Lacy Read online

  Suggestions?”

  That started a dialogue that lasted into the late morning. At the end of the session, they had a loose plan on how they would deal with the threat. Their coven was entrenched in the New Orleans community and many shifters who visited knew about their presence and kept their secrets. Lacy"s mother knew the head of the Eastern Pride and was calling him. Lacy was a little excited because she had never really met the cougar, tiger and lion members of the Pride. They tended to keep their noses out of politics, preferring to ignore things like this until it affected them.

  Packs, Prides, Sidhe and Witches had the largest contingency on the North American Continent. The rest were small bands of shifters who either joined Packs and Prides or remained in hiding. According to the twins, their Alphas had already alerted the necessary Packs about what was going on. The Sidhe was also notified when one of their own became a mate to one of the Chosen. They were helping, but the spell that had been put on the compound had been strengthened and now no one could „pop" in or out.

  Blaine"s mate, Dalton, was the son of the head Sidhe in the United States. Lacy"s father was currently on the phone with him and explaining the situation. Soon many of the magical community would descend on New Orleans, for the sole purpose to help the New Council. When the Witches became involved, most of the shifter community who supported the beliefs of the New Council would be willing to help.

  Chapter 8

  He was taking chances that he should not be taking. When the witch found her mate, he should have left. But something made him stay. If he could just get her alone for a little while, he would be able to convince her that joining the Council was not in her best interest. She would be one of the most powerful witches of their age; Lacy should not waste her time with helping the bleeding hearts.

  Her powers alone would win them the battle with the Council. If he could break them apart, they would never reach their full potential and eventually he would be able to take over the Council. Oh, it would still be a fight. But he knew that until the entire Council was assembled they were weak.

  The Master stood across the street from his little Lacy"s parent"s house. She was inside.

  He could feel her. So was her mother. Soon she would realize that her daughter was still in danger. He had no plans on engaging the Red witch. He could not waste his power on such a battle. However, he could not leave just yet. He wanted his Lacy to see that he was still there. Waiting and watching for the right time to meet her.

  When they did the research about the Chosen, Lacy and one other drew his attention.

  He spoke to several different witches and shifters. If he took these two women as mates, he would absorb their powers. With that he would be more powerful the Alphas. They were all brawn and little brain anyway. If they did not have their little female, the Alphas would never have found Lacy in time. Something to think about in the future.

  Now that she had had the Alpha spawn, maybe they were more relaxed. Maybe he could use that.

  Looking back at the house, the Master pushed his power a little toward the gated building. If there had not been so much security, he would have walked right in and taken his Lacy. To think that she had mated with those two lowlife bears pissed him off.

  Of course, it was not her fault. She could not have known that he was planning on saving her from a life of mediocrity. She was destined for greatness at his side.

  He had missed his opportunity with Blaine. His mate had been in his sights when he discovered that his other mate; the Sidhe „popped" practically the entire Council to help her. Of course, he had used it to his advantage. With the Alphas gone, he called the witches and started his campaign to contain them while he searched for the remaining Chosen.

  They could not be allowed to join and make the Prophesy come true. The humans were happy and stupid right now. They had no clue that the magical community used them to gain power and money. Why rock the boat?

  He stepped back, reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out a cell phone.

  “Update?” He said briskly into the phone.

  “Master, the spell is holding. When are you returning? We have many things to discuss.” The woman purred into the phone.

  “I will get back when I get back. Don"t question me.” He said quietly with the hint of impatience in his voice.

  “Master, I am not questioning you. I am merely asking when you will return. Your presence will go unnoticed only for so long. Oliver will begin to wonder where you went off to soon. We have already intercepted several phone calls from his assistant. We have put them off, stating that you have been in meetings with the Sidhe. But if they call and check, they will find out that you are not there.” The woman said with an equally impatient tone.

  “Oliver will believe whatever I tell him. He is weak minded. The years have taken their toll. Besides, since Josephine has returned he is more interested in being a father once again, not an Alpha. He has been easy to manipulate over the years. Soon, he will see that he placed his faith in the wrong person. It will devastate him to learn that he was the one who gave us all the information that we needed to take over the Council.” The Master said.

  “And then we will rule together.” The woman whispered.

  “Of course, my dear. Just like we planned.” He said smoothly. Although he had no intention on following through on this promise. He was going to mate with the two women who would give him the most power, it was not her. She would be taken care of soon.

  He hung up the phone and then played with it for a moment before making a decision.

  He looked at the house while he dialed the now familiar number and smiled when Lacy answered.

  “Hello? Potions.” She said into the phone. Potions was the name of her store. He knew that she had the phone forwarded to her cell when she was not there. The other woman who opened the store this morning told him when he bought a few things. She had been a fountain of information. It was sad really, how trusting people were.

  “Hello, Lacy.” He said in to the phone.

  He could hear her in the background whispering to her mates and giggling. “Stop, it"s the store phone.”

