She didn’t want to look inside herself and find her magic. She wanted to go back to this morning when she’d been full of hope and optimism.
“Close your eyes, Rani,” Corinne said with an encouraging nod.
Rani didn’t want to, but she didn’t want to be in this chamber any longer than necessary either, so she closed her eyes, taken by surprise by how different her eyelids felt in this form.
Tentatively, she reached inside herself in this strange new cat form, bracing for a rush of magic. When it came, it wasn’t blindingly bright or electric or anything else she’d imagined; it was a soft, cool blanket. It was silk and smoothness and fresh air filling her lungs. It felt like relief, like reassurance, and Rani opened her eyes, glad that this had gone right.
But when she met Corinne’s eyes, they were horrified, and she was climbing to her feet, backing away from Rani.
Rani crept back a step too, her ears flat to her skull, unable to figure out why Corinne was reacting like this. Her magic felt soft, reassuring, and calm. Like diving into a still, serene lake and floating on the surface.
“Night,” someone in the crowd gasped, followed by a flurry of motion that drew Rani’s eye automatically.
“Darkness,” another woman whispered—Mrs Timms, who worked in the records room with Rani’s mum. She took one glance at Rani, who she’d known for years, and turned and ran, fear in her eyes.
“Rani, stop it,” her mum said urgently, and Rani frowned. What were they all talking about? “Dispel the magic. Now!”
Rani felt for that inner core of magic in her chest and coaxed the calm, cool power back inside herself. But not before she glimpsed what had terrified every cat shifter in the room; blackness hung over Rani’s head, silver stars winking occasionally in its inky shape.
Rani’s stomach shot to her paws, her throat twisting and a pitiful sound coming from her.
Her magic ... it was anathema to cats. The opposite of warmth and sunshine. It was darkness and cold. She had midnight magic.
And she’d be immediately cast from cat shifter community.
Bereft
“Mum, please,” Rani begged in the hallway of their terrace house in Richmond, the front door open to the biting night air and all of Rani’s things in a baby pink suitcase at the bottom of the stairs. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t have anywhere to go.” Her voice broke, her bottom lip close to quivering uncontrollably.
One day, one ceremony completely out of her control, and Rani had lost everything. Her future as an assistant to her mum at the library rooms, her place in feline shifter community, her home, her family ... all of it was being taken from her. And all because cats hated the dark and the cold. All because they were scared of midnight magic.
Rani didn’t feel evil. She didn’t feel bad. But everyone just accepted that a cat blessed with midnight magic was ... wrong. Unsavoury. Unacceptable. It was something Rani had always known but not spared much thought to. Now ... her whole life hinged on that fact: midnight magic was evil. Cats with darkness in them were inherently wicked. Not fit to associate with other cats.
But Rani was still the same person she’d been this morning. She was still the woman who loved fictitious adventures and dashing heroes. She was still the quirky little sister, and the quiet, smart daughter of Janey Rose. She wouldn’t hurt anyone.
But she’d seen the way everyone eyed her warily as she fled the ceremonial chamber, edging out of her path. As if her darkness was infectious.
“Sorry, Rani,” her mum said, a crack in her voice. Her lined face was pinched with misery, tears streaking her skin. “I don’t have a choice, baby. The rules are clear: you can’t stay here with us.”
“But ... but I don’t have anywhere else to go,” Rani pleaded, her chest jerking with broken breaths. “Nell—”
“I think it’s bullshit, too,” her sister spat as she came down the hall with Rani’s bag, dumping it on the doorstep to pull her little sister into a fierce hug. “I’ve put what’s left of my savings after the divorce in your bag. It’s only a couple hundred but it should be enough for a few nights in Travelodge and your first month’s rent when you find somewhere. Look online, yeah? I’ll send you some links to a few groups to check on Facebook. Make sure your phone’s charged.”
Rani’s bottom lip gave in to the urge to tremble as she inhaled a shaky breath. It became too real, the fact that she was leaving home, being kicked out, as Nell set out a plan for how Rani would go about finding a new home.
