Alpha Curves (Paranormal BBW Shifter Romance): Wolf Clan Book 3 (9 page)

Iris hesitated until Esme gently elbowed her in the side. "Don't worry, there's more to tell, and I will, but let's finish charming you first."

While Iris went into the bedroom and slipped the camisole on under her blouse, Esme filled a silver cup with a potion she had prepared.

"Here." Esme handed the drink to Iris after she settled back onto the couch. "Best to get it down in one swallow."

"Is this what Cade was supposed to drink?" Iris tilted the cup to her lips. The first sip brought a grimace to her face. Tilting the cup higher, she glared at the smiling witch.

"No, this is something I discovered in the journals my mother left behind. She was still developing the recipe." A shadow passed over the witch's face as she spoke about her mother. A shrug and a blink erased it. "And don't blame me for how bad it tastes -- I've tried my damnedest to make it more palatable but it kills the efficacy."

Finished, Iris put the cup on the table, a shudder running through her torso at the sour flavor that continued to maul her taste buds.

Esme handed her a second cup, this one filled with clear water. "Just so you know, I've tested it on myself, which means I had to deal with both the taste and Dana's infernal pouts."

"So it really works?" Iris asked, swallowing the rest of the water.

"On latents," Esme agreed. "After we discovered Leah and I realized what she was, the flood gates opened. More and more latents have been discovered, as well as cubs. Before I found my mother's journals, we had to rely solely on the silver and witch's lace, which is much more time consuming than cooking up a vat of this foul brew."

Returning the silver cup to the box, Esme directed a purposeful glance in Iris's direction. "Thankfully, I've only had to help a few latents cloak themselves while they adjust. Most are very accepting once they discover their nature. It's like part of a piece of themselves they always knew was missing, without knowing what it was, has finally snapped into place."

Ignoring Esme's gentle hint, Iris grabbed a needle and thread and began working it around a weave of more witch's lace, her hands following the same distinctive pattern Esme had used. "So you came out once there were more latents?"

"No." Esme clasped her hands in her lap, the fingers twisting tightly around one another. "I charmed Leah at her request, not revealing how I knew what needed to be done. Then we were both lured off clan lands by a healer who betrayed us. He took us straight to a group of Hunters. They started on me first..."

Her words trailed off as she noticed Iris stiffen. Iris looked at the witch, mouth flattening as her eyes went dead.

"Do you mean they raped you?" Iris asked.

Esme shook her head as she analyzed the sudden tension that had taken possession of the she-wolf. The focused interest she displayed wasn't of a professional nature, but intensely personal. Something had happened, Esme intuited, but the wall around Iris was too thick for her to read the woman's past.

"They did brutalize me," Esme said, carefully choosing her words, sanitizing and distancing them from the sharp blows and pain she had experienced. She didn't want to trigger a traumatic memory in Iris or cause Dana, still on the porch with his sharp ears tilted in their direction, any anguish. "They stripped me all but naked and gagged me, thinking I wouldn't be able to spell without voicing the words."

The needle stilled in Iris's hands. "You mean you can? I thought that was impossible."

Despite the remembered hurt and terror, a gentle smile shimmered across Esme's plump lips. "As a matter of self-preservation, witches aren't always honest about the extent of their powers. In fact, the more a witch boasts about her powers, the weaker they probably are. But there's no doubt that words help focus magic. And it may be that most witches cannot spell without somehow manipulating the environment around them."

She ran one finger along the silver thread Iris held. "Like you're manipulating it right now, only without words. So binding and gagging most witches will keep them from charming their way out of danger."

"But not for you?" Bringing the thread to her mouth, Iris snapped it with her teeth and proceeded to tie the end off on the small batch of witch's lace she had bound before repeating the incantation Esme had used earlier.

"Not for me," Esme agreed. "And apparently not for my mother because she escaped while they were transporting her to the Witches Council for trial. One of the witches from West Virginia had come to bind her with magic--"

"They didn't trust you to do it?" Iris asked.

