Hyena Queen: An Unconventional Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Legend of Synthia Rowley Book 1)

by Ann Mayburn

  I laughed, but it was a brittle sound. “Right.”

  “Synthia, never doubt your own worth. You’ve been given a heavy burden to shoulder, but the Mother Goddess wouldn’t have picked you if she didn’t think you could handle it. Even though I know you won’t believe me, I’m tellin’ you it’ll all be worth it in the end. You got this.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but right now I don’t have a firm grasp on up from down.” I touched my head where the bruise had been, the memory of the tentacle grasping me, the helplessness I’d experienced withering my soul. “That thing in the sky, you said it was a demon. Tell me about it. Pep talks are great, but right now I need information.”

  “The danjal, as the demons are known among my ancestors, are creatures that exist in the chaos realm. They are sentient beings, driven by hunger for power and domination. There are many, many different types, and we’ve only cataloged the ones that have managed to slip through the boundaries between worlds. Thankfully, they’ve been few and far between. Back in the early days of mankind, when we all lived in caves and our numbers were much smaller, the danjal were much more prevalent. They killed off the Neanderthals, you know.”

  “No way.”

  “Yes way. Ancient cave drawings in the region tell the sad story of their extinction. A massive hole between the worlds opened in their valley, and the danjal poured through, sucking the people and the land dry of energy. Who knows how much damage they would’a done to our world if the first shaman hadn’t banished them.”

  “How did she do that?”

  Giving a weak laugh, Judy shook her head. “That is a story for another day. Back to what’s important—what do you know about demons?”

  “I know the stories all parents tell their kids about demons, and just like everyone on the planet I celebrate Hunting Night, but I was always taught they were made up things, not real. Just an excuse for people to throw a big party and exchange gifts with their loved ones.”

  “Hunting Night.” Judy’s slumped shoulders perked up a little. “Oh yes, that is a very important night. It’s the night the first hyena Queen led her people in battle against the danjal.”

  “What? No, it’s celebrating the night the witches rescued the villager’s children from the demons…isn’t it?”

  “What’s the symbol of Hunting Night?”

  “A snarling dog and a hissing cat…oh…oh! It’s not a dog, is it? It’s a hyena. Is the cat really the lion?”

  “Smart girl. Though the raven gathered the intelligence, and the bears controlled the weather, it was the hyena that went into battle with the lion at her side. Together they defeated the danjal and rescued the children.” Her lower lip quivered. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to rescue everyone today. Lotta lives were lost out there, lives that didn’t need to be extinguished. Lives that were meant by fate to continue on.”

  My stomach sank and tears burned my eyes. “How many do you think…?”

  “How many were killed? Not sure, but I know at least four of the tentacles managed to take those poor people into the chaos realm. I can only hope their death was quick.” She dashed at her eyes with the back of her hand. “We don’t have time to mourn. We’re still alive, and the Goddess isn’t done with us yet.”

  “What do we do now? How do I help? The hyena fought the demons, right? So that means I’m made to battle them.”

  “Thank you for the offer, sweet girl, but you have other priorities, like finding your mates. Sooner you find them, the safer you’ll be.” She gave me a critical look. “Plus, you got no training. You grew up in a life of peace. Bet you never even held a sword before.”

  “Uh—does the replica of Excalibur that I wore when I was at a costume party in college count?”

  She gave me a flat look. “No. You got any salted iron?”

  “No. At least I don’t think I do. What’s salted iron?”

  She rolled her eyes at me and ignored my question. “What about regular salt? You got any bags of salt lyin’ around? You know, the big kind you use for water softeners?”

  “Maybe, but why do I need salt?”

  “Something about salt messes with the danjal, screws with their magic. Heck, salt messes with most magical energies, cancels them out somehow. You pour a circle around your house and you’ll make it harder for anything bad to sneak up on you.”

  “Do you think they’ll come after me?”

