by R. E. Butler
Her nails skimmed his skull, her fingers clutching his hair as she gave herself to him, his groans and her sweet moans of pleasure mixing in the air, a symphony of love and sex.
“Ah, fuck,” she cried out as she came, releasing her grip on his hair and planting her hand on his to slow the motions of his fingers as he played her down from the heavens.
She leaned forward and caught herself on one arm, still holding his hand to her pussy as he fucked her hard and fast, following her swiftly over the edge into oblivion. It was that moment, when his whole body was caught up in pleasure, that he could so clearly see their future play out: him and Kevin mating and marrying Treasure, and spending the rest of their lives doing their best to make each other happy.
He looked down at Treasure’s blissed-out face, her eyes closed and a smile on her lips, and he didn’t think he could possibly love her any more than he did at that moment.
“I love you, sweetheart,” he said, giving her hip a squeeze and pulling from her body.
He stretched out on his back on the blanket, and she moved to sprawl over him, her head pillowed on his chest with her ear right over his heart.
“I love you, too.”
He trailed his hands up and down her back the way he knew she loved.
“I wish we didn’t have to go our separate ways,” she said softly.
“Our ceremony is in two weeks. The time is flying.”
“Not fast enough, though. I wish we were already mated and married. It feels like we’ve been waiting forever.”
“I’m glad we met when we did, though. I think we’re lucky to have grown up together. You’re my best friend. I wouldn’t trade any of our last few years together to speed up the date of our ceremony.”
She lifted her head and smiled. “You’re sweet. I wouldn’t trade it either, but I will be glad when we don’t have to meet out here in the dark to have time alone. I mean, can you imagine? We can just get naked and sex each other up whenever we want.”
He chuckled and lifted his head to kiss her. “Trust me, I want to do that all the time anyway.”
They cuddled together for a while longer, until she couldn’t stop yawning. They dressed and he walked her home, watching as she climbed the sturdy lattice to her bedroom window. She slipped inside and then turned and blew him a kiss.
“Love you,” she whispered, the words punctuated by her dragon’s trill.
“Love you, too, sweetheart.”
It took only a few minutes for him to make his way back to where he’d parked his truck by the tree, and then he headed home to the boarding house to catch some sleep. He always had the sweetest dreams after spending time alone with Treasure.
There were times when he and Kevin had been tempted to say ‘to hell with waiting’ and move her into their room in the boarding house. But she wasn’t a fan of how crowded it was, and the more kids that were born into the pride, the more crowded it grew. Giving her a house of her own had been something he and his brother had wanted to do. She deserved the best, and he’d move the moon from the sky if it would make her happy.
She promised, though, that she only needed him and Brian.
And the house.
And chocolate.
They were happy to oblige.
* * *
The next afternoon, Brian walked into work and two minutes later was heading out on a call with Ethan.
“How was your night?” Ethan asked, talking loudly over the siren as he maneuvered through the streets toward the accident.
Brian’s mind flitted over his time spent with Treasure under the tree, and he smiled. “Good. Yours?”
“Not too bad. Dad, John, and Rue watched the kids for us last night and we all went out to a movie.”
“Nice.”
“Our first date was a movie.”
“Oh yeah?”
Brian remembered when Callie came to King, a rogue wolf shifter who was looking for a place to live after leaving her Kentucky-based pack. Ethan and Eryx had been out on patrol one snowy January night, witnessed her car accident, and realized immediately that she was their truemate.
“Yeah,” Ethan chuckled. “Seems like a hundred years ago.”
“I get that feeling.”
“I’m sure. You’ve all been waiting a long time to be together.”
Brian nodded. “In some ways I’m glad for the wait, because it kept us from rushing into things when we were too young. On the other hand, I wish we were already mated and married so we could move on to the next chapter.”
“I wish Callie had come into our lives sooner than she did, but you can’t knock fate’s timing. Things happen when they do for a reason.”
Their conversation was suspended when they reached the scene of the car accident, where a young woman had missed a stop sign at the bottom of the hill and landed in a ditch. While they checked her over, Brian thought about what Ethan had said. He wasn’t the first person to talk about the timing of fate. There was so much that the lions could be thankful for when it came to fate, and most of it started when Callie, Ethan, and Eryx became mates. If it weren’t for them, Brian would most likely have grown up in King. The pride would never have known about the curse over their people, and he and Kevin wouldn’t have met Treasure.
“It was so damn scary,” the woman said, staring at her wrecked car. “And it happened so fast.”
“Accidents can be like that,” Ethan said.
“Is there anyone we can call for you?” Brian asked as he put away their instruments.
“My boyfriend is on the way,” she said. “Thank you for helping me.”
“We’re glad you weren’t seriously injured.”
“Trust me,” she said with a smile, “I am, too. Better a busted car than a busted head.”
Brian nodded and took their supplies to the ambulance while Ethan checked in with the officer who had responded to the call. When they were on their way back to the station, Brian said, “I think this job has given me a new appreciation for how short life can be.”
