Pack Magic

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A FEW DAYS BEFORE THANKSGIVING

Bella

I glanced around Kathy’s lounge room, looking from Ruby to Courtney, then back at all of our mothers, lined up on each side of the room. I could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

Although, seeing as we were all witches, a relaxing spell would probably have been better for the stress.

“Girls, you have to understand that what you did, was dangerous,” Ruby’s mother began her lecture, and I stifled the sigh that rose in my chest.

We’d been called to Ruby’s house under the pretense of ‘a chat’, but really, the moms just wanted to yell at us for the love spell we’d cast last year on Halloween.

Sherie pushed up from the couch where she’d been sitting and moved to the front of the lounge room, standing in front of the cold fireplace.

“Every person who has ever worked that spell has seen dire consequences. Look what happened to Ruby.” She pointed to her daughter as though our friend’s happiness was a bad thing.

I wanted to refute her claims that we’d done something terrible, but I kept my mouth shut. I wasn’t ready to jump into the fray of this lecture yet. I needed more information before commenting.

Tiffany, on the other hand, never thought twice before sticking her opinion in.

“You’re blaming us for what happened to Ruby?” Tiffany jumped to her feet to confront the three moms. “Ruby’s happy! She found her soul mates. But if you really want to blame someone for us using that spell, how ’bout we blame you for the fact we had to do it in the first place!”

Damn, we got there quick.

Sherie dropped down on to the couch next to my mom and all three of their faces drained of color.

My mom glanced over at me. “What does she mean, Bella?”

All five people turned to me, and a flood of heat coursed up my face. I shrunk back into the sofa. I didn’t want to have this conversation. It was one I’d avoided all my life.

I waved at Tiffany. “She can explain.”

Tiffany put both hands on her hips and stared down at our moms. “How can you not put two and two together? All three of us have grown up without fathers. Seeing you all single and miserable our whole lives. We don’t want that for ourselves. Or our children. We want...”

Tiffany stopped, her voice stuttering to a halt as she swallowed hard, a sheen of tears in her eyes.

Ruby wasn’t moving, and I could see how close to tears she was as well.

Damn. It was my turn to speak.

I stood up and reached for Tiffany’s hand, threading my fingers in between hers and squeezing tight.

“We found the spell book a few years ago.” Well, Ruby had, but I wasn’t laying the blame on her. “It said that the spell would attract our true soul mate to us. None of us want to date anyone else except the men we’re meant to marry. And, after watching the three of you go through the past twenty years heartbroken, we wanted to avoid all of that, if it was possible.”

Mom stared at me, her mouth open. “But, Bella, you know how much power is required for a spell like that. How did you even pull it off?”

“There’s three of us,” Ruby said, standing up and joining in the conversation. “We did it together.”

My mom’s gaze slid to Ruby, then back to my face as though Ruby hadn’t really spoken. “Bella? How’d you do it?”

I bit my lip. “Um, I helped as much as I could.”

“You mean, you shouldered more than your equal portion?” my mother asked, her mouth twisting in a way that showed both concern, and pride.

I shrugged. “We all did the best we could.”

Ruby grabbed my hand, the one that wasn’t holding Tiffany’s. “What did you do, Bella?”

I shook my head. “Nothing special. The spell just required a lot more power than I’d originally estimated, and I needed to throw in a little more than I expected. That’s all.”

Ruby stared at me, then the light of comprehension dawned in her eyes. “No wonder I didn’t have a hope of undoing that spell without you.”

I squeezed her hand. “But you did! Without any help at all.”

She chuckled. “It almost killed me.”

I inhaled sharply, pain squeezing my chest. “Please don’t do anything like that again. You could have asked me. I would have helped you with anything you needed then, and I still would.”

“I know, but there wasn’t time. Well, I didn’t think there was anyway.” Ruby turned to the three mothers. “Does that mean that Bella will cop more of these so-called ‘consequences’ for using the spell?”

I b****y hope not.

The three mothers looked amongst themselves, worry clear in the lines on their faces.

My heart dropped. “Great.”

Mom glanced at me. “Not necessarily. I’m more interested in the fact that you have more power than Ruby and Tiffany. I’ve always known of course, but...”

“Does this have something to do with the fact that my father was a wolf shifter?” Ruby burst out, shocking the whole room into silence.

