Page 7 of Witch Upon a Star
I realized that I wanted alife. Something that was mine. I’d never had that before, and the chances were that I wouldn’t get it staying in the Marines. So I left. Got my papers and went to find something I could claim as my own.
A chance encounter at a veterans’ bar in North Carolina had pointed me in the direction of Mount Grove and theVia Daemonia. As soon as I’d walked into our clubhouse and met Steel, Lucky, Bulldog, and the rest of the men who would soon become my brothers, I knew I’d found what I was looking for.
The biggest downfall? Our home was in a small town, and one with such small-town pride that big corporations and chains did not touch it. On my first day in town, I noticed right off the bat that there was noStarbucks. In fact, the closest coffee chain was over a fifty-minute drive away.
What.The. Fuck!
I needed my coffee. Mabel, the owner of the town’s bakery, had a decent coffee selection. I’d give her that credit. But damn, it wasn’t the same. I hadn’t realized I’d bitched so much about the lack ofStarbucksin this small town until Lucky had presented me with my cut at my patch-in party at our bar,Demon on the Rocks.
Instead of the road name ‘Lightning’ that I had chosen, my cut read ‘Starbucks’.“Now you can’t bitch there’s no Starbucks in town anymore,” he’d told me with a laugh.
Well, fuck. I’d been Pumpkined.
Most of the brothers had chosen their road names. Many of them, like Steel, Bulldog, and Ghost, kept the monikers they’d had in the military. Others, like Ranger and Keys, had chosen their road names when they’d arrived. And then there were those, like Scissors, Grumpy, and Pirate who had been given their names by Scotty, Lucky’s teenage son with Down syndrome.
And then there was Pumpkin. Sometimes, an unfortunate soul did something so ridiculous or stupid that the club took away their road name and gave him something else. Even if he hated it. Pumpkin had been the first, and I was the next victim.
I became Starbucks. Despite my many attempts to have my road name changed, I was not getting a new name unless I did something so ridiculously stupid that the club decided to change it again. There was no fucking way I was doing that, because I’d likely get something even worse. Like Crash, or Limp Dick, or Lightweight.
In the beginning, I did try to get everyone to call me ‘Buck’ or ‘Bucky’ but that failed. So I did what I always did: Iembraced the fuckery. And I had to admit that ‘Star’ or ‘Starbucks’ wasn’tawful.
It was no ‘Pumpkin’.
Small-town life had taken a lot to get used to. I still wasn’t used to some of it. In cities, there was a lot more diversity when it came to women. I’d rarely slept with the same woman twice before I’d come here. Now I had to make sure boundaries were set and they knew the score before any pants came off.
Many of my brothers had fallen prey to Cupid’s Arrow. I would not be one of them. It wasn’t that they didn’t look happy. In fact, it was the opposite. They were alltoohappy. Fuck, even Scar had fallen. I didn’t even know how to describe Scar if someone asked me to. At least, not without them doubting my words. In the simplest explanation, Scar was a tortured soul. He was mute, touch-sensitive, and had questionable boundary issues. He was also fiercely loyal and had nearly died last April saving Sophia, Pirate’s woman. And while I couldn’t say Scar washappynow—at least not in the typical sense—there was a peace about him that was entirely Tally’s doing.
But that life was not for me. Thatpeacewas not for me.
So I would stick to my one-night stands and midnight booty calls.Thatwas for me, and I was good with it. Hell, Ilovedit.
Steel being stuck in jail was the only downside to today. Granted, it was amajordownside. I wasn’t the only brother who wanted to break him out of there. But Steel was the patient sort. He played the long game, and he wanted to see where this was going before willingly becoming a fugitive.Because we all knew no jail or prison would hold him. We wouldn’t let it.
It sucked, but I’d play my part. And if I got to pop Kora’s anal cherry out of it, all the better. At least my sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain.
“Five hundred!”
My head shot up as I sought the source of that voice. At the very back table sat Frankie, the club’s nanny, and the woman who had won Pumpkin’s bid. She had blonde hair with dyed purple tips. Next to her was another woman. Standing with her hand raised to get Louisa’s attention, I saw she was wearing a long black dress with a wide-rimmed pointed hat. Due to the hat, I couldn’t make out her face, but I had a sinking feeling I knew who she was.
Calliope Hutchins. The local witch. I’d seen her around, but I didn’t know her. Just her reputation. It was said that she could see the future. Her entire family could. She was known for putting curses on men around town who treated their wives or girlfriends badly. And there was even a rumor that she was a descendant of the Salem witches. I saw her a lot atLoafin’ Around,but she was always coming or going opposite of me.
That was good, because I didnotwant a curse put on me. Not that I treated women badly, but someone might see me as a player or a womanizer and assume that I did.
Louisa looked towards the back of the crowd. “I’m calling it,” she announced into the microphone. “Sorry, ladies,” she added with no real apology in her voice to the crowd of my admirers before the stage. When they all scowled at her, I gave them all a stern look of warning for this disrespect towardsLouisa. “Five hundred to the witch in the back! Sold!” As the crowd clapped, Louisa continued, “This concludes our bachelor auction. Thank you to everyone who bid. We will tally up the total and make an announcement in just a few minutes. If you won, please report to Harper in the back to pay. We take cash or checks, and apparently electronic payments…”
I was not paying attention as Louisa finished up her announcements. A cold chill ran down my spine as I realized that I now had adatewith a witch. Rather than getting laid as expected, I couldn’t help but wonder if my dick was going to end up covered in boils instead.
“Starbucks!”At the sounds of my name, I looked up to see Harper’s hand in the air, waving me down. I had just finished helping Louisa put away the microphone and speaker equipment. As I descended the stairs, I caught Papaw’s eye, who gave me a nod of thanks for assisting his woman. I lifted my chin in acknowledgement, though I would have done it regardless of her being an ol’ lady or my SAA’s mother. No way would have I let a woman struggle with those heavy speakers while I just stood back and watched.
Grumpy and Bones both gave me looks that made me feel like my bid had been won by an executioner rather than a young woman. No doubt they knew Calliope’s reputation as much as I did. I fought to ignore them as I obeyed Harper’s summons. I would never be so rude as toignore her, and not just because she was Lucky’s woman. Harper had worked her ass off today to help cover for Jenna’s absence. She didn’t deserve my ire just because she was standing next to the last woman in town I wanted to go on a date with.
Well, maybe not thelast. But she certainly had never been on my radar before this moment.
Harper was tall and willowy with raven hair and an olive complexion. She’d put on some weight after two births. Not that I wouldeveradmit this out loud and expect to keep my balls attached to my body, but I thought she looked even better now. I preferred a woman with some meat on her bones. I was a forceful lover, and there were a lot of women who were just too skinny and small for me. I wanted to fuck without risking putting her in the hospital. I’d heard both Harper and Tessa talk about not being able to lose their baby weight, and thought their husbands were just placating them by claiming they were even more beautiful now. Placating? Were they fucking serious? What the fuck was wrong with society that these two gorgeous women could look at themselves in a mirror and not see anything other than perfection looking back at them?
Not that I would ever act on my attraction to the club’s ol’ ladies. They were even more off limits than Steel’s nineteen-year-old daughter. But just because I couldn’t touch, didn’t mean I was blind. Didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate.
My eyes shifted to the woman next to Harper. She’d taken off her hat, giving me a full, unimpeded view of her face. My first impression was that she was plain. No makeup, straight brunette hair, and small. Five-four-ish with her loose, black dress covering up most of her figure. Her dark eyes were cast to the side, and she was biting her liplike she was feeling guilty about something. I placed her age in her early twenties, meaning there was a good chance a decade separated us.