“Yeah. Best to not wait to do things, or you might find yourself out of time.”
He hummed. “I was just thinking about how different our lives would be if Callie hadn’t come to King all those years ago.”
“For sure. The status quo was so screwy back then. I wouldn’t trade a second of our lives for anything.”
“Me either.”
Chapter Five
Treasure didn’t like keeping secrets from her mates or her adoptive parents, but she knew if she told any of them that she was planning to open a portal to the fae realm that night, she’d be stopped. And this task was far too important to be prevented. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It was nearing midnight. Rhett and Lisa had gone to bed at ten, and she was certain they were sound asleep by now. Giving her backpack one final check to ensure she had everything she needed, she zipped it closed and settled it on her back.
The bedroom door slowly opened and Hope stepped in, closing it silently behind her. Like Treasure, her best friend was wearing all black, including the stocking cap that covered her light-blonde hair.
“I can hear Rhett snoring,” Hope whispered.
Treasure nodded and pushed her bedroom window open all the way. “He’s a deep sleeper, which works for us. I’ll climb down first, you follow.”
Hope nodded.
Treasure hustled out of the window and down the lattice, the wood creaking as she moved. When she reached the bottom, she stepped away and watched Hope follow. They hurried toward the large tree at the side of the field, where she’d met Brian the night before. It worked in their favor that the moon was in the crescent phase and not shedding much light.
Earlier that day, Treasure had left what she needed to create a temporary fairy circle, which would open a private portal and allow her and Hope to enter the fae realm. Laying some twigs in a rough circle large enough for her and Hope to stand in, she brought out potted plants from under a camouflage tarp and pulled them from
their pots. She and Hope used trowels to dig shallow holes in the soft earth around the twigs and set the plants in them.
“So tell me why you need plants, too? Can’t you make a portal without them?”
Treasure stuck the trowel in the ground next to the circle and brushed off her hands as she surveyed their work. “Yes, but the portal is stronger if it’s surrounded by nature. No matter what natural power a fae claims, spells are stronger when they’re entrenched in nature. If I were making a permanent portal, I’d create a fairy garden and use stones instead of twigs.”
Treasure unzipped her black hoodie and stuffed it into the backpack, which she handed to Hope. The black tank she wore allowed her wings to slip freely from her back. As they extended, she sighed in relief.
“Feels good?” Hope asked with a smile.
“Yeah. Like when I shift into my dragon, but kind of different, too. It’s hard to explain.”
“I’ll bet. I wish I had wings. Yours are so pretty.”
Treasure’s wings were translucent pink and blue, reaching from the tops of her ears down past her waist. They weren’t made for flying, but they allowed her natural fae power to increase. She could feel her power humming under her skin, as if electricity were flowing through her veins.
She took Hope’s hand. “First I have to cast the protection spell. It will make us invisible in the other realm.”
Hope nodded and gave Treasure’s hand a squeeze. Using the spell she’d memorized, Treasure spoke the ancient fae words and sprinkled a mixture of dried roses, crushed crystals, and lavender over them both. She spoke the spell three times; as the last word slipped from her lips, a pale blue haze enveloped them for a brief moment and then faded.
“Oh wow,” Hope whispered. “That was…freaking cool.”
“I’m just glad it worked.”
“Seriously?”
“Well, I’ve only ever cast protection spells on myself, never on two people before. And this one is different than what I usually cast, because mine are just to keep me from being located. This one is a more difficult spell because it makes us invisible.”
“I’m glad it worked, then.”
“You and me both.”
They stepped over the stones into the fairy circle.
“Ready?”
“Yes,” Hope said.
Treasure pressed her hands against the tree trunk and pictured the backyard of her parents’ house. The quaint home was located just inside what had once been the dragon shifters’ territory. Her parents had purposely built the home outside of the large fae city so they could have privacy and protection. She’d never met another dragon besides her father; his family had died before her birth.
The air shimmered around them, swirling into the shape of a large doorway that looked like it was made of black glass. It cleared suddenly, and she could see the outline of her parents’ home, a darker shadow against the night sky.
She reached for her dragon, opening her senses and using them to accentuate her fae ability to see auras. Then she searched the surrounding area and found it empty. She and Hope walked through the portal and ducked behind an overgrown shrub. Treasure focused on the house, looking for signs of life. If anyone was inside, she would be able to see their aura. When she was certain it was empty, she tapped Hope on the shoulder and jerked her head toward the house.
They hurried across the yard, the overgrown grass making swooshing noises as they moved. The handle on the door didn’t budge when she wiggled it, so she rose onto her toes and felt along the doorframe until she found the key that her parents had kept hidden there. She unlocked the door, replaced the key, and slipped inside with Hope on her heels. Hope shut the door, and Treasure pulled out two glow sticks from her pocket and handed one to her. They cracked the neon-green sticks and shook them until they glowed brightly.
