My magic studies were obviously being put on hold again, but saving the world was slightly more pressing an issue. I also hoped that outing ourselves would short circuit the hunt for us before it even began.

  But I doubted we were that lucky…

  The early pre-dawn morning fresh air felt good, there was a full moon in the sky and a blanket of bright stars. Plenty of light to see for a couple of shifters stepping from the backyard and into the trees hand and hand.

  Carline was both my pack and mate. She had dark golden blonde hair and amber eyes, set in a classically beautiful face with strong cheekbones and a pointed chin. Her lips were verging on full, and she had a content smile on her face as we picked our way through the trees and downhill.

  She was five foot eight and athletic in body, with creamy rounded C cups, a tight ass, and mouthwateringly long legs. Her scent was filled with anticipation for our pre-dawn run and private time together. It was only our third one, but we’d started it the morning after getting back from New York. It let our minds become one, and it would prevent us from feeling trapped in our own skins, like last week.

  It would only be our fourth time running to the waterfall at four in the morning, but we both kind of considered it our place. It would’ve been a far walk for a human, deep into the island’s wilderness. It was a little early to wake up, granted, but shifters didn’t need as much sleep as humans or witches. Five hours worked just fine.

  “Hey, baby? Are you content with your duties and responsibilities?”

  She turned her head up at me and blinked, “Yes? I mean, why are you asking?”

  I shrugged, “I’ve been meaning to ask about it since the fight in N.Y. I felt your dissatisfaction then, and while that was probably just situational it occurred to me you no longer have to shift and patrol.”

  She giggled, “I’m fine, and that was just situational frustration. I appreciate the thought, but apparently you have no idea how busy I am right now while you’re locked up with your feet up in the library. I feel very useful, even pivotal to the coven’s safety, so don’t you worry.”

  “So, I was overthinking it.”

  She laughed, “Yes, but it’s very sweet, and natural for an alpha to look out for his pack and mate. Our pack bond lacks a mental component when not shifted, and we spend a lot of time apart during the day. So asking is the only way you can find out. Anyway, I’m Rue’s second, when it comes to coven security. That’s going to be even more critical a job soon, as our babies arrive, and the rest of the coven seeks human mates or sperm donors outside of the bond. I’ve also been learning all about security systems, both for physical and cyber access. I’m plenty busy.”

  We were far enough down the hill so stopped to strip off our clothes and shift, but I stole a lingering kiss first, teasingly stroking her lower back and sides. I could scent her contentment in that, and a light scent of arousal joined the excitement.

  The scents and sounds of the night in the wilderness truly came alive in my wolf’s form. I also held back my magic, so was about the size of a German Shepard, as opposed to an extended van sized monster wolf. This was about stretching our legs, enjoying the bond, and getting some time alone together on a run. There was no need to be as deadly as possible, and if a human managed to catch a glimpse despite our precautions against it, they might not even be alarmed.

  Just a dog and a mountain lion out for a run.

  In our shifted forms with animal instincts, the pack bond’s far more intimate connection brought our mind’s together to intermingle as one. It was why it wasn’t active in human form, it was far too intimate for a human psyche to survive it, the coven bond of sharing emotions and mental speech on demand, was about as far as a human mind could go that way and natural adapt.

  Our thoughts were one, her love was my love, and we just admired each other for a moment before loping off into the forest in the general direction of the waterfall. The island was fairly large, so we were taking a new route there each night, going over or around different hillsides to the steepest and highest ones on the island, which hosted our waterfall and pool. I still wasn’t sure if it counted as a mountain or not, I’d have to find out one of these days.

  We watched out for human scents, there had to be at least one set of hikers or campers in the town below the mansion’s hill, but so far it hadn’t been an issue and nor was it that night. We were both feeling a bit frisky and warmed up as we made it to the small glade next to the waterfall, so I shouldered into her playfully, which earned me a paw across the muzzle, claws retracted of course. But that meant it was totally on, and we had a little mock fight. It was fun, but it was also good practice for me, who’d never been in a shifter fight save that first one, nor had others my age around to mock fight with.

