship.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Gwen muttered, sounding a lot like her son.
“And then, when he’s all relaxed and comfortable from the food, you’re gonna pounce! And you’re gonna fuck the living hell out of that boy!”
“Momma!” Katie barked, her hands covering her mouth, the fight no longer in her. Bear took off his cap, running his hands through his hair, and his big brown eyes scanning the room for emergency exits. And Jamie’s coven laughed. Clearly they were having the best time ever.
“Hush now, Katie.” Miss Millie took Jamie’s right arm and Miss Gwen took her left, they dragged her to the front door, the bell over it ringing when they pulled it open. “You go on and get what you need and be at his place around six. That’s usually when he gets home from work. And you do as I tell ya now. You work him.”
“Work him,” Miss Gwen added, “like you ain’t never worked a man before. Hard. Real hard.”
“Uh…”
“Go on now. Don’t keep my boy waitin’. Life’s too short.”
Then they closed the door in her face.
Tully had given her a lot of space the past few days. Well, as much space as he was willing to allow.
Every morning Tully ambled on over to the hotel to have breakfast with Jamie and her coven. Mac usually made the hot food and Jamie usually made the pastries. Kyle and Katie were usually there, too, and that helped to keep Tully from grabbing Jamie and walking off with her. After breakfast Tully would go off and get some work done or amble around town to see if there was anything that needed doing. When the sun went down, he’d get a little hunting in with his Pack and maybe Kyle, before he’d head on over to Jamie’s for a late night supper. He stayed every night but they never had sex. Not yet. Not until she faced the truth about them. Not until she realized she’d fallen in love with him as much as he’d fallen in love with her.
He knew it was driving her crazy, and to be honest, his cock hated him at the moment. Not that he blamed it. His need to be inside Jamie was tearing at him from the inside out. But Tully resisted because he knew he had to and because his daddy told him, “If you wanna keep her, you’re going to have to give her up a little.” And Tully understood the logic. He knew if he’d taken her that night after they’d run Buck off, she’d dismiss everything as “the heat of the moment.” It wasn’t. What happened between Jamie and his father may have opened Tully’s eyes, but that was it.
Still, Jamie was as stubborn as Tully. She refused to accept the fact that she was crazy in love with him and he refused to give in to their needs because she was refusing to accept the fact she was crazy in love with him.
Did she even comprehend how different everything was now? Not only between them but between Jamie and the town? And it was different for one simple reason. Because she’d gone toe-to-toe with Buck Smith to protect Millie. That was something his neighbors would never forget.
It was funny, the day he’d met Jamie he knew her only concern at the time was protecting herself and her coven. Ten months later, though, the entire town of Smithville had done what only true Southerners managed to do when they were of a mind…they’d burrowed their way into Jamie’s cold witch’s heart and made it home. Now she would protect everyone in Smithville the way she would protect her coven.
Did she even realize she was already “attached” and not just to him? Probably not. For a smart girl, she could be kind of dumb sometimes when things were real obvious. Her coven had caught it, though. The way the men tipped their hats at them or smiled while opening a door. The way the ladies started gossiping with them at the coffeehouse or explaining their “Pride’s secret recipe” for chitlins. They knew something big had changed, but Jamie was still in the dark. So pretty but dumb as a six-legged piranha when it came to her own feelings. But Tully was determined to get her to understand. Not hard for him, when he’d already made up his mind about her. When he already knew he loved her.
But Lord…a few more days of this and something was going to snap. He simply wasn’t strong enough to resist her soul-devouring little charms anymore.
He’d talk to her tonight. He had to. Before his cock found a way to strangle him.
In sight of his house, Tully stopped when his phone rang.
“This is Tully,” he answered.
“Boy.”
Tully smiled. “Hey, Uncle Bub. What’cha need?”
“I don’t need nothin’, but you need to keep your eyes open. Word is Buck’s heading back to Smithville with his Pack.”
“It’s a dumb move. The town’s ready for him.”
“Good.” Bubba took in a breath, then said, “And I’m gonna make this real clear for ya, boy. So there’s no misunderstandings later. If he does come back there, if he steps on Smith territory…you feel free to end it, if it comes to that. You understand me?”
Tully closed his eyes, but answered, “Yes, sir.”
“No more games, and no guilt. The rest of the family has already agreed to this, and understands. It ain’t like he left you much choice and sometimes it’s just gotta be done. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
The call ended as abruptly as it started and Tully walked to his house. As soon as he stepped inside, he knew she was there. He went straight to the kitchen—since he could smell the food cooking—and found her sitting on his kitchen table, reading a magazine and eating cut-up pieces of apple.
He stood in the doorway a moment, wondering how much longer he’d have to wait before he could come home to this sight every day, and said, “That smells good.”
She grinned without looking up from her magazine. “Beef stew. Much better than Mac’s, although she’s still in denial on that topic.”
“You two…like cats in a bag.”
“Some say.” She placed the magazine down and lifted her gaze to his. “You out hunting tonight?”
“No set plans. Why?”
“I thought maybe we should…talk.”
And that’s when his phone rang again. “Dang it!” He answered. “Yeah?”
“It’s Kyle…Buck’s back.”
Just by the look on Tully’s face, Jamie knew it was Buck. Knew he was coming back here to confront his son. She didn’t understand it and wouldn’t try. Fathers and sons had their own language and she was not one of those women who felt the need to understand or analyze it. Seriously, didn’t she have enough to do?
“Yep.” Tully disconnected the call and looked at her.
“It’s all right,” she said. If there was one thing she’d always understood was the need to handle an emergency. You couldn’t be in law enforcement or any kind of crisis-type position and not understand it. “Food’s not done yet anyway. Stew takes a while, so it’ll be ready when you get back.”
“I wanna talk.”
“We’ll talk.” She owed him that. “When you get back.”
Tully nodded and stripped off his clothes. “You’ll be all right here by yourself?” he asked.
