Phoenixheart: A Reverse Harem Romance (The Rogue Witch Book 7)

by KT Strange

  I closed my eyes.

  “Glad that I’m just ‘fine’,” I said, teasing. Sleep was tugging at me.

  “You know I didn’t mean it like that,” Finn replied.

  “Mhmmm.”

  Cash kissed my forehead.

  “You sleepy, dollface?” He asked. I parted my lips to answer him, but time was liquid, and the dark and warm was so inviting. I faded out instead.

  Several quiet days passed, and while the witches worked on their magic, the wolves, well…

  They showed me how lethal they could be. Every morning, Eli had the guys up and down on the grass out back of the manor house, fighting each other. Over and over, they ‘practiced’, tackling each other, executing athletic pins and offensive maneuvers that had me inhaling sharply every time one of the slammed another into the ground.

  “Don’t worry about them, dear, they’re built to take the abuse,” Wolfe said when he caught me staring out the library window at my wolf-pack. Frank had joined them that day, not quite holding his own against Ace, but close. The fact he looked half-grown and was taking hits that would lay out an adult human male without being phased…

  “What are they like at their full strength?” I wondered.

  “A sight to behold. Magnificent. They are the best of us, if I am to venture an opinion,” Wolfe murmured, watching them. Their movements were mesmerizing. Finn and Eli were going at each other, full tilt, dodging and striking, the sun glinting off their skin; they’d abandoned their shirts a half hour prior. “There was a reason that your three were the terror of their unit during the war,” Wolfe added. “I’m not sure how high their kill count was. I know they walked through German-occupied lands like ghosts, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. And that was just three. Is it any wonder that the witch’s council can’t abide wolves to exist? That kind of power, and the ability to command us, bend us to their will?”

  I swallowed. Memories of my body, my mind even, working against me when I heard a wolf’s howl, were still fresh. I’d nearly thrown myself out a moving car when Dragonpack called to me to stay.

  “I wonder how witches ever got the upper hand.” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying not to shiver as Finn got Eli with an upper-cut that saw the older twin staggering back.

  “Make no mistake, Darcy, your wolves, any wolf, is not human. They don’t think the way humans do. Theirs is a we-centric society, ours is me-centric. They, sad to say, didn’t see it coming. They couldn’t comprehend that their compatriots, witches who’d once saved them by creating heartstones for them, would come for them and slaughter them by the hundreds and perhaps even thousands.”

  My chest ached.

  “Why did it happen?” I asked, turning to him. “Why?”

  “I can only guess at the reason,” Wolfe’s expression was pained. “I think perhaps… we ran out of a use for them. Originally they were our protectors, kept us safe from mundane humans, we could hide among their packs and find sanctuary. Then superstitions that had other humans murdering us began to fade and the need for wolfpacks, that witches could take shelter with, diminished.”

  “That’s revolting,” I whispered. Wolfe came to me, putting his hands on my shoulders.

  “Darcy, look at me.”

  I glanced up at him.

  “The past is written, it is done.” His fingers were tight on me. “If you spend too much time in it, you’ll forget to prepare for the future.”

  “I know, I’m just… how dare we? They kept us safe and we…” I shook my head, at a loss for words.

  “Don’t make it your life’s work,” he said with a bitter little smile. “Mulling over what has been does nothing to fix tomorrow.”

  He was right, of course, but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. Even as the guys took me to bed that night, Charlie leading me by the hand, I felt outside of my own skin, like I was watching things happen.

  I needed to set things right, soon. It wasn’t enough to break the witch’s council like an egg. I needed to make a heartstone, to give my guys every advantage as we headed into the fight of our lives.

  “Darcy?” Eli’s voice cut through my thoughts. I lifted my head. There were three books sprawled on the table as I sat in the kitchen. I blinked at him. My eyes felt dry.

  “It’s late,” he said. I looked at the clock. It was 4AM.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” I said. “You guys were all dead to the world, so I came down here to study.”

