Paranormal Word Series Box Set (Books 1-3 and Novella)

by CC Solomon

  I didn’t look at him when I spoke, which was the coward’s way out.

  “Sure,” he said, and let go of my hand.

  My heart plummeted and a coldness spread over the hand that he touched.

  “You know, it’s supposed to be The Six, not just Amina.” He stood up. “I should go.”

  The Six. He was right. Mae clearly stated that we were better together. Relying on the others made me panic. To be so tied to another, to several others, that their living or dying could affect me so overwhelmingly scared me. Erik scared me. But I was a woman who, perhaps foolishly, never let my fear stop me. Why was I doing so now? I couldn’t figure that out but I would defeat at least one scary thing now. Baby steps and all.

  “Wait!” I grabbed his hand to pull him back down on the couch. “Okay, okay. If you can handle it, let’s be mates. If the offer still stands.”

  He nodded. “Are you sure?” He searched my eyes.

  I was already tied to a man I despised, being mates with Erik, a man I deeply cared for, would be a cakewalk. I nodded vigorously. “Yes. As long as you’re completely okay being tied to someone in my circumstance.”

  “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I wasn’t.”

  “How will the pack handle me? I assume people know I’m connected to Phillip now. Will they accept me? Will they try to turn me? I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a werejackal. Maybe a werecat.” I gave a slight smile. “Like a domestic long-haired cat. I think they’re really beautiful.”

  Erik gave me a lazy grin. “No one is going to hurt you or turn you. There are a couple other non-were mates in the pack and they even live in our building. You would just have to come to events and be cordial.”

  I nodded slowly. “I’m not sure I could be cordial to Seth. I’ll be your mate but I don’t want to be part of your pack.”

  Erik sat down. “I understand how you feel. I’m asking you to play the game for a while, like I do, until we don’t have to anymore. This is just a means to an end.”

  I sighed and then nodded again. “I know, you’re right.”

  Erik clapped his hands together. “Okay, do you want to know what this entails?”

  I shook my head quickly. “No, I don’t want to be scared away if it’s gross.”

  Erik raised an eyebrow again. “Smart.”

  Turns out it was gross.

  It involved Erik cutting a small sliver of his flesh and mine, maybe half a centimeter long, and us eating it. He put the skin in a bite of cake to make it easier. I found myself wondering if Mae’s making that cake was a coincidence.

  “I feel like this is not sanitary,” I said, staring at the miniature cake ball I’d made to mask the flesh.

  “I don’t think I can say anything that will ease your mind,” Erik replied. He’d had no trouble consuming his and I’d wondered how many times he’d done this before. I’d heard that the process was very similar for joining a pack.

  I swallowed the cake concoction down like a pill with the moonshine but I still gagged from the thought.

  After the cannibalism, Erik did what appeared to be some meditation, which was him actually just channeling his pack magic through a series of chants.

  “Do you feel any different?” he asked me, hands griping mine.

  “Just queasy from eating human flesh,” I replied with a slight shrug.

  Erik shook his head and went back to chanting. Several minutes later, something did take over. A tingling, or rather, itchiness. It started in my hands and then spread throughout as if ants were crawling all over me. I wanted to rip my skin off. The last time I’d felt this way was when the supernatural had taken over and I’d gained powers as a life mage. My body was changing and becoming something magically different all over again.

  I rubbed at my arms and grimaced. “This is horrible,” I grumbled.

  Erik scooted close to me on the couch and wrapped his arms around me. The itching sensation slowly began to fade. “You’re feeling a connection with each member of the pack. It’s like they’re all touching you at the same time and you are touching all of them. It’s essentially the same way you would become pack, except it would be Seth’s skin you had to eat. But through me you’re also now pack. It’s a two-for-one deal,” he explained with a playful note in his voice.

  I puffed out my cheeks in disgust. “Fun,” I whispered, wiggling in his arms from the psychic touching, wanting to escape my own body. “So, what next?”

  “We go back to Silver Spring and face some music.”

  I sighed. “Right, for the challenge.”

