ROMANCE: Mason (Bad Boy Alpha Male Stepbrother Romance Boxset) (New Adult Contemporary Stepbrother Romance Collection) (164 page)

“I can’t do that,” I said. “I don’t want it.”

The warmth drained out of the room. It was like the sun had set, even though the rays still fell in through high windows, and I shivered. When I looked at my mother again her eyes were cold, a bright green so light that I got nervous.

“You can’t just walk away from what you were born into, Gemma.”

The way she said my name was hard and cruel.  The warmth that flowed around the room and through me a moment ago was gone, and I felt like I was being scolded.

“Well what if I don’t want what I was born into?” I challenged. I didn’t sound nearly as confident as I’d wanted. It sounded weak and thin, but the words were out there. I didn’t want this.

Her face changed. It became cold and hard like marble, and somehow the wrinkles were smoothing out to make her seem ageless. Timeless. A being from a different realm.

“Gemma, you were born to become the next High Priestess. I won’t let you throw away your future.”

“I wasn’t the one that decided that, mom. You were. I won’t do it. I don’t want it. I tried when I was younger, I’m pretty sure you know about that, too. And I don’t want it.”

“I am your mother,” she said and her words sliced through me, hard and cold as ice. “I have only ever done what was good for you.”

Fear choked me. It was thick in the room, like mist, and I knew it came from me. She had nothing to fear. I had death staring me in the face, in the form of my mother, and I was sure she wouldn’t hesitate to finish this, one way or the other.

“What was good for me?” I choked out despite my fear. “Like making me come here against my will? Like promising my life to the coven? Like…” I swallowed hard, trying to force away the lump that had risen in my throat. “Like killing dad?”

I didn’t have all the facts, but I was pretty sure. And her reaction proved my point. She mumbled low and deep in her throat, words that I didn’t understand. And suddenly I couldn’t move. I was frozen on the spot, my arms pinned to my sides. I could only breathe halfway in and out.

“You will not defy me in front of the royal court,” she hissed and I felt her voice crawl all over my skin. The royal court? I shuddered on the inside. This was a lot worse than I’d imagine. There was no way I was getting out of this now.

Raven turned around, her hair flying up around her head like a cloud, like it was static. I could feel the magic crackle in the air, feel it like a second skin.

“Take her away,” she commanded and two witches hurried to me. Fear was plain on her faces, and I wondered suddenly what kind of person Raven was that her subjects didn’t respect her but feared her.

“Oh, you’ve done it now,” the one witch muttered, but somehow it just steeled my resolve. If that’s what it meant to be the High Priestess, there was no way.

No. Way.

Colt

She drew me. I couldn’t describe what it was, a scent or a feeling or anything like that. It was more like a beacon and I was a homing pigeon, going to find the one place I could settle down again.

It pulled me East, and I ran. My muscles screamed at me and my wolf got tired, but kept pushing I only stopped for water twice, and I had to steer clear of humans a couple of times. As I ran the feeling slowly got stronger, a pulse in my veins, in my head, that beat strongly next to my own. She was alive, alive and well, and as long as her heart was beating, I could find her.

I got to Phoenix and suddenly the pulse was so clear in my head it made a humming sound of its own. The city had way too many people in it, so I had to get out of my wolf as quickly as I could. I crept along an alley with wooden walls that separated backyards from each other. The garbage cans were full and they smelled. I sneezed twice.

As I crept along I had my feelers out. A maid here and there. A stay at home mom. Maybe a bachelor or two. I couldn’t risk any garden that had its people home. Someone might be looking out a window and then I would be seen. A werewolf could never be seen, although a stray dog would have gone down better in this area. Still, stray dogs didn’t clear fences the way I was planning to.

Finally I found a house that felt empty. Like a shell, with its lifeblood sucked out of it. Homes without people became houses, empty and sad. The people hadn’t been gone for lone, I could still feel their heat in the air, but it was quiet. I looked around me and the alley was empty, so I launched into the air without taking a run first, and landed on soft paws in grass that hadn’t been mowed recently. There was washing on the line, flapping in a cool breeze. The smell of cheap washing powder tickled my nose. I looked around, still feeling for people, and then I shrank back into my human form.

Sometimes when I changed it felt awkward to be human again. There were days when it was just better in the wolf’s skin. I walked naked to the washing line and picked off tracksuit pants and a t-shirt. The pants had a hole and the t-shirt had a picture of Spongebob on it, but it was better than being naked.

I left the garden as a man through the back gate, and closed my eyes again to find Gemma. As a human the pulse was fainter and panic grabbed me around the throat. What if I couldn’t find her now? I couldn’t be a wolf in the city. It was too dangerous.

But then her pulse, that part of her that made her alive, coursed through my veins. It was dim, and her pulse was so faint I struggled to keep track of it. But it was there. I grabbed hold of the lifeline and followed it.

Twice it stopped. The first time I nearly curled in a ball and died. If the pulse stopped it meant she was dead. But two seconds later it had started again. It was as if something was interfering with the signal. I followed it, but it felt dimmer. Still I didn’t feel like I was going in the wrong direction. The second time it stopped I managed to keep my panic at bay long enough for it to come back to life again. And it did.

Relief was just as strong as sorrow, and I held onto it. It pulled me through.

The pulse led me to a very big, solid gate. It was black and ominous, and a little threatening. But there were no cameras anywhere, no security at the gate. I looked up and down the walls, trying to scan it for any form of electricity motion detectors, but there was nothing.

Something else was keeping intruders out, and I was willing to bet it was magic. I lifted my hand to the wall, and the hum of a magical electricity hit me before I even touched it. There was no way I was going to be able to scale this wall.

