“You sense it, don’t you?” the doctor asked with a sly smile. “That I’m more than I appear?”
“You’re a wolf?”
“Actually, I’m a half-breed, like yourself. Wolf mother, warlock father.”
“I didn’t think there was anyone like me in Kala West,” Blaine said, sitting back down to take the information in.
“No, you wouldn’t. The Elemental Board made sure I was hidden away like all their other problems, but they realized they needed my expertise, so I was kept on a tight, manageable leash instead.” The doctor chuckled, more to himself than anyone else. “I could sense you from down the hall. Be careful. Not many around here appreciate our kind. You may want to work on covering your scent better.”
“I can do that? Cover my wolf’s scent?” Blaine asked, inching closer to his brother’s bed so he could get a better look at the doctor.
The man had some scruff on his chin, but it was trimmed down and well kept. He wore a dark blue dress shirt and black slacks. It was weird not seeing the man’s eyes. Dr. Bancroft held a black stick in his hands that Blaine wasn’t sure was a cane or something else entirely.
The doctor tilted his head sideways. “No one ever taught you?”
“Never had the kind of parents who cared about that kind of stuff.”
“That’s no good. No good at all.” The man felt around in his pocket until he pulled out a card. “If you ever need the spell for it, give me a call. We may be able to learn something from each other.”
“Uh, thanks. I think.”
“Nothing weird. Just call it one like-minded outcast helping another.” Dr. Bancroft nodded to his brother. “You two family?”
“He’s my brother,” Blaine said. “Been getting death threats since people found out what he did. It helps to come and check on him when I can.”
“Helps you, you mean,” the doctor said.
“What kind of doctor are you?”
The man laughed. “Isn’t that obvious? I’m a psychiatrist. Even witches and warlocks need mental therapy now and then.”
“That I believe,” Blaine said. “But my brother doesn’t exactly need a head healer right now.”
“I never said he did,” Dr. Bancroft said. “I make it a habit to at least meet every patient here once, whether they need my help or not.”
“That must be time-consuming for you.”
“Time is all I have,” Dr. Bancroft said. “Tell you what. I do rounds here frequently to check up on my other patients. When you’re not here, I’ll check in on your brother when I can. Make sure no one bothers him.”
“Really? You’d do that?”
“Sure. Least I can do. They have me bored out of my mind most times. I’ll keep an eye on him.” The man seemed to snicker at a private joke he had before he turned to leave.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what’s up with the shades?” Blaine asked.
“Oh, these old things? I forget I have them on sometimes. It turns out people get uncomfortable around blind doctors.”
A blind doctor. How the hell was he going to check on his brother? Blaine got the joke the doctor made earlier, and he wasn’t laughing.
“And before you say anything, I don’t need my sight to check on your brother,” Dr. Bancroft said. “Turns out when you’re a blind wolf, all your other senses are heightened. I take my job here seriously. Don’t worry. I give you my word he’ll be safe.”
“Thank you, Dr. Bancroft,” Blaine said. It was all could say.
“Don’t mention it,” the doctor said. “And call me Silas.”
The doctor left as quickly as he’d appeared.
Blaine hoped Silas kept his word, because he sure didn’t trust anyone else there who cared for his brother.
The staff already seemed upset that they had to tend to him, like he was a waste of their magical space. His brother didn’t even kidnap or kill the Mistress of Spirit. The warlock enforcers Kye and Warren had at least been kind enough to tell him and his mother that. Her abduction had been personally done by the traitorous Master of Fire.
But none of that mattered. With the Master of Fire gone and the other warlock accomplice, Mason, dead, Baxter was the only one left to blame.
They were both outsiders now, and that was the last thing he would want for an enemy, let alone his brother. Maybe it was time they considered leaving Kala West for good.
It made sense the more he thought about it. What did they have going for them there besides people who wanted them dead? As soon as Baxter woke up, they could get out of that fucking biased town and start fresh.
Their mother would complain, sure, but if she knew Baxter was leaving, she’d come. Even now, Blaine knew he was her favorite. It didn’t bother him as much anymore. He would take a safe mother and brother over loving ones. He was the oldest son, and that meant he was responsible for all of them. Moving was the best solution to all the fucked-up things they’d have to face when Baxter woke up.
For the first time in a long time, Blaine had hope.
Shifter’s Gift Chapter Three
Danika ran like her life depended on it, and it did. She allowed her wolf self to run free through the tropical brush and palm trees. Her paws padded through the sandy earth, used to every single path in the area. She loved the Florida landscape and how the tropical weather mixed with winter breezes to provide the best mixture for running.
Most wolf shifters lived in the mountains and in other northern areas. That sounded okay for a vacation, but Danika would take warm beaches and summer thunderstorms over mountains and plains any day. She did long for a chance to see snow, which she’d never experienced before. Even as a child, she thought it’d be fun to do silly winter things like make snow angels and snowmen.
Her birth mother was from a North Carolina pack, and Danika remembered her stories of making snow ice cream. Even at that small thought, her heart ached a little. She pushed any sad memories back and picked up her speed until all her surroundings became a blur.
