by R. E. Butler
“Rich is a good male. He helped me out a number of times when I was younger and got injured in training or the full moon rank battles.” He didn’t say anything for a long moment, and then said, “Can I ask what happened to your parents?”
“What do you mean?”
“Were they ever married? Why were you and Noah raised separately even though you’re twins?”
She stopped looking at Rich’s quaint house and turned her attention to her mate. “Years ago, the witches’ guild approached the fae council and asked for volunteers to bear children. There was an excess of female witches, and not enough males to go around. The gist of the request was that they were hoping that some of the children might be hybrids, possessing both fae and witch qualities. One of my father’s superiors at the time made it a personal request that he bear a child with the head of the witch guild, and he agreed. My brother and I were conceived – the first, and only, twin children born of a witch and fae. Originally, our father said he would leave the child rearing to our mother, but when Noah and I were born, I had marks on my back called wing slices, and he didn’t, which meant I was a fae and he wasn’t. They agreed to raise us separately. Our father took me to visit her and Noah monthly, and I remember her testing me over the years to see if I had inherited any of her powers, which I hadn’t. I’m fully fae, the way that Noah is fully witch.”
“Was it hard to be without Noah? I’ve heard that twins often have closer connections than most siblings.”
“Yes and no. We were never together to start with. Our parents split us up when we were newborns, so it’s not as if I have all these wonderful memories of us being together and then suddenly he was gone. It wasn’t until we were adults that we grew closer, when I developed the ability to use portals to transport myself and I would pop in and visit him more frequently.”
“Do your parents get along?”
Her mind flitted back to her past, and the times when the cordial relationship her parents had seemed so normal. They weren’t lovers or even friends, they were just two people who happened to have kids together. It was sad, really. She couldn’t imagine ever letting a child of hers be anywhere she wasn’t.
“Yeah. There’s like no emotion between them. It’s like they just decided to have kids together and the act that brought Noah and I into the world had zero feelings.”
“That’s sad.”
“I was just thinking that.”
He unbuckled his seatbelt and leaned over, kissing her sweetly. “You’re stuck with me, Kismet. I’m not interested in anything but what we have together, and I can’t fathom a parent not wanting all their kids with them.”
She looked into his eyes, the light brown depths highlighted with little streaks of gold that had nothing to do with his inner animal and everything to do with how sexy he was. “Our kids won’t have to worry about that.”
“Good. How many kids? Because I was thinking lots.”
She chuckled. “We’ll quantify the term ‘lots’ later. But I’m right there with you wanting a big family.”
He got out of the truck and came around to her side, opening her door and taking her hand to help her out. She’d noticed that about him – he was very chivalrous, and she loved it.
“Hey,” Rich said from the front porch. “Noah and your mother just got here. They’re in the kitchen.”
She and Ren walked up to Rich and the two males shook hands. “Nice to see you, Doc.”
“Congratulations on your mating.”
They followed Rich into the house, through the living room that doubled as a patient waiting room, and all the way to the back of the house and the large kitchen. Noah, who shared Kismet’s dark hair and green eyes, stood and grinned.
She and her twin embraced, and the sweet feeling of being with her brother enveloped her. “I’m going to count this,” he whispered.
She laughed and pushed him away. “Not a chance.” She and Noah liked to keep score with favors for each other. Each time they helped each other out, they’d count it as a favor. But there was no way that she would let him claim coming for a visit to meet her mate as a favor to her. Family responsibilities weren’t favors, they were just done.
Her mother stood and hugged her. She smelled like chamomile and lavender, scents she’d always come to associate with her mother. Chamomile from the tea she favored, and lavender from the soap she used. Her mother’s styles had changed over the years, but her scents had not.
“Hi, Mom,” she said.
She held her at arm’s length and looked her over with a smile. “What a glow! You’re gorgeous as always, which I’m going to take full credit for in the genetics department. Now, introduce me to your truemate.”
“Mom, this is Ren Corbin. Ren, this is my mother, Linella Mueller.”
Ren extended his hand and Linella looked at it and then scoffed, pulling him into a hug. “We hug in this family, Ren. Get used to it.”
“I’m sure that Dad isn’t a hugger though,” Noah quipped.
Kismet snorted out a laugh. “I’d actually pay to see that.”
Ren shook Noah’s hand. “Nice to meet you, too.”
“Welcome to the family. Our side is the best, of course.”
“Hey!” Kismet said. “Uncool.”
Rich said, “Have a seat everyone, help yourselves to the food.”
“You’re going to stick around, right?” Kismet asked as she took a croissant stuffed with chicken salad off a platter and put it on her plate.
“I have a patient coming in, but I’ll be back.” He smiled and disappeared to the front of the house.
“You never met Noah?” Linella asked.
Ren shook his head. “I’ve heard of him through Rich, and even used some of a healing oil you made for some minor wounds I had after a pack fight a few months ago. Thanks for that, it worked great.”