She grinned. “Would you go already?”
He turned to leave but then, just as quickly, turned back. His hand slid behind the back of her neck and he gripped it tight. The kiss was not friendly. Far from it. But it made what his mother told her seem all the more real.
Jamie kissed him back, making sure that her mouth and tongue made it clear that when he got back tonight, all the bullshit would be over. She didn’t know how long they kissed, but when he finally pulled back, they were both panting and she knew she’d be counting the seconds until he returned.
He licked his lips. “Apple.”
Jamie smiled, watching as he shifted from human to wolf almost faster than her eye could catch. He licked her bare foot and headed toward his front door.
“Tully.”
Tully stopped at the front door, looking over his shoulder as Jamie came around the corner.
She knelt down in front of him and rubbed her hands together for nearly a minute. When she stopped, she ran her hands from his muzzle, across his head, and down his back. She dragged her hands over his entire body until he was pushing into her, pressing his big wolf body against hers. He felt the energy she’d smoothed against his fur. It felt good, but meant more because it was from her. From his Jamie.
“For luck…and protection,” she said when she stopped. “My gods will watch over you this night.” She kissed his forehead and stood while Tully pressed up against her hip, lifted his head and nuzzled her breast, before he headed out the door and went off to face his father for the last time.
Most of the town had turned out for this. The ones who hadn’t were mostly the bear sows—including grizzlies, polars, and blacks—because they stayed to protect the pups, cubs, and the elderly shifters. Even if the town failed on this ridge, there was no doubt that the sows would never let anything happen to the town’s children. Their strength and power would be missed in the fight, but to have the sows protect everyone’s offspring would always be worth the loss.
Kyle stood on one side of Tully, Jack on the other. Katie next to Jack, and Bear right behind them. The grizzly stood on his hind legs, sniffed the air, then came down with a Wham!, the ground shaking beneath their feet. He’d seen them. Tully knew because Bear pushed past them and lumbered down the ridge toward the clearing. Halfway down he broke into a run, the rest of the town right behind him. He’d just made it into the clearing when Buck’s Pack exploded from the trees.
Baring his fangs, already tasting the kill, Tully charged forward and set to work.
Jamie shut off the heat under the stew and secured the lid. Tully had been gone a while and she was trying really hard not to worry about him. She kept telling herself she couldn’t risk her soul and her power to go running to his rescue. Especially when she didn’t know if he needed to be rescued.
So this was it, huh? What it felt like to be in love? Panic, nausea, and the slightest sense of doom. Nice. She’d be better off a beat cop in the South Bronx.
She heard the side door open and let out a breath she’d been unaware she’d been holding.
“Perfect timing,” she said, not ready to show him yet how scared she’d been for him. “I just finished cooking the stew.” She turned from the stove and only had a second to register the fur leaping at her. What had to be about two hundred and fifty pounds of canine, slammed into her, ramming her back into the counter, her head colliding with the stainless steel.
Tully tore off somebody’s leg and chucked it over to Dale Sahara, M.D., who chewed on it before he went after somebody else.
Something wasn’t right. Tully stopped, shook the blood from his eyes and studied the battlefield before him. Kyle pushed into him and they stared at each other. His brother felt it, too. Something wasn’t right.
Tully watched one of his half-brothers get slapped across the clearing with one swipe of Bear’s claw—and that’s when it hit him.
Where’s Buck?
Jamie knew she blacked out because one second she’d been looking down at the stove and now she was lying on the floor looking up at it. Her head was throbbing, her mind confused. A face appeared before her, staring down at her.
“There you are,” the face said. “Had me worried I’d hit ya too hard. Didn’t mean to do that.”
The face looked her over. “You’ll be fine. I’ll get you a pillow for your head. That flouncy boy of mine probably has lots of pillows.”
He stepped over her and walked out of the kitchen. Not sure what she was doing, only knowing she couldn’t lay there, Jamie dragged herself to her feet. It wasn’t easy. Everything around her was turning and she couldn’t focus.
If only it hadn’t been her head. Any other damage she could handle. A broken arm, cracked ribs, knife wound to the back, gunshot to the neck. She would have been grateful for any of that, as long as it hadn’t killed her outright, because it would have allowed her mind to do what it did best. Call upon the power she held and use it to control the situation. She’d bet that making her dazed and confused wasn’t the face’s idea, but that bitch, uh…his girlfriend…W-something. She probably told him to do that. Now all Jamie could manage was to stumble out of the house and away from that face. What’s his name?
She had no idea where she was going—although that tree over there looks kind of familiar—she just knew she had to get away. But she wanted to sleep. She wanted to sleep so badly.
Luther hit him from behind and Tully shrugged him off. He didn’t have the time or patience to fight one of Buck’s sons. He wanted Buck.
Luther got back to his feet and charged him again. Tully batted him across the muzzle, sending him flying and took another look around.
Something isn’t right.
Had Buck ever missed a fight in his life? Especially one that he made sure happened?
Tully heard a yip and looked down at his baby sister. She was watching him close, her dark gold eyes concerned. He tipped his head and motioned to Luther, who was charging his way back over to Tully. Katie’s gaze followed, then she examined the area, cat eyes narrowing. Tully barked and motioned with his head. She nodded and took off running. If Buck was in town, Katie would find him. She was the best tracker they had.
He watched his sister sprint across the clearing until she made it into the trees on the other side. And that’s when he was slammed from behind, all three of his half-brothers on him.
She stumbled through the trees, her eyes trying to clear. Everything was fuzzy. Everything out of focus. But she kept moving anyway. She kept going, pushing. She couldn’t stop. Yet even that one, overpowering thought couldn’t stop her from knowing when he was right behind her. She turned as he launched at her, her body instinctively dodging out of the way so he sailed past her. He turned from animal to human and spun to face her.