I gasped and turned to stare at her. “Seriously? When did you find that out?”

How could that be? None of us could shift. We were all full witches... weren’t we?

“Mom told me, the night of Halloween,” Ruby said, then grimaced in apology. “Sorry I haven’t caught you up on that. My brain’s been a bit scrambled.”

She made a whirling signal next to her head with her fingers.

I nodded, a shiver of premonition sliding down my spine. I turned back to our parental units. “Mom...”

She gulped visibly. “Yes, Bella?”

“Was my father a warlock?” I’d been told he was, and it had always made sense that he would have been. Even now. I was more powerful than Ruby, and Tiffany too for that matter.

My magic told me that I wasn’t going to like the answer that was about to come out of my mother’s mouth.

Tiffany seemed to understand why I was asking and rounded on her mother as well. “What about my sperm donor?”

I flinched at the words she used, but Tiffany had always used humor to deflect from anything serious or hurtful.

Mom, Sherie and Kathy looked at each other, their eyes wide and wary.

Oh no, this was a secret they all shared, which could only mean...

“Mom,” I said, using my serious tone of voice. “Please answer the question. Who, or more likely what species, were our fathers? You all led us to believe they were warlocks.”

Mom waved her hands at us. “Girls, sit down, or we can stand up. But please don’t stand over us. We aren’t the ones in trouble here.”

I raised an eyebrow. We’ll see about that.

I tugged at Tiffany and Bella. “Come on. Let’s sit.”

Tiffany’s barely leashed anger vibrated through the room.

“Let’s hear them out.” I tugged harder and managed to get both of my friends to sit their butts back down onto the sofa.

I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the answers to this question were going to change the course of our lives.

“Tell us,” I said, clenching my teeth in preparation for what was to come.

Sherie stood up and went to the front of the room again. “I’ll go first, because Ruby already knows her parentage. Her father was a wolf shifter. A pure blood, from what I understand, which is why I was worried that she may exhibit signs of the wolf when she was younger. But she hasn’t, and won’t now that she’s reached maturity, but when she brought home a wolf shifter soul mate, it made sense to me.”

Sherie’s lips kinked up at the sides. “I didn’t expect three of them of course, but considering the curse, I shouldn’t have been surprised.”

“What curse?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

Sherie slapped a hand over her mouth as though she’d revealed something she hadn’t meant to, her eyes bulging.

“Great, more secrets,” I muttered.

My mom stood up, directing Sherie to sit down. “We can talk about that later. First things first.”

Mom took a deep breath and stared at me, then Tiffany. “I think the easiest way is to explain that all three of your fathers... were first cousins.”

Ruby jumped to her feet. “They what?” She whirled on us. “Do you know what that means? We all have wolf shifter dads, which means we could all have soul mates from the pack! Or you guys might have three like me.”

Ruby sounded elated by the idea. She clapped her hands.

My reaction was quite different. My stomach twisted and lurched, upset by the whole revelation.

How I saw myself, my genetic makeup, had been turned on its head. I was part wolf shifter. I wasn’t a real witch. Damn it.

Tiffany stood up, grinning like a loon. She obviously didn’t mind the idea of mixed blood. “Three wolf shifter mates sounds good to me.”

I could only see one silver lining to this dark cloud.

“You know what it also means?” I said to them, getting to my feet slowly.

Now our sister-like friendship made more sense than ever before. No wonder we loved each other so much, and felt so connected, even though we weren’t related. Or we hadn’t thought we were, anyway.

“What?” Ruby asked, her face bright and happy.

“We’re related,” I said. “If our fathers were all first cousins, then we’re second cousins, all of us.”

I’d always thought of these two girls as my soul sisters, my best friends. Now, they were more.

Tiffany cried out happily and hugged Ruby and me to her.

I let my cousins, my best friends, hold me tightly, but inside, my heart was aching. I felt betrayed.

My mother had lied to me all these years. I had wolf shifter in my blood.

A rough cough made us all break apart. It was my mom.

“I’m glad you’re all happy about your relationship because it’s a very special bond. Even without the blood link, we always believed that the three of you were meant to be. Your linked birthdays mean you were supposed to be born together.”

“But...?” I led her to continue. I had a feeling there was more.

