Page 6 of Cupcake

Turned out there was a reason that the coven had hidden the usage of black magic from Dean. They wanted his power. Dean’s magic had been why his entire family had been accepted into the coven even though they’d never been part of a coven before.

Mage covens weren’t as common as they had been a century ago. Most mages didn’t have enough magic to even worry about learning and training. Even his own family didn’t have enough to warrant joining a coven. Not until Dean hit puberty and hadnearly blown up his school one day. Once Dean’s power began to manifest, his mother had reached out to the magical community to help.

Help.

That was a joke. The coven members held their family at a distance. His mother, yeah Maria, tried too hard to fit in. Maria barely had enough magic to even be detected. Still Maria did everything the coven asked of her. Including the distance she’d put from her only son.

The coven wasn’t full of helpful or well-meaning members.

They had purposely kept Dean’s own family from him. His family hadn’t fought to be with Dean. His mother and siblings had enjoyed the lifestyle that Dean’s magic had provided them with. They might not have had community but they’d finally had money. Because of Dean. Instead of Dean.

He’d learned at an early age that money was more important than he was.

Dean had learned more from speaking with an old man who lived on the edge of the coven’s claimed city than he’d ever learned from the witches in the coven. Francis had been a true godsend and Dean’s heart ached missing his mentor.

Francis would have loved Dean’s new town. They’d often talked about all the places they would go to once Dean came of age. Dean’s mother and the coven had forbidden him from visiting Francis, but Dean was good at hiding things.

The old man taught Dean everything Dean knew about magic. The old ways. Not the popular spells and charms that the coven practiced. Real, dangerous magic.

Dean had hidden his mentor from everyone even after Francis had finally passed away at the age of eighty-two. Losing his one and only friend had sent Dean into a dark depression. He’d wandered the coven’s ugly and neglected territory day after day all alone until he’d stumbled across Noah.

Since the coven hadn’t believed in having a familiar—Francis had told him the real stories about why a mage needed a familiar—Dean had hidden Noah until they escaped in the middle of the night.

He hid a lot.

Always had.

Was still hiding.

Dean sighed from the depths of his soul. He cuddled Noah’s small soft body against his face, breathing deep. Noah’s natural calm eased his heavy heart. Just as a familiar should. Noah allowed this for a few minutes. When his familiar had had enough, he smacked Dean’s forehead.

“Alright, furball,” Dean said. “Alright.” He allowed Noah to jump from his arms. Dean quickly grabbed the lint roller from the nearest shelf and cleaned the black fur from his apron and clothes.

The bell sounded, announcing he had more patrons. Time to get back to work. Hopefully he could get through the day without thinking even more about his unclaimed mate and why Logan had been called from Dean’s business earlier.

A ball of unease curled in his stomach as Dean headed to greet his customers.

* * * * *

Logan

The howl startled Logan while sending a shudder over his entire body. He was running before he could even think to respond to the call from his packmate. Not that Logan belonged to an actual pack or pride. Axel, his alpha, called them family.

Shawn’s warning and snarls of anger were easy to pick up from the short distance Logan was from him. Logan had been stalking through the woods, making sure no one who wasn’t family had entered their territory.

Bursting between the trees, Logan raced onto the scene of what was already a fight. Logan didn’t recognize the humans that surrounded the boys, but he didn’t miss the danger they presented.

A man screamed, another one attempted to use a gun, and Logan didn’t hesitate. He launched himself at the nearest stranger, pouncing on top of the human.

The problem was that Logan wasn’t a fighter. Not a good one anyway. He relied on his mass and shifter abilities but the human that he had tackled knew where to punch.

Logan grunted as the human hammered his ribs with hard hits. He didn’t want to kill the guy. Logan just wanted to stop getting hurt himself while also keeping his family safe. Logan roared.

Using his back legs, Logan pushed the human away from him. He rolled then snapped his massive jaws at the human. The human’s eyes widened as he paled.

There! That was better. Logan wanted the human to be afraid. If he was afraid, then Logan could hopefully get him contained without killing him.

Logan’s ribs ached and he limped slightly. Must have twisted his back ankle or something. Something glinted from the human’s right hand. A knife? Oh! That must be what Logan had felt earlier from his back paw. He stalked forward, ignoring any pain. The human backed up.

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