  Eli sighed and padded to the fridge, pouring himself a glass of ice-cold water before settling in a chair next to mine.

  He reached for my hand, rubbing his fingers over my knuckles before dragging his fingers up my arm. I shivered.

  “You should come back to bed,” his voice slung low, heated and full of promise. “The guys miss you.”

  “I’ve got to keep reading,” I insisted, even though my body was very interested in following his suggestion.

  “Keep reading then.”

  “Um-”

  “Darcy,” he growled my name, making all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Keep reading.”

  He was so hot when he was unreasonable and demanding. I glanced down at the page I’d been focused on before he’d come in. The letters trembled on the sheet as my awareness of how close he was distracted me. His hand curled around my waist from behind, rubbing circles over my belly before it dipped below the waistband of my pajama pants.

  “You telling her what to do again?” Ace was in the doorway, leaning there. He’d been so quiet that neither of us heard him. Eli just laughed, quiet-like. “Want me to tell him to fuck off?” Ace leveled me with a serious look. He respected my need to read everything in the nearest vicinity on heartstones. Eli didn’t seem as sold on the idea.

  I squirmed when Eli palmed my pussy, teasing me with slow, even-pressured strokes of his fingers.

  “She likes it,” Eli said. “Why don’t you ask her.”

  Ace took one look at me, and I blushed. My hips rocked forward, begging Eli for more without having to use words. He slipped a finger inside me and I moaned.

  “Public sex acts?”

  “We’re in a kitchen in the middle of the night,” Eli replied to Ace casually, like he wasn’t finger fucking me at the table. “She’d let me push her right on top of her books and take her if I asked.”

  “Darcy?” Ace’s eyes were heated, and he looked like he wanted to watch that kind of thing happen.

  “I… I’m good,” I said, a little hitch in my voice when the heel of Eli’s palm smothered my clit, the spread of pleasure too good for me to contain the sound building in my chest. “More,” I pleaded.

  Ace came to me then, catching my mouth with his, his hands palming my breasts through the thin cotton of my tank top. I reached up, wrapping my arms around his neck to hold him close as Eli tucked a second finger inside of me, spreading his digits and making me cry out.

  “That’s our girl, come for us, sweetheart,” Eli’s cheek was rough on my ear as he whispered against my skin. “Come for us so pretty like you do.”

  I couldn’t have held back if I wanted to, shuddering through how good it felt, moaning into Ace’s mouth as he bit my lower lip.

  Eli’s fingers rocked into me, curving around inside me until I ground his hand hard into the chair’s seat, riding out the last waves.

  With a sigh, Ace let me go and I slumped backward. Eli dragged his fingers out of me, and up over my mons. I winced, my skin sensitive.

  “I want to fuck you right on top of these damn books,” he said. Ace snorted.

  “Wolfe might kill you. How about we move them?”

  My muscles felt about as strong as warm, melty wax, but when Eli looked down at me and tilted his head, the frisson of heat inside me flared to life again.

  “Admit it, you like debauching me,” I said as he tugged me up onto my feet. Ace kissed the side of my neck, his lips brushing over the bond mark he’d left on me.

  “That’s not something we’re ashamed
of,” Ace said, easing me down. I bent over the table, bracing my arms on the wooden top, the air cool against my ass as Eli yanked down my bottoms.

  If I really wanted to, I could have glanced to my left and tried to keep reading, but when Eli entered me from behind, his cock so hard that I jerked from the feel of it… I have to admit, my mind was on other things than heartstones for the first time in a week.

  Fourteen

  Darcy

  “It feels like the calm before the storm,” Max commented, “or that quiet time right before Black Friday.”

  Another week, and Wolfe had declared me as practiced as he could hope for. I actually agreed with him. My tenuous grasp on my powers had grown stronger, with each day. I’d put in the time and it showed. I could light up the whole sky now, reaching inside of me with an intensity of will I’d never had before. Maybe because we were down to the wire now. Maybe because it was all more real than it had ever been.