Danika spent her entire life in Florida and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. She loved being a part of the Kala West Wolf Pack. At least, she had until today.
Nope. She wasn’t going to think about that. Not how Lance had ambushed her with information she had long forgotten. She ran faster until the world around her blurred out and sped by her.
Running was her solace. It was good in human form, but in her wolf skin, she felt closer to the world around her. Her feet seemed to be at home as she swerved between bushes and trees. She only had a few miles to go until she reached the coast.
Water. The Gulf. That was the main reason she couldn’t leave and go up north. She’d miss swimming in the Gulf, and right now, her sanity depended on a long swim in the cool waves. That was better than a cold shower any day, and she needed something to distract her completely. It may have been December, but at least she could swim without it freezing her tail completely off.
As she got closer, she could smell the water lingering in the air. It was late, so no one would be at her spot, the one place she went to think and swim shit away.
Golden Pearl Fishing Pier was still her special place, even if she gave up looking for Blaine long ago.
Her earlier argument with Lance played out in her head as she ran.
“You will do this for our people, Dani,” Lance had said.
“For the pack? What about what I want?”
“We are the leaders of the Kala West Pack. Everything we do is for them, not us.”
“You’re the alpha. You don’t have to keep the promise dad made. It was years ago. Why does it matter if I marry Cole or not?”
“The witches and warlocks in town are getting stronger by the day. Their Elemental Board members ensured that by reinstating their triad bonds a few years ago. We don’t have a way to mimic that. All we have are our connections with other packs. Our truce with the other shifters may not last long, either. Having Olma mediate between us helps, but who’s to say how long tha
t will last?”
“So I’m Olma’s replacement as a go-between? Is that it?”
Lance raked his fingers through his chestnut-brown hair. He was clearly annoyed, and Danika was testing his patience. “It’s not like that. Are you even hearing what I’m saying? You may be the only one who can give us some security.”
“So you’re selling off your baby sister for power?”
“Damn it, Dani. You’re not even my real...” He stopped before he could cause any greater damage, but the words hovered in the air as if he’d said them.
Danika folded her arms across her chest to keep from throwing something sharp and heavy at him. He had to bring that up now, of all times. “Oh, don’t stop now, Lance,” she snapped at him. “Might as well admit it out loud. I’m not your real sister, right?”
“Dani, I’m sorry.” Lance’s face reddened. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
It didn’t matter that he seemed to regret the words. It was too late for him to take them back. She felt torn between anger and sadness that the insides of her fought against.
“You don’t think I get that every time I see my reflection?” she asked. Tears built up behind her eyes. She was not going to cry in front of him. Not now. “You’re the alpha, and I’m just some charity case your parents took in.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t mean—”
“They may not have been my real parents, but I loved them too.”
She shifted and ran before he could respond. He called after her, but she wasn’t turning back. She needed her spot.
As she came to the water’s edge, she dipped her front paws in, letting the cold water cover them. She looked each way multiple times before shifting to her human form. She felt her bones crack with the stretching shift as the tickling of receding fur revealed smooth flesh.
The cool air nipped her sensitive skin, and the water felt colder without the fur to block out most of the temperature.
She took a deep breath and strode through the water, taking her time so the cold went through her and she could feel every sharp prickle of moisture.
One last breath filled her lungs before she submerged herself to block out all that was wrong in the world above sea level, if only for a few precious moments.
Shifter’s Gift Chapter Four
Sometimes life was just fucked up. Blaine couldn’t help but think that his was a little more horrible than average. Even on the beach, away from any other signs of life, he could hear Christmas music playing. Classic songs of bells and warm chestnuts haunted him wherever he went. Hell, he hated the holidays, all about happy families and joy, things he didn’t have and probably never would if they stayed in Kala West.
He had to get his family away from the witches and warlocks who hated his family. He had thought about finding the Kala West Pack and asking to join their community, but who would want a shifter who couldn’t shift? He never approached the pack alpha before or even dared attempt to ask for his favor. He knew that if the magic community of Kala West had no use for him, a shifter pack wouldn’t either, but now that he had his family to consider, he’d risk the chance of a bruised ego if it kept them safe.
Shifting had never happened for Blaine, even though he tried numerous times. When he finally came into his water element, he thought the shift would soon follow. He was so wrong.
Many times he’d tried to change, even felt his animal crawling under his skin, begging for release. It was the worst during full and new moons, but he was always drawn outside all the same.
The full December moon glowed over him as he walked down the beach.
He cracked his neck to release some of the tension building there and traveling down his body.
Being outside was peaceful, and he was coming close to the place he had gotten in the habit of passing, the spot where everything made sense. It was the pier where he was saved in more ways than one.
He was only fourteen when he saw her, the girl with skin like hot cocoa, hair that was wild about her head from swimming, and big, curious eyes to match.