  It seemed like a useful thing to learn, even if I hoped I’d never need it. Even without the secondary coven bond boosting my power, I was far more dominant than any shifter I’d met so far, as a hybrid with my power enhanced further by a coven. It also let me test out what martial arts concepts were effective in this form, instead of just going with instinct which most shifters I’d met were wont to do.

  It was somewhat of a draw, in my current size she out massed me, and I was stronger, so neither of us could pin or otherwise trap the other.

  She decided to shift, or maybe I did? It was hard to tell, as our minds and intentions were so entirely intertwined, but either way we both started to shift human at the same time. She giggled and rolled into my arms, and let out a sweet sigh as I held her tight. Both of us were aroused from our mixed thoughts and our mock fight, but neither of us made a move to get things started. More than content to lie there a moment longer and let the delicious anticipation build and our scent feedback off of each other’s desire. To just hold her and wallow in her scent and that she was mine. My pack and my mate, and I was certainly hers.

  She stroked my chest and looked into my eyes alluringly, then said teasingly, “Do you think I’m pregnant yet? Or maybe it will be this time that gets the job done?”

  She giggled as she moved her hand down and found me hard already from her teasing and challenging words. I think a part of her would be thrilled, but another part disappointed when we found out of she was pregnant, because she clearly enjoyed how crazy the idea of knocking her up made me, and spiced up our sex life even further.

  “Evil temptress,” I accused, but the loving awe in my tone kind of ruined the effect.

  She kissed me softly, her hand gripping me loosening slightly as she teasingly stroked my cock while slipping me a sensual and teasing tongue.

  I used the arm around her to start kneading her ass cheek, while the other reached across my chest and started to tease her firm supple C cup, and I teasingly thumbed her sensitive nipple.

  She let out a sweet breathy sigh of pleasure at my touch into my mouth, which enflamed my libido further and made me twitch in her hand. She was my submissive tiger, but she was submissive in her own way, and hardly shy with her opinions until I’d made a firm decision. I loved her that way, and she drove me crazy.

  But as our teasing escalated, and our kiss got hotter, it finally occurred to me we were having a somewhat silly and vague contest of wills, as both of our arousals skyrocketed in a upwards swirl. Neither of us wanted to be the one to give in, and mount the other, as we tried to drive the other to escalate. A bit silly, but a lot of fun. If it went on too much longer though, I’d be cumming for her hand, and she couldn’t cum from breast play alone like a certain nymphomaniac I knew. So the odds were stacked against me.

  “Wicked,” I growled, as I totally lost, yet totally won as I rolled on top of her, pulled her legs apart with authority, lined up, and shoved it in.

  She giggle-gasped in pleasure, then smirked smugly up at me in declaration of victory.

  “Wicked woman, I love you.”

  She gasped as I started to drill into her hot sex, her gorgeous amber eyes smoldering up at me, as she said, “Love you too, alpha.”

  Her scents made it clear her smugness was even deeper than that, as she wrapped her legs around me and worked me deeper just as hard as I was. She loved when I lost control and rutted her, when I needed her so badly that I just took her like an animal. So that was all tied up in her win too, the fact that her mate and alpha couldn’t resist her beauty, body, and wicked temptations.

  So… I really had won, in a sense, keeping my mate a very happy woman as I pounded my way home with reckless abandon and an overwhelming lustful need. I’d never been an overly possessive man, but I surely was right after a shift and during it. She was mine, and she very much liked the possessive love and lust I was showing her in that moment. Almost like I was trying to fuck her into submission, while taking my pleasure from her hot body.

  Then I was buried in the myriad heated pleasures of her body, her C cups jiggling and slowly swaying to a stop, after bouncing so wildly while I’d buried it. Her eyes alight with joyful arousal and wicked pleasure at being so claimed so forcefully.

