Page 136 of Blue Moon Mistress

Thomas details our run in with the sheriff as I go about repotting it in fresh soil, and I only add comments when I need to.

“If he’s been spelled to harass you, we need to take care of that soon.”

“I can deal with a little inconvenience for the time being.” I look back at him over my shoulder and set the pot on the windowsill above the sink. “I’ve had my fair share of experience dealing with annoying men before.”

I don’t know which one of them growls.

When I wash my hands and turn back to them, I see the look they give each other.

“If there’s a question you want to ask, just ask it.”

“I think we need afullexplanation of what this life and death relationship we have now is.”

“You sure I can’t tell you that I trust you to never hurt me and then we’ll move on?”

“Nope. Give us the good, the bad, and the ugly.

“Which of the three do you want me to start with?”

“How about the bad? Rip off the bandage.”

I sit, but they remain standing. “The basics are… pretty simple. You die, your wolf disappears. I die, you get your wolves back and everything goes back to the way it was before you met me.

“If there ever comes a time or a reason, you can take your wolves back. It is a conscious choice. You have to mean it… but you will get the wolves back. So long as one of you remains tied to me. The others will only change into your wolf-man forms on the full moon.”

“And you don’t die.”

“Correct. If you take your wolves back, you will have to change, albeit only partially while I’m still alive. There’s no way to reverse taking them back until the next Samhain blue moon.”

“So, nineteen more years of changing.”

“Correct.”

“You can change us back into wolves though…”

“Yes, but I will never do it.”

“Not unless we ask you to.”

“Right.” I nod and look down at my hands. “If you all take your wolves back… you will change, without the moon, and your wolves will devour me. My magic won’t work on them anymore, and especially in a four against one fight, I’ll never win with those odds.”

None of them look happy.

“Those are the bad and the ugly. Want the good?”

They nod, but none of them look hopeful either.

“You’re not going to take your wolves back. Even if you hated me… all you have to do is tell me to stay away, and I will. I can’t think of a way I could possibly make you take them back, not one I think would make you actually go through with it.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Thomas says, “I love the way you taste, but I definitely don’t want to eat you. Not like that.”

“If the spell hadn’t existed, I might never have met you, and we probably wouldn’t be here right now.

“You never have to change on a full moon again, unless you actually want to.”

Joshua looks irritated, but his focus is on the beams in the ceiling. “When did you buy this place?”

“I didn’t.” It was a bequest. The land has been in the family for generations. It’s got spells buried in every corner and there are plants that grow on the property that have been maturing for a century. I had to tear down the original house—my grandmother had lived in one that had been build back around the great depression and it was starting to crumble.

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