CHAPTER SIXTEEN || DANIEL #2
I pushed that thought to the side and made my way across the cabin, to my desk, and pulled open the bottom drawer.
My journal—the one containing the mostly finished reversal spell I’d been working on—was lying there.
It seemed too small and ordinary to reshape my life the way I feared it was about to.
I flipped open my journal and the alchemical text I’d discovered to the correct pages. Then I spent the next half hour comparing my spell against the catalyst I’d discovered. With shaking hands, I copied the incantation out into my journal.
I sounded the words out in my head, mentally testing the entire spell from start to finish.
Even done silently, I could feel the way the spell called up my power, amplified it, and pulled it into patterns that were meant to seize hold of multiple magical signatures at once and weave them into one unified, unbroken whole.
I didn’t speak the last word, the catalyst that would bind the work and seal it, not even in my own head.
Instead, I gently released my hold on the thread of power I’d been silently building. It flowed away from my grasp, resettling deep within me. I knew enough.
This was the missing piece I had been banging my head against. The spell to turn Hunter and Lee into Hunter Lee Jameson again was now complete.
I added my notes to the following pages, including the potential use and my thoughts—or more accurately, my fears—on the usage.
Then I set down my pen, flipped back to the pages containing the spell, and read through it again.
Two years of work. It was, objectively, the most complex piece of magic I’d ever created.
My family would have been surprised. Or maybe even impressed. That thought made me want to laugh.
Or possibly throw up.
Because this spell would work.
If I cast this, Hunter and Lee would merge into one person. And Hunter Lee Jameson would take their place. And because he had never been bitten by a werewolf, he’d probably be an ordinary mundane man again. He could have the life he’d always deserved.
The enormity of that rolled over me, making me feel as though I’d been encased in ice.
For two years, I’d been working toward this moment. Every late night, every scribbled note, every hour of painstaking research… all of it had been in service of this goal. And now that I’d actually done it, all I felt was a numb sort of horror.
Because Hunter and Lee were not the same person wearing two bodies.
They were complete, distinct, and irreplaceable.
Hunter with his fierce protectiveness, his spontaneity, his sharp edges, and the tenderness he was just learning how to show.
Lee with his quiet depth, his warmth and thoughtfulness, the way he always seemed to see through everything and everyone.
They were not halves of a whole. They were whole, both of them. And I loved them both.
The thought of merging them—of watching Lee’s steady gaze and Hunter’s fierce grin dissolve into someone else, someone who contained them both but was neither of them anymore—turned my stomach.
I slammed the journal shut. My breath came too quickly and my heart pounded in my ears. Cold sweat broke out across my forehead. My hands shook.
Was this a panic attack? Was I panicking?
I knew I needed to tell them. The spell was complete. They had a right to know. They had a right to choose.
But what if they chose yes? What if they chose to become one person again?
Then I would lose them both.
And I would have to cast the spell myself, because no one else in the pack could. I certainly wasn’t going to let some stranger—or even someone from the Seattle coven—do this.
No, at the end of the day, if they said yes, I would become the instrument of my own heartbreak.
* * *
Our hunt was a total bust.
The Mara evaded us all night long, as if they had somehow sensed our intentions. The compass needle had pointed steadily northeast all night, carrying us deeper and deeper into the forest. We even caught a glimpse of them through the trees.
But when the pack barreled into the clearing where they’d been spotted, there was nothing there.
They’d already vanished. And apparently, they’d split up, too. Because the compass needle—which was attuned to both of them—suddenly started to spin wildly and it didn’t stop for the rest of the night. Clever of them.
Harris and Reed called it at two in the morning.
“Lacey, Oliver, and Sarah, you’re on guard duty with us,” Reed said wearily, when we’d all returned to the commune. “Lee and Hunter, take Daniel and go home.”
“I could help,” I protested. I wasn’t sure how I felt about being alone with Hunter and Lee. Not with what I now knew. “I can do a perimeter spell—”
“Save your magic,” Reed said. “If they try to attack, we’ll call you. We need you rested and ready to fight.”
