Her Legacy (Reigning Folklore Book 1), page 33
“Thanks for getting me out there.” The raven-haired bombshell spoke graciously. They all turned to her. “I haven’t danced in a long time and it felt good to get back out on the dance floor. I’m glad Addie’s friends could suck it up and risk some bruised toes to help a girl out.”
Atlas genuinely liked this woman. While Addie was their Locke and owned them body, heart, and soul, this Prosaic woman could easily become a friend of the Pack. She and Addie obviously hit it off and if Addie associated with her more, then feisty Wanda would become like a ‘sister’ to them. Yuri was an equally good female and he had a peculiar sense that the duo would also belong to the Pack one day soon.
He suspected that the females were bound by the Goddess to be Lockes. Lockes tended to attract to like, subconsciously, of course.
A fair portion of OVA’s local employees gathered around their bonfire with more compact chairs and blankets. While large, the gazebo had undoubtedly been packed to the brim with bodies.
Addie tapped excitedly on his elevated knee. “We’re all going to tell stories.”
“Sounds pleasant,” he responded in kind, endeared by her childlike enthusiasm. At times like this, he was tempted to brush his fingers across her buttery-smooth cheek or tickle her until she was panting for air. Her long hair he craved to have fluttering over his bare chest.
His shaft throbbed in his slacks, and he thought tersely, I should be used to being so uncomfortably hard by now.
He and his Brothers had been unwaveringly conciliatory to their Locke’s needs. Her mental state trumped their lustful, physical desires by far. Blue-balls – a vulgar, crude term of modern times, but one no less accurate – ran rampant through their ranks. They disregarded their primal needs, unwilling to spill their seeds anywhere but within their female once she was ready to have them. They consumed Suppressants as though they were going out of fashion to keep their pheromones in check.
He banded his hands over her tiny waist as she leaned back into him, content to listen to the stories her coworkers had to tell. Most of them he had heard; some he had not. Many of them were plainly pathetic and overdone. They all ranged from scary to romantic. He was not ashamed to admit that he tended towards tuning them out in favor of playing with his mate’s braid which he had pulled over her right shoulder.
“Do you have a story, Addie?” His Locke turned her attention to the married male, Matt. Atlas fought back a snarl. Married or not – and he had seen well over the hours how affectionate he was with his woman, Phoebe – the baser part of him could not believe that any man would not want to steal Adeline away from he and his Brothers. She was too glorious not to covet. It was instinct to guard her and wish to hide her away from unworthy eyes.
“Uh…” She looked skyward for a dozen seconds or so before grinning at the group at large. She shifted more into him and he felt himself tucking her in even more securely with the blanket. Sparing a glance at the others, he could see the Normals frowning thoughtfully. Only the fact that Wanda was being warmed by Hawk, a newly-claimed blanket over her own shoulders, kept them from becoming condemning again. He was thankful for it.
Let them think we want Wanda sexually. They have their own thoughts. They can keep them. Just so long as they leave my Locke alone, we will not have troubles.
“You know about the Aurora Borealis, yes?” Everyone nodded, giving rolls of their eyes in reaction. Addie chuckled. “I don’t think you do. Once upon a time…” Several people laughed while others groaned. She chuckled jollily again before waving her hand at them.
“Very well. Once, long ago in the brutal, frozen lands of the far north…”
Atlas listed to her voice with rapt attention. His head bent back to lean against the headrest stitched into the lounger and his eyes closed. In his head, watercolor images bloomed. As though by magic, he could see the story Adeline weaved.
As she spoke, telling a tale of a celestial fox that ferried souls to peace in heaven, Atlas was riveted not only by her words, but also by the way the waves and sea spray took shape. It was too far away for the entirely human population to see, but he was certain that that was what was occurring.
Startled glances to his Brothers showed that they, too, saw what he did.
