by C. D. Gorri
“Are you sure?” she addressed Artemis with an anxious Garren looking on.
At the she-wolf’s nod, Beau began chanting. A swirl of silver escaped her lips encircling the she-wolf and Knox. It moved about them rapidly, as Isabeau’s chants grew louder.
She kept at it until they became part of the silvery mist. The cloud that was Artemis and Knox slipped through the cell’s bars only to reappear whole on the other side. Knox howled in pain. Artemis’s ears pointed back as she growled low in her throat. She positioned his head on her side, growling instructions, and licking his face as it became more and more like her own.
The roars and screeches of the animals in the sanctuary cut into Beau’s focus. Garren ran forth and grasped her hands, “Come on. He’ll be fine, Beau. Artemis’s got him.”
Isabeau squeezed his hand and looked into his bright silver eyes. This was a test for both of them. She knew they could protect the reserve together, but at what cost?
It humbled and amazed her that Garren, a sorcerer so rare in their world, would have given his time and talents to the Council only to stand against them now. For her.
There was one thing she understood about him that perhaps the Council and Hayden did not. Now it was time to find out.
Chapter 35
Sorceress and Sorcerer met their opposition twenty-feet above the sanctuary hand in hand. From their vantage point Beau and Garren counted ten ogres surrounding the lands trying their best to batter and break through the enchanted gates, three hooded figures floated just behind the object of their fury, Hayden.
“How dare you, Enforcer! You betray your office with the Council to defend this lowly bitch! Our laws demand the Were be exterminated immediately! Come, there is still time, hand him over before it is too late!”
“I warned you about using that word, Hayden,” Garren shot out, but Hayden continued.
“You have not been dismissed, Enforcer, I can make you do as I say, do not forget who your masters are!” Hayden screamed in their direction, raising his arms and chanting what was obviously a command for Garren to grovel before him.
It was all he could do to hold himself back. Not from groveling, but from attacking Hayden.
“You are no one’s master here, Hayden, this is my land and by the power of the goddess, I bid you call off your mercenaries, and leave now before there is any unnecessary bloodshed!” Isabeau spoke with all the regality of her classification. She was a sorceress, a mighty being in her own right.
Garren took in her perfect face with pride. She held herself well. Red curls flying about behind her, robes of power blowing in the breeze. A power ball headed towards her and Garren easily swatted it away. Baring his teeth in the direction of the figures below. Someone would be paying for that. And soon.
“That was a mistake, Hayden!” Garren hissed and unleashed a fierce wind that sent a whole section of ogres miles away from the sanctuary.
“I order you stand down, Enforcer!” Hayden snarled, raising his hand. He shook his fist again and again as nothing happened.
“How? What is this? I said stand down, Enforcer!” Hayden retreated as Garren zoomed forward across the midnight sky. Heads turned as two howls, much like a fight between animals, could be clearly heard from below.
“The Were has changed! Now you will all die!” Hayden grabbed a silver amulet from around his neck and started spouting any spell he could think of.
“I don’t think so,” Garren growled. He sent Hayden flying backwards with a single flick of his wrist.
“You attack me?!” Hayden’s disbelief was profound as was his rapidly rising fear. He looked around and nodded for his minions to send another attack at Isabeau, but this time she was ready.
With what Garren recognized as a reflective spell, his love sent the attack right back from it came, and the hooded figures below them burst into flame before his eyes. Hayden stood alone. Clearly, the head of the Council misjudged his enemies this time.
“You should not have done this Garren. You have made an enemy of me!”
“You were never anything else to me, Hayden, and it is you, who in your mad race for power, that has made an enemy of us. Face me now in a duel and let us end this.” Garren stood at the ready.
Hayden stood up to his full height, but instead of standing to duel he quickly lifted the ends of his cape and vanished into the black air.
“I should have known the coward wouldn’t fight me. He messed up, Beau, there were no other Council members with him. He had no authority to do this, chief or not. We can report this to the Wizard Gimm. He’ll launch an investigation I’m sure.” Garren spun around.
This was not the victory he’d seen, but he would take it. As long as they were safe. He held out his arms for Beau, and she leapt into them.
“I love you, Garren Strengest, my own Enforcer.”
Their lips met and they held on to each other, tongues circling and teeth nibbling as they softly spiraled back down to the ground.
Chapter 36
Beau, you must hurry! It’s Knox!
“Garren, it’s Knox,” she said.
Together they ran into the house, going straight towards the now empty cell. Panic gripped her tightly. Beau did not know what to expect, she certainly wasn’t prepared for the sight of Artemis and Knox, now in complete wolf form, running in circles, tails wagging, happily enjoying the wide expanse of her main living room.
Hi Beau. A new voice entered Isabeau’s head.
It was young and familiar. Her heart warmed at the sound. Isabeau knelt down and stared in disbelief. She reached out a hand towards the gray and brown furred wolf and was greeted by a bath of kisses and soft growls. The shaggy wolf was big and a little bit clumsy. But he was so beautiful and she’d never felt so proud.