Mom smiled at me. “But your father, Bella, was part warlock. He was related to...”

Mom glanced at Sherie for help.

Sherie added, “Darren.”

Ruby’s mate. The one with one quarter warlock genes. Three quarters wolf shifter.

“Darren, I believe,” Mom finished.

Ruby looked at me. “Really? That’s kinda cool. Our kids are gonna have all sorts of crossed over relationships at this rate.”

I swallowed hard. “So, tell me the real story of my father then. Did he really abandon you like you always said?”

Cherie stood up next to my mom. “All three of us were dating your fathers in secret. We knew the coven wouldn’t understand. The high warlock hated the wolf shifter packs in this area. We weren’t allowed to go anywhere near them.”

“Then how did you even meet?” I asked. Then I waved my hand. “No. Forget that part.”

I shook my head, angry. It didn’t matter.

What mattered was that everything I’d been told was a lie. “So, you were actually dating my father. You weren’t abandoned by some random stranger?”

Which in retrospect was a much better tale, and made more sense as to why my mother had never dated anyone else.

My mother shook her head slowly. “No. I was totally in love with him. He was half wolf shifter, half warlock. His mother was a witch the pack had taken in, so I don’t know why our high warlock hated wolf shifters so much when they seemed to be accepting of us.”

I filed that piece of information away for another day. Maybe the witch who’d married the shifter all those years ago had been related to the high warlock? Or was meant to marry him and chose a shifter instead? Who knew at this point? They were all gone, or dead. I wouldn’t be able to ask them.

“So, what happened? Why did they disappear?” That seemed to be the most pertinent part of this story for me. I wanted to know what had happened to our fathers. All three of them.

Tiffany grabbed my hand. “Hang on. Can I just ask if my dad’s a half warlock too?”

I smiled and nodded, but I knew the answer. There was a reason I was more powerful than Tiffany and Ruby. It was because of my father’s mixed blood.

Tiffany’s mom turned to her. “Your dad was a full wolf shifter. Similar to... Billy, I believe. He was Ruby’s father’s Beta.”

The spell and the people involved was all turning full circle. Our three fathers were just like Ruby’s triad: two full wolf shifters, and a half breed.

Now Tiffany and I had to wait to see what men were sent our way. Would we get three as well? Or just one?

My stomach clenched. I wasn’t sure I could handle three. That seemed... unmanageable. I still wasn’t sure how Ruby did it.

“And you two dated as well?” Tiffany asked.

Tiffany’s mom nodded, though her cheeks flamed red.

“Mom!” Tiffany said. “Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not lying!” Kathy said. “It’s just that, we’d only just started dating when he disappeared. And I conceived you the first time we slept together, so I always felt like you were meant to be, Tiffany. Always.”

Tiffany slumped toward the couch and I sighed. There was just too much information coming at us.

Too many emotions.

And yet I couldn’t stop now. I needed to know everything.

I turned toward my mother. “Mom, tell me what happened when our fathers disappeared. Please. Has it got something to do with the curse Sherie spoke about before?”

The three moms joined together again, as though afraid of what was coming next.

I stood firm. I needed to know this. What had happened to my father? Why had my mother spent twenty years alone? Why had I never met him? Heard his voice?

Was he alive?

When they didn’t answer, I persisted. “You all told us they abandoned you. So, all our lives we assumed that you had one-night stands with random assholes who didn’t care about you. And those supposed realities drove us to perform the soul mate spell.”

I glared at each mother, letting the truth of that sink in. “But it seems that was all a lie. You loved them, and they loved you. So, our misery was all for nothing. We deserve the truth. Please. Tell us what happened. Are they still alive? Did they die?”

Ruby gasped, grabbing hold of Tiffany and me as though we were her lifelines. “Oh my God, I know who they are! Or were... or whatever.”

“Tell me,” I said, since my mom didn’t seem to want to be honest.

Ruby’s eyes were alight with excitement, “They’re the cousins who went missing twenty-three years ago! Jackson and Billy told me about them. Ever since that night, not a single girl has been born to the pack. They have all these strong males, and no-one to mate with.”

I twisted around to stare at our three mothers, who were looking guilty as hell.

I met my mother’s gaze and crossed my arms over my chest. “Sounds like a curse to me.”