Cursed Wolf

“Are you ready?” the text read on Heather’s phone.

It had come from an unknown number, and she squinted at the text, trying to decipher if it was spam selling energy pills or cryptocurrency.

“Sorry, this is Luna. LOL.”

“Oh. Hi Luna,” she typed. “Ready for what?”

“Ready to meet the coven?”

“Do you really call yourselves a coven?”

“A bit too on the nose? LOL.”

“Maybe a bit. But who am I to judge? When can I meet them?”

“How soon can you come over?”

“Can I bring my daughter?”

“If you want her to know magic is real. To be honest, we have policies about showing humans our powers. It’s a whole thing. But since you are Thorne’s mate, we can make an exception.”

“I told my grandmother already.”

There was a long pause where there was no activity in the chat bar. Heather bit her l!p, thinking she’d really screwed up already. Or maybe they didn’t want anyone to know because they needed to brainwash people into a cult to convince them it was real. She’d heard about that sort of thing in college. Luna didn’t seem to be the cult type. But who did, really?

“That’s fine. Just don’t share it with anyone else outside your closest family.”

“I can do that. I’ll be over in about half an hour with my four-year-old, Maggie.”

“See you then!”

Heather clicked off her phone and sighed, sliding it into her back pocket. She had been washing the breakfast dishes before she’d heard the phone notification. There were only a few more dishes to wash and rinse before she was done. She finished up her chore and went to find Maggie in the living room watching cartoons on TV.

“Do you want to go for a drive? We’re going to meet some new friends.”

“Yay!” Maggie said, her curls bouncing. She jumped to her feet and ran to the front door to grab her boots.

Heather helped her daughter lace and tie her shoes before sliding her arms into her coat and zipping it up. When they were both warm and ready, they hurried outside to the car.

With Maggie buckled in her car seat, she started off through town toward New Moon Books. Anxiety played with her brain and her heart thumped in her chest. What was she walking into? Maybe she should have left Maggie with Gran. But she was already asking Gran to watch her for so many extra hours so she could spend time with Thorne—it didn’t seem right to ask her for even more. Besides, they were just going over to a local bookstore she’d been to a million times before.

After Luna showed them whatever she had to show, she’d take Maggie for a quick bite at River’s Bakery, get a coffee and go across the street to the park. There was a nice little playground there that they hadn’t been to in a while. It was important for her to maintain quality time with her child, especially now that dating was taking even more of her already stretched time.

She parked in front of New Moon Books and helped Maggie out of the car. She could see through the front windows of the bookstore that it was full of a bunch of people milling around. It still wasn’t tourist season, so she had to assume the crowd was the so-called coven.

Heather took Maggie’s hand and they walked into the bookstore. As soon as Luna saw them, she squealed with delight and trotted over to them, her long blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders.

“Heather. I’m so glad you’ve come. And this must be Maggie! What a beauty you are.”

“Hi,” Maggie said with a shy smile.

“I’m Luna. This is my shop. Guess what?”

“What?” Maggie asked.

“I’m going to have a baby this winter. And I hope she’s half as pretty as you.”

Luna smiled up at Heather as she stood to her full height.

“Congratulations,” Heather said, taken off guard.

She felt a pang of jealousy. Luna seemed so happy, so content. All the things Heather had believed herself to be until a few days ago, before joining mate.com and meeting Thorne.

She knew that she wanted love in her life. She wanted a bigger family, more children, and a man to share all the joy with. If she could just settle this big gnawing question, she might be able to allow herself to move forward with the fierce wolf she was slowly falling for.

“We have an amazing selection of children’s books. Would you like to see them?”

Maggie nodded her head in agreement and Luna reached out to take her hand.

“Is it okay?” she asked Heather.

“Yes. Good idea.”

Luna led Maggie to a brightly colored corner with a few toys, a rocking chair and some bean bags, hemmed in by an L-shaped bookshelf full of picture books.

“I just got this one in. It’s about a little girl almost as cute as you.” Luna handed the book to Maggie, who settled into the beanbag to read it.

“Will you be okay here for a few minutes?” Heather asked her daughter.

“Mm-hm.” Maggie nodded.

Heather turned to Luna with expectation in her eyes. “Okay. Show me what you’ve got.”

“Come.”

This time Luna took Heather’s hand and led her back into the main section of the bookstore. The rest of the people, who she hadn’t really had a chance to take in yet, were gathered around the round table right inside the front door. It was covered with the latest hardback bestsellers.

Heather took in the crowd. They spanned all ages, races and genders, each remarkable in their own way. There was an elderly lady in a wheelchair flanked by a beautiful brunette woman and a tall, native American man with long brown hair, broad shoulders and graceful eyes.

