Page 5 of Wedding the Werepanther

“I didn’t know.” A twinge of guilt pinches my chest. I thought only of clearing the way so she’d be forced to take me in. I didn’t stop to consider why she needed roommates. I shove the unwanted feeling away and give her my best smile. “None of that matters, because I’ll make it right.”

“You can magic me up a couple of roommates?”

“I don’t have that kind of magic, but I have the next best thing.” I pull a gold coin out of my pocket and set it spinning around my fingers, the rich yellow catching the light. “I have gold.”

The feel of the room brightens around us, and a repeated wooden tapping sound comes from downstairs.

“What’s that?” I tip my head, trying to zero in on the source.

“The kitchen cabinets opening and closing. It’s Victoria’s way of clapping.”

I pat the wall and lean close to whisper. “Don’t worry. As soon as she allows it, I’ll take care of both of you.”

The door partially closes, the wood offering my back a soft pat.

Kayla narrows her eyes at me. “What did you say to her?”

“Nothing.” I grin.

She pushes past me with a huff and continues down the hall, and the door gives me an eager shove to propel me after the witch.

We finish in the main bedroom,herbedroom, as I can tell by how heavily her scent lingers in the air. A desk topped with a laptop sits against one wall, and bookcases fill another, stuffed with colorful volumes.

Everything about her house fascinates me. The older furniture and decorations blend with the high-technology of areas that are so clearly hers. There’s a feel to the place, one I haven’t experienced since leaving my pack’s home den in Faerie, a feeling of family and history and belonging. My apartment in Ferndale Falls has been a fine place to learn what it means to walk the world on only two legs, but it hasn’t been a home.

This house, this woman, on the other hand…

As the witch continues to tug at the windows, I pull out a book that catches my eye. A shirtless man pouts from the cover, a shadowy large cat standing behind him. “The Panther’s Princess,” I read the title aloud. “I wonder what this one is about.”

Kayla makes a strangled sound and leaps toward me. Yanking the book from my grasp, she says, “Oh, that’s one my grandmother left! I haven’t cleared those out.”

It’s a lie. I can smell her all over the book. But instead of calling her on it, I grin and turn toward her bed.

It’s wide and covered with a deep purple comforter with a small mountain of various-sized pillows piled against the headboard. Her scent perfumes the air, and I breathe deeply, taking in the sweet fragrance of her skin combined with the lavender she loves so well. A muskier smell threads through the mix, the scent of her arousal, and my cock twitches as a growl forms deep in my chest. I long to dive forward and bury myself in her bed, rub all over it and combine her scent with mine.

Claim this space.

Claim her.

“Dammit.” Kayla’s voice cuts through my haze. She stands in front of the final window, hands on her hips. “She really has locked us in.”

A feeling of smugness fills the air.

I pick up the desk chair, testing its heft, and take a couple of practice swings through the empty air over the bed. “What if we break a window?”

Kayla spins to face me, brow pinched in thought.

A shudder goes through the house, and all of the interior doors slam closed as anger vibrates through the air.

The witch’s expression crumbles into resignation, and she shakes her head. “I can’t do that to Victoria. No matter how much I don’t like what she’s doing, this is my house. I need to find a way to live in harmony with her.”

I set the chair down.

The atmosphere eases, and the bedroom door clicks open.

“Come on. The three of us need to talk.” Kayla hurries from the room to run downstairs to the foyer. “Victoria, what’s it going to take for you to let us go?”

The pictures slide rapidly.“You must marry.”