“Well . . . I want to talk to you about Mom.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” Flint focused on not gripping little Milo.
His mother was the acolyte of the most powerful witch in the world. Or as he called her, Aunt Carol. Together they had bound the powers of their children to hide them from the witches. When the war came and the warring coven cursed his father, neither his mother nor his aunt did anything about it. They continued hiding and let his dad wander off into the woods, stuck in his wolf form, his human mind lost. And years later, when their children’s power was unbound, they expected them to welcome the power with open arms.
He hadn’t asked for this power, and he certainly didn’t want it. They could have saved his father, but instead they hid. No, he didn’t want anything to do with magic, if it caused you to turn on the ones you were supposed to love the most.
5
Emma walked slowly around the dot on the floor, her eyes closed, her shoulders relaxed. She’d forgotten to get the energy back she’d shed onto firefighter Larsen. But it didn’t matter. She’d rebuild her energy and try again tomorrow. The weather had broken this morning, and it being a Saturday, she’d decided to walk instead of driving. Now she wished she’d been less energetic this morning. Too late for that now. She’d never seen a cab in the area, and her rideshare app didn’t even register out here. The screen turned a bright red when she tried to open it in Hundsburg.
She tidied up her space, used the little magic she had left to pull the rest of the windows shut, and locked up the old school. The wards back in place, she checked her phone. A bit of guilt tugged at her for not texting Carter to let him know what had happened. But it had all worked out, and she could wait until Monday to tell him.
Outside, the February wind was picking up as the sun set. Cutting through the woods and using the fire station driveway would cut off a sizable chunk of the trip. But running into any of the firefighters didn’t sound like the way she wanted to end her day. Old Emma spent a lot of time going to bars and clubs on the weekend. But this job Carter had offered her was new Emma, and new Emma wasn’t going to fall into old Emma’s habits. She’d lived in Hundsburg for six weeks, and she didn’t have friends in town yet. She’d moved in two weeks before Christmas. And now Groundhog Day had come and gone. It was a little hard to make friends when your boss kept reminding you not to tell anyone what was going on in the building. And the entire town was curious about what was happening in their old school building. The citizens of Hundsburg felt entitlement when it came to the place.
Emma wandered down the street, her cat-shaped backpack over her shoulder. When she was in view of the fire station, she hid behind a telephone pole and peered around it to check their driveway. More often than not lately, there had been an engine sitting in the middle with hoses draped around. Or there were five to seven males crawling around it with polishing cloths.
Emma ducked her head around the pole. The silly engine sat in the middle of the driveway, and there were males on it. Goddess. Not men. Shifter males, with big barrel chests, and muscle on their muscles. She wished she had more power to make herself invisible now or distract them with something. Fortunately, none of them were the ones who’d come into the school house. And she was both relieved and disappointed.
You can do this. She pushed her shoulders back and stepped out in a parade-like forced march, one that said “I’m a boss-ass bitch and you don’t want to talk to me, anyway”. The last time she’d walked by, she’d waved, they’d waved, and that had been it. But now it felt more like an assault.
She let the chant ring. You can do this, you can do this. Right, left, right . . . She kept her head straight.
“Nice night for a walk,” came from the driveway.
She nodded and waved. “Yes. Have a good night.”
“You too.”
She turned toward the voice. A male sat at the end of the truck. He hadn’t been one of the ones to come to the alarm. And he was good-looking. Ten times hotter than her last boyfriend. Fiancé. She’d almost married Sean. Heck, she’d been on her bachelorette party trip when she figured out he’d cheated on her.
The firefighter swung his legs over the side of the truck. Why did all the males working next door have to be so handsome? This guy was calendar ready, but nowhere near as hot as grumpy Mr. Larsen with his brown eyes and dark hair.
“Watch out,” he called to her.
Emma stepped around the fire station sign at the last minute, catching the side of it with her shoulder instead of the middle of her head. “Goddess.” She stopped walking. “Thank you.”
The sandy-blond-haired male had jumped down off the truck and charged her way. “You okay?”
“Ugh. Yes. I’m fine.”
He caught up to her. “Do you want me to take a look at your shoulder?” He stepped closer.
“Uh, no. I’m fine. Clumsy is all.” She put her hand on her shoulder and gritted her teeth. The sign had definitely left a mark. She glared back at the metal thing.
“You sure? I’m an EMT.” He crossed his arms over his barrel chest.
“I’m good. I’ll put some ice on it when I get home.” Emma smiled.
“Okay then, be safe on your way home.” He sauntered to the door of the fire station.
A little piece of her was sorry he hadn’t asked her out, but another part was glad. Because the entire time she would have been thinking about her cranky brown-eyed male. Her? She needed to stop that line of thinking. She glanced back at the station. Was he still there? Maybe she could get her power back from him. Healing the bruise on her shoulder was going to take a bit of power. She might need to resort to ice. Did she even have any ice in her apartment? Heck, did she even have any food?
She waved goodbye to the fire station. The firefighter had disappeared inside. Emma zipped up her coat and put her phone in her pocket. The last thing she needed was to walk into traffic and have the EMTs have to scrape her off the road. Green buds were forming on the trees while piles of snow from the freak snowstorm they’d had a few days ago scattered the ground.
This new chapter in her life was like this seasonal transition. It had taken a long time to get off the ground. Her new boss had offered her the job last June, but then things had taken a while to get going. While she supplied the most important part of the operation, there was a lot more to getting a business up and running, even for a billionaire, apparently. She hadn’t believed how long it took for Carter to round up the programmers. And then to find the right building. He wanted somewhere where there were a lot of paranormal people. What Carter failed to understand was the dynamics between wolf shifters and witches. If he’d found a friendly town full of bears, perhaps they wouldn’t have had to keep things so quiet. But nope, he picked the town where the feud between witches and wolves had reached war proportions so long ago. The place where one coven of witches had become so angry that they took matters into their own hands and outed shifters to the human world. Changing the course of history for everyone.
They’d done it while keeping witches secret. But they’d exposed shifters of all kinds who had to deal with the curiosity and wrath of humans and human governments worldwide. Everyone she’d met in the little town had shown her kindness, but would they after they learned her secret? Firefighter Larsen didn’t seem to want them to know about him. Emma decided that she would follow suit. Besides, Carter didn’t want anyone to find out about their fated mate dating service, anyway.
The walk to the bridge didn’t take long. Cute one-story homes lined the road, some neat and tidy with spring wreaths on their doors, others with Christmas wreaths brown and sagging.
Another few steps and her shoulder started to really hurt. When was the new Emma going to start showing up? Her frustration at herself left her ignoring the scenery and made it impossible to enjoy the day.
No. She shook herself. Stop it.
“Stop what?” A woman pushing a baby carriage and holding a leash to a fuzzy goldendoodle had come up alongside her.
“Oh, I’m not crazy, I was just talking to myself.”
“I do it all the time. But I pretend I’m talking to the baby.” The woman had chestnut hair and a comfortable smile.
“I seem to be without one of those.”
“No worries, you could get a dog.” The young mother smiled at her like a dog would solve all her problems.
“I’m not sure I’m responsible enough for a dog.” Emma laughed, stealing a look at the baby all bundled up in the carriage.
“Well, then definitely don’t get one of these. I thought my dog was my baby before I had a baby.” She laughed. “Vivianne Westbrook. You must be new in town.” She put out her glove-covered hand.
