Page 44 of Witch of My Heart

“The woods,” Bobby said.

“If you want a place to sun, there’s plenty of places. Even the front half of the roof here gets sun most of the day,” Liam said, as if he was trying to sell the house instead of giving it away for free.

“Just curious,” Duke said. “Can I look around?”

“That’s what we’re here for,” Liam nodded. “You guys too,” Liam motioned to Cord and me.

Duke headed straight for the kitchen like a man on a mission. I made a note to confer with him about what set off his inner dude before agreeing to take the house. Bobby and Liam wouldn’t give us something faulty or dangerous on purpose, but I didn’t want to spend the next hundred years of my life listening to him bitch about some tiny thing he couldn’t stand. Shifters were weird like that sometimes.

“Where would you like to start?” I asked Cord.

“Is there a space for a nursery?” Cord asked Liam and I swallowed hard.

I wanted a baby as badly as he did but hearing him say the words aloud gave me goosebumps. His magic heated up against my palm as if agreeing with me. This was real. All of this wasreal. Cord stood next to me – flesh and blood next to me. Solid and magical. We were, for the lack of a better word, house shopping.

“Alpha,” Cord whispered and squeezed my hand again.

“Huh?” I blinked.

“The nursery is this way,” he said and tugged on my hand.

I didn’t see much of the living room except that it was furnished. The hallway was carpeted and photos of Duke, me, our siblings, and cousins lined the walls.

“Oh, my Juda on an egg!” Cord stopped. “This is you.”

He pointed to a photo of me on Travis’s shoulders on a trip to the lake. We were ready in our swim trunks to race down the dock and into the water. Our carrier had called us back for a photo. I remembered the day well and could even see Trista making a face at us from behind Dad’s back while Scot snuck off down to the shore.

“You were fucking adorable! You were so tiny!” Cord beamed at the photo. “Where did all these come from?”

“The virtual scrap book,” I said. “Some of the omegas got together to start one since our family is divided up now. Half of us live on Hemlock Mountain, half on Mage Street, and a few are scattered further. Bobby or Liam probably printed them out to make us feel at home while we were here.”

“Do you think he had a vision about us before you arrived?” Cord asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said, my vision lingering on the photo. “Probably not. It seems like something he’d mention. Are you ready to see the nursery? If we stay here you can come look at the photos whenever you like. If we don’t I’ll set you up an account for the virtual family scrapbook.”

“Thank you!” He said and hugged me from the side.

I almost told him to hug me forever. We could just live in the hallway and raise our kids here, but the thought of littleCords running around reminded me that I had serious work to do before any kids ever roamed these newly built halls.

“Here it is,” Cord said, pulling me just a few steps down the hall to the next open door.

Heartville did it up proper. The house we stood in was meant to be a mating moon house from what we’d been told, but even that didn’t stop them from furnishing a well-stocked nursery complete with a crib, changing table, and a pair of rocking chairs in the corner of the room.

“I don’t know a lot about your sort of wards,” Cord said, sniffling as he dropped my hand and walked over to peer down into the empty crib. “It is possible here? There’s nothing in the walls stopping the magic or anything?”

Nothing had ever stopped my spells before except other spells. I took a deep breath and stepped out of my shoes. Then I tugged off my socks despite the strange look in Cord’s eyes as he watched me. I wiggled my toes in the dark blue carpet and let out a long slow breath.

“Checking the vortex, so to speak,” I said and rolled my shoulders. “Okay, shirt has to go too.” I pulled it off over my head and tossed it to Cord.

“Ummm….. Are you going to get naked?” he asked, snatching my shirt out of the air.

“Probably not. I don’t think I’ll need that much working space,” I chuckled.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Checking the vortex,” I told him tuning into the buzzing of the house.

“To see if anything’s in the way?” he asked, taking a step closer to me. “Hey, if I touch you while you do it will I be able to feel what you do? Magically, I mean.”

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