The Child

Chapter 20

My jaw drops, staring at my baby sister. Marie is wiggling behind me, overjoyed for the coupling. I watch as Brutus gently places Ollie on the floor then walks over to Hollie. He grabs her hand, bringing it up to his lips and kissing it softly while blushing. Hollie giggles and pulls Brutus to her lips.

“Congrats on finding your mates, guys. But I would prefer not to watch my little sister be marked and mated in front of me,” I say while cringing. I felt an elbow in my rib. I look down and Marie is shaking her head at me.

“Come on, Joey. It’s one little kiss. It’s not like they are making out,” she laughs.

“But it’s my baby sister. It’s not something I need to see that.”

“Shut up, Joey. You aren’t the boss of me!” Hollie grabs Brutus tighter, shoving her tongue in her mouth. I am sure if he was in dog form, he would be wagging his tail intensely.

“Well, it looks like we have to make more room for Hollie,” Marie giggles as she looks around the around the small cabin.

I walk up to Brutus as he lets go of my sister and stands straight to look me in the eye.

“Be good to her or I will burn you to a crisp,” I say, trying to scare the puppy. He nods and takes another nervous look at his mate.

“She is my Queen. She will be in the best of hands,” he says as he reaches his hand out for a firm hand shake. Instead I pull him into a brotherly hug.

When I pull back I see everyone is situated in the living room, watching the interaction.

I make my way to my beautiful mate, who is sitting really close to Kane, holding his hand. I sit down and pull Marie into my lap, and growl at Kane. He just rolls his eyes.

Tally is on Richard’s lap playing with his white hair, whispering sweet nothings to him.

“Tally, we have a couple more questions for you,”I say trying to make sense of the situation. Tally nods in understanding.

“Apparently I am Marie’s second mate. But for some reason I can’t feel the bond. My wolf somewhat acknowledges her, but he is confused. Do you have any idea what it could be?” Kane asks with concern written all over his face.

Tally stands up from Richards lap and puts her hands on Kane’s temples, whispering gently in Latin. After a couple seconds she removes her hands, then backs up.

“Well that sucks. There is a curse on you so that you can’t feel the bond. It is placed with dark magic. I sadly can’t remove it, but I do know someone who can. It seems like Damion is trying to intervene. He must be trying to stop the protector from the prophecy from reaching Marie. Little does he know, there are two protectors. He must have been told the protector is a wolf. Very interesting…” Tally explains.

“When can we meet this friend of yours?” I ask as Ollie wiggles his way onto my lap.

“I can try and contact her today. She is a grey witch who dabbles in dark magic. I am a light witch so I wouldn’t be able to break it. But it needs to be done as soon as possible.” Tally looks between the four of us with concern.

Marie grabs both Kane and I’s hands and looks at both of us.

“I know this is difficult on both of you. I know you are jealous Joey, but you have to let this jealousy go for the greater good. I will love you both equally. You are both made for me, and you are both meant to protect Oliver.” Marie looks deep into my eyes, pleading to make this work.

“There is one more thing,” Tally says, getting our attention.

“When the curse is broken, you both must mark her at the same time. When you mark Marie, you will become stronger, and your powers will grow. If you don’t mark her at the same time, you won’t receive those powers,” she warns.

Subconsciously, both Kane and I growl at the thought. Marie huffs and rolls her eyes at our reaction.

“Men,” she mumbles under her breath. We all laugh.

Kane

Before we can go on with our conversation I get a link from Josh.

Kane! There are rogues at the border of Marie’s property. We need you, and maybe the dragon to deal with them. There are about 20 of them.

I am on my way!

“Joey, we are needed outside. Marie, can you please take Ollie into his bedroom and stay there. Brutus and Hollie, guard the door. Richard and Tally, please come with me too, I could use your help,” I start giving orders.

“What is going on?” Marie asks with wide eyes.

“Nothing you need to worry about, just a couple rogues. We just want you to be safe, my love.” I don’t want to tell her how many there are, causing her more stress than she is already dealing with. I go over to her, and kiss her on the forehead, then run out the door, jumping off the porch, shifting to Zeus in midair.

I sniff the air and smell them coming from the south side of the property. I see Joey getting ready to shift into his dragon. He nods, informing me he will catch up. I make my way to the south side and hear fighting. As I come to a clearing in the trees, I see my men fighting beasts I have never seen before. They look like rogues, and smell like rogues but they look like demons. They have black drool oozing out of their mouths, horns sticking out of their heads with jet black eyes. Their tails resemble snake tails and they have talons instead of claws. I see Josh get slashed in the stomach by one of the monsters. I run to him and jump on the rogues back, ripping his head off. Josh lays there breathing heavily.

Just lay there and rest. We will take care of the rest. I link Josh. He simply nods his head.

We hear an earthshaking roar, and Joeys dragon appears over the trees. He lands heavily, causing the rogues to stop fighting momentarily. The rogues change direction and all head towards Joey. Without warning Joey opens his mouth and engulfs all of the remaining rogues in flames, turning them to ash. I quietly thank the Moon Goddess for that dragon.

Before we had a chance to assess the damage caused by the monsters, we hear a clapping from the other side of the clearing. Joey whips his head to the sound, ready to roast whoever it is. A dark cloaked figure appears out of the tree line. I can’t see their face because of the hood covering it.

“Impressive,” the dark figure says.

“But you will have to try harder than that to defeat me.”

Joey and I shift back to our human forms.

“Damion,” Joey growls deeply. The figure takes off his hood, revealing a man with long black hair, white skin, and dark eyes. He has a sinister grin stretched across his creepy face.

“Yes, it’s me. I find it funny you guys thought you could keep me away from my Marie and my son. No matter where they go, I will always find them. I have been watching for some time now. I didn’t realize there are two protectors. Not that it matters, I will get what is mine,” he laughs like the maniac he is.

“Don’t worry though, I am not hear to take them just yet. The time isn’t right for a family reunion. But know this, I will be back and I will take my beloved and my child. I will fulfill the prophecy, and none of you can stop me.” Before we can attack, he disappears in a cloud of smoke.

“f**k!” Was all I could say.