Chapter Five #2
Rolling her shoulders, Brielle drew in a slow breath.
The air shifted, the scent of ozone and herbs filling the rooftop as a soft glow flared at her fingertips.
She whispered ancient words, held up her palm, and a spiral of purple flame left her palm and made its way toward the stairwell.
Wind spiraled outward, brushing their skin.
Hunter’s eyes widened in fascination while Lennox let out a low whistle.
“Okay,” Lennox said, clearly impressed. “That was ... cool.”
Hunter grinned. “Yeah, baby, you officially have our attention.”
“Good,” Brielle said, suppressing her smile. “Because I think we’re going to need some advice on a few things, and the answers might be with the rest of my chaos.”
In seconds, Willow appeared first, her bright aura swirling with golden warmth. Saffie followed, then Ursula, each stepping through the shimmer of the spell with practiced ease. Brielle’s chest filled with affection at the sight of them. These were her sisters—her chosen family.
Ursula’s eyes immediately flicked to the men. “So, these are the bears?”
“Yep,” Brielle said, folding her arms. “Hunter and Lennox. Boys, meet the coven officially.”
Lennox gave a short, respectful nod. “Ladies.”
Hunter smiled. “Thanks for showing up. We, uh, come in peace.”
Saffie smirked. “That’s good to know. Because you look like trouble.”
“Only the good kind,” Hunter said easily, and the witches laughed.
The warmth between them grew quickly as Brielle led the conversation, though Hunter’s teasing tone carried a thread of honesty. “So, you dragged them up here because you wanted your friends to interrogate us, huh?” he said with a smirk.
Brielle tilted her head. “Pretty much. If I’m bringing two bear shifters into my circle, the coven gets a vote.”
Lennox leaned back, grin easy but his words were serious. “We wanted to meet them, too. They matter to you, which means they matter to us. And we’re not hiding what we want.”
Saffie arched an eyebrow, her tone wickedly playful. “And what exactly do you want, bear boy? Because we’ve seen this movie before—minus the fur.”
Ursula chuckled under her breath. “Careful, Saff. They look like they could bench-press a pickup truck.”
Hunter smirked. “You can relax. What we want isn’t complicated—we want her safe, and we want her happy. And, yeah, we want her with us.”
“Preferably between us,” Lennox added, and Brielle felt a sweep of heat rise in her face.
Saffie whistled low. “Damn, direct. I like that.”
Ursula crossed her arms, assessing. “Bold move, announcing that to a circle of witches. You sure you know what you’re getting into?”
Lennox grinned, unbothered. “Pretty sure we can handle it. We’ve wrestled worse things than fate.”
Hunter nodded, eyes steady on her. “We’re here because we’re not walking away. Bond or not, that’s the truth.”
Brielle blinked, caught off guard by the certainty in their voices. “You’re sure about that? Even without the mating bond connecting?”
“Yeah,” Lennox said simply. “You think we need some mystical lightning bolt to tell us what we already know? We knew you were ours the second we met you at the Boutique. Did we like the fact that you were hurt, and we were meeting you professionally, fuck no. But we knew, even then, that you were and are important to us.”
Hunter’s lips curved into a slow smile. “The human part of us figured it out before we were bears. After we shifted and scented you, it simply confirmed it for us.”
That drew a laugh from Willow. “Guess instincts work even without magic.”
Hunter tipped his head toward the coven. “And that’s why we needed to meet them—to understand the world that built you.”
The sincerity of it softened something in Brielle’s chest, and she gestured for everyone to sit. “All right then. Since you’ve met them, we’ve got a lot to catch them up on.” She gestured for everyone to sit, then asked Saffie to explain.
“It started generations ago, with the Council’s curse.” Saffie said. “Each of us carried it differently. The curse was meant to strip shifters of their animals, and it worked to a point. We got involved to lessen its impact.”
Saffie leaned forward, her tone firm but gentle.
“Ursula and I have lived these 200 years on a path to save shifters and bring balance to the world. Willow and Brielle are our coven sisters whom we lost in that first battle, but reincarnated, over and over, each time fighting to break one more link in the chain. Willow faced Marcus—the bastard who started all of this—and ended him. I used the Druid Stone to undo the next layer. It nearly killed me, but it worked.”
Ursula nodded slowly. “She’s being modest. It actually did kill her. She made the ultimate sacrifice for all shifters. It is because of what she did that you have your bears.”
Brielle watched the look that passed between Lennox and Hunter. Amazement edged with gratitude. “Thank you,” Lennox said in a low voice that rang with sincerity.
“Yeah,” Hunter added, with the same tone. “We had no idea we were living a half-life until we united with our animals, and knowing what you had to sacrifice for that to happen?” He shook his head. “There is nothing we could ever do that would repay you for that.”
Saffie, being Saffie, waved it way, literally. “You owe me nothing. Witches and Warlocks have been fighting for generations, shifters just got caught in the middle, and it is on us to ensure we do everything we can to ensure that balance in the world is maintained.”
