The Second Covenant

We moved into the dining room and the witches sat on one side, the wolves sat on the other. I sat with Druex in the middle, with the wolves on either side of us. Conversation was mostly small talk, and just to see what he’d do, I decided to get Riley back for his PMS comment. “So Riley, you get back to your dream?” His cheeks fired up but he laughed and forked up a bite of French Toast. “Mm, whipped cream and everything.” Tristan tossed a grape down at him. “Heard you moaning about Carmen Electra all night.”

Riley threw cheese back at Tristan and Uncle Pogue caught it out of the air. “We are not in the cafeteria,” But he leaned down and beaned my dad with the cheese. “Try for some accuracy. Hmm?” My dad laughed and Dom leaned forward to whisper loudly at Riley. “Next time try something more see through. Like honey.” Aunt Paige gagged beside her husband. “Gross, I do not want to hear about my son’s…dreams.” I laughed and bit into a strawberry. “Nice one Cherish.” Riley said, tipping his fork at me. “Thank you.” I said proudly and Declan nudged me with his elbow with a wink of approval. It was like having ten brothers instead of three. Oh joy.

We were all very polite, almost to the point where I wanted to curse and get a real reaction out of someone. The dishes got cleared, and Uncle Pogue promised, swore, he’d do the dishes. Later. Aunt Kate gave me a speaking look and rolled her eyes.

We all trooped into the living room next and again, it was witches on one side, wolves on the other. With me sitting pretty much between the two sides, in my favorite chair that faced the window, looked out on the big pond in front of the house. It was a beautiful view. I felt tired still, so I pulled my feet up under me and snuggled against the worn leather. Daire frowned at me. “Cherish?” I smiled at him, at the worry hidden under his quiet demeanor. “I’m alright, just tired. Lots been going on.”

“Which is something we need to discuss.” My father said, leaning forward to brace his forearms on his knees. “Cherish found a room, behind a row of bookshelves in our coven chambers. We have centuries worth of knowledge about all kinds of magical things, mostly about our powers and our family. But some about other things too. One of them has an account of a werewolf, named Aria. My ancestor, the first Danvers to settle in Ipswich, made a pact with this wolf. To protect her and her son, Drustan, during the Salem Witch Trials.”

The felt every one of the wolves tense up, hackles rise. “Aria was cast out of her pack for a reason she never said. But while she lived, she protected the children of our family.” Dax started pacing beside my chair. “She was an ancestor of mine.” He said and for the first time I realized his eyes were more of a lavender shade than truly blue. My father was the one to tense up next. “So would it stand to reason that it was possibly a relative of yours who bit my daughter?” Dax shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. She wasn’t born with the lycanthropy?” He looked at Druex for that and Druex shook his head.

“Hold up, Cherish got bit by a werewolf and we didn’t know about it?” Uncle Pogue said, looking around the room at the witches. “I thought it was a dog at the time.” My mother said quietly and most of the eyes swung to her.

“Keep on track people.” I said and my dad nodded. “Right. As you can see, Cherish is the only one in our family who is not male and has The Power. It’s unheard of. Every single generation, all the way back to before we came to America, there’s only ever been sons who inherited the magic of our bloodlines.”

Donovan lifted his brows at me with a smirk. “You go girl.” I fought a grin. “She’s stronger than the three of us put together.” Tristan supplied and I blushed a little. “The power she can put off…it’s unreal.” My dad scoffed. “She turned the corner stones of Druex’s bar into ward stones. By herself. Unreal doesn‘t even cover it.” The boys gaped and the mothers shifted uncomfortably. “Should we go? I mean this is stuff you don’t normally talk about in front of us.” Aunt Lisa asked easily.

The elder witches looked to my father, who looked at me. “What? That’s your call.” I said, perfectly fine to just get it all out there. “We’ve not hidden who we are from you girls, stay.” My dad said and the moms settled. Not really understanding, but being supportive.
“What’s a ward stone and why does that freak everyone out?” Dax wanted to know. I looked at him and twisted a lock of my hair around my finger. “When you passed the gates did you feel anything?” He rolled his shoulders. “Like an invisible fence. The kind you use to keep your dog from leaving the property, without an actual fence. A charge.”

I nodded at that, it as a good description. “It’s like a shield around the house, a circle of protection. My dad put it down first and I added power to it the night of my birthday. It keeps bad things out. Anything that means my family, or the people in this house harm. If you’d come over the line, intending to hurt us, or with evil in your heart, you’d have been fried like a bug on a zapper.” The wolves all looked at me, impressed I think. “And you did that to the club?” Donovan asked.

“You have to understand what kind of power that takes. The four of us,” Tyler circled his finger around at the older witches. “Each standing over the stones buried in the ground, North, South, East and West. We all gave the stones kind of a jump start and put our power into them. Cherish did it alone. By herself, with just her own power to make the ward. And she banished some kind of evil spirit. That takes blood.” The wolves looked at me again, it was like a tennis match, back and forth. “Blood from who?”
“Her.” Druex growled and he started pacing behind my chair, prowling, his energy filling the room, swirling over me, raising my wolf up closer to the surface. “Their power takes life from them with every use. What she did could have killed her.”

The pack growled, a hackle raising sound of denial. “You’re not allowed to do that again.” Dom told me and I curled my lip at him. “Wait, we called her beast.” Daire said suddenly, his face pale when he looked from me to my coven, and back to Druex. “She’s not a full blooded wolf and we called her beast, she didn‘t change. I thought it was just because she was stubborn, because she’s your Lupa.” He stopped there, on a horrified whisper. “I don’t have the ability to switch from human to wolf.” I said and everyone of the wolves, minus Dax and Druex looked ill. “We almost killed her.” Dom said thickly, like he was going to be ill. “What?” Peyton snarled, surging to his feet, his eyes flaring black in his rage.

Tristan and Riley echoed that. “You didn’t know and I’m not dead. I’m fine. Just tired. Put it away guys.” I told my coven mates. But my mother looked ill too. “Nobody knew. You’re really alright Cherish?” She said tremulously and I got up to go to her. Rubbed my cheek over hers. “I’m fine mom. I’m okay.” She stroked my hair with her hands and pressed her lips to my forehead. When I stood up and turned back around, Declan, Donovan, Daire and Dom all dropped to one knee and turned their head to the left, sweeping their hair away from their throats. “What are you doing?” I whispered, because I felt my wolf and I become ’us’.