The group closed their eyes, and the old lady began to chant softly below her breath. The others started the same chant, including Luna. Heather felt like she was watching something out of a bad TV show and narrowed her eyes at the strange behavior.

Suddenly, the table in the center of their circle began to rise slowly off the floor. Heather gasped and took a step back, bumping into a bookshelf. It sent several paperbacks tumbling onto the ground.

“What the…” Heather gasped.

The table began to rise higher as the pace of the chant increased. Finally, the table came back down with a clatter and some of the books fell to the floor. Heather shrieked and Maggie came trotting over.

“What happened?” she asked, tugging on her mother’s hand. Heather picked her up and rested her on her h*p, rubbing the child’s back for comfort.

“It was nothing, sweetie. Why don’t you go finish your book while I help Luna?”

“Okay, Mommy.”

Maggie slid down to her feet and toddled back to her beanbag around the corner.

“That was quite the display,” she said, bending over to pick up James Patterson’s latest thriller. She placed the book on the table and then bent down to inspect the table, checking it for wires or strings. She waved her hand around and over the table, finding nothing.

“We have one more for you,” Luna said, as an old Asian man walked toward her, his eyes bright with inner fire. He held a piece of newspaper between his hands.

“Look,” was all he said, showing her the paper.

She saw the concentration and effort running through his form and down his arms and through his eyes. A stream of smoke came from the newspaper. Her eyes widened. Without warning, the paper burst into flames, turned to ash and disappeared.

“Oh my God,” she said, gasping for breath and backing into the same bookshelf for the second time.

“I’m afraid that’s all we’ve got for you today,” Luna said, giving the coven a sly smile.

“I have no idea what to say.” Heather stumbled over her words.

“If that doesn’t convince you, I’m not sure what will.”

“Mommy, can we get a donut?” Maggie asked, walking around the corner.

“Sure, sweetie. Do you want to buy that book?”

“Yes!” Maggie bounced on her feet and ran back to get the book for her mother to purchase.

As they headed out of the store, Heather was still not sure what she’d just seen. It could have all been sleight of hand. Some kind of magic trick like on TV. The whole point of those tricks was that they distracted you so you couldn’t figure out how it worked.

She thought of all the people in that room. The old woman in the wheelchair, the old man with the newspaper. They didn’t seem like typical stage magicians from Las Vegas. They all seemed as genuine as Luna. It was hard to believe any of those people were purposefully tricking her. And why would they want to?

She and Maggie walked into the bakery and up to the counter where they ordered blueberry muffins, a smoothie for Maggie, and a latte for Heather.

They took a seat by the window and looked outside at the brightening day. Maggie was overjoyed to have an outing with her mom and raved about the muffin. Heather had to admit, the muffin was delicious. She sipped her coffee, enjoying the bitter, creamy flavor, thinking about what had just transpired next door.

What exactly had she seen? Was it really magic or just a trick? She still didn’t know. So how was she supposed to decide if Thorne was telling the truth or not?

She took another sip of coffee and watched her daughter enthusiastically devour her treat. Sunlight streamed through the window and over their table. It warmed her face and hands, making her feel relaxed.

She had to decide what she was going to do about Thorne. She had to get her mind in order to make a good decision. The truth was, she had no logical explanation as to why he or Luna or anyone else would go out of their way to fool her into believing any of this.

Mate.com had such a solid reputation, she had to believe that Thorne was truly her mate. Given that reality, she also had to give him the benefit of the doubt in everything else. Having a shifter fated mate was a big deal. It meant something. Even for a human. Humans didn’t have the kind of instinct that shifters had, but most of them had the same desire to have a happily ever after with the perfect person. She knew she did.

After they were finished eating their snack, she took Maggie across the street to the park to play at the playground. There was a wonderfully maintained jungle gym and children from the ages of one to twelve were playing happily on the equipment while their mothers looked on.

She pushed Maggie on a swing, loving the sound of her daughter’s squeals of delight as she kicked her legs and tried to reach the sky. She thought about what it would be like to bring Thorne on one of their little outings.

At first it seemed like it would be ridiculous, but the more she fantasized about having him here with her and Maggie, the more perfect it seemed. He might have a rough exterior but that was only skin deep. Underneath his fierceness was a man who took care of himself and his home. A man who was open to new things. A man who wanted nothing more than to take care of her and to love her. How could any of that be wrong?

Heather decided then and there that she would allow Thorne into her heart. She’d believe the things he told her about his life and stop questioning everything. She wanted to protect her daughter but walling herself off from love wasn’t the way to go about doing it.