Page 30 of Blood and Magic (RBMC: Helena, MT #2)

Maeve

T he ache in my muscles woke me, and when I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn’t alone in my bed.

I wasn’t in my bed at all, and a warm body lay next to me, breathing deeply in the depths of unconsciousness.

I was in the lead worker’s cabin—Vermillion’s cabin—and I was not alright.

Something had been fundamentally altered inside me, even if I couldn’t determine precisely what that was.

A new licentiousness squirmed around in my head, urging me to wake Mill by crawling under the covers and wrapping my lips around his cock. The metallic scent of blood coated the air, and the sheets looked like someone had been murdered on them.

My canine teeth stung and, when I ran my tongue over them, I froze from how sharp and long they’d become.

What the hell?

I clenched my eyes shut, running through the last thing I remembered.

“You’re in transition, baby,” Vermillion had said.

What the hell was transition? I held my hands up to look at them, sensing something was different about my fingernails, even if they looked relatively the same. The sides of my neck twinged, and when I touched them, I winced at the puncture wounds.

“Hey,” came the low grumble from my right.

Vermillion rolled over and blinked up at me with dark bags under his eyes.

His cheeks had sunken in on his face, and his torso looked gaunt, his ribs pronounced under his skin.

Deep wounds had been carved into his throat on either side.

Were those bite marks? Was that what ached on my neck?

“Holy shit, Mill.” I gasped. “What the hell happened to you?”

He smirked and let out a little laugh, pushing himself upright so he could lean against the headboard. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay, I guess,” I said, sitting beside him. “My muscles hurt. I feel like I ran a marathon, and there’s something else…something inside. I’m different.” I didn’t know how to put it into words. “Are those bite marks on your neck?”

I had the sneaking suspicion I’d made them, that I was responsible for the entire way he looked.

Mill nodded and ran a hand back through his hair. “We should talk. But first…we both need to eat.”

My stomach chose that moment to grumble as if agreeing with his assessment of the dietary situation.

He sat up and swung his legs to the side of the bed to brace before standing.

When he wobbled and put a hand out on the wall to steady himself, I scrambled after him to help, only realizing once I was fully upright that we both were naked.

Vaguely, I understood we’d spent the last however long fucking and doing other things in the bed together, so I didn’t know what I was so ashamed of, but I grabbed the top quilt and wrapped it around myself anyway while he slid his boxers up his legs.

Mill eyed my makeshift robe but said nothing as he walked to his kitchenette on the other side of the cabin. I followed him, wary about what had happened between us and what he might have done to me…or what I might have done to him.

Something was wrong. Smells hit stronger, and the world seemed more alive.

As I sat at his dining room table, the scent of sweat and man drifted off him, an aroma distinctly his but more.

When he opened the fridge, I caught the salty deliciousness of sliced turkey and Swiss cheese, even before he put the packages on the counter.

There was leftover chicken in there and broccoli and ham, and… were those burgers?

My stomach made another loud rumble, and he glanced over his shoulder at me with a smile.

“I was starving after my transition, too. It’s normal. The magic takes a lot out of you.” He grabbed a plate and piled bits of meat and cheese in the center. I stood to help him, but he put a hand out. “Sit. It’s my job to bring it to you.”

“Your job?” I laughed. “What does that mean? Mill, what’s going on? What’s a transition?”

He sighed and stuffed a thick slice of ham into his mouth before nodding and plopping more down on the plate, clearly intended for me. He put more meat on top—chicken, burgers, turkey. He even grabbed an apple and sliced it into pieces while he talked.

“Maeve, I’m a werewolf. A shifter,” he said, turning to bring the plate to the table. He sat down next to me and placed the food between us. “And as of yesterday, you’re one, too.”

He grabbed a piece of ham steak and held it out to me as if he wanted me to open my mouth so he could place it inside. I stared at him.

“What?”

“A shifter. Here, you need to eat.”

I couldn’t wrap my brain around what he was saying, and the whole thing seemed so ridiculous that I giggled.

Mill lowered the food and raised an eyebrow. “Why are you laughing?”

“I mean…you’re joking, right?” I chuckled. “A shifter? And I’m one, too? What? Is some sparkly emo vampire going to burst through my window to watch me sleep?”

He furrowed his brows, his features dropping. “If he does, I’ll tear his ass apart.”

