At home, I checked in with the pack via a phone call to Isaac. He said they were heading for the Japanese Gardens for a blessing to Moon, then they’d find a snack and await hearing from me.
“You’re all welcome over later. Preeda’s gone. Are you guys packed, ready for the flight in the morning? After your snack, I can come get you.”
“We’ll catch a bus, Cassia. Don’t worry about it. We’d like to see you but we don’t want to interfere while you’re working at home. Just let us know.”
“How about … come over at five?”
I tended to my bed laundry, mixed a weak iced coffee, shut Preeda’s bedroom door, and went back to work. Andrew was watching something on his phone, flopped across the couch.
Once again, the apartment was flaming. Fans on, updated my notebook, then read that chapter from Stefan’s book all the way through. After that, and while making new notes along the way, I returned to school papers—both sorting and reading.
Laundry rotation, reading, notes, make bed, more reading.
Almond butter and banana on rye crisps prepared and delivered to my desk by Andrew, along with a welcome cup of coconut ice cream.
Reading, notes.
Text: Address?
From Isaac.
How could it already be 5:00 p.m.? They must be on the bus right now and knew only the general area to head for.
I answered before scrambling up from my desk to attend to other messes.
Andrew went downstairs to let them in the security door while I ran about as if I’d had no idea I was having extra company over. Bathroom, throwing stuff from counter to drawers, brushed teeth—sans mint—dishes in the sink, stacking up the mess in my floor, returning couch pillows to their places.
It had just smacked me in the face that, Goddess, these six individuals were all coming over to my apartment—my home in the States, of all the world wonders and impossibilities—when they were already there.
Andrew threw open the door, arguing with Kage about … food trucks?
Isaac was first in after them, eyes finding mine as I turned from sink and dishes, drying my hands.
He smiled. “All right, arä?”
“I’m wonderful. Although this is a little trippy for me. Did you guys enjoy the park?”
“I did.” He gave a small, noncommittal shrug.
“It was fussy,” Kage said, rubbing his eyes. Our Scotch broom or something else around here was making his allergies act up. “Hardly like being outdoors at all.”
“I’m afraid many city parks are that way,” I said.
The rest were piling in behind them, having trouble because Isaac and Kage, like all the wolves, did not rush into a new space they’d never seen or sniffed without pause for scrutiny. The combined shoulder-width of Kage and Isaac just beyond the threshold, however, caused a traffic jam.
“Come on.” I waved them to the kitchen.
Zar beamed to see me, revealing dimples and white teeth in his ever so charming smile that made me want to wrap my arms around his neck. Though this expression was only momentary. Jason also gave me a quick smile. They were all looking around, sniffing, gazing at every detail for far, far longer than it needed.
Andrew shut the door after Jed.
“So … uh … welcome over. I hoped we could sit down. I want to talk to you all, and I’d like your help. I’ve been reading all afternoon about the scry situation.”
No one glanced at me.
I continued. “First, though, I need to get things ready. You need to look around. Take your time. It’s not very big. Please don’t go into my roommate’s room. That’s all that’s behind that doorway. Nothing special.”
They dispersed, Zar coming to me first.
At my request, Andrew got the fans from my bedroom to set up in the living room.
I went to Jed, still at the doormat, while Zar was sniffing the kitchen cabinets.
“Do you want to change?”
Jed glanced at me, then away to the paintings on the living room wall.
“It’s okay,” I said. “I know it’s rough staying in the hostel. You have a little time now. Just fold your things in the bathroom. I’ll come let you out in a minute.” I pointed down the hall.
Jed nodded and, still looking about, headed for the bathroom.
While Andrew was moving the fans and the rest were poking around, I fixed a plate of rye crisps with almond butter and strawberry jam, set out glasses of ice water and a soup bowl of water on the floor, then rummaged until I found a couple bags of microwave popcorn. I started one of these before heading to let Jed out of the bathroom. I passed a bit of a crowd in my bedroom on the way—Kage, Jason, and Zar all in there, contemplating the bed.
