Prologue
The smell of bacon wafts through the cabin, making my lips curve up in satisfaction as I wake. Someone is cooking in the kitchen and though this is the morning I’ve been fretting about for two weeks, I can’t help but feel energized. Our dual families have been working hard to prepare for these journeys, even the stubbornly asshole-ish ancients. Everything we could need to cover was planned for, and then re-confirmed, so neither my sister nor I would have more to stress about.
This is the first time we’ve ever been separated for more than a night, and it’s making us both crazy.
I head to the bathroom, letting my brain wake up at its own pace while I ruminate on the upcoming trips. My concern stems from being the caregiver and protector of my sister since our parents died. She’s an adult, of course, but I’m the practical, centered one who’s kept our life in order. From finances to safety, Fer’s always had me to help keep her dreamy romanticism on track. I have to trust that Torben and her men will do so, despite the reluctance of some toadmit their connections.
“Trust people at some point, Fi,” I mumble to myself as I run through my morning routine. “Not everyone will let you down.”
If only it were as easy as saying it out loud to myself.
The sound of my leopard talking to my sister in the kitchen catches my ears and I suck in a deep breath. Since I mated with Tier, Rev, and Khol, various oddities have been plaguing me. Not just the random acts of magic or weird truth vibes… but things that I don’t think are normal for witches coming into their powers. My hearing has gotten insanely better and my sense of taste is so sharp I can pinpoint how much of each ingredient the cook put in. I haven’t said anything because I’m not one hundred percent certain I’m not hallucinating… especially when the fucking flowersspoke to mein my garden the other day. It might just be the stress of worrying about what we need to do on this stupid tour and how annoyed I’m going to be dealing with all the fawning fans of my rockstar mate.
Shaking my head, I pull on a well-worn pair of ripped jeans and a soft band tee I cut off at the waist. I scoop my hair into dual space buns to keep it out of the way and forego makeup altogether. I don’t see the point when I’m not trying to create a look, especially when I have no idea if my soft-hearted sister is going to make me cry with her sentiment. Feray might be the only person in the world who can achieve that, but I love her for it. She’s always helped me keep a modicum of connection to people, even when I wanted to close myself off entirely to ward off the shit being thrown at us.
And now I have my own set of clowns who tempt me out of my shell so skillfully that I even let them touch me in public—who would have thought it nine months ago? Not me.
“Time to face the circus,” I mumble as I walk into my room and find the things I’ll need. Once I have my phone, knife, and my usual bail money tucked in various places, I feel much more in control. I don’tneedthe bail money anymore because some overly gallant mate with big bucks from one of the families would handle it, but it’s always beenmysafety mechanism to offset my temper. It gives me a comforting sense of normalcy in our now upside-down world.
Putting on the most positive expression I can muster this early in the morning, I stride out of my room towards the kitchen to greet the others.
Let’s do this, baby.
Within momentsof joining Fer and Tier, my sister looks like her dam is going to burst. I walk over to her, brushing a suspicious wetness from my eye before I wrap my arms around her. “It will not be forever…”
“I know. It’s…” Her lip quivers as she looks up at me with tears shining in her blue eyes. “We’ve never been apart for more than a night.”
I’d feel like this is my fault for being overprotective, but I didn’t keep either of us from having friends—the magic community in this town did.
“We both have journeys to complete. You need to find out why your fur is almost white, and I need to know why I have multiple branches of magic and glow like a snapped glow stick at a rave. What if you’re wolven royalty and can put Prince Fancy Pants to shame?”
My joke gets her to laugh a bit and I smile in satisfaction. “That would be funny.”
The lilting voice of my rocker Fae gets my attention as he sing-songs, “No, it wouldn’t…”
I chuckle, loving that he’s almost a completely different person when we’re all at home. He’s still an arrogant, smug, royal asshat, but his sense of humor and playful nature come out when there’s no crowd of fans around. Despite the frequent bickering between him and my scaled mate, it’s oddly comforting to me when I get the flashes of thereal Revelin. It makes me less worried that I made a grave fucking error following my magic’s demands to mate with an infamous playboy royal.
Mostly.
“What wouldn’t?” A deep rumble echoes as Torben comes in from whatever he was handling this morning. The scent of lumber and fresh air cling to him as he heads for Feray immediately, returning her tight hug.
Before I can answer, I see Easton, the dragon, and my churlish boss coming in. Only the phoenix ever looks remotely comfortable entering our home at this point. The other two have been visiting during our prep period, but they always have this air of slight disdain and stiffness that I attribute to the fact that they are not really integrated into the structure of our families. Easton has it a little, too, but he’s relaxing some. They always head straight for the nook in the corner of the living room as if it calls them, so I ignore their lack of greetings.
“If my sister ends up being wolven royalty and outranks Revelin,” I grin at the bear, then bob my brows at my mate. He sticks his tongue out at me and I get the distinct sense of him whispering in the secret way he can that no wolf royal could ever outrank a supernatural rockstar who will inherit the crown of the Daybreak Court.
Luckily for him, I will not repeat his snooty shit.
“Looks like we’re only missing the twins,” my sister says from her spot snuggled with Torben.
I snort to myself as I toss back one of my energy drinks and mutter, “You mean the twins with the twins…”
Torben arches a brow, looking down at Fer. “Do I even want to know, little wolf?”
My smirk deepens as I watch her whisper in his ear, and his eyes widen. I guess they haven’t gotten comfortable enough for multi-partner games yet, which isn’t surprising. I’ve always been crooked like a question mark and Fer is much more of a gentle romantic. It makes sense that she’d want to have lots of alone time with her men to feel comfortable. Hell, she even took longer than I did to mate with her two and I’ve been a bullet train thanks to my magic.
I told you everything is weird since our Ascension; I’m always the reticent one and now we’ve flip-flopped.
“That explains why he was so hesitant about mating with you,” Torben rumbles next to her ear.
