Do You Even Curse, Bro? (Bros and the Witch #3)

Chapter 1 – Killian

Chapter

One

KILLIAN

The moment the first figure steps through that portal, my wolf takes over.

Not all the way.

It’s not exactly the feral rage that takes over during a territorial dispute, but everything still sharpens around me. The caress of the grass blades against my paws, the way Regina’s woodsy scent tinges with fear and her fists tighten in my fur… all of it intensifies.

Twelve cloaked figures and the stink of portal magic make a low growl tear from my throat.

Regina is still on my back, and her heart’s going so hard I feel it even through my thick fur.

Off. Now.

I don’t know if she hears the gentle command through our new link or just feels my muscles bunch, but she slides from my back without argument. The second her feet hit the ground, I’m moving, putting my body between her and those shadow-cloaked assholes who think they’re extras in Eyes Wide Shut.

Sean and Micah flank her immediately. Rowan positions himself slightly ahead, his silver fur bristling as he snarls.

We form a wall of teeth and muscle between these sparkly dickwads and our mate, making it clear we’ll finish the job we started before Villeneuve so rudely interrupted.

And okay, so I owe him for stopping me before I could rip that Ken doll’s head off and hurt Regina in the process, but I’m still bitter about it.

One of the perks of being a wolf is that you don’t have to be logical.

The cloaked figures don’t move. They just stand there in their perfect line, like they rehearsed this. Judging by what I know about Kyle, the theatrical prick, they probably did.

The center figure raises one hand, and the dark energy cloaking them dissolves like smoke.

Kyle’s face emerges first, and he looks way too smug for a guy whose arm just got popped off.

The absence of it is hidden beneath that Temu robe, but I know it’s there—or not there—and that brings me endless satisfaction.

Hope it still hurts.

“Regina.” His voice carries across the meadow, smooth and practiced like he’s been rehearsing in the mirror. “Did you really think breaking the bond would be that easy?”

Behind me, I feel Regina go rigid. Through our bond, her fear spikes before she wrestles it down into something harder.

Anger.

That’s my girl.

“The bond is already broken, Kyle.” Her voice doesn’t waver. “I’m not part of your coven anymore. You have no claim over me.”

“No claim?” He laughs, and the other figures shift, their hoods falling back to reveal their faces. I recognize a few of them from the last time we kicked their asses and sent them packing, but apparently, they didn’t get the message.

Time to be real fucking clear.

“You were our Thirteenth,” he says through his teeth. “You are our Thirteenth. One little ritual doesn’t change years of magical connection.”

“One little ritual that severed every thread you ever had in me,” Regina counters. “I felt it break. You felt it too, or you wouldn’t be desperate enough to trespass on University grounds.”

Kyle’s expression falters. Just for a second.

She’s right and we all know it. He’s not here because he has any legal claim, he’s here because he’s desperate now that he can’t use Regina as his magical battery.

Guess the big, bad witch isn’t quite as powerful on his own as he thinks.

Good. Desperate people make mistakes.

“I’m not asking, Regina.” His voice hardens. “I’m telling you. You’re coming back with us. The coven needs you.”

“The coven can go fuck itself.”

I’d laugh if I wasn’t busy planning which piece of Kyle I’m gonna tear off next. He tastes like shit, but I buy mouthwash in bulk.

Twelve against four, plus Regina. Not great odds.

For them.

Kyle takes a step forward, and all four of us growl in unison. He stops.

“You’ve made your point,” he says, eyeing us with thinly-veiled disgust. “Playing house with a pack of mutts. Very rebellious. Very dramatic. But playtime is over.”

“These ‘mutts’ are my mates.” Regina’s voice is steel now. “My pack. And you’re not taking me anywhere.”

Kyle gives a bitter laugh. “So you say.” His eyes drop to her neck, to the silver marks visible above her collar. Our marks.

“You let them mark you?” The words come out like he’s choking on them. “You let these animals put their filthy teeth on you?”

“They’re not animals. You are.”

“You stupid, ungrateful little—” He cuts himself off, visibly struggling for control.

The other coven members shift uneasily. Guess they’ve never seen their fearless leader lose his composure.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What you’ve thrown away?

You were the Thirteenth of one of the most prestigious covens in the country, and you spread your legs for a pack of dogs? ”

I snarl, taking a step forward. I feel Sean and Micah’s rage echoing my own. Rowan’s is colder, but just as deadly.

