Chapter 15 To Protect You
Seri
“We also want to talk about some interesting things we’ve been noticing,” Koa said after a moment.
“Interesting things?” My gaze darted between him, Zane, and Casimir.
“Shifter qualities. When we found you hurt on the doorstep, you called us mates before you passed out.” Koa tilted his head, his black hair falling over his cheek before he brushed it back.
My face burned. I didn’t know I said that in their hearing. What if they didn’t want a shifter-born witch?
“And you’ve mentioned our scents,” Zane pointed out. “Each of us smells different to you, yeah?”
“Yes. You smell like night phlox. Koa, evening primrose, and Simmy, moonflowers.”
Casimir’s expression flickered, just for a second, and I wondered what he was thinking. Before I could find the courage to ask, though, he started talking.
“It’s not uncommon for shifters to recognize their mates instinctively as you did, but it is unusual for a female to distinguish between multiple male mates by scent. Usually, we’d all smell the same to you.”
“Maybe it’s because we’re half-brothers?” Koa suggested. “That might make our scents different.”
“Doesn’t matter, really.” Zane rolled his eyes dismissively, his smirk returning. “The point is, she’s ours and we’re hers.”
He winked at me, and I felt my face heat up again as something fluttered in my belly. Pulling my hand free of his, I tucked it under my leg, ignoring his fake pout.
“So, are you a shifter, Seri?” Koa asked. “Only asking because you don’t smell like any shifter we’ve ever encountered.”
“No, but Mama was. She was part of the Royal pack.” My fingers traced the edge of my plate as I thought of something else.
“Do dhampirs mark their mates? I mean, beloveds? Mama said male wolves do, but she marked Papa since he had no wolf spirit. It looked like a tattoo of her wolf, Feather. It was beautiful.”
“I’m sure it was, but no, we can’t mark you,” Koa said. “Well, technically we could bite you, but our fangs would only leave a scar. And it wouldn’t enhance our bond like a mate mark does.”
“Do you want us to bite you, pretty girl?” Zane leered, his eyes half-lidded, and I gulped as I shook my head, sending my curls rioting around my face. That made him laugh, Koa chuckle, and even Casimir’s mouth wiggle at the corners.
“Other than recognizing us as mates and knowing our scents, have you noticed anything else that a wolf would?” Koa asked. “Mate sparks? Mindlink? Mate bond?”
“Only the bond,” I admitted. “No sparks or link.”
That was a little disappointing. Mama and Papa had been able to link, and Mama had felt the mate sparks when Papa touched her. I’d always hoped that would happen for me, too.
Still, I wasn’t complaining. The Goddess had given me three very handsome, strong, protective mates who were kind to me. That was more of a blessing than I deserved.
“Dhampirs are the same. Only the bond,” Casimir said.
“If not feeling the mate sparks bothers you, love bug, we can slather up with warming jelly—”
“Zane!” Casimir and Koa growled together.
“Jelly?” My brow wrinkled in confusion. “Wouldn’t that be messy?”
“Never mind,” Koa muttered, red scoring across his cheekbones. “We know a pack that has several different species, including witches and fairies, mated to wolves, and it’s always a crapshoot as far as what their kids inherit. At least you have scents and can feel the bond.”
“Better than nothing, I guess, for just a human with a few wolfie traits,” Zane chuckled.
“I’m a witch, not ‘just a human’!” I frowned at him.
He burst out laughing for some reason, and my brows came down even more. Glancing over at Koa, I saw him quickly wipe a smirk off his face. Even Casimir’s green eyes looked doubtful.
“I am!” I insisted. “I’m a witch!”
“An herbalist, maybe?” Koa suggested gently. “Did your papa show you how to make remedies from plants?”
“Yes, of course he did. He was an earth witch, after all. And I am a lunar witch.”
Zane laughed so hard, he fell off of his chair, and Brumous lunged for him, licking his face frantically. Koa chuckled. Casimir gave me a disappointed look, as if catching me doing something after he’d told me not.
“Ooo!” I clenched my fists in a rare bout of anger. “You just wait until my magic comes back! I’ll show you!”
“A lunar witch is incredibly rare outside the Sky Realm, Serafina,” Casimir murmured.
“Yes, I know. There wasn’t anyone to teach me.” My voice trembled with both outrage and remembered loneliness. “I had to figure a lot of things out on my own before…”
I stopped abruptly, the silence shackle clamping down like a vice. I clenched my fists tighter, frustration bubbling up inside me.
“Before what?” Koa asked.
I shook my head, unable to speak. Instead, I focused on what I could say.
“I figured out moon phase influence on my own, and Papa was helping me learn how to call moonlight.”