“Now look,” he told her, moving toward her, “I’m trying to make this good for you. But if you keep runnin’, if you fight me, I’ll just take what’s mine anyway. And trust me, little girl—I’ll make sure you don’t enjoy it.”
She had no idea what he was talking about. Her head hurt. She was sleepy. And the birds were too loud. Were they always this loud? He was right in front of her now. “Give me what I want, little girl, and I’ll give you anything you need. Together we’ll take over the Packs, then we’ll take over everything.”
An offer. An offer of power. His hand reached for her, to cup her cheek. She took hold of his fingers in hers and twisted his arm, off and away, while she brought her foot down on his instep. He cried out and she turned so her back was against his chest. She brought her left elbow up and back, impacting directly with his throat. He staggered back and she turned, slammed her fist into his face.
He dropped to his knees and she walked off. She glanced down at her hands. They were bloody. When did that happen? Am I bleeding? Should I be at a hospital? She kept moving. Part of her felt like she should run but she didn’t know why. So she kept walking but quickly, pushing past hanging tree limbs and going around giant oaks and pines.
It sure would be nice to know where she was going.
Tully and Kyle fought off Buck’s sons, pushing them back until a few more of Buck’s Pack ran in to help. It didn’t seem strange to Tully that he was fighting off fellow wolves—blood kin—with a cat by his side. Kyle had always been more brother to him than any of Buck’s boys. They may argue, especially over the last piece of their momma’s pecan pie at every Thanksgiving dinner, but he trusted the feline. Kyle was family. He’d always be family.
He threw Luther off—yeah, again—but stopped from going after him, instead stepping back and gazing up. The crows sure were complaining about the fight. They were making all sorts of racket.
Kyle shifted, looked up. “What the hell’s going on?”
Tully wished he knew.
Jamie stopped, the odd-looking feline staring at her. Her fangs were odd. She was odd. Or maybe it was her head. Everything around her was pulsating and her headache was getting worse. Yet even with all that going on, she couldn’t stop herself from trying to get the cat or whatever to run. She knew it was in danger.
“Shoo,” she told it. “Shoo. Go.” She waved her hands at it. “Go. He’ll kill you. Go!”
Something large and powerful slammed into her from behind, forcing her to the ground. Jamie landed, her hands bracing her fall. But he was on her now, flipping her over.
“We can do this any way you want, little girl. Even this way.”
She swung her fist, connected with his jaw. His eyes flashed, shifting from one species to another. Then he punched her back. She felt something snap inside her face, her teeth suddenly not fitting together. The pain had her screaming but she was unable to open her mouth.
“Much better,” he muttered. He sat back on his haunches, staring down at her. “That’ll keep you quiet until we’re done. Until I’ve fucked ya and marked ya as mine.” He moved his own jaw around, gave her a little smile. “No way that boy of mine could handle a female like you.” He smiled. “But I can.”
That’s when that strange black cat attacked, slamming into him, wrapping her paws around his head and neck. Snarling, he batted the feline off. She flipped head over tail, slamming into a tree. But she got back to her feet and she shifted to human. “Jamie, run!”
Jamie forced herself to roll over and crawl off. He watched her. She could actually feel him smiling as she made her slow painful way.
“Now where are you going, darlin’? Because we both know an ass like yours needs somebody in it.”
Tully didn’t wait until his sister’s return. He took off but the closer he got to town, the louder those damn birds became. He stopped and turned, quickly realizing he had Kyle, Bear, Daddy, and half the town with him. He glanced back at the way he’d been headed but there were crows there now. They spun like a tornado, clearly blocking his way. They blocked the south and west as well, leaving only the east, which led deeper into the forest and toward the ocean.
Having no choice but to trust them, he headed that way and hoped for the best.
She could hear the fight going on between the feline and that wolf. Could hear that the feline was getting her ass kicked. She was smaller than the wolf and although faster, he had years of fighting on his side.
Jamie reached what she wanted, her hands wrapping around the large limb that was laying there. She closed her eyes and then got to her feet. The pain from her jaw nearly made her black out again, but she fought it hard. She wanted to shake her head but the thought had tears sliding down her cheeks and falling into the leaves around her.
She turned and walked back to the feline and the wolf. She waited until the wolf had the feline on her back, then Jamie raised the tree limb over her head. She was swinging it down, aimed for the wolf’s head but halfway to its destination it stopped. She yanked but it wouldn’t move, then it was snatched out of her hand.
She spun around and there were three more of them. Three more like the one who’d grabbed her.
The one who took the tree limb caught hold of her by the back of the neck and held her.
“Daddy,” he said, “we better get a move on. A bunch of ’em suddenly went rabbit and took off.”
“No.” He held the now human feline down while she tried desperately to get loose. “I finish this here. Once she’s marked, there ain’t nothin’ they can do about it.”
He gripped the feline by her neck and got to his feet. “I took some of the fight out of her,” he said, tossing the feline to the one who had Jamie. “Use her as you want while I deal with this one.”
He took Jamie by the hair and shoved her forward. “Let’s get this done, darlin’. Lord knows, I’ve been waiting a long time for you.”
“Daddy?”
Growling, Buck stopped and faced the other male. The two with him where moving back, their eyes wide, and he’d dropped the feline. She hissed, her back arching.
“What the hell’s wrong?”
“Daddy?” he said again. And then he started screaming. Screaming as flames engulfed him. He dropped to the ground, rolling his body, trying to put the flames out.
The four women who’d been standing behind the one in flames watched but said nothing. Then their gazes moved to Jamie. As soon as she saw them, the headache ended, her mind cleared. She knew where she was, what she was, and what Buck had been trying to do to her.
She looked up at Buck and the wolf released her, stepping away from her. But it was too late for that. Too late to just walk away.
Jamie raised her hand, flicked her fingers, and Buck went soaring.
Tully had just made it past the trees, entering the clearing where he’d saved Jamie from flying hyenas, when something shot out from the other side.
