Werewolf Knight 4, page 1
Would you like to see chapters of my books before they come out? Do you want to see cover art sketches and vote on which poses should make it to final production? Would you like to see even sexier versions of my covers? Would you like to get my audiobooks at a deep discount?
Of course you would! Join my Patreon here to get all these awesome benefits (or search for my name on Patreon.com).
You can also join my Facebook group right here. Then you’ll know when my books come out before anyone else.
Books Come out every Sunday
Chapter 1
And that song was “Blue Bayou” by Ray Orbison. Next up, we’ve got a few more classics for you…
The radio was singing away in the background, but all I could think about was what my girls had just told me.
I was going to be a father.
I felt myself swell with pride as my girls giggled and shuffled their feet shyly.
Imelda looked dazzling in Tabitha’s all-red suede number. The fabric hugged her hips and pushed up her breasts. She looked more like a glam rock musician than a high priestess, but I sure as hell wasn’t complaining. Plus, I was pretty sure that a magical priestess turned rock musician would probably be every goth’s fantasy.
Sybil was clad in her usual long, green dress that matched her dazzling emerald eyes. She swept a few strands of dark hair out of her face and offered me a smile that lit up her whole face.
And then there was Tabitha, who was practically glowing. A few strands of her wispy blonde hair fell into her face as she rubbed her belly. Now I knew why she was wearing one of Sybil’s long black gowns, and why she’d been so nauseous on the trip here.
She was going to have my kid, and I was so excited that I couldn’t speak.
“Well?” Tabitha finally asked in her glamorous, smoky voice. She raised an eyebrow at me and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Well, what?” I finally laughed. “This is the greatest news I’ve ever been given in my life.”
I bounded over to the three girls and wrapped my hands around Tabitha’s face. I melted into her deep brown eyes as she smiled at me.
“You did it Hank,” she said with a smile. “You managed to knock this noblewoman up.”
“Tabitha,” Sybil snickered, and she and Imelda shot a look at each other.
“I don’t know what movie you learned that phrase from,” I said through a smile. “But shut up.”
I leaned down and kissed Tabitha’s soft, plush lips. I felt her hands run through my hair, and when I pulled back, I saw a smile tug at her lips.
I didn’t realize until I’d kissed her that my cheeks were practically in pain from how hard I’d been smiling.
This was insane.
Hank Baker was not only the proud new owner of a moon sword, but he was about to become the proud father of a Lupercalian nobleman.
Between Jersey and Lupercalia, things just couldn’t get any better.
“So,” I said with a laugh. “How long have you girls been keeping this a secret from me?”
“Uh-uh,” Sybil tutted and waggled her finger. “We tried to tell you back in Lupercalia, but you said to wait ‘til we got here.”
“But that was only today,” I protested. “And I just got back from making my moon sword. But you must’ve known for a little while?”
The girls exchanged a look, and Imelda’s lily-white skin began to glow with mischief.
“Well,” Imelda said in her enchanting, breathy voice. “When you went out on your quest, Tabitha started showing some early symptoms.”
“At first, I thought I was just super hungover,” Tabitha said with a shrug. “But then I realized that I hadn’t even had anything alcoholic to drink. So something was obviously up."
“I went through all the protocols that I’d seen my mother do as a young witch,” Sybil added. “Basically I checked her complexion first against some of the red flowers in my garden.”
“At first I thought she was trying to insult me,” Tabitha added, and the young noblewoman rolled her eyes. “But it turned out that my skin did look a little green.”
“Whoa,” I said. “How did you pick up on that?”
Here in Jersey it would’ve been simple enough to just pick up a pregnancy test at a Walgreens. But I was super impressed by Sybil’s witchcraft, and I wanted to learn more about the Lupercalian way of medicine since I spent so much time there now, and my children probably would as well.
“Well, she was a mess,” Sybil said as she ignored Tabitha’s glare. “So I had my suspicions. I checked her pulse by squeezing one of her fingers and making a note of her heart rate. Then we did the color test. Those were both positive, so we got a tablespoon of sugar from the cook in the estate and then we had Tabitha pee in a…”
“I think I get the picture,” I laughed. I wasn’t squeamish, but I could basically get the gist of where this whole thing was going.
“It’s a blessing from the Moon Goddess,” Imelda added, and her face glowed with excitement. “Sir Henry Baker has his moon sword, and he will produce an heir!”
“And that’s not the only news,” I reminded the girls.
“Oh, of course,” Sybil said, and her eyes widened with excitement. “What were you talking about with Ava just now? Was it Joe TownJoe Town Coffee?”
“That man was an oaf,” Tabitha said as she shook her head. “No class at all, and terrible leadership skills.”
“Well, that’s what we thought, too,” I replied. “So we decided that we’re not going to sell to Joe TownJoe Town. We built this business with our own hard work, and I sure as hell don’t want to sell out now when things are just starting to really grow. Besides, integrity is important to both of us, and I don’t think that’s part of the Joe TownJoe Town philosophy.”
The girls exchanged a look before smiling and nodding at me.
“I think that’s amazing, Hank,” Sybil said, and she held out her right hand.