Treasure took a moment to absorb the fact that she was back in her childhood home. The place still smelled like her parents: the rose oil her mother liked to wear, and the hint of smoke that always surrounded her father. Her eyes stung with tears, and a bit of guilt flooded her.
They were dead because of her.
“It’s not your fault that you’re a hybrid,” Hope said gently.
Treasure chuckled and brushed at a stray tear. “Feels like it, though. If I’d been fully fae like they believed, they wouldn’t have been killed protecting me. Because I’m both, they’re dead, and so is my aunt. I’m literally the last in my family line.”
“Not if you have kids,” she said. “You might be the surviving member of your family, but you won’t be the last.”
“That’s true. I hadn’t thought of it like that.”
“That’s what besties are for.”
Treasure led the way to her father’s library. The scents of old paper and leather filled her nose, and she smiled as she ran her fingertips along the edge of his big desk. She moved to the bookshelves that covered one wall, and using the glow stick to illuminate the spines, she located the shelf reserved for gods and goddesses. Dropping to her knees, she laid the glow stick on the shelf and pulled the books out one by one, checking the names and contents of them. She arranged them into piles, and after a half hour, she’d gone through the entire shelf.
“These are the ones that are about the gods and goddesses,” she said, putting her hand on top of a stack of four thick books. “And these are the ones about curses and antidotes. The goddess’s name was Hrixalda, so we need to look for anything with her name in it.”
“I’ll start with this one,” Hope said, lifting the top book.
Treasure used the glow stick to illuminate a leather-bound book on curses, flipping the pages and searching for anything related to shifters and the goddess who created them. As their time dwindled, she worried they weren’t going to find what they needed, and that all the secrecy had been for nothing.
Hope let out a gasp. “I think this is it.”
Treasure leaned over and looked at the open book in Hope’s hand, her glow stick illuminating the words that detailed how to contact the goddess to reverse the shifter curse.
“Look at this,” Hope said. “It says she would be waiting for a female to ask for the curse to be broken.”
Treasure read out loud. “Until the females recognize the error of their ways, nothing will change, and misery will rule.”
“I don’t get it,” Hope said. “She cursed the females this way, but expected them to apologize? They don’t even remember the curse happening.”
“I’ve said it before, that goddess is a bitch and a half.”
“Agreed. It says to contact her we need to draw her to us with a spell, and it lists the ingredients we need.”
“My mom has a spice cabinet in the kitchen,” Treasure said. “You copy down the spell and instructions, and then we can grab what we need for it.”
“I wish we could take the books about the gods and goddesses with us,” Hope said.
“Me too. Fortunately I can take my father’s other books with us, so at least that’s something.”
From inside the backpack Treasure pulled a second tote, which she unfolded. She took her father’s family history book, which he’d painstakingly filled with details about his family going back to the first dragon, as well as his book about dragon shifters and their powers, and the three-volume set of fae powers and how to control them. Of all the books that he’d valued, these were his favorites. The last thing she grabbed was a framed photo of her family which had sat proudly on his desk.
Once Hope had finished copying the goddess’s information and the spell, they put the books back on the shelves and headed into the kitchen. Treasure set the tote on the table and opened the spice cabinet.
“I love how fae call their spells ‘recipes,’ and the ingredients ‘spices.’”
“Me too. When I was a kid, I thought it was just my parents’ way of talking about spells and ingredients in a way I could understand, but then my aunt also called them that, so I think it’s a fae thi
ng.”
Treasure gathered the ingredients for the spell to draw the goddess into the human realm. “The funny thing is that I remember being really little and hearing her tell my father she was going to make a new recipe for dinner that night. I thought she was doing a spell, but she was actually making a new dish for us to eat. Talk about confusing.”
Hope chuckled. “Is there anything else in here you want to take? There’s room for more in the backpack.”
“Yeah. I want all her ingredients, plus the rest of her recipe books on the shelf over there.” Treasure pointed to a shelf on the wall which held several handbound books. Hope gathered them while Treasure secured her mother’s ingredients.
“Anything else?” Hope asked. “It’s getting late.”
“One more thing,” Treasure said. She lifted a quilt that her mother had made from the back of the sofa. It was pink and blue, and had dragons and fairies embroidered along the edges. She stood in the center of the family room for a moment and just remembered her parents: her mother’s knowledge of spells and plants; her father’s love of books and knowledge. Her mother had the sweetest smile and kindest eyes, and she could sing like a bird. Her father had been a hard worker, but he’d always made sure she knew how important she was to him. There was nothing so important that he wouldn’t drop it if she needed him.
She hadn’t had nearly long enough with them, but she was thankful for the time they’d had together and the sacrifices they’d made for her safety.
“You would have loved Brian and Kevin,” she said out loud. “I wish you could have met them. Lisa and Rhett take good care of me, and they love me like I’m their biological daughter. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to live with, but I miss you guys so much. I didn’t even really get to say goodbye.” She sniffled and brushed at the tears on her cheeks. “I love you guys, and I know you’ll be with me in spirit. Goodbye.”