Claimed in Forbidden: A Wolf Shifter Romance (Alphas & Alchemy: Fierce Mates Book 1)

by Keira Blackwood

  “What do you mean?” I asked, hoping that I hadn’t scared her off.

  “What I mean is, I love you, too,” she whispered.

  The sound of approaching car engines reminded me that our brief moment of paradise was over.

  “We’re going to take care of this slug monster once and for all,” I said.

  “Sure, sounds great,” Daphne said. “How?”

  Finn stepped into the kitchen. He took in my arms wrapped around Daphne, and his eyebrows rose up in an “I told you so” look. To his credit, he didn’t give us any shit about hooking up.

  “Finn,” I said, turning back to Daphne as I spoke, “if you have a magical problem in Forbidden, Kentucky, where do you go first?”

  He grinned. “You go to see the witch.”

  Chapter 15

  Daphne

  Declan gestured for me to follow as he made a phone call.

  “Where do we find a witch?” I asked, still only half-believing this was my life now. I had fallen in love with a man who turned into a wolf. There were magic and monsters, so why not witches, too?

  I swear Declan mouthed doughnuts, though that couldn’t be right.

  “Brody,” Declan said into the phone. “Where’s Pearl’s doughnut truck?”

  A little weird for the guy to know where a doughnut truck was at all times, but maybe Brody just really liked doughnuts.

  “Thanks.” Declan slipped his phone into his pocket.

  “So?” I asked, as we climbed into his truck.

  “Pearl’s parked outside Forbidden Hardware.”

  I remembered Moira’s joke about the name sounding like a BDSM supply company, and smirked. “What do doughnuts have to do with witches? Don’t tell me they’re lured to them.”

  Declan laughed, and it was a wonderful sound, deep and genuine. “Pearl’s the town witch.”

  “Oh.” Yeah that made more sense.

  The scenery on the drive was really something. There was farmland everywhere, and sheep. It would have been beautiful if not for the fact that all of the crops seemed to be dead.

  “What’s the story with all the dead plants?” I asked. “Dry season?”

  “No.” Declan glanced over at me before turning his attention back to the road ahead. “It only started recently. I think it has to do with the slugs.”

  “Recently...like since I bought the asylum recently?”

  “Yeah.”

  We were quiet after that. I hoped the witch had answers for us, about the slugs and about everything else.

  “Daphne,” Declan reached over and took my hand.

  “Yes?”

  “There’s something I need to tell you.”

  After the ‘I’m a shifter’ and ‘I love you’ revelations, I had no idea what else he could want to tell me. I hesitated a moment and then answered, “Okay.”

  “I was hurt once. Fell in love with a girl—a human girl.”

  I nodded. “All right.”

  “I’m the alpha—meaning I’m in charge of all the shifters in Forbidden. If there’s a problem, they come to me. They also trust me to set an example. One of our rules is keeping our existence a secret from the humans in Forbidden.”

  I waited for him to continue. He rubbed the back of his neck, then his face. Whatever he wanted to tell me was difficult, I could see that much. So I was quiet, letting him know I was here to listen.

  “I didn’t tell her for the longest time. I had to set a good example, right? If she was my mate, she’d have to know, but she wasn’t my mate yet. I thought she could be, though. She was a good person, sweet and kind. Went to church every Sunday with her parents, sang in the choir. But then...I was falling in love with her. I had to tell her. So one day, I did.”

  There was nothing but the sound of the truck’s engine as we drove.

  “She didn’t react well. Fuck, that’s an understatement. She told me I was hellspawn. She said shapeshifters, if they existed, were the work of the devil and they should be eradicated.”

  “What?” I said, shocked and angry. “You’re...you’re people.”

  Then I remembered—I’d said he was similar to the slug monster.

  “Declan, what I said before, about you and the slug monster being similar…”

  He looked over and smiled at me, and although that smile held sorrow, he said, “It’s okay, Daphne.”

  “I don’t think you have anything in common with him, other than magic. Okay?”

  “I believe you,” he said gently, “and it’s good to hear, thanks.”