He squeezed Adeline tighter to himself and watched the waves and the crowd. They had a seeming collectively mesmerized look on their faces. They were not looking out to the water, but their pupils were fogged as though entranced. The story Addie wove was being projected somehow. Like magic.
What was his Locke doing? How was she doing it?
By the time she was finished, his heart was pounding. He feared he was holding her too tight, but she didn’t seem to notice. Her voice was strong and heavy with power as she spoke the last of her tale.
“As living beings of this Earth, we too often allow selfishness and shortsightedness to blind us to the eternity which awaits us all. Let those lights serve as a reminder to not lose sight of our present and all that we have. The world is a beautiful place and is full of wonders which we can never fully comprehend. Enjoy it. Relish in it, because eternity may not be as close as you think.”
There was a heavy silence around the firepit before, finally, a slow round of applause began to thrum through the assembled Prosaics. Atlas held his Locke ever closer to himself, his chest constricting as the final images washed out over the waves as if they had never been. His Brothers looked from him to their mate with wonder.
Had she manifested the illusion on the water? Could it be that she was the one that had poured so much feeling into the air around them that it became a physical thing?
It was a fair stretch of time before anyone else dared to broach upon a new tale.
Atlas lay back with his Locke held tightly in his arms and listened to several more stories being passed around. Some individuals wandered off to get what was left of the food. His Brothers mostly sipped at the never-ending supply of drinks that their Omega in charge of the Mills’ businesses continuously delivered to them. Like any business run by Pack, one or several of the Alphas served as silent partners. The night’s drinks would be free for he, his Brothers, Locke, and his Locke’s two female companions, but he would be sure to write a hefty check to Gunner which would more than doubly make up for the added trouble he went to to please their Prima.
The special treatment had been expressly for her benefit and was only a drop of water in the bucket for what she would come to find was her due as their Locke.
Addie dozed in his arms, her head and right cheek pillowed on his chest. She stirred several times when his Brothers spoke or someone became exceptionally loud. He wanted to snarl at the ones that were boisterous. They were startling her, and he did not like it.
Near midnight, everyone was beginning to pack up. Gunner had kept the restaurant and beach open well past normal operational hours – as he usually did for the reserved parties – while OVA remained on premises. Addie patted the back of the hand resting just below her left breast. His head angled downward to see her looking up at him through half-lidded eyes.
“It’s late. Can I stay ‘ere?” A growling purr erupted from him at her meekness. He felt the urge to just bundle her up and carry her home like a kitten he found abandoned in a puddle in the rain. She radiated frailty. He would cuddle her until she melded into him if it were physically possible.
“Of course, little one.” He turned his gaze up to see his Prime nodding his ascent.
Hawk shook Wanda gently awake by her shoulder. “Do you have a ride home, Wanda?” The woman shook her head at him before rising and stretching out her body. She was taller than Addie by a few inches, but pleasantly plumped. Her size was well suited for her frame.
“We took the liberty of ordering drivers for the more inebriated patrons,” Gunner supplied as he wandered up to the gazebo. For as long as the day had been, the wolf had not a hair out of place. He was completely un-disheveled. “We can have her and any others chauffeured home, sir.”
Wanda waved her hands at them sluggishly. “Sounds like a plan to me. Addie, girl, special treatment! You’re so coming with to the next girls’ night out.”
Atlas kept Addie pinned between his legs when she roused herself enough to attempt to aid in the clean-up. Hawk occupied Yuri and Wanda with meaningless conversation to keep them from venturing into the crowd to help. None of the three females needed to labor over such menial tasks – even if he was wrong about the duo being Lockes and they simply served as companions for his mate. There were maintenance and clean-up fees invested in by the reserving parties for a reason.
Only once everything was gathered did he and Hawk allow the women to stand and move up towards the parking lot. Atlas had to bracket Addie carefully because, in her drowsy state, she was wobbling unsteadily. Yuri, too, was a little off-center, but found Addie’s stupor hilarious. His mate was scowling at the shorter woman.