She hadn’t planned to move out until she was thirty. Maybe never. Houses were so expensive, and having enough money to even rent one on her own sounded like a pipe dream even for a woman who’d grown up in affluent Richmond-Upon-Thames.
“I can’t do this,” she whispered, clutching Nell hard. “I can’t, I don’t know how to live by myself.”
Nell drew back and cupped Rani’s face. “You have to. You know the society won’t budge on this. But mum and I can come see you in secret; they’ll never know.”
Rani didn’t want to have to see her family in secret clandestine rendezvous. She wanted to be a part of it, like she always had been. She wanted her bedroom, their tiny walled-in garden with its iron table and chairs, their cluttered living room and airy kitchen with its multi-coloured utensils.
She wanted her home, and her mum and sister, and the familiar library where she’d expected to work for the rest of her life. She wanted her place among felines, where she’d always expected to be. She didn’t want to be cast out, homeless, no family, no friends. Nothing.
But she didn’t have a choice. Corrine had made that clear to her mum after the ceremony went wrong.
Nell hugged her tighter and then let go, stepping back, and Rani trapped her bottom lip between her teeth, tears streaking down her cheeks. The sound of her mum rolling the pink suitcase down the hallway floorboards was akin to nails in a coffin. But she let go of the suitcase handle and pulled Rani close, her grasp fierce and tight.
“I’m sorry, baby,” she whispered. “You’ll be okay. You’re strong, and smart. You’ll be alright on your own.”
“I won’t,” Rani sobbed. “Mum, I really won’t.”
Janey Rose drew back, holding Rani by her shoulders and giving her a long look. She was crying as badly as Rani, her glasses as foggy as Rani’s, too. “You’re a Rose. Your great grandma ran a farm all by herself; Grandad Rose was a codebreaker in the war; and your Aunt Millie’s kicking ass in the Olympic weightlifting world. We’re built of stern stuff, us Roses. You’ll get through this. Even if ... even if you’re dark.”
“I’m not, Mum,” Rani insisted. “Just because I have this magic—”
Her mum shook her head, stepping back with a tight expression on her face. “You’ll get through this.”
And without even saying goodbye, she turned away and rushed down the hall, closing the kitchen door behind herself. Shutting Rani out.
“She doesn’t want you to go any more than I do,” Nell said gently. “It’s hard on her.”
“It’s hard on her?” Rani asked with a shattered laugh, numbly curling her fingers around the suitcase handle. It was an offensively pretty shade of pink for a night like this. “What about me?”
“I’m so sorry, Rani,” Nell said, her jaw clenched. “They’re bastards for making you leave us. Our society’s out-fucking-dated. It’s archaic. There’s nothing wrong with midnight magic, it’s just another kind of power for fuck’s sake. So what if it’s night magic? So what if it’s cold?” She squeezed Rani closer. “They’re scared after what happened with Orion Child. But that was fifteen years ago. They need to get over it.”
“I’m nothing like him,” Rani said miserably. Orion Child had been a shifter with midnight magic who’d confirmed every fear that cat society had ever had about dark powers. He’d wanted to grow his power, become a god, not just a shifter, and he’d left a string of murders in his wake.
“I know that,” Nell said, scowling. “But those basta
rds will judge you based on the past.” She shook her head, sighing. She usually looked fierce with her short blonde hair and her scowl, but Nell didn’t look fierce now. She looked gutted. “It’s not fair on you, but I doubt it’ll ever change. Mum’s right, though, you’re clever and you’re strong. You’ll be okay. Make sure you charge your phone, okay? I’ll call you.”
Goodbye, Rani realised—this was goodbye. Her face tightened as more tears rolled down her face. “I’ll charge my phone,” she promised, her voice thick with emotion. “I love you, Nell.”
“Love you too, Ra-ra.” Nell gave her a last hug and stepped back.
But she stayed on the doorstep, watching, as Rani slid her bag over her shoulder and rolled the suitcase down the road.
She was officially homeless, kicked out of cat society, and a pariah.
