Cancel your plans, witches and warlocks! You’re invited to tonight’s Firewick Festival.
Not so fast. Carmen Brixton doesn’t need an invite. She’s certainly not going to let something that trivial stop her from attending the festival and finding her own set of sexy warlocks. She’s not a fire witch for nothing. As the youngest Brixton sister, she’s always been two steps behind her siblings. This time, she’s taking matters into her own hands—as long as the Elemental Board doesn’t find out. But when she crosses paths with the hot Durant twins, she’s not too ready to face the flames for them just yet, since the handsome duo made high school a living heaven and hell. She longed for them from afar, but they were way out of her league—or so she thought.
Twin warlocks Ryan and Royce Durant have always been inseparable. That’s why they knew if they ever formed a Perfect Triad Bond, they would create one together when their witch match showed up. When they run into Carmen, they’re reminded of their high school crush on her. To avoid a rivalry, they left the sexy witch alone. After all, her protective sisters were always nearby. That didn’t keep them from feeling like Carmen, with a scorching personality to go with her voluptuous curves, was witch enough for both of them. Now that they’ve got her all to themselves, they’re ready to claim her as their own.
However, danger lurks around the corner for Carmen when she runs across something meant to be hidden. Her hopes of making the last night of the Firewick Festival one to remember turns into just that.
But will Carmen live to enjoy the nights to come with her own warlocks? Can this pair of Alpha Warlock twins convince the sexy fire vixen she belongs with them forever and save her in time to enjoy it?
This 34,000-word story is the third in the Alpha Warlocks of Kala West interlinked series. It has strong sexual situations and explicit content. For mature and brave readers who can handle magic and strong Alpha Males only.
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Epilogue
Shifter’s Gift Chapter One
Shifter’s Gift Chapter Two
Shifter’s Gift Chapter Three
Shifter’s Gift Chapter Four
Shifter’s Gift Chapter Five
Shifter’s Gift Chapter Six
Excerpt of The Alpha Warlock’s Claim
Excerpt of The Alpha Warlock’s Desire
Other Books from Sensual Skye Publishing
About Auriella Skye
Connect with Auriella Skye
Copyright
Prologue
One of the things that sucked about being tied to a chair and blindfolded was that you had too much time to think. Carmen realized this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing when your life was at risk, since it meant you weren’t dead yet, but one of Carmen’s personal fears was being alone. Dying alone was astronomically worse.
Yes, sometimes she bickered with her sisters and wished she were an only child, but now she’d give anything to be surrounded by family, even if Claire had been right about her getting into trouble. She’d take a nice old helping of “I told you so” just to see her sisters again.
That was another thing: The assholes that snatched her up broke her favorite necklace. She had tried to get it back too, which was the only reason why she was distracted from turning her kidnappers into crispy warlocks with her fire element. They might not have cared, but Carmen’s sisters had gifted it to her for her 21st birthday months prior to all this craziness. That meant something.
Now she hoped like hell no other idiot found it and tried to hawk it off for money. A real gold necklace on a public beach? Nope. She didn’t have high hopes someone wouldn’t try to sell it.
She made a mental note to check pawn shops if she ever got out of her current fiasco.
Carmen was pretty sure it was daylight by now. She could sense it, along with the smell of saltwater that invaded her until she could taste the saltiness on her tongue. She could even hear water crashing on rocks in the distance. The way the chilled and wet air smelled, she thought she was in some alcove of some kind. Maybe even a cave.
She tried to take in all she could in case she got free. The Brixtons were so going to make these guys pay if she ever got out of there, and she was going to lead the whoop-ass party.
There was no use in trying her magic. Someone had knocked her in the head, so a massive headache kept her from focusing enough to center her power. She’d tried three times, but failed to release her inner fire magic. The wet atmosphere certainly wasn’t helping, either.
Why did she have to run off on her own?
There was a reason. Two damn sexy, tall, and brooding reasons. She so wasn’t going to think about them right now. It was possible that the two warlocks in question weren’t even hers. So why were they constantly on her mind, even during a life-and-death situation? Even now, her heart picked up speed as her thoughts drifted her back to the twin brothers she secretly pined for over the years.
She was in trouble. Her life was possibly going to end soon, and all she could think about were them.
Carmen heard footsteps and stilled.
“What are we going to do with her, Mason?”
Mason. She had one name at least, although she had no clue who the hell he was.
A loud whacking sound filled her ears, probably the dumb one hitting his even dumber friend.
Carmen scoffed. Yeah. These two were not smart. If they had been, they wouldn’t have kidnapped her.
“Stop using our names, idiot,” another male voice said.
She guessed that one was Mason.
“Hell, man,” the first one said. “You didn’t have to hit me so hard.”