He was slightly larger than Artemis, and Beau knew that in time he would be triple his current size. His tongue hung happily out of the side of his mouth, and he alternately sat down and chased his tale like a happy cub would.
It’s me, Beau. This is so cool. I can hear real far away and I can smell things too. I did good, right? I didn’t hurt anybody! I did good, right? He repeated enthusiastically awaiting her praise.
“Oh, you did very good, Knox. I am so proud of you!”
There were tears streaming down her face as she sat on the floor and allowed the big wolf cub to climb all over her. Garren knelt beside her unable to hide his grin and enjoying his share of wolfish licks. They both laughed in relief at their momentary respite.
The two wolves followed Garren and Isabeau throughout the compound as they checked on the animals. Isabeau soothing and reassuring the creatures while Garren put things to rights.
Though they did not get in, Hayden and his minions seemed to have managed to send some crude spells inside doing minor internal damage. It was nothing Isabeau’s handsome sorcerer couldn’t fix, and he did so quickly and efficiently.
Can we run a bit, Beau? Can we? Artemis will come with me! Please! The wolf whined and Artemis joined in for an extra vote of sympathy.
“Okay fine, but Artemis you stay with him, and don’t leave the sanctuary! When you get back, you can both have some extra special steaks, okay?” The happy growls were all she needed to know they would be safe.
She watched as the two streaked off like the wind between a thick copse of trees that was part of her lands. Garren joined Isabeau, wrapping her up in his arms and standing behind her. He rested his cheek against the top of her head and she sighed into his embrace.
“Are you okay, Beau?” He asked and bent to kiss her hair.
“Yes, my love, I’m okay now.” She put her arms up and around his neck and he held her tight, swaying with her in the night air.
“You do know Hayden will be back. Next time he’ll bring the power of the Council behind him.” Garren’s voice was low and Beau could feel his anger stirring.
She quieted him by turning in his arms and placing her lips against his, but before she got carried away in the storm o
f their emotions, there was something she needed to know.
“He will try, Garren,. I don’t doubt it, but I have to know, why couldn’t he force you to do what he said? I mean the Enforcers’ Code would make it impossible for you to break with him completely, wouldn’t it?” She turned and looked him in the face, slightly puzzled.
“You’re forgetting something about sorcerers and sorceresses, Isabeau. When we made that vow earlier today, we became one. It was no ordinary promise that we made.”
“Well yes, but-”
“Beau, he could not make me hurt myself no matter what because that goes against all magickal contracts. You are the other half of my soul. I could never do anything to offend my own soul. No matter who demands it. It’s against nature and magick to ask such a thing. Hayden didn’t count on this. He doesn’t believe in the old magick, preferring shady spells and casts to the magick that lies in something as simple and profound as falling in love.”
“I’m so glad I found you,” Isabeau sighed and leaned into him, soaking in his heat and strength.
“’Wait a second, you found me? I thought I found you?” He ducked when she laughingly pinched him on his firm bottom.
“I guess it doesn’t matter now that we have found each other.”
“Yes,” she agreed.
“You know, this is some place you’ve got here Beau,” he said as dark orange rays of sunlight began to peek up over the tall variety of trees that surrounded them. It shone down on the menagerie of animals and plants that seemed to come up from everywhere. Magical and breathtaking but nothing compared to their love. Isabeau looked up at Garren, making sure he was paying attention before she opened her mouth.
“This is some place we’ve got here, Garren. This is our home now.”
“Yes,” he answered.
Mashing her lips to his, the two of them embraced in the mist of the rising sun, the two wolves frolicked happily behind them as a new day dawned. Isabeau and Garren might have just started a revolution, but it was one they could proudly stand up for together in the safety and security of their love.
Epilogue
Sometime later…
The Council met under the new moon. The trial had ended and the results were now to be recorded in history and punishments met out.
“The Were is growing and learning well then, Enforcer?”
“And all is well with the sanctuary?”
“Yes, on both accounts,” answered Garren Strengest, Sorcerer, Enforcer, and co-owner of Beleza Wildlife Sanctuary. His emotions were carefully masked by his blank face.
It was something he had perfected in his long years working for the Council. Garren was still and Enforcer, but justice was his only master. Well, that and his wife. He almost smirked at the thought.
The Wizard Gimm and the Witch Wellden looked at the other Council members and nodded. The proclamation would happen now. Garren waited with bated breath as he took in the standing members of the New Council for Magickal Beings, which now included a Were, a human, and their newest member, Sorceress Isabeau Rose Strengest.
His partner in every sense of the word. Pride and love threatened to overwhelm him as he took in her green ceremonial robes. She was a vision of strength and beauty that he would never tire of admiring. A small smile played at the corner of her mouth, but she knew better than to give in. They had later to celebrate the news they’d worked tirelessly to hear. In fact, they had the rest of their lives.