  “Wish I could say no, but I’m not sure. Everything I thought I knew is being proven wrong, so I don’t feel so confident giving you advice right now other than stay safe. As an unbound Queen you smell both vulnerable and delicious to a demon. Keep that in mind when you lock your doors tonight.”

  “Okay.”

  “You got a security system on your house?”

  “Um—I have attack cats?” I attempted to smile, but it withered on my lips beneath her disapproving mom glare.

  “Mother’s mercy,” she sighed. “Child, I told my girls growing up to never think they needed a man in their life. But you—if you’re going to survive what I fear is coming, you need your men.”

  Chapter 8

  Syn

  While I trudged up the steps to my house, I waved to one of Ted’s bears as he drove away in his big SUV. The middle-aged Latino man in a policeman’s uniform had been waiting for me in the museum after I was finished with Judy. He smelled like Ted’s clan, which translated to instantly feeling like family to me. I’d been so happy to smell a familiar scent that I’d given him a hug, which he’d returned with a surprised grunt. My mind was mush by that point, and I’d dreaded the ride home using public transportation. No doubt word had spread of the freak ‘windstorm’ as it was now being called. After talking to my mom and aunts, along with a few concerned friends and cousins, I passed out in the comfy leather seat of his car and slept the whole way home.

  My eyes were still crusty as I trudged up the cement path leading to my front door, absently noting that I really needed to cut the grass.

  The front porch light was on, and Booboo was waiting for me on the steps next to a big red geranium in a green glazed pot. As I approached he watched me with his lovely jade and gold eyes, before standing to rub against me when I climbed past him. Giving a loud meow, he twined around my legs, demanding love. It was well past the time I usually got home, and he knew it. Late mom meant late supper, which was unacceptable.

  “Hey, big boy,” I squatted down to pet him, then nearly fell when the front door swung open, and my Aunt Patty stood there in all her rock and roll glory.

  Or, at least a pajama version of rock and roll. Her mass of black hair was held back in a bright pink scrunchie, and her tight-faded grey Led Zeppelin t-shirt had seen better days. Black leggings with skulls on them complimented the black skull hoodie she wore. I rocked back on my heels, absently petting my cat and wondering if I was still asleep.

  “Syn!” my aunt shouted loud enough to wake the dead. “Are you okay?”

  I let her help me up and hustle me into the house, my brain beginning to throb with the start of what promised to be a spectacular headache.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. What are you doing here?”

  “Ted called your mom and told her what happened with that microburst. Scary stuff. She’s stuck down in Virginia Beach right now for a teacher’s conference and asked me to come check on you.”

  “You could have called.”

  “But if I had just called you, I couldn’t do shots with you to calm your nerves.”

  Even though I was tired as heck, I smiled as I flopped back into my marshmallow couch. “I don’t know if I’m up for shots right now. I’m exhausted.”

  Sitting down next to me, she ran her fingers through Booboo’s fur as he plopped his fuzzy butt between us. “Are you hungry? When was the last time you ate?”

  “Now that you mention it, I am hungry.”

  “Let me make you something.”

  “Nah, just toss a bag of chips in my general direction.” My other
cat Bobo jumped up onto the cushion next to me, headbutting me for love. “Or a protein bar.”

  “Don’t be silly.” She draped the light green throw from the back of the couch over my lap. “I’ll at least open a can of dip to go with those chips.”

  “Thanks, Aunt Patty.”

  She ran her knuckles down my cheek. “Love you, kiddo.”

  “Love you too.”

  I vaguely remembered Aunt Patty forcing a grilled cheese sandwich and glass of milk in me before I fell back asleep. My couch was super, duper comfy and I groaned in relief as I stretched out. I needed to pee, but my brain wasn’t done resting yet. After the events earlier today, or would it be yesterday, I was exhausted. The room was illuminated by the TV playing an infomercial about some anti-wrinkle cream being hawked by a has-been super model who’d had a ton of work done. With the sound down all the way, I could easily hear the familiar snoring of my Aunt Patty. When I was a kid we used to go camping with her family every summer on some land they owned in the Shenandoah Valley. Aunt Patty’s kids were older than me by at least six years, but they all treated me like an honorary little sister. Over the years I’d grown used to the sound of her soft snoring, and it started to lull me back to sleep.