Noah winked at Kismet. “You can thank my sister, too. She’s the one who found the seeds for the spiny willow and grew it for me, so we could harvest the bark to put into the oil.”
“I’ve never heard of that tree,” Ren said.
“No one has,” Kismet said. “It doesn’t grow in this realm. The leaves are poisonous, but the bark has healing properties. The species is dying out, but I was able to find seeds at a shop in the fae realm.”
Conversation flowed around the table as Kismet’s family asked Ren about himself and his family. Eventually, the chatter turned to their future.
“I’m assuming you’ll stay here in Wilde Creek,” Noah said after wiping his mouth with a napkin and balling it up on his plate.
“We haven’t officially decided yet,” Kismet said. “We’re planning to head to the fae realm to spend a week there.”
“But he’s pack,” Noah said, his brows raised. “There’s nothing like that for him in the fae realm.”
She opened her mouth to answer, but Ren stepped in. “We’re leaning toward staying here, but we both want to give each place a fair shake. I’d give up the pack to make her happy, and she and our future children will be my pack if that’s where we end up.”
Noah nodded. “Cool. I have to say that when you called and said you were mated to a wolf, I thought, finally, she’ll live where we can see each other more.”
“We see each other plenty,” she pointed out.
“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his fingertip along the edge of his plate, “but not like families do. We don’t have Sunday dinners together or go on vacations as a family.”
She looked at her brother. Really looked at him. “You could have talked to me about that, you know. It didn’t need to take me and Ren finding each other for us to have family dinners.”
He shook his head, an abrupt side-to-side motion. “Your life’s always been in the other realm. You and Dad, two peas in a winged-pod.”
She reached across the table and linked her fingers with Noah’s, and then took Ren’s hand with her other. “Now my life is here.”
“Maybe,” Ren said.
; She glanced at her mate. “It’s getting harder to imagine not being here full time.”
Linella said, “You know what? I’d very much like you to be here, too. I always hoped you’d come to stay at some point, but you built a lovely life for yourself in the other realm. Whatever you both end up choosing for your home, I’m positive it will be the right place.”
Rich came into the kitchen. “I hope you move to Wilde Creek. Then you won’t be opening portals into my yard and scaring my patients.”
“I only did that once,” Kismet said, sticking out her tongue. She didn’t point out that she’d also scared a male at the alphas’ home, too. She’d be more careful where she opened portals in the future, especially if they did stay in Wilde Creek.
Ren’s phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and read the screen. “I hate to eat and run, but Acksel needs me.” He pushed out the chair and stood. “Do you want me to drop you off or come back for you?”
“I can portal home when I’m done visiting,” she said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, just part of the fun of being second-in-command.” He bent and kissed her, said goodbye to her family, and left.
When the front door closed, her mother said, “Well, he’s great! I’m so happy for you. You seriously look like you’re glowing from the inside out!”
Kismet laughed. “Thanks, Mom.”
“I don’t suppose…” she said, her voice trailing off.
“Suppose what?”
“Did you mate Ren according to the ways of my people or your father’s?”
“Ugh, barf,” Noah said.
“Mom, really? What are you talking about?”
She hummed softly, her ocean-blue eyes twinkling. “The fae secure their matings with special oil. Matings that begin with the anointing oil are considered especially lucky. Do you know why?”
Kismet remembered saying that exact thing to Ren before they began. “I don’t know, I just always assumed that the oil was special.”
“It’s special all right,” Linella said. “It prepares the female’s body for pregnancy.”
“I…what?” Kismet was tempted to rub her ears to find out if she’d heard wrong.
“Is that a real thing?” Rich asked. “Fae have oil that encourages pregnancy?”
“It’s a very real thing,” Linella said, “but only for female fae. A male fae who mated with a female of another species wouldn’t have that reaction, but for a female fae, oh yes, definitely.”
“I think we figured out why you’re glowing,” Noah said. “And if I didn’t already say it, gross.”
Chapter 9
Stef Garner stared at her cell phone, waiting for a return call from the Wilde Creek alpha. She absently rubbed the scar on her upper arm, given to her by the Dorlan alpha, Isaiah, when she’d been forced out. The scar was months’ old, but it still bothered her. She was sure it was just her subconscious making her aware of it, since her shifting nature had allowed it to scar over quickly, and the pain had been sharp but brief. Still…she hated it and hated Isaiah, too
She and her mate, Boyd, had been planning to pull a coup on Isaiah for months. The only problem was his asshole son, Damien, who would fight just as hard to take over once Isaiah was gone, and he had a lot more cronies on his side than she and Boyd had. Her whole life she’d wanted to be alpha female, and Boyd had promised her the position when she mated him at age twenty. He’d sat on his ass and twiddled his thumbs, making plans but not actually accomplishing anything. Then, miracle of miracles, Damien got in deep with a human female and their bastard child, and it caused a war between Wilde Creek and Dorlan. Damien had died during the pack battle, and she and Boyd had known the time to strike was right afterward, when Isaiah was grieving.
