† Maddock †

“What did you do to her?” The young female pup screamed as she reached for the delicious smelling woman that slumped forward.

Mine. My wolf snarled as I caught her, dropping to the floor while supporting her mass of silky brown hair in my hand so her head didn’t hit the ground.

Without thinking, I pulled the woman to my lap and growled at the pup. “Mine.”

“Let go of my sister,” she shrieked, tugging on her arm. “And where are your freaking clothes?”

Clothes? I blinked. My wolf was too close to the surface and fighting for control. It was hard to focus on anything else but the delicate woman and the way she smelled. Her soft body was pressed against mine. I listened to her heart beat that sounded so strong, wondering what happened. One minute I was drowning in her eyes and the next she was out like a light as she fought a powerful burst of magic.

I sniffed her hair, breathing in her essence, and tried to detect if a sickness lingered. The spice of cinnamon was there again mixed with the smoky aroma of roasted acorns. Maybe there was a faint hint of brown sugar. Gods, she smelled so good.

But there was no illness to the scent. It was healthy and brimming with earthly magic. The sharp tingle was unique and only accompanied

those who could wield it. A witch.

My witch. He growled as we snatched the woman from the pup and rose to stand with her in our arms.

“Calm down big boy.” The pup jumped to her feet, raising her hands in the air. “You speak English, right? That’s my sister Sage and when she

wakes up to find herself in some naked man’s arms then she’s going to black out again if she doesn’t kill you first.”

Sage. The name was beautiful, soft like the woman against my chest. Though she didn’t smell like herbs or flowers like most females I’d

met. She smelled like home. Like a warm meal. One good enough to eat for the rest of my life.

I looked to Lennox and the shifter shrugged, baring his neck to show he meant no disrespect. “I’d say the pup is right.”

Snarling at him, I turned to leave and came face to face with Kera. “Uncle Maddock, you might want to put the woman down.” Kera

grimaced, looking past me to the newcomer pup. “She’s about to tackle you.”

Sure enough, the young pup was adopting a fighting stance. I cocked my head to the side, waiting for her to shift, but she only huffed as she marched over and stood in front of me.

“Leave us, pup,” I commanded.

“Not a chance.” She straightened her shoulders. “And my name is Coral, not pup. Now put my sister down.”

She’s mine. He was pacing inside and trying to break free so he could fight off the ones who wanted to take this woman away from us. It was a losing battle, not with the pups or Lennox, but with my wolf.

I had to get a handle on this situation before it got out of control. “Lennox, get us a room.”

My wolf howled in protest, snapping at the shifter who pulled a key from the desk and hurried up the staircase. He didn’t want her anywhere in this building with an unmated male.

Take her to our den. I’ll keep her safe.

“You are not taking her anywhere.” Coral rushed forward, blocking my path.

I growled.

“Uncle Maddock, are you okay? You’re kind of worrying me here.” Kera moved beside the pup.

The girls turned to each other, sharing the same confused expression.

Speaking was hard, but I tried to do it anyway. “She needs to lay down somewhere comfortable.”

“Okay but you’re not staying in the room with her.” Coral looked to Kera for support.

My niece nodded. “Let’s get you two ladies settled into a room together and then maybe get the healer to come check her out.”

At the mention of the healer, my wolf snarled again. Dillion was also an unmated male.

“She doesn’t need to be healed,” Coral said. “Can you make sure he doesn’t do anything with her for a second? I have to grab some of our

bags.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Kera called after the pup as she dashed out of the lobby and onto the sidewalk.

I stood frozen on the first step, needing to hear the answer. There was so much I wanted to know about this beautiful sleeping witch in my arms.

“There is nothing wrong with my sister.” Coral came running into the lobby with a backpack and a suitcase. “She just needs her oils.”

*

By some miracle, I managed to lay her on the bed and then wrestle my wolf outside of the room. I paced the hallway as my thoughts raced and the wolf continued to howl in my mind.

“You might want to take a breath, Uncle.” Kera chuckled as she draped her long arms over her naked legs.

“And you might want to shift back or go find some damn clothes,” I muttered.

Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue. But my wolf was now fully aware of every unmated male shifter in this Gods-forsaken town and Lennox who owned this inn was too close for comfort even though he’d returned downstairs.

“Seriously?” Kera rolled her eyes. “I thought that people got less grumpy when they find their fated mates.”

Mate. Our mate. How was this possible?

The lock on the door to the bedroom slid open and I stopped pacing as the smell of cinnamon drifted into the hall. “How is she?”

“She’ll be up in a few minutes. It doesn’t take that long for her to

come back.” Coral frowned, closing the door, and lowered her face like she shouldn’t have said anything.

I didn’t want secrets. I wanted to know more. “I should go see her.”

