“I love you, sweet vixen.”

  She smiled like the sun coming up, kissed me languidly, then said, “I love you too, Glen. More than I ever imagined possible, and still more every single day.”

  All that was left between us in that moment was the sweet joy of our union, our love, and the fact we were starting a family. We were practically worshipping each other, adoration not quite enough of a word to describe it. All the lust and base excitement at joining with fertility had been drained with my seed and our pleasure.

  So, it wasn’t all that surprising that we started to make love. Drowning in the intimate feelings, the love, in each and every breath she took, and every shared heartbeat. Each slow movement of our joined bodies was an eternity of awed and adoring ecstasy in its own. So very intense. I was so lost in it, so lost in her, that I didn’t take note from the coven bond our other mates were on the way to us, until they were in the bed.

  Instead of lessening our lovemaking, or the intimacy in the moment, their joy and love, and soft caressing hands and kisses, merely added to it. It was also just the start of our nightly fivesome.

  It was a hell of a night.

  Chapter Two

  The scents of breakfast had my stomach grumbling in anticipation as I sat down at the table. Western omelets and pancakes with blueberries, as well as hashbrowns was on the menu that morning, and it all smelled delicious.

  I was looking forward to getting back to our normal daily routines as a coven, for now there seemed little danger, even though we knew it was coming. Of course, what I didn’t know yet was that wasn’t going to happen at all. Not completely that day, at least.

  After Astra’s blessing, we all dug in. The only off note at the table was Sela’s nervous fidgeting. Our mating bond didn’t share emotion like the coven one, but I still had my shifter nose, and I could smell she was nervous and more than a bit worried. Only Carline and I could experience her emotions, and only by a remove, it was different from actually feeling it and experiencing it.

  “What’s up, Sela?” I sent over our bond. Our pixie mating bond was capable of mind speech, but also so much more than that if we wanted. We could share memories and experiences over it, though we didn’t do that too often.

  Sela replied, “After breakfast, I don’t want to ruin everyone’s appetite.” Then she graced me with a warm smile that was also a bit wicked. But then, almost everything she did had an air of wickedness to it. I loved her ridiculously.

  Well, that wasn’t ominous or anything. Oh, wait, it totally was. Pixies were mischievous, and never happier than when things got a little crazy and a lot messy. They thrived on mischief. That she was actually feeling worried and a little scared had to mean it was huge problem.

  The others of course, picked up the concern in my emotions. Nothing was private in the coven, and I liked it that way. It was a bit intense at times, but also very straight forward. Four mates or not, between the bond and my nose I never had to wonder what I’d done wrong. They didn’t ask about it though, because that kind of thing would be exhausting and annoying, to constantly ask each other about small dissatisfactions like that. It was only deep and prolonged upset or brooding that got the twenty questions treatment.

  Astra said, “While all seven are our allies now. Five of the seven new covens created last night will be staying on the island for a while, while two of them will be moving to the mainland. They’re thinking the Chicago suburbs, they’re looking forward to seeing their old home in actual working order. The others are doing well, but they aren’t quite ready to become independent yet.”

  I grinned, “That makes sense.”

  Sela shrugged, “They’re welcome to stay here as long as they need to, or even if they decide to never leave. There’s certainly enough unused land, and hilltops, if they want a coven mansion here.”

  My pixie had a soft spot for the witches she’d saved, after living with them for three decades. Just because she was mischievous didn’t mean she wasn’t a good or generous woman too. At least to family and friends. It just meant she’d also wind things up on occasion.

  Rue asked, “Do you think they’ll get backlash, being different and allied with us and the evil hybrid?”

  Rue winked in my direction.

  Astra said, “I suppose it can’t be ruled out, but there are no hybrids in their covens, so they won’t be attacked for that reason at least. The world is a dangerous place, but they have to take reasonable risks and learn to stand on their own.”

  Rue nodded in agreement, “True, but I feel a sense of responsibility to them, if they’re attacked because of us. Well, because of close minded bigots being angry at us, I should say.”

  I announced, “These pancakes make life worth living.”

  Iris giggle blushed, “Thank you, Glen. It’s nice to be appreciated.”

  Pepper asked, “The omelets aren’t worth living for?”

  I grinned, “I haven’t eaten a bite of it yet, but I bet my taste buds throw a wild party when I do.”

  Pepper snorted, but then smiled despite herself.

  The rest of the meal passed with comfortable banter, no one was talking about their plans for the day. We all had our duties, and of course mine was to study and learn the witch tongue exclusively, until Astra decided I was competent enough and gave me real responsibilities.

  That was something I was really comfortable with, by the way. The ladies who were my mates all submitted to me to one extent or another behind our bedroom doors, as my mates and family. But I was perfectly content being Astra’s warlock when it came to the coven and the coven’s interests. She was in charge, and she was magnificent at it.

  It was when breakfast was wrapping up, that Sela cleared her throat and got everyone’s attention.

  Sela said nervously with no preamble, “It’s back, and it’s worse.”

