Page 26 of Magic Claimed
A sharp rap had me blinking away sleep. How I slept, I didn’t know. A note was pushed beneath the gap at the bottom of my ‘door’ before footfalls quickly moved away.
I poked my head out to see an empty corridor. Whoever had dropped it off was fast. I opened the note. Clipped masculine letters stared back at me.
Come to the Western forests now. Use the middle stairs and the third vestibule once you reach the first floor to enter the forest. We will be waiting.
Those last words sent a shiver up my spine. I wondered what might happen if I left them to wait all night, but my wolf brushed up against me so hard my fingernails morphed into claws. She wanted out and if I didn’t give it to her, I was sure she would erupt at a bad time. I snorted to myself. She already had.
I didn’t need another layer of crap in my life. One thing for sure, I was only going to go along with the Alpha and his seconds for as long as it took for me to control this wolf and then they would never see me again.
Magical golden bubbles danced across the ceiling, helping to light my way as I crept towards the middle stairs. I was surprised the corridor was empty. Maybe I should be more surprised that the Alpha wasn’t lying when he said he had friends inside the castle. That was something to think about.
I found the stairs empty as well and when I reached the ground level, I did exactly as the note said. The shrubs surrounding the outside walkway kept me shadowed and as the crisp air filled my lungs, an unknown energy writhed under my skin. My wolf wanted out, damn her.
I continued down the walkway, which became a pathway which took me into the woods. Before, I would not have dared come into the forest at this time of night. The castle grounds were quiet and the moon hung full and round in the night sky. Being found here would only end in trouble, but now my nose was filled with wonderful scents, my skin tingled in the cool air and a grey, silvery sheen covered everything around me with an intriguing light.
As I walked onto the darkest part of the path, a huge form stepped in front of me. Warm hands wrapped about my biceps before I ploughed face first into a wall of muscle. “It is good to see you again, Serafine.”
My name sounded like a sin coming from his lips. Eike’s thumbs brushed my skin and heat shot through me. I wrenched my arms from his grip and stepped away from him. He let me go easily enough, but my biceps tingled where he’d touched me. “You gave me a fright.”
His mouth lifted with an easy grin. “Once you get more in touch with your wolf, you’ll know where all creatures in the forest are.”
I only needed to know where three big beasts were, and then I could avoid them. Thinking about beasts…“Where are the others? I thought you were all coming tonight.”
His smile broadened, and he gestured to some trees. “They’re waiting for you.”
“In the bushes?”
His eyes lit up as though he thought everything I said amused him. I didn’t entirely hate that. Not from him, anyway. Jarom or Alerick, I’d have a problem with. Eike though…Eike had been nice to me.
He stepped between the branches in a space I hadn’t seen and gestured to me. “Through here. We thought you might like some privacy for your first intentional shift.”
That’s when it hit me. In order to shift, I’d need to undress first. That was if I wanted clothing to return to and since I had no wardrobe of ready-to-wear clothing, it was clear I’d have to get naked. Around my mates. Three virile, alpha,hornymates.
Greeeaaatttt.
My inner wolf whined, not sure what held me back.Shewanted her mates.Shedidn’t understand why she couldn’t have them.Shut up. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here.Besides, you’re not in control. I am.
My inner talking came to a crashing end when I stepped into a small clearing and came face to chest with Jarom and Alerick. Alerick’s face firmed with possessive triumph while Jarom’s held his usual sneer.Yeah, right back at you, buddy.
Nerves got the better of me and Eike’s fist covered my bicep when I back stepped through the gap. Or tried to. His grip was as solid as steel, and I went nowhere. “Don’t be nervous. We’re here to help you.”
I might have almost believed his earnest expression if not for Jarom’s sound of derision.
“It’s not like I want to be here either,” I said to Jarom.
He tugged his jacket off to reveal a black shirt that strained at his biceps and across his wide shoulders. “Let’s get this over with, Mate.”
The way he said ‘mate’ might have been how he said ‘trash’. I kept my face neutral through the flash of unexpected hurt that shot through me. I shouldn’t feel anything except relief at his comments because I’d found my weak link and my way out of this bond.
If he fought the bond hard enough, then it would be two against two. To Alerick and Eike, Jarom was their Alpha and Second. They’d probably grown up together. Worked together. They trusted each other. I was nobody to them. A slave they’d accidentally run across. They’d pick Jarom over me any day.
All I had to do was exploit that and make them think Jarom was correct. My ticket out of here was marginally looking up.
“Yes. Let’s get this over and done with. You can go back to your lives and leave me the hell alone,” I said.
“That’s not what we want, and you know that,” Alerick said, looking all too masculine in his white shirt and black breeches. Even the frown he wore looked good on him, damnit. I forced my gaze to the ground, not wanting to notice anything more about them. Anything that would bind me further to them.
“You should listen to your Second. Maybe he knows something you don’t,” I said.