He slid to a stop, his eyes wide as Buck Smith came tumbling to a stop. Two of Buck’s sons came out after him, running like the devil himself was behind them. They stopped beside Buck, staring at Tully and the others.
From Tully’s right and left, came the rest of Buck’s Pack. It was a strange standstill. No one moving forward, no one backing off. He felt like they were all waiting for something, but he didn’t know what.
Tully saw Jamie being helped into the clearing by her cousin. Her arm was around Mac’s neck, she was covered in dirt and bruises. But even from across the clearing he could see she was in terrible pain, and her face looked strange. Swollen…broken.
Tully felt cold, then hot. His body began to shake and everything turned kind of red. Then his sister ran out of the trees, her human body covered in fresh claw and fang marks. She pointed at Buck and yelled out, “It was him, Tully! Buck did this to Jamie. It was Buck!”
His father got to his wolf feet and watched his firstborn. He snarled, daring him. But he didn’t need to bother. It was all over now.
Tully charged across that clearing toward Buck, his family and neighbors behind him, and he knew nothing would stop him from killing that old bastard.
Jamie and her coven moved through the battle going on in the clearing. No one came near them, and no one tried to stop them. She rested against her cousin, Mac’s arm strong around her waist. They reached the circle she’d created several days before when everything had been so simple and Mac helped her kneel in the middle of it.
Sen kneeled down in front of Jamie, her eyes filled with tears. “Oh, my God, Jamie. What did he do to you?”
Jamie took Sen’s shaking hands and placed them on her swollen face, fighting the urge to flinch from the pain of that simple, soft touch.
“It’ll hurt,” Sen warned her between what had quickly turned into sobs. “It’s going to hurt really badly. More than it hurts now.”
Jamie kept Sen’s hands on her with her own and begged her with her eyes. She didn’t care about more pain. There were worse things than pain. But the pain was distracting her from doing what she needed to do. She needed it to stop.
Nodding, Sen agreed. “Just hold on. Okay, Jamie?” She glanced at the rest of the coven. “I’ll need you guys, too. Give me what you can but not all of it. Understand?”
They nodded and moved around the pair, their hands clasped together. And outside the circle the fighting brutally continued. It felt like they were behind glass. Protected. And they were, in a way. Their goddesses were protecting them, the Dark Mothers, allowing them to do their work.
Sen closed her eyes and focused all her energy on Jamie, the others doing the same. While they worked on her, Jamie looked over at the battle going on all around them.
She watched as Tully and his father fought, tearing into each other. Two males charged Tully, taking him down to the ground, trying to take pieces out of him with their fangs and claws.
And Buck focused on her. She tensed, but not from the pain tearing through her from what Sen was doing. But because she couldn’t stop Sen so that they could fight Buck. If she stopped the healing now, it could fuck up her face forever. A long time to go with your jaw unable to open or close.
Buck knew it, too. He could see it in her eyes, understood it because she didn’t move away from Sen. She could tell he was grinning, even though he was still wolf. He lowered his body and charged straight at her.
Jamie waited, her body tensing, the pain getting worse as Sen had warned.
He was almost on them, only a few feet away, when a sudden flurry of feathers startled her and Buck.
Rico’s talons extended and tore at Buck’s face, trying for his eyes. Tully pulled away from the two wolves holding him back, slamming them to the ground before charging over to Buck, and brutally dragging his father down. Kyle joined him, focusing on the old wolf’s hip and tail.
Jamie was grateful for that, grateful she didn’t have to stop her coven from what they were doing. Grateful even as the pain grew horribly, horribly worse.
Nothing would stop him now. Nothing would stop him from killing the one wolf who deserved it.
If Buck had merely tried to kill Tully, had merely tried to become Alpha Male of the Smithville Pack, Tully would be able to let this go. He’d be able to walk away and let his father limp off to lick his wounds and try again another day. Like Buck had been doing for his entire life.
But Buck Smith had crossed the one line no self-respecting shifter would ever cross. Forced matings were one thing. A few decades ago, they happened all the time. But that wasn’t what his father had been doing. He knew that because he knew Buck. Knew what the old man would do to make the witch his. He’d allow his Pack to fight to the death in his name while he used the battle to keep his firstborn busy so he could rape and mark Tully’s woman.
Knowing the pain Jamie had suffered, knowing the fear she must have felt…
For that alone, the old man would die, and Tully would be the one to kill him.
He’d just gotten his jaw wrapped around Buck’s throat, was moments from tearing out flesh and fur and a nice, thick artery, when he heard, “Tully. Don’t.”
Keeping his grip, Tully looked up and saw Jamie standing in front of him. Her face was no longer swollen, her bruises and cuts nearly gone. “Don’t,” she said again.
Growling, he dug his fangs in deeper, bit down harder, tasted blood. How could she want him to stop? How could she want to let Buck Smith off for what he’d done and what he’d been trying to do?
“Remember, Tully. There’s some lines you can’t cross. Once you do, there’s no going back. Take this step and you become him. I love you too much to let that happen.”
He stared at her. Hard. He saw the truth of her words in the way she gazed down at him, the way she gave him a soft smile. “Please, Tully.”
It was strange, the way the fighting sort of tapered off. Everyone pulling back and watching…waiting.
With a nod to Kyle, Tully and his brother stepped back from Buck. And, like everyone else, they waited.
Jamie went to her knees beside Buck’s wounded body. She petted his fur and Kyle glanced at Tully, probably thinking the same thing he was, What is she doing?
Jamie placed one hand on Buck’s side and one hand on the ground, fingers digging into the dirt. She closed her eyes, her brow drawn down in deep concentration. Her coven stood behind her, Seneca now being held up by Mac. The poor thing looked moments from passing out.
Light came up through the ground, swirling around Jamie, covering her from toes to head. She gasped, she panted. She threw her head back as she often did when she was in the middle of an orgasm. The air crackled around them and lightning shot threw the sky.
