Page 112 of Pirate Witch
“Noster,” the fairer of the two women whispers, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
“Ma.” Goddess, he couldn’t sound any more like a guilty teenager if he tried. “Pa, Grandmother.”
Cas smirks and unwraps one arm from around me to give his twin a playful shove forward. “They missed you too, idiot.”
That’s all it takes. Within moments, my seer is enveloped in a group hug.
It’s brief, but no less meaningful. After they all pull away, the woman Nos identified as his mother steps forward.
Oh Goddess, spare me.I’m not sure I’ll survive another mother-by-mating if Klaus’s mother is anything to go by.
“And you’re my newest daughter.” Their mother takes in everything about me with a long look. “We’ve heard a lot about the assassin who dragged my boys into a war.”
“Ma.” Cas groans, before I can retort. “Stop making her uncomfortable on purpose.”
Her frown cracks wide open into a grin, her honey coloured eyes—so like Cas’s—twinkle with mirth, until she appears to be a completely different woman.
“Just kidding,” she says, drawing me out of Cas’s embrace and into a one-armed hug. “I’m so glad my boys found their mate so young, and so happy to have gained another daughter.”
Nos’s head whips up at that. “Anotherdaughter?” he croaks.
“Shura stayed in pack territory to protect the rest of the pack,” their father explains. “Though she wasn’t particularly happy about it.”
The final woman in the trio chuckles. “You still don’t see everything then.”
“I’m better at understanding my visions than I used to be,” Nos replies. “I’ve learned a lot about my condition since I left home.”
The twins’ mother goes to say something, but their father places a hand on her arm, silencing her.
“There will be a time for us to speak about the past,” he says. “But not now. Casimir, tell your mate of our decision. One way or another, we must know.”
“Know what?” I ask, searching the faces of the six shifters for some clue.
Cas runs a soothing hand across my collarbone, pushing my hair out of my face and displaying my mating marks in a move which feels deliberate.
But he doesn’t answer. Nos does. “The pack warriors will fight with us, as long as we fulfil the two conditions.” The blind twin sighs, and I wonder if he’s known this would happen for a while.
“Conditions?” Everything in me clams up. What could these shifters want from me?
“More tradition than anything else,” their mother assures me. “Leviathans seldom go to war—for obvious reasons. One of the few ways our kind can be called to fight is if a hydra—a mated hydra—summons them.”
“My grandsons must prove to the pack they are what they claim,” Nona continues, and my brows draw up in surprise. This is their grandmother? “Then they must mark their mate in the old way.”
My hands fly to the matching mating scars on my neck in confusion. I’m already marked, so what is she on about?
“In beast form,” Cas explains.
My jaw drops. In beast form, their fangs are bigger thanme.
“It’s done that way because unmated males are considered too impulsive to declare war.” Their mother grins. “Good thing too. Otherwise, we’d be going to war over every immature pissing match and our pack wouldn’t have stayed hidden very long, would it?”
Cas grimaces in silent apology. “For a shifter, it’s not such a big thing. It’s a bite between beasts who are roughly the same size, but as you have no leviathan form…”
I get to be chewed on by something a hundred times larger than me. Yup, this sounds like it’s going to hurt. A lot.
But I’m not in a position to say no.
“Do it.”
