Chapter One #3
The asocial Ward didn’t smile their way or even say hello. He merely waved them inside, closed the door and then led them through to the spacious parlor.
Inside, Reena sat in a turquoise velvet chair, her posture as regal as always. She was powerful. Charismatic. A good leader. And quite possibly responsible for the false rumors that Emberlyn had traded slivers of her soul for health, beauty and success.
Such a darling.
Well, she still held Tyra’s ‘childhood traumatic incident’ against Emberlyn. As did Sera’s mother, Penelope . . . and just about everyone else. Ha.
There were two matching sofas in the room, one of which had been claimed by Gill, her husband Hank and their daughter Mari. The other sofa was empty. Dez and Ames stood before the grand fireplace, their hands clasped behind their backs.
All aside from Reena looked casual, smug and eager. Their grins cooled when Emberlyn strolled inside.
‘Afternoon all,’ she greeted brightly.
Reena’s mouth hitched up half-heartedly. ‘Ah, you’re here.’ The envelope containing Millicent’s will on her lap, she gestured at the free sofa. ‘Do sit.’
Emberlyn and the twins lowered themselves onto the couch. As she and Paisley placed their purses on the floor, Emberlyn didn’t miss how her family cast her friends snotty looks. They were clearly still annoyed that the twins had been included in the will.
‘I’m just waiting for one more person, and then we can get started,’ Reena added.
Kage cast Emberlyn a quick glance. ‘What person?’ he asked in a whisper.
Emberlyn gave a slight shrug.
Her relatives chatted among themselves as they waited, pointedly ignoring Emberlyn and the twins.
Blonde, blue-eyed and curvy, Gill and Mari so closely resembled each other that they looked like the exact same person at different stages of life.
There was no sign of the ginger-haired, gray-eyed Hank in his daughter.
Dez and Ames were both handsome in a pretty way – small nose, small chin, naturally possessing very little facial hair. But whereas Dez was blue-eyed with ash-blond hair, Ames had his mother’s brown eyes and dark hair.
Everyone quieted when the doorbell rang. Ward exchanged a look with his wife and then disappeared from the room. Moments later, his muffled voice came from the hallway, along with two sets of footfalls. When he reentered the room, Emberlyn looked at the tall figure behind him—
And her gaze collided with steely honeydew-green eyes that always held an animal alertness. Her belly promptly did a slow roll.
Ripper. Alpha of a werewolf clan. A direct descendant of Lupin and a she-wolf he’d dallied with during one of his and Lilith’s ‘breaks’.
Ripper’s presence alone put people on notice, so there was an instant shift in the atmosphere. Muscles tightened. Backs straightened. The air turned static.
There was not one thing subtle about Jax ‘Ripper’ Stone. Dominance boldly rolled off him. Raw, gritty and unpolished, he took ‘rugged masculinity’ to an entirely new level.
He was totally badass in that hunter-gatherer, mountain-man, could-survive-any-conditions way.
He made her think of a grizzly – burly and gruff with the unruffled calm of an apex predator whom you just knew could explode into violence in a mere second.
Beneath it all ran a vein of hardcore brutal sexuality that promised all sorts of pleasure.
What he wasn’t, and never had been, was a friend of Millicent. So why she would make him a beneficiary of her will, Emberlyn had no idea.
She studied the reactions of her relatives. They were tense, seeming equally surprised and confused.
‘He’s on the list of beneficiaries?’ Dez asked Reena.
‘He is, yes.’ Reena fluidly rose to her feet as she tucked a stray strand of auburn hair behind her ear. ‘Good afternoon, Ripper. It’s a pleasure to have you here.’
He only inclined his head, his face its usual stony mask.
‘Please sit,’ she said, indicating a spare armchair.
As he stalked further into the room, Emberlyn couldn’t help but look.
Tall and broad, he was built like a tank.
Everything about his body language – his strong eye-contact, upright posture, slow and purposeful walk – spoke of a person who knew he was a danger to all those around him.
He engendered the kind of respect and fear that cleared him a path.
Vicious scars sliced through either side of his scalp, leaving stripes in his short black hair. A dark scruff peppered his well-defined jaw and the strip of skin above his full mouth.
Tribal tattoos peeked out of sleeves and collars, crisscrossing over yet more savage scars that spoke of the hard life he’d led and the multiple fights he’d partaken in.