Jed wasn’t waiting by the door. He had his forepaws on the edge of the sink, sniffing over the counter, whiskers quivering. His sniffer turned my way at the scent of almond butter as I offered a crisp.
With a flick of his tongue he snagged it from my fingers. I put my head on one side as I watched him crunch.
“There’s a wolf in my bathroom.”
He regarded me with those gold and brown flecked eyes and gulped.
“This is so weird.”
Jed wagged his bushy tail.
“Your coat is looking extra fine today.”
He glanced down at himself, then in the mirror, repeatedly licking his nose after the almond butter.
“I’m not bringing that brush in my carry-on but we’ll get another one. There’s a full-length mirror on the inside of the pantry door—which is really the laundry room. Have you ever seen all of yourself like that?”
Still licking, he seemed to be considering this.
“After you’ve sniffed around, come back to the kitchen. I’ll give you popcorn and you can see the mirror.”
Back down the hall, listening to the popcorn, I paused at the bedroom. Kage was shifting through my bookshelves, which I found odd. Jason sniffed through the open window, squinting into the sunny urban view. Zar had picked up my pillow to sniff.
I rescued the popcorn before it burnt.
Isaac was studying the contents of the refrigerator.
“The last of the butter went for French toast. Just olive oil.” I swapped out the bags. “Sorry.”
Isaac shut the refrigerator.
I opened the laundry closet, left Isaac in charge of evenly distributing the two popcorn bags among four bowls and the bags themselves, then carried kitchen chairs into the living room. We only had the couch and one end chair so seating was tight with company. The room itself was tight, for that matter.
Everyone returned to the kitchen with the new odor draw—some with souvenirs. Zar had my pillow. Kage, who was sniffling with congestion, carried an old book on magic fundamentals. One of the only caster books I owned. I’d kept just a few of Nana’s favorite books as mementos. As with Stefan and his library, it wasn’t that I worried about people seeing them so much as I hadn’t thought I wanted to be the sort of person who had them. Seeing Kage with that book, I wished for the first time in my life that I’d kept them all.
Still, Kage with the book didn’t attract my attention as much as Zar with the pillow.
I started to say something, refrained, and returned to the bedroom in silence for my notebook, purple pen, and several other things.
Jed was just jumping off my bed to start for the kitchen.
Isaac gave Jed his popcorn bowl. All inhaled their snacks while I set out my things. My favorite blown glass frog, the dreamcatcher, my iPhone, a tiny picture book about a rabbit that had belonged to my mother, one of my school notebooks that both she and Nana had also written in. Having to remove some of them from my person, I added a bracelet of my mom’s, plus the leather one from Zar, the silver ring that had belonged to Nana, then my mom, then me, Isaac’s gold moon necklace, and the belt Jed had made for me.
Most of these things had already been warded at some point. Not all, I realized, looking them over. Nana would not approve my personal attachme
nt to something like the necklace without having warded it. Stefan would have been horrified. Skye had reminded me about personal protection, but so had the reading I’d been doing all afternoon.
I put the necklace and ring back on, plus the two bracelets, and sat back in the end chair.
In seconds, my pack clustered around. Zar and Isaac, still eating crackers, took each end of the couch. Andrew and Jason had the plate and took two kitchen chairs together. Kage, with water, seemed about to sit on the floor but changed his mind when he saw everyone else would then be elevated around him. He took the last kitchen chair with his back to the window and set the book down to lean against one of its legs.
I looked around.
Jed stood before the pantry door, gazing into the mirror, turning a bit left and right.
“So,” I said, “I’ve been reading. I’d like to perform a ritual spell to protect us. I have more ideas about what’s happening with the scrying and how we can be guarded.”
“All defense now?” Kage cut in. “How about reading how to see them?”
I looked at him, then the coffee table with my things.