“Would you like us to arrange for you to visit your papa? Getting married doesn’t mean you can’t visit him,” Casimir offered.
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, both at the kind offer and the answer I had to give to it.
“He’s dead.” I bowed my head, my voice breaking. “Buried next to Mama.”
“Would you like us to arrange a visit to where they rest?” Koa asked in a gentle voice.
I shook my head, my throat too tight to speak. The cemetery was close, far too close, to the Bell farm and the evil things who lived there now.
Brumous whined softly, pressing his nose against my leg, and I finally unclenched my hands and reached down to rub inside his ears, earning a rumble of approval. The moment stretched, fragile and raw, before Zane finally broke the silence.
“If you’re telling the truth about being a lunar witch, why can’t we smell it on you?”
“Because Arabesque—”
That invisible hand choked me again, and I closed my eyes. Would her torment never end?
“Wait.” An idea popped into my head, and my eyelids flew up. “Maybe I can tell you what Amabel—”
Cut off again. I dropped my forehead to the table and banged it lightly, and three large hands suddenly slid between my skull and the cloth-covered wood.
“Don’t do that,” Casimir scolded as Koa’s fingers pushed my head back up. “You don’t need a concussion on top of all your other injuries!”
My bottom lip wobbled as my eyelashes grew damp.
“No, no, no!” Koa’s hand moved to cup my cheek. “Don’t do that! We’ll help you learn about your magic. We’ll find a way to break Arabesque’s hold on your voice. Whatever you need, we’ll figure it out. Just please don’t cry, baby. I can’t see tears in your eyes.”
“That’s right. I’ll even call Lucian if we have to, darling.” Zane’s smile lacked its usual hard edge. “Pops has got connections everywhere, even though he’s only been on the throne for three years.”
I didn’t know the details of their relationship, but I saw how uncomfortably they shifted even mentioning him.
“Thank you,” I said, blinking until my vision cleared. “May I ask a question that’s personal?”
“As I said before, any time.” Casimir rubbed the space between his eyes with the knuckle of his index finger. “You don’t need permission to ask your husbands a question, personal or otherwise.”
“Arabesque said King Lucian wouldn’t send his true heir.” I turned to Koa, whose thumb still stroked my cheekbone, his palm rough against my skin. “How are you three related to him?”
“We’re his sons. All by different women.” Koa’s dark eyes flooded with a sorrow I recognized. His mother was dead. He didn’t even need to say it.
“And yeah, all born within nine weeks of each other. Old man had a serious sex—”
“Father’s human beloved died giving birth to our eldest brother, Sebastian,” Casimir cut Zane off.
“He grieved in a variety of unhealthy ways, one of which produced the three of us. There are two other half-brothers, completely human, living human lives with their human mothers and entirely unaware of the supernatural world.”
“And Lucian wants to keep it that way,” Zane added, “so we’ve never met them.”
“You said he’s only been king for three years?” I asked, and Casimir gave me a quick history lesson.
“Isaac and Crina Black ruled the court for more than two centuries. After Crina was kidnapped by a traitor, it took Isaac a century to get his beloved back. Once he did, he abdicated the throne to focus on her. Since Isaac had no heir, a blood lottery followed, and Father won.”
“And what about you, beloved?” Koa moved his fingers to carefully trace my jaw and the mark left by the edge of Eluned’s shoe. “How are you related to Arabesque Harrow?”
“She married my papa. Five years ago, he went to a witches’ council and returned with her and them.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my tone. “Her twin snakes. While Arabesque slowly isolated Papa, Amabel and Eluned made my life miserable.”
“You really are Cinderella, aren’t you?” Zane snorted.
Dropping my head, I curled in on myself, fixing my eyes on my new shoes.
I was staring at the blinding white leather so intently, I almost missed the blur of motion that was Casimir’s fist as he reached across the table and punched Zane on the jaw so hard, he tipped out of his chair with a crash and a shout.
I flinched hard enough to nearly fall out of mine, too, and it was only thanks to Koa that I didn’t.
“He didn’t mean anything by it,” he assured me as he picked me up and moved me to sit on his other side. “Zane’s mouth runs to release his emotions. Casimir’s mind works like a military compound to control his. Sorry, beloved. You’re not getting normal husbands.”
My breathing had turned ragged at the violence, but there was something calming about Koa’s deep voice and his bottomless eyes and his gentle touch, and I clung to his hand as Casimir and Zane got into a war of words, Brumous barking excitedly at them.
“Is a beloved the same kind of bond for dhampirs as a mate is for a shifter?” I asked once my heartbeat had slowed a little.
“Yes. Would you rather we say mate?”