  Freedom was just beyond me, waiting to embrace me and the guys; a new world that didn’t want us dead for being together, or the guys dead just because they were wolves.

  It was so close I could taste it on the back of my tongue. Max and I had grabbed a convertible Mustang (because apparently the star-speaker had funds in spades for such things and give a sixteen year old kid an endless cash account and he was bound to buy at least a few vehicles, no matter what universal knowledge was pinging around in his brain) and driven out to scout the area around the witch council’s manor. The grounds were well manicured, and mostly obscured by a lot of fancy, sculpted hedges.

  We were parked out near the back, where a service road connected to the highway, the way deliveries of supplies would come and employees would arrive for work.

  “Don’t you think, Darcy?”

  I glanced at her. We’d put the top down, and were sitting in the dark. In the distance we could make out the shape of the manor rising out of the ground, a formidable place even from the back.

  “I feel like I’m holding my breath,” I admitted.

  “Well you sure don’t sound like you are at night,” she said with a tiny smirk. “Oh Finnnnn.” I glared at her.

  “If you didn’t eavesdrop-”

  “Mmmmmm Chaaaaarlie-”

  I grabbed the first thing I could find, an old newspaper shoved in the passenger’s side door, and whacked her with it. She laughed hard, holding her side.

  “Ow ow, okay, sorry, I’ll stop.” She smiled at me and held out her pinky finger. “Truce?”

  “Ugh I hate you,” I said, linking my finger with hers. I didn’t have the heart to tease her back. Sentinel should have arrived days ago, and I knew Max was tense anticipating them getting to Luka’s. How things would go over was anyone’s guess. I wanted to stab them in the dicks, but I wasn’t sure if Max shared my feelings on that.

  I could have teased her about Craig, but we hadn’t seen him in so long, and I knew she was still hurting over it. Too many unanswered questions.

  My phone buzzed at my hip, startling us both. I lifted it up, checking the text.

  “What?” Max asked, worried.

  “Uh, my sister’s gone into labor,” I said.

  “Creston’s devil spawn? Crap. Should we…”

  “Go over there? To my parents’ place?” What exactly was the etiquette around estranged-ish family members plotting to kill each other, reuniting for the birth of a new baby? “No I think I’m good. Wolfe just wanted me to know.”

  I felt weird, knowing that I was about to become and aunt or an uncle to a child I’d never have a in my life. Plus… the baby sort of complicated things. A lot. How could I go through with our plans when there was an innocent kid’s life at risk?

  “We should strike now,” I said suddenly.

  “What?” Max sat up from where she was slouched in her seat.

  “This is the kind of distraction we need. All the heads of the council families are going to gather, right now, especially because if this baby is a boy… he’ll take the Llewellyn seat. It’s not exactly how succession works, but there’s been times before when that sort of thing has happened-Oh.” It hit me like a bolt. My sister, and her baby, would be at home, far away from the gathered council members. We could wipe them from the face of the earth, and then maybe… maybe my sister would see reason. She could take money, go anywhere, be anyone, as long as she never returned. She was practically a mundane with the way her powers had been stripped.

  “You’re planning something. Use your words, Darce, please, for those of us who aren’t mind-readers.”

  “We need to get the guys, and Daria,” I said. Max raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Okay.” She threw the car into gear.

  Thankfully no one disagreed with me. Instead of poking holes in my idea, Wolfe and Luka both got very serious and fired off instructions. Daria would use illusions to get us right up to and into the building. My wolves would provide the brawn if any witches broke free of the binding spell that Wolfe was going to place on them. Luka’s hands were tied, mostly. He couldn’t actively do anything to hurt anyone, but he could play lookout if reinforcements came. Frank was staying behind, for his own safety, something that he wasn’t taking very well. I’d left Eli and Charlie to talk it over with him, because even Wolfe couldn’t get through to the youngest pack-member that what we were doing was too dangerous for him to partake in.

