This is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations, and events within this book are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to business establishments, actual persons, or events is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Other works by SM Blooding
Dedication
Soundtrack (instrumental) for Witches of the West
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About the Author
Other works by SM Blooding:
Devices of War Trilogy
Fall of Sky City
Knight of Wands
Whispers of the Skyborne
Whiskey Witches (Paranormal Thriller)
Whiskey Witches
Blood Moon Magick
A Barrel of Whiskey
Witches of the West
The Dream Killers (Fairytale Adventure)
Season 1
Episode 1: Graveyard of Dreams
Episode 2: Eyes of Stars
Episode 3: Captain Tightpants
Short stories in anthologies:
Twice Upon a Time – Nightmare of Wonderland
Of Mist and Magic – Rumple Stilt-Skin
To: me.
Sounds silly and kinda stupid, but…good job on the move.
It really was tough.
Soundtrack (instrumental) for Witches of the West
Playlist: Wynonna Earp Soundtrack
(pieced together on Spotify)
“Blessed Mother! Holy—oh my gosh!” Leslie’s voice carried down the stairway.
The Whiskeys had just arrived at their home outside of Troutdale, Oregon. The old homestead. Three months ago, it had been a heap of trash. Broken walls. The roof had caved in sometime in the last century.
Chuck and his pack of shifters had demolished the old place and built a new one.
In Texas, after Paige had helped him save his shifters, he’d promised to protect her family. She hadn’t quite realized what that ‘protection’ entailed. The house was huge.
Paige chuckled as she came up the last step, popping her head into the room to the right of the stairs. “That good?”
“Fu-frell.” Leslie stuttered as she stepped out of the bathroom and into the master bedroom, happy shock plastered in a wide smile on her face. “Yes!”
The room was big. Paige thought Alma’s house in Texas was large. And it was.
This house appeared to be the same size as the old house from the outside. The inside was a different story.
They’d built it for the Whiskeys, and it showed.
Chuck and his pack had outdone themselves.
“Good lord,” Dexx called from the down the hall. “Pea, get in here.”
Leslie had already forgotten Paige as she continued to look around the large, empty bedroom.
Paige stepped back onto the landing—that’s what she’d call it. It was big enough to be a study space, maybe? A play room? Though, a play room at the top of the stairs probably wasn’t a great idea. So, no. Study space though? That would be amazing. She could see chairs around the large window. Bookcases filled with books adorning the other side. Man, what a dream come true!
She walked around the stair leading up to the attic. Three doors stood ajar on the right, and another on the end.
“I claim this one,” Tyler shouted.
Paige walked past the first two doors and stopped at the third. She poked her head into a brightly lit room, large windows on two walls. “This looks nice.”
Tyler looked up at her, his brown eyes wide. “I can claim this one, right?”
“I don’t see why not.” She chuckled and stepped inside to check out the view: tops of full, lush trees for as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t saying much. “Does that window open onto a balcony?” she asked in mock disbelief.
“I know. Right?” Tyler crouched, his hands clawed with excitement. “It’s like sneaking out. But I’m not sneaking. Only pretending to sneak.”
Every boy’s dream.
Paige shook her head with a smile. “Yeah. Sure. Claim it.”
“Can I paint it whatever color I want?”
“You’ll have to talk that over with your mom and dad.”
How weird was it to own a house? Really own a house.
After she’d been fired from the Denver PD, she thought her dream of buying a house was gone. She’d embarrassed people, though not of her own accord. The governor had been possessed by a powerful demon. As she was removing it from his body, the demon overloaded the governor’s body and killed him.
After leaving his DNA on a murder victim.
Her boss at the time had been rather relieved to fire her and get rid of her strange cases.
But during all of that, she’d discovered shape shifters. The murder victim had been one. And in trying to find the killer, she’d inadvertently broken the treaty between witches and shifters. She could have just smoothed it over, told the locals never to discuss it.
Except that Dexx, the love of her life and best friend, had been bitten. He was now a shape shifter. A saber-toothed cat. And she wasn’t leaving him.
Also, she was housing an animal spirit. She wasn’t a shape shifter but her animal spirit was keeping the gate to hell residing inside her soul closed and within her control.
When she’d heard Merry Eastwood was in Texas, Paige and Dexx had raced to Texas to protect the rest of her family.
Merry Eastwood. Witch. And over a hundred and fifty years old. Very powerful. And she’d been the one who’d started the war between the witches and shifters in the first place.