“Oh, can it, you nit,” she growled, shoving Yuri with one hand only to teeter over the precipice of disaster. She ‘whoo’d’ once before she managed to gain her footing again. He silently commended her ability to remain vertical.
“Whatever…Verruca!” Yuri chortled.
“But I want it now,” Addie needled in a nasally voice that was completely unattractive. Both females looked at each other before erupting in spine-cracking laughter.
“Okay! Time for you two to go to bed.” Joel cut up between the two and directed Yuri towards an awaiting SUV which Wanda had already been shepherded to. It was obvious that the two women acted like happy drunks when tired. Or in Yuri’s case, actually drunk. “Say goodnight, ladies.”
“Goodnight, ladies!” All three cheered at the same time.
Atlas held Addie to his chest with one arm, watching the OVA employees disappear car by car until only he, his Locke, and his Brothers were left with the Mills’ Break staff. They all stared down at her tired form at the same time and she giggled sleepily.
“That was fun.”
“Yes it was,” he agreed as he tugged her up into his arms so that her legs wrapped around his waist while her arms hugged his neck. Her cooler, yet still warm breath brushed across his throat.
“Thank you, guys.”
When she kissed his neck with her petal-soft lips, he nearly buckled.
“Go to sleep, Addie. We will see you home.”
“M’kay.”
As they moved as one unit towards her truck, Addie nuzzled her head into his neck again. Her limbs flexed around him slightly and she sighed. The next words that fell from her lips drew them all to a complete standstill and he felt his chest swell with awareness and pride as much as they made him lean into her for support. His Brothers had to catch him from stumbling. His heart sputtered and then swelled.
“Love y’guys.”
His hands trembled where they held her to him. His lips touched her jawline where he could reach sweetly; longingly. The others purred around him at the admission.
“I love you, too, mate. So much.” And he meant it.
Now to see if we can get her to say it consciously…
I will look forward to the challenge.
Chapter Thirteen
Adeline
Something was biting her.
Addie mumbled incoherently and swatted halfheartedly at the thing that was pulling at the upper curve of her ear. Her fingers and palm brushed something stiff, but also silky soft. A gentle chomp to her index finger in its downward sweep accompanied by an almost rubbery poke between the two barbs had her eyes opening sluggishly.
The first thing she saw was a beautifully bright, goldenrod chest. The feathers making it up shifted to vibrant orange at their tips. The parrot ducked its head and then cocked it in an adorable gesture of curiosity. The ‘zebra’ stripes around its eyes were – and she had to blink several times to determine if what she was seeing was accurate – in actuality foreign script. This close, they couldn’t be mistaken for lines of black feathers. They were legitimate symbols imbedded in the white ‘bald’ splotches around its pale blue, almost white eyes with striking black pupils. The green-to-turquoise plume of feathers moving over the parrot’s crown lifted as it chirruped at her. The jaunty strip of orange and deep blue feathers at the peak of the green only emphasized its over-large beak.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty one,” she complimented the macaw huskily.
The bird half-shuffled its wings before gently nipping her nose with its terrifyingly large, black beak. That black tongue lashed her nose’s tip. It was then that she knew exactly what had awoken her from her sleep.
“Pretty baby,” she said more earnestly when it backed away from her face.
As she watched, the black beak lit up with an intricate scrollwork of symbols. The symbols around its eyes also lit, but then dimmed quickly. Once the scroll puttered out, she couldn’t discern the same mimicking symbols in the beak as were in the bald spots unless she squinted with all of her might.
What had just happened?
“Pretty baby,” the macaw parroted with a happy chitter, its crest fanning again.
“That’s right. Pretty baby. But where did pretty baby come from?” She sat up on the bed she’d been tucked so comfortably into and saw that she’d been nestled into Daire’s king-sized bed.