Except that wily bastard hadn’t really grieved at all. Or if he did, he hadn’t shown it publicly. He’d seemed to know that someone was out for his position, and he’d met them in a mini battle of their own. Boyd and his brother Rod hadn’t survived. Her mate had died at her feet, beaten terribly, bleeding profusely, and cursing Isaiah with his very last breath.
Isaiah could have killed those who came against him, but instead he exiled them, giving them a slash on their arm as a sign to other wolves that they weren’t to be trusted. They’d also been told if they stepped foot in Dorlan again, they’d be killed on sight.
She could have been content to start over, but she wanted revenge on Isaiah for killing her mate. The Dorlan pack should have been hers to lead. She knew what she needed to do to take Dorlan from Isaiah – find a strong male to lead at her side as alpha male and fill out her tiny pack with males who would fight against Isaiah. There were exiled wolves all over, and she was sure some of them would join her ranks.
For now, she only had her cousin, Tanner, and six others who had backed her and Boyd’s bid for alphaship. She wasn’t about to mate any of the males in her pack, and she’d remembered one of her fuck pals from Wilde Creek, Ren Corbin. She’d lived in Wilde Creek with her parents until they’d decided it was time to move back to her father’s home pack in Dorlan. She’d hooked up with Boyd, and she’d never looked back. Dorlan had been home to her, even when her parents died several years earlier. Now that her dream of being alpha female was on the way to coming true, she knew she needed to get a male to stand by her, but one that wasn’t such an alpha male that he’d butt heads with her about her being the true leader.
She thought Ren might be that male. Judging how he’d been in high school, she thought he was just the sort of male she could wrap around her finger and control. He’d be the alpha male of the pack, the face of power, but she’d be the ruler behind the scenes, using sex to control him.
Males were so simple, really. Flash a little pussy and watch them roll over.
Since their exile, she and her pack had been living in a pay-by-the-week motel in a shithole town halfway between Dorlan and Wilde Creek called Payler. There were no shifters in Payler, so she’d claimed it for her pack and they’d taken over the motel as their home territory, while they put out the word that they were recruiting members. It was monstrously unfair that males could lead on their own, but females couldn’t. Damn pack hierarchy. Without an alpha male at her side, she was simply an omega with a superiority complex, and eventually the others would overthrow her, just as she’d planned to do with Isaiah.
She rubbed at her eyes, a headache blooming at the forefront of her brain.
Her phone buzzed, and she clicked the button to open the text from the Wilde Creek alpha, Acksel Moore.
“He’ll meet with us in neutral territory outside Wilde Creek, a park about fifteen minutes from here,” she said.
“Do you think he remembers you?” Tanner asked. He rubbed his hand, the one missing a finger from the battle, thanks to the human female’s little bastard baby, who had bitten it off.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter what Acksel thinks, I only want to use him to get to Ren. The question is whether any of the Wilde Creek males will remember you.”
“I’ll be happy to jog their memories if need be,” he said, cracking his knuckles.
She waved her hand dismissively. “Revenge later. First, we need to get Ren on board.”
“Then?”
“Then, I’ll have my alpha male and we can more actively recruit.”
“Isaiah won’t go easily.”
She knew that, and she didn’t care. The win would be sweeter if he fought harder. She’d relish the look on his face when he fell by her order.
* * *
Ren let himself into Acksel and Brynn’s home and found Sam, Acksel’s father, Dade, and Felix, another pack elder, sitting in the front room.
“Sorry to interrupt you hanging out with your mate’s family,” Acksel said, “but I got an interesting voicemail.”
Acksel moved his thumb around on his cell screen and then set it on a speaker dock. The speaker crackled and then a voicemail played.
“Hello, Alpha Moore,” a feminine voice said, �
��my name is Stef Garner, and I’m the new alpha of a pack in Payler. Since we’re neighbors, I’d like to arrange a meeting between the high-ranked of our packs at your earliest convenience. You can call or text me at this number.”
The call ended, and the room grew silent.
Ren frowned. “I know her.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Acksel said.
“Who is she?” Dade asked.
“She was in high school with us,” Ren said. “She and her parents were pack members, but one of her parents was from another pack and they left to rejoin their home pack.”
“You and Stef were fuck buddies,” Acksel said.
Ren’s upper lip curled. “That was a hundred years ago.”
Brynn came into the room carrying a bowl of tortilla chips and a large jar of salsa. Ren thought she would set the chips and salsa on the table for everyone, but instead, she sat on the couch with the bowl in her lap and dipped the chips into the jar of salsa. “It probably feels that way,” she said between bites, “but it’s different for women.”
He frowned. “What does that mean?”
She shrugged and finished chewing her mouthful of chips. “You don’t know what she felt when she left here. She may be holding a torch for you.”
Ren didn’t really care if Stef was holding a torch for him, although he thought it was unlikely. They’d never been anything but full moon fucks to each other. At least as far as he’d been concerned.