"Not everyone," Esme agreed. "The Virginia witch charmed silver handcuffs, a silk blindfold with silver threading through it. My mother might have had help, especially considering how the wolves were killed. It was clear they put up a fight and..."

Esme's gaze blanked for a moment as her face pulled downward. An image flashed in Iris's mind. Two wolves, one no older than Jet, the other somewhere in his forties. Bodies that might have once been robust looked like the husks of dead insects, their insides torn out and a thick blood of pool around them.

The scent of death filling her nostrils, Iris dropped the needle and witch's lace onto the coffee table. Esme blinked, snapping back from the memory and reaching toward Iris to offer and draw comfort.

"I'm sorry," the witch whispered. "If you were wholly wolf, I don't think you would have seen that. I didn't mean to push it at you, either."

Iris shook her head. "I'm not wolf at all."

"You heal like a wolf," Esme gently argued.

"That's the magic, you can self-heal--"

The witch rolled her eyes at Iris. "You smell like a she-wolf in heat. And it doesn't take a shifter's nose. Any latent can smell it on you."

Iris dismissed the argument with another shake of her head. "You said latents can bear cubs--"

Grabbing both of Iris's hands, Esme pulled the woman closer. "You've disclaimed the idea that you are a latent and, anyway, we don't come into heat like a female shifter does. At least not that we know. What you're suggesting is only possible if there are latents and alpha latents, and we have no proof of that."

Esme captured Iris's head before the she-wolf could respond with another shake. "We don't need to debate this right now. You just need to be open to how much things have changed since you left the clan. You probably were aware of how pregnancies were already decreasing when you left. But then, for ten years, not a single known conception among the clans."

Iris pulled her head from Esme's light hold. Finding Oscar's file, she wrapped her fingers around it. "But cubs were born during that period."

Esme nodded. "And now, with both mated female shifters and latents conceiving, there are a few pregnancies announced each month."

The witch looked away. A second later, Iris caught the fresh scent of tears being shed. She curled a hand around Esme's shoulder.

"You haven't yet?" Iris asked. "Conceived, I mean. I don't smell a cub in you, but I thought you might be using magic to keep the news secret for now."

Still refusing to look at the she-wolf, Esme answered with a softly whispered, "No, I'm not pregnant. And not for lack of trying."

Outside, Dana started to pace the length of the porch, stopping every few seconds to look at his mate.

"Give me a second before he breaks the door down." A small, weepy hiccough erupted from Esme and then she pushed off the couch. An instant later, she was on the porch and wrapped in her mate's arms, her generous curves all but hidden by Dana's fierce embrace.

Iris pretended to study the contents of the box Esme had brought in. The first layer after the supplies Esme had packed consisted of fist-sized crystals of citrine, amethyst and rose quartz. Beneath them, a solid row of dowels from various types of wood, symbols carved into them. Leather journals rested on the bottom.

Retrieving one of the dowels, she studied the wards and tried hard not to eavesdrop on the couple. Kiss followed murmur followed kiss, the words ceasing altogether after the first minute. From the corner of one eye, Iris saw the play of lips and tongues, her curiosity pricked by the way Dana subtly asserted his dominance over the witch.

She noted how his approach was exactly the same as if he had a distraught female shifter in his arms instead of a latent. The deep, tongue-filled kisses reminded her of an article she had read on human kissing and males transferring testosterone to the females to increase their odds of getting laid. It struck her that wolves did something similar, but for different reasons. Whatever hormone or other chemical Dana transferred to Esme, the intent was too calm, not arouse. Watching them, she realized she had seen the same interaction dozens of times growing up, had even been on the receiving end of such kisses from Cade a time or two.

Pushing the image of Cade Mercer from her mind, Iris tilted her head just enough to catch Dana's expression as he comforted his mate. Unlike the spiritual sickness that infected so many human families, Iris could see that Dana would die for Esme.

