Lorene took them back into a room that was lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves. The shelves were filled with books and curios, and several rolling ladders were placed around the room. In the center of the room was a round table covered with several colorful silks and surrounded by chairs.
An older woman, who appeared to be in her seventies, was sitting at the table. Lorene introduced her as Bitty, and she asked everyone to sit down. Danika sat next to Bitty, who took her hand and held it tightly but said nothing. Her eyes were bright blue and youthful although her skin was etched with wrinkles. Danika told them the story of her life, being found naked and starving as a toddler and no one being able to explain the marks on her back. Then she shared how she felt when she saw Jes and Chance in the den, glossing over the sex that had helped her to shift for the first time.
Bitty had stared at her intently during the story, and Danika felt as though the old woman was actually seeing into her mind. Lorene asked to see the marks, and Danika removed her sweater and gave it to Chance. She had worn a white satin cami under her top, knowing that they would want to see the marks she had been born with.
Standing slowly, she turned and brushed her hair forward over her shoulder so they could see the white wings marked into her skin. They asked her if she could shift, and with little effort, she called her wings forth, and also her fangs and claws. She had found she could separately shift her wings from her fangs and claws, but it took less effort for her to allow them to come out together. She took that to mean that she was meant to be part lion and part falcon, not one or the other.
Lorene’s voice was filled with alarm when she said, “Bitty? Bitty?”
Danika turned and saw that Bitty seemed to be having a seizure. Her frail body jerked in her chair, and her eyes rolled back in her head. Danika reached for her at the same time that Lorene did, and everything around Danika dropped away until she was standing in a completely dark place. Light blinded her, and when it dimmed, she found herself looking at herself in the future. She looked only slightly older, maybe a year or two, and she knew that meant that anywhere from twelve to twenty-four years had actually passed due to her slow aging. Her future self was in the garden behind the house, sitting on a stone bench, her stomach swollen with child. Twin girls, no more than ten, made chains of flowers at her feet.
“Mom?” a male’s voice called to her.
“Over here, Jance,” she answered.
A handsome youth strode out of the house, his hair a riot of dark curls like Jes’. Just behind him came another young male, this one with gorgeous dark blond hair like a lion’s mane.
Jance said, “Venture and I want to go hunting, and our dads said to check with you first because we’ll be out past dinner.”
“You’ll stay within the walls?” her future self asked.
Venture nodded. “Of course, Mom. And I’ll even bring you some of the purple flowers you love so much.”
“You’re just like your dad, Ven,” she smiled. “It’s okay with me. I’ll have Ley leave dinner out on the counter for you.”
The young males stripped quickly and shifted. To Danika’s surprise, they transformed into not a falcon and a lion, but a combination of both. Before her eyes, her sons shifted into white lions with the head, forelegs, and wings of falcons. They spread their wings, ducked their heads to her future self, and leapt into the sky. Their dark wings flapped quickly, and they rose into the sky, circling overhead before moving away from the house.
Her future self looked down at the little girls, and Danika noticed that the shoulder strap of one sundress had slipped down and white wings were etched onto their skin.
The vision began to dim around the edges, and although she wanted to stay and watch what would happen next, she let the present pull her back. She was cradled against Chance’s chest, her hand still holding Bitty. Jes stroked her neck and spoke frantically to someone.
“Hey,” Chance said, his voice choked with emotion, “there you are.”
She blinked a few times to clear her vision and smiled at her mates. “I’m okay.”
Jes sighed in relief. “You scared the shit out of me, sweetheart!”
Danika turned her head and saw that Bitty was also fine, sitting up straight in her chair and smoothing down her hair. She stood, pushing her chair back and said, “Oh my, oh my.”
“Oh my, what?” Jes asked.
Danika told them what she saw. They both looked at her in confusion and then at Lorene.
Lorene said, “I saw the vision as well. I think that Bitty was having the vision, and when we both touched her, it allowed us to see it. It’s absolutely amazing.”
Danika still felt stunned. She didn’t know what any of it meant. Bitty climbed a ladder, scooting it across the bookshelf as she searched for something. Climbing down, she went to another ladder and climbed all the way to the top. After a few moments, she said, “Yes!” and climbed down with a leather bound book in her hand.
The cover was engraved with symbols and secured with a leather tie. Bitty untied it and began to flip through the pages. “Ah, here. This is what you are, Danika.” She turned the book towards Danika and pointed to a drawing of a woman with wings, claws and fangs. At her feet were a girl with wings, claws, and fangs, and a mixed creature like she’d seen her sons change into.
“You’re a madter, a catalyst for two different were-species. Your sons will be the combination of falcon and lion – otherwise known in mythology as gryphons – and your daughters will be madters when they reach the age of eighteen. Your daughters may not mate with falcons and lions. They may become madters for two other were-species. One species will always have wings, and the other species may be horse shifters, tiger shifters, wolf shifters, dragon shifters, even vampires.”
Her mind spun with the possibilities. She began to read the folklore about the madter, and looked up at Bitty. “So my mother was a madter as well?”