  “That and…Seth will know you’re my mate now and part of pack. He’ll want to meet with you.”

  I rolled my eyes and pulled away from him. “I don’t have time for Seth, I need to practice.”

  Erik opened his mouth and squinted his eyes as if trying to find the right words to say something. This was unlike him.

  “What am I missing?” I asked.

  “Because you aren’t a preapproved mate, he’ll want to talk to you as soon as possible to avoid conflict. And you’ll have to move in with me until the challenge because mates must live together.”

  I pursed my lips together tightly and glared at him. “I have to practice.”

  “Which you can still do. You can teleport back here or Shayla can teleport to you every day.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Erik frowned. “Looking at your face, I wish that I was.”

  I looked up at the ceiling and clasped my hands together. “Please, heavenly Father, help me not to also strangle the werejackal sitting next to me. Amen.”

  I didn’t have time for this.

  Chapter 11

  Arriving back in Silver Spring felt odd. Erik stopped his black SUV in front of the twenty-foot steel wall that surrounded the town and a car-sized portion of the wall rose to let us in. New Silver Spring was not a town that let in just anyone, nor were they advertising for more people, like the government cities. They were a selective group and the steel wall kept out anyone wanting to be nosey. Well, the wall and the protective wards.

  The city was slightly larger in square miles than the Hagerstown government city but had half the population. That was mainly because Phillip only allowed those with gifts to live there. The town was set up in the downtown district of the Pre-world Silver Spring, compromised of high-rise apartments, an entertainment area full of repurposed bars, shops, and restaurants, an urgent care clinic that served as the hospital, a gym, movie theater, school, library, police station, and a park and wooded area that was also used as a farm.

  It was a hot afternoon and people still walked about enjoying the safety of daylight, dining al fresco, exercising, and drinking at the few bars in the town. Phillip did an excellent job at capturing his own little normal world within the steel walls, much like Hagerstown. Before I’d found either city, I’d been living in smaller communities consisting of collections of neighborhoods with houses repurposed for a myriad of uses, but they’d never had the feel of the Pre-world.

  Erik drove us to the pack apartment and parallel parked near the side of the building.

  “Should I wait in the car until you get things sorted out?” I asked, watching Erik unclick his seatbelt and open his car door.

  “No,” he said and got out before grabbing my bag from the back seat.

  I sighed, suddenly feeling super nervous. I got out of the car and slowly walked up to the high rise, following Erik inside.

  A man sat at the front desk and brought a walkie talkie to his mouth when he saw me. His eyebrows were raised and he had a look of worry on his face. Erik stopped at the concierge station. I looked onto the desk spotting several monitors and buttons connected to the top of the man’s desk as he watched the comings and goings of the residents in the shared spaces. There would be no privacy outside of Erik’s apartment and I’m sure the desk staff reported everything to Seth, who would then report it to Phillip. A pang of fear gripped my insides. I’d have to see Phillip ag
ain in real life. I didn’t want to.

  “Sir, he wants to see you both in his penthouse now,” the wide-eyed man stated.

  Erik gave a curt nod and we took the elevators past the front desk to the top floor. We walked down the hall and Erik knocked on the door, still holding my duffle bag. I was dismayed that we couldn’t even get settled first but kept my mouth shut.

  A white woman with deep red hair answered the door. She was wife number something or other. Seth had five wives, diverse beauties that showed he had wide-reaching taste, although that still made him a chauvinistic jerk.

  “Hi, Erik,” the red head greeted him with a breathy voice and leaned in to kiss him on both cheeks. Before I could tingle with slight jealousy, she turned to me and greeted me the same way. “I’m sure you forgot my name. I’m Brittney. It’s good to see you again, Amina. Welcome to the fold.”

  I gave her a genuine smile. She seemed authentically welcoming. Maybe it stood to reason that not everyone in the pack would hate me.