“Then it is my privilege to inform you all that Hayden Jorgensen, former head of the old Council has been convicted as of this morning. He is being transported today to Nightwen Island where he shall be stripped of all magick and bound to serve until such time as he leaves this earth,” Wizard Gimm said.
It was a new age for all beings, human and magickal alike. Garren looked at his wife and partner and saw the hope for the future in her emerald eyes and the slight swell of her stomach. They’d finalized their formal adoption of Knox months ago, and with it, they petitioned for a new law that gave Weres the same basic rights as all other creatures. It had passed sanctions and was the first of many such bills to be drafted for the inclusion and protection of all.
“We did well,” Garren said that night as he held his lady fair in his arms. Her cinnamon scent mingled with his as she lay with her head over his beating heart.
“Yes, but we still have a long road ahead,” she returned.
“We will get through it. Together,” he vowed.
And he meant it. Together he could do anything with her, his lady fair the other half of his soul. She was his everything and he would always be hers, her own Enforcer. He was born to shield, protect, provide, and most of all, to love her and only her. His soulmate. Ad infinitum.
The end…
About the Author
Hi! I’m C.D. Gorri, Paranormal Fiction Author and Creator of the Grazi Kelly Universe. I’m proud to have made the SW USA Today HEA Hotlist twice and to be a national and international Bestselling author! ??
I’ve always been an avid reader, and I have a profound love for books and literature. When I’m not writing or taking care of my family I can usually be found with a book or tablet in my hand. I live in my home state of New Jersey with my husband, our children, and our dogs, Dash and Chewie.
I’m a busy mom of three and finding time for leisurely reading was never easy, so I write stories that are fast paced, yet detailed with satisfying conclusions. If I thought making time to read was difficult, I was in for a huge surprise when I started writing, but now that I started, I can’t picture myself doing anything else! I love writing powerful women and strong heroes who face relatable problems in supernatural settings! I plan on increasing the GK Universe with each and every story I publish. You can follow me on social media to keep up to date on all my new releases and events!
Want to know how it all began? Enter the Grazi Kelly Universe with Wolf Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel #1 or how about a little PNR with the Macconwood Pack? Pick up Charley's Christmas Wolf today! I have series for young adult and young at heart audiences who enjoy paranormal fiction, and I also have paranormal romance books available now! If you like sassy heroines and sexy heroes, then you might want to try my PNR books!
Thanks for reading!
Del mare alla stella,
C.D. Gorri
*Bestselling Author
P.S.
Thank you for choosing to read one of my stories!
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Have you met my Dragons?
The Falk Clan Tales are my stories surrounding four Dragon Shifter brothers and how they find their one true mates!
Each brother's chest is marked with his rose, the magical link to his heart and his magic. They each have a matching gemstone to go with it.
In The Dragon's Valentine we meet the eldest Falk brother, Callius. He is on a mission to find a Castle and his one true mate, one he can trust with his diamond rose....
“She’s given up on love, but he’s just begun…”
In The Dragon’s Christmas Gift our attention shifts to Alexsander, the youngest brother of the four. He has resigned himself to a life alone, until he meets her…
“His heart is frozen; can she change his mind about love?”
The Dragon’s Heart is the story of Edric Falk who has vowed never to love again, but that changes when he meets his feisty mate, Joselyn Curacao.
“Some wounds run deep, can a Dragon’s heart be unbroken?”
We finally meet Nikolai Falk and his sexy Shifter mate in The Dragon’s Secret.
“She just wants a little fun, he’s looking for a lifetime.”
*Look for these works and more by C.D. Gorri where ebooks are sold. Now available in a boxed set.
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Other Titles by C.D. Gorri
Young Adult Books:
Wolf Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel Book 1
Hunter Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel Book 2
Rebel Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel Book 3
Winter Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel Book 4
Chasing The Moon: A Grazi Kelly Short 5
Blood Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel #6
*Get all 6 books NOW AVAILABLE IN A BOXED SET:
The Complete Grazi Kelly Novel Series
Casting Magic: The Angela Tanner Files #1
Keeping Magic: The Angela Tanner Files #2
Paranormal Romance Books:
Macconwood Pack Novel Series:
Charley’s Christmas Wolf: A Macconwood Pack Novel #1
Cat’s Howl: A Macconwood Pack Novel #2
Code Wolf: A Macconwood Pack Novel #3
The Witch and The Werewolf: A Macconwood Pack Novel #4
To Claim a Wolf: A Macconwood Pack Novel #5
Macconwood Pack Tales Series:
Wolf Bride: The Story of Ailis and Eoghan A Macconwood Pack Tale #1
Summer Bite: A Macconwood Pack Tale #2
His Winter Mate: A Macconwood Pack Tale #3
Snow Angel: A Macconwood Pack Tale #4
Charley’s Baby Surprise: A Macconwood Pack Tale #5
Home for the Howlidays: A Macconwood Pack Tale #6
A Silver Wedding: A Macconwood Pack Tale #7
Mine Furever: A Macconwood Pack Tale #8 (as seen in Hearts & Bite Marks Anthology)