“The best thing you can do for the pack is to get some sleep,” Harris added.
Feeling defeated, I nodded. Then Hunter, Lee, and I made our way back to our cabin.
“Smart bastards,” Hunter growled, kicking off his boots the moment we were through the door. His hair was damp with dew and his clothes were mud-streaked. “Splitting up like that…”
He shook his head.
“They must have somehow figured out that we’re using a locator spell to track them.
Which means they’re learning our patterns,” Lee said.
His tone was more even, but he was clearly just as frustrated as Hunter.
He set the blessed iron blade he’d been carrying on the kitchen table.
“We’ll need to change our approach.” He sighed.
“That probably means another tactical planning session with Harris.”
“After a full shift at the bar,” Hunter groaned. “We don’t get paid enough for this shit.”
“We don’t get paid at all,” Lee reminded him.
It was true—the pack had a communal bank account. The money we raised from the bar was equally available to everyone, but it mostly went toward food and keeping the lights on. Though Reed and Harris didn’t mind if we allowed ourselves a few indulgences every now and then.
But I didn’t miss the fact that my wolves were pent up and frustrated by how the night had gone.
I wasn’t exactly pleased, either. Plus, I had way too much on my mind.
The monsters, the reversal spell, the fact that things were going impossibly well with Hunter and Lee, even though I was keeping this huge thing from them…
a ten-thousand-pound gorilla of a secret that I wasn’t yet brave enough to speak aloud.
Yeah, a distraction was very much in order.
I made the conscious choice to banish my dark thoughts as far as I possibly could into the furthest corners of my mind. Then I walked over to the bed and stripped down to my underwear. “I guess sleep isn’t the worst thing in the world,” I said innocently, grinning at them brightly over my shoulder.
Then my breath caught in my throat.
Both of my wolves were looking at my nearly naked body with identical expressions of hunger and need.
Hunter crossed the cabin, cupped my face in his hands, and kissed me. It was hard and hungry.
“Missed you,” he breathed, when he pulled back, his eyes searching mine.
Lee joined us. In the time Hunter had been kissing me, he’d already undressed, his cock fully hard. He pulled me in for a kiss as well—rough and full of want, just like his twin.
While he kissed me, Hunter pulled my underwear down. He dropped to his knees and gripped my ass cheeks with both hands. Then I felt the warmth of his tongue, laving against my entrance, spearing into me, softening me for them.
I gasped and would’ve pitched forward, except that Lee caught me by the shoulders.
A need tore through me, so acute it bordered on panic. A desperation to feel them, solid and real and here. Both of them.
“Fuck me,” I pleaded, when Lee pulled back. “Please.”
Hunter stood up and pulled his shirt over his head. He crossed to the nightstand and grabbed the bottle of lube. He undid his jeans and pulled them down, getting naked, then returned to his position behind me. I heard him pop open the cap on the lube.
Lee cupped my face with his hand, his gaze intent on mine. “Love you,” he murmured, his eyes blazing with emotion. “I love you so fucking much, Daniel.”
Then he dropped to his knees and took me between his lips.
I let out another gasp as the blissful wet heat of his mouth enveloped my aching cock.
In the same moment, I felt Hunter’s fingers on my hole, slicking me up.
As Lee took me all the way down to the base, Hunter slid one finger into me. The combined sensation of my cock down Lee’s throat while Hunter played with my entrance was overwhelming. I let out a cry of pure need.
Hunter slid another finger into me. “You’re being so good,” he breathed. “God, you’re so warm and tight.”
Lee pulled off me and climbed onto the bed, on his knees. He was hard and precum was beading on his tip.
Hunter slid a third finger into me as I bent over, steadying myself with my hands on either side of Lee’s body, my fingers biting into the bedding. Then I took him into my mouth, letting his cock muffle the sound of my moan at the delicious stretch of Hunter’s fingers deep inside me.
Lee let out a satisfied groan, holding still so I could service him.
Then Hunter removed his fingers. “Ready?”
I pulled off long enough to say, “Fuck me, Hunter. Please.”