Chapter 47
WE ARE MAGIC
MORGAN
Moonbeams bounced across the fresh snow, making it glisten.
I hadn’t expected to be in the wintery landscape again so soon, but a run under the full moon with my new Willow Lake friends was a temptation I couldn’t resist. People of every supernatural description showed up, and a few humans were here too.
Trepidation curled through my stomach. I’d never shifted in front of so many people. Strangers. Logically, I knew I had nothing to fear in this place with these people, but some lessons were hard to forget. Nelson put his arms around my shoulders and pressed a kiss to my head.
“We don’t have to stay.”
“I want to,” I said, huddling closer to his warmth.
“Okay. Then remember, I’ll be with you every minute.”
I nodded.
“So, a demon, a minotaur, a centaur, a dragon, and a unicorn walk into a clearing,” Isaac the centaur said, like he was setting up a joke. “And the demon says…”
“Are you going to shift or just stand there?” the demon grumbled.
“Perfect.” Isaac laughed and clapped his hand to his leg. “Why are you here anyway, boss man?”
Gage scowled and pulled his mate to his chest and wrapped his arms around the smaller man. “Hayden asked the pack to come, even non-shifters.”
I’d never been part of a pack before. It’d always just been Uncle Fraser, Violet, and me.
I wasn’t sure what to think of this growing something—sense of connection, maybe, if that was the right way to describe it—that I felt for the Willow Lake alpha.
But I didn’t want to fight it either. Nelson said it’d been the same for him in the beginning.
But the pack bond had formed almost without his knowing what was happening.
At least I had the benefit of knowing what this feeling was because Nelson had explained it to me.
Hayden stepped into the center of the group. “Look, I didn’t want to make a big speech, but Ryley told me I had to.”
He looked at his mate with love in his eyes, despite the gruff tone of his words.
“So, I guess first, thank you for coming tonight.” He pushed his hand through his messy blond hair as he decided what to say next.
“I asked you here because each time our pack grows, we need to take time to connect with one another. I truly believe that. We have a lot of different kinds of supes in town now, and it can be easy to gravitate to people who are like us. Wolves with wolves. Cats with cats. And shit like that. But that’s the last thing we should do.
Attitudes like that have fucked up a lot of packs. ”
I’d never heard that before, but it made a strange sort of sense to me. It also reinforced my own connection to this place, because there were no other unicorns out there for me to be with. If others shunned me, I would be alone. And how unbelievably awful would that be?
“The Eternal Magic has blessed us a lot in the last year,” Hayden continued.
“People are finding their mates, having babies, and all that shit. And I know a lot of outsiders are speculating about why that’s happening.
Why us? But I believe it’s because we celebrate all the shit that makes us different while reinforcing all the shit that makes us the same.
We are always going to be stronger together. Always.”
A few people hooted and whistled.
“So, yeah,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to get as many people out here as possible tonight.
We think there may be more trouble headed our way, but if someone thinks they can fuck with any one of us, they’ll soon find out they’re wrong.
Because we are the strongest fucking pack out there, and fuck anyone who thinks they can come after us. ”
All around the clearing, people put their hands in the air and cheered.
One figure toward the back remained stock still though.
I thought it might have been Eric. I hadn’t seen him since we’d come to town, but I was happy he was still around.
I’d told him we could be friends, and maybe he’d realize some day that I hadn’t lied.
“So fucking eloquent,” Ryley murmured as he wrapped his arms around Hayden’s waist.
“You’re one to talk.” The alpha snorted as he pulled his mate close. “All right! Let’s go for a run.”
All around me, shifters transformed into their beastly forms. It was fascinating. I’d never seen so many different types of shifters in my life. My earlier trepidation faded, and in its place was giddy anticipation.
“Ready?” Nelson asked.
I nodded. I’d shifted more since meeting Nelson than I had in my entire life.
Where once, I’d had to think about becoming my unicorn before I could let go enough to make the change, the transition had quickly become as easy as breathing.
A sparkly light enveloped me, and a moment later I was standing on four hooves.
No one stared. No one gaped. And with each moment that passed without someone coming over to touch my horn or try to pluck a bit of glitter from my mane, I felt my place in the pack grow. I wasn’t a novelty here. I was simply one of them. A member of the pack.
The alpha, now shifted into his wolf form, padded over to me.
He was gigantic compared to the other wolf shifters.
I’d heard he was a dire wolf, but seeing it was something else.
His mouth was open and his teeth gleamed under the moonlight.
But I didn’t feel fear. I shuffled back and forth, but I didn’t retreat.
The wolf stared into my eyes for a long moment. And the longer our gazes held, the more I felt his acceptance. His welcome. His conviction that I belonged here in his pack.
A shimmering golden ribbon of magic curled out from his massive chest and wove through the air toward me. I stared at it. It was beautiful. It reminded me of the glow that always enveloped the Eternal Magic.
The ribbon brushed over me, tentatively at first. But when I didn’t pull away, it pulsed in front of me as if waiting… And then, a similar but smaller stream of my own magic reached out to touch it. As soon as they touched, I knew I’d never be the same again.
“There it is,” the wolf said softly. “Pack.”
I couldn’t talk in this form like so many other supes could, so I merely lowered my head in acceptance—but carefully. I didn’t want to jab my horn into my new alpha’s eye or anything.
“Welcome,” Hayden said. “Welcome home.”
Tears glistened in my eyes, but I blinked them away. They were happy tears, but I still didn’t want to risk making everyone else cry.
Then Hayden lifted his snout to the moon and howled.
And everyone, no matter what kind of supernatural or non-supernatural being they were, lifted their faces to the sky and joined him by shouting their joy toward the heavens.
The message was clear: “We are Willow Lake Pack. And we are magic.”
THE END