Page 71 of 3 Shifters to Break a Curse

I stayed put on the mattress. With the silence that filled the room, the late hour pressed against me, and I was barely able to keep my eyes open. All I could think about during the fight was making sure Toni was okay. And once the fight was over, I was stuck doing the same damn thing. Only this time, I was waiting for her to show me a sign she was okay.

She was worth all the trouble and worry.

She was worth everything I had gone through since she came here.

I lost the fight against my eyelids, and they closed, refusing to open again.

Sometime later, the mattress squeaked. I opened my eyes to find Toni stirring. Luke and Ezra woke up as well and surrounded the bed.

As we watched, her eyes fluttered open, and she rested her gaze on each of us for a brief moment. Then she smiled, and it was like the sun came out. Her eyes rested back on mine. She cupped my cheek.

“I’m in your bed?” she asked and looked around. “I like your room.”

I nodded. “I know.”

She had only been in my room once or twice. And only after we had sex in the hot spring pool. And ever since then, she’s made a point of telling me how much she liked my room.

“Is it over?” she asked.

“Thanks to you, yes,” Luke said.

I nodded.

“And what a show it was,” Ezra added.

“You’re finally free,” I said.

She shook her head as she settled her attention on Luke. “It wasn’t because of me.”

I stared at her confused.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

She rubbed her eyes from the sleep. “The spell worked because of all three of you. Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to do the spell. I wouldn’t have known about the ritual that turned into a curse. I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to taste what real love was like. None of this was possible without each of you.”

“We’re just glad you are awake,” Ezra said.

I glared at him. He avoided my gaze. I sighed and shook my head.

Toni sniffed and made a sour face. “What on earth is that smell?”

Luke chuckled. “Told you.”

I shook my head. Toni was awake, and that was all that mattered. The rest would come in time. Including Luke’s payback for his jab.

31

TONI

The past two days went by in a blur and faster than I would have liked. I probably should have made a point of leaving earlier, but I couldn’t bring myself to. Especially after learning I was out for a little over twelve hours and discovering none of the men had left my side the entire time. Now that my time with the men was coming to a bittersweet end, I would forever be grateful for the two things I had learned about myself. Lessons that I would take with me for the rest of my life, no matter what happened. One was how happy I could be with the men I had grown to love so deeply in such a short amount of time. And the second was how terribly I was going to miss them while I was away in Washington.

I never in a million years would have expected to find love in the way I had. I was so burned on the idea of love that, until meeting Luke, Rin, and Ezra, I was convinced I would never find long-lasting love. The person I was before these wonderful men, compared to the one I had become since meeting them, were two very different people. And I owed all of my changes and progress to them. To my three bear shifter men, all of who had stolen my heart and my breath away.

Not only was I graced with the blessing of finding love with these men, I also realized I wasn’t broken. I didn’t have something inside me that was damaged. I didn’t turn good men bad. I just had to kiss a lot of the wrong men, who were the ones I believed turned into proverbial frogs, in order to find the ones who were truly deserving of my heart.

It was the changes in me, and my feelings for the men, that made leaving them so much harder. But I had to go. I still owed it to my coven to find an answer to the mysterious anonymous group who have kidnapped and stripped so many of my sisters of their powers. And I owed it to my men who were shifters, because the group had branched out to their kind as well, somehow figuring out a way to rip the animals from their victims’ bodies.

Without an answer, the anonymous group would soon collect themselves and regain their strength. They would soon be back to their antics, and I wouldn’t live with myself if they did so while I sat on my hands. Too many sisters have lost their lives to these horrible people, and I couldn’t allow another shifter to go through something so terrible.

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