I took her incredibly soft hand in mine and squeezed it. I felt a jolt of lightning race up my arm, and I felt incredibly grateful that I had the three coolest women in every dimension on my side.
“So you girls agree?” I asked, and Tabitha and Imelda nodded.
“I think you’re a noble warrior, Hank,” Tabitha said as she raised an eyebrow. “And coming from someone of my background, that means a lot.”
“Don’t toot your own horn, Tabitha,” Sybil said with an eye roll.
“Oh, what?” Tabitha asked. “I can’t point out the obvious? I’m bearing his child, for the love of the Goddess.”
“Ah-ah, Tabitha,” Imelda said. “We don’t need to bring the Goddess into every tiny disagreement.”
“You sound like my mother,” Sybil said to Imelda, who bit her lip with her long, vampiric tooth.
The girls exchanged another look before bursting into a fit of giggles.
My child was going to have the best upbringing ever. Not only was I going to be the most devoted father I knew, but my little pup would be surrounded by a witch, a noblewoman, and a priestess to keep my little one in check. I couldn’t think of a better arrangement.
But the very next person I thought of was my dad, who would’ve slapped me on the back and handed me a cigar if he heard that I was having a kid of my own.
And then there was my mom, whose kind brown eyes had been surrounded by laugh lines for all the years I knew her. There was never a doubt that she led a happy life, even when times were tough.
I knew that my parents would be proud as hell of their children. We had a business we’d built on our own, and I now had a burgeoning family. I just wished my parents could have met their first grandchild.
“You girls are too much,” I laughed.
“We’re so glad that we have you, Hank,” the priestess said as she wrapped her arms around my waist. “You’ve given each of us a new life, and for that, we will be forever grateful.”
“I’m glad I have you, too,” I said. “You’ve given me a new life as well.”
“Well, then,” Tabitha said with a yawn. “This is all very exciting, but I’m starved. Now that I’m eating for two, I intend on eating everything I can get my hands on.”
“No change there,” Sybil muttered under her breath as we went over to the large silver fridge.
“Umm, excuse me, what was that?” Tabitha asked as she trailed after her.
Imelda and I shook our heads at the squabbling girls, but I knew that they loved each other fiercely. And I loved all three lovely ladies just as much, even though they were all remarkably different. And honestly, it felt pretty damn nice not to settle for one type.
“Oh, nothing,” Sybil sighed, and she pulled out a large salami from the fridge. “You want some of this bresaola?”
“I’m sorry, some of that what?” I asked as Sybil and Tabitha started to rifle through the kitchen drawers for a knife and a chopping board.
“Bresaola,” the green-eyed witch said with a smile. “It’s an Italian variety of air-dried beef…”
“Sybil,” I interrupted her. “I’m half Italian-American, and I don’t even know this stuff. Where did you even learn about all this?”
“Whole Foods,” Tabitha answered matter-of-factly, and she slammed a green plastic chopping board on the table. “And I was reading a lot about charcuterie boards. They’re all the rage right now.”
I shook my head in disbelief. It was beyond me that my ladies, who were basically raised in the fifteenth century, would have a firmer grasp on fancy charcuterie than me, but I just decided to ro
“This child is extremely blessed,” Imelda said as she moved away from me and started to help the girls prepare their charcuterie board.
“I’d say,” Tabitha added, and she shot a smirk at me. “With Hank’s looks and my noble blood, this child will have the best of everything.”
“And I can teach them about every flower in Lupercalia,” Sybil added with a swirl.
The witch was holding a sharp, state-of-the-art chef’s knife at that moment that I’d bought for the girls from Williams Sonoma, and when she spun around, both Tabitha and Imelda had to duck in quick succession.
“Sybil, you crazy witch,” Tabitha practically croaked as she covered her head with her hands and knelt for cover under the counter. “You’re trying to attack a Lupercalian noblewoman, and a pregnant one at that. Do you know what kind of crime you’re committing?”
The young witch placed her knife on the counter and covered her mouth in surprise.
“I’m so sorry,” Sybil giggled. “I can’t help but dance around when I’m excited.”
“Excellent,” Tabitha added as she stood up. “Our child can learn how not to act from our resident swine herder.”
“Excuse me,” Sybil said and lifted an eyebrow. “But I hold some indispensable knowledge of the old ways, I’ll have you know. Ways to live with nature that the aristocracy don’t even know.”
“Of course they don’t,” Tabitha added with a shrug. “We have palaces to live in instead of wooden huts.”
Sybil’s face started to glow red with annoyance, and her green eyes sparked with fury. The witch even balled her hand into a fist, which meant trouble for sure unless I could distract the trio.
“Ladies, ladies,” I said and raised my hands. “This is not how we want to behave as a family.”
“Sorry, Sybil,” Tabitha laughed. “But sometimes I just love watching you turn red. It makes the green in your eyes pop.”
“So you keep telling me,” Sybil huffed, but she winked at the noblewoman and then went to get a jar of olives from the fridge.
While the girls chatted, I let myself imagine life with a child. I’d never really considered the possibility before, but it felt like everything had suddenly changed. I didn’t want to think about fleeting luxuries and all that petty stuff anymore. Things were serious now that I knew for a fact that someone of my own blood was going to outlive me, and I wanted to make sure that child would never have to scrape by like I had.
