Page 54 of Starting a New Life

I thought about it for a moment.

I’d never had to teach someone about being a mage. Hell, I’d had to learn most things for myself because there hadn’t been anyone around to show me. When I was eleven, my dad had thrown a couple of old books at me, and that was it, but… Levi’s magic longed for connection. Levi was longing for a connection, and if I gave him that…

“I think there’s something we can try,” I said slowly, coming up with a plan in my mind. “But before we start, I need you to know that I’m fine. You don’t have to heal me, okay?”

Levi let out a little laugh. “You mean I don’t need to force-feed you magic?”

“Exactly.”

I nodded and took a deep breath.

Here went nothing.

I lowered the shield I always kept up and let my magic rise to my skin. Then I held my hand out and gave Levi an encouraging nod. He could take my hand. Once we had skin contact, our magic would touch and…

“Whoa,” he said as a bright light flared between us, his and my energy mingling in a swirl of white and purple.

Yeah, okay, I might’ve been the one adding the colours, but I was helping him visualize.

“… going on here?”

I shuddered as Levi’s mate stepped through my sound-shield.

His eyes darted from me to his mate and back. I wanted to pull back, end my little trick, but Levi’s fingers curled around mine, keeping up the contact. There was no fear in him at all, even after I told him what happened to people like us.

“Look,” Levi said, voice filled with wonder and excitement. “Nix says I have magic.”

Nix also said that shifters are the enemy, but that part was clearly lost on him.

“That’s…” his mate began, eyes darting between me and his mate. “Uhm… that’s… good?” He sounded as if he wasn’t sure, voice all gruff and raspy. “I think?”

I didn’t take my eyes off him, waiting for a sign that he’d turn around and run, searching for a collar. Waiting for a sign that I needed to take Levi and run. I wouldn’t let anything happen to him. If necessary, I’d find a way for him to survive separation from his mate.

“It’s so cool,” Levi said, then let go of my hand. “Now, can you please tell Nix that you’re not, like… gonna turn me into a slave because apparently I’m a mage? He’s all suspicious and nervous again.”

I gave him a dirty look out of the corner of my eye, but kept my eyes trained on Rhett, on the way his breathing hitched. The way his eyes flashed, anger rising in him, his aura pulsing.

“We’re not… what the fuck are you talking about?”

“The same thing that made me so angry I had to go on a run,” another voice said, and a shiver ran down my spine. My magic reached out, a purple flash going straight for the huge man stepping up next to Rhett, his aura a turmoil of anger and rage, his wolf thrashing in his chest. I tried to stop my magic, but I was too slow. Little thrills of purple wrapped around Gray’s hand, caressing the warm skin, trying to soothe his anger.

I drew it back in and locked it in my body within the blink of an eye, but the Alpha, Gray, my mate, whatever I wanted to call him, was staring at his hand as if… I couldn’t decipher his expression.

It wasn’t the anger I’d expected. He hadn’t even flinched when my magic had been about to touch him. I could’ve been attacking him, but he hadn’t reacted at all.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, keeping my lips pressed into a thin line.

“Don’t worry about it,” Gray said gruffly, crossing his arms in front of his chest, his muscles straining the black fabric.

Fuck.

Was he trying to intimidate me?

Because it sure as shit was working.

“Can we talk?” He cast a pointed look at Levi and Rhett. “Alone. Just the two of us.”

My stomach dropped, nerves flaring.