When the Starrs Align (6 page)

“Is Theo at home?” She hadn’t seen Lisabeth’s husband since she’d been back, and according to Chance and Warrick, their father had been doing council business up north.

“No.” Lisabeth continued until they reached the kitchen. “Would you like some tea?”

“Meaning sweet tea?”

“You have lived away from town for a while, haven’t you?” Lisabeth smiled, a genuine expression that faded as she studied Regan. “Yes, you’ve grown up. Changed into a young woman overnight.”

Overnight? Try ten long years
. Regan kept her cool. “Yes, and I’m back to stay.” Saying it again made it sound real.

“Of course you are.” Lisabeth sighed and circled her pointer finger. Two glasses of iced tea appeared, one before Regan and the other for her. “Let’s get down to brass tacks then. My sons need a familiar, and we both know you’re it.”

“I, ah…”

“We also both know why the stubborn brats won’t take a wife, a lover or a third to tie to their sides during the ceremony.”

“We do?”

“They’re still in love with you.”

Regan choked on her tea.

“I know. You’re totally unsuitable. A mongrel—”

“Hey!”

“Feline, forgive me. But you’re spotty at best as a witch. Lord knows your father has a deep well of magic, but your mother’s power blocks it. Tainted the Riley lines, unfortunately. Too bad, because you could produce amazing offspring if you could harness that latent witch inside you.” Her eyes narrowed. “How are they doing?”
They
meaning her sons.

Regan wanted to tell the snot to mind her own business, but Warrick and Chance
were
her business. “They’re getting better at being stronger. They’re already amazing, but they’re just a bit off. I can’t explain it.”

“You don’t need to. Candace seems to think all this talk of protection and strength is unnecessary. That their Becoming will be nothing more than a tradition we follow to satisfy convention. What do you think?”

“That the power they wield…during a true blood moon…it’s enough to call down every death mage, vampire and demon with a blood diet who’s passing by. And all the Darkton strongholds won’t stand if Chance and Warrick can’t link and shield themselves and the town.”

“Yes, exactly.” Lisabeth blew out a frustrated breath. “You have to help them.”

“I’m trying.”

“Yes, yes. But you’re not trying hard enough. Do you love them?”

Regan froze. She’d had a crush on the twins forever, one that had been hard to ignore, but she had. Until she’d returned to town and experienced their passion and excitement, bringing her to life once more. She was attracted, enthralled and had a bordering-on-compulsive need to touch them when near. Just to feel them on her skin, to scent mark them as hers.

Oh hell.
As hers
?

“You do. Wonderful.” Lisabeth sighed. “My grandchildren will be kittens, that’s if the boys live long enough to give me any.”

“Whoa. Hold on there, Lisabeth. Where are you getting all this?”

“Fact—my sons have been obsessed with you since the first moment they saw you. Your father knew, as did I. But I had hopes they’d find someone different.”

Like a slap in the face. “Gee, thanks.”

“But then I realised they get their stubbornness from me. I too married beneath me.”

Her poor husband.

“But Theo is my everything,” Lisabeth said simply, and Regan found it hard to loathe a woman so in love with her family. “So if I could fall and find a modicum of success and happiness, I suppose my sons can as well. It’s not as if they’re normal, the two of them sharing the same woman. But we’re mages. We do as we like.”

“Are you giving me the green light with your sons? Is that what this is?”

“Pretty, but a bit dense. Let’s hope your children have my sons’ intelligence.”

“Look, Lisabeth, while I appreciate the sudden acceptance, you’re moving a little fast here. The guys never once said anything about love.”

“And you have?”

“Hell no. I just got back to town a week ago. I haven’t seen Chance or Warrick in ten years until now.” Yet she knew, deep down, that she loved them. And that scared her.

“My sons have been looking for you since you left. Now that they’ve found you, they’ll try to reel you in like a fish on a hook. Slowly. They won’t want to startle you into fleeing. And they certainly won’t do anything to put you in harm’s way.”

“I know.”

“So you have to be the one to make it happen. They have a chance with you. Your magic fits theirs. Perhaps because you too were born on a blood moon. Or maybe it’s fated. Either way, you have to be strong enough to support them. And I don’t mean by cheering them on from the sidelines. If you’re strong enough to think you can claim my sons, then you need to prove it.”