  I couldn’t believe someone could be so cruel. I hated that woman, although a part of me knew that her reaction was about ingrained beliefs. Those were hard to shed.

  “What happened to her?” I asked.

  “I had to take her to a witch, get her memory of me wiped.”

  “Like, completely?” I asked. “Witches can do that?”

  “Yeah.” He sighed. “Afterward, to her, it was like she and I had never dated, like she only knew me from high school, and that was it. Hurt like hell, and I vowed to never fall for a human again. But she wasn’t really my mate—I’ve figured that out. If she had been, she would’ve accepted me.”

  I nodded. It made sense, but it still sounded so painful. My heart ached for him, and I wanted to soothe the old hurts.

  “Daphne?”

  I squeezed his hand. “Yes?”

  “There’s one more thing you deserve to know.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Shifters.” He sucked in a deep breath as if steeling his nerves. “We mate for life.”

  Mates, like swans, or like my grandparents who’d been married for over fifty years and still looked at each other like the other person was their world. Declan wanted that with me.

  I smiled. “I like that.”

  He sighed and leaned back in his seat. Did he think I wouldn’t have agreed? I wasn’t scared at finding out he was a wolf shifter, so the idea of forever wasn’t going to make me go anywhere. I loved him. I loved him.

  We drove through the small town, past the tiny grocery store, past rows of brick townhouses. There was history in Forbidden, and more than that, character. I couldn’t believe I’d considered leaving.

  When we pulled into the lot in front of Forbidden Hardware, there was a box truck parked on the side of the building. There were a few cars in the lot, and a small line waited to purchase doughnuts. Given the size of the town, it was a relatively large crowd.

  We climbed out of the truck and filed into the back of the line. I checked out the side of the truck. It had a winking cartoon woman painted on it with a pointed hat and doughnuts in her hands. Pearl’s Doughnuts was scrawled in large swirly font, and below was written Deliciously Magical. I squinted at the words. The illustrated witch was a bit on-the-nose, but the slogan was weirdly familiar.

  “Deliciously magical?” I looked up at Declan.

  He gave me a knowing smirk. We moved up as the people in front of us were helped. First one, then two. Pearl, a woman about my age, had very short red hair and a generous smile. She was quick at getting people in and out, seemingly knowing exactly what everyone wanted before they asked. Magical ability or just good customer service, either way I was impressed.

  “It’s familiar, right?” I asked. “It’s the slogan for something else?”

  “The words are flipped on a kids cereal,” Declan said. “Brody loves that stuff.”

  “Oh.” I nodded, remembering it was the one with the marshmallows and the elf or whatever.

  “Brought a friend today, Declan?” Pearl smiled at me as we approached the window. A row of tiny hoop earrings traveled up each of her ears. “Two chocolate old-fashioneds? No. Wait.” She squinted and looked me over. “Lemon custard.”

  I laughed. “Sounds great.”

  She nodded and leaned her elbows on the sill. When I thought witch, my mind automatically went to Wizard of Oz green skin, big hairy warts, and the kind of scowls that turned children into frogs. Pearl
was much prettier and much younger than I’d expected.

  “Welcome to Forbidden,” she said. “You must be Daphne, the one who bought the old asylum, right?”

  I hesitated a moment. “Yes.”

  She gauged my reaction and laughed. “It’s not clairvoyance or anything. It’s a small town. Everyone’s talking about you.”

  I wondered what they were saying.

  She winked. “Some accounts say the two of you are married and bought the place together.”

  I looked up at Declan, who didn’t even seem angry about the idea. It was probably him who had started that rumor anyway, given the way he’d behaved at the hardware store the other day.

  Pearl put a bag with our doughnuts on the counter.

  I reached into my pocket to grab some cash.

  “On the house,” she said.

  Declan shook his head and put some cash up there anyway. “We didn’t come for doughnuts.”

  “Oh?” Pearl motioned to take the bag back, but Declan snatched it and handed it to me before she could grab it.

  “We’ll take those, too,” he said. “But we came for something else.”

