Page 145 of Blue Moon Mistress

I stop him, because that sounds like a prelude to a “but”.

“I’d like to point out that all four of you have been on the bad side of magic and wound up with a monthly problem… I trust you to take care of yourselves… but when it comes to magic, I’m going to help you as much as I can.”

He dips his head in a short nod and kisses the corner of my mouth. “We can’t really argue with that, can we?”

“Nope.”

Chase is the last to let me go.

“Wear the pinstripe skirt.” His lips press against my skin again. “With stockings and your garter belt and nothing else under it.”

When he pulls back to look at me again, he smiles. “I don’t know if I’m going to have time to get you out of your clothes before I have to run to work.”

His kiss steals the laugh I would have responded with, and he jogs to the car when Johnny honks.

I watch them go, their wolves stirring around me. The first full moon has passed. And despite everything I might have guessed… I might get to keep them.

A chill creeps around me and I tug my robe closer before I slip back inside and shut the door to keep all the warmth and memory inside.

The coffee did what it needed to do, but I’m not going to feel human until I’ve had at least one full cup of tea.

I don’t know when they found the time to clean up, but my kitchen is spotless. Even the coffee cups are on the drying mat.

I wish they were coming home to me tonight, but that’s not how this works.

It could be…

I walk to the table where the version of the floor plan Joshua was working on in actual pencil rests among the other papers.

The renovation plan is still rough, but it is beautiful. And written beneath the floor plan, in Joshua’s sharp script: “Dreaming.”

But it’s the darker paper beneath it that catches my eye.

Grandma’s unnamed spell.

They must have found it while straightening up and set it with the other papers here.

The easiest way to figure out what it does would be to follow it… But that would also be the most dangerous.

Who knows what she was up to. Especially that long ago.

But there’s another spell I need to perform.

I collect all the things I need and take them into my bathroom where the last ingredient for the spell still sits in the cabinet where I left it last night.

I spread an altar cloth first, placing each item in a circle around my empty jar and when I sit in front of it, I light the red candle, whispering words of hope and affirmation into the wax.

I say each of their names as I place four dried red rosebuds inside and my own as I place a white one on top.

It isn’t a love spell.

Aside from the fact they’re heinous and only lead to despair in the end… I wouldn’t want them if it meant I had to trick them into loving me.

This is for strength and protection.

I sprinkle in rosemary, rue, and lavender to fill in between and listen to the faint sound as they tinkle against the glass.

When they settle, I uncork the bottle from last night. If I didn’t know they were werewolves, the amount in the jar might have startled me. Supernatural creatures’ were scarce enough, the magics that made them wanted to make damned sure they passed their genetics on.

---