“It’s hereditary, so yes. She was most likely mated to two different species of males. You were too young to know what happened to them?”
She nodded.
Lorene said, “It was fortunate that you were taken in by the bear den and protected.”
Although things had gone south quickly between her and the bear den, she would always be grateful to Mama for taking her in, and for the den for bringing her to Ohio so she could find her mates.
Jes and Chance were reading over her shoulders. Jes said, “Well, this is really an answer to the prophecy, isn’t it? A woman who will bind two were-groups together in a new way. I never would have guessed that a child of mine would be both lion and falcon. It’s incredible.”
Chance nodded. “I always anticipated having a child who was entirely lion. I didn’t know that gryphons were real.”
Bitty leaned back in her chair. “They’re not really. Not in the sense that they were born from gryphon parents. Most creatures of myth are the product of two different species together. Creatures mistaken for angels on earth are often the Valkyrie – falcon and vampire. Winged wolves are falcon and wolf, and winged horses are centaurs and falcons.”
Danika’s head snapped up. “Pegasus? Are there really Centaurs? I thought they were just legends.”
Bitty chuckled. “Myths come from truth more often than not. I don’t know if there are any living Centaurs in our realm any longer, but there are realms that we don’t even know about, coexisting along ours but never revealing themselves. Who knows what your children will find as they grow up, what the world will be like in ten years? Twenty years? A hundred?” She yawned and gathered a shawl around her shoulders. “I’m feeling quite tired, Lorene. Would you help me to my office so I might lay down for a bit?”
Lorene helped her stand and said to Danika, “You can keep the book, child. If you want to discuss anything with Bitty, just call anytime.”
Danika hugged both ladies and thanked them for their time. She held the book tightly to her chest and followed Chance and Jes out of the office. They said
goodbye to the two young Wiccans who were running the front of the store where anyone could buy Wiccan supplies or set up appointments for readings and spell castings, and walked out into the fall sunshine.
She kissed Jes on the cheek as he opened the passenger door for her. “Thank you for taking me to visit Bitty and Lorene.”
“You’re welcome, little bird. We all need to find out where we came from.”
When they were all in the truck, Chance turned the engine on and pulled out of the parking lot. “I’m sorry you weren’t able to find out what happened to your parents, love.”
“I wish I remembered them, but I’m not sorry for the life that I had. Mama took good care of me, and if it weren’t for the den I might never have met you both.”
Jes said, “So the name Jance?”
She laughed. “I think it’s a combination of Jes and Chance. Do you like it?”
He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. “I like it a lot. But I love you.”
“I love you, too, Jes.”
Chance cleared his throat noisily, and she laughed and leaned his way and kissed his cheek. “I love you, too, you old bossy lion.”
They arrived back at the house, and Ley met them at the front door, bowing regally as he usually did and greeting them all warmly.
“Your father left a message that some supplies were delivered to his home and he would like you to call him.” Ley said as he shut the door behind him.
Chance leaned over and kissed Danika. “I’m going to run over and see what he’s talking about. I wasn’t expecting any deliveries. I won’t be long.”
He disappeared out the door and Jes said, “Want to see something neat?”
“Of course,” she said, smiling up at him.
They walked from the grand foyer into the kitchen and out the back doors into the garden. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it onto the steps, and she wiggled her brows. “I thought you meant something neat, not something devastatingly sexy.”
He grinned and his black wings slid from his back. “Come on up.” His wings flapped quickly and he rose into the air.
“Up where?”
“The roof.”
She hummed in her throat and took off her shirt, leaving on the silk cami. She watched Jes fly up to the roof, marveling at how easy he made it look. She was definitely better at flying now than she had been, but she envied him his expertise.
“I think you need to give me more lessons, Jes,” she said as her wings slid from her back. The odd feeling as the wings moved through her skin took some getting used to. It almost felt like something electric was pushing out of her body, making her skin tingle and her body hum.
“Get up here, woman,” he laughed, perching on the edge of the roof and looking down at her. In that particular pose, he looked a bit like a gargoyle, and she chuckled.
She flew up to the roof and overshot Jes by several feet, and he grabbed her arm as she whizzed by him and pulled her into the safety of his arms. “Landings. We’ll practice landings next time.”
Their wings touched as he held her, and she hugged her arms around his neck and kissed him. “This is very cool.”
“Yes, love, but I didn’t bring you up here for that.” He sat down on the rooftop, and she joined him. Their wings brushed together, and it made her feel as if they were holding wings as well as holding hands, as their fingers entwined.
“When I was a kid, I used to climb up here when I wanted to be alone. I could see everything in the nest and around us, and no one knew I was up here except for Ley, of course. Can’t get anything by that old fellow.”
It was really a breathtaking view. Inside the brick wall that surrounded the nest’s territory, trees and fields were dotted with homes and businesses. The garden was below them, each tree, shrub, statue, and flowerbed chosen by his grandfather especially for his grandmother. She loved the history of the garden and didn’t know that she could be so happy digging in the dirt every day.