My mate’s sister grabbed my arm and I growled. She held a latent shifter strength, less wolf and more human, but the wolf was there, somewhere. It smelled like she was pack.

“Know your place, pup,” I tried to connect with her through the pack link, but she didn’t understand.

She stared at me with fire in her eyes. The same fire that Sage carried.

My mate is a fighter. My wolf swelled with pride. She’d gone down fighting whatever spell that was as she tried to protect the pup. I shook my head, trying to regain control. If Sage felt so strongly for the girl, then pack or not, she was family too.

And something was wrong with her wolf. “You haven’t shifted yet, have you?”

Coral dropped her hand from my arm and took a step back. “What exactly is a shift?”

“Oh, you are missing out.” Kera came to stand beside us. “We’ll teach you all about it, but first, can you tell us what happened to my uncle’s mate before he has an aneurism?”

“Mate?” Coral shook her head. “I’m not following here.”

“You don’t even know about mates.” Kera’s jaw dropped. “What do the purists call it when you find your destined partner?”

“Um, dating?” She looked up at me. “Maybe you should ask her first before you decide she’s your girlfriend or whatever.”

Kera stepped in as I started growling. “Yeah, that’s not how it works with shifters. We’re going to have to catch you guys up in a hurry, but why did she drop like that?”

“It’s a weird thing,” Coral lowered her eyes as she explained. “Normally she can keep her emotions in check, but sometimes, and it’s super rare, she gets overwhelmed and just sort of shuts down. It’s kind of like a mini-seizure and she blacks out. She hasn’t had one happen in years though.”

“Well, she’s a witch and they can be unpredictable.” Kera shrugged it

off.

I felt Coral’s righteous anger as if it were my own when she stepped

into Kera’s space.

“You don’t know a damn thing about Sage. My sister is a normal person and there is nothing wrong with her.” The pup was shaking as she spoke.

“It’s my fault we had to leave. I’m the one with impure DNA. Sage is different but that’s just because she’s stronger than everyone else. This was all too much and growly mate-man over here wasn’t helping the situation. I made her come when we didn’t even know if we’d survive the trip and now we are standing in a place that shouldn’t exist.”

“And why did you come?” Kera rose to the threat. The alpha in her wolf wouldn’t submit from the challenge as she issued a command for an answer.

I’d remind her to rein it in if I wasn’t hanging on every word to find out more about the woman on the other side of the closed door.

Both pups ignored me anyway as they stared each other down.

Lennox decided to grace us with his unwanted presence at that very moment, breaking the tension as Coral looked to him. In a split decision,

she moved closer to Kera, deciding to trust my niece.

“Is that guy cool? My sister didn’t seem to like him,” she whispered. My wolf hummed with satisfaction for Sage and her keen insight.

While Lennox wasn’t normally a shit bag, tensions in the pack were growing stronger as of late. It didn’t help that my wolf decided to hate him now that he was in the vicinity of his mate.

Kera relaxed and draped her arm over the pup’s shoulder. “Shifters can hear you when you whisper.”

Coral’s cheeks reddened as she nodded. “I really do have a lot to learn. But to answer your question, my father left instructions to come here if they ever found out about my blood.”

Lennox snorted and Kera glared at him.

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” he drawled, looking Kera’s naked form over with a mischievous grin. “Never mind. It seems you aren’t wearing any.”

“Respect your future Alpha,” I growled, ready to knock him out cold in the hall.

“Apologies, Enforcer.” Lennox bared his neck as the playful humor fell from his face. “I came to see if you’d asked the pup what her mother’s name is yet.”

“Whose mother’s name?” Kera and Coral asked as one, standing by each other’s side in some weird sort of truce they’d fallen into.

I narrowed my gaze on the latent wolf. “What is your mother’s name?”

“Melinda Cerberus,” she said slowly, mirroring my confusion. “Is that a problem?”

My blood ran cold as I heard the name we hadn’t spoken aloud in years. Like a punch to the gut, the memories came rushing back. I saw it then. The young girl who’d left twenty years ago when we were all pups ourselves. How had I not noticed the similarities?

My wolf growled. He didn’t want to stare at this female. “This is crazy.” Kera shook her head. “We can’t tell him.”

“Him, who? And tell him what?” Coral asked, not missing a beat. “The women are welcome to stay here as long as they desire.”

Lennox chuckled. “And I will provide protection if needed, but our illustrious Alpha will have to be informed of the situation.”

She is mine to protect. My wolf surged to the surface at Lennox’s bold tone and wanted to rip out his throat.

Lennox took a step back, baring his neck again. “Unless you have a better solution, Enforcer.”

“I’ll take care of it.” That was all there was to it. Apollo was not going to touch my mate or her sister by extension of my protection. “And they aren’t staying here.”

“Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?” Coral stomped her foot against the floor. The wolf in her wanted out.

