Tridents & Tails, page 1
Tridents & Tails
PEPPER MCGRAW
Contents
Description
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Thank you for reading
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Tridents & Tails Copyright © 2023
Digital Edition
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Cover and Inside Images from Dreamstime:
Woman with Trident © Adrenalinapura
Cynical Cat © Iva Vagnerova
Cat’s butt © Dima1970
Paw Prints and Heart © Zsuskaa
Gray Cat with Witch’s Hat © Zsuskaa
Pawprints © Fourleaflover
Edited by J.L. Troughton
PMG Publishing
Description
It’s a Pawsitively Implausible, Yet Purrfect Match
Not witchy enough for the witches, nor demonic enough for Hell, Tempest has found a new home in Zero, Kansas, as part of the Zero Cum Laude Coven. Unfortunately, though you can take the girl out of Hell, you can’t always get Hell to leave her alone.
Inundated with demonic proposals delivered by a constant stream of “eligible” demons and monstrous hell-kittens, Tempest is at her wit’s end, which is not a good look for a weather witch with questionable control.
She definitely doesn’t have time for a certain non-demonic, utterly human chameleon who keeps insisting they’re mates. Then again, maybe that’s the solution to all her demonic problems—a pretend mating. The only challenge will be convincing Matthew that it’s all only temporary.
The matchmaking cats of the goddesses are a little uncertain about where this match is going. Hell-kittens, demons, chameleons, witches, and pretend matings, all with an interfering Lucifer in the mix—things are going to hell in a cat basket.
One
BYGUL PRIDED HIMSELF on his belief that no human or earthbound cat was unmatchable.
No matter how difficult—or frankly, feral—the target in question was, eventually every human and every cat could be tamed.
They were all of them redeemable in some fashion.
Of course, redemption often came in the form of true love, but then love was blind for the most part, which explained how he’d managed to match so many bears in his lifetime.
Even on those rare occasions when he thought perhaps he’d finally encountered an unmatchable (like that utterly insane grizzly alpha, Mason Worcester), true love always proved him wrong.
First, Mason had fallen in love with a bunch of cats. Then he’d met his mate and the rest as the humans liked to say, was history.
All of it, of course, was thanks to none other than Bygul himself.
Not that anyone was surprised by his many, legendary successes.
After all, he was the top matchmaking cat of Pawsitively Purrfect Matches, and the beloved companion to the goddess, Freyja, herself.
So actually, what Bygul really meant when he said that redemption often came in the form of true love, was that it came with the help of the matchmaking cats of the goddesses.
In other words, with the help of Bygul himself.
It was, in fact, his conviction that no one was unmatchable that made him so incredibly good at his job.
Of course, that was before he agreed to take on a coven of witches in Zero, Kansas.
A coven, mind you, that literally set the standard for unmatchable.
Between the firestarter and the necromancer, Bygul was fairly certain his unblemished record was about to become a thing of the past.
Then, frankly, a series of miracles occurred.
First, the garden witch managed to discover her own mate, practically before they even arrived, leaving them with the much easier task of matching her to her purrfect familiar companion. They were still searching for a cat who wouldn’t chow down on every plant the garden witch managed to grow (not as easy a task as Bygul had anticipated), but he was certain they would find one soon enough.
In the meantime, Bygul and his associates had turned their attentions to the firestarter and after her, the High Witch of the coven. Both targets were quite challenging, but in the end, they managed to match them both with their cat familiars and their fated mates.
At that point, Bygul tried to rein in his colleagues’ enthusiasm, reminding them that they still had four coven members to go, but the others were riding the high of two seemingly impossible, back-to-back successful matches.
“I’m just saying that Pippa was easy,” Bygul said.
“Easy?” Muezza repeated incredulously. “She was setting fires left and right.”
“True, but—”
“Also, Pippa had no desire for a mate,” Soraya exclaimed. “That made her especially challenging.”
“She changed her mind in like twenty-two seconds,” Bygul said. “How is that challenging?”
“It was longer than that!” Soraya said.
“Fine. Twenty-two minutes then.”
Silence.
Bygul could tell Soraya wanted to continue arguing with him, but she knew he was right. “I’m just saying that the other witches will be much more challenging to match.”
“You know who’s going to be challenging?” Tivali demanded, then answered her own question rather than waiting for a response. “Morana, that’s who!”
Well, she was right about that. The necromancer was not going to be an easy match.
“I vote we leave Morana for last,” Soraya said with a shiver. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll find her own mate and her own familiar by then.”
“I agree,” Tivali said quickly.
“Most definitely,” Muezza said. “As for our next target, I vote for Tempest.”
