The Magic

LORELAI

I shoveled food into my mouth like a crazy person. I was ravenous, my stomach growling even as I tried to provide it with nutrients.

My alphas were eating like normal people, slowly chewing, watching me, but I didn’t care. I was starving.

Or at least I had been for days. I was just making sure that if I was kidnapped again between now and my next meal then I wouldn’t starve for a while.

I kept going until my plate was clean and then leaned back in my seat with a contented sigh, closing my eyes as the tiredness of having a full belly hit.

“So. What happened with my father? You would have told me by now if he was dead, so that’s not how things ended,” I prompted, leaning forward for some chilled water as Derik pushed his plate away and Kai’s cutlery clanged on his.

“Your father is messing with more than just the wolves now, beautiful,” Derik murmured, and I frowned at the somber way he said it.

“Which means?”

“He has put himself in the direct fury of the witches,” Brax said.

I was still a little lost. We were humans, we shouldn’t have anything to do with the witches. That was the wolves’ area of expertise.

“Your father has been fed some bad information, and all the humans will pay for it. He’s grown cocky and arrogant on his seat of power, and the fall will be lethal.” Kai darkened the room with his tone.

I shivered against it and took another sip.

“Yeah, I get it, he’s done something bad, he’s signed our death warrants, but what did he do to achieve such a fate?” I asked, and Derik sighed heavily, a sadness in his eyes that I didn’t understand.

“He called on Fractum,” he bit, and I waited for him to explain what the hell that meant.

“It’s a magical word that breaks all realm contracts. Blood bound or otherwise. Our contract with the humans was terminated when he did.

“It means we no longer protect them, they no longer answer to us,” he said.

I hated to admit it, but it didn’t sound so bad. With the border up, the vampires weren’t an issue and it meant no sleeping with virgins, so I wasn’t quite catching on to the dire part of things yet.

“That word…it was intended for magical use only. For a human to use it and in bad taste, it’s a balance issue, which not only pisses the witches off but means the humans are now an equal race,” Derik said, spinning his knife around on the table.

I frowned. “And that isn’t a good thing?”

“No. Humans don’t have the souls for it. Our realm is based on magic. The witches control that magic.

“Some of us are awarded it, like wolves having the ability to shapeshift. Some steal it, like the vampires, rising from the dead.

“Humans were there to facilitate those things, feed both those kinds of magic,” Brax put in, and I nodded, a picture forming in my head of a pig at the slaughter.

It sounded a lot like humans were raised for the exact same reason.

“So we were created to be the wolves’ magic source and the vamps’ blood source?” I clarified, and they nodded.

“It sounds bad, but humans were never meant to be killed in the process. Vampires don’t need much blood to survive, but their bloodlust, a consequence given to them by the thieving of the magic, was stronger than anticipated.

“Werewolves are meant to draw on their souls and keep the balance by using our gifts. Good versus evil is a fight that no race or power will ever win.

“It is the balance, and it will forever stay, but now that your father has said the word we are all forbidden to say, the balance has been fractured. Humans—and werewolves—will suffer for it. Not that he thinks that.”

Kai shook his head, and I raised a brow. I had known humans would probably be collateral, but I hadn’t expected my alphas to be under fire too.

“What happens now then?” I whispered, hating the way my heart clenched in fear of the answer.

“We try to adjust. It has already been done,” Brax said.

“If we can keep the balance as happy as possible by not retaliating, then we may survive this. Our lands, the ones the humans are using, we have left for them.

“Their villages may remain without repercussions. Your father did this, not them,” Derik explained, and my heart swelled at the idea that he cared that much about my kind.

“Thank you.”

He nodded before Kai spoke. “All the wolves have been brought back to the city. The walls have been reinforced; the gates have been locked.

“We have set the pack to work on our sources of food and water, all drawing from Brax’s Lake, which has been made a neutral territory.

“Our trade will be fair and go both ways; our communications will be done through meetings with both sides bringing reinforcements. And to top it all off, everywhere that was safe from humans before is no longer.

“Every mutual territory includes them too. If they want to go to Tabitha’s and the vampires are there then it’s on them. We can’t do shit.”

I sucked in a breath at that. “So if I go there, and my father is there…?”

“We can’t hurt him.”

“But he can’t hurt me.”

“No, but he can be there whenever he wants.”

“Tabitha—”

“—is bound by law not to go against humans. She is a witch first, Little Human,” Kai said, and I bit my lip.

Something tugged in me, and I looked over at Derik, who was scowling, twisting his knife faster and faster.

“That’s not all, is it?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Tell me.”

“We’re going to get weaker. Without access to human souls, we’ll get significantly weaker. We’ll still be stronger than the humans, but the vampires will have the advantage in a one-on-one.

“We won’t be as fast, and our pack link will be strained. The border will be less stable—possibly even fallible.

“I have no clue, and that alone is terrifying, beautiful,” Derik said, his eyes finally meeting mine, and I winced at the fear and pain he let me see there.