  Normally I’d stop at that point and let her pussy get acclimated to being stretched out so tautly around my unusually thick invader. But my inflamed lust and need to claim her wouldn’t allow for that, and honestly, I think she’d have been disappointed if I’d found my control in that moment.

  Instead, I just kept going, long stroking her with all seven plus inches of my girthy length. Grinding her, and she wrapped her legs tightly and worked me with a wickedly lustful devotion, clenching, pulling, and sliding around me with slick and wet heat. The sensations of her counterpoint rhythm were more than intense, but it was our scents and the look in her eyes that was driving me crazy.

  Telling me how much she loved this, being ravished by me. Her scents, panting breath, racing heart, gasps, and other sounds of feminine pleasure driving me forward as with aggressive submission she rocked my world in return.

  She said breathily, both begging and a challenge, “Maybe this time, you’ll get it right, and give me a baby.”

  “Fuck, baby. Cheeky temptress,” I grunted, and I went from drowning in wicked pleasure and loving possessive lust to cumming, in a second flat at those words.

  Her eyes widened in shocked pleasure, then her back arched and she let out a scream of ecstasy, as her sex started to convulse wildly and milk my cock greedily for my seed. It wasn’t just my orgasm that had dragged her over, it was her realization that her words had broken my controls completely, the thought of knocking her up.

  We rode those heights as one, before we fell. All the insane lust had drained with my balls, and I gave her a lingering and loving kiss that had her moaning sweetly into my mouth.

  She giggled as I broke it, “I love you, Glen.”

  “You love driving me crazy,” I teasingly accused.

  She nodded, “That too. A girl likes to feel irresistible at times. That was very satisfying.”

  I snickered, “You’ve been spending too much time with Sela.”

  Sela did that a lot, starting a playful sentence with the words a girl, usually to make a mischievous or salacious point.

  She giggled, “Maybe. Goddess, I love your scent right now, all sweet and loving, after you owned me.”

  I smiled, “Swim, or…”

  Her legs tightened around me, then she rolled us so she was on top. Much like the first time we’d come here, after being ravished she made love to me from above. Which was a pattern with us, and one I never minded as she looked like a goddess riding me with loving devotion in her eyes. Her C cups gently swaying with the slow sensual gyrations of her body as she worked so hard for my pleasure.

  So intense, as we physically loved each other.

  Then we took swim, followed by one more round where I took her doggie style. At that point the predawn light was lightening the night sky, and we shifted to return to the mansion.

  Carline was definitely a handful, and I wouldn’t have her any other way…

  Chapter Four

  The flight to Chicago in the Lear jet was about an hour longer, but it went smoothly enough. Three new light silvery gray Jeep Grand Cherokees courtesy of my ridiculously rich pixie were waiting for us when we landed, just enough to fit five of us each, and it was me, Sela, and Rue who drove to our house after loading up the luggage from the plane.

  The two-story ranch in an upper-middle class neighborhood was hardly small at twenty-three hundred square feet with four bedrooms. It’d be a little tight, but we’d manage. Or I should say my coven sisters would. No matter how many bedrooms there were, I’d have been sharing the master bedroom with my four mates, so it didn’t affect me so much.

  I could only conclude she’d bought the house in Chicago before she’d met me, before she knew she’d have to be sharing her mate with others, and before the end of the world and all those plans were a thing. She’s probably bought a house in Chicago for just the two of us to live in, and our children. It was my hometown, so it kind of made sense we’d have lived there, though I didn’t ask.

  We didn’t dawdle after settling in and grabbing some lunch, if there were already covens after us then they’d have no doubt tracked us already through our flight plans and credit card usage. Perhaps even the jeep purchases. The covens had their fingertips in everything, and the law wasn’t going to stop a human with mental triggers from reporting our credit card usage.

  The plan was to out the supernatural world before we were attacked, hopefully putting a spike in their wheel, but only time would tell on that, if they’d abandon their plans at that exposure. I kind of doubted it, they took it as a moral imperative to kill any known hybrids, so it was just a matter of time before they attacked in my mind.