Not that those scars meant he’d lost said fights. Far from it. When Ripper attacked, it wasn’t pretty. Wasn’t merciful. Wasn’t quick.
Given how brutal and gory the results would be, Emberlyn could see why some had nicknamed him Jax the Ripper . . . which had eventually been shortened to Ripper.
He sank into the empty chair, which placed him more or less directly opposite her.
She forced her eyes away from him, not interested in being caught staring.
Her body had always gotten a little giddy around him.
Okay, very giddy. A tingling sexual awareness always peppered the air between them when they were up close.
And it sucked to be so unshakably drawn to someone when nothing would ever come of it.
Witches were totally off his menu – it was pretty understandable, given his past. Also, he was caught up in some kind of weird love triangle.
‘Now that everyone’s here, we can get started.’ Reena turned her attention to Emberlyn. ‘As you know, I need your blood to open the envelope. Ward, get me a thin needle.’
‘Not necessary,’ Emberlyn told her, lifting her hand up. She released a thread of magick, let it ‘prick’ her finger, and then sent the little droplet floating through the air to land on the envelope.
Reena’s face tightened in that way it always did when Emberlyn did something that the High Priestess either hadn’t learned to do or simply couldn’t.
Reena tore open the envelope. ‘I’ve said it before, yes, but Ward and I are very sorry for your loss,’ she said to Emberlyn and her relatives. ‘Millicent . . . she might not have been beloved by many, but she will be missed. In a way.’
The High Priestess pulled out the papers, and her brow creased. ‘Ah, there is a letter attached. She would like me to read it aloud before moving onto the will.
To my nearest, dearest and miscellaneous. I will write no words to ease your grief because I know you will feel none. I was not a good wife, mother, sibling or grandmother. I devoted every ounce of myself to my craft.
It would be a lie to claim I have any regrets – I have seen, achieved and experienced so much through my quest for power; I would wish none of it away.
In other words, feel no guilt at not experiencing any pain at my passing.
There is no need to be sad for me in any case.
I have never feared death. It is but another adventure for the soul, and I have ever been the adventurer.
Clearing her throat, Reena moved on to the will itself.
My darling Gill, knowing how much you love Black Willow Manor, I have bequeathed to you the antique dollhouse replica. May it bring you much joy.
Gill spluttered, leaning forward. ‘I’m sorry, what?’
Reena paused, her brow pinched. ‘Um . . .’
‘A dollhouse? She left me a dollhouse?’
Emberlyn barely managed to hold back a chuckle. She heard a sound come from Kage that sounded like a strangled snort.
‘Keep going,’ urged Dez, visibly excited . . . as if having concluded that the manor was definitely his. ‘Some of us have somewhere to be.’
Even as Gill spluttered again, Reena looked back down at the will and read,
To my handsome son, Desmond, I leave my truck. It doesn’t run anymore, but I’m sure someone somewhere could fix it.
Oh, God. Emberlyn didn’t dare look at either of the twins, knowing she’d otherwise burst out laughing.
Dez did a long blink. ‘She . . . are you serious?’
Kage leaned into Emberlyn. ‘She’s left everything to the cat, I’m telling ya.’
‘I am merely reading what it says,’ said Reena.
Ames, to you I bequeath my chessboard – it’s the perfect game for sneaky fu . . . people who think to outmaneuver their grandmother. By the way, I do appreciate you wiping my ass that one time.
Paisley dipped her head as she audibly choked on a giggle.
Ames’s cheeks flushed with anger. ‘This is a joke,’ he bit off. ‘It’s obviously a joke.’
Reena hurried on,
Mari, the dragonfly brooch you stole from me and keep in your jewelry box is now rightfully yours. P.S. I don’t know why you thought I wouldn’t know that it was you who’d taken it.
Mari’s jaw dropped. ‘She knew? But . . . she never said anything.’
Probably because she’d concluded that Mari had done it for attention. Millicent wasn’t in the business of giving anyone anything they wanted.
Kage, my Ouija board awaits you. Use it soon. We can stay in touch.
Tickled by that, Emberlyn nudged him. ‘Now you can talk to the dead again.’
‘Well, ain’t that great,’ he deadpanned.
Paisley, my Aztec coin collection now belongs to you. Don’t spend it all at once.
The brunette’s lips curved in genuine delight. ‘Awesome.’
Emberlyn, my collection of voodoo dolls is now yours. You may also have your mother’s pearl earrings if you take care of Lucie. Don’t disappoint her as you have done me.