Miserable and sobbing, she turned in the direction of the hotel.
Branded
Rani was five minutes from Richmond’s Travelodge, cars and buses roaring past on the rain-damp road beside her, when a fierce heat ripped through her bicep. She gasped, the pain fierce enough to blur the main road in front of her as she stumbled to a halt outside the closed-up WH Smith, ignoring the looks she got from passersby.
It felt like her arm was on fire, like five hundred Chinese burns all at once. In a panic, Rani unbuttoned her coat and shoved it off her shoulder, pushing up the sleeve of her shirt and gasping at the sight of a glowing blue paw print. Her mating brand! In the chaos and devastation of her ceremony, Rani had completely forgotten that her magic was usually followed by the mating brand.
But ... she had midnight magic. Didn’t that mean she was sullied? Evil? If midnight magic was so bad, why would the goddess burden another shifter with Rani?
The heat rose in a sudden surge and Rani groaned, leaning against the wall. But then the pain receded, the bright glow of the paw print—in parts pale blue and in others vibrant indigo—settling into a soft illumination rather than the blinding light it had been.
She had a mate.
Rani stood there for a long moment, stunned. She had a mate.
But would they want her when they found out about her magic? And what about when they learned that she wasn’t a panther or a lynx or a tiger, but a regular black cat?
Whatever the outcome, she couldn’t keep standing here outside WH Smith’s.
Rani sucked in a breath of crisp night air and decided she’d go to the hotel tonight, and maybe ... maybe try to find her mate tomorrow?
It was a daunting prospect, but it was exciting too. And relief wound through her, along with the possibility that maybe her magic wouldn’t turn her evil like everyone believed. She couldn’t be bad if she had a mate.
FIFTEEN MINUTES AND sixty quid later, Rani expelled a sigh as she sank onto a plush hotel bed, only the sound of electric lights humming around her. She hated it—the quiet. It was peaceful, but it was empty. There was no Nell yelling at reality shows in the front room, no mum clattering around baking a cake in the kitchen. She couldn’t even hear the traffic on the road outside.
Rani switched the TV on just to drown out the silence and flopped onto her back, letting the mattress absorb her weight. She’d never been in a hotel room on her own before. She didn’t like the feeling.
She was debating going out to get something to eat, still splayed on the bed, when a spike of heat lanced through her right thigh. A whimper rushed from her lips as Rani froze, wondering if she’d been wrong about the brand on her bicep, scared this was some curse she’d be forced to endure because she had night powers.
She curled into a ball and waited for the needles of fire to fade from her thigh.
Gasping for breath when the heat faded, Rani unbuttoned her jeans and shoved them to her knees, her mouth falling open at the sight of a second paw print on the outside of her thigh, shining steadily, a pearly blue colour.
What ... the fuck?
Two mates? Was the universe drunk?
Rani groaned and dropped back to the bed.
The bright light had faded from both her brands, both of them softly glowing now, but Rani could still sense the energy around them as if those parts of her body were electrically charged. She should have been happy, and she was—sort of—but she’d had enough to deal with today. She just wanted to eat, crash, and then figure everything out in the morning.
Everything being how to exist on her own, cut off from her family and community, how to find a flat, and how to find a job. How to be an adult, basically. Rani hadn’t planned on figuring all this out so soon. She’d never dreamed that her coming of age ceremony could mess up this badly.
And now she had two brands.
She was crashed out alone on a hotel bed with her jeans around her knees. This was rock bottom, wasn’t it? Well, as Yazz once said, the only way is up. It wasn’t like Rani could sink any lower.
She hauled herself up with a groan to use the bathroom and buttoned up her jeans and coat afterward, planning to be a fully functioning human being for ten goddamn minutes while she went downstairs to get a packet of crisps and a chocolate bar from the vending machine—because screw going outside the hotel to get food. She’d had a bad enough day without getting rained on again.
But why didn’t vending machines sell wine? It was a serious oversight.