He regretted not ever seeing her again, but he had been scared of what Pete would do to her if he ever discovered she was a wolf shifter. The man had proven his disgust for anyone who wasn’t a witch or warlock. His stepfather already hated him for being what he was, a warlock with tainted blood, words his stepfather enjoyed throwing around.
“Get me a beer, Foul Blood,” Pete would say with a snicker. “Watch your mouth, Foul Blood.”
When Pete got really lazy, he took to nicknaming Blaine FB. That was also the name kids at school would taunt him with whenever he got the courage to show up. Only they had other names for the two letters that made Pete’s taunting almost bearable.
Blaine didn’t know how cruel those words were until he got older. It was enough to make him hate Kala West.
Pete had been a full-out asshole growing up, an abusive coward who drank too much. Heavy drinking and magic never mixed. That’s why his stepfather died from getting his potions bottle mixed up with his beer bottle.
Stupidity to the very end, and Blaine had never been so grateful that his stepfather’s death left just him, his mother, and younger half-brother.
The sadist was gone, but the town remembered the false idea of him. Witches and warlocks in Kala West only saw the good side of Pete, but his family had too many other sides to deal with, especially Blaine.
Baxter was favored and treated like royalty. Blaine was the bastard half-breed that Pete didn’t want to deal with. He got so used to being pushed around by Pete for the dumbest things that he learned to block him out.
Blaine’s mind provided an internal escape for him from Pete and the others who refused to accept his mixed parentage.
That’s how he blocked out falling off the pier. He had gone so deep within himself that he was nothing but a shell of a teenager. Even the cold December water didn’t wake him from his mind. It took a girl to bring him back, a girl shifter who he still thought about after all the years that passed since then.
Blaine and Baxter’s mother, as much as he loved her, was too weak to fight for herself, let alone for her oldest son, so Blaine took it. He got through it more as his powers strengthened over the years until he started growing along with his water magic. Pete feared him then, taking more to taunting him with words rather than laying hands on him again.
It was pathetic, and Blaine left the old man alone. Blaine could have beaten him up or killed him years ago, but that would have only lowered him to Pete’s level.
Pete dying by his own hand was a blessing and a curse. Blaine and Baxter had to provide for their mother by working odd jobs in town. Everyone was happy to hire Baxter, but Blaine was shunned. The magical community of Kala West didn’t fully trust the other supernatural beings, even though they had a treaty of nonviolence with some groups like the werewolves. Blaine was a reminder that other magical beings existed. No matter how hard the community tried, they wouldn’t be able to shut out all the others that lurked outside the safety of Kala West.
Although Blaine had blocked out most of the bad in his life, falling off that pier was one of the few blessings the gods gave him because it led him to Danika. He remembered feeling Danika’s hand on his face. That one touch stirred something in him, reminded him of life.
He couldn’t explain it, but she had awakened his magic in time for it to save him. His element had saved him, but only because she had brought him to life first. He didn’t know why and never questioned it. It just was.
Where was she now? He could only imagine the beautiful woman she would have become.
He stared at the pier that had since closed down, but the pier still stood strong, protruding out into the water. Part of him always took this route on the beach, hoping he’d see her again, but years had passed, too many to realistically encounter her once more.
He looked out towards the moonlit water, taking in the serenity and calmness. A figure stood far out in the moving depths wit
h their back facing him. The shape looked like a woman.
It was strange to see someone in the water this late in the year. It wasn’t unheard of, but it was still too cold to swim in. He looked around for a stash of clothes, but he didn’t find any.
He looked back up in time to see the head go underwater.
He couldn’t stop staring out as he waited for the head to come back up, but it never did. A good minute passed.
By the second minute, he was in the water and swimming toward the missing figure. He couldn’t reason with his mind why he had to get there. It was as if his wolf and magic shared a secret and weren’t letting him in on it. He just knew he had to move, and the faster the better.
When the woman reappeared, he knew her instantly. The face just now occupied that of a woman who looked like an enchantment come to steal him away.
“It’s you,” he said. “You’re the one who saved me.”
The name came back to him as if their encounter had happened yesterday.
Danika looked at him with those same wide eyes that had stayed with him since all those passing years. Although most of her was hidden by the water, he thought she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.
He felt his magic rumble through him as if waiting to boil over to greet something significant. It recognized her too. It remembered her presence, the comfort he felt by her touch, the kindred of wolf finding wolf, magic discovering another type of magic.
His element moved out to grasp for something, anything to connect with her and make sure she stayed with them, his magic and his beast, every essence that made him who he was and craved the woman he now saw in front of him.
Blaine couldn’t help but ease closer to her, and he was grateful she didn’t turn away from him.
He was close enough to feel her soft breath on his skin, which only made his body come alive. He became aware of the hardness pressing against his wet jeans, begging for release.
It worsened when he saw her lips, plump temptations that teased him under moonlight. He realized in that moment that she was naked under the shield of water.
The Alpha Warlocks' Own: An Alpha Warlocks of Kala West Story #3 (A BWWM and BBW Paranormal Ménage Romance) Page 14