“How?”

“Take them as mates. You’re a shifter. That’s how your kind claims a partner, correct?”

“Well, er, I guess.” She hadn’t thought about taking a mate yet. She’d just turned twenty-six and hadn’t seen more than a small bit of Washington. She’d planned to travel and live a little first. But to think of leaving Warrick or Chance behind hurt her deep inside.

“Once you take them into your heart, your magic will do the rest. They’ll link through you to the Great Mother. For all that you animal types are lacking in
real
magic, your earth power is quite strong.”

A backhanded compliment, but she’d take what she could get. “Thanks, I think.”

“There’s not a lot of time left. A week at most. But you three will need to be joined as one before the ceremony. Go on.” Lisabeth actually shooed Regan from the room.

“I’m not just a cat, you know.”

“Yes, yes. You’re amazing. Incredibly talented. Smart, pretty. I’ve heard it all from Warrick and Chance through the years. Enough already.”

Her ears burning, Regan left with light-hearted steps she had no business taking. Committing herself to the Starrs would be a lifelong undertaking. No going back. No second chances.

Yet hadn’t this been one big second chance? Her father ordering her to come home, giving her a shot at the boys who’d captivated her as youths and who enthralled her as men? She’d seen better-looking men. Met a few powerful, corporate types. But no one had ever challenged the whole of her like Warrick and Chance. No one made her laugh, or cry, like those two.

And no one treated her like a rare gift the way they had this past week. Chance had cooked her favourite meals, Warrick had given chase, nearly catching her a time or two—completely ensnaring her inner feline. Because her cat loved being chased by a worthy adversary, then liked to turn the tables and hunt for real prey.

Both men loved her looks as human and feline, and Warrick had his own magic touch when he scratched her behind her ears and made her purr. Then when she’d turn human and he’d smile and move between her legs…

She shivered and continued on, to her father’s house first. He had planned to go home after she left him at the gallery. She wanted to tell him her decision, needing his support. As she hurried, she thought about how Chance had given her flowers just last night before bed, thanking her with his whole heart for being with them, for taking a ‘Chance’. Then he’d kissed her and made her forget her own name.

She reached her father’s house in record time and entered without knocking. But she came to a standstill when she saw him surrounded by a dozen single women looking none too happy.

“Oh good. You’re home.” Her father smiled, but she saw tension around his mouth. He walked to her in two strides and whispered, “Your competition wants a word with you. I suggest you take this outside. I fear for my artwork.”

“Oh boy.”

“And before I run away like a little boy cowering from mean witches, I want you to know I’m with you, honey. Whatever you decide to do. They’re good boys.
Both
of them.”

She flushed. He knew. But she saw his pleasure, his acceptance, and she kissed him on the cheek before taking a step back. “Thanks, Dad.”

He left her, and she turned to see Candace leading the pack—like ravaging dogs eyeing her like a tasty piece of meat.

“We have a bone to pick with you,” Candace announced in a haughty voice, as if reading her mind.

“I don’t have time right now. But if you all would meet me in a few days, I’m sure I can fit you in to my schedule.”

Candace seemed taken aback. “Ah, well, that’s…not convenient for us.” The others behind her nodded.

“We know you’re trying to sink your hooks into Warrick and Chance,” Sue chimed in. “But we’d appreciate it if you would stop distracting them. They have to be ready for the ceremony next Friday. And we need their power to protect us more than you know.”

“So this is really about the town’s best interest, and not so that you witches”—she
so
wanted to say
bitches
—“can get your own claws into the Starrs?”

Sue turned red. “That’s beside the point. Warrick and Chance have a duty to us. And to continue their line, they need a strong witch to ground them. No offence, Regan. But you’re powerless. We don’t mind you living here, but trying to be with the twins…you’d be diluting the Starrs’ core and we can’t have that.”

“They mean a lot to the town,” Maggie agreed. The others behind her agreed.