“I like Tempest,” TIvali said. “She should be a breeze to match, no pun intended.” She giggled.
Bygul shook his head in disgust. “Surely you’re not talking about the weather witch.”
“Of course I am,” Tivali said. “Didn’t you get it? Tempest? Weather? Breeze?”
“She’ll be purrfect!” Soraya exclaimed.
Bygul couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’d honestly expected them to leave the weather witch for last, in the hopes that maybe she’d stumble into true love on her own, like the garden witch had, but now he realized the other matchmaking cats had no idea who Tempest really was.
Which meant they probably thought she’d be a lot easier to match—and safer—when compared to the pathologically shy witch and the one who raised zombie spiders.
Too bad they were entirely wrong about that.
The only decision left for Bygul to make now was whether he should enlighten his colleagues or simply allow things to play out and hope for the best.
Ah, well.
Sometimes, ignorance really was bliss.
Tempest was not in a good mood.
At all.
She hadn’t had sex in more than a year and this was never ideal for any adult paranormal, but particularly not for one of her caliber.
After all, she might be a witch, but that wasn’t all that she was.
She had another side, one with the potential to cause both chaos and darkness, not that it had ever happened. Still, even the thought of it was terrifying, especially considering her witchy side already created plenty of chaos and literal darkness, what with all the storms causing blackouts.
Even more aggravating was the fact that her father kept sending “representatives” to try and convince her to move back home.
Not happening.
Especially since he’d been the one to throw her out in the first place.
Something about not being demonic enough.
Whatever.
Story of her life and all that.
After getting kicked out of Hell, she’d joined her mother’s coven for a while.
Not that they’d welcomed her with open arms or anything like that.
In her mother’s words, “No coven wants a weather witch who can’t control her emotions. It’s why I sent you to your father in the first place. You destroyed our coven house within hours of your birth with your endless crying.”
“Babies are supposed to cry,” Tempest had protested. “Besides, there’s absolutely no proof that I caused that hurricane!”
Her mother and the other witches of the coven had just given her a look that said they didn’t need proof to judge her guilty.
Given their feelings on the matter, it was something of a miracle they were willing to give her a second chance.
Two hurricanes later, though, and that chance was long gone.
Cast out, again, Tempest became a lone witch.
Lone demon.
Witch-demon.
Whatever.
Eventually, Tempest met other lone witches and settled with them in Zero, Kansas, where they formed the Zero Cum Laude Coven.
And bonus—there were no hurricanes in Kansas.
Thunderstorms so severe it was as if they’d been spawned in Hell, sure.
Wind gusts that felt like they might slice you in two during the winter months, absolutely.
And tornadoes, of course.
But no hurricanes!
For that, all the residents of Zero should be grateful.
Especially when they had a weather witch who had been abstinent (against her will, mind you) for more than a year.
Talk about out-of-control emotions.
Tempest was moody, cranky and frankly, horny as hell.
The coven’s spell—the one that had transformed Zero from a boring, mostly-human ghost town, into a bustling, paranormal one—was supposed to have solved her abstinence issue by bringing eligible, non-witch paranormals to their town.
Unfortunately for Tempest, some of those eligible paranormals weren’t exactly earthbound, and instead, were being sent straight from Hell to her doorstep.
Thus annoying the fuck out of her.
“What in all the Realms are you doing here?” Tempest demanded, glaring at the demon standing on the coven’s porch. “I told my father to stop sending his minions.”
“Princess Tempest.” The incubus swept into a formal bow. “It is an honor to meet you.”
“Oh, for the love of—stop that, right now! What if someone sees you? And why do you smell like—” She groaned as two more incubi bounded up the front steps and bowed.
“Princess Tempest,” the first incubus said, “we humbly beg your permission to offer our most sincere proposals.”
Great.
Tempest heaved a sigh. “Fine.” She stepped back and held the door open for them. “Get inside, quick.”
The first incubus grinned and sauntered inside. As he swept past, his power wrapped around Tempest in a potent, heady mix of male sexuality and some indefinable scent she always associated with incubi.
The other two followed the first and Tempest’s knees nearly buckled as the scent of two additional adult incubi joined the first in twining around her, tighter and tighter.
Even with the tiniest overlay of shifter now coating it, that scent was still likely to send someone mad with desire, especially if that someone had gone without sex for as long as Tempest had.
Clutching the door as if it were a lifeline, she started to close it.
At the very last minute, though, a huge shoe appeared between the door jamb and the door, shoving it open.
Dear goddess of all witches everywhere, this just wasn’t fair!
First, incubi, and now, Matthew?