Emberlyn rolled her eyes at the latter sentence. As for the dolls and earrings? It was more than she’d hoped for. She’d wanted the earrings since she was a child, but Millicent had rarely gifted people anything . . . as if to do any good deeds would diminish her power.
‘This can’t be right,’ Gill adamantly stated. ‘It can’t. Or it’s an old will, I don’t know, but this is all wrong. She swore the house would be mine!’
‘She also swore it would be mine,’ Dez curtly remarked. ‘Said that though she couldn’t regret treading down her chosen path, she did wish I hadn’t suffered for it. Said—’
‘That she wanted to soothe the wound by leaving you the manor as an apology?’ asked Gill.
His gaze sharpened. ‘Soothe the wound, yes. She said the same to you?’
Sighing, Gill nodded. ‘More fool us for thinking she meant any of it.’
Mari sat back, putting a hand to her forehead. ‘Oh my God, she really did hate us all, didn’t she? I used to think that it was an act; an effort to hide that she had a soft underbelly.’
Hank put a hand over hers. ‘No, sweetheart, she hated everyone. What else does the will state, Reena?’
Rubbing at her wrist, the High Priestess went on,
Jax Stone, to you I bequeath both the land that once belonged to your clan—
She cut herself off, her face darkening. ‘No, that isn’t possible. Millicent can’t do that.’
Ripper fluidly straightened in his seat, his entire being practically perking up in interest.
The jaws of Emberlyn’s paternal family all but hit the floor, as did that of Ward.
Emberlyn grinned. Millicent had clearly been aware of Reena’s plans – perhaps through gossip, perhaps because she’d always ‘known’ certain things – and she’d taken moves to ensure that the land she’d loved couldn’t be turned into an upper-class neighborhood for the coven.
‘No,’ Reena repeated, staring down at the will, ‘no, the land wasn’t hers to give away! It is part of Bellcrest!’
‘It lies beyond the border, actually,’ Ripper corrected, his voice deep, thick and rumbly – pure vocal testosterone. ‘It belonged to the Vautier line, not to the coven.’
The corners of Reena’s eyes tightened. ‘It comes with the manor.’
‘No,’ Ripper objected. ‘It was originally my clan’s land. It was purchased by a Vautier witch who hadn’t wanted the house to be so close to werewolf territory; she’d wanted more space. Our clan has been trying to get it back for years, but no one would ever give it up. Until now.’
Reena shook her head hard, the will crumpling in her hand.
‘What else did she leave me?’ he asked.
Reena blinked. ‘What?’
‘You didn’t finish your sentence. It read, “I bequeath both”, as if there’s more.’
A little flustered, she flicked her gaze back to the papers in her hand.
Jax Stone, to you I bequeath both the land that once belonged to your clan and . . .
She trailed off, her brow creasing.
And my granddaughter, Emberlyn.
Oh, that hag.
Ripper looked at Emberlyn, his brows inching up.
She flapped a dismissive hand. ‘Just ignore that last part.’
‘This whole thing is ridiculous,’ Dez proclaimed. ‘You don’t bequeath people in wills, and you can’t dole out land like it’s candy. Reena, what about the manor, the money, everything else? Whoever owns the building can probably contest this.’
Reena looked back down at the will so fast it must have hurt her neck. She pointed to the bottom of the sheet. ‘Well, she added here: ‘“The rest of all I own, my small fortune included, will belong to the new owner of Black Willow Manor. By new owner, I mean whoever manages to get inside it.” ’
Gill’s lips parted in enraged shock. ‘She didn’t. She did not pull that archaic bullshit tradition out of her ass!’
Emberlyn exchanged amused looks with the twins. It had once been tradition for the manor to go to whichever of the Vautier beneficiaries it ‘chose’. Every piece of material used to construct it had been imbued with sentient magick, so the house had an ‘awareness’.
It would be interesting to see which of them it chose.
‘What about my coin collection?’ asked Paisley. ‘How do I get it?’
Again, Reena consulted the will. ‘According to this, she placed it in a storage facility for you, along with the other items stated in the will.’ Her gaze cut to Emberlyn. ‘Except for the earrings. She left those in the manor. So if you want them . . .’
Realization dawning on her, Emberlyn inwardly sighed as she finished, ‘I’ll have to get inside.’ Motherfucker.
Paisley looked at her. ‘See, I told you she hated you most.’