  No one at the table had to ask what was back. Clearly, that was the end of the world. Nothing less would perturb Sela’s nature so thoroughly.

  Astra asked, “Worse?”

  Sela sighed, “I don’t think anyone will survive it, not long term. The Earth will be a wasteland for a while, but unlike last time it won’t start to recover in five hundred years. It will die for good in a few hundred years, by the date you all were born in.”

  Rue shook her head, “What the hell changed?” she blushed, “Sorry, that came out wrong. But I thought we’d fixed it.”

  Sela swallowed, then looked at me, “I think it was the way Glen saved us all, and so definitively when he flattened two covens in seconds, and chased away two more, single handedly. I think we’ve become the new boogie man, the new Jacob Dellwood. They’ll try to kill us, and when they continually fail at that, they’ll grasp for that power. The ambitious ones who will see more power as the only possible answer to protect themselves from the dangerous hybrid. So, they’ll start the enslavement and building up of mega-covens, to fight us. How’s that for irony? By saving the world we’ve doomed it worse in a new path into the future.

  “The good news is there is time to change it. I just don’t know how to do that. The very act of trying will just speed things up and lock in that possible future timestream flow.”

  Astra sighed, “Yes, I can see that. If we defend ourselves, and we also go on the offensive to start hunting covens that turn to enslaving witches for more power successfully, we’ll just scare more and more into doing it. Like fighting a rising tide, it would just get worse and worse.”

  Rue said, “At the same time, what else can we do? If we do nothing, and merely hide here on the island and defend it, all that will do is slow it down a little. The end would still come, right?”

  Sela nodded in agreement, “Yes, it’d take longer, but it would still happen. It’s a mixture of racism, the threat of our powerful coven, and of course simply the knowledge being out there.”

  Right. Covens were limited to nine to thirteen, because that was about how many witches could get together and maintain close relationships. Any bigger and things and people started to slip through the cracks. Resentment would build, from those feeling slighted and ignored, and a schism would happen breaking the coven. It was the wisdom behind the nine to thirteen number, with a single warlock.

  However, enter mind control, and suddenly covens a lot larger were possible. That information was out there now, we’d explained it and what had happened in the future, and I was sure that rumor was spreading almost as quickly as the fact a hated hybrid was part of a coven right now. Part of a coven and breeding more of them. Them being me.

  Sela shrugged, “I’m in the same place. We can’t do nothing or the world ends, but fighting will just hasten that end, as we alarm more and more people. The longer we survive, the faster the world will go down. Yet, we can’t lay down and die, even if it would work to save the world, and it won’t, but even if it would that’s not the right answer.”

  “So, it’s my fault?”

  Astra snorted, “No, it’s the bigots’ fault, and those who’s ambition will be corrupted by the promises of greater power. Power that should be left alone. I was the one that chose to trigger that ambush, the only thing you did was save our lives due to my miscalculation. If anyone is to blame, it’s me. But I don’t believe that either. Blaming ourselves for our enemies foolishness is a natural reaction, but ultimately a wrong and stupid path to be on in life.

  “Regardless, we need to find a new path. The only one that seems viable will just make it worse, and a part of me is reluctant to pursue it in the first place, it doesn’t feel like a viable answer. Sure, we hunted down Dellwood, but that was a single instance, not a growing movement.

  “Which brings up another issue. Even if it was a viable plan, it would be hard if not impossible to find the covens forming mega-covens, if they keep it under the radar. We knew about Dellwood and where they lived, and they were a singular threat, so it was a good plan, but even if going after them would work, finding them in the first place would be extremely problematic.

  “Let’s think on it for today, and we’ll bring any new ideas up tomorrow during breakfast and discuss it. I for one need time to consider other alternatives to defending ourselves and going after any individuals in a coven that try to build a mega-coven.”

  Yeah, I agreed, but at the same time what else could possibly work?

  My mind was a bit distracted with that question, while I studied one of the spell books. Learning new words in witch tongue by learning new spells.

  Regardless, the only other approach I came up with was a path of peace, at least that I was able to conceive of. The idea was simply to pursue our two long-term goals as a coven, ones we’d already decided on. The first lessening racism between the shifters and witches, as well as against hybrids who were killed out of hand in hatred whenever found. The second was the true solution to the end of the world, to encourage covens to deepen their coven bonds to make it impossible for the coven to be conquered or enslaved through underhanded and stealthy means.

  I mean, if we did that, then it wouldn’t matter how many asshats were willing to form mega-covens, if they couldn’t get away with enslaving their own coven, much less subverting and conquering others.

  It was also a passive instruction, not a move of force, so it would slow things down, not speed them up. We’d still have to fight, for my right to survive and to protect the coven from those that would hunt me and my coven, but we wouldn’t fight to save the world. We’d save the world by reaching out instead.

  It also aligned with certain truths. Hate and violence begets nothing but hate and violence. It was as Astra said earlier, a movement that would lead to the end of the world, not a single triggering individual we could just take out like Cassiopeia Dellwood had been. Only peace and love begets peace and love. It was like the old saying in corporate America, the beatings will continue until moral improves. Such things never worked.