The macaw warbled loudly before splaying out its massive wings. Addie wasn’t certain, but the bird looked some bit bigger than she thought the species generally was. It had to have been a good four feet from beak to the tip of its tail feathers and when those wings opened, they were over a foot longer.
“Ooh jeeze,” she wheezed as the bird flapped those wings twice before perching up on her shoulder. It was heavier than she’d expected. Maybe four pounds. Its beak nuzzled her scalp while she observed the speckled claws locked around the sleep shirt she was wearing. They were scary looking feet, but they were infinitely gentle where they were perched on her shoulder.
“Pretty baby,” the macaw repeated right in her ear.
“I should have known he wouldn’t stay put,” Tabby’s voice carried over from the doorway. When Addie looked that way, she could see how widely the older Shifter was beaming. “He was very eager to meet you.”
“He? He’s not a Shifter, is he?” That would be incredibly awkward.
“Oh, Goddess no!” Tabby laughed happily. “He is a familiar. Think of those human stories of the companions of witches and such. Normal mates of Shifters are often bonded to familiars at their birth. These familiars act as not only companions, but helpers and metaphysical compasses. Like service animals for the handicapped. That parrot on your shoulder is part of a long, long line of specially bred familiars. In most ways he will look like a normal parrot, but he is anything but.”
“Pretty baby,” he told Tabby with a warble that could have easily been taken as a self-satisfied laugh. His beak bumped her temple again. “Pretty baby!”
“He learned that pretty quickly,” she remarked dryly even as she lifted her left hand to offer her fingers for a ruffle of his feathers. He preened beautifully for her. She could feel the impressive fall of his tailfeathers against her mid-back through the shirt.
“Yes, well, as I stated, he is not a normal macaw. He is bigger and smarter. He has traces of magic woven in his DNA. Those markings on his face and now on his beak are ancient Fae runes. He will be your companion for life, little Prima.” Tabby walked into the room and sat at the foot of the bed looking at the bird on her shoulder. He stared right back at her with an almost regal, yet stern air before chittering and bumping Addie’s temple once more. “The Alphas spoke with the Mystics – what you would think of as hybrid Fae-witch creatures – who are the sole breeders of familiars. His kind are of the rarest stock and are not often afforded to Lockes of any import.”
“He’s beautiful,” she offered easily. He was. On his back, his feathers shifted to azure near the tips of his wings on their tops while the ones higher and closer to the bend were yellow at their bases, melting to light green, emerald, and then azure. The underside of his wings were based out in golden yellow, but tipping off to a bright pumpkin orange. His tailfeathers, like those on his back, were mostly yellow but ending into a shade shy of emerald at their tips. He was a veritable rainbow of beauty and perfection.
“That he is.” Tabby lifted her hand slowly as though to give the bird a scratch, but he screeched at her and bit at the air between them. Instead of getting mad, she laughed. She also retracted her hand. “He shall be a fierce protector for you. You will care for each other well.”
“I don’t know how to take care of a bird,” she admitted on a mumble. The macaw kneaded her shoulders as he moved from foot to foot.
“The familiars are not too dissimilar from their pure-animal counterparts. Many of the same dietary requirements, but their metabolisms run differently thanks to the magic in them. You will find that he will be able to eat pellets and while this would normally be the larger portion of what you would feed a true macaw, he will flourish better on the things you or I would eat that grow naturally. Fruits and berries, vegetables, grains, and nuts. True macaws in captivity would grow obese or sick off of a primary diet of ‘table scraps’, as my son would call them, but your familiar will be strong with these.” She tapped her chin. “I suspect you will have to feed him little when in Normal public so that none become suspicious. Otherkind would know the difference.”
“You know a lot about birds.”
“Don’t sound so surprised.” Tabby took the comment with good grace. “One of my children has an affinity with large birds. He generally likes them more because of how long-lived they are. You will note that many Shifters and their bonded mates do not have pets. That is because we are so long-lived. For as short as a dog’s lifespan is to a human, think of how much more so it is for a Shifter.”