“Then learn when to shut up.”
“What about the other one?”
Other one? Carmen thought. Who else is in here with me?
“I swear, if you don’t learn to shut up, you’re going to get us both killed,” Mason said. “We don’t want to piss him off anymore, so we do whatever he tells us. Until then, we wait.”
Wonderful. More waiting.
Oh yeah. Carmen was so in trouble.
Chapter One
24 hours earlier
Ryan knocked on Royce’s locked door. He was being respectful, since they both knew he could have gotten it open without even touching it.
“Come on, Royce,” Ryan said. “Open the damn door.”
“I’m not going,” Royce said behind the closed barrier. “You go. Have at it.”
“You’re going to make me go alone again? Do you know how dep
ressing it is to see triads match? Everywhere I turn, I feel like a fourth wheel.”
“You mean third wheel,” Royce said on the other side. He sounded unamused.
“Did you seriously not get my triad joke?”
“Oh, I got it. I’m just laughing on the inside.”
“Guess it died on the way out. Like your inability to have fun.”
“For the sake of the gods, Ryan, do whatever you want. Stay home. Go Firewick crashing. I don’t care, but leave me the hell out of it.”
Instant rage consumed Ryan. He allowed his element to fill him, and he blinked hard. The door blew off the hinges and fell into Royce’s room. Nails and pieces of wood settled around the remaining chunk of door that now merged with the brown carpet.
Royce didn’t even look up from the book he was reading, which looked like their family grimoire. Spells had been written by the Durant family for centuries that led all the way back to their French roots, long before their family settled in Kala West, Florida.
“Was that necessary?” Royce asked without looking up. He turned a page as if nothing disturbed him.
Ryan walked in and stepped over the broken pieces. “Since you wouldn’t open it, yeah. It was.” Ryan knew Royce was trying to annoy him more by ignoring him. Sadly, it was working.
“Seems childish for a twenty-four-year-old warlock.”
“Says the same-age warlock who’s locked up in his room like a moody teenager.”
Sometimes Ryan wondered if their elements were mixed up at birth, with him controlling air and Royce mastering fire. He always seemed to be the one quick to anger, while his brother kept an annoying calm to him. It only upset him more.
“Reading?” Ryan asked. He picked up one of the many discarded books on Royce’s bed. Spells and Justice the book read. He looked at the next one, which was titled Magical Punishment of the Ancients. “Not this again. You’d rather read this nonsense than find our witch?”
Royce didn’t look up as he spoke. “We weren’t formerly invited, so there’s no witch to find.”
“That never stopped us before,” Ryan said, his anger sizzling down to irritation as he tossed the books back down.
“Why is it so important that I come with you?”
“Because I have a feeling about tonight. I think we’re going to find her.”
“You say that about every Firewick Festival. You have ever since we were in high school, and we always come home without our witch. We won’t find her until the Elemental Board wants us to, and they still haven’t summoned us.”
“You’ve skipped the last two, and we had four years of missing the Kala West Firewick, thanks to Uncle Hugo. We need to catch up.”
“He doesn’t like for us to call him that anymore, remember?” Royce said, his tone flat.
“I’m not calling that man ‘master.’ It creeps me out.” Their uncle had spent a few years raising them and keeping them away from Kala West, but something about the man always felt off. Ryan just couldn’t figure out what it was. He asked Royce once or twice if he felt it too, but his brother avoided long talks about family. Ryan couldn’t blame him for that. Not after all they’d been through.
When they got back into town two years ago, Uncle Hugo was appointed his new position.
Royce kept his eyes in the grimoire. “Technically, it’s Master of Fire.”
“Whatever, Royce. Stop avoiding this.” Ryan paced the room to avoid tossing a burst of air magic at his brother to yank the book out of his damn hands. “You really want to wait around for a bunch of old witches and warlocks to decide our fate?”
“That’s the whole purpose of Firewick.” Royce slowly turned another page.
Ryan took a deep, calming breath before speaking again. “Warren found his witch this time around with Kye. That has to be a sign.”
“He’s an Enforcer for the Elemental Board. Of course he got linked in a Triad Bond first.”
“But if our cousin found his witch, doesn’t that give you hope?”
“You got some fucking high expectations, Brother.”
“Call me an optimist.” Ryan didn’t want his brother to screw this up for them. Whether Royce admitted it out loud or not, they both had hidden hopes that this would be the Firewick for them to find their third.
Honestly, they thought that way about each festival. That’s why they spent so many years sneaking in. Okay, that and free beer, but as they got older and each event passed by, it only left them with disappointment.
They stood on the sidelines and watched triads form, and they were left without. Yeah, they may have been too young as teenagers to bond with a witch, but it didn’t make it hurt any less.