  He looked around the lot. Everyone had already cleared out, so we had some privacy.

  “We’ve found something,” Declan said. “A monster.”

  Pearl’s brows shot up. “Tell me more.”

  “It started with some slugs,” Declan said. “Then there was a man-sized slug monstrosity.”

  Pearl nodded and smiled, like the whole thing was no big deal. “That’s not a monster, just a simple pest.”

  “It didn’t feel simple when it cornered me in my kitchen.” I shivered at the memory.

  “You found it in the asylum?” Pearl asked, her smile fading.

  I preferred the no-big-deal reaction to this one. “Yes,” I replied.

  “It lost its tail in some salt. Then salt melted the thing to a pile of mush, but it slimed its way away after it was dead,” Declan said.

  “Did it get wet?” Pearl asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “It was out in the rain.”

  “Water will wash away evil in most cases,” she said in a slightly darker voice. “And other moments, it will wash away good.”

  I looked to Declan. Was I just imagining that Pearl had gotten a little...funny?

  “She does this when she’s doing witchy stuff,” he whispered.

  Pearl nodded and put a small cloth satchel on the counter. “Take these, spread them at nightfall where you want it to go. The herbs will attract the creature.”

  “Nightfall?” Declan asked.

  “When it will be the most active. Salt the creature, then burn its remains. Don’t stop the fire until there is nothing left.”

  “Thanks.” Declan took the bag of herbs and we turned to go.

  “One more thing,” Pearl said.

  I turned back to her.

  She said, “When you first arrived at the asylum, were there any slugs outside the building?”

  Declan looked to me.

  “No, I don’t think so,” I said. “But I can’t be sure.”

  “How difficult was it to enter?” Pearl asked.

  “What?” I didn’t understand.

  “When you first opened the door, was it difficult to open?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I had to pry it open with my tire iron.”

  Pearl looked over my face. “It’s likely your iron pierced a witch’s ward, freeing the pests.”

  They’d been magically sealed? Just when I thought things couldn’t get any weirder. If some other witch thought to seal away the slugs, why not just salt and burn the king to begin with? Odd. Why did anything happen the way it did in Forbidden? Because this town was crazy, and as it turned out, I was crazy enough to stay.

  Chapter 16

  Declan

  Salt the slug—we’d gotten that part right. We also had to burn the motherfucker.

  I was on board for that.

  I took a giant bite of my chocolate old-fashioned as I drove. I sneaked a glance at Daphne as she rolled her eyes in pleasure. Apparently she loved her lemon-filled doughnut.

  “Did you know about the ward placed around the asylum?” Daphne asked.

  I shook my head. “No, I had no idea.”

  “Pearl seems to think this slug monster might not be the only trouble we encounter,” she said.

  “We’ll be ready for whatever it is,” I said. “We can do hard things, right?”

  She beamed at me.

  The bag of slug-attracting herbs sat between us on the seat. As soon as night fell, we’d sprinkle them around near the basement door. Then we’d salt the fucker.

  The flamethrower Caleb had rented to me was in the back of the truck.

  When we reached the asylum, Daphne gasped. “Ooh, look!”

  I followed her gaze and saw that the porch had been completely finished. James had done a kickass job with it, as I’d known he would. But he hadn’t stopped at fixing the roof and steps. He’d hung a porch swing and set out a couple of rocking chairs and little tables. He’d even put up some hanging plants, and delicate flowered vines trailed out of their baskets.

  “It’s gorgeous,” Daphne whispered.

  “You didn’t get to decorate it,” I pointed out. “Your scrapbook has different chairs, and the cushions on the swing are the wrong color.”

  “I don’t care,” she said. “He did an amazing job—it’s better than what I’d picked out.”

  “You sure?” I asked. “We could get him to switch it…”

  “Shush. I want it like this.”

  Headlights appeared in my rearview as I pulled up to park. “Looks like Moira and Brody are here.”

  Sure enough, they climbed out of Moira’s truck. Brody carried a few flat boxes, and the aroma of cheese, garlic, and tomato sauce reached my nose. Pizza. Awesome.