Andrew leaned forward to rest his glass on it.
I waved him back. “Set stuff on the floor. Don’t add anything that’s not warded.”
Andrew set the glass on the floor.
Everyone seemed tense all of a sudden. They hadn’t known I wanted them over to cast a spell with me.
Chapter 12
“Can I get a personal object from each of you to join the circle?” I asked. “I’ll ward them, which only means protected and cleansed of harmful influences, then all of you forming this circle will grow the energy and power of the spell. You won’t notice anything different about the object.”
Kage, despite the arguing, was first to move. He took off the watch I’d recently given him for his birthday.
While everyone else was sorting out what they wanted to offer, I addressed Zar. “I don’t suppose Jed has his ball here?”
“We have lockers in the hostel that we left our bags in,” Zar said.
“I’ll ward it another time. But I need something of his.”
Zar gave his one-shouldered shrug. He had his left arm around my pillow at his side, as if it were a little dog curled up with him. “T-shirt? It’s not like he has much he cares about.”
“A shirt would be fine for the rest of you, but Jed morally objects to shirts. It’s not positive for him.”
“Then the ball’s the only thing. Unless we had his motorbike here.”
Jed remained before the mirror.
I joined him.
He looked at me, then back to the two of us in the full-length mirror.
I rested a hand on his massive head. It was weird how small I appeared with him. Barefoot, in shorts and a lavender and yellow blouse, with my hair pulled back after I’d ruined it that morning sleeping on it wet, I looked almost childish beside him. A little elf with her pet wolf in a storybook. Really, it was that he was so enormous—filling the kitchen, his dark chocolate coloring making the contrast even harsher.
I understood better now how hard it was for him being in the city—among other of Jed’s troubles. Nor was this just me—the new understanding—but a two-way street in which I expected respect from him for my boundaries and I intended to help him in any way I could in return. Providing safe places, both physically and emotionally, had to stay high on my priority list even to be a good friend—forget a silver or a lover. Being all three seemed so much to ask, yet … it also seemed to be happening.
He wagged his tail as he regarded us together.
I smiled as well, not because of the image, but because it was so good to see him at ease. I’d never known Jed happy in skin. I suspected now that he never was. Neutral, content to be with me, or maybe riding his motorcycle, was the happiest he got on two feet. A way I could help: he was right that he had to spend some of his life in skin—like it or not. I hoped to show him more reasons to enjoy it while also offering respect in return for what he saw as his “real” self.
Perhaps Jed and I had a starting over phase we were moving into. Not all in an afternoon, though. For this afternoon, I was just glad to see that wag of his tail, know we got each other, and have them all here, together.
“I need something of yours for the circle.” I stroked his head. “And I’d like you to join us. Do you have anything with you that’s meaningful for you?”
He looked up into my eyes.
“No, I don’t count.” I gave his soft ear a squeeze. “I’ll ward me anyway.”
He stared at the mirror and wagged his tail again.
“I have an idea.”
I got the food scissors from the kitchen—the regular office ones were too dull—and a small rubber band from the junk drawer.
“Can I have a bit of fur?”
Jed sat, chin lifted, eyes averted as if waiting for me to stitch a wound.
I pushed back the fur on his ruff, above his chest, and found a lush, subtle spot that would be hidden by the rest of his coat. I chopped off a chunk half an inch from his skin, then bound up the smooth end with the rubber band so we had something like a thick fur topknot.
“All done.”
Jed glanced around. He sniffed the dark fur.
“We’ll use that and you can keep it if you want to when you change. What do you think?”
He nosed under my hand with the fur tuft until I rubbed his head again.
I left the scissors and pushed the pantry door to. Jed followed me to the circle in the living room.
Kage gave me his watch; Jason the long chain necklace he wore under his shirt; Zar a thick leather cuff that was so worn it must be a generational item; Isaac his phone. Andrew tried to hand me his wallet.
I wouldn’t take it. “You can do better.”
