Page 1 of Tempest

Chapter 1

Cash

“Come on, Jorge. Fern is being ridiculous. Just point me in the right direction.”

Cash raised his eyebrows at the scene in front of him.

He’d stopped by his buddy Jorge’s house to get a charge up on one of his spelled tattoos and was met with something unexpected. He closed the door behind him and smiled a little as he watched Jorge—all five foot six of him—try and contend with the newest member of their pack, a human named Myles, who towered over him at six foot.

The Silver Oak Pack didn’t have a lot of human members, and their territory was isolated enough that the closest human town was half an hour away. Exactly how they liked it.

But Myles had crashed into their lives and refused to leave.

Cash didn’t mind that much. He knew from firsthand experience what being so isolated and exclusionary was doing to them, but he didn’t make the rules.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Myles tipped his chin up defiantly. It exposed the mating scar on his neck from Riggs, one of the pack’s betas. The two had been friends their whole lives,but it had taken Riggs moving away and then Myles coming for a visit for his tiger to recognize his fated mate.

Since joining the pack, Myles was doing his best to learn all about the parahuman world and what it had to offer, which meant he had a lot of questions and drove some people crazy with them. Just the other day, Cash had been at the Alpha House when an older packmate had come storming in to “have a word” with Liam about Myles’s incessant questions.

Cash figured some of the pack had just forgotten what it was like to have someone new learn about their world. Or maybe they’d never lived through it. Either way, Cash understood why Myles was so dogged in his pursuit of answers.

He was just trying to find his place.

But there was one aspect that had gotten Myles into some real trouble, which was why he was at Jorge’s, pleading for his help. Jorge was a member of the pack’s coven, and Myles wanted to learn about magic and how to use it.

Some people had a problem with that.

Their pack was small, but their coven was even smaller. Six witches and a single seer made up the group, and they were led by a tiny but terrifying woman named Fern, who was adamantly against Myles learning anything from the coven.

It was probably because of how they’d all met Myles, when he’d accidentally cast a spell on Riggs and sent him into a spell-induced heat.

Which wasnotsomething they usually had to deal with as shifters and had come as a bit of a surprise to folks. Especially because it could have killed Riggs.

Fern had been less than impressed, to say the least, so Cash could understand why she didn’t want Myles anywhere near magic again. The rest of the coven—as far as Cash could tell; he tried to stay out of their internal politics—didn’t hold quite as much of a grudge but agreed with her that it was probably for thebest. Myles wasn’t a natural-born witch, and that would limit the amount of magic he would actually be able to do anyway.

Though, as Myles liked to argue, because he was part of a fated mate bond, he had direct access to magic through the shifter he was mated to. He couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t teach him how to tap into the bond to fuel spellwork.

Fern remained unconvinced.

Cash thought Myles had a point, but he wasn’t about to get in the middle of the fight. There was no way he would ever cross Fern. The woman looked sweet as a button, but if you pissed her off… He shuddered at the thought.

Some of her curses were legendary, and he wasn’t about to be on the receiving end of one.

But since Jorge was less scary and less firm in his denial than Fern, Myles had turned his attention on him, trying to convince him that it would be a good idea to just give him some tips and that Myles could teach himself.

Which seemed even scarier than him learning magic to begin with, in Cash’s opinion.

Jorge didn’t stop what he was doing, basically ignoring Myles and his demands as he used a mortar and pestle to mix the ingredients for the spell for Cash’s tattoo. His kitchen was full of plants and sunlight, but the scent of magic was so strong it was tickling at Cash’s nose.

“Fern said no. Until you convince her, I’m not going to help you.”

Myles slumped dramatically. “Seriously? I learned my lesson when my mate almostdied. Why is she still punishing me?”

“Seriously.” Jorge looked up finally, giving Myles a hard look. His amber eyes could be intense when they were pinned on you. “And she’s not punishing you. She’s protecting you, the coven, and our pack. You’d do well to remember that.”

Oh damn.

Cash crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the counter behind him. Jorge wouldn’t be ready for him for a few more minutes, so he’d just wait for them to acknowledge him. He didn’t have anywhere to be until his evening patrol later, and things were getting good.

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