Mated To Magic (Stark Creek Shifters Book 1) by Barb Shuler (free ereaders .TXT) 📕

now.” Dalton pressed his lips to my head. I closed my eyes and leaned into his embrace. I hated this. Not knowing when and if someone was going to attack me or one of the girls, everyone on high alert. I was sick of it. “Why did he want the club back so badly?”

“You were apparently never supposed to keep it. It was a money laundering operation, but it backfired when you wouldn’t sell it back to him. He made some deals and in the end, it cost him his life.”

“Can you ease up on the bodyguard, though?”

“Nope. If I’m not here, he’ll be your shadow. Keep messing with Jay’s bottles so that I get the blame for it and it’ll be worse.”

I made a face and buried my head in his chest to hide my laughter. “It wasn’t me!”

“My little witch, I know you’re lying.”

“It’s not lying, it’s withholding details.”

Dalton pinched my ass, causing me to squeal and smack my hand against his chest. A knock came at the door, which opened, and Liam entered. Pulling back, I rested my cheek over his heart. I listened as they talked, my mind working on a plan to find out who was coming after me. We needed to end this once and for all. I was tired of not being safe in my own club.

A couple of hours later, after closing up the bar and making sure all the girls got out okay, Dalton and I headed home. I waited until D was fast asleep, or as asleep as that man gets, and got out of bed. We had a third bedroom here, but it was mostly used by me. If I needed to recenter myself or work on some new meds for Jay, then I had my own space.

Walking into the room, I switched on the light and closed the door behind me. At least the spell I was about to do wouldn’t piss him off…I hoped. Taking down the ingredients I would need from the shelf, I placed them on my desk. I took out a bowl from my desk drawer and placed it on a stand. Placing a candle under it and lighting it, I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. Opening them again, I looked into the candle.

“Goddess, I ask for your help. I need to see who is after me. I ask you to show me their intent and what they plan on doing. I ask to see who remains. I need your guidance. I am calling upon the ancient lines of my ancestors to help me now.”

My eyes never left the candle. In it, I would see whoever was involved in the plot to hurt my girls and me. Just when I thought I wasn’t going to be shown anything, a face came into the flame. I leaned forward a little to get a closer look. I recognized him as the man from the bar who’d had a knife to my throat—the one that Jay took down. That image soon disappeared and I was shown Josh and Peter. Those two names I already knew. When it came to the fourth image, though, I had to hold back yelling for Dalton.

That son of a bitch! He had convinced me to buy Bar None, and I would bet any money that he was the one who was supposed to convince me to sell it. That’s what he wanted that night. He planned on taking me to see Peter and forcing me to sign over the club to him. My hand clenched into a fist and the flame grew larger as I put more energy into it. The next image was of the alley where the staff parked their cars. I saw a woman standing in the alley, but I couldn’t see her face. Someone else was in that alley, I could feel it. I kept watching as the girl moved to her car. A figure stepped out of the shadows and injected something into her neck. I wanted to scream out, but I couldn’t. I had to watch as this poor girl was dragged into a waiting car.

“Enough!”

The candle blew out and I closed my eyes. My heart was racing and my breathing was fast. Before I could move, Dalton came bursting into the room.

“Mia, are you okay?” He crouched down in front of me, his hands reaching up to cup my face.

“That traitorous son of a bitch!”

“What happened? I thought we said you weren’t going to talk to him? What did you do?”

“I didn’t speak to him. I spoke with my Goddesses and cast a spell. I couldn’t handle not knowing who was coming for me. It was killing me. So I asked for help to show me what their intentions were.” Taking a deep breath, I wiped the tears that were now falling. My heart hurt. Someone I considered a friend could do this to me? How long had he been working against us and why? “Sylvester was involved. The night he came into town, he was supposed to take me to Peter and they were going to force me to sign over the club. Then he was going to take me to the serial killer who was going to…” I cut myself off, unable to finish that sentence.

Dalton pulled me from my chair and picked me up. He carried me into the bedroom and laid me down, curling up beside me. He reached for his phone, but he was sure to keep me close where he could keep me safe. I hid my face in his chest, his hand rubbing my back as I cried.

“He’s going to attack the club. He’ll be waiting in the alleyway for one of the girls. I don’t know when or who, but we need to put the guys on it. We can’t let him take someone. He’s going to inject them with something and take them away.”

I couldn’t imagine why someone would want to hurt my