I pursed my lips, hid my tears, and went over to him, sinking into his lap and curling up against his chest. He held me and kissed the top of my head.

I ran my fingers over the tattoo spreading over his chest, tracing the lines of it.

“What will that mean for the toxin you give me?” I asked, hating that I had to bring it up, but my stomach was churning with the idea that this could get even worse and that it could affect our child.

Derik’s hand went to my stomach, caressing the small swell there. I had no idea how fast or how big I was going to grow, but the hint of a bump was enough to have Derik’s warmth in the link.

“We’ll be fine, beautiful.”

“Promise?”

“We’re alphas, Little Human,” Kai said. “Our pack’s magic will come to us, but there are consequences from having to draw from them.”

“Like?” I asked, wondering why there had to be so many damn consequences to everything. It didn’t seem very fair when it wasn’t the wolves who had said the stupid word.

“Our wolves will be unpredictable. They won’t be able to control their shifting as well, it might hurt them. They might get violent over the smallest things.

“The full moon will force the shift and bring out the savages in us all,” Brax murmured, quieter than the others, but I felt everything through the link.

He was nervous, worried for me, for the wolves, even a little for the humans, but I had a feeling that was only because I was nervous for my mom.

“And the humans? Do they get any consequences?”

“They’ll have the vamps to deal with when that border collapses, and our wolves will be free to attack if they get out of the city. Sure, your father could retaliate, but he hasn’t seen what a wolf can do when unleashed.

“And on a full moon, we are not the dogs he thinks. We are untamable, uncontrolled by the magic and drawn to the pull of it. He won’t be able to stop what comes for him.” Kai smirked.

I did love my father, but after what had happened to me, the idea of Kai tearing him apart made me think maybe it wasn’t a full love—because I hoped for it.

“Well, I guess since we’re all fucked anyway, should we have some fun before we descend into madness?” I smirked, tracing Derik’s abs farther down, shifting so I could reach between us.

He grinned and watched as I teased his cock with my little fingers. He groaned as our link filled with a desire so strong it was suffocating.

It suffocated my worry for my mom, for my alphas, for my child, for the magic that kept us all alive.

That had me pausing my pleasure of Derik’s cock and meeting his lust-filled eyes.

“The magic that holds the border together came from virgins. Will you need to steal them now that you aren’t going to be given them?” I asked, anger coiling through me faster than I could stop it.

I was theirs, they were mine. There were no virgins allowed near their cocks anymore. I was a greedy bitch like that, but I didn’t care.

“We can’t use them for the magic anymore. The connection to their souls is gone. It wouldn’t work to keep the border in place,” Derik said.

Kai was behind me then, kissing my shoulder, slipping my dress from it, the light fabric falling past my breast, bunching in my lap as I sat on Derik.

Kai’s hand closed on my breast, and I leaned into the touch.

“I won’t be seeing any other female, Little Human, border or not, human or not,” he growled in my ear, and I shivered, my nipple pebbling beneath his palm.

Brax came to my other side, widening my legs as Derik held me. He kissed up my legs while my breaths came out in hot pants, the liquid heat between my thighs growing and growing with each touch.

I was trying to think, trying to pull my thoughts together past their caresses, but Brax was closing in on my pussy, Derik’s mouth teasing my neck as Kai had my nipple at his mercy.

I moaned and arched into them, trying to remember what I had been going to ask, but words were failing me.

“Let her speak,” Derik breathed roughly, pulling away, and my alphas did, Kai more reluctantly, as usual.

His hand remained on the fleshy mound on my chest he had captured, kneading the fullness of it tenderly. They had definitely grown, having a baby inside me, keeping my body thicker and softer in all places.

I drew in a raggedy breath before collecting my thoughts and letting them out.

“Could we talk to the vampires? They said they wanted the border to remain, maybe they could help,” I asked, but Kai scoffed.

“No.”

“But—”

“It won’t work, Spitfire. The vamps don’t trust us, and we don’t trust them. Plus, they use blood magic, not the kind we need. They can’t help,” Brax said, still kneeling before me, holding my dress at my thighs, his fingers trailing up my skin.

“Well, don’t I have the magic werewolves use? I have the link and I have the shadows and I carry the future alpha heir. It’s the same magic, right?”

“No,” Kai growled as Brax went wide-eyed.

Derik shook his head. “It’s too much for you to handle, beautiful.”

“How do you know? I haven’t tried. I have the magic in me, surely I can figure out how to push it into the border or something. We could at least ask Cain or Tabby about it. Wouldn’t it help?” I asked.

It made sense to me.

Kai growled, and I looked over my shoulder at him as he walked away.

“Our toxin may not be strong enough to keep you balanced if you do that, Little Human. It is not a risk I am going to take. Not with your life on the line, and that of our child.”

He growled again, and I shook my head.

“We don’t know that. We can ask because I want to help, Kai. I don’t want to be stuck here watching you all get weaker either. If this is what I can do to help, then why shouldn’t I?”

They all went silent at that. I could feel it in the bond; they didn’t have an answer to that question.