She tore away from Buck, her body shaking. Kenny and Emma caught hold of her, held her up while Tully glanced at his father. He was still lying there, unconscious, except that he’d shifted back to human.
Still shaking as if she were freezing cold, Jamie said through chattering teeth, “Better this way, baby. Worse than death. Promise.”
Without another word, the coven turned and walked away, each of them leaning on the other for strength and support.
All of them, local and interloper, watched the full-humans walk away. Then, once they were gone, they all focused on Buck.
He didn’t look different. He didn’t have horns and a pointed tail. He was still breathing, although covered in fresh wounds.
Knowing that everyone was waiting for him, Tully carefully walked forward. He leaned down, trying to catch a glimpse of something…anything that might be different about the old bastard. That would prove Jamie had done something to the old wolf who’d assaulted her.
But the more he looked, the less he saw. Until his eyes watered and Tully jumped back, sneezing and sneezing, trying to get that scent out of his nostrils.
“What?” Kyle asked, shifting back to human and watching him. “What’s wrong?”
Tully shifted, as did almost everyone else, and he watched as Buck began to wake up, his head slowly lifting off the ground.
Unable to help himself, Tully laughed. Just a little. “Worse than death,” he repeated.
Kyle shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
Tully pointed at Buck. “She made him…she made him full-human.”
Jack came around Kyle, staring down at Buck with something akin to pure horror. “That’s impossible.”
“Not for her,” Tully said. “Not here.”
Buck glared up at him, talon marks covering his face from Rico. “Wrong. You’re wrong.”
“I know what I smell, old man. And I smell a full-human. She made you full-human.” And Jamie was right. To them, to shifters, no matter the breed, being full-human was worse than death. It was death. But especially for someone like Buck. For someone whose whole being was wrapped up in the strength and force he wielded from the wolf inside him.
Buck closed his eyes and they watched him struggle to do what had always come so easy to them as soon as they’d hit puberty. To shift to wolf.
But nothing happened.
“Won’t last,” Buck said desperately.
“It smells like it’ll last,” Jack sneered.
“She got you, Buck,” Tully said, backing away from him as did everyone else, even his sons. Buck had raised them so that their loyalty would always be to the strongest of their Pack. A full-human would never be the strongest. Unless it was someone like Jamie…and Jamie was his.
“She got you,” Tully said again, and this time he laughed. So did his Pack, his family, his neighbors. They all laughed. And he knew this was so much worse than death to Buck.
Tully turned his back on Buck, something he would never have done even ten minutes ago, and walked off.
“Don’t you walk away from me, boy!”
But Tully did, and he laughed as he did. Never once looking back.
Emma met Kyle and Tully outside Tully’s house. As soon as she saw them, she said, “I can’t believe this is your house!”
Kyle shifted and glared at her. “Could you focus?”
“It’s amazing! Why haven’t you had a party here?”
Grinning, Tully kissed her cheek. “Thank you, darlin’.” He glanced at the house and back at Emma. “How is she?”
“Sleeping. What she did…took a lot out of her.”
“Will she be all right?”
Emma smiled. “Absolutely. She just needs sleep.”
Mac and Kenny walked out, Seneca in Mac’s arms, snoring against her shoulder. “So does this one.”
“He broke Jamie’s jaw,” Kenny explained, her hand resting on Tully’s shoulder when he cringed at her words. He’d already known it, but it still hurt to hear. Still hurt to know how much Jamie had suffered. It simply never occurred to him that his father would go that far. But now he knew.
“It’s healed,” Kenny went on. “Sen did an amazing job.” She winked at him and whispered, “But don’t tell her I said so. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“Make sure she eats when she gets up,” Mac explained as Kyle took Seneca out of her arms.
“I will.”
“I found your cell and programmed my number in it. Any problems, you call. Okay?”
“I sure will. Thank you all.”
Mac lightly punched his shoulder before saying to Kyle, “Can you take us back out to the woods?”
“What for?”
“We need to clean up some…uh”—she glanced at Tully—“burnt remains. Nothing to worry about it.”
They headed toward Emma’s bright red Jeep and Kyle looked back at Tully before following after them, Seneca still in his arms. “What burnt remains?” Kyle asked Mac. “What does that even mean?”
“You going to be all right?” Emma asked Tully.
“I’ll be fine. He wanted Jamie all along, didn’t he, Em?”
“I don’t think so. I’m of the mind”—she grinned at him—“I got that line from Kyle.” She chuckled, before finishing. “I’m of the mind he thought Wanda and her coven, the Lightest Dawn”—she rolled her eyes in disgust at that name—“would be able to fight us. I mean, they weren’t bad. They blocked their presence and who Wanda was a lot longer than most could. Using the patchouli was really smart. Jamie hates that crap so much, she was always busy trying to get away from Wanda rather than focusing on her energy. But when Wanda wasn’t strong enough to fight Jamie one-on-one, I think Buck’s interests—moved.”
“That sounds about right. He always liked strong females but they always ended up trying to kill him while he slept.”
Emma giggled and patted his shoulder. “Look, don’t worry about Jamie. She’ll be fine. Just make sure she sleeps and eats, in whatever order she wants to.”
“Okay.”
“And Tully”—she took a breath—“what she did to Buck…it’s not something you guys have to worry about. She can’t go around ripping everyone’s DNA apart.”
“You don’t have to explain it to me, darlin’.”
“I guess I don’t want everybody afraid of her, thinking that if she gets pissed over someone giving her the wrong change or bumping into her, she’ll do that.”
“No worries, darlin’. I’ll make sure everybody understands.”
“Okay.”
“Now you take that pretty face home and let Kyle whine about his pathetic excuse for wounds.”
“You two are so hopeless,” she teased, going up on her tiptoes and kissing his cheek.
He watched her go down the stairs and get in the front passenger seat. Once the Jeep was heading down the road, Tully opened the door and walked into his house.