  Max and me? We were the firepower. We were going to bring the building down around them until every last store of power was reduced to ash and dust. If I had my way, I would beggar them for magical energy, so that they would take another century to rebuild if anyone was left standing.

  It would give the survivors, however many of them there might be, something to occupy their time with other than trying to murder every werewolf on the planet.

  A shiver ran up my spine as we got into the car. There were several of them lined up to take us there. No limo for us, that was too flashy and would call attention to us. Right now, somewhere in our ancestral home, my sister was giving birth. And here I was. I took a slow, uneven breath. Cash slipped in next to me, buckling up.

  “You okay?” He was quiet as the car shifted, the weight of multiple people piling into it making it move. My stomach was a big knot, but I nodded anyway.

  “Dealing.”

  “You sure about this?” His eyebrow raised, and I huffed in response. He lifted up a hand in apology. “I just…”

  “What?” I asked. “You’re having second thoughts?”

  He went quiet and then sighed.

  “I think we have this,” he said, but he didn’t sound sure. “It just feels like a rush.” He settled back, shoulders square, a thoughtful look on his face. I swallowed.

  “We need to do this,” I said. “This can’t wait.”

  “Hey I’m used to going off half-cocked-” he paused when Charlie snorted, getting into the car and getting settled. “Oh shut up.”

  Charlie laughed, although it sounded subdued. When I glanced at him, he didn’t look anymore confident than Cash was.

  The drive over was quiet, Eli up front with Luka in the passenger seat. I turned to look out the window, seeing the car behind us, it’s headlights cutting through the dark. I could just make out Max's face as a dull smudge through the windshield. Her nerves had to be buzzing than just like mine. It was probably worse for her though. She hadn't grown up in this, at least not that she could remember. We really don't know what happened to her from the time when the guys found her in Germany when she was just a little kid, until now. I would have to ask her about that later.

  "I'm gonna kill the headlights," Eli said from the front. Luka nodded in agreement and turned to look at me.

  "Are you ready?"

  "I don't think I've ever been more ready than this." I took a deep breath and gave him an uneasy smile. We pulled into the back roads that lead up to the buildings. They would soon be nothing but dust. I had to remember, no matter what, that these places were the cause of so much pain an
d suffering for the wolf packs of the world. Still it seemed wrong to destroy them. It's not like they were sentient.

  Eli slowed the vehicle so we wouldn't make too much noise as we approached, and then he parked on the backside of a large brush to hide us. The other car pulled up behind ours as we stumbled out into the cold night air. I shivered for second until Cash rested his warm hand on the back of my neck and squeezed.

  "We got this," he said with confident grin at me in the near dark. I smiled back and went to Max, lacing my fingers with hers. Wolfe looked at all of us as we stood assembled. My guys' faces were serious, but then this was it wasn't it? This was the moment that we never thought would happen, but, well, there we were.

  "You know what to do. Don't forget everyone that has come before us. We do this for them, and for our own futures." Wolf looked at each one of us, holding my gaze the longest. He barely looked at Max, his eyes skirting over her. She didn't seem to notice though when I glanced at her. She was too busy staring at the ground and taking slow, uneven breaths.

  We'd sneak through the brush in the garden landscaping until we got to the edge of the building. There were multiple servant entrances around the back, and we could enter that way. My stomach was tight as we started to move through the shadowy ground. The scent of wet grass filled my nose, and crickets called as we walked. The boys pace was steady, slow for noise and so that Max, Daria, and me could keep up. Their legs were so much longer than ours, although Max gave Charlie a run for his money in that department.

  We walked past a large maze, one that I'd run through as a child at parties and other events that were held by the council. Not exactly happy times, but losing myself in it's mysteries had been one of the better memories. It was weird to see it completely in shadow, not lit up with torches and other lights. Daria sighed as we passed it.

  "What?" I whispered to her. She shot me a tight smile.

  "It doesn't seem real."

  "I know," I said back.

  "This has to happen though. Not just for wolves." Her gaze grew hard. "For every witch like us that they stripped power from just to feed their own magic."