  He waited patiently while she shooed them away. “I"m sorry; you have caught me on my day off. Can I help you?”

  “Yes, my dear, you can. I was wondering when you would be back in the store. I bought an amulet from your store this morning. It says on the card, for specific help with its use to make an appointment. I am calling to make that appointment.” He said smoothly.

  “Oh, I am sorry, sir. I"m not sure when I will be returning to the store. I have had a family emergency and have to deal with it.” She said.

  “I understand, however, this is a bit of an emergency also. It is for my daughter, she has been in a relationship that is harmful. I have tried to get her out but so far, she refuses to believe that he will hurt her further. The amulet was for protection.” He said. The Master knew that this is what she prided herself on. She would never turn her back on a person in need.

  “Shoot. Let me talk with my boyfriends and see if I can run in today. Call me back in a few hours and I will have an answer.” Lacy said into the phone.

  Chapter 9

  Quin and Jaden sat at the head of the table they had made for the New Council. The Chosen were all in attendance. The meeting had been called to talk about what they were going to do. They were all getting frustrated and impatient. They had been cooped up in the compound for days without being able to find a way out, or a way to communicate. Their phones would not work and computers would not connect to the internet. It was like there was interference.

  Dalton had been able to „pop" in and out of the compound, but since he returned with his mate Blaine two weeks ago; he had also been unable to leave. It was frustrating. Cami, the Alpha female, had found a way to send out Blaine"s brothers before the spell that surrounded the town became too strong. But they had no clue if they had gained the help of the witches.

  Thank goodness th
ey had food and water. The Pack store had received a shipment just the day before they had been attacked. Cami had been in the compound with the rest of the Council members that Dalton had not popped to help Kira. The black cloud at first only looked like a harmless cloud that was being used to scare them. Jo contacted her father and he was the one who told them that they were dealing with witches.

  At first Cami had been excited. She was going to meet another new magical person.

  Now she was just pissed. How dare they hold them hostage? They were not even asking them for anything. That was the most frustrating thing; they had no clue what the end game was supposed to be.

  Quin thought that they were trying to prevent them from finding the rest of the Chosen.

  He also knew they could not hold up this spell forever. The energy it was taking to keep it in place had to be draining the witch. They could only hope that someday soon it would weaken enough so they could fight their attackers.

  Dalton was the only one of them who knew what exactly witches could do and the news was not good.

  “I am telling you. If these are black witches, we have our work cut out for us. They use their powers against nature. When a witch is born, they are usually a white, red, blue, or green witch. These each have certain powers that help the witch find where they are most useful in the coven and to humanity. When a witch turns her back on her powers and uses them for personal gain or to harm someone the lines begin to blur. Once they step over the line, there is no going back. From there the powers become unstable.

  They lose their sense of right and wrong. It is like a psychopath on steroids.” Dalton said and ran his hands through his hair.

  “Great. There has to be more than one of them out there. So what you are telling me is that we have the Charles Mason of witches outside the gate to our home?” Jaden said dryly.

  “Exactly.” Dalton said.

  They all paused to digest the information. Cami was the one to break the silence. “Fuck a duck.”

  Everyone laughed but nodded. They had children and elderly to protect, no one was going to surrender, and they just needed to figure out how they were going to deal with this.

  Blaine said, “If my brothers made it to New Orleans and found the coven, we may be getting help any day.”

  Quin nodded and looked at Blaine and frowned. “Have you seen anything?” He asked.

  Blaine looked at his mates and said, “No, we have only seen what I have told you. I cannot allow my mates to mark me until my brother"s return or we will all be dead. I don"t know why. It really doesn"t make any sense to me but that is what the spirits have shown us. I have talked to my mother, she doesn"t know either.” Kira spoke up and said, “I have a theory. Of course, it"s just a theory. Blaine and Dalton think I"m crazy but I will throw it out there.”

  Blaine rolled his eyes and Dalton sat back, folded his arms, and laughed. That earned them both a glare from their mate.

  “Since there is really nothing else to do but worry, pace and have sex. I would avoid from pissing off your mate.” Cloe said and laughed when her mates frowned at her.

  “As I was saying.” Kira said blushing. She had yet to get used to all the Chosen being such close friends. She felt a little like an outsider, but she also thought that was because Blaine had not yet claimed them. “When mates claim each other, a bond appears, right?” When everyone nodded, she continued. “Well, Blaine claimed both Dalton and I. We felt the bond and our powers joined. We did not have a chance to claim Blaine. When we returned, we were planning on doing that. But before we could, we had a vision. Blaine saw what would happen if we claimed him, but he did not see happened if we did not claim him.”

  Reggie frowned and raised his hand. Ruby, his mate patted him on the arm and said,

  “Baby, I don"t think you have to raise your hand.” Levi, his other mate, laughed and leaned over and kissed him. “But I am sure you were just being polite.”