Jamie was in his bed, right where she belonged, and out cold. He thought about taking a shower first, but he needed to touch her, to hold her, to make sure she was okay.
He slipped in beside her and she made small mewling sounds in her sleep. He shushed her and brushed his hands against her hair and body as he settled in behind her, spooning his body around hers. She grabbed his hand and held it between hers, sighed once, and slept peacefully again.
Tully kissed her forehead, thanked any stronger power than himself that might have helped him in the last few hours, and dropped off.
Tully woke up when he finally couldn’t ignore the sun beating against his face. His momma had been right. He needed some damn blinds. Ruin the aesthetic, my ass.
Jamie was comfortably wrapped around him but still sleeping hard. Making sure to not wake her, he eased out from under her, his body grumbling at the loss of her warmth. But he didn’t want her to wake up to a dirty, blood-covered male. She deserved more than that. So he silently headed to the bathroom for a quick shower with additional plans on making her some breakfast before they had a nice little discussion about their future together.
Tully was in the middle of washing his hair and debating on pancakes or waffles or both, when the shower door opened, slamming against the wall beside it. The sound had him spinning around, ready for a fight until he saw Jamie standing there…staring at him.
“Jamie?”
Her gaze swept down to his feet, then slowly back up until she gazed into his face. Tully instinctively took a step back. “Jamie?”
She licked her lips and stepped in to the shower. Water poured down on her and she used both hands to swipe her hair off her face.
“Are you all right?”
“Uh-huh.” She openly stared at his cock, the damn thing rising without direct orders from him. “I feel great.”
“Are…are you sure. Because you don’t seem yourself.”
She stepped closer and Tully realized he was now backed up to the shower wall—and his shower was not small.
“When you”—she licked her lips again, blew out a long, desperate breath—“use as much power as I did last night, there are…side effects. Remember? We talked about side effects.”
“Right. Sen gets angry and you get—”
“Horny.”
“Horny?”
She pressed her hands against the shower wall behind him and leaned in, taking a long sniff before she let out a groan. “Yeah. I usually take care of it myself with an hour or six with my vibrator.”
He swallowed. “Six?”
“But it’s back at the house and you, oh, God, you smell so good.”
“But—” he stopped, cleared his throat because it was cracking, and tried again. “But we’re supposed to talk.”
“Talk?” She glared at him. “I don’t wanna talk. I wanna fuck.” She reached out, wrapping her hand around his cock.
Tully felt his knees weaken, much more and he’d drop completely.
With soft fingers, Jamie slowly stroked him. “Don’t you want to fuck me, Tully?”
Tully nodded. “Uh-huh.”
“A lot?”
“Uh-huh.” He swallowed again, his eyes crossing as he desperately tried to focus. “But we need to talk.”
“About?”
Panting, he said, “About…uh…us.”
“What about us?”
“I don’t remember.”
She smiled, the sweetest smile he’d ever seen. “Then we’ll talk when you do remember.”
“But,” he said quickly, his mind trying to work past what her insistent hand was doing to him, “you went through a lot last night. I should be taking care of you, pampering you, showing you I’m sensitive or whatever.” Oh, my God! What is that twisty thing she’s doing with her hand?
“Tully,” she purred, “I want you to take care of me and pamper me and show me you’re sensitive and all that other bullshit people need. And, yeah, I sometimes need it too. But right now all I need is a good, solid, hard”—she pressed her lips against his chest—“fuck. Think you can help me with that?”
“You’re—Lord, that feels good—sure?”
Her tongue swirled around his nipple while her thumb swirled around the head of his cock. “I’m sure.” She looked up at him with those dark brown eyes. “I am so fucking sure.”
He shrugged. “Well…all right then.”
She’d been pushing him hard, demanding what she wanted and needed from him. She needed to know now if he could handle this side of her. It happened anytime she called on that level of power, used that amount of energy. Because of what she’d done the day before, the need for sleep came first. Other times her first need was food. And sometimes all she needed was to fuck. This time she needed all three, but her body told her in what order. Sleep first, fuck second, food third.
But Jamie knew it wasn’t that easy. Her ravenous needs after casting had scared off more than one man. All men said they wanted a sex machine…until they actually got one. Then suddenly they were overwhelmed, she was too needy, and how could anyone expect them to live this way? If Tully couldn’t handle it, she needed to know. Would she end it? No way. She loved him. But she’d have to arrange her schedule differently, make sure the freezer was always full with lots of easy-to-make meals, and that she maintained her monthly delivery of batteries for all her vibrators. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes she’d made with her ex. Not with the way she felt about Tully. She loved him so much it hurt. And she wouldn’t risk losing that because maybe he couldn’t handle—
Tully lifted her up, turned, and pushed her into the wall. With one hard thrust he was inside her, Jamie crying out as he drove into her, nailing her against the wall with the strength of his body and the power of his cock. And he was relentless, his mouth finding hers, his tongue stroking, his hands gripping her flesh hard.
It was too much. It wasn’t enough.
Jamie’s legs tightened around Tully’s waist, her heels digging into his ass, her arms holding onto his shoulders as the orgasm ripped up her spine, exploding through her. Tully followed close behind, his body shaking as he released inside her, his mouth pressed against the side of her neck. They stood there, for how long she didn’t know, holding onto each other.
Finally, Tully reached over and shut off the water. Still holding her, still buried deep inside her, he walked out of the shower and back into the bedroom. With each step he took, the amazing sensation of his cock inside her radiated through her, and she knew she wasn’t done. Knew she needed more. The beauty of it? She didn’t have to say a word. Tully stopped by the bed and then he was taking her down to the mattress. By the time she felt the comforter against her bare ass, Tully was hard again and driving into her.
Worries about finding workarounds to manage the immediate hours after spellcasting flew out of her head as it suddenly occurred to her she wouldn’t be needing any of that. Not with her horny wolf. He was as insatiable as her, as demanding. And he gave as good as he got. She couldn’t have asked for more, hoped for more.