Paige hadn’t thought she’d ever own a house. Not after that. She’d planned on staying on the run for the rest of her life. Moving from place to place, trying to stay one step ahead of Merry.
But then, she’d been awarded custody of her daughter and had inherited a bouncing baby boy.
She couldn’t run. Not with kids.
So, she’d put her part in on the down payment on the loan to get the house in Oregon rebuilt. And part of her paycheck would go into paying off that loan. And her name was on the loan paperwork.
What a whirlwind.
She stopped by the room at the end of the landing. Small. One window. No closet. Good for an office, maybe?
Or a nursery?
/>
“Pea.” Dexx opened the door to her left, tucked beside the stair leading up to the next floor. He gave her a ‘why didn’t you come immediately when I called’ look.
She gave him an expression that read, ‘You do realize you’re not the center of my world, right?’
He pursed his lips, his shoulders sagging. “Come look at this.” He shot her a toothy grin. “It’s amazing.”
She stepped into another master bedroom. A large window dominated one wall. French doors leading to the wrap-around second story porch took up a small section of the next. Two doors guarded the wall that connected the two master suites. Bathroom and closet?
The room was huge. The room she’d shared with Dexx in Texas had been just big enough for her bed and a dresser.
This one could house a bed, a couple dressers, a night stand, and a sex chair if they wanted.
She chuckled to herself. Sex chair. That man was rubbing off on her.
Well, not entirely. He rubbed her. That was enough.
Dexx backed up, his arms wide, his blue eyes twinkling. “What do you think?”
“We’re right next to Leslie and Tru.” She didn’t want to hear them bumping uglies, or worry about them hearing her and Dexx.
“I have it on good authority that Chuck put sound proofing in the walls.”
She frowned. “All the walls?”
Dexx’s shoulders slumped as he tipped his head to the side and gave her an ‘are you kidding?’ expression. “We have a zoo living with us, Pea. A little peace and quiet is a good thing.”
“But what if the kids need us?” After three months, she was starting to get back into the swing of being a mom, but it wasn’t like riding a bike. Her own emotions of hurt, loss, and anger battled with the need to overprotect, shield, and smother her children in love. She wanted to give her children everything they could ever want.
But she knew her responsibility wasn’t to make them like her. Her responsibility was to make sure they grew up to be decent adults.
Yeah. She wasn’t doing well on any of those fronts.
“They’ll yell. And we’ll set up a baby monitor in case Bobby wakes up in the middle of the night—”
Which he had been.
“They’re a real thing, you know.”
Paige winced. She was overprotective. With good reason, though. Angels and demons were trying to kill Bobby, and Rachel was trying to take Leah. Again. However, Dexx was right. Per normal. She needed to give her kids space so they could learn on their own.
Hopefully, they’d left most of those threats behind in Texas. As least, for the moment. The Whiskeys needed a chance to catch their breath.
She stepped out of the double French doors and onto the patio. The view was amazing. She could just barely see the Sandy River through the thick trees that surrounded the house. Their nearest neighbor was over a mile away as the crow flew.
They should be safe.
She’d have to set up better protections than the ones she’d temporarily thrown up, but they really should be—
The porch trembled.
Cawli slammed himself into her psyche, but not into her mind. For the past three months, he’d been quiet.
Well, she hadn’t needed him.
But if he was alerted to the potential of trouble, then it had to be something bad.
What is it? she asked.
He remained silent.
The top of a black hat crested the last hill of the drive. A man followed, and then a wagon.
A real horse-drawn wagon.
Were there Amish around Troutdale? Not that only the Amish used wagons. She was sure others did, too.
No, she wasn’t. She was fairly certain that normal people used trucks.
Several people walked on either side of it, wearing jeans, jackets, and boots. So, not Amish.
What set off her wards? They weren’t set up to warn her that normal people were coming. So, what could they be?
Angels?
In wagons?
Demons, then.
In…wagons?
They didn’t look dangerous.
Then, why had Cawli—who’d been silent for three months—suddenly stir?
She turned and strode to the stairs.
“What’s wrong?” Dexx asked, following her.
“Company.” She looked around, listening for the sounds of two girls. “Leah! Mandy!”
“Up here,” Mandy yelled from the third floor.
“You got Lee with you?”
“I’m here.” She appeared at the top of the stairs, her blond hair hanging off her shoulders.
“Where’s your brother?”
Leah gestured behind her, her eyes wide, her neck stretched in what Paige had learned meant, “I’m not stupid.”
Teenagers. Or pre-teens. Whatever. “Stay up there.”
Leah’s expression closed with alarm. “Are we okay?”
