whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick (35 page)

She’d lost a lot due to her demon gift and people’s opinions about it. She’d lost her job in both Texas and Denver, her daughter, her family. She’d never been offered the communion of coven. Yeah. Being the demon summoner was a lot like being a leper.

His gaze shifted to the landscape beside them.

Dexx crested the hill accompanied by the two mountain lions, the eagle and the hawk.

Where was the owl?

And he was buck-assed naked, too.

Dexx leapt over the fence with an ease that
looked
like Hollywood wirework. He grabbed his pants, the mid-sky sunlight shining on his short, brown hair. His green eyes were narrowed and surly.

She smiled tightly. “Local pack.”

“Got that,” he gritted between his teeth.

“You okay?”

He shrugged one bare, freckled shoulder and zipped up his pants.

A white minivan drove past, swerving a little.

She needed to get the hot naked men off the highway.

“Okay.” Paige returned her attention to the high-alpha. She just needed to ensure she didn’t have a two-front war. “What do you want?”

Wolf-man met her gaze squarely. It had a weight to it. “You tripped our protections.”

She hadn’t felt any, but that did explain why Dexx had been unable to control his shift. “Okay. Great. Now, what?”

He studied Dexx. “The animal spirits have great faith in you.”

“I wouldn’t call it that,” Dexx said low in his throat. “Is that my shirt?”

“I didn’t want his penis talking to drivers,” Paige said. “Okay? You’ll get it back.”

“Where are the keys?”

“In the ignition where you left them.”

He leaned through the wide open window of the Challenger, took the keys, and padded barefoot in the brown grass and weeds to open the trunk.

“Are we clear to go?” Paige returned her attention to Wolf-man. “Or are you here to lay down the rules? Arrest us? Pee on us? I don’t know. What are we doing here?”

“Someone with as much power as he has cannot simply walk unhindered into another pack’s territory.”

“So.” He was more interested in Dexx than her. Interesting. And good. “Pissing. I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of pissing.”

Paige
. Cawli’s voice was dark.

Screw him if he couldn’t take her sarcasm.

A big, blue pick-up truck blew by.

Dexx came back, pulling on a green t-shirt. “I don’t want your territory.”

“But you are planning on staying with this one? She said she is coming home.”

Dexx clucked his tongue. “For a visit. A couple of days.”

Or as long as the war lasted. “What does he have to do to stay?”

“You said a couple of days?”

“Might be a week.” Or until the bodies stopped dropping.

Wolf-man bit the inside of his cheek, studying her with unfocused eyes. “You will both present yourself to the pack. After that, we will decide.”

Paige released a long breath. “I have to ask. Do you have any connection to Portland?”

Wolf-man drew his head up and narrowed his blue eyes. “Yes.”

She took in a tight breath. “The Eastwoods are coming to Texas. So, I don’t know what you gotta do, but be careful.”

The tightness around Wolf-man’s eyes lessened. “Thank you, but are already aware. They are here for other reasons. Be calm. They do not know you have broken the treaty.”

Saliva swarmed her mouth. Wow. Great. Shit. Relief swept through her. They were safe?

“We will keep this information within the safety of trusted circles.”

Even trusted circles had leaks, and she was fairly confident she had a demon intent on restarting the war.

“His message was intercepted.”

Fucking telepaths. Even if he was just good at reading her face, his response to her unintended non-verbal was damned eerie. “Fine. Where do we meet? How do we get a hold of you?”

He glanced down at the mottled wolf beside him. “Can we approach your house?”

Probably a bad idea since she hadn’t told Grandma Alma, but what choice did she have? She’d broken the treaty. She couldn’t treat the shifters like
they
were the ones doing wrong. She’d tell Alma and make it right. “You may.”

“We will send an invitation via messenger, then.”

With the Eastwoods…in town. What could go wrong? “Okay.”

He quirked his lips and handed her back Dexx’s shirt.

Dexx stiffened beside her.

“You are not what I had thought you would be.”

It was still too early to tell with him. Spending time with the shifters at Nederland, she’d discovered shifters were just people. Like everyone else. “Good or bad?”

“Undetermined.”

“Fair answer.”

He stepped back, the weeds doing nothing to hide his male pride. “Until we meet again.”

She nodded curtly.

He shifted back into the form of a wolf, the morph smooth and apparently painless. He leapt over the fence, barking once. The pack followed and disappeared over the hill.

Paige swallowed. So, this was the new normal. Awesome. She hit Dexx on the arm. “I have to pee.”

He glared, grabbing his boots on the way around Jackie’s hood. “Burn that shirt.”

SM Blooding lives in Colorado with Mr. Dork and his two adorable daughters, Thing 1 and Thing 2. Between yarn projects, building forts, creating jellyfish cities, helping other authors, and following behind Mr. Dork to close his doors for him, she does a fairly decent job of staying out of trouble.

She’s dated vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, weapons smugglers and US Government assassins. Yes. She has stories.

Find out more about at:
www.smblooding.co

She’s also an investigator with a local paranormal investigation group, Colorado Paranormal Rescue!

Find out more at:

www.coloradoparanormalrescue.org