Page 25 of Tricky Magic
Party pooper! It’s been too long since a man like that rubbed my belly in all the right ways,Billy whined from the floor.
9
Ros
Ros let the door slam behind him. He had to physically shake a weird feeling from his body. He hadn’t realized that the new person in town would have his powers splintering under his skin. The glimpse he’d had that night was nothing compared to what had been in front of him. She’d looked worn and tired, but those big gray eyes and those pants had done a number to his cock. Leggings on curves like that should be illegal,andshe’d run six miles here? She had to be in shape. He didn’t have time to deal with weird feelings and curvy females with everything else going on.
He glared at Ag’s shop door one last time. Shaking his head again, he headed toward his truck. Hopping inside, he gently closed the old metal door, but everything still rattled in response. He threw the newspaper he’d grabbed onto his passenger seat. The headline was from the city of Halifax.
‘Council Member’s Son Injured in Crazy Accident — His Niece is to Blame’
He would read more laterand see if there was anything worth looking into besides crazy witches. The vampires had been keeping him busy as of late, but it was always worth looking into other situations. He turned the key to let his Ford Powerstroke warm up. The old “wait to start’ light went out, and he let the beast roar to life. He sat there for a few minutes, contemplating what to do next. Ros decided to visit Sam, the current leader of the local wolven and one of his only friends. They had to talk about Mabon since it was only a month away, and they needed to talk about the vampire issue.
He put the truck in reverse, and as he turned his head, he caught the female leaving the shop. Their eyes locked for a moment. She raised her chin and turned toward the road, beginning her jog back to wherever she had come from. The dog lingered for a moment longer and seemed to smirk at him before catching up with her person.
Crazy witches?
He turned toward the paper again. His mind began piecing everything together as he reversed out of the lot to head to Sam’s. It was starting to look like fate had dumped a new mission into his lap.
* * *
Ros pulleddown the long driveway of the farm. Sam lived on one of the largest properties in Glenover. It had been passed down from generation to generation. Wolven packs on the East Coast had an ancestry hierarchy. The alphas were born, not chosen, unlike some of the West Coast packs. Some said the lack of consistency was to blame for their dwindling numbers. Ros knew that wasn’t the issue.
He stopped his truck next to Sam’s similar hunk of metal. As soon as the engine turned off, a few of the younger wolven gathered around his truck, yipping and barking with wagging tails. Ros couldn’t help but smile as he got out of the truck and kneeled on the ground.
There were five of them, four in various shades of brown and gray and one that was midnight black. One was doing its best to tug Ros’s boot off, two were assaulting his neck and face, while the last two sat farther away, only observing.
“Teek!” a booming voice came from the large porch. “Don’t let them eat him.”
Sam was standing at the top of the steps with his hands on his hips, looking more like a mother hen than an alpha. He was a hair shorter than Ros, and his face was beautiful. Sam kept his beard and hair neat in comparison to the other wolven. His sharp features and angular eyes came in handy when it came time to glare at an out-of-line pup. He wasn’t as broad as Ros, but he somehow took up just as much space.
The gray wolven that sat further away with the chestnut one chuffed and snapped its teeth. The three that were all over Ros quickly stopped. As Teek turned and walked toward the back of the house, the rest followed. The smaller one, fully black and wild-looking, was slow to get in line. It paused and looked back at Ros. Teek had to let out a growl to get it to follow. Ros could almost see the black one roll its green eyes before trotting away with the rest. He stood, swiping some of the dirt from his jeans.
“Devika is getting harder to keep in line,” Sam said as he watched some of his pack disappear into the woods. Devika had paused again, looking back at the house as if it would rather be there with them.
“I remember when you were younger,” Ros said with a grimace. “I doubt Devika will ever wag a tail anywhere near what you were doing at that age.”
“I wasn’t that bad.” Sam grimaced.
“Remember that one Halloween fifty years ago?” Ros raised a brow toward Sam.
“There was only a little property damage and one scared choir group,” Sam replied, shaking his head.
“They canceled Halloween for three years after that,” Ros said with a laugh.
“What’s wrong with you?” Sam asked, searching his face.
“Don’t change the subject, Sam,” Ros said. “Remember that shifter that held the city meeting in hopes to run you out of town?”
“No,” Sam said, shaking his head.
Ros raised an eyebrow at him again, insinuatinghow could you forget that?
“Of course, I remember that, but this is about you. What’s up?”
Ros pulled on his shirt and looked down at his hands. Nothing was up besides the usual.
“Nothing?” he said, trying to think of what it could be. “Well, that rogue vampire pack is larger than I thought.”