She made it down to the lobby and fed a couple pound coins into the machine, punching in the number for a bag of Walker’s cheese and onion, a Mars bar, and a bottle of Dr Pepper since they didn’t do anything alcoholic. She could have gone to the other side of the reception and ordered a glass of wine from the bar, but anything resembling social interaction was abhorrent right now.
So with her arms full of junk food, Rani trudged into the lift and lit up the button for floor two.
When scalding heat flashed through her—this one on her decolletage between her collarbones—she was glad to be alone in the lift. She gasped and stumbled back against the metal wall, a cry falling off her tongue as her other two brands flared, as if they were all in sync.
The lift doors opened, and Rani had to press the hold button to stop them closing again, panting and struggling for breath as the heat finally faded, leaving her with three softly humming, glowing mating brands.
Three.
She had three brands. And three mates. The same number of mates as their goddess.
Rani made her way back to her hotel room in a daze.
Paw Prints
No more flashes of heat tore through her, and her brands remained pulsing gently, emitting a soft glow. They were all blue, but each was a slightly different shade: one sky blue, one a deep indigo, and one a mix of both. Rani finished her sad meal, changed into pyjamas, plugged in her phone as she’d promised, and climbed into bed, still reeling.
It took a long, long while for her to fall asleep, but the heat of the room and the plush duvet eventually lulled her into unconsciousness.
She didn’t sleep for long—an urgent knock at her door had her lurching awake, panic tearing through her. Had Corinne come to force Rani to leave Richmond, maybe even all of London?
Swallowing hard, Rani crept out of bed, holding her breath as she reached for the handle of the hotel room door. Her hand shook as she pressed down on it, and of course it didn’t open. She still had the damn lock on. Freaking out, Rani fumbled at the lock and wrenched the door open, ready to plead for mercy and fight for her right to stay, at least for the night—but it wasn’t Corinne stood in the hall. It wasn’t anyone she knew.
“Um,” Rani said, her shoulders up by her ears as she stared wide-eyed at the three strangers in the hall. They were all men, and they looked alike, all with the same golden skin and white hair, though some were slightly taller than others, and their builds and clothing styled varied. “I think you have the wrong room.”
They were doing a similar perusal of her as she was of them, and for a moment none of them spoke. Rani expected embarrassed laughs and for them to excuse themselves to the next door down the
hall. But that wasn’t what happened.
One of the men took a half-step forward, his white hair cut shorter than the others and a smile creasing his eyes—one baby blue, she noticed, and one a deep indigo—as he very seriously said, “I’m Eri Mahon. These are my brothers, Nigh and Tom.”
“Hi...?” Rani said awkwardly, wondering if it was rude to just close the door and go back to bed. “Nice to meet you. I think?”
The shortest guy—though not by much—gave her a grin she was tempted to call rakish, his long white hair falling over his shoulders. “You have no clue who we are, do you, love?”
Rani shrugged, her stomach squirming. “Should I?”
“Oh, yeah,” he replied, still grinning. “You should definitely know us.”
The third brother—for they had to be related—scowled at Rani, making her shrink back from his dangerous intensity as he pulled down the V-neck collar of his grey T-shirt, exposing deep black tattoos of beautifully detailed creatures—mermaids and dragons and chimera. Right between his collarbones, standing out by virtue of the deep indigo glow, was a paw print.
Rani sucked in a breath and retreated a step, lifting her hands palm-up to ward him off. To ward them all off.
“I’ve had a bad day,” she said with a broken laugh. “The worst day of my life, to be honest. Whatever you want ... I don’t have the energy for it. I just want to be alone.”
The first brother who’d spoken, the tallest one with shorter hair, gave her a sad look. “That’s the last thing you want, treasured mate.”
Something in Rani’s chest gave at that word—mate—spoken aloud, and she bit the inside of her cheek to fend off the emotion. It was stupid, she didn’t even know this guy let alone care about him giving her a pet name. Why should she be so emotional?
The brand on her bicep warmed, glowing through her pyjama top, streaks of deep indigo and baby blue. His eyes fixed on that spot on her arm, awe softening his face.
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 70