When I realized he wasn’t joking, I straightened. “Wait…you’re serious?”

“Yes,” he said. “But I think you’re maybe a fox.” He stuffed ham into his mouth and held another bigger piece out for me. This time, I accepted it. “Like your sisters.”

Like my what?

I paused mid-chew, the weight of surprise and shock hitting me square in the gut. I knew they’d been keeping something big from me and Ava. But no, it couldn’t be. This wasn’t real. This was ludicrous. Mill was fucking with me.

“Chew your food,” he said, stabbing another piece of ham before holding it out.

I reluctantly obeyed, and then wondered why I had.

“I know this sounds like you went to sleep in one world and woke up in fantasy land, but I’m not lying to you,” he said, feeding me when I finally swallowed and opened my mouth for more. “Humans don’t know we exist, and we’re forbidden from telling anyone who’s not in the pack.”

I tried to wrap my mind around what he said, but it all sounded unreal.

Werewolves and fox shifters, these things didn’t exist in the real world.

But I couldn’t deny what had happened in the last three days.

The bed was covered in blood. His throat had been torn open on either side, and there were wounds on his wrists.

I was the one who did it. I tongued my canines again.

“That’s right,” he said, pulling his lips back over his teeth. Sharp fangs elongated on either side of his mouth, pointed and fully capable of tearing muscle from bone. I gasped and leaned forward to touch them. He sucked in a hiss and pulled away. “They’re sensitive. Touching them is…personal.”

I tried to extend mine. When they twinged and grew in response, I nearly jumped out of the seat. Eyes wide, I glanced at Mill like he held all the answers in the world.

“What the hell?” I glanced down at my fingertips, where enormous claws had grown out of my nails, sharp and predatory. I bolted upright, and the chair went flying out from under me.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, rising and holding his hands to either side. “You’re okay.”

“Mill, what the fuck is going on?”

“I told you.” He stepped closer to me and grabbed my palms, bringing them to his chest. “You’ve transitioned. You’re a shifter, sweetheart.”

“What does that mean?” I struggled to keep up with the words coming out of his mouth. A shifter? Werewolves? None of this was real. None of it… I touched the marks on his throat. “What happened to you?”

He grimaced and nodded back to the table. “I’ll tell you if you sit and let me feed you.”

Reluctant to accept this new reality, I lowered myself to the chair and opened my mouth so he could give me another slice of meat.

“This world isn’t what you think it is. Most of the legends you’ve read about are true. Shifters, vampires, witches, they all exist.”

“Vampires?” I balked, my eyes nearly bulging out of my head. “Like Anne Rice type of shit?”

“Worse,” he said. “The vampires in this area all belong to the Bloody Scorpions MC.” He explained that Marx was their leader, and being a vampire made his threat even more severe.

“Shifter blood is an aphrodisiac to them. They’ll spend days draining you…

torturing you… using you. And that’s if you’re lucky.

I shudder to think what he would have done with Sol if Orion hadn’t gotten to her when he did. ”

My mind struggled to keep up with everything he said.

“There’s a reason those stories have been passed down through the generations.” He chewed and swallowed before sipping his water. “They used to be warnings, and when we went into hiding, they became fairy tales.”

“How is this possible? What’s wrong with me?” I asked, still trying to wrap my mind around it. “Did something happen to me to make me like…this?”

“No,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Maeve. You’re perfect.”

Some of my resistance melted away at his compliment. Perfect. He thinks I’m perfect.

“It’s genetic,” he continued. “One of your parents was a shifter. Guin and Sol think it was your mother.”

“My sisters,” I murmured. “They’re like this, too.”

He’d already said that, but it was only now that it clicked.

They’d already transitioned and couldn’t tell me.

A slight pang of betrayal hit my heart at their deception, but I understood.

If all this was real, if there really was a separate world of monsters and magic out there, there was no way for them to explain it to me so I’d understand.

Hell, I had fangs and claws, and I still barely bought into Mill’s explanation.

“Yes,” he said. “They couldn’t tell you, and you can’t tell your other siblings.”

“Why?” Not that they would believe me, even if I did, but I was curious why this was a forbidden topic.

“Humans are reckless and destructive,” he said. “If they found out about us, they’d put us in zoos. We’d be their science experiments.” Mill shook his head and sighed. “We can’t change whenever we want, but we’re stronger than normal humans even in this form.”