Great. Now I not only have to convince the guys to take me on, I have to deal with this nonsense too.
“Oh hell. I really don’t have time for this. If you guys care about the twins as much as you say you do, then you want them to live through the rite of the blood moon. To do that, they need to centre their power. Hence, I’m helping them as a temporary familiar.”
And soon as a more permanent mate.
“So the more time I spend yakking with you, the less I’m helping them bond with one another and with the Great Mother. Do you think we can talk about your petty jealousies later?”

Much talking, some snide remarks, then a flutter or two of power lit up the room.

She’d had enough. “Anyone want to take this outside?”

Candace led the way.

Chapter Five

Chance and Warrick looked at the time, then back to each other. Regan had been gone for the better part of the morning and afternoon. She’d mentioned she planned to go for a walk, but she should have returned hours ago.

“I’ll look for her.” Chance stood, and Warrick saw the worry he tried to hide. And not just because Regan had been gone for a while.

“We’re getting stronger with her help.”

“But not strong enough for the ceremony. I don’t know, Warrick. I think… I think maybe Mom was right. That we need a third to ground us. But I can’t make myself even think about asking Regan to do that.”

“No,” Warrick agreed. “She can’t be in that kind of danger. If I’m right, the portal to the beyond is going to be too hard to handle. With all that power under the blood moon, we’ll have to work hard not only to control it, but to deal with the vamps sure to come calling. And they won’t attack the others until they take us on first.”

Their blood would burn bright under the sacred moon, a lure to any vamp or blood drinker out there. When their Becoming made them rich and thick with energy siphoned from the earth. Under the glow of the blood moon, they’d become a beacon to supernatural predators—the ultimate prey that if ingested, would make the consumer ultra-strong. Forever.

To put Regan in the middle of that didn’t bear thinking. Yet the idea of having her with them, bonded as one, made Warrick long for the impossible. Her week with them had been the best in his life. With Regan around, he and Chance fought with each other less. They focused more on their magic, able to control it better and better. And the nights with their sexy kitty… He loved going down on her. Loved the enjoyment she took from sharing and giving.

He had a thing for her, an emotional trip he couldn’t seem to stop himself from taking.

“I think I love her,” he confessed in a whisper.

Chance stepped closer to him, and they stared into each other’s eyes. “I know I love her.
We
love her.”

Their soul needed hers to be complete.

“After the Becoming. Then we’ll offer for her?” Warrick asked, praying they’d live long enough to make that happen.

Chance smiled and gripped his arms. “Definitely. Just let me do the talking.”

Warrick laughed and hugged his twin, reassured by that burst of power that called them as one, especially when they stood so close.

He pulled back. “Now let’s find her before we—”

The door slammed, cutting him off. Regan stalked into the room looking as if she’d been hit by a five-ton. Her hair stood up in places. She had a fat lip, a bruise along her cheekbone and scratches on her hands. Her shirt had been ripped, and dirt stains covered her jeans.

“What the hell…?” Chance stared. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”

“No. I am
not
okay.”

She seemed more angry than upset or hurt, so Warrick remained silent, watchful.

To his delight and astonishment, she started undressing, flinging her clothes everywhere.

He and Chance exchanged a look, and he said telepathically, “
No way in hell I’m stopping this.”

“No, no. Let’s let this play out. Man, she is fucking hot.”
Chance’s gaze was glued to Regan.

When she’d stripped down to nothing and smoothed down her hair, she crooked her finger at them. “I’m done waiting. I’m not one for games, and I’m not a patient person by nature. I’m actually quite shy.”

Warrick nearly choked on that one.

“But it’s time. Come here. I’m taking you two to mate.”

Chance and he took a step forward before what she said resonated. “Wait a minute.
What?
”

Chance frowned. “We’re not shifters. We don’t mate. Now, I’m fine with marrying you and bonding our magic, but that’s going to have to wait until after—”

“Nope. Now. I made up my mind.”

“Oh?” Chance used the tone that told Warrick his brother intended to dig in his heels.

“Yep. It’s time I bullied you two. Now, this is how it’s gonna go down.” She licked her lips and touched her nipples, and Warrick’s cock turned from semi-aroused to rock hard in a heartbeat. “I’m horny, pissed off at your groupies, and I want what’s mine.”