  Reggie growled and then turned back to the others. “Anyway, I was going to ask, has anyone thought about talking to Oliver"s Seer? Maybe she has some insight about what is going on.”

  Quin nodded and said, “Yes, before we went on lock down, I did. However, apparently when the New Council was formed and we found Blaine, all of her powers became dormant.”

  Kira spoke up again. “That is why I think we need to find the Chosen who was born in April.”

  Jaden frowned and raised his hand. Cami laughed and hit him on the back of the head and said, “Speak.”

  “Oh, yeah. Why do we need to find this one?” Jaden said and then turned to his mate and said, “That is one punishment.”

  Cami rolled her eyes and focused on what was being said. Kira smiled and said,

  “Because as far as I can tell, the previous Seer was not mated, neither was the one before her. At least that is what Jo said. We need to find out if a Seer has ever been mated and what happened. The Chosen born in April is the historian and spiritual advisor. She or he should be given powers to find the answers that we need. Until then, we have no clue why we are not supposed to mate.”

  Blaine frowned and looked around the table and said, “We cannot do something that will harm the New Council. If the spirits do not want us to fully mate, we have to wait.”

  “That does not help us with the matter at hand. We have to figure out a way to get the hell out of here first. So, any suggestions on what we are supposed to do?” Devon said.

  “Wait until Blaine"s brother"s return. I hope that they will bring people to help us. If not, we are sitting ducks. I think we will have to begin to get things ready in case they decided they are going to try to attack us in the compound.” Darien said and looked around the room.

  They all agreed and started making plans for training. Before they all left the room, Sid pulled Quin and Jaden off to the side and whispered something to them. Quin stepped back in surprise and then nodded.

  Sid and his mates, Devon and Casey stood waiting patiently. They had talked about this before the meeting and Devon had been surprised when he discovered what his mate had to say. After a stern lesson in why they don"t keep things from each other, Devon and Casey encourage Sid to tell the Alphas his secret.

  Chapter 10

  Lacy and her mates ate lunch with the rest of the coven elders while they made plans on how they were going to proceed. Her parents and the elders had come to the decision that her parents and their coven were best served by having a representative move to Colorado with Lacy. According to Sevi and Shawn so far, the town had grown by hundreds when it was announced the New Council was setting up shop there and all shifters were welcome.

  Representatives from many of the shifters had called to ask for permission to join, before this attack, the builders had received many requests from across the country.

  Her parents felt they needed to be the ones who moved. Stepping down as leader to the New Orleans coven, they said that Peter was strong enough now to take over. He would be able to lead the coven and call upon her parents when needed.

  Her parents were taking a more advisory approach. Lacy had been surprised, but when her father mentioned grandkids, she had blushed and looked at her mates who were smiling. She knew there was nothing her parents wanted more than grandkids. They talked about it a lot when she was small. Convinced that her children were going to be the future of the coven. Now she understood why. They would need the guidance her parents could provide. Also, with her mother in the same town, they would have a built in babysitter.

  Thinking about the future when things were so unsettled was crazy, but she could not help herself. She had never been a traveler, never ventured farther than Florida. It seemed like an adventure to move to Colorado. She looked forward to meeting the New Council and all the people the twins talked about. They seemed like it was going to be interesting. Especially the Alpha female. If she was anything like her mates explained, they were going to have a blast together.

  Lacy looked around the room. She had not tho
ught of the phone call she received earlier. They had been so busy planning and preparing, it almost slipped her mind. She thought about her shop, and that is what reminded her. Her employees were more than capable of dealing with anything. In fact, Serena, the woman who was working today, had expressed interest in buying into the store. Lacy did not want to sell the store outright. She wanted to keep the accomplishment. She was going to offer to be a silent partner to Serena. She should be able to handle the guy who called.

  Her coven had given so much to her, she felt sad about leaving. Her mates must have felt her feeling through their bond because they each grabbed her hands and held them tightly. She smiled and looked at them. She needed to feel their connection again. “I wonder if we could have a few minutes alone.” She said and stood up.

  Her parents looked at her in surprise and then her mother said, “When you are done, we have to unbind your father"s powers. Only you and I will be able to do it.” Lacy nodded and pulled her mates up. The rest of the coven leaders smirked when she pulled them quickly through the door leading back to the guest house. She did not care what they thought. She was newly mated, and soon to be going into a dangerous situation. What if something happened to one of her mates? She would be heartbroken.

  In the few hours that she had known them, they had taken a piece of her heart. Love at first sight may be a joke to some people, but for her she knew it was true.

  Sevi and Shawn were her present and future. Without either one of them, she would not be able to go on. They needed to know that before they left. They needed to know that she loved them before they faced the Black witches.

  “Careful, sweetheart.” Sevi said when she stumbled along the path. “I know we were joking about the bubble wrap, but we may have to rethink that. You can trip over a piece of dirt.”