  We walked into Seth’s three-bedroom apartment. The space held dark hardwood floors and a full, granite-countered, open kitchen with stainless steel appliances. He had a separate dining room and living room as well as a balcony that ran the length of the apartment. We walked through the foyer area and past the laundry room and kitchen where two women were whipping up a delicious-smelling dinner. Seth also had the apartment across the hall where three other wives stayed, for a complete family-sized harem home.

  We entered the living room space where Seth sat relaxed on a black recliner. A white, blonde-haired woman sat on the floor in front of him, rubbing his feet and a black woman with long, honey-blonde dreadlocks, stood behind the seat, rubbing his shoulders.

  I pursed my lips trying to hold back a disapproving look.

  Seth had his eyes closed, smiling as he tapped his hand to some country music blaring through his stereo. His other hand held a large glass of what appeared to be beer.

  Seth opened his eyes and smiled. Laugh lines adorned his bright-blue eyes, showcasing a man who had many wins in his life and still, in this new earth, continued to stay on top. I wanted to knock him down. “Erik, Amina, good to see you.” He snapped a finger. “Get our guests something to drink.”

  Brittney turned and went to the kitchen before I could object.

  “Take a load off,” he said, gesturing to his large, matching leather couch.

  Erik motioned for me to go sit down and he followed suit, dropping my bag to the side of the couch. I sat at the end of the couch farthest away from Seth.

  I looked over to Seth, who was still getting his spa treatments. He was in good shape. Before this, he’d been some sort of mixed martial arts fighter. I began to wonder again if Erik could really take him in a fight.

  Brittney came back with our glasses of beer. They’d originally come from the town distillery, which someone had revitalized a couple of years ago. She disappeared from the room again and I didn’t blame her.

  “So, Erik, I see you went off and sort of eloped. Made this beauty here your mate. I had no idea you were planning to do that.”

  “We didn’t plan it,” Erik replied. “Just felt like the right thing to do.”

  Seth closed his eyes again. “I see. I’m assuming, Amina, that you’ve gotten over our little problems of the past.”

  “You mean when you attacked me?” I spat.

  He opened his eyes. “All’s well that ends well. We haven’t even come for our revenge over Luke’s death. He was always such a hothead. Let’s just begin again, yes? Erik got a right hook in on me and we’re still cool. Just us weres letting off some steam.”

  He gave me a teeth-baring smile and I tightened my lips, remaining silent.

  His grin widened. “Is that a yes or no? Answer me.”

  He was testing my sincerity. He appeared to play the part of a dumb jock but he was no fool. He couldn’t have an openly defiant pack member. If I did defy him, he’d make me hurt and there wouldn’t be anything Erik could do that wouldn’t end up getting him killed or hurt too.

  “I’m all for new beginnings,” I replied in a tight voice.

  “Awesome. And are you planning to become a were, Amina?”

  “No,” Erik answered for me.

  Seth turned his smiling face to Erik. “Well, your name isn’t Amina, is it?”

  Erik gave a deep sigh and sat back.

  “What he said,” I replied, touching Erik’s knee.

  “Hmm, not sure how that’s going to go with the pack. Someone ranked so high with a non-were mate. Especially a controversial one like you. You might want to reconsider. Being were ain’t so bad.”

  “Actually, I think Helen’s mate is a nymph or something,” the blonde at Seth’s feet stated. “They seem to get on well and people like Ryan.”

  Seth looked down at her and shoved his foot out, knocking her in the shoulder. She toppled to the side onto her bottom.

  “Jesus,” Erik cried. He jumped up and headed over to help her.

  “Leave her,” Seth demanded. “Sarah, the next time I need to hear your opinion on something, I’ll ask for it. Otherwise, keep your mouth shut.”

  Erik, ignoring Seth, helped the woman up and sat her on the couch beside me.

  “Your shoulder okay?” I asked. Seth was a strong were, a shove like that, even to another were, could be damaging.

  The woman looked to Seth, who was busy drinking his beer and rolling his eyes, then looked back at me with scared eyes. “I’m fine,” she squeaked out and then got up to tend to Seth’s stinky feet again. He waved her away and she got up and stood near the window awaiting his next order.