“You okay, Hank?” Imelda asked a few minutes later.
I shook my head and glanced at the priestess, who always seemed to have an aura of calm. I let myself soak in the serenity for a moment, took a deep breath, and then offered a smile to my ladies.
“Yeah I’m good,” I said. “Just thinking about how things will change once there’s a little one underfoot.”
“I don’t want any olives, just the brine,” Tabitha insisted as she popped open the jar. “Get me a straw.”
“Can I get a please?” Sybil asked as she placed a hand on her hip. “And really, olive brine? That’s like a dirty martini without any actual martini."
“I can’t have a martini now,” Tabitha sighed, and she brought the jar to her lips. “But I’m craving the dirty. Filthy, in fact. I want it so filthy it’s sewage.”
Instead of waiting for Sybil to get her a straw, she merely tipped her head back and drank the juice from the olive jar like it was a can of cola.
As a hard-wired simple man with simple tastes, I’d never felt so many conflicting emotions in my life. I was amazed, disgusted, impressed, and frightened all at once.
“Oh…” Imelda muttered as she tried to muster a polite smile.
“Now I know what you’re thinking,” Tabitha said, and swung open the door of the freezer. “Why is a woman of such a noble upbringing acting that way? She must have been replaced with a fairy or something. Well, I don’t care what anyone thinks. Whatever the baby wants, the baby gets.”
Her eyes lit up as she grabbed a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream.
“Oh, I love that flavor,” Sybil muttered. “You have to share.”
The witch pulled a pair of spoons from the cutlery drawer and headed toward Tabitha. The noblewoman scowled, but she accepted one of the spoons and let Sybil take a stab at the ice cream before the blonde started to attack it.
“You don’t want in on that?” I asked Imelda.
“Um, no,” she said as she watched the other two. “I can wait until we go to the store again. I’ll buy some of the little ones, so I can have one all to myself.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” I replied as I watched the other two women scrounge for clean bowls.
“I guess we’re done with charcuterie,” Imelda said as she stared at the two slices of bresaola that had been cut.
“Yeah,” I said and laughed.
It was all so amazing, and I would have been happy to let things continue like this. But I thought about my parents again, and I knew there was one thing that would make it better. I needed to make my ladies my wives, even if I could only officially have one wife in New Jersey. In fact, I wasn’t even sure what the standard was in Lupercalia, though I knew that my good friend Charles only had one wife, as did old Grayback.
“Imelda,” I said. “Want to help me with something?”
“Of course,” she replied as she smiled at me. “What do you need?”
“Come with me,” I said, and I started to usher her out of the room.
“Hey,” Tabitha called from the other side of the kitchen.
The noblewoman had found a can of whipped cream somewhere, and she shook it several times as she gave me a stink eye.
“Yes?” I asked.
“So, you’re just leaving without inviting us?” the blonde asked.
“You’re having so much fun,” I said. “I don’t think I can match that.”
Tabitha watched me for a moment, and then she tilted her head back and sprayed cold, whipped cream into her mouth.
“We are having fun,” the blonde agreed when she could speak. “In fact, we’re going to make olive sundaes.”
“W-what…?” Sybil stuttered and pulled her bowl close. “I’m just having ice cream.”
Tabitha grinned, plucked a couple of olives from the jar, and dropped them in her own bowl.
“You two enjoy your ice cream,” I said. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Good,” Tabitha asked, and she beckoned for Sybil to come over so that she could spray whipped cream into her mouth.
I led Imelda into the dining room, and then decided to go over to the large glass wall that looked out onto my pool.
“Are we cleaning the pool?” the priestess asked. “Because Tabitha told me that if you suggested that, I have to say we’re sick.”
“No,” I laughed. “We have people for that. Except for that one time, I guess. God, she’s such a little lady… anyway, I have an idea that I want to run by you.”
“Ahh, it was one of my favorite parts of being a priestess,” Imelda said happily. “To offer advice and help people with their problems… but, I don’t know much about business or New Jersey. I’m not sure...”
“Don’t worry,” I said, and I patted her on the back. “I wasn’t going to ask you any questions about the Joe TownJoe Town deal.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” she replied.
For a moment, I looked out onto the gorgeous backyard and pool. It was still pretty cold out, but the sun was shining brightly, and I sighed with happiness. I’d built this wonderful life in New Jersey and Lupercalia, and now I was going to share it with a child. There was only one right thing to do.
“Hank?” Imelda asked, and she tapped my arm to break me out of my daydream.
“Oh, yes,” I said and shook my head. “Look, here’s what I’m thinking. Basically, I’ve been with Tabitha and Sybil for a few months now. We’ve grown a lot together, and I’ve learned all about Lupercalia from them. And vice versa, of course.”
I gestured outside to my decidedly Jersey-esque backyard, and Imelda nodded.
“Oh, I know,” she said. “The three of you have been good for each other.”
“And so I was thinking of asking them to marry me,” I said.
Imelda’s bright blue eyes widened in excitement, and she covered her mouth and started to hop around in a little circle.