She couldn’t help but smile either at the realization and Tully, not missing a thrust, said, “Look at that smile. Tell me what I need to do, beautiful, to keep you smiling like that every day.”
Jamie laughed, hugging Tully tight against her. “Well, um…this works.”
They slept most of the afternoon, both exhausted to their bones. But when Tully woke up, he was alone and didn’t like it. He went down to the first floor and when he heard the ocean, he headed to his kitchen. His sliding door was open, which explained the ocean sounds he heard, but he barely glanced at it with all that food covering his kitchen table.
“I came down here,” Jamie said, “and found it like this.”
“Of course you did.” He grabbed one of the large paper plates someone thoughtfully put out and began spooning someone’s mac and cheese onto it. “We take care of our own around here. And everyone knew you’d be too plumb tired to cook for me.”
Jamie leaned against the sliding glass door frame. She had only a sheet wrapped around her and Lord knew she didn’t need anything else. “I’m cooking for you now?”
“If you love me…”
He left it out there hanging, expecting her immediate response. When he didn’t get it, he dropped his food on the table and stalked over to her. “You do love me. You already said so.”
She looked off and Tully gave her his best “basset hound” expression. “Don’t you love me?”
“That is a pitiful face.”
He stuck his bottom lip out as far as possible and Jamie laughed hard, pressing her body into his.
“Tell me you love me, beautiful.”
“Of course I love you.”
He kissed her smiling mouth and pulled her to the kitchen table. He sat down and sat her on his lap, reaching around her to get his plate of food.
“There’s no way we can eat all this food,” she said.
“Speak for yourself, Yankee.”
“Do I have to do anything now?”
Fork poised in front of his mouth, “Sorry?”
“I mean…all this food. Should I send them cash or something? Mow their lawn? Babysit their kids?”
Tully put his food back down on the table, sure he wouldn’t get his meal anytime soon.
He ran his hands down her arms. “Look, the only thing you’ll have to do is maybe make a pie when someone’s momma passes on. Or bake a cake for someone’s birthday. And you’ll do it ’cause it’s a nice thing to do and because you know that when you need something, there’ll always be someone there to help. That’s just the way it is around here. You’ll get used to it.”
“Will I have to start being less sarcastic? And mocking?”
“No one’s expecting more than you can give, beautiful. Stick with the pies and the cakes, don’t make fun of the dead at their funerals, stop shooting at the hyenas on your territory—because we all know you have been—and you’ll be just fine.”
She nodded, then said, “But if the hyenas are illegally on my property—”
“Jamie.”
“All right fine.”
“Thank you.” He kissed her shoulder and reached for his plate but she caught his wrist.
“Oh, no, you don’t.”
“Woman, I’m hungry!”
“You’re not getting a bit of this damn food until you say it.”
“Fine. You’re light as a feather.”
Jamie slammed her elbow into his chest.
“Ow!”
“Say it.”
He laughed even as he rubbed where she’d hit him with that chicken wing of hers. “I love you.”
“And?”
And? He smiled. “And you’re as light as a feather.”
She grinned. “Thank you.” She put her arms around his neck. “So now what?” When he frowned, she added, “After you eat.”
“Sleep some more? Or maybe play another game of gropey hands?”
“I meant where do we go from here?”
“Oh that’s easy. When you’re at work, I’ll start moving your stuff in. You won’t notice at first, and by the time you do, it’ll all be here. Every night you’ll make noises about going back to your place, but you won’t. And then one day you’ll wake up with me sleeping beside you, and you’ll realize it’s thirty years later and wonder how you ever got so lucky as to have me in your life all that time.”
“So I was right? One night and we’re now irrevocably attached.”
“Yeah. But you were lucky enough to get me.”
“True. And you were lucky enough to get me.” Her grin grew. “And Rico.” That’s when the bird flew in through the open door and landed on his shoulder, predator-talons digging into Tully’s flesh, her little beaked head turning toward him.
“Great,” he lied. “Because I do so love your bird.”
Jamie lifted up his plate of food and held it out so her mooching little fricassee could eat his mac and cheese. “And I can so see that love too,” she laughed.
Tully pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket, moving away from the small group he was speaking to and into a small hallway.
“Hello?”
“Boy.”
And Tully had to smile, but he was glad Bubba Ray couldn’t see it. “Hi, Uncle Bub.”
“You all right?”
“Are you checking up on me?”
“Asked you a question, boy.”
Tully stifled a laugh. “I’m fine, sir.”
“Your, uh, Aunt Janie was worried about you is all.”
Tully had to admit it warmed his hard heart to realize how much his kin cared. It had been more than three weeks since Buck Smith’s body had been found. The rumor was that his two sons—Luther having disappeared—had turned on him. They’d even been bragging about it, trying to keep their Pack of strays from bailing. Maybe hoping to work their way into one of the other Smith Packs. But Tully knew the truth, had heard it from Kyle who’d heard it from some tree-dwelling feline kin of his out of Alabama.
It had been the females who’d ended it for Buck Smith. Some Reeds, a few Lewises, and lots of Smiths. All of them She-wolves. When they’d heard what Buck had tried to do to Jamie, they’d descended on him like the wrath of God. It was the one thing female shifters wouldn’t put up with from the males and if the She-wolves hadn’t taken care of it themselves, the other breeds would have. Which would have led to mocking…and She-wolves hated being mocked.
He probably should feel something about the man’s death, and he felt kind of guilty that he didn’t, but Buck Smith had reaped what he sowed. In the end, all that mattered to Tully was that his momma would never have that man’s hand around her throat again, and Jamie would never worry that he’d be coming back for her. Then again, he got the feeling Jamie was a little disappointed Buck wouldn’t be. She’d had all sorts of “stuff” waiting for him.
“Well you tell Aunt Janie I’m fine.”
“All right. Good. You need anything, you call.”
“I will. Have a nice night.”