I’d done it before, when I’d gone to the witch’s house Gemma had visited. I’d followed her, and when I’d touched the wall it had had magic too. But that had been doable. I’d gotten over it and it had been like being mildly electrocuted. This time I knew I wouldn’t make it. Stronger witches made stronger spells, and they could kill without ever being directly involved.

I walked down the street, following the wall until it ended where another property’s wall began. When I touched the new wall it was dead. Just a wall. Electric fencing decorated the top. Humans lived here.

I took a run and managed to get over the wall without touching the electric fence. I was willing to bet that the wall between the two homes wasn’t under some kind of magic spell. Witches would do anything to stop humans from knowing what they were. I jumped up against the wall, hooking my fingers over the edge and dragged myself onto it.

Magic hummed at the edge of the witch garden, like a solid wall of glass that stretched to the sky. When I touched it, it made a ‘zap’ sound and my fingers burned like they were on fire. But they’d gone through for a second.

I held my breath. And jumped.

My body shot through the invisible magic wall, and I fell to the ground. I felt like I’d been electrocuted for real this time. I reached my hand up to my hair. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was singed. But I was still intact. The magic still rode my body, but it wasn’t physical.

I pushed myself up. Whoever had cast that spell would know something had gone through it. Security at it’s very best. I didn’t have much time.

Inside the magic wall Gemma’s pulse was so loud I thundered in my ears. And I could feel her, too. She felt stuck, like she couldn’t move, and I had to focus on my own movement so it didn’t cripple me, too. I’d never felt something like that before.

I sensed movement. A lot of magic rippled in the air, as if powerful beings were moving – no, running around – and I had a feeling that if I followed them, I would find Gemma. If they’d taken her and they were keeping her from me, they would run to protect her. Toward her, not away from her.

So that was where I had to go.

I found my way inside the mansion. It reminded me more of a castle, the feeling of foreboding that hung around it, but the inside was beautiful. Tastefully done, and a lot of money had gone into it. I wondered vaguely if witchcraft really paid that well.

I was getting closer to the core of the thundering in my mind when I ran into the first witches. I had a leg up on them. I’d caught them off guard. A young man turned around and I jumped him before he had a chance to even think up a spell. I knocked him out and he crumpled the ground. He had a little blood on his head, but he would live.

A second witch appeared. She’d heard the commotion but hadn’t know what it was. She had no time for a spell either, but her hands were like claws. Her nails were pointed and she scratched at me, hissing like a cat. Her nails caught my cheek and left behind three burning lines like her nails had been poisoned. They might have been. My cheek swelled up right away and I could see the pink skin of my own face when I looked down. I touched my hand to the wound and my fingers came away slick with blood.

I elbowed her in the nose. Witch or not, she was a woman and if she hadn’t attacked me first I wouldn’t have been able to hurt her. A blow to the nose dropped anyone, and she stayed down.

Power surged through my body, power that didn’t belong to me. It was like a storm building, the static crackling through the air. Was it just me or was it getting darker? My eyes were on a tall, narrow door in front of me. The source of whatever as happening around me came from in there.

I ran toward the door. Anyone else would have run away. And that would have been the wise thing to do. But Gemma was here somewhere, and I was willing to bet anything she was through that door. And there was nothing wise about what I would do for her.

I stormed the through the door with more force than was needed. I’d expected it to be barred, or at least held shut with magic. It flew open and banged against the wall, bouncing back at me. I held up my elbow and blocked it from hitting my face. Smooth.

There were so many witches in the room, their magic made me dizzy. It stopped me from knowing how many. Ten? Twenty? I had no idea. Suddenly I couldn’t count. And the pulse that hummed through my veins was here too, in the middle.

Witches stormed me, and they had magic on their side now. They had had time to reach down to the spells that lay dormant inside them. I forced a change, but nothing happened. One of them was stopping my wolf from coming out. When I looked around the room my eyes fell on a witch with snow white hair and eyes that looked like they glowed purple, and I knew it was her. She was older. Very old. But her skin was smooth and her fingers, held up in the air curled and deformed like claws, were smooth. It was the power of her magic that gave her away.

But she wasn’t the strong one. I could feel it. The power surged from…

I turned and came face to face with a woman that looked like Gemma’s clone. She had the same build, the same face and eyes. Only her hair was back, not blond. But she would never be Gemma. There was no life in her eyes, no warmth and kindness. This woman was cold. Dead on her feet.

“You’re foolish, little wolf,” she said, and her voice was hard. “I was willing to let you live, even after how much trouble you’ve caused with Peter. But you just had to get in here and ruin everything, didn’t you?”

“I’m here for Gemma,” I said. I stood with feet apart, my chest out. I didn’t know how intimidating I looked with a Spongebob shirt and no shoes in a room full of witches, but I was here to get her back.

“And what makes you think you can come here and take her?” she asked me, and her voice was low and dangerous. It was the kind of voice almost every being in the world would do their best to avoid. But I had something on her. I had Gemma.

“We’re married. I can claim her as my own.”

The witch’s eyes widened for a split second. Somehow I had managed to catch her off guard. Hadn’t she known? She came across as the type of person that knew everything. Her face twisted into an ugly snarl, and her hand shot out. She grabbed me around my neck, and her nails bit into my skin. I was sure she drew more blood, but I couldn’t breathe, and that bothered me more.

I kicked my legs, but she picked me up so I was dangling in the air. A woman with more strength than any man. I wasn’t small, and she held me like I weighed nothing.

Great. This wasn’t going to end well.

Gemma

He was here. I knew he was. I’d felt him on my skin in a way I’d never felt him before, just before the door had flung open. The witches had moved around me and I hadn’t been able to see a thing. The spell Raven had cast on me still made it impossible to move, but his voice had rang out loud and clear above the magic in the room, and for the first time in days I felt like I was defrosting.