“I don’t know.” They’d had a few hectic months in Texas and Leah was understandably gun-shy. “Just stay here until I can suss it out.”
Leah nodded and disappeared.
Leslie met Paige at the mouth of the stair leading to the main level. “What was that?”
By “that,” Paige understood she meant the ward warning. “Visitors.” Paige briskly took the stairs to the front door. “In wagons.”
“What? Wagons?” Leslie followed.
Paige cleared the front doorway. The door itself still lay on the floor of the porch. Chuck and his pack had managed to get a lot accomplished, but they still had work to do.
Dexx’s boot heels thumped toward the living room where he’d left his bag of guns.
The sound of a shotgun being loaded soothed Paige’s nerves. She leaned against the porch post and crossed her arms over her chest.
A familiar face stepped out of the crowd of people walking with the front wagon. Older woman. Dark hair. Dark eyes. Slightly heavy build.
Eldora Blackman.
No wonder the wards had sounded. Witches.
And Paige had shifters all over her property.
“Fuck,” Leslie whispered. “What’s she doing here?”
“Try to remember they want to be allies,” Paige murmured, keeping her expression pleasant. That was hard to remember when it had been the Blackmans who had abducted Leslie, Mandy, and Leah.
“Uh, yeah.”
Paige had known the move to Oregon was going to be trying. There were too many unknowns, too many enemies, and potential enemies. And Merry Eastwood was a threat she couldn’t take lightly. If the Blackmans were willing to betray the Eastwoods, she’d let them. But she wasn’t about to trust them right away, either.
She pushed off the post and met Eldora Blackman in the wide gravel drive.
The older witch smiled, genuine pleasure lighting her brown eyes. “It is a good to see you again.”
Paige returned the smile, though hers was guarded. The Blackmans had stood by the Eastwoods for over a century. Just how far could Paige trust them when she went to stand against the Eastwoods? “And you. What brings you out here?”
Eldora ducked her head and stepped back. She took in a deep breath, straightening. Her smile lost pleasure.
Paige felt bad. They were trying to build an alliance, but that bridge wasn’t built overnight. “I have no reason to trust you.”
“I know.” Regret laced her words with a low tone. “I do hope, however, that we can get to know one another, that our two families can grow closer.”
“That would be nice.” Especially if the Blackmans turned out to be okey-dokey people. “I hope your walk wasn’t far.”
“Our farm is right up the road a few miles.”
A few miles. Wow. That was a long walk. Another thought hit her, too. She’d just moved her family near a den of enemies and didn’t even know where those enemies lived. She’d never even thought to ask. Some protector and matriarch she was turning out to be.
Paige rubbed her eyebrow. “That’s nice.”
Eld
ora flinched.
Paige really needed to do better. Slipping on a welcome smile, she stepped forward. “What brings you here?”
“We brought you a welcoming gift.” Eldora walked to the wagon closest to her and flipped up the cloth cover. “Bookcases, books, ceremonial ornaments.”
Paige stopped next to her and peered over the rail of the wagon bed with a frown. “That’s…nice.” But why were they giving the Whiskeys something so generous?
“They belonged to your family. We were able to save them after the Whiskeys fled to Texas and felt it was only right that you have them back.”
The Whiskeys had fled to Texas over a hundred years ago to escape the war and the Eastwoods and the Blackmans. Huh. “Thank you.” The Blackmans were witches; if they’d used these objects in their magick, what was she inviting into her home?
“We also brought herbs for your garden.” Eldora gestured to the last wagon. “You’re coming in late in the season. Well, for seedlings, anyway. This will be a good start.”
All Paige could see in the last wagon was greenery. She could repopulate a small forest with the plants in there. “That is very generous.”
“I meant what I said.” Eldora took a step closer to Paige, her hands clasped in front of her. “I want to create new bonds—” Alarm slammed across her features as she stared at something over Paige’s shoulder.
Paige turned.
Chuck stood in the doorway to the house.
Three more of his shifters stood to the right of the house, four more on the left. A few more littered the woods.
Oh, shit. Paige turned back to Eldora, her eyebrows raised. She took in a deep breath and clasped her own hands in front of her.
Eldora settled her dark gaze on Paige. Silence filled the wide area. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“Yes.” Paige raised her chin.
The other woman nodded, licked her lips, then nodded again. “That’s bold. That’s incredibly bold.”
“It was the only move we had.” Which was true.
Eldora leaned forward. “This is a dangerous move, Paige. When Merry finds out…” She tipped her head to the side.
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