That was a first for them, because the Durant brothers led in all things. They weren’t used to being chosen last. Instead, they were the ones who did the picking, and others came along for the ride. It was like that for them all the way up until high school.
Until tragedy hit them both during their senior year at Kala West High. It was hard to lead anyone after so much loss.
Ryan understood that was why his brother stayed secluded from life and barely left the house. He spent most of his time studying spells and strengthening his magic, preparing himself for a day that Ryan didn’t think would ever come.
Then came their time away from Kala West. Four years in limbo, following their uncle up the East Coast until, finally, they came back home.
They started crashing Firewick again, but it wasn’t the same. Too much had changed for them. Tragedy forced them to grow up fast, or at least it had for Royce.
He secluded himself away from the world, and, as his twin, Ryan couldn’t leave him long. He tried, but even the Firewick Festivals had been torturous without Royce there.
That’s why Royce stopped crashing it with Ryan a year back. He couldn’t take the letdown anymore.
He didn’t have to explain it to his twin because they both felt it. Why force something when it only brought more sadness to their lives?
Ryan just chose to keep going in spite of it, and he had an aching feeling inside him that if they weren’t there for the last evening of the festival that night, they’d both live the rest of their warlock lives regretting it. He just didn’t know how to explain that dreadful feeling to rational Royce.
They became a Warlock Pair younger than most because they knew they didn’t want to find their witch with another warlock. At sixteen they said the binding words. He still remembered them.
We call upon the five elements of old
To merge magics with hearts made bold.
Let two become one in strength and mind,
So only a third may join powers that bind.
May the knot be tied twice and forever stay
Until only the one unworthy untie it away.
Ever since, they’d been able to sense each other’s emotions, and their elemental powers had strengthened along with their bond.
At the moment, Ryan knew his brother’s mind was only on revenge. He knew this because he sensed no feelings from him at all. When Royce got like that he had an unemotional calm about him, and Ryan was afraid a day would come when he wouldn’t be able to bring his brother back from it.
Thinking of their pairing reminded Ryan that he had to be the one to get his brother to Firewick. After all, they only had each other, and he wasn’t about to let his brother spend one more Firewick wasting away in their house, one that used to be a family home, but Royce had turned into his own personal prison. Fuck that.
“Listen,” Ryan said, “if you come with me tonight, I’ll never ask you to go to another one.”
“That’s a big risk,” Royce said, finally looking up so he could study his twin. “You’d seriously let me off that easy? If I come tonight?”
Ryan smiled and created an x-shaped cross in the air with his magic, the blue glow lighting up the particles in the atmosphere. It was something they did as kids, their version of “cross your heart and hope to die” but much more fun.
<
br /> “Maybe not,” Ryan said.
“Thought that was too easy. What then?”
“I promise to leave you alone about the Firewick Festival for the next year, as long as you promise to come tonight, and we find our third.” Okay, so he couldn’t stay silent forever, but he could do one more year. Ryan knew Royce would agree. He never backed away from a challenge, even in his distracted state. He also thought Ryan would break. A year meant two more Firewick Festivals.
Ryan couldn’t keep the smirk off his face as he waited for his brother to finish the symbol. If he was right about this being the night for them to find their witch, he so had this.
If not, well, he wasn’t going to think like that. His soul couldn’t take it, and he was certain Royce’s couldn’t, either. It was now or never again, and deep down, they both knew it.
Royce sighed and snapped the grimoire shut. “Fine.” He brought forth his fire magic to trace the “x” on his side. Ryan’s sea-foam blue magic merged with Royce’s fiery-orange and red to seal their oath. If either one of them broke it, the loser would be without magic for a month. That was always the deal when they made a promise with their elements. A month without magic could feel like an eternity for a warlock who thrived off it, which they both did.
“I promise I’ll be there. It’s your loss, Brother,” Royce said.
“I guess we’ll just have to see, won’t we?” Ryan left without putting the door back. His brother could fix that all on his own. He had a party to get ready for, one that would change both of their lives, and he prayed to the gods he wasn’t wrong.
***
Royce stood in the middle of the room that haunted his dreams. He’d promised his brother he’d stop torturing himself, but it was a place that was hard to ignore.
The family room was bright and filled with sunlight from the large floor-to-ceiling windows. Exotic plants from Florida and abroad filled the room, leaving behind a living memory of their former caretaker. Their mother had loved her plants, and even now their beauty reminded him of her. Golden-brown hair and a smile that made him feel better, even if he and Ryan were in trouble. Gods, he missed her. Both of them.
The Alpha Warlocks' Own: An Alpha Warlocks of Kala West Story #3 (A BWWM and BBW Paranormal Ménage Romance) Page 1