“Want my phone also? I only have so much to give, darling.”
“That’s not what I mean. Don’t you have anything more … close to you that you keep around?”
Andrew hesitated. He dropped his gaze. Finally, he produced the little plastic figure of a dingo from a pocket of the cargo pants.
I returned to my chair with the watch, necklace, bracelet, phone, dingo, and chunk of fur in my lap. Jed sat beside my chair, chin on the arm to watch me.
I meditated silently over the warding as a group before giving each object attention with a quick verbal blessing to protect it and its owner from outside interference, scry, or any harmful intention. The objects warded, they joined my own on the coffee table.
“Right…” I spoke softly in the room now silent besides the hum of fans. “As I mentioned, I’ve been reading. Yes, Kage?”
He’d raised his hand. “Should the rest of us be starkers?”
“What?”
He jerked his chin at Jed. “That helping the ceremony, is it?”
Funny, I hadn’t noticed I’d rested my right hand on Jed’s head when I’d sat back. I left it there.
“Kage, I feel sure we’ve discussed this. He’s in fur.”
“Should the rest of us be in fur then?”
I considered his tone, regarding the coffee table and the many warded objects facing me. Everyone else also watched the table, aside from Kage, who glared at me, and Jed, whose eyes were now fixed on Kage.
Kage was feeling neglected, of course. I understood that. I’d dumped the rest of them to sit here with Andrew for two days.
We’d never discussed this relationship—us as a whole. When it had all started, I’d only been going to be around them for a couple weeks. Then I’d be gone. Nothing to talk about.
A quick infatuation with Isaac had turned into a thing with Zar, which had ended right there. Time for me to go home.
Only I hadn’t gone home. I’d next become entangled with Kage and Jason. Clear that I’d be with them for longer, and that people were getting hurt because of choices I was making about this relationship, it had then been time to talk. Yet there’d been so much going on.
We’d had plenty of time together in the past week here in the States. We could all have had a big heart-to-heart. Except they’d been unable to talk for most of the time they’d spent in this country. Anyway, again, we’d had other things on our minds.
That night with Jed, when I’d decided I needed to keep a physical relationship between us secret for the time being, my motivation had been mostly Zar. But Zar knew about that now. Because of their noses, I was pretty sure they all more or less knew everything that was going on between me and anyone else at any given time—whether we discussed it or not.
A real “talk” about this situation of our plural relationship had never come up. But it wasn’t two weeks anymore. It wasn’t a brief infatuation. It wasn’t something getting in the way of the work we had to get done and needing to be sidestepped. It was our lives.
This wolf pack was in my home. Tomorrow, I’d return to theirs. I couldn’t legally stay and work in the UK. But I could go back and forth. I could look into options. I could at least try. Which was exactly what I was going to do. I wouldn’t leave them. If we found the killers tomorrow … it didn’t matter. Not when it came to our relationships. It wouldn’t change how I felt.
So maybe it was time to talk about that. Maybe we didn’t have the time, not when I was supposed to be working on scries and we only had hours left in the country and it was Lunaenott, a holy time that they should be allowed to celebrate. Or maybe there would always be so many demands on our time. Maybe there would never be a “good” moment. Maybe that was just life.
“Kage?” I looked up from the glass coffee table to Kage at my left in the chair that he’d flipped around, arms crossed on the back. “What do you need?”
He stared, then frowned and dropped his gaze. He wouldn’t say anything personal or admit what he was feeling in company.
“Why don’t you come over here? You can put your chair next to mine. But please turn it around. The circle should be open. Jason, could you please take his spot so we don’t have a gap?”
They were slow, but both moved. Jed stiffened. I rubbed his neck and he didn’t otherwise react to Kage’s arrival on my left side.
Andrew faced me across the coffee table, Zar and Isaac sat on the couch to my right, Jason across from them to my left, Jed and Kage against my chair to each side.
Moonlight Lovers: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 7) Page 6