The chameleon glowered at her as he shoved his way inside the coven house.
Tempest backed away quickly because despite the incubi at her back, the man she needed to watch out for, the one guaranteed to make her lose all her inhibitions, was standing there in front of her.
Matthew slammed the door behind him, then stalked forward.
A quick glance showed the three incubi had gathered in the living room by the fireplace and appeared to be having some form of whispered argument.
With nowhere else to go unless she wanted to risk leaving the idiots alone with free reign of the coven house, Tempest sighed and hurried into the living room.
Matthew followed.
A few steps in, rolling her eyes at the incubi whose argument now appeared to have degenerated into a vicious round of rock-paper-scissors, Tempest whirled to face the chameleon.
“What are you doing here, Matthew?” She winced at the sound of her voice. Husky and rasping, she sounded like she belonged on a sex call line.
It wasn’t her fault!
With three incubi oozing sexuality at her back and the sexiest man she’d ever met facing her, Tempest had no idea how she was managing to stay upright.
“Why are there strange shifters in your coven house, Tempest? Again?” Matthew demanded. “Last week it was cougars. This week, it’s wolves.”
Tempest didn’t bother to correct his assumptions. After all, if anyone deserved to become a victim of demonic glamour, it was a chameleon. Any chameleon.
“I thought we had an agreement. When you’re ready, you come to me.”
And this was why, despite the spell her coven had cast to bring eligible paranormals to Zero, Kansas, Tempest was still riding the abstinence train.
Because this man, this chameleon, Matthew, kept insisting that she was his mate and as a result, was constantly running off every other man who showed even one iota of interest in Tempest.
That wasn’t the real problem, though.
The real problem was that Tempest didn’t want any of those other men.
Since Zero’s population explosion, she’d been approached by any number of wolves, chameleons and vampires, yet she hadn’t felt even a single tingling of desire.
It was the same with the demons.
Not one spark until the incubi showed up today, and even then, despite the lust coursing through her, something was holding Tempest back.
Or rather, someone.
It seemed the only one she really wanted was Matthew himself.
“Maybe you had an agreement,” she snarled, “but I never agreed to anything.”
This was all Jo’s fault.
While Tempest and the other witches of the coven had cast their spell for eligible bedmates, Jo had cast hers for their fated mates.
Already, three of their coven had fallen.
Jo was happily mated with a vampiress and Pippa and Natalie had hooked up with a couple wolves.
Tempest had been certain that of all of them, Pippa would be the one to never mate.
Yet, there she was, mated, along with two more of their seven coven members, and now Tempest had Matthew looking at her like she might be next.
Well, she had news for him.
Matthew scowled at her. “You may not like it, but you can’t really deny we’re mates, Tempest.”
“Of course, I can.”
“Fine. Deny it all you want, but it won’t change anything. You might as well accept your fate.”
“You need to back away from the princess.”
Dear goddess, she’d forgotten about the incubi.
All three were glaring at Matthew, who seemed unperturbed at the implied threat.
“I checked with the Prince. He didn’t send you,” one of the incubi snarled. “I don’t know who you are or how you got released from Hell, but you need to return immediately, lest Hell itself unleash its beasts to find you.”
Matthew looked startled, then raised an eyebrow at Tempest. “Hell?” He mouthed at her.
Great.
The incubi had just broken cover, and all because they believed Matthew was one of them.
Damn chameleons.
“Hold up a minute. Did you say princess?”
Two
“PRINCESS?” TIVALI EXCLAIMED.
“Did he say hell?” Soraya asked.
“This is all K.C’s fault,” Muezza fumed. “He manipulated us into taking on this coven, only now the truth is finally coming out. It’s not just a coven of witches, is it? They’ve got demons as well!”
“Well, technically, Tempest is only half-demon, and as far as I know, she’s the only one,” Bygul said. “The rest of the coven are full-blooded witches.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t warn us!” Soraya said.
“You could have at least mentioned it,” Tivali agreed. “I thought we were going to matematch her with the chameleon. Now there are demons courting her?”
“Never mind the demons,” Muezza said. “Where are we going to find an earthbound cat powerful enough to serve as the familiar of a witch who happens to also be half-demon?”
Great.
As if things weren’t difficult enough, with all the demons dropping in.
Now they’d managed to reveal Tempest’s secret.
“You’re royalty?” Matthew demanded incredulously.
“Demonic royalty, if you please,” one of the incubi said.
Tempest rolled her eyes. “Only in the strictest sense of the word.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I no longer live in Hell. Therefore, I have no claim to the throne and never will.” She directed those last two words at the incubi.