  I’m not sure what it was that caught my attention first, but I was already wide awake by the time my cat hissed.

  And I mean hissed. This was surprisingly loud, no bullshit ‘I’m seriously pissed’ hiss. Followed by a full on, ‘I’m going to rip your balls off’ kind of yowling growl. It instantly put me on alert, my hyena rising up through our bond so quick I had no chance to block her. One moment I was in control, the next I was a passenger in my own body. Normally I would have been freaked the heck out by her sudden takeover, but at this moment I was glad.

  Because all I could do was scream.

  A man shaped thing stood on the other side of my glass panel backdoor, in the middle of my backyard. I had one of those super bright motion detector porch lights, and it gave me a clear view. It was so weird seeing a man shaped blob pacing along some invisible line in the middle of my garden. Clearly frustrated by whatever barrier was keeping it away from my house, it let out a garbled howl that ticked off my hyena.

  My throat hurt as I gave a chilling barking growl and readied myself for the thing somehow busting through the glass. It looked as if it was made from a mixture of tar and obsidian chips, but without the natural gleam of those rocks. No, this gooey mass of whatever the fuck it was did not belong in this world. It was foreign, an alien invader and everything inside of me was repulsed by it. Another snarl rumbled out of me, followed by a baying yip that echoed through my house.

  “Synthia!” my aunt screamed. “No! Don’t go near the door. It can’t get in. I set wards.”

  “You wha—”

  I nearly swallowed my tongue as I saw my dear, wild Aunt Patty for who she really was for the first time.

  A witch.

  Kinda?

  Looking closer, I knew she wasn’t exactly a witch. Her eyes were still human as was her bone structure. It was only her skin that had that faint magical glow. It was so dim that it was more like shadowy underwater light than the gleam of a hidden sun.

  I gaped at her. “Are you a witch?”

  Holding out her hands to me, she shook her head. “Nope, not a witch. I’m a wise woman, in different times my people were also called fortune tellers, seers, shamans, the list goes on. We have small amounts of hearth magic that we utilize to help our communities and family.”

  “Holy crap! But how can you be a wise woman? It’s genetic, isn’t it? Is Mom a wise woman?”

  “No, Carol isn’t a wise woman.” Her gaze darted to the back door, then she gave her lips a nervous lick. “Syn, honey, I was adopted. My sister doesn’t know, and I’d rather keep it that way.”

  “Does she know you’re a wise woman?”

  “No. She thinks I’m psychic, but she’d never believe,” she ran a hand down her slightly glowy body with a raised brow, “all of this. Your mom is an amazing woman in every way, but she’s too human to ever see through the illusion on her own.”

  Movement at my backdoor had my hackles raising as I pointed at the sparkly blob creature. “What the hell is that?”

  “That is a problem.”

  “Ya think?”

  Her long red fingernails gleamed as she motioned to the door. “Mid-level demon at best, more of a tracker than anything. Even with your lack of training you could probably survive an attack, maybe. I mean, it does shoot out chips of obsidian like blow dart propelled shards of glass, but you’d probably heal from your wounds. Eventually.”

  “How do you know these things?”

  “Trade secret.”

  The thing out back howled in anger again, and my hyena cackled in return.

  “Mother’s flaming tits!” I wanted to rip my hair out. “Can I go five bloody hours without some new, repulsive thing trying to off me?”

  “Once you’re bonded, they won’t dare be as bold. Speaking of which,” she dug around in her purse on the coffee table, pulling out her phone. “Your Alpha has run out of time.”

  “How do you know my Alpha?” I held up my hand. “Wait. You know what, I don’t want to know. In fact, I think I do need a drink.”

  I marched into my kitchen, ignoring the ruckus the demon was making, then opened the liquor cabinet over the stove.

  Aunt Patty tapped something into her phone, a smug smile curving her lips.