She leaned on Jes’ arm. “In the vision, I saw myself with twin girls and they were playing in the garden, making crowns out of flowers.”
“And you were pregnant, too?”
“Yeah.”
“I wish I could have seen the vision, too. I’m thankful that going to see the Wiccans helped you to find out about your past and showed you a picture of the future.”
She thought of Jance and Venture, who were spitting images of their fathers. “It’s strange to think of a child of mine being powerful enough to be King. I never pictured myself as anything special before.” In the den, she had been the stranger. The one who had been taken in. Knowing about her history as a madter, she was relieved to know that she had been loved by her parents and hadn’t been abandoned on purpose. She wished that she had known them.
Jes squeezed her hand a little tighter. “You are special, Danika. Not because of your heredity, or because you are going to be the mother of a King, or because you’re mated to two Kings, but because you’re unique, beautiful, kind, and sweet. That makes you special, and that also makes me extremely lucky to have you as a mate.”
Her heart melted. Her all-business mate was sweet and romantic, and she liked having this time alone with him.
“So, when you were hiding up here, what would you do?”
He looked out over the territory. “Think, mostly. Daydream. When I was older and Tonik and Revere would follow me everywhere, I would hide up here from them and throw rocks at them.”
She laughed. “Jes!”
He chuckled. “They were total pains. I think it’s in the little brothers manual.”
They sat on top of the roof for more than an hour, and Jes shared his childhood exploits with her. She told him of the sweet times she’d had with Mama, learning to cook and sew and going for long walks in the woods. Danika knew that she would have loved Jes and Chance.
They flew down to the ground together, holding hands, and then she practiced her landings in the garden while Jes watched.
Chance joined them after dealing with a supplies order that had been meant for the market and not the lions’ homes, and the three sat out in the garden and talked about their future and about the vision she’d seen with the Wiccans, and later, they made love in their room and she fell asleep, safely nestled between her mates.
Chapter 12
He glanced at the clock and realized it was nearly eight p.m. He’d missed dinner. Which wasn’t abnormal over the last month since Danika had come into his life. The lions were adjusting to life within the community and the falcons were slowly accepting not only Danika and Chance as their leaders, but also the lions as part of the nest. Although it wasn’t official – the nest and pride were still separately ruled groups within the community – Jantha had opted to take on an advisory role and to let Jes and Chance hash things out. According to Danika’s vision, they had a while before his son would be able to bring the two groups together as one cohesive unit, and he had a feeling that until that happened, a lot more lions and falcons were going to be joining in mating groups.
He felt Danika before he saw her, when she stepped through the office door with a wicked little smile on her face.
“Hello sweetheart,” he turned to face her as she sauntered through the doorway. She flicked the door shut with the tip of her finger, leaning back against it with her hands behind her back. He heard the lock click, and every muscle in his body went tight and hot.
“Hi, Jes,” she breathed his name.
“You look like you’ve got wicked things on your mind, sweet love,” he said, turning in his chair as she came around his desk.
“Not wicked,” she purred. Grasping his hand, she drew him from the chair and over to the couch. “I’ve been thinking about you all day.”
“Have you?” He chuckled, knowing that she was never far from his thoughts, either.
“Of course.”
He sat on the couch and she straddled him, her knee-length skirt riding up her legs with the motion. Her h
and slipped between them, and she rubbed his cock through his jeans. Her mouth touched his, and the sweet scent of her arousal spiked in the air between them as their lips parted and their tongues touched. She played her free hand through his hair, twisting the curly locks between her fingers as her hand continued to rub up and down his length. His hands pressed the outside of her thighs, underneath her skirt, and smoothed around to her ass, finding her without panties. He smiled inwardly as she deepened the kiss, arching her back and pressing herself more firmly against his hands.
He felt her hand tugging at his zipper, and she made a frustrated sound at the back of her throat. He eased away from the drugging kiss and undid his jeans, lifting his hips from the couch and shoving them down his thighs. She grasped his cock with one hand and kissed him, her mouth hungrily melding to his as though she couldn’t breathe right unless their lips were touching. She fisted his cock and stroked him from root to tip, rubbing her palm on the head the way that he liked, and he slipped his hands up the inside of her thighs. She trembled slightly and sucked on his tongue with a small moan, as he rubbed his thumb on her clit in slow circles and pushed a finger into her hot, wet pussy.
She released his cock and pushed his hands away. “I want to come around your cock,” she whispered against his lips. Her eyes were so blue they were almost glowing. He growled in his throat and cupped her face, bringing her lips back to his as she guided his cock into her body.
She sank down onto his cock with aching slowness, and he groaned deeply, swiping his tongue along hers. When their bodies were joined completely, she began to rock on him. He let his hands drop down to the front of her blouse and undid the buttons, shoving the material off her shoulders and lifting her breasts from the cups of her bra. As she rocked on him, her fingers digging into his shoulders, he sucked and licked at her nipples, raking his teeth along the sensitive buds.
A Promise on White Wings (Wiccan-Were-Bear) Page 9