  Still, it wouldn’t hurt the mission to get things rolling before being embroiled in violence. The more we could steal the march with surprise on our side, and get done before they moved against us, the greater the chances that Astra’s crazy plan would work and wouldn’t get suppressed and covered up, declared a hoax of some kind.

  So, it was still early afternoon that day when we piled into the jeeps and headed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago. It was two hours earlier there, so I barely felt the time difference, even if it did feel like it should be later in the afternoon and the sun lower in the sky.

  It was a bit of a drive in from the suburbs, and we were the rear vehicle. I had Astra in the passenger seat, and Vespa, Isadora, and Juniper in the back seat. Rue was driving the front vehicle with Carline, Celestine, Raine, and Iris, while Sela drove the middle vehicle with Maria, Caroline, Pepper, and Blossom.

  All the ladies were looking good, not that they didn’t always, but the professional dresses and casual work outfits with makeup really raised it up a level for our planned media blitz.

  Us three drivers had our iPhones paired with the vehicles, and we had an active three-way call going over the Jeep’s speaker systems so everyone would hear everything.

  Astra said, “Let’s start with taking a moment to review the plan. Glen, Raine, and Caroline will empty out the ER, with Celestine, Pepper, and Blossom recording them respectively. The humans should object at what we’re doing, if only for security and insurance risk reasons, once they figure out what’s going on. Absurdly, they’ll worry their patients will sue them, for getting magical treatment at their hospital without consent. With Sela’s help we’ll make sure the security guards and any administrators notify the media of the miracles going on, and that they don’t get in our way despite their hospital rules and restrictions.

  “The rest of you can help in addressing any problems, and of course do anything Rue or Carline say, who will be keeping an eye on all of our security concerns.

  “No need to rush. We’ll take our time and be obvious about it, and hopefully the media will arrive before we invade the hospital further. That way we can clear out their critical and terminal wards live on television, both adult and pediatric. At that point, I’ll step forward and give an on the spot interview and answer questions. Maria will be recording that interaction, while also monitoring for trouble with her mind.

  “Once it all hits the media, we’ll upload the four raw videos to YouTube and our own website, then see what happens.

  “Any questions or last-minute thoughts on the plan?”

  It was a reasonable question, someone could’ve had an epiphany since we’d discussed it last. We’d thrown this plan together in less than twenty-four hours after deciding on this course, and it was a huge thing. Revealing the supernatural world to the humans was bound to have ramifications we hadn’t considered yet, and our quickly formed plans probably had shortfalls we’d have to address on the fly. The only reason we hadn’t considered it longer from all the angles was that there was a time crunch element to it. The sooner we got the covens of the world’s attention and they started to protect themselves by evolving by enhancing the coven bonds, the less damage the ones lost in dark ambition could do.

  Rue said, “We don’t want to linger too long. There should be forty covens in the Chicago area, and maybe a few more covens that are farther out in the suburbs. You can be sure as soon as we start healing people live on the air, that they’ll all be heading our way as quickly as possible. With the hopes of covering it up, and perhaps killing us at the same time.”

  Yes, we couldn’t forget the enemy got a vote too, not that I wanted to classify all the covens in Chicago as my enemy, but they’d surely feel that way about us. Between me being a hybrid, and betraying the secret of the supernatural world, a lot of them would despise us.

  Astra replied, “Good point. Let’s leave the jeeps in a parking structure a mile or so from the hospital, and walk in. If they arrive before we’re done, and we get surrounded we’ll feed our magic to Sela, who can portal us to the vehicles. Then we’ll head to one of the news buildings so I can finish my interview and briefing, or if it was done, we head home. Anything else?”

  There wasn’t anything else, save readjusting our destination to a car parking garage just short of a mile away from the hospital. That was more than far enough to get us out of a closing net, and enough of a lead to lose our pursuers with a modicum of effort.