  I looked back at Seth, my eyes in slits. “Loving way to treat your wife,” I stated, fist tightening.

  “That’s just how we are. She’s not hurt, right?” Seth replied with a lazy grin. “If you’re going to be a mate of a were, you’ve got to toughen up.”

  “Amina’s fine,” Erik cut in, sitting back down next to me. “She won’t have to worry about me hurting her.”

  Seth ignored him and continued to look at me. “Ever been around your guy when he changed? How about on the night of a full moon?”

  I didn’t answer. I’d seen Erik in jackal form but he made it a practice not to show himself changing or to visit on a full moon night. I had no misunderstandings that Erik was a dangerous being, I’d seen him kill, but he was always protective of me.

  “Didn’t think so,” Seth cracked. “Have you had sex yet?”

  “Are you kidding me?” I cried.

  “Relax, it’s a legit question. Weres are strong. You may be a witch but you still have a fragile human body. Maybe sex before was fine but mate sex or sex near a full moon?” He shook his head. “He could break you. We don’t know our own strength when it comes to bonding with our mates, especially as it gets close to a full moon. Things get really primal. I love it.”

  Weres got in heat the closer it was to the full moon. Erik and I had made love before the breakup but it had not been painful. Of course, it hadn’t been on a full moon and we weren’t mates then. Visions of me with a crushed pelvis made me involuntarily cringe.

  Erik reached over and rubbed my knee. He always had a light touch with me. I didn’t think I had anything to worry about.

  As if sensing my discomfort, although my face surely gave it away, Seth snorted. “Yeah, you might need to get turned into one of us if you want to keep up. Might be cool to have a were-witch anyway.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I lied through clenched teeth. Keep the peace, Amina, keep the peace.

  Seth, being able to use his weretiger nose to sniff the truth, knew that I had no intention of thinking about it. “Well, how about we let Phillip decide after your challenge? Although he didn’t seem to be a fan of this arrangement.” He gave a bull-crap sympathetic smile.

  “You’re talking as if I’m going to lose,” I said stiffly, putting my glass of beer down onto the glass coffee table.

  Seth shrugg
ed. “If you knew better, you’d just avoid wasting your time and do what Phillip says, but I guess it makes a good show. It’s just no fun fighting a losing battle, ya know?” He looked over to Erik.

  That wasn’t a casual look. His sentence and stare at Erik meant something more, beyond my challenge with Phillip. Did Seth know of Erik’s plan to challenge him? This meant all the more that I had to win my battle against Phillip. We had to get rid of Seth.

  “Well, I get that battles aren’t fun but I’m confident Amina will win,” Erik replied with a smile, baring his teeth in a less than friendly way.

  Seth chuckled. “Good for you.” He looked to me. “You’re one of us now, Amina. The mate of a third. You have to stay in line. Even if you should somehow win against Phillip. I still have rules you gotta follow.”

  “I get it. I’m not here to challenge you, just Phillip.” I gave him my best Erik, teeth-baring smile. I didn’t have fangs, so I’m not sure how intimidating it was.

  “I hope you’re telling the truth. Hard to sniff out the truth with you witches. However, I’ll tell the pack to welcome you with open arms. Not that anyone would harm you, since you’re Phillip’s girl.” He said that to get at Erik. And to prove my point, he looked to Erik with a slight grin. “Sorry about that pal. She’s also your girl.” He chuckled again and I tensed, ready to jump on him like a wild cat.

  But I calmed myself, feeling Erik’s fiery energy next to me. While I couldn’t really physically go at Seth, Erik could, claws and all. Yet, that wouldn’t do us any good. I gave him a look with forced calm in my eyes. He looked down at me and quickly the rage in his eyes started to subside. I think I was going to like this being mates thing. If I could make a spell that could do what we could do with our eyes, life would be great. It would certainly shut up folks like Seth.

  “How about a welcome celebration Friday before the challenge, at the bar. Might be your last bit of fun for now,” Seth implored. “You should invite your friends. Including your brother and Felix.”