“Your mom was fated to the Alpha, but she rejected him and left when they were young. He’s never been the same since.” Kera shrugged, leaving out the worst of the details.

“That’s one way to put it.” Lennox huffed.

Coral was smart enough to realize that there was more to this than

she was being told. “That doesn’t sound good. Sage will never let me stay if there is going to be some kind of problem and there’s no way I can go back to Ethica.”

“There will be no problem,” I reassured her. My word was my bond.

Apollo would not be an issue.

I’ll kill him if he is.

“Do you want to go back?” Kera asked.

The latent pup’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to, but I couldn’t even if I did. We didn’t know the forcefield around the outskirts kept out anyone with blood like mine. They always said it was there to protect the Fringes and city from monsters. That means me too. I can try to convince Sage to go back if we aren’t welcome here, but is there anywhere else I can go to learn about this?”

She looked to her hands like it was the first time she was seeing

them.

“You are not a monster,” I told the pup, trying to ignore the howling

wolf in my ears that would not allow Sage to go back to that city with the purists where she’d be out of our sight and protection.

She won’t leave her sister, I tried to quiet him. But he was anxious and pacing.

“Your place is here with us. We’re your pack.” Kera eyed me curiously as she pulled Coral to her side. “We’ll figure everything out.”

“Soon, I hope.” Lennox leaned against the wall, tapping his nails

across his chest as he smiled at the girls. “Our Alpha doesn’t like to be kept waiting and it’s been a long time since he had any real reason to lash out.”

My wolf growled at Lennox, urging him to stand down.

“Enough,” I commanded. My head was spinning with this crazy beast who wanted control and for the first time in my life, I had no clue what would happen if I let him out.

I’d go lay down with her and take a nap.

Shifting wasn’t an option.

“Is this Alpha super important? I’m assuming he’s like your mayor or something,” Coral whispered, looking over her shoulder at the closed door. She turned back to me with pleading eyes. “If you’re sure this won’t be a problem, then you can’t tell Sage. She will freak out over anything she thinks might hurt me even if it’s not a big deal.”

“You are under my protection,” I assured her again, making no

promises to hide anything from my mate. But if what the pup said was true, I’d wait until I could show her myself that she was safe with me.

My mate.

I had a mate.

“My dad is the Alpha and he’s an asshole, but even he isn’t stupid enough to cross Maddock.” Kera nudged Coral’s shoulder. “He can wait until we get you settled in before we go talk to him.”

Lennox laughed at Kera’s blatant admission about the Alpha. “Like I said, you don’t have to go anywhere. You girls are welcome to stay with me for as long as you like.” He turned to wink at Coral. “It’s nice to smell unmated females in here again.”

My vision darkened as my wolf surged forward. I snarled at Lennox, closing the distance between us, and wrapped my hand around his neck.

“Not your mate, I was teasing the pup,” he sputtered, clawing at my

arm.

“Coral, get back here.” The soft hum of Sage’s voice reached my

ears, quieting my wolf and anger in an instant. I’d never much liked when people spoke, but this was a sound I wanted to hear more of.

I released Lennox and ran my hand over my hair as a new thought entered my mind. What if she doesn’t like me?

Nonsense. My wolf puffed out his chest. I was a full-grown shifter

male.

Lennox gave a confused smile as he watched the expression change

on my face. I shoved him back and took a deep breath before turning to my mate.

The fighter witch that fate had destined for me alone stood with her arms outstretched in front of the latent pup and my niece. Coral was rolling her eyes with a dramatic sigh, but the playful grin on Kera’s face told me

she was loving this.

Sage pushed them back, trying to shield them with her body even though she was a few inches shorter than both of them. “Whatever you were about to do, take it outside and away from the girls.”

Was that an alpha command? I cocked my head to the side and my wolf did the same, but it was his tongue hanging out as our eyes roamed over her body.

We didn’t get the chance to appreciate her before since we’d kept her pressed against our chest, but now she stood in a full powerful display of protective dominance.

Her long brown hair was mused up on the side from the time she’d spent recovering in bed and the sight of it in disarray like that sent a pool of

heat straight to my groin. She glanced over her shoulder, checking on the pups, and showing off a defined profile of her plump bottom lip and

delicate chin. Her slender neck called to me, waiting for my teeth to sink into it.

The thin shirt that dipped down to her breastbone and left a small bit of skin exposed above her pants was begging to be ripped off. My gaze racked across her curves, leading to wide hips.

Breeding hips. My wolf growled in appreciation. Her pants tapered down to slight ankles tucked into running shoes. She was perfection.

I wiped the drool from my lips as my wolf barked excitedly and coughed to clear my throat.

Her honey brown eyes flaming with anger turned toward my face and our gaze locked on each other, sending vibrations down my spine.

Oh fate, you did right by me.