  Of course, my idea would never work either, convincing the covens to deepen the coven bonds. It was hard to convince anyone of anything, when they were prejudiced against you, hated you just for existing, and were trying to kill you. My coven, and I most of all, could never convince a coven to even hear us, much less listen with an unbiased and clear mind.

  We’d already passed along that information, to the survivors in those two covens, but apparently that part of the message wasn’t being heeded, or perhaps it wasn’t even being spread at all. Only the grasping power and hate for hybrids part was making it.

  I mean, it should work. As far as I could figure outside of the bigotry most witches of this age were good people. People that would never enslave others for power, despite their fear and ambition. It took the special kind of asshole to do something like that, so if most covens were protected then it would never get out of hand, and mega-covens wouldn’t ever succeed in that imaginary world I’d like to make reality.

  Sharing emotions was an intimate and powerful thing, something a modern coven in this age wouldn’t find appealing, but I wasn’t sure that part was even truly necessary to guard against subversion of a coven. The emotional part of our coven was for internal health and to help strengthen our own bonds, in mutual survival.

  So merely adding in the ability to detect the health and status of their coven sister’s mind and body should be enough. If someone was subverted via spell then they’d feel a radical shift in mental status. They wouldn’t feel emotions directly, but a deceptive person or one with unsavory plans and outlooks would stand out to the rest as well.

  But as I said, the idea seemed doomed from the start, because even those good witches had been raised to kill hybrids on sight, and to preserve witch bloodlines from pollution. They’d never stop to listen or apply critical thought to our words. They’d been doing it another way for countless generations, and they would be convinced in their own unassailability. That changing the bond wasn’t necessary, when it truly was.

  So my mind went in circles most of the rest of that day, trying to think of yet another option. But that was the only alternative I could think of. It was either hunt them down and kill them, or convince all the covens around the world to deepen their bonds. Neither idea would work, and the former would only hasten the world’s end.

  As far as I could tell, we were totally fucked, and not in a good way.

  It even begged the thought why now. The potential for this kind of thing had been around for as long as witches existed. So why in this age, did it seem like the witches and warlocks were almost locked into the destruction of the world. That it had come up again so fast spoke volumes, but why not a hundred years ago, or two hundred?

  The answer to that which I came up with was twofold.

  Population was one. The witch populations had never been so high before. Three to five hundred witches in twenty-five to forty covens in every major city around the world. There was no more room to spread out, all the best territories already taken. No coven wanted to live in a rural area, with the exception of mine, that is. So covens were often fighting over it, at odds with each other over territory.

  The second was knowledge and science. A witch’s power was dependent on knowledge, understanding, and access to it. For a witch, knowledge was power, and education was arming themselves. The world had made so many major advancements in science, understanding the universe, and in how the human mind worked in the last hundred years.

  If a witch wanted to know how to mind control someone, well it was easy as taking a college course in psychology these days. Or really, a little self-study using a modern psychology text.

  In short, it hadn’t happened before because they lacked the knowledge and therefore the potential in the past. With those two things, coupled with dark ambition for more power which had been in some witches throughout the ages, it was only a matter of time before the world suffered as magic and the weather systems went out of balance.

  It was in short, an inevitability of the age of science and plenty, the end of the world at the hands of witches and warlocks. One that could only be countered by covens evolving to counter it. By deepening their bonds, they would counter this new terrible power through knowledge driven by fear, competition, and ambition unchecked by empathy or integrity.

  Because all it took was one bad person like Cassiopeia Dellwood, to start a mega-coven. It didn’t require cooperation of anyone else to happen, and the current checks and balances in the witch world weren’t sufficient to stop such a singular and stealthy danger.

  Raine was a lithe red-haired and light gray eyed beauty. She was one of my friends with benefits, that would never be one of my mates because she wasn’t the kind of person that could deal with polyamory or sharing her heart with more than a single lover. Her body was another story, as a healthy women with needs who loved and trusted her coven brother and sisters. So she was mine to enjoy randomly at times, as she scratched her itch, and in her case about twice a week. At least until she’d found the man that would be her mate, and she stopped playing between the sheets with the rest of the coven including me.

  She also had a playful personality at times.

  Which is why I wasn’t at all surprised when she came into the library, straddled my legs facing the table, and bent over it right in my face before saying a thing. She had on a racy red negligee that was entirely see through, and nothing else. I’d have to thank Sela for taking them shopping, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were all going to be wearing lingerie for me now?

  It also barely reached her upper thigh when she’d been standing up, so when she bent over it rose up to reveal her petite and sexy ass, and her moistly glistening labia peeking out between her toned legs and supple ass cheeks. Literally just a couple of feet from my face.

  She said with a teasing lilt, “I thought you might enjoy a study break.”

  I caressed her ass slowly. I was sure she was expecting me to stand up and shove it in. Oral wasn’t something I did often with my friends with benefits. And Raine was the quickie queen, so I’d never gone down on her, and she’d never gone down on me. Really, I should just stand up and fuck her.