  I yanked down a bottle of coconut rum and spun off the cap.

  My aunt made a yuck face. “Coconut rum, straight? It’ll be like drinking sunblock.”

  I made direct eye contact with her as I upended the bottle, and promptly regretted my decision.

  It wasn’t like drinking sunblock.

  It was like drinking coconut scented car air freshener.

  The nauseating tropical burn had me gasping, and I quickly put the bottle down and out of reach.

  “Here,” Aunt Patty handed me a bottle of kiwi strawberry juice.

  I gratefully gulped it down, then belched out a nasty mix of booze and stomach acid.

  After shivering from the bitter yet fruity aftertaste, I confronted my Aunt Patty and said, “How much of my childhood was an illusion?”

  “None of it. Well, I mean you didn’t know about any of the witchy stuff, and I worked hard to keep it that way.”

  “Why?”

  “You may not understand this, but I never want Carol to think we’re not real sisters.”

  “But you are real sisters in every way that count. You’re my Aunt Patty, and I love you regardless of DNA.”

  “I love you with all my heart, Syn, DNA or not. Never doubt it. You were my little baby girl born here,” she thumped her heart gently with a closed fist. “From the moment I sensed the first spark of your life in Carol, I was hopelessly in love with your pure, kind spirit.”

  The lights around us began to sputter, flickering on and off.

  “Fucking shit,” Aunt Patty reached out and grabbed my wrist, pulling me to her side.

  “Fucking shit what?”

  “Well, that flicker tells me either there’s a storm coming, someone hit a transformer with their car, or we have more demons showing up.”

  Her phone chimed and she pulled it out, reading the screen with a frown. “Yeah, um—you don’t happen to have a sword or any salted iron, do you?”

  “A what? Why does everyone keep asking me if I have a sword? And what the heck is salted iron?”

  “Didn’t think so.” She frowned and looked around my kitchen. “When you were a kid I always liked how quiet and peaceful you were, especially after dealing with my hell raisers. They grew up into great adults, but there were a few times when they were young when I wondered if I was raising future serial killers.”

  The light of the porch revealed a shadow moving now in front of my house, striding back and forth. The shape was big, but indistinct. And it appeared to have a humped back of some kind.
The stride was somewhat loping, my semi-sheer curtains not revealing much. Aunt Patty moved over to the butcher block and pulled out two of my biggest knives.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Buying us some time. Your Alpha should be here soon.”

  The thing in the backyard let out a warbling scream that made the spit dry up in my mouth. “What the fuck!”

  The thing out front roaring loud enough to rattle the windows obliterated Aunt Patty’s response.

  “What?”

  “I said don’t worry, your neighbors won’t hear a thing”

  “Shit, what about Kelly and the kids?”

  “Safe. You’re the demons’ focus. You’ve grown in power to the point that you shine to them like world’s biggest, most delightful donut. Hot out of the fryer and just dripping with delicious, bloody glaze.”

  “You really need to work on your analogies.”

  A cracking sound came from outside, and we both rushed to the front window.

  “Son of a bitch!” I shouted, too pissed to even think about how I was exposing myself behind the big sheet of glass.

  A large, hairy, hulking shadow monster cow thing was tearing up my yard!

  Though it stood on two legs, it had hooves and a big set of horns curled out of its head. Obviously frustrated, it let out a snorting roar and tried to run at the house, only to bounce off some invisible barrier. I let out an admittedly pathetic little scream, ducking behind my aunt, then peeking out. As soon as the cow thing got to its feet, it proceeded to ram into the side of my poor car, the metal crunching and squealing.

  “Are you kidding me! I just got that car!”

  I might have gone outside and attempted to make hamburgers out of that motherfucker, but a chilling cackling yip resounded through the air.

  The angry cow demon thing stopped goring my now trashed car, it was only two years old, and I whimpered at the sight of destruction.

  How in the hell was I going to file a claim saying a demonic cow had mangled my ride?

  “Here he comes,” Aunt Patty whispered.