“Yep.” Then the call ended as abruptly as it had started.
After sliding his phone back into his jacket pocket, Tully adjusted his bow tie and headed back into the Mayor’s Spring Dance. It was a success, but he was painfully bored. Happy, but bored. He stared out the big glass doors and he saw a sleek swath of red silk slip by.
“Hi, Tully.”
A long arm wrapped around his shoulder and he grinned. “Hey, Mac.”
“You need us to distract the crowd so you can get out of here?”
“Nah. I made my speech, made sure the food and liquor are ample, and that everyone will have a good time.”
“Then go on. She’s waiting for you outside.”
“Thanks, darlin’.” He studied Mac a moment. “That’s a beautiful dress on you.”
“Thanks.”
“I think Bear likes it, too.”
Mac blinked, looking slightly panicked. “Um…huh?”
“He’s been eyeing it all night. Maybe he wants to borrow it.”
She let out a mighty relieved laugh before she pushed him away. “Go. Or I’m rattin’ you out to ya mother.”
“Traitor.”
Tully moved through the crowd and out the door, waving at his momma before he stepped out. Her smile was wide as she waved back and winked, her arm around his daddy’s waist, looking happier than she ever had before. Knowing Millie was in good hands—even if they were feline hands—Tully slipped outside.
He saw Jamie leaning against a tree, completely unconcerned with the strapless five-thousand-dollar designer dress he’d had made for her. Like him, she’d rather be in jeans and a T-shirt. Heh. Like him, she’d rather be naked. He headed toward her but stopped by one of the large bushes that surrounded the Crystal Room.
“What’cha doin’?”
His brother stepped out from behind the bushes. “Nothin’.”
“Is that right, Emma? Is nothin’ going on back there?”
“Go away,” Emma’s voice ordered from behind those bushes.
“You sure you don’t need some help?”
“Tully!” she squeaked.
Kyle shook his head. “You are such a bastard.”
“Not since my momma married your daddy.”
He approached Jamie, marveling at how beautiful she looked in the moonlight. He kissed her cheek, his finger tracing the black Celtic Knot on her upper bicep that they’d woken up one morning to find marked into her skin. Proof she’d become a powerful goddess’s champion. It didn’t mean much to him, but Jamie had been really happy about it. And pretty damn cocky about it, too—much to her cousin’s intense annoyance.
“You were great tonight,” he told her. “Who knew you were a natural politician’s wife?”
“Bite your tongue.”
“I’d rather you bite my tongue.”
“You say that but then you bite back.” She pouted. “And I’m so delicate.”
“Heh.”
The valet pulled Tully’s car up and Jamie shook her head. She’d done the same when he’d pulled up in front of the house in it.
“I still can’t believe you have a car.”
“ ’Course I have a car. We’re not savages.”
“But you never use it.”
He shrugged. “I ain’t runnin’ from nothin’. And everything I want is in walking distance.” He winked at her. “Even you.”
“But it’s a…a Lamborghini…”
“You don’t like it?”
“Are you kidding?” They stood staring at the car until Jamie asked, “You’d rather walk home, wouldn’t you?”
He couldn’t lie to her, so he said, “Yeah.”
She rolled her eyes and Tully looked at the grizzly cub he’d hired to take care of the parking for him. A nice, reliable kid. And Bear’s son.
“When you’re done here tonight, Luke, think you can run the car back to my house?”
Luke stared up at him with wide eyes. Like his father, he was probably going to be a late bloomer. Nearly seventeen but barely five-foot-seven. It made him a target with the other cubs and pups, but he took it well and held his own. If he was anything like his father, he’d wake up one day and be twice the size and much less tolerant.
“Are…are you sure, Uncle Tully?”
“Yep. And don’t let Kyle try and talk you out of it. I don’t let him drive it at all.”
“Okay.”
“And no dents or evidence girls have been back there.” He leaned in and whispered, “No evidence. You know what I mean.”
“Oh, my God,” Jamie snapped. “Can we please go?”
“See how she is, Luke? Busy trying to get me alone.”
Jamie started walking away from him, but he caught her hand. “Not yet.” He crouched in front of her and pulled off her high heels. “You won’t make it a mile before you’re whining about your feet.”
“I hate these shoes.”
Tully held the shoes by their straps in his left hand and grabbed hold of Jamie’s hand with his right. They headed home, taking their time and enjoying the night. She complained about it an awful lot, but Tully had noticed that Jamie had taken to ambling more and more these days. It was good for her, too. Made her appreciate what she already had rather than always being busy trying to get what she didn’t. And the more comfortable she grew with everything around her, the less she felt that driving need to search out more and more power. Somehow, without saying much about it, Jamie had found that balance. That balance between what she had and what she wanted. And the funny thing was…it was by finding this balance that allowed more power to blossom within her, naturally.
He wasn’t even sure if she’d realized it yet—she could be kind of dumb about the obvious. Beautiful, charming, and lethal—but dumb.
But he loved her anyway.
Jamie made his days bright and his nights…unbelievable.
“Doing any casting soon, beautiful?”
Head thrown back, Jamie laugh. “You ask me that every night.”
“I’m just trying to be helpful.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday,” he needlessly reminded her. “I’m assuming we’re sleeping in.”
“You assume a lot. I figure we should get up at six, face the day bright and early.”
Tully stopped, forcing Jamie to stop with him.
“Tell me you’re joking.”
“I didn’t say we had to actually get out of bed or put on clothes in order to face the day bright and early.” Her hand still gripping his, she stepped into him, pressed that perfect, curvy body against his. “I’d prefer we stay right where we are.”
“Now that sounds more like my speed, beautiful.” He kissed her chin, nuzzled his nose against hers. “Not too slow, not too fast.”
“Just amble the morning away?” she sighed.
“Can you think of anything better?”
She cupped his cheek with tender fingers and softly replied, “For once…no. I can’t think of anything better.”