The dowel broke in her hands, witch light shooting from the ends as if Iris held a lightning rod. Her gaze jumping to the porch once more, Iris watched as Esme detached from Dana, the shifter clearly unwilling to allow his mate back in a room where a crazy woman was throwing bolts of witch light around like confetti.

"Well, that was interesting," Esme joked as she used all her weight to shut the front door while keeping Dana on the other side of it. She only succeeded because he clearly wanted to avoid injuring his mate by forcing the door open.

Dropping the ends of the dowel to the floor, Iris covered her face and whispered. "Sorry, I don't know why that happened."

A soft "mmm-hmm" told her the witch wasn't buying her story.

Behind Esme, the silver bells began to bounce lightly.

"That will be Jet," Esme chirped. "Good thing, too. I don't think I can keep Dana out on the porch when I tell you what happened to Leah and me when the Hunters captured us."

"He's crazy about you." Reaching between her legs, Iris scooped up the broken dowel and handed it to Esme.

Inspecting the piece of wood, Esme nodded. "It's easy to see love when it's not your heart on the line."

Rolling her eyes, Iris snorted. "You're going to keep dropping anvils on my head, aren't you?"

A smile fought to break out at the corner of the witch's mouth, but she managed to keep her lips pressed together in a neutral line. "Is that what I was doing?"

Iris nodded. "Not that it will change anything," she continued. "It only took half a second of my foot in my mouth to drive Cade away."

"Oh, honey!" The witch erupted in laughter just as Jet pulled up to the front porch. "Cade's ass is parked on Dana's couch. I won't say you didn't hurt his feelings pretty bad, but he isn't going anywhere, at least not until he has you convinced to go with him."

Eyes drifting shut to control the tears, Iris shook her head. She would give anything to have what she had witnessed on the porch between Esme and Dana. But Dana had always known Esme was a witch. Just like Cade had always "known" that Iris was a wolf -- even if he was dead wrong.

Lifting her gaze once more, Iris let the witch's warmth blanket her before she spoke.

"Finish telling me why you stayed."

Chapter Nine

"I'm just asking for a few days of you not crowding her." Shooting a side eye in Cade's direction, Esme placed the crystals and dowels in a safe in Dana's office. She had left the journals behind for Iris to sift through. "She really could use some space and time to process things."

Cade returned the side eye, his words rumbling just a few decibels above a growl. "She's had twelve years."

Esme slammed the safe door shut and spun the dial before turning her full scowl directly on Cade. "And her whole world changed two days ago!"

"Only because she left her world -- our world -- to begin with." Cade shifted in his chair, his flaring temper lodged firmly between his deep affection for the witch who scolded him and her overprotective mate watching the exchange from the corner of one yellow eye. "I don't want those wolflings guarding her."

Esme rested her hands on her ample hips, her long skirt swirling around her ankles as she came to a full stop a foot from Cade. "Believe me, they don't want to watch her. Their dicks are wilted around any female for the next few weeks from the potion I gave them. Colt actually had tears in his eyes when he finished drinking it!"

The exclamation brought a deep chuckle from Dana as he sifted through papers. "Nothing that cub likes more than his dick," Dana agreed.

"I'm not worried about them wanting to fuck her. She made it more than clear she doesn't want a shifter in her...bed." Cade's eyes drifted shut as his jaw worked side to side. "But they aren't experienced enough to handle her if she wants to leave or to protect her if we come under attack."

"She won't leave any time soon. She wants to help the cubs and she has nowhere to go." Tired of trying to glare Cade into submission, Esme sank into an oversized chair next to Dana's desk as she changed tactics. "You love her, right?"

"She's my mate," Cade growled.

Scooping up a sheet of paper Dana had just crushed into a ball, Esme tossed it at Cade, her magic guiding it so that it bounced lightly off his nose. "And if that's all you've ever told her -- hey baby, you're my mate -- then you need a hard kick in the nuts, you idiot!"