“Careful,” Regina says, and there’s a new tone in her voice that makes even Kyle pause. “You’re talking about my pack. And unlike you, they actually give a shit about me.”

Kyle turns a shade of red I’ve only ever seen on a toddler throwing a tantrum in the toy aisle of a grocery store. “I gave you everything—”

“You gave me scraps and made me thank you for them.” Her hands are glowing now, faint green light stretching between her fingers like cobwebs. That’s new. “You rationed my power like I was a pet you were training, and you let me starve while the rest of you gorged yourself on my magic.”

Through our bond, I feel flashes of memory. They’re not full images, just impressions.

Pain. Fear. Darkness. Chains. A basement.

And beneath it all, the echo of Kyle’s voice telling her to cover up, to hide her beautiful face and be ashamed.

Now that Regina is free from this asshole, I’m finally going to kill him. Slowly.

“We’re done here,” Regina says. “Leave. Now. Before my mates decide to finish what Killian started with your arm.”

Damn, she’s hot when she’s threatening people.

For a moment, I think he might actually do the smart thing and back down, but who am I kidding? This is Kyle.

The coven spreads out in a half-circle, Kyle at the center like he’s directing a play.

“We’re done talking,” Kyle says, raising his hand. Dark energy crackles between his fingers. “You’re coming with us, Regina. Willingly or otherwise.”

I snarl, the sound sending vibrations through the earth beneath my paws.

“Stand down, mutts,” a witch with silver-streaked hair sneers. “This doesn’t concern you.”

Wrong thing to say.

All four of us move at once. I go straight for Kyle because I have unfinished business with his other arm. Rowan flanks left, Micah goes right, and Sean charges the center of their line like a giant furry battering ram. He might look like a stuffed animal, but he packs a punch in both forms.

Wait, can a wolf punch?

Guess we’re about to find out.

The coven raises their hands in unison, and the air fills with that annoying, crackling energy.

Without Regina’s green forest scent softening it, the coven’s collective energy smells like a moldy jockstrap.

Shields spring up, but they’re not expecting the sheer physical force of four pissed-off wolves slamming into them at full speed.

My claws slash against Kyle’s magical barrier, looking for a weakness. Behind me, I hear Regina shouting in rage. Green light explodes across the meadow as she unleashes something that makes the grass wither in a perfect circle around her feet.

Sick, Micah pants through the bond, even as he tears through some witch’s robe with his teeth.

The silver-haired woman throws a hex at Sean that makes him yelp and stumble, but he keeps coming. These people clearly expected a polite magical duel, not a pack of wolves who fight dirty and don’t give a shit about their fancy shields.

Regina’s magic hits three coven members at once, some kind of force wave that sends them flying backward. She’s not used to combat magic, I can tell from her stance, but she’s learning fast.

And she’s pissed.

Good. I would never bring our mate to a battlefield willingly, but she’s already here and knowing she can hold her own makes it easier to focus on ripping these assholes new assholes.

It’s also insanely fucking hot.

Kyle’s shield cracks under my assault. I feel his magic slipping, so I guess he’s still weak from losing that arm. I bare my teeth in a wolf’s grin and prepare to clamp down on his other forearm when he uses a blast of bitch magic to teleport across the field.

“Rebecca,” he says urgently. “Now.”

The redhead who smells like Sephora fucked a Yankee Candle raises her hands and starts to chant. I’ve never hurt a woman before, but I think I’m about to make an exception when another portal tears open behind the coven, larger than the first. And darker.

Something’s wrong.

Very fucking wrong.

The smell hits me stronger than any of the magic blasts.

Blood. Old blood, blood that’s been spilled and spilled again until it’s soaked into flesh and bone.

And the subtler scent layered beneath it makes my wolf recoil with instinctive terror and the rage that only comes in response to something that shouldn’t exist.

Werewolf.

Not a fucking wolf shifter. A godsdamned werewolf. The kind that doesn’t choose the change. The kind that’s been twisted by dark magic into a thing that’s not a human or a beast, but a nightmare wearing both their skins.

It emerges from the portal on all fours, massive and wrong. Its proportions are off. The arms are too long, spine curved at an unnatural angle, jaw hanging open to reveal rows of teeth that don’t fit together right. Patchy fur barely covers gray skin that’s scarred and mottled.

And its eyes…

Its eyes are mindless and hungry.

Behind me, Regina makes a sound. Like she just lost all the air in her lungs in a whoosh.

“No.”

I don’t need to ask. I feel her terror so strongly through our bond, it nearly takes me to my knees.