Hunter’s expression darkened, his jaw tightening. “You’ve been living through this for generations?” he asked quietly. “No wonder you’re all so damn powerful.”
Lennox swore softly under his breath. “And no wonder we felt it the second we walked in. You’ve all been through hell.”
Saffie smiled faintly, glancing toward Brielle. “Which is why you need to be careful now. The curse might be broken, but echoes of it still ripple through the world. The Council may be broken, but some of them still live. Not all of them vanished.”
Hunter glanced at Lennox, a silent understanding passing between them. “Then it’s a good thing you’ve got a couple of bears hanging around,” he said with a grin. “We’re hard to kill.”
Lennox added, smirking, “And we give great hugs. Seems like you could use both.”
The coven laughed, the sound easing the tension as the rooftop filled with shared warmth and new resolve.
Willow nodded. “That curse touched everything—our bloodlines, the mate bonds, even the magic that’s supposed to protect us.”
Hunter leaned forward. “So, when you say it effected the mate bonds, could that be why it seems that ours has stalled between?”
“It might be that same interference,” Ursula said. “Whatever’s left of the curse is tangled with fate itself. It’s like trying to connect two magnets when there’s a wall between them.”
Lennox frowned. “So, what does that mean for us?”
“That we’re bound,” Brielle said softly. “Just not fully connected. Yet.”
“Yet,” Hunter repeated, his smile small but certain. “I can live with ‘yet.’”
The others nodded in agreement. For the first time, there was no tension in Brielle’s chest. She looked around at all of them—her coven and her mates—and realized that somehow, impossibly, this was right.
They talked late into the night, the conversation shifting from curses and history to lighter things.
Hunter asked questions about spell work, fascinated by the idea that energy could shape the world.
Lennox tested her theory on protective wards, making her laugh when he poked at one and got a static shock.
“That’s for touching without asking,” she teased.
He rubbed his hand and grinned. “Lesson learned.”
Eventually, the talk drifted toward the future. Willow was leaning against the wall, her voice dreamy. “When all this is done, what do you want to do, Bri?”
Brielle hesitated, surprised by the question. “Honestly? I’ve been thinking about writing. Not spells or history—stories. Fiction. Maybe something with a little magic, a little heart.”
Saffie’s grin widened. “You’d be brilliant at that.”
Ursula nodded. “Finally, something that doesn’t involve nearly dying.”
Willow smiled, pride lighting her features. “A writer, huh? I like that.”
Lennox elbowed his brother lightly. “We’d better start building her an office.”
Brielle laughed, her cheeks warm. “You’re both insane.”
Hunter’s tone softened. “We believe in you, sweetheart. If writing’s what you want, then you’ll do it—and we’ll make sure nothing gets in your way.”
The sincerity in his voice caught her off guard. For the first time in a long while, Brielle felt seen—not as a weapon, not as a survivor, but as a woman with a future.
She smiled, the glow of the city lights catching the gold in her eyes. “Maybe this is it. Maybe I finally get to start over.”
Lennox raised his mug of coffee toward her in mock salute. “To new chapters.”
Brielle clinked her glass against his, her heart full. “To new chapters.”
And for the first time in forever, she believed in her own happy ending.
Brielle glanced around at her sisters—her coven—and the two men whose presence made her pulse thrum like wildfire beneath her skin.
The laughter and soft hum of conversation faded to a warm silence, and she rose from the couch.
“All right, that’s enough saving the world for one night,” she said with a teasing smile.
“My mates and I are heading to my room. I’ll see you all in the morning. ”
Saffie’s grin was nothing short of wicked. “You sure you’ll be getting any sleep?”
Willow giggled, and Ursula rolled her eyes fondly. “She deserves whatever she’s about to get. And so do they.”
Brielle felt heat rise to her cheeks, but the look Hunter and Lennox gave her—dark, reverent, and full of promise—made her breath catch. The bond might not have clicked into place yet, but the pull between them was undeniable.
Hunter rose first, offering his hand. “You ready, sweetheart?”
Lennox’s low rumble followed. “Because I’ve been ready since the moment we met you.”
Her heart tripped, emotion and desire twining through her chest. She slipped her hand into Hunter’s, letting Lennox’s warmth at her back settle her nerves. “Yeah,” she whispered. “I’m ready.”
As they left the rooftop, Brielle glanced over her shoulder one last time. The moonlight caught the coven’s smiles—love, pride, and a bit of mischief glowing in their eyes. And for the first time in her many lifetimes, Brielle felt whole.
She didn’t know if what waited behind her bedroom door would change everything—but she knew it would be hers. Their laughter echoed softly behind her as Hunter’s hand slid around her waist, and Lennox’s voice rumbled low in her ear.
“Thank you for trusting us, sweetheart. We will make sure you never regret it.”
It wasn’t just a promise—it was the beginning of something she’d finally stopped running from.