  James and Finn came out of the house, each carrying a six-pack.

  “James!” Daphne shouted. She bolted from the truck and hurled herself into his arms. “I love the porch, it’s amazing. You did such a great job, I love it.”

  My siblings and I all froze, including James. How would he react to so much contact? I held my breath. If he was rude to her, I was going to rip him a new asshole, I didn’t care if he was bigger and stronger than me.

  To my shock, he broke out in a smile and hugged Daphne back. “I’m glad you like it.”

  But instead of plopping down in one of the chairs on the porch, he kept going into the driveway and climbed into his truck.

  “You’re not eating with us?” Brody called after him.

  “Go to hell.” He started his truck and drove away.

  “Guess not,” Brody said, opening up a pizza box.

  Daphne looked surprised, but when she saw the rest of us weren’t bothered, she shrugged her shoulders and reached for a piece of pizza.

  The rest of us sat on the porch, eating pizza and drinking beer.

  “So, what did Pearl say?” Brody asked around a mouth full of food.

  “We have to salt the slug monster,” Daphne said. “And then burn it up.”

  “Cool,” Moira said. “You need some help?”

  “Nah, easy job,” I said. “We’ll take care of it after dinner.”

  When I explained the plan, Moira nodded. “Sounds solid,” she said. “Give us a call if anything changes, and we’ll come back to help if you need it.”

  Everyone finished eating, and I tugged Daphne into my lap. She said, “Oh!” in surprise, but relaxed against my chest. Soon, we’d be rid of the Slug King and able to explore each other’s bodies again and again. While feeling the way her curvy ass warmed my cock, I couldn’t fucking wait.

  Moira gave Brody and Finn a pointed look. “Time to go, guys.”

  Brody still had a slice of pizza in his hand. “The fuck?”

  She flicked her glance over to Daphne and me. Brody scowled and settled into the porch swing, but Finn tossed an empty beer can at him.

&nb
sp; “Okay, fine, fuck. I’m coming,” Brody said.

  “See you guys tomorrow,” I said.

  They got into their trucks and rumbled down the drive.

  “Mmm, finally alone again,” I whispered to Daphne.

  She wiggled, and my semi-hard cock got completely hard.

  “Not yet,” I said. “I don’t want to have to worry about the Slug King while I rock your world.”

  “How do you know I won’t be rocking your world?” she asked, a mischievous tone in her voice. She squirmed again.

  “Woman,” I growled, then gently bit the lobe of her ear. “Let’s go take care of the pest.”

  Reluctantly, she climbed off my lap. She got Pearl’s bag of herbs and a five-pound bag of salt from the cab of my truck, and I grabbed the flamethrower from the back. It was a hefty, manly device, and I felt pretty good hoisting it up.

  “I’ve never had a reason to use one of these beauties before,” I said, running my hand down the side of it. “I think it’ll be fun.”

  With my free hand, I held onto Daphne and we walked around to the back of the house. When I peered inside through the kitchen window, I could see all the work we’d done. The yellow walls looked cheerful and clean, the granite countertops gleamed, and the new flooring—tile that looked like planks of hardwood, was crisp and gorgeous.

  “It’s looking great,” I said to Daphne, “if I do say so myself.”

  “Hey, I’ve done a lot of that work, too,” she said.

  “True.” She’d done quite a bit of it. She’d taken to laying tile like a champ, painting, and even helping me install the large sink.

  We stomped through the grass, and I was grateful the rain had stopped. It would have made the whole flamethrower thing a lot more difficult. Finally, we reached the outer basement doors.

  “Well,” she said, “are you ready for this?”

  “Can’t wait.” It was true. As disgusted and terrified as I was by this giant slug monster, I was so ready to be rid of it.

  It’s a pest, I reminded myself. Not a monster, not some kind of king. Just a larger-than-average garden pest.

  Daphne scattered the herbs in a trail in front of the basement door, then